Holy Zucchini!!!

I jokingly said, "Holy Zucchini" to the boys when they showed me what they picked from our garden earlier this week, but in some ways my joking remark is true. Our garden truly seems "blessed" this year! It is overflowing with produce, but thankfully I have three eager helpers! The boys picked these three huge zucchini's which produced 18 cups worth of shredded zucchini...and we still have many more growing in the garden!!! I can almost smell the tasty zucchini breads, cookies, and casseroles we will be making all year long! Speaking of which, if any of you have zucchini recipes to share, I'd sure love to try them!

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Michael is our "ACT BEFORE YOU THINK" child. He was simply born this way (but I sure hope he grows out of it someday!) I can prove this point with many-a-story, but here is the latest one... While we were on one of our hikes this past weekend, Michael jumped up on a huge rock that was overlooking about a 15 foot drop (at least). I promptly scolded him to get down while having a mini heart attack, and I explained that if he fell (which was a high probability since he's also our clumsy child) he could have died. The friends we were hiking with have a 3-year-old daughter named Agnes who witnessed and overhead the whole affair, and she immediately added, "Yes, he would need a very big band-aid." Truly, out of the mouth of babes comes wisdom. :)


I didn't get a picture of Michael on the rock with the perilous drop off because I was too busy trying to get him off the rock. So you'll just have to look at this sweet picture of Michael standing on some smaller rocks in the middle of a freezing, rushing, mountain stream instead. I sure hope his guardian angel has fast wings and is willing to work overtime! :}

A Great Time in the Great Outdoors

This past weekend we took one last camping trip to enjoy the great outdoors before the school year begins. We drove about an hour up into the mountains to a spot called Refrigerator Canyon. Perhaps the chilly name of the place scared away all other campers because we literally had the whole canyon to ourselves (except for a couple of mountain goats we spotted on the cliffs above!) It was truly a lovely spot. The towering cliffs make you feel surrounded by God's majesty, and the absence of cars and people make you feel God's presence and peace. As you will see by the pictures, all of us found something fun to do while we were camping:

• Paul thoroughly enjoyed sighting in his bow for the fast-approaching archery season, as well as taking afternoon naps in the camper (because, after all, pulling back that string takes a lot out of you!) :)
• The boys entertained themselves for hours capturing poor grasshoppers in their new bug vacuum, as well as riding their bikes, throwing rocks in the nearby stream, helping daddy retrieve his arrows, learning how to start a campfire, eating Smores, and having pine cone wars with their friends.
• Maria enjoyed capturing all the previously listed events with her camera, eating Beth's amazing "Cowboy Caviar," and making cord rosaries while watching the kids play.

The first two nights we camped by ourselves and then we were joined the following day by two other Catholic families who love the Lord and the great outdoors too. There is something very special and sacred about praying the rosary with your friends around a campfire. It was the perfect ending to a perfect camping weekend.

Paul teaching the boys "Firestarting 101"

Paul sighting in his bow and dreaming of shooting a monster elk

Maria capturing the beautiful wildlife...

...while her boys also "capture" wildlife!

Boy, girl, boy, girl, boy...dog.
All the kiddos (and dog) taking a snack break on our hike.

Deep Thought Thursday #5

I just love wildflowers, especially ones that are truly growing wild on a mountainside. They make me want to run to the top of the mountain, twirl around and sing, "The hills are alive with the sound of music...laaa la la la...with songs they have sung for a thousand years...laaa la la la..." :) Although my wildflowers aren't on a mountainside, they still make me happy just to look at them (I spare the neighbors my rendition of Julia Andrew's "Sound of Music" though!) My boys also love the flowers because they seem to attract bugs of every variety which delights them to no end. Poor bugs.

Anyway, as I was looking at the wildflowers this morning, the deep thought occured to me that my soul is kind of like those wildflowers by our walkway. If you look closely at them, you'd notice not only bugs, but also weeds of every variety. I also never took the time to thin-out the flowers as they were growing, which has caused them to be not only weedy, but also a bit overgrown or shall we say too wild. My soul lately has felt a bit "too wild," tangled with weeds (sin) and overgrowth (selfishness). And so I am reminded of the beautiful Sacrament of Reconciliation and how much I need to receive it again (Pope John Paul II actually went to Reconciliation every day...so I'm way overdue!) So today I am thankful today for wildflowers that remind me of how beautiful my soul is intended to be when I allow the Great Gardener to shower me with His mercy and weed out the sin and selfishness in my soul.

Deep thoughts, by Wild About Wildflowers Maria :)

"Sing for joy, O heavens, break forth into singing, O earth!

For the Lord has comforted his people and will have mercy on his afflicted."

Isaiah 49:13

Super-Fast

The boys and I rode bikes to the park this evening, and Michael (who just learned how to ride bike this summer) asked me:

"Mom, do you think you could beat me in a bike race?"

I smiled (to myself) and said, "Boy, I'm not sure anymore because you sure are fast!"

Then he said, "Well, I know I could beat you going downhill, because I'm super-fast downhill!"

I just love the things kids say :)

Thank you, Lord, for these sweet moments with my children.

They truly get me through the day with a smile in my heart.

Amen.

Eventful Sunday Drive

After Mass this morning, we picked up some donuts (our usual tradition as long as the boys behaved well during the service), and we headed on Sunday drive to scope out some possible camping sites for this coming weekend. I gave each of the boys a donut in the backseat, and by the time I looked back again Dominic was nearly finished with his donut---but was wearing most of the chocolate! Thankfully, I had my camera along for just such a photogenic moment :) The other excitement on our trip was spotting a mama grizzly and her cub about 80 yards from our car!!! We saw them very near the spot that we were considering camping at this weekend...after which, I quickly vetoed that location for future camping! But it was exciting, nonetheless, and we now feel like true Montanans to have seen a grizzly in the wild (thankfully from the safety of our suburban). Sorry, no photos of the griz...they bolted as soon as we spotted them :(

Feast of St. Dominic

August 8th is the Feast of St. Dominic, a very special saint in our family because we have a little Dominic of our own, and we also have a strong devotion to the rosary which became popular due to St. Dominic. In the year 1214 the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Dominic while he was praying for the conversion of sinners. Tradition has it that Mary handed St. Dominic a rosary and told him: "This is the weapon which the Blessed Trinity wants you to use to reform the world."

Our family tries to pray the rosary together each night around our bed, and on Fridays we started a fun tradition of praying ON the bed...which often results in Daddy falling asleep and the rest of us giggling in between the Hail Mary's! :) Praying a nightly rosary has truly become a beautiful tradition for us, even though some nights Dominic gets a bit distracting as he jumps on the bed or talks to his toys while the rest of us try to "meditate" on the mysteries of Jesus' life, passion, and resurrection! :) I sure hope Our Blessed Mother smiles at our feeble attempts at praying. I can't help but believe that the honest and innocent prayers of children are extremely powerful, and I hope that this tradition will be firmly rooted in our children's hearts so that they continue to pray the daily rosary long after they leave our home. Pope Pius XII once said, "There is no surer means of calling down God's blessings upon the family than the daily recitation of the rosary." Perhaps his words will inspire some of you readers to try praying a family rosary together. I know it can seem like an impossible task at first, especially if you have small children. When we started, we only did one decade for a few weeks, then gradually increased the number until we were finally praying 5 decades a night. We also found that it helps to let our older boys lead a decade and read aloud a little excerpt from a children's rosary book that explains each mystery. Actively involving them makes them feel so proud and also helps them to understand the rosary in a deeper way (it also helps them practice their reading skills at the same time!) :) It only takes about 20 minutes, but the blessings are innumerable!

Pope John Paul II also loved Mary and the rosary very much. JPII added the Luminous Mysteries to the traditional 15 mysteries and was often called the Marian Pope. One of his favorite sayings was "TOTUS TUUS," which is Latin for "Totally Yours," and he daily committed himself totally to Mary's care, knowing that she would always lead him perfectly to her Son and to true holiness. As JPII says, "To recite the rosary is nothing other than to contemplate the face of Christ with Mary." Imagine how our world would change if more people would take the time to pray the rosary and contemplate the face of Christ with Mary. Truly, the rosary could be the most powerful weapon to reform our families and the world if more Christians (Catholics and Protestants alike) would simply use it.

St. Dominic, pray for us!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

Totus Tuus,
~Maria