Will the state take my blog away if I keep neglecting it??

Last week felt long but went by fast in the way that busy weeks with small children often do. We found that our plan to get through the week with maximum productivity for Dan really went off very smoothly. The house was in chaos, but everyone was clean and well-fed, and the biohazards didn't get the upper hand, or at least not for long. (An incident in which M-girl removed her diaper during naptime was indeed harrowing but does not bear retelling. Suffice it to say that an Allen wrench and disinfectant were required before all was declared clean.).

Saturday did not begin at the lazy pace that it typically does thanks to Dr. O's observation that we were living in a cluttered mess. We got everyone started picking up items to put away upstairs so that Dr. O' could vacuum downstairs after he loaded the dishwasher. The Jedis put away their toys while M and I put her trashed room back together. By then Dan was ready to vacuum the upstairs, so we headed back downstairs to wipe down the bathroom. The Jedis do a great job shining the bathroom sink and wiping down the toilet, and I gave the shower a quick scrub and wiped the mirror. Then I-M mopped the kitchen and bath. I changed mop cloths and damp mopped the hardwood and laminate in the LR, DR, and our room. The Jedis emptied trash cans and ran items back to their places. All this took an hour and a half. This is why a small house works for us! Dr. O' went for a few things at the grocery and came home with an enormous thank-you bouquet for my being so willing to keep things under control at home while he put in some 10-12 hour days. Very sweet! He had to return to campus from 1-5 to give two exams, and the kids and I enjoyed a mellow afternoon.

Sunday morning we enjoyed coffee in bed and then Dr. O' prepared bacon, eggs, and cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We enjoyed a peaceful breakfast together and got ready for church. My lesson in the chapel was about how stubborn and disobedient God's people were in the desert, just as we are prone to be. They took the first chance they could to cast an idol to worship while Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the 10 commandments, the first of which was not to worship anything but God.

At home we ate a ziti that my husband had put in the oven before church. Then we put M down for a nap and told the Jedis not to play loudly so we could rest. For dinner he grilled a steak for me and the kids, and it was so good! When I'm expecting, I crave red meat! We had some yummy sides and peach crisp for dessert. The kids played all evening in the yard as we watched, chatted, and called our moms. I was catatonic by 8pm!

This morning I managed to get moving rather quickly and got everything from the morning rush put away. I thoroughly cleaned my kitchen counters and restarted a laundry load that had failed to make it past the washer since Saturday evening. I played out back, rested in the sun a bit, and put M down for her nap. The house was in B+ shape, which is fine because I can't have it perfect or I get cranky when little persons mess it up. I started brainstorming and decided to take the kids to the zoo this afternoon. I had time to be organized and feel ready for the adventure. I put out my intention on FB and got another momma to join us. However, I didn't know until we arrived that THE ZOO CLOSES AT 4. We got there at 3:30. Fortunately, everyone was fairly game to move the whole shebang to Wheeling Park, where we stayed until nearly 6! Such a perfect day to play! We came home to a freshly-cut lawn and leftover ziti. The kids are out back screaming like monkeys and getting covered in grass stains. Homework is increasingly difficult to get them to start on with these beautiful days, but they sleep so soundly after wind sprints up an down the grassy hill. Happy times.

Easter Preparations

I got moving this morning and managed to get 3 dozen Easter-themed sugar cookies rolled, cut, and baked. The challenge is to keep the kids from sneaking them before I can get them iced! I took a rest because of some Braxton Hicks contractions and then made baklava for the first time. It was so easy! I can't believe I haven't done it before, and it's definitely going to be a holiday tradition for us.

Dr. O' stayed home yesterday to help out and had to go in to catch up today on grading. M-girl was my constant shadow during baking and is down for a nap now, although I can hear that she's not sleeping yet. The Jedis are watching Veggie Tales and wearing capes because they're nutty. I-M helped me put the Easter tablecloth out, and we'll do a touch-up cleaning this evening. For now I am doing my medically mandatory relaxing for a few hours and watching Mad Men DVDs in bed. I get so constantly hungry with this bebe, and not gaining a ton of weight is a challenge!

I need to make a quick run for some new polo shirts for the guys to wear to church. Thankfully, M-girl has a box full of pretty dresses to choose from, and I'm set for a dress that I've worn while pregnant before.

Tomorrow's dinner will be a spiral-sliced ham, some kind of potatoes, broccoli and cheese, fresh bread, veg stuffed peppers, and Key Lime Pie, yummy! We'll be at church in the morning and enjoying some family time at home for the rest of the day.

Chametz!!!

With the season of Lent/Easter/Passover upon us, I've been doing some reading and thinking on the subject of chametz and thinking that I'm glad I'm not morally obligated to rid my home of chametz in preparation for the coming holiday because I would fail. As the wife of a Hebrew Bible prof, I have tremendous respect for the Jewish faith and admire the discipline the Jewish lifestyle requires, something often missing in the "easy-grace" tendencies among Christians. In commemoration of the Passover, the more observant Jewish people rid their homes of any grains that are not kosher specifically for Passover, grains that are fine to have in their homes any other time of year but which represent a ritual impurity during Passover. These grains might have miniscule amounts of natural leavening in them, which makes them not permissible to eat or to own. The reason for this is that God commanded Moses to tell the people to clean their homes thoroughly and to prepare unleavened bread for their Exodus from Egypt, so all grains consumed or owned during this Paschal feast must be unleavened. The cleaning and removal of chametz is actually a big inspiration for the tradition of spring cleaning, a chance for a fresh start.

My house is FULL of chametz! I have about 75lbs of grain and several containers of flour, pasta, and oats. I have small children who tend to wander a bit with their snacks, and they have left crumbs of everything in little nooks and crannies throughout the lower level. They read books at the table, and leave crumbs in them. The Jedis' backpacks often have crumbs from their leftover school snacks, crumbs which come flying out when a sweatshirt or folder is removed from the bag. The diaper bag is the same. My car is a cruddy mess of snack crumbs and french fries as well. This is pretty much the status quo, sadly.

However, some days are much worse. Take yesterday, for example. M-girl was supposed to be watching Caillou on the computer, the Jedis were playing Wii, and Dr.O' and I were getting a few minutes to talk in our room nearby. M-girl has been pretty good about leaving my bin of wheat alone, but not yesterday! She dumped several cups of wheat berries on the floor and into the computer armoire. It did not appear to have gone into any of the electronic equipment, but it made a HUGE mess! I still see bits of wheat on the floor, and I think it'll take several vacuumings. My house is sprinkled with a perpetual layer of barely visible chametz!

This gets me thinking about how the Old Testament laws, including those about chametz, were to point people to God and His holiness and to demonstrate how people can never be sinless or attain holiness on their own. God's people had to do their best with God's help and to trust that He would be faithful to His promises.

Jesus came and said that following the 10 Commandments was not enough. He said that lusting was the same sin as adultery, that hate was the same sin as murder, and that our thoughts were the seeds for these sins. But He also bridged this gap between our sinful selves and our Heavenly Father. There is spiritual chametz, clutter, and uncleanness in my life, visible and less visible. Some of it is stuff that isn't always necessarily sinful, but it also doesn't bring me closer to God or help me to serve others. I have to do what I can with the Holy Spirit's help to remove it and become more like my Lord because I owe Him an obedient heart, but I can also live in the joyful hope that these weaknesses, imperfections, and sins are covered by the blood of my Savior.

In the meantime, though, I can't help but mutter "chametz!" everytime a mess happens in my house, like a toddler playing Montessori sensory table with my wheat bin, a school-age kid spilling cereal, or my wheat grinder filter getting clogged and sending flour all over my kitchen!

Post-Introspection Post

So I've been having a very introspective week with a lot on my mind but not a lot to say.  I-M has a lot of appointments these days to help us untangle a mess of symptoms.  I'm coming to terms with the likelihood of ADHD, although I'm unwilling to medicate him.  That would certainly explain the low working memory despite high intelligence.  Getting an official diagnosis would actually be helpful because it would get him an IEP, which would allow him to get occupational therapy for his motor skills for free at school.  He has started seeing a counselor who will give him behavioral strategies to continue to be successful at school.  That's not free, but neither are the drugs, and a little therapy isn't going to have ugly psychotropic side effects. 

This counselor has had children in the Jedis' school, and she feels that while it's a highly-rated public school, it often behaves like a selective private school, driving some families out.   Children with special needs are not especially welcome, it seems.  I was a little annoyed when the principal told me how few Spec. Ed. kids the school had when I first visited, like that was some kind of badge of honor.  Back then, I didn't think we needed those services, so I brushed it off.  Now I'm hearing that the teacher who I'm not really pleased with is one of the best there.  Not encouraging. 

Knowing the school as she does and having spent some time with I-M, the therapist thinks he and I are a good case for homeschooling.  I have to admit that my heart is drawn to it.  I could give him the enrichment he's not getting at school, the time to get to these appointments that will help his development, and the free time to play all that energy out.  We can only do so much of that in the time after school, and that's when the free time is most important.  We are meeting the homeschooling community here in Wheeling slowly, and such a support group would definitely be vital to our success.

Despite these questions and struggles, I am so very pleased to share that my firstborn I-M took his first Holy Communion yesterday.  There is nothing so joyful as watching him taking a sacrament with tremendous seriousness and with great appreciation of Jesus' sacrifice on his behalf.  He walked tall and proud during the entire event and said "This is the BEST DAY of my young life!"  It ranks up there for me too, kiddo!

Time for a Face(book) Lift

So I hinted the other day that I'm already thinking about what I'm giving up for Lent.  It's actually a New Year's resolution that I have put off fully putting into practice.  I started this blog to cut down on what I post on Facebook, and the other half of the resolution was to delete my old Facebook profile and start a new one without as many "friends" and without as many photos, etc.  Facebook was no longer providing the information from businesses and organizations that I like in my news feed, either, and I found it less useful as a result.  It looks like I'm online all the time, but it's actually that I can see the computer in my kitchen, so I jump on for a minute here and there, but I do get sucked in to a lot of unproductive time, too. 

I think Lent is a good time to completely detox from Facebook and spend more time preparing for Easter.  The complicated part is notifying those that I still want to keep in touch with what I'm doing so they don't think I've blocked them.  The other thing is to delete my photos so they're not floating around out there.  So Ash Wednesday will be my last day on my current Facebook profile, and it's also my 34th birthday.  It's a month and a half away, and I will be working on slimming down the current profile in the meantime.

Happy Noisy Christmas!

We are having a day of happy noise around here with no meltdowns to speak of, which is really excellent if you've met my kids. Last night we made it back home, did laundry and unpacked, then got the kids to church in nice clothing. The Jedis were asked to help carry a baby Jesus figure to the manger in the Christmas Eve service last night. IM would carry Him up the aisle and hand him off to A-man, who would carry Him to the manger and place Him there. When A-man was asked to do this, he bowed and said "it would be an honor." Then he had a few follow-up questions: "do I get to bathtize (working on pronunciation) Him?" and "do I get to make the sign of the cross on His forehead?". While we've been doing some hands-on learning about sacraments in the Children's Chapel, clearly we haven't gotten to enough theology to avoid multiple kinds of heresy. He does at least know that John the Baptist performs this later on. It's easy enough to remember since it's part of his name.

Fortunately no major heretical acts were committed, and my family enjoyed a beautiful candlelight service last night with no fire accidents. We got the kids to bed and assembled the table and chair set that we bought for M. I fell asleep on the couch, and Dr. O' left me there rather than waking me. I awoke at 4am and decided to put the cinnamon roll dough together in the bread machine. Unfortunately, I could not fall back to sleep because M was crying intermittently and later insistently, and I got her out of bed at 5:30. She was thrilled with her table and chair set and played with it all morning. The boys came down around 7:30 and had to be reminded to open their gift. They got a Wii that we bought from my brother for about 90% off, which was a huge blessing since our Christmas funds are lower than usual. The only manual included was in Spanish, but we managed to get it put together and loaded with Star Wars Lego, which they've been playing whenever they're not playing actual LEGOs.

Tonight we have to move into travel mode once again. The laundry is caught up, and we need to get the bags packed so that we can visit with the O'Hare side for the next few days.