150 visitors to my blog!!!

I just noticed that I not getting many visitors to my blog-no a big deal. 

To me, this blog is a way for me to let go of some of my thoughts, give others some insight into my big family, allow others to learn from my mistakes, and meet some other super great blog-moms too :)  I find some great support here in the blogosphere that is missing in the real world, unfortunatly.  Life is constantly changing and I am trying to adapt to all this technical computer stuff.  Not my favorite thing to use my time on, but a momma's gotta do what  a momma's gotta do.

...BUT get this... I did notice that waaaaaaaay back on January 13, 2009 I got 150 visitors on THAT DAY ALONE! 

What is up with that????

I guess tons of people are interested in sweet innocent 2 yr old little boys possibly dressing in little pink tutu's  b/c they have big sisters or something...haaa haaa!!!

Or, it could be that THIS post was also on that day...but,  I doubt it....must be the tutu thing. lol

And isn't God soooooo awesome?  Little did we know that we'd have a sweet little lady that they get to dress up FOR REAL now!!!! God did indeed give my girls their ultimate wish of a baby sister!!!  Thanks God!!! :)  You are so awesome!  We are all so very much in love with little lady.  She is the delight of all.

I wonder if I'll ever get that many visitors again in one day?!?!?!  woweee!!!

God bless,
Mary

St. Isidore of Seville, patron Saint of the Internet, pray for us.

Prayer To St. Isidore of Seville

Patron Saint of the Internet

Almighty and eternal God

who has created us in Thy image

and hast bidden us to seek after

all that is good, true and beautiful,

especially in the divine person of

Thy only-begotten Son,

our Lord Jesus Christ,

grant we beseech Thee that,

through the intercession of

Saint Isidore, bishop and doctor,

during our journeys through the internet

we will direct our hands and eyes

only to that which is pleasing to Thee

and treat with charity and patience

all those souls whom we encounter.

Through our Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Don't worry

Everything is just fine around here.  No big problems.  Sorry that I have not posted lately.  I truly miss it b/c I enjoy it so much but life is busy lately.  We are trying to finish up our school year.  AND I just realized that I never did post about all the programs and different ciriculums we used this year.  Well, maybe that will be a good post of the pros and cons of them.  We'l see what like wil bring and maybe I'll have time to do that ;)

3 kids in soccer and lots of fresh air with my kids pulls me away from this computer-not a bad thing, right?!

We'll be enjoying a sunny slightly warm day today- so excited!!! ;)  I doubt I'll be back today anytime soon!!!  Maybe....or maybe not ;)

God bless,
Mary

Blog stuff...a long post...so get ready.

I do want to mention about a blog that I seem to click on every chance I get to when I sit down at the computer. 

Go HERE to check it out. 

So, did you go?  Whatta you think?

Please do say a prayer for this sweet little 4 year old girl, Chrissie.  They depend on the power of their prayer warriors to God for the healing her.  I have shared her story with my own children and we are praying for her too.

What an amazing story, an amazing little girl, an amazing mother with such an amazing Faith in our Lord Jesus!  I am in awe of how she is handling it (or seems to handle it via blog posts).   She has opened not only her home to adopting a few children and especially the little one who is undergoing major medical stuff right now...but she has opened her heart to a deep love for this child and opened up to share with us (in this crazy blogosphere) what is going on during such an intimate and crucial time within their own family.  I find great inspiration from his blog, and from this family.

It is weird how in computerland, we can get connnected with total strangers and feel as though we are right there beside them, as though we really know them....which you don't, BTW...I know, shocker there, right?!?! ha LOL.   Do you feel that way about me?  B/c I hope that you don't.   Really.  I can only get to the computer to post about 1 out of 10,000 things that happen during the day, whether they be funny, sad, hilarious, stressful...whatever.  What you read here on my blog is not the whole me and my family.  Sometimes I do not want to post about the terrible things that can and may happen 20 million times a day, b/c I don't want you to know or I don't want to acknowledge how very frail I am (a pride thing, I guess!).

Getting back to that blog I mentioned a few paragraphs up.

Sometimes God has to hit me strong with a powerful message in a powerful way.  You too, huh?  LOL!  Sometimes I think I am doing great in my spiritual life and other times, I don't slow down long enough to be able to hear Him.  This past week, He led me to that blog about little Chrisssie to show me what I have.  To remind me how very grateful I should be!  You know that saying "you don't know what you have till it is gone" rang true to me once again.  I have been so caught up with all the details of doing this, going there or not going there, saying this, wanting to do that, upset b/c it was not perfect, wishing it wasn't this or that way...yadda yadda yadda.  This was going on too long and God hit my heart big-time so that I would perk up and start seeing what is right here in front of me.  Boom!  I cannot even begin to imagine what this mother is going through to see her 4 year old daughter that way.  And what Faith she has!  Awesome and amazing. 

What am I to possibly complain about? 

We have children with no major medical issues going on.  We have a roof over our head and I have a most wonderful loving and supportive husband who loves us so incredibly much.  We have not 1 or 2... but 6!  beautifully hand created God given children that were given as a gift to my  husband and I!  We have food and drink and there are no worries there. 

I also have a great gift.  This gift of a deep love for our Lord and a Catholic Faith that upholds me and grants me peace among this daily chaos.   I feel so incredibly spoiled with all this when I read a blog such as theirs...but I also know that God knows what we need and if we trust with an unfailing hope and love in His Will and providing for us, He will do it...according to His Will.  

I thank God for giving me this little wake up call and I ask you to also say a little prayer for Chrissie. 
Here is the link to their blog again.




The gift of time...May God bless you with reminding you how much you have too!  Go that extra mile for a loved one, hug a little longer, let those dishes sit and snuggle with your loved ones. 
Mary

Do you like it?

So...do you dig my new template and all those girl-ie Spring-y type colors? 

Be honest, do you like it?

For me, I am not so sure about it.

My duaghter who is a 'sweet- lil- all -things -pink- girl' helped me out to have this new 'Blog Make-over'!  Of course she picked all those pink colors and I like purple so it came out very very girl-ie.  I will have to sleep on it a bit and see if I can grow to like it. 

When I commented on how it is so very girl-ie, my daughter says:

"Well, Mom, what do you want?  You're a girl!  You are not a boy!"

You are right, little chickie.  So, here's a shout out to all those girls out there-"hip hip horray for us girls!"

God bless,
Mary

Psssssst...

Psssst....It's almost my 1 year "Blog-aversary" as other bloggers call it! Yep, on December 9th, it will be one whole year! So....whatta gonna get me??? (heee heee-jk)
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

So... I am loved

Apparently, I do have at least a single person out there who reads my blog, asking me what happened to my blog and when I am going to return. To be loved...such a good feeling! I love ya too, sista! (so...when's the BIG DAY? This is a shout-out to my dear long time amiga).

ANYWAY...
Since I have been asked to post on my list, here are a few to post about today. More will come in the next few days. Before I start, I have to say that it was quite a relief to not have to think about this blog. I do love to blog and jot down all the funnies that happen in my life but I did begin to realize that I was living my life with-out being fully there. I kept asking myself if this or that was blog worthy instead of being 100% attentive to my children and our daily life. But it really does happen, to a lot of bloggers, I think. It was good to let go of the worry of not having a post for a day or struggling to put in a post at the moment instead of taking care of the crying child or the laundry or the dinner. It was nice to let go for a bit.

I think I'll take another break mid-Fall too.
But I am back in business.
So, start checking back daily, ok!?!? :)

I am about 1/2 way done with that check off list that I told you about. Not nearly as thrilled to only be 1/2 way done, but nonetheless...at least I am 1/2 way there.

Funny, I got a call on the phone from this pregnant momma telling me I was completely nuts to let go of my 2 yr old's nap! So, since she knows way more than me and has experienced way more than me, I must obey!

Let's see...
CHECK: Naps are still of the essence around here and the best thing I found out is that I put him down for a nap in the morning and most mornings he'll sleep then and wake when he is good and ready instead of me putting him down after lunch and having to wake him and THEN having to love this grouchy bear of a child. It makes for a super long afternoon but with a cheer filled child. That makes all the difference.

CHECK: Meal Planning 101 for our family:
Sunday: a roast or chicken-Marsala, chicken cacciatore, rotisserie chicken w/potatoes and veggies and salad; rolls
Monday: spaghetti and meatballs w/corn or Burrito w/lettuce & refried beans; salad; rolls
Tuesday: “Breakfast dinner”-eggs/bagels or cc pancakes or french toast and sausages
Wednesday: Pizza or baked ziti w/green beans or Chili w/cheddar cheese and rice or noodles; salad; rolls
Thursday: Chicken quesadillas w/salsa/lettuce/ & refried beans
Friday: Fish/potatoes/veggie or tuna casserole; salad; rolls
Saturday: hot dogs/hamburgers, chips/pretzels, corn on cob

I know, not so very healthy...but somewhat kid friendly and key word EASY. This is the first week of this so called menu deal, and I goofed already. Didn't have enough chicken for the quesadillas so I put in cheddar cheese and rice instead...and we did not have anymore salsa so we used good ol' ranch dressing. We used the salsa for the roast in the crock pot that I made on Monday instead of Sunday (I switched those days). Oh well! Live and learn. We are very blessed to have no food allergies in our family which is quite amazing! At least none that I know of, anyway. Thank You God! We have a few friends who have children with severe or somewhat severe allergies so I count this as a huge blessing.

Want to know more? Check back in the next few days.

I was all ready to post a pic but this blogger is not letting me! oh, the nerve!

Oh well, that means bedtime for me. Good night!

God bless,

Mary

Well, whatta know!

Your Blog Should Be Yellow

You're a cheerful, upbeat blogger who tends to make everyone laugh. You are a great storyteller, and the first to post the latest funny link. You're also friendly and welcoming to everyone who comments on your blog.

http://blogthings.com/whatcolorshouldyourblogorjournalbequiz/">What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

God bless!
Mary

Blog changes

Can you tell that I am playing around with the colors on my blog? What do you think? I figured since it is Spring officially that I could spruce up this blog to make it more, well, Spring-y! I have let my little chickie daughter make all the color changes!

Don't be fooled by that little quiz I took yesterday. Just about all of it was right on, the one thing that will take a miracle for me to become better at is aesthetics!- the way something looks, especially when considered in terms of how pleasing it is. Anyone who knows me knows that I am very laxed about this. That gene missed me big time! ha ha! It's a good thing God knows what He is doing b/c although it missed me, he gave it to my daughter! Thank you God!
God bless,
Mary

Blog vs. FB vs. Twitter

This is such an interesting and thought provoking post from another blogger. (you can even read my comment that I added-its #8 and I also included it below)

Go ahead and take a look. I promise that it'll make you think!

And while you are at it, check this one out too-on the same topic.

So, have you made up your mind...what do you think about this?
And this?

As for me, what I have to say is...
(*found a comment #8 on this blog post) and I will also add it in right now...

I wrote: "Thank you for writing exactly how I was feeling too but could not express it as so you did!! Nice work putting your deep thoughts onto paper, er... I mean BLOGS!You inspire people b/c you are genuine and true. Thank you for that. You can count on me to keep up my blog too. There's nothing quite like it.Oh, as far as Facebook goes, I did join it and got hooked- b/c it was a quick fix to curiosity. My hubby and I laugh at how they call it 'friends'-ugh-give me a break!anyway, I took a break off of FB for Lent. I realized that I am not missing it much at all.Once again, thanks for writing this. Can I link to this on my blog?God bless,Mary @ Cheerios"

So, if you are still reading this....what are your thoughts?
God bless,
Mary

Blogger Nerd!

You know you are a blogger nerd when...
1. Your husband enthusiastically says to you... "You have to put this on your blog!"
and "This is so blog worthy!" (I know my kids will be saying the same soon too!)
2. You carry your camera along with you as your day enfolds (or you know EXACTLY where it is to capture that 'moment'!)

And yes, I have pics to share...that is a post for later :)
Any others you can think of? Do share!
God bless,
Mary