7QT: A Cuber, Pro-lifers & A Winner

1)

Andrew has a new trick.  He got the cube for his 12th birthday in October, printed out some instructions on how to solve it, and has been practicing for months.  He finally got it down so that he can solve it in less than 2 minutes without looking at any instructions.  I'm (probably way too) proud of his dedication to this!  Now the other boys are trying to keep up.

2)

Lucy Doodle Martin got spayed.  And then pooped, peed, and puked in our house.  The poor thing, she was in pain and couldn't even walk up the stairs.  I felt so bad, but I know it's necessary!  I thought she might come home from the surgery wearing a cone, but the vet said female dogs usually know how much to clean the incision and when to leave it alone.  Talk about feminine genius.  She also got microchipped, because I just wanted everything done in one swell swoop.  I love her more than I expected.

3)

Xander wanted in on the action.  And yes my Christmas cards are still up!

JP and Andrew are at the March for Life with our parish youth group.  Please pray for their safety and a peaceful, uneventful march.  They got a professional haircut for the occasion.  I give them free ones at home or they can pay for the barber.  I guess going away for a couple of days warranted the need for a "real" one ;)  These are the kind of texts JP sends me, he cracks me up with his lack of emotion:

4)

John-Paul got an early birthday present and can now come to the gym with me to workout.  He's so excited about it!  He wants to build muscle, so I make him do 20 minutes of cardio and then 30 minutes of muscle and five minutes of abs.  He has a six pack but is literally the worst planker I've ever seen.  Ha!  I can hold one longer and I've had babies.  He's determined to get better than me.  Which will only take about a day.

5)

Maggie decided to clean out and organize our whole toy room this week.  She dumped all the basket contents on the floor, and then put things back where they belong.  I am so thankful to have at least one girl in the family who also cares about organization.  It took her about two hours to do, and she got paid with marshmallows.  What else can I get her to do for marshmallows...

6)

The winner of the Graceful Living book is...

Number 15, congrats Jayne Frey!  (Email me your address at collmart@gmail.com and Sophia Institute Press will mail you the book!)

7)

This week the kids came home with progress reports that needed to be signed and returned.  Before we had opened them, Xander told me "My teacher said my progress report is really bad because my homework is always late."  Which is totally true because it's our job to make sure he gets it done and we are the opposite of helicopter parents.  So it's usually turned in late.  I was feeling really bad about myself, bad for him that my bad actions were affecting his grade, and nervously reached into his bag to look at the progress report.  There was none there!  Because he is only in Kindergarten and doesn't get progress reports yet!  That kid!  Oy vey.  I worked extra hard on his 100th day project (and turned it in early) to make up for all the late homeworks:

10 slices x 10 toppings each = 100

Hope you all have a great football-free weekend (if that's possible?)  and eat some Chinese food for Chinese New Year!  Go see Kelly for more!