Goodbye, March!

Remember last fall, how I was so dreading winter this year?

Well, I can't believe it's over already! What an easy and mild winter we have had! Of course, because I've written that, a snowstorm will be in the forecast for April, no doubt.

This afternoon MPD went out to play in short sleeves, without his coat.
"Cold! Cold!" he said. Then he realized that...he wasn't.

And he celebrated by digging in the dirt. What could be better?!

Loving LaCrosse

Last weekend in LaCrosse, we stayed at a hotel that was PERFECT for us (sadly, no longer the Four Seasons!!...sigh...insert rolling eyes here). Our room had a king bed, a queen pull-out sofa, a twin-over-full bunk bed, and a mini-kitchen. Perfect for our party of seven, no? :)

Here are the troops, full of excitement about our Northwoodsy suite...


Best of all was the cool indoor-outdoor pool, and of course we had to take the polar plunge and go outside (it was about 30 degrees)!!




MPD sat on the hot tub steps and put his feet in. I wish you could hear how cute he was, saying "hot toes, hot toes" over and over! Love you MPD, you big boy!


Everyone had so much fun on our big Spring Break getaway. MRD said "Mom, can we do this every year for Spring Break?"

My reply was quick: "Oh yes, honey, yes we can."

I'll hold her to it when she's in high school and college. The Shrine of Guadalupe and Stoney Creek Inn with your family?!? You betcha!!

Inspiration: Leftovers!

You guys have all probably been doing this forever, but tonight we had the best dinner! I had a bunch of leftover white rice (planned-over, actually, from last night) and a bunch of random assorted leftover vegetables in our refrigerator from meals past. Tonight I threw it all in the wok with a chopped onion simmered in sesame oil (any oil would work, of course) and a chopped up chicken breast. I also added garlic salt, a little stir-fry sauce that we had in the frig (soy sauce or broth or anything would work fine too), and when it was all cooked, I cracked an egg on top and flipped it around until the egg was cooked and mixed in.

Voila! Seven-Ingredient Fried Rice! It used up every single random leftover I had! Everyone loved it--and they never would have wanted all those leftover vegetables if they were just nekkid. :)

Peace on Earth

I just like this and wanted to share:

If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character. If there is beauty in the character there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation there will be peace on earth.

When we find ways to be happy (rightness in the heart) our character is beautiful. When we shine with a beautiful character we are kind to those closest to us. When we are not quick to find fault and show appreciation for our family members they are willing to take part in making our homes oasis's from the world. When our homes are peaceful, clean and beautiful to the family when it leaves to go out into the world it will reflect that peace and beauty to a world that needs each and every one of us. When each and every one of us is needed by each other there is peace.

Our kitchens are really the commons, but our kitchen sinks are a reflection of how we take care of the commons. Listening to Elinor it suddenly dawned on me that a dirty, slimy, smelly sink filled with mystery water and heaped with unwashed dishes is just a reflection of several habits that are in place at that time. Habits generate results. Good habits generate peace, joy and beauty; bad habits generate stress and frustration. Once a habit is in place we are either free to enjoy the bounty of the result or imprisoned in the effects of it. It's up to us.

~ Pam Young aka the House Fairy via Flylady

Annunciation Celebration

Thursday, March 25, was the Solemnity of the Annunciation, nine months before Christmas. This feast, which has been celebrated since the 5th century, marks the angel's visit to Mary and her 'yes' to God, when Our Lord was conceived, as detailed in Luke 1:26-38. This was, of course, the moment that Our Lord was conceived and the Son of God became the Son of the Virgin--in other words, when God became Man.

Perfect day for a road trip, don't you think? We went to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, to visit the gorgeous two-year-old Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It was spectacular, and we had a fantastic trip. Here are some pictures...

Picnic lunch in front of Our Lady's statue:

The shrine itself, which is about a 20 minute walk up the beautiful wooded hill:

The Memorial to the Unborn:

In front of the statue of Our Lady with *three* sweet babies in her arms (is this our new family picture, or what?!):

Statue of Juan Diego with Bishop Zumarraga in front of the shrine:

At the St. Joseph the Worker statue:

With Blessed Kateri Tekatwitha:

I didn't take pictures of everything--but if you get a chance, you should go; it is all just gorgeous. The kids had a great time too--lots of opportunities for running around, for those of us who are so inclined, as well as learning and prayer for--ahem--the rest of us. :) Getting ready to go, I read a book about Our Lady of Guadalupe to the kids, and of course I probably learned even more from it than they did (as usual). How amazing that just when the Church was having so many problems in Europe (Reformation, anyone?), Our Lady appeared in 1531 to a simple, holy Indian man in Mexico, and by her love and his faith, a vibrant heritage of Catholic faith began there. So cool!

I am just so in love with this place! I want to go back there right now! And the story of Juan Diego makes me want to go get some Tex-Mex right now too! :) Awesome!

Retro Thursday

We couldn't possibly post Retro Thursday pic of WWD's First Communion last week without featuring MRD this week, right?

Here she is, circa 2008:


(MPD's Baptism was the same weekend, remember?!)

Spring Sweets

We've been doing some sweet spring break baking. Check it out!

Those St. Patrick's cupcakes I promised you:

The Easter basket cake:

Here's a closer look at that cake (messy, but it looked far better than it tasted!!):

Don't you wish you were us? :)

Healthcare Reflections

The weekend in 2007 before I discovered that my sweet baby Margaret, at age 18 weeks gestation, no longer had a heartbeat, I knew something was wrong. It wasn't so much that I could feel anything physically; I just had a feeling. Most of all, when I said a prayer to the baby's Guardian Angel, I knew the answer: "She's already gone." I can't describe how I knew it, but in the doctor's office a few days later, it just wasn't a complete surprise to find out that she was gone.

This past Thursday evening, I had a similar experience while attending a beautiful Holy Mass that was especially being said for the abomination of a so-called "healthcare" bill that is currently Congress' hot topic. The priest pointed out that it will essentially make abortion free, which will expand the number of abortions in our country like nothing since Roe v. Wade. Already we have a generation of Americans who think killing an unborn child for just about any reason is a valid "choice;" now our federal budget would help pay for the slaughters.

Sitting there in the holy, beautiful old church, with rich Latin hymns being offered by a talented men's choir, candles, statues of the saints, my fellow Christians, and, of course, the precious presence of Our Lord, I had the feeling that my prayers were being answered with the same answer I felt from that Guardian Angel: "No, my child, my ways are not your ways. Trust me."

For my dear blog readers who think that means that this healthcare bill is actually good for our country, um, that's not what I mean. I mean that God is at it again, allowing evil from which He will bring great good, in the way that He does so perfectly. Could it be an accident that all of this is happening right before Easter?

Sometimes I have this crazy fear that we really are getting close to the drama of the end times. Maybe we are. But I am thankful for this time in America. I am thankful for this time in which the epic battle between Good and Evil feels so vivid, and I can feel so clearly my connection to the parts of history when that battle has openly raged. Is our time really any more dramatic than first-century Rome, fourth-century North Africa, sixteenth-century England, eighteenth-century France, nineteenth-century Mexico, twentieth-century Russia, or any other age? Hardly. The battle rages on, I suppose.

At Mass on Thursday night I felt a close connection to the horror that Christ's followers must have felt at the foot of the Cross. In fighting against the evil of abortion in our time, we are blessed to share in the sorrows of Jesus' early followers at Calvary, as we watch in dismay as evil seems to triumph. It won't, of course, regardless of what happens on Capitol Hill this weekend.

"I have come to love the darkness. – For I believe now that it is a part, a very, very small part of Jesus’ darkness & pain on earth. You have taught me to accept it [as] a “spiritual side of ‘your work’” as you wrote. – Today really I felt a deep joy – that Jesus can’t go anymore through the agony – but that He wants to go through it in me. – More than ever I surrender myself to Him. – Yes – more than ever I will be at His disposal."

~ Mother Theresa, in a letter to her spiritual director, 1961

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."

~ 1 Thessalonians 16-18

Retro Thursday

At WWD's First Holy Communion, April 2007:

Prayer Against Depression

"O Christ Jesus
When all is darkness
And we feel our weakness and helplessness,
Give us the sense of Your Presence,
Your Love and Your Strength.
Help us to have perfect trust
In Your protecting love
And strengthening power,
So that nothing may frighten or worry us,
For, living close to You,
We shall see Your Hand,
Your Purpose, Your Will through all things."

~ St. Ignatius of Loyola

Yahoo! MPD is 2!!

Happy Birthday Dear MPD!
You are so sweet and we love you so much!

Here is your special day:

The traditional two-year-old birthday dinner at Chuck E Cheese's!









Pizza lunch in the (snow-free!) backyard with JPD

Blowing bubbles

A special make-up class at your Little Gym this morning



Go, MPD, go!

Brown-Eyed Love

Last night KLD and JPD had a "sleepover" in KLD's top bunk:
Which reminds me of how she used to climb into his crib and take a nap with him when he was little:

There are no words, of course, to describe how my mommy-heart feels about stuff like this!!

Could It Be...?!?

Look what I saw coming up in my front garden this morning!! Spring!It's so fun to have a new house, which I never even saw before last July--can't wait to see what blooms in my yard this Spring!

Friday Quick Takes

Joining Jen at Conversion Diary for Quick Takes Friday!

~ 1 ~

.
Check out all these cute treat ideas for St. Patrick's day! I'm thinking I need to make these adorable rainbow cupcakes for KLD's class, for which I'm "treat Mom" for St. Pat's.

~ 2 ~

Recently overheard between JPD and his mommy:

JPD: "Mom, could I just go to heaven now? I heard it's made of gold."

Me: "Well, sweetie, God has a perfect plan for your life and when you go to Heaven. Blah blah blah-bitty-blah [insert long and profound theological monologue here]."

JPD: "Okay. And can I be a Transformer?"


~ 3 ~

The latest update on school planning for next year is that everybody's in. School, that is. And I'm even thinking to possibly accept a nomination to the elementary school's Education Commission. Stay tuned--I'm sure I'll be changing my mind and scoping out homeschool curricula again by next Friday. Mommy schizophrenia, anyone? :)

~ 4 ~

I'm still going strong without Diet Coke for Lent, although I did have one sip of Bill's (after he poured it into my empty-but-soon-to-be-refilled-or-so-I-thought iced tea glass). That sip made me want it more. I don't do the Sundays-are-get-out-of-jail-free-so-you-can-have-your-Lenten-sacrifice-item thing, but I might just have to indulge on the 25th in honor of the Feast of the Annunciation.

~ 5 ~

Speaking of the Annunciation, I want to do something special with the kids to celebrate it this year, and I'm glad it will fall during our Spring Break. Perhaps a road trip to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in LaCrosse? (Because, as Bill would say, it won't be crowded for the feast day, or anything!) I certainly have some special prayers to say at the St. Peregrine Cancer Guild there right now.

~ 6 ~

Speaking of the St. Peregrine Cancer Guild, please help me send up lots of prayers for both Dudley and Katherine. My uncle Dudley was diagnosed this week with Stage 3 lung cancer; of course they're still having many tests to determine the course of treatment. And my dearest friend's daughter Katherine, who just turned 15, is having her fourth round of chemotheraphy this week for her ovarian cancer. Yes, it seems like cancer, cancer everywhere right now.

God, we know that You love us and Your plan is more amazing and beautiful than we can ever imagine (or, of course in times like this especially, understand!)!

~ 7 ~

Speaking of spring break, WWD is going for a day-long visit to his proposed middle school one day that week. It will include our family interview and his placement testing, etc. I got him the uniform stuff (just blue pants and a white polo shirt, or khaki pants and a blue polo shirt--he has both) so he won't feel like quite so much of a rookie. I'm going to sit in on a class or two also. I'm so excited, of course (for him, not just to sit in a middle school class!). This school is so wonderful and this next chapter of our lives is going to be so much fun!

I know, I know..."middle school" and "fun" in the same sentence...go figure!

Retro Thursday

Jamie and JPD at WWD's 7th birthday party, circa 2005...

We Love You, Jamie!!

We haven't seen Jamie in forever! And we finally got to meet Liam!



What a fun afternoon! Now we're just keeping our fingers crossed for La Famiglia Jamie to move back to Wisconsin!!

Please, Daddy, Don't Do That Again!

Please, Daddy, Don't Do That Again!
By Tim Wright

When my son was only about three years old, he and his sisters were playing
a game that involved chasing each other though the house with loud giggles
of laughter erupting every few minutes whenever one of them came close to
tagging one of their siblings.

The giggles were interrupted suddenly by a loud crash followed by a
blood-curdling cry of pain. I jumped to my feet and ran to the living room
where the apparent mishap had occurred. My son had come around the corner
too fast and had fallen head first into the corner of a table. I quickly
picked him up from the floor where he was lying and held him in my arms both
to comfort him and to examine the wound. Streams of blood gushed from his
forehead.

By the time we reached the emergency room, his tears had subsided a bit, but
I was nervously anticipating the slight trauma still ahead of us. After
examining my son's forehead, the doctor confirmed that he would need to
stitch the wound in order for it to heal properly. The good news was that
the cut would require only one stitch. The bad news was that the doctor
planned to do it without any anesthesia. "We can stick him once or we can
stick him twice," the doctor informed me.

I was then told that giving him a shot to anesthetize the area would be just
as painful and traumatic as giving him the single stitch. The shot would
then have to be followed by a second "stick" to actually stitch up the
wound. I reluctantly agreed with the doctor and opted for the single
"stick".

I encouraged my son that he was being a "brave little boy" as the doctors
and I gently strapped a restraining device around his tiny body to keep him
from thrashing around on the table during the procedure.

Inside, I was fighting back tears as he looked at me with frightened, but
trusting eyes. "Keep looking at Daddy," I encouraged him. "You're being a
very brave little boy." His huge eyes remained locked on mine as the doctor
gently washed out the cut and prepared to stitch the wound shut.

"Okay, here we go," the doctor said quietly. "It should be quick." "Keep
looking at me," I said, trying to smile and draw his trusting eyes into
mine. "Daddy's right here." With precision and swiftness, the doctor quickly
stabbed the curved needle into the swollen flesh near the cut on my son's
forehead. My son's eye's widened as he gasped in pain. Then in a whimpering
voice that carried the sweetness and innocence that only a three year-old
can summon, he looked up at me and said, "Please don't do that again,
Daddy."

My heart broke. How do you explain to your three year-old son that the pain
he is experiencing- the pain that, in his mind at least, was caused by
me-was inflicted with love, with a desire and design to bring healing? Oddly
enough, that is one of my most precious memories of my son's early
childhood. The procedure was over almost as quickly as it had begun and,
after a few hours, my son had returned to giggling with his sisters.
(Running in the house, however, was forever banned from that point onward.)

His trust and sweet response to the ordeal continues to pierce my heart with
love for him. This episode is also a reminder for me of our heavenly
Father's love and care for us and for those around us who may be
experiencing a painful season in life.

In my mind's eye, I can envision God holding us as our Father whenever we're
hurting and telling us to keep our eyes on Him and to trust Him, even if we
don't understand why things are happening to us. When we're tempted to blame
Him for our pain or to cry out, "Please don't do that again, Daddy," we can
take comfort in knowing that He is very near to us, that He loves us and to
trust that, even though we may not always understand, there is a higher
purpose at work in everything that happens to us.

So keep your eyes on Him. Trust Him. He's holding you and healing you. He
will never let you go. Know, too, that giggling-or however you experience
joy-will soon be a part of your life again.

h/t Jen's Pen.

This One Will Change Your Life!

Fr. McNulty at our former parish in Lake Forest often used to reference the works of Henri Nouwen. If you haven't read Nouwen's Return of the Prodigal Son, I recommend that you RUN your fingers straight to your favorite book purchase website :) and grab yourself a copy!!

Inspired by Barbara Curtis' book study, I am reading it right now, and it has turned into the most amazing Lenten reading I can imagine.

It is so wonderful, I can tell that one reading is hardly going to scratch the surface.

It's just amazing.

Go get it.

Right now.

Here; I'll make it easy for you!

Really, I am just loving this book so much! If you and I like to send stuff to each other, watch your mail; it might just show up there from me! :)

Lovin' My Hockey Guy

Quick! One more trip to go skating outside before the rink melts!

A true hockey player must never be afraid to sacrifice his body:

Hockey stick...toy leaf blower...it's all the same!

The Coat of Many Colors

Wow! This is so cool!

"The brothers of Joseph try to murder him out of spite because their father 'loved him best of all his sons.' Yet later, amidst a famine, this same beloved son would become their savior.
The Father sends his son to us. We can let our wretchedness rule our response to his presence... or we can embrace the truth that the love with which the Father loves his most beloved Son is what saves us."
~ Ref. Genesis 37

March Madness

A few new pics of WWD on the court...





Before this year, I didn't like basketball much. But now I think it's really cool--you know, now that I understand that, like, there are these rules and stuff, you know? And the players actually have positions? And there's offense and defense?
What a great basketball Mom I am!

WWD's team has finished up an awesome season--I think their record is 12-1 in their conference. The pictures above against the red team were a big heartbreaker of a game--lost in the championship game of the all-conference tournament this past weekend, to a team they'd beat twice before. Oh well...there's always a re-match at State, right?

And does anyone have any good recommendation for a good "real" camera, with a fast shutter speed?! I think it might be time for this point-and-shoot one that I have to, uh, get passed down to the kids...