Life changes

with children.  This morning, Hannah said to me:

“For Mother’s Day, you have to sleep in as late as you want.  Maybe even to 7:30, or 8:00!”

Morning people

Some of my family is made up of morning people.  I’m not included in this group.  Naomi isn’t either.  Simeon…well, the jury is still out.  Some mornings with him are great and some are…not so great.  Hannah and Michael are both up like toast and rarin’ to go in the morning. 

However, if I sit around and wait until I’m awake and ready to face the day, any potential momentum for the day has dissipated, and all of the kids are doing different things and I’m stuck trying to regroup as the very first thing of the day.  This isn’t a good scene.

So I’ve instituted the early morning bike ride.  Everyone up, dressed, beds made, small snack, out the door. (Well, almost everyone.  Our ride doesn’t include Michael. He takes an early morning bike ride, too, but his starts before ours and goes to the park and ride so he can catch his bus.)  After about 30-35 minutes of riding, we’re all ready to face the day.  We’ve seen the snails at Snail Town (phlox in a bunch of neighbors’ yards seems to attract snails), we’ve enjoyed the morning sun…or sprinkles, we’ve had a chance to work off some excess energy (or wake up as we realize that our legs are moving), and we’re all much more able to do chores, eat breakfast, and get started with school as cheerful, happy family members.  This morning we rode to the library (not open yet at 7:45 a.m.) and returned some books, so we even did an errand!

Now that the spring mornings start so nice and early and the spring weather means that we don’t always have steady driving rain every morning, I think we’ve found something that will help us have better mornings and get some exercise, too.  I have not yet become a morning person, but I figure that this might be a way to get as close as I’ll probably come. 

I can’t actually credit myself with the idea of exercise first thing, though, because I have to admit that most of my ideas about morning are along the lines of, “How late can I sleep and still take adequate care of everyone in the morning?” 

Big step

Simeon’s wearing underwear during the day now!  As long as we make sure not to let him wait too long for the potty, he does really well.  Sharks and turtles on his undies…this is a change from his sisters’ undies, of course, which have flowers and princesses. 

Okay, I’m serious now, people

Make these cookies.  I made them to take with us to Easter dinner, and they do live up to their name:  Brownie Roll-Out Cookies. I highly recommend the 1/4 inch roll-out thickness and dark chocolate cocoa powder.  Mmm. 

Hunting eggs

We hunted eggs at the local sister and brother-in-law’s house

(it ended up being dry enough to hunt outside, despite dire forecasts!),

and there were lots of hunters, but I only got pictures of a couple of our kids. 

I didn’t get any of Hannah, even.  It turns out that Easter egg hunting is a speed sport,

and if I had wanted pictures of more than 2 of our kids, I should have enlisted another photographer. 

And perhaps set my camera to “sports” mode. 

By the time I had snapped some of Sim and Naomi,

Hannah had finished her hunting.  Whoops! 

Happily, we also hunted at home (indoors, since it was raining then)

in the morning, and Michael got some shots of Hannah at that point. 

Simeon didn’t remember egg hunting from last year, so it was all new and exciting for him.  He did very well!  He didn’t demand that we hide the eggs repeatedly, which I seem to recall his sisters doing when they were his age.  I was not sorry to see the endless loop egg hiding and hunting skipped for this year.

Cherry trees

When we moved into our new house, we were excited about the four cherry trees planted in the parking strip along the side of the house.  And our excitement was rewarded.  Not only did the cherry trees add seasonal beauty to our garden, but also we had some good years for cherries!

These lovely blooms covered the trees and filled the large window in our dining room – lovely!

Beautiful in fall, too.

Stately when covered in snow.

And delicious in summer, of course.  Cherry pie from the pie cherry tree was a summer delight.

Last Monday we said goodbye to our cherry trees, to our great dismay.  Years of alternately neglect and poor pruning had taken their toll.  The pie cherry tree had a canker so bad that we were afraid it would lose a limb onto the sidewalk if it leafed out this summer.  The others weren’t quite as bad, but were well on their way, with peeling bark and other nasty symptoms of disease. 

We all were sad about their going.  Hannah mourned ahead of time, Naomi wept the first 20 minutes or more that the men were working on their removal job.  Sim’s sadness was somewhat short-lived, since he found it so intensely interesting to watch the men working in the trees.  The three kids spent the 2 hours it took them to cut down the trees standing at the windows of the dining room and watching. 

Now we have to decide what to plant in their place.  We have until fall.  I have to admit that I’m really, really missing them. 

Christ is Risen!

Alleluia!  Happy Easter, everyone.  Posting this past week has been light…okay, nonexistent.  It’s been a busy week. 

Naomi has been doing some seasonally appropriate drawings.  She drew this one, which I meant to post on Good Friday, but didn’t get to it:

If you click on it, you can see that she included weeping angels and clouds blotting out the sun. 

This one she drew last Sunday at Mass.  It begins with Good Friday in the lower right, moves to the tomb just to the left, then there’s the risen Christ (wounds included), and then he’s ascended up at the very top. 

She just decided to draw these. 

We all went to the Easter Vigil last night, beginning at 9 p.m.  Of course, the start time was 2 hours later than their normal bedtime.  Nobody complained about that, though.  They were excited to get dressed up in their Easter finery.

Simeon somehow became convinced that his Easter outfit was his cow costume.  I have no idea where this came from.  But he told anyone who commented on his outfit that it’s his cow costume.

Some of us like to ham it up for the camera.

And some of us like to ham it up differently:  “Take a picture of me with my Easter basket around my neck!”

When I was growing up, the Easter bunny always provided the baskets on the day, but our kids like to set them out, like stockings on Christmas. Okay, that’s fine.

This one was going to be a picture of just Hannah, but Naomi of the wild eyes snuck in at the last moment.

Simeon felt that he was wearing a cow costume, but he told all the females in his family (including me, at the church, in the silence before Mass began) that we looked beautiful in our dresses, like princesses.  That was sweet.

Oh, yeah, I was thinking we didn’t have any with our current fake smiler showing his stuff.  But here it is.

“Take a picture of me with my Easter basket in front of my face!”

The earrings (not pierced) and necklaces were made by Aunt Kate.  They were a huge hit.

The dark church got them all eventually, though.  These photos are from Michael’s phone.

They were out.

The lights, bells, Glorias, singing, sprinkling with water, organ, string quartet, etc., did not wake them.  Sim woke up during the Consecration, and Naomi and Hannah woke up during the closing hymn:  Jesus Christ is Risen today. 

They were more than ready to go right to bed when we got home just after midnight.  Michael and I tucked them away, did Easter bunny duty, and then went off to bed ourselves.  To be awakened at 7 a.m. by a cheery voice calling for “Daaaaaaadaaaa!”  When Michael went in the room, Naomi cheerfully said, “Happy Easter, Dada!”  Yup.  Nobody went back to sleep.  Although Sim wasn’t yet up, so he slept until 7:30, of all late hours!

Everyone enjoyed their Easter baskets.  Michael and I were still up in bed and heard some yelling from downstairs.  “Oh no, they’re fighting,” I said, preparing to run interference.  “No, they’re shouting for joy,”  Michael assured me.  I thought maybe it was just wishful thinking, but then I realized what they were saying:  YOU GOT ONE, TOO!!  Naomi came upstairs moments later to share the good news:  tickets to The Magic Flute for the girls! 

Okay, yes, that might seem like an odd thing to give to a 7 year old and a 5 year old, but they have recently discovered the story of The Magic Flute and then discovered that it’s playing in town soon.  They have loved every ballet they’ve gone to, so we’re going to see about the opera.  Michael’s pretty excited about taking them.  We got Simeon a kid’s CD telling of the story, since he’s fascinated by it, too, but I really wasn’t going to send a 2 year old to the opera.   

This afternoon we’re heading for the local relatives’ house, where we’ll have Easter dinner and another egg hunt.  We’ll also have a whole bunch of local friends who don’t have family in the area, so it will be a nice big gathering.

We’re looking forward to the Easter season!  Happy Easter everyone!