Zoo Day

Jamie reminded me that I haven't yet posted our zoo photos from a few weeks back--what a slacker blogger I've been lately. We had a gorgeous day--beautiful weather, lots of animals, perfect time. Best of all was getting to spend the day with Jamie and her adorable boys!









Actually, I didn't exactly forget to post the photos. I think I was trying to block out how the day ended...with one of my scariest-ever Mommy moments. We lost MPD for about 5 full minutes. While the kids were playing on the playground, I turned my head to help JPD get a bottle of water, and MPD took off for the snack bar, about 50 yards away. By the time I realized he was gone from the playground, he was safely ensconced in the snack bar office, and a bunch of people were looking for me. So glad he could tell them his name and that he was "looking for my mommy"! But it scared me a lot; it's impossible not to immediately think of the worst scenario when one of my precious babies slips out of sight. Happy ending, of course!

On a lighter note, check out this photo from the archives of a long-ago zoo trip with Jamie, back in the day...Hard to believe that was 5 years ago! Three of us weren't even born yet back then!
Here's another look at the "after" picture:How we love our Jamie!

Thy Will Be Done...

Thanks to the lovely Elizabeth Foss for sharing this timely quote:

"How beautiful it is to behold a person destitute of all attachment, ready for any act of virtue or charity, gentle to all, indifferent as to any employment, serene in consolations and tribulations, and wholly content if only the will of God be done."

~ St. Francis De Sales

Quick Takes Friday: Saturday Edition

Joining Jen at Conversion Diary for Quick Takes Friday, even though it's Saturday. I'm late to the party this week.

~ 1 ~
Okay so I didn't get the job. I'm thinking 10+ years of retirement is a bit hard to come back from, no? I'm kinda sad, kinda relieved. "Back to Plan A," says Bill (which means he has to get a job!). Or perhaps God is grinning, because He knows that I'll be getting pregnant again any minute now. (Yikes!)

I'm debating my next move:
A) Apply for a different position I saw that seems even a bit more promising than the first,
B) Just keep waiting and trusting, cooking and cleaning,
C) Homeschool KLD and JPD next year, or
D) Take a nap.

Any advice?

~ 2 ~
Yesterday and today we're having a big garage sale. We cleaned out (and now to organize what's left) tons and tons of stuff from our basement and all our closets, which was a horribly painful process but--can't believe I'm saying this after how I felt on Thursday night--totally worth it. This is our 4th time to do this, and every time it feels like my house went on a huge diet. I love how Flylady calls it S.T.U.F.F.--"Something That Undermines Family Fun." So true!

~ 3 ~
I've never lived anywhere else where Garage Saling is such a big deal. It's such an interesting sociological phenomena, I think. So much great stuff--and total junk--changing hands! It's fun--I always meet some new neighbors, and now when I drive around town I can think "my old college desk lives in that house" or "I wonder how the people in this house are enjoying our old kitchen table?" Only in America, no doubt! :)

~ 4 ~
This weekend WWD has a basketball tournament that involves 3 separate 2-hour round-trip drives (one for a game last night at 10 p.m.!!!). MRD also has a soccer tournament with 3 games in 2 days, but much closer to home (and today she's even going with a friend which calms things down quite a bit). Man oh man, am I ready for our spring sports to be over...then we can start going to swim meets at 7 a.m. every Saturday! The fun never ends, right?

~ 5 ~
I love April and May best of all. Although today we're having a ridiculously freezing and rainy day, the redbud trees and crabapples are blooming, there are tulips up everywhere, and the rhododendrons are just replacing the forsythias in everyone's yards. Glorious!

~ 6 ~
I so want to take the kids camping when school gets out--I hope we're able to get away for a few days. Camping is a big Wisconsin thing, much more so than in Texas. I'm not sure why that is...Bill claims that it's because Wisconsin is prettier (Blasphemy! I could hardly even type those words!) but I think it has more to do with climate. Texas is just so much hotter and buggier, and then there's that whole rattlesnake issue. Texas seems more about hunting and fishing (although Wisconsin certainly has those too in a big way) and water skiing, etc. Texas also has the beach...

~ 7 ~
Can I tell you how much I long for the beach? I do love Wisconsin, and we do have Lake Michigan, which has beautiful shoreline. But the seashore is a whole 'nother thing, and it's hard to get much farther away from the salty sea air than Wisconsin! Time for a road trip, for sure! (The camping trip is waaaay more likely I must say.)

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Now go see Jen for lots of great Quick Takes! Have a great week!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

And now for something from the "be careful what you pray for" files...

You may know that the memorial of St. Joseph the Worker was last Sunday. You may also know that I have a special devotion to dear St. Joseph, the sweet patron saint of workers, fathers, and the Universal Church. And you probably also know that my own beloved husband has been job-free since September.

A wee novena for the feast day was certainly in order, don't you think? Yeah, me too. And now, wouldn't you know it, I'm well into the recruiting process for a real-live new job of my own. Oops!

A few weeks ago, Bill came across the perfect career opportunity--for me. Right back in my own field (business/systems integration, ya know), right here in town, for a great company, on a really exciting project, right now. He suggested I send in a resume, so I did, not expecting to hear from them--after all, I've been "retired" for over a decade now. Technologically speaking, I'm a dinosaur.

Maybe not quite. In the past week and a half--beginning right around the time I finished praying the St. Joseph novena--I've had two phone interviews for this position, and have gone through a roller coaster of emotions and opinions about the whole idea of possibly taking a "real" job again.


Here are some thoughts that have been pinging around in my dinosaur brain:

1) Can I still be a good Catholic mom if I'm a business mommy?
2) Would Bill really be happy to stay home with the kids?
3) Will I lose my mind trying to multitask between a really hard full-time career and managing our home at the same time?
4) If I go back to work, will my kids be scarred for life?
5) Is having a working mom better than having to move if Bill gets a job in another town?
6) Does Bill really want this? Is he going to do the laundry and everything?
7) What if I hate it?
8) What if I love it?
9) Should I return that new swimsuit I just bought, since I won't be at the pool with the kids this summer after all?
10) Do you think I could convince them to let me start work in September?

Preparing for the interviews, I've alternated between getting very psyched about this opportunity, which is a very cool one, and feeling completely overwhelmed that I actually am a total technology dinosaur that no one would want to hire. On the other hand, I really am probably a pretty good candidate for this position, and it could be great for all of us.

Finally it occurred to me that if God can part the Red Sea, He can surely get this job for me if that's His plan. And if not, well of course I wouldn't want it anyway. Over the past week I've gone from wanting the job very much and obsessively preparing for the interviews, to feeling certain that what I really want with all my heart is actually to homeschool KLD and JPD again next fall. The good thing about that is that no matter what happens, I'll be happy. It's all good, right?

Stay tuned!

In the meantime I am clinging tightly to the words of St. Paul...

"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."
~ Philippians 4:11-13

Happy Mother's Day!

"When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home." ~ John 19:26-27

In this passage from John's Gospel, Jesus Christ dying on the Cross tells "the disciple" to behold his Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Jesus is referring to John, but his actual words are "the disciple," representing all the disciples of Jesus. And so, in that moment, Mary becomes Mother of all disciples of Jesus, including those in our own time who follow Jesus.

To quote Pope John Paul II in his 1987 encyclical Redemptoris Mater, "This is true not only of John, who at that hour stood at the foot of the Cross together with the Mother (of Jesus), but it is also true of every disciple of Christ, of every Christian (45.3)."

The Englishwoman Caryll Houselander (1901-1954), in The Reed of God, has captured the beauty of Mary in a simple yet profound way: "The one thing she did is the one thing that we all have to do, namely, to bear Christ into the world."

In St. Luke's gospel (Luke 1:28), the apostle emphasizes Mary's pure and immaculate state with his use of the unique Greek word κεχαριτωμένη, a word used only once in the entire New Testament of the Bible, a word describing Mary as full of grace.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the LORD is with thee, blessed are you among all women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death. Amen!

Quick Takes Friday

Joining Jen at Conversion Diary for Quick Takes Friday!

~ 1 ~
With the late Easter, WWD's two-week Easter break, and only 4 weeks to go, I have some serious senioritis, and I'm ready for school to be over. I can't wait to switch out of the schoolday routine (making lunches, helping with homework, driving all over the place) and into the summer routine (hanging out at the pool and more hanging out at the pool). I mean it--I am totally sick of school. I can only imagine how the kids must feel! :)

~ 2 ~
Speaking of driving all over the place, the girls now have soccer on Monday and Wednesday, running on Tuesday and Thursday, and gymnastics on Thursday and Friday. Seriously, I totally feel I spend hours and hours in the car every day. I think this is because I actually do spend hours and hours in the car every day. I need a better solution--audiobooks, or something, because I'm bored out of my mind and also quite tired of having MPD watching so many movies in the van.

The thing about audiobooks is that with so many different passengers in and out of the van at various times, I'm thinking that it would get really frustrating for people to try to keep up with the stories. (Not so for the movies, bc they're usually movies that only MPD cares about--Go Diego Go!--and they watch them in such endless loops that no one misses much anyway.

Got any advice for me on using car time more productively? The trips are actually pretty short--10-15 minutes each, round and round town, and I like to chat with the kids (not to mention being a safe driver), so talking on the phone isn't really a great option.

~ 3 ~
Was the Royal Wedding awesome or what? I wasn't particularly excited about it beforehand, but when we watched it last Friday night, I couldn't tear myself away from it. So magical--especially because the bride was just so unbelievably beautiful! That gorgeous carriage ride from Westminster Abbey through the spring-blooming streets to Buckingham Palace was the best part, I thought.

~ 4 ~
As a matter of fact, I think the last week of April is the absolute best time of the year for a wedding. Last Tuesday the 26th, Bill and I celebrated our 14th anniversary with lunch out (while WWD took great care of MPD for us--so great to have a big kid home on Spring Break!) and a movie. Happy Anniversary, Mr. Love of my Life! :)

~ 5 ~
We rarely go to movies, of course, but couldn't wait to see Atlas Shrugged after loving the book so much, like most people do. The book was one of those once-in-a-lifetime, you're-never-the-same-afterward great reads; I remember the dreamy time of reading it for the first time in 1993, when I was working on a rather intense project in Toronto that involved plenty of time back and forth on airplanes. Dagny Taggart was quite the inspiration for a career-minded girl like me, back in 1993.

But I'm not so sure quite what to think of the movie. I understand that it hasn't been getting great reviews, but I liked it because it was, so far, relatively true to the book, and there was plenty of fun eye candy with the main characters being so gorgeous and the stylized, historic/futuristic settings. But it also felt flat to me. I guess it's inevitable that any movie based on that majestic of a book would be disappointing. Most disappointing--that it ended so abruptly! I'd lost all sense of time and was completely unprepared for the end of Part 1. I almost wish I'd waited a few years for the box set so I could watch it all at once...nah, not really. I'll be lining up for the next part, no doubt.

What about you? Have you seen it? What did you think?

~ 6 ~
Actually, last weekend was a total emotional and sensory overload in many ways. As if Divine Mercy Sunday and JP2's beatification weren't exciting enough, there was the aforementioned Royal Wedding also, as well as the (pretty quiet this year) Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. And then, just when I was starting to relax, came the startling "We Got Osama Bin Laden" headline--how fortuitous for him, that he died on such a blessed day. But sheesh--with all this stuff going on, no wonder I haven't had much time to blog lately!

~ 7 ~
Speaking of St. Joseph the Worker, some interesting news is shaping up around here, that deserves a post of its own. Stay tuned for some news about our ch-ch-ch-changes!!

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Now go see Jen for lots of great Quick Takes!

Alleluia! He Is Risen Indeed!

Decorating Easter Eggs

Best Easter eggs ever, this year!


We had lots of sports-themed eggs this year. In addition to this Badger egg, we had a GB Packer egg (of course!), a Longhorn egg, a basketball, and a football egg. (Who knew that brown egg dye would come in so handy?!)





JPD opted out--too early in the morning for him, apparently...



We're getting ready for a very blessed Easter! Same to you and yours!

The Last Supper

On Thursday, KLD's 2nd/3rd grade class presented a sweet play about the Last Supper. It was adorable--and, of course, so was she!
How perfect that their play about the Last Supper was just a few hours before we celebrated the Holy Thursday liturgy, commemorating Jesus' institution of the Eucharist at his Passover dinner with his Apostles.

The Catholic Church claims that Christ is really present in the Eucharist, that the sacrifice of calvary is repeated at every Mass, and that he gives Himself to us in Holy Communion as food unto eternal life. ...

Let's turn to John 6 and see the context in which he says that. John 6, verse 4 tells us, "Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews was at hand." So everything that transpires within John 6 is within the context of the Passover. Jesus is talking to them now. At the time of the Passover, after multiplying these loaves, ending up filling twelve baskets with the fragments from the five barley loaves, He uses that as his point of departure for one of the most important sermons that He ever preaches and also one of the most disastrous from a human perspective.
...
He goes on talking about this bread and He goes on talking about Moses in context with that bread. For instance, in verse 32, "Jesus then said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. My Father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' They said to him, 'Lord, give us this bread always.'" Welfare state! "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger and he who believes in me shall not thirst.'" And He goes on talking about this some more. The Jews would then murmur at him in verse 41 because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven."
...
"He said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood,' which Leviticus condemns, the drinking of blood, 'unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.'"

~ From a talk by Scott Hahn / Full text here.

Thanks be to God for His most precious gift of the Holy Eucharist within the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! How beautifully the Easter Triduum begins!

Hot Cross Buns

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

Big Brother Little Brother

MPD loves having his hero brother home for Spring Break!

Making bunny and chick cookies for Easter...



And coloring Easter eggs...

My dad was the oldest of four brothers, and his youngest brother is 9 years younger than my dad. My Uncle Andy--the youngest uncle--always says that, growing up, my dad was absolutely his hero. WWD is 9 years older than MPD too. Since I have only one younger brother myself, I can hardly even imagine how big WWD must seem to MPD, and JPD also. How cool to have such a giant, smart, basketball-and-football-playing, Mass-serving(!), brother! I'm so proud of my boys!

Game On

Well, I couldn't resist taking my girls down into the big city today to see the most influential woman in American politics today. It was so cool. Sarah's speech was historic, and it was fun to feel like a part of the incredible things that are going on in our state and in our country these days. Wisconsin is certainly the place to be!

We had a great time standing in the sleet and snow for a few hours, watching the crowds and checking out all the protest signs!

My friend's daughter sang the opening national anthem, and she was amazing.

Since we got there early, we were right up front next to the press' camera stand, and MRD was able to sneak up onto the platform and snap a few great pics of Sarah!



What a blustery day--and I bet the girls will never forget it, even if their most vivid memory is how cold their toes were!!



(Meanwhile, the 4 men in our family were--you guessed it--at a basketball tournament.)

He's at it again!

You gotta love that C.S. Lewis...

"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’"

~ C. S. Lewis

Quick Takes Friday

Joining Jen at Conversion Diary for Quick Takes Friday!

~ 1 ~
These Wisconsin politics...man, you cannot make this stuff up. I thought we'd seen the last of the drama when the 14 senators-on-the-run came back from their flight to Illinois. But this Supreme Court election is a whole new chapter. Who ever heard of a Supreme Court race being so exciting and too close to call at midnight on election day? Now, after we thought the democrat (oh, right, it's a nonpartisan position--yeah right) won by 204 votes last night, 10K more votes showed up, which flipped the election back to the incumbent. I couldn't ask for a better government lesson for the kids than living in Wisconsin in 2011!

And I must share with you Bill's master creation election flyer:







~ 2 ~
Remember my bad experience back in January with discovering that I weighed 15 pounds more than I thought? Well, guess what...I lost at least 10 of them. (A few more than 10, but I'm not admitting those were ever really there.) Really! Go me! And that was before...

~ 3 ~
I started doing Atkins on April 1. I love Atkins. It's so easy. You do have to be really committed, which is why I've been putting it off for way too long. But I've been having all these awesome omelettes for breakfast and filets for dinner. Yum!

~ 4 ~
As if anything could be overshadowing our wild Wisconsin politics in the news, now we have an impending federal government shutdown. I think it's imperative that we take care of our armed forces, but apart from that, I say bring on the shutdown. I agree with this post from Pat Archbold, that so much of this is really all coming down to the defunding of Planned Parenthood. What surprises me is that so many people have the misperception that Planned Parenthood is actually good for women. Ugh.

~ 5 ~
The girls started a new program called Girls on the Run, which involves a group of about 20 girls meeting with coaches to practice running and play games and hear about self-esteem for girls and nutrition and stuff. I like the running part, and so do the girls, and I think they're having fun with their friends. So far, they're running about 2 miles at a time, which is awesome!

~ 6 ~
And just when we thought basketball was over...we decided to sign WWD up for summer AAU ball. It turns out that his would-be team is going to have a really amazing coach, and I'm super excited about this opportunity for WWD. Can't wait to see him play with a whole new team!

~ 7 ~
MPD's potty training is pretty much a done deal. We can even go out of the house now, and he'll go potty almost anywhere. I'm so glad I waited until he was 3 and really ready. It has been so easy (can't believe I'm saying that) and he is so proud of being a big boy! Maybe by child #5, I've got it all figured out. (ha!) But seriously--the best advice I've read on this--and I've read a lot over the years--is to regard potty training as similar to learning to walk. Don't get stressed when they fall down, don't argue with them about it or insist on anything, try not to cry when dealing with poopy underpants(!), just cheer for them and make sure they know how excited you are that they are growing up. It's a big achievement--his, not mine, of course! :)

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Happy Spring--it's finally here!
Do head over to Jen's place for more fun Quick Takes!

Soccer Girl

MRD has been playing indoor soccer this past couple of months, and she's having a blast.

Tonight she scored 3 goals in the game, which is a career record for her!

I like watching indoor soccer; the artificial turf makes it faster than outdoor grass, and the walls provide a barrier so the ball (almost) never goes out of bounds.

It's amazing how tough the girls are--they fight for the ball and slam up against the boards in a way that is reminiscent of hockey! But they're still girls--tonight one of MRD's teammates knocked an opponent over, then turned and apologized before going after the ball.

Here's MRD, kicking one of her goals tonight:

Go MRD go!

Lenten Musings

I love this one:

"What is the point of a retreat? I should put it like this--that God means to do something in and to your soul. It may be something quite little; almost certainly it will seem quite little. But then, of course, that little may be the thin end of a wedge. He wants to do a sort of tidying up, a sort of spring cleaning in your life. Perhaps He will open your eyes to some fault; perhaps He will begin to wean you away from some bad habit; some dangerous friendship, perhaps He will give you a glimpse of some way (you hadn't thought about before) in which, later on, He means you to serve Him."

~ Msgr. Ronald Knox