Saturday, May 26, 2012

spring garden


We are a little late with our flower garden this year. The kids planted some perennial flower seeds and hopefully this will be a success like last year. It was so successful last year that the marigold grew to 3 feet. I'm not well versed with plants, but I don't think marigolds are supposed to grow that big.

I also planted a couple of my Mother's Day roses that surprisingly started growing! It would be great if they flourished and make that special day even more memorable.

Friday, May 25, 2012

face painting at home






J and K loved their face paint so much, they kept asking me to check if it was still on or whether it has disappeared. After a billion times, I told them to check with each other instead.

The girls also asked me to paint another one on Little M after his was completely rubbed off. And this is what happened when I showed it to him for the first time.



Sunday, May 20, 2012

ice cream break


It's the warmest day we've had since moving here in February. The high today was 85 so we took the kids for ice cream. We wanted to go on a hike but with lack of sleep and achy body parts, we decided not to.

the boys


Big M scored a goal yesterday and assisted in a couple. He's getting his game on!


In the meantime, Little M is as self-sufficiently stubborn as ever. Aren't the babies of the family supposed to be spoiled? This little one does everything by himself instead of asking. He was trying to put his new helmet on. He did this for a better half of an hour and yet he never did buckle it. I was just trying to mess with him by asking if I could do it for him. :)

Friday, May 18, 2012

drawing


This is an important picture because for the first time Little M is coloring/drawing on purpose. Before this day, he held the crayon very lightly and made faint lines. This was earlier this week when I printed Noah's Ark coloring pages for each of the kids so we could read the story. Since then, whenever the girls sat down to color, Little M is also there doodling away.

On a different, but related note. This little monkey has been waking up way too early. Every day he wakes up at 5:30. Since we're too sleepy to get up then, we just let him walk around our room, which then leads to us discovering a little 2-year old naked (no diapers) sometimes eating lotion. Last night, Daddy and I decided to put him to bed an hour and half later in hopes that he would wake up later. So this morning, he decided to wake up at 5am instead. Really?

Thursday, May 17, 2012

at the bus stop


Everyone waited at the bus stop this morning. K and J are not going to school because they have Kindergarten assessment today. I have no idea what NY kindergarten assessment is and why they do it, but I think the girls will do well.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Thank God for keeping us safe.

At around 11 today, I decided to try to fry wings which I have never done before. I even looked online on how to do it. On a small sauce pan with about 2 inches of oil, I started frying the first batch of wings....frozen. It wasn't a problem until I put in a 2nd batch and trouble started. It started bubbling and immediately ignited very high into the cabinets. I grabbed the pan out of stove but the fire continued. The fire was so big, I knew there was no way for me to put it out. But I still thought about it in the seconds the followed. I thought about wetting a rag and draping it over the fire, but just as instantly as the thought came, I knew not to use water on grease fire and electric fires.

In the instant that fire ignited, I must have yelled fire because my smart sweet daughter, K, opened the door and  went outside and behind her was J. While the fire alarm was yelling, "Fire, Fire, Fire!", I saw the flames get smaller and smaller until it was gone. I got my daughters back in, and then started running around opening windows. There happen to be gardeners right outside our window that were oblivious to the fire alarm until I opened the windows. They stared at me, so I yelled, "It's ok! I was cooking and fire ignited and now there's no fire but the alarm is going!"

When the alarm finally stopped, I checked my little 2-year old on the monitor still safely napping upstairs. I was ready to grab run up and grab him but thank goodness it didn't come to that.

I am so very proud of K leading the way to go outside. I didn't ask her to do it, but she did it. That on it's own probably lessened my panic a bit, since I only had to grab Little M if I had to. Thank goodness for the grease fire dying down on it's own. Thank God for keeping us safe.

With the adrenaline rush going down a little bit, I found myself shaking. I finally picked up my phone to call hubby (he took Big M to his soccer game). The problem was, my phone turned itself off and wouldn't turn back on. What an unreliable phone I had!! Not good, especially for not having a land line.

After reassuring me, hubby "scolded" me about frying something cold/wet. He reminded me that I had once told him not to ever do that, and then here I was doing the same thing. The problem was, I had let my guard down. After the first batch of wings without a problem, I didn't think that the oil was now much hotter.

Thank you, God! Thank you, God!

I have soot to clean out from the cabinets and the wall, but there isn't any damage. The fire was big, but it was so fast, and died fairly quickly.

I am so very proud of my daughters!!! We had only talked about what to do in case of fire probably two times, since we moved here 3 months ago, and yet that was enough.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Have you forgotten your children, North Carolina?

Amendment One passed in North Carolina the other day. It bans gay marriage, but this law is more than that. It  states:

Sec. 6. Marriage.
Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State. This section does not prohibit a private party from entering into contracts with another private party; nor does this section prohibit courts from adjudicating the rights of private parties pursuant to such contracts

It says the state will only recognize a legal union between a man and a woman. The state already has a ban on gay marriages in place, so this just serves to cement it. Most everyone who is against this amendment is against because of it's vague wording and it's implications. What happens when a battered woman files a charge against her boyfriend? Does she have the backing of the law? Maybe not, because theirs is not a "legal union".  What happens if they have children, and poor, and has no health insurance. Can the child apply for medicaid? The State will not recognize the parent's union if they are not married, so what then?

I have a lot of issue about this amendment, and one of the stronger ones is because I am a mother. North Carolina's Amendment One has essentially disowned gay people. What if your baby, your toddler, your young child, grandchildren turn out to be gay? You have disowned them. You have alienated them. You have told them that North Carolina doesn't want you there.

My children might do something very wrong, and unforgivable, or something that might offend God, but as a mother I will always love them. I can be mad and angry but I will always be their mother. I imagine God to be loving and ever forgiving and as a parent, I want to strive to be the same way. God wants us to love each other, not hate. 

As a Catholic, I believe in God's design for a man and a woman. A man and a woman is designed to bear children. Obviously gay people go against that, but I have no problem with that. It is between that particular man or woman and GOD. Not me. I am neither the judge, nor jury of God's laws. God loves everyone.

I don't know if my children will turn out gay or lesbian. If they did, I'm sure I will have some emotional difficulty about it but I will never throw my children out. I will never disown them. That is what North Carolina has done. I don't want that for my kids. 

I am a child out of wedlock, and certainly I don't think of myself as second class citizen and certainly would not want to be treated that way. God forgives infants' inherited sin through baptism. Why can't North Carolina? 

These are my opinions and feelings as a mother, a woman, and as a child born out of wedlock.


Thursday, May 3, 2012

a little me time = craft time

I've been busy with a few projects lately because I've been craving "me" time. I enjoy the time I make things for the kids. I've also started a few things I haven't done before.


My crafting frenzy was kick started by this PJ for Big M. He picked out this fabric last fall and he has patiently waited this long for me to make it. It is sewn from a Simplicity 9900 pattern.

I then moved on to this dress for J. This fabric along with the one below for K, was not intended for a dress. They were intended for a PJ for the same pattern as the above, but I discovered that I had only bought 1 yard, which was not enough. With this pattern, it took a little puzzle work to make the patterns fit, but it worked out.


And true to our color coding, K has a pink one. (Though it amazes me that after almost 5 years of this color coding, Daddy still asks who is pink and who is purple.)


This embroidery is a new project for me. I have the supplies from unfinished cross-stitching from many many years ago (before we had kids). With a little internet research, I was able to find a Jake and the Neverland Pirates coloring page and that is what I embroidered. I put an "M" on the boots for some personalization. :) Little M loves this character!


With many crafty friends online and Pinterest, I kept seeing appliqué work on shirts. Some of them are being sold for some big money, so with more research I found out how to make one on my own. So here is J with a mouse ears with a bow.


This is K's version. The crown is from the dress fabric of hers pictured above. This has also gotten the ball rolling on a family shirt for our trip to Disney World. FUN!