Easter is a Season, So This Post Isn't Technically Late

Hello!  Happy Easter!  On Good Friday, we drove down to visit Phil's side of the family in Maryland.  We left at 4:30 am and arrived at 11:30 am with one quick stop at Wawa for gas and coffee (My Uncle Tom loved Wawa and we don't have them near us so I took a picture to send to my mom):

Slainte Uncle Tom

I had kept a little secret from the family... a certain someone was able to drive from college in Ohio to celebrate Easter with us in Maryland!

Andrew!

We all went to the Good Friday service and then to our friends, Andrew and Katie's house to have some pizza and a bonfire and let the kids play.

On Holy Saturday, Phil's sister, Diana, came with her cuties to hang out, and Phil's sister, Kelly, sent her kids over as well while she worked.  I don't have many photos, but please imagine tons of cousins running around and playing together in the beautiful summer-like weather.

Like father...

... like son!

Give Maggie a child and she's a happy girl

Week in Review: Piano, Pasta and Power Tools

Happy Friday Wednesday!  Due to Holy Week, I'm wrapping up this week early and I'll see you all on the flip side of Easter.

Brendan went to his first piano competition up near Boston last Saturday.  He's been taking lessons for about 7 months, and competed in the 8 and Under - Non Classical division with ten kids total.

 

Do you see that snow outside?  Yup, snow!  On April 12!

Brendan was evaluated before he had to compete, and I was allowed to take a video of that:

Here he is with his teacher after the evaluation:

Then we had to wait for about an hour before his group competed.  It took us a few days to find out how he placed, but he got...

Week in Review: A Soirée, Cracking the Code, and Boys Easter Outfits

Happy Friday!  It's been a week of wintery cold weather, lots of things on the calendar, and a wind down of Lent and countdown to Easter.  Who's ready for Holy Week next week?  Not me, but it's coming anyway :)

Last Friday night, Phil and I attended the soirée at the high school where he works.  It was a nice time, especially since they honored our friend Jean, and I got to see lots of my old coworkers and friends (I worked there as the Business Manager for ten years).  I miss those peeps.  My current coworkers and I don't have to interact much and it's always business-related, where at my old job it turned into real friendships.  I know the problem is mostly ME and the fact that I have not tried very hard to cultivate the same relationships at this job.  It's also because my old job forced me to interact with every single employee (I did the payroll and HR role) and I had known a lot of them before I started working there because they were already my husband's coworkers for years.  Anyway, seeing everyone made me feel very nostalgic and emotional.  But who am I kidding, so much makes me feel emotional nowadays #perimenopausallyweepy

Andrew went on a retreat with his household, where they officially inducted all the new members, including him!  The social media post showed this photo and named the new members, and I laughed out loud when I read "Andy Martin and Smiles".  I can't believe he lets them call him Andy and I can't believe that Smiles has gained rapper status by having no real first or last name.

Andrew is fourth from left in the front.

Cooking breakfast on retreat

Easter is Coming - Hop to It

I learned a long time ago to throw all of the Easter Basket goodies into one laundry basket instead of making individual baskets.  It means you can give shared gifts and buy bigger bags of candy and I use it as an excuse to get a new laundry basket (and get rid of an old cracked one) each year!

Paint by Sticker Book - such a great boredom buster that's not messy!

The Action Bible - the way my kids pored over this graphic Bible was intense

2025 Guinness World Records - we get the updated book each year

2025 Year in Sports - to give kids more "Did you know..." info

Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac - a certain someone will love getting this

Human Anatomy Coloring Book - for the nursing students and med school students in your life

Set of Markers + a Sketch Book

Kit Kat Bunnies - I've never seen a bunny version of a Kit Kat!

Warheads Chewy Bunnies

Reese's Eggs

Dove Chocolate Bunny

Cadbury Mini Eggs (Phil prefers the Dark Chocolate variation)

My favorite mints

Action Bible Guess it Game - a great car game

Window Herb Garden - Spring is the perfect time to get those herbs growing

Kids Electric Toothbrushes - to compensate for all the extra sugar ;)

New Water Bottle - always immediately loved

Bubbles - no matter the age, these get put to good use

Sidewalk Chalk - for the budding artist

Flower Hair Clips - so cute!

Saint bracelets - my boys love wearing bracelets like these

Anything you are hopping hoping to see in your Easter laundry basket?

Week in Review: Sidewalks, Sleeps, Surprises and Shows

Happy First Friday of April!  It has been a rainy/cloudy week as one would expect for April.

One of the Lenten devotions I love is going to Stations of the Cross on Friday evenings.  That plus listening to Hallow's Lent Pray40 each morning are such good additions to my prayer life.  Are any of you listening as well?  The story of Takashi Nagai is riveting and inspiring, and now I want to get his book.

Four out of five servers are Martins, can you spot the imposter?

 Down at The Ice Cream Cottage, the sidewalk is getting an upgrade.  The sidewalk really needed to be redone, but the Town also decided to extend it about six more feet to make room for outdoor seating.

Before

During

After

Now we have to reconstruct a little garden to hide our ugly foundation, and buy some tables and chairs and benches to fill the space.  We weren't exactly ready to make these purchases after just having closed on the building last month, but people are excited for outdoor seating and we don't want to disappoint our customers!  I'm not sure if the restaurants on either side of us will do outdoor seating but I'm sure they feel the (social media, word of mouth) pressure as well.

April cleaning brings a May opening, and the kids have been helping Phil get things sparkly clean and set up.  You learn a lot in a family business, and the top lesson is that it's a lot of hard work!

I took the winter comforter off our bed and replaced it with this very pretty (at a great price!) duvet cover (had to buy a duvet too).  I chose the Mineral Blue color in California King size because even though we only have a king sized bed, we like our comforters a little more roomy.  I swear I've been sleeping better since we made the switch.

JP went out to his car one day after working at the hospital and found flowers and a note:

How incredibly sweet of this person!  JP said he saw a couple other cars had it as well :)

I made a really quick soup last Sunday night for lunches for the week and it turned out so yummy!  I just chopped some veggies and added chicken, chicken broth, spices and some chickpea pasta.  A bowl of the soup plus a greek yogurt ended up being about 300 calories with 38 grams of protein, not too shabby!

Phil and I finished watching The Residence, very Agatha Christie-esque:

We are impatiently waiting for the next season of Paradise to come out:

I also watched Con Mum over the weekend, a good documentary about, you guessed it, a mom who conned.  

We are ready for a new show if anyone has anything they are loving?

Have a great weekend everybody!!

11 Years of Declan Kolbe

 I'm sorry to my other children, who all have their God-given strengths and talents, but Declan Kolbe Martin was our cutest baby ever.

Proof:

How did I ever get anything done while kissing those perfect cheeks all day?  What helped make this little guy even more handsome was his easy-going personality.  He's been a sweetheart from Day One all the way through Day 4018 or what was known as his 11th Birthday!

We started the day with a donut breakfast on the way to school, then he said that his teacher and friends made the day so special.  His friends sang to him, one brought him (another) donut, and his teacher let him be the assistant for the day so he sat up next to her desk and helped make decisions.  He told me every.single.detail of the day when we went on a walk after school with the dog, one of his favorite things to do (both the uninterrupted talking time and being outside).  

Managing Mom Guilt - Big Family Activities

 Declan started practices for his spring soccer league that was sold to us as a "close travel" league. But then I got the schedule (after paying $180 for registration and $200 for uniforms), and his first game is on Nantucket. Yes, the island. As in, a one-hour drive to the ferry in Hyannis, followed by a 2-hour ferry ride to Nantucket, all for a one-hour soccer game—and then travel the whole thing backwards.

Yeah, no thanks. Declan will be skipping that first game. Luckily, the rest of the games are less than an hour away, but I’m reminded why we didn’t do travel sports for our kids until now—and only because there’s just one child who wanted to partake. Imagine trying to manage travel teams back in the day when five of them played soccer at once? Impossible.

Which brings me to one of the hardest parts about being a mom to lots of kids: trying to give the same opportunities and experiences to each child.

Now, I don’t want this to be confused with giving each child “love and attention,” which is often the reason given to not have more than a couple of kids. The secret that the world doesn’t realize is that giving children more siblings naturally gives them more love and attention. There are literally more people in the family who interact with them, care for them, play with them, and have their backs. Parents aren’t the only source of love and attention (or entertainment, for that matter), and I dare say that children from healthy, big families get plenty of support and feel loved by many—which might not always be the case in smaller families.

But while love is infinite, financial resources and hours in the day are not. And that’s where having lots of kids in activities can get tricky. Much to my husband’s dismay, my brain tends to keep track of the opportunities we gave the older kids, and I feel the need to give the younger kids the same. They don’t have to choose the exact same sports or instruments or activities, but I want them to have access to everything, and not be held back or discouraged just because we’re busier now, paying for college tuitions, or, let’s be honest, just plain older and more tired now!