Pinkie Day Episode 21- unedited

Whoa, my last Pinkie Day post was in March.  I have been posting some on the Facebook page so check me out over there!  The thing about celebrating Pinkie Day is that I am tired because I am basically a single parent and when Daddy gets home, lately I just crash and don't post!  Soooo, I am doing a quick post right now because here is what Pinkie Day consists of today...

• Laying in bed and watching the Goldbergs while I wait for hubby to come home. 
• Children laying in the living room watching How to Train Your Dragon while waiting for Daddy to come home.
• Teenager laying in bed while waiting for Foster Dad to come home so I can go buy her some shoes :)  btw, I happily came out this morning to see a note from her ordering me to not clean the kitchen because she will be cleaning it when she gets up. :)  So I cleaned my bedroom, instead.
• Daddy arrives at 1pm!  Nothing changes, except we eat Krispy Kreme Donuts
• Now Daddy is laying on the couch while watching How to Train Your Dragon with the kids and snoring. 
• zzzzzz....

What I am trying to say is that we are a normal family, trying to find our way in the world.  We may not be at all of the fall festivals in Virginia today or hiking on the beautiful Blue Ridge, be we know how to love donuts and sleep. 

Donuts and sleep bring us closer to each other somehow in some weird, twisted way. 

We are tired, sick, injured and grumpy. 

We are real. 

To elaborate, which I know you are hoping I will do....

I'm injured because my kitchen turned into a horror movie yesterday afternoon when I cut my finger on an electric mixer blade while pureeing pumpkin.  Not the brightest thing to do, I'll admit.  I mean, I thought to myself, I am not going to use this mixer, I am going to go back to using the Vitamix instead.  So I was getting the pumpkin out of the blade to scrape it into the measuring cup and I just happened to turn the thing on with my other hand.  yup.  Heard the sound, felt the burn and saw the blood fly.  That bloody pumpkin!!!

Literally. 

Just got this little ditty of John.  The last thing he said when it cut off was, "I like sleeping under here."

This is from Pinkie Day episode 20.  I don't think I ever posted it.

So taking a step back, throwing out a little post and wishing you all a great weekend! 

 

This is neat.  For school, I finally did this project.  It is a snowflake because we started The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where it is always winter and never Christmas.  So this is one of the projects from the study guide.  Boiling water mixed with borax.  Sat over night and this is what happened. NEAT!

 

 

The pumpkin, my arch nemesis this week.



John, my arch nemesis this week

 

 

Pinkie Day Episode 20- The Petty household grows by one

So sorry I missed you all last weekend!  We have been sad because we never had Pinkie Day last weekend.  George stayed in Richmond and we couldn't go because poor Emmett was so sick and we needed a day to relax.

My foot from my plantar fasciitis was also in so much pain that I had to force myself to stay off of it.  I actually played frisbee the day before for only just a few minutes and I really paid for it.  I was in so much pain.  I have been praying for healing, literally, praying to the patron saint of foot ailments.  I lie in bed at night praying for healing.  What better body part to pray to for healing than the actual HEAL?  :)  Right?  I even FINALLY ordered the essential oils kit because of my foot and because Emmett has been sick three months in a row.

Well, I am happy to report that the oils that my friends have been touting all these months are actually soooo good that my foot is healed before they have even arrived in the mail!

Seriously, though, I am excited to use the oils.  I have even been using them for my teenage foster daughters.   The lavender and lemongrass has been helping with relaxation and relieving stress.

BUT, I am more excited that I have finally had relief in my foot.  I have been doing this exercise that my brother told me about that his chiropractor told him to try.  It is wonderful!! I have been doing it for three weeks now and I think this is exercise is one of the huge reasons I have been healed.  Look for an instructional video soon on how to do this amazing exercise.  I just don't want to share it yet in case my pain comes back.  I don't want to give you false hope!

Here is an overview of what I have been doing for my plantar fasciitis:

1. Special exercises
2. Taking anti inflammatory diclofenac
3. NEVER going barefoot
4. ordered Kafflinger brand shoes to slip on and wear around the house
5. bought cheap arch supports from Walmart to put in my dress shoes
6. paying my children to rub my feet

This foot ailment has basically been my life the past months.  I have to get it right because it is just simply exhausting trying to take care of my household with this pain in foot.  

So this weekend was so nice.  George surprised us by coming home early Friday evening...

You'll see in this video that Emmett is enjoying watching John run up to Daddy that Emmett stays back to watch.  It is so sweet.  And Carmen had somewhat of a challenging time since you will also notice in the video that she didn't come out to say hi.  She was having some different feelings this weekend and she has been working all that out.  She hadn't seen Daddy for 2 weeks and it was somewhat of an adjustment for her this time around.  She ended up having a great weekend.  We went to a birthday party yesterday and Palm Sunday Mass today and the children got to play with their friends, as well.  

You may be wondering how our household grew by one.  We have welcomed another teenager into our home.  She has been here for 2 weeks now and we love her.  She just said tonight that it feels like she has been her much longer than 2 weeks already.  We have been busy!  Maybe someday you will get to meet her.  In the meantime, please pray for the well being and happiness of all in our home.  We are so happy to share family times with whoever stops by for a visit, no matter how long.  

So in case you don't see much blogging from me, know that I am happily going about the work that I know I am meant to do.  I am living and loving everyone in my care and happy to be chosen to do so.  Living real life doesn't leave much time for blogging.  So goodnight.  I am off to spend a little more time with my husband before I pass out for the night.  

In the meantime, enjoy some sights from our last two weeks....

Just a silly picture with Emmett

Look at these two studying away.  So proud of them.  I love my view from my desk. :)

Well, I ordered a print and framed Carmen's adorable picture that I took a few weeks ago at the dance studio.  Love how it turned out.  

This guy rides in the car all the time nowadays.  He does great tagging along with all of us.  

Ah, my hometown.  This is Main St. Waynesboro.  Picked Pilar up from school on Thursday and we had lunch at the river downtown.  

Wonderful friends from my days at Christendom College.  Dale and MaryKay.  We all met at Prince Michele Winery last weekend since Dale was in from Chicago.  Poor Emmett was so sick he was vomiting the whole day.  He was a trooper.  

Here are a couple of pics of Uncle Dale and Carmen.  Dale is Carmen's Godfather.  She was delighted to see him.  He gave her a ballerina music box and some books.  She was on cloud nine. 

And this is my Carmen!  Perfect picture of her.  Really captures her essence. :)  She is growing so fast that she has bruises on both of her shins from falling and tripping so many times.  :)

And this is a sweet letter that Carmen wrote to me about my foot. The kids have all been so kind and understanding.  

I love this picture because Carmen and John wanted Emmett to sit with them in the back of the car and they all looked at books together.  It was so sweet.  

Have a great week, everyone!  And no matter what you did this weekend, I hope it was fulfilling, purposeful and gratifying.  

Til next time...whenever that may be....

Pinkie Day Episode 18- Parenting and Poop

Happy Pinkie Day, everyone. 

Well, I have no idea what to type because I am out of practice with blogging.  My 6 week class I was taking took up all my time and I had to take a break from blogging. I am happy to report, though, that the class ended on the 23rd and things are back to normal!

I want to thank all of my friends and family who were so supportive of me during that stressful time of my class.  It was so hard for me to get my brain in gear for it.

I am so tired from birthdays and sicknesses and snow days and sports and postponement of sports and dance due to snow days.  We are absolutely in NO routine here anymore.

John got sick the day after Emmett's birthday and he slept for 2 days straight.

Then Emmett got it and slept for 2 days straight.

Then Carmen got it and slept for 2 days straight.

I am not lying.

Then Pilar got it and she still has it!

I am calling this post "Parenting and poop" for obvious reasons.  Having sick children is completely unlike anything else.  I mean, your life revolves around their poopy butts!  What are they eating?  What does their poop look like? How often are they pooping?  Do they need to poop more?  Do they need a wipe?  Do they need help wiping?

John has been potty trained for a year now, but we have a little potty in the downstairs bathroom that I have to empty for him.  He potty trained so young that he couldn't sit on the big potty himself at all and he still uses the one that I have to dump into the big potty.  Oh my gosh, I am so tired of dumping his poop!  The MOM is the ONLY one who does that.  Seriously.

Today at mass was the last straw (or should I say, the last wipe).  See, I couldn't get to mass last week because John was sick with the tummy thing.  Now today, we are all there and I was so happy!  Then, right before communion, the poop struck again.  Carmen makes the face, winces, and grabs her tummy.  She says she has to go RIGHT at that moment!  I knew she did, the poor girl, so I got her to the bathroom and there I stood, in the stinky restroom with the poop instead of going to communion.

The last night of my class, Monday night, I finally sat down to type my PowerPoint presentation for my final project.  Then I hear a tsunami of puke in the upstairs carpeted hallway.  Poor Emmett, got the stomach bug.  He had a fever, puking and pooping for days.  He missed two wrestling meets.

In all this, we were able to get out to dinner for Pilar's birthday on Thursday.  We also celebrated Emmett's birthday before everyone got sick.  Emmett's party was canceled, though, after over a month of planning, because we got 10 inches of snow on party day.

So parenting and poop it is.  I have nothing philosophical to say about it.  It just is.  I accept it.  I hope it ends soon, but I accept it now.  I mean, if I didn't, do you know how much poop would be collected in John's little potty right now? NOOO!!!!  Like my father always said, "Nobody ever said it would be easy."

So without further ado, here is the sleepy Pinkie Day message from Carmen.  I caught her right before she fell asleep for the night.  She tells about today and how Emmett's wrestling meet was canceled and how we went to a play at VMI where Daddy went to school.  She also says they watched Liberty's Kids.  (It is a series of educational animated cartoons about the American Revolution I got for only $5 at Amazon).

Also included some pictures from Emmett's and Pilar's birthdays.

On Emmett's 8th Birthday.  Our first born is really growing up. 

Playing Heart Bingo!  

Lego treat bags had lego crayons (homemade) and lego brick candy

Cupcakes

Celebrating Pilar's birthday at Mi Rancho with great friends.

Pilar's 19th Birthday

We hope you had a great weekend and had time with family.  I am tired and sad to see George go in the morning.  He was only here one day this week.  We made the most of it, though.  Looking forward to spring and Easter now... Lent is well underway and that will be what my next post is about.  Until then... Happy Pinkie Day!

Family and Christmas

Happy Pinkie Day!!!  We made it another week.  An adventurous, busy, Christmas-filled week.  We are still decorating for Christmas here at our home and we started baking all our Christmas goodies for our family and friends.  Emmett made sugar cookies for Pinkie Day, we made a sign (which we will show you next week!), and made gifts for Daddy.  We delivered goodies to the neighbors yesterday.  I feel like it is a real loss in our culture that we don't know our neighbors well and can practically never show up at someones house unannounced.  We tend to drive into our driveways and close the garage door behind us.  We go out to get the mail while looking down at the ground the whole way.  We take out the trash in the same manner.  I think our new neighbors were shocked that we delivered homemade baked goods to their door yesterday.  They just looked down at the container and have a such surprised looks on their faces.  I should just tell them I like to pretend we live on the frontier.

Speaking of the frontier, we also went to a field trip to the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton.  http://www.frontiermuseum.org/ We learned all about how Christmas was celebrated by different cultures who came here to America and then came to blend their cultures together to form some of the traditions we have today.  So many of the traditions revolved around community and neighbors.   Settlers would go from house to house and sing and dance and play games.  Where has this tradition GONE???  Waiting in line at Michael's Crafts today, I thought about it. No one is HOME!  They are all in line at Michael's!  I just love the Frontier Culture museum.  I love bringing my children there and showing them what a different time it was back then.  That is why Pinkie Day is so important to us.  It is a time for family and sharing and singing and visiting.  So get your rolling pin out, bake some cookies for your neighbor and go knock on their door...wait for it...without even calling (or texting) first!  Happy Pinkie Day, everyone!

"Here we come a wassailing", at the English House

Throwing beans at the window of the German house to get them to come out and greet us

Learning about holiday foods the settlers prepared for Christmas

Learning about St. Nicholas Day at the German house