7 Quick Takes: Computer Dying Edition

--- 1 ---

Why yes.
This totally deserves a
Sadie Frown.

Yesterday my computer began to do the most horrible thing.  The entire screen started to flicker on and off and then a rainbow of brightly colored darts would shoot across the screen and then the screen would come back on for a second before turning grey and telling me to hold down the power button until it shut off.

It happened three times last night and I'm fairly certain that it means my computer is about five minutes away from dying.

So if there is a sudden silence on this blog just know it's likely because a) my four year old lap top is finally dead and b) Paul is laughing at my suggestion that I MUST borrow his computer because for some reason he doesn't seem to think that blogging/running an online business trumps two long grueling weeks of law school finals.

And I just know he'll roll his eyes if I question that particular set of priorities.

--- 2 ---

What my computer
really needs
if it's going to last
even a few more days.

Another part of me is like:  "Look.  This is God's way of telling you that you get to give up the internet for Advent.  It's something that you would never ever (ever, ever, ever) do on your own, so he's helping you out."

While the other part of me screams:

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..."

Because there are few things that I hate more than that particular suggestion.

Every year at Lent someone makes it and I'm always joyful that I have the whole: "Sorry, I have an online business.  Me being online means heating the house and putting food on the table." excuse to not do it.

But really, the truth is, I've gone months in the past year without having a face to face conversation with an adult other than my gone-15-plus-hours-a-day-husband (with the exception of people taking my money at the grocery store and that sort of thing) and I'm pretty sure taking away the one line that leads out of the house that I have regular access to would not make me a calmer, more focused person.

--- 3 ---

But the computer has survived to Quick Take #3!  And that's something!

--- 4 ---

Yesterday, midway through therapy, after saying the words "I have a ball" and, "one, two, three, four, five" while counting objects, Mae heard me tell her therapist that I'd heard her counting in Spanish the previous day.

And she then made the switch and spent the rest of the therapy session speaking Spanish.

Now I have years of Spanish classes and years of working with guys that mostly (or only) spoke Spanish when I was in college, so I feel like I have an okay command of the language... and she was saying words that I didn't know.  I actually thought that she was just making words up until the her therapist looked it up online during the session and discovered that she was in fact actually saying real words.

That had me pretty baffled for the remainder of the day. because I know that I know 100% of the words on Dora and Diego, until I realized that we have a bunch of Spanish picture books that I got when Sadie was young and I was still super excited to try to teach a second language to my 0-month old... and while I've never read them with Maggie I suspect she may be reading them on her own.

It's like we learn something new about her every single day!

--- 5 ---

Yesterday afternoon Sadie and I watched Guadalupe: A Living Image on Amazon Prime and I was amazed at how glued to the TV she was as she kept asking questions about what was going on.

Honestly, if you haven't seen it, it's fascinating.  It talks about everything from the fact that the constellations on Mary's gown are those that would have been in the sky at that time (as seen from space including the position of the moon that she's standing on!), to the symbolism behind her hair and attire (her hair being down would have told the native people seeing the image that she was a virgin, the purple belt would have told them that she was pregnant, and the image of the particular four petaled flour on her gown would have let them know instantly that she was carrying God in her womb.), to the images of the people who were in the room when the tilma was unfolded that are reflected in her eyes.

There is actually much, much more to it even than that (from the Golden Ratio to musical notes within the image), and I can't recommend this documentary enough!

--- 6 ---

I need to get out my kitchen thermometer and measure the temperature in the living room.  Because I have the thermostat cranked up to a ridiculous temperature so that the kids who are bundled up in layers and under huge numbers of blankets, can sleep at night (think, above 70) but I know it is not even close to that in here.  I know this because I have been wearing a pair of fleece lined tights with a pair of stretch pants over them and a pair of flannel pants over that and many layers of long sleeves and I still walk around shivering.

I thought maybe it was just me and a very low tolerance for cold until I saw that both of the people who were here for therapy yesterday stayed in their jackets and one had a blanket across her lap, which had me rejoicing that it really isn't just me.  There's no way that thermostat is right.  I was out shoveling snow without a jacket when it was "feels like 0" a few days ago.  I'm just not that much of a wimp.  

--- 7 ---

Patrick is apparently a toddler who likes his schedule.  He goes down for his nap every day at 9.  The other day Mae's therapy was starting later so I tried to delay his nap by half an hour so that they would still overlap as much as possible (so he wouldn't be clamoring to go into the play room to play with everybody).  Instead at 9 he walked over to the gate and stood there waiting to be taken upstairs to his crib.  I'm pretty sure he might be the easiest baby to care for in the history of the world:

Ready for his nap.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

The 12th Day of Advent: Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!  

There's really no other month that can compete with December in terms of favorite feast days in our house.  October comes close, but I think December with it's mix of Advent and feast days (and of course Christmas!) easily carries the day!

Maggie was supposed to find this particular doll under the tree on Christmas morning, but I came across a necklace in a sensory collection (she loves necklaces!) that would be perfect for her and decided that could be her third present and that the doll would be the perfect surprise today.  

When the kids came downstairs this morning they found this:

Patrick was hilariously sweet this morning.

Now I have to begin by saying that Patrick isn't a huge fan of dolls.  I imagine it's the result of having a big sister that thinks he's a living doll who just lives to be cuddled, but if you try to hand the boy a doll he'll turn his face away and get the funniest little look and refuse to touch it.  Until he saw this doll:

Apparently this doll is different (one more reason to love Shining Light Dolls!  And Mae's Saint Nicholas doll kept her quiet for an entire Mass this past Sunday!).  He will pick it up and hand to me so that I can hold it up and say "Mary wants to kiss you!" and then he will present his cheek for a kiss.  We repeated this over and over again this morning and he had a sweet little smile on his face the entire time.

I also tracked down this book to read today:

I also snapped a picture of our Advent Candle to show that it's steadily burning down.  I've been pressing down the wax (thank you to the person who made that suggestion!) every day so that it burns evenly and I've finally got it burned to the correct date!  

We're halfway to Christmas Eve now!  I know I've said this before but I just feel like this Advent is flying by!

And for anyone who's interested Holy Helpers is giving away one of their CDs (normally over $14 before shipping and today it's free plus the cost of shipping!)  The CD their giving away includes the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe for the feast day!

The Search Continues: Shepherds, Wise Men and a Maggie Hiding Place

I couldn't find the shepherd.  I just couldn't.  I cleaned the whole downstairs like I do every night and searched for it for the last two nights and he was no where to be found.  And then I glanced over and there he was, right where the camel had been two nights before (note to self, check the monkey ball ramp 1st next time... because let's face it, it's highly likely that there will be a next time...) and I saw the shepherd and baby Jesus on the ramp.  

Maggie has apparently been quite busy:

Once everyone was back in their groups I began thinking up new places for our little guys to hide:

And I decided to surprise Mae by making her job of swiping members of the Shepherd Search Team and hiding them a tiny bit easier:

And that's the 11th day of Advent in our house!  Tomorrow we'll be halfway to Christmas Eve (although the day I'm secretly wishing for is December 18th, when Paul's last final will be turned in...)!

The Jesse Box

A box arrived at our house some time ago and I was eager to open it... but not just yet, I said, setting it aside.  It was a busy day, in the midst of the what-on-Earth-is-Patrick-allergic-to saga and I knew that what was in the box was awesomely amazing and I wanted to open it at a time when I could sit down and devote a good amount of time to photographing what was in that box and setting it up and getting ready to do a lesson with the kids.  

As a blogger this might very well be my #1 flaw (at the very least it's in the top 5!).  You see I'll get an email or a comment (or a box in the mail) and I'll glance at it and think, oh this deserves a response, a good response, I have to respond when I have at least a solid five minutes all to myself.  Can you see the problem with that logic?  Because there hardly ever are a solid, unaccounted for five minutes in this house, something is always popping up needing to be done and I always fall asleep before doing the things that I was saving to do well.  

And that's what happened to the box.

It moved around the house and I kept meaning to open it very, very soon until I forgot to do it altogether.  This last week I found it and opened it and marveled at the wonderfulness of what was in that box and kicked myself for not opening it earlier because it truly is something that I'm going to be using in our lesson plans every single week from now on.  It's something that I would recommend to anyone who are trying to make the story of our faith come alive for their little ones.

It's a Jesse Box.

It was sent to me from the good (and patient!) people at Angelus Press. 

Inside the box is another "box" in three parts:

The box comes with two booklets (and many figures for many Bible stories, along with instructions for access to more stories online). I immediately found the story and figures for Advent.

I did some preparations to get the story that I'd be doing with Sadie ready before I set it up and showed it to her.

And then it was time for the big reveal:

Once she figured out what it was she was enthusiastic about setting it up:

Although in this picture she was mostly just
startled since I kept taking pictures!
And she was still trying to figure out what
was going to be in the box!

Since it was already the second week of Advent we set up the figures for the first week and talked about the story and then set up the figures for the second week.  I told her the stories and then we talked about the suggested discussion questions in the booklet and she marveled at the little manger that we'll be putting baby Jesus in and announced that Mary was her favorite figure in the diorama.

In my excitement I didn't put down the floor pieces!
I'm sure I'll be posting about our Jesse Box adventures again,
because I really like the way our lessons are going, so next time
the floor will be in place!

And here are more pictures since I don't think my words can do the set justice!

Mary and Joseph on the long journey towards Bethlehem

The shepherds

Okay, we aren't to the wise men yet, or baby Jesus, but I just
had to snap a picture for this post!

The wise men and their camels

The nativity

Sadie was enthusiastic about playing with it after we were done with our lesson!

And while this isn't the best video out there (the lights in our house are pretty dim, and the wintery light outside isn't helping) I just had to share part of the conversation that Sadie and I had after we finished talking about the questions in the booklet:

I just can't recommend this set enough.  It really is lovely.  And it's listed on the Angelus Press website as 40% of right now.  

I am so excited to be using this as part of our faith formation program.  I'd been looking to add something hands on in lately and the Jesse Box perfectly fits that idea.

The Search Goes On (Days 9 and 10 from our Wise Men Adventures)

Yesterday was so busy with therapy, school, an hour and a half of taking notes at a board meeting (fun fact that I bet 99% of you didn't know I'm also the secretary for the board of directors of a corporation), and then the homework for today's meeting for the study that Mae and I are in, that I didn't post the pictures from the 9th Day of Advent.  Here's what our little guys got into:

Last night, as I set up for the tenth day, I came to the realization that the disappearance of random members of our search parties is not an accident.  First shepherd #2 disappeared.  Then a camel went AWOL (I found him stuck in a ball slide on a toddler toy).  Then shepherd #1 went missing.  And I was thinking it was all accidental until I found a missing camel last night under the rug in the play room, which conclusively proves that the person hiding the toys from me is about three feet tall and three years old.  I still have no idea where she put the two shepherds.  And so here are our pictures from the tenth day:

I can't believe we're only a couple of days away from the half way point in Advent!

Why the word "Yo yo" had us wide eyed this morning...

I opened my eyes to a crisp Michigan morning and a world blanketed in snow outside my bedroom window, but the first thought in my mind, that pushed aside all others in a moment of pure joy was the small, clear, ringing voice that had pulled me from my dreams into wakefulness.

"A-wake!  A-wake!"  Maggie's voice filled the house.  In the other room Patrick gave a shout and I heard Sadie say "Is it morning?  Is it time to go downstairs yet?"

It was 6:30, which meant that it was in fact time to go downstairs

Every time Maggie surprises me with some completely unexpected word I'm filled with joy at all that she's learning.

While Sadie and I were doing school later in the day another word filled the downstairs.  "Yo yo!  Yo yo!  Yo yo!"  Maggie said the word again and again.

"She's saying 'yo yo'!"  I heard her therapist say, her voice surprised.
"I thought that was kind of strange."  I said from the other room.  "Because we don't have any yo yos, so I'm not even sure how she knows what a yo yo is."
"She's holding a card."  She told me.  "She has a card that says yo yo and she picked it up and started saying the word.  I think she's reading it!"

And even though the psychologist at her cognitive test said that she thinks that Maggie can read, and even though I've long suspected that she can read because of her intent interest in Sadie's reading lessons and the way she sits and "reads" by herself for long stretches of time, I was still surprised by this latest demonstration of what she can do.

Logically believing she's capable of doing something is one thing, but seeing it in action is amazing!

The 8th Day of Advent and The Reason that I was Cheering Last Night

I've been busy as a bee sewing (which is a very, very good thing!) but last night I took a quick break to get our little search parties ready for the morning: 

And as I had the online game tracker on, showing the plays and the score of the Ohio/Michigan State game I couldn't help but throw in a little bit of green during my advent preparations:

We were pretty excited about the results and the fact that Michigan State should now be headed to the Rose Bowl where they will likely be playing Grumpa's team (Stanford, which both of his parents attended).  

And for some reason a question popped into my head that was tossed my way in the combox on a totally unrelated post about a year ago.  Someone asked why we were State fans when we'd just arrived here, likely because I kept posting enthusiastically (annoying?) pictures like this one:

Anyways, as the months have passed that question has popped into my head a few times and I've thought of writing a post answering the question, but I've held off because the reasons seem to keep piling up.  

This afternoon, following last night's victory, which put Michigan State at the top of the Big Ten this year, as I watch the kids play and snuggled under a Spartan blanket, I thought I'd attempt an answer.

Sadie picked out the theme for Daddy's birthday cake.

So here goes.  This is the answer to the question:  Why are you non-Michigan natives claiming to be State fans?

In the beginning I fell in love with Michigan State simply because Paul was accepted into the law school and he accepted the offer to come here.  I'd never been to Michigan when the letter caught up with us during Paul's summer internship in Calfornia, but it was already a place that I could actually imagine living.  You see one year in south western Florida, the land of perpetual summer, was more than enough for me.  I missed living in a world with seasons.  I missed the brilliant colors of autumn, the icy chill of winter, and most of all, I missed being able to walk outside in December at 7 am and not being instantly drenched in sweat.  

Besides, leaving Florida felt like leaving behind one of the most terrible times of our lives.  The months that followed losing Christian and the events at the hospital there had tainted our time down south in a way that wasn't really fair to Florida. Still, fair or not I was eager to leave Naples behind.

And so Michigan, with it's pictures of State glowing in a mantle of fall colors, looked a little bit like heaven to me.

The Museum

We hurriedly moved across the country (again) and Paul settled into school and enjoyed his classes.  

I was 24 weeks pregnant when we arrived and I quickly began looking for a doctor.  We'd had several scares during Patrick's pregnancy that had me on edge and I was eager to find an OB.  After calling three offices and being told they couldn't take me I was pointed towards the university's office.  They would accept me as a patient and could get me in right away.  

At that point I had no idea how grateful I would be to live so near the university in the coming year.  

I didn't know that at the start of the 9th month of my pregnancy with Patrick I would be admitted to the hospital with a fever of 103, a resting heart rate of 150 and blood pressure that kept dropping to 70 over 40, struggling to breath and terrified.

Most of the some 20 doctors from obstetrics and infectious disease that were bustling in and out of my hospital room in the following days were from the university and I was incredibly grateful for the care that Patrick and I received that led to a healthy delivery a few weeks later.  After all, I was more than a little distrustful of hospitals and doctors when I'd arrived, and my experience this time around did much to erase those fears.

Most of the doctors coming in and out of my room while I was allowed a trial of labor after two c-sections were from State too.  And after Patrick was born his care was taken over by the university's pediatrics clinic.  

At that point Sadie was taking skating lessons in their hockey arena through the city recreation district and we were just beginning to appreciate all that living near the university had to offer.

Sparty!

As Patrick got bigger we began to visit Daddy's school for fun and field trips!

Patrick plays on the grass during a visit with Daddy.

From seeing the bones of dinosaurs and mammoths at the museum to the bouncy ball display (they bounce up and down from the ceiling on strings!) in the modern art museum State definitely was at the center of many of my field trip plans.

The MOMA

 We've sat and watched the marching band practice on our way back from walking to the law school to visit Daddy.  Sadie and Daddy used a Groupon to catch a hockey game together.

 And one of Sadie's favorite places in the world is the school's fantastic botanical garden:

Here she is drawing her favorite flower, the Madagascar Periwinkle.

I think Maggie prefers the Children's Garden, with it's willow dragon that she can walk inside of:

It's where we went trick or treating (which was great because I'd been walking around all day wondering what we were going to do since we had costumes and no where to go!):

And it's given us educational opportunities that we definitely wouldn't have otherwise had, like student tickets to see a visiting Russian ballet present Cinderella, or a local company's performance of the Nutcracker:

But all that leaves out the #1 reason that I'm thankful that we live right next to the university.  It's the reason that even if we move across the country and never live in Michigan again, I will remain a lifelong State fan.

It was a resident from the university's program that sat with Mae for nearly an hour, talking with me and interacting with her, and then very gently explaining that she was certain that Mae was on the spectrum.  She was the one who made phone calls and pointed me in the direction that I needed to be pointed in to get the ball rolling with testing (I still haven't heard back from the form that I filled on the Michigan state (government) website in June requesting testing).

And when I was desperate to learn something and find some sort of program that would help me help Mae (especially when we were waiting for her paperwork to come through), it was on the school's psychology website that I found out about their autism lab, where Mae and I have been accepted into a study that is designed to teach parents to work with and teach their children.  We meet twice a week on Skype with a graduate student and talk about what I've learned and about how Mae  is doing and together we're designing a plan and goals for our interventions in the coming months.

We've only been here for 17 months.  I don't have green and white running in my veins because my parents and grandparents were fans.  My own degree doesn't say Michigan anywhere on it (then again, my own alma mater gave up it's football team after my senior year).  But I still found myself staying up until midnight last night to see who was going to win the big game and smiling from ear to ear when the screen flashed that the game was over and that the final score had Michigan State on top (and then I worried briefly about how crazy Paul's work was likely to be in light of the news, before drifting off to sleep).

 And that is my not so brief explanation to the question of why our family cheers for State... If that isn't a good enough reason, I don't know what is!

Bongo Drums, Mae and the 7th Day of Advent

Can you believe that the first week of Advent is already drawing to a close?  

Now that Sadie is old enough to have fun with the activities I'm coming up with Advent is quickly becoming my very favorite time of year.  And even Mae and Patrick are wide eyed when we do our daily routine of prayers and candles and readings.  

Today's note (which I didn't snap a picture of and then decided it's probably easier for everyone to read if I just copy and paste it anyways!) follows:

December 7^th, 2013

7^th Day of Advent

1^st Saturday of Advent

Dear Sadie, Maggie and Patrick,

The first week of Advent is coming to an end and the 3 Kings are continuing their search!  Tonight they came across a strange form of transportation they’d never seen before!  But they still didn’t catch a glimpse of the baby King!

And while one of our shepherds still seems to be missing a little drummer boy appeared.  I think he might have heard all the wonderful music that the three of you were making with the bongo drums last night and he wanted to join in! 

Have fun making ornaments and coloring!  I can’t wait to see what our brave little search parties come up with next in their search for the little baby King!

Yesterday during therapy Maggie began using the new container of diaper wipes as a drum and she absolutely loved drumming on it.  She came over and wanted me to drum with her and was thrilled to get everyone involved.  She wanted to dance to the drumming and then would run back and drum more herself.

Later in the day when we were out doing errands we stopped by Toys R' Us.  I had a gift certificate to spend and as I wandered the aisles, trying to think of something quickly since Paul had stayed in the car with the kids, I came across an aisle full of instruments and my eyes immediately fell on the bongo drums.  After deciding that these had the best sound I picked them up and used the card I'd had in my purse (that was about to expire!).

The drums inspired my addition to the shepherd's search, since one of our shepherds is still missing:

And Mae's reaction to the drums was very, very happy.  She and Patrick and Sadie were all drumming together at the same time.  She would even bring it over and want to drum with one or two of us at the same time (which is huge!!!).

So the drum was totally, totally worth the Friday trip into Toys R' Us during an afternoon in December... Because:

The shepherd and sheep joined in the block stacking fun she's been having to complete their part of the search for the day:

Mae's also taken an interest in the train tracks lately (lining them up side by side) so I thought I'd take some of them out of the box that they're usually in and set up a display that I knew would be destroyed about ten seconds after they came downstairs!  

And that is our 7th day of Advent!  The search for the baby king is still on!

Now to think up something special for tomorrow!

The Amazing Bouncing Sadie

I posted this on the facebook page but a certain Nani (who is totally going to be freaked out by how high up in the air Sadie went) has a computer that won't play this on facebook right now so I'm posting it here too!  I think Sadie thought that she'd broken the machine when it started coming down, so she says "help" but she totally had a blast and wants to go again (and told Grumpa that she's not sure if boys are allowed to go on it):