Well, then

she's gone.

a week ago actually.

This week has been a flurry of family in and out. My brother, who I rarely get to see. Aunts, uncles, cousins. cousins of cousins. You know, funeral folk. She died last Sunday. Bob came home from church around 8:30am, which he never does. He walked into the kitchen where I was making a cup of tea and told me mom had called this morning. That my grandma had died. He quickly clarified which grandma when he saw the panicky confusion on my face. You don't think you would be surprised when a woman of 90 dies. but I was.

Now, funerals are done. luncheons are over. and all of the activity of death has come to a close. and yet, I forgot. Tonight, I was looking at my calendar to plan my week, and I forgot that she had died. Tomorrow is Monday. Lunch with Grandma. Dammit it's right there on the calendar. In bright pink marker. every Monday.

I love when that happens

Yesterday, we went to Bob's sister's house. Max, Rosie, and Oliver all got their first taste of Bugs Bunny.
This morning's conversation...

Max: Bugs Bunny is sooooo funny. What was that black duck's name again?
Bob: Daffy Duck.
Max: oh, Right. Daffy Duck. He is so funny.
(much giggling)
Bob: You liked it, huh?
Max: Yeah, it was so funny my whole body was laughing.
Bob: Wow! That is funny!
Max:Yeah. Even my hands. my hands were laughing!

In case I haven't shown you this...

Here is my ridiculously adorable daughter.

order in the chaos...

My house of cards is crumbling around me. Any mother knows that the slightest variance in your daily routine can be the beginnings of a dangerous slip sliding into complete and utter household chaos. I have had three days in a row of variance. 70 degree sunny day variance, mind you. But a variance nonetheless. As you might imagine my lovely laundry room with all of its neat stacks of folded and ironed clothes and linens, is piled high with laundry. I haven't cooked an honest to goodness dinner in three days. Mostly due to the fact that I didn't go grocery shopping on Sunday, so my cupboards are bare. I feel sorry for Bob. I have no idea what he will feed the children for breakfast because we are out of cereal, bread, milk, and juice. But, fathers always are quite creative and inventive when it comes to mealtimes, so I'm sure he will come up with something. You can begin to fill in the rest from these brief sketchings.

Max may have inherited that funky little OCD gene that has been plaguing me. ok ok. who are we kidding? This kid is freakier than me or Conor. no lie. He is a difficult animal to manuever around. but one thing is for sure. Max loves order. God bless him, this child born into the ADD family, loves his order.

So, this afternoon as I am taking Ladybug up to her nap I see a toy left on the steps. I knew Max had been playing with it and I am quite firm on the "No Toys On the Stairs" rule. As I'm about to call him up to retrieve the toy, I notice something.




Max's order. amidst our chaos.

A Lesson in Hope

Tonight at prayer time we were reading about the Gospel lesson today. One of the reflection questions was, "What was the person hoping for when he planted the apple tree?" My kids answered with, "That it would grow big." "That it would give him lots of apples for his refrigerator."

Then the question was, "What was God hoping for when He formed us inside our mother's womb?" Porkcop said, "That I would grow." Meatball said, "That I would grow and talk." So, I asked Jellybean, "What was God hoping for when he made you in mommy's uterus?"

and she said..."He hoped that I would run in the sunshine and play with butterflies."

indeed.

Learning to Read

I told you guys earlier about Max teaching himself to read and write. This has been very interesting to watch unfold. None of the children liked sitting down and using the basic skills workbooks we have. Me telling them to find the page with the seven on the bottom, lost its novelty on about the third day. Then it became pure tedium. So...I dropped them. Max has become very proficient and Rosie is starting to want to join in the fun, too. Last week, Max went around making signs for the various things in the house. He'd ask how to spell a word, I'd tell him, he'd make a sign.





Up til now, Rosie has been more of a whole word detective. She reads the Now I'm Reading books and can read on sight many words. She is just beginning to play around with individual letters and sounds.

Oliver just likes to curl up in your lap and listen to a good story. He is constantly bringing books to us and wanting us to read them. He is enjoying pecking out his name on the computer keyboard and playing with the Basic Concepts books. It has been so fascinating watching each one of them discover this on their own, in their own time and way. It has taught me a valuable lesson in teaching. My new Rule #1: Get out of their way.

oh...that's just what we needed

First, I want to ask. Why is it that we cannot leave our house clean? What is it about walking out the door to go on vacation that chaos must flow in our wake? Every time we go somewhere, I vow that this is the time we will leave and therefore come home to, a clean house. I cleaned our house top to bottom Monday before we left, and yet still, somehow we trashed it as we left. I guess there is always next time.

So, I highly recommend the Great Wolf Lodges to anyone needing a family getaway. The entire hotel is set up to accommodate children. I can't emphasize enough how relaxing this is. Kids are everywhere. This completely puts the parents at ease. They have a story time every night at 8pm in front of the big clock in the lobby. There is a craft and game room, where the kids can go and well, make crafts and play games. There is a giant arcade that has arcade games for all ages. The restaurants on site are all child friendly. (When we went to breakfast, they sat us in the "bar area" and they had Dora on the big tvs behind the "bar.") There are a couple of shops and a little store where they sold Starbucks (though we are boycotting) and Krispy Kreme (which we are decidedly not boycotting. yummy!) There is even a Pizza Hut on site that delivers to your room.

But the main attraction, of course, is the indoor waterpark. It was so much fun! Even Fiona had a blast. There is a little kiddie pool with little kiddie slides, a lazy river, a giant tree fort, 3 huge waterslides that go outside and then back inside, and a deeper pool with basketball hoops. There was truly something for everyone.




Check-in is at 4pm, but you can get in earlier if your room is ready. You can start using the waterpark at 1pm. Check-out is at 11am but you can keep using the waterpark until 10pm. Honestly, two nights was the perfect amount of time for us. The rooms are really big (well ours was.) We had a room that sleeps 7 people. It had a little kid's "room" with bunkbeds and a daybed which was perfect for Max, Rosie and Oliver. They even had their own tv in there! Plus a queen-size bed and a sofa sleeper. The living area had a nice sized dining table and a cozy little fireplace. The rooms have refrigerators and microwaves. I suggest you bring your own drinks and snacks because they charge $2 for a bottle of water/soda. We actually packed our lunch in. There is no free continental breakfast, so I suggest you pack that in as well. During the week they are not as busy (which is another bonus to homeschooling) but I imagine the weekends to be a madhouse during the winter months.

I didn't think the price was bad. Our room was $209 a night and that included all of the waterpark passes and other activities. The website says they have the lowest price, but when the online reservation system wasn't working I called them directly. The internet price for out room was $228. but the phone guy gave me $209 without much convincing. I might have been able to get an even better deal! oh well.

I had only my sister's camera (since mine, alas, has passed on) and I never quite got the hang of it. These were the best of the bunch. Yes, Conor was there, but the pictures I got of him were atrocious and he would be mortified if I put them on the internet.

all said, glad to be home!