Thankful Thursday

• 15 weeks pregnant and FINALLY FEELING BETTER (very, very thankful that my nausea has almost completely disappeared)
• my boys' handsome school pictures to put on my wall
• Dominic learning to behave better at school (no more notes being sent home from his teacher)
• Mass and Confession...grace upon grace...so thankful to be Catholic
• a date with my two older boys to a new restaurant in town
• friends sharing their maternity clothes with me
• afternoon peace and prayer-time
• my "4th Day" Bible study group of women who pray for me and encourage me
• potty training Nathanael (so far going very well)
• boys playing together in the snow (so thankful that they love each other so much and get along so well)
• going to bed early

Nathanael's Happy (but not fancy) Birthday...

On November 10th, we celebrated Nathanael's 2nd birthday.  Can he really be 2 years old?!  Wow, these past two years have gone by so fast, and he has filled them with so much JOY.  My husband and I both marvel from time to time how easy and sweet Nathanael has been since day one.  He has been a good sleeper, a good eater, has a mellow temperament, plays well independently, and is incredibly smart too.  All in all, he is a delight to everyone in our family!  His cute smile and dimpled chin melt my heart daily, and I am so thankful that God blessed us with him in our family. 

 

His party was simple this year, but he was perfectly content with that.  We invited one family over to have supper and celebrate with us.  I told them not to buy anything for a gift, but rather to re-gift an old book or toy that their kids didn't want any more.  They came with 4 FULL BAGS of re-gifted toys!!!  Nathanael was a bit overwhelmed with the sheer number of toys they gave him, and he has been playing with all of them non-stop for the past few days.  With the money his grandparents sent, we bought him a huge dump truck and some new construction truck books.  Even the cake was simple this year, but that seemed OK to Nathanael too.  I am slowly learning to let go of some of my perfectionist tendencies, to simplify and accept that I don't need to always make things fancy.  With 4 kids, you just have to let some things go...like scrapbooking, birthday cards that arrive on time, thank you notes, pristine toilets, elaborate birthday parties, etc...  And you know what?  My kids are just has happy without "fancy."  So anyway, here are some photos of our truck-lovin' 2-year-old at his special, but not-too-fancy, birthday celebration:

 

 

 

Too long unattended...



You know you've left your nearly-two-year-old alone for too long when you happen upon this scene...

 

 

"Hi mom!  I'm just furthering my learning."

 

"Don't worry, mom, I'll help you clean things up!"

a prayer

Most Merciful Jesus,

Today I learned that my country elected a president, for the second time, who condones and promotes evil.  I know that President Obama must grieve Your heart through his unashamed support of abortion, gay marriage and other evils that are contrary to Your truth.  What must offend You even more is that over half of our country voted for him, proclaiming that they believe Obama is right and You, our perfect God who laid down Your life for us, is somehow wrong.  Forgive us, sweet Jesus, for clearly we do not know what we do.  

I feel deep sadness at how our nation is offending You and causing You to relive the pain of your Passion by the way we cling to our sinful ways--the sins that You died to free us from.  I am sorry that our country continues to wound Your loving heart by turning away from the mercy and life-giving truth that You offer.  I simply do not know what else to do except to beg for Your continued mercy to be poured upon our nation so that many souls may be saved before it is too late.  Even though I am one of Your weakest servants, I pray that I may somehow console Your sorrowing heart through my prayers, my humble sacrifices, and my sincere love for You. 

I know You have every right to unleash a just punishment on our nation for choosing a culture of death over Your ways of life and truth, but I do not fear.  I do not fear because even though I know You are the just Judge and a severe punishment may surely come, I also know You are my merciful Savior, and that those who believe in Your mercy will be hidden and protected always inside your most Sacred and loving heart.

Filled with sorrow, but profound trust in You Jesus,
Your loving servant,
~Maria

A House Full of Saints

I think every year I find myself saying that "this year's All Saints Day Party was the best one yet." And this year was no different. What a blessing that this annual celebration just keeps getting better and better. I feel so overwhelmingly blessed to be surrounded by wonderful Catholic friends who celebrate the saints with us and strive to glorify God while having fun at the same time.

I took so many pictures at our party that I feel are worth sharing, so I will try to let the photos do most of the talking...

Here is our "saintly" family ready for the party to begin.  This year Michael dressed as St. Andrew, Paul dressed as St. John Bosco, Joseph dressed as St. Peter, Dominic dressed as St. Dominic Savio, Maria dressed as St. Faustina, and Nathanael dressed as St. Gabriel.

Our dear friends Glen and Lisa brought their girls dressed as very sweet looking saints:  Margaret was dressed as Blessed Mother Teresa, Audrey was dressed as St. Bernadette, Agnes was dressed as the newly canonized St. Kateri, and Grace was dressed as St. Elizabeth of Hungary.

We made a new saint game this year that the kids all loved called "The Saints Trivia Go Fishing Game."  I asked each little fisherman or fisherwoman a saint question, then if they got it right they got to go fishing for a prize.  One of the 4 year old boys gave the cutest response to the question:  What saint was Jesus' daddy?"  I was looking for the answer "St. Joseph," but this little boy gave the much more profound answer: "God."  So cute, so correct.  He definately got a prize for that answer.

The little girls especially loved the "St. Therese Rose Toss Game."  If they successfully threw their rose into the laundry basket which held a picture of St. Therese, they received a prize.

I bet St. Therese the Little Flower was smiling down on the happy little kids playing this game :)

The boys especially loved the new game that my friends Glen and Lisa introduced this year.  It was called the "St. Kateri Sin-Shooting Game."  Each cup target had a sin labeled on it, and the kids tried to fight the sins with their bow and arrows :)

The littlest kids just loved all the excitement around them and the candy, of course!  :)

Little Margaret's chocolate eyes truly melt my heart and remind me why we are called to be like little children.  So precious, so innocent, so joy-filled!

And the grand finale of the evening is always the pinata game.   This year I didn't have the energy to make a homemade pinata, but I found this fish pinata on the internet for only $6!  I thought a fish would be fitting since two of my boys were dressed as fishermen saints.

Even the littlest sluggers were able to get some of the candy to fall out of the pinata this year.

Who needs trick-or-treating when there's a pinata filled with candy to enjoy?!

Here's the whole group of little saints.  It's hard to tell if the little kids or the big kids enjoy the party more....it seems to be loved by all ages!  Everyone went home happier, and perhaps a little holier :)

And remember, even if you feel like your halo is drooping, God's mercies are new every morning and we are ALL called to be saints!  God bless each of you on your journey to holiness!

Preparing for All Hallow's Eve



I have to admit that this is one of my favorite times of the year...the changing leaves, the crisp air, and of course preparing for our All Hallow's Eve party!  One of the things my boys like best is making their Saint-O-Lanterns and then roasting the yummy pumpkin seeds afterwards.  Each of the boys picked a saint they wanted to dress up as for our party, and then they thought of a symbol for that saint to draw or carve on their pumpkins.  Joseph and Michael are very into fishing lately, so they decided to be the saintly fishermen brothers, St. Peter and St. Andrew, so they made Saint-O-Lanterns with fish on them.  Dominic wanted to be St. Dominic Savio, the holy young boy who was the youngest person at age 15 to be canonized a saint without being martyr, so he carved a bold cross on his pumpkin.  And I thought our angelic Nathanael would make a very sweet St. Gabriel the archangel, so we drew an angel on his pumpkin.  Paul and I will dress up as saints too, but we thought it would be too much work to carve and scoops seeds out of 6 pumpkins, so we just helped the boys with theirs :)  To find out what saints Paul and I are going to be, you'll have to check the blog after our big party.  In the meantime, here are some fun photos of the Saint-O-Lantern process...

 

 

Happy All Hallow's Eve to each of you!  May you keep the day holy and glorify the heavenly Father no matter how your family chooses to celebrate!

I did it...

Well, I did it... 

Here's the new me:

 

 

So far I like the change.  We'll see if I still like it once I shower and have to figure out how to style it myself :}  My kids and my husband are still looking at me funny, but hopefully they will get used to the new look soon.  I wish it were this easy to change things in my soul that need a make-over!

 

Have a blessed weekend!