Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Lent is For....Lent Cookies?

We've kept Lent simple this year....well simple in the sense that it's easy to keep our fast because we've physically removed our ability to cave in.....

We decided this year (apart from Chris and my personal Lenten intentions) we would give up TV and sweets--I know...it's very original.  Chris and I don't watch much TV anymore, I was only tuning in for Downton Abbey (which luckily ended the week before Lent began!) and old recordings of the O'Reilly Factor--mostly when the kids would decide to wake up around 4 am and I would throw some Cheerios at them and tell them to amuse themselves while mommy tried to recover on the couch.  Our problem with TV, well my problem, was that if I put one show for the boys it would quickly turn into two, then three then an entire morning of letting PBS stay on while I did other things without them interrupting or just lying on the couch all tired and pregnant.  For me, television is just so easy I have a really hard time turning it off, even though I don't want them watching as much as they were and even though I know it makes them crazy afterward.  That being said, knowing my weaknesses, we made the decision to take the TV down and move it into our closet.  The crying fit David threw when he came downstairs on Ash Wednesday and realized it was gone is a testament to how overly attached he is to the machine.  Sometimes I still hear Henry on the monitor while he's in bed saying "TV broken?" Sad.

The upside of giving up the TV is that we've had a lot of time freed up to pursue more worthy pastimes and refocus ourselves......

I put together a Lenten countdown calendar and every night the boys use a glue stick to glue a purple cross on.  We've got a different prayer intention for each day of the week and we're working on David memorizing the morning offering prayer that I put on the bottom of the calendar.  Chris is also helping him learn to do a more formal examination of conscience during his bedtime prayers.  We decided it would be much more meaningful for the boys if daddy was totally in charge of teaching evening prayers even though it's hard for me to let go and not check to make sure he's doing it "right" :)  We're all fasting from TV (which provides a lot more opportunities for prayer!), and sweets--David doesn't really understand fasting yet.  He keeps asking to bake cookies, I tell him we can't because it's Lent, he responds by asking to bake Lent cookies.  I'm not sure a Lent cookie would taste very good...maybe we should bake some pretzels instead?  As for the kids almsgiving, they are putting quarters in our rice bowl which the Church gives to local charities which they think is really fun.



We are also working on a sort of Lenten purge in an attempt to be less attached to our material possessions.  Every Saturday we are cleaning out and purging one room of the house, giving a lot away and setting aside some for another garage sale this spring.  We've already attacked the playroom, which houses all the toys, books, computer equipment, important papers and art supplies.  It was probably the hardest of all the rooms because it has the most storage space which means the most things hidden and stuffed away.  The boys haven't even batted an eye at the missing toys and it is so much easier to clean up in there with less stuff.  And I also decided to finally part with all of my grad school textbooks which I'm not sure why I didn't want to let go of before, but they are surprisingly still worth money and we've already sold three on Amazon!

We also brought back the sacrifice beans jar, which will turn into jelly beans on Easter.  The boys really love this, although David is the only one who really understands it.  He gets to put a bean in the jar for all of his kind deeds and right now we're especially working on the virtue of prompt obedience so he puts a bean in the jar whenever he does what I say on the first asking.


I also put together a morning book basket with our growing collection of Lent and Easter picture books (mostly chosen from the Catholic Mosaic book list) to read with the boys as well as my scriptural rosary book and my favorite book of meditations ever, In Conversation with God, Volume 2.  It's part of a seven volume set which Chris agrees we should definitely invest in!  It has daily meditations that correspond to the daily mass readings and you should probably order one right now :)  For the most part, the boys play nicely in the other room while I drink my tea and read in the morning and then we all get together and read the picture books afterward.


Overall, Lent has been going really well so far and it has given us a much needed chance to refocus ourselves and slow down.  Of course if you ask David what happened on Easter the first answer you'll get is--"I get my TV back" you have to ask him what else happens to get the more correct, "Jesus rose from the dead."  Oh well....

The lack of television and the sporadic bursts of warm weather have also lead to a resurgence in our nature walks and consequently our nature treasures.  I put together a little area for them to store their collection....it's a little sad right now, but I'm sure it will expand as our weather becomes more hospitable.


These treasures are from our last windy walk.  Check out Henry's hair.....it was hard to get a picture since we were all holding hands........




Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Did I Tell You....

that Henry is in his big boy bed?  He had mastered the art of crib escape and David kept thinking it was hilarious to jump into the crib when I wasn't looking.  I was sure that either Henry was going to crack his head open jumping out or David was going to go crashing right through the bottom of it jumping in and let's face it, we're Catholic and I'm going to need that crib to be functional for at least the next ten years or so :)

Anyway, after a failed attempt at getting the boys to fall asleep with Henry on David's old bed and David on the trundle I started stalking Craigslist for a solution.....


I found these bunk-able twins for a steal and Chris talked them down even further.  David wants bunks now so he can be like his cousins, but not only did I think that was a horrible idea with his current love of climbing and jumping off of very high things; there was also no way we could fit them bunked with our ridiculously low ceilings!  Maybe in the new house....or maybe in a few years when he isn't so fearless....I know, who am I kidding, he's his father's (and grandfather's!) son and he will likely always love doing the most dangerous thing he can think up at any given moment....

You're impressed that we fit a whole extra bed in this tiny space aren't you?  The funny thing is that the room actually feels larger now than it did with the crib.  I hate to block windows, but what can you do when you live in a house with character......

Valentines Are For Destroying

Happy St.Valentine's Day!  This is the first year that David really got Valentine's Day.  Maybe that's because we  actually did something to celebrate that didn't involve waiting until the children went to bed to devour copious amounts of chocolate that we had hidden from them lest they want to share :)

We started a week and a half out and went to the library to get some Valentine's books...apparently all the other moms didn't wait that long because there were three books left in the Valentine's Day section.  Luckily for us, all those other mom's must not be Catholic because one of those books was just what we wanted!  Saint Valentine, by Robert Sabuda.  We talked about who Saint Valentine is and why we celebrate and then we got busy making our own cards to send out......

I gave David some Valentine's colored paint and all of our heart shaped cookie cutters and let him go to town.  I think they came out rather well!





We did this while Henry was napping....poor Henry, but David did insist that we put that the cards were from both of them!  We made enough to send out quite a few, but somehow *ahem* most of them found their way into a sink full of water and no one *ahem* seemed to know anything about how they got there....So we sent the survivors out to some of our cousins and two friends from my moms group and called it a day!

And the holiday crafting didn't stop there!  We made Daddy a "back rub t-shirt" as well, which consisted of an undershirt, some fabric markers and a lot of train tracks.  The idea being that the kids would run trains along the tracks and give Daddy a back rub at the same time.  I drew the pictures and David told me exactly what Daddy needed on his shirt--David's Station, Henry's Water Tower, the Shed, Daddy's Law School and a lot of coconut trees.  He was really insistent on the trees....I think we've been reading too much Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  He was also really upset when I told him we had to put the shirt away for a few days since it was a surprise.  He would have played with it all day!


It was a huge hit though, and the boys gladly gave Chris an intensive train back rub once he finally unwrapped his gift!  Daddy liked it so much he even wore it to school today :)



Chris and I celebrated last night after the boys were asleep because we won't have a chance tonight--it included steak, a beautiful and very thoughtful new rosary for me, and a lot of fancy chocolate eating while the children wouldn't catch me and want to share :)

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Belly Shots

As per all of your oh-so-urgent requests, here are the long awaited belly shots.  I'm afraid there isn't too much to show yet!

It didn't take long for everyone to want to get in on the photo shoot........



January in (Mostly) Pictures

 At the PA Farm Show...this is how he passed by almost every animal....especially the cows.....
Our first snow since Halloween....brought inside for mommy's warmth and convenience .....




Lot's of painting......



Cushion forts galore......



One day of glorious no-coats-needed sunshine.....



And plenty of creative play.....building trains out of boxes, paper towels and toilet paper rolls.  That's right, if you use toilet paper at our house it was most likely once the wheels and/or cargo for a pretend vehicle of some sort.......

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