Mama-luia

I love hearing Noah say "We're having a busy day!" because often he says that in reference to, say, a day that we go out on our weekly grocery trip, do a finger-painting, read three books AND Mommy washes the dishes. Busy times, indeed. Somehow when I tell him as I get Isaiah dressed in the morning, "we've got to get moving! We're going to have a busy day!" he perks up immensely. The "busy-ness" could simply be a bunch of housework I need to get done alongside him and his brother, but so long as I present it as a full, exciting day, he's ready to go for it. So I give you, my "busy" life: Sunday afternoon. Isaiah learned how to do a flip with Daddy's help Watching The Piano Guys Taking a little breather after making a cake for the church supper  (which the church ladies even told me was "lovely" looking -- it was! -- and I forgot to photograph it!! And now the blogging world will still th...

I will try and get a photo of the gem of artwork Noah made me produce on Saturday when my camera (which kindasorta belongs to LifesiteNews {because they paid for it, for their one-and-only Canadian Bureau Chief to use}) returns to me (along with said Bureau Chief). For now, I'll have to explain it with words. First off, classic Jenna preamble: Babies are a subject of regular conversation and fascination in our home. When we got our van almost eight months ago, Noah took one look at it and said "We could fit a BIG family in this!" He wasn't even three yet. Of course, you're familiar with his career goal: an obstetrician in New Brunswick who delivers tiger babies . He got the word "obstetrician" from me because that day, in September I think, I said I had a stomach ache and needed to sit down, so he decided to play doctor. He looked at me with a most solemn face and said almost accusingly "Do you have a baby in your womb?" I said "no!...

Recently I wrote about my thoughts on strengthening one's marriage. I feel like I want to backpedal a little and explain myself: There is a phenomenon that I've witnessed where some married couples treat their children like second-class citizens in their home. Saying things like "well our marriage  is the sacrament," they justify placing their children down on the totem-pole of priorities in various ways, adopting strange parenting practices but with a weird theological gusto behind them because they want to just adore one another. That's wrong. So, so, wrong. First of all, sure the marriage is  the sacrament, but the children are the fruit of that. Do you think anyone ever said to Our Lady "well Christ is just the fruit of your womb?" He made her who she is, the Mother of God! Likewise, we plant a pear tree to get pears. It's great that the tree itself is pretty, gives off shade and overall comfort, but pear trees are for pears. (This ana...

With Christmas now officially over (as of Sunday; we finally took our fire hazard tree down), I have to face facts that it's winter . Not the poetic Christmas-y winter, but the Narnian winter before the four Pevensie children change things for the good. Of course, things are relatively mild here during these months, but even still, the shorter days, the colder nights, the misplaced mittens, boots, and tuques that I frantically try to hunt down at 8:55 so we can get to 9:00 Mass 'on time' -- all these are a recipe for a shorter fuse for me and a less than jovial home for the fellows with whom I live. "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." I take these (silly) words to heart, so much so that I am officially taking January off. I'm not trying to tackle big projects, I'm letting some discipline issues slide, and I am getting out of the house as much as  I can. Proof: I'm not even quite sure what this piece of clothin...

Well hello there, friends. You may remember me as the author of my former blog, Last Things first. (In actual fact, you more likely remember me as your little sister, former college roommate, friend, neighbour... which was precisely why you read my old blog. It's not like I'm a celebrity or something.) So why the change, you ask? The short answer is "because I felt like it." I had been blogging at Last Things first for almost four years (!), a project I began before I gave birth to my oldest child. I have enjoyed the journey, and as silly as it sounds, I relish having the archived posts from so long ago to remind me what we were doing back then. Yet the "old" me, the one who first created that blog, has changed a lot. Since I started blogging, I gave birth to two children, moved from one province to another and then two more times in the new province, buried my very beloved grandmother, and underwent some personal changes amidst and because of these e...

I gave to myself an evening of crafting while my husband read "A Christmas Carol" aloud to me (Are you swooning yet?) I'm pretty pleased with myself. I made something this evening! Well, in reality I only decoupaged something, but still, my own bare hands turned something kinda hokey looking comme ca: Just a plain old jewelry box. into something more sophisticated (at least, I think): If you look closely, you'll see that those bits of paper are actually hacked from The Complete Works of Shakespeare . Who in their right mind cuts Shakespeare to pieces, you ask? Not I, at least usually. But this particular edition of Shakespeare has been known for some time in our home as "The Vomit Shakespeare". I will spare you the details, but yes, the cover was once vomited on. I wasn't enticed to read it much after that. But it seemed so Pinterest-y chique of me to use Shakespeare for a little upcycled word-art with Mod Po...

January.  Brr. February. My little elfkin loves his oatmeal. March. Our family disagrees with T.S. Eliot. March  is the cruelest month. April  This little one turned 3. May This littler one turned one (and ate spring rolls.) Oh yes, same birthday crown, because Three Year Old insisted on giving his to his brother.  June Here comes the sun July Same crazy expression, same love of ice cream  August Yes, I am married to this exceptionally handsome man, yes I took this snappy picture, and yes we live in a village this picturesque! September Noah started Bookworms at Play (his library preschool program October Apple picking and a visit to Noggins Farm  November All Saints' Day St. Peter and St. Joseph the Worker  December Excited to celebrate Daddy's birthday Twelve pictures capturing 2012. Thank you, Dwija .

My true love gave himself. . . an arterial wound in the palm. (If you have a queasy stomach, carry on elsewhere in blogosphere, because there is about to be a lot of blogging about blood.) On the morning of the 26th, the day before our three guests were coming from Madonna House, we booked the day off from family functions and busy-ness to get down to brass tacks and get our home ready for guests. I went over to the shelf where I keep my cookbooks in search of a good dessert recipe using the things I had on hand (excellent things: eggs, chocolate, whipping cream, butter, sugar! I was thinking pudding, naturally). I pulled a cookbook down, and CRASH, the entire shelf fell off the wall. This is where I had been hanging my pots and pans, and (sigh) where I stored all my expensive gluten-free flours in glass containers! Being that we have learned to be paranoid about careful with broken glass, I had to contain the kids in the living room while Patrick courageously swept up th...