Deogratias

An Important Lesson Learned

When you have four kids and you're trying to sell a house, it's very important to do a final bathroom inspection prior to the arrival of potential buyers. 

Here's what happened.  Yesterday we had a showing at around 4:30.  When they arrived those of us who weren't outside already quickly went out back to hang out with the dogs.  About 2 minutes later the real estate agent poked her head out and said they were leaving.  My inquisitive husband asked why they didn't like the house and she replied "Condition mostly." 

"Hmm," I thought.  Ok, it does need some new carpet and have a little problem with the cabinets, but it does have brand new granite countertops and new paint almost all over the downstairs.  Maybe I'm prejudiced, but I don't think it is that bad.

A few minutes later I went into the downstairs bathroom and found something that may have caused the quick exit.  There was poop on the toilet lid!  When I found out who the culprit was he explained - it was only a little spot! 

Now I have no idea if the potential buyers saw this, but no matter what I am inspecting every bathroom before every showing from now on!

A Long Week

Last Sunday at 1:15 a.m. my mother passed away.  Although she had been in and out of the hospital alot this year, somehow I thought that she would pull through this.  She had pulmonary fibrosis and the ultimate cause of death was  hypoxia.

My mother was a very special lady and many, many people will miss her very much.  Aside from us, she is survived by her mother (who will turn 102 in June),  a sister (with whom she had lived for 23 years), two brothers, three sisters-in-law, many neices, nephews, grand neices and grand nephews and tons of friends.  There was a group of 5 ladies with whom my mother had been very best friends for about 60 years.  Also among the mourners was my dad, her ex-husband.  She was preceded in death by her father and older brother.

We had a very lovely Memorial Mass on Thursday in the church where she and my father were married over 50 years ago and where she attended mass at the time of her death.  She was buried in a nearby cemetary next to the grave of her father and the future grave of her mother and sister.

I am the executrix of her estate, so I spent the week trying to figure that all out.  Fortunately my cousin works for an estate attorney's office and she was able to help out with the paperwork.  We still have a great deal of business to attend to though, including going back to her home and picking up the things she left me.

I plan to put together a photo album and essay of my mom's life as soon as possible,   so stay tuned.

A little visitor

I had a nice trip to Pennsylvania, my mom is making some good improvements and everyone back home survived.  We're busy making plans for Nicholas' First Communion on Saturday.

Before I left on Saturday I snapped a few photos of the kids at the new house to show to my mom.  Here is a little visitor that Lee found in the process.

I haven't had time to look him up in the reptile book, but Lee put him back where he found him because he is supposed to be an eater of poisonous snakes.  We'll be glad to keep him around in that case!

Trying to Sell a House

After what seems like months and months of running around like a crazy person, I finally have a moment to breathe.  I think that is because I decided to skip cooking tonight.  My house is clean, pretty much, and the kids are quiet and there is NOTHING going on!

We have decided to homeschool on Monday, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and then take Thursdays and Fridays to clean house so that it will be ready for any potential buyer to stop by and look at it over the weekend.  I kind of like this schedule and wish we could keep it up year round.  But unfortunately 3 x 52 doesn't add up to 180, and even if it did we would have to take some weeks off sometime. 

I'm going to keep doing the math until I can find something like this that will work though because I'm really enjoying it right now.  There's nothing like lying around relaxing in a clean house!

Yesterday a Real Estate Broker came by to sign some paperwork so we can finally get our house listed on the MLS.  She is doing it for a flat fee so we won't have to pay her a commission - but we will pay the buying agent 3 percent.  The agent suggested that I send her 12 photos so we can draw potential buyers in, so that is what I did.  And I'm so proud of my clean house that I can't resist putting a few of them  here.

First of all, here is my very clean office:

This is where I am sitting right now - it does look a bit messier now though!

The office is a sitting room between our master bedroom and bath.  I really love that and am going to miss that.

Here is our bed where I just got finished taking a nap.  I was able to lie on the bed and listen to all the kids in the neighborhood play in the front yard.  I am going to miss that too (sometimes).

Here's our kitchen which is vacant at dinner time - for once.

And here is my little garden.  I'm sad because it is so small and I had to put it in pots this year. 

When we moved here exactly 7 years ago, I actually thought that we would stay here until the kids were grown.  Although they have done quite a bit of growing here, they'll grow up even more at the new house.

The other night I cried when I realized that when we moved here Jacob was Andrew's age.  It's amazing that in 7 short years our little boy went from a little 5 year old to a big teenager!  It will all fly by before we know it so it's time to enjoy it!

Prayers for My Mom

My mom had surgery today.  It was angioplasty in her leg due to a blockage there.  When I spoke with her last night she was expecting the procedure to be easy and to return home tomorrow.  I'm assuming things went ok because she promised to have someone call me today in the event of problems.  Even so, she could still use prayers.

Thus, I'm offering up many prayers for her today -- for the health of her body and soul and her complete recovery from this problem which appeared prior to Easter and required her to spend the holiday weekend in the hospitalized. 

My prayers came in the form of formal prayers, Mass attendance and the offering up of suffering.  And trust me, there was quite a bit of suffering to offer up today.

First of all, I woke up today with pain in my back.  Even though I took two ibuprofen right away the pain didn't subside.  After returning from noon Mass, which was actually a funeral mass for someone I didn't know, I had to lie on the couch and the boys got me an ice pack.  I stayed there and read to the boys from that position. 

We read Prince Caspian, because there is a movie coming out and I have told them that they can't see the movie until we have finished the book.  It turns out the book is very entertaining and keeps them begging for more!    Then I read a little about Pope Benedict XVI in honor of his visit.

The great Catholic blogger Alice provided a link to a great resource on her blog with all kinds of information and reproducables about the pontiff called Celebrate the Visit, so we used that.  We learned all about the pope's childhood and career and then the boys completed some little worksheets.

Next while I was helping Alex practice piano Nicholas and I both got a little scare.  I'm somewhat emotional today and I got out of hand.  First Andrew came in and announced that they had three nests, and then Nicholas came in with three HUGE birds' nests in his hands.  I immediately screamed and told him to take them back quickly.  I was thinking #1) Poor mother and father birds were looking for their nests in which to raise their young and #2) all those germs which were all over Nicholas.

Nicholas ran off and I had to get Jacob to go find him so I could apologize.  I know I over-reacted and I was worried that my scream had scarred him for life.  He took it pretty well, accepting my apology, giving me a hug and assuring me that there were no eggs in the nest.  He washed his hands first though!

My back is still hurting, although not as badly as before.  And I've thanked God for looking after me by giving me this back-ache.  This way I didn't have to feel guilty for not taking Pame to the grocery store!  Because she asked Lee instead and he encouraged her to WALK to the store (less than a mile) in order to become more independent - and she did.  It paid off because she picked up a job application and was able to walk around and try on some clothes for fun.

After a brief make-shift dinner and sending the boys up for showers I was able to lie on the couch, drink a glass of wine and watch some great performances on American Idol and then re-watch them after Lee and Jacob came home from work/Boy Scouts.  Like Megan, I missed Michael Johns - if for any reason that he showed that a little boy that throws the game board up in the air in the middle of a game can grow up to be a seemingly well balanced adult.  I'll not reveal which one of my boys has done this, but his name begins with Al.  Not to mention the fact that MJ is cute and has a nice voice. 

A question I am wondering just now after completing this post is this:  Does offering up suffering count if you complain about it in your blog?  Maybe I should just erase t his entire post and then my prayers could be more productive.  Nah.  After all, I would like to publicize the prayer request for my mom.  Please pray for her!

A Preview of Things to Come

We've been blessed by lots of rain lately and our little spring/creek is overflowing.   This makes for a fun time for 5 boys and not so much fun for a little turtle.

This little guy shows scars from previous traumas -- animal bites no doubt (see the missing part of his shell) He or she didn't seem afraid of coming out of his shell in the hands of some rambunctious boys.

The boys didn't mind treking the entire length of the spring/creek in the chilly water.

With water up to their knees, it's hard to believe this spot was dry just last week.  It's a dry spring which we're hoping to dam up to make a nice little duck (and turtle)  habitat.

Our Easter

We sure had a group of handsome guys this year--thanks in part to my dad who generously bought a brand new suit for each of the boys.  This was the first time in a suit for the boys - except for the oldest two on their First Communion day.  Jacob was especially excited about it and said he plans to wear a suit every Sunday from now on.

I was not quite as dressy as the boys, but not for lack of trying--I just couldn't find anything in the stores that I really liked and that looked good on me.

The celebration began with the finding of the baskets very, very early.  So early, in fact, that I don't have any photos.

Then we got ready and went to 8 a.m. Mass.  Jacob and Alex didn't get to wear their jackets to church because they were volunteered for altar server duty. 

Next, we came home for a yummy bacon and egg breakfast and of course some candy.  The Easter Bunny wasn't quite as generous here as he was to our neighbors though, and Nicholas has reminded me of that several times.  Ian got season tickets to White Water and a HUGE chocolate bunny, or so I was told.

It's been a rough year for the extended family this year, so we decided to go out for Easter dinner instead of cooking.  I don't have any photos of the event, but all was yummy and quite relaxing.

After stuffing ourselves we headed over to our new house for an Easter egg hunt in the woods.

Nicholas found 23 eggs, as opposed to everyone elses 7 or 8.  Can you spell COMPETATIVE?!!  He found both eggs containing money and Grandma's special egg which earned him a prize.  He didn't care about the candy - in fact he gave a lot of it away.  He just wanted to win the most.

Afterwards we hung out in front of the house eating candy and taking some photos.

Somebody lost a tooth!

The tooth fairy works a bit differently for child #4 in our family.  We put his tooth under his pillow and the tooth fairy forgot to come for 2 days.  Fortunately Andrew forgot to look for 2 days as well.

His oldest brother decided to step in and take charge.  He snuck into his little brother's room and played the tooth fairy.  (Of course, I provided the money.) 

The next day we reminded Andrew to look under his pillow and he was surprised to find $2.*  He  accused me of putting it there, and I was able to say in good conscience that I did not.  He gave me a look that hinted that he may be starting to believe again.  But with all the peer pressure from his siblings, maybe not. 

* Our rates for teeth around here are $2 for the front 4 and $1 for all the others.  If you're lucky enough to looks two at a time you get $5.

This and That

I just haven't found the time to blog lately.  The new house is coming along nicely:

The dogs are doing very well after their surgeries.  They both seem calmer and happier and have adjusted to their lives here with us pretty nicely. 

Our house will finally go on the market tomorrow.  We'll be trying out For Sale By Owner for a while just to see how it goes.  I just completed a little flyer to put with the sign in front of the house and Lee will be putting out the signs early (5 a.m.) tomorrow when he goes to work on the new house.

Homeschooling has been very busy but has been going well.  I'm working hard to get them to the point where they can work more independently.  I'm organizing things, getting out some workbooks and buying some new.  I've never been big into workbooks, but you sometimes they are just necessary. 

Tonight we went to Home Depot to buy some for sale signs and we happened to be inside when the sky opened up and a river started pouring out.  Jacob's campout at Racoon Mountain was cancelled this weekend due to the forcast and I guess it was the right decision.

Here's Max

He's all alone today because his sister/constant companion is getting spayed.  When they're together they are WILD, but on their own they seem calm.