Flanagan Clan

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

– Ruth Hulbert Hamilton “Song for a Fifth Child” (but, in this case, fourth…)

Happy Birthday, Baby Liam…

Things continue to be very hectic in our household. Here’s a brief rundown!

Liam- still teething, not a happy baby. A cloth diapering friend is sending me an amber teething necklace, in hopes that it might help. The hyland teething tablets do nothing and our pediatrician has advised against unnecessary use of medication. So, we’re trying natural routes and so far nothing is helping.

Ethan- is starting to really talk. He’s a quiet little boy, but his vocabulary is starting to grow. He doesn’t really speak in sentences yet and is very hard to communicate with most of the time, but in the past couple weeks or so, we’ve started to notice a desire in him to start saying more words.

Samuel- always a little goof ball. He is always saying the funniest things, from telling me that he can only say “bluedle” (instead of blue), to saying that he wants to marry Auntie Dee Dee and getting very upset when told that he can’t. He’s our clown and continues also to be our cuddlebug and little sloth-boy.

Patrick- ready for Kindergarten in the fall! We are all very excited for him to begin grade school. He’ll be taking the bus to and from school and he is very excited about that. He also just finished up his first season of tee-ball, and he had a great time. He learned a lot and really enjoyed it. He will have one more year of teeball before he goes on to coach pitch, but I personally think he is ready for coach pitch now. Andrew and I throw the ball at him now and then, and he does a really good job at hitting it without using the tee. He’s going to be great at baseball!

Andrew- busy with work and life and all the other stuff. He’s been doing a lot of work with his new partnership that he recently formed, ProTec Solutions, and has been finding a growing number of customers. He also keeps pretty busy with his full-time job, taking care of the house and yard, and helping me with the boys. With all that, there’s not a lot of time for extras, but he manages to squeeze them in here and there.

Sarah- I’ve been incredibly busy myself. I had a grand debut for my newborn diapers this past week, which was a success! I’ve had a lot of new customers come in, a lot of new custom orders, and I’ve never been busier. I also just become a PartyLite independent consultant, which is something that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. You can find my new website here.

We are all looking forward to a busy summer! In addition to a trip to Iowa to visit Rachel and Alex, we plan to do a weekend down at the Oregon beach and a lot of other little day trips here and there. Andrew and I will also be celebrating our 7th anniversary in a month and a half from now! Where does the time go? I have no idea… you blink and then it’s gone. I’m hoping that despite all the crazy things we are doing this summer, we’ll still have time to really stop and enjoy the boys. They are growing up way too fast…

So, I think Liam is finally getting his first tooth in. Just in time as we started the weaning process last week for various reasons. He is 10 1/2 months old, making him a month older than any of his brothers when they got their first teeth. I like that Liam was considerate enough to take his time on this, although it would also be nice if he wasn’t so fussy. With Patrick, I didn’t even know he was teething until my mother in law looked into his mouth one day and we discovered a tooth! That’s the kind of teething baby I like!

I’ll post pictures once this pearly white decides to show itself.

I might need to get him some amber teething necklaces in the meantime. I hear they work wonders and are completely natural…. not that I’m a crazy natural person or anything, but if it works, it works!

My starter Partylite party will be closing on Monday at noon, so if you are interested in purchasing anything, please let me know.

I also am sending out a plea to everyone in the area, if anyone would be willing to host a party for me in the months of June or July, I would really appreciate it. I need to find 3 more hostesses for those months in order to become a consultant, and I need to have tentative dates set in order to sign my contract. I am willing to help you come up with a fun theme, or if you have a specific charity in mind, I would be willing to donate everything I make towards that charity. I don’t care how big or small the party is or whether or not I make any money off the party, I just need to have a total of 6 in order to get my consultant license. If you agree to do one and something comes up and forces you to cancel, that is fine, but I just need to have those 6 tentative dates on the calendar. So… I know this is asking a lot, but if anyone would be willing to do this for me, I would really really appreciate it. I don’t usually ask favors of people because I like to be self-sufficient, but I really need help on this one because I simply cannot do it on my own. Once I receive my consultant status, I plan to throw parties for fun from time to time, and not to make tons of money or to hassle people into buying products from me. I want this to be fun for everyone involved. This is something that I have wanted to do for over 10 years now, and I cannot do it without your help. I would ask that you please consider helping me. Thanks.

So, this is really cool because I didn’t know I could do this, but if you want to order any Partylite online, I don’t have my website set up, but since a current consultant is going to be helping me set up my starter party, my party is listed under her website. So… sorry for bringing it up again, but if anyone is interested, you can visit this website, and to make an order tied to my party, on the main page near the top, if you could click on the link that asks you if it’s tied to a party, and list me, Sarah Flanagan from WA, as the host, it will credit my party. 100% of these sales will go directly to my starter kit and I need to raise a minimum of $350. That is all 🙂