![Ramblings As The Kids' Naptime Winds Down]()
by Catherine | Jan 1, 2014 | Everything Else, Family
Talented writers and grammarians of the world, please forgive me for this post. I know I’m nearing the end of the children’s nap time, and I just had to get this post out. It won’t be pretty, and it probably won’t sound right, but it’ll get the job done.
I can’t write another word until I mention how stinkin’ proud I am of Amanda for sharing her story in our series on infertility. If you missed it, please check it out. I love you, Amanda! My blog was more popular than ever with your beautiful presence (averaging about 500 hits per day), so I think you should come back more often! Ha! Really, though, thank you for being such a treasure. Love you!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! I just adore celebrating the New Year. I love fresh starts of any kind. Ever since I started staying home with Jane, I even started liking Monday mornings.
As part of my fresh start for the year, I am buying my own brand spanking new domain name for the blog. Hallelujah is My Song has been a great home for a few years (have I already been blogging that long?!), but it’s time to move on to my own domain. I will probably launch within the next few weeks. Until then, I am busy transferring my content and trying to make it look pretty. Any of you enjoy doing that kind of thing? Wanna help a girl out? Let me know! You will be famous for designing the Catherine Boucher’s personal blog! 😉
Aside from launching the new and improved blog, I am busy creating a schedule for myself and the kiddos. I recently re-discovered Nanny 911 of Netflix. It’s funny watching shows at different points in your life. When I watched the show in college, I used to think, “Idiots. These parents have no idea what they’re doing! If I were this brat’s mom, I’d ________…” Then, we had kids. When I watched an episode last week, I thought things like, “Aw, that poor mom. I just want to give her a hug. Ooooooo, Nanny, great idea! I should TOTALLY be doing that!”
This is my long way of saying that Nanny suggests creating a master schedule for the home. This way, stay-at-home parents don’t look at a full day with little children and get overwhelmed with all of the time on their hands. While the kids and I have had a relatively structured home life, I look forward to having dedicated time to specific activities. I’m still working out a few kinks and deciding exactly which activities to add/scratch, but it’s been great! The kids and I are THRIVING with our new schedule! I’ll share the specifics in a future post.
I’m pseudo-homeschooling the kids throughout the day. That’s my way of saying we have more structure around these parts and some real deal learning happening. My favorite addition to our schedule is “Circle Time” in the morning. The kids and I sit on a blanket in the family room. We start with our Morning Offering, then we have calendar time (talk about the year, month, day of the week, review yesterday/today/tomorrow, etc.), virtue of the week (I’m really liking PATIENCE!), morning stretches to get our wiggles out, etc. We switch activities every 15-30 minutes. The kids love it, and so do I.
OK, the last thing. The really big thing. The thing that’s been taking over for about the last two months. I need your prayers. I’ve been battling Post-Partum Depression. Philip very lovingly helped me to realize it, and I’ve found help in a fabulous local Catholic medical apostolate. It’s still a day-to-day journey, but overall, I’m doing much better. The combination of my treatments (progesterone therapy), reaching out to family & friends, and our new schedule at home are all helping tremendously. I would adore any and all prayers you can offer up for us–especially for Philip, who has been my knight in shining armor by my side. I plan to write more about all of that, but I wanted to be sure and ask for your prayers right now. Please and thank you, prayer warriors.
St. Joseph, patron saint for our family in 2014, pray for us!
![December Happiness Project Resolutions]()
by Catherine | Dec 5, 2013 | Family
December 5th.
I am thinking about so many things today…I’m feeling so scatterbrained.
At this time last year, I had just seen this:
I took that test one month to the day after we lost Therese. What a roller coaster ride of emotions! Rather than revisit all of that, you can read what I wrote about the roller coaster last year.
Now, we have our perfectly healthy and happy Harold Fulton! He is such a blessing to our family.
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| I was making dinner last night and asked Jane to grab a toy for Harry to hold. What did she grab? A Barbie with a missing leg. |
I thought I’d quickly dive in to our December resolutions.
December Happiness Project Resolutions
- Say “no” so that you can say “yes”
- Celebrate Advent and the 12 Days of Christmas
We’re taking a month off from all the rest of the resolutions so that we can really do our first resolution this month: say “no” so that you can say “yes.” There’s a popular post going around by Lora Lynn Fanning called, “To The Mamas of Littles During the Holidays.” It’s about how us mamas with little ones need to choose to do less this season. Here’s my favorite part:
If baking cookies and watching your kids sling sprinkles all over the kitchen is going to make you yell today? Then no. Don’t do it. Always choose the relationship with your kids over the Advent activity that makes you scream. Always choose the Simple over the Pinnable.
Listen, the only person who expects you to accomplish All The Things on that list? Is you. You must extend to yourself the grace that others are already extending in your direction.
Her article is the inspiration for our first resolution. We are saying “no” whenever necessary this season so that we can say “yes” to resolution #2: celebrate Advent and the 12 Days of Christmas.
We are slowly building the anticipation of Christmas this year. Rather than get all of the decorations out the day after Thanksgiving, we are bringing them out little by little. The only signs of Advent around our house are the Advent wreath and a few little decorations throughout the home. There’s still no Christmas tree and no lights on the house. We are trying to emphasize to the kids (and ourselves!) that we will celebrate BIG TIME during the 12 Days of Christmas (the time spanning from Christmas to the Epiphany). Until then, it’s a time of prayer and preparation around these parts.
Since we’re doing our best to say “no,” the blog will likely continue to be quieter than usual.
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| “Adoration of the Shepherds” by Gerard van Honthorst, 1622 |
Quiet is good.
![What a whirlwind of a week!]()
by Catherine | Nov 22, 2013 | Family
I’m feeling uninspired this Friday afternoon, so I thought I’d share picture highlights of the week.
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| Raking leaves with Dad. This picture epitomizes how the world must feel to a 2-year-old. He’s working soooooo hard with that little rake, and he feels like he’s not making a dent. |
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| Jane in Philip’s glasses. I think it’s a good look. |
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| Just hangin’ on the floor with the comforter and pillows while Mom and Dad make the bed. |
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| Ahoy! |
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| Fun with pons |
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| Happy Harry |
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| Sorting poms and doodling while Mom makes dinner (Well…sorting is kind of a loose term…) |
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| Janie, singing lullabies, and Harry, flirting right back. Oh, that smile! |
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| Harry’s saying, “Come a little closer. Let me grab your nose!” |
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“Jingle Bells!” These cluster bells came in the mail the other day. We’re going to have every member of the family ring them when we get to the words, “REJ
OICE! REJOICE!” in “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” while we’re around the Advent Wreath. I have a feeling the bells will be jingling more than that, but that’s okay! |
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| Rapunzel in her Minnie Mouse sunglasses and post-nap hair in all its glory |
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| Very exclusive Brother-Sister tea party in the princess tent. “Do you want to meet Mr. Teapot? Oh, I guess he’s in the potty. He’ll be right back!” |
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| More Doc McStuffins matching (see above for the link) |
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| Philip let me sleep in this morning while he got ready and kept the kids entertained. When I woke up, I found this note on the kitchen counter. He had “interviewed” the kids with the question, “What do you love about Mommy?” and recorded their responses. What a guy! |
We’re looking forward to a weekend of family time since Philip has an entire weekend off! Hip hip hooray! Kindly forgive me if I ignore any form of communication from the outside world until Monday.
![Happiness Project: November Resolutions Progress Report]()
by Catherine | Nov 15, 2013 | Faith, Family, Marriage
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read about Our Happiness Project.
Here’s Our November Happiness Project Resolutions Progress Report:
October Resolutions Update
- Exercise
- We both completely fell off the bandwagon with this resolution. I’ve been battling a sore throat for a few weeks, and Philip’s work schedule has been crazy. We’re hoping to find a solution and get into a habit before the Christmas season is upon us.
- Sleep
- We are in bed and almost always have the lights out by 10:30
- Faith
- The nightly family decade of the Rosary & nighttime prayers around the dinner table is a well-established part of our routine
November Resolutions Update
- Couple prayer time right when we go to bed
- We are reading Day by Day With the Catechism by Peter A. Giersch. It’s a great little book with a daily excerpt from the Catechism followed by a reflection. This book has been a great way for us to get our feet wet with couple prayer time. After Philip reads the daily excerpt and reflection, he leads us in impromptu prayer followed by a Hail Mary or Our Father. I follow with some impromptu prayer of my own and close with a Hail Mary or Our Father (whichever one we didn’t pray after Philip’s prayer). Having this dedicated prayer time together before bed is helping us to grow in intimacy and learn more about what is on each other’s hearts.
2. “You can do anything for 15 minutes.” Work for 15 minutes daily on these 4 things
- 1 Shutterfly album
- I’ve had a few technological difficulties in getting our 2012 photos back on to the computer, and I’ve spent most of my time so far just figuring out how to work the program. I’m slowly making my way through our 2012 pictures. I probably won’t have the album ready to order by 11/30.
- Add & edit recipes to Paprika (recipe organizing app)
- I have all of my miscellaneous computer files on Paprika, and I’m halfway through my random Excel doc of recipes.
- Return/Draft E-mails
- I’m learning to stop letting “the perfect be the enemy of the good.” My mentality used to be that I wouldn’t bother writing an e-mail if it couldn’t be a real update. Now, I’m slooooooooowly learning that a quick check-in e-mail is better than nothing. I love having little correspondence with faraway friends and my mother-in-law throughout the week. Seeing their sweet notes in my inbox are such a pick-me-up.
- Decide one & prepare activity to do with the kids for the next day
- We have quite the arsenal of activities, and we’ve been having a great time!
3. Do at least 1 of the following activities daily with the kids, and do each at least once a week:
- Craft
- baking
- library
- outing
- play date
- enrichment/homeschool-esque activity
- write letters
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| Zacchaeus craft (trace hand and arm on brown paper, glue to blue paper, make leaves with thumbprints, and glue Zacchaeus in the tree). Walt abandoned this one to play with trains. |
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| “M” is for Mouse. Walt also abandoned this one! |
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| Coloring |
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| “1, 2, buckle my shoe…” (I put the printables into a file here) |
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| Playing dress-up on a play date. Walt didn’t want his photo taken while he was playing with (surprise!) trains. |
We’ve only gone to the library once this month. We delayed that trip since we had such great books still out on loan. Now, we have 17 great books (most of them about numbers since that’s what we’re working on) that we read over and over and over again! We have done plenty of crafts and homeschool-esque activities as well as outings and play dates, but we still need to write letters and do some baking. Perhaps some cupcakes are in our future this afternoon.
4. Family thankfulness
- It wasn’t working to record what we were thankful for at dinner since that was such a chaotic time. Instead, we’ve been recording what we’re thankful for on looseleaf before our family prayer time, and I store the paper in our Family Prayer Binder. We’ve missed a few nights, but having it right before family prayer time helps us to remember.
5. Budget
- Hasn’t happened yet and needs to before we start holiday shopping!
6. Will
7. Philip’s Resolutions (I’ll rewrite them here, but I won’t evaluate them for him. If I had to guess, I think he’d say that it’s been a wild month at work and that he hasn’t done as well as he’d like, but he’s made a great effort!)
- Eat four salads a week for lunch
- Do 10 pediatrics boards questions a day
- Put away all electronics from dinnertime to kids’ bedtime (for both of us)
- Read 1-2-3 Discipline book
Sum It Up
We’ve completely tanked on a few resolutions this month (exercise, budget, will, letter writing), but we’ve done pretty well on most (“you can do anything for 15 minutes,” variety of activities with the kids), and even nearly mastered some (family prayer time, sleep by 10:30, couple prayer time, and family thankfulness).
We are still enjoying our Happiness Project. I think it is bringing more positive structure and purpose to our days since we are trying to reach all of our resolutions. Even though it’s been a rotten month in terms of Philip’s wild work schedule, the month is flying by and has been relatively peaceful. I attribute that to our improved prayer life and our well-structured days. Everyone is more well-rested, we are spending more quality time together without electronics, and I am choosing family time over housework.
I am so grateful for my devoted husband who is working doggedly at my side to make these changes for the good! Here’s to a successful end of the month to our Happiness Project!
![Impromptu Fall Photo Shoot]()
by Catherine | Nov 13, 2013 | Family
Our photographer for our family portraits had to cancel due to weather, and we are rescheduled for this Sunday. It’s not looking too good weather-wise, so we decided to do an impromptu photo shoot a few nights ago. Harold was taking a snooze in his swing, so we snapped a few shots of Jane and Walt (aka “the big kids”) in the backyard.
I had to include this adorable shot I snapped on the couch the other day while Jane was at preschool. How adorable is this love between the brothers???
![I'm Gonna Miss This]()
by Catherine | Nov 11, 2013 | Faith, Family
While doing the dinner dishes last night, I realized I had a choice: I could empty the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and load the dinner dishes, OR I could join Philip and the kids in the family room for some play time before bed. Before our Happiness Project, I probably would have opted for doing the dishes so that I could have a clean kitchen before bed. Last night, the new and improved me chose to leave the rinsed dishes in the sink and the clean dishes waiting to be unloaded until morning so that we could hang out as a family.
I brought the camera over and started capturing the moment. I said to Philip, “I’m gonna miss this.”
“What?” he asked.
“This. Before we know it, we’ll have kids in evening activities, kids staying up until 9 working on homework, and we won’t have this time anymore. We won’t get to just hang out as a family after dinner, and we won’t have our hour of couple time before bed every night.”
So, the dishes waited. And, you know what? It’s mid-afternoon the next day, and the dishes are still waiting. It turned out the kids wanted to learn about numbers today.
There was great music, lots of dancing, sunglasses, headbands, a tutu, and some trains.
Harry slept through most of it, but he woke up happy and giggling to the show in front of him. (Those sweet little baby giggles are the best!)
In the midst of the dance party, I noticed that dust was collecting on the entertainment center, the sliding glass door was covered in our pup’s nose prints, and the walls could use a good scrubbing. I know this sounds silly, but I was so proud of myself for allowing these things to accumulate. It meant I was learning to let a few things go in exchange for more quality time as a family. Things are still fairly tidy, but more often than not, I’m picking family over housework. The balance is increasing everyone’s happiness. If I’m gonna miss this, I better keep choosing this.
To transition to sleepy time, Philip read Jane and Walt a few of their current favorites from the library.
Then, it was off to the dinner table for sharing what we are thankful for, our family decade of the rosary, and prayer time. My favorite part of this time is hearing what the kids have to say as we gather around the table. They don’t know it, but the things that they say make Philip and I have to cover our faces in laughter or raise our eyebrows in surprise. The emotional pendulum swings from sentimental and sweet to absolutely hilarious every single night.
One of our November Happiness Project Resolutions is to share what we are thankful for each day. I record these items on looseleaf and store them in our family prayer binder. When Philip asked Jane what she was thankful for last night, Jane said, “Being loved by God.” Hearing my little one say something like that in her sweetest, most sincere little voice instantly brought tears to my eyes.
Right on cue, the emotional pendulum swung from sentimental and sweet to hilarious. After everyone shared what they were thankful for, Philip announced that we were praying the 4th Sorrowful Mystery – The Carrying of the Cross, and he displayed our laminated image of the mystery. Jane looked at the picture of Jesus carrying the Cross, and she said, “Aw, poor Jesus. That looks like it is too hard. I think he needs more practice! Where is his friend, Simon?”
I’m gonna miss this.
The days are long, but the years are short.
If I’m gonna miss this, I need to keep choosing this.
I’m gonna miss this if I don’t keep choosing this.
