Getting Ready for Christmas: The Living Room

Join me as I decorate a little for Christmas and tidy the living room. The garlands are from the Hearth and Hand line at Target and the deer throw pillowcases are several years old from Pottery Barn.

Eleven!

 

Happy birthday to our blue-eyed boy!  We love you so very much!

In the Stands

I brought some yarn with me to basketball today!

Getting Ready for Christmas: The Living Room

Join me as I decorate a little for Christmas and tidy the living room. The garlands are from the Hearth and Hand line at Target and the deer throw pillowcases are several years old from Pottery Barn.

The Waning Days of Autumn

Our paperwhite and amaryllis bulbs are emerging!

NYC

I was in NYC with my sister, Anna, and mother for an unexpected and brief visit to see my sweet grandparents.  My grandfather is not doing well, so I am grateful that I got a chance to see him...  even briefly.  I loved people watching from the passenger seat of my sister's car as we drove through the city.  We even got to stop at the Columbus Circle Christmas Market for a little while.  Unfortunately, I don't buy anything or even take any pictures, but it was wonderful to see the sights!

In Full Swing

Basketball had already been going on for about a week when we got out of the hospital, so we had to jump right in to our new schedule.  The boys go for two hours on Tuesday and Thursday and our daughter has basketball on Mondays and Wednesdays.  We've found that the bleachers are very handy places to get homework done!

A Very Happy Saint Nicholas Day!

 

Hymn to Saint Nicholas

O who love Nicholas the saintly,

O who serve Nicholas the saintly,

Him will Nicholas receive,

And give help in time of need:

Holy Father Nicholas!

He who dwells in God's holy mansions,

Is our help on the land and oceans,

He will guard us from all ills,

Keep us pure and free from sins

Holy Father Nicholas!

Holy Saint, hearken to our prayer,

Let not life drive us to despair,

All our efforts shall not wane,

Singing praises to your name:

Holy Father Nicholas!

:::::

The Saint Nicholas Learning Basket can be found HERE.

Getting Ready for Saint NIcholas

Our Namesday Boy

In a time of fiery temptations for the Church of Russia, 

 you manifested Christ’s love to your flock through meekness and humility. 

As a good pastor you laid down your life for Him. 

 Pray for us, Hieromartyr Alexander, that our souls may be illumined! 

 

:::::

 It's our son's namesday! I had a ton of fun wrapping his gifts yesterday! I really like buying wrapping paper from Home Goods and Marshalls because they always have good quality papers for low prices. This one was $2.99 for 30" x 12'. I like the gentlemanly combination of blue ticking stripes and brown ribbon.

I made my usual lenten cake for him (though this time he requested cupcakes)...  he really likes chocolate!  I baked, our daughter frosted the cupcakes, and the boys decorated them with mini Star Wars figures that we already had.  I love how they turned out!

Glory to God in the Highest

I realized today that the Lord preserved our child from much greater damage from Crohn's. We visited our GI doctor in mid-July (only one month before her symptoms began) for the first time. Our middle son had been having bouts of inexplicable vomiting for over a year, and our lackadaisical pediatrician finally agreed to give him a referral to a GI doctor at Johns Hopkins. We went and had some testing done, discovering that he likely has a condition called Cyclical Vomiting which is usually a precursor to migraines (something both my husband and I suffer from). After being blown off by our pediatrician regarding our daughter's worrisome symptoms for two months, I took the bull by the horns and made an appointment with the GI doctor for the beginning of November. Thank God she saw us, agreed that there was something wrong, and ordered testing. If we had not already been patients, we may not have been able to get in so quickly. If we had waited, our poor girl would be in much worse shape!

Pretty Paper Stars

I folded some pretty paper stars today while watching Chariots of Fire with my family! There's a YouTube video entitled "How to Make Simple 3D Paper Stars" by Oziy Design, if you prefer. I used a book of scrapbook paper that I found at Michaels a few weeks ago. It's full of pretty papers reminiscent of Rifle Paper Co.

Dried Oranges and Grapefruits

I think our dried orange and grapefruit slices came out the best they ever have this year!! I set the oven on 150 degrees Fahrenheit and placed them directly on the oven rack rather than a cookie sheet. I flipped them a few times over the course of three or four hours.

Home from the Hospital

We got home at about 11:30 last night and tried to get right back into our routine today.  I spent some time at speech with our youngest and had a meeting with our daughter's school to discuss the Crohn's and how to help her catch up.  We are really fortunate to have such a caring group of people teaching our girl.  I have a lot to be thankful for!

Day Four

The hospital's Artist in Residence stopped by to teach our daughter how to needle felt this afternoon! She made an owl and is already asking to get the supplies to try her hand at other animals.  

We also took advantage of having a Child Life Coordinator and started the process of learning how to take pills in a fun and easy way.  She has chocolate sprinkles, Nerds, mini M&Ms, Smarties, and Tic Tacs to try swallowing.

 

We're really looking forward to discharge tonight.  It will be so good to see our boys!

Day Three

 Another beautiful hospital sunrise and late-night movies with my girl.  Day three in the hospital was rough (and included finding out the hard way that she is allergic to Barium).  We have a diagnosis of Crohn's Disease and will be starting treatment tomorrow.

Day Two

Today was pretty rough for our little girl.  She had a few tests that required some unpleasant preparations and was unable to eat until everything was over (She ate breakfast at 7am on Monday and didn't have anything else until 7 or 8 pm on Tuesday).  Fortunately, I think that the worst is over and we will just have to wait for results and a diagnosis. 

It was wonderful to see a gorgeous vase of flowers from Auntie Anna and Uncle Justin when we came back from the tests.  They've really brought some cheer to the hospital room.  We're also fortunate to have a large window that overlooks the city and the hospital's helicopter pad.  It sounds like we'll be here for few more days, so we really appreciate these little luxuries!

Getting to the Bottom of Things

 Our daughter has been having some tummy trouble for months and the time came, today, to finally get to the bottom of it all.  I am thankful for attentive medical staff, loving family, our girl who smiles through all the invasive tests she's had to endure so far, delicious yarn to work with, and a window with a gorgeous city view.

A Stripy Shawl on My Needles

Saturday

 Our friend, Mirona, has been hard at work on an icon of the Mother of God for our parish.  It has been wonderful to watch her daughter (my goddaughter!) so that she can work!  It's a win-win for me:  baby cuddles and the pleasure of seeing this beautiful icon emerge.  Thank you, Mirona!!