Michael's Senior Pictures

Of all the changes that happened this year, I think our son Michael probably had the biggest adjustment.  Changing to a new high school his senior year is certainly not for the faint of heart, and he has handled it with grace and confidence.  Paul and I agonized over whether we were making the right decision to switch schools for our kids, but once the school year started and we saw how happy our kids were (especially Michael!), we felt like we made the right decision (at least for now).  

Michael has been more happy and talkative this year than I ever remember him being, which is such a blessing to this momma's heart :)  And this month he has officially made his decision where to go to college....  He picked Northern State University (NSU) in Aberdeen, SD!  Aberdeen is where Paul and I both grew up; it is where my parents and my brother Mike's family still live; in fact, NSU is my alma mater :)  I think it will be the PERFECT fit for Michael.  He will be able to hunt and fish with his grandpa and uncle.  He will be able to play cards with grandma and eat copious amounts of her cookies.  He will be able to play baseball (his #1 passion) while receiving a degree (of some kind) :)  

It's so hard to believe that another son is about to graduate.  I am so proud of him and I will certainly treasure these next 5 months or so while he is still in our home before sending him off on the adventure of college and beyond.  Please say a prayer for God to bless him and guide him on this next exciting chapter in his life---thank you!

Here are his senior pictures, taken by Eric Connolly, a talented photographer at our church.  He did a great job and I will treasure these photos always.

I love you, Michael!

I'm so proud of you and am excited to see what the Lord has planned for you.

Stay close to Jesus and Mary, call your mom and dad often,

and everything will always turn out fine! :)

Totus Tuus,

~Maria

Recent Medjugorje Messages from the Queen of Peace

Many of you know that I have been to Medjugorje twice---once when I was a senior in high school back in 1997, and once with my husband in 2006.  I give Our Lady of Medjugorje credit for bringing my husband and I together, which is a story for another day, but needless to say, I am a believer that Mary is really appearing to the visionaries and giving them messages out of her deep love for us.  She has been appearing daily since 1981, which is quite miraculous, and I thought I would share a couple of her more recent messages because they are very encouraging.

March 18, 2021  Annual Message to Mirjana

"Dear children, in a motherly way I am calling you to return to the joy and the truth of the Gospel, to return to the love of my Son - because He is waiting for you with open arms; that everything you do in life you do with my Son, with love; that it may be blessed for you; so that your spirituality may be internal, and not just external. Only in that way will you be humble, generous, filled with love and joyful; and my motherly heart will rejoice with you. Thank you."

March 25, 2021 Monthly Message to Marija

 

 "Dear children! Also today I am with you to tell you: Little children, the one who prays does not fear the future and does not lose hope. You are chosen to carry joy and peace, because you are mine. I have come here with the name 'Queen of Peace' because the devil wants peacelessness and war, he wants to fill your heart with fear of the future - but the future is God's. That is why, be humble and pray, and surrender everything into the hands of the Most High Who created you. Thank you for having responded to my call."

Times are tough...but hold the line and hold on to hope!

I really don't think very many people read this blog (other than my mom..."HI MOM!"), but it is still a sacred place for me to share family memories and also my thoughts.  I haven't been sharing my thoughts very often lately...  To be honest with you, it's partly because my thoughts have been pretty discouraging with all that is happening in our country.  If I shared my thoughts with complete honesty and without a filter, I'm guessing my blog would be censored (since that seems to be the common trend these days). But I seriously doubt those big tech oligarchs would read a petite, 40-something, stay-at-home mom from Montana's blog, nor consider her as much of a threat to anyone! :)  But anyway, rather than share ALL of my thoughts and going on a ranting monologue, today I just wanted to share a bit of light in the darkness, a bit of encouragement from the Word of God.  

Today's daily Mass readings were very hope-filled and reminded me that the Word of God is powerful and "never returns back to God void; it always achieves God's holy will and the purpose for which He sent it." (Isaiah 55:10-11).  All of us Christians, no matter what party affiliation we claim, should be finding HOPE and TRUTH in the WORD OF GOD (not in the main stream media!), and keeping our eyes fixed on our Savior JESUS CHRIST (not on any world leader).  Which brings me to the Responsorial Psalm of today's Mass readings, which gave me renewed hope for our country's future. Times may seem tough right now, and I know everyone is facing distress of various kinds, but God promises to rescue those who trust in Him.  He hears our prayers, He is close to the brokenhearted, He is good ALL THE TIME (even during pandemics and corruption in politics).  Cling to that promise now and in the days ahead!  Keep reading your Bibles, praying, and trusting in the God Who loves you!

Totus Tuus,

~Maria

Responsorial Psalm 34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19

R.    (18b)  From all their distress God rescues the just.
Glorify the LORD with me,
    let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
    and delivered me from all my fears. 
R.    From all their distress God rescues the just.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
    and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
    and from all his distress he saved him.
R.    From all their distress God rescues the just.
The LORD has eyes for the just,
    and ears for their cry.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
    to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
R.    From all their distress God rescues the just.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
    and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
    and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
R.    From all their distress God rescues the just.

Still Catching Up...The Fall Recap

We are already 2 weeks into the new year of 2021, but I still haven't posted our Fall pictures and news, so I'm going to try to "catch up" in one fell swoop and go backwards in time for this post.  Sorry if that's confusing! :)  So many things happened, it's hard to know where to start...  I guess school is the first thing that really happens in the Fall, so I'll start there since there were certainly big changes in that department of our lives... 

1)  NEW SCHOOLS:

All 5 our boys started new schools this year!  Joseph started his first year of college at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, which I already covered in a previous post.  But what I didn't cover yet is that all our other boys are attending new schools this year too.  Leaving St. Andrew School was perhaps the hardest decision we've had to make as a family.  St. Andrew was our school home ever since we moved to Helena in 2006.  Joseph started St. Andrews as a 1st grader and graduated from there last year.  Michael started there as a kindergartener and would have been a St. Andrew's graduate this year as a senior.  We assumed all of our kids would graduate from St. Andrews...but the last couple of years took us for a rollercoaster ride that caused us to re-evaluate what was best for our kids.  We spent months of prayerful discernment...praying countless rosaries, chaplets, and novenas...asking the Holy Spirit to guide us to God's holy will.  We did not receive any flashing neon signs, but after praying and pondering the pros and cons, we felt peace about trying a new path this year.  It would take many paragraphs to fully explain all of our reasons, but the shortest explanation would be that we felt that St. Andrew was not the best fit for each of our kids for different reasons.  We still strongly believe in Catholic education; in fact, Paul is still the president of the school board at St. Andrew's, but we really felt the Lord calling us to venture down a road that we never expected to be on...the road of public school education.  If you would have asked me 10 years ago (or even 1 year ago) if I would ever send my kids to public school, I would have given an emphatic "NO" as my answer.  I always used to shake my head and judge people who chose public school over a Catholic school education. And yet here I am, eating my humble pie, and feeling at peace about this path I never expected to be on. 

Michael is a senior and he really wanted his senior year to be different than the past few years at St. Andrews.  The last few years were not a great experience for him.  Academically, he was not challenged nor was he offered important classes that he needed at St. Andrews.  Socially, he only had 2 other classmates in his grade (not exactly a recipe for fun times).  He is now attending JHS in Boulder, MT, which is a small, rural high school nearby that offers him many more options for classes and friends.  In fact, a few of his baseball teammates attend the school and a couple of kids from St. Andrew transferred with Michael to JHS this year, which made the transition very easy.  He is much happier there and will have a senior year filled with great memories.

The youngest 3 boys are at a small, public school in Montana City, only about 3 minutes from our house, which has been a huge blessing.  All of their teachers have been wonderful, many of them are Christians, and the boys have quickly fit in and made great friends.  One of the biggest blessings that we have discovered at public school is the number of class options that are offered.  The boys are given fun, challenging activities in the gifted and talented program that they were selected to be in, and they have many practical classes that teach about career options and technology skills, which our small Catholic school did not offer.  Overall, it has been a very positive experience so far and we feel like we made the right decision for this year anyway.  We will see where God leads us next year.  Please say a prayer for God's protection and guidance for our family in this area.  Thank you!

2)  COVID19:

The only challenge we've experienced with school this year, is the same challenge that most schools across the country have faced---stupid Covid19.  The kids started the year with all 5 days in-person learning, which we were super happy about.  We were grateful that our schools were not doing what many other schools in the area were doing, which was 2 days in-person and 2 days remote (I don't think that would have been a good fit for our kids).  One inconvenience is that all the kids and the teachers have to wear masks all day, even at recess, but everyone seems to have adjusted fairly well to that.  To be honest, our family doesn't believe masks are necessary, nor do we think they significantly help curb the spread of Covid, but hopefully this mandate will be over with soon and we can all get back to seeing each others' smiling faces again :)  

The first few weeks of school went fine, but then in October we were told that Michael was a "close contact" of someone at his school with Covid, so he had to quarantine and do remote learning for a couple of weeks.  A week or so after that, Nathanael got sent home because he wasn't feeling well.  He had a sore throat, body aches, and a fever, so I took him in to get tested for Covid.  He tested positive, so we tested all of the other kids.  They all tested positive except for Dominic.  The doctors think Dominic's test was probably a false negative, because he did have a sore throat and a headache.  Michael's only symptom was an altered sense of smell...he didn't lose his sense of smell, but everything smelled different and terrible, and even after a couple of months he still has not regained his normal sense of smell.  The rest of us simply had a day or two of a slight headache and a scratchy throat.  Thankfully, it was incredibly mild for all of us.  I'm guessing we must have had a very mild strain of the virus---or perhaps we are just buff and tough (ha ha).  It truly was easier than most colds or flus we've ever had.  The only inconvenience was having to do remote learning and quarantining for 2 weeks.  I also feel bad because our 3 younger kids single-handedly caused 3 entire classes at their school to do remote learning for 2 weeks (causing many of the kids to miss trick-or-treating this year...ooops) :}  But there was nothing we could do to prevent that.  Apparently kids are considered contagious 2 days prior to the onset of symptoms, so all of their classmates were considered "close contacts" even though we didn't know our kids were sick yet.  The other big bummer was that as soon as my kids were finished with their quarantine and ready to head back to school, the entire school decided to shut down for 2 1/2 weeks because so many teachers ended up getting Covid.  So my kids ended up doing nearly 5 weeks of remote learning this Fall.  It was nice to sleep in and have a more relaxed school day, but I don't think the kids learned as well as in-person learning.  They were super happy to go back and see their friends when the remote-learning period was over.

3)  HARVESTING:

Much of our Fall was spent gathering the garden harvest, and picking chokecherries and cherries for Paul's homemade winemaking hobby.  I love working in the garden, and I love having my little helpers out there with me.  

4)  BEAR TRESPASSING

Another exciting event that happened this Fall was a visit from a bear...apparently he got the memo that it was "harvest time" and came to help.  We were able to watch him for an hour or more "harvesting" our chokecherries.  He would use all of his weight to pull down a chokecherry tree, and the simply lay on it while eating all the berries he could reach.  Then he would waddle over to another tree and start the routine over again.  He didn't mind a bit that we were watching and talking and taking pictures from a safe distance away. :)

5)  BIRTHDAY BOY TURNS 10!

Our sweet Nathanael with the dimpled chin turned 10 in November and simultaneously decided he wanted to be called "Nate" from now on instead of "Natey."  Apparently turning double digits is a major coming of age experience and he wanted to put all "childish" nicknames behind him :)  I still forget and call him Natey sometimes, but he doesn't mind too much :)  

We were able to have a small party with a few of his new friends from his new school, so it was great for me to get to know his classmates and their parents a little bit.  The boys had a blast doing all the typical boy things at a party like Nerf guns, zip lining, and capture the flag---oh, and eating of course!  Here are some photos:

Happy Birthday, Nathanael!!!

This year was a WILD RIDE,

but you handled it with calm and fun and faith.

May you always handle the crazy adventures in life that way,

and may you grow closer to God every year on your adventure through life.

We love you more than all the minutes you've played Minecraft or ever will play it! :)

Love, Mom and Dad

6)  THANKSGIVING ADVENTURE

Our kids were on quarantine during Thanksgiving break, so we decided to jump in the car and head to Arizona to visit Paul's mom.  It was so much fun and we are so glad we did it.  We were able to spend quality time with Grandma Jean, visit the amazing Sonoran Desert Museum, and did some hiking in the beautiful Arches National Park near Moab, UT.  Here are some photo highlights:

Paul and his momma taking a stroll on a nature trail near her house.

The boys at Arches National Park.

The boys were excellent hikers and we were honestly thankful to have our masks

because it was so cold in the morning that they kept our faces warm.

Probably the first and the last time I'll be thankful for the mask mandate :}

Sweet Isaiah by one of the many arches in the park.

Nathanael and Isaiah pretending to sleep in one of the cool rock formations.

The boys looking through a double arch.

Many places in the park are a bit dangerous,

so I was thankful that Michael was there to help take care of his little brothers :)

A cool picture of our shadows as I was taking a picture of an arch.

This is the famous "Delicate Arch" that is pictured on the Utah license plate.

Isaiah standing by a sign explaining the ancient Ute Indian petroglyph 

which can be seen behind him in the distance.

Totus Tuus,

~Maria

New Saints to Help us in 2021

Happy New Year!

I have no grand illusions that 2021 is going to be drastically different or less crazy than 2020, but I do have hope that this new year can still be full of blessings and ever draw my family nearer to the Lord.

  

One way our family tries to draw nearer to God at the start of each new year is to draw a saint name for each person in our family.  We can call upon our special saint to intercede for us throughout the year, and try to learn more about that saint and strive to emulate their virtues.  We had 2 families join us this year for a New Year's celebration, and they also drew saint names, so that was fun to share our tradition with them.  We first learned of this tradition from the diary of St. Faustina because her convent had the beautiful tradition of drawing saint names each year.  

Here is our list of saints for 2021:

Paul:  St. Therese of Lisieux (I have to admit I'm a bit jealous that he got St. Therese because she is one of my favorite saints, but I'm glad my husband gets the opportunity to befriend her in a special way this year.)

Maria:  St. Elizabeth of Portugal (This St. Elizabeth was the niece of the more famous St. Elizabeth of Hungary.  She was a very pious queen who was given the nickname "Peacemaker" because she helped prevent a couple of wars within her family and miraculously kept peace in her marriage even though her husband was a shmuck---ie: unfaithful and had many illegitimate children.  Legend says that her faithfulness and piety eventually brought about his conversion towards the end of his life.  I can already tell she is more saintly than I'll ever be because I would have left the shmuck long before that!  I am quite sure that I have drawn this saint before, so perhaps God knows I need her intercession... Maybe she will help me stop judging all the shmucks in this world and help bring about their conversion instead?) :)  :)  :)

Joseph:  St. Ignatius of Loyola (This saint seems perfect for Joseph since both Joseph and Ignatius are goal-driven men who suffered injuries that slowed them down, changed their plans, and helped them grow in holiness.  Ignatius wanted to be a renowned soldier but got so wounded in battle that he had to give up that dream and spent his recovery time reading about the saints.  This eventually led him to his true calling of starting a religious order called the Society of Jesus.  Joseph also suffered an injury his senior year of high school that drastically changed his plans, but God used it to help him grow in holiness.  May St. Ignatius help Joseph to always keep his eyes fixed on Jesus and to trust that God's plans are always better than our own.)

Michael:  St. Valerian (This saint was a very early martyr of the Church and may have been the husband of St. Cecelia.  Legend says that St. Cecelia did not want to get married because she wanted to live a life of chastity, but her parents forced her betrothal to Valerian.  On their wedding night, St. Cecelia told Valerian that God wanted her to remain a pure virgin and that God sent an angel to protect her virginity.  Valerian asked to see the angel, but she told him he wouldn't be able to see it unless he became a Christian.  So Valerian met with a priest who explained the Christian faith to him in such a powerful way that he asked to be baptized.  He was then able to see the angel next to his pure wife and they both took a vow of chastity.  A short time later they were both martyred, along with Valerian's brother Tiburtius.  The head Roman executioner named Maximus was converted by the faith of these two martyr brothers, and he was martyred as well.  I pray that St. Valerian helps Michael become stronger in his faith and able to bravely share his faith with others like Valerian did).

Dominic:  St. Gabriel the Archangel (May this angelic saint, who is the great messenger from God in the Bible, help my son Dominic to be holy and to spread the message of the Gospel in our world that needs that message more than ever!)

Nathanael:  St. Prisca (This is a saint that I had to research because I had never heard of her.  She is one of the very early child martyrs of the church.  She was likely born to a Christian family during the reign of Claudius II and bravely refused to renounce her Christianity as a teenager.  One legend says that she was taken to the arena to be killed by lions, but the lions simply licked her feet.  But sadly, they beheaded her after the failed assasination-by-lion-attempt.  Legend tells us that after her martyrdom a giant eagle protected her body from scavengers until Christians came to give her a proper Christian burial.  I pray that Nathanael learns to stand up for his Catholic faith in all circumstances just like St. Prisca.)

Isaiah:  Joan of Arc (This young French peasant girl, who had visions of St. Michael, St. Margaret, and St. Catherine, who bravely went into battle as a teenager because she felt it was God's holy will, and who was unjustly condemned to death, is certainly going to be a powerful intercessor for our youngest son!  Isaiah already has Joan's simple yet profound faith in God.  May he become a saint like her and meet her face to face someday.)

Blessings on your New Year, and let me know if you want me to draw a saint name for you :)

Totus Tuus,

~Maria

It's the most wonderful time of the year...Merry Christmas!!!

"It's the most wonderful time of the year," just like the old song goes.  There is so much to "WONDER" about when it comes to Christmas...  To wonder at God's plan to send His divine Son into the world as a tiny baby to save us.  To wonder at the humble beginnings of the King of Kings.  To wonder how it was that even the Holy Family had to undergo very hard times.  To wonder about how God uses hard times to bring about wonderful things.  That should give all of us great hope...that God is still in the business of doing wonderful things when times are hard, and I think everyone has gone through some hard times especially this past year.  So I hope you are also experiecing some wonderful things in the midst of it all, and especially this Christmas season.

Our Christmas was quiet, simple, and yes, wonderful.  Here are just a few photos of our Christmas...and someday I'll really update my blog and put all of the Fall pictures on here (but that probably won't happen until 2021) :}

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring, not even a....
mouse CAT!

Isaiah was the first one up on Christmas morning...
the first one to find the treasures in his stocking!

The 3 youngest looking through their stockings.
All 3 got new Minecraft watches.

Happy about Christmas,
happy about candy!

After opening the stocking stuffers, we went to Christmas morning Mass at the Cathedral.
It was gorgeous and peaceful.
To be honest, I was a bit sad at how peaceful and empty it was...
There was hardly anyone at Mass due to Covid :(
I guess I should be grateful that we were even able to have Mass.
Some countries like Italy shut down all Masses due to Covid.
The old saying used use to be "Keep Christ in CHRISTmas."
But now we need to say keep Mass in ChristMAS!"

Paul and I took our masks off for a brief moment to get a picture.
We couldn't' easily get a picture of the boys because 2 of them were altar serving...

So thankfully I remembered to take a quick picture when we got home from Mass.

I think this ocelot was Isaiah's favorite gift,
but he also liked his new lizard LEGO set, his Minecraft watch,
his red, white, and blue baseball glove, and his new Garfield book :)

Here is Isaiah with his new PJs...

they say "Do not MOOSE with me!" :)

Nathanael with his new shark PJs and a new rattlesnake LEGO set.

This new Hover board was definitely Dominic's favorite gift!
I love the look on Nathanael's face too :)

Dominic with his new Minecraft shirt.
He has been happy playing extra Minecraft over Christmas break.
I wonder when the younger boys will outgrow Minecraft??? :)

Michael got a foosball table that he had to spend 3 hours setting up---oops :)
He also got to go on a road trip to Bozeman with Paul to pick out a pair of hiking boots.

Here is Joseph checking out Isaiah's new glove.
Joseph also got a new pair of hiking boots at REI in Bozeman the day after Christmas.
Ever since he got home from college, he has been adventuring out in the woods.
He and Michael did 2 back-country camping/skiing adventures already,
so new boots were the perfect gift for the older boys.

As for Paul and I, we just got each other some new clothes, went out on a special date a few days after Christmas, and we took the boys to a hot springs resort for one night of fun and relaxation.  Our biggest Christmas gift was having our whole family together again with Joseph home from college and being able go to Mass together and spend family time together.  Again, it reminds me of that same song...  "Hearts will be glowing when loved ones are near...It's the most wonderful time of the year!"  Yes, God is good, all the time---even during pandemics, even during major struggles.  We just need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the reason for the season!  I hope your Christmas season was blessed and that you keep your eyes fixed on Christ in the new year ahead!

Totus Tuus,

~Maria