Ramblings As The Kids' Naptime Winds Down

Talented writers and grammarians of the world, please forgive me for this post.  I know I'm nearing the end of the children's nap time, and I just had to get this post out.  It won't be pretty, and it probably won't sound right, but it'll get the job done.

I can't write another word until I mention how stinkin' proud I am of Amanda for sharing her story in our series on infertility.  If you missed it, please check it out.  I love you, Amanda!  My blog was more popular than ever with your beautiful presence (averaging about 500 hits per day), so I think you should come back more often!   Ha!  Really, though, thank you for being such a treasure.  Love you!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I just adore celebrating the New Year.  I love fresh starts of any kind.  Ever since I started staying home with Jane, I even started liking Monday mornings.  

As part of my fresh start for the year, I am buying my own brand spanking new domain name for the blog.  Hallelujah is My Song has been a great home for a few years (have I already been blogging that long?!), but it's time to move on to my own domain.  I will probably launch within the next few weeks. Until then, I am busy transferring my content and trying to make it look pretty.  Any of you enjoy doing that kind of thing?  Wanna help a girl out?  Let me know!  You will be famous for designing the Catherine Boucher's personal blog!  ;)  

Aside from launching the new and improved blog, I am busy creating a schedule for myself and the kiddos.  I recently re-discovered Nanny 911 of Netflix.  It's funny watching shows at different points in your life.  When I watched the show in college, I used to think, "Idiots.  These parents have no idea what they're doing!  If I were this brat's mom, I'd ________..."  Then, we had kids.  When I watched an episode last week, I thought things like, "Aw, that poor mom.  I just want to give her a hug.  Ooooooo, Nanny, great idea!  I should TOTALLY be doing that!"  

This is my long way of saying that Nanny suggests creating a master schedule for the home.  This way, stay-at-home parents don't look at a full day with little children and get overwhelmed with all of the time on their hands.  While the kids and I have had a relatively structured home life, I look forward to having dedicated time to specific activities.  I'm still working out a few kinks and deciding exactly which activities to add/scratch, but it's been great!  The kids and I are THRIVING with our new schedule!  I'll share the specifics in a future post.

I'm pseudo-homeschooling the kids throughout the day.  That's my way of saying we have more structure around these parts and some real deal learning happening.  My favorite addition to our schedule is "Circle Time" in the morning.  The kids and I sit on a blanket in the family room.  We start with our Morning Offering, then we have calendar time (talk about the year, month, day of the week, review yesterday/today/tomorrow, etc.), virtue of the week (I'm really liking PATIENCE!), morning stretches to get our wiggles out, etc.  We switch activities every 15-30 minutes.  The kids love it, and so do I. 

OK, the last thing.  The really big thing.  The thing that's been taking over for about the last two months.  I need your prayers.  I've been battling Post-Partum Depression.  Philip very lovingly helped me to realize it, and I've found help in a fabulous local Catholic medical apostolate.  It's still a day-to-day journey, but overall, I'm doing much better.  The combination of my treatments (progesterone therapy), reaching out to family & friends, and our new schedule at home are all helping tremendously. I would adore any and all prayers you can offer up for us--especially for Philip, who has been my knight in shining armor by my side.  I plan to write more about all of that, but I wanted to be sure and ask for your prayers right now.  Please and thank you, prayer warriors.

St. Joseph, patron saint for our family in 2014, pray for us!