Six!

We have a six-year-old in the house!  After two days of celebrating, I think The Captain felt sufficiently birthday'ed.  It should have been his party year but since we are holding him back in Kindergarten for another year, I didn't want to have his classmates over.

We started the day -- a beautiful one by any measure -- stretching our legs at a nearby park with siblings (all but Pepper who was working) and friends Theo and Jacob. (The Blitz was there but he was so busy gabbing to Ms. Colleen I didn't get any pictures!) All he said he wanted to do was go to Chuck E Cheese so after a little internal debate, I agreed. Over-stimulating environments are hard on him but he hasn't been in such a place for 3 years so we thought we'd try it.

They all had a ball. For the most part, they listened to our instructions, ate a few bites of pizza, and had a ball playing the games. I didn't love it, but it was made bearable by Daddy taking off from work to meet us and Ms. Colleen and boys joining the fun. It was really the perfect birthday for a 6-year-old. He got Legos from Gram and Grandpa and had so much fun building, we let him stay up to midnight. He still claimed not to be tired but could barely keep his eyes open! This is the blessing of a Spring Break birthday.

We capped the celebration on Friday -- Dear Hubby's birthday -- by fixing a shrimp creole feast and transporting it to Grandma's. (She is recuperating from knee replacement). I failed to get any pictures of that event (or any of the gift opening -- sorry Grandparents). The Captain had a terrier cake, decorated to look like Bubby, and Daddy had key lime pie, made from scratch by the invincible cook, Pepper.

The Sick and Wounded

It's been quite a week.  Nearly two weeks ago Tinker had a cold.  She felt terrible on Saturday and Sunday but rallied for school on Monday. She had a lingering cough and every time we'd be having one of our mother-daughter bonding moments, she coughed into my mouth. Yes, literally, into my mouth.  Wednesday night I went to bed at 8:30. Thursday morning I woke up and said something I had not said to Dear Hubby in 16-1/2 years (so, ever!):  "I can't get up with the kids."

I tried, truly I did. I stood up, walked the 10 feet to the bathroom, staggered back to my bed and stayed there until 12:30, eventually with the kids all around me. Today, 8 days later, I woke for the first time without a splitting headache. It's 8:00 and I haven't coughed yet either. I think I've finally turned the corner. (You'll understand the significance of this when you read the rest.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Grandma had a knee replacement a couple weeks back, so Daddy spent last weekend helping out over there. Sunshine had a practice and 2 games in the freezing wind so I felt pretty darn bad by the time I got the little ones home and abed for the night. Both the big girls were away for the night so I fell into bed early.

Sunday I felt better though by then I had no voice. Good thing I was better, too, as it was "cooking day" at church. I took it easy until time to cook so I managed okay. We made 160 hamburgers and fruit salad. Every bite was eaten.

The Captain, however, picked up a new bug at school last week and by Sunday night, was clearly sick. Tink was running a fever too and had red eyes. I told both kids, "No school tomorrow." The Captain woke up very early Monday morning saying what sounded like, "I frow up in my hand."

In my  pre-dawn mama wisdom, the best I could come up with was, "Go wash your hands and I'll meet you in the living room."  He arrived in the living room with a towel to lie on and a blanket to cover up with . I turned on PBS and in minutes he was snoozing. Daddy was working from home so I didn't feel too guilty having coffee with my Comadre. An hour into our gab fest, I got a text: "The Captain threw up all over himself and the bean bag chair."  Home I went.

He slept all day and all night Monday, weak as a kitten.  When I told him to get ready for bed, he said,
"But my bed has frow-up in it."  Oh, gross. 12 hours had not improved the situation.  [Note to self:  When a child mentions vomit, you should be do a little investigation.] I changed the bed, cleaned the carpet, and tucked both boys in.  He woke up as bad off as he went to bed and spent another day dozing, sipping soda and eating jello.

Around 3:00 PM on Tuesday he finally rallied, but I made a doctor's appointment anyway. Meanwhile Tinker seemed fine and went to school on Tuesday.  On Wednesday morning, Tink went to school again but The Captain headed to the doctors. I was concerned about his cough and right to be so . . . he had serious chest congestion. 4 breathing treatments and a day later, he was finally ready to go back to school with the admonition to "stay indoors until the weekend" in case allergies were exacerbating his symptoms.

I dropped him off at home with Sunshine and hurried into Austin to relieve Pepper who was sitting with Dear Hubby during his mylogram. You will recall that months ago he had a bad landing after sky diving and has suffered some loss of use in his thumb as a result. Pepper headed home to help with the Littles and I stayed with Daddy.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Tink came home from school on Wednesday complaining of a sore "neck" which I interpreted to mean "sore throat." I instructed Sunshine via text to give her some Tylenol and we got home an hour or so later. Reinforced by drugs she seemed pretty fine but complained more as the day wore on.  By afternoon, she was unable to eat and the whole left side of her face was swollen. She and I camped on the sofas and she slept not at all, whimpering or outright crying most of the time. Tylenol had no impact. I forced her to lay on my chest at 3:00 a.m. and she finally fell deeply asleep. 

In the morning, I hustled The Captain into his clothes and took him for breakfast at school to avoid waking her. She woke on my return, crying. She was willing to drink lots of water, but that was it. The doctor wanted to see us in the afternoon but I pressed for an earlier visit. Good thing as it turned out. The doctor was alarmed at the severity of her infected salivary gland and mystified as to how it happened. One more weird life-threatening illness for Tink. She gave a page of instructions for things to watch for that would necessitate a trip to the ER, none of which happened, thankfully. She is on 4-a-day antibiotic and a bland diet; our goal is not to cause excessive saliva because that causes pain. She slept on a pallet on the floor because Mom needed some sleep but slept through the night. I woke her at midnight for Motrin and antibiotic but she went right back to sleep. When she woke this morning, she said, "I feel a little better Mom!"

So all except Dear Hubby seem to be on the mend. He saw his ortho yesterday and the news was not particularly good: Live with the numbness or undergo one of 3 kinds of undesirable neck surgery. Guess he will live with it. They kept saying "degeneration consistent with aging" which didn't make him happy either. 

Those are the tales of the sick and wounded. It's been a long week but happily, it's behind us. One more doctor's visit today for Tink and we should be on the way. Whew!

Saint Unawares

Once in a while, a saint enters our lives, completely unbidden. Such was the case yesterday.

Gabriel and I go to Mass together on Tuesdays after his therapy. He's usually quite restless and distracted but still . . . it's our special time together. Each week he asks to light a prayer candle and each week, I say "no" because it requires going to the office in another building and I want to get him directly back to school.

I don't think I mentioned that after our fateful Ash Wednesday experience, I sent both Gabriel and Tinker back to Mass with Paul because it seemed really clear that they needed some practice in how to behave properly in church. He said they were really well behaved; I'm pretty sure they knew they would get another chance to practice if they weren't. Sometimes going to a huge church with 5 services on Ash Wednesday really comes in handy!  Gabe was sick on Sunday, so he got to stay home from church.

You can imagine it was with a bit of trepidation that I approached yesterday's Mass. I did not mention Ash Wednesday or anything about proper behavior, just held his hand and walked with false bravado to our usual spot in the front row.

Well, apparently that practice paid off because he behaved perfectly. He knelt, he prayed, he kept his hands in his lap, he attempted the responses; he shone! At the conclusion of daily Mass, our congregation adds a couple extra prayers including a short litany of the saints. When it concluded, before rising, I said, "St. Gabriel, pray for us." To which he sweetly added, "St. Benjamin, pray for us; St. Marguerite, pray for us; St. Peter Chanelle, pray for us; St. Allison, pray for us." (I didn't tell him that her patron is St. Clare and there is no "St. Allison" . . . yet!). Then I led him to the painting of St. Gabriel and he was able to finally read his own name on the painting. We were both on cloud nine as we turned to leave.

Just as we started out, a nun who shared the front row with us stopped us. She asked Gabriel if he knew what giving alms were. He said something about the homeless. (I had no idea he knew this!) She offered him a dollar she was supposed to offer as alms (explaining that she was about to return to her mother house) and asked if he would be responsible to either give it to someone in need or to get a prayer candle for someone's benefit. He said he would and proudly accepted it. Then she offered him a dollar of her own money for his own use. He was so proud and put it in his pocket. We thanked her and the moment we turned our backs, he said, "I want a prayer candle, Mom."

How could I refuse? As we walked to the office he said, "I want to say the prayers for Maggie and Bennie." What a doll. I have no idea what he prayed but I helped him light the candle and he knelt down a few minutes, crossed himself, and got up. What a sweetie.

It was the perfect ending for a little guy who clearly was making a concerted effort to do the right thing. I do not know if we will ever see that nun again but she made a huge impact on our son. You never know when your word of encouragement will lift the heart of one who needs it!

Frustration Free Valentines

[This is what happens when you get too old to remember stuff without photos. You have to put it on all your blog.]

Those darn valentines.  Their writing space is so small and slick.  Here is the simple solution:

Stick Post-it correction tape on the table
Let the little fellow write his and his classmates names
Stick and go!

A Sweet Gift Idea - Tabletop S'mores

Sunshine is a mother's helper to a wonderful homeschooling family. They gave her the cutest Christmas gift and I am just now getting around to blogging it:  A tabletop S'mores kit.

Contents:
Can of Sterno
4 to 6 wooden skewers
Package of graham crackers
A dozen large marshmallows
A large chocolate bar

Supplies
Sandwich bag for the marshmallows
Some fabric pieces to decorate
Sharpie
Ribbon
Labels
Cellophane bag to hold it all

Sweet and simple.

A few more Christmas Shots

Our niece Lily took some beautiful pictures at Christmas.  Here are few of my favorites:

Lenten Works of Mercy

Lent is right around the corner and I see an opportunity use the the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy as a springboard to come up with some family sacrifices (at the bottom of the post for your reference) and at the same time honor the three pillars of Lenten Sacrifice:  Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.

We have already agreed on one sacrifice to make together; we will eat on a food stamps budget for the entirety of Lent. But after our conscientious observance of Advent this year, I really want to help us keep Lent in an active way.

I brainstormed these ideas to talk over with the family to see which ones we want to implement. [2/14: The ones in bold are the ones we chose] Here is my starting list; what are your ideas?

• Buy food for the hungry before Easter using our savings from our "food stamps" budget and have the kids take them into church on Easter as offerings.  (We did this at Christmas and it was good for us all).
• Make up "help bags" for the homeless to carry in the car.
• Cull our closets for high quality things we don't wear to donate to the children's home and women's shelter
• Get wish lists for local children's and homeless shelters to see if we can meet any of those needs
• Write letters to cheer service-persons abroad 
• Challenge each member of the family to share his or her faith with someone 
• Send an encouraging note to someone going through a hard time
• Start a prayer jar; place names of family and friends (living and dead) on slips of paper in a jar on the table.  Each night, draw a name from the jar and pray for that person (or the repose of their soul).
• Set a purpose to speak (mercifully) to someone who is on a destructive path.
• Share this excellent blog post with Dear Hubby and the teens
• Make a concerted effort effort to "bear wrongs patiently and forgive all injuries." I'm thinking of getting some bear stickers for the little ones to put on a paper cross each time we notice them "bearing" with each other.  Might be good for the big ones too!
• Pray for someone or a situation we learn about on the news
• Sacrifice TV time and use that time to write a letter to an elderly friend or do a good deed for someone, such as cook a special meal, clean something, repair something, etc.
• Calendar times to attend stations of the cross on Fridays
• Make a King's cake for Fat Tuesday (since I forgot on Epiphany this year! Here's a pic from last year)
• Participate in a Food Fast to help us understand how the hungry are suffering (Feb 21-22); I won't have the little ones do this, but they'll have no sweets or extras that day [two of us are doing this; the others think they're crazy!]

The corporal works of mercy is as follows:

• To feed the hungry;
• To give drink to the thirsty;
• To clothe the naked;
• Shelter the homeless;
• To visit the sick;
• Visit the imprisoned;
• To bury the dead.

The spiritual works of mercy are:

• To instruct the ignorant;
• To counsel the doubtful;
• To admonish sinners;
• To bear wrongs patiently;
• To forgive offences willingly;
• To comfort the afflicted;
• To pray for the living and the dead.