Mama-luia

This post will most likely be all over the lot, as I am writing at 3:30 in the morning. Oldest Boy has already gotten up twice asking for water and Baby was awake once already. This is typical for the latter, very atypical for the former. Anyway I am tired. I expect I will be running on only one cylinder today. So I apologize for sounding out of it; I am. Seven Quick Takes 1. I just had a most wonderful few days with my dear friend. We haven't seen each other since last summer and even then, that was only for about one hour. She played with my kids, did the dishes (!) and joined us at beach trips. I selfishly admit that my favourite part of her visit was when we went out after the kids were in bed for martinis. 2. I regret having not done more fun things with said friend. I wanted to keep up our routine around the house of snacktimes, mealtimes, naptimes and so on, but let's face it, my kids nap abysmally (ABYSSSSMALLY) so we could have easily gone into the city to do tou...

A lovely friend of mine who has a large family shared this with me, and I wanted to post it for you to enjoy. I know I have waxed poetic on so many occasions about the joys of having a big family, and yet, here I am, on a semi-regular basis, feeling a bit swamped with "only two" (although I rather detest the word "only" applied to children, as though one doesn't have a real family until some magic number). So please don't mistake my enthusiasm for ignorance; I am certain parents of large families work really hard. It isn't easy. But... what I think this song captures so sweetly is that children are such a source of joy. So for every long day (or sleepless night) they bring us, they give us so, so much more. Somedays I can't help but smile as I think that the love Patrick and I share is so real that it produced two eternal souls. What an adventure parenthood is!

 Isaiah, you are one now. I need to pause and catch my breath as I type that. How fast the time has flown. Wasn't I gazing at this tiny face just yesterday? This has been a magical year with you, one of much much hope for our family, and for me. On your first Epiphany, when you were in the womb, we drew gifts for everyone as is our tradition. My friend Angela was staying with us at the time and she pointed out I had forgotten to draw a gift for you. So I said a prayer, put my hand in the basket and drew the word "hope." How perfect a word to sum you up, even before you were born! So I wanted your name to reflect the hope you brought to our family."Isaiah" means "God is salvation." What greater hope do any of us have, but to spend eternity with God? You, in your very name, tell the world that.  Have hope, you say, with your sweet smile.  Take heart, you say, with you infectious laugh and adorable dance. ...

As a matter of fact, he's been three for over two weeks, but I haven't gotten around to posting about it. I never did post pictures of Noah's birthday party last year because our camera had broken and thus I took some with a -- gasp!-- disposable camera (yes, they do still sell those!). Mom-guilt being what it is, I couldn't let another birthday go by without posting a bit of this and that from our celebration.  He requested a new felt crown two days before his birthday.  My hand-sewing skills could hack this, but not my time-management. Glue-gun it is.  He also requested a chocolate cake with pink icing.  I am pleased to say he got this idea from the Winnie-the-Pooh story where Christopher Robin hosts a party for Pooh, and Silly Old Bear hopes that the cake has "pink sugar icing".  Read-alouds pay off, what can I say?  We invited family (we also did a second small gathering with his wee friends, but all the photos I have of that event ha...

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things  who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. — Wendell Berry

I first fell in love with St. Francis of Assisi when I was 16. I say "in love" because yes, in a girlish way, I think I actually had a crush on him. He struck me as such a romantic soul, and I could see myself like St. Clare whisking away at night and having my hair cut off and following him. Yes, I was a little weird as a teenager. No surprise there. I continued to be attracted to the idea of voluntary poverty well after it was clear God was calling me to marriage and not religious life. Yet I was plagued with "but how ?" (Funnily, I even wrote an email to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal asking how should married couples embrace holy poverty, while balancing the responsibility of actually providing a suitable home for one's family. The response I received was funny: "Ask any married person! The answer is in having kids!") Patrick, too, was drawn to voluntary poverty. We talked about it a lot during our first year of marriage, "How wi...

Well hello happy readers. Long time no see! I hope you are having a wonderful Easter. We sure are. I hope you didn't miss me too much over Lent. Here's a brief overview of what happened for us these past 40+ days: We ordered an 8th of cow, and it arrived the first Friday of Lent. Patrick and I thought that was so funny that we took a picture of all the delicious grass-fed beefy goodness. And tucked it away in our deep-freeze 'til the Solemnity of St. Joseph. Sigh. Speaking of which: We did the St. Joseph altar for the first time. There are three tiers representing the Holy Family, and of course the Blessed Trinity. Various feasting foods including fava bean salad (it's a tradition with the Sicilians in honour of St. Joseph blessing their fava crop after a time of serious drought), rolls in the shape of carpenter's tools, wine and of course the long-awaited steak from Getaway Farms. Yum. Oh yes, and cream puffs. So good. (In the interest of you r...