Life has been very unusual lately – and most of it in a very unpleasant way, unfortunately. But each of them is a good reminder to count my blessings.

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My parents’ house on the farm burned down a couple weeks ago. They are okay, but the house was not salvageable. This news story pretty much sums up what happened. I don’t think it will really hit home until I pull into the driveway and there is nothing there but a concrete basement (which will be used in the new construction).

This tragedy reminds me to thank God for many blessings – that my parents are alive & well, that we have a big family & a tight-knit rural community that all jumped in to help, and that they were insured and have the opportunity to rebuild. It is also a good reminder of what is really important.

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So about a week & a half after the house fire, JR gave me a big scare. I am assuming he will write the long version of the story, so I’ll keep this short. It started with a rapidly deteriorating sore throat on Wednesday night. He went to the doctor Thursday morning and was diagnosed with coxsackie virus (basically ulcers in the back of the throat). By Friday morning, I took him to urgent care because he could not even swallow his own saliva and he was diagnosed with strep & started on antibiotics. He was still unable to drink fluids & became severely dehydrated. I had a friend of his take him in for IV fluids Friday afternoon. Saturday morning, we thought he had turned a corner and then out of nowhere his fever spiked to 103.5 and he had almost seizure-like chills. I called a friend (two, in fact, who both raced over) to watch the girls and took him to the ER. We spent 6 hrs in the ER, then he was admitted, and eventually transferred to the ICU. He had developed epiglotittis, a potentially life threatening condition where the patient is unable to breathe. They pumped him full of antibiotics & steroids to bring down the swelling while they monitored him. At any moment, they told us, he could stop breathing and they would have to intubate or do an emergency tracheotomy. And then on Monday, they were pleased with the decrease in swelling and ready to send him home to recover fully. I am still reeling from how close we came to a family tragedy.

This close call reminds me to thank God for the blessing of a healthy husband, good health insurance, loving & generous friends, and the most basic thing – the gift of life.

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Once again, I am deeply touched by the outpouring of generosity from our TX friends. When JR was in & out of doctor’s offices, urgent care & the hospital, I had such wonderful support from the same families that had just put themselves out when Jake was born. It was hard to accept so much help knowing that I already had a long list of favors to return, but these are the kind of people who don’t keep track and don’t expect a return. And that’s what makes them such outstanding people. I am still trying to think of a creative way to say thank you – let me know if you have any ideas!

Obviously, this outpouring of support reminds me to be thankful for loving & generous friends. And to strive to follow their example.

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As if that weren’t enough, on JR’s first day back to work, I took Jake to the pediatrician’s office for a well check. He’s doing great – 11lb. perfectly chubby and all smiles & coos. While the doctor was examining Jake, Violet asked me to pick her up. As soon as I did, I knew she had a fever. She also told me that her tongue hurt. I asked Dr. G to have a look at her when he was finished with Jake since her temperature was only 100 and there didn’t seem to be a rush. By the time the doctor finished with Jake, Violet had fallen asleep on my shoulder (this was 11am!) and was very warm. The nurse took her temp again & it was 103. They said they wanted to give her some ibuprofen & do a strep test. Jake still needed to get his immunizations. JR was expecting us for lunch because it was his birthday, but when he called to see if we were ready for lunch, I asked him to come to the pediatrician’s office instead so that he could take one of the kids. Thankfully, he works across the freeway from the doctor’s office and was there in a few minutes. Turns out Violet had strep and when Molly started exhibiting symptoms later that day, we asked for a double dose of antibiotics and were granted it. So that is how we got our first (& second) dose of antibiotics for the children. For the record, the doctor said it couldn’t have been strep from JR because it had been too long since he was infected.

While strep throat is not any sort of tragedy, it was a simple reminder to be grateful for healthy children, a good doctor, and a helpful husband.

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Amidst all this chaos, life goes on. School is almost out for the summer – Livy has just 4 days left. I am looking forward to having all my little chicks together for awhile. I am also wondering how I’ll keep my sanity having 4 children under 6 at home all day, every day for two and a half months. We are going to break it up a little by visiting family in NE, doing Vacation Bible School, taking an intro to dance class and swim lessons. Before we know it, it will be time to head back to school. Livy will go to Kindergarten and Molly & Violet will be in a twice a week preschool program at church. Jake & I won’t know what to do with ourselves!

Looking toward summer, I am grateful for so many opportunities for the girls & I to enjoy ourselves and learn together.

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In addition to the out of the house activities we have planned, I am hoping to have several happy days at home. I think a key to this will be a well-structured day. It doesn’t take much creativity to predict where the day will end up with 3 little girls left to their own devices. To that end, I am thinking this is the perfect time for me to dust off the plans I had made awhile back for a daily “rule” or routine. When I tried to do it last, the girls were much younger and it was very hard to implement with so many different abilities. Now that the girls can pretty much work on the same activity, I think we’ll have more success. Hopefully, I can get it drawn up next week and I’ll share it here when it’s ready. There are so many things I’ve been wanting to do with my children and yet days and days go by without getting to it. This is my chance to prioritize & plan things out.

This paragraph reminded me to be grateful for the opportunity to start fresh this summer and implement several plans that have been in (& out of) the works several times but never really took off.

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And one last random thing. My friend Sr. Rosalie had her first home visit in April. Missionaries of Charity get a home visit every 10 years for one month. I got to visit with her on the phone for over an hour. She was so thrilled to be with her mom & sisters again. It was really funny to talk to someone that has been almost completely removed from normal society for a decade and then dropped back into it. I suggested she see if anyone had a webcam so I could show her baby Jake and she was so surprised that such technology existed! She said that she will likely make her final vows next May in Washington, DC. We are making plans to attend as a family. When we left Uruguay, Kelly told me she would need $100 to enter the convent to pay for her sari and the other very limited personal items the sisters are allowed. I was very proud to give her $100 and promise that when she took her vows, I would be there to see it. I am thrilled that I will get to make good on that promise! In her Easter card to us she asked for prayers that she would “persevere joyfully to the end” – I have no doubt that she will! And she signed it “Auntie Sister Rosalie”

And finally, Sr. Rosalie reminds me to be grateful for the gift of faith, for simple joy & for true & lasting friendship!

Hope you enjoyed my 7 Quick Takes – be sure to visit Jennifer at Conversion Diary for links to more 7 Quick Takes Friday!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

As I mentioned in the previous post, we have been the happy recipients of a whole lot of good will since Jake came along. One perfect example is the basket shown below.

It came home with JR from Livy’s school one morning after Jake was born and as you can see it was overflowing with goodies for our new baby. Needless to say, we were overwhelmed by the generosity of Olivia’s pre-K class. These are families we don’t know well yet, but they warmly showered us with all sorts of fun & practical goodies for a new baby. The most amazing part is how many items were exactly what I had been meaning to go out & get for Jake and I hadn’t even had a conversation with any of the other parents about it! First of all, the new Moses basket & beautiful bedding for it were at the top of my shopping list. Jake wasn’t sleeping well the first couple nights home from the hospital and our worn out basket wasn’t looking very comfy anymore. And then out of nowhere, JR brings home a beautiful new basket! Then there’s the play gym that folds up super compact (perfect for our “cozy” house) and is a fun & simple spot for Jake to take in the action. A couple of my other favorite items were the swimsuit in a cute Hawaiian print, and the super soft, polka dot blanket set. There must’ve been 30 or more items in that basket. More than anything, though, we appreciated the feeling of community that came with the gift. When we were considering schools we really wanted something like the small town Catholic schools which we attended in NE where there was a real sense of community. We weren’t sure we were going to find it here in the “big city” but we are feeling right at home. We are the “new kids” at school since Olivia started mid-way through the year and it means a lot to be welcomed so warmly. Thanks to all y’all for your generosity & friendship. The best gifts are the ones which are unexpected and we feel very blessed. We look forward to getting to know you better and watching the kids grow up together!

Livy’s school has been doing a fundraiser called Hearts for Haiti during Lent. The children are offering works of charity and requesting donations to help the people of Haiti. Livy is VERY in to this project. Last night, we had to make the final decision about our family’s financial contribution. Suggestions were given – $90 to buy a family a goat, $25 to buy 20 chicks, etc. JR finally put the question to Livy -

“How much would you like to take to school tomorrow?”

Olivia’s reply?

“One million dollars.”

She could not have been more serious.

Another Haiti story involved Molly & Olivia. Molly had just found some spare change on the floor at the Costco food court. Olivia asked her – wouldn’t she like to give that money to the people of Haiti? No, Molly quickly replied. But Molly, insisted Olivia, they only have rice to eat everyday! Molly was unmoved – “I like rice,” she said.

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Jake is already over two weeks old! By his first well check with the pediatrician (at 5 days old), he had already regained his birth weight (7 lbs, 13 oz). By his two-week visit, he was up to 8lbs, 9oz. Aside from the baby acne that came on strong a couple days ago, he is perfect – just perfect! And he smiles already – no seriously, he does. It’s the sweetest thing ever. I’m not even exaggerating. Today I practically had to frown at him to make him take his pacifier. He kept smiling back at me when I gave it to him and he couldn’t keep it in his mouth!

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The big sisters absolutely adore their baby brother. They can hardly go 5 minutes without asking where he is and trying to give him blankets, pacifiers, toys, etc. Every time I put him down in the swing or the bouncy chair, he is is swarmed by a loving trio all trying to get him to look at them. It is really sweet, but can lead to skirmishes amongst the sisters or a little too much assistance for Jake (like when he’s fast asleep, only to be awoken by someone shoving a pacifier in his mouth). I can’t complain too much about the help, though. It’s the first time I’ve had a runner who can do so much – Livy, especially, is adept at “reading” him stories (from memory), showing him a toy, grabbing a clean diaper, putting the old one in the diaper pail, singing to him, finding him a pacifier, covering him with a blanket, talking to him, etc. And the more help she is, the more the little ones want to be mama’s helper, too. This little guy is well loved!! The funny thing is that the girls are not so sure that I know what I’m doing. If Jake makes the slightest whimper, I have 3 little mamas telling me, “Jake’s crying,” “Jake’s hungry,” “Jake wants you to pick him up.” And then all 3 shouting, “Mama, hurry!!”

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You know that “it takes a village” slogan? Well it really does – especially when extended family is far away as in our case. I must say that our village came out of the woodwork when Jake was born. We were inundated with offers to help and there were so many people offering, we couldn’t take them all up on it! One friend came at 5am to stay with the girls when we went to the hospital. Another friend met her at noon and took them home with her to stay overnight. If it hadn’t been for a fever in her daughter, she would’ve kept them overnight again, but when she couldn’t, a third friend stepped up with zero notice and came to our rescue. A fourth friend picked up Olivia from school, several friends have brought meals (in fact, we have a steady flow through the whole month of April!). And before Jake was even born two friends generously took turns keeping Violet & Molly through all the prenatal visits so JR & I could go together (Olivia was at school). It is humbling to be the recipient of so much help. It is a wonderful feeling to know you have such generous & loving friends. Thanks be to God for our TX village – we couldn’t have done it without you!!

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We have been LOVING the weather the last several weeks. March is my favorite month to live in Austin – an early spring with everything green & warm (but not hot) temps. March & April are the best months for being out in our new backyard (can I still call it new if it is 2 years old?) and I have really appreciated the extra livable space. Our house is small (1304 sq. ft.) so an outdoor playroom has been awesome for the girls. It will be sad when it is too hot to play outside without water because that means I will have to go outside, too! At any rate, it’s past time to get out the tank tops & pack up the long sleeves. We won’t need any of that until Thanksgiving! Here is a link to our monthly average temps if you are curious.

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I am really excited about my sister’s upcoming visit. It will be great to hang out with her, but I am looking forward to the cousins spending time together even more. Her little Ms. Addison is just a few months older than Molly & sweet baby Hayden is just a few months older than Jake. It is going to be awesome to have a giant sleep over with 6 kids 5 & under in our little tiny house!!

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This June 2nd, JR & I will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Before we had kids, I used to think I’d ask JR to take me on a cruise or to Europe or something romantic. Honestly, the best thing I can think of right now is going back to the community we got married in and having a great big reunion. Maybe not all 400 wedding guests, but all the family that could come and all the old friends who are still around and plenty of food & drinks & time to sit around and visit about all the things that have happened in the last 10 years. We’ll see what happens, but it sure does sound nice – and so does Nebraska in June – a bit like Austin in March, actually.

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Some of you may have noticed that our RSS feeds were broken for awhile. JR fixed that and also updated the on-line photos from last June through November. He has a good start on December to the present as well, so hopefully there will be some new albums put up this weekend. Our pediatrician complimented us on taking pictures of Jake at his first doctor’s visit. He noted that he was the 4th baby in his family and there are very few pictures of him in the early years. So the good news is that we have lots of pictures of Jake – the bad news is that we have a lot of pictures and very little free time to select/edit/upload them.

Hope you enjoyed my 7 Quick Takes – be sure to visit Jennifer at Conversion Diary for links to more 7 Quick Takes Friday!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

One idea I have seen on several Catholic mom blogs is a seasonal basket of books to follow the natural & liturgical seasons of the year. I really like the idea of pulling these special books off the shelves to highlight them during the appropriate time of the year. I have been making notes about the books we have that fit different seasons and celebrations and made wish lists for others so that I could keep an eye out for good deals (usually either on Amazon or at one of the local Half Price Books stores). Since I have purchased many of our books based on the recommendations of others, I thought I’d share the books in our Lent/Easter reading basket (and Valentine’s Day & St. Patrick’s Day are below) in case you are looking for suggestions:

Our favorite:

My First Story of Easter (Dowley)

Board books:

Catholic Baby’s First Easter (Tuttle)
Where are my Easter Eggs? (Katz)

Story books:

The Story of the Empty Tomb (Arch Books)
The Way of the Cross for Children (St. Joseph’s Kids Books)
Celebrating Lent (St. Joseph’s Kids Books)
The Easter Story (St. Joseph’s Kids Books)

I also got a couple new books for this year’s Easter baskets.

Tomie’s Book of Bible Stories (de Paola) (we ended up saving this one for another time)

The Wonder of Easter, Precious Moments (Little Goldenbook)

Fancy Nancy’s Elegant Easter (Jane O’Conner)

The Tale of the Three Trees (Hunt)

While we’re at it, here are the books we have out for Valentine’s Day & St. Patrick’s Day

Valentine’s Day:

Saint Valentine (Sabuda)

Dora Loves Boots (Inches)

St. Patrick’s Day:

Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland (de Paola)

Saint Patrick (St. Joseph’s Kids Books)

This year, the girls are going to receive two Irish folk tales for St. Patrick’s Day:

Jamie O’Rourke & the Big Potato (de Paola)

Jamie O’Rourke & the Pookah (de Paola)

I was cleaning out a folder of Olivia’s preschool art and came across her version of the My Dad certificate. Here were her answers a year ago.

My Dad is … dad.

My Dad’s favorite color is … green.

My Dad likes to eat … hamburgers.

I love my Dad because … he does silly stuff.

She captured him pretty well, too!

This Lent (Ash Wednesday is in 2 days!), I promise to:

1) Follow the daily lenten prompts in Small Steps for Catholic Moms – companion journal. There is a simple suggestion for fasting, praying & giving in the midst of the family each day. I think with a new baby in the house, this one-stop shopping will be a good fit this year.

2) Read something spiritual. I tried this one last year with a much more advanced book and couldn’t quite get off the ground. Hopefully, by starting with a simpler book, I’ll have more success this year. I got a head start and read the first chapter and I think it is a really good fit for me right now. Back to the basics.

For the girls, I plan to keep a basket of books about the life of Christ and/or the Easter story in the living room and make a Lamb of God calendar to count the days to Easter. We had a lot of fun with it last year. Lastly, the girls & I are giving up sweets, except for Sundays and birthdays.

Other good ideas from past years and/or suggestions I’ve heard recently include:

Yesterday was “Donuts with Dad” day at Molly’s preschool. She filled out a certificate for Daddy that is super cute. It reads as follows:

My Dad’s name is … JR
My Dad’s favorite color is … green
My Dad likes to eat … spaghetti
I love my Dad because … he works so hard and he makes me happy.

Isn’t that the cutest??

Well, I started this post at 6 weeks & counting, added a few things at 4 weeks & counting and now with 2 weeks to go, I suppose it is now or never for a post about what to do to get the big sisters ready for the new baby! I made a list of things to consider when we were preparing for Violet to enter our family, but ended up keeping it VERY simple since the big sisters were only 2.5 & 1 at the time (and the other factor being that I had VERY little energy for any of the extra stuff!). This time, however, we have some pretty big Big Sisters so they are much more aware of what’s going on and excited for the new addition. Here’s a run down of what we’ve done to involve the girls in the process. It has really been fun to see their enthusiasm grow and witness their innate love for their baby brother.

1. “Big Sister” books.

I’m kind of picky when it comes to big brother/sister books. Most of them seem really negative suggesting that when the new baby comes he will probably cry all the time and take all of mommy’s attention. They also tend to focus on what the baby can’t do – I guess the thinking is that it makes the big sibling feel better about being big, but it seems to give the impression that the new baby is not very interesting at all. So I looked for books that took a different approach – that adding a baby to the family is a wonderful, exciting adventure that we can all do together, especially those that focus on what a big sister can do with the new baby and a realistic impression of what life with a new baby would look like (which might include some of the negatives, but also emphasizes the positives). With that in mind, I chose the following books for the girls:

On the practical side – including education about pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding & newborn care:

Baby on the Way (Dr. Sears)

What Baby Needs (Dr. Sears)

The New Baby (Mercer Mayer)

Rosie’s Babies (Martin Waddell)

On the spiritual side – including an understanding that children are a gift from God, as well as the concept that they are very much alive & precious while they are hidden from us in mommy’s tummy.

Angel in the Waters (Regina Doman)

A Miracle Worth the Wait (Amber Jones) (this was a recent gift & is a very sweet book written by a friend of a friend – thanks Sara!)

2. For the first time, the girls took a Big Sister class at the hospital. I was really excited for them to go and they each got a new baby doll to take to the class. It started with a tour of the hospital (at least the OB floor) and ended in a classroom where they watched an Arthur video on becoming a big brother and then learned to swaddle & hold a baby doll. It was an okay experience, but I’m not sure they got much out of it. The tour was the best part because they got an idea of where Mama & baby will be. The video followed the negative stereotypes of a new baby that I mentioned in the book section, so I wasn’t too fond of it. And when it came time to learn to swaddle & hold the baby dolls, the teacher stole my thunder by passing out CPR training infants to replace the girls’ new baby dolls (for the record, they were supposed to bring a doll to the class). I would recommend a child be at least 3 or 4 to really get much out of a big sibling class, but it was only $15 (for all 3), and our girls seemed to enjoy the field trip.

3. Last weekend, we had a trial run for what the girls will do while we’re at the hospital. Our very good friends will be keeping them for at least one night – maybe two. They have two little girls of their own and all 5 girls really enjoy being together. Plus my friend is a really fun mom who always thinks of crafts & fun ways to pass the time. On Saturday night, they made ice cream in the living room with one of those balls that you roll around while they watched Veggietales’ SweetPea Beauty. When they brought the girls to church Sunday morning, Violet didn’t even want to come to me – she wanted to stay with my friend! Needless to say, they are very much looking forward to a repeat of the sleepover at the “house of fun!”

4. Some smaller things that we have been doing include keeping a calendar on the wall of the big girls’ room where we can x out the days until baby arrives (or at least until the due date – they will really have a hard time if he is 2 weeks overdue like Violet was!). We started the calendar at the first of the year because the girls were very disappointed that the baby was not born “after Christmas.” You see, when we found out we were pregnant last summer, I told them that the baby would come “after Christmas” because it was a date with which they had some familiarity and it was a long time in the future. Well, when Christmas came and went and the baby still did not come, there were some pretty frustrated little girls. The calendar helped us get through the last 3 months. We have also been looking at the pictures from the hospital when they were each newborns and talking about how big they were, etc. Finally, they have really enjoyed sharing in the set up for baby brother like getting out his newborn clothes and making a space for him in Violet’s room. Hopefully, all of that work will be completed this week!

5. There were a few other things that I thought were good ideas, but I’m not sure we’ll implement them this time around. I’ve heard of the big sisters baking a birthday cake for the new baby which I thought was a fun idea, but it places the burden on the caregiver and I’m not sure when a good time would be to present the cake to the baby – at the hospital? when you get home? Another idea was for the girls to give a gift to their baby brother and to receive a gift “from” their baby brother. We did a modified version of the gift to their baby brother in that I let them each pick out a onesie at the Carters outlet for him. They were mildly interested in it, but picked this one, this one & this one – all super cute. We also got him a Little Brother shirt and 3 matching Big Sister shirts. As far as gifts “from” their baby brother, we didn’t characterize them as such, but the girls did each receive a new doll (this one for Olivia – which she named Grace, this one for Molly - which she named Tianna, and this one for Violet - which she named Sara). We took them to the toy store and let them each pick out their own doll. Happily, the toy store had better prices than Amazon! Olivia has had some second thoughts about choosing a big girl doll instead of a baby doll, but thankfully, Violet has shared her doll pretty well and enjoyed having access to the old favorites we already had. I also bought them a doll Ergo carrier which they will probably get in their Easter basket. I’m super excited about that one!

Obviously, this “preparing the big sisters for the new baby” project is something I have been really excited about and something that I hope will build a good foundation for a loving relationship between the baby brother and his big sisters. I’m not sure I would change a whole lot if there was a big brother in the group – it seems like a big brother would enjoy many of the same activities and books and would even enjoy having a doll or ‘buddy’ of his own. After all, a little boy will likely grow into a dad someday and there is nothing wrong with pretending to be a good daddy!

As far as my preparations go for the new baby, I spent the first 8.5 months thinking there wasn’t much preparation really needed for a newborn (after all, I’ve done this 3 times already). But the last couple weeks, I’ve been feeling a little stressed that I hadn’t done much preparation! Thankfully, we still have a few weeks to do the small things that are helpful like packing the hospital bag (especially helpful for natural, unmedicated births as we have done where the comfort items are so appreciated), washing & hanging the newborn clothes, gathering the disposable stuff like diapers, pacifiers, etc. and getting out the newborn equipment like the Moses basket, carseat, swing, bouncer, slings, diaper bag, etc. I think by the end of this week, we should be all set and I will actually be more prepared for this arrival than any of the others (I was pretty darn prepared for Olivia, but this time I have the experience to add to the material preparations)! Now if we could just decide on a name!!