Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Freeze!

You know those times that you just want to freeze time, right then and right there?  Those moments when life is just soooooo good, and the moment is so real, so precious?  that you don't want it to end?  

That is what life has been like most of the time with our precious bundle of joy who is now 10 weeks old today!  I have just called her 'baby' on the blog, but I feel like the name from now on should be "Little Lady" since that is just one of many nicknames thrown around here.  It fits her perfectly!!! :)

It's almost like I cannot remember how life was without her!

When she smiles those big smiles at me and looks at me with those big blue eyes,  I cannot help but see that her eyes smile too!  I am not kidding!!! I tell my family that or friends or people that see her smile.  It is so beautiful=she lights up the whole room.  When I give her kisses in the air, she smiles so widely-I don't know anything more adorable than that.

 It is as if God is smiling through her to me, letting me know that everything is going to be okay and to keep plugging away on this path of life set before me.  As I have said before, she loves the pouch sling that I put her in and she is in it for most of the day!  That is not the only reason why she gets to be in it, but mainly it is b/c of a certain 2 yr old that loves her so much, almost a little too much at times...if you get my drift.  I think he just does not know what to with this little girl in the family!!! It's like that flower "He loves me, he loves me not..."!!!  TIme will only tell how it goes with these 2 munchkins.  ANYWAY...

Our family just adores her and all the kids just love on her every moment they can.  If they have not seen her (which is pretty rare since she lives in that pouch sling!) they immediately ask for where she is.  If one of  the big kids are watching her for a few mins and taking care of her, the others ask where she is.   Each of our kids is such an incredible blessing to our family.  The all love on their new sibling so much.  But with this little lady, it is just a tad different.   She brings the joy to their faces like I have never seen.  We call her "Peace Baby" too b/c she brings such calmness and joy and peace in this storm at times. 

Little Lady is needing me now so best go!!!
God bless,
Mary

The 5th Quarter movie-did you see it yet?

Have you seen THIS movie yet?  (Pssst....you must watch the trailer video clip!!! :) !!!)
This is SO on my "MUST SEE" movie list!!!

Even the father in the movie, played by Aiden Quinn, was interviewed w/EWTN on World Over Live-last week.  What a terrific movie SO worth the $ to see!!!

If you go and see it, let me know what you think of it.  I, on the other hand, will have to wait till my nursing babe-ette will not need me every hour or so....looks like I'll wait till it's out on Netflix for an 'in-house' date night :)

God bless,
Mary

Monday, March 28, 2011

Up at 4am!!!

Sometimes our guardian angel has to wake us up early.

No matter that the time is very early, as in 4am.

Wide awake I was, I'll tell you.  And I am not an early morning- riser- happy- go- lucky kinda person.  But today, I was awake without coffee for almost 2 hours! 

Usually once I actually MOVE then the baby wakes up but not today.  Thanks GA!!!

Wow, it was quiet and the things I got down were much needed...
...prayers....emails that were way overdue ...making my list of things I have to do this week....figuring out all this CAT stuff...changing around some toys, taking out ones that have been put in storgage for a while and putting away the ones they've been playing with....putting away snowsuits and gloves and hats.

Oh, yeah I didn't tell ya?  We had some of that white stuff early yesterday morning and my kids had to enjoy the very last of it and my oldest daughter made this little cute snowman that I'll have to post a pic of once I download the pics.  (So, check back! :))  It was all of maybe 1/2 an inch but they loved it and they got that fresh air they've needed :)

But now, I am ready for a nap and my kids are just waking up.

I declare it is coffee time and I'm putting my feet up:)

God bless,
M

Friday, March 25, 2011

Water cycle


We were learning about the water cycle last week and these are 2 things we did to make learning fun.  They really enjoyed it!  It took a whole lot of patience from me and creative time but in the end, it was well worth it :)

HERE is the site I took my ideas from.  (The video is very cute if even that is just watched to get the point across)

It's getting to that time of the year, rounding 3rd base!!! We're almost done...only 2 1/2 more months! We're aiming for the end of May, but we'll see how that goes-we are in high hopes that since the weather has been warmer, we'll be close to done with school to be able to enjoy it!!!

God bless,
M
God bless,
M

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Lent thus far

My 4 yr old son walked up to me this morning and said "Me is feeling better today!" 
Thanks be to God for our health getting back to normal and thanks be to God for super cute 4 yr old boys!!!

On another note...LENT...

Just as it was with Advent and (gasp!) no Advent wreath till the 4th Sunday of Advent (yikes!) and even when I actually DID get the candles I still forgot to put it up and light them!!!....here we go again with Lent. 

I just put out our Sacrifice Bean Jar!  For each sacrifice we offer up to God, we put a pinto bean in the jar.   Then on Easter night, the Easter Bunny comes quietly and turns those beans into jelly beans or jelly eggs or chocolate eggs!!! YUM! 

I have also decorated our walls with words:  generous, kindess, helping others, obedience etc... all ways that are so very pleasing to our Lord and makes our home so much more at peace.  Helpful reminders...we sure need them lately!

Here is a LINK to a really funny pic of   yours truly  2 yrs ago and how I dealt w/Lent!  We all were laughing when we saw it and the kids "Hey!  I remember that!!!" LOL  haaaaaa!!!!

Funny how the kids remember the craziest things, and those things that we'd like to forget quickly....

We also just did the dough crown of thorns yesterday...like THIS.

We used wheat flour which turned the dough a realistic dark color and the kids had a blast putting their 'sins' of thorns into the crown.  It helps them understand how doing a sacrifice can lessen the pain and give comfort to Jesus by removing one of the thorns.
 God willing, I'll post a pic soon!

Gotta go-I am a much needed Momma here :)

May you continue to have a holy Lent in whichever way God is allowing your Lent to be.

God bless,
M

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Cough cough

Fevers, coughing, sneezing, stuffy noses, tissues, wheezing and nebulizer treatments...
it's consuming all of my time these past four days and how many more, I am not sure.

Please say a prayer for us, if you remember.  Esp. that our sweet little baby does not get sick.  So far, so good and hope it stays that way!  And esp. for 2 kids that have it hit the hardest right now. 

Thanks in advance....the power of prayer is so helpful!

Thanks and God bless,
M

Saturday, March 19, 2011

St. Joseph, pray for us!

Our family has a special love for St. Joseph as we have seen him interact with us in a real way.  He is so special so on this day we will celebrate his life and his vocation!  What a beautiful example of a earthly father that he was, gentle and quiet yet strong and faithful. 

We are making a cake to celebrate, complete w/ice cream of course! :)

We are coloring these pics and listening to THIS Glory Stories - it is on the EWTN website.  (There is LOTS of other ones too-and the best part of it is that its all FREE)

St. Joseph, pray for us!
St. Joseph, pray for my husband and my family!

God bless,
M


Friday, March 18, 2011

Family time ideas/memories

What do you do for family time?

How do you have FUN?

This question was posed to me a number of years ago and I actually stumbled in my answer.  I found that a bit disturbing.  I told my dear friend, who I was asking a lot of parenting questions to at the time, that we enjoyed going out to do things.  As in 'out of the house' to do things and go places.  Even though we still really REALLY enjoy going places, I have also realized how important it is to have fun just being at home.

So, what are those things that I have found to be FUN at HOME?

I figured there might be some other moms that have or are struggling with that question, so I'll give you brief answers:

For our family, most every Saturday night (after bath time) is our "family movie night" usually it is an appropriate age movie but we all sit together squished on the couch.  Add in low/dim lights and popcorn, sleeping bags and pillows and we are having FUN!

Playing a sweet game of kick-ball!

Hide and seek

Family coloring picture-we pass a piece of paper and one crayon around and each person draws a part of the picture.  This is so cool to have each of our uniqueness shine through.  We always LOVE the end product.

As with the family coloring picture-we also do a family story---we each say a part of it and go around the table adding in part of the story-never fails to bring on the laughter! :)

Just recently, we added in NIGHTLY during dinnertime- THE HAPPY GAME-every night while we eat, we pass around a mug with each of our names on a piece of folded paper and we pick out ONE name, then say something nice about them that they did or said that day.  It could be something we are thankful for about them, or that we noticed was super kind or generous.  My 4 yr old son LOVES this game and not a night goes by without him reminding us to do The Happy Game :)  Soooooo glad we added this in, so awesome.

get on the floor with the kids and play blocks

cleaning the playroom-sounds odd to say this is FUN for us, but it is!  When we clean the playroom, we dump all the toys in the middle of the room, put on some loud music and organize.  This turns into playtime along with organizing.  Fun for all :)



Arts and crafts-always a pleaser (not so much for Mom and Dad after all...but well worth it!)

All these things do not cost $, or are very low $ if any. 
But these times are priceless! 

Our kids are growing up so so fast.  My oldest is 10.  Now, to some, that is still so young...but I know that very soon he won't want to do that movie time together or hide and seek.   And then the rest of them won't and it will be a domino effect. 

I love my kids and my family and I want them to know it so I make sure that we spend TIME together-that is how they spell LOVE by spending TIME together.

During the week, school occupies our time mostly and who wants to always see a stern teacher with assignments and chores and discipline?!  Surely not me and I want to have my kids know that there is that FUN side of me to :)  I love to have FUN and I pray my kids will have these memories and be proud of them.  Who knows, maybe in 20 years, they'll be doing the same things w/ their own children!  And what a delight that would be for me to see!!!!!!

There are some ideas.  If you have any, please share-we're always ready to add in some more FUN! :)

God bless, and remember to have some FUN with your kids!!!
God bless,
M

Quote of the day

Believe that others are better than you in the depths of their soul, although outwardly you may appear better than they.
-- St. Augustine

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Top o' the mornin' to ya!!!

Happy St. Patrick's day!!!

Breastplate of Saint Patrick
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

We'll be coloring THIS picture---which I absolutley LOVE!!!

And WATCH THIS

And drinking some GREEN milk and eating some GREEN pancakes!!!

St. Patrick, pray for us!
God bless,
M

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Life in the fast lane

As I write down the day of the week and date on our dry erase board to start our school day...I say "It's Wednesday, March 16th"

and my 7 yr old little man says:

"Wow, it's Wednesday again...already?"

haaaa haaaa   :)      LOL!   :)

God bless,
M

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Funny funny



The answer is YES!!! 

You betcha~! :)

I will go into it another time, not enough time right now!!!

God bless,
M

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Life is good with wine and ice cream

OK, so my main man, my wonderful hubby watched all 6 kids from 8 till 3 today so that I could go to a diocesan women's conference. 

As if that was not enough.

On his way home from confession, he asked me if I needed him to pick up anything.

I mentioned some white wine and ice cream would be of my liking if he was up for picking it up.

Not only does he come home with  small bottles of my favorite wine..but he come home with not one, not 2, not 3 BUT 4 gallons of BREYERS ice cream!!!

I love this man.  Does he totally know me...or what?!?!? 

LOVE HIM!!!!

The big northeast basketball game is on tonight so I guess he had to soften me up somehow! haaaa haaaaa

So then I told him that with our next in-house date night that I am making him watch "Grease"!!!

Off to drink my wine, him his Guinness beer...out on the lawn chairs while our kids are digging up the dirt to drive their matchbox cars in and ride bikes.

Life is good.
God bless,
M

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Family fun day

2 weekendw ago we had a really REALLY fun afternoon at the park.  Here are a few snapshots of what we did:

BASEBALL WITH DADDY:



WAITING YOUR TURN TO PLAY BASEBALL:



SWINGING ON SWINGS WITH THE BASEBALL:
(seriously this kid loves baseball-just like his Daddy was when young!  He would not go anyway without that baseball.  This is nothing new to my kid #6...!!!  He still loves to go to sleep with a baseball or a baseball glove!  Too cute.)


See that clear day?  Absolutely beautiful:

We also had the BEST EVER kickball game with 2 teams just from OUR family!!!  Funny, isn't it?  I never would have imagined that we'd have enough players within our own family!!!  Never would I have imagined that!  We had such a blast-if only I had taken pics-but even I was  having the best time ever that I did not want to stop to take a pic!!!  Another time...

God bless,
M

Friday, March 4, 2011

Breakfast keeps going and going and going...

Somdays, like today, breakfast never seems to end.

How does someone get lost in the passing out of breakfast foods, only to alert me an hour (or 2!) later that this person never had any breakfast or OJ?

I don't get it. 

How can an easy breakfast turn into a 2 or 3 hour meal? 

Just wonderin'.

Back to cleaning up eggs off the floor and cheerios covered in honey off the walls...

These are the days I'll remember... (remember that song?)
...and I am trying to remember that NOW!

God bless,
M