Seeing Double

I just wanted to announce that we're expecting!  I've been meaning to announce it for a while now, but I just haven't.  It's twins..identical twins due sometime in October. 
I'm still getting over the shock! No, there aren't any twins in my family.  When I had that first early ultrasound and was told that there were two babies, I'd like to say that my first thoughts were joy and thoughts of matching outfits.  No, my first thought was panic.  How many car seats can my minivan hold?  That's just one of the questions that flew through my mind in the space of seconds.  I knew in that moment that any hope that I  had had for a boring routine pregnancy were over.  As it stands, I now have three doctors and of course, I'm going to be monitored very closely.  I'm trying not to give into the anxiety, but it's difficult as I remember my pregnancy with baby Tess and how on several occasions, we thought we were going to lose her.  No, pregnancy isn't as easy as it used to be.  I've been exhausted for weeks now and I'm hoping that now that I've transitioned into the second trimester that I will start to feel somewhat normal again. 

I am extremely blessed even if I feel completely overwhelmed right now. 

FIVE!

 Sammy wanted two cakes.  So I baked a peach upside-down cake and Sam requested a chocolate cake with sprinkles.  It looked like a disaster, but it tasted good.  Here he is blowing out his candles with his best friend Ella at his side.

 I had to get some pictures of my boys right after our little party.  Sammy looks so big and grown-up!  Poor little Tessie was in bed by the time I took these pictures. 

                                                           Just Daddy and Sammy

                                                          Happiness and balloons

5!! How can you be 5 already?

Gloomy Skies

I woke up this morning to an overcast sky.  Last night, I heard the first thunder of the season and then the rain began to fall gently.  Apparently, it rained all night, but I really couldn't hear it. For whatever reason the way the rain hits my roof, it's almost silent which saddens me because I love the drumming sound of rain  falling on my house, but oh well. This morning, dark, gray and wet was lovely. The rain soon turned to snow and then stopped altogether when the sun made its entrance and completely transformed the morning. 

As much as I love the rain, I have to admit that the gloomy overcast sky matched my mood this week.  I realize that I've neglected my blog this week. I've wanted to write, but couldn't quite write what I wanted to say.  A few times I've opened my computer ready to post only to click away.  I've been sick for a week now and have lacked the energy and brain power to think very clearly. Last week, I awoke with a swollen eye and instantly knew it was Pink Eye (although I tried to convince myself otherwise), but I thought that I could manage it with some home remedies. It quickly spread to my other eye and I knew that I'd have to go to the doctor after waking one morning unable to open either eye.  At that time, I started to get the sniffles and a mild sore throat. Thinking I was in for a manageable although inconvenient Spring cold, I didn't think much of it, but soon, all I wanted to do was nap.  I was wiped out and I developed a cough that kept me sleeping fitfully at best.  I haven't done any knitting in more than a week!  Now, that's  seriously ill!  I had too much to do, but I let it all go.  Deep down, I also knew that on top of my physical ailments, I was burned out...again.

 I realize I'm ready to wrap up our school year, but we still have a few weeks left.  I'm trying not be too hard on myself about this year where I relied heavily on workbooks and less on the creative pursuits that make homeschooling special.  We've listened to a lot of great books together. We've discussed those books.  We talk about books all the time, but this year has lacked that spark (at least in my mind).  How to get back that enthusiasm?  I'm sure it will come with a little break.  I know inspiration will come again after I get through this short season of gloominess.

Pretending

Yesterday, while I was in my room, I observed Sammy and Tess playing with the laundry basket. At first, Sam put Tess in the basket and pulled her around my room, but then he decided to get in and join her. He told me that they were in a boat and and that they were beginning to get hungry. He then decided he had to go fishing. He happened to have a bucket with rope attached to it. So, he threw it overboard and lucky for him, the fish jumped right into the bucket! He tugged the bucket back into their boat and he pretended to eat the fish. I watched in amusement and then astonishment when Tess started to eat the imaginary fish too. She was pretending! She's learning a new way to play! She reached her little fingers into the plastic red bucket and brought little invisible fish to her mouth. She looked up and smiled at me, but kept "eating". Oh, I really wanted to get my camera to capture both of them in their "boat", but I knew it would break the magic and so I just watched. It also goes to prove my theory that children enjoy every day items much more than toys. They just seem to capture their imaginations much better than toys do.

My own long winter

This is what I woke up to this morning. I sighed and accepted more snow. Spring is really tough for me here in Colorado. Just when I'm yearning for warm weather and picnics and being outdoors, that's when the snow comes. Usually, January and February are just cold, but there's not a lot of snow. It's the Spring that brings all this snow.

Luke and I just finished listening to The Long Winter yesterday. I was anxious to finish this book because I felt like just listening to it was making me colder and prolonging my own long winter. I hadn't re-visited The Long Winter since I was a girl. It just wasn't one of the Little House books that I read over and over. It's an excellent book about perseverance and being grateful for the little things. I still kind of wonder what it was like for Pa to sit down to those delicious hot pancakes at Almanzo and Royal's house after eating nothing but potatoes and coarse brown bread for weeks. It must have been like Heaven to eat warm pancakes soaked with maple syrup. I do wonder if he told Ma about his feast...maybe not for a long while. I wondered what it would be like to see the food supply diminishing knowing that there wouldn't be more until the train got through. I've just never experienced hunger like that. The thing is God provided. He took care of them and there was just enough until the train finally came in with their Christmas turkey.

Anyway, It's a little after noon and the snow is slowing down here and the sun peeks out every now and then, but I know there's more snow coming. I decided to celebrate having more than just potatoes in the house and I made a vanilla cream pie. I scraped the last of my vanilla bean seeds to make the filling and now my pie is chilling nicely in the fridge. It'll be a nice treat in our cozy house tonight.

On the phone

Recently, I've noticed that Tess will take anything that remotely looks like a phone and walk around the house while repeating over and over, "Hi. Hi. Hi." Here's she's clearly engrossed in a conversation while talking on the DVD remote. The other day she was talking on my bedside clock (which has gone missing by the way). Am I on the phone that much?

An evening with Luke

In March, I told Luke that if he re-read Alice in
Wonderland, I'd take him to see the new Alice in Wonderland Movie. He listened to the unabridged version on his MP3 player very quickly in anticipation of a movie night with mommy. I had told him that I would listen to it as well, but I find Alice so silly and wacky that I was so easily distracted. I kept re-winding and re-winding. Finally, I realized that I could go no further. I finally just pulled the book off Luke's shelf, but I still didn't get very far. As a child, I was enchanted with the story of Alice in Wonderland, but it was a book I never finished. (I have clear memories of those books that I abandoned over the years. I always felt/feel that I'm such a loser when I let a book go unfinished. I'm not sure that I'll ever feel okay walking away from a half-read book.) Anyway, the movie is well, weird and weird in that Tim Burton way, but it wasn't until the credits rolled that I realized that this version is based on both
Alice and its unpopular sequel, Through the Looking Glass. Luke didn't read or listen to the sequel. I was determined to flip through the sequel when I got home, but even when I did, I determined that this movie is very loosely based on Lewis Carroll's books.

On the drive home from the movie, we did get to talk about books and movies in general. We talked about what we think about movies that have very little in common with the books on which they're based. He expressed interest in checking out Through the Looking Glass, but I can tell that Alice isn't going to be one of his favorite childhood books and that's fine with me. In the end, it's nice to see have an evening with just Luke every now and then. He's so interesting and he's getting so big and sometimes, I don't see it clearly when I'm in the midst of everything that makes up a full life. I need to make it more of a priority to spend time with just him more often. So, in the end, it's not just going to the movies together. It's a time to connect with my quickly growing and changing son.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter Everyone!

Something funny: This morning at Easter Mass, my four year old asked why there were pirates at church. He doesn't often see the Knights of Columbus decked out in their full regalia! Have a wonderful day my friends!