Always a Celebration Around the Corner

I am SOOO thankful to be a Catholic Mother. We have celebrated Baptism Days for many years. I can name them all--April 14, Nov 14, May 5, August 28, May 5--notice how I began to double up on days!! But poor Thaddeus (Aug 28) often gets lost in the shuffle. After John's B-day, his own B-day, and school prep, the last week of August snaps by with no Baptism Day cake and Holy Card.

But God loves me and wants me to have the chance to honor my precious babies. The Feast of St. Jude Thaddeus!!! October 28! PERFECT!! His Godmother Sondra was even able to come. I can claim good Mom status again by giving this special little soul a few minutes of the spotlight, and nurturing his connection with his Patron Saint. The Saint of desperate cases. . . .like me.

A boy and His Poet

From an early age Eddyblouin's memorize the poetry of Robert Lewis Stevenson. "The Rain" is the first poem in kindergarten. John Henry had the most memorable rendition: "Da Wain is Wainin all awound. . ."

As they grow the books of RLS become popular also. He is everywhere in our curricula.

A few months ago I got my hands on a little, old biography for youth. I gave it to John Henry. We finished it tonight. We were both crying as we read the epitaph inscribed on his tomb in Samoa.

Now my little sailor boy want to travel to Samoa to visit his grave and farm. Scotland and France will probably be on his list too. After a week of hectic, stressful, non-school packing, an night like tonight helps me to realize that what my children learn is not limited to school hours.

God Bless Robert Lewis Stevenson.

What a Difference an Hour Makes

It has been a while, too long, but last night I sat in a dark, quiet church, in front of Jesus in the Eucharist for an Hour of prayer time. WOW!!! Talk about "source and summit"! The insights, comfort, reflectiveness, and pure love I felt was enough to fortify me for my busy week, and help me resolve to strive for growth in my own walk with Christ. There is no Humility like sitting with Jesus Humility.
God is Good--all the Time!!

The New Jump Rope!

This past week was try-outs for our local Jump Rope Team. Thalia really wanted to try out. Mary Catherine, not so much. I got MC to go just for the sake of participating. Guess who made the team?

To be fair, this is a middle School team, so the coach knows that it's Mary catherine's last year eligable--while Thalia has 3 more years to be on the team.

We are all excited to watch the team practice and perform!

DRAT!!

I made the virtuous decision 2 days ago NOT to open the presents from Oregon until my shower tomorrow. . .then I thought I might just take a peek. . .I saw TISSUE PAPER!! Lots of Tissue paper wrapped around the gift inside!

Complaining to Sondra about the wrap job that was too thorough to get through easily she responded, "Sound like Teresa knows you well." HAHA!

Can't wait till tomorrow!
I love my friends!!

I have no Idea. .

This is the photo I was told to provide for my shower on Saturday. Bathtub was optional--that was just where the boys were. . .

Small Town Driving

For many year I have been familiar with the neighborly steering wheel wave. Thanks to Cumberstone Road I had been in the habit of raising one or more fingers off the wheel to acknowledge the neighbor driving past. So moving to New Harbour, the Bristol Mills Maine was not a huge cultural change for me.

But one thing I had not experienced until moving to this sweet mid-coast region was the social aspect of driving in town. I now an acquainted with enough people (La Leche League, Library story time, narrating puppet shows all over town, Weight Watchers, St. Patrick's--I get around!) that driving through town becomes a fun gathering of friends passing each other with friendly smiles, waves, shouts of "Hello!" etc.

For an extrovert like me, this is a dream come true! And as far as I can imagine from my days riding the subway in Toronto, where you are packed in like sardines and working hard to deny the existence of the people around you.

Keeping Little Boys in Thier Beds

I have 3 little boys. Two of them sleep on their own little beds. Weggie shares the king with John and I, though I'm looking forward to him moving into his brother's little bed when the older boys move up to twins next month (4 weeks 1 day till the move!).

But the weather has gotten cold. Even when we have a fire, we bank it at night so nighttime is chilly. And anyway, last night was our first fire of the autumn. Someone exclaimed "This is weird. The house is so WARM!" Yes, dear--that's called comfort...

Boys have been migrating in the wee hours into my bed. I am a loving, and patient woman. Compassionate, and slow to anger. But I am also gaining girth with a new baby within, and struggling with the timeless challenge of getting comfortable with a big belly. I don't look kindly on small children encroaching on my space. Two nights ago, rather than struggle to lift large children (in the day they are little, at night when I'm 25 weeks along they become VERY BIG!) back to their beds, I went and crawled into Thaddeus' bed. It's basically a crib mattress on the floor.

For some reason I had a dream that I was paralyzed from the waist down and moved around in a wheelchair. My curled up legs did not feel good after a couple of hours of that!

So last night we put extra blankets on the heat-seeking boys' beds. At 4-ish I got a hot water bottle for fussy Thaddeus. Tucking him back in, with three blankets, he complained he was still cold. With each blanket he said "Cold. Cold. Cold." Even at 4 am I could appreciate his great comedic timing. I told him I had a surprise. Put together the water bottle, and VOILA!! Baby in his own bed!

Let the day begin!