Thursday's Week in Review

A Week in Review before the Holy Triduum begins . . .

1. Super Busy Weekend: Part I

The weekend of Palm Sunday was overly busy and Chris and I were so grateful to have each other to juggle and balance all our duties and events.

On Friday, we attended Mass as a family at 7:00 a.m., then John attended CCE, while I took the other kids to the grocery store, bakery, and cemetery. Chris took the kids (at their request) to pray at the abortion clinic (in the pouring rain) and, after their completing afternoon chores and music practice, Chris took the oldest three to 7:00 p.m. Tenebrae services, left John at the Fraternus lock-in, brought the girls home, and went back to retrieve John to sleep in his own bed.

Despite being up till nearly 11:00, the fellas wanted to be woken at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday to make breakfast sausage for 40 boys and get back to the lock-in bright and early.

John played sports with the guys for five hours before Chris took him to a birthday party. Meanwhile, I braved a deluge and flash flooding to take five kids to their last ice skating class and evaluations to see if they ranked up.

Flash flooding

It is so cute to watch the littler guys skate, especially three-year-old Thomas in his fireman helmet!

Without Chris' typical help to juggle the transition, I had the little boys take a car nap instead of going home, took everybody through drive-through for lunch, and delivered Mary to orchestra practice.

2. Super Busy Weekend: Part II

Come Sunday, Mary had choir practice before the Palm Sunday Mass which lasted three hours. It was beautiful but certainly took rigorous work for all the parents. I was so impressed that even more people than normal came to our Latin Mass, knowing how long it would be, when they could have attended the Novus Ordo: about 350 souls! I watched and all those many children--in the pews, in their parents' arms, in strollers--were not eating a bite of food in the church, or playing games, or reading books, and certainly nobody had electronics out. Good job, parents!

David sleeping through a Very Long Mass

The photos of the Mass are all courtesy of Marcus Kuncuro:

After Mass, John and Joseph joined in the first occurrence of a sports-team that is going to meet once monthly after Mass. The boys always play games, but this is going to have teams, jerseys, rules, and points. The fun was multiplied when one of the priests showed up to do his own exercise and decided to join the boys for basketball. All the parents and siblings were cheering and a lot of us brought brown bag lunches. It was super!

3. Notre Dame

On Monday of Holy Week, the 850-year-old Notre Dame cathedral in Paris burned. This is grievously sad for practicing Catholics and those of us who have been there in person are touched on a personal level. We thank God that the Eucharist (body, blood, soul, and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ), holy relics (such as Jesus' crown of thorns) and saints' relics, as well as much artwork, was saved by a human chain of heroic firefighters.

We told our children the next morning and there were tearful eyes among us.

4. Introducing Peter

Apparently I have no bird afficianados reading my blog, or you would have been laughing and emailing me to tell me that Heidi is a male zebra finch. Zebra finches are sexually dimorphic, with strongly different color patterns.

Male on the left, female on the right (source)

Heidi's bright red cheeks were a "tell" to anyone who knew anything, which was obviously neither me nor any of the PetSmart staff. Further, Heidi sings and sings, while Clara never found her voice: it has been too long since I took a zoology class to remember that most birds who sing are males--decidedly true of zebra finches.

So, our mystery is solved: Heidi is a male, Clara is a female, and these are real baby bird eggs. Mary has renamed the male bird "Peter," who is the goatherd in the novel Heidi.

And now we wait to see if the birds will successfully hatch!

Clara and Peter nesting

5. School Break

I took off teaching school for Holy Week (to prepare for Easter) and Easter Triduum (to actually celebrate Easter).

This is now the calendar entry I actually enter into Google Calendar a year ahead of time for every Holy Week: "GOAL: Take off Holy Week: It is way too stressful to keep schooling and achieve anything holy or domestic."

Only the middle schooler had a full load of independent work for his hybrid program (because he won't be able to do it next week) and all kids had music practice (the oldest two in the final two weeks of preparing 10 and 15 songs, respectively, for the big Guild event). He also got a new lawnmowing client!

6. Annual Standardized Testing

We scheduled our Annual Standardized Testing for Spy Wednesday. I was able to leave the 1- and 3-year-olds with Chris at home, so I sat for almost four hours in a quiet room while my children were being tested and I got to read nearly 100 pages of my book! Compared to the pitiful three to five pages per day I now get to read, this was a 'feast'!

I always say that the standardized testing is to make sure Mommy is teaching them right, so it's really me being tested, not them.

Results: Mommy is doing fine. Carry on!

7. Maundy Thursday

Thursday was busy-busy-busy with preparations, including dying the Easter eggs. It was fascinating to watch that I really was not needed there, the older children are growing in leadership so well. 

John served the Thursday night liturgy while Chris and the girls attended. I kept the wee ones home, read the Bible story about the Last Supper to them, and tucked them in. The three-year-old was so interested that he sat up in bed, looking at the Bible for twenty minutes.

{SQT} The Beginning of Lent 2019

1. Date Night at Home

Going on a date when you have six kids--even having a conversation in which one isn't interrupted every single sentence--is really tough. We told the children that we want to start trying to have in-home dates with some regularity. We'll see if we can manage this with our busy schedule!

Well, the novelty was grand for the children. We set them up with frozen pizza and a movie selected by us, assigned each kid a little sibling with whom to be a "buddy," and forbade them to come talk to us . . . and meanwhile used Uber Eats to deliver take-out food to us, which is a fraction of the expense of hiring a babysitter!

There was much scurrying about and we were forbidden to go into the dining room until this beautiful scene was revealed: the children had set the table with a table cloth, lit candles, and had classical music playing. We have a tradition at Thanksgiving and Easter of allowing each child to drink out of his or her own silver baby cup, so the children put out our (teeny tiny) baby cups for us to quench our thirst! (The water cups in the above photo were the ones we secreted in later to have enough to drink.)

There was a note directing us to slowly open this heart tacked to the wall, into which the children had gathered the very last of their own chocolates and given them to us so we would have dessert. Cue the tears of tender feelings from Mama now!

Lastly, our three-year-old got his 25-piece puzzle of the United States and told us solemnly, "I put it under the table so that you can play it after you eat dinner."

2. Ice Skating for All!

John continues in Saturday ice skating-for-hockey lessons, which are loads of fun. This week, we signed up the other four kids to join ice skating lessons at the same time.

John got to assist in the three-year-olds' class.

 One of my favorite moments was when the teacher strew a whole bunch of stuffed animals on the ice, causing the timid preschoolers immediately to move out of their comfort zones and begin skating for those stuffed critters! Thomas told me triumphantly, "I picked up a frog, and a bear, and a bumble bee!"

3. NCMTA

John and Mary participated in the North Carolina Music Teachers Association regional competition and both scored highest honors! (Again, I have no photos as certain people are in a streak of not wanting photos taken.) Now, they're off to state competition in a few weeks!

"The NCMTA Piano Performance Festival is a prestigious contest. The judges are always cordial and pleasant, but they are strict, and Highest Honors ratings are hard to come by. Students earning a Highest Honors rating in NCMTA are considered very talented. In the Charlotte District, we average about five Highest Honors per fifty junior entrants.

Mary (10) performed:

• Aria by Handel
• Perpetual Motion by Andre Previn
• Inquietude by Moskowski

John (12) performed:

• Sonata in C Major K. 95 L. 358
• Consolation by Mendelssohn
• Jazz Exercise by Oscar Peterson

They're also preparing the same songs for the Forum competition in a week, and that one involves a Theory exam, so they are studying daily for that.

4. Sunday Fun

Sunday was a big, enjoyable family day. We went to an earlier Mass than usual, then out to brunch at an old favorite restaurant we haven't visited in years. Then Chris took the boys home for naps while the girls and I went to a Lilla Rose party and tried various hairstyles and beautiful accoutrements.

Then we zipped home for dinner before attending for our first time the solemn vespers so beautifully sung by the seminarians at our parish each Sunday at 5:30 p.m. This week, the bishop was there, too!

5. Ash Wednesday and Lent Plans

Each family member completed the "Lent Is Coming" worksheet.

This involves each family member:

• making a voluntary amendment of life (giving up a bad habit that has to go sometime anyway)
• doing an act of penance (training ourselves to say 'no' in the little things)
• doing an act of charity

Each child went through his or her personal worksheet with his or her dad's spiritual direction. Also, we parents made some choices for the whole family, such as:

• no sweets, except for Sundays
• watching only religious movies or TV for Lent, including Sundays
• children may choose to do extra chores to earn money for alms for the poor
• stopping to pray certain prayers when sibling fighting occurs
• doing Stations of the Cross on Fridays, at home or at a church (using these printables)

I made the Lenten calendar from Shower of Roses to post in the dining room.

I put out a basket of books on the subjects of Lent and Easter.

I will leave these out for children to discover and read on their own, as well as have big sibs read to little sibs (which they began doing the very first day).

I plan to lead "My Path to Heaven," an Ignatian retreat for children over Lent. 

There are 12 meditations so I hope that aiming for even two per week is not too lofty of a goal--we shall see. We plan to do this instead of our normal morning prayers in the 8:00 hour, as I have learned that I can't just add on more and more and more: if I add one thing, I have to take something else out of the schedule.

Meanwhile, I plan to read through "The Month of St. Joseph," (1874) a book of daily meditations and resolutions. While intended to be read straight through in St. Joseph's month of March, my imperfections will probably cause this to last all six weeks of Lent.

On Ash Wednesday, we enjoyed the albeit very early 7:00 a.m. Mass and then, even though I was tired and suggested we simply go home to start school, the children insisted on going to our regular Wednesday Confession at another parish at 8:30, so we did.

We then baked our salt dough crown of thorns, a tradition which I skipped last year, I believe, causing much protest among the children.

6. Margaret and Joseph

These two, the closest born to each other, are the best of friends when they want to be!

7. Miscellaneous

It was quite cold this week, even in the 30s on Ash Wednesday, but we enjoyed SUNSHINE and were active outdoors a few times.

Margaret (7) reading aloud to her brothers in the crisp sunshine

My growing-up son John mounted a new rosary display/organization shelf near the sitting area in our master bedroom where family rosary is said most of the time these days. I love it!

Artwork continues to abound in cracks of available time. I have two children currently writing fiction stories and children drawing pictures daily, so that we are drowning in paper, but that is okay.

Drawing of a fox by Mary (10)

After a few months of bedtimes, I finished reading aloud James Baldwin's "Fifty Famous People" (1912) to Joseph (6)! He was engrossed in this book of famous people throughout time and across our world, and there were Big Emotions on the nights I read only a story to the three-year-old and not also Joseph's book. Well, Thursday night we finished the very last story, I closed the book, and beaming Joseph begged me to open the book up again and start over at the first story . . . so you know it was a great book!

I would not trade reading aloud to my children and the memories created!

For more 7 Quick Takes Friday, check out This Ain't the Lyceum--this is a great post about stopping trying to invent creative, complex ways to "do Lent," but just follow the traditional teachings of Lent.