Lent

So the kids and I didn't actually make it to the Ash Wednesday mass this year.  I had concocted this amazing plan that involved driving the kids to the Pentagon to meet Chris for mass there, but with the snow days and government shutdown our parking pass never got processed and I was not about to trek the kids the mile long walk down to the metro in the snow to get there.  It was probably for the best since the two Ash Wednesday masses at the Pentagon were apparently standing room only which, let's face it, would have been a disaster.  

I did pull together some of our tried and true Lenten activities though and I even managed to make them pretty to boot.  

Note:  The following is mostly for my own records--when I tried to search the blog to find a picture of our Lent calender from years past to see how I made it the only one I found was from Pennsylvania--a total mom blog fail.  I'm not a super "lets do all the activities!" type of mom so pretty much everything we're doing here takes place around mealtimes when I'm most likely to not forget.  Anyway, here's what we're doing just in case you're interested.......

Sacrifice/Kindness Beans:  For every kind deed/sacrifice the kids make they put a bean in the jar and on Easter they are magically transformed into jelly beans.  This is a family favorite and the jars are always filled to the brim with jelly beans no matter how full they were the night before Easter.  David was in charge of picking out the bag of beans from the store this year because I apparently purged the old bag of black beans I've been reusing for the past four years when we moved.  He couldn't quite settle on any one type so he begged for the twelve bean soup bag.  Henry is slowly emptying the bowl of all the giant white lima beans since clearly, bigger is better.

I also printed a copy of Lent for Children:  A Thought a Day because it's simple and free.  We've been reading it after breakfast as part of our 'morning basket' time.  We also light those candles and say our prayers because I've found the best way to get children to pay attention to their prayers is fire.   We've also been attempting a family decade of the rosary right after dinner which has been going about as well as you can imagine.  I like it though since, a convert myself, I don't know all the rosary prayers by heart which is my biggest stumbling block to actually praying one.  So this particular Lenten devotional is good for me and not too much of a hardship for the kids.  Plus, the ones that stick it out nicely get to blow out the candles.  See--the magic of fire.

I also made the same countdown calender I always do from the book Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler mostly because the boys LOVE gluing down the crosses each day and as a bonus, if you don't get to be the one to glue on a cross you can put a kindness bean in the jar for your momentous personal sacrifice.  I didn't have any big sheets of paper this year but I did have the cardboard back of an empty sketchpad so that's what I used which turned out great since I can just lean it up against the wall.  In the past we've had the kids count household objects to earn pennies to give alms with as the book suggests but this year I might let them do chores to earn pennies instead, or not, we'll have to see how Lent goes.  We've also been fasting from TV and sweets which is hard but also a nice reset from the winter induced TV and candy bender we've been on.  You can click here for a much more professional version of the calender complete with printables.....or if for some reason you want my printables let me know and I can send you a ridiculously old word file :)

I love Auntie Leila's advice to just live your own Lent and bring the children along.  I've been attempting to discipline myself to get up before the kids again (which I haven't done consistently since before the big move) in order to pray/start my day in peace which I've had about a 75% success rate at so far.  If I wanted to ensure being up before my minions I'd have to wake up with Chris at 4 AM and I just don't see that happening anytime in the near future.

I would really like to take the kids to church on a Friday and go through the Stations of the Cross with them--not at 7 PM when that's actually going on and the kids would be complete disasters--maybe just during the day when the church is empty?  And I have a vague plan to print and laminate these free, Montessori style Stations of the Cross cards for the boys to work with.  I might have already hit my limit for Lenten crafting though.  We'll have to see :)

How's your Lent looking so far?

Easter is for Throwing Eggs.......

Well, we got all of our eggs dyed and filled right on time....and it was a lot of eggs....and by we, I mean mostly me.........

.....and when Easter morning arrived the boys had to hunt for their baskets which was quite the challenge since they are both afflicted with can't-finders-itis.....I think it's hereditary....from their father's side :)

They both got new flashlights and the obligatory Easter candy, and then Henry got some new garden tools and flower seed packets and David got his first real hammer....we've gone over the hammer rules but, it's David, so we'll see.....

Then it was off to the two hour mass, but not before I attempted a family photo shoot..............it went just about as well as you would expect........

....the blur in the corner is the surprise Henry blanket attack.

After mass was over--did I mention it was two hours?--we came home to set up for our fourth annual We're All a Bunch of Nomadic Drifters Who Have No Family Nearby to Celebrate With Easter Egg Hunt and Potluck....I know, the title could use a little work.........

We had seventeen adults and fourteen children so it was a little crazy in our tinyhouse.  But good crazy :)

Good crazy....and not a bit overwhelming :)

I think everyone had fun.....

.....and no babies were actually harmed.....well John Michael did intercept an egg meant for our neighbor with his head......so I guess I'll have to amend that to no babies were seriously harmed.......

Our raccoons are going to have quite the Easter celebration as well, once they realize our yard is littered with fruity pebbles--who am I kidding, I totally bought generic dyno pebbles...hopefully the raccoons won't be too put out :)   

Happy Easter everyone!

The Grumpiest Shepherd

David wanted to be in the nativity play at church this year and he insisted upon being a shepherd even though the sheep costumes were provided and the shepherd costumes were bring your own (and yes, that is a dishtowel tied to his head).  When he's at home he's really excited about being in the play, but when he's actually at play practice it's another story entirely.......

....unless of course it is that magical time during the play when all the shepherds and their sheep parade past the real live baby Jesus and David takes his opportunity to make a run for it, away from the older shepherd boy who has been put in charge of not letting David do anything crazy.......I just hold my breath and pray for David to have the self control to just walk past the real live baby and not accost it with kisses, tickles and at least one round of "this little piggy when to market".......

I have no idea what this was about.  You'll notice that not one other child has noticed anything unusual on the ceiling......maybe it was an ingenious diversion for another escape attempt?

Tomorrow at mass, David will have to sit by himself with the other sheep and shepherds for the entire beginning of the service before the play begins.....we'll see how that goes....I think all the moms of the four year olds have decided that we'll sit right in front of them just in case......

In other news, our tree has been trimmed (oh how I love our new real tree and firmly maintain that the sudden outbreak of allergy symptoms are completely unrelated to all of the pine in the house)...

...our Advent candles are melting down to stubs, and we are ready to start our Christmas celebrations!  I think I need to get some extra sleep tonight so that I can make it through my first children's Christmas mass....wish us luck (and a less grumpy shepherd!).

{p,h,f,r} St. Lucy's Day Edition

{pretty}

We went for it and made Saint Lucia's bread in celebration of her feast day today.  Ideally this would be something you eat for breakfast but I made the dough last night and put it in the fridge to rise--I don't know much about bread making in general so I was at a loss as to what to do with it this morning since it was cold and once I braided it it never really doubled in size....I eventually gave up and threw it in the oven hoping for the best and we feasted on it about at about ten.  It did turn out pretty (and delicious)!

{happy}

I made these truffles for Chris' office Christmas party tonight.  I started dipping them in chocolate so they would have that wonderful truffle-y shell but I ended up overheating the chocolate in my makeshift double boiler and had to abandon the whole attempt and just roll the rest in various things--confectioners sugar, cocoa powder and sprinkles.  A chocolatier I am not.  I'm hoping they taste good though, even if my chocolate dipping was a flop, especially the ones I got fancy with and made with dark chocolate and raspberry liqueur.  There weren't enough to have a big taste test so I'm just going to bring them and hope for the best!  

It also appears that the days of real Navy Christmas parties that are held in ballrooms complete with younger spouses/dates dancing around in full prom attire and flat screen TVs given away as prizes are officially gone.  It looks like from here on out we'll be having much more low key get togethers like this evenings festivities which are being held at a local Italian restaurant and where everyone has been asked to bring their own desserts to share.  I'm not bitter though--we've got a babysitter (even though this is a child friendly event) and we are going to fully enjoy our two hours of freedom together :)

{funny}

In honor of St. Lucy's feast day I printed out some coloring pages for the boys and this is what I got back.  Coloring is not their forte.....I'm not sure how I produced two children who have such little desire to sit down and color a pretty picture for mommy.....What's worse is the blue picture on the left is David's......

{real}

I've finally gotten all of my Christmas cards out except for a couple of stragglers waiting on current addresses which is no small feat since the majority of our address list is composed of military families and recent law school graduates who tend to relocate constantly--this year I had to get new addresses for literally three quarters of our friends.  

Now that our cards are safely on their way out to all of our loved ones, I couldn't help but noticing that our own Christmas card wreath is looking a little, um.....sparse.  Don't be fooled by the appearance of four cards here. One came from Notre Dame and another is also a mass mailing from our old realtor....in reality we've received an underwhelming two......maybe I should have sent out some of those "Hey!  We've moved.....again" cards.  Maybe I'll remember that for next time.......

You can find even more contentment, and probably less whining, over at Like Mother, Like Daughter :)  

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas!

St. Nicholas dropped by our house last night and he did not disappoint......

The boys each got a new train (the battery operated kind, so that was super exciting), a new Christmas book (Merry Christmas, Strega Nona and Saint Francis and the Christmas Donkey) and of course some chocolate coins and candy canes.  David was really worried about the horrific state of dirtiness of his shoes as he was going to bed last night but I assured him that everything would be okay and St. Nicholas would not be too scandalized.....

We had a special breakfast of hot chocolate and donuts which went over pretty well.......

This picture is deceptive in that it makes it look like he actually drank the hot chocolate--in reality this is precisely two seconds before he spit it out all over himself and the table, declaring that "I don't think I like hot chocolate."  Both boys ended up just eating the whipped cream off of the top and then pushing away the rest of the disgusting monstrosity that I had dared to place before them.....oh well, more for me :)

We've had a little confusion this year about St. Nicholas vs. Santa.  David said he was excited that St. Nicholas was going to come but wanted to know when the real Santa was coming, you know, the one with the presents?  Liturgical year parenting fail.  I was quick on my feet and calmly explained that St. Nicholas is Santa and he loves God so much and is just so happy that we are celebrating baby Jesus' birthday that he comes back a second time on Christmas Eve to give even more presents!  I think that settled things, we'll see....you never really know what's going on inside those little heads of theirs......

I think reading some books about St. Nicholas and discussing the beauty of giving gifts out of love of God are on the agenda for the rest of the day.  We picked up an Angel Tree ornament at mass last week and went out earlier this week to pick out presents for a special little girl.  David wanted to chip in so that the presents would really be from him too so he raided his piggy bank of all the dollar bills he had and was so excited to give his five dollars to the cashier to help pay for the gifts.  Five dollars was a substantial amount of his savings but they ended up costing quite a bit more than that--I may have gotten a little carried away choosing a "winter outfit" for a little girl--I don't often get the opportunity to buy a fully accessorized girl's outfit complete with sparkling hair clips so you'll have to forgive me!  

I think David is well on his way to being "even kinder than Cinderella"....which is his current prayer :)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Advent......

I know I can't be the only mom out there unnecessarily stressing out over our family's Advent traditions and celebrations.  Being a convert myself, I don't have any Advent family traditions of my own to draw from and it's easy to quickly become overwhelmed when you start looking into what other people are doing to celebrate the season--which of course is not the point!  Still, I can't help but envisioning my sons all grown up and talking with the priest who is visiting them in prison and telling him, "Well, if only we'd celebrated Advent properly and had that Jesse tree growing up we may have understood the real meaning of Christmas and things could have turned out differently for us......"  Am I being silly? Probably, but I can't help but fret over things like this and constantly feeling that somehow I'm just doing it all wrong...it's just in my nature I suppose.  This year I've tried to just pick a few things to focus on and to do my best not to turn into a mad woman who attempts a perfect family Advent only to give it all up halfway through because it isn't going according to plan--not that that sounds like something I would ever do.....

For our family, that means at the very least lighting the Advent wreath at dinner.  I love the excitement on the boys' faces as we light the candles each night and eat by the candle light.  We don't get super fancy with it yet--they don't last long when prayers start getting long and dinner starts getting cold, but just seeing the progression of one more candle being lit each week really builds their sense of anticipation and wonder.....

This attitude of expectation is one which the Church wants to encourage in us, her children, permanently.  She sees it as an essential part of our Christian drill that we should still be looking forward; getting on for two thousand years, now, since the first Christmas Day came and went, and we must still be looking forward.  So she encourages us, during Advent, to take the shepherd-folk for our guides, and imagine ourselves travelling with them, at dead of night, straining our eyes towards that chink of light which streams out, we know, from the cave at Bethlehem.  

In Conversation with God, Volume I, page 2

As long as we do the wreath and I don't completely give my home over to total pre-Christmas Christmas craziness I feel like Advent will be a success.  For the building of our wreath this year we did pretty much the same thing as last year:

Step One:  Procure an Advent wreath candle holder thingee, some candles and a sad five dollar pre-made but flattened pine wreath (this particular beauty came from Lowe's).

Step Two:  Send your husband and children off into the wilderness with the wagon and giant, manly knife to collect more exciting greenery.  If you have husbands and children like mine you may also get ridiculously oversized new friends such as this with your delivery......

Step Three:  Put your wreath form on top of your sad wreath and then pull the pine branches through to hide the ugliness.  Then proceed to stuff your new greenery in to fill out your sad wreath--I don't bother with securing anything in--it just sits on the table so nothing falls out--add candles and......voila!

I may have gotten a little carried away with the amount of things stuffed into this wreath.  There are magnolia leaves, some kind of red berry bush from our yard, various pine needle branches and some white stuff--we really need to work on our nature identification skills around here......

While I was at it I made another wreath for the front door--again stuffing random greenery into another sad wreath and replacing the bow with something prettier.  This time I did secure everything with floral wire since it had to, you know, hang vertically :)

I'm not sure which one I like more.....I was pretty excited about them both!  And now every time we open the front door or sit down for dinner we get that wonderful pine smell.  I've also convinced Chris to let us get a live tree this year so we will probably go and pick one out closer to Christmas.....I'm pretty excited about that too :)

In addition to the Advent wreath we've got several nativities out--some for little hands to explore and others for me to (perhaps over-zealously? ) guard.   Our "nice" nativity set was put on a toddler accessible shelf with a bowl of hay for the kids to put into the manger whenever they do something kind for someone else (to make a soft bed for baby Jesus).  This may or may not be a disaster since I told the boys they can put the hay down but under no circumstances are they to touch the fragile porcelain figures.....we'll see how that goes......

We've got baby Jesus tucked away in my sewing cabinet awaiting his soft bed on Christmas morning and our wise men will be slowly making their way over for their appearance on the Feast of the Epiphany......

We've also got the wooden nativity set out--which the children are allowed to touch--theirs does have baby Jesus because really, he's everyone's favorite to play with.......

Of course like most activities in our house, the nativity was quickly incorporated into the giant train track set up that was already on the floor and baby Jesus hopped a faster ride to Bethlehem than any old donkey could provide......

For the grand finale of Advent preparations, I pulled out our collection of Advent/Christmas picture books and David has already been demanding choruses of The Little Drummer Boy which was by far his favorite book last year.  I have a hard time every year not stockpiling ridiculous amounts of excellent picture books for the season, but I keep telling myself that we have years and years and multiple children to get books for so it will probably be okay if they don't have every wonderful book out there this year.  I do have it on pretty good authority though, that St. Nicholas is bringing some more books this week on his feast day (along with chocolate coins of course) and I've picked up a couple more for the feasts of St. Lucy and the Epiphany.  I'm thinking we'll do some special baking projects, read relevant picture books and color some fun coloring pages to celebrate these three feast days this year and just keep things simple.  

I've been cataloging some of my favorite ideas and resources here in case anyone needs some more inspiration!  Maybe one year we'll get around to putting together that Jesse Tree, until then I'll try not to stress out over it and just enjoy this season of joyful waiting!

Disclaimer:  Some of my links here are Amazon affiliate links :)

Easter (And a Boating Adventure)

Chris and I got a sitter so that we could go to the Easter vigil mass, my very first one!  So this morning we opted not to take the boys to mass this morning--I know, you couldn't possibly understand why we wouldn't want to sit through an additional mass with those two angels.....

That left our morning free to enjoy the Easter festivities at home.  Our kindness beans transformed into jelly beans and there were of course Easter baskets for the boys.  David got a new pair of rain boots and Henry got a new to him  pair of rain boots--cleaned up of course :)  They both got a little wooden sailing boat, some chocolate lambs, bubbles, and new crucifixes for above their beds.  They also got a set of Catholic Children's Treasure Box books and some new sidewalk chalk.

 David liked the boats and the boots......

Once the sun officially came up we set off for our favorite wooded spot, complete with bubbling brook which was perfect for boat sailing.  Chris made some minor adjustments to our new boats so that the boys could keep hold of them with some kite strings.

After a fun filled morning and much needed naps we were ready to celebrate with our friends and an Easter egg hunt!

You can see the use I put to all of those blown out eggs here:

And here--I filled some with Fruity Pebbles and glitter and the adults had a fun time smashing them on each others' heads.......

Henry spent the entire egg hunt here, trying to unwrap and eat two pieces of chocolate......

David swept the whole event and had to get extra buckets to carry his haul in.  Of course he was up against two almost two year olds and one baby......

It was some pretty stiff competition.......

Happy Easter!