1st Day of School "Blues"

Yesterday was the first day of school for my 4 oldest boys.  Their school uniform is blue, but they were also slightly "blue" in their mood too as I had to wake them all up to get to school on time (gone are the summer days of sleeping in).

Joseph is a 9th grader this year and Michael is an 8th grader, so they were not too excited to head back to school knowing the homework load that awaits them most nights.  Their consolation, however, is their awesome group of friends, whom they are happy to be able to hang out with again every day.  I am so happy that my boys have such an awesome Catholic school to attend, with such great friends whom I can trust to be good, holy influences on my boys.  That is more than worth the price of tuition!  I will sure miss these handsome faces all day long though.  I loved being with them all summer---they are such great helpers and they are just plain fun to be around.  Isaiah will sure be missing them too (especially Dominic and Nathanael who usually play Legos with him all day), but I am sure looking forward to some one-on-one time with my "baby" before he heads off to school in a couple of years...yikes.

Dominic started 4th grade this year, and he, too, was dreading the return of homework--but mostly he was sad that he no longer gets to play with Legos all day long.  I am quite confident that he will love his teacher this year (she is one of my favorites) and have a blast with his friends, so I think he will survive the Lego-withdrawal symptoms. :}

Natey is our BIG KINDERGARTNER this year, and he was equally excited and nervous on the first day of school.  I think he was proud to finally be at the same school with his big brothers, but he was also sad to leave his Legos and his Mommy (not sure which one he misses more) :)  He did great when I dropped him off on the first day.  He had a very concerned look on his face as he waited in line, and for one brief moment I thought he would cry, but he stayed strong (Mommy somehow did too), and he was all smiles at the end of the day.  Success!

Nathanael waiting in line to head into school for the first time 

(you can see the nervous look on his face)

Here is Nathanael when I picked him up at the end of the day:

all smiles with a lollipop from his teacher

(school isn't so bad after all)

We went out to celebrate the first day of school success (as well as the Feast Day of St. Nathanael) at our local frozen yogurt shop.  It was a sweet end to a bittersweet day.  Bowls full of ice cream with lots of toppings helps to take the school blues away!

May God bless and protect all our children 

this school year;

may they grow in wisdom 

and ever closer to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts!

Animal Whisperers and Animal Rescuers

The other day I went outside to see what my husband was doing outside.  He had been gone for a long time, and I wondered what in the world he was up to.  I walked out to find him sitting perfectly still outside our chicken coop.  My first thought was, "How sweet; my husband is spending quality time with our chickens."  My second thought was, "How weird; my husband doesn't normally bond with animals (he's more apt to shoot and eat them)."  So I called out to him to say hello, and that was when I spotted the other animals.  How cool!  My husband was sitting by the chickens, but about 10 yards away a deer was laying in the grass by him, and another 10 yards from the deer a wild turkey was loitering too!  It made me smile and shake my head because I never imaged that my hunting husband would turn into an "Animal Whisperer."  :)

 

The other crazy wildlife event that happened to our family last week was the discovery of a fluffy little screech owl on our picnic table.  I had sent the kids outside to go weed the garden, and my son Michael came running inside and said: "Mom, come quick, there is something really weird outside."  So I came running and found this:

At first we thought it was asleep, but after all of us got close and made noise and it didn't fly away, I though for sure it must be dead.  But then I got really close and saw it's eyes blink.  So, I did the next logical thing---I ran and got my camera!  After taking pictures of my kids with "Little Screechy," we decided to leave him alone for awhile and see if he would fly away.  After a few hours, he moved to the the other side of the table, and then a few hours later it moved under the table into the shade.  But we could tell he was not doing well.  For example, he never opened his eyes or moved his head.  So I decided to call the Fish Wildlife and Parks Service, and they said that if we could safely put him in a box, they have a lady who tries to rehabilitate injured animals to eventually set them free back in the wild.  We easily put the little owl into a box.  He didn't put up a fight, but he did surprise us by opening one of his bright yellow eyes (the other eye must be injured).  Now at least we know he is in good hands.  It goes to show that you never know "who-who-who" might show up at our house for dinner, and it was sure fun to feel like "Animal Rescuers" for the day!  :)

New Servers for the Lord...praise the Lord!

As a Catholic Christian I believe the greatest gift God has given me is the gift of His Son who died on the cross to take away my sins so that I can live with Him forever...

...The second greatest gift He gave me is the Eucharist---the real Body and Blood of my Savior that I am able to receive at every single Mass to give me strength for this life and the hope of eternal life to come.

So what a tremendous gift it is to this mother's heart to have another son who became trained to serve at Holy Mass, to serve the priests who give us the precious gift of the Eucharist!  Dominic served his first Mass this weekend after spending nearly two weeks in training.  My oldest son Joseph is a "senior server," so he had the opportunity to help train his younger brother, which was very sweet for me to watch.

I am so pleased with the way our church trains their altar servers, teaching them to serve the priests with humility and to have the utmost reverence for the Eucharist.  The reverence of the altar servers is such a reminder to all those in the pews that a miracle is truly taking place at every Mass.  Sadly, I feel like that reverence is missing in many Catholic churches today, to the point that many Catholics don't truly understand the miracle that they are witnessing and receiving--many don't even realize Who they are receiving:  not a symbol, but Jesus Himself!  Which is why I'm so grateful for the reverence and the traditional reminders at our church, like the bells that are rung at the consecration as the priest holds Jesus up high for all to adore, the candles that the servers hold around the ambo during the Gospel reading, and the incense that is used to symbolize our prayers going up to heaven like smoke.  What a gift it is to be Catholic and to have all these tangible reminders of holy mysteries to lead us closer to our Lord!

In this picture Joseph is pretending to be the priest who is going to walk in the candlelit procession to the ambo where he will read the Gospel.  Seeing my boys in their altar server garments sometimes makes me wonder if any of them will have a calling to the priesthood??? :)

Whatever their vocation is, I pray that each of my sons will open their ears to listen to God's calling and then courageously obey.

Holding these candles straight, at the same height, and without making them rattle too loudly proved to be much harder than it looks!  

Here the servers are practicing the proper Mass responses and the cues for when to do their next duty.

But it wasn't solemn and serious all the time;

there were plenty of smiles---especially at the end of each practice when they received a treat!

Thank You, Jesus, for these new servers who love you and want to serve You and the Church!

Bless each one of them and guide them closer to Your Eucharistic Heart!!!

And thank You, Jesus, for giving Yourself to us in the Eucharist

and staying near to us in every tabernacle!

Thank You for loving us so much,

and please give us the grace to love, thank, and adore You more and more!

Our Lady's Messages

I thought these latest messages from Medjugorje were particularly beautiful and worth sharing.  How truly "awe"-some it is to ponder that the Queen of Heaven is still appearing on this earth every day and sharing with us these messages to help us grow closer to Christ and to help us find joy and peace!

Our Lady's July 25, 2016 message given to Marija:

"Dear children! I am looking at you and I see you lost; and you do not have prayer or joy in your heart. Return to prayer, little children, and put God in the first place and not man. Do not lose the hope which I am carrying to you. May this time, little children, every day, be a greater seeking of God in the silence of your heart; and pray, pray, pray until prayer becomes joy for you. Thank you for having responded to my call."

Our Lady's August 02, 2016 message to Mirjana"

"Dear children, I have come to you - among you - for you to give me your concerns so that I may offer them to my Son; that I may intercede for you before Him for your good. I know that each of you has his concerns, his trials. Therefore I am inviting you in a motherly way: come to the table of my Son. He is breaking bread for you; He is giving Himself to you; He is giving you hope; He is asking for more faith, hope and serenity from you. He is seeking of you to battle within against egoism, judgement and human weaknesses. Therefore, as a mother, I am saying: pray; because prayer gives you strength for the interior battle. My Son, when He was little, often said to me that there will be many who will love me and call me 'mother'. Among you, I feel love. Thank you. For the sake of that love I am imploring my Son that none of you, my children, will return home the same as he came; that you may take with you all the more hope, mercy and love; that you may be my apostles of love who will witness with their lives that the Heavenly Father is the source of life and not of death. Dear children, anew, in a motherly way I am imploring you, pray for the chosen ones of my Son, for their blessed hands - for your shepherds - that they may preach my Son with all the more love and in this way bring about conversions. Thank you."

Paul and I in Medjugorje in June of 2015

in front of the statue of Our Lady of Grace.

We are in St. Elijah's Church in the town of Tihaljina

where Fr. Jozo was sent after the apparitions of Mary began in Medjugorje.

Happy Birthday Lego Boy!

Dominic, our "LEGO BOY," turned 10 on July 15.  He is such a sweet boy, such a creative boy, such a focused boy, and right now his main focus is LEGOS.  He and his younger brothers spend most of the hours in their day playing with LEGOS and creating all sorts of masterpieces.  Truly, this boy is a Master Builder---you name it, he can build it.  For his party, he simply wanted to invite one of his best friends over for a play date.  His friend is also a LEGO-lover, so the boys had a marvelous time together.  His friend bought him one of the LEGO sets that Dominic really, really wanted, so that was a big bonus too.  They spent a little bit of time playing outdoors, but the majority of the time was spent in the basement putting together the new LEGO sets that Dominic got for his birthday.  He was a very happy birthday boy and I was so happy that he felt loved and special on his first double-digit birthday!

Dearest Dominic,

How blessed we are to have you in our family;

how proud I am to be your mother!

You have such a huge and sensitive heart,

and I know the Lord will use it in amazing ways as you grow up. 

You truly are a "Master Builder," 

and my prayer is that you will use your building skills 

to build up the Kingdom in creative ways that only you could do.

You are our middle child and perhaps sometimes you feel lost in the shuffle,

but I pray that you always know that you are treasured and loved---

by your daddy and me, as well as by God!

We love you birthday boy...

more than all the LEGOS ever played with by every little kid in the world!

Bambi in our backyard

My son Michael was walking around our property with my camera the other morning, and took these amazing and adorable pictures.   I am going to have to start framing some of these!  Well done, Michael!!!  

Great Times in Glacier

Our family took a quick trip to Glacier National Park last week.  It had been a few years since we had been to the park, even though it is only about 4 hours away.  I guess we didn't go the last couple of years because we had sold our camper, we were in the chaos of selling our house, and it's just a bit stressful trying to hike and camp with little ones.  But this year, with our youngest child being 3, we decided that all the boys were capable of doing some hiking, and we were right.  They all did great!  Even little Isaiah did most of the hiking on his own, and he only needed to be put in the backpack for short periods of time.  We hope to go back next year and try some of the longer hikes and stay a few extra days.  I'd love any excuse to go again, so if any of you would like to come visit Montana, you could sure stay at our house for a few days and then we'd take you up to Glacier to see some of God's most amazing handiwork!  :)

  

   

Running Eagle Falls--it's so neat how the waterfall comes through a hole in the rock

Isaiah looking sweet at Running Eagle Falls.

He is growing up so fast, so I'm trying to enjoy every ounce of his little boy sweetness!

A unique tree near John's Lake.

Happy boys hiking John's Lake Loop.

Even though this hike didn't have any amazing waterfalls, the dense forest was beautiful and reminded us of the woods that Tolkein's elves and ents inhabited in Lord of the Rings.

The most exciting part about the John's Lake hike was this huge buck that came up the trail and walked right by us.

His velvety antlers were beautiful.

He would be wise to stay in the park during hunting season.

We also saw this buck, whose rack was a bit lacking on one side :)

Our favorite hike was the hike to Hidden Lake at the top of Logan Pass, 

where we saw many mountain goats and majestic views all around.

We even had to hike through some snow!

How neat it was to hike alongside mountain goats!

Michael and a mountain goat--both very handsome :)

A sweet baby mountain goat walking through a mountain meadow.

Paul and I with Dominic, Natey, and a baby goat :)

Paul in his element.

I fell in love with him partly because he was an outdoorsy hiker,

so it brings back those twitterpated feelings when I see him hiking and happy in the great outdoors. :)

My boys sharing the road with mountain goats.

A hoary marmot at Logan Pass.

A pretty doe that posed for us on the hike to St. Mary Falls.

Nathanael at St. Mary Falls.

Paul with our whole crew of boys at St. Mary Falls.

Wildflowers growing in wet rocks at St. Mary Falls.

Our boys sitting peacefully (a rare moment) at Virginia Falls

Virginia Falls

Paul and I resting for a bit at Virginia Falls.

Michael posing after he cooled himself off with a hat full of glacier water on his head :)

This is the Forest Service cabin that we rented near Glacier.  It was AWESOME!

We sold our camper a few years ago, which is part of the reason that we haven't gone to Glacier in a few years.  But then some friends told us about these Forest Service cabins that you can rent for cheap.  We will be renting a lot more of these now that we know how great they are.  This one had 2 rooms with 6 beds, electricity, a refrigerator, a nice outhouse, a creek, and tons of space for the kids to run around without worrying about disturbing any neighbors (because there were none).

The big boys playing catch, the little boys chasing each other,

and Paul starting a fire in the background.

Everyone is happy!

Paul starting a fire near our very own creek.

The boys found a caterpillar at our cabin!

It's funny how they get just as excited about seeing a caterpillar as they do about seeing a mountain goat! :)

Our crazy kids at Zip's Place cabin

Summer Blessings to all of you!!!