Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today is the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I wanted to take just a minute to ask all my friends- Protestant and Catholic- to take a minute to honor the enormity of her task and the blessing she bestowed on us through her fiat, her yes to the Heavenly Father. That said, I want to give a quick note about the place of honor Mary holds in my Catholic Faith.

We do not worship Mary, nor do we see her as God-like.
We honor her as Christ did, as his mother, Can you really imagine him NOT honoring his own mother whom I am sure he was 100% obedient to? (Note: see Ten Commandments.)Therefore, being the KING of Kings and all, is his mother not deserving of a place of honor? If he is our King, it just makes sense that we would honor, love and adore her as he did. That's all I'm sayin'.

With the exception of Christ, she is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT HUMAN BEING TO EVER WALK THE FACE OF THE EARTH. So wish her a Happy Birthday today and thank her for her gift of saying yes to God when he called upon her 2000 years ago, no matter what your denomination. At the very least, thank God for her.

She has been there for me, through out my life in countless ways and I couldn't even begin the explain this to you if you asked me, I just know.

If you are interested in learning more about what the Catholic Church believes concerning Mary, click here. I believe this to be a fairly unbiased and reputable site in the limited time I explored it. There are just sooooo many misconceptions out there when it comes to Mary and I would love to be able to clear them up for even one person. Ok, that's all I am saying tonight. Have a great day!

Awesome Photographer

Here is the new website for a wonderful photographer of families and children.  She has worked with my quads and baby before and she is a very dear friend.  Check it out.
http://phillipsonphotography.com/

You're awesome Lisa!

First Article Published

Ok, here it is.  Hope you enjoy.  Hope I didn't offend anyone!

http://blissfullydomestic.com/multiple-bliss/what-its-like-to-be-methe-story-of-a-quad-mom-part-one/

I am working on part two now, well, ok technically I haven't started but how would you know?

Blissfully Domestic

Well, I have been slow to update here and it is because
1.  School started and that is like a tornado going through your house for a couple of weeks straight and
 2.  I have decided to test out my writing skills in a more public spot.  I applied and was accepted to join the Blissfully Domestic website which I hope you will check out and book mark.  I don't think it's hard to get accepted as a writer but I don't know.  They did have to check out my blog before they said yes so maybe there is something there.  I am going to continue with this blog as mostly a family and speak my mind forum but I will always set up a link when I get something published there.  I am really excited!  I would be more excited if they paid me but hey, gotta start somewhere.  I also want to officially announce that I really have started writing a book but I can't tell you much more than that now.  I don't know which path I am going to head down with it because depending on which publishers you go with you have to sort of curve your style to their liking so I don't know if it will be a heavily faith based book or just humor, hopefully a little of both!  Now that I have told you, I have to get serious about it.  If only the kids would cooperate!  Wish me luck!

Random thoughts by Bonnie - Hip Hop music

Ok, so today I just want to say something about Hip Hop music. I was in my car, ALONE, a rare occurrence indeed, when I flipped to a station that occasionally plays hip hop and this insanely moronic song came on. All I heard was "Let's do it, do it - do do do do do it, it, it it it. Uhhh, is that the dumbest thing I have ever heard? Well, if it isn't it has to come in a close second. I just changed the station. I have no time for that, no patience for the crude areas of life, that is except for the ones I must deal with such as that gross space between the toilet and the wall behind it or the back of the vegetable drawer that has been neglected so long that the squash has liquefied. Did I just say that? OK, yes that has really happened to me, I am not the perfect homemaker but I am getting better with age.
Back to the hip hop song, I actually appreciate that genre of music for its rhythm and creativity. I don't listen to it on a regular basis being a conservative, caucasian mini-van-driving mom of five but hey, I still like a good song and I used to dance a lot back in the day when my jeans were two sizes smaller. In the old millennium. But PULEEEZE, why crank out crap like that? I hate the misogynistic and crude aspects of some hip hop. Call me a dork but I like Will Smith type stuff, no foul language, its not necessary in a really good song. So I decided I would no longer listen to hip hop in English, I will try french. I hear it's pretty good. But then I remembered that I know just enough french to ruin it for me. I could figure out when they were being crude. I just had a brilliant moment, I officially switch to Japanese hip hop. The only word I know in Japanese is cooneachewah (phonetically spelled of course) it's some kind of greeting. Sadly I learned this from watching Hannah Montana. Oh well, I may not be cultured but I appreciate it just the same!

What's for dinner? Apple Crisp

The other night I started getting nostalgic for fall and why you might ask? Well my kids are back in school already. They get a week off in October which is really nice and then one in February which is the pits but that is where the early start date derives from.

So whenever I get that feeling I like to bake things with apples. I am getting better at this too. I learned to bake with firmer types of apples if you want to bite into it and softer sweeter apples if you want it to sortof melt in your mouth. Fuji and Gala are melty kinds of apples by the way. I used an apple called Golden Delicious. I'm pretty sure that was the name, it worked well and was firm. You can also mix apple types for pies and crisps. It had a topping like oatmeal/sugar cookie. Very good I'd say. Well, I am now looking forward to pumpkin farms and cider but I hate to rush time. That's how you miss neat little things. I must say I have never been a big fan of August, very little to love about that month down here in the south. Oh, I found a neat little web site which I haven't investigated fully but it looks promising and goes right along with my topic http://www.whatsfordinner.net/meals.html

It has 7 meals listed each week. It also lets you create a grocery list and add your own things to it before you print - How cool is that?! And it has creative family ideas. Love it! I bookmarked it as soon as I came across it. Ok, I'm out, you guys have a great night!

First day of First grade for four kids

Thought I'd throw some alliteration at you with that title. If you are scratching your head then you have been out of school too long. Ok, I sent my four babies to school for the first day of first grade and so far the reactions have been mixed, but mostly good.

I have one child in a special ed class strictly for first graders with autism. Love it, love the teacher she's awesome and loves my daughter dearly so that works out perfectly. That's Doodle on the far left of the second picture. Can you tell by looking at her here? I don't think so but the strangest thing has been happening more and more lately and that is that I have to tell people about her autism because she will do bizarre things for a girl her size that she use to get away with as a little thing (like stealing their french fries at McDonalds) but now, people are not so forgiving. If you spent some time observing her you would probably figure it out but from a picture she looks just like the rest of them and in many ways she is but in many ways, she probably never will be. Her sisters are currently obsessed with weddings and princesses and baby dolls. They ask me if Doodle will ever get married and have babies. Sadly, I tell them, I just don't know but my gut tells me this will not be. I hate to think about it. It was probably one of my top five gut-wrenching moments when I considered this for the first time. That said however, I still believe in miracles and I still pray for her recovery as often as I think about it, which is quite often. No, I don't understand why God hasn't answered me yet but I know he must have a reason. Anyway, I still believe in miracles. Onward and upward.

My other three whom I refer to often as The Three Amigos, are in the same class again. I like this for simplicities sake, same homework, same pace, and the fact that two other sets of eyes can tell me what is really going on in the classroom as far as who did what to whom which caused their "BEE" to be moved. Really it's cool in that respect. I love our school, it's in our backyard literally, so we walk to school most days. I love that we can do that. It feels very green to me and that is good considering I don't have time to recycle, ok I don't take the time to recycle but I only have limited brain space to be occupied by concerns outside of my little world. Oh wait, I JUST realized, I recycle grocery bags to hold nasty diapers!! Ok, that's not really doing anyone a favor since the biodegradibility of a diaper is severly debilitated by being surrounded by more plastic but at least I am using them twice right? Whatever.

I have one daughter in resource classes and speech.

I have one son in gifted.

I have one daughter who isn't in anything extra and doesn't understand this. I am hoping she will be my low-maintence child but really the signs all point towards a sensitive mildly dramatic version of myself at that age. She fell and knocked two teeth back in her mouth yesterday but so thoroughly enjoyed the extra attention and care she has gotten that I think she is considering a repeat. She's fine by the way - baby teeth.

I have a baby who is climbing on anything he can get to, and has learned to dismantle the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs and stealthfully scale the staircase, only to proudly announce his arrival on the second floor by grabbing the railing on the catwalk and smooshing his face between the bars while yelling "GAA!" Until he sees me looking up at him. He is 17 months, I am a little bit afraid of what he will have figured out by the time he is in first grade.

Its going to be a crazy year but I am looking forward to it. Last year was really fun and I expect this year will be no different. Here's to another year of growing up!