Dominic---our RUNNER!

Dominic is our epic middle child.  He has always had the confidence to be his own person and walk to the beat of his own drum (or perhaps I should say "cello" since that's his instrument of choice) :)  He's our only kid who played cello, our only kid who mastered robotics, and our only kid who chose a sport other than baseball...how dare he! :)  He did try baseball for a couple of years when he was little, but knew it was not going to be his passion. 

Well, he found his passion (and his new best friends) his Freshman year at a brand new school when he joined the Fall cross country team. We never knew he was a gifted long-distance runner.  I guess we should have known because even as a little guy he loved to run lap after untiring lap on the track near my parents' house whenever we would go visit them in the summer.  But the small Catholic school our kids used to attend never had a track or cross country team, so we just never realized what a runner Dominic could be.  That all changed when we changed schools.  JHS has great track and cross country programs, with the best coach I could possibly imagine.  Coach Karson loves running, loves his student athletes, and loves the Lord.  Doesn't get much better than that.  Coach has taught Dominic to believe in himself and to make running a life-long love to benefit both physical and mental health.  Honestly, Dominic's discovery of his love of running, along with the coach and the friends that came with it, was one of the greatest blessings God gave our family during that difficult transition of changing schools.  Proving once again that God is good, all the time!

I think I already posted about Dominic's XC season last year, but not yet about his Spring track season.  Dominic had an absolutely amazing track season.  He almost always got 1st place in the mile race, and usually placed within the top 3 in the 2 mile race (all of this as a FRESHMAN mind you!).  I think nearly every time he ran he improved his PR (personal record) by a few seconds.  His PR for the mile is a speedy 4:50!!! He was definitely on the path to make it to State this year, until the day before the District track meet when he broke his toe in PE class.  Who knew dodge ball could be dangerous?  That was rough, but he handled it well, and as soon as he healed he started training for the summer Governor's Cup half Marathon that he wanted to run with Coach Karson and his teammate Ranae.  He did AMAZING!!!  He got 1st place in his age group, and 14th place out of 177 participants of all ages!  He averaged a 7:16 minute mile for 13.1 miles, with a final time of 1 hour, 35 minutes, and 10 seconds.  UN--BE--LIEV--ABLE!!!

Here are some pictures of his EPIC track season and Governor's Cup race.  You can totally see his love of running (and a bit of a competitive spirit too).  I should shout out my huge thanks to Ranae's mom for taking the amazing photos too:

Only in Montana do runners have to wear thermal undershirts and gloves.

Nearly every race was FREEZING COLD!

Love this picture!

Shows what supportive friends Dominic has found.

So grateful to God for my great son and the joy he has found in running.

And here are the photos from the Governor's Cup Half Marathon:

This is Dominic with his Coach and his friend Ranae.
The race began early in the morning with a steady rainfall.

It looked miserable to me, but Dominic says the rain was actually nice :)

I have high hopes for this upcoming XC season due to such quality coaching, 

and teammates who not only love running but care about each other.

Totus Tuus,

~Maria

Spring 2022 Highlights

I realize I'm WAAAYYY behind again on my blog, but I will do my best to catch up quickly :)  I think only a couple of people even read my blog ("Hi Mom and Aunt Marge"), so hopefully I'm not disappointing too many people when I fall behind on blogging, but I'm determined to keep up with my blog for posterity's sake.  I'm trying to turn my blog each year into a book of our family highlights.  Don't ask me how many years behind I am on making books.  If it's meant to be, it will happen someday. :)

Spring is always a busy time of the year for us, which is why I rarely find the time to blog.  Spring for our family is filled with Easter joy, a couple of birthdays (Michael and Isaiah), as well as baseball for the youngest 2 boys (Nathanael and Isaiah), and track for our high school boy (Dominic).

First, the Easter joys...

At least one of my kids still likes to decorate eggs with me :)

Isaiah showing his beautiful drawing of Jesus on his egg.

The Easter baskets ready to be discovered on Easter morning.

Traditionally, we have the Cronk family over for Easter dinner and an egg hunt.  

I forgot to get pictures of the dinner or the egg hunt,

but here is Dominic teaching the Cronk girls how to play Catan :)

We also had some birthdays to celebrate this Spring.  Michael's birthday came first (April 3rd), but sadly he was in Aberdeen at college, so I don't have any pictures of his birthday celebration.  I think he went to Grandma and Grandpa's house and they gave him a birthday dinner.  I came a week or so later to be with Michael as he got his tonsils out over Spring Break.  No pictures of that either--ha ha!  It was a brutal recovery.  Apparently, the older a person is, the rougher a tonsillectomy is.  I stayed for a week to take care of Michael, but a couple of days after I left, Michael had a scary event that involved a sink full of blood and a trip to the ER for him and my terrified parents.  Everything turned out fine, but it was scary and I wish I could've been there to help.  But all's well that ends well, and hopefully he will have a lot less sore throats next year.  His first year of college was rough with lots of sore throats, a case of Covid, a dormroom full of scabies, and a few other bumps in the road.  Next year is bound to be better.  He's really looking forward to playing baseball for NSU as a sophomore since he had to red-shirt his freshman year due to a paperwork issue with the NCAA.

Isaiah also had a birthday in April (the 26th), and I captured some of the highlights with my camera :)  Isaiah chose to have his party at our local indoor trampoline park with some of his classmates.  It was WILD, but he was a happy birthday boy...as you can see:

"Happy Birthday, sweet freckled Zay-Zay!

You are such a JOY in our family and to all those you are around.

Shy and kind you are, with a heart overflowing with love for Jesus.

You make your momma's heart overflow with pure happiness.

I'm so glad God gave us YOU!

May you grow closer to Jesus every year 

and keep sharing your kindness with the world!

Love,

Mom

P.S.  I'll save the Spring sports photos for the next post :)

Christmas Highlights

By far, the best Christmas present I received was having ALL FIVE of my boys home for the holidays!  Now that 2 of them are in college, I cherish the times that we can all be together more than ever.  

Joseph had lots to share with us when he came home from Christmas because he had just spent a semester abroad in Austria!!!  To me, it was miraculous that he was even able to go to Austria during this crazy Covid time in history.  He was even able to visit Ireland, France, Rome, Assisi, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, and (my personal favorite) Medjugorje!!!  He was able to go all of those places without getting vaccinated, and he said that not one single Franciscan University student ever tested positive for Covid during the entire semester even though they had to get tested weekly in order to travel!!!  Modern day miracle for sure.  Surely a semester he will never forget.  God is good!

Here are just a few photos from his overseas adventures:

This was his campus in Gaming, Austria, called the "Kartause".

It was an old monastery that was converted into the Franciscan University Study Abroad Campus.

Joseph with some of his best buddies on one of their MANY hiking adventures.

The famous Mont Blanc is in the distance.

I was so happy he was surrounded by fun, holy friends!

Joseph with the  Alps behind him.

Joseph the "tree elf" :)

Joseph got to spend lots of time with his girlfriend Bailey in Austria

because she also did the Franciscan Study Abroad program.

What a lovely fraulein she is!

Joseph seems pretty smitten with beautiful Bailey...

and we like her a lot too :)

We were blessed to finally meet her in person during Christmas break.

We think she is a beautiful, sweet and a holy young lady!

May God bless and guide Joseph and Bailey on their vocational journeys!

Paul and the boys standing by our future Christmas tree :)

Dominic hauling our Christmas tree to the car.

Paul is happy his only job was cutting down the tree and not carrying it this year :)

We had a lovely gathering with some of our dearest friends who invite us every year to cut down a Christmas tree on their property.

Paul and I on Christmas Eve--still in love, still abundantly blessed!

Isaiah was the first child awake on Christmas morning to dig into his stocking! :)

He was happiest with his new little "hog" from his Secret Santa (Joseph--"the hog").

I'm not sure how Joseph inherited the nickname "hog," but that's what his little brothers call him.

That's why Isaiah was so tickled to get a baby hog from him :)

Isaiah checking out his new baseball cards while all his brothers are still sleeping.

Nathanael was the 2nd child awake on Christmas morning.
He was most excited about the baseball cards he found in his stocking.

Isaiah was happy to get a Miguel Cabrera card,

and Nathanael was thrilled to get Yadier Molina.

Joseph got his little brothers a new chess set from Austria!

Four of the boys happy on Christmas morning with the gifts they found in their stockings.

The 5th boy (Michael) was still sleeping :)

Dominic happy with the new ear buds he got for Christmas.

The boys with their new LEGO sets.

Michael was the last one to wake up, but the first one who wanted to play chess on Christmas day.

For Christmas, Joseph got us new rosaries from Medjugorje 

and a new Marian icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa from Poland.

Totus Tuus,

~Maria

PERFECT saint quote for the New Year

“During this new year I resolve to begin a new life. I do not know what will happen to me during this year. But I abandon myself entirely to you, my God. And my aspirations and all my affections will be for You. I feel so weak, dear Jesus, but with Your help I hope and resolve to live a different life, that is, a life closer to You.”

— SAINT GEMMA GALGANI