Quirks From Zoom

Do Zoomlian's have quirks? Zoomlians are quirks! The only trick is to skip the spectacular.

So, 6 unspectacular quirks, requested by the Queen of Carrots.

1. 1 out of 6 Zoomlians would eat a fuzzy caterpillar if we let him.

2. 2 out of 6 Zoomlians would prefer to eat all their food (and drink) at room temperature. Hey! I just realized that caterpillars are always at room temperature!

3. 3 out of 6 Zoomlians would rather scoot (on a scooter) than walk anywhere. This includes going from the living room to the dining room. (They aren't actually allowed to scoot in the house. Anymore.)

4. 4 out of 6 Zoomlians love to use the dictionary and then get lost in it looking up new and interesting words.

5. 5 out of 6 Zoomlians like to eat squid.

6. 6 out of 6 Zoomlians enjoy learning about ratios and percents when demonstrated with chocolate.

I'll tag Kate in NJ, Jennifer from Et Tu, and Margaret in Minnesota.
You are supposed to tag 6, but you are the three I'm most curious about!

Also, feel free to reply in the comments if I didn't link to your blog!

Getting Ready for Pentecost

This year I am focusing on the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit. Over the past few days, I made a poster of a large dove and seven flames with a gift written on each flame. Since they are gifts, I will be wrapping up representations of each gift in a fancy box along with an explanation, and I hope to have the kids open one a day over the next week. Here is what I have:

Wisdom: This gift helps us to tell the difference between what is really valuable (from God) and what just looks valuable! (a gold bracelet and a crumpled up tissue spray painted gold)

Understanding: This gift shows us everything in the light of truth! (flashlight)

Counsel: This gift is like a key that shows us the best way to please God and get to heaven! (key)

Fortitude: This gift gives us courage to do what God wants us to do and let nothing stop us! (stuffed lion)

Knowledge: This gift lets us get to know God and our selves! (Bible and mirror)

Piety: This gift makes praying and doing things for God sweet! (Rosary and candy)

Fear of the Lord: This gift makes us love God so much that we fear to offend Him. (fragile knick knack - we aren't afraid of it, we're afraid to break it).

There are a lot of different ways you could do this. My selections were based on what I could fit in the box and could find in the house (I had a tough time finding something fragile!). I am reusing my one very fancy gold gift box, but separate boxes or a gift bag would work well too.

Sorry about the odd fonts, I pasted from Word and am in need of more, well, knowledge.

Feeling Fruity

With the return of the nice weather, we've been outside a lot lately and doing quite a bit of gardening. I know that I blogged about our wheat field, but I don't know if I mentioned what we did with left over field. I still didn't want to mow that hill, especially after all the work tilling it into arable land, so we turned it into an orchard. 6 fruit trees hedged with raspberries and underplanted with all manner of small fruits

We now have little green fruit on 4 of the 6 trees, with more fruit forming on the strawberries, raspberries, currants, aronia, and figs! And the bush cherries, but even the kids won't eat those!

There is something so miraculous about planting a stick and getting fruit from it! Kind of like planting a pebble or a bit of dust and seeing something green come from it. If I ever get too busy to wonder at it, I have the Zoomlians to remind me: it really is a miracle every time, don't get too used to it and forget to enjoy it!

At the Grocery Store

Cashier: Are they all yours or are you baby sitting?

Me: Oh, definitely all mine. You think I'm crazy enough to babysit this many kids?

Thank You "Old Timer"

You left a great comment on the circus post - the Zoomlians loved it! I kept meaning to go back and comment on your comment, but I figured it was too far buried at this point.

Gimmy That Old Time Religion

It's never been my favorite song. I have fond memories of my Dad singing it to us in the car, but I liked it better when he sang There's a Church in the Valley by the Wildwood.

At any rate, when the kids started singing it in the back of the van, I started listening to the words.

"It was good for the prophet Daniel,
It was good for the prophet Daniel,
It was good for the prophet Daniel,
It's good enough for me!"

Hmm. Was that what bothered me? I do believe that Jesus fulfilled Judaism, but doesn't that verse imply that the "Old Time Religion" that's good enough for us is actually Judaism? Just about the time I was concluding that it really doesn't pay to think about the lyrics to kid songs too much, the kid's started making up verses.

"It was good for Benedicto (Benedict XVI),
It was good for Benedicto,
It was good for Benedicto,
It's good enough for me!"

Well, all right then!

They went on with quite a few verses featuring people it was good enough for: Donald (our bishop (seems rude, but that's how he's referred to in the Mass), Fr. Mark, Daddy, Mommy, and then each of the Zoomlians in turn using their Earth and then their Zoomlian names. It was a long song, but at the end of the day, it was definitively decided: That Old Time Religion is good enough for us!

In case you've never heard Give Me That Old Time Religion, you can hear it with the non-Zoomlian lyrics here. Come to think of it, I think it's Protestant in origin. Wouldn't their Old Time Religion be Catholicism? Maybe it really doesn't pay to think about the lyrics to kid songs too much!

Happy Birthday, Oob!! Part 2

Here we are on his actual birthday. Note that Oob no longer fears the flaming cake, indeed, he would like to eat the candle. He has learned (bright boy!) that flaming cakes are followed by lots and lots of messy, squishy, sugary goodness.

He has been enjoying the very best first birthday gift possible: a large sturdy cardboard box! He had pretty well worn out his Oob house after he figured out that he could peel off a layer of cardboard to expose an interesting bumpy texture.

Oh, yeah, his parents were inexplicably excited about gifts of clothing. Why do they keep putting that stuff on him, anyway? This is the fourth outfit today. Just when it gets good and muddy, or wet, or cakey, they want to change it.

Oh well, Happy Birthday, Oob!

Happy Birthday, Oob!! Part 1

As I write this, one year ago today at this time we were making the decision at the hospital to go ahead with labor instead of sending me home. He was 2 1/2 weeks early, but if the contractions turned into full labor at home,it was going to be a home birth (Choclo took 1 1/4 hours.)

It turned out to be the right call. Oob was facing backwards, had the cord around his neck several times, and then aspirated random goop (not meconium) and was in the NICU for more than a week. It would not have gone well at home.

And here we are a year later (how could it possibly have been a year?), thanking God for this year of delicious babyness. Thanking God for our beautiful Oob!

And celebrating of course! We started with a party on Saturday and Oob's first (authorized) choclolate. Choclo (appropriately enough) helped frost the cake.












Oob was a little alarmed that his cake was on fire, but enjoyed it very much !

The Day That Wasn't

Plan A: May 1st was the feast of St. Joseph , Ascension Thursday, and the first day of Mary's month, so we'd celebrate with Mass, and then taking the Azalea Walk at the Arboretum. Beautiful weather. Azaleas at their peak. Perfect!

This is a picture from last year.

I don't have a picture from this year because they closed the Arboretum to spray for gypsy moth caterpillars. But we did get to watch the helicopter spraying!

Plan B: Let's go to the state park near our house and do their playgrounds.

Nope. Closed.

Plan C: Let's drop by the playground close to our house that we're kind of bored with.
Surprise! We had a fabulous time!

Oob enjoyed swinging in the breeze in true baby style, note the wind fluffed hair.

The older Zoomlians worked on their tree camouflage skills. Can you spot three?

All in all, it was a lovely day, even if it wasn't the day I planned. Sometime after plan B failed, I realized that just a few years ago, I would have given up, gone home and had a pity party that my plans hadn't worked. What was that? Anger that it hadn't gone my way? Hurt pride that my perfect plan hadn't worked? Yes and yes and one thing more: a lack of trust that God has a plan for me.

The thing that I have learned most from DJM (Disciples of Jesus and Mary see side bar link) is to trust in God's love for me and to look for the gifts He surrounds me with.

I was one of the disciples on the road to Emmaus: Jesus was with me the whole time explaining it all for me, but I didn't recognize Him. They didn't recognize Him because they thought He couldn't possibly be really alive. I didn't recognize Him because I (unconsciously) thought He couldn't possibly love me enough to be wasting His time walking with me.

So I would have wasted the gift of the day that wasn't.

Noah Kidding

Here's a joke from my second Mom:

As Noah and his family were disembarking from the ark, they paused on a ridge to look back at the ark

“We should have done something, Noah,” said his wife.

“That old hulk of an ark will sit there and be an eyesore on the landscape for years to come.”

“Everything’s taken care of,” Noah assured her. “I left the two termites aboard.”

Thanks, Aunt Nicki!