I am thankful for #755 on my official, original list. "Jesse's love for me- flowers!" it reads, but I have also been jotting them on the notepad on my phone and in a paper journal more recently. In my paper journal, I haven't been numbering them consecutively, but grouping them instead. This month I took time to list "2013 Gratitude" and #20 reads "all the bedrooms worked on." Gotta love new year organizing, even a tiny bit of it!
I am hoping and praying for… my sister and some friends with health issues right now. Also for one friend who is fostering three siblings. And another who is nearing the end of her first! pregnancy- so exciting for her family.
On my mind… our new homeschool rhythm: M & M are no longer going to the pre-school at our parish a couple times a week. It was great while it lasted but I have felt God calling me to center us all at home together during our days, especially with the increased running to activities we do at night now. I'm giving this my all in hopes of discerning God's will for the long term for us more clearly.
Noticing that the kids… seem happy with our new rhythm here at home. Mary especially. And I am, too, though adjusting to less quiet.
A few plans for the month… Actually a re-cap now that the month is ending: Jesse & I will talked with our parish RCIA group about marriage as Sacrament. One older boy had a judo tournament out-of-town this month. We bought season tickets to our local theatre as a family Christmas gift and went to our first show of the year this month. We will continue to settle into our new rhythm of play and school work.
From the bookshelves… I finished March this month. So good. In a disturbing, haunting way. I find myself thinking about the Transcendentalists still. And abolitionists as a group, especially because I caught some of "The Abolitionists" documentary series on PBS. I would have been fascinated with them had I lived then. I am now. But back to March, I really enjoyed thinking about the family of Little Women from the adults' perspective. We have watched the movie (with Winona Ryder, well-done I think) since I read this. All my men (little & big) enjoyed it and one asked to read Little Men, which he thoroughly enjoyed.
In the kitchen… I have been baking a lot of our breads recently, super-breads made with whole wheat flour, wheat germ, and flax meal. But not since getting sick mid-month so I need to get back on that...
On the Church calendar… well, we celebrated the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord so we are officially finished with the Christmas season and in Ordinary Time. I have not been good about sharing our holiday and holy day celebrations lately... I think because we were not home. We traveled for Thanksgiving and it was non-stop busy so I took almost no photos. Then, we traveled for Christmas, after Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at home, and I literally took no photos because we left in such a hurry in our attempt to beat the "blizzard" (This is a relative term.) that I left my camera at home (And we didn't beat it- we drove in it all the way!). But I did get some shots of our Feast of St. Nick table. This is when we do stockings and Santa, December 6.
The banner-looking things in the background were very fun Advent calendars, with a date-stamped envelope for each day that was filled with a treat, all made with love by a close family friend. Christmas came early.
Something new I did this year was celebrate the kids' Baptism Days all together on the Sunday that was the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. I used to be good about celebrating them throughout the year but since M & M, I have slacked off. This year I pulled out their Baptism candles and our Family Book of Life with the memories & photos of all our Sacraments on this Sunday. We reminisced about their Baptisms, ate white sugar cookies, and talked about the symbols of Baptism: light & the candles, water, the white garment. I used our Advent wreath to hold the candles. I think this is a fun way to teach kids about Baptism and is even more simple than doing individual Baptism Days. I think the Baptism of the Lord always falls on the third Sunday after Christmas (1st Sun: Feast of the Holy Family; 2nd: Epiphany). Correct me in the Comments if I am wrong!
Speaking of Epiphany, I also played catch-up that Sunday because I had not made a birthday cake for Baby Jesus yet. I like to do this (like lots of others do) for at least a couple years when we have a toddler(s) because they really love birthdays and seem to "get" that Christmas is Jesus' birthday when they sing "Happy Birthday" to Baby Jesus and eat his cake. This year we did that on Epiphany with our Epiphany "King Cake," where the cake has a tiny baby hidden & baked into it. No pic of that but it is an old (probably Eurpean?) Catholic tradition.
Pictures I’m sharing…both from a north Texas Christmas. :) (And when do I get to claim to be Texan- is 17 years long enough??? I've now lived here as long as I lived/grew up in Maryland. At least the kids can all legitimately claim to be Texans!)
This was still a leap for me to buy these but I have loved them! I also really like English riding boots. But one does not learn English riding from a New Mexican cowboy- husband.
