Mama-luia

I found this in my draft folder, composed in 2013 when I had "only" two kids and one more on the way. It still very much expresses my feelings about motherhood and my decision to be at home with my children, not to mention my frustration with having opinionated people state their assumptions and judgments (mothering in a public setting is a very humbling experience). Our finances have improved somewhat since then, but the spirit of what I wrote is still very much true. The only change I made was to add a token photo of His Royal Cuteness at the end. To the woman at the Tim Horton's, I know you see me on a Tuesday morning with my boys enjoying a cup of tea while they get the splurge-of-a-lifetime: three whole Timbits each . You see us chatting and giggling with each other, and you can't help but come over and admire them. Please, pull up a chair if you wish. Come and meet my adorable children. Just please, please, don't say it to me. When you ask what I do ...

This following picture has nothing in particular to do with this post. I just dislike publishing a blog entry without some sort of photo attached. And since I'm writing about me and what I've been reading lately, it seems as worthy a time as any to include a picture of myself. Note that this is a "no makeup selfie." Aren't I trendy?  Mostly because 3/4 of the time I don't wear any makeup anyway. I've had a bit of a slow few weeks when it comes to reading. I've been making progress on Til we Have Faces by C.S. Lewis -- it is stirring and sobering but it is much slower going than anything else I have read by him -- and of course, joining the masses and reading The Benedict Option  (which I appreciate in its aim, but am already getting sick of. Because... enough already. Hasn't anyone else written something worthwhile this year?) So here is my compiled reviews of books completed since March. ***** The Lifegiving Home: C...

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. ...

Hi Kelly ! 1. The weather is very insane here lately. Warm, sandal weather one day... and Thursday night, a massive snowstorm and a power outage. This resulted in another snow day at my boys' school. If you're keeping track, that would be #11. Over two whole weeks of class-time gone, due to inclement weather. And it's April now. However, the forecast for Monday is 19 degrees celsius. I still have snowsuits in my entrance-way, but now I also need to go find their shorts in storage this weekend. 2. While I'm griping about the weather, I can't help at laugh about this incident: You know how one of the first signs of spring is the first sighting of a robin? Well, this year, the first robin we spied was outside our church, dead, and tipped over in a snowbank. (No, not that dead robin.) The kids were upset to think it had either frozen or starved to death, having appeared too early under the false hope that spring had already sprung. What an omen. ...

 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...

7:20 AM. (The clock says so in the picture.) Taking last night's leftover broccoli (I had purposely cooked extra) and making it into a quick cream of broccoli soup for the boys' lunch boxes. Meanwhile, the gang enjoys their breakfast. 8:25 AM. The boys are off to school, Anna is looking at books, and I sit down to my breakfast. It hurts a little to swallow, so a grapefruit and a cup of Throat Coat tea as per Anne's recommendation will do. 9:30 AM-ish. Elijah naps and Anna helps me make Carrot Oatmeal muffins . (I only use quick oats, no all-purpose flour and no xanthum gum, and they turn out great, albeit quite sweet.) 10:45 AM or so. Playing fairies and princesses. Wings, a must. Tangled hair, optional. 11:10. Cute babies playing together. 12:00 noon. Anna and I have lunch. She has protested "lunch" for some time now. She only wants a "snack" but always right around lunch hour; she gets livid if I call it "l...

I leave the baby for a few short minutes now, and he backs himself under the couch, where he is incapable of freeing himself without someone's help. The giggles this elicits from his older siblings, I fear, will further his desire to trap himself on a regular basis. I tend to think of this photo as a symbolic representation of our February. We experienced an aggressive stomach flu, coupled with a chimney fire -- while Patrick was out of town, naturally -- and a suspected (but thankfully ruled out) case of carbon monoxide poisoning for the kids. Thus, we backed ourselves further and further into the abyss until it became actually laughable how "stuck" we were. Like innocent babies jammed under an IKEA couch. We're through the worst of it, though, and are regaining our equilibrium. The big kids are back at school, and Anna is back to vacillating between wanting to "help" me with everything (like gift-wrapping the potatoes for the oven, one of he...