Mama-luia

7 Quick Takes:  Bringing  the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd  into the home At the end of November, a friend of mine and I launched the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program in our parish. For those unfamiliar with the program, I believe this brief video captures it beautifully. We've had several sessions now, learning about the liturgical year and its colours, modelling how to slowly and reverently make the sign of the Cross, how to walk purposefully and quietly in the atrium -- in general, how to comport ourselves to be better equipped to participate in the Mass. We've also directed them with Montessori 'practical life' activities, such as pouring, scooping, threading beads, using tongs to pick things up to sort, and so on. They have eagerly learned about the globe and the land of Israel and have enjoyed being able to identify where Christ was born, lived and died and rose again. The delight with which these children receive these lessons is so gra...

Hello there, readers. Long time, no blog. There's plenty to say about back-to-school happenings, life in general, but I thought I'd start instead with a pop quiz: What do  James van der Beek... (aka "Dawson") Chip Gaines... and my husband have in common? If you guessed, "occasionally unruly grooming styles,"  you would in fact be correct,  but the answer we were looking for is... They all have five children. Yes, you read that correctly.  Coming the end of March 2019, another little bouncing baby will join our clan. (Not actually Isaiah's reaction when we told him. Ha! Actually, he and his siblings danced on the front porch with joy  while eating a fudgesicle after we shared our news with them.  {I'm never one to let an important announcement or milestone pass without dessert of some sort...}) We are very happy and excited, but also deeply humbled by being given the ...

We have reached another milestone in our home: we now have a nine year old in the house. So far, it's a pretty nifty age. It involves bigness -- in opinions, feelings, ideas, and even sizem. It's like I woke up one day and realized my son is quickly gaining on me, height-wise! I do not know how I will deal with it when he outgrows me. Nine means independence: biking places by himself, devouring books by himself instead of always wanting me to read aloud to him, having strong opinions that may not be replicas to that of his parents'.  I had a foretaste of all of this when he was three -- he certainly wanted to do everything "by myself!" back then, but now, he can, and does. For reference's sake, here is Noah at three. Let us pause and sigh and whisper "tempest fugit" and WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP CHOPPING ONIONS IN HERE, I'm trying to BLAAAAAHHHG. While it actually does not feel like "just yesterday" that this picture...

"Matrimony is a Gospel in itself, a Good News for the world today, especially the dechristianized world." Pope Benedict XVI, Homily for the Mass for the Opening of the Synod of Bishops, 2012. (Photo cred) I tend to live my marriage as routine -- get up and feed children, make coffee for Patrick (or, just as often, drink the coffee he made me; thanks, dear), throw a load in the washer, throw a load in the dishwasher and play with kids. School pick-ups, dinner, readalouds and prayer time, and then in the final and peripheral moments of the day, speak with Patrick about what is on each of our minds (usually stuff related to the kids, funny or interesting things spotted online and super -fun budgeting conversations.). Lather, rinse, repeat. Rarely do I step back and look at the full picture of what we are living, because I'm up to my eyeballs in the daily maintenance of it. It's hard to think or feel anything is especially "holy" when it looks li...

It'a high time for another happy edition of What's New. Why? BECAUSE my kids are finally seeming to be healthy! For like, two whole weeks now. After about ten weeks or more of sickness, I can't tell you how grateful I am for this new change. There have been pockets of happiness and peace during this long, drawn-out ordeal, but don't let my cheerful blogging voice trick you into thinking I'm some highly competent nurse-maid. For instance, in a meeting about a month ago with my kids' principal -- no, they weren't in trouble, I had requested it to ask some questions about curriculum, et cetera -- I blurted out, "I hope you don't think I have Munchausen by proxy , given how much time they have missed. BELIEVE me, my strong preference is to have them all happily at school." She looked stunned that I would even suggest such a thing, and I realized I probably sounded Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. And so I came home and cried some angsty tears be...

Here we are in the Octave of Christmas, otherwise known as "I have more free time on my hands with Patrick off work this week AND not using the computer and thus I blog." It's an annual tradition. Advent has come and gone, and Christmas is here to stay for a goodly long time (if you count it until Candlemas, we have Christmas straight until 12 days before Ash Wednesday this year). I'm currently wearing my most festive apron over my boring mom uniform of leggings + tunic top, after having just made shortbreads for the clan for an afternoon snack. Amazon boxes and duct tape to create... something. There is a pleasant holiday feeling in the air, and it is oh-so-welcome. But let's recap the Advent-y-ness first and foremost before getting to Christmas. *** The feast of Martinmas involved our traditional lantern walk. We modpodged some Mason jars the day before and walked around the wooded area by our church singing. It was very touching because one of my ch...

Lovely little Anna turned four three weeks ago. Four is such a wonderful age! Suddenly your toddler-ish child seems so grown up and capable of new things, but with the precious imaginative innocence of a little child, too. We celebrated her birthday with family in the city, and my dear sister made her a beautiful cake iced in pink and turquoise, her favourite colours.  I just love her sweet expression here, just so dear and lovable.  Our little lady is getting so wise and mature! We then had a party with a number of her friends at our house. It was another slapped-together 'theme party' (in very loose quotation marks) in honour of butterflies. To give you a sense of the lack of preparation on my part, I actually hid the prizes for the scavenger hunt while the kids were already there. And I have no photo at all to prove it happened. She didn't seem to mind my disorganized state, though. Just to have a bunch of sweet little children over for pi...

So where was I? Goodness. Time just flies and flies on by. I am the self-appointed 'keeper of memories' at our home, in part because Patrick self-admittedly has a poor memory for details, so my lack of blogging feels like these memories will get otherwise lost. Must get back at it! *** So much of the time, I'm running through my days. I said wistfully the other day how I missed when Anna was a baby and the boys were too little for school. We made our own schedule and spent our days as we pleased. I read them the entire corpus of Laura Ingalls Wilder that year while nursing Anna... we made a lot of cookies... it was good and relaxed and peaceful. Now life feels like Hurtling them Into the Next Stage phase. Not that I am trying to make them grow up , but I mean my days are just so dictated by the getting ready for school, the decompressing from school, getting dinner on the table, getting bedtime going... there are so many routines to keep up that it feels like...