JimME poem

A Morning With My Big Girl

This morning i may have had a little crying anxiety fit brought on by sleep deprivation and feeling not so great and having WAY to much to get done. A lens had gotten popped out of Barbara's glasses rims with the rim snapped, and NO ONE could find it anywhere. 

 I was determined not to let the devil get the best of me and dissuade me from getting to school Mass  and we had made it- I was pushing the stroller in with Leo at my side but Barbara was lagging behind back at the car. 

Finally she came in the doors and she was crying holding up a broken backpack spilling forth heavy books and papers. Barbara RARELY ever cries. Turns out she was embarrassed to have to wear her sports goggles (well yeah but they're the only backup we had but I totally don't blame her!) to school and the broken backpack was the clincher. She asked through her tears can you just take me home?? 

 So I did. Along the way we formulated a new plan. 1. Set up an appointment for ASAP at the eyeglasses store to get an exam and new glasses. 2. Do a thorough scouring of the room to find the lens so we could pop it back in and we'd have something for her to wear besides the goggles until the new glasses arrive. 3. Get an old but still sturdy Colombia backpack from the basement and cut owls from her owl fabric and affix them to the backpack with badge magic to jazz it up. 4. Go to eye exam appt. 

Even though i still had tons more to do in the afternoon, All in all it was a nice morning with my daughter who is growing up too quickly. I was sad we missed her getting a high honors and goal achieving person award at the ceremony after Mass, but she didn't even care about it. She was really happy to revamp the backpack while playing her Wicked musical sings with me and to pick out new glasses. Afterwards I brought her back to school around 11 so she'd still be eligible to play in her basketball tournament tonight.  Love this girl!!

It's now the evening, made muffins gor moms group, we had school pickup, back out to basketball game, home again, Jimmy off to HIS basketball practice, I'm desperately trying to clean the house for moms group while running back in to put Mary's paci back in and roll her back out of the corner (her new bedtime routine involves several round of this and then she's out but today she is way overtired from all the screaming at the basketball game ) and Robbie is thankfully bathing the little boys who are overdue for a scrubbing. I'm seriously exhausted. I want my friends with more kids than me to give me some pointers and motivational speeches! Maybe they would also tell me to get off blogger then! :) truth is I need a little moment of escapism. What a REALLY need is some Adoration time but that has been elusive too. I tried to publish this earlier but it didn't publish so I came back to vent. :) ok off to put that paci back in, hoping its the last time!! 

Winter Blooms

On St. Barbara's day my Dad cut us a branch from their Japanese cherry tree. He had to trudge through snow to get to it, and the branch was as dead as could be in the dead of winter. According to the legend, St. Barbara had cut a cherry branch from outside the window where she was held captive, she watered it with her drinking water and it blossomed, cheering her in the days just before her martyrdom. 

Supposedly you could try this at home, starting on St Barbaras day and finding blooms just in time to adorn the table for Christmas. Well this seemed like an interesting if not challenging activity to recreate,  seeing how I cannot even keep previously living and thriving houseplants alive much less make a dead branch bloom. But we kept it on the stove where it would get warm, hammered the ends if the branch, making it more receptive to the water and then changed out the water in the cup every couple days with warm water. 

Well, it bloomed! I was so excited that it actually worked! Given my two black thumbs it really was a miracle!

I almost left it at that and chucked the branch at that point. After all, flat space is at a huge premium in my kitchen without a cup o' branch taking up valuable counter space real estate. But there were some hard knots visible that looked like the might have buds ready to burst out. So I kept it a while longer and kept changing the water. Now? There are blooms flowering all over this once dead branch! 

My takeaways:

There are many situations, and people in our lives that seem impossible- spiritually dead even. Warm them with love little by little, and fill them with the water of prayer. Our God specializes in bringing new life out of death, even if we have no skills ourselves! 

Don't get overly excited when you see signs of growth and think "my work here is done". There could be dozens of other buds waiting to bloom!!! God wants each of us to bloom fully and abundantly, giving more than we ever expect. 

Most importantly perhaps is where my little analogy leaves off- and what is yet to come. As amazing and miraculous as this growth was, it's a stick in a cup- those blooms are going to fade and then it's all over.  I never should have plucked it off the tree if I want it to continue blooming year to year. If we want to see real sustained growth we have to remain "on the vine" and be patient enough to wait out the winter. People and situations will have growth in Gods own time and through HIS life giving water, not our little cupfulls.   Hope sees past the hard knots and snow covered deadness. But Sometimes, in the dead of winter it's just nice to remember that miracles do happen all the time. 

2014!

For Christmas I found a service to have my entire blog printed as a gift to Robbie. He really enjoyed it and it renewed my interest in keeping up thus blog as a journal of sorts. It is a fun trip down memory lane to look back at posts from back years ago.  

I came down with a stomach bug that had me completely out of commission on New Years Eve day- I think Mary wasn't feeling that well either because she slept a lot of the day with me and I nursed her between throwing up, then Barbara helped out with holding her too. That evening after work Robbie took all the kids to my parents for the party and I stayed home in bed. When they got home just after 8 (no staying til midnight this year!) he had the pit feeling in his stomach and was soon throwing up having chills etc too. The next day I was better enough to be up with the kids. I was sad we weren't well enough to make Mass for the solemnity of Mary but Robbie was completely out the entire day and I was needing to rest to get by. Nevertheless, i had some great sitting around fun memories with the kids! Photos : 

Settlers of CatanAmerica 

 

Sammy reading to me for real!

More Catan- this game went on all day

Sam and Leo got to play on my new iPad from Robbie

Exhausted again after getting up to sit with us for dinner and family rosary- my sweethearts! :)

Well it has been quite a while since I've taken the time to blog, and I don't really have any desire to do any sort of catch up post, except to say that this pregnancy has flown by and I am due in a month with our baby girl! Which is probably why stumbling upon this poem by my big girl made me cry. ;) Yes it is probably bad that I am posting it from her journal, but I think both of us will be happy to have it documented for posterity someday.  

Liturgical Feast Files!

I've had this idea brewing for a while now... I had started an accordion file by month of feast days that we like to celebrate. Well, this was fine for coloring pages and such, but what about special statues, candles, or children's books pertaining to that feast? I saw liturgical "bins" on Catholic Pinterest, and my magazine file idea started to ferment.

A couple months ago Robbie and I journeyed to IKEA to get Barbara a bed, and I picked up some white magazine files. They have been sitti g around waiting for me to assemble them and put them into action.

This afternoon Barbara is at an event with a friend, Jimmy has a friend over, Sam and Leo play for hours with their blocks and cars, Robbie is getting his tires shaved or something at SAMs club, so I thought I might as well... And voila!!! I was going to put them down the basement but really excited I thought of moving a couple things and putting them in the china cabinet (where I now keep the printer as well!) and I LOVE how it looks also it is convenient to pull out and put away at the dining room table where we'd be displaying/ using it anyhow! Originally I was going to have a file per month, but this way they sl fit in the cabinet, one per two months should be plenty of room, and I even have room (tight fit) for one more file with all the religious coloring/activity books!

Now I just need to finish filling them! After I sort in what I already have then I will leave it so each month I can add in things as we go. In a couple years, feast days on the fly will be a breeze!

Little Boy Blue

I want to record a funny little phase that Leo is going through. He is obsessed with the color blue. He always points out everything blue and has now taken to insisting on having his food and drink in blue bowls, plates and cups. Pretty silly! Here he is enjoying his food off a trifecta of blue tableware...

9 year old bliss...

What could be better for a sports crazy 9 year olds birthday "party" than a trip to Lambeau with two of his best buds and his Dad! I hope they are having fun up there- I think the grin on J's face tells me all I need to know! They are making some great memories, and meanwhile back at home we are getting ready for a family party for my two March bday boys.

Leo's 3rd Birthday

Lord, hear our prayer

With all the crabbiness and lack of charity towards each other seeming ti fly around between family members lately, leaving me wondering where I've gone wrong - these words were a gem that reminded me that even at our worst there is room for grace to be at work if we ask for it! Prayer Intentions from Jimmy, a few days before his 9th birthday: "For the homeless, for the poor, for the sick and wounded that they might find healing, and for the Cardinals in the Conclave that they choose a good Pope who will lead us closer to Jesus." Amen!

Alpha Saints

Barbara and I are finally making the Saint peg dolls to go with the book and poster from "An Alphabet of Catholic Saints"!

Mama's boys

Maggie told me I need to write this down.  Yesterday I was called to pick up Sammy from school an hour early.  Apparently he had just been crying about everything all morning.  When I picked him up and we were leaving I asked him what the problem was.  'You broke my heart" he said, deadpan.  "What??" I asked in shock, "What do you mean"? "I was so sad that you were not with me.."  Simultaneous feeling of awwww, and LOL what a manipulator. :)  Sammy Sam Sam.  As crazy as he is, it can't be denied that he is still a Mommy's boy.  When I chapheroned the field trip he was so happy to sit next to me on the bus and just snuggle into my arm- he didn't care at all about hanging out with  his little buddies who were in my group. He was all about mom.  As frustrating as it can be sometimes, (and will be even more once the new baby arrives, especially given that Leo is more that TRIPLE the mamas boy that Sam is!) it is still such a sweet phase to savor andremember!  :)