The Cabbage Patch

Off for the Weekend

It's Labor Day weekend.  We are off to my parents' house tomorrow.  The whole family will be together again for the first time since last Thanksgiving.  My one brother from California will be here visiting with his soon to be fiancee.

Mary Ellen of O Night Divine tagged me for a Nice Matters Award.  I don't have any more time left, but I will get to this soon.  Oh, and check out Mary Ellen in the Washington Times!  It's a great article.

If You're Reading This

I had heard this song by Tim McGraw (I think the official title is Already Home) a couple of weeks ago and bawled like a baby on the way home from the grocery store.  The line that really got me was about the baby he would never know. 

I had heard that after Tim McGraw had performed this at the ACM Awards that the back of the stage lit up on families of the fallen.  I wanted to see it and so I finally googled it today.  As expected, I cried.  It felt like a piercing in my heart--the same way I've been feeling when I think of Dave. 

After watching the video I went downstairs (Ben had left the room--he can't listen to this song at all for it hurts his heart).  Ben asked if I cried.  Then he said I like to cry.  I couldn't quite deny it, but then his next statement made me pause.  He said it was cathartic for me. 

Yes, it is.  I then said, "I didn't get to cry enough when he died so once in a while I need to."  And it's true.  I didn't.  I couldn't.  I wanted to so desperately.  And, I did sometimes, in the night, but I had to go on and be strong for my little ones.  That night I found out about Dave, my children were stunned into silence.  My nephews as well.  It's indeliby imprinted into their minds as it is in mine.  It scared them to see me so vulnerable.  It was the first time they'd seen me cry and with such grief.  I feel that grief almost as strongly today, but I know it will eventually get better. 

I can't get that image of him sitting in the mangled humvee as the medic worked on him.  I just can't.  I can only pray he didn't suffer.  And, I will only say that sometimes ignorance is bliss.

I miss you, Dave. 

Tissue Alert

Really.  Do NOT watch this without tissues in your hand. 

HT:  Become What You Are

Another Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl!  Has it really been 6 years since I first held you in my arms?

Punctuation and Stuff

Today, we decided to stray from our normal routine in many ways and really paid for it.  Brother was having a hard time with everything.  It's not very big, but I can see it in his behavior.  He can out of sorts.  Even though we did it for a fun thing, it is just not worth it.  So, I need to maintain a solid routine.  I'm still working on it, but I'll post it up on the board for him on a daily basis and a weekly basis.  I need to find a calendar that we can use to help record our miscellaneous appointments and odd events.  Maybe this will help keep him calm.

You're probably wondering what that had to do with punctuation.  Actually, nothing.  I wanted to relay the exchange we all had in the car on the way home.  Brother's recent obssession interest involves the blue signs along the side of the interstate highway relaying the different lodging, gas and restaurant locations at the next exit.  He wanted to play a guessing game about these places.  For instance, "I'm thinking of a gas station with 2 X's" or some such thing.  Out of the blue, in the middle of the game, he states, "I'm a comma, Honey is a period, Mommy's a question mark, and Dad's an exclamation point."  Then he moved on to the next clue. 

Huh?

Such is the life with a child with autism.

Treasure Hunts and More

Dawn posted about her Crackerjack's birthday party.  It sounded like a rousing success.  And, you should take a look at her refreshments!  She knows how to throw a party!

This past Sunday, we threw a birthday party for Brother and Sister.  Their birthdays are 5 days apart and they don't mind sharing parties.  Since we invite all the same guests (whole families), three other girls in our homeschool group who had late August birthdays were guests of honor also. 

After a lunch of pizzas, chips and various other appetizer type dishes, they had a treasure hunt.  Ben had put one on for a couple of families and our children one time while on leave.  They loved it and have not stopped talking about it.  So, we thought it would be fun to have one for this party.  Now, we had a group of children that numbered 28 (this number excluded the infants) so we had to break down the group into older and younger.  Ben is very clever with words so he put together all the clues.  For example:

You got all dirty looking for treats!  Now search on the back porch in boots for big feet!

The simultaneous treasure hunts ended up in the living room at the same time after trips outdoors and in, upstairs and down.  One little girl was not feeling well (not contagious) so she was the treasure holder/hider for the younger group while I hid the older group's treasure in the fireplace.  It took a bit of time for the older group, but they did find it.  The younger group found theirs first.  It was a fun time had by all.  They only had a bit of trouble dividing up the treasure.

Then in keeping with the treasure hunt theme, we had a pirate birthday cake for my two.

It was a great party and the kids all had fun.  The grown ups also had fun socializing while the children played outside and upstairs.

Pumpkin fell asleep while eating cake and ice cream. 

School Days

Today was the first day of school for the public schools.  You can see the neighborhood school from my bedroom window.  There were crowds of cars unloading parents with children in tow.  For us, we'd been schooling off and on all year.  There's no real "summer vacation".  However, we had been off for the past two weeks for a family visit.  Last week I took off to recover from the family visit (as much fun as we had, there was a lot of cleaning before their arrival and then lots of fun stuff late into the night with Ben's family).  I have plans to post about their visit, but it will have to wait. 

We did start back to school today and it went relatively well.  My original plans had been to start slowly in July with the 3 basics and then integrate more and more into our days until all subjects were being studied.  I had intended this to all happen by the end of this month.  Well, the end's upon us and we're not there yet.  So, September it will be.  I'm excited to start.  I have a to-do list a mile long to accomplish, but I know it will all happen in due time. 

I do have to remember to start my morning in prayer asking for Our Lady's intercession throughout the day.  She is our patron after all (Our Lady Queen of Peace).

This is a rambly post.  I'm leaving you with a completely unrelated photo of the sky at sunset tonight.

Look Who's Blogging Now?

It seems the blogging bug has hit my dear hubby.  Ben has started a blog.  He wants to write about his thoughts on history, war strategy, the military and maybe a bit about the family from his perspective.  Go check it out.  He only has one post up, but he's a prolific writer. 

Sisters

Honey wanted someone to lie down next to her while she drifted off to sleep.  For various reasons, we told her no (the least of which is she sleeps in a toddler bed).  Sister came out behind her and told her she could come into her bed.  So, there they both sleep with head touching--touching my heart.

Happy Birthday, Little Guy

When did this happen?  My little boy is 9!  Happy Birthday, sweet guy!