Hot Cross Buns

I foresee a new Lenten tradition at our house!
They were SO good! Here's the recipe.

Quick Takes Friday: Out Like A Lion

Joining Jen at Conversion Diary for Quick Takes Friday!

~ 1 ~
Big big BIG news here at Chez D...MPD's potty training has been, so far, short and sweet! He turned 3, he donned the Bob-the-Builder big-boy underpants, and he hasn't looked back since. As of tonight, both #1 and #2 are strictly in the potty. Woo-hoo MPD!



But you know what this means, of course. I'm within spittin' distance of having a diaper-free household. I don't even know what to think about that. Maybe I should close this laptop right now and go try to get pregnant. On second thought...nah. I'll finish this post first, anyway. :)


~ 2 ~
MPD does sleep in my arms for most of every night still. He's abandoned his crib and happily gets tucked into his bottom bunk bed each evening, then after a couple of hours of alternately playing with JPD, fighting with JPD, sneaking into his sisters' room and making them fuss, and scurrying up and down the stairs and getting re-sent up to bed, he falls asleep with me if he can. Otherwise he always finds his way to my bed before morning. I love it. I know that in the blink of an eye, he'll stop doing this, so I just enjoy having a little snuggler in the crook of my elbow while it lasts. (Bill is more skeptical, however.)

~ 3 ~
This week has been Spring Break for the middle 3 kids around here. I have loved having them home, and especially loved not driving them up to school every morning. I do miss homeschooling, and I would so love to do it again. Who knows, maybe we will again someday. But in any case, this week has been relaxed and fun, despite some very cold and rainy weather! Stay tuned for photos of some of our adventures! :)

~ 4 ~
I'm so proud of MRD! One day this week she went to school with WWD for a middle school "shadow" day, and now she's more excited than ever about her new school for next year. Also, she took the placement tests for her 6th grade classes. Apparently she aced the math test and tested out of 6th and 7th grade math, so she'll be in pre-algebra next year. Go MRD!

~ 5 ~
Lent so far...awesome as ever. It feels quiet this year--no big dramatic giving up of Diet Coke, nothing too newsworthy--just peace. Some things have surprised me--I didn't deliberately give up Facebook or blogging or computer time, but I haven't been too interested in it lately. Same with waking up early--I've been a bit sick and other things (see #2 above--haha!) that have prompted me to just naturally go to bed early and get up early, in spite of myself, which is another thing I really wanted to do this Lent. It really does feel like God is driving and I'm just along for the ride, which is perfect.

~ 6 ~
Bill's job search is going fine; thanks for asking! Nothing much to report on that front. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us next. :) In the meantime, Bill has replaced most of the ceiling light fixtures in our house this week and they look so awesome and updated! I don't have before-and-after pictures (darn!) but you can use your imagination...before=80's brass / after=aged bronze with frosted glass. Very nice.

~ 7 ~
Happy Feast Day of the Annunciation!
I love the Annunciation. It is so sweet and joyful to think about blessed Mary saying her "yes" to the Angel Gabriel, without understanding, without knowing what would happen next, without reservations. Just "yes" to God's will. What an inspiration! And now...Christmas in 9 months! :)
I like this artist's non-traditional take on the Annunciation, don't you?

Happy Spring! Now go back over to Jen's for more great Quick Takes!

Welcoming Lent

"And Jesus rebuked him, and the devil went out of him, and the child was cured from that hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus secretly, and said: Why could not we cast him out? Jesus said to them: Because of your unbelief. For, amen I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain: Remove from hence hither, and it shall remove: and nothing shall be impossible to you. But this kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting."

~ Matthew 17:17-20

At spin class yesterday, the spin teacher had us start with our bikes set to a flat road. After a few hills, and resistance re-sets, she said to go back to the flat road--but to add two gears, and that would be our new flat road for the rest of the class.

Lent is like that, I think. Each year, Lent turns out to be such a powerful experience that by Easter I find that my faith is forever raised to a whole new level.

Two years ago, I went to Confession once a week during Lent, which was hard to schedule, but awesome and so worth it. Last year, I think I gave up Diet Coke (right?), and now I don't even need it at all (usually). This year, in addition to fasting from desserts, I'm not going to sleep later than 6a.m. on weekdays. This is something I've been struggling with for--well, forever, and it's quite apparent that I cannot do it on my own. No wonder St. Josemaria calls that moment of rising "the heroic moment;" it's certainly the hardest thing I try to do on most days! So this Lent I'm praying for God's help in a big way for this one.

Wishing you all a holy and blessed Lent!

Small Success Thursday

I haven't had a Small Success post in a while, but today was so great I just couldn't resist. Without further ado...

1) Finally, I made some serious progress unpacking our filing and paperwork. Four boxes worth, and lots of badly-needed filing organization. I feel so much better!

2) Our broken-washine-machine ordeal is over, as of today. I made it through the whole washer-less week without getting behind on laundry--loving that laundromat! I have the whole routine down so well now that I'm almost sad that I won't be doing the laundromat thing anymore for now. It's peaceful there, know what I'm sayin'?

3) Our 35-year-old dining room chairs have been getting wobbly and close-to-broken. Also, the edges of the table were all banged up and chipped. Tuesday this week I finally got a furniture repair guy over to fix all of that. Hooray! Good as new (well, almost). Funny how the new dining room makes the old furniture ever so much more worth keeping.

4) ROCKING Lent! Daily Mass and Rosary every day this week. Waking up earlier is *awesome*; I'm so, so thankful!

Check out Faith and Family Live! for more Small Successes!

Another Good One for Lent

"Wisdom enters through love, silence, and mortification. It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others."

~ St. John of the Cross

Lenten Disciplines

"I have jotted down in my notebook my lenten resolutions, but I want to confirm them here. I must truly renew my life, and it is God whom I ask in all simplicity to transform me. I want to live interiorly more spiritually, exteriorly more gently and lovingly so as to make God better loved, who is the beginning and end of my spiritual life. More than ever I want to hide in the heart of Jesus my good works, my prayers, my self-denial, to preach only through example, to speak not at all of myself and little of God, since in this sad world one only gives scandal or annoys others by showing one's love for God. But whenever someone approaches me, or whenever it seems to be God's will that I should approach another, I will do so simply, very prudently, and disappear as soon as the task is done, mixing no thought of self with God's action. and should I be misunderstood, criticized, and judged unfavorably, I will try to rejoice in remembering our divine exemplar, and I will seek to be of no consequence in the esteem of others, I who am in fact so poor and little in the eyes of God."

~ Elisabeth Leseur (1914), a French married laywoman whose cause for canonization is underway.

Kicking off Lent with...

The Litany of Humility

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved...
From the desire of being extolled ...
From the desire of being honored ...
From the desire of being praised ...
From the desire of being preferred to others...
From the desire of being consulted ...
From the desire of being approved ...
From the fear of being humiliated ...
From the fear of being despised...
From the fear of suffering rebukes ...
From the fear of being calumniated ...
From the fear of being forgotten ...
From the fear of being ridiculed ...
From the fear of being wronged ...
From the fear of being suspected ...

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I ...
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease ...
That others may be chosen and I set aside ...
That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...
That others may be preferred to me in everything...
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…