Yesterday was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and we had a great celebration in Mary’s honor. We started on Monday at Super Saints. The boys made Marian Grottos, which turned out beautiful despite burning themselves with the glue gun. They had the usual coloring pages and made Holy card sheets. The boys learned a lot about what this feast means and were so excited to tell their father all about it. Since Goose was sick we were able to go to Mass together at noon, and I’m happy to report that the boys were perfect in church. A gentleman even told me I was doing a good job! I know it’s not humble, but I feel so proud when someone makes remarks like that. It really helps during those frustrating moments with the boys. For dinner, we had an all white meal to highlight Mary’s purity. We had white cheddar mac-n-cheese, chicken and cauliflower. For dessert, we had blueberry muffins. (The blue is for Mary too.) The only way to get Baby Hulk to eat the cauliflower was to bribe him with the muffins. The boys seemed to appreciate the symbolism of the meal. I think we’ll try and incorporate this type of thing into our meals more often.

I am what some people might call a neat freak, picky or basically just a pain in the ass when it comes to my house. I don’t leave the house with beds unmade or dishes in the sink. EVER. I am constantly cleaning this place. Even though I’ve been really depressed about the whole school situation with Goose, I am still a freak about cleaning. I might be spending a lot of money these days, but you can eat off my floor. Everyone knows this about me.

I am trying to teach my kids a lot of lessons, including the importance of being neat and clean. I am constantly telling Squirt that one day he will appreciate my nagging about cleanliness and at the very least, his future girlfriend or wife will. Overall, my boys are pretty neat and like things clean too. Once, Goose went to someone’s house and reported to the mother that he couldn’t play because the place was a mess. (I might need to work on teaching manners a bit with that one.) Today, my little Kobra was throwing a fit because he didn’t like what I served him. I took him out of his high chair and told him to pick up the food he threw on the floor. AND he did it! He placed it back on his tray. Then afterwards, he put his sippy cup in the dishwasher and closed it. He is so my kid!

For Today…December 6, 2009, The Longhorns freaking won. Literally a last second win, a second that had to be reviewed and put back on the clock. But they did it, and now we are playing for the National Championship!

Outside my window…It’s dark and rainy. It’s been dreary all day. You’d think I would have cleaned all day or been super productive, but I wasn’t.

I am listening to…my Ipod, an old playlist. I am in desperate need of updating this thing.

I am wearing…Christmas boxers and a black tank and Snoopy slippers.

I am thankful for…a win last night. I think my family is too. I finally stopped cussing and screaming.

To be fit and happy…I don’t even want to go there. The eating tons of food season has officially begun. It started with Banana Bread and is now into Twix on a daily basis. Thank goodness, I love my workouts because I start baking this week.

I am reading…a ton of blogs right now.

From the kitchen…I’m so proud of our family. We stuck with our plan and ate what I planned for the week. I’ve already planned the menu for this week, and Lance made the grocery run. We should have another successful week.

I am thinking…that I go to bed way too late for someone who goes nonstop each and every day starting at 6 in the morning. I always say this is going to change, but it never does. Then I get sick.

To live the liturgy…We had a great first week of Advent. Today we celebrated the feast of St. Nicholas. The boys had coloring pages and received new slippers. The boys picked their own gifts for the needy and were really excited about that. Tuesday is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. We’ll be covering that in Super Saints as well as eat a meal in Mary’s honor. We have been lighting the Advent wreath each night and singing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.

I am praying…for more patience and will power. I think I’ll always be praying for these things.

On keeping home…I still haven’t decorated the house. I think Wednesday will be the day that all the decorations come out. I hope we are creating a great atmosphere of anticipation in our home.

One of my favorite things…priests that speak about things that their parishioners don’t want to hear. It’s hard living in Texas and talking about the death penalty or immigration. You rarely hear a priest talk about Catholic teaching on these social issues. As in, I’ve heard these two topics a total of 5 times since 1995 during a sermon. Today, my favorite priest talked about both these topics, and I can promise you this priest is not a bleeding heart. It’s mean of me, but I hope people were squirming in the pews instead of rolling their eyes. This was so timely for me because just last night someone told me how wrong it was to help illegal aliens. It’s hard when people don’t focus on mankind’s humanity. So, Thank You Father for reminding me that I do have to speak up no matter how flawed a human I am. I probably won’t be changing anyone’s mind, but I don’t have to stay silent about basic human truths.

A few plans for the rest of the week…

• mail Christmas cards
• buy two more gifts
• swim lessons
• Super Saints
• daily Mass
• workout
• decorate!
• see the twins
• find tickets to the game
• bake
• make my newest Godson’s blanket
• Austin for the Santa party
• Heather’s 40th birthday party
• finish last week’s list….

A picture thought I am sharing…

The boys in their new slippers, notice Baby Hulk has football slippers. I am so freaking proud of that kid.

The chance to go to the National Championship is on the line, and here is how my house looks:

Squirt: playing video games

Goose: reading the Bible

Baby Hulk: watching game and yelling at the tv

Kobra: sleeping

I have raised them all the same and something seems to have gone so very wrong. What can I do?

I can tell you who the favorite is for the week.

Just a few notes while I am watching the game…First, Baby Hulk just said “screw Nebraska”. Do I have to be upset? Honestly, I’m not. I can’t even pretend to act like I care.

Second, I have this friend who thinks I am the perfect Catholic, which anyone who knows me, knows this is SO. NOT. TRUE. Anyway, when I cussed during the first few minutes of the game, she was completely offended and threw my Catholicism in my face. How can I deal with that? This is another reason why I watch games by myself or with my brother and dad. (FYI…Hector is at a bar by himself watching the game.)

I have a great Christmas list on the off chance that Texas doesn’t win, but let me just be clear, another Fendi isn’t going to make up for a loss to a crappy Nebraska team.

I’m a stay at home mom. I take care of the kids, cook, clean, do laundry and take care of Lance. When the kids wake up at night, I get up. It’s always been that way. I figured since I stay home, I do most/all of the work that involves homemaking. And I love it. The thing I don’t do is yard work. But neither does my husband. So we have a yard guy. Never mind the fact that there are six people in this house, and I don’t have a housekeeper. Lance says it is only because I love to clean. It’s actually that I’m too cheap to hire someone to help out….But I digress….It is currently 32 degrees outside, and it is supposed to get even colder. Guess who gets to go outside and bring in all the plants??? How does this fall into my domain?

Last year, I decided to make my own Christmas cards rather than order them online. I’m not sure why. I’m not creative, have horrible handwriting and it’s not really any cheaper than buying them. This year I was really excited to make our cards. After all, I had the perfect picture, as perfect as it gets with four kids. It only took over 500 shots to get a good picture, and I am so not kidding about that. (Honestly, the picture is pretty good of everyone but me. I can’t believe I am sending out a card where I don’t look the best.)

Since I wasn’t able to finish my list for the week, I decided I had to finish my cards tonight or I wasn’t going to be happy. So now it’s 1:15 in the morning, and I have run out of scrapbook tape and my new gold pen didn’t make it past ten cards. Who thinks I won’t be getting my money back on that one? And yes, I am willing to stand in line at freaking Hobby Lobby for however long it takes to get back my 3 bucks on that pen. The problem is I don’t know if it’s a defective pen or if I just need one pen for every 8-9 cards. Once I finish the cards, I still have to find envelopes sometime this weekend. It’s back to a collage card from Shutterfly next year.

I am so annoyed right now. I only had a few things left to buy this week, one of them being slippers for one of the kids for the feast of St. Nicholas, which is December 6th. I need these slippers by Sunday morning, and I have had no luck. So once again, (as in the third time this week), while the rest of the city was outside playing in the snow, I was at another mall looking for a damn kiosk with slippers. I went all over the Galleria with three little kids, looking for a happy feet kiosk because this one lady was supposed to be there. All I found were three different “pillow friend” kiosks. I am ready to lose it. It’s too late to order anything online and googling “slipper kiosk locations in Houston” has not provided the results I desire. My mood is getting worse and worse by the minute.