It's been such a long time since I've been able to just sit down and write. I really miss it, but it seems in any given day a small plethora of things just wind up taking precedence over me being able to blog.
Without fishing through previous blog posts, I have no idea how much I've shared about the kids. I had started to write about Katie and her being assessed for speech (which insurance frustratingly denied us coverage). We were told back in October or November that she's likely just a late talker. This past month has been very promising with Katie beginning to talk more. She uses sentences pretty frequently and people who don't live with us are starting to understand the things she does say. I'm in an odd place of feeling thrilled and excited about the words she can say, and yet still feeling frustrated and impatient that she isn't further along with speaking. It's a challenge, but I'm so grateful anytime she utters words I can understand. About two weeks ago she kept asking me "Why?" on a ride home from Target. With my older children the whys got on my nerves after so many iterations of it, but with Katie, I'm rejoicing that she's asking me a question with an actual word. It's interesting how perspective can change.
Anthony is a year old! It's crazy how quickly that first year passed. He's been walking since around Easter, but had started taking his first steps back in February. He's presently on a mission to slip by us and scale the stairs anytime he's sees an open gate. He claps, he waves, he shakes his head no, and tries to tackle me by throwing himself at my legs. Today he almost succeeded in knocking me over. He says words, for which I am very thankful. He can say Mama, Dada, Daddy, no (I'm not exactly thrilled he learned that particular word.), uh-oh and something that sounds remarkably like bye-bye.
The girls are pretty much done with the school year. They both have a state history test to complete and we still need to take a field trip and then we can call History done. Ellie has everything else for the year completed. Math and Madeline just shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence. I made an executive call last week and decided that even though she had just finished the final lesson in her math book that we were going to have to start over at the beginning of the fourth quarter and do it again. She wasn't retaining the information and when she would get stumped on classwork, she would go back to whatever lesson the problem was from and look at the example to figure it out. The problem with that was she would get the work done and it would be right, but when it was time to take a test, there was no book for her to look at to see how to do the problems. I'm sure I wasn't her favorite person when I told her we had to start over. Right now I'm going over two lessons a day with her and hand selecting the problems she struggles the most with to make sure she really understands how to do them so she won't have a problem when it's time to take the test.
Soccer season is still going. We had a lot of bad weather in March so three weeks of games that should have happened got cancelled or rescheduled for later in the spring. So while soccer should have wrapped up this past Saturday, it won't be done until June 6th. So that means that twice a week soccer practices will also keep going for the rest of this month and into June.
I came to the realization a few weeks ago that I've been praying for a specific intention for over six years now without seeing the result I'd love to see. Perhaps Our Lord is helping me to learn to be patient. Here and there I've seen articles and what not that say things to the effect that when a prayer isn't answered in the timing that you expect, it's because your heart isn't yet prepared to fully appreciate it. So on those days when I feel a bit like this is a hopeless cause and I feel like I'm on the brink of despair, I think maybe, just maybe that's it. It's also in those moments where I think that I should have a better relationship with St. Monica. I know she knows how I feel.
Since it's been over two months since I last wrote anything I suppose I should also mention that Madeline was confirmed last month. She chose Maria for her confirmation name to honor the Blessed Mother. I have every intention of putting together a post with pictures soon, I hope.
The VBS program had reached the max number of children we can take two months before hitting the registration deadline. I think registration was open for only about seven or eight weeks. Either the program has gained a really good reputation over these past few years, or the parents are really eager to get fifteen hours of kid free time for just $40 per child. Right now I'm working on making sure I have all of the volunteers that we need and I'm trying to pick out the music for the program. I'm almost there. Instead of stressing about it as I have in years past, I've just been focusing more on praying about it and seeing where the Spirit leads me.
The little man has just woken up from his nap. If all goes well, I'll find time later to add some pictures.
