Mama-luia

We've had forty days of preparation. It has amounted to forty days of meager penances taken on, abandoned, feebly reattempted. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is oh so weak. We stared down our weaknesses and sin. The apostles fell asleep while Christ suffered immeasurable torments.  We, too, 'sleep through' the time given to us.  The apostles abandoned Jesus during His Passion and death. We, too, back away from even the smallest sufferings we can offer Him. Lent, though, is not a contest. Despite click-bait-y titles from bloggers, you can not "win" at Lent. We forge a relationship with Christ in Lent. How can you "win" doing that? But equally, you can not "lose" at Lent.  I console myself of that when I recall just how pathetic my attempts to unite my small sufferings to Him were and are.  We can still take up our crosses, our tiny toothpick crosses, and follow Him. In doing so, we deepen our love for Him. ...

Another St. Nicholas Day has come and gone at our home. And oh what an exciting day it was, as always! The two oldest could hardly bear to climb into bed the night before -- they kept getting up to wander downstairs and see if St. Nicholas had arrived yet. It was like a mini-Christmas Eve, the giddiness and joy the day brought out of them. The morning of, we had to hold the boys back until their sister was awake and ready to go downstairs. Then it was a flurry of excitement and activity as candies were discovered, new books leafed through, and obscene amounts of chocolate were eaten in lieu of breakfast before I shuttled them out the door to school. Oops. Engrossed in Kinder egg toy construction This year, we made little treat bags with gold coins for their classmates. Blurry photos I snagged literally right before they left for school Noah's teacher was impressed enough to write a thank-you note in his agenda for us doing that. I was so ple...

I share this story today not to give the impression that I think we have an especially "holy" family or anything. I am decidedly average, and really, so are my children. The reason I chose to share this event is to help cement a memory that I hope to hold onto as my children get older. As it is, I love looking at old posts on my own blog and recalling how we lived out our days when they were just babies. I'm sure in three or four years I'll look back on this fondly, now that I have made a record of it. **** The Feast of Christ the King has always been one of my favourites. I love the music – some of the best hymns are almost always sung at this Mass – and I love that it precedes Advent, my favourite season in the Church calendar. For years I have tried to make it special, in simple ways, for my children, so to communicate the beauty of this feast day, and to create fond memories for them. This year I was pretty disorganized in the days preceding – I hadn’t o...

1. We had such a fun Halloween this week! The kids were bouncing off the walls by 3:10, wanting to head out trick or treating then. They each wanted to be the specific costumes you see here photographed, and I was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, we had the added bonus of my parents being here the previous week to help out (my Dad made the Mary Poppins hat out of an empty flat of Perrier; I just painted it and added the Dollar Store flowers.) So, without further ado, I give you: An adorable baby bear Mary Poppins (You should hear this girl sing "Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag."  She has a beautiful singing voice.) Thorin Oakenshield He was perturbed when I googled Thorin costumes that each example looked like the movie version. He was quite adamant: Thorin had a red beard, wore a sky-blue cloak and had a golden helmet.  So this is our Tolkien/Jemima Catlin tribute to Thorin. Kraft Dinner I loved this costume idea! And it...

I spent one very memorable Easter with my Ukrainian Catholic friend and her family. Her father is a priest and her family, not surprisingly, are all very involved in their church. During a tour of the church, this friend's mother attempted to explain the theological significance of icons to me. She said that an icon 'reads' us in a way, and that the gaze of an icon helps us to know about our own spiritual state. Sometimes the gaze of Christ or the saint depicted is one of warm affirmation, sometimes it is of gentle rebuke. They reflect back to us what we need to know about our interior state. Although I am a decidedly Latin Rite Catholic, I have experienced this while staring at an icon. We have some icons in our Little Oratory in our living room, and one of my favourites is Our Lady of Tenderness, given to us as a wedding gift from Noah's godparents. Several night ago, I was struggling with my still-not-potty-trained daughter to get her into a new diaper and jamm...

For the second time in our family's history, we celebrated a baptism on Father's Day. I was only six days postpartum, so it was a more low-key affair than previous baptisms for us. Dear Elijah was welcomed into the Church in the company of his parents and siblings, many of his cousins, aunts and uncles, 3/4 of his grandparents, and his godparents and 5/7 of their children, too. So the low-keyness wasn't for lack of people. It was for lack of effort, on my part, at least. Elijah's wonderful godparents generously offered to host the reception at their house, and it was a wonderful grace, because not only was I still very much in recovery mode, I spent the night before looking after a newborn and a sick Isaiah too. To make matters more... interesting... it was 39 degrees celsius that day. Our house is not air-conditioned. Elijah's godparents home is. It seemed like a sensible choice to move the festivities over there. *** Even though I was woozy fro...

Recently, we had a milestone in our family. Our first child came before the altar rail and received the sacrament of the Eucharist for the first time. It was a beautiful, amazing day. If you can believe it, this is the most flattering family photo we have. He was so happy. He knew it was a special day, and it was so uplifting to see him taking it all so seriously, excitedly, reverently. To add to our joy, my parents made the trip from Nova Scotia to be with him on his special day. It meant so much to me, and certainly to Noah, to have them there. Their pride was evident from the moment they arrived. We can all see how much he's grown and it's beautiful to witness. Awaiting his scapular We didn't get great seats, despite Patrick and I arriving 35 minutes early. I couldn't see any of the children processing in, as we were tucked in the north transept (thank you, Fish Eaters , for helping me learn that tidbit of church-y vocabulary). As well, the children ...

Some years, simply being a family takes priority over being extra liturgically-minded. There are babies and young children who need to go to bed at predictable, early hours. The long church services are simply too much for them. Dying eggs on Holy Thursday morning But isn't our faith learned first and foremost in the domestic church anyway? Lamb chops and grape juice for Holy Thursday dinner Around the kitchen table, where food is prepared lovingly and conversations take place? Especially at so young an age, Making paschal candles the faith must be "caught", not taught. So we spruce up our homes, as best as we can Our new "little oratory" in the living room And don our most handsome attire for the one Mass we can all attend together. (Although this almost-six-year-old made it to the 2.5 hour long Vigil {which he slept through in its entirety}. He was so proud to go out just with Daddy.) The...

So, Lent. (I need to remember to take these sorts of pictures before it gets dark.  The shadows make it look unintentionally somber and extra Lent-y.) I am embracing a "gentle Lent" again this year. My spiritual director says, "We choose our penance, but God chooses our Lent." You know what God chose for me this week? A (rather funny) doozy. Please be forewarned:  if you have a weak stomach, or are otherwise squeamish,  scroll down to the photos of my kids.  I took the kids to the dentist, an hour away from here. It involved lots of driving and complaining from kids about the length of the car trip. Then a dentist visit-tantrum from one child resulted in only one getting his teeth checked. After we ate lunch at the nearby McDonald's, I realized I had forgotten water bottles. So I took them to Shopper's to buy new water bottles, then drove home. I was already exhausted when we walked in the door. Then the power went out just whe...

Before we left for vacation, I wanted to make sure we had our garden prepared. When we return, it will be perfect timing to transplant some tomatoes and peppers, throw a few squash seeds in the ground, say a prayer to St. Isidore the farmer (and maybe St. Jude for good measure), and see what happens. So I needed to make sure the soil was turned. On one of the first truly nice days this spring, I decided we would spend the afternoon outside. With a baby strapped to my back, I set about to digging with my spade. Not surprisingly, it was hard work, but in that gloriously satisfying way. Out in the fresh air with my lovely children surrounding me, dreaming of fresh vegetables, and enjoying the reprise of the longest/most awful winter imaginable. The boys took to helping me, while Noah, ever the 'do-er' narrated excitedly all his visions for the garden plot. After a while though, they both plunked themselves down in different spots and went back to playing in the ...