Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Feeling Crazy Busy? It's Not You, It's May

 Mother's Day was perfect!  I've discovered through the years that the secret to enjoying a good Mother's Day or birthday or anniversary is to lower your expectations.  Ha!  One of my sisters and I hosted a breakfast for my mom, then I went shopping and out to lunch with Phil, and then we took the kids out for ice cream instead of feeding them dinner.  


I received the cutest cards and school projects from the little guys, a promise for a breakfast date from the college boy, a clean car from the girl, and a gift certificate to an ice cream shop from another.  It was a cold and windy day so we decided to postpone a family bike ride to another weekend.  Phil bought me a Farmhouse Candle Warmer which is so cute and was very unexpected.  The best kind of gift!  My dad brought a newspaper with some facts about moms, and these were noteworthy:


100% agree with this.


Safe to say we went through 50,000 diapers.


They Forgot Her Name?!?!  She had no single babies, only multiples....can you imagine?

Last night, Andrew (17) received a Diocesan youth award for service to our parish.  From our church bulletin:


Andrew received his First Holy Communion in first grade, as our pastor wanted him to become an altar server as soon as we switched to this parish so that he could train JP and Andrew together.  In our parish, altar servers attend a bootcamp the summer after they receive First Communion.  So Andrew's claim to fame is that he has been an altar server for a year longer than anybody else ever could be.  He has now been serving almost every weekend for 10 years!  

Andrew (right) serving his first Mass with JP (left)

He also was the Junior Retreat leader at his high school this year, and he ran and gave a talk at a guy's retreat as well.  We're so proud and thankful for his service to our church, and honestly a bit surprised at his maturity and willingness to step up and showcase his faith.  

We are buying a new-to-us old car.  Now we will have four cars, which seems crazy that we're at this point already.  We have four licensed drivers and then Eamon will take Driver's Ed this summer, and Maggie is only one year behind him.  #dontblink  When we had to fix the stolen catalytic converter situation, Phil mentioned to the mechanic that we were in the market for another car and he gave him the number of an older woman who was trying to sell hers.  Phil got in touch with her, and went to see the car, and the lady invited him in the house and before you know it he was meeting her dogs and she was looking at photos of our kids on Phil's phone.  She attends the church where Maggie's godfather is the pastor and took a liking to our family.  She set a fair price for the car and we agreed, but then she called Phil back and said "I want you to subtract $50 per kid from the price and then take that money and do something nice with your kids!"  Isn't that sweet?  So soon a 2011 Kia Sportage will be ours! What shall we call her?  Gia?  Gia the Kia?  (Note: Gianna was going to be Xander's name if he was a she, with the nickname Gia.)


Brendan (5) had a day off from Kindergarten last Friday, so I took the day off from work, and we had some fun together!  He is going to be the ringbearer in Haley's wedding next month, so I took him to get fitted for his tux.  The store owner said Brendan was going to be wearing the most expensive tux in the store that cost $900 to buy.  He is going to look sharp!  Look out ladies in the 4-6 age group ;)


Then we ran some errands and went out to lunch where he ordered chicken tenders and coffee milk.


He is such a fun and easy little guy to hang with, and I love spending individual time with each kid like this. 

We have JP (19) flying home on Thursday night, and wow does a year of college go by fast!  On Saturday, Declan (8) will be having surgery to remove his adenoids, and then next week Phil and I will celebrate 20 years of marriage.  May is always so busy!

16 comments:

  1. It seems like parents with teens always need one more car. We had thought about getting rid of one car, but when it was totaled in an accident, we went out and got another. We need one with good gas mileage for my commute . (Or so we convinced ourselves). We're sitting at 5 cars now- but one is a manual transmission so it doesn't really count.;)
    Glad your mother's day went well. The rest of may is chaotic here as ever- including 2 graduations 900 miles apart in 2 days. So we'll divide and conquer. No May has beaten us yet!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My husband found a manual car for sale that was cheaper than the rest we looked at, but I was like, it's not really an extra car if only you can drive it. He said he could teach us, but I'm way too old to want to learn that! I can't believe you have 2 graduations that far apart - yikes! Moms are amazing!!

      Delete
  2. Wow! A busy May indeed. Those motherhood stats were crazy; especially the 69 children!
    That "take $50 off per child" was such a sweet gesture. I love that and am going to file it away as an idea for later in life. It feels like it would be applicable in all sorts of contexts!
    Happy Mother's Day. I went to a cafe and blogged/read books while my husband took the kids on a long hike. It was rather ideal, for me! And the kids bought me some special treats, we had leftovers. Low-key, but also very little was required of me all day which is what I'm looking for on Mother's Day :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes the gesture was so sweet and a good one to pass on :)

      Delete
  3. I love your car story! There are always good stories out there! Thank you for sharing this one! And a big congratulations to Andrew for the service award he is receiving!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Honestly, we were like, really? Andrew? because he's the quiet one in our house, but everybody else always seems to notice his talents, thankfully!

      Delete
  4. You are busy and it looks like with good stuff. Such is May a month to accomplish things. I'm glad your Mother's Day was to your liking. I cannot imagine being the mother of 69 children, how would you even remember all their names?! And middle names!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's exactly what we discussed during breakfast, the names! I think she just numbered them ;)

      Delete
  5. Congratulations to Andrew! Brendan is going to look so adorable in his tux!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Little boys in tuxes are swoonworthy. Little lady killer ;)

      Delete
  6. Oh my gosh . . . this post is chock full of great things. Congrats to Andrew and his wonderful parents. You must be so proud. I've never heard of a child receiving communion early in order to become a server. Wow.

    Love that car story. So incredibly sweet. Lad has his own car but we plan to continue to work with 3 cars for the rest of us again this summer. Ed. Tank. Mini. Reg. Coach and I. Gonna be entertaining.

    A woman from our parish had 3 sets of twins and her last one was a single birth. No fertility help she was just very efficient.

    I am not surprised by the moms of mors kids having less stress, but I AM surprised by the most stress being with 3. I would've guessed 2. I know so many families with 2 kids and they stress over how much they argue.

    I agree 100% . . . lower explanations is the way to go. Glad your Mother's day was good. Brendan is a doll.

    I am driving home with my college freshman right now. He is doing the last leg of driving. Almost home! I left last night. Ugh. Grateful for an uneventful safe trip.




    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think 3 was stressful because we were outnumbered and they were all still so little and needy. Once you have more, the older kids are more independent and you have accepted the crazy! I hope you arrived safely back home and you make it through the summer of car scheduling!!

      Delete
  7. Your May is CRAZY BUSY. Your parents look great too.
    I can't believe ONE woman made so many humans and no one got her name? WTH?
    Congrats to Andrew and I love the story about the 'new to you' car and the generous previous owner. Now, that is good karma!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, we need to pass it along now, and keep the good deeds rolling!!

      Delete
  8. Imagine that woman's pelvic floor! How did her uterus even stay in her body. I think I might have murdered anyone who tried to have sex with me after a certain point.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know!! I would have called it quits much sooner than she did :)

      Delete

Talk to me...