Valentine’s Day Fun

When the living room has lovely decor, my brain is happy. So once in a while I have a happy brain day when I redecorate and/or rearrange. 

This time: Valentine’s Day. 

I found the wall words on clearance after Christmas. I didn’t know it at the time, but it fits perfectly with a Valentine’s Day theme...and the crucifix too. 

Due to four (big) things breaking in our house and the car dying all in one week, I made most of the decor this time (thank you Dollar Tree!) and I like it. It was fun to be creative and use my crafting skills. 

Elias loves the banister hearts. He told me “that’s impressive, Mommy!” I’m amazed a two year old can appreciate my efforts. 

Pregnancy

Baby #4 is just as difficult to grow as the rest of them have been, although he is taking it to a new level lately. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for another member of our family and I know he is totally worth the sacrifice, but gratitude doesn’t belittle the crosses. Severe morning sickness finally calmed down at 17 weeks. I started monitoring my blood sugars at 12 weeks and sure enough have been balancing carbs ever since. 

This grain free “bread” came out of the oven looking amazing...and then I sliced it. The longer it sat the greener it got. Literally. It turned green. And it didn’t taste good enough to keep eating. 

This grain free pancake recipe (also great as muffins) is a winner. 

But this paleo pumpkin chocolate chip bread is the gold medalist. It is insanely good for grain free. 

We figured out last week, after half the night in the hospital, that my blood pressure is too low. That makes for some scary symptoms when you don’t know what’s going on. Four hours of problem solving and two liters of fluids later, we went home at 4am. I’ll have to have weekly fluids until delivery. Hello again, first trimester. I did not miss you. 

Day By Day

Lots of fun little every day kind of life stuff lately. 

Went on a field trip with both big boys. I was officially with Lewis’ class as a chaperone so I didn’t get a picture with Augustine. We attended a stage performance of three Eric Carle stories. Very creative with puppetry and lights. We sat next to Lewis’ very best friend. They’ve had a lot of play time lately because her parents are doing a project in our house for us...they’re really good at fixing old house problems! It’s been fun to get to know them. 

I’m sure everyone at some point in their life reads like this, right?

This was a really cool ramp that Lewis made. He modified it quite a few times and the little brother was very impressed. 

This was cute once and won’t happen again. He often calls me to fix things around the house, but this time he crawled all the way in to the dryer. We told him from now on he has to stick to the pretend washer and dryer. 

He’s so good at bible study. He doesn’t like the babysitting room, so as long has he’s quiet I let him stay with me during bible study. He always does a great job playing quietly and being creative. 

It doesn’t hurt that his buddy is usually there too. He waits patiently through the whole study and then gets his quality time/convo in with her at the end. 

Augustine is so happy outside. Being cooped up is hard for him in the winter. This day was so lovely and warm. He went outside three times, with just enough time in between to eat, use the bathroom, and dry his winter gear. 

Elias enjoys watching guitar lessons about as much as Augustine enjoys having them. Mrs. Butler is always kind and lets Elias have a few minutes to strum her guitar at the end of the lesson. 

Oh Lewis. His brain thinks so differently and creatively than mine. I never know what is going to happen next with him. He brought home this paper and thought it was hilarious that he named his snowflake after me. We had a good laugh. Now he is signing all of his papers with my name instead of his own...not sure how that’s going to go over at school, but he finds it equally as hilarious.

A Busy Week

There is snow on the ground and temperatures are getting colder, so we are finding ways to stay happy inside day after day. 

We made some new pieces for our alter...a purple set and a green set to match the vestments we have. 

Logan was at conference the first week in January, so we didn’t make it to Sunday Mass on time at our own parish. We went to “Max & Martyrs” as Elias refers to it, which cracks us all up because our good friend Max is indeed a parishioner there! Since I was solo (and Augustine was with G&G) we took The Brick Bible to keep the boys quiet during Mass. It’s a giant book and I feel slightly embarrassed to have it in Mass, but survival was necessary that day. 

The boys found the incensor sitting outside the sacristy after Mass and we’re enthralled. Thank goodness they didn’t touch it because I quickly realized they were blowing on the coals to watch them turn red. It was still quite hot. 

Father had a gold vestment on and Elias was very impressed. He thought it was very fancy. 

Elias: How you did get your vestment gold?

Father: That’s a sophisticated question for a boy your age!

Elias: How you did do it?

Father: God made it that way.

(Me: 🤔) 

We had a good schedule over Christmas break, and kept it up while Logan was gone. The boys earned screen time each morning and afternoon by doing three chores each. We got in such a good rhythm that by the second week they would say “what are my three things?” and get right to them. 

Logan loaded us up with library books and playaways. Elias loves the idea of playaways. He especially likes to plug in the “hearphones”. 

Elias is still dairy free, and he was thrilled that his “pretend cheese” company is making all sorts of new products. Cheesy noodles and cheese slices for grilled cheese are new favorites. 

Lewis made a cool bookstore during quiet time one day. He got a cash register with pretend money in it for Christmas so he’s been making all kinds of shops and restaurants. 

He also made a real smoothie for himself because I just didn’t have the energy to do it for him. He did a good job and the mess was surprisingly minimal. 

A few of the snowy days were really nice, so the big boys went out to play quite a bit. Elias went out a few times when Daddy could go too. Elias didn’t mind watching them build snow creations from his warm rocking chair. 

Another family cooked a meal with us and we took the Sisters’ dinner. The boys helped me deliver our half of the meal, and got some chapel time with Sr. Teresa Marie (Augustine’s teacher).

Guitar Lessons

Augustine came home excitedly from school one day with a piece of paper in his hand. On it was the hand written notes of Mary Had A Little Lamb.

“I want to play this!”

Excited that he had an interest in music I asked, “On what?”

He thought for a while and decided he wanted to play it on the guitar, so we borrowed cousin Thomas’ kid-size guitar and started lessons today!

We know lots of people who play, and Mrs. Butler was happy to give him a few lessons to see if he really enjoys it. She showed us how to tune the guitar. 

She taught him two chords and how to strum. Then she played those two chords to a song the kids sing all the time at school Mass. It was a brilliant teaching technique and a perfect amount to start with. 

She also had him do some written work to help him memorize the two chords he learned, as well as read guitar chords when written down. 

Augustine is doing really well and enjoys each lesson!

Playing

Elias read a book from the library about a boy’s first haircut. He got his first hair cut quite a while back, but Bibbity Bop Barbershop is quite the new favorite. Elias found Lewis’ shaving kit and now we all get our first haircut repeatedly. 

He doesn’t often get to play with small legos, but it’s serious thinking when he does. 

Play Mass with Elias is easy. He fiddles around with the stuff on his altar while I sing my favorite hymns out of the hymnal and receive communion (soup crackers) quite a few times. 

Christmas #4

We spent the day with just my immediate family and had lots of fun!

The cousins

We opened gifts from one another. Augustine got lots of fun things to play, including more legos. 

Lewis got a lot of fun activities too...and finally his own LEGO set that he actually built himself! His big brother answered his questions, but he did the work himself!

I think Elias finally understands opening gifts. He would open one and then play quite a while before opening the next. It was lovely. 

Cousin Thomas spent the whole day playing with Elias. He gets major points. I can’t count all the wheelbarrow rides, shoulder rides, wrestling matches, and games they played. You’re a good big cousin, Thomas!

What more can a garbage truck loving toddler want?! He loaded all the paper up and dumped it into Grandpa’s hopper. 

Here’s the hopper. Grandpa gets a shout out too for curbing the daily morning fit by going for a walk in the rain with Elias. 



Grandma had lots of fun in store for us. We played family feud, attempted a 2000 piece puzzle, and took turns cooking delicious food.  The highlight though was the gingerbread house decorating. 

Augustine is really getting good at piping frosting. He also did some nice fondant work. 

Elias enjoyed it, but didn’t work for long because there was playing to be done. 



Logan was a good sport. There aren’t many things funnier to watch than Logan trying to have (mandatory) craft fun. He really did try to be creative!

Augustine had the cool idea of a flag on top. 

Lewis made a very fancy roof! He is also good at piping the frosting. 

He worked for a long time and his house turned out very cute!

I made a house too. Then everyone was supposed to title their own house, as well as one other person’s house. 

I titled mine, and Logan added to it. 

Lots of people titled Logan’s, my suggestion being on the left there. 

And Elias’ day wouldn’t be complete without a story read by Thomas!