Ready Or Not...

First day of school!!
JPD and his new teacher...did I mention he's in KINDERGARTEN?!

The 5th Graders raising the flag...

Meanwhile, back at home, MPD was lonely and sad...NOT!

WWD, your turn will come next week!

Say It Isn't So!

JPD, it can't be possible that you are going to kindergarten tomorrow. How did this happen? How did you grow up so much, so fast?

I'm going to miss our days of playing and reading and building volcanoes, JPD. I'm going to miss going on all our little field trips, and Grandma will too. How quiet my days will be without your smiling face and chatting voice, asking me so many questions that I never could have imagined!

I'm feeling sad because our days at home together are going to be so rare now. We didn't do everything I wanted to do. We did even less of everything that you wanted to do! And that's the thing, of course--you're going to love school because it will be so very full of things that you will love to do. Your teacher will never have to stop reading because she has to make dinner or vacuum the upstairs! And so many friends to play and learn with! So many amazing new things to learn about our beautiful, amazing world!

It's going to be great--just wait and see! I love you so much, my little lover boy!

Loving our Jamie!

We had so much fun getting to see Jamie and her two adorable little sweeties this week! We are all (especially Mommy) SO glad you are back in Wisconsin, Jamie!! I'm expecting great things! :)

Too Short!

After the funeral last weekend, Auntie Mary from Philadelphia came to stay with us on Saturday night. Fun, fun, fun, but too short, Auntie Mary! And next time, bring along all those cousins, will ya? :)

Excuse me while I get this huge plank out of my eye...

"You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
~ Matthew 7:5

(Thanks to CD for her "Judge Not" post, which gave me strength to share this very embarrassing story!)

Most of the time, in order to get through to me, it is necessary for God to hit me over the head with a 2x4. So this weekend at Mass, that is what He did.

See, there's this friend of mine who's a real sinner, for sure. Without going into too much sordid detail, let me just say that this guy is undoubtedly living in a situation that is not in accord with Church teaching. And the thing is, I see him at Mass all the time--even on weekdays--marching right up to receive Communion like he was all perfectly in a state of grace and everything. This puzzles me, and makes me mad, and gets me all judgmental. Could this guy possibly be going to Confession, like, every morning before Mass? I can't figure it out.

Well, my friend was at Mass this Sunday, sitting right up front. And much to my dismay, when the Eucharistic Ministers lined up to get the Blessed Sacrament to take out for distribution, my friend marched right up there.

"B? A Eucharistic Minister? Impossible!" I thought. Since I wasn't wearing my glasses, I literally did not believe my nearsighted eyes. I asked Bill if he was sure it was B. And it was him. So I proceeded to completely and totally freak out.

"This sinful guy? A Eucharistic Minister? Nooooooooooo! So wrong! Should I say something--you know, like after Mass? To whom? Father? Our liturgical director? B himself? Okay, so doing that might be a bit self-righteous...but he's such a sinner! This just can't be happening!"

"Please, God, send Him to the other side of the Church, away from me. Okay, well, he's walking this way, so at least send him to the other side of the aisle. Perhaps he'll have the Precious Blood which I'm skipping today because of my sore throat? Nope...he's got the Body of Christ...and he's coming to my row...and yep, I have no choice but to receive Communion from this guy."

So there I was--trapped, with no way to avoid receiving Communion from a total sinner. I'm very embarrassed to admit that I was so upset that I actually considered forgoing Communion. I gave Bill a big-eyed shocked-and-dismayed look over WWD's head, and Bill whispered "Humility."

Humility indeed. The next thought that popped into my Pharasaical little head was what I told you before: "Receiving Communion from a sinner. From a sinner from a sinner from a SINNER." I suppose that phrase was the aforementioned divine 2x4, because then it became clear to me how ridiculous I was being. Because, of course, all the Eucharistic Ministers are sinners. So is everyone else. So is Father. So am I.

SO. AM. I.

So I bowed my head, closed my eyes, and thanked God for the indescribable, unimaginable miracle that is his mercy. And I joined with Our Lord's beloved tax collectors, adulterors, thieves, and murderers, and received the Blessed Sacrament from a fellow sinner.

O Divine Lord,
how shall I dare to approach You,
I who have so often offended You?
No, Lord, I am not worthy
that You should enter under my roof;
but speak only the word
and my soul shall be healed.

Amen.

My New Favorite Picture

worth at least a thousand words...

Friday Quick Takes

Joining Jen at Conversion Diary for Quick Takes Friday.

~ 1 ~
Anyone else ready for their precious children to go back to school? I've never felt this way before, but I'm just hoping they can make it 10 more days without killing each other. It's downright dangerous at our house these days!

~ 2 ~
One evening this week we went to a new family picnic for WWD's middle/high school. I don't know who is more excited--WWD or his mom. What an amazing school this is--practically perfect in every way (at least it still seems so). Academic rigor, strong Catholicism, small classes, nice teachers--and because it's grade 6-12, plenty of kids who are bigger, older, and wiser than WWD. He's going to have such a great year I think.

~ 3 ~
Wondering how I'm doing with my Diet Coke addiction? Well, after quitting cold turkey, I felt great for about a month. On our road trip to Chicago I even got one and then threw it out--too gross, man. But lately I've been having one once in a while. Just--you know--occasionally. It's not like before I'm still in control. I can quit anytime I want to. Really.

~ 4 ~
Anybody else getting tired of having those Silly Bands all over their house?

~ 5 ~
Oh I am so loving the book I'm reading right now.
Here it is:
It's major excitement for me whenever a new book by Michael O'Brien comes out. He's a genius, according to me. I'm slowly making my way through reading his articles on his website, and they are so clever and so thought-provoking that they're like candy for my brain. Wait, no--not candy--that would be People Magazine or something--Michael O'Brien's work is more like fine dining for my brain.

I love historical fiction novels about First-Century Christianity. This one is by far my favorite. It is just delicious; I wish I weren't almost finished with it. I'm a little surprised that it's not more clearly Catholic--but on the other hand, maybe I've been Catholic for long enough now that I can't even tell anymore. Anyway, I highly recommend this amazing book, if you like that kind of thing.

~ 6 ~
This week I'm turning 44. That's all I'm going to say about that.

~ 7 ~
Please pray for Bill's Aunt, Mary Kawatzky, who had a severe stroke and passed away this week. Her funeral is Friday. May she rest in peace.

Baby Pool Reflections

This has been a particularly nice summer at our pool. We've been hanging out there pretty much every morning, in and out of swim team, swim lessons, dive lessons, water ballet, and lots of evenings of just playing around.
MPD and I, of course, mostly hang out by the baby pool while everyone else's activities come and go. Our baby pool has a gate that separates it from the big pool area, a zero-depth entry, a nice mix of shade and sun, and a big tub of water toys that have been our friends more many years now.
When we first joined the pool, KLD was our baby pool regular, WWD and MRD were just learning to swim, and JPD was a nursing babe staying cool in his baby seat. Compared to those days, this summer's been a cinch! Nobody's nursing, the lifeguards keep JPD out of (serious) trouble, the big kids do their own thing with their friends, and MPD's past that stressful stage where I have to sit on the edge of the baby pool ready to catch him if he topples over face-first. What a summer of bliss, now that I think about it! (No doubt that's a sign that I'll be nursing again by next summer, or--yikes--huge, hot, and pregnant--oh my!).
Anyway, one of the nicest parts of the pool this summer has been the pleasant Mommy camaraderie around the baby pool this year. I have especially enjoyed chatting with the moms who have been holding down the baby pool fort with me while our big kids have their swimming lessons. Every year, it's always a combination of old and new mommy faces, as the toddlers become preschoolers and then eventually graduate out of the baby pool.
Very few mommies share my tenure under the baby pool umbrella. The moms of WWD's long-ago kindergarten friends are way gone--tanning and reading magazines over by the deep end, or not here at all after they drop off their no-longer-elementary-aged tweens. And, of course, the shiny-faced moms now debuting on the baby pool scene with their firstborns are a decade or so younger than me.
So am I ready to graduate from the baby pool? Yesterday some of the other baby pool veteran moms and I were discussing the possible end to our baby pool tenure. Sad, we agreed. For all of us forty-something moms, the move to the big pool is coming, ready or not.

I do like being a soft and rumply almost-worn-out mommy, kind of like a long-loved teddy bear. I don't want to go back to my shiny-new-mom days, at all. (I was way too stressed out about everything you can imagine! Now I'm quite the opposite.) But I do love the laid-back, shady baby pool scene with its tub of pool toys. I'm not ready to move on just yet.

Mom's Favorite Brother

Thanks for coming up from Texas to see us, Uncle Keith!! What a great time we had...hope you come back again soon! :)

Are You Ready for Some Football?!

Ready or not, it's here!

Saturday Evening Blog Post

I'm fashionably late to this party, but joining in the Saturday Evening Blog Post entry over at Elizabeth Esther's blog.

Lots of great posts over there this month!

My Kind of Town?

So Houston was all about my twenties. And it turns out that Chicago, along with its northern suburb Lake Forest, was all about my thirties.

My quick jaunt to the Windy City with the girls this past weekend was an unexpected trip down memory lane. It has now been six years since we moved away from Lake Forest and I was startled by the contrast between our small-town life and what might have been, had we not moved.

There really is just no place like Chicago. I remember the first time I saw the skyline in real-life: August of 1988, coming down the Kennedy Expressway (of course), at night, cruising over that Ohio street exit into Streeterville...NOTHING could have been more thrilling to my newly-graduated, full-fledged adult (ha!), 21-year-old self. From that viewpoint, it feels like the Chicago skyline is swallowing you. It's just huge. I know I said I love the Houston skyline; well, Chicago could eat about ten Houstons for breakfast. There is just no comparison.

Chicago has this energy that is hard to describe. The restaurants, bars, clubs, shopping, people, cars--just incredible. I love the juxtaposition of old and new buildings. The rich melting pot of neighborhoods from all over the globe amazes me; really, truly, I think every single part of the world must have an outpost there. Recently I read that Chicago's Polish population is second in size only to Warsaw's, in the whole world. Last weekend on Michigan Avenue, the girls had fun checking out license plates from lots of different states, and MRD was thrilled to hear a group of people speaking French behind us at the Cheesecake Factory.

The lakefront takes my breath away; you can stand in one place and turn one way--ginormous spread of huge buildings--turn the other way--vast blue emptiness, water as far as you can see. One winter night, frosty storm waves crashing onto Lakeshore Drive splashed my car as I drove north out of the city. Speaking of Lakeshore Drive...can anyone not drive fast on it? Well, at least as long as there's not too much traffic.

Chicago traffic...now that's breathtaking. Living in our sweet little town, the kids actually thought I was making it up when I told them that in Chicago, it regularly takes more than one or two turns at a red light before it is my turn to go. Back in his days as a single guy in Chicago, Bill would often return home on a Friday night (from a week of working out of town, say, in San Antonio with his brilliant colleague and bride-to-be) and drive around for an hour or two, looking for a parking place in front of his apartment in Lincoln Park.

When we bought our first house in Lake Forest, and I retired from la vida loca de consulting to stay at home with WWD, then MRD, life was anything but simple. The airport limo came for Bill at 5 a.m. most Mondays, to take him away for the week. Even when he was working in town, his hour-long commute meant that most weekdays, he didn't see the kids. And for me at home--well, going to Target with a couple of toddlers is scary enough even without a twenty-minute traffic-fight each way! Preschool? Better sign them up at age 6 months, or they might not get a spot. And the real estate prices--don't even get me started! Sure, there are lots of wonderful museums, which I did love--but the $20 to park, not so much. Finally, September 11, 2001 came along, and the idea of life in a major metropolitan area lost its appeal, big time.

Chicago is so cool and lots of fun, but, at least for me, not so much for actually living there in real life. I think the thing that I liked so much about it, once upon a time, was that Bill was there. What fun those Chicago weekends were! :) (Have you read Pioneer Woman's steamy love story about how she met her husband? Remember how before she met her Marlboro Man, she was planning a move to Chicago, where she was looking forward to being around all those cute Catholic guys? I'm just saying.)

The thing is, maybe I should just accept that I'm a suburban soccer mom at heart. (And swim mom, football mom, gymnastics mom, basketball mom, etc.) Not to mention that here in our bucolic paradise, there's always plenty of parking. And a cute Chicago Catholic guy, right here next to me in my very own living room.

More Paparazzi Pics from American Girl