Valentine's day party

Well, my 6 year old, since I can remember, has ALWAYS loved planning and "setting  up" parties. Whether it is an impromptu tea party, a "daddy is home party" or pretend birthday party. Anna loves it. So when the two preschool kids (mine of course) were preparing their valentines for their preschool V-day parties, Anna was sad, and wanted to do one of her own. I realized, that with all the craziness of the last few weeks, she has felt a little bored and kind of left out. So to try and remedy that, we went so she could pick out some valentines, Barbie was the choice, she decorated, "addressed" them, and taped dum dums to them. She originally wanted to hand them out at the two homeschool co-ops we attend, but decided to stick with her cousins and siblings and parents. I told her yesterday we would have a "family" vday party today. So, I made heart shaped cupcakes, and when we came home from co-op today, we had a "party". Each invited person came...that would be me, Anna, Aidan, Madeline, Caitlin, and daddy. Everyone iced and decorated their cakes, and we had orange slices, and "pink" milk. Then, everyone told why they loved everyone else. It satisfied her need for a party, and I felt like a good mom today :)

I was pleased to find out yesterday that we get to have a parents night out tonight. The 3 older kids are going to their pizza party fun night at the preschool, and me, brian and the baby are going on a date. Believe it or not, it is a date even with the baby. (Which of course, I may not have thought so when I had fewer or no children!) So in about an hour, we are off to our night out. We may go to the Melting Pot, or Cheesecake Factory or maybe somewhere else. Still not sure. Anyway, hopefully little Cait is sleepy!!

I got a call today from the "appointment setter" and we have our first showing booked!! Yay!  It is exciting. Hopefully this will not be all that long of a process. I started my St. Joseph Novena today, without the superstitious burying of the statue though. Couldnt bring myself to do that part. But I do believe in the power of prayer, so I know God is taking care of it, with St. Joseph's intercession!!  It is our first time selling a house. I am praying for wisdom with all steps, from showings, accepting or denying offers, counter offering, buying, new house decisions, packing, sorting, tossing, etc. It is quite a process. Anyway, I am quite proud of how our house turned out. I dont know how it would have turned out without my "down to business" husband, and my fantastic SIL who staged our entire house, and her husband who did an awesome paint job for us! God knows when I need help, and I have seen him deliver!! Praise God in his good wisdom!!!!!

BTW, if I could, I would post links to other things here, blogs, interesting things I find, etc, let me know how to do it!!!

So I guess I will continue to get on here apprx. every 6 months and update my life. To all my zero readers. hehe. I dont know why i dont blog more, I like it, i like reading blogs, hmmm...it is a mystery. Oh wait, maybe because i have 4 children now. and I am homeschooling, and I am trying to sell my house, and I am building a new one. Okay, now I feel better. 

Life seems to come at me fast. One minute, we are slowing down, and waiting things out with housing and moving etc, the next, I am packing my life away, "staging" my house, and constantly telling my kids to stop touching things and getting things out. I feel bad for them, I am too stressed to be creative, to tired to go places. Oh man. hopefully, they will remember their childhood with fondness, and not that they had a crazy yelling mommy all the time. Oh well. I do feel God has opened up so many doors. We will see where they lead. I have to remind myself to "be here now" as a favorite priest once said. I need to live in the moment more often. To stop and reflect if the "major" thing I am dealing with right now is important or not. We are in the process of building a house. It has always been a dream of mine, I need to remember that when I get stressed that there are 500 appointments to keep and countless decisions to make. I am so indecisive, so it is no easy task for me. God bless my husband for dealing with me during these appointments. :o) It is exciting though. We are moving next to my SIL and her family. It is really such an awesome opportunity. We were doubtful at times if it would happen, and still, we need to both sell our houses, so we will see what happens. 

One of my college friends started a blog with a friend of hers. It is a blog about all things Catholic. It is funny, my SIL and I have talked often about doing something very similar. Why is it, that there are some people who have good ideas, and then some people who bring ideas to fruition. I am proud of her though. Hopefully it can become a real help to moms out there. I know It is nice for me, a SAHM, a homeschooling mom, a CATHOLIC mom, to find others out there that are going through the same thing  as me. It is encouraging. 

My 6 year old, just lost her first tooth. She has been awaiting this day for a loooong time. She was very timid about wiggling it though. It was funny. When it finally did fall out, she was so anxious to put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy(dont ask me where she heard about that??) that she dropped it somewhere, and we could not find it even after 30 minutes of detailed searching and prayers to dear St. Anthony. She wailed for about an hour before dropping into a crying induced sleep. Poor thing. Anyway, I wrote her a letter from the Tooth Fairy and gave her a lollipop and a dollar. She was very happy the next day! 

Okay, so this post has been pretty all over the place. I guess that is all I will write today. Maybe I will be back before another 6 months has lapsed.

PS...I did have the baby!!! Little Caitlin Marie turned 3 months on the fifth. She is a joy!

Life

Being pregnant the last 6.5 months has been normal I guess. I just wonder at some of the "side effects" of pregnancy.  I mean, frequent urination for example. What is THAT about...well, OBVIOUSLY, i know WHY it is the case, but really, what the.... As if it is not enough to have your body constantly changing and "growing" and getting fatter. It is the little things like, "honey could you get off the road again, yes, I know we just stopped 3.5 minutes ago, but I have to go again." Or even simply moving at the end of the night. You would think I was 80 and pregnant instead of 29. I had a midwife appt. yesterday and she told me i was anemic. It makes sense I guess. I have been EXTREMELY tired. She told me to eat a bowl of Total everyday because it has tons of iron. If that doesnt help, I will need to go on an iron supplement. I was on one with Aidan, but was not anemic with the other girls.

Okay, that is enough of that. 

We started the school year early this year. I wanted Anna and I to have time to "get ahead" before the baby is born. So that we can take a little time off. Or at least slower. We did everything we needed to do. Aidan sat down and did his handwriting lesson too. Maddie drew at the chalk board, while Anna did Poetry, Reading, Art, and Handwriting. I can tell I am going to need to get creative with the little ones so that they don't feel left out and so that Anna can actually get more done. We will be starting a weekly co-op in mid-September, and a bi-weekly one as well. I am concerned it will be too much for us, but since this K/1st year should be somewhat simple, we are going to try it. 

In other news, we are doing Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. We have put ourselves on a strict budget, which, when you really haven't lived on a budget before, is somewhat difficult. But discipline is a great quality to learn. It is interesting and pretty much appalling when I see how much money we spend with seemingly little to show for it. We hope to have all our debt paid off within a year. I think it is doable. We just need to stay focused. I also need to get creative for Christmas this year. I want to make Christmas special without spending too much. (yes, i know CHristmas is special no matter what you spend, but still).  I will be praying about that one. Hopefully we can come up with some good ideas.

Maddie turns 2!

Today we celebrate the birth of my 3rd born. My beautiful spunky, independent, daughter, Madeline Clare McCarthy turns 2! I make a habit of decorating the kid's doors with signs, streamers, or balloons on the night before their birthday. I really didnt think Maddie would think much of it, but as she came from her room this morning, she gasped and in a high pitched voice said "OOOOOHHH!" It was cute. She immediately stated that the balloons were "mine" and stripped them from the door to carry them around. I told her she was a birthday girl, and she said, " 'gain" (her party was yesterday). I said yes, today is your real birthday, and she asked, "cake" These things don't escape our Maddie, when she hears birthday, she hears cake! 

The big kids had Vacation Bible school today and so I took Madeline to the library for some mom and me time. She had  a ball, but was tuckered out by 11 and fell asleep in the car on the way to the grocery. We had a special treat of chicken nuggets for lunch and if there is time after naps, I will treat her to some ice cream, or something like that. 

First post

This is my first blog on this site, so I am going to keep it short. I havent been a very faithful blogger, but I do enjoy it when I have the time. I am a mommy of 3. I have a 5 y.o. a 3 y. o. and a 15 month old. There is never a dull moment around here...unless you include nap time. I am addicted to coffee...i think about it when I dont have it, and could drink it all hours of the day. Yes, I have a problem. Haha. But I do limit myself to one(or two) cups a day.

I have just started homeschooling my daughter this fall for Kindergarten. We use the Mother of Divine Grace Syllabus. It has been both rewarding and challenging...but what in life isn't? I get discouraged some days, and totally excited others. I am glad we are doing it. My husband is 110% supportive, which is DEFINITELY what I need.

I like to read (a lot) and cook and bake. I LOVE Rachel Ray cookbooks, and I am a menu-planner. It makes my life easier, and helps me to be more organized, something that does NOT come naturally!
I guess that is all.