The Feast of All Saints 2016

Well, this is the first year in nearly a decade that I don't have a whole bunch of cute photos of little saints to share. We attended our first parish All Saints party when John was one year old (click here for cuteness)!

After hosting a really fun Halloween party last night, the kids staying awake later than usual, all seven of us were out of the house at 6:30 a.m. to attend the seven o'clock Mass on this holy day of obligation. We were one tired bunch and the three youngest were obviously cranky.

An endearing photo of Chris visited his Uncle Steve in Hospice last week

Then I packed up my trio of travelers and got Daddy, John, and Mary on the road toward Georgia, with nary time to spare to arrive at the three o'clock funeral (and, in fact, they arrived a bit late). (Please pray for the repose of the soul of Uncle Steve and for the comfort of his wife of more than five decades, Starr.)

John and Mary played piano at the funeral reception

We were having such a calm, peaceful, preschooler kind of day with my 5-, 3-, and 1-year-olds that I quietly decided that we would stay home and not attend the All Saints party with 65 other homeschoolers. It is so rare that we just stay home for a day! I remember when I had only tiny tots, we'd often have many days per week that we stayed home. A peaceful routine at home is so much better for the development of young children, and something that kids in bustling, large families miss out on.

I got out the tempera paints for the tots and they had a grand old time creating beauty, they played outdoors, they took naps (!) because I didn't have to load them into the car like every afternoon for the older children's activities, we cooked together, and we went for a two-and-a-half-mile neighborhood walk in the exquisite fall weather. My nerves calmed, my headache dissipated, and I actually felt like a Good Mother, like back when I could still manage it all.

Of course, I can't really manage it all and here is the result of my cooking all afternoon and not even being able to eat one bowl of this butternut squash chili before I accidentally dumped it all on the floor . . .

On the bright side, this episode was a wee divine test that revealed that while I still threw an internal temper tantrum (my will not so aligned to God's providence as I'd like), I managed not to go eat a ton of Halloween candy in frustration, so yay for that.

Overall, it was a lovely day to stay home and raise our little saints, even if we didn't go out for a second big party. Tomorrow, we have the final important feast day this week: All Souls!