Happy Birthday to Michael/How to Make a Birthday Special

Today is Michael's 10th birthday! Of course I still remember being in labor with him, driving to the hospital, labor pains getting worse so my mom took Joel away from the hospital and to a park. He was born within a few hours and had these full lips that are still so gorgeous.

So things have been a little busy around here and Michael had a rockin' party on Saturday but it's really important to me that my kids feel special on their birthdays. It's just a thing I have ... maybe because my parents always made such a big deal out of my birthday. So this morning I was awake around 7 and everyone was sleeping and I asked Aron if I could run out to the grocery store really fast. Michael has gymnastics today and Religous Ed and I wanted him to be able to take some special things to those places. Everyone should enjoy a birthday! So here's what I got; allow me to take you on a tour:

*Keep in mind all you may see is sugar and processed food, but we don't eat this way all the time and birthdays are for sugar. You may quote me on that.

Here we have the illustrious powdered and chocolate donuts. We never have these unless Papa Dave drops them off unexpectedly, so they are a treat. Don't worry, I will also be feeding my kids eggs for protein, Mom!

For lunch we have something I got for FREE ... Fast Fixin's jumbo popcorn chicken and chicken nuggets. They sent me some free vouchers to try their product and I have been trying them and they ROCK! They are yummy and the kids love 'em. We also have some ice cream to top the brownies later. I got thte Hi-Lite because a little LESS sugar won't kill 'em.

Here we have an assortment of nastiness. Cupcakes for gymnastics. Cupcakes for Religious Ed. Chocolate chips to go in the brownies for after dinner. A sugar coma is imminent. Check on us at about 9 p.m., please. I also have napkns and NEON food coloring because I had a Q-pon. Aron asked if it was natural food coloring and I said yes, made from beets, carrots and green beans ... NOT! By the way, McCormick, the word TURQUOISE has a U in it. If you need me to proof future packaging for you, just give me a call and I'll do it for the steep sum of: FOOD COLORING FOR LIFE!

Then you have Mr. Geoffrey Giraffe call from Toys R Us and you have yourself a fun day in the making!

I'd like to thank Mr. McLoughlin for making this grocery trip possible, and for helping to make the existence of Michael possible.

Happy Birthday, Michael! I love you more than you can ever know and always will, no matter what.

Saturday Craziness/Homemade LEGO Banner

Last night was the Imagine Homeschool Community play! More on that here later, at my homeschool blog.

This morning I have one kid being picked up to go clean a stream with Scouts for a few hours ...

.. and another kid + Daddy going to her First Communion Retreat for a few hours.

My mom is getting her 2nd crown in 2 weeks then bopping over to my house this morning.

Then everyone reconvenes here at 1 for Michael's 10th birthday party. This includes my dad and stepmom, of course, and I LOVE when I get to see my parents in one day. Being an only child, they are the most important people to me in the world next to my husband and kids.

This year we are saving money and instead of going to the party store at $50 a pop x 5, we are using tablecloths we already have, decorating ourselves, using our own plates, etc. I guess you could call it a Year of Cheap Birthday Parties! Anyway, we have a Merida/Brave banner that says HAPPY BIRTHDAY and we tack it up to the wall and then we can just cover Merida's face with whatever we want for the boy parties! For Michael it's LEGO. For Joel it will probably be Pokemon. Anyway, I just pulled a LEGO image and pasted it several times and then put his name in the middle of the page and printed it out. Don't mind the wall; we don't live in a cardboard box ... my husband has stripped the wallpaper so we can paint! The square LEGO creation below the banner is courtesy of Michael.

Here's a picture of how we are trying to organize Michael's LEGOs lately: in knockoff Tupperware. The problem is we have too many and there is still a massive tub full of them!

Have a great day!

How to Take a Family Easter Picture

Had to get this post up since Easter was days ago. What a slacker I am! Anyway, this here's my cute little family in Easter garb. Before you judge, ask yourself if you know how hard it is to get SEVEN people to look amazing all at the same time? Well, do you? Okay, then you'll know that this picture is FANTABULOUS in my book.

Thank God for the timer on the camera and a husband who knows how to use it!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

McLoughlins

Pictures of Aron & Our Kids as Babies: Wordless Wednesday

Joel, 2001

Michael, 2003

And this is where Blogger likes to mess with me, as it won't let me caption the rest of the pictures! They are:

Callie, 2005
Eva, 2007
Samuel, 2009





What Would Kerrie Read? (WWKR?)

Look, I don't want to become of them thar book bloggers or anything, but I do like to share what I'm reading ... or attempting to read whilst the kids run around me and I try to entertain a writing career and keep a smokin' hot guy happy (by keeping the house picked up and cooking meals, dirty minds!).

I'll update this sucker whenever I'm into a new set of stuff and will put the newer stuff at the top. Since I like to have several books going at a time, hopefully you can find something interesting that applies to your life. And in the interest of full disclosure, I might make a little something if you click the link and buy the item from Amazon.com. Or check it out from your local library Kerrie-style!

And YES -- sheesh -- I do realize I have too many books at one time and should leave some in the library for the rest of you blokes. I have an addiction! My library card is like a Reading Credit Card (don't ask about the fines).

Here we go:

April 2013

 

Coping With OCD by Bruce M. Hyman, Ph.D., LCSW
My 10-year-old son has OCD, which popped up in 2010 and went away quickly. It has reared its ugly head again and is proving harder to get rid of. Yes, he is in some therapy for it. Yes, we are reading books about it and trying to help him at home. There are hard days and not-so-hard days. I'm betting we will end up writing our own memoir or help manual about OCD someday. In the meantime, there is this.




The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
A classic, I hear. I can't wait to read this winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007, first published in 1962. This is the story of a divorced single mom in 1950s London. "Fearful of going mad, she records her experiences in four coloured notebooks. The black notebook records her writing life, the red her political views, the yellow notebook her emotional life and the blue everyday events. But it is the fifth notebook -- the golden notebook -- that brings the strands of her life together and holds the key to her recovery." She  has written tons of things, including a novel called The Fifth Child. The Golden Notebook seems like it could be a little Margaret Atwood Blind Assassin-ish with a story in a story.



The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
Borrowed from Cousin Tresa. When I can get 2 minutes to read it, I love it, and it makes me laugh. When I tell people about it, they seem annoyed, like this guy is trying to be perfect and misconstrue the Bible and make all of us look bad. This book is highly entertaining so far!


Checking out the above book on Amazon.com led me to this, which will be going on my list soon: A Year of Biblical Womanhood (this should be verrrrrry interesting!)


The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
I've been trying to get past page 62 in this one for a long time and just can't do it. I'll let you know if I finish it. Kingsolver is an icon these days, and this is one of her earlier works, so I hope I love it and that I will also love her other works.


Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
I'm reading this to Joel for our Newberry Award book club with our Imagine Homeschool group, and it makes us laugh but also makes us very sad and makes us appreciate the family that we have and the things we have such as a home, food, transportation, safety, health and more. Set during the Great Depression and told from the viewpoint of a young black boy, this one will make you think.


Around the Writer's Block (Using Brain Science to Solve Writer's Resistance) by Rosanne Bane
I'll be showasing some of my findings from this book over at my Make Money to Write About Your Kids blog, but the cover says it will handle issues like: procrastination, paralysis, perfectionism, postponing, distractions, self-sabotage, excessive criticism, overscheduling and endlessly delaying your writing. Guilty, guilty and check!



Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool through High School by Rebecca Rupp
Just got this in the mail and am super excited! I only have the "What Your X Grader Needs to Know" up to Grade 6, and this book covers basic benchmarks from PreK through high school and offers resources you can check out at the library or go to online. Basically if you use this book you could homeschool for ... mostly ... FREE!

Coming up in May if I can get through April's

 

Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne with Lisa M. Ross



Get Organized, Stay Organized by Christine D. Shuck



War's End by Christine D. Shuck



The War on Drugs: An Old Wives' Tale by Christine D. Shuck



Voices of Autism