Favorite Fives: To make you smile

Emily, at God’s Canvas is hosting a “show and tell.” Each month on the 5th, she encourages us to share our “favorite five” in a particular category.

This month’s Favorite Fives “Show and Tell” is to share five small things in your day that make you smile. This is not to include our precious children. Just five things you see in your day to day life that make you smile.

My Favorites

~1~

The dimmer switch in our bathroom.  Sorry no pictures :)

I know, who needs a dimmer in the bathroom?  I never thought we did.  But, let me tell you how great it is to stumble in there at o'dark thirty in the morning after being woken by a little one and be able to see what you're doing without being blinded :)

Plus it's nice to turn it on really low when first getting up in the morning to let the eyes wake up nice and slow.

~2~

 

My St. Therese de Lisieux Rosary holder & St. Therese rosary.  

Hubby gave me the holder after my initiation into the Church Easter 2008.

(I can't believe it's been 2 years!)

I was so tired that night, that when I first saw it I thought it was Mary :)

Some friends at church gave me the Rosary.  There's a spray of roses in front of the corpus and a St. Therese medal at the center.  The beads are purple, my favorite color!

~3~

 

Our printer!  It's a laser, duplexing, printer, fax, scanner all in one.  I love it!  

It's only black and white, but who's complaining?

It's a Canon ImageClass MF4150.

~4~

 

Puppy!

I know our kids aren't supposed to be part of this, but I can't help myself :)

This is Doodlebug's constant companion, well loved and smells just.like.him.

Even at 2 years old, Doodle's kept his baby smell (thank God!), and of course this has the smell too.

~5~

Blogging!

When I first started, I wasn't sure of what to write about, or who would read what I did manage to come up with :)  But then I started getting a few followers and a few other people commented and I was hooked!  It's fun chronicling our lives; the kids growing, living the liturgical year, all the ups and downs of life.  I've been deeply touched and inspired by so many beautiful, talented women in the blogosphere (these links aren't all inclusive or in any particular order :) ).  

I feel as if I know each and every one of them and I enjoy hearing from reading their updates every day.

That's my favorite 5.  I had a hard time getting started on this one, especially eliminating the kids from it :).  But I have so much to make me smile :)

Thanks Emily for starting this, it's fun to take a step back and really look at our lives.

 

Other Lenten Preparations

Following in the footsteps of others, I've also made a few other things...

A Crown of Thorns

 

How would you like one of these shoved into your head?!?

 

OUCH!!!

They are actually only toothpicks painted black and glued in place, 

but you get the point

(he he ~ no pun intended)

inspired by Charlotte 

I also made these...

 A little food for thought...

Velcro Boy's Speech Progress

Hi everyone,

I realized it's been some time since I've posted about VB's progress. He's adjusting well to his class. He likes his teacher and she says he's interacting well with the other kids (all 6 of them) and talking quite a bit more than before.

She works on a sound for a few days, then moves onto a new one while still stressing the other sounds previously covered. This way they cycle through the sounds over and over again, eventually building to mastery. So far they've worked on /w/, /t/, /s/, /c/k/, /d/, /h/ and a few others that I'm forgetting. They're also stressing "closing your words", where the ending sound is stressed in pronunciation. When saying single words, he's quite a bit more understandable than before. But when telling a story or saying a sentence, he reverts to the old way of running the sounds and words together. This is normal. His teacher says they work first on individual words, the work up from there.

Several exercises have been sent home. Including a few matching cards. One day we sat down to play (I combined the ones that she sent home into one big set) and VB wanted to lay out the first set of cards. Little smartie sets them up like the game Memory! I let him go first. He flips two cards. Then I go, also flipping 2 cards. His turn again. Well, he figured out that he could see the picture through the card (it was printed on plain paper)! So he cleans up all the matches! Stinker.

So, progress is being made. It's slow, very slow. The goal is to get him to "normal" by the end of the school year ~June 3rd. He was evaluated at about half of that. This program is his best chance of meeting that goal. I spoke with his teacher about what would happen if therapy needed to be continued into the next school year. She wasn't too clear on the Kindergarten aspect of it, but she did say that the therapist would work with him (and others at the same time) for about 90 minutes each week. That's probably not 90 consecutive minutes. More like 30 minutes 3 times per week. In a group. Not one on one. Which means progress could/would slow considerably. In the meantime it also means public school Kindergarten attendance. This may not be what we want for him. I mentioned summer school. She said that's about 30 minutes per week and it's usually reserved for the most needy kids, those with autism and other handicaps. So I don't think it's an option for him. Please pray that he makes the necessary strides quickly.

Jesus tree week 2

Here's the next installment of Jesus tree ornaments:

Day 8 ~ Martha and Mary

 

Footstool

Lk 10:38-42

Day 9 ~ Great Catch of Fish/Disciples

Fish

Lk 5:1-11

Day 10 ~ Jesus Blesses the Children

Child's Face

Mt 19:13-15

Day 11 ~ The Transfiguration

Radiant Face

Mt 17:1-8

Day 12 ~ Curing of Ten Lepers

Spotted Hand

Lk 17:12-19

Day 13 ~ Jesus Quiets a Storm

Cloud w/ Lightning

Mt 8:23-27

Day 14 ~ The Good Samaritan

Horse

Lk 10:25-37

Daybook March 2, 2010

For Today...

March 2, 2010

Outside my window... cloudy, overcast sky.  High today ~76 degrees.   Tomorrow is supposed to cool off again.  Back to the mid-60's.  I know, I really shouldn't complain, but make up your mind already!!!

I am thinking...a few things I'm not ready to discuss...

I am thankful for...stable ground.  Seems like an awful lot of the earth is suddenly moving.

From the learning rooms... After being back for a week (and taking an extra day off), we're going a bit slowly again.  The kids are sick, and sick kids don't cooperate much.  So, we're doing what we can without a fight and we'll get the rest later.

From the kitchen...Chinese!  Hubby just walked in with it...

On weight-loss...I'm even.  For 7 weeks of weight ins, I'm only down a pound :(  Not so good, but better than up :)
 
I am wearing... black jeans, gray short-sleeves and still those bare feet, but they finally got their pedicure!

I am creating...lots of things!
1.  A Jesus tree!  I got the banner done as well as the first 16 ornaments.  See post here and here!  I need to get pictures of the rest soon.

2.  Some Easter crafts.

I am going...to try to dip a little deeper.  There's something that just isn't working in my life right now.  I have *no* idea what it is, so I think I need to spend some quiet time and time in prayer.  I may also be so close to it that I can't see the forest for the trees so I may need to ask for some help (not an easy thing for me). (this is still from last week and I still don't have answers...)

I am reading...still nothing :(  (maybe this is the problem...)

I am hoping...that the kids get better fast, so we can get back to routine.

I am hearing...the washer and dryer running and not much else.  All 3 boys are lying down, I assume sleeping, though I could be wrong ;)

Around the house...cleaning day though I doubt I'll get to it all.  It's hard to clean much with all 3 bedrooms occupied and one of the bathrooms is off the bedroom :(  Oh well...the house won't fall apart :)

One of my favorite things...actually, I need to come up with 5 of them, and I'm drawing a blank :(

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Today...cleaning
Wednesday...school (relaxed version), the gym, and the plumber.  We had a leak in our bathroom drain over 2 years ago.  Lately we've noticed the area that was patched is beginning to sag.  Hubby opened it up today to find wet boards, wet sheetrock and a slow drip from the same drain!  The plumber will be here at 8am Thursday...school for Velcro Boy and grocery shopping.
Friday...the gym...maybe the Marine Life Center.
Saturday...school
Sunday...Mass
Monday...school and the gym

Here is picture thought I am sharing...  nothing this week.

To check out more daybooks visit Peggy!

100 posts!!!!

I just looked at my dashboard and I've made 100 posts since August!!!!  I didn't realize I had so much to say :)

3 sickos!

UUGH!  All 3 kids are sick.  The Professor started on Friday night with a congested cough, runny nose.  And spiked a 103 fever yesterday.  Doodlebug followed with a cough an now a runny nose and 101 fever.  Velcro Boy came in last yesterday afternoon with the same cough and 101 fever, 102 this morning.  So we took them all to the doctor.  Prof has an upper respiratory infection with possible bronchitis, so he's going on antibiotics.  VB also possibly has bronchitis, and also gets antibiotics.  Doodle's a bit luckier.  No congestion, just a cool mist humidifier (which I just realized I forgot to set-up before his nap...). 

Interestingly enough, The Professor mentioned his peanut "allergy" because we were talking about allergies while she was out of the room getting something.  She overheard it as she was coming back in and dug a bit deeper.  Her son started the same as ours, just vomiting when eating the peanut butter, and progressed worse.  So...she suggested an epi-pen and a visit to an allergist.  So she wrote the script, taught us with the trainer while we were there and gave us a few names.  I need to schedule an appointment (probably call tomorrow) and we'll go from there.  I imagine testing will be involved.  I REALLY hope shots aren't going to become part of the (quickly unraveling) chaos that is our household lately.  At $25/visit plus at least a portion of the serum, that could get expensive quickly :(  I don't know if repeat visits like that could be covered under a single co-pay, like with pregnancy...

I'll let you know when I have more answers.