Veteran's Day and Sick Babies and Jesus!!!

Well, we've had a busy week!

The kids who were healthy did a Talent Show at a local retirement home on Veteran's Day - the residents LOVED it and said it was a great show. We did it through our local homeschooler's Little Flowers, Blue Knights, Little Saints, and Knights and Maidens of the Immaculata group [sorta like Catholic scouting with a very religious focus]. We have some *amazing* women in our homeschool group who run these groups for the kids and they do some really wonderful service projects all year long.

Here are the kids just before the show, dressed in their "Red, White, and Blue" [each age group had a different color they were supposed to wear]:





Monkey1 did a solo at the show, and the Director of the Retirement Home caught my husband afterwards and told him that Monkey1's voice was so beautiful and that she needed to be in serious voice lessons because she "could be a star one day". We agree, which is why she's in Choir and our Choir Director has suggested voice lessons for her around age 12, when her voice starts to mature, which we plan to do.



Now, Monkeys 5 & 6 [1yo and newborn] stayed home with me - all 3 of us have been sick for more than a week now [Monkey5 is going on almost 2 weeks now]. It has been a miserable cold/flu type thing complete with body ache and fever.

Here is a picture of poor sick Monkey5:



And here is a pic of the miserable baby. Is there anything sadder than a sick baby?



You KNOW she doesn't feel well in that pic, because she almost never cries - she's a very content little sweetheart!

Now for a happy pic. The Baby Monkey has grown HUGE! Below you can see how well she's fattened up after being a little preemie:



And now for a funny story. Monkey4, the 3yo, is in preschool at our Church. Every week they have a "letter of the week" and she is supposed to bring in some item that starts with that letter.

This week the letter was "J", which we quickly realized is the first letter in "Jesus". So, the older 4 kids and I were trying to find something in our home that Monkey4 could take to symbolize "Jesus". We have two crucifixes, but they are both almost 2 feet tall - not really preschooler size. I was looking for one of our smaller crucifixes that belong to the kids, but, belonging to kids they have disappeared at present. :(

During all this, Monkey5 1yo is standing by the front door yelling at me, and I was distracted looking for these other things and I kept saying "What do you need?" but not looking up [bad mommy!]. Finally I look over at her, she is standing by the front door pointing up at our picture of Jesus of Divine Mercy and shouting "Jesus! Jesus!" clear as day!

Boy, did I feel like an idiot! It *was* Jesus, and it is 8x10 and perfect to fit into Monkey4's preschool bag.

I was amazed on a couple of levels - first of all, that my 22 month old had that good of a grasp not only on who and where Jesus was in our home ;), but also that she understood the complex conversation we were having enough to realize we were looking for Jesus.

My husband's comment was that she is "Scary Smart" and I agree!

Of course, I was also touched because "Jesus of Divine Mercy" was a Revelation to St. Faustina [Helena Kowalska] and that is Monkey5's patron Saint - she is named after her. So, that was pretty cool to me to realize that she recognized the painting. [She also got very upset when Monkey4 then *left* with Jesus's picture and took it away to school! She was quite relieved when it came back home with Monkey4 and went back to the spot of honor by the front door. LOL!]

She's an amazing little kid, that's for sure!

Here is a photo of Monkey5 holding the picture of Jesus of Divine Mercy:



In other news, we have 15 2 week old chicks and 4 newborn chicks that just hatched Tuesday. We are expecting several more chicks to hatch in the coming weeks. My husband built a neat new chicken house to house these chickens. He is going to build a couple of more coops too so we can keep the breeds separate so I can sell the hatching eggs on eBay if it works out.

The kids have plans to go spend the weekend with my mom and dad, sister and brother this weekend. They are very excited.

I have plans to try to clean up the house while they are gone.

I have struggled to keep the house clean since the birth of my 3rd child - that seemed to be "critical mass" for me, at which point it became difficult to keep up with the housekeeping and homeschool.

It has gotten beyond terrible in the last 15 months - it first went bad while my husband was gone last fall, then I went immediately into kidney stone trouble and surgery in January, found out I was pregnant a couple of days later, spent the next 7 months exhausted to the point of immobility [LOL! I felt WAY too old to be pregnant this time around... it was just about all I could do to keep the kids fed and alive...!]. And now after 10 weeks home with a new baby and not making much progress, it is a disaster area. Seriously.

It looks like the Target toy department vomited toys all over the place and it needs a declutter and a *deep clean* in the worst way - it is just filthy. I feel overwhelmed now even TRYING to get it put back together, but I can't STAND living like this. So, this weekend will be my first baby step with the kids out of the way [except the baby of course, she stays with us].

Please wish me luck! I'm gonna need it!

Have a great weekend! God Bless you!