Hey People!!

Just a quick post to touch upon a mix of things over here at HOJN!  : )

* First off, we are trying to be patient.  The calendar says spring is here. It is BARELY showing it’s face around here. But when we looked real hard, we found a few little signs it really is on the way…

A few bumps on the twigs, thinking about becoming buds…lol

Some green grass clumps, that required a belly-shot to really appreciate…

All of {A}’s chipmunks are back from their power-nap holes, and are all over the place!

This is Chipmouse.  Sorry about the lousy shot….it was a super-cropped shot.

Spring training?….

OK, Yes, we are desperately grasping at anything spring-related here. lol.

I know some of you have some REAL SPRING going on!  Even slightly north is ahead of us. Maybe it’s where we are being so close to the ocean?  Because it’s been pretty cold most days too. A few nice warm days…but nothing very consistent yet.  All in God’s time, we suppose.  Is it really spring where YOU are yet?? Are we the only ones in N.E. left out in the cold?  But hey….more days to enjoy our wood stove I guess! lol.  That thing is going every day…and our love for it hasn’t ‘burnt out’ yet one bit!  :  ) (Pun intended, because my own cleverness amuses me more than it should. lol)

* In other news, yesterday was the funeral for our friend, Mr. Bill. : (    What a beautiful mass…but oh-so difficult. This man was/is truly part of the fabric of our parish, and those who knew him feel such a huge loss.  Even at 96, he was completely mentally intact—and so was  very much present with everything that made everyone love him so much. He was a man SO dedicated to Christ…and it showed in everything he did and said.  He loved our kids so much. And they loved him too. I’ll never forget when he asked them to “Say one of those for me” (referring to the rosaries in their hands), and they did, on their very own. So, the funeral was just so emotionally draining.  The eulogies by our pastor, his daughter, and a friend of his, were just heart-wrenching.  He was quite a guy.  We miss him already, but he is absolutely in a better place now. And he was looking forward to going there too.

*Anyway…I took the kids home after the funeral mass for awhile. Michael was a pall bearer, so he went along to the cemetery of course.  We would all be going to the gathering after, when Michael came home. But in the little while that we were home, a long awaited event of ours finally came to be…….

{O} finally lost this tooth, that was so ridiculously loose! It kept flipping up forward. But it was holding on for dear life! I finally pulled it, because it was flapping back and forth like crazy, more than ever. I thought it would come out weeks ago.  {J &S} naturally have some loose front top teeth too, and {J}s won’t be lasting much longer.  So some similar smiles are on their way! But the boys lost their first bottom teeth before {O} did, so she was the first to lose a top one.  Not that losing teeth is any kind of competition between them….but when they are triplets, ….there is always someone who is 1st, 2nd and 3rd for everything. The order is just always changing. Isn’t she CUTE though?!!  Honestly, I was so emotionally sensitive after all of the crying at the church, that this was all it took for the flood gates to open wide again. And I didn’t even know why. lol. I was boo-hooing and kissing and hugging her, and she was giggling. Boy was Daddy surprised when he walked in the door, and she said “Hi Daddy!” and gave him a big smile.

After a 3 day weekend (because of Mr. Bill’s funeral yesterday), the kids were EXCITED to have school this morning. They really wanted to get back to writing their stories they started on Friday.   I also have to give another example of {S} and his thing with numbers:   Yesterday, at the funeral gathering we were all sitting around the table eating with some people from our parish. Of course, the adults around were all asking the kids all kinds of questions,…(Which really made the ‘no talking with food in your mouth, please’, kind of difficult. lol).  So then another lady stopped by our table to see the kids, and was asking them all what they ate. When it got to be {S}’s turn, he told her “A ham and turkey sandwich with cheese, American Chop Suey, and meatballs.”  She responded “WOW!  You had the works, huh?”.  To which he said “Yes”.  And then he immediately leaned over to me and whispered, “Mama, there is 89 lights in the ceiling.”.   That’s what he was really thinking about!  Thankfully, he was polite to the lady first,anyway.  So anyway….I hope someone ‘got me’ in that post.

* You MIGHT be interested to know that we have been very much enjoying our crafting/creating for whomever the lucky winner of our First –Give -A-Way is!!  To tell you the truth, I wish I could keep some things myself!! lol.  But we can always make these things for ourselves later.  I have been photographing what we have been making as we go along here, and after the winner receives their special package of home-made gifts, I’ll post about them!  We better get finishing up soon!  ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT!! We’ve got quite a few drawings in the bowl!  How many times is your name in there??  We are SO excited and having so much fun with this whole thing.  I’ll take photos of the drawing too probably. You know us!

* Also…..Michael has started a new project!!….

He plans out almost every project on paper first. He’s got most of the supplies I think, so he’ll be getting going on this next, and blogging about it!  We have a question for you though!…..Would you rather he post his projects in parts (with photos and explanations), and show the progress along the way?  Or finish the project, and then blog about the whole thing, beginning to end?? Let us know which you prefer, please.

*We’ve got a great post on {A}’s baking coming up, with photos I had so much fun taking!  Looking forward to that.

Well, that about wraps up our little bits of news!  We’re excited to blog about the good stuff coming up next!  But we hope you enjoyed any or all parts of this Mish-Mash.  : )

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