Yesterday I was nursing a sore throat, so I sat on the couch and looked through old emails, some over 11 years old and from Joshua around the time we were engaged. Sweet, mushy, filled with hope and great excitement for the future. However, those are not the reason for this post.

At dinner last night, while pondering those emails (and how wonderful of a husband Joshua is), I turned to Margaret and Caecilia and told them that if they are called to marriage, to make sure their future husbands love them as much as papa loves me.

Margaret said that she would know she found a good husband if he makes sure she never runs out of ice cream.

I thought about that for a second and realized that Joshua makes sure that we are never ever out of ice cream and that, among many other things, makes him a great husband.

Our Very Special Priest friend stop by for a visit this weekend and what a great time we had catching up with him. During the conversation, he asked me if I was still writing my blog. I laughed and said that it had fallen to the wayside for a lot of reasons, but mainly because I didn’t really think I was a great writer, and that people probably weren’t interested in reading what I write.

Then the conversation went to something else, but later he suggested I submit a sample to Catholic newspapers. What? Why? He said I was witty and that people would like to hear day to day things about my family and raising Catholic kids. I told him I’m not sure my wit comes across in print, that it was more like bitterness, but he kept encouraging, so I’m thinking about it. I did get permission to drop his name if I do submit something.

I would like to write, to share life as a Catholic mother living in the South, and heck to get paid for that, it’d be awesome, but what topics could I do that aren’t already being done? I kinda feel like I’d be reinventing the wheel, but at the same time, he suggested it more than once, so I’m very much thinking about it.

This morning I had Caecilia gather all the laundry from upstairs that had not made it to the hamper, the I had Margaret bring it down. Once the hamper made it to the main floor and slowly made its way to the laundry room (my kids think the bottom of the stairs is the ending spot for the chore), Benedict asked if he could move laundry from the washer to the dryer. Of course my dear son, help away.

About five minutes later I went to the laundry room to start the load that had been brought down and discovered that not only had Benedict taken the stuff out of the dryer, moved the washed clothes to the dryer, but he also loaded the washer and put the soap in. He was just waiting for me to help him put the vinegar in. When that was done and he turned everything on, he took the clean clothes out to the living room for me. This kid is hired!

I shouldn’t be surprised though, this is the kid who comes running when the dishwasher is opened so he can put away the silverware and loves to help set the table for dinner. I think the part I was blown away by was the fact that he had the perfect amount of laundry soap in the dispenser.

Thanks Benedict!!

 

It was time to butcher some of our chickens. We had put it off enough long enough and the older ones are going on three years old now, it was time to kill them and have dinner. Joshua did a lot of research and this weekend, he put his studies into action. It wasn’t as horrifying as I thought it would be, but my main job was making sure the pot of water was warm enough to scald the chicken to get the feathers off. That wasn’t hard at all.

My plan was to freeze the chickens and forget about them because I have this strange issue with being afraid of eating something I raised. Our big rooster, Captain Kirk, had other plans though. He was a pain in the butt in life and remained so in death: he wouldn’t in the freezer bag! Then he wouldn’t fit in my pressure cooker!

In the end I cut him down a bit then shoved him into the cooker, where I may have over cooked him a bit, but the stock was amazing….and so was the gravy that I made from it. It could be the chicken or maybe it was the rosemary I tossed in the pot, but I could have had that gravy on its own.

I had a piece of the breast and an obscene about of that gravy, I’m not afraid to admit. That picture above was taken with my junky camera phone and I didn’t even need to filter it, it was that pretty and good!

 

 

 

 

 

Benedict turned 4! He had a very specific request for his cake and was not disappointed.

 

I know most of my readers are also friends with me on various social media sites, but I wanted to share here what happened to Margaret over the weekend.

On Sunday afternoon,  we were enjoying our quiet day, with my friend Jaime visiting, us resting after a big Sunday brunch, and the kids playing. Margaret was running around the toy room with a box on her head and got pushed by one of the other kids. She fell and hit her head , but at our house, head bumps aren’t un-common, so we just had her sit for a bit, to rest.

After a few hours she started vomiting and after that didn’t stop within a few hours, we made the decision to take her to the local ER. Joshua took her, so I could rest up, which was both laughable (because who could sleep?) and a good idea because the CT scan revealed a skill fracture. She ended up having to be transported to Macon, the closest children’s hospital to us, about two hours away.

She rode in an ambulance and Joshua came home to stay with the kids while I drove up to Macon. Two of the longest hours of my life. It was about half way there that I realized that my little girl was riding in an ambulance with complete strangers, but they took great care of her.

Margaret was in the PICU because of possible bleeding on her brain as well as the fracture that was seen during the CT scan. When I got to the floor, they had given her medicine to keep her from vomiting and that worked, allowing her to begin healing a bit more. She was sleepy and rested on an off for a while.

While she was sleeping, a priest from the nearby parish, St. Joseph (aka our favorite church in the South) came by and she received her fourth sacrament, anointing of the sick. She slept right through it, much like her first sacrament.

When she was awake, she was asked lots of questions, I could tell she was not happy about having to answer questions, but did a good job. I’m almost positive that she was questioning why all these people were asking her the same thing over and over again. I should note that her response to when her birthday is was “I’m not sure, but it is after Christmas.” It didn’t help either that Joshua accidentally gave the wrong year during intake at the local hospital.

Jaime had arrived shortly before noon, bringing Margaret’s critter hat. That made her happy. She also came with cards and drawing from the kids, plus a holy card and miraculous medal from Papa.

Around 1pm she went for another CT scan and amazed me with her braveness. She did what she was told and did a great job for the radiologist. That CT scan revealed a bit of a hematoma, so she was kept in the PICU overnight.

She slept quite a bit that afternoon, so Jaime and I headed to get a bite to eat. Jaime also suggested I go get some sleep, as I had been up since 330 and really only had just over an hour of sleep that night. We decided to split a hotel room and I headed off around 8pm. (Note: Jaime is one of my very good friends, I would trust her with anything, so I felt comfortable that Marg was in good hands, both with the nurses and with her.) I also needed to buy M a toothbrush and underwear as I forgot to pack those as I was putting together things, so I headed off.

I headed back to the hospital around 430a and Margaret had slept well through the night, with no memory of the nurse coming in every hour to check her stats and her eyes. She also woke up without a head ache, which was a good sign.  The neurosurgeon stopped by to take a quick look at her and ordered another CT for her just to make sure all was fine. He also had a JPII style crucifix pin on his lapel!

As Margaret was pretty stable, she was moved down to the 3rd floor around 10am, a great sign. She had a CT at 230 and that was the same, so she was good to go. She was discharged and we headed home. Our first stop was to park in front of St. Joseph Church and make a thanksgiving. We didn’t go in because M needed to rest.

We got home, thankful to see everyone and hug everyone and share stories of the hospital stay.

Now it is just a time of slow recovery. Keeping her sitting still is not easy, nor is telling her she cannot clean things. 🙂

Thank you to everyone for your prayers, we felt them!