AHG Awards Ceremony

Earlier in June, the girls' American Heritage Girls troop had their end of the year Awards Ceremony.

Our troop is only 1 year old now, but everyone did a really nice job putting on a lovely ceremony.

Felicity and her unit, the Pathfinders, each held a lit candle. Afterwards, Felicity lit up with so much excitement telling me, "Mommy, I held FIRE!"

No worries. They had help.

Then they recited the AHG Oath. 

I promise to love God, 

Cherish my family, 

Honor my country, 

and Serve in my community.

Then, each girl came forward individually while the list of awards and badges they received was read. 

 Felicity received the Joining Award as an official new member of the troop. She also earned the Puppetry, Home Care & Repair, Cycling, Gardening & Plant Science and Our Flag badges as well as the Eliza Shirley Award, which is the Pathfinder level award. She also got a special Rain Forest badge and two badges for her service picking up trash and selling candy bars. 

Then Felicity crossed the bridge up to become a Tenderheart. She received her own handbook and official Tenderheart uniform. 

Since Cecilia was already a member of the troop and was not advancing to a new level (Tenderhearts include 1st graders, which is what Felicity now is, through 3rd graders, which Cecilia now is) she didn't need to recite the oath or cross the bridge. But she did have her accomplishments read and received her badges. She received the Gardening & Plant Science, Cycling, Outdoor Skills, Cake Decorating, Campfire Starter & Safety, Home Care & Repair and 7 Cs of History badges as well as a badge for selling candy bars and a Rain Forest badge. 

As religious awards, both girls earned the Pray the Rosary, Joyful Mysteries, Sorrowful Mysteries, Luminous Mysteries, and Glorious Mysteries patches. (Praying a family rosary made those pretty easy :) )

Needless to say, we've very proud of our AHG girls and I have 34 badges to sew. So I better get busy. 

And if you have a daughter and haven't checked out American Heritage Girls, I highly recommend it. It is a wonderful program and I'm so thankful for our troop!

Seven Quick Takes

1. 

I did my first work out with Jillian Michaels in her 30 Day Shred. 

I think I stopped more than I actually exercised but I am definitely feeling it today. I am even more out of shape than I thought but the jumping jacks are the worst for a nursing mom. 
The three oldest joined me. Well, Cecilia and Elizabeth quit during the warm up. Felicity kept up through almost the whole thing though - she loved it! She was doing jumping jacks in circles and showing how much faster she could go than Jillian. LOL. I found my work-out buddy!

2. 

We got our new TV stand this week! Behold the old one, with its broken drawers that liked to fall onto people's feet:

Behold the new one:

Beautiful isn't it? I love it! It was custom made for us by Viking Log Furniture and is guaranteed for life. (Ask for Scott ;) ) We used the design they already made but asked for it to be wider so we could place the cable box, blu-ray and DVD players all on the shelf as well as taller so toddlers could not cause as much trouble with the electronics. I absolutely love it!

Incidentally, Viking also made the girls' bunk beds and dresser, our dining room chairs and our living room end tables. Their products aren't sold anywhere near us, so we buy directly from them and they ship it to us. Awesome!

3. 

We were expecting it in April or May, but this week they broke ground in the lot behind our house.  

They will be building a new house there. The bulldozer operator looks like he is about 70 years old and was out working during the first wave of storms yesterday as hail pelted down. Gotta hand it to the guy but I'm glad I didn't have to call 911 for him. 

It should be a lot of fun for the girls to watch the house go up. I'm nervous about the noise but I'm hoping they've dug up enough dirt no emptying dump trucks will be necessary as the flaps on the back of those trucks sound like gunshots when they are dumping out dirt and I have a sleeping baby. 

The odds are against it, but I'm so praying for a nice Catholic family with little kids to move in!

4. 

I have two favorite breakfasts I am alternating each day. One is a bacon, egg and colby cheese english muffin.  The second, pictured above, is of crisped potatoes, colby cheese, scrambled eggs and leftover Chipotle salsa. Neither one takes long, both are high in protein so I get a nice energy boost and one is meatless, so I always have Friday taken care of. 

5. 

Cecilia found a notebook and wrote this. She handed it to me and said, "Look, Mom, I wrote a blog!"

So, if Cecilia had a blog, her first entry would be all about Hello Kitty. :)

6. 

Teresa has become fascinated by our rosaries. Sometimes she even puts one on each arm and the rest around her neck. She can actually look like a 2 year old gang member.

7.

It has been a week of sleep issues and adjustments.

Brigid has begun rolling. Everywhere. She gets around. Tummy to back. Back to tummy. Doesn't matter. She's all over it. But milestones also mean sleep disruptions. For a few days this week her naps have stunk and her nights have had new disruptions like, "Who cares if it's 3am, Mom, I'm on my tummy now!" Fortunately yesterday her naps seemed to be more normal and her night last night was better. 

Teresa, however, has been another story. James has been needing to lay down with her to get her asleep. If she has napped, it takes him over an hour. And then she comes to our bed multiple times each night before she declares herself up for good around 5:15 or 5:30am. Again in our bed. 

So, last night, we began changing things up. We repeatedly put her in her bed, tucking her in, and telling her to lay down and stay and then left the room. After an hour and a half of this, she did finally fall asleep. I was in the room, but standing by the door. She then slept in her own bed all night until 6am. We aren't there yet, but definitely an improvement! I realize the 5 month old will need to wake during the night. The 2 1/4 year old, however, is old enough to not be killing our sleep.

8.

In a desperate attempt to get both her best friend and her godparents at her birthday party, we are having her birthday party early. So we'll be spending our Saturday with balloons, family, chocolate cake, friends and Brave-themed goody bags. Happy Weekend and Happy Father's Day!

More Quick Takes at Jen's Conversion Diary!

Feeling Like Me

Sometime around mid-May, I began to feel awful. Exhausted. Unable to concentrate. Fuzzy-headed. I would get up tired even after nights when I had slept all night without disruption. I couldn't blame it on Brigid. I couldn't blame it on Teresa. I couldn't blame it on weather or illness or temperature or my bed. And yet I couldn't function. I knew there were things I was supposed to do, wanted to do. But I couldn't remember. I would sit and try to think, try to remember, but I had no idea what I was supposed to do or be doing. I was always tired, always hungry and gaining weight.

Add five kids and it was terribly miserable. I didn't know what I was doing when or what I was supposed to do why.  And I could only thing of one cause. My thyroid. I was first diagnosed hypothyroid in August of 1999. I had a physical in preparation for a semester studying abroad and my doctor noticed my thyroid seemed enlarged. Blood tests and a sonogram later, I was confirmed hypothyroid. Basically, my immune system attacks my thyroid gland and then the gland doesn't make enough of the correct hormones resulting in a low metabolism and a host of other annoying symptoms.

The first few years after I was diagnosed, I was on Synthroid, but nothing would stabilize my levels. It just didn't work for me but I had doctors actually accuse me of lying when I insisted I had not missed a dose and took it the same way and time every morning. This was before I was married or had kids. It was easy to be consistent back then. And the looks of disbelief were insulting. Finally, one doctor switched my medication to Levoxyl and it worked for me. It worked really, really well. I'd been on it for about 10 years since and, while my levels would fluctuate when pregnant, we'd figured out exactly what dose I needed while pregnant and exactly what dose I needed when I wasn't.

Then, in early-mid May, I tried to refill my prescription and was told all Levoxyl had been recalled. There was NOTHING wrong with the pills. Rather, the oxygen-absorbing canisters that were used in the 100 and 1000 pill bottles were producing a strange, but probably harmless odor. I'm all for caution, but why some other oxygen-absorbing device couldn't be used is beyond me. Instead, Levoxyl will be out of commission until sometime in 2014. Unfortunately, thyroid medications are not easily substitutable. So, avoiding Synthroid, my doc prescribed another brand of levothyroxine called Tirosint.

It seemed no coincidence that it was 10 days after I switched to Tirosint, after about a decade on Levoxyl, that I began to feel terrible and, simply, not even like myself. So I went to my doctor's office and had my blood tested. The normal level for TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) is between .4 and 4.0 mIU/L (milli-international units per liter). Mine came in at 6.31. Rather than change my dosage, a doctor recommended simply taking an extra pill once a week. Thyroid medicine has such a long half life, of a couple of weeks or so, that taking even just one extra pill a week can level things out. It is also why they would refuse to retest my levels for 4-6 weeks. 

So, while I began feeling crappy around May 15th and began taking my extra dose on May 31st, it took until around June 10th before I began feeling like myself again. This week I have finally had some energy with which to take care of 5 kids and I actually remember things I want or need to get done. 

Previously I had thought of being hypothyroid as more of an inconvenience. I take a pill each day. It isn't a big deal. If I miss a pill, I just pick up the next day. The half life is so long, missing one generally isn't a big deal. And even if I stopped completely, there would be no emergency run to a hospital or crisis. I know people with diabetes, fibromyalgia, bone marrow cancer, blood clotting disorders and a host of other conditions that have such greater consequences and are harder to balance with life that I never thought of mine as that big a deal. But, while it still doesn't compare with medical complications like those, for the first time I really do see it as a medical condition that does have real consequences and side effects and hence does limit and, in a small way, define me. 

It is so nice and I am so grateful to feel like me again!

My Little Author

There are actually some blessings to simply telling your kids to leave you alone and go play by yourselves. Aside from the obvious "break" for mom, your kids just might surprise you how they spend that time. 

Cecilia decided that her stuffed bunny, one we made for her when I was 9 months pregnant with her at Build-a-Bear, inspired her into making up stories about him. So much so, she decided, all on her own, to write a book about him and draw her own illustrations.

 

The only word I ever helped her spell was "written".

"Binny the Bunny smeled Bunny Soup. Binny the Bunny had a sip. Binny the Bunny loves the soup. Binny the Bunny wanted anther sip. Binny the Bunny fel into the soup! Oh No! When Binny the Bunn was don."

"he was dripping soup. It mad a puddl. When his body was dry he was happy. The end."

The real Binny in the soup bowl. 

Her book was met with such accolades from her sisters, parents and grandparents, that she wrote three sequels.

"Binny the Bunny and his 2 book! The ball. Written by Cecilia."

"Binny the Bunny saw a ball. It had a big green spot. It was bouncy. Binny the Bunny kicked the ball. He saw Felicity and the ball. They played ball."

"Felicity and Binny got tired. Felicity went to bed. Binny went to bed. The end."

I admit they may not quite rival the latest John Grisham or Dean Koontz, but, for a 7 year old, I'm quite proud. 

"Binny the Bunny and Felicity and Cecilia. Witten by Cecilia and Felicity." Apparently this one was co-authored.  

"Binny and Cecilia and Felicity were walking. They were walking to the playgrond. This is great. When they were don they went to the pool. Then the got tried they went to bed."

"don't look at thiees! Warning do not look" Apparently she needs a better publisher. 

"Binny the Bunny and the car. his 4 book! witten by cecilia" For the record, I only told her how to spell "written" for the first book. I may stink at spelling, but I know that one. 

"Binny was walking. He saw sumthing. He saw a thing that was driving. He ran afrr it. He hopped on top of the car. he drove home. the end."

This morning, Cecilia decided Binny needed a make over. 

She isn't sure yet if Binny is a boy bunny or a girl bunny, but her target audience can't wait to see what Binny is up to next! 

Lawn Chair Catechism: Session 1

CatholicMom.com is hosting a catechetical series inviting bloggers to join in. It is following a book I haven't read, but I thought it might be good to try to participate as I'm able.

Summary:
What does it mean to form “intentional” disciples?  In the introduction to Forming Intentional Disciples, Sherry Weddell writes about a startling conversation she had with the leader of a local Catholic women’s group.  The conversation was part of a series of interviews to help lay leaders learn how to use their gifts in the parish:
Her stories were so vague that I wasn’t hearing any evidence of how God might be using her.  . . . So I asked her a question that I had never asked before: Could you briefly describe to me your lived relationship with God to this point in your life?After thinking carefully for a few moments, she responded briskly, “I don’t have a relationship with God.”  Her answer stunned me.  My first thoughts were, “That’s not possible.  You’re a leader in your parish.  You wouldn’t do that without some kind of relationship with God . . ..”
. . . By the end of the interview, I realized she had accurately described her spiritual reality.
Sherry goes on to explain that she began asking the question routinely.  And here’s what she discovered:
We learned that the majority of even “active” American Catholics are still at an early, essentially passive stage of spiritual development.  . . . We discovered, to our surprise and dismay, that many pastoral leaders do not even possess a conceptual category for discipleship.  As long as this holds true, the theology of the laity and the Church’s teaching on social justice and evangelization will remain beautiful ideals that are, practically speaking, dead letters for the vast majority of Catholics.
For discussion:
In your own faith:

• How would you describe your lived relationship with God to this point in your life?

• What does the word “discipleship” mean to you?  Do you perceive a need in the Church today to help lay Catholics become more fervent followers of Jesus Christ?

In your parish:

• How would you describe your parish’s current efforts at discipleship?  A hotbed of discipleship?  A weekly gathering of spiritual sleep-walkers?  Or perhaps something in between?

How would you describe your lived relationship with God to this point in your life?
As a child I guess my relationship with God was very simple. I don't remember a lot, but I do remember making up simple prayers and learning the basics of the faith in school. My relationship with God didn't deepen until just before my 13th birthday when a profound gratitude awakened in me a deeper calling to understand who God was and just what that meant for me.
My relationship with God after that ebbed and flowed, usually based on how much I put into our relationship. He was always there, always listening, always waiting, always speaking but I wasn't always there, listening, waiting or speaking. But while He is always the same, I am not and our relationship has evolved over time, especially and particularly when I got married and became a mother. Embracing my vocation placed new and heavy responsibility on me and oriented me toward Him from a different direction. Slow as I am, it took me some time to adjust to my new relationship with Him but it has been completely worth it.
My current relationship is wonderful and amazing but challenging. In many ways I believe we are closer than ever before but the demands of 5 children 7 and under put challenges on me I don't always meet in a praiseworthy manner. I used to love to pray the Divine Office and would like to get back to it but in the mean time I love the quiet moments of personal prayer I am afforded when I can sneak them in.

What does the word “discipleship” mean to you?  Do you perceive a need in the Church today to help lay Catholics become more fervent followers of Jesus Christ?
The word discipleship, for me, means to follow closely. A disciple is a student, always learning, always following his or her master/teacher. So discipleship means listening carefully, imitating precisely, and following closely the teaching and example of Jesus Christ. Now, I don't believe everyone is called to do this in the exact same way. A mother, a firefighter, a priest, a missionary, a teaching religious, a doctor, etc. are each going to be disciples in different ways depending on how God wishes best to use them. So while I do believe there are those who are called to preach in the streets, I likewise believe there are those who are called to quiet contemplation and being called to one does not make an individual more or less a disciple than the other.
I absolutely perceive a need in the church today to help lay Catholics become better disciples. Since Sunday mass is the primary time you get their butts in the pews, I think the crux of it should come during the homilies. I'm sick of bland homilies of nice platitudes telling everyone to be nice to each other. I really want more priests to be more honest, more demanding and more specific. Tell people why they need to love themselves enough to reject artificial birth control. Tell people how beautiful marriage is and why it should be between a man and a woman. Tell people why it is important to be joyful in living the Gospel. Offer advice on spiritual growth and challenge people where they need it most. Of course further meetings, ministries and opportunities during the week, in the bulletin, etc. would be necessary, but I know for many people, myself included, during the week is a lot harder.

How would you describe your parish’s current efforts at discipleship?  A hotbed of discipleship?  A weekly gathering of spiritual sleep-walkers?  Or perhaps something in between?
My parish likes to focus on the helping people with physical needs and social interaction aspects more than the spiritual growth and emotional development aspects. We've got lots of ministries for the poor, fellowship, dinners, gatherings, etc., which are certainly good, but we don't have a bible study. We have an associate pastor who got his doctorate in scripture, but he isn't allowed to begin a bible study program. He actually would give homilies telling people like it is, telling people what they didn't want to hear and it wouldn't surprise me if our pastor got complaints. We are a large parish of about 5000 families and the wealthiest parish in the diocese. But instead of telling people that he wasn't doing anything immoral and to quit whining, our associate pastor requested a transfer (he will only have been here 1 year) to a parish where he could do things like organize a bible study and offer the EF of the Mass, in which he is trained. Our parish only seems to want the kind of discipleship that results in a check written and warm fuzzy feelings. Unfortunately the other parishes near us are worse. :/

More answers at CatholicMom.com's Lawn Chair Catechism. :)

Tears, Clouds and Sunshine

A couple of weeks ago, Elizabeth was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection (UTI). Antibiotics put her right again but it is fairly standard procedure to do a sonogram to check the bladder and kidneys to be sure nothing caused it that would merit special attention. On Tuesday our pediatrician called to speak to us about the results. At first I was a little surprised the doctor himself would call, but he has done it before - we have an awesome pediatrician. I got nervous though when he asked if the sonogram technician had said anything to me during the sonogram. She hadn't.

He went on to explain that her bladder and kidneys and the connections to them looked good. But there was a mass about 1cm in diameter at the top of her kidney and they didn't know what it was. He explained, due to the location, there were simply numerous possibilities as to what it was, the majority of them a benign mass that would not be cause for great alarm. I know he was trying to reassure me and help me be calm when he said that the possibility of it being cancerous was only the slimmest possibility, but that word. Oh that word. That C word. In a conversation about my baby. Even after I hung up, I kept hearing that word over and over again in my head. And the tears became impossible to restrain.

What made it worse was that I was literally 3 minutes from finishing this video about a young man who died from cancer the day before when the call came. It really is worth watching.


Our pediatrician had said it wasn't an emergency but recommended Elizabeth have a CAT scan within the next few weeks. With that word repeating in my head, I wanted to schedule it as soon as possible. The next day, I called the pediatrician's office about setting up the appointment but they hadn't gotten approval from the insurance company yet, so I had to wait until Thursday. Wednesday is a blur. I didn't want to do anything. I struggled not to worry and break into tears and if the kids caught me crying I thought of some other reason to give them. I had trouble sleeping. I didn't want to do anything. I just wanted to fast forward time. Or rewind it. Something. I wanted to do something. I couldn't do anything. It was miserable. I thought of those St. Jude Children's Hospital commercials with the kids who have cancer and wondered how their parents endure it.

Thursday morning I was starting to adjust but phone calls brought the reality back into focus.  Fortunately, only 10 minutes after the pediatrician's office called to say they were good to go, the Imaging Center called to schedule the appointment. I was so glad they could take us the next day; the waiting had been awful. I kept reminding myself that the odds were it wasn't a big deal and she seemed fine but one thing I learned in statistics class was that statistics are just that, they are just the odds. To the 1 out of 1000, it doesn't matter that the other 999 don't have it - it just matters that you do.

My dad offered to come with Elizabeth and I to Children's National Imaging Center. I tried to time Brigid's nursing just right so she'd be well fed and asleep before we left. We arrived and they were playing Pixar's Brave in the waiting room. Elizabeth loves that movie and has even picked it as the theme for her birthday party in a few weeks. After we were shown back and she was weighed, the doctor asked to speak with me. We went over a bit of how we wound up here and why and he asked if I'd mind if he just did a quick sonogram, free of charge, to make sure Elizabeth needed the CT scan. With the hope of going home sooner, I said sure. Plus, Elizabeth had already had one sonogram, so it shouldn't be bad since it was familiar.

Children's even has someone assigned just to play with the kids and help them stay calm and try to have fun while they are there. A lovely young lady named Erin offered to get Elizabeth toys and suggested playing music during the sonogram. The sonogram didn't last long though. As soon as the doctor, the head of the division, looked at the sonogram, he said he would speak to our pediatrician but he thought we should just go home. He said Elizabeth simply has a splenule, or, as wikipedia calls it, an accessory spleen. Basically her spleen has a little extra piece separated from it to help make hormones and cells. As the doc put it, she has a little extra insurance in her spleen. My dad said, "She's just accessorizing." The doctor said about 5% of the patients that come in to see him have it. Wikipedia reports about 10% of the population have it. It doesn't cause any extra problems other than "interpretation errors in diagnostic imaging." Oh, and since this sonogram was "off the record" there is no actual record that she has this - if it comes up again, we will just have to argue and explain the situation.

We left smiling. We usually refrain from meat on Fridays but, while I know we owe God big time, it just seemed more appropriate to celebrate today. So we got Taco Bell and 5 Guys for lunch. Brigid miraculously slept until 10:40 and didn't need to nurse until 11:15. And everyone played the whole situation SO well to the girls that now Cecilia and Felicity want to "get sick" and keep telling us what sickness they will get next. It is well and good at their young age that they don't know more than Elizabeth got pictures taken and got to play and pop bubbles at the doctor's office and came home with a bracelet (medical tag), bottle of bubbles and stickers.

It will be a week that will be hard to forget for me though. My mind bouncing from "it's nothing. I have an extra bone in my foot, she is probably just weird like me but in her abdomen" to "my 3 year old could only have months to live" is not something you easily forget. In one phone call my life was turned upside down and in one sonogram all the mercy of the world was thrown upon me. It has been a horribly difficult two days, but it is a blessedly wonderful Friday.




Incidentally, this song has really grown on me and is available to purchase on itunes. Just saying. :)

Seven Quick Takes

~~~1~~~

I was doing a project at the table and Brigid wanted a little upright time, so, closely supervised, I put her in her Bumbo seat on the table. I know it is dangerous but I was right there and extremely cautious. she was in the middle of the table with me sitting right in front of her. And, don't worry, it didn't last long.

"Uh oh. What's that? Mom! Shark! Shark!"

"Devoured in love." 

Yeah, Teresa ended that right quick. Brigid was back on the floor. Part of my reason for putting her on the table was simply that Teresa does this to her on the floor too. But the table is no sanctuary when your big sister just gets on the table with you. Honestly, the only places she doesn't get clobbered are in the pack and play and the crib but where Teresa can't reach her, she throws toys to (read *at*) her. 

~~~2~~~

I can't believe Brigid is 4 months old already. That is like almost 6 months. That is like 1/3 of the first year gone! Slow down, baby! 

She's doing really well. She loves playing on her tummy and rolling on her sides. She loves getting anything and everything into her mouth.

She loves to smile and smiles almost all the time. She still spits up but the zantac keeps it from hurting.

Mirrors are her best friend. This was while looking at herself in my iPhone camera. She can't get enough of them, but she will try to eat them if she can get them in her mouth. No iPhone for you, cutie.

Even her doctor remarked on how long her eyelashes are. I can't imagine having lashes that long but it doesn't seem to bother her.

So, so precious and passing too too quickly!

~~~3~~~

The weather here has been a bit weird ranging from 81 to 40 just during the day, but on the nicer days, we've been getting outside. I even put Brigid out in her bouncy seat and let her watch her sisters play. As long as Teresa doesn't clobber her, she seems to enjoy it.

~~~4~~~

With the better weather, we've been happy to fire up the grill a few times. This has lead to a discussion on BBQ sauce. We had used Bull'sEye brand until they switched their "perfect" and "true original" sauce's first ingredient from tomato puree to high fructose corn syrup.

Unbelievable. So, now we are looking for a new BBQ sauce. James found one by Weber with no high fructose corn syrup he rather likes. I haven't tried it yet but it is definitely more tomato than vinegar. I've also ordered one from a place in Virginia that hires special needs employees that should have a smokey flavor but no high fructose corn syrup. I'll let you know how it is once I get it. What do you use?

~~~5~~~

We happily finished school for the year last week. I'm not sure which of us was more eager to be done. When I had to help her sister, I came back to find Cecilia had done this:

"DiREctioNs. Help me iNsted!!!!!!!!" And then she tried to diagram part of a sentence. Can you tell she doesn't like to write lower case Ns? 

Yeah, we were ready for a break. 

Felicity finished her Teach My Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons book and is now practicing with BOB Books. Both girls will continue reading through May, June and July until we pick up with 3rd grade, 1st grade and pre-kindergarten in August. I still have some planning to do. 

~~~6~~~

The girls were playing outside when they came running inside panicked about a bee or something. I tend to hear this song regularly but usually it is along the "he flew that way" variety, so I take them as a grain of salt. So I grabbed my trusty can of raid and went out to see what all the fuss was about. They directed me to a large bee just sitting on the wooden post supporting the deck. I nailed him and he perished. A second one was hovering like an idiot, I assume attempting to guard the other one, but repeatedly banging his own head on the underside of the deck. I hit him a little, but he got away. I should have nailed him but the can was almost empty and not aiming as well. The obnoxious buggers were trying to tunnel a nest into the wood. About 3 feet from my toddler swing. And about 7 feet from my kids' playset. Death was just. Did I mention I hate carpenter bees?

Fortunately he didn't get too far before I got him.

But to put it in perspective, the hole in the picture above is on the front of that post to the far right... next to the toddler swing... facing the play set. It was simply a relationship that would never have worked. 

~~~7~~~

On Saturday night, my oldest two will be spending their first ever night away from home without me. I know they will be all of 5 minutes up the road. Camping in a tent on the grounds of a monastery. With my dad and a bunch of other American Heritage Girls families. But they're my babies! How did they get so big? How did we come to this? They won't be in their beds! Drowning in stuffed animals. Sleeping in contorted positions. Waking from nightmares to climb into our bed...

Nevermind.

Hope they have a great first campout! 

~~~BONUS~~~

Last night, I was making silly noises and kissing Brigid under her chin when she let out her first laugh! It was so cute, so precious... it really did seem like our house suddenly became filled with fairies! Now if I could just get her to do it again. :\

More Quick Takes at Jen's Conversion Diary!