Thankful Thursday

It's been awhile since I've posted a thankful list, but I've been writing them down in various journals...  So here's my litany of thanks, reminding me that God does indeed love me and is blessing me in big and little ways constantly if I but take the time to notice:

• Nathanael's petite and dimpled chin
• watching an inspiring movie:  "For Greater Glory"
• our great babysitter and piano teacher for the boys who only lives a minute away
• my son accepting his mom's apology for taking her frustration out on him
• hearing the phrase, "Love you, Mom."
• waking up to witness God's wondrous make-over of the trees---each one frosted with glittery white
• Mystic Monk coffee for Christmas (Jingle Bell Java flavor)...mmmmm!
• eating Perkins tomato soup all by myself
• watching our boys play board games with their daddy
• God giving me a spiritual director (something I have longed for for years)
• cleansing tears
• staying at a beautiful hotel with free breakfast AND supper
• boys having fun on a new ski hill with their daddy
• my Christmas present from Paul that the whole family likes:  an iPad
• gentle snow falling while being embraced by majestic white mountains
• keen awareness of my sin---ever grateful for God's mercy
• hotel swimming pools
• PBS kids cartoons
• pretty scarves
• 15 minutes of private adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
• sincere sorrow for my sins/crying through the Sacrament of Confession
• date night with my husband:  eating tasty tapenade at our favorite Italian restaurant, followed by a great movie ("The Hobbit")
• friends who help me in a pinch with babysitting
• feeling baby kicking
• pastel clouds over snow-capped mountains
• boys in the back seat belting out Billy Joel lyrics
• mercy
• playing "Apples to Apples" with the boys and giggling like crazy
• eating French Dip sandwiches at Arby's with my boys while daddy was away on a work trip
• reading a good book in my warm bed
• hearing baby's heartbeat
• getting a stain out of my favorite jeans
• a clean kitchen
• finding a huge sale on boys pants at Target (I bought 9 pair for $13!)
• grandma and grandpa rescuing me for a few days while my husband is away
• reading "The Hobbit" outloud every night with my boys, them loving it just as much as me
• staring a new sewing project

24 week milestone

 



I'm happy to report that I have made it to my 24 week mark without being put on bedrest.  With my last pregnancy, I was put on bedrest at 21 weeks, so I was apprehensive how things would go this time around.  I do have frequent Braxton Hicks contractions, but nothing too regular.  At my appointment this week they checked to make sure I was not dilating, which I wasn't, so that was good news.  The bad news, however, is that I have been having other troubling symptoms for the past couple of weeks that have my OB a little concerned.  I've been feeling a lot of pressure or tightness in my chest, difficulty breathing, and heart palpitations.  With my blood clotting disorders, the doctor immediately wanted to make sure I wasn't having a blood clot in my lungs, so I had a CT scan to rule that out (thankfully!).  Now my OB wants me to see a cardiologist to do an ultrasound on my heart and to monitor my heart using a Holter monitor/EKG device for 48 hours.  Ugh!  I am hoping my symptoms will disappear before my appointment with the cardiologist so that I can cancel it.   My husband has been gone for a 2 week business trip, so I wonder if that caused extra anxiety which led to the symptoms I was having???  I am trying to take better care of myself this week by removing all caffeine, drinking lots of water (which I am terrible at!), and trying to rest and trust God as much as I can.  I'd appreciate any extra prayers you could send my way too--for peace in my heart, healing if there is something that needs to be healed, and for this sweet growing baby to be perfectly healthy.  THANK YOU!

Our Special Saints for 2013

Our family is continuing the special tradition of choosing a patron saint to be our special intercessor for the new year.  A friend of mine who has a special devotion to St. Faustina first told me about this beautiful tradition a few years ago when she shared the following excerpt from Faustina's diary:

"Jesus likes to intervene in the smallest details of our life, and He often fulfills secret wishes of mine that I sometimes hide from Him, although I know that from Him nothing can be hidden.  There is a custom among [the sisters in our convent] of drawing by lot, on New Year's Day, for special patrons for ourselves for the whole year.  In the morning during meditation, there arose within me a secret desire that the Eucharistic Jesus be my special patron for this year also, as in the past.  But hiding this desire from my Beloved, I spoke to Him about everything else but that.  When the sisters gathered for breakfast, we blessed ourselves and began drawing our patrons.  When I approached the holy cards on which the names of the patrons were written, without hesitation I took one, but I didn't read the name immediately as I wanted to mortify myself for a few minutes.  Suddenly, I heard a voice in my soul:  I am your patron.  Read.  I looked at once at the inscription and read, "Patron for the Year 1935--the most Blessed Eucharist."  My heart leapt with joy, and I slipped quietly away from the sisters and went for a short visit before the Blessed Sacrament, where I poured out my heart.  (entry 360)

So, just like we've done the past few years, Paul, Joseph, Michael, Dominic and myself each wrote down 5-10 saint names and placed them in a hat...  Here are the results of the saints that God desired each of us to have:

Paul:  St. Rose of Lima
Maria:  the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Joseph:  St. Dominic of the Rosary
Michael:  St. Mary Magdalene
Dominic:  St. John the Evangelist
Nathanael:  St. Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus

This year I was blessed with a grace similar to St. Faustina's experience, which convinced me that God really does intervene even in the smallest details of our lives, like which saint we draw out of a hat.  Prior to drawing my patron for the year 2013, I had a sudden desire to draw Jesus' Sacred Heart.  For the past few weeks Jesus has been giving me the grace of a keen awareness of my sins and how much they hurt His Sacred Heart.  By "keen awareness" I don't just mean a knowledge of my sins, I mean a completely overwhelming feeling of the weight and ugliness of my sin to the point of tears...lots of tears.   I've never experienced anything quite like this before.   I call this a "grace," but it really isn't something I would wish to experience again.  It has been painful and very humbling to say the least (especially when I turn into a puddle of tears in front of people!)  During this same time period, I was also given the great grace of God sending me a Spiritual Director, a very holy and humble priest, to help guide my soul towards holiness.  The same day that I drew the Sacred Heart of Jesus as my Patron for the year, I also had my very first meeting with my new Spiritual Director. When I shared with him Who I drew for my Patron, he smiled and said he had a gift that he was planning to give me...  He left the room and returned with a beautiful picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that he recently brought back from Rome, blessed personally by Pope Benedict XVI.  My Spiritual Director said that he, too, has a special devotion to the Sacred Heart and had wanted to give me one of these special pictures as soon I asked him to be my Spiritual Director a few weeks ago.  This gift truly confirmed in my heart that Jesus truly was calling me to receive spiritual direction and calling me to draw nearer to his Sacred Heart this year.  God is so very, very good.

By the way, if any of you readers would like me to draw a saint name for you, I'd be more than happy to do so...  Just post a comment below that I will reply to, or you can send me an email if you'd prefer to correspond that way: (pmhurlbert@gmail.com).

New Year's Blessings

Once again, our family ends the year overflowing with thankfulness at the number of blessings God has given us!  Of course, He sent some challenges and crosses too, but we are learning that even those can become blessings if we rely on God’s grace to carry them.  One of our biggest blessings this year was the news that we are expecting another sweet son in the spring.  He will fit right in with his older brothers!  May God give Paul and me the grace to raise these boys to become holy gentlemen to love and serve Him as they grow up!  As we begin a New Year, I asked each member of my family to brainstorm what they were thankful for in 2012 and to ponder what might be some goals for 2013.  Here is the list we created, and perhaps you’d like to do the same with your family—

 

Paul:

·       Thankful list for 2012:  my compassionate wife, a healthy family, my broken wrist healing from my snowboard accident last February (I’m sure my jump in the terrain park looked cool though…until I landed), a good paying job with the FAA, and the exercise of taking my gun for long walks in the fall mountains for no apparent reason.   

·        Goals for 2013:  not to break anything while skiing this year (I’m retiring from my snowboard), a big (ok ANY) elk for Joseph’s first year of hunting, to welcome a new son into our family, and to win the weight loss competition with my brother Dann.

Maria:

·       Thankful list for 2012:  my holy husband who points me heavenward, great-behaved boys that make me smile every day, my supportive girlfriends who encourage me in my faith-journey, bubble baths, graces from the Eucharist, learning how to snow ski, and two books that have changed my soul for the better:  1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp, and The Diary of St. Faustina.

·       Goals for 2013:  to pray the rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy every day, to laugh more, to do some quilting, to love my family and my Savior more perfectly, to help others love Jesus more, to learn how to take better pictures for our family blog: (www.atotustuusfamily.blogspot.com).

Joseph:

·       Thankful list for 2012:  skiing the backside of Discovery Ski Hill, catching a 20 inch walleye with grandpa Pat, pitching in my baseball league, learning to play the violin, hanging out with my school buddies, altar serving, practicing archery with daddy, and mountain biking with friends.

·       Goals for 2013:  to ski more double-black diamonds, try out new ski hills, shoot my first deer or elk, become better at baseball, catch a world-record Northern Pike, make more paracord bracelets, and to grow in holiness.

Michael:

·       Thankful list for 2012:  skiing, becoming an altar server at the Cathedral, playing baseball with my classmates, going hunting with daddy, going fishing in SD with grandpa Pat, going to Silverwood Amusement Park with my friend Alex, camping in the mountains, and going mountain biking with my friends.

·       Goals for 2013:  to grow closer to Jesus, become better at skiing, baseball and piano, to be kinder to others, learn how to catch more fish, make more paracord bracelets, and to be a helpful big brother when the new baby comes.

Dominic:

·       Thankful list for 2012:  going to South Dakota to play with grandma, grandpa, and my cousins, starting Kindergarten at St. Andrew Catholic School, learning how to read, playing baseball, snow skiing, and building with Legos.

·       Goals for 2013:  to catch some big fish, go to grandma and grandpa’s house, play baseball, do more camping, and become better at playing the piano.

Nathanael:

·       Thankful list for 2012:  big brothers to play with, playing with anything that has wheels, reading books with mommy or daddy, my teddy and monkey to snuggle with at night, and a cat to chase around the house.

·       Goals for 2013:  to be a good big brother to the new baby, to be 100% potty trained, and to stop throwing tantrums when I don’t get what I want.

We pray that God blesses all of your families abundantly this year and helps you to see all the gifts you have to be thankful for!  This season reminds me that the greatest gifts of all to be thankful for are Jesus’ sacrificial love and His abundant mercy—to bring us those gifts is why He came to this earth on that Holy Night so long ago.  May we embrace those great gifts with all our hearts in this New Year, and may we learn to constantly say like St. Faustina did, “JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU!” 

Christmas Recap

Our Christmas this year was very relaxed and joy-filled!  We did not have any family with us this year, but instead celebrated with some of our dearest friends and simply bonded closer together as our own little family (actually, we aren't so "little" anymore, are we?).  The celebrations began at the boys' Catholic school Christmas program.  Dominic and Michael each had special speaking parts that they had memorized.  They spoke loud and clear and made this mommy's heart beam with pride!  Joseph played violin in the new school orchestra, which impressed everyone in the audience because all the musicians have only been playing their instruments since the school year began. 

 

Next, we celebrated a pre-Christmas dinner with some of our dearest friends--Glen and Lisa with their 4 beautiful little girls (Lisa just had baby girl #5 yesterday!!!)  One of our favorite priests, Fr. Sean, also came to have dinner with our two families which made the evening extra special.  The highlight of the evening was the music recital that the children performed after dinner was over.   The youngest Cronk girls each played a Christmas song on the piano, and Agnes, who is the eldest at age 6, played "Silent Night" on her fiddle.  Our boys each played a few songs on the piano, and Joseph played two songs on his violin.  What a joyful noise the children made that night!

 

On Christmas day, we celebrated with some great friends from Paul's office:  the Amos family.  It was a delicious meal with wonderful fellowship.  The following morning we left for a mini-vacation to Bozeman, Montana.  Paul and the older 2 boys went skiing at Bridger Bowl, while I took the younger 2 boys to the very cool Museum of the Rockies (which we call "the dinosaur museum").  Nathanael was a bit intimidated by the life-size, ready-to-eat-you-looking dinosaurs, but he loved the Lewis and Clark play area where he could pretend to go camping, catch fish, and all sorts of hands-on activities.  In the evening, we all loved swimming in the hotel pool and playing "Angry Birds" on mommy's new iPad that she got from daddy for Christmas :)

 

All in all, it was a lovely, Christ-centered Christmas.  We chose to have only 3 presents for each of our kids to open, since Jesus (the real Birthday Boy) had only 3 gifts from the Magi.  Having a 3-gift limit really helped our kids to focus less on what they were getting for Christmas and more on the true meaning of Christmas.  Someday I would  like to adopt Ann Voskamp's tradition of having NO gifts under the tree and to focus on giving gifts to those in most need instead.  I would love to train my children's hearts to think of others more than themselves, but I know this will take time.  A few years ago I started the tradition of having our kids think of a gift they can give to Jesus each year, since it's His birthday after all.  Last year each of our boys picked a gift from the Compassion International catalog to send to poor families to please Jesus for His birthday.  I think the boys picked some baby chicks, a water pump, and a month's worth of rice from the catalog.  This year, the boys decided that they wanted to each sponsor a Compassion International child as their special Christmas gift to Jesus.  To sponsor a child means to give a monthly donation to a particular child to help feed them, clothe them, and share the Gospel with them through your love and letters.  The boys really got excited choosing the child they each wanted to sponsor---they got to pick what country their child was from, choose the age of their child, read about their child's life, and even see a picture of their child.  Almost immediately they started writing letters and drawing pictures to send to their child.  I think Jesus was very pleased with this gift from our boys, because whatever we do for the least of His children, we really do for Him.  It only costs $38/month to sponsor a child, but I have a feeling the rewards will be eternal for both our family and the children we are sponsoring. 

 

I pray that each of you had a Christ-centered, peace-filled Christmas too!  May the infant Jesus live and grow in your hearts throughout the New Year and always!

 

Below are some photo highlights to recap our Christmas celebrations...enjoy!

 

 



May your Christmas sugar-high JOY last a lifetime!!!

what little boys do when the dirt is frozen...

Winter in Montana gets long, especially for little boys who love to play in the dirt with their trucks.  So I decided to help my 2-year-old cope with the cold weather by creating some "dirt" to play with inside instead.  Nathanael LOVED it!  He has spent hours playing with his trucks and various kinds of "dirt" all week.  One day we used uncooked rice, another day we tried rice krispies, another day we used cheerios mixed with chocolate chips.  I used a cookie sheet to attempt to contain the mess a little bit, but I still found that I had to vacuum after the "excavation site" shut down for the day :)

 

I'd love to hear other creative ideas that you crafty moms have come up with to entertain your kids when they can't play outside.  We still have 4 long months of cold weather here, so I need all the help I can get!

 

 

 

Names

So now that we know God has given us a son, we start the struggle of choosing the "perfect" name, as if there truly is such a thing, but as parents we put so much weight in that decision for some reason.  Normally, Paul and I have chosen names for our children that are our favorite saints or Bible heroes.  I love the names we have chosen thus far---except for one factor that I didn't take into account:  how the names could be shortened into "cool" nicknames as they grew up.  I guess I just assumed my boys would love their full names like I do, that they would insist that their friends use their full, birth-given, Christian names.  But no.  No.  I have learned that once again my idealistic wishes don't always come true.  My sweet and handsome Joseph has become "Joe."  Joe!  It's hard for me to even type that name!  And my beautiful brown-eyed and feisty son Michael goes by the name of "Mike" everywhere except home.  Well, actually, even Joseph calls him "Mike" at home, and at times I wonder who he is talking about....we don't have any "Mikes" in this house.  "Mike" is my oldest brother in South Dakota, not my son in Montana.  And then there's fun-loving Dominic.  How could I have ever guessed he would become "Dom"???  "Nic" would have been bad enough, but no, he has adopted the nickname "Dom," and I'm embarrassed to say that I even catch myself calling him that.  It just happened and it stuck.  And last, but not least, our adorable Nathanael.  Such a beautiful sounding name, but all of us started calling him "Natey" as soon as he was brought home from the hospital.

I know nicknames are cute and it's something that just happens.  But it really does make me sad deep down that their saint names have disappeared from our tongues.  So...with baby #5, I am bound and determined to pick a holy saint or Bible name that CAN....NOT....BE.....SHORTENED.  Period.  I know you probably think I'm crazy, but for some crazy reason this is important to me, and I need YOUR help.  There just are not very many good-sounding, strong saint names that can't be shortened.  Here's the list I have come up with so far, but please help me add to this list if you can think of more.  So far, none of the names have captured my heart or my husband's, so we need brainstorming help before this little guy is born (which I'm paranoid might be soon because I'm already having tons of Braxton Hicks contractions!  Yikes!)

So here's our list, but please send more "unshortenable" names in the comment box below if you can think of any:

Justin, Caleb, Isaiah, Luke, Levi, John