Happy Thanksgiving

Psalm 100

A Psalm of David

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands!

Serve the Lord with gladness!

Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord is God!

It is he that made us, and we are his;

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

and his courts with praise!

Give thanks to him, bless his name!

For the Lord is good;

his steadfast love endures for ever,

and his faithfulness to all generations. 

Tidbits

Dh has had to be into work early all this week, and he has been working pretty late. This means long days for everyone... especially me. Luckily these little ones make me laugh.

On the way home from our Children's Holy Hour, I told Catie if she couldn't do as I asked she'd have to write "I will be obedient" fifty times. Being the demanding mom I am, she would even have to look in the dictionary to figure out how to spell obedient. She claims she already knows how to spell it and begins rattling off letters, but is clearly getting it wrong. Juju interrupts her and says nuh-uh that's not how you spell it, it's E-I-E-I-O, in her all-knowing tone of voice.

During the Hour of Mercy, I was roped into holding a large banner as the little kids (1st grade and younger) processed around the hall singing a Litany of the Saints. In the hustle and bustle I lost track of little Gabe. I found him later in the line of children processing as well as the older children, hands folded and singing along, "Pray for us." He followed the line all the way to the sanctuary, hands folded, quietly in line. My heart melted.

The boys have taken advantage of the long days and have been even more mischievous, but they know how to score points with Mom. While scavenging the cupboards and counters, they overlooked the multitude of leftover Halloween candy and sequestered themselves in the laundry room with an entire container of grape tomatoes. At first I thought to myself how can I be upset about them eating tomatoes and not candy? Then I had to clean the mess on the rug in the laundry room. I am still finding random tomato seeds. I also had to change the multitude of diapers that followed... OY!

In the midst of all this, I have had two or three vivid reminders that the time we have with our children is shorter than we think. Right now the days seem long, I fall into bed exhausted and I wake too early still tired. My patience is thin, and the general noise level here seems decibels too high. Still, how blessed I am to have these children, to have another day with them, to have the comforts and opportunities we are given each day. They bring more joy than fatigue. I don't want to miss these moments one day, I want to enjoy them today.

The pictures are totally random and from a walk in a downtown park almost a month ago... I just can't seem to keep up.

All Saints Day Round Up

Each year our parish hosts an All Saints Day party for the kids. This has been a favorite of my girls for years. Each year there are games, a parade, a pinata, crafts, door prizes, and more. The highlight, however, is when our resident priests try to guess the saints. This year Hannah decided to go with an easy guess because she just wanted to put together the costume. Here she is as Our Lady of Lourdes, yellow roses on her feet. She made a beautiful Mary.

Catie was all about stumping the priests... and she did. She went as St. Margaret d'Youville. She really impressed me though as she took the initiative to do a little research on this saint. She created a little card with her own hints to give the priest with things like, the first canonized saint of Canada and patroness of widows, loss of children, and more. 

This was my first attempt at a saint costume many years ago, we seem to keep coming back to it. Here little Sophia makes a beautiful St. Therese of Lisieux. She too enjoyed hearing more about this wonderful saint.

Juju made a beautiful Mother Theresa in one of my favorite costumes to make. It was so easy, a pillowcase, a leftover scrap from Our Lady of Lourdes, and blue painters tape. Took me 20 minutes and it was a hit. 

The boys were more interested in the games and the pizza and the cake, and still a little young for saint costumes, but I am already planning for the boy saints :)

Our Saints Day festivities were rounded out with pumpkin carving.

Always chaotic with six kids!! (you can even see little Gabe in the background eating raw pumpkin, eewww!)

And of course Trick-or-Treating...

Here the boys joined in.

Joseph went as Thomas (again), but this year he added a few train sound effects.

Little Gabe was so excited about his "airplane" costume. I bought these boy costumes almost 10 years ago when Hannah was a baby hoping that a boy would come along. I certainly didn't think then that it would take so long. For many years, I thought these little costumes would be relegated to the basement dress-up bin. Now almost a decade later they were the perfect little costumes for my boys. 

I also went out and bought cute (and warm) butterfly costumes for Sophia and Juliana, and they love them. They have worn them around the house and wanted to wear them out with Mom. However, when the time came, they both wanted to wear their saint costumes rather than butterflies.

How could I argue that with these Saints in the making?

My New Homeschooling Motto

Fight all error, but do it with good humor, patience, kindness, and love.

Harshness will damage your own soul and spoil the best cause.

 -- St. John Kanty

Clues

If you find yourself in one of those moments where things are just too quiet...

Chances are you're going to find a mess like this in your living room...

Then you might find yourself in another moment of panic when you can't find the baby -- anywhere!

Just remember to stay calm, remember the alarm hasn't beeped warning of an escapee, no one is crying, swear he was just at your side seconds ago, follow the clues...

And you'll find him

Opening Pandora's Box

Have you tried Pandora?

We've been big fans here for a little over a year. We have a Veggietales Station, a Wheels on the Bus Station, Jim Croce and Michael Buble for Mom, and George Winston and others (which will remain nameless) for Dad. We can run it through our TV using this wonderful device, and so we often play it during chore time.

A few months ago I started singing "Don't Worry, Be Happy" to one of the girls after a long day of Math because, yes, I am just that cheesy. My radio dial is on one of two stations ESPN or (according to Sophia) "Catholic ESPN" known to most as EWTN. Since we don't listen to most music stations, my girls are pretty sheltered and had never heard such a song. Being the dork I am, I loaded up a new Pandora station... the Don't Worry Be Happy station which introduced my girls to such classics as Deo, Daylight come and me wan go home... (that can't be the title of the song just think Bettlejuice-- and the dorkiness snowballs), and other wonderful, mostly stadium rock type songs.

While listening one afternoon, I was caught up in cleaning and chores running all over the house. It soon became clear I was not paying enough attention to the music blaring through the living room when I walk downstairs to hear "Son of a Preacher Man" playing on our surround sound. While it has horrible lyrics, it apparently has quite a catchy tune. I quietly turned it off, not wanting to make a scene or call the girls attention to it. It soon became apparent I had not succeeded. Little (5 year old) Sophia hummed that tune for a few days.

Then yesterday she was belting out strains of "Son of a PIZZA man" all afternoon. That is the only line she remembers, but all afternoon she sang of this famed pizza man. I am not sure if it was more entertaining or horrifying. Yes, this clinches my Mother of the Year Award.

After awhile Catie picks up on the little ditty and starts to question it. I hear the following conversation going on across the house:

Catie: I don't think those are the words to that song.

Sophia: Yes they are! (I can just see the look on her face even though she is out of sight. She is giving her sister the most matter of fact look, probably with one hand on her hip.)

Catie: (Thinking about it for a moment more) No, I don't think anyone would write a song about a pizza man. Go ask Mom.

I know it's coming. I do all I can to prepare myself. A few minutes later this sweet, little girl with a pink flowered headband freckles on her face greets me in the kitchen. "Mom," she says, "Is this song really about a PIZZA man?"

My response?

"Yes, sweetie. Of course it is." Because, really, I'm just not going there with a five-year old.

Listening

Last week Joseph and Sophia had a check-up with the ENT. Both of them have ear tubes and have to be evaluated every six months. We completely forgot the first appointment, things have been like that lately but that's another post. I've been interviewing for some help. We had a wonderful helper last year and the kids miss her, and I miss her more. Thankfully our new helper starts this week.

Since I was so busy, dh had to take them to the appointment. I am so appreciative that he can occasionally do this. He came home with just enough time to scoop the two into the car and then sped off. He didn't want to be late to our make-up appointment after we had already completely forgot the first. As a result of the rush, we didn't talk about any potential issues.

As they were in the waiting room he decides to take matters in his own hands and asks Sophia if she feels her hearing is better now that she has the tubes. She thinks about it for a second and then responds, "Well, I can always hear Mom when she is angry, but sometimes I do have trouble hearing other people."

Sheeesh that girl! Of course when there is milk involved, she hears it all.