What are the odds?

One of the books that fell off the bookshelf lately was Citadel of God: A Novel of Saint Benedict by Louis de Wohl. A couple of the main characters in the story are Boethius and Cassiodor, whom I had not heard of before. They both embodied what was very good about Roman society, while the rest of the Latin characters represented the, by then, 500 year old moral decay of the culture. I highly recommend the book to any a dult; it's not for children.

Wouldn't you know it...in his general audience on March 12th, the Holy Father spoke about the two men I remembered from the story. In the translation of what he said on page 6 of the March 23rd edition of the National Catholic Register, Pope Benedict devoted slightly more words to Boethius, but he made it clear both men wrote about and lived out an exemplary philosophy of service to others and hope for eternal life. Cassiodor, apparently, was instrumental in starting the work of the monks that saved the ideas of Greek and Roman thinkers through the time we refer to as the Dark Ages. The author of the story gave more credit for this to Saint Benedict, but, since the two likely knew each other, they both must have played a part in it.

I am left wondering how this coincidence is part of something larger.

Katie update

Katie turned 11 two weeks ago! Now, I'm really asking where the time has gone. On Palm Sunday, we had a family celebration with a heart-shaped chocolate cake with pink frosting. She got several new pairs of earrings for birthday gifts, and has been having fun changing earrings to match her outfits. She can't leave them out for more than a few hours at a time yet, but it is nice to be able to change once in awhile.

She has a new family to work for as a mother's helper. The family she was helping moved back to the U.S. in February. Their dad is getting out of the Air Force because he will be starting at Ave Maria law school in the fall. It's an exciting time for them, but it was very sad for Katie because she loved playing with their two little ones and visiting with the mom, my friend Lauren, whom I miss, too.

The new family she is helping is also a family from church. Their dad was the scoutmaster until a month or so ago when he took on a new job on base and had to give it up. They have one toddler daughter and a baby due in early May, about a month before our baby. I met the mom in the CWOC (Catholic Women of the Chapel) last year. She is having a difficult pregnancy, and Katie will be a big help to her, even if only for a few hours a week. Last Thursday was Katie's first day helping, and she had a wonderful visit with their little daughter. She is really looking forward to the arrival of their new baby.

Katie has a paying job next week. She is going to "fish sit" and water plants for our neighbors while they are away in Australia on vacation. It was very nice of them to think of her, and she is surely able to handle that responsibility.

Gymnastics is over for now, and we are moving on to soccer. She has soccer tryouts Tuesday evening for the youth league on base. When you are 11, you have to go to tryouts, but they don't cut anyone. They use the information to try to keep the teams more even. Patrick has been out practicing with both Katie and Joseph before their season starts.


Then will come softball in June. Last year we missed the baseball season because we were in the U.S., so she and Joseph are looking forward to playing their favorite sport this summer. They have already broken out the bats and gloves, and even Matthew is getting into the act.

Patrick update

Patrick is playing soccer for the Edgren High School team (on base). Last weekend, he traveled to Tokyo, where they played Yokota Air Base high school team. Considering that, except for the indoor season this winter, Patrick hasn't played soccer in 5 years, he seems to be doing just fine on the team. We are happy that, unlike the cross country season, at least half of the games are at home. We'll get to cheer him on over the next few weekends, and hopefully, take some pictures to share with you.

His long-suffering patience is finally being rewarded. The Eagle Scout application has passed the Far East Council and been sent on to the National office. We hope to hear from them within a month or two. Here's hoping for an Eagle Court of Honor while my parents are visiting in late June or early July.

He is also learning to drive! He got his permit about a week and a half ago, and John and Tommy have taken him out to practice a couple of times. Driver's Ed starts in two weeks. Japanese law won't allow him to drive off base until he is 18, but he can drive on base with any family member over 18 and alone once he finishes driver's ed and passes the test. He is excited to finally be starting on this adventure.

Tommy update

Tommy was hired as the parish coordinator at our chapel on base. The job opened up about 2 weeks after he got home, when he was in the midst of a disheartening search for jobs he really wasn't interested in and putting in a lot of babysitting hours. So he is now a government contractor :-). He is still babysitting regularly and doing a little pet- and house-sitting as well. This gives him spending money while he saves his chapel job money to help pay for school next year.

He is also in the chorus (as both a pirate and a policeman) of the community theater production of The Pirates of Penzance, which will be performed the last two weekends in April. It's Tommy's first experience in a musical, and I think he is having fun with it. He is definitely learning a lot about choreography and working as a group on the stage--something our star actor has never needed to learn before ;-)

And he is in the process of applying for a few college scholarships. Some of these require almost as much work as college applications! But I think he is working on his last one today. Then we just have to wait and see what happens. Every little bit helps, so we hope he gets at least one.

It is nice to have him home again for a little while. John and I (and definitely Patrick) enjoy his company. The younger children like having him around to play with, and I truly appreciate his help with the driving. Especially lately, when I've been a bit more tired than usual. Things are definitely busier with another person's schedule to accommodate, but it is worth it to have a bit more time together before he goes off to UD in August.

Catching up

The last few months have been a blur. With Tommy home, job hunting--and finding :-)--sharing the van with him again, trying to get the house ready for the baby, Lent and coming so quickly after Christmas.... And here we are in the second week of the Easter Season and the exam week for our third quarter of school. I know I'm showing my age when I ask, "Where did the time go?" But I'm asking anyway.

Over the next few posts, I'll try to give you an update on what everyone is up to.

Happy Easter!

Wishing all of you a blessed Easter Season!

Panic may not be such a bad thing....

Friday's panic spurred me to actually do one job that has been waiting far too long.


Katie and I finally fixed her valance and adjusted her curtains Saturday.

Following in a fine Lenten tradition, she has been doing a bit of spring cleaning in her room, and today, it looked very cute: all finished now.

So that's one thing off my list, and one peaceful, happy daughter curled up in her flowery butterfly and fairy abode reading a good book.

88 days?!

I looked at the baby calendar on the right on Friday and realized that we have fewer than 90 days to go before the baby is due.

I have to admit I panicked slightly. Okay, I panicked a lot.

Suddenly all those things I have been putting off and saying, "oh, yeah, we need to do that before the baby is born," are looming large.

A few of the big things:

-John wants to rearrange the living room to accommodate a new server system for our home network. This involves moving both the piano and the computer armoire--yikes!! I would like the furniture moving to be finished before the baby is born to minimize the extra chaos.

-The master bedroom needs attention. We need to move my nightstand to make room for the bassinette on my side of the bed. This means I will have to put away all the books that are piled there because I think I'm going to get around to reading them some day.

-The nightstand needs to go next to the table/cabinet where I plan to keep the changing pad and diapering things, and I need to find a large, pretty basket to keep the diapers in because that will go on top of the nightstand.

-John and I both need to clean off our dressers and dust them!!

-Next to our bathroom are storage shelves. Right now, these are a mess and they need to be reorganized, most importantly because the baby's clothes and blankets are going to be kept there, which means emptying at least one shelf for the purpose.

-the last 6 unpacked boxes are in our bedroom: one where the nightstand needs to go three behind my rocking chair, which now needs to be able to actually rock, and two on the aforementioned storage shelves. These need to be unpacked, stuff sorted and either disposed of, donated, or put away somewhere

-the school closet desperately needs to be reorganized and so does the storage closet where the science equipment is kept.

-grading--the bane of my existence--needs to be finished before June as much as possible so I can turn in my annual reports in a timely fashion and just enjoy the baby this summer

-the time has also come to create a better chore chart and do some retraining. I catch myself finishing up chores that aren't quite completed a bit too often lately, and I know that come June, no one will do the finishing up unless I make a point to teach/remind people now. I'm also thinking of teaching Patrick and Katie to do laundry. Tommy could help with that, too, while he's home, but I won't have him after he leaves for school in August.

Diapers

I'm still spoiled enough to wish for a Japanese diaper service, but haven't found one yet.

So, I have just about decided to buy cloth diapers for this baby. My friend Lauren, who recently moved back to the USA has been so helpful in giving advice. She had two children in cloth diapers when she left here and her email info really helped me wade through all the websites and information out there. I'm not quite ready to place the order, but I'm almost there.

Theme song

If this pregnancy had a theme song, I think it would be "Nine More Months One More Time," by Marie Bellet. You can listen to a bit of it here.

Matthew's Days of the Week

Sun: Big Church Day

Mon: Schoolday

Tues: Schoolday

Wed: Schoolday

Thurs: Schoolday

Fri: Friday-buyday (sometimes, Little Church Day because we go to the commissary, BX, and Mass on Friday mornings, followed by a stop at the Japanese grocery store on the way home--it truly is buy day ;-)

Sat: Choreday/Movieday (when everyone's chores are finished, they watch a movie together)

Baby stuff

As we enter the third trimester (no wonder I feel so tired!), John and I have been assessing the baby equipment situation. People have started to ask us what we need. Not much, really.

Over the years, we have discovered that most of the things on the "Baby must have" lists at stores and websites can be done without quite comfortably. We have a bassinette and a pack and play. Our crib is in storage, but the baby won't be that big before we move. Matthew barely used the crib, as he spent most nights in our bed anyway. Same with Joseph until he was ready for a toddler bed for which the three-sided version of the crib served nicely.

Knowing our family might continue to grow, we brought all our baby clothes with us.

Our dining room isn't large enough to accommodate a high chair, so we will use the booster with tray that Matthew used when we first got here.

We do need an infant car seat, but I'm pretty sure I can pick up a used one at the thrift shop on base. There are an awful lot of babies born here and as people come and go, they tend to get rid of things.

We have two strollers.

We are pondering the diaper decision. We have plenty of diaper covers already, and I am thinking seriously about buying cloth diapers and wipes. I am plenty tired of all the diaper rash poor Matthew has had to deal with while wearing disposables over the past 18 months. And I love cloth diapers. But I am so spoiled (thank you again and again, Mom and Dad) because I have never once in 5 kids had to actually launder diapers. The thought of extra loads of laundry on top of the 9 loads I already do each week is a bit daunting (yes, I know that what I really "need" is one of those gigantic front-loading washers so I could combine a load or two, but that's not going to happen until we live in the U.S. again).

Then again, Tommy will be at UD, so I won't have his laundry to do anymore.

It might be possible.... If anyone has any input about this, I would appreciate it.

So really, we don't need anything.

In spite of the fact that we don't need anything, I managed to create a new Baby Wish List blog that is listed below on the right with the kids' gift blogs from Christmas (scroll down past the prayers). IF you're interested.

Cold and snowy

After a couple of days of rain, which gave us an irrational hope for spring, the snow began again yesterday. Ever optimistic, the kids went out to play in it. It was wet, and Matthew got pretty soaked.

But after peeling off the layers of wet snow clothes, a cup of cocoa raised his spirits.

All better!