Part 3

How we bribe our kids to learn American History. We promise treats on all of our field trips!

Part 2

I love this picture! Proof of how 10 years of marriage can change a man. When I married my husband, he had no interest in American History. Now, he's even more facinated then me at these historical reenactments.

How a History Buff Spends Her Memorial Day Weekend--Part 1

We had an important 150 Anniversary of a Civil War battle in nearby Harper's Ferry, WV today. This smiling civil war reenactor is a home-school grad who picked us out as fellow home-schoolers immediately.

Proof I Am Crazy

I took a nine week old newborn "tent" camping and lived to tell the tale!

Wondering

It's a source of mystery to my why my five year old can drop her popsicle and scream "Mom, Help Me" as if she were dying, and yet....
she can cause the toilet to overflow into a massive flood--
which travels out the door,
 down our hall,
and drip through the floor boards,
causing it to "rain" in my basement laundry room

and all I get is a soft, squeeky "Mommy, there's a problem here."

Relief

The new medicine I picked up on Monday is working!!!! I have a totally different baby in my house today. She eats. She sleeps. She looks around --interested in the world around her. She isn't red. She isn't crying hysterically. She isn't even a light sleeper now--she sleeps "like a baby!" I can't believe how tense I was over the past two months, until suddenly the knot in the pit of my stomach is gone.

Thanks for the prayers!

True Charity

There are church friends who bring you a new baby meal.

Then there are church friends who throw your five year old a birthday party at their house because your newborn has colic.

My Maria has TWO birthday parties at other people's homes this month. We went to the first "butterfly" birthday party today. Darling! Next week, she's having a "cake boss" birthday. I commissioned a new acquaintance at church to bake a birthday cake for my Maria. Out of the blue she said "So your little girl loves to bake? Does she want to come here and I'll help her make fondant hearts and butterflies for her birthday cake?" I said "Can I bring gift bags for all of your children and call it her fifth birthday party?"

If you're wondering what to get a Mom of multiple kids who already has lots of baby clothes--throw a birthday party for the new baby's older sibling. True heaven on earth!

Why I Bring My Babies To Mass

So Grandma can say "I remember when he was crawling under the pews!" and we can all get tears in our eyes at how quickly life passes at her Grandson's First Communion.

Prayer Request

Bonnie E. from Learning To Be a Newlywed is in labor this morning. She's a post-NICU Mom. Please say a prayer for her to have a safe and calm delivery.

Missing the Mark

On the way home from my son's First Communion, we passed a sign advertising a sermon at the Independent Baptist Church: "What Kind of Women Change the World?"

I got so sad.

There is only one woman who changed the world, Mary.

The rest of us women are only influential to the degree that we model our Mom's virtues and seek out her advice.

My Mom. Your Mom. Their Mom. So many good, loving Christians who don't know what a powerful friend they have in Mary, the Mother of God.

This May, let us love Mommy Mary double to make up for all of our siblings in Christ who don't know how to send her a Mother's Day card with each Hail Mary.

More Thoughts on Hospitality

(for JoAnn, et all)

I'm starting to think that hospitality is not so much about "doing tasks" (aka Martha Stewart) but more about clearing a physical and metaphysical place for community to happen inside. Community bonds don't just "happen". The bonds between church members, family and friends are encouraged to grow when they have the right conditions of time and of space.

My First Communion Party was totally stripped down. I literally cleaned my house for 25 minutes at 10:30 PM. The only thing I could offer in the way of hospitality was a shell of a "house". Yet that space was enough. Two families had a place to go after an important religious experience.

There's a lot of negativity about throwing parties, especially for First Communion. Some people believe it detracts from the main event, etc. For me, I thought a simple party highlighted the importance of this day for my son. We got him a new blue blazer as a symbol of the importance of the Eucharist.  He's a young man now. He's privileged to eat God. He needs to dress in a blazer and tie now when he attends Mass. In the same way, we didn't just go home and eat donuts as usual after Sunday Mass. We had a party! With new friends from church! We anticipated the delights of the heavenly banquet after celebrating the summit of Christian life, the Eucharist. Now its time to go play some basketball!

For JoAnn

How to throw a First Communion Party while caring for a colicky baby. Low key entertaining at its best. Supermarket cake + ruffles potato chips and donated sandwhiches.  (I even made the guests blow up the party balloons themselves when they arrived!) Also note that my son is out of his church clothes in record speed.

Alex's First Communion Class

I love that each boy stands a little straighter after their First Holy Communion. They are now real men of Faith.

Alex's First Communion

 

Why I Love My Husband

Amazed that my husband took his son on a father/son hike in the Appalachian Mountains for a First Communion Retreat today. Even more amazed that he quoted "Uphill" by Christina Rossetti during their hike and used it as a metaphor for the Christian journey. So blessed to be married almost eleven years to this man!

UPHILL
by: Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

OES the road wind up-hill all the way?

Yes, to the very end.

Will the day's journey take the whole long day?

From morn to night, my friend.

 

But is there for the night a resting-place?

A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.

May not the darkness hide it from my face?

You cannot miss that inn.

 

Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?

Those who have gone before.

Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?

They will not keep you standing at that door.

 

Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?

Of labour you shall find the sum.

Will there be beds for me and all who seek?

Yea, beds for all who come.

How Can You Afford To Have Five Kids?

My husband came up with a creative answer  to this common question this weekend.

Hannah is my hobby.
Alex is my Lexis.
Maria is my bigger house.
Tess is my regular golf weekend with the boys.
Abigail is my fishing boat.

Due to the cross of infertility, not every American family can have five kids. However, its sort of a misnomer to believe that nobody but Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie can afford to have five kids.

Cures for Colic

In the past two weeks, I've read 600 articles about how to cure colic. Seems that I'm blessed with a kid where nothing works. (Or more accurately, where no technique works reliably all the time).

Here's what does work--taking care of Mom so that she can withstand the stress of hearing colic crying bouts for 4 to 5 hours a day.

Here are the things that I've used to so far to distract myself

-emailing friends
-having real tea parties with an adorable 5 year old
-making sarcastic jokes with my 9 year old
-reading the entire four part series of Nora Robert's "The Bride Quartet"
-watching Celebrity Apprentice on Hulu
-making out with my husband (which never fails to lift my mood but also runs the risk of creating another colicky Benjamin soon. LOL!)
-and my new favorite trick--going strawberry picking! Who cares if the baby wails unfailing next to you while there is blue sky above you and fresh strawberries to pick.

I feel bad about the constant distraction, however. I can't really picture my role model Mommy Mary eagerly turning the pages of a romance novel while breastfeeding the infant Jesus. Wouldn't she just supposed to stare lovingly at the baby's head the while time? Even when Jesus turned as red as chilipepper from constant crying?

WHY don't the artists paint Jesus as a real baby anytime in those glorious Middle Age oil paintings? Dude, any mother can look sweetly at her child when he's fed, clean, and happy. It's takes a REAL daughter of Mary to look lovingly at a baby who is covered in poop, screaming red with rage, and likes to bite hard during the latch on process.

I'm a fraud. I feel like a "real" Carmelite would just jump into this suffering experience and not waste one precious drop of spiritual insight from this cross.

On The Eve of My Son's First Communion

My son's First Communion experience is proving so different from my daughter's path. Hannah was physically pained by being denied First Communion. We had this long count-down to her First Communion day starting at age 4. Since we went to a large church, Hannah was part of an official class of 40 kids. There were First Communion retreats and practices. I had some confidence she had some appreciation for the magnitude of this sacrament.

Two years later, Alex's experience is totally different. We moved to a small country parish. There are only three  boys receiving First Communion this weekend. The parish has no recognized "prep" program, it's entirely reliant on the parents. Our family just had a new baby added to the mix, so we didn't spend a whole year carefully going over the St. Joseph children's catechism. It was more "catch as catch can" over the diner table.

Unlike his older sister, Alex has shown zero enthusiasm for this Sacrament.

As an overly scrupulous convert, I'm tempted to worry that my son isn't prepared to receive his First Communion. Sure he knows his stuff. Yet he's not showing perfect reverence and awe. There's no silence and awe when we do Adoration together.

There was a moment, however, that I was reminded about how much seven year olds NEED the Eucharist, even if they can't perfectly sit through an hour Mass yet. Last night, my son started slamming car doors in jealousy after his older sister won a medal in her soccer championship and he did not. I disciplined him. Then I hugged him. He started to cry. I hugged him again. And I told him that Jesus really understood his hurt. (My son had played the best soccer game ever in three seasons, but it wasn't enough for his team to win a medal. because they came in 3rd place instead of 2nd). I told my son to let his big sister have her moment, because the rest of the weekend was going to all be about him and his First Communion. I said, Jesus knew it was hard to be kind after a painful soccer loss, but that was exactly why he was coming into  his heart through the Eucharist.  I told my son to "hold on because help was on the way."

I don't know if my son is going to "get it" when Sunday's First Communion comes. But that is okay. I didn't really "get it" when my First Communion happened at age 27. I trust that the grace from the Eucharist is real. I believe Jesus pours himself equally into little girls who delight in bowing their heads inside fresh white veils, and little boys who are openly annoyed st their itchy blue blazers.

Pope Pius the X, pray for us. Thank you for letting young children receive Holy Communion. They need strength for the Christian journey just like adults.

Amazing Video for a Blah Home School Day! RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

"Our Chair" by Chris Sedlmeyer (a poem about the Little Flower)

“Our Chair”

Simple wood, woven seat

Simple wood
woven seat
worn light on one side
on the right, where she slid in to sit and write
and slid back out again
to sleep at night.

Silent chair
If you could speak
Would she chide us for the trinkets that we keep
Our pedestals and plaques
Scraps of paper
Bits of cloth
And all the framed odds and ends
Of a saint held in awe?

Humble chair
Wooden legs
That bore the weight of her Little Way
You would know better than I
What she would say.

How she longed to be a hidden heart,
Just another anonymous nun
Asleep in her father’s arms.
Not a saint in a shrine
But a name unheard of
Just a woman of simple acts of trust
Made holy only by her Savior’s love.

by Chris Sedlmeyer

read the whole post here.