Check it out....

My dear sweet talented mom surprised me today with a cool gift....

 

She made me this awesome spring bag/purse!

 

 

Who needs "Coach" or "Louis*V." when you've got a fabulous "Loretta S" from the new Spring line?

 

Thanks Mom!

 

Public Service Announcement

In case you've forgotten, I thought I'd let you know that you have exactly 122 hours and 31 minutes to get your taxes filed. (From right now.... as I type this post.)

 

I have not forgotten.

 

Of course our taxes won't be done until about October, as always. An extension will be filed.  But I don't care about all that.

 

I just want my husband back!!!!!

 

I have tried really hard to have a positive attitude this year.... to be a very happy, supportive tax widow... to have a minimum number of meltdowns and tantrums.... to take care of the people and animals and things around here.

 

Sigh.

 

I'm officially over it.

 

Adam won't sleep at night.

The "we need Daddy to help us with this" list has grown long.

I've had to scoop the kitty litter and take out the trash and carry the laundry down....

and do the zillion other chores Jon usually does without me even thinking about them.

And I just miss having him be part of our day-to-day lives.

 

I love that man!

And I hate when he drags himself home so late with his eyes so red.

He flops down on the bed and falls asleep in 22 seconds.

When I wake up he's gone already.

 

It's really so much easier for me now than it was when the boys were little.

I'm never rarely standing at the door counting the minutes until he returns.

But I think the hardest thing is just not being able to do much to help him.

I cook him meals, clean his clothes.... bring meals to the office for everybody.

But I wish I could take some of the stress off him.

I worry about his health.

 

I've learned not to play the "Why don't you guys hire more people?" game and the "If it were up to me I'd....." game.

 

Mostly I pray.

For him.

For his co-workers.

For his clients.

For people who really want to work this hard yet can't find a job.

For people who are physically unable to work and support their families.

 

I thank God over and over again for our blessings.

For this work he loves so much.

For the wonderful people he works with.

For the fact that his job supports us so well and allows me to be home with the boys.

For APRIL 15th!

For the fact that during most of the year he leaves the house at 8:20 and comes home for lunch and home for the day by 5:20.

 

So, that's the end of my crazy "it's the end of tax season and I've had enough" post. Next week I'm going to enjoy spending evenings with my hubby. Then I'm making a hair appointment and a nail appointment. Then I'm ready for some girls nights out!!!! Free at last! ;)

 

But seriously.... please pray for Jon and all the tax people who are working so hard this week. And for their wives and children. Thanks!

 

 

The boys enjoying dinner with daddy at the office a few nights ago.

A Great Day to Slay a Dragon!!!

Today we finally had a really pretty and warm Spring day here in Central Ohio. It was a perfect day for dragon slaying.... and a huge and fearsome dragon just happened to show up in our backyard!

 

 

How ironic that we were hosting a book club meeting today focusing on the book Saint George and the Dragon!

 

The boys all loved this book! It is a Caldecott Medal winner with gorgeous illustrations. But it was the blood and guts and bravery and action that impressed the boys. And they all totally understood that this story is really about the triumph of good over evil.

 

We played a few fun games at today's meeting. One was a reading comprehension game. I went around the room asking questions about the story. For each correct answer they gave, the boys received a "dragon egg' (aka jelly bean).

 

For homework this time the boys had to come up with a challenging vocabulary word (and write the definition, illustrate, use it in a sentence, etc). We played a game with those words. I posted each word with the correct definition and two fake definitions. They earned dragon eggs by guessing the correct meaning of each word. Here's "A" with his award-winning word ---

 

 

Do you know the meaning? Here are the choices I gave:

1. The name of a town in France AND a board game.

2. A bone located in your neck AND a six-wheeled vehicle.

3. A dead, decaying body AND a container for storing leftovers.

 

Answer: A (I had to look that one up!)

 

The other words were: jovial, bewildered, oviparous, and regurgitate.

 

We also read a packet about how to become a knight, including the Code of Chivalry that knights must follow. The boys had a few objections to some of its points.... especially the honoring and protecting of girls and women. We had quite a lengthy discussion about that one. ;)

 

We learned about the real Saint George, whose feast day is on April 23rd.

 

 And then.... it was time to slay the dragon!

 I made them take turns galloping on our "horse" and striking the beast with their swords.

 

 

Once they severed the body from the head, they all attacked at once ----
 

It was a gruesome battle! Check out the girls just watching in the background as the boys pillaged the dragon.

 

It was fun to see them so excited.... but wow did this quest bring out the caveman in all of them. They were off the wall for the rest of the day! It was worth it though!

 

After the battle, we were treated to a delicious pizza lunch made by the girls book club. And for dessert.......

 

 

WOW! "C" and his family made this awesome dragon cake!

 

We are just loving the reading and learning adventures of our book club!

 

I'll wrap up with this adorable shot of the girls from the last meeting.....

 

They read The Paper Bag Princess (Robert Munsch) and made paper bag princess puppets. So cute! Some of the girls were sick today.... and we missed them! We can't wait until our next book club gathering!

Asia Unit

I'm a bit behind on some blog posts.... life's just too busy, especially with Jon working all the time. Anyway, I'll start with a school update. We have just finished up a unit on Asia. Our reading and learning focused mainly on China, Japan, and India.

Our last book club meeting (two weeks ago) went along with this Asian theme. We read Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert. The story is told with tangrams. We used tangrams to make pictures along with the story.

 Unfortunately I don't have many pictures from the activities we did at home. We read many books, including the Magic*Tree*House titles set in Asia. Some favorite Asian storybooks were: The Beckoning Cat  by Koko Nishizuka, The Runaway Wok and The Runaway Rice Cake  (both by Ying Chang Compestine), and The Story of Little Babaji by Helen Bannerman.

We also did some map work, watched travel videos on Youtube, learned about some famous landmarks (like the Great Wall, Taj Mahal, and Mount Fugi), and enjoyed eating with chopsticks. We really want to go to a Japanese restraurant and experience their traditions and food (after tax season). We've made several trips to our favorite neighborhood Chinese take-out. ;) None of us are brave enough to try Indian food.... but I did serve some naan with dinner one night.

I had great hopes of getting the boys to trace some Chinese characters... but this never happened.

We did make some simple Chinese lanterns and paint these cherry blossom trees ---

 

 

 If only we had a magic school bus.... we would love to visit Asia!

Mari's Holiday Escapades

We don't know the exact birthday of our cats, but it's sometime in the next few weeks. We got them last year in late May and they were 5-6 weeks old. So, happy birthday kitties! We love having you as part of our family.... most of the time.

 

You may remember Mari's Foam-Eating Incident that took place on Christmas day. Well, this kittie has a real knack for ruining holiday celebrations. Here's the Easter saga ----

 

Exhibit One ----

 

 

Ahhh.... Cute little kitties innocently napping in their beds on Easter afternoon.

 

 

Exhibit Two ---

How pretty! A lovely Easter lily brought home by Jon last week as a gift to me.

Can you guess what happened next?

Well, in case you didn't know.... Easter lilies are EXTREMELY toxic to cats.
We didn't know.
Until Jon brought it home and I wondered if they were like poinsettias (not good for cats to eat) and I googled it and realized they are EXTREMELY toxic to cats.
But I LOVE Easter lilies.... especially their smell.

What did we do?

The WRONG thing.

We locked it in Jon's little bathroom for a few days.
Then I put it on the tall dresser in our bedroom.
No cats messed with it.
YAY!

So.... as I prepared to host our family Easter gathering, I brought it downstairs.
It's a pretty decoration and smells so good.
The cats aren't interested in it.

WRONG.

After dinner, Jon snuck into the living room hoping to stretch out on the couch for a nap.

But alas, there was Mari nibbling on the leaves of the lily.

So..... we called our vet and were told to take her immediately to the emergency animal hospital.
That's right. We left a house full of people to take our dumb everything-eating cat to a hospital.

(An interesting side note to this tale is that on Holy Saturday I had been cleaning and cooking and listening to Catholic radio. I heard that Saint Francis is really asking us to consider all of the money that is wasted on cosmetics and pets. I just kept thinking.... here we go spending ridiculous amounts of money to save a cat that seems hell-bent on poisoning herself. But then I figured the Pope is named Francis after all... the patron saint of animal lovers.... and he can't be referring to life-saving procedures. We are pro-life after all. I think we just won't invest in a carpet-covered gymnasium or bubbling water cooler for our little felines.)

So there we sat at the vet clinic while the doctor gave Mari a medicine to make her throw up the ingested leaves.... and then some kind of reversal medication to prevent life-threatening side effects. I'll spare you both the picture I took of the regurgitated leaves and the itemized bill listing the cost of the medicine and it's antidote. You're welcome.

Poor Jon kept falling asleep as we anxiously frustratedly waited for news about Mari's status and prognosis. Apparently cats really die from this.

Eventually we were told that they would need to keep her for a few days to monitor her and pump her full of IV fluids to keep the toxicity from attacking her kidneys.

We returned to our Easter party, having missed the egg hunt and card games. Our boys never even realized we were gone!

The next day I was watching my niece and nephew who were on spring break. The vet clinic called and had us come and get Mari and transfer her to her regular vet clinic. That was not a fun trip around the city with four kids! And all of the people at our vet got a chuckle out of Mari the holiday terrorist. They chuckled until they realized what a pistol she would be for them. Let's just say she did not like being at the hospital or the vet. There was a big sticker on her chart that said, "I bite." She refused to eat. They had to put a cone collar around her neck because she kept pulling out the IV.

Here's Ava helping me transport the "prisoner" to the vet.

Finally, a few days later, we brought the little scoundrel home. She immediately devoured her food and has returned to her "normal" self. Gloria kissed her and then hissed at her. I can relate to how she must feel.... so happy to have her back, but still mad at her lunacy!

We'll be paying the bill for quite a while. And now our home is completely foam free AND lily free. I'm afraid to ask "What next?" Jon says we're locking her in the basement on the Fourth of July.

Alleluia! He is Risen!

 

 

 

Some glimpses at our Easter celebrations ---

 

 

Coloring eggs with Carter and Mamaw

 

 

Easter morning!
Jon and I were awakened at exactly 7:00am
by choruses of "Alleluia!"

The Easter Bunny was here!
Both boys received cool wallets in their baskets.

Sharpies!

A Chocolate Bunny!

A very tired CPA...
happy to get a day off!

Nothing can happen around here without Mari's supervision.
Stay tuned for an unbelievable post about her Easter escapades.



MaMaw with the boys before Mass.

Our family before Mass



My Pinterest-inspired decoration!



My Pinterest-inspired dessert!
(Rice Kris-Peep Treats!)
We actually hosted my family for Easter dinner and egg hunt,
but I have no pictures... because of Mari's aforementioned "escapade."

Symmetrical Eggs
(A school project)

Our beautiful centerpiece
from a beautiful friend!

 

An Easter Week Egg Hunt with our Homeschool Friends!

 Remember, Easter is an entire season for rejoicing! 50 Days! We're an "Alleluia" people and we're just getting started!