My Lord and My God

Congratulations Annie on one of the most important days of your life.  The day you received Jesus for the first time in Holy Communion. 

As I was watching you dress and get ready, my thoughts were consumed in awe of you.  How can you be here already?  How is it possible that you are old enough to be receiving this sacrament?  Wasn't I just cradling you in my arms?  It seems like yesterday that I took both you and your two year old brother to mass at St. Peter's.  I had just finished nursing you in the pew, and was getting ready to walk up to Holy Communion.  I had my newborn baby in one arm and Thomas' hand in the other.  All was well until Thomas broke free and RAN up the communion line, right past Father, and  up onto the altar, only to begin ringing the bells.  Loudly.  Over and over.  I was mortified.  I'm no longer carrying you and Thomas or holding your hands as we all walk up and receive Communion together now.

 

 In the few quiet seconds after the priest has just consecrated the host which now has instantly turned from bread, to the body of Christ, I have always closed my eyes and said, thank you Jesus, my Lord and my God.  Those were the words of St. Thomas, known as doubting Thomas, who would not believe that the Lord had risen unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.  John 21:25. When Jesus appeared to him He said, put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.  Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and My God."  Jesus said to him, " have you come to believe because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.  John 21:27-29. 

 

We are the blessed ones as Jesus says, because we have not seen Him, but we still believe.  We believe that what looks like bread and tastes like bread is truly the body of Christ.  That the moment the priest says the words, this is my body, this is my blood.... what was once bread is now Jesus.  Completely.

And that can be hard to understand.  Yet here we have these eight year old children who believe it with their whole heart.  You believe Annie, without seeing. 

And that is beautiful. 

 

 

(Photo courtesy of Kevin Clark and Aubrey Potter)

 

(photo courtesy of Kevin Clark and Aubrey Potter)

(photo courtesy of Kevin Clark and Aubrey Potter)

(photo courtesy of Kevin Clark and Aubrey Potter)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Easter

The Lord is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

There is nothing more glorious than Easter Sunday morning!  The forty days are over, and now its time to celebrate!!!

On Holy Saturday we went to TJ's grandma Joyce's place for an Easter egg hunt.

 

 

 

We always dye our eggs on Holy Saturday.  I love to watch the kids do this.  This year we were really shooting for dark eggs.  Annie kept each egg in the dye for about ten minutes hoping that would do the trick!

 

She is just fun to watch in anything she does.... little Miss expressions.

 

My mom came over on Saturday night so that TJ and I could take Thomas, Annie and Pete to the Easter Vigil Mass.  Even though this Mass is about two and a half hours long, it is SO worth going to.  Just to be in church so late when it is dark outside is fun!  And to get to be the first to hear the ALLELUIA sung gives me chills every time. 

Every year we make Resurrection Rolls on Saturday so that we can open them up on Easter morning!  They look like Jesus' empty tomb!

And finding their Easter baskets are always a treat in our home!  We change it up each year.  Some years I have tied yarn to each basket and then made a maze of string for them to follow throughout the house until they find their basket!  This year it was a scavenger hunt ending up in the back of Sherman!  I love to see them scurry through the house finding the next clue!

 

 

I've made a bunny cake and a lamb cake before for our Easter dinner, but this year I wanted something different.  Carrot cake!  A perfect Easter spring dessert!  I only found a gazillion different recipes on Pinterest so I closed my eyes and picked one!  It turned out pretty good...but I'm going to keep searching and trying until I find the perfect recipe to make every Easter!

 

And now we celebrate for the next fifty days!!  Alleluia!

"I'm Free"

Evelyn,

Today you turned "free" as you say in your lispy three year old voice.

You are feisty, fun and full of energy.  You make a gazillion different expressions just with your eyes.  I can't believe that you have been with us for three years.  That only three years ago I was meeting you for the first time, seeing your tiny wrinkly body laying on my chest. 

You have such personality, Evelyn.  You can turn off the temper tantrum you are throwing and jump right into making funny faces in a matter of seconds.  You can be so obedient and so naughty at the same time.  I get the overwhelming urge to squeeze you so many times in a day, especially now that you are wearing big girl panties. You follow George like crazy.  When he is good, you are good and when he is ornery....well, you follow right along.   

 

You were so appreciative of your gifts this year.  You said thank you many times and were such a sweet little thing talking on the phone to your birthday callers.  You told everyone that you got a "birffday wagon."

You seemed really big to me when nama took you out to lunch by yourself and to pick out your birthday present.  You were so excited to go.  When you came home you were holding a chocolate ice cream cone in one hand with it smeared all over your face and a tiny Barbie car in the other.

 

And the face is back.  This face that you make cracks us all up and you know it.  You do it to get us laughing, and laugh we did especially since pop kept asking you to make the face.

  I look at you and wonder who you will turn out to be.  I've gotten into the habit of bathing you after lunch and then laying you down for a nap all fresh smelling.  I scratch your back and look at your eyes and thank God for you.

Making Plans to Trust

I love to plan.  

 Parties, outfits, celebrations, holidays, gifts, clothes, weekly meals, daily duties, birthdays, Sunday dinners,  sacraments, and situations...to name a few.  I make lists and lists of decorations, food and gifts before celebrating an event.  I don't go crazy, but I do like planning simple things in order to make people feel special. 

Then there are the bigger ones.  The BIG things that I think I can plan for and try my darnedest to control.  Our homes, the number of children we will have, labors and deliveries, our children's personalities, temperaments, education, and vocations. 

And while planning is good, productive, and fun....it also makes it difficult for me to trust in GOD'S PLAN. 

For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope.  When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you.  When you look for me, you will find me.  Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, you will find me with you, says the Lord, and I will change your lot; I will gather you together from all the nations and all the places to which I have banished you, says the Lord, and bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you.

Jeremiah 29: 11-14

So why do I spend such crazy amounts of time planning when I know darn well that I have very little control how situations will go or what God has in store for me?

I don't know.  I think what I have resolved to do is to be open to God's plan for whatever situation I'm facing, by just being open.  Realizing that situations will not go as planned, children will make mistakes and have to learn from them, holiday dinners will be chaotic and there will be fits thrown, no matter how hard I try to control it. 

 Letting God be a part of my planning will lead to happiness.

. 

 

Lesson Learned

This is funny.

You know my use a towel only once then wash it syndrome.... well I think TJ will be joining me with this policy after what happened this morning!  I have always silently gaged when I see TJ grab an already used, soaking wet towel off the floor to dry himself with.  It's gross, but getting clean with a dirty towel never seemed to bother him.

Last night I awoke to George running into our bedroom just after midnight.  Not stopping at our bed, it appeared that he was just going to go to the bathroom.  I laid there awake, hoping that he would head back to his bed on his own so I wouldn't need to get out of my warm and comfy bed.  It was then that I heard some sort of splattering going on the bathroom, so I looked over and saw George standing with his pants down in the doorway of the bathroom, peeing all over the floor.  And I do mean all over folks.  I go on to watch him finish his job, pull his jammies on and then run back to his bed, never aware that he had an audience.  I climb out of bed, turn on the light and holy cow I did he pee ALL over the floor.  So I took a towel that was already laying there, mopped up the urine and then left the towel there, pee drenched, to take down to the laundry room in the morning.  I was tired.  You can see where this story is headed right?  Sure enough, when I woke up this morning and saw TJ dressing in our room, my first words were, honey did you use the towel that was on the floor in the bathroom?

Ya, why?  was his response.  Of course you did.  After telling him what happened, and seeing him jump back into the shower,  I think he'll think twice before using a towel from the floor again!

A Day In Pictures

Pictures are amazing.  They tell a story all on their own.  Especially these days when so many "normal" people are buying fancy-shmancy cameras and becoming their own professional photographers, how easy it has become to capture the beauty in everyday moments.  It's amazing in just ten years how far cameras have come with the dawn digital area.

This is last Sunday in pictures.  Looks divine doesn't it?  It was, however what isn't shown is the fact that we had temper tantrums flying, children who wouldn't sit still in the pew at mass, a messy kitchen, a pizza that took MUCH longer than anticipated to cook leading to impatient people, fights over who would hold the jump rope, a migraine headache that led to an extremely miserable night.  I say this because I want to acknowledge the fact that though pictures may make our life beautiful, it still is real, very real. I need to remember as I look back at our young children days, how it was hard yet beautiful all mixed together.

 

I often wonder what my children will remember from their childhood.  I have a terrible memory.  I wish I could remember so much more, yet I am limited to only the few pictures my parents took back when I was growing up.  I can remember from the pictures and I do have a few random memories but I wish I could remember so much more.  I honestly have no memory from my First Holy Communion.  Annie is getting ready to make hers in just a few weeks.  What will she remember?  I hope so much more than me.  My mom has always said that I am lucky to have a camera and this blog to put our memories into.

   

I love that with my camera I can capture the gleam in George's eye when he smiles.  In the small space of the lens I see chubby fingers, the cheeks of a two year old in panties, how the sunlight hits the french toast and makes it look just right.  I see the toothless smile of a baby, the apron on the helper in the kitchen, the child's focused look on their face while coloring. 

I am so grateful that I get to see those precious moments.