Xan the Man Turns 14

Our biggest baby, our thumb-sucking obsessed toddler, our funniest little guy who loved an audience, our piano-playing/swim-team/runner, our fifth child turned fourteen this weekend.  Alexander Blaise, who has gone by "Xander" for most of his life but more recently has been shortened to "Xan" by his siblings, celebrated his big day in style!

One and always having fun

We started with a family breakfast of (his choice) crepes, strawberries, whipped cream, Nutella, plus eggs and bacon.  Was Nutella spread on bacon and ingested? Yes.

We missed you JP (at school) and Maggie (at a beach volleyball tournament)

Then we opened presents, which is always fun with Xander because he "doesn't like to ask for things because he doesn't like to be disappointed" so he gets very happy and surprised by each gift.  He definitely has dropped hints over the past few months about things he likes, so we made it happen.  He got new white sneakers, real Birkenstocks, a cross necklace, a few outfits, and a nice high school sweatshirt, gift card to buy clothes (he's grown so much this summer!) and a fun book.

Grandpa is confused as to why these are so popular!

Week in Review: Happy Christmas in July

Happy Christmas in July to all who celebrate :)

This week has been so incredibly busy at work because I am trying to reconcile and close out the fiscal year, and the numbers just never want to balance to the penny for me.  With a $52 million dollar budget for our school district, trying to find pennies is a real pain in the derriere.  It's stressful and makes me want to quit my job every year, but then I remember how much I like groceries and electricity and keep plugging away.  A friend of mine who works a school-year job was lamenting that her summer is almost over and I'm like "What is summer?"  Just a busier and hotter time of year for me.  I'll take October over July always and forever.  

My sweet husband who has to hear all of my whining in person (you lucky readers only get it on the screen) bought me a surprise bouquet of flowers last Friday to thank me for the role I play in our family.  He is seriously too good to be true:

On Saturday, Brendan had his bestie's birthday party to attend.  It was a beach party at the lighthouse in the next town over, and perfectly windy enough to fly a kite:

While he was having fun there, we took Declan to use a gift card he had won back in March...of 2024.  Better late then never!  It was to a pizza place in the city next to us:

"Art"

Week in Review: Books and Cooks and Looks

Hello and Happy Friday in the middle of summer!  It's been hot and humid and exactly what the south coast of Massachusetts is supposed to be like, so no complaints.  This week was certainly not as action-packed as last week which is fine by me and Andy Grammar.  

The littles went to a free magic show in town, which was surprisingly good (the magician used to work at Disneyworld) and sparked in my boys an immediate need to perform magic tricks at home while asking mom for random supplies to make them happen:

In the afternoons, I come home from work and want to take a nap, but then I know I won't get to sleep well at night, so I rest on the couch and read a book until Phil gets home from work and then we make dinner together.  

The books:

Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney

 My first Alice Feeney book, and I liked it, but going back and forth between characters who had names and nicknames and fake names hurt my little brain at times.  I thought I had figured out the twist at the end, but much like a soft serve at The Cottage, there was a delicious extra twisty twist on top.

God's Influencer: Holy Advice from Carlo Acutis by Antonia Salzano and Andrea Acutis

We are big Carlo Acutis fans in the Martin household.  First of all, my husband looks just like Carlo as a boy, so I've always felt a connection with him.  Secondly, Carlo's real attraction was that he was a "normal" boy living in modern days, playing Nintendo, wearing jeans and using technology, but always tried to make sure his actions would be glorifying to God.  As someone who is an overthinking perfectionist, I completely related to the rules and plans he would make for himself to use entertainment in moderation and not get addicted to it.  He discovered a love for Jesus, and was excited to learn about Eucharistic miracles, so much so that he started a website to spread the word.  He's an inspiration to my teens for sure, a timely reminder we are all still called to be saints, it's not just for old nuns from other countries, or war survivors from decades ago.  Each saint's story is as unique as we all are, and it's not impossible to become a saint in our lifetime.  Anyone who gets to Heaven is a saint, and we all want to get to Heaven, so we all want to be saints :)  This book is a great read, told by his parents, who will be at their son's canonization.  Legendary!  I can't wait for him to be canonized, along with Pier Giorgio Frassati in September.

  Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

 I'm not finished with this one yet, though I am reading it much faster than Good Bad Girl because I need to find out answers!  The stage is set right away with an aging grandma inviting her family to her secluded mansion by the sea, reading aloud her will, then people dying one by one mysteriously.

Glucose Revolution by Jessie Inchauspe

I listened to this one on Audible and while it wasn't really any new information about nutrition for me, it was interesting to hear how the way we eat certain foods matters, and how we pair them with other foods.  I find myself adding a sweet to the end of my meal rather than as a snack now.  My fasting blood sugar levels have always been a little high, and since I had gestational diabetes, I am very aware/concerned with eating in a way that can prevent me from getting diabetes later in life.

A Song for Nagasaki by Paul Glynn

 I am listening to this book through the Hallow app and it's just so good!  It's about a Japanese doctor who survived the atomic bomb, his conversion from atheism to Catholicism, the many losses that happen in his life, his health issues, and his changing views and values.  I haven't done much research on the Japanese culture, but I find it so interesting to learn through this story.

Week in Review: Life at the Lake, Life at Home, and Life is Good

These summer weeks are flying by!  I think when we last left off it was right before Independence Day, and my altar servers were on their field trip day of Altar Boy Boot Camp.  They toured a beautiful Cathedral, then went to a go-cart place, then came and got ice cream at The Cottage!  

The fireworks for the city next to us (but that can be seen from our town on the water as well) were scheduled for July 3rd this year.  Something about the city not having the funding for the fireworks until too late in the game, and they had to pick a date that the company was available.  Anyhoo, July 3rd happened to give us a WILD rain/lightening/thunder storm that evening that seemed to come out of nowhere.  Lots of trees down and power outages, but the fireworks still went on, though delayed until 9:30 pm.  So many people were mad about it, because they couldn't go outside, drive on certain roads, had lost power, so they couldn't see the show.  But the city couldn't postpone until a much later date, and the weather did clear up enough by 9:30.  The fireworks night is typically a very busy night for us at The Cottage, and we actually did much more business than I thought we would considering the storm, but I wish for everyone's sake that it had been a nice clear evening.  

On July 4, we went to my sister's house for a good old fashioned American BBQ.  We had a little cake and cupcake bouquet to celebrate my Dad's birthday (85!!) and to say Farewell to JP:

Cuzzies

Is it even a family party without Spikeball?

My sister, who is a dermatologist, wanted to gift JP a nice stethoscope for med school, which he is very appreciative of.

He used it right away to listen to my Dad's lung crackle, a party trick he pulls out whenever he's around a stethoscope:

Last shift at The Cottage

Pondering Parenting from Babies to Adults

I can vividly remember having four kids aged 4 and under:

Weren't they the cutest?

But also, the most dependent and needy and clingy and hungry and dirty and awake-at-the-wrong-hours and crying and fighting and mess-making and totally normal toddlers and babies.

There's a reason that Baby #4 and Baby #5 were born almost four years apart...Mama was tired.  I felt like I was drowning in babies.  Thankfully, I was young, I was strong, both mentally and physically, and while I recognized the season was hard, we were able to get through it pretty well.  And yet, I used to hate when a well-meaning older woman would see me grocery shopping with all of the littles and tell me "Enjoy every moment, it goes by so fast!"  I remember thinking that having older kids would be SO MUCH EASIER.  Kids that could get themselves dressed and fed, were potty trained, and go to bed and sleep through the night sounded like winning the lottery.

And that was true.

We had such a glorious stretch of years when having another baby wasn't too hard because there was only one baby and only one toddler, with plenty of older siblings to play with.  Years when all five kids were at the same school, years when all seven kids were in school (no more daycare! no more diapers!), and plenty of years when everyone was asleep in their own bed under our roof.  Dinner for nine was the norm and we knew who was coming and going and what they were doing.  It was busy with lots of moving parts, and it felt difficult at times but it never felt harder than those early baby years.  It was much more fun and entertaining, and those dependent babies became independent kids and teens that we loved to be around.

Week in Review: Fashionably Unfashionable, Altar Boy Boot Camp and Patriotic Prepping

Happy Friday! last day of the work week because Independence Day is tomorrow!

After the vigil Mass on Saturday, Phil and I took the only two kids with us out on our weekly date, which they loved.  They both ordered steak tips - I guess gone are the days of chicken nuggets and mac n' cheese!  

Going out to eat is something I love doing, but just is not financially responsible for our whole family often, so it's nice to treat them one by one or two by two when we can.  Please don't mind their black socks and black shoes, I know it's not fashionable but they have to wear that for altar serving!

Maggie and Xander came home from the Steubenville Conference, which they absolutely loved and can't wait to go back again.  

Friends since preschool

Cousins since birth

Our Diocesan group