Only Once!

   The little guy only woke up once last night!  True progress!!

Sleeping Through the Night

   Little Sebastian is old enough to be sleeping through the night---and he is no where near it!  He would start out in his crib, but wind up in our bed, and nurse off and on, all night.  I called it "an all night, all you can eat buffet." :(
   So, Ron and I have begun an all-out effort to train Sebastian to become a great, night sleeper.
   First, we started with Ron going in, instead of me, so that Sebastian can't nurse.  Ron takes all shifts until 3 AM.  Poor Ron!
   Then, I take all shifts from 3 AM on.  The next shift, I nurse him one time.  Then, I take any other shifts, and rock him and get him back into his crib.  
   The first night, we were up every other hour!  He was upset.
   But the next night, he did much better.  I brought him into the bed at 3:30.  Now, about 5 nights later, he only awoke 2 times, and he was easy to get back in his crib.
   He is officially out of our bed.  That's a major plus!  He's down to one feeding.  Another plus!
   So now, we just need to wean him off those two wakings, and we-re done!
 
   

Getting Good

    In family night prayers, Annie said, "Dear God, thank you for my family.  Please let us all get holy.  Please let us all get good."
    Says a girl who was in time-out three times that day!
    Yes, Lord, please help her to get good.

"On The Table Under The TV"

   After  looking for ten minutes for the remote, and eventually finding it on the kitchen counter (??!!!?!!), I had to tell the kids, "Can we PLEASE institute a rule by which everyone places the remote on the table under the TV, when finished using it?"
    Mary giggled and said, "Ooops. that was my fault!"
    It is simply phenomenal what it is like, looking around the house, searching for a needle in a haystack, walking past Ron tickling Sebastian and making him laugh, and past Annie squeaking her new toy that is actually a dog toy but one that she really, really wanted from the pet isle in the grocery store, so we got it for her, and past Clare swinging upside down on our pull-up bar (how many families have a 2-person-pull-up bar that they made out of plumbers'  pipe and hung themselves in their den??), and past Leigh playing with her new dollbed that we FINALLY assembled for her, a month after Christmas, and past Jake and Mary, watching "Leave it to Beaver" on an iPad.
    Wow.  Wow.  Wow.
    I needed the remote so that I could play my exercise video.  Rather than a work out, I think I needed a nap!

He Thinks I'm Funny

   My chiropractor thinks I'm funny.
   He has been working on me for three years.  I see him regularly.  We are well acquainted.
    Well, last month, I mentioned in passing that I had once thought about becoming a nun.  This BLEW THE MIND of this Dallas-fancy-pants man!  "YOU??  A NUN??"  That explained, I'm sure, all these kids, to his mind.  "I guess she's a real Catholic," he must have mused.
    Then today, he asked me about my summer plans.  I mentioned that I would be teaching a philosophy class.  "What??  Teach a philosophy class??"
     I told him I have a Ph.D. in philosophy.
     "You're so funny!!!  You have so many SECRETS!!"
     I am so bizarre!!!  I know I am.  I really am.
   

I paid her a dollar

  I paid my daughter, Mary, a dollar today, because I yelled.  I really didn't see the problem coming.  I had been in a great mood.  But the day got long and I was worn out.  But dinner time, as I was telling all the older kids to get dinner on the table, I was trying to get the baby's antibiotic down his throat.  But he kept spitting it out, multiple ounces at a time!  I was so frustrated.  Bright, pink, amoxicillin, dripping all down his shirt and in between his multiple chins.
    Right in the middle of his gagging and acting like I was torturing him, Mary, age 12, stands in the kitchen with a salad in her hands and says, "What do you want me to do with this bowl?"  I shouted, "Get it onto the table, DUH!  What do you think I want you to do with it??"  As soon as the words came flying out of my mouth, I regretted it.  She whisked off with the salad, and I bolted upstairs to change the baby's clothes.
   When I came downstairs, I handed her a dollar.  "I shouldn't have yelled, Mary.  I'm really sorry."  It is my policy that, if anyone in the family yells, we have to pay the other person a dollar.  Kids can't yell.  But neither can parents.
    "I'm sorry too, Mom.  It was such a ridiculous thing to ask you, right in the middle of your dealing with Sebastian."
    I can't believe I said, "Duh."  That's really lame!

My Mentor and Friend

It was so, so wonderful getting to be with my dear friend, Patricia, this past weekend.  She is a mentor to me, having taught me so much about family life and motherhood.  Oh, how I love her!

"Savor It!"

   I went on retreat this past weekend.  In prayer, the powerful message came to me: "Savor it!'  Savor this time!  You have a tiny baby.  You have innocent, young children at your feet.  Enjoy every minute!"  That was a powerful message to me.  I often think about what I am not yet doing, what I am not becoming, what I am not accomplishing.  But this message from the Holy Spirit spoke volumes to me: being a saint is being there, in the moment, in my motherhood.

Typing the Mom Way

   Did you know that, as a nursing Mom, I have learned to type with one hand??  But the really amazing part is that I can do it with both the right hand, and also with the left! :)
   Ah, what we mothers can do!!

Offer it up!

   Oh when days are hard, it can be so hard not to get down and miserable!  Yesterday, I tried SO HARD to stay chipper and offer the whole thing up--the baby's fever, the child with a sore throat, the mess throughout the house, the lethargic homeschooling. . .
    Finally I asked my mom to help me offer it up.  She gave me great ideas for whom to offer it up.  She assured me she would pray for me.  Then it all turned around!  Now the baby's fever is gone, and we found a homeopathic tablet that has dried up his runny nose.  Everything else is shaping up, and I got some rest last night, to boot!  Thank you, Jesus, for letting us offer things up!  And thank you, Mom, for praying for me!

Prayer Works!

   It is so amazing to me when prayers really work.  More specifically, it is amazing to me when I am silent enough that I can follow God's prompting, and only see later how I was blindly following a plan that God could see.
    Yesterday I had a silent day.  Ron took all the kids out except for Sebastian, and I kept him here.  He slept much of the day.  So, I had hours and hours to think, pray, clean, organize, go through stacks of papers, etc.  It was so enjoyable that I could do all that, and not have kids talking to me at the same time.  I LOVE getting to do only one thing at a time.
    Well, I had a moment of just pure silence.  I was just still and quiet.  I was wondering how to make a decision about whether or not to go on a retreat in Louisiana this weekend.  I had already asked one of my good friends in Louisiana if she was going, and she was not.  So that, to my mind, was out of the question.   But as I thought through the travel issues with the baby, I realized i would need to bring Mary.  Then I thought, "Oh, if only my friend could come and bring her daughter!"  They are long lost friends, not having seen each other for three years.  So I went out on a limb and asked my friend again, and whether she could bring her daughter, and she said yes!  That she and just one of her children could come is completely unexpected--she has two others to think about.  So, the chances of my thinking of it, plus her ability to do it, were slim to none.
    This solution is an answer to prayer for my friend, her daughter, my daughter, and me.  God is making something beautiful happen here!  I am so grateful to Ron that I had the chance to be silent, so I could follow God's lead!  

Suzannah and I in NYC!! We saw it ALL!

Such a beautiful rest!!

    Some friends joined us for a vacation in NM.  We hiked, had bonfires, set off fire works, skied, and most of all, just rested.  What a joy!!

The Rest Goes to the Church

     A big group of us--eleven children and four adults--were hiking.  At one point, this fiery, little boy stooped down and picked up a crystal-quartz-like rock.  It was opaque.  He held it in the light, examining it.  He placed it gently in his coat pocket.  Then he found another.  An hour later, he had collected a dozen of these rocks.
     Innocently he looked up at his parents at the end of the hike and said, "Mom, Dad, our money troubles are over!  And anything left over will go to the church."
     The rocks are worthless, but his comment was priceless!

Lucky

     For all of Clare's nine years of life, she has struggled with feeling at a disadvantage.  It must be hard, coming after Golden Child Jake and Sparkly Mary.  It must be even harder, being bypassed by Adorable, Brilliant, younger sister Leigh.  Clare is not obviously gifted in her intellect, in her artistic ability, in her musical ability, in her athletic ability--she sees how she compares negatively to her siblings in many areas and feels bad about herself often.  It has been a constant part of my daily work, finding what is special about Clare and speaking about it to her and others: she loves bugs, animals, nature, science, baking pies, cooking eggs, and alone time.  I am constantly shedding light on these gifts.  I am constantly praying and working to help her see her unique beauty and value as a creation of God.  But it is an uphill climb.  She always feels unlucky.
    Well, this Christmas, she asked for a guinea pig.  I emphatically said no, she could not ask Santa for such a thing, that we could not handle another living creature in the house.  She said that she loves animals and would gladly not ask for anything else if she could just have this one pet, all her own.  I told her that, if Santa dared come into our house with a guinea pig, I would wrestle him and kick him out, guinea pig and all.
    Well, on Christmas morning, guess what was waiting for her:

     As I came down the stairs on Christmas morning, many hours after the kids had been down there (Jake had set an alarm and awakened the girls at 5:30!), Clare announced, "Santa DID bring me a guinea pig!  I've named him Lucky!"
     I asked, "Why that name?"
     She said, "Because I am so lucky to have him!"
    I almost cried.  I do not think I have ever heard her say that she is lucky about anything.  I was overjoyed that she had decided to cement in the feeling, by making "Lucky" the name of the darn critter.  Ad she said, it is SHE, not the animal, who is lucky.  The name is a reflection of herself.
     As much as I hate that guinea pig, I am thrilled that all that work at building her up is finally becoming her main reality, her dominant feeling or understanding of herself.  I hope to hear that guinea pig's name every day!!

Best Thing About Christmas

My favorite thing about Christmas this year was that I just let many things be imperfect.  I handled everything with the attitude that the only perfection I required of myself was to praise God for being born a human baby, for His Incarnation.  Everything else could go.  There were lots of imperfections, like not having the right gifts, or any gifts, for some people, looking terrible on Christmas when people cam over, and not having a birthday cake for Leigh.  I just decided to let my imperfections be a gift to other people, letting them see how much better they are doing than me!  

It was a liberating attitude, and I felt good about the sacredness of our day.  God filled in the gaps.  Two people brought over cupcakes, which served well as Leigh's cake!  She loved her birthday this year.  Amazing how it all worked out.  Jesus and is continued Incarnation in our lives is truly the real gift!!