Mama-luia

I'm continuing on with the 7 Posts in 7 Days challenge . But today will be a quick one, as I have a sick four-year-old. While out at the grocery store this morning -- we had gone to pick up ingredients for chicken soup for said four-year-old -- Isaiah, my two-year-old, saw something and said "Mommy's privacy!" I got terrified, wondering what he was referring to. I turned around to see he was holding a box of toilet paper. I guess when I say "Mommy needs some privacy"  while using the loo, he thought that was what toilet paper was called?

I'm joining up with Jen at Conversion Diary for 7 Posts in 7 Days Blogging Challenge .  We shall see what deep, entertaining and insightful things I come up with.... Do cute pictures of my kids playing outside count?! I am more than half way there to my due date. I am so looking forward to meeting this youngest member of our family. I find myself thinking dreamily about the sweet little sleepers tucked away in our outbuilding for Baby Lemon , about finally getting back to cloth diapering (skeptics: cloth diapers is easy-peasy, especially when your baby is exclusively breastfed!), wondering if we will need to invest in some pink clothing pronto, how the boys will react when they finally meet their new sibling. Lots of romantic, excited, dreamy, hopeful thoughts flit through my mind. But there is one thing which is causing me fear. It's the actual birth of our baby. I wasn't really afraid of labour and delivery with our first. I watched all the natural birth ...

There has been a lot of healing going on in my heart lately. After I published my recent post , I quickly made an appointment with my spiritual director to talk over some of the things that were troubling me. It was an opportunity for grace. With his encouragement, I am re-prioritizing. My energy needs to be first and foremost on my family, secondly on everything else.  [We needed to get back to basics as a family.] As though God was confirming this all, we were blessed with a unique opportunity to be together as a family. On Friday, we had a tornado warning in our area. A crazy storm came through -- but no tornado here, thankfully! -- which knocked out our power for a full eight hours. Our modem went out so Patrick couldn't work, and I wasn't tempted to say "not right now, I'm doing laundry" and so on, because I simply couldn't do laundry, or clean the fridge (something I had been looking forward to {?!} for that day). Instead, we just played together...

A while back I posted on " What's new ?" in our family, and oddly, it is one of my favourite posts; it's nice to keep a record of the happenings of each member in our household, and I look back and smile at how life has changed in what is in reality a short period of time. I thought I'd go ahead a do another one. I hope you come along for the ride. Isaiah Isaiah is now 26 months old. He's just a teensy bit older than Noah was when Isaiah was born. That fact in itself is astounding to me, because as I look back on Noah's life as a two-year-old, Isaiah is definitely more talkative. He loves to join in on adult conversations with the phrase, "My a off-highway dump truck!" (which means "I am an off-highway dump truck;" he hasn't mastered the personal pronoun.) What a funny fellow. He also recently began singing excitedly when I had some guests over for dinner -- I had made lasagna -- "Lasagna in the highest!" He a...

Have you noticed that shopping second-hand has become stylish? Now it's become it's own verb -- "thrifting" -- and even has exceptionally catchy songs written about it? {Please, please don't tell me there is a "thrifting community." I will keel over. The abuse of the word "community" is a creepy signpost of how warped our culture is. I digress....} The funny thing is, second-hand shopping was invented by and for people like moi -- those of us raising families on one income, not hipsters who are trying to make a statement . Wearing one of my favourite dresses from the Salvation Army.  I got this because I needed something to wear to Noah's "Knights and Princesses" party  (you can see the decorations in the back) --  he saw it and said "You look like a princess in this!" Also, every time I wear it, Isaiah runs up and rubs my pregnant tummy and tells me I have a "nice womb" Enter Madonna Hou...

One of my best friends in the universe got married this weekend! It was a beautiful, holy exciting day. First off, the bride: If you have ever seen a more beautiful, radiant bride, than I am a monkey's uncle.  In fact, this picture barely does her beauty justice. Also, not only was she stunning, she was the most gracious bride I ever witnessed -- taking time to welcome each guest, spend time catching up with everyone in attendance, even making sure me, the pregnant bridesmaid, wasn't too hot (it was a scorcher of a day!) or tired.  So here I am, at 24 weeks pregnant, decked out in my bridesmaid attire. I won't lie, I felt fabulous. So there. Also, I received a lovely and somewhat amusing compliment right after the wedding Mass:  "You look like Our Lady of Guadalupe!" (The woman who said this was referring to the fact that I had a pregnant belly with a sash around my waist.) Me and another dear friend.  She was my maid ...

I cringed recently when dining at a friend's house. She told me she read my blog -- that doesn't make me cringe, but perhaps blush, and I'm not sure why -- and she was under the impression I was one of those moms who "had it together." I gasped, and quickly told her, "I am a train-wreck". I think I have mentioned it here, most likely many times, that I am not a tidy person by any means. I am absolutely energized by cleanliness and orderliness, but I am lazy and disorganized and I lack the follow-through in keeping on top of things. That, however, is not why I am a train-wreck. It is because I am incredibly impatient with my children. Incredibly . I was in the grocery store recently with my children and their aunt who now lives with us. Noah was being jovial and playful and sat on the tub of ice cream I was going to buy "to help warm it up." Now surely it was reasonable for me to ask him not to do that. But I snapped at him, sighed at th...