Hi Lo: May 7th

HI's:

1) Today is the Mother's Day Tea with my son, Andrew's class. I am so excited, because it is the cutest.thing.ever! All the 4 & 5 year olds put on a little show and then we eat lunch together. I hope to get some good pictures in between all the tears (mine, not his)!

2) Yard work - not sure if this should be a low or a high, it's been a lot of hard work and late nights. I'll put it as a high because a huge chunk of it is done. See?

3) We have had BEAUTIFUL spring weather in the mid 70's this week. I told the kids that this must be the weather in Heaven, and they agreed.

4) Eamon (3) went on his first big field trip yesterday to a Children's Museum about an hour away. He LOVED it, especially the bus ride. (My poor, deprived children don't get to ride the bus to school, they have to get driven by their mom - oh, the horror!)

5) John-Paul had his 7 year old physical this week. He is 49 inches tall and 52 pounds. I'm not sure if that's big or small, he seems normal to me. It's amazing that my little pre-term baby has grown up so much!

LO's:

1) When I was taking all 4 kids to J-P's doctor appt. this week, we saw a funeral procession pass by. There were a lot of police men and firemen in the procession, and I later found out it was a 19 year old soldier who had died. It gave the kids and I a great opportunity to talk about death and Heaven. At one point, as I was explaining that our bodies get buried, but our souls go to Heaven, Andrew piped up and said, "So only our bodies get buried? Not our faces?" Ha!

2) After hearing about the death of an American soldier - none of my small lows can really compare. God Bless him and his family (he had a 2 year old daughter).

What were your ups and downs this week?

Why I Love the Name Evie

I used to love the show Out of This World when I was a kid. I thought Evie was so cool and gorgeous, and knew I wanted to name my future daughter after her.

When I was pregnant with Baby #4 and found out she was a girl, I knew I had to name her Margaret because that was the name of my grandmother who had recently passed away, and it also my mom's name and my middle name. I really wanted to pass the name along, and hoped one day to have another daughter so I could have an Evie.

In all the years since I have seen the show (it was on back in the late 80's) I have been thinking of names for a girl that could have Evie as a nickname. I've come up with Evelyn, Genevieve, Emily Veronica (E.V.), Niamh (pronounced Neeve - which Phil doesn't like), and just recently Everleigh/Everly (which Phil thinks is too cutesie).

I'm a bit obsessed with the name, it's weird. I hope one day I have another daughter to use it on!!

Do you have any names that you REALLY wanted to name your kids - and did - or haven't had the chance yet?

P.S. She actually has a daughter named Evie...lucky!!

Wordless Wednesday: Superheroes!

Not the Emotion I Was Expecting

In the past 2 years, upon discovering each month that I was not pregnant, I have been 100% relieved.

We have lots of reasons to postpone the birth of our next child and are using NFP to help achieve this goal. However, being open to life, if another child were to bless our family anytime soon, we would be overjoyed - shocked - but overjoyed.

Considering 3 out of our 4 babies were surprises (not mistakes), and all very close in age, I have never had the opportunity to practice NFP for a long period of time. Usually before I even consider the thought of having another baby, I am already pregnant! And yes, I know how it happens...I just happen to like it ;)

So when I discovered this morning that I was not pregnant, I was surprised to feel only about 90% relieved and 10% saddened at the idea of not having baby #5 in 9 months.

The timing would have been horrible (the baby would be born right at the beginning of tax season), and all our reasons to wait are still valid, but I am becoming more and more ready for the next baby.

God is slowly but surely working on my heart and I am finally starting to listen :)

A Reminder

To my dear husband and father of my four children (whom I carried, delivered and breastfed...just sayin'):

Today is May 3rd.

Mother's Day is in 6 days.

Our 8th Anniversary is in 2 weeks.

Again, I'm just sayin'.

Oh, and I love you the mostest :)

~Kisses from the Misses!

Hi Lo: April 30th

HI's:

1) We had lots of family visitors last week.

Phil's brother, his wife, and their 5 kids (aged 7 and under) stayed with us from Sunday to Thursday and then Phil's sister, her hubby, and their baby boy came on Friday and stayed until Sunday afternoon.

They all live down in MD/PA area, so we don't get to see them much. Of course, my kids had a GREAT time playing with their cousins during their week off school, and the weather couldn't have been nicer. We went to the zoo twice, playgrounds, parks, a party, and the beach - fun!

(Watch out...they just might!)

2) Meeting my newest nephew Tommy (the baby boy I talked about above) for the first time! He was such a good baby, as long as Mom was nearby - that kid loves to eat :)

(John-Paul, Tommy, Andrew)

3) Getting pedicures with my sister-in-law. It was her first time out without the baby since she became a mother in January. Well deserved, indeed!

4) Happy Birthday to my brother Brian, who turned the big 4-0. We had a party for him with all my immediate family in attendance (which is 14 adults and 19 children) and the family from Phil's side that were visiting.

LO's:

1) It's the last day of April already! Where did the month go? Come back April!

2) OK, I ate WAY too much over vacation week. And couldn't exercise as often as I normally do. Phil and I did manage to squeeze in two 7.5 mile runs together, which was nice. The scale is up about 3 pounds :(

3) The wood chips that were supposed to be delivered last week never showed up, so we ordered them from a different company and hope they come in next week.

4) Why do PMS symptoms and pregnancy symptoms start out the same way? I never know how the month is going to turn out....

What were your ups and downs of the week?