Here Comes Mardi Gras, Here Comes Mardi Gras..

All the Christmas decorations are not even down yet for some folks here in Mobile, but Mardi Gras stuff is ALL over the place. Mardi Gras is big business around here. I always thought New Orleans was the hot spot for Mardi Gras but word around here is Mobile is the OG hotspot for Mardi Gras and it has been since 1703 when it was first called Beof Gras (fat beef).

The date of Mardi Gras is determined by the date of Easter. Mardi Gras day, or Fat Tuesday, is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday which begins the 40 day Lenten season that leads up to Easter Sunday. The Mardi Gras "season" is a whole month of celebrations, parades and balls leading up to the big day , "Fat Tuesday".

The celebration of Mardi Gras involves parades of papier-mache floats with members of different Mardi Gras clubs, which are called Krewes".

These people, all jazzed up with costumes and masks, throw beads and other goodies to all the people packed along the parade routes.

Mardi Gras is rooted in the Catholic Church calender. Mardi Gras is deliberate merry making before the penitential season of lent. The ultimate feast before the fast. Most people along the parade routes are not aware of the "feast" they are celebrating. Feast days and fast days are very much part of our living Catholic Faith.

This all leads to Ash Wednesday when we receive a thumbprint of ashes on our foreheads. This is a reminder of "Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return."


OK!!! Church history and parade memories aside, I have to go to a Mardi Gras ball with this really cute guy. He looks amazing at all these military functions with his uniform all crisp and smelling all great....

The bummer part is...me! I have to find a dress that looks as stunning as my date. I have to shop, try on and have a dress altered before Feb. 14th.

 And all I can think about is...PLEASE DO NOT GET PREGNANT BEFORE FEBRUARY 14th!!!

What Really Matters

It has been REALLY cold here. I know I am sounding pretty wimpy especially since I am just 3 years out of Alaska.

It's just that I have gotten used to flip flops YEAR ROUND! I have been washing more socks than I ever thought possible. Remember I really only had 3 kids in Alaska.

The only plus side of all this extra laundry, my hair looks GREAT!! My hair loves cold weather. It loves not have humidity to battle ALL day.

I like to focus on what really matters!

What's For Dinner

I spend a lot of time with food. Morning, noon and night I am in the kitchen. Not as much as some of my other friends with much larger families than mine. But because of the age of my children I still have to make every bit of food that goes into their hollow bellies. Emily is getting pretty handy with a bagel and a microwave, but with her I have to insist on other foods on the pyramid or else she would live off bread and butter.

As part of the 2010 resolution package I put together for myself (I won't bore you with ALL the details) I decided I am taking control of the kitchen in a good way. My first step, menu planning. I have not always been good about making menus. I see the usefulness of them but always hesitated because what if Monday I did not feel like chili...what then? After some soul searching I realized I did not HAVE to eat chili if I did not want to....or I could just eat the chili and realize it was not my last meal on earth, so get over it!

Last week was week one of complete menu planned meals. I planned all of our dinners on Saturday and then decided why stop there, I planned our lunches too! I know things got crazy here last Saturday and I am just now ready to share...

I am happy to report that not only did I feel liberated by having the meals planned I left the kitchen each time with a sense of accomplishment and success. I made a plan, followed it and it made absolutely made my days easier. And when my oldest child asked at breakfast, "What's for dinner Mama?" I did not breathe fire at her, throw a chair across the room and almost scream.."I DON'T KNOW...LET'S FINISH SERVING YOU BREAKFAST BEFORE I THINK ABOUT SERVING YOU DINNER!" I just simply glanced at the menu and said, "BBQ chicken with mac and cheese." "Yum!" she said and finished her oatmeal.

Who knew? And as I sit here reviewing the success of such a simple adjustment I realize that I must go and plan a breakfast menu. Our menu was very simple. This week's menu:
Sunday: French Dip Sandwiches
Monday: BBQ Chicken, tator tots, mac and cheese (weekly favorite)
Tuesday: Broccoli Chicken Pasta
Wednesday: Turkey, smashed potatoes, green beans (turkey is still so cheap and I can make other meals from the left overs , so I decided to have one more turkey meal before we bid farewell to the holiday bird)
Thursday: Yummy turkey soup
Friday:Homemade pizza
Saturday: Brisket for a friends Bon Fire Party!!

What menus do you guys have planned this week?
Maybe we could come over???

Athletic Highlights

Tonight is a big night for Alabama. Apparently there is a big game on tonight and it involves a Mobile hometown favorite, Alabama, appropriately named. Pete, as any ex-quarterback football star, enjoys a good match up. Even someone as athletically illiterate as myself can enjoy the excitement others have over a good football game...I just love excitement, even if it is over football.

I am not what you would call an athlete. I played soccer in High School, purely for the bus ride. I liked all the team hoopla, the soccer and wet grass touching me I could have skipped altogether. Besides, everyone else had a Letterman jacket, even if our school colors were orange and blue, I'm not one to be left out of a fashion movement.

Things have not gotten any better in my advanced age. I do "run" daily. I am not sure it can be qualified as a run, but since there is no better adjective I am going to risk the use of it. You may be thinking that I am just exercising humility as I describe my athletic prowess. I assure you I am not.

I have tried to improve my running time. I have raced in 1 half marathon and several 5 K's and even more 10K's. All of this peppered between 7 pregnancies. The last "race" I participated in was in Sitka Alaska. It is a small town with really fast runners!! I say that because I entered to run the Whale Fest 10K and LOST!! I bet you did not think you could lose a 10K race. I came in last. Last, as in NO BODY WAS BEHIND ME!! I promise you I ran the whole time. I never stopped to pee, drink or blow my nose in the 10 degree November weather. I run about a 9:00 minute mile on average...not THAT bad. Even at that clip I had to face running to the finish line with just Pete and the race organizer guy with a worried look on their face. Watching someone be last is painful for all involved.

The girls TOTALLY remember this event. "Do you remember when you came in last at that race in Alaska Mama?" they will ask as another mom is asking my advice on running with kids....

And to make the event more painful the paper published the results...every last person to run in the race!! Gotta love a small town and kids with good memories.

The Day For Epiphanies

Today is Epiphany which means we celebrate the visit of the Wise Men to the Holy Family. The wise men came from the East, following a star that signifies the birth of a king. The word epiphany means the "appearance of a superhuman being", which we have not spotted any of those around here lately. But the word epiphany can also mean "a revelation, a realization."

The new year holds "epiphanies" of all sorts. In this short year already I have had a great EPIPHANY..

In order to homeschool, I have to be home!! I know that seems pretty obvious to some of you who have been in the business awhile. Staying put at home to allow the children time to complete their school would logically be part of a homeschooling life style. However, since I have more little people than large I have been able to avoid this pesky side to homeschooling. Schooling a 1st or 2nd grader does not take much more than nap time to complete so my days were still filled with adventures and outings of all sorts. Taking our school on the road was part of the packaged curriculum, lots of park time, playtime with friends, walks and errands of all non-importance. All of the above helping to fill my social black hole.

But reality is beginning to rear its ugly head and I am finding that in order to be fair I need to commit to spending several more hours at home than I am comfortable with. By being fair I mean, if I expect Emily to complete her math page and finish her science questions I have to allow time for her to complete those assignments. If I want Molly to finish reading the Little House Series I need to give her time to read and tell me every detail of every thought she has. If I want Jack and Lucy to grow up to be avid readers like the girls are I have to give them the same amount of mommy reading time I gave the girls. But you see that was much easier when I was in Alaska. There was not much else to do except read endlessly...never mind I had NO LUCY!!...yet

I am grateful for these type of epiphanies, a moment when, for the briefest second, everything makes sense. I catch a glimpse of why I am doing this and how I supposed to make it all work. Like the Wise Men we are called to follow our star, even when we have been given a star that we have no idea if we are following it correctly, where it will lead and when we will get to stop following it.

Our New School Year

Today was the first school day of 2010. Usually after Christmas and Summer break parents are ready for the kids to go back to school. But for homeschooling moms the end of a school break means the end of your break too. This part of the school year can be a challenge for some of us homeschooling moms. The newness of school is officially gone and not to return for another 9 months. Kids are asking when summer is and you can only hope there will be a summer this year.

This is my 4th year homeschooling, my 2nd year homeschooling with Lucy June (which has a whole level of exhaustion that can not even be understood with mere words on a screen). These past few days I have been planning the rest of this year. I love counting down weeks and knowing that we actually can finish. I have found that certain things that I plan for really help my day go much smoother.

One of those such things is we ALWAYS begin the day with Emily's favorite subject, Poetry. As you can see I don't believe in saving the best for last. Let's start with the favorite and go down from there. Unfortunately every subject is met with this disdainful reaction. After Poetry, States and Capitals, Catechism questions, Latin word reviews, and History date review,(a total of 15-20 minutes) Emily is then sent upstairs to do some of her independent work. The night before I go over all assignments so she can get right to work in the morning and I write out all of her work so she can cross off each assignment when she is finished. Meanwhile Molly is usually still eating breakfast, because Molly does everything at half/speed. Once Emily is sent upstairs it is Molly's turn for Poetry (and usually a story or 2 about a LONG dream that she must share at that moment). Usually all this is done in PJ's, except for me because I got up about 3 hours ago to get myself squared away.

In between all this rigorous academics life is happening all around us and it is usually loud and funny. Piano practice is always done with Priscilla at your toes. All bathroom breaks are accompanied by a toddler to say bye-bye to your pee-pee, usually ending with a fight because so-and-so was supposed to flush this time.

I just thought I would let you all know what I was doing today, and tomorrow and for then next 18 years. Hopefully with less fare welling to pee-pee!

Lucy...What More Can I Say??

I have mentioned in previous posts that Lucy is definately our "handful" child. She is a whirlwind of joy, happiness, sadness and excitement, all wrapped up in this sweet blond haired blue eye package. I have energy...but this child is KILLING me.

You know the feeling that you get when you are about the count down to bring in the New Year. Everyone is getting louder and more passionate with every number until finally 1 is reached and there is an explosion of energy. People are laughing and hugging, some are crying, some are shouting, some may have spilled something in an attempt to high five you.

That is Lucy ALL THE TIME. She truly has that much energy ALL the time. Some days I am like "Bring it On Baby Girl". I can match her energetic burst for energetic burst. Then there are other days when I actually would like to get something done other than putting out her fires..which she ignites wherever she goes.

Sunday is the last day before I am back to being a homeschooling mom. Christmas was a marker for us because Lucy is now 2 1/2. Most of the other Melnick children turned a corner at 2 1/2. Lucy can't seem to find a corner so she is just spreading her energy and joy around ALL CORNERS EVERYWHERE!!!

Can someone please tell her New Year's is over. It is time to get back to real life and her mama has a few other children that would like some attention...not to mention a husband.

Lucy was my 6% chance of being conceived baby. This child has got some grit and she is enjoying her little life to the fullest. I just hope I can last the whole party with her.