Waterproof worms?

"Mom, He (Kid #1) emptied out all my bugs and worms out of my bug box!" exclaimed Kid #3.
In defense, Kid #1 rebuked him saying "Mom, I was trying to tell him that they are not waterproof! He had them all in just water."

Isn't that so funny!?!? The things boys think of, do and say!
I love it! ha ha!!!
God bless,
Mary

1st Communion prep

It's here. I can't believe it. My first born baby is going to make his first Holy Communion TOMORROW! I am wrapped up in the preparations for this big day. In our homeschool group, we have a circle of moms (including me) that are on the team for organzing this great day. A bit overwhelming b/c I have the responsibility of making sure the Mass goes okay. Uhm...kind of important, huh?! Yikes! I only have 6 little ones....but why not make me responsible?! Oh boy!

I want to remember this special day. To soak it all in. To make the most of one of the most important days of my son's life. Instead, I am stuck in the to do list for this day. Not to forget to mention that I cannot find his nice Sunday dress pants anywhere!!! St. Anthony, pray for us-help us find those pants!

As for my boy, he is so very ready. So very excited! His joy is contagious!

God bless,
Mary

Random yard pics

Oh how I enjoy taking pictures. Here are some straight out of my yard- O spring, I love you!

Oh, look here...how'd that picture get on this post?!!? hee hee

God bless,

Mary

The post says it all

Blah Blah Blah

You know one of those days...

• It reads 90* outside and it feels 110* inside?
• There is no chicken and no beef in the freezer to make dinner with tonight?
• There are no "already made, frozen meals that just need to be reheated" meals?
• The kids are watching the PBS channel on TV way past the normal amount?
• The sink has been overflowing and still is....ugh, overflowing?
• That laundry you put on at 8:30am is still in the machine creating a nice smell?
• You just ate too many brownies too fast and can't move?

And somehow, some way through it all, you just don't mind a bit.

Yeah, me too.

God bless!
Mary

Kick Ball Game

Last night after dinner, we went outside b/c of this great weather lately- it was 82 degrees today! We had a great family game of kickball. Kid#3 was on 1st, Me and baby in sling was on 2nd, and kid #4 was on 3rd base. Kid #2 was up to kick the ball coming from Daddy the pitcher. She kicked and off she went running; and I was coaching kid #4 (who is only 3~!) "Run home~! Run home!"
And did she "Run home!"

She ran right into her little play house (kinda like this one), closed the door behind her and yelled "I'm home!"

I guess it was one of those times that you just had to see it. As for hubby and I, we were laughing hysterically!!! It was so cute, so darling!

God bless,
Mary

Family Day field trip

It was a HOT 87 degrees out yesterday. So, what else to do but go to the local pet farm (free!) and catch frogs (free!)!

Here are some snap shots of our fun time out...

Isn't this one just soooooo cute?!

As you can see, catching frogs is a winner of a day. The kids had an absolute BLAST and did not want to leave! It was a science field day trip with learning about frogs (LOTS of frogs!) and lots of family :)

God bless,

Mary

Mercy Me

These past few days have been quite a trial for me. I know, I feel deeply and I believe that God is teaching me about suffering and how it brings Him Glory, if only I allow it to. The second song, Bring the Rain, is so amazing...I can relate to just about every word of it. I could have written that song!!!

At mass this morning, once again God spoke through to me at the homily about how suffering makes one beautiful. Just as a blob of clay has to be through extreme heat conditions to become something so much more, I am feeling the heat and in hopes to see the beauty someday.

Lord, You are Holy. I am in great need of you. You are the Lord God Almighty who can do wondrous things with me. Help me to keep turning my life over to you everyday and hold nothing back from You. You alone make me beautiful. Amen.

God bless,
Mary

St. Mark and Tag Sales

(No, those have nothing in common. I didn't know what else to name this post!)

Happy feast day of St. Mark!
“For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” ~ Mark 8:36

I am finding it hard to keep up with all these awesome Saints these days!

Have I told you lately how great my husband is? So far today (mind you, it's only 2pm!) I went to morning mass, made a Holy Hour, bought 2 coffee's-1 for me, 1 for hubby, went to 5 tag sales and now I am going to take a nap. Pretty good, huh?! My hubby is the best! I love you honey!!!Thank you for giving me some time for myself!!! (I still nurse my baby so midway through, I did make a pit stop home to nurse then off I went again :))

As far as tag sales go, you will soon find out through my posts, that I am not only a die hard blogger who takes lots of pics, but I LOVE TAG SALES! For those of you down South, that means: Garage Sales!

SCORE! Tag sale update: Today, I got 2 huge amounts of big Lego blocks and mega blocks, some Boxcar Children books and a Rescue Hero movie - it was ONLY 25 cents and my kids are watching now :)). All that for a bunch of change equalling, oh....about 8 or 9 dollars. Yay for me!

Now, about that nap I was talking about....
See ya!
God bless,
Mary

Watch this for inspiration!

My hubby and I just watched the "The Gift of Hope" last night and we are so very inspired by this amazingly courageous man. What a gift he truly is!
God bless,
Mary

Taking Chances w/Coffee

All I have to say is...
There are not many things better in my life than a really REALLY good cup of coffee.

YUM.

I took a leap away from my normal coffee brand to buy a new one that just came into my grocery store. I have never heard of it before but ooooohhhh--eeeee. YUM! YUM!

I am very pleased with taking my chances.

Did I mention YUM? :)

Hungry Jack (ie!)

Obviously a certain 6 year old is a little bit hungry around here! Isn't that hilarious?! Being such a picky eater, at least we are guaranteed she'll eat a good breakfast.
Here's hoping you'll have a great day too! :)
God bless,
Mary

Good ol' St. George

Happy Feast day of St. George!
This is surely all of my son's all time favorite Saints- St. George.
Then again, any saint that carries a sword and shield is most loved in this home!

So for today we have:
colored printable pages of this and this. (thank you Jessica!)

We were intending to have some dress up and sword fighting (like any other day in a home of boys!)but...talk about God's Divine Intervention...we could not find the dress up clothes of a knight's armor. Of course, no shock in this house...we've been through a few sets of those already. All in all, it was still a bit disappointing b/c of this feast day and my boys really wanted to play. Then after we were out doing our normal Thursday errands, we stopped by a friends house to say hello and it just so happened that they had some left over tag sale items she asked if we wanted. And in that pile was a knight armor dress up set!!! How cool!!! Thanks God!
So, here is a picture of kid #3 thoroughly enjoying his new set:

My friend apologized for not having a sword to go with it. I told her she need not be sorry. Boys can make ANYTHING into a sword! Ha ha!!!

Happy Feast day! We will hopefully be reading this tonight too.

God bless,
Mary

Quote of the day

"Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion is to look out to the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good..."
— St. Teresa of Avila

Die-Hard Blogger

Okay, I think I have become a die-hard blogger. Take this for instance, just a few minutes ago, I foolishly thought that ALL my kids were playing charades (thanks H! for the idea!) but my kid #3 ran to me and told me that kid #4 and #5 were in the bathroom, and that the bathroom sink is full of bubbles and overflowing onto the floor.

So, what does one do?

Of course, run to grab my camera and off I go running to capture the moment, all the time thinking..."this will be a great post!"

Okay, so I need a life.

But enough about me, here is the photo you are dying to see....

And another shot for fun:
Here's hoping you have a fun filled day too!
God bless,
Mary

What we are doing lately...

Who says an 8 year old can't multitask?

Babysitting AND bringing the dirty laundry to the washing machines! Talk about talented.

Poetry time...we LOVE this cute poem saying it with hand gestures and all. Aren't those turtles darling?

Science time tied in with art too...do you see the amoeba in Kid #1's painting?

Enjoy your day!

God bless,
Mary

A Poem for my son-kid #1

On Bended Knee

The sweetest sight I ever did see
Was my child praying on bended knee.

He held his prayer book and was so silent
Asking for wisdom, praying for guidance.

I still can see the baby when it was only he
Climbing, strolling, and everywhere following me.

He is starting to go explore on his own
Into this crazy world, a world of the unknown.

Now it is my turn, it is now me
Here I am Lord, praying on bended knee.

Holding my prayer book in this house of not so silent
But still asking for wisdom and praying for guidance.

-Mary

April 21, 2009

Kid-invention

Kid #1 was reading out loud a book about the dates of inventions this morning. Yes, our days usually starts off quite quirky this way!

Did you know that:

• Paper was invented in the year 105.
• Piano was invented in the year 1709.
• A Modern pencil was invented in the year 1795.
• A dishwasher was invented in 1886.
• A telephone was invented in the 1870's.
• An escalator was invented in 1891.
• An x-ray was invented in 1895.
• Space Shuttle-1977

The ones I found quite funny are:

• A Walkman was invented in 1979.
• Rollerblade-1980
• Robot vacuum-2002
• Post-it's- 1980
• DVD-1995---I thought that was much later! wow!
• Food Processor- 1971
• CD- 1972

Then kid #1 says "CAT scanner was invented in 1973."
and kid #2 says "Does it scan cats?"
"No," says Kid #1, "it does not scan cats! Its something for the computer or something."

Heee heee!!! Gotta love em'!

Have a nice day!
God bless,
Mary

As promised...

As promised, here is the pic of my Divine Mercy cake. My husband said "Wow, you'll definitely have to put a pic of THIS on your blog!" So, I guess it deserves attention :) We did have lots of fun making it from scratch-that's right! No box cake this time! We wanted to make icing but did not have any buttermilk so I opted to make powered sugar icing-can you see it? Do you dig the 'rays' of red and white too? I have to admit, it was quite delicious and it was all finished after lunch today! (sorry honey!)


We also were delighted to find a stream/hiking area very close to our house so we went there to enjoy it-doing it the warmer weather style! Here are just a few of the 124 pictures (yikes!) I took. I love to see nature through the eyes of a lens...

We thoroughly enjoyed it too. I find the rushing of the water and the birds chirping so calming. If we had a stream in our backyard, my hubby and I agree we would probably never need a babysitter again! ha ha.

Remember the game of "Pooh Sticks" from the Winnie the Pooh movies? My 2 little ones loved playing the pooh sticks game!

God bless,
Mary

Look out DMV, my 2 yr. old drives!

My 2 year old goes and puts on his coat(all by himself!-yahoo!) then proceeds to tell me with the sweetest face you've ever seen:

"I go bye bye."
"I drive."

I look at him a bit peculiarly and ask "You go bye bye and you drive?" Ya know, just to confirm this step into adulthood at such an early age.
His reply was very much with an Amish accent "Oh, Yaaaaaaaaaah."

This boy drives alright, drives me crazy!

Embarassing 200th Post

Overheard my 2 older boys while they are doing an ABC puzzle at the kitchen table together...

"This is so embarassing!" Kid #3 says to Kid #1.
"That's b/c you are saying it wrong!" Kid #1 says .
"But that's okay!" Kid #3 says.
"You've just said that letter 3 times already!" Kid 1 says.
"Oh, so you do it then!" Kid #3 says.
"You do it! Just try it!" Kid #1 says.

Gotta love the charity, folks.

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday!

Today, we remember the great powerful mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ! What a gift that we truly do not deserve but out of His enormous love for each one of us, He pours out His mercy to us. How do we respond to this gift? At mass this morning, the pastor described mercy as given what we do not deserve and justice is given what we do deserve. Nicely put.

Thank you dear Lord for this gift of Your mercy.
May all people find You and place their trust in You!

According to St. Faustina's visions, written in her diary, the chaplet's prayers for mercy are threefold: to obtain mercy, to trust in Christ's mercy, and to show mercy to others.
Jesus, I Trust in You!

Here is a link to the shrine of the Divine Mercy- full of awesome info about Divine Mercy Sunday, St. Faustina, chaplet, prayers etc... We have visited the shrine a few times and it was absolutely gorgeous and transforming each time we went. I encourage anyone that can to go there, it is worth all the effort.
My goal today is to say this with my family- probably in the van since that is one place they cannot get up and move!
I am also going to print up some of these for them to color today. And this one came out great too, so I'll print that out too.
God willing, I will be making a cake and put red food coloring in it, and put the colors of red and white food coloring icing representing the rays (and why not...I'll put some red sugar sprinkles too!) on top...I may post a pic of it if it comes out okay!!! My kids will be so thrilled to see it and then eat it up! Hopefully I'll get the picture of it BEFORE they eat it all up! :)

Look at this picture above that I posted... Jesus stands with one hand outstretched in blessing, the other clutching the side wounded by the spear, from which proceed beams of falling light, red and white in color. An explanation of these colors was given to St. Faustina by Jesus himself saying, "The two rays represent blood and water." This has been attributed to the "blood and water" referenced in John 19:34.

Hope your day is filled with many blessings, especially of Jesus' Great Mercy!

Jesus, I Trust in You!

Quote of the day

"How can some say there are too many children? That's like saying there are too many flowers."
– Mother Teresa

Baby Love

Is there anything more scrumptious than a baby in a onsie?! I mean, look at this sweetie! He is almost a whoppin' 7 months old and I am totally smitten by him. Kid #6 and boy #4 and I am just lovin' it.

God bless,

Mary

Find God in the pots and pans

Just when you think that playing in the kitchen wasn't fun.
After I threw out the idea of cleaning out the cupboards...I came around the kitchen corner to find this:

and this:

And this was the other day:

They claim that this is their house on a swamp.

Uhm...okay, yeah. Whatever you say, my loves.

At least it kept them busy!

"God is in the pots and pans." - St. Theresa of Avila

Check out this link to a great homily precisely about what St. Theresa said!

God bless you among your pots and pans,

Mary

Whoopsie!

I wonder if my kids will notice that I accidently just put slivered almonds in the pancake mix instead of chocolate chips!

Gosh, those bags look waaaaaaaaaaay too much alike!

God bless,
Mary

You know it might be...

You know it might be a rough day when you have to call your hubby home 7 minutes after he left the house.
You know it might be a rough day when your oldest child says "I'll go stop that fight."
You know it might be a rough day when you are behind the computer to type this post, drinking your coffee in hopes it will take effect very soon, and there is quite the messy house in the background.
You know it might be one of those days.

But you also know it's God's Will.
And that God's Will is most important ANYWAY.
And you know there is great peace in knowing and remembering this.
And you know you can depend on Him.
And you know you can get through it, even if it is ONE HOUR AT A TIME.
God bless,
Mary

April Showers bring...

...May Flowers!

Just looking at these pictures remind me of the book "10 Little Rubber Ducks" by Eric Carle...except we've got 4 to go to make that title true for us! hee hee. (no, I'm not hinting at anything people!)

Well, I guess maybe we're more like Little Quack !

God bless,
Mary

It's a Boy Thing

This is what the cold dreary long winter brings!

You have to admit, this is amazing for young kids do, huh?! They are very focused, very intrigued to be digging to get somewhere that they don't have the faintest idea where!

You just gotta love those boys!

God bless,
Mary

Laughing and clapping

Are we the only family that thinks its totally hysterical to see who can clap their hands the fastest and we all laugh b/c we have some very funny faces while doing it?!
If you know what I am talking about- ha! you are as crazy as us!
If not, you don't know what you are missing!!!
So, go ahead and try it-you're guaranteed to laugh your socks off :)
See ya!
God bless,
Mary

Leftover Easter eggs~!

Hummmm...What to eat for snack today?
How about a hard boiled egg?

What to eat for lunch today?
How about egg salad?

What to eat for dinner?
How about deviled eggs? or ham deviled eggs?

So, what's on your menu this week?! :)

God bless,
Mary

Easter continues

It's a good thing Easter is not officially over...yet. My 'big' kids have set up yet another egg hunt for the 'little' kids. The joy and excitement of seeing them find their hidden eggs is beautiful! Forget the tv or video games, this is way more fun! I love big families-there is always someone to play with :)
God bless,
Mary

He has risen, just as he said!!!

Happy Easter!!!

Hope you have a glorious Easter!

God bless you and yours,

Mary

p.s. Here is a link to some fun online games with the Easter theme!

Pics so far...

We are having quite the Holy Week. We are up to 4 kids on nebulizer treatments and a child on steroids. You haven't experienced real parenthood till one of your kids is on prednisone! Oh. My. Dear. This Mom and Dad are drinking tons of coffee (and jsut a litlttle bti conufesed adn hpyer!) Since there is so much I want to say but I don't have the patience or time to do it right now...these pictures below will have to suffice.

Pictures are worth a thousand (and more) words, right? Here ya go:

Holy Thursday: The kids are ready for our family "washing of the feet"

One of my absolute favorite pics! Those cute little toes of my darling baby boy of 6 1/2 months! Those little toes are so precious! (oh, don't mind the dirty water-it's been a long few days with lots of rain!)

Good Friday: (talk about perfect pic! The palm branches we made into the crown of thorns that are adorning my dying spring flowers)

Watching one of the many great kids shows put out by EWTN over these past few days.

Holy Saturday: (Need I say more?)

God bless you and your family and make the most of the last day before Easter!

God bless,

Mary