Just because I haven't posted pics lately...*updated*

My knight in shining armor...

Babysitting...

The birthday cake for my 9 yr old-he requested it!

The best gift-Star Wars Legos-where to start...

THE science experiment-making the volcano w/the boys:

It seems like these pics are the 'boys only'-no reason why, but of course that means that I will need to make a 'girls only' post of pics too-stay tuned, that will be for another day! :)

God bless,

Mary

Advent thoughts and ideas

Advent 2009
Advent comes from the Latin adventus, meaning "coming" .

A few years ago on December 19, 2007, at the General Audience in the Vatican's Paul VI Auditorium, the Holy Father reflected on the Season of Advent and the justice we await. Check HERE for more. I found it to be very inspiring and uplifting and perfect time to read it as we enter into this Advent season.

I don't know about you but for me, I always want to have all my Christmas shopping done prior to Advent. This year, that is half way fulfilled! I also aim to declutter my house of unnecessary bothers and distractions from what Advent is really all about. For the last few years, I kept trying to remember to buy purple cloth to hang over our statues and holy images/pictures...but I usually forget and this year is no different! Oh well, there is always next Advent or Lent! ;)

During Advent, I try to refocus and create a season for prayer and reformation of my heart and soul. I look at it as the perfect time to examine myself...to dive deep into my soul and clear out all that holds me back from the joyful anticipation of remembering and celebrating Jesus' birth. How am I getting ready for Him? What can I improve on? What can I do better? What needs to change?

We do have a little Advent calender, that hopefully we will remember to open up daily. I taped it to our refrigerator as a helpful reminder!

We also have our Advent wreath out, which is sooooooooooo much better than last year! I think I remembered the last few days of Advent to actually get it out! heeee heee! :)

HERE is a link for a bunch of great ideas for Advent.

Have you signed up for THIS yet? "Fun, free and easy for your Mom"!

Last year, we worked on an 'Advent Penance Jar'. Did you know that Advent is a lot like Lent, in that it is a penitential season full of hope and great anticipation? In our jar, we had a bunch of folded up little pieces of paper in the jar and on them were daily extra duties (little sacrifices) that each of us chose to do, and we tried to do them joyfully too. As much as it was fun and encouraging to do last year, I don't think it will work for our family this year.

So...I am thinking of some other ways to make Advent really powerful but it has to be really simple too! Do you have any ideas to share? Please leave a comment, it'd be great to find new ideas-thanks!

The Gospel passage from today's Mass was so very fitting, I had to include it with this post: It is from Luke 21: 25 - 28, 34 - 36
25
"And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves,
26
men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
27
And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
28
Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
34
"But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare;
35
for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth.
36
But watch at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of man."

Happy Advent! May you and your family enjoy it as you prepare your hearts for Jesus' Birthday!

God bless,
Mary

Happy 9th Birthday Big Buddy!

My oldest child turned 9 today.

Yep, I said it. 9. As in 9 years old.
WOW! Those 9 years went pretty fast!

Last year we celebrated his 8th birthday ON Thanksgiving and he was delighted to eat a big fat turkey for his birthday dinner meal. This year, he was not disappointed since we all know left over Thanksgiving food is extra delicious the day AFTER Thanksgiving, right?!?!

We surprised him by taking a 2+ hour trip down to visit my parents and my sister, hubby and 3 children. These cousins are the best! They have constant FUN the entire time we are together. Anytime and anywhere we get together. It's the type of match where this Momma and Daddy (uh...me and my hubby) actually get to sit, talk and relax while the giggles and joy abound in close proximity.

But, it was cut too short.

Hotels are just too expensive and due to the plain ol' fact that we all cannot fit into one hotel room and get this-actually sleep. And we'd be quickly found out and legally we cannot all be in only one hotel room so that would mean 2 hotel rooms. Nope, not for just a night, b/c we all know that little children and hotel rooms do not mix for a good restful night sleep which does equal lots of crabby munchkins the following day.

All that being said, we had a fantastic day and decided to drive home when it was still light out so that little ones could nap and big ones did not fall asleep (that would include us too! the parents!).

Getting back to wishing my oldest a very Happy 9th Birthday! Yipee! This is the last birthday he will have before the double digits-that will be a BIG birthday party!

Kid #1 got street hockey set-2 sticks, balls, pucks, tape-and it is the perfect thing to do in our big basement! He loves it and so does my hubby! We also got him this Star Wars big book, which he cannot read enough of!

Being the lego fanatic that he is, 2 new Lego sets for his birthday, he did both of them under 2 hours. (Look here for what I am talking about.) This kid amazes me! He has quite the gift of engineering and making these Lego sets-they say for ages 8/9-14. Good ol' grandparents came through and bought it for him. (Personally, I think they are quite expensive so that is why I get them from tag sales!) But he has been eyeing this specific one for almost 2 years ... so to say he was a bit excited and thrilled and full of happiness is an understatement!
He got this one too from his godfather. He also made it in under 2 hours too! Amazing. I am in awe.

That is what sums it up about how I feel about this big guy on his 9th birthday.

I am in awe of him.

Really.

He is extremely talented.

He is very smart and learns things very quickly.

He is an awesome altar boy.

He is very sensitive to the poor, homeless and hungry in our world. We were talking about the corporal works of mercy the other week and he had an idea that he just needed to talk to our pastor about. So, I called and made the appointment and he went right in and talked with him. He wants to collect clothes for the poor and homeless for our local St. Vincent De Paul Society. He made a box to collect items in and the following Sunday, Father mentioned it at the end of Mass. I am so very proud of him!

He is determined.

He is athletic-enjoys soccer and football the most.

He is full of energy.

He is sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

He is helpful to his siblings.

He loves art and drawing.

He loves creating and building things with Lego's and k'nex.

Did I mention that he has lots and lots of energy?!!

He loves to read.

He plays the piano so well for the songs he is being taught and even without any piano music!

He enjoys cooking and baking cakes and brownies. (yum!)

He loves to create science experiments.

He has dug numerous ditches/pits/trenches in our backyard.

He is very very strong! No joke-he can even pick me up...although I really would rather him not-I'm afraid he'll hurt his back!)

He knows how to treat girls/women.

He has asked and deeply is convicted that God is calling him as a missionary priest (probably a Franciscan) in the Philippines. He has constantly said this since he has been 7 yrs old. I am in awe.

See? I told you...I am in awe.

God is so good. I am so very thankful and grateful to God to have placed this awesome 9 yr old in our family. It surely would not be the same without him. He is such a gift!

He has such beautiful soul and has taught me so many things.

He never ceases to amaze me.

Happy Birthday big buddy! I love you tons!

Love, Mommy

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have to throw this picture out to my blogging pals. It is just so cute and funny!!!:
We're working on having an

"ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE"

today!

To God, we are so very thankful!

God bless,
Mary

Busy Cookin'

Let's see...

• Carrots. Done.
• Sweet Potato Pie. Done.
• Broccoli and Cauliflower casserole. Done.
• Stuffing. Done.
• Turkey. Not done. Not till tomorrow for the sweet smell of Thanksgiving! ;)

I love getting most of my cooking done the day before!

Happy feast day of St. Catherine Laboure!

Have a happy turkey day too in case I forget to blog!
God bless,
Mary

Finally!!! Here I am again!

It has been almost an entire MONTH of

no computer...

no emails...

no outside life-line ...

for this stay at home momma.

What a whirlwind it has been. But, alas, we are back and in business with this blog and with retrieving many, many, many emails. Do you want to take a guess at how many I had? I bet you won't even be close to how many downloaded last night.
Go ahead, take a guess, I dare you!

I'll wait....

Okay, so did you guess?
Are you ready for the answer?
Just the thought of this number totally freaks me out.

Here it is: 22,500+ emails!
Isn't that just sickening?

Loads of emails were somehow retrieved from the year 2008. Interesting ...I thought I had deleted them and emptied my trashcan or recycled them (whatever this computer lingo is!). So, how in the world did they show up again? To me, that seems quite scary! eeeeeek.

Another reason why I big time missed this big electronic buddy was that my children do some courses online for schooling. So, now we are set back a bit and that is just not cool. Besides being thrown off of school b/c of the chicken pox and my daughter's hospital visit both in September, things were off to a rough start. Oh well, there is nothing to do about it now so I am praying and hoping we keep plugging away as much as possible and we'll re-evaluate after the New Year. Wow, 2010 so soon.

Last week, my wonderful hubby and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary!!! We were planning this night with my in-laws babysitting. My hubby surprised me and we were able to get to our parish Mass at 6:15 and even renew our wedding vows! Our priest was awesome-he even got out the 2 white kneelers in the front of the altar for us. It was so special and meaningful and quiet too!!!! (heee heee!)

We then went out to a terrific restaurant and had a delicious meal-we ordered the same thing-nothing new here! We tend to do that-our tastes are so similar!!! It was a great but way to short time to spend together over a nice glass (or 2!) or pinot grigio and a big glass of Guinness for my hubby. We JUST started to relax and then had to come home. We are planning on going away for a short weekend in the Spring...God willing -it will be a miracle if we can pull it off!

So much to blog about but not enough time...God willing, tomorrow, I can post more and maybe even some pics if I can figure out how to download them on this new computer.

Glad to be back in "Blog-land"!
God bless,
Mary

Computer update

Hello all...Hope I have not lost some faithful readers of my blog!!!

Update is...computer is totally really completely dead and the somewhat nice people finally believed us that it is really completely totally dead. So, now I am waiting for a NEW computer to arrive sometime this upcoming week.

What would YOU do if your computer unexpectedly crashed and died...and you were without one for 3 weeks or more?

I'll tell you what I did:
Had some type of flip out, then went into denial, then went into some type of 'detox' off my computer, then acceptance, and now the wait for a new one.

There has been so much going on and so much I missed and wanted to blog about. So be it.

But one thing is certain: Our lives are so wrapped up in these electronics, it is crazy. I pray that I can be wrapped up in Jesus ever more.

Not sure when I can blog again...hopefully soon!

Oh, I love good deals and went to a toy tag sale where I got ALL the Christmas presents for my kidos! How excited am I!!! I thank God my kids do not watch all the junk on TV-they are still okay with gifts not in their boxes-they are so sweet and so grateful. Thank You God for them and thank You for giving me the gift of responsibility of teaching them such things. All things for Your praise, for Your glory!

God bless,
Mary

No surprise

Weird News: Why does it NOT surprise me that 2 children just ran in to tell me that their brother is hanging his underwear as a flag in the backyard?!?!

Good News: Hey, at least it is not in the front yard!

God bless,
Mary

p.s. you might not hear from me for a while...again...my computer really is dead. Dead. Totally dead. We do have warranty but of course we have to fight long and hard for them to believe us. Please say a prayer that we get a computer! this one that just died was only 1 year old! argh.

p.s.s. Oh, also can you say a lil prayer for me to have patience? waiting for a computer to be fixed (and waiting and waiting and coming to the understanding that it is dead~!) and not having any link to the 'real world' outside of my bubble is quite annoying! Thank you so much~

p.s.s.s. I guess it would help to understand how I am writing this blog w/out a computer?! Husband is home sick. Yup, never a dull moment here....I'll tell ya...

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Hello! It has been a very long 6 days without my computer. Yup, it just died on the spot last Wednesday night. I realized during that time how much I depend on my little tech friend for so much. What was the weather?-I'd ask myself, puzzled without being able to find out super fast. We have no digital, so that plus no computer was ahhhh! so difficult! I had to resort to the good ol' radio news and weather-and I had to wait for it! 8 on the 8's!

Anyway, it is really good to be back.
We are all well and healthy.
It gets dark by 4:50pm and that stinks.
We got 2 new (to us!) tables-1 dining room and 1 kitchen.
The kids played their last soccer game of the season on Sunday.
My camera erased the last 100 plus photos since August 4th, 2009-boy, is that terribly annoying.

The funny thing is that leading up to the big crash of my computer, it was on my heart the whole week to figure out a way to cut down on the computer use. God has a funny way of telling us things, sometimes.

Goodnight and God bless. God willing, I'll write more tomorrow! :)
God bless,
Mary