Seven Quick Takes on Friday the 13th

Happy Friday the 13th!  Linking up with Kelly and you should too :)

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Happy 100th Anniversary to Our Lady of Fatima!  

I feel like Mary's all "Just pray the Rosary already!!!  How many times do I have to tell you?"  :)  

Our beloved pastor who left us this summer has a great recitation of the rosary here.  I got it for free on Amazon Music so I can listen on my phone, it's a quick recitation with no music...perfect for our busy lives!

If Only

If I'd only known then what I know now...

I would have rejoiced with every pregnancy test.  First reaction - gratitude and love.  I always wanted a big family, but somewhere along the way I got scared of my plans coming to fruition.  The added worry, the added expense, the added chaos of having a new baby were amongst the first thoughts floating in my mind when the test read positive.  I cried because I wasn't ready to go through it all again.  It being a pregnancy and delivery.  It being a natural, healthy occurrence for my fertile, healthy body.  It being the product of the love shared between my husband and I.  We said it with words, we said it with actions, and we were blessed with a baby from above.  I would have seen the blessing sooner, trusted more, worried less.  I was living the dream, why couldn't I see the bigger picture instead of white-knuckling through each addition?

If I'd only known then what I know now...

I wouldn't listen to all the baby advice.  I would have trusted my gut more.  I would have seen the amazing connection a baby has with their mama and just lived in the moment more.  I would have breastfed on demand and not by the clock.  I would have nursed in bed more often.  I would have sat on the floor and let the little ones climb all over me.  I still would have kept up the housework though.  Babies may not keep, but dirty dishes stay in the sink until someone cleans them.  I would have said yes more and no less.  I would have kept their sleep schedules sacred for as long as possible, because bigger kids mean less scheduled little kids. 

7QT: A Teen, My Team, and Ice Cream

It's Friday!  Linking up with Kelly and Crew like I do.

1)

I'm not sure how it happened but we have another teenager in the house!  Andrew turned 13 yesterday and received the treasured teenager gift, a new phone!  

With his phone comes more responsibility (he can now start to babysit for short stints) and lots of rules for phone usage!  He was very excited, called his grandmother right away, then started texting people to let them know he was part of the group now :) Somebody asked him for his phone number, and he was like oh wait...what is my phone number Mom?  So cute.

We had already celebrated over the weekend for his and Eamon's joint birthdays...

11 + 13 = 24

 ...but went out to Friendly's on his actual birthday because we were running around after school with a doctor's appointment for Declan and basketball signups for Maggie, Eamon & Andrew.  Besides, the kids meals were half off (the teenager got an adult meal!) and Andrew had a free sundae coupon.  He couldn't even finish it:

Mint Cookie Sundae, takes after his father.

The Whole Skinny on the Whole30

Well, it's October which means that our September Whole30 is finished!  All the angels sang alleluia and amen!  This was the first attempt Phil and I made with a Whole30 and I have a lot of thoughts about it.  Surprising ;)

If you are not familiar with the Whole30 diet, it's basically 30 days of no sugar, grains, gluten, dairy, alcohol, legumes (including peanuts) or preservatives.  There is a cult-like following of this 30 day cleanse/restart/elimination diet and many people are known to complete a Whole30 once or twice a year to reset their diets.  One of the biggest messages from the Whole30 book is that this is NOT a weight loss plan, it's a way to clean out your body and fill it with nutritious whole foods to figure out what food groups cause you issues when you add them back in.  It's not meant to be a way to eat for the rest of your life, it's a clean out, fresh start kinda thing.  The book focuses on NSV (Non Scale Victories) like feeling better, more energy, less bloated, sleeping better, cooking more, etc.

7 Lessons from High School Sports

You all know we've been a crazy sports family from the beginning.  Our kids are allowed to play one sport per season (no ice hockey or tackle football) and most of them make sure to take advantage of this.  Some of our kids are not as athletically inclined, and we don't push them into anything, but do encourage them to be active (ahem, Xander with ahem, swimming lessons).  Now that we have entered the world of high school sports, I was thinking about all the great life lessons that are being learned by my eldest son.  We all know the many physical and mental benefits of staying active, but there are some lessons I never considered would come from being a high school athlete, such as:

1)

Hygiene

Our kids take showers or baths every night (sometimes we skip every other day in the winter if they have dry skin or haven't played outside) because they get sweaty and dirty every day.  They either have gym class, play a sport, or just run around enough at recess and after school to need a shower each day.  So hygiene isn't something that needs to be taught in this house.  But, since high school sports have started, there's more of an urgency to shower each day (right upon coming home from practice/games), airing out cleats and shinguards instead of letting them sit in a sports bag, applying deodorant and bringing a change of socks and shoes if not going to be picked up right away, etc.  There's a good healthy dose of keeping oneself presentable and smellsentable, if you will.  

The 5th Grade Birthday and Cell Project

Oh my little buddy, Eamon, you're a whole year older and I love you a whole lot more, which doesn't make sense because I already loved you so much, but I've said that before.

The birthday boy got to pick breakfast (he chose chocolate chip banana muffins to bring to his class) and got some good snacks in his lunch box.  He also had a big science project due the next day, but brought it in on his birthday so we could celebrate that night without worrying about finishing up the project.  Here are his animal (orange) and plant (green) cells: