Simple Woman’s Daybook (3.3.09)

Tuesday, March 3 2009

it is sunny, breezy & 73. I am so pleased to have typed March above because this is my most favorite month to live in Austin. This is our Spring and by far the best weather month we have – and it’s also my birthday month!

about the different choices that each family makes for educating their children. We have recently signed Livy up for another year of Mother’s Day Out (though it is going to have more preschool elements to it next year and will be called St. William’s Early Childhood Development Center) and Catechisis of the Good Shepherd. She will be at MDO Tuesdays & Thursdays from 9:30 to 1:30 and CGS on Wednesdays from 9:30 to 11:30. I am really excited about both programs and the things that Livy will learn & enjoy in each of them. I have several friends who are sending their children to one or both of these programs and several who have opted out of both of them. It’s interesting to me why each family makes the choices they do. Ultimately, we are each considering our family situation, our children’s needs, and our own needs as mothers, which are all different, of course, and require different things. It gets even more interesting as people talk about what to do with school-age children with some doing public school, some Catholic school, and some homeschool. I definitely think this is one of those areas were there is no ‘one size fits all’ answer. Each family will choose what is most fitting for them.

quiet time when Olivia is enjoying herself at Mother’s Day Out and the babies are sleeping.

Violet is learning how to sleep through the night. Last night she went from 9pm to 5:30am without eating (but she did wake once). Molly is learning how to make up her own mind and get her point across. There have been several instances lately with Livy where Molly is very clear about what she wants and it is different than what Livy wants. Livy is not so sure she likes this development. She liked it much better when Molly followed mother hen like a good little chick! Olivia is a non-stop talker these days and is constantly telling stories. They usually end with – “that’s so silly.” She adores her sisters and really wants to mother them. My favorite thing is to hear her praising them “Good job, Molly, you did it!”

We had a lot of food prep going on last night and will be having a butterflied roasted chicken brined & stuffed with compound butter later this week. JR found the recipe and it looks delicious so I was happy to have his help preparing the brine & compound butter last night (after I made hamburger helper – a little weak by comparison!). We’ll have our chicken Wednesday night, JR is doing a spaghetti dinner Thursday night to get in a bunch of carbs before his big race Saturday & Sunday.  My crazy husband will be running a relay with 9 other crazy people who are each taking 4 legs (5 miles each) of a 200 mile race!! I hope to finish up our favorite meals list on one of my solo evenings this week. Oh, and because I started a new program called Healthy Eating Every Day we are not counting Weight Watchers Points anymore. I’m just getting started with HEED so I’ll share more later.

black slacks (down one size!), a new pink t-shirt, Merrells & a smile

a happy home AND a mailing list for Violet’s birth announcements – woohoo!! JR saved me and designed a breathtaking announcement Sunday night – have I told you lately that I love you??

to focus on the 5 basic things I must do to be a healthy person in order that I might serve my family better – pray, shower, eat, exercise, & sleep. I am starting to see some good habits in their infancy stage and it feels good to be headed in the right direction. I am hoping to have them really ingrained by Easter.

less blogs for Lent (only 30 minutes a day for the internet – excluding writing my posts). For now, I think I am going to pick up my Maria Montessori book again. I think I ended up with a more philisophical one than a practical one, but I am going to try to get through it. It seems Montessori is a big buzz word these days with all different kinds of thinking about the practical applications of her philosophy so it would be interesting to understand better where she was coming from. Okay, I went to Amazon to find a link to the book and found the following review – I guess that’s why I’ve found it hard to get into! Maybe I’ll look for The Child in the Family at the library for an easier read . . .

to have fun tonight at dinner with my bilingual friends for a Mom’s Night Out – and not make a fool of myself with my Spanish when I won’t have the children to distract everyone from my mistakes!

Violet babbling & Pandora playing my Norah Jones station.

baby stuff everywhere – especially baby dolls – in a fairly neat order, but still making it obvious there are a lot of tiny girls living & playing here.

visiting. I really love to sit & chat – with old friends & new, with relatives young & old, with other moms on the way into preschool, with the lady next to me in line at the grocery store. I am such a conversationalist and that is probably one of the most challenging things for me staying at home – no one to visit with!

Livy has preschool today & Thursday. I’m going out with Mamas Bilingues tonight, we have a landscaper coming in the morning to give us ideas on what to do with the barren back yard (which has complete shade coverage from our big, beautiful trees but won’t grow grass), I will meet with my trainer tomorrow night for a work out, and host my rosary group (Madonninas Mothers) Thursday morning. JR goes to a spaghetti feed that night. Confession on Friday and hopefully, a playdate late Friday afternoon. JR will be at the race all weekend, so the girls & I will be attending two birthday parties for our little friends and going to Mass on our own – should be interesting!

Oh Happy Day