House for Sale!

Well, it's official.  Our home sweet home will be on the market tomorrow.  My heart is a mixed bag of emotions:  eager for the adventure, scared out of my wits, and bittersweet at the thought of selling this home filled with many memories and abundant graces.  We hope the potential buyers of our house will feel the love, faith, and joy that was shared within these walls.  We pray that it sells in God's perfect timing to the right family, and that we find a new home soon to begin building new memories in.  We are extra blessed to have a faith-filled friend as a realtor who understands our need of finding a larger house with a bigger yard because he has 5 boys just like us!  And for those of you who have never been a guest in our happy home, here's a quick tour:

I fell in love with this home at first sight 7 years ago...

It was fun buying a Spring wreath and welcome sign to make our entrance more inviting...

Here's the view upon entering the front door...

Our cozy living room where we listen to boys playing piano during the day

and where we gather for our family prayers at night...

I love the way we recently moved our piano to this side of the room instead of having it block the windows;

now we have more sunshine filling the room...

I also love this new ficus tree that I bought to brighten the room,

and, of course, it consoles me to know that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is with our family on this adventure...

Oh, the conversations (and spilled milk) we've shared around this table...

And here's our bright kitchen where I spend much of my time...

I will miss this view from my kitchen window watching our boys play in the backyard. 

This "String of Pearls" plant reminds me of rosary beads

 and all the graces Our Lady has given our family in this home...

Here's a view of the balcony where 3 of our bedrooms are...

I love this little ledge heading upstairs that holds a basket filled with the roses from our wedding;

they are still just as beautiful 14 years past that sacred day...

I have always loved climbing these stairs and being reminded how much Jesus loves the little children,

and how much He loves even me...

Paul made this log bed as a wedding gift to me, 

and my mother made this log cabin quilt to cover it perfectly;

what a blessing to be covered by her quilt and her prayers all these years...

We've always believed in having a crucifix in our bedroom as a reminder to keep our eyes fixed on Christ...

Our master bathroom...

I have loved tucking our boys in bed and listening to them talk and giggle (sometimes for hours) 

before falling asleep...

The boys' bathroom, complete with new linoleum...

The nursery where our three youngest  have been read to and rocked for countless hours...

The family room in the basement that has witnessed numerous floor hockey games

 and hours of Lego building and playing board games...

The spare bedroom in the basement which used to be our homeschooling room,

and now is used for grandparents and guests when they visit...

The quaint spare bathroom...

We have complete faith and trust that God will help us sell our home and find a new one

as we ask for the intercession of St. Joseph.  If God entrusted St. Joseph to take care of the Holy Family,

then I believe we can trust him too.

ST. JOSEPH, PRAY FOR US!!!

Spring Break in the Clouds

For Spring Break this year we decided to visit a new ski hill.  We chose the beautiful Whitefish Ski Resort in Whitefish, MT.  Whitefish is nestled up to Glacier National Park, so the landscape is truly breathtaking... especially when the sky is clear and sunny.  However, we learned that this particular ski hill is often (some say more than 50% of the time) covered in a thick layer of clouds, which is kind of a bummer when you're trying to ski.    Yet, even with the poor visibility, we managed to have fun on the slopes.  The boys claimed that it's simply more adventurous to ski double black diamonds with only 10 yards of visibility.  I found it to be a little more than disconcerting when I was sitting in the chair lift going up the mountain, and by the time I reached the top I could only see one chair in front of me and a white-out on both sides of me.  But I survived, and just to show the boys how brave and cool their mommy can be, I skied one black diamond (and nearly wet my pants...but heck, they are waterproof, so no one could tell) :)  

Here's some photos of the highlights:

Gorgeous view of the Whitefish/Kalispell valley.  Few clouds down below...

Lots of clouds the higher you go.  Pretty and frightening all at the same time.

Here's our boys standing in front of our awesome condo:  The Edelweiss.  

The name of our condo kept making me want to break into song like Fraulein Maria in the Sound of Music :)

  

The condo was a ski-in ski-out condo which was pretty sweet.

We were actually in the closest condo to the chair lifts!

Here's me with my brave ski bums.  Holy cow, Joseph is almost as tall as me!

He's also wearing the same size ski boots as his mother.  Crazy!

Here's Paul and the boys ready to tear up the slopes!

We found Jesus on the ski hill!  Boy, He truly is everywhere at all times!

This statue was my favorite part of the ski hill.  It was put there by the Knights of Columbus after WWII.

Apparently, some anti-religious group is trying to get Him removed from the hill, but so far they have been unsuccessful.  I found great comfort being reminded that Jesus was watching over us as we skied.

I'm a bit concerned about our 3 oldest boys truly becoming full-time ski bums when they get older.

They are passionate about skiing and crazy-good at it.

When I asked them what they thought about Whitefish, their word for it was

EPIC!!!

While Dominic and I waited for Joseph and Michael to meet us at Chair Lift #3,

we decided to make some snowballs and..

our very own snowman, complete with ski poles :)

After a day of skiing, we enjoyed soaking our sore muscles in the hot tub

When we weren't on the slopes, we had a blast in our condo playing games

Nathanael is turning into quite the card-shark! :)

Isaiah just loved exploring a new place and chewing on new things :)

And of course, the amazing food at the resort restaurants was one of the biggest highlights!  

YUM!!!  :)

I wonder where we will go next year for Spring Break?  My guess is that it will be another ski hill.  I hope all of you have a wonderful Spring Break wherever you go!

hiatus

Well, I'm sad to say that I will probably be taking a hiatus from blogging for awhile.  Why?  Well, we have decided to try to sell our house this Spring, so we are frantically trying to get it ready for the market.  This process is a bit bittersweet because we love our home.  It's been perfect for us for the past 7 years, but we are simply outgrowing it.  Case in point:  we have 4 boys sleeping in one room.  Another case in point:  when the boys play baseball in our small backyard they have to climb the fence after every swing to retrieve their ball in the neighbor's yard.  Yes, a bit too small inside and out.

So, please pray for us as we embark upon this stressful exciting adventure!  Pray that we can sell our home quickly and find the perfect home for our family soon.  Here's our dream-wish-list in case you want to pray very specifically:   ;)

something west of town near the boys' awesome Catholic school

4+ bedrooms, 2+ bathrooms (rooms enough for our family and for grandparents to visit often!)

large recreation room for the boys to play ping pong :)

big mudroom for our big muddy boys

a large yard for the boys to play baseball and football unhindered

something adjacent to public land so the boys can explore and go hunting out the back door

We've been looking at the houses on the market for over a year and just can't seem to find the right layout, location, and price combination.  So we may just have to find a nice piece of land and build a house.  Lots of big decisions ahead.  May the Holy Spirit guide us and give us peace during the entire process.  We are also asking for the intercession of St. Joseph, who safely guided the Holy Family through many stressful moving adventures, so we know we are in good hands!  :)

PS  I will still try to blog when major milestones happen in our home, but I'm guessing my posts will be fewer and farther between now that I will be busy boxing up junk, painting walls, and cleaning around the clock.  I'll try to keep you posted on our progress!  God bless you in the meantime!

Seriously!?

I love being the mother of all boys, but seriously, sometimes all I can do is shake my head and say...

"SERIOUSLY!?"

A few examples of late:

Last week I got the itch to be domestic and bake some cookies.  So I preheated the oven, started measuring and mixing, and as I finished the final steps of my Chewy Peanut Butter Cookie recipe, I caught the unmistakable smell of something burning.  "Oh great," I say to myself as I open the oven, expecting to find some burnt cheese from our last frozen pizza night.  Nope.  Not burnt cheese, but a pool of burnt plastic.  The sad remains of a former action figure to be exact.  I knew immediately my 3-year-old was the culprit, so I questioned him with a look of exasperation on my face.  He calmly informed me that the oven was the prison for his bad guys.  I guess poetic justice was served, but...SERIOUSLY!?

A couple of days later I found an 8 pound dumbbell weight on the boys' top bunk bed.  "What on earth is this doing up here," I quizzically asked myself.  Then I decided to ask my always-honest 3-year-old.  Nathanael proudly told me that earlier in the day he and Dominic were waiting to drop it on Michael when he came into the room.  Thankfully, they got tired of waiting for Michael to finish his homework, but still...why would they ever think that would be a good idea...SERIOUSLY!?

Later in the same week I asked Dominic to sit in the bathroom and watch Isaiah and Nathanael take a bath for just a moment while I put some laundry away.  What I found when I returned a minute later was Dominic showing his little brothers how cool it was to suction the toilet plunger to the bottom of the tub and watch it make a big "ssshhhwunk" sound as it popped free and splashed water everywhere.  Nasty.  I highly doubt little girls would enjoy playing with a germ-infested plunger while taking a bath.  All I could do was take the plunger away, shake my head, and wonder where do boys come up with these ideas...SERIOUSLY!?

Never a dull moment in this life filled with boys. I am abundantly blessed, but seriously, I wouldn't mind having a little girl in the house to share a very lady-like tea party with occasionally!  :)

Got Knots?

I know that today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, but today I feel called to share with you the history of a different title of Mary that many people may not be as familiar with:  Our Lady Undoer of Knots.   Apparently, this Marian devotion is not a new one, and it is one that our current pope loves and recommends to all the faithful.  I recently completed a novena to Our Lady Undoer of Knots, and I can say with confidence that if you have knots in your life that you just can't seem to untie no matter how many different ways you have tried to undo them, try turning to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots.  I can tell that she is gently untying many knots in my life, and I know she will for anyone who asks her with trust.  There is a beautiful history behind this title of Mary and the painting that goes along with it.  Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Mary Undoer of Knots is the name of both a Marian devotion and a German Baroque painting which represents that devotion. The painting by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner, of around 1700, is in the Catholic pilgrimage church of St. Peter am Perlach in Augsburg, Germany. Pope Francis saw the image while in Germany as a student and promoted her veneration in Latin America.

The painting shows the Blessed Virgin Mary standing on the crescent moon (the usual way of depicting Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception), surrounded by angels and with the Holy Spirit Dove hovering above her circle of stars as she unties knots into a long strip and at the same time rests her foot on the head of a "knotted" snake. The serpent represents the Devil, and her treatment of him fulfills the prophecy in Genesis 3:15: "[thy seed] shall bruise the serpent’s head".

Below are shown a human figure and his dog accompanying a much smaller angel. This scene is often interpreted as Tobias with his dog and the Archangel Raphael traveling to ask Sara to be his wife. The two small figures have also been interpreted as a representation of Wolfgang Langenmantel, the grandfather of the benefactor, guided in his marital distress by a guardian angel to receive guidance from Father Jakob Rem in Ingolstadt.

The painting was donated around 1700 by Hieronymus Ambrosius Langenmantel (1641 – 1718), a canon of the Monastery of Saint Peterin Augsburg. The donation is said to be connected with an event in his family. His grandfather Wolfgang Langenmantel (1586 – 1637) was on the verge of the separation from his wife Sophia Rentz (1590 – 1649) and therefore sought help from Jakob Rem, the Jesuit priest in Ingolstadt. Father Rem prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary and said: “In diesem religiösen Akt erhebe ich das Band der Ehe, löse alle Knoten und glätte es [In this religious act, I raise the bonds of matrimony, to untie all knots and smoothen them]”. Immediately peace was restored between the husband and wife, and the separation did not happen. In the memory of this event, their grandson commissioned the painting of the “Untier of Knots”.

The concept of Mary untying knots is derived from a work by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Adversus haereses (Against Heresies). In Book III, Chapter 22, he presents a parallel between Eve and Mary, describing how "the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith." 


Here is the powerful prayer that many faithful Catholics are now praying when they have a difficult knot (or many knots!!!) in their life that they would like Mary's help to untie:

“Virgin Mary, Mother of fair love, Mother who never refuses to come to the aid of a child in need, Mother whose hands never cease to serve your beloved children because they are moved by the divine love and immense mercy that exists in your heart, cast your compassionate eyes upon me and see the snarl of knots that exist in my life. You know very well how desperate I am, my pain, and how I am bound by these knots. Mary, Mother to whom God entrusted the undoing of the knots in the lives of His children, I entrust into your hands the ribbon of my life. No one, not even the Evil One himself, can take it away from your precious care. In your hands, there is no knot that cannot be undone. Powerful Mother, by your grace and intercessory power with your Son and my liberator, Jesus, take into your hands today this knot. (Mention your petition here.)

I beg you to undo it for the glory of God, once for all. You are my hope. O my Lady, you are the only consolation God gives me, the fortification of my feeble strength, the enrichment of my destitution, and, with Christ, the freedom from my chains. Hear my plea. Keep me, guide me, protect me, O safe refuge.”

the lowest place

To be blatantly honest, I have been struggling this week, crying myself to sleep more than once.  And I think I've figured out the problem:  a combination of a lack of humility and a desire to be fulfilled by something other than God.  So as I've been pondering my lack of humility, I was reminded of a book I read many years ago, a book so simple, yet truly profound in its insights into the spiritual life. The book is called "Hinds Feet on High Places," by Hannah Hurnard. It is certainly on my top 5 books that I've ever read, and I highly recommend it, especially if you are going through "a desert" or "valley" and you're longing to reach the "high places" of joy and peace that the Lord wants you to have. The book is about a young girl named Much-Afraid who is crippled, but longs to be healed and to be able to scale the high mountains. The Shepherd takes her on a difficult journey to teach her to overcome her fears. Anyway, even though it's been 10 years or more since I've read the book, God brought to my memory a scene from the book that I believe He wanted me to meditate on to help me learn what humility looks like--that it is actually a joyful, beautiful thing. Allow me to share a portion of the book with you... Perhaps God will whisper something to your heart through these words too:

...they came to a place where a rushing stream poured itself across the path they were following and went cascading down the other side. It was running so swiftly and singing so loudly that it seemed to fill the valley around them with its laughing voice.

As the Shepherd lifted Much-Afraid across the slippery, wet stones she said to him, "I do wish I knew what it is that all the running water sings... It sounds so happy and so eager, as though it were repeating to itself over and over again some very lovely, secret message... Tell me, Shepherd, do you know what all the waters sing as they hurry on their way?"

The Shepherd smiled again, and they stood silently for a few moments by the little torrent, which seemed to shout even more loudly and exultantly as though it knew they had paused to listen. Suddenly, as Much-Afraid stood beside the Shepherd it seemed as though her ears and her understanding were open, and bit by bit, the water language became clear. It is, of course, impossible to write it in water-language, but this is the best I can do to translate it. Of course it is a very poor effort, for though a water song perhaps may be set to music, words are quite a different matter. But it went something like this:

Come, oh come! let us away--

Lower, lower every day,

Oh, what joy it is to race

Down to find the lowest place.

This is the dearest law we know--

It is happy to go low.

Sweetest urge and sweetest will,

Let us go down lower still.

Hear the summons night and day

Calling us to come away.

From the heights we leap and flow

To the valleys down below.

Always answering to the call,

To the lowest place of all.

Sweetest urge and sweetest pain,

To go low and rise again.

"That is very puzzling," said Much-Afraid, after she had listened for a little and found that this was the refrain, repeated over and over again, though with a thousand variations of little trills and murmurs and bubbles and splashing sighs. 'Let us go down lower still,' the water seems to be singing so gladly, because it is hurrying to go down to the lowest place, and yet you are calling me to the Highest Places. What does it mean?"

"The High Places," answered the Shepherd, "are the starting places for the journey down to the lowest place in the world. When you have hinds' feet and can go leaping on the mountains and skipping on the hills, you will be able, as I am, to run down from the heights in the gladdest self-giving and then go up to the mountains again."

Those words really convict my heart of my own selfishness...my desire to be put on a pedestal by my husband, my desire to be liked by everyone, my desire to do everything perfect, my desire to look good and together all the time, my desire for me-time, my desire for a nicer house, nicer kids, nicer marriage, nicer everything. All of those desires are completely self-centered instead of other-centered or Christ-centered. Instead of wanting to be on a pedestal that I don't deserve, I should want to be in the lowest places, serving others unnoticed for no glory other than pleasing the heart of Jesus. "Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Yours!" How contrary the joyful "Water Song" is to the selfish messages this world screams in our ears. How I long to find the joy in being little, being low, being humble--in serving rather than being served. Will you please pray that I can learn this lesson of humility, that my life can be like a cascading stream that serves life-giving water and joy to those who cross my path?  As opposed to the selfish sponge that I've been lately...ugh...when will I ever learn!?

 "Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Yours!"

a poem (reposted)

I've had a challenging couple of weeks with many tears falling and various insecurities rising.  This old poem I penned awhile back resurfaced in my mind, so perhaps I'm supposed to re-post again for myself or anyone else out there feeling like life is hard...



when marriage is hard
look into the faces of your children
see your husband's reflection there
yes, you'd say "I do" all over again


when parenting is hard
look into the face of your helpmate
see his strength and encouraging smile
yes, together you can shape their tiny souls


when life is hard
look into the face of your Savior on the cross
see the love poured out with the blood
yes, you can suffer for He taught you how