SOCIAL MEDIA

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Another Trip to the Store

There is nothing like a good trip to the store for blogging. I am currently juicing to regain my health, after having watched Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, and hearing the success of another friend from it, and experiencing less than desirable results lately from all my other avenues of healing right now. Sooo, I ran out of produce to juice, and as I have been making some progress I didn't want to stop juicing, hence, the desperate trip to the grocery with all 5 kids in tow.

As I'm sure I have mentioned before, I love my kids. But I am also a human being. And the thought of a trip out in public with all of them, makes me cringe a teensy bit. Mainly because, it is hard to avoid comments and looks when you have 5 children, and I am not a saint, yet, so the occassional "Oh my GASH! Look at all them kiddos!" (southern style) does bother me, a little. So as I load em' up and head in, a still small voice whispers, "Remember, they are your jewels, your prizes, your pride and joy." and so opens the door.

The Little Guy, has no indoor voice. But he does have a grocery store voice, which is MUCH louder than his outdoor voice. "HEY! LOOK AT THE BANANAS MOM! WOW! LOOK AT THE PEACHES!" I will spare you every other item of produce that we passed, but he didn't miss a beat. (Remember, Jewels.) Just when I thought the excitement had worn off a little and maybe just maybe, he would pipe down, the produce guy got in on it too and with a mischevious smile on his face from across the way yelled, "Look at the bananas!!" Nice.
Really.
We were so close, too.

And you know how I talked about those nice elderly people on the first trip? Well there are also cranky elderly people, bless them, who are NOT excited about your children.

Angel Boy has these, froggy rain boots. He loves them. He calls them his "Ribbits".
Another Trip to the Store

They are easy to put on when you are rushing out the door and getting a diabetic child prepared for an outing and 3 other kids with their shoes, preferably matching, if possible.

But apparently to the lady next to us, it was the greatest offense known to mankind, to wear rainboots on a day without rain. Addressing my baby she practically shouts (putting Little Guy to shame) "What on earth are you wearing RAINBOOTS for?!"

Princess sweetly replies, "He just loves them, they are his favorite." with a smile that puts the sun to shame.

"Well it's not RAINING!" she barked back. And that was that. The Queen looks at me in disbelief as the woman carted off.
"What's wrong with it mom?"
"Nothing, but just smile and nod."
Unfortunately, we crossed paths again with Crankypants coming out of the bathroom.
"You all just keep showing up, don't you?!"

Yea, we are annoying like that.

I thought of one of my favorite quotes from another catholic dad when he brought all his kids to a work-related cook-out, was questioned about his family size and said "We're catholic, don't you know? We are trying to take over the world."

But really, all I would want to say to the cranky grocery ladies out there is this: My children are jewels. If you spent 30 minutes with them I promise you will smile more than you have in a long time. They are not always easy to "deal" with in the eyes of the world, but neither are adults. And truthfully, I keep company with these little folks so often, I feel awkward and lonely without them. Do I enjoy a night out like other weary moms? Yes! Do I go crazy by the end of the day when all five come to me at once with needs and ridiculous questions like, "Mom, when are we having the last day of Halloween?" or "Mom, what are we doing tomorrow night?" first thing in the morning? Yes!!

But I have 5 people to help with groceries (well, technically 3 and 2 to be cute while they do it), 5 people to talk to about Kroger's new and exciting upcoming renovation (Yea!), 5 people to laugh with about the rainboots nazi, and 5 people to walk back to the car with, with my husband's eyes, my hair, and some of their own spark.

And yes, we are trying to take over the world.




  
Friday, May 18, 2012

Beach Blog

I tried really. to be creative. I thought of "Beach Babes" but then I thought it might attract the wrong folks. I thought of being a little more poetically deep like "Beauty Lies Beneath the Waves" or theologically deep like "The Spirit Breathed Over the Waters". But, let's call it what it is, for Pete's sake (wonder if that was originally "For Peter's Sake" Like St. Peter? hmmm another blog for another day). Anyway, this is just a Beach Blog. Buuuuuut, if you know me, you know I am going to sneak in a little religion in at the end, because that's how I roll.

My handsome, wonderful, marvelous husband, who would MUCH rather be braving it at Disney World tripping over people's strollers and kids and such, has for the last year or so, not once but TWICE planned our vacation around the beach, because he loves me, frankly. And I love the beach. And him. of course. Being sick these past few years has made it more difficult to deal with stressful situations like trying to be first in line for the Dumbo ride, and he gets that, so he is giving me a break. Yea!

This baby's ready. 

These babies are more than ready.

So let's begin....
Just try to resist the cuteness. Even if you had to shake the sand out of his swimsuit for 30 minutes that night, you still couldn't resist the cuteness.

Beach Blog
Half the time everyone was concerned with making Angel Boy happy. His oldest brother is digging up an elaborate pool for him, his sisters, "Zee Spa de Bebe".

But there's always time to bury your other brother. The one that buries your legos in the couch? Plenty of time for that.

The Little Guy watched his siblings fly that kite for 20 minutes, saying so pitifully, "I wish I could fly a kite. I wish I were big enough." When I finally turned it over to him, he was ecstatic, if you couldn't tell in the picture.

"Sand City" complete with lakes, rivers, mountains, several builders and a shadow to watch over it, who happens to own a camera. Amazing.

Fashionistas

 I love these people.

 Surf's up.

At one point I sat down with Angel Boy like this because, he had no fear of the waves.  He absolutely loved the water coming up on him over and over again and I was permanently planted there for about 30 minutes at least. Yea, there was some sand to clean up after that. looots of sand.

Going out of town always presents more of a challenge for my health condition as there are many unknowns that I could react to. So there were some "challenges" for me that made it difficult for me to keep up my morale at times. But the Lord is faithful and good, and in between reactions, he gave me 3 glorious mornings with Him that I cherished:
Beach Blog

And as I continuously watched the waves coming in over and over again all week, and looked at the immensity of the ocean, I kept thinking of 2 things.

His unceasing Faithfulness.

His infinite Mercy.


Bye for now. :)











  
Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Life Lessons Through Lord of the Rings

This is a little ode to my husband's favoritest favorite. We listened to The Hobbit all the way to Florida, and The Lord of the Rings all the way home. It has only taken 14 years, but my husband has finally made a minor fan of me. There's just so much beautiful catholic/christian imagery in there, I can't resist. So here's my little list of life lessons from Lord of the Rings.

1. In life, there is evil out there, scary evil. But there is also Good. noble, pure, beautiful, Good. And as Sam said in the movie, "It's worth fighting for."


2. It's the lowly, persecuted, looked down-upon, simple, seemingly ignorant and unskilled in the eyes of the world, people who often end up being the strongest people. And probably the ones who will be most honored at the Last Day.
Life Lessons Through Lord of the Rings


3. If you are greedy, and place anything above God and people, it will eventually take over you and your life, and you will look like this on the inside:


4. If you treat someone as they were meant to be, as they were created to be, not as they are right now, they may surprise you. (Frodo calling Gollum by his birthname "Smeagol")


5. The Christian life is full of hard roads, sometimes you will get weary and want to give up, but the Lady is always there to take your hand, encourage you, and urge you onward.


6. Everyone is capable of great evil, and great good. It is your choice ultimately.


7. God has given the Church the authority to withstand evil. ("You. shall not. pass!!")


8. You are much more capable than you realize.


9. Being someone of "many colors" is not always a good thing.


10. In the end, we will laugh, we will be together, and we will be happy forever. If we stick with it.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Freddy the Frog becomes Fredericka

Warning: may contain topics and pictures that do not appeal to some, such as toads and their slimy eggs. 
Freddy the Frog Becomes Fredericka

This little frog has stolen our hearts. Well, some of our hearts, my husband thinks we are all crazy. He may be right. But I am not ashamed!

 Freddy the Frog as it turns out, is a female toad. We had to change her name quickly from Freddy to Fredericka. Here's how we figured it out, or rather, my oldest son, the Encyclopedia did.

After we "let her go" last week, She remained outside our fence all night. When he opened our gate in the morning, she hopped right back in our backyard, even after all this!

She seemed particularly interested in the storage bin we had filled with water.
Freddy the Frog becomes Fredericka
 At night however, we took her out for fear she might not be able to get food. Cuz doesn't she looked starved?

Well as it turns out there was a reason for her "fluffiness". She was packed full of eggs ready to be laid. In the morning, I felt horrible, as she had already started the process which was supposed to happen in the water. That black smear is a whole generation of lost toads!!! There's a teensy bit of a chance I could be taking this too far.

We immediately put her in the water bin.

As soon as Fredericka was put back in the water, that toady mama started laying eggs like you wouldn't believe! At first she began with a cute little strand of 6 or 7. She was only getting started people. For the next 24 hours she labored and worked and pushed out more eggs than we could count. It was a beautiful thing to watch. If you click on the picture and look closely, what looks like long black twisty beads, are the eggs.

I have a whole new respect for female toads. I wanted to bring her a glass of water and take her through some breathing exercises or something. "Focus on the large children all gaping at you from above, Fredericka, you can do it!"

Even though we have been informed that if Mr. Fredericka was not present they are probably not fertilized, we are still preparing for tadpoles by chance that he was present at some point. Here are the names picked out so far:

Girl Tadpoles:
Fredericka Jr.
Toadette
Tella
Toadella
Toadalisa
Theresa (have to get a catholic name in there)

Boy Tadpoles:
Kermit
Toader
Toady
Telly
Toaddles
Hoppy

And I know toads don't care about their eggs, but we took her out of the water last night as it appeared she was done (Phew, what a woman!), put her in the grass, and she hasn't moved an inch. Yes, she is still alive.

Fredericka could win your heart too, if you will just let her in. 




Wednesday, May 2, 2012

The Things That Go on When I'm Not Around...

Princess had to write a paragraph about something funny that happened to her. This is what she wrote:
Nice.

And, I had a meeting yesterday with some women in the formation group I am in. I asked the kids to go outside with the little ones in the backyard during it. I was so impressed. They stayed outside the whole time, no injuries, no bursting open the door with loud announcements about water or fights.

 Then I went outside to find all five children with either stick, shovel, or garden tool in their hand hovering over a bucket. "We caught a frog! but we may have accidentally wounded it. Well, not sure if it was entirely an accident, so we made a bed and pool for him."
Freddy

His bucket and "habitat"
I don't know what came over me, but I was overwhelmed with motherly protection for this poor creature "What?! Can he move? Why did you hurt him? Give the poor animal some space!"

"We didn't mean to hurt him, really... and 'Angel Boy' loved it. Especially when we made him go off the high dive and it bounced off of his arm. He really liked that."

After discussing the grave responsibility of being good stewards of creation and caring for helpless things, not torturing them, Freddy the Frog was the topic of comnversation for the rest of the day. "Why is it so bad to put an animal in a box and play with it?"

"I am not so concerned with that as I am that you may have wounded him and deprived him of a normal froggy life." (Unable to stifle a chuckle after hearing myself say this).

"Mom, can I go check on Freddy? I think we need to feed him. Do you think he likes beetles, Mom?"
"Mom, I think I saw him HOP!! He's healed mom! I bet he will have many stories to tell his froggy friends about his visit with us." Indeed, I am sure he will. He was tossed about, petted about a million times and transferred from bucket to "habitat" so often the poor thing was probably dizzy. I have to admit, I even pet him a few times and checked on him.

Alas, my husband MADE us let him go last night, to brave the cold world of froggydom. He hasn't been back since.

Imagine.