All Saints Day & Living the Church calendar in Oct., part 2

We will be celebrating the Feast of All Saints a day late, on the Feast of All Souls, with our Catholic homeschool group and a party.  We are excited because it has been a couple years since we dressed up & really celebrated All Saints in style.  All the kids intend to dress up as their patrons: St. Jude, Bl. Pope JPII, St. Mark, and the Blessed Mother Mary.  (We decided for Mary, that is that she would follow the theme. :) )  This will be after they dress up for Halloween as a convict, an Indian, a lion, & a pumpkin princess, respectively.  I'll try to post pics of both sets of costumes.

In the meantime, here's a sweet prayer our DRE used in the RCIC class for All Saints:

The saints were really amazing, God;
their love for you was great.
They prayed and preached and spread your word,
even when faced with hate.
Helping, sharing, spreading grace,
they'd give their last dime.
Now they're blessed with the joy of heaven
until the end of time.

But the saints were still just people, too;
they sometimes did things wrong.
They doubted, worried, and sinned at times,
and didn't always get along.
So maybe there's still hope for me,
to be a named saint, too.
Lord give me strength to try again,
so I can live with you.

Amen.

from Catholic Prayer Book for Children, edited by Julianne M. Will

2012 Birthday Book pics

John Paul's 8th.  He always requests a cookie cake.

Jesse requested Pioneer Woman's brownies w/ mocha icing this year.

Mary celebrated her 2nd early w/ me @ Mimi's in Ft. Worth. 

On her real day, we did strawberry-pink cupcakes w/ cream cheese frosting & pink sprinkles.  This one looks more like the red ones Mark took to his class at nursery school on his real day.

Mimi bought my delicious cake.  Double chocolate.  :)

Mark's 4th- "red American-Spider-Man birthday."  With beloved Anna over to play for the morning.

Only Jude's left to celebrate this year... he usually chooses fall-themed foods for his birthday, including pumpkin pie...

Still catching up: Later Spring & Summer 2012

Mark's trip to the WF Train Museum.

We love CSA- Asian greens were one of the best parts.

A couple of Lubbock pics for you, MJ.  Beautiful Miriam.  We were her Confirmation sponsors.

God-brothers.  Little Man Cerda.



They were loving this year-of-Texas-history outing.





Catching up: Best of Spring 2012

John Paul's First Communion on Easter Day! 



Fall Quick Takes

1.

I copied the "Daybook" post idea from better bloggers than myself before, now I'm swiping the "Quick Takes" idea.  Short random thoughts are the best I can hope for these busy days.  Just wanted to acknowledge my lack of original thought.

2. 

Does "everyone" (as in the couple friends who occasionally check this!) know Jesse is home?  For about 3 months now.  His deployment was cancelled.  (Too long of a story for Quick Takes.) Home but very busy at work, so busy he often cannot even talk for more than about 3 minutes a day.  I'm not complaining, just observing.  Really.  :)

3.  

The kids and I are enjoying the new school year: new "curriculum" for the big boys, fun new sports for them, too.  Littles love their days at home & their days at our parish's nursery school.  That's been a good rhythm for us...but also...

4. 

Have you seen how much great stuff  Elizabeth Foss has at the/her other blog Serendipity?  Planning on doing her Catholic, Waldorf-inspired "Alphabet Path" at home with M & M.  I'm slowly but surely including the Littles in more & more of our "official" homeschooling times & work ... instead of doing much of the learning separately except, of course, play & reading & outside time... I am not a natural with toddlers so things like Foss' Alphabet Path help capture my imagination & show me what's possible.

5.  

We have a Catholic homeschool group this year!  So fun for all the kids and momma.  This group is helping me to include the Littles more because we all prepare for it together.  (Maybe this should have been a Homeschooling Quick Takes!  Sorry.)

6.

Big boys and I are part of the RCIC (RCIA adapted for children) class at our parish this year, in a role similar to that of sponsors in RCIA I guess, for lack of a better label, really just as journeying friends. I am learning so much from the moms involved & the power of their faith to meet life's challenges.

7.  

Mary is trying to potty somewhat regularly.  And talking constantly, including during Mass!  She adores animals, especially our chickens & horses.  I've got to get some photos posted soon.

8.  

Mark loves his letter sounds and is often picking them out in conversation.  He also loves to use his roller blades he got from Mimi for his "red birthday." 

9.  

JP is his usual hardworking, cheerful self- very dedicated to judo right now.

10.  

Jude has a gerbil now & is very devoted to it, as well as his swimming.  Out of the menagerie of animals we have, who'd have thought it would be a rodent that would capture his imagination?

11.

Since I started these, we/the kids have been home sick for a WEEK!  A bad cold and strep has been working its way through everyone at different times and in different combinations.  Please pray Jesse & I are healthy to teach our first NFP class this weekend.  This is about par for the course of our NFP teaching journey!  :)

12.

I'm feeling my usual pre-Halloween & All Saint's creative stress, as in I am NOT creative and rarely can make my kids' great ideas materialize into costumes for them... :(.  Here's to store-bought.



Fruits of Summer 2012

I did this post at the end of last summer, too, but was actually referring some real fruit I had grown.  Lazy way to reflect.  I've always loved summer with its change of pace, new adventures, and opportunity for real learning in the midst of it all...

• The only real fruit this year comes in our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box each week.  Lots of yummy produce & fun learning to cook it.  Favorite new recipe: Crunchy Asian Salad.  I didn't try to grow anything but wildflowers, strawberries, & some herbs myself and all but the potted herbs have died.  Didn't even get a single strawberry.
• Renewed love for my husband after watching him work so hard to care for us, for me in the midst of several very crazy months of tons of work for him preparing to deploy, trainings here and away, then cancellation of it all because he re-injured his back at the last, month-long training.  We re-learned never to know what to expect from God and gratitude that He has all things worked out better than we can imagine when we just trust Him.  Learned a lot about horse care during his absences.  And we're both working hard to take care of our backs.  He is still in intense physical therapy.
• Trip to San Antonio with him and the kids for one of his trainings.  Fun with old friends and some homeschool learning: Texas history at the Alamo and rocks & minerals at the Natural Bridge Caverns.  Also a lot of American history from watching Liberty's Kids when we in the hotel room.  Highly recommended, no-guilt TV for your kids.
• Couple of trips to Ft. Worth to see my family, including a week-long one for all the boys.  Big ones went to LEGO Camp at TCU and had a blast, learned some about robotics.
• Biggest boys also did swim team & a boys' book club this summer. 
• They are also working on reading patches from the library.
• Jude will continue with swim team this year and John Paul has started judo with friends.  Trying new sports & different ones for each, rather than soccer this fall.  A little sad for this soccer mom.
• Little pair did pre-school camp at church with fun crafts & games.
• And we all did VBS at church, too.  Cat Chat: Angels & Saints.  Solid & fun program.
• Mark is a fish in the water and swimming well, including in the deep end with a vest & going off the board.  Mary loves the water.
• Mary turned 2 yrs. on the 18th and is talking all the time.  She is sweet again & not as ornery as she had been the last few months, probably from frustration at not being able to express herself.
• New, even homeschooling friends for us all.  One family from book club & another from our CRHP experiences.
• Got some help w/ the problems I had been having w/ this blog and, combined w/ the fact that I have a camera again, I'm hoping to be a more regular poster, especially since we are using it for the CRHP Prayer Book project.
• Last but not least, Jesse & I both finished CRHP Formation and helped put on the Women's & Men's Retreats these past two weekends.  An awesome experience on both the retreatant & team ends.  God really has used it to renew our faith & show His power in our lives and those of our friends.  More on CRHP & the Prayer Book later...

The Dress

Here she is, in the gorgeous dress w/ the matching coat and hat.  And proof of her love to talk on my (not smart!) phone, although she is no longer allowed to do this b/c I just had to have the touch screen replaced.

Sugar and Spice: Mary Constance (18 mos.)

Mary and I are enjoying some girl time the last 24 hours.  (My mom/Mimi has some rare time off and took all the boys for a few days.  They are at the Ft. Worth Stock Show today.  John Paul must think he's in heaven.)  We haven't done anything special- I've just enjoyed getting to slow down and focus on her.  She is such a joy and always has been.  Jude was also an easy baby, as in content, but he was also quite serious, while Mary is both content and infectiously happy most of the time. 

She also manages, somehow, to be both sweet & spunky.  She loves to be in the thick of things w/ her brothers- she always climbs up on the couch w/ them to watch a movie or "read" (usually she holds the book upside down and babbles a story to herself) and she plants herself in the middle of piles of LEGOS when they are building.  She plays cars and knights w/ Mark, who is not known for his patience- she just rolls w/ his punches, literally. Unless he really hurts her somehow, she persists in doing what she wants to do w/out appearing to get mad at his... tough love.

At the same time, she is so sweet- sweet to all of us, sweet to her dolls, sweet to animals.  She has to get kisses from everyone b/f bed or she gets upset.  She loves to push her dolls around in the wooden stroller she got for Christmas and she could not pass Baby "Jeez" (Jesus) in the outdoor manger this past Christmas without picking him up and adding him to the stroller crew.  She has been known, though, to literally toss a doll to the side in order to grab a car and join in with the brothers' play.

She is often quiet, just taking everything in from her perch in the high chair.  She loves to sit and snack and watch me (& all the craziness) in the kitchen for long periods of time.  But she also talks more than I remember the boys doing at the same age- a new few words at a time, "that" has been the only consistent one for a while now.  She absolutely LOVES to play w/ my cell phone and pretend to talk to people.

She has crazy hair that is darker at the ends b/c it is growing in much lighter, blond even.  It is wispy and always in her face right now b/c she pulls out clips and headbands and I really am not good at getting little ponytails into a moving subject.

She likes to color and she loves to scribble w/ a pen on a pad of paper, which she is doing right now (and alternately fussing at me for ignoring her as I try to type this- so, actually, she has started getting more fussy and willful lately, now that I think about it).

She likes to sits on Mark's little potty and has asked to be changed ("peeze" w/ a bag in her hand for the dirty diaper).  She tries to wipe her own bottom & that of anyone else she catches mid-potty or mid-diaper change.  I'm thinking she may potty-train before Mark finally does.  (Please God...soon.)  She uses a fork somewhat successfully and loves to brush her teeth & hair.  It seems to me that she is more interested in these personal care/hygiene things than the boys were at the same age.  Hmmm...

She loves animals, even our hyper dog Livy who has knocked her over more than once.  She is not afraid of horses.

I have a lot of fun dressing her up in the beautiful clothes friends and family have given or passed on to us although, I am not always good at remembering what safe place I've put special holiday accessories in.  Some holiday, I called my mom crying b/c I could not find a hat I had bought for her: "I just have to get better at these girl things, Mom,"  I remember sniffing.  Below is one of my favorite dresses, from her 1st birthday in August (6 mos ago, but she is still tiny).  I have not downloaded the pics of her in a gorgeous black & white dress w/ matching COAT and hat that she wore on New Year's, for lack of another occassion!  (I really did not buy either of them.)

I love you, precious girl, and am so excited for the days ahead!  I cannot wait to see the special girl you grow up to be and cannot wait for all the special times we will share, especially the beautiful books we will read together.  I named your first doll Laura, from the Little House series, but I gave my all-time-favorite-girl-from-literature-name to "our" chicken- dainty little Josephine.  You will not have a choice about being exposed to all things Louisa May Alcott.  Maybe you will even be interested enough in crafting that we will learn to sew together.  Or maybe you will teach me!  I'm pretty sure we will cook together since you already seem interested in food (like mother, like daughter) and everyone in this family likes to eat and cook.  I was thinking of trying you in ballet b/c I always wish I myself had taken it so as to be more graceful, but I'm thinking you're more of a gymnastics or soccer girl from what I've seen so far.  In the meantime, I'm enjoying your cuddles and our tea parties and I'm probably more excited than you over finally owning one day soon...a dollhouse.

Fruits of Summer

• One watermelon! & three squash!!! are growing in one of our front beds.
• Mary can stand for several seconds & loves to practice walking w/ help.
• She also just cut her second top tooth, making a total of four up front.
• And she "prays" w/ us whenever we pray together.
• Mark taught himself to swim.
• And is pottying more than before and wearing pull-ups.  These did not make a difference to the other two boys.  They do to him.
• Best of all, he & Mary play some together now- his toys, of course, & at his discretion, of course.  She doesn't care.  She adores him.
• Several friendships for the older pair have budded or grown.
• Piano tunes are heard in the house again, now from both of the older set. 
• Science experiments were conducted, including slime & explosions.
• We've finally begun the long-awaited Indian/Native American unit and have a field trip planned.  Maybe three.
• The momma is training for a race w/ a neighbor-friend, often w/ several children along.  This is, perhaps, actually good training for staying focused & light on the feet amidst the obstacles of a trail run.  At least this is what she is telling herself.
• A new sewing machine lives in the house, one that has been the secret to completing an old project & starting anew (& a new...several things).
• The momma also learned to crochet, taught by a patient mother-in-law.
• Many good books read including the Redwall series for the only other readers in the house and Simplicity Parenting, Keeping a Nature Journal, Holiness for Housewives for the momma.  All recommended, especially the last.
• We are living a new rhythm that is more little set-inclusive & creative, that I hope to carry into the official school year of English and math lessons.
• Plans are made for that next school year & many supplies are ordered.
• We have survived the heat and Jesse's deployment and are eagerly anticipating his return in the next couple of weeks.  Still no date...

A Long Summer's Daybook

Outside my window...  a hot wind is whipping all the bushes and trees back and forth, as if it is coming from a couple directions.  The surface of the pool water has peaks and waves, making it look more like a lake than a placid pool.  Fire danger has been extremely high here.  I even dreamed about one last night and woke up at 4am worried and checked windows and the radio.


I am thankful for...  our parish and my MOMS Group there.  We moms see each other a lot and have been crafting at our meetings this summer.  The community at our parish is such a source of strength for me right now in the last leg of this deployment.  Everyone really cares for each other and takes care of each other and it reminds me of how I think the early Church must have lived.  I cannot feel too alone, which is a struggle right now with my husband gone, no family here, and living out in the country.  (Although, I remember city life feeling lonely at times when I was home w/ young children w/out my husband, even in the midst of all those people- which to me is somehow worse than the peaceful solitude of the country.)

And I am thankful for a surprise package from Jesse, my birthday gift early b/c he thought "maybe I needed it."

A handmade journal of camel leather w/ sunflower pages and a bead & shell bracelet.  Both Kuwaiti items.

I am hoping...  that my husband leaves Kuwait on time and arrives home just before Mary's 1st b-day on August 18th.  I really would love to celebrate it quietly with him home on her "real" day.  We will have a dinner/party with my family when we go to see them the first time after he gets back but I would love for her best b-day gift to be a lot of good quiet time w/ her Daddy.  She really seems to still know him b/c she gets excited seeing him over Skype and babbles at him but, being the Momma's girl that she is, I'm afraid real real-time is going to be a little scary for her at first.


On my mind...  travel plans!  Plans for two trips to Ft. Worth to see my family these last six weeks of the deployment, including a Rangers game over the 4th and the RB&BB circus! for the kids for the first time in August, a treat from their Mimi.  Also, plans for when my RHL (consider that my opinion on the recent conversation at Testosterhome!) is finally home, including another weekend in Ft. Worth w/ a trip to the Dallas LEGO store (b/c I know HE will love that as much as the boys) and a short real family vacation! to the OK mountains.  No holiday to celebrate or party to plan while we are there.

We are also making fall plans for some animals to join our brood here- about 6 chickens and 2 horses, I hope.  To go with the 4 children, 1 slowly-calming dog & 1(no longer Tom!)cat.  And his most recent family (Momma & 3 kittens!) that we are now sometimes feeding, too.  Another one of those things I never expected from myself, the former cat-hater.

And I am (always) working on plans for curriculm for next year, including Montessori pre-school materials for Mark here at home.  He's very ready.  Yay!  He may also go to some pre-school at our awesome parish.  He. is. Mark.  Hear. him. roar.



Noticing that...Said toddler is getting the good nap he needs after our late movie night Fri.  We had a mom's movie and a kid's movie going.  He went back and forth between both before he finally fell asleep here..

The effort to reach this tempatation must have exhausted him b/c the box was still closed!

A few plans for the week... swim lessons for a MOMS-friend's kids, a meal to another MOMS-friend with a beautiful new baby boy, Summer Family Week at our parish, aka VBS w/ tracks for parents, including one on Theology of the Body & talking to your kids about sexuality.  Did I already say I love my parish?  It is my prayer they will hear it from us first in a positive and meaning-filled way & so know the beautiful gift that our bodies are.


From the bookshelf...The Well-Trained Mind, Hainstock's books on Montessori at home, curriculum catalogs.  On the way from an amazon.com spree- Growing Up Sew Liberated, this & this for the fall hobby-farming plans.  Big boys are reading the Redwall series this summer and loving it!


In the kitchen...a good recipe for Gazpacho and a fun one for baby jello jigglers.  Ingredients purchased, just need to get to work!  Thanks, Mom.  For everything lately, especially for forgiving my weaknesses (like my tendency to hold things in until I explode) and listening to my view of things.


On the Church calendar...big Sundays these last four: Ascension, Pentecost, Holy Trinity, and today Corpus Christi.  Haven't done anything (except the most important- Sun Mass!) to celebrate.  Lacking creative inspiration in that department right now...


Some recent photos...

First more of Mark Ignatius:

His current obsession includes going shirt-less with sunglasses.

  

This was a "Mark & Mommy date" when the Dallas Zoo came to our nature center, which will forever go down in Mark History as the-day-Mark-bolted-to-the-stage-to-try-to-hold-the-9-ft-boa-constrictor-when-Mom-turned-to-put-her-camera-away.

 Could this pensive boy be the same little guy?

Remember the one of Mark playing his instruments for Mary?  Now she plays...well, mostly chews.. on them w/ him.

And Miss Mary Constance at 9-10 months:

She's another water-bug.  Her first time in the water here.  Those 2 bottom teeth are completely in already.

 She's cruising along the couch now but she still loves to crawl into fun spaces.

And she's eating some table food, mostly Cheerios.  She LOVES them.  Also, some feta cheese, egg white, banana. 

(Those details are for Daddy.)

Finally, the big baseball players at their team party at our house:

John Paul was grumping b/c they shortened his name to John.  Already long-forgotten, proving how unnecessary the trophy even is.

Easter Pics

On Easter Monday, we went to the Botanic Gardens and dodged spring rains to get some pictures of the cousins.  Ok, our kids and one cousin.