Beautiful Day

All four of us took much needed naps this morning--Karl recovering from late night monitoring duty, and the kiddos and I recovering from a week-end illness. The extra rest successfully delivered everyone to Mass in rare form.

Henry, while still exuberantly himself, confined his energy to our little section of the church, chimed in on cue with "Amen" and "Alleluia," and proudly held his sister on his lap. Karl whispered a word of praise to Henry during Mass, and the sweet darling's eyes welled up with tears*! What a little man he is becoming.

I had to pause as I entered our living room when I saw Clare sitting by herself examining a small wooden alphabet toy. She, too, is growing so! How she makes me smile.

Thank you, Lord, for our little family--we are so blessed!


Here's a photo from an outing last week. Pictured are Clare and her new friend, Philomena. They share August 11th as their feast day! Their patronesses must have arranged their friendship in heaven :)


*Were Henry's tears caused by:
a) Surprise at the realization that he was behaving well at Mass,
b) Excitement and Joy that he would receive a doughnut after Mass for good behavior
c) Both!

Holy Day of Obligation!

I hope you are better at looking at the calendar and living the liturgy than I have been of late. But in case you are in my same boat, here's your reminder!

Don't forget to attend Mass tomorrow (FRIDAY) in honor of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is the oldest feast day celebrated in her honor.

Karl will return from work around 6:30 tomorrow morning, and then we're off to St Elizabeth's for morning mass. I couldn't ask for a better start to the day! I've got the kids and my clothes (even their diapers and shoes!) ready to go--a 6:30 call time is early even for use these days.

A blessed day to you all!

Random Goodies

Here are a few photos that I wanted to share.

Big Helper #1 --Henry's main kitchen duty is to help mama sort the silverware. Usually he's very, ahem, creative when it comes to proper placement. This day, however, he was spot on.

Beating the Heat #2 #3 & #4 --This was one of the first times Clare sat up unassisted. As you can see in #3, she doesn't always stay that way! We got outside for a few minutes of water fun that day (before Henry ran away to the neighbor's. Grrr!)

Clare and Opa#5 --Harvest was in full swing, but whenever Karl's father had a free minute (and wasn't covered in itchy grain dust, hee hee) he would scoop up Clare, who grinned from ear to ear, while he bounced-tickled-cooed our little dear.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Harvest 2008

O'pa and the boys were able to get all of the Sorghum out of the fields, just in time for Dolly's arrival (Hurricane Dolly that is, lol.*)

We had such a nice time visiting with all of Karl's family--all 30 of us!

(Karl's parents, their four children and respective spouses, and 21 grandchildren!)

This year's theme was "the 50's" --complete with soda shop, poodle skirts, greasers, bubble gum blowing and hula hoops!
Yours truly won the limbo contest :)

*Joke courtesy of Dolly herself

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Win Cloth Diapers!!!

Win a Bum Genius 3.0 Starter Kit from Nature's Child - Wholesome Goods for Mothers and Babies

This looks really great--we love our BG's and this is an excellent starter kit for even TWO babies! We use 18 for both Henry and Clare!! One size fits all is the way to go!!

I wash the 18 every evening, however, so if you had more diapers you may be able to wash every other day :)

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

I LOVE Laundry...

sorting, washing, drying, folding--you name it, I love it.

Lovingly changing dirty clothes into clean, folded clothes was a frequent apprenticeship under my mother as a child. And to this day I enjoy it thoroughly from start to finish.

In fact, I would gladly trade friends to make that my only chore :)

HOWEVER, after a weekend full of sickness, you can imagine how much laundry I got to do! Even yours truly was looking forward to a break.

Don't you worry yourselves, friends. My dear Henry knows me too well for my own good. He knew that I shouldn't get out of the daily laundry habit--

SO he poured onto the floor, the my last cup-ful of detergent, and sent me a-scurrying to sop it up with random dirty clothes (to salvage those precious last drops!!)

Good News!! There is a happy ending to this tale. I had the presence of mind to choose clothes of different colors--now I can do TWO loads ;)

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Let's Go Another Round..or Two!

Please pray for Karl--the newest member of the sick-weed club. Henry had a relapse last night, but seems to be better. Clare is recovering, but not yet 100%.

Pray for me too!! I'd rather that at least one of us remain outside the club :)