Week in Review: Look Away, Look Away

This week has been a yucky blur - with illness, a full moon, fires on my mind, hormones, and some other bad things sprinkled throughout.  If you want to be uplifted and have a laugh on this Friday morning, then I suggest you, in the words of the theme song from A Series of Unfortunate Events:

Just look away, look away

There's nothing but horror and inconvenience on the way

Ask any stable person "Should I watch?" and they will say

Look away

Look away, look away

On Sunday, Andrew left at 3:30 am to drive back to Franciscan University with his cousin as his passenger.  The trip was far from uneventful and I was happy to receive the text that he had arrived safely after a ten hour drive.  The next day he filled me in on what had happened:

I guess the police officer cited him for a traffic violation to save him $100 but the ticket was still $170.  Of course, I'm so glad they were safe but also SLOW DOWN BUDDY!

~

If you read here regularly, you may remember that Andrew had his heart broken right before arriving in Austria last semester, which led to a really horrible time of his life.  We were all very sad and scared and reached out to his RD, a therapist, a priest and a sister over there so that he could have people to talk to and help him.  During this time, we told him that we didn't care about his grades/school, we just wanted him to feel better.  He pulled through and ended up having a wonderful semester with so many new friends (that he never would have met had he still been in a serious relationship) but he also ended up getting a 77 in his one nursing class (taught via zoom from the main campus).  

It turns out that if you get below an 80 in a Nursing class, that's considered failing and you have to retake it before moving on.  The problem is that he can't retake that class until next fall, so he is unable to move on with nursing classes this spring and in the end it means he has to stay a whole extra year at college.  We all got involved via emails to see if there was any other solution, but the Nursing Dept. would not budge.  On the one hand, I understand if they feel he doesn't know the material, he shouldn't move on (who wants an untrained nurse?) but on the other hand, he has to go to college for an extra year because of three points in ONE class.  It's a tough lesson to learn and one I pray he doesn't repeat or he's out of the program.  He's back at campus taking a full class load of non-nursing classes he needs to graduate, but he's not with his friends in class anymore and they are all moving on without him.  This is sad but he has a very good attitude about it, thinking it might make it easier for him to work as a CNA in his last two years when he has fewer classes, and we hope we will see the reason clearly one day.  Faith and God’s timing yadayada.

Week in Review: Not Really Knowing, Not Really Teeth, and Not Really Resolutions

The first full week of 2025 was sort of...boring? ordinary?...and it felt really difficult getting back into the normal schedules after having two full weeks off.  What a luxury those weeks were.  Now we're back to track practices/meets and swim practices and violin lessons and piano lessons and basketball practices/games with a bunch of dentist appointments and evening meetings thrown in.  Ya know, life!  I miss Christmas already :)

One Christmas gift that I forgot to talk about was the book I made for Andrew:

This link should allow you to see the finished project, a labor of love, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed putting together bit by bit each week as he emailed me updates and photos.  I used Mixbook to create the scrapbook because it allows you to copy+paste text from an email right into the book so it's all in his own words.  After my own semester abroad in college, I had to print photos and start scrapbooking my adventures from what I could remember, and I never even finished the project.  I'm so glad to be able to give my kids this finished book right after their semester is over that they can cherish forever.  

JP sent me a TED Talk that both validated our family rules re: screen time and social media, and also made me think a lot about what I'm doing with the time I have on this earth.

 

I think the issue is that we never know how much time we have left in life, and if we did, what would we do different?  If I knew I had one year left to live, I would quit my jobs, eat whatever I wanted and travel and spend all my time with family and loved ones and volunteer.  But if I knew I was going to live until 100 years old, I would eat as healthy as possible, exercise daily, save money during my working years, etc.  Since we don't know "the day or the hour" I'm coming to the conclusion that we have to find a balance between those extremes.  Which leads me to a question - would you want to know your last day on earth?

(The planner in me would want to know, but the anxiety in me would probably have a terrible time living with that knowledge.)

Christmas Break - From MA to PA to MD to PA to MD to MA

Christmas Break continued...

On December 26, we rolled out at 7am with everyone except JP, who had to stay to work at the hospital for a few days, and Lucy Doodle, who stayed home with JP.  We drove five hours and stopped at Camelback Resort and our room was ready early (the best!) and we hit the waterpark for a few hours:

We went back to the much-too-small-room-for-eight-people-even-though-it-was-called-the-king-suite-and-slept-eight-people to change and drove down the road to get dinner at Barley Creek Brewery.  After the last person ordered, I realized that we all got cheeseburgers - such simple folk are we.

We went back to the hotel after dinner and the kids played at the waterpark again while Phil and I walked around the place.  There was a magic show in the lobby which was quite entertaining even for the magic-hater that I am.  It just creeps me out.

SNOW!!

Christmas Adam, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day 2024

We had such a lovely two-week Christmas break (love those Wednesday Christmases!) and I wanted to jot down the memories for the Martin Family Blog Book 2024.  Here we goooooooo....

On the Saturday before Christmas, we all went to volunteer at My Brother's Keeper which was so much fun and very touching and something I want to keep up.  We were given wish lists for two families with their gift preferences and sizes, and then we shopped in the warehouse which was overflowing with donations (our kids schools collected lots of toys to donate) and then wrapped and labeled the gifts for the families.  To make it even more *memorable* some Martins picked the biggest and most difficult presents to wrap:

Not pictured was a tricycle that Phil wrapped with much success!

On Christmas Adam (the day before Christmas Eve) the kids had their Sibling Swap, with Eamon winning the prize for most creative wrapping - the gift was inside multiple bags and suitcases wrapped in tape, and Andrew winning the prize for most creative gift - he gave JP a real gift plus a joke gift of a fish that now lives on our kitchen counter.  Have kids, they said ;)

Brendan finished his Christmas Tree Advent Calendar with pride:

Week in Review: Wrapping Up The To Do List

Can you believe it?  The last Friday before Christmas!?!?  This is also the last day of work and school for the Martins until next year and we are so excited!  I was truly enjoying Advent this year, feeling pretty calm, remembering to say the St. Andrew Novena, attending a retreat, but this week I am feeling the pinch and trying to figure out the Christmas Present Fairness Math like:

Does everyone have the same amount of joy-giving presents intermingled with things they need?  Even though I'm an accountant, the math is not mathing.  I will feel like one kid needs something more, then get it, then realize another kid would also like that gift so I get it for them too, but now we are out of alignment again and on and on it goes.

I'm going to finish up the wrapping this weekend and see what else there is left to do, but in a panicky state yesterday I stress ordered a few more small gifts/stocking stuffers as if I was a contestant on a timed game show:

Cute earrings (these are for MY stocking)

Deck of Cards (Brendan's really into card tricks right now)

Tau Cross Necklace (Andrew came home from Assisi with one he wears and the littles want to copy)

Tweezers (to go with all the Perler Bead crafting)

Magic Book (for Magic Tree House lovers)

But I have to stop and just accept that it is what it is.  I don't think I ever feel 100% ready for Christmas morning but you know what?  Jesus comes no matter what and we always have the best time together.

What else has been going on this week?  

Out and About & In and Reminiscin'

A little weekend recap, shall we?

Eamon went on a school trip to New York City for the day last Friday.  They left at 5am and returned at midnight and had lots of fun but boy was he tired the next day.  Youth is not wasted on my kids, as they are always up for an adventure.  I was happy to be home in my pajamas by 8pm :)

On Saturday, Phil had a Confirmation retreat all day, so the kids picked names for their Sibling Swap that takes place on Christmas Adam (the day before Christmas Eve) and I took the littles shopping to find their treasures.  The line at Kohl's was crazy and I'm reminded why online shopping is so much better.  But we had success and it's fun to have one on one time together and see how they want to spoil their sibling.

Maggie went to a friend's house for a little Christmas gathering, including a visit from St. Nick himself!

I've been trying a new treadmill workout where I run for four miles, but walk for one minute of each mile.  I line up the walks with the commercials in my show that I'm watching and I've never wanted more commercials in a show!  Yikes, it's hard to run on a treadmill especially when they keep the gym warmer than I would prefer.  It's mostly the elderly population that uses this gym near my work and while they're working out in their flannel shirts and pants, I'm over here like:

Sweaty Betty

On Sunday morning, I came home from the gym to see this adorable sight:

JP and Andrew and Declan were creating with perler beads.  We sort of forget about these and then they become a big hit again for awhile.  Look what they made:

JP's Nativity

Andrew's Grinch

JP was feeling very grateful because he had an interview last week for a potential medical school scholarship and he heard back that he got it!  The scholarship is called The Physicians Scholarship because it was funded by physicians in the area who donated to give two new med students $25,000 a year for four years.  Can you believe it?  That's $100,000 less in loans and we are sooooo thankful.  JP is still not 100% sure on what school he will attend as he hasn't heard back from most yet, but this one in Maryland is his top choice right now.

On Sunday night, after a very yummy dinner of Maple Chicken (Andrew's belated welcome home from Europe dinner) Maggie was stressing about her AP Bio test and Phil captured this photo of her three big brothers, all AP Bio graduates, helping her study.  

This is the stuff big family dreams are made of and what I prayed for back in the days of dirty diapers and sibling squabbles.  Those days were hard but the payout is so worth it.  Don't give up mamas!  You are doing the most important, often times invisible and thankless, work.  I see you :)