Today I woke up with a major case of the Mondays. I have no idea why, I just did not want to do anything, anything. I got breakfast made for the kids (left overs from yesterday, easy) then we played some game and they danced and sang songs from Mary Poppins.

We had a pretty low key day after that. The kids were great and took naps without fight! I was getting things ready to make crust for pizza when I heard a horn honking then a vehicle out of control driving down the alley. Imagine my surprise when I saw our favorite seminarian stopping by. Joshua was going to do some nerdy thing to his computer.While Joshua worked on his computer, we introduced Stephen to Escanaba in da Moonlight. I am pretty sure he thinks we are even stranger than he first suspected.

After our impromptu dinner and movie, we prayed and put the kids to bed, then Joshua had a surprise for me, Back to the Future. Of course, this comes on the heels of our watching The Karate Kid for Mothers Day. We are having an 80s movie theme right now. I think for Fathers Day, we are going to watch The Breakfast Club or perhaps Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Speaking of Mothers Day, Joshua had a Mothers Day Breakfast fund raiser at church and we went up to join him for breakfast between the Mass rushes. Though I had only planned to eat breakfast and take the kids back home, I ended up staying until the end. The group did well and there were lots of Mothers fed yummy eggs, sausage, pancakes and coffee!

Joshua let me leave K-man with him and I took the girls home. When Joshua got home and he was beat. We rested for a bit then worked on dinner. I made a peach pie and we had steak and  fried some potatoes.

The wonderful little souls that God has blessed me with  got me a mini-rose bush and another pendant for my mother’s bracelet. I love those little kids. I love those little kids. I love their drive by kisses and hugs. I love when C walks up to me, lays her head on my lap for a quick hug. I love when M carefully takes care of her little pretend children. I love when K dances for us and sings songs for us!

When we were in Paris, (July 2008) I picked up the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila at an English bookstore in the Latin Quarter.  Today, we went to confession and I took the book with me, after putting it down about, oh, 18 months ago. I figured I would start over at the beginning and so glad I did. I came across a quote that I want to share with you all

If parents were to ask me for advice, I would tell them to take great care what people their children consort with a this age. For great harm comes of bad company, since we are inclined by nature to follow the worse rather than the better. (Chapter 2, page 27)

Thank you St. Teresa of Jesus, for this wonderful spiritual shot in the arm today.

With book reading, I am still working on The Faith Explained by Fr. Leo Trese and have been for six months now. It is an amazing book, for Catholics who know their Faith and for those who want to learn more. I give it my triple stamp of approval on it also.

Finally, for some light reading, I recommend a book by one on my favorite authors, The Soul of a Lion. Buy it, read it, you will like it!

Check out this blog. It is a new blog by my friend and she is awesome!

This morning, I sat down to quickly check a few blogs out, when I came across this blog post. The video in it features our dear friend, Brother Basil of the Order of St Benedict in Norcia Italy. How wonderful!

While I am on the topic of the Benedictines in Norcia, I thought I might toss out a plea to donate to them, if you are able. This website has all the details on how to donate if you would like. You can donate via pay pal or you can donate by mailing a check to the address listed on the site.

Here is the link for Sunday Night Live with Fr. Groeschel. It is an hour long, but worth it. Father Groeschel talks of the priestly abuse scandal at the beginning, very interesting, then Kyle comes on.

Sunday Night Live with Fr. Groeschel

This is the link for the Gianna Healthcare Center. They are located in New York City, so if you know anyone in or around NYC who is looking for compassion when dealing with infertility or just want to be able to the OB/Gyn without being bombarded with questions about contraception use or comments about how many children she has, send her here.

http://www.giannahealth.org/

….really, it is toooooo funny. Also, it was practice at scanning and cropping. (I didn’t do the best job cropping, sorry!) This picture came to mind yesterday when I came across this link from another blog. I kept thinking about the time that JF was dancing at a PCJ fundraiser with my dear friend, Sister Elizabeth (then just known as Cailin).  I am glad that someone thought to take a picture and put it in the yearbook. J received the nickname of Brother Two by Four. 🙂

The captions on the photo say “The former Cailin Hogan, now Sister Elizabeth of the Child Jesus, CFR. Say a prayer for her as she professes final vows in June!” and “Brother Two by Four”

It’s late and I am awake. I fell asleep while watching a show around 830. Of course, I would fall asleep on the short couch, therefore, I was not very comfortable and woke up around midnight and here I am now, wide awake and unable to get back to sleep.

I came down stairs to get the laptop and a bowl of cereal called my name. I should not complain, but I am warm and uncomfortable. The trusty weather channel online tells me that it is only 60 degrees outside with  89% humidity. Bah. If I am this way at 20 weeks. how is the rest of the summer going to go? Bah.

I could also be sore because I have started the daunting task of scraping paint from the front porch. We have an enclosed front porch with 8 windows that have not seen a paint brush in at least 10 years. I got the inside of one window mostly done, along with the frame and that was with stopping to run to the grocery store, make lunch and dinner and to run to the store to help my friend find something. If I can do a window a day, I could have the inside done by next Saturday. The outside involves a ladder, so I may have to have Joshua do them. Of course, then there are the screens and their frames to work on. Perhaps by the end of May it will all be done.

C woke up just a bit ago, fussing. I moved upstairs and it is a bit cooler now, which is nice. C is laying between us, now, being cute. She found an old doll of mine earlier today. I do not let the kids actually play with the doll, because she is old and was made for me by my grandma, but I let C hold her today while I made beds. She kept giving kisses then pretended to change her diaper. Tonight, when I was getting in to bed the first time, I changed C’s diaper and she played with the doll for a minute, again giving kisses and pretending to feed her. Now she is scooting her way to the foot of the bed, under the covers. I think she may go back to her bed in a second.

Today we are going to Mass at the PCJ then to brunch with one of our favorite seminarians. After brunch, we will bid him good bye (until next weekend, when he is home for the summer) then head to the baptism of my dear friend’s daughter. I am really looking forward to the day and hope that none of my kids throw up.

Have a great Sunday!

ps pardon typos, I did this all without my glasses on…no small feat.

Some of you may know Kyle Beiter, MD a dear friend to many Columbus-ites. Kyle worked at St Vincent Hospital, in Manhattan  up until last night, when they closed. Kyle was the last OB/Gyn on call last night. St. Vincent was the last Catholic hospital in Manhattan.

Dr. Beiter is an NFP only specializing in the Creighton Model method. He, along with Dr. Mienik, a family practice MD, a NFP only medical office, called the Gianna Center. The good news is that the Gianna Center will be continuing independently from the hospital. Their new website is, www.giannahealth.org.

If you have access to EWTN, Dr. Beiter and Dr Mielnik will be on Fr Groeschel’s show this Sun (May 2) evening at 7pm ET. If you don’t have cable like us, you can stream it from EWTN’s website. http://www.ewtn.com/

Please keep the Gianna Center in your prayers, that they continue to grow and do His most Holy Will.