March recap, bits of beauty

 March, you were very good to our family.


I got to visit my beloved hometown with my sweet little family.


 (Takin' a ride to the Dark Side)


They got loved on by grandparents.


And they were troopers in the car for the 18-hour drive!


And... imagine our delight to return home to spring-y weather.


(These sweet kiddos made this picnic all by themselves and then invited me and Elijah to join them. I can't even manage to find matching socks for the baby.)


A few days after we returned, it was the feast of the Annunciation and so we went to the nearest city to attend a solemn High Mass. The music, supplied by our alma mater's schola, was other-worldly. I never thought I would ever hear Gregori Allegri's "Miserere" sung anywhere but via a recording, and within an actual liturgy: be still my beating heart. Isaiah told me he thought the priest celebrating the Mass had the nicest vestments he ever saw. Noah was vested in choir as a server and when we said our prayers before tucking the kids in that night, Patrick said a prayer of thanksgiving "for the beautiful music at Mass" and Noah let out a rousing "Amen!" 


***

The boys and I have been working on icons since I read this inspiring post. I tuck the little ones in at night and we get to work. It's been... without trying to sound trite... healing: for my relationship with them, my understanding of my own gifts vs. limitations, even in small ways, in the way I relate to God Himself. (It is very fearfully awesome seeing Christ "gaze" at you from a painting you yourself have made, however imperfectly.)

Since we have started this project, I have seen the boys being sweeter to each other, too. When you're telling your sibling how nice his brushstrokes are, you're less likely to pick on him, it seems. 

Both of these encounters, of the Latin Mass with exceptional music, and the icon writing, remind me yet again  how transformative beauty is. I'm also struck by how mature even a young child's capacity is to respond to beauty. On a less 'esoteric' note, it's also a treasure to see ways I can relate to them now that their early childhood is already over, something I had been mourning for some time now.

Quotable: 

While in the car recently, I told Anna "We're going to stop at Tim Horton's and I'll get a coffee...." and before I could offer to get her something, she declared "I do NOT want to discuss coffee unless I'm also getting a bagel." 





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