My Birthday!

My birthday was a Red Letter Day this year! It fell on a Saturday and the house was already clean (so I didn't have to supervise housecleaning day) and my middle schooler's schoolwork was completed the day before (because I really did not want to be supervising Latin on my birthday!).

In the morning, my children had designed a sign for me, gathered together to sign it, and posted it in the van where I would see it first thing on our way to Mass.

An entirely undeserved accolade, but it melted my heart nonetheless.

As my birthday always falls on the Feast of Candlemas, we took in our beeswax candles (we have bought from Lux Candle Co. for years) for a blessing.

Completely independently, all my boys had dressed up in an entirely dapper fashion!

There were no altar servers scheduled, so John offered to serve, which the priest accepted: John's first time serving a low Mass solo! This is a challenging step for an altar server and we were so proud of his attention to detail and few slip-ups.

Afterward, we grabbed bagels at Bruegger's, picked up bird seed for Heidi and Clara at Petsmart, and got the kids off to the rink for John's scheduled class (at which he is absolutely excelling!) and the other three kids joining in for Public Skate. Meanwhile, I kept the two littlest boys home to nap . . .  and I caught a cat nap myself!

Beautiful flowers from my aunt

That crew came home just in time for me and my two beautiful daughters to go to the hair salon for trims and then wander an independent book store, perusing the beautiful books. We were in bookworm heaven!

We arrived home to take-out from one of our favorite Italian restaurants so I wouldn't have to cook, nor would we have to manage six kids in a restaurant (which is not always relaxing) and opening my gorgeous hand-painted cards.

Then we loaded up for a visit to Amelie's Bakery for dessert, where I shared a petite gauteaux with a few of my other children.

It was truly such a relaxing, joy-filled day, which gave me much meditation about my blessings!

Mama Has a Birthday

I enjoyed a sweet celebration of my birthday on Friday. A lovely friend of mine baked me a batch of chocolate chip pumpkin muffins and another one sent me flowers! I couldn't believe the sweetness!

My in laws came for a weekend visit and we ordered delicious take-out and opened gifts.

The best pic of many

We all agreed that we liked the actual cake but did not care for the frosting. It was pretty anyway!

Thanks to all for the many birthday wishes I received!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. Epiphany Blessing

We finally got to doing our own Epiphany blessing at the house, although still in plenty of time, given that we were still in the Third Week after Epiphany. (Note to self: start planning, as Lent begins in four weeks!)

2. Anniversary

Chris and the kids returned from the March for Life on Saturday, and I had no meal plan for the week or groceries in the house: thus began our 11th wedding anniversary! It kind of reflects our blessed but busy, zany life at this season. We ended up getting take-out dinner for ourselves (and served frozen pizza to the kids!), then ate the chocolate-covered strawberries for dessert that Chris had sent to me.

3. Sewing Classes

This week, Mary began a series of sewing classes, which we arranged and her grandfather paid for as a Christmas gift. Week 1 was Machine Familiarity. I very much wish I could join her as a mother-daughter thing, but this works because Daddy can take her and he can work on the cell phone and laptop from the car. If I went and left the other four children with him, he couldn't work at all.

Coincidentally, I read an article called "Is it Still Important to Teach Children to Sew?" this week.

4. Morning Prayer Time

We've been attempting to do some morning spiritual reading and prayer for several years now, as I try to inculcate this habit in children that should be a lifetime habit of all Catholic adults. (I've been in the practice since about 2011, and the children began in 2014--read here--and I wrote about their progress one year later here.)

Mary and Margaret in their bunks doing morning spiritual reading, prayer, and writing in their journals

Now it is early 2017 and I made a few adjustments this week, which I hope will help. I still wake up early and exercise, which usually means turning on a babyish cartoon for my two early birds who are one and four years old. If an older child wanders downstairs, he or she is immediately sucked into the TV trash and doesn't do the holy reading or prayer time. The morning starts to slip away. Or I force the holy reading and prayer, and the child is resentful because of missing "Barney" (?!).

I consulted with a mom who has instilled this habit in her large brood for more than a decade. She knew the problem and immediately knew her solution: she moved her children's holy reading time to their beds before they even come downstairs!

So, the new plan:

• I printed out instruction sheets made individual for each child and taped them by their beds. 
• I moved their spiritual books onto their beds. 
• For the 8- and 10-year-olds, I gave them each a blank journal in which to write anything--even just one phrase--documenting anything they got out of prayer that morning, or that they felt God was communicating to them.

One week in, and the new system is showing good fruits. Sometimes I go to wake the children and discover they're already quietly awake and doing their reading or prayer. They're spending this time without complaint now, they're not as distracted by TV or eating cereal, and they accomplish one of their most important goals before even coming downstairs for the day.

The only "problem" we had was on the first day when one particularly enthusiastic child spent an hour in this pursuit, too much time in prayer and too much time writing in a journal about God for this child's station in life. There was nagging and a missed breakfast, plus a late start to school! Later that night we had a gentle talk about having to fit in this worthy pursuits to more like 15-30 minutes, or the child could choose to wake up earlier, but that breakfast is at 7:30 and school is at 8:00. After that, it went more smoothly!

5. "Why Latin?" Class

On Wednesday night, I took John and Mary to a Mass, dinner, and lecture entitled, "Why Latin in the Liturgy?" by Fr. Jason Barone. It is so rare that I go out for evening events, so it was emotionally refreshing to get out, but by 7:30 I was wishing I were getting ready for bed, and it was a couple more hours before I could get home.

6. Mama's Birthday

If you missed it, you may read about my wonderful fortieth birthday by clicking here.

7. Miscellaneous

John had a baby tooth that was fused to the bone and not going anywhere extracted this week. All went well and he was sore only for about a day.

Recess: Eating lunch outdoors in 70-degree weather while reading "Ask" magazine

Belated birthday gift: Joseph's first Nerf gun from Grandpa!

For more 7 Quick Takes Friday, check out This Ain't the Lyceum.

Mama's Milestone Birthday

It's the big 4-0. Happy birthday to me!

I'm now entering the fifth decade of life, and I'm currently ten times older than my Joseph.

I look around me and the facts that I'm married, we own a home, I run a homeschool, and we have five children plus a sixth on the way, and I know that I am blessed far more than I deserve.

Margaret (5), John (10), Mama (40), Thomas (18 months), Mary (8), Joseph (4)

Chris and the children don't return from Scottish dance till about 6:30 on Thursdays, and that's just too late for the youngest of our set to be leaving the house for dinner. Therefore, we opted for a fancy birthday breakfast when everyone would be fresh.

I chose the always lovely, business chic Terrace Cafe, where I ordered the lemon poppyseed cake French toast, drizzled with berries and lemon glaze.

We did a shortened day of school, threw in some outdoor play in this unseasonably gorgeous weather, and then Chris took the older kids to Scottish Dance.

For my birthday dinner, I served pork tenderloin, fettucine Alfredo, and green peas, followed by a peanut butter-and-chocolate ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins.

My evening ended by my reading aloud not one, but two, chapters of "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" while the girls played "spa" on me with hairbrush and lotions. It's a wonderful life.

My Quiet, Sweet Birthday

Chris made delicious French toast for my birthday breakfast . . . served with homemade whipped cream and raspberries!

My favorite gifts: The children made me a flower vase (out of an old spice jar), a hot pad, and a yarn-sewn cross.

Even Margaret 'signed' my birthday card: see her mark?

My birthday picture from Mary: Mama cooking chickpeas!

I delight in drawings by Mary (5). This one is Mama wearing a top hat--with a flower sticking out and a birthday gift shooting out of it--while she cooks chickpea cutlets (one of Mary's favorites) next to a tree with a bird sitting above her nest which contains three eggs.

Other recent photos by Mary are also precious: this one "a recipe for how to make popcorn" (showing Mama doing a handstand for joy) . . .

. . . and this one Mama and Mary beneath a rainbow and pink clouds. Girls and boys are so beautifully different. On the day Mary drew this bright and cheerful rainbow picture, John drew a get-well picture for a little girl in the hospital. What he drew for her was a house on fire with two people standing outside of it screaming and crying while the well-detailed fire engine races from the station to the burning house. Action and drama!



Back to my birthday . . . I stayed home with Margaret and Joseph who were finishing up an illness. (I like to wait 24 hours after they are free of fever or other spewing things before I take them out in public.) In our family, we like to have a Mass said for each of us for birthdays, anniversaries, and the like, so today was 'my' Mass.

Too bad I missed it, as Candlemas is a beautiful Mass with a lot of different components than a regular Latin Mass.

I had organized a blessing of candles for the laity to occur after Mass--and had also taught the homeschooled children about candles and we made beeswax candles at the co-op art class I taught two weeks ago--as well as a chili-themed potluck for this cold weather. But Mommy-vocation calls us first and foremost, so Chris and my right-hand helper M---- took over and did a wonderful job serving the parish today. Wish I could have been there!

The best kind of walk is a Cookie Walk.

 After the two little ones woke from afternoon naps, I took them on a walk in the warm, soft air. Chris was on his way home from church at that very moment, so as I walked along the road, he pulled over in his car, rolled down the window, and showed me a big bowl of fat, chewy cookies he'd brought home from the potluck: "Want a cookie?"

Why, yes, I do! Meet you at home!

And I munched my way down the road (with all four kids, at that point, who wanted to walk the rest of the way with me).

In lieu of a priest, the father does the Epiphany blessing.

In the evening, on this last day of the Epiphany season, we finally got around to doing our house blessing and choosing a patron saint of our home for this year!

It was an unexpectedly quiet birthday, but a very sweet one!


EDITED with an interesting meditation for myself, as brought to me by a friend: She had me look back ten years . . . Ten years ago, I was not yet Catholic, nor had I met Chris, both of which happened about eight-and-three-quarters years ago. That's a whole lot of life lived in a beautiful, short time! Amazing how God can change one's life.