Father's Day 2018

We celebrated Father's Day starting on Saturday so we could try out Chris' gift. 

First, he opened his cards, which were paintings of St. Joseph and the child Jesus.

Then we walked him out to reveal the new grill we bought him for our back yard fire pit. I had asked him if he wanted a fancy new fire pit as a gift, but he really prefers this primitive one he built with rocks from the property, so the children and I got him a similarly primitive grill for it.

Thy children like olive plants round about thy table. (Psalm 128:3)

He is such a good sport that he agreed to light the fire to cook our hot dogs and roasted corn on the new grill . . . even though it was almost 90 degrees, just because the kids had excitement about it.

Thomas tried corn on the cob for the first time and loved it!

Then on Sunday, we met Chris' parents in Greenville, SC, for a Father's Day celebration together. Lunch and ice cream were delicious and we all enjoyed ourselves.

On this Father's Day, I will share this article by Matt Walsh reminding us of the profoundly loving and sacrificial death of Thomas Vander Woude. It is worth reading again to be reminded that this man knew help was coming and he knew the only way to save his son (a disabled son, the likes of whom 90% are aborted in this country) was to sacrifice his own life in a horrifying way. And he did just that, which the author points out must have been a grand decision made only because the father had made small and ordinary decisions of sacrifice over and over again for decades. May Mr. Vander Woude be enjoying the beatific vision of God even now!

Father's Day 2016

Mary baked her daddy an Apple Crumble Pie because we rarely make fruit desserts, which are really his favorite.

Baking assistant

We decorated the dining room for Daddy's homecoming, and waited!

Mary made menus for each diner.

Menu

Ribs 

Biscuits

Roasted broccoli

Apple pie (turned out really well!) and ice cream

Father's Day 2014

Our Father's Day was rather quiet as all of us are on the mend from one of the worst colds we remember--and in June, no less! There are no pictures of Chris (or me) from today's Father's Day because we were feeling a bit too far under the weather to look photographic . . . unless it were a photograph for a public health brochure on doing everything you can to avoid catching bugs because you don't want to end up feeling like that couple!

Homemade cards from the children, a little gift in child-decorated wrapping paper

Breakfast: toast, eggs, bacon, fruit salad, whipped cream

Chris had to cut his trip to Virginia short, arriving home Saturday night and heading straight to Urgent Care. He came away with some prescriptions that are helping whip back this respiratory infection! Then this morning, I took myself and the two boys into Urgent Care to make sure our lingering cough wasn't bronchitis or pneumonia developing. We got the all clear, and I've got to say it's amazing how blech a person can feel when her body is suffering from just a cold, no infections!

Reading aloud to his mother

The baby was crying loudly, so we took him outside while we waited: there John (7) sat and read "Boxcar Children" aloud to entertain me while I paced with the baby. I was reminded of how my mother would require me to read aloud to her while she cooked dinner in order to help me learn how to read well and fluidly: all those years later, I never did learn how to cook from her, but I did learn how to read tremendously well!

'I'm gonna get you!'

Then we took a try at waiting in the office itself, where I cordoned off a short hallway and made it a run-around area for Joseph. I grabbed a Styrofoam cup from the coffee station and had the boys throw it back and forth. Joseph thought this game was reason for a fabulous giggle-fest. Occupying children in waiting rooms requires creativity and attention, that's for sure!

Playing keep-away with a Styrofoam cup

Most of the rest of our day was spent with Chris and I sitting and coughing quietly in chairs in the back yard, supervising the children playing. For dinner, I served ribs (from the deli), potato salad (also, deli!), macaroni and cheese (homemade), and green beans (I boiled them from frozen myself), finished off with a celebratory ice cream cake (thanks to Baskin-Robbins). I don't think it's really fair to call me a cook so much as a food-preparer.

Happy Father's Day to all the devoted dads!

Father's Day 2013

We are very blessed as a family that Chris makes his fatherhood deliberate and one of the highest priorities in his life. I noted on the very morning of Father's Day that he had shown the night before one more way in which he is a caring father: John had been sick for the prior 24 hours, so when I heard another "incident" in the middle of the night and stumbled to join Chris (first on the scene) in yucky clean-up, he told me to go back to sleep and he would take care of it--with patience and kindness toward the sick child, no upset at the boy who couldn't help it. On top of that, two-year-old Margaret had a very strange night in which she screamed for several hours falling asleep: it didn't matter if we sat with her, ignored her, lay with her, sang with her, left the room . . . she just screamed. Then she screamed much of the night, our completely losing count of her wakings. Very unusual for Margaret. Chris patiently and lovingly responded to all of her wakings also. I'm sure he was utterly exhausted this morning, but I had to leave for Mass at 7:30 a.m. (in order for us parents to split Masses today) and he got up to take care of the kids so I could leave, offering no complaint or mutterings.

Thanks for being devoted, honey!

Daddy and his bunchkins!

John made his daddy two rockets "with real windows made of tape" so that they can play rocket together.

It gave me pleasure to notice that we have finally moved beyond all cards being pictures of stick figures: the children are really starting to draw things at a new level! John (6-1/2) drew a horse. Mary (4-1/2) drew a ballerina walking a tiger on a leash next to a tree. Also, Mary decorated the 'R' in her name as a little girl.