I am linking up with Nadja for Monday Musings

.
Right now…I am parked on the couch, listening to Benedict sing as he is falling asleep. Karol is about to go out to chase some chickens and the girls are cleaning up their tent mess.

This weekend…we started on the painting of the toy room. That room is so dark and drab and not all that pleasant to be in. The kids don’t mind, but I do. Not to mention it is right off the dining room, and the color tends to “bleed over”, making the dining room seem drab. Of course, like every other project we’ve done in this house, it was just buy the paint and slap it on, no, there is major repair needed to happen as well as sealing the walls and the ceiling. So we spent a good part of Saturday doing that.

Later in the afternoon, we got ready and headed up to the town about 25 miles north of us, for Confession and Mass. I hadn’t been to confession for close to a month and a half and was really feeling it. The parish up there has a new pastor, a young priest, who is wonderful.

That night we came home, fed the kids, then sat down and ate dinner by ourselves, with a movie on.

Sunday was a bit odd, as we went to the Vigil Mass, so we didn’t have to run around getting ready. We at breakfast and Joshua went to work on the room for a bit more. We made two dishes to take for a potluck dinner at the parish in Valdosta. We had a great time at the indoor picnic. We got to meet the new Parochial Vicar at St. John. He was great to sit and talk with and get to know. We ended up staying a lot longer than I had planned, so we came home and I was exhausted. We got the kids into bed and Joshua cleaned up the kitchen for me. (Thanks)

Some plans for this week…We have the “Welcome the New Pastor” gathering on Thursday after Mass, so we will be going to that. Other than that, things are pretty open right now. It is really too warm to go out and do things.

If I find time for myself, I would like to…eh, I can’t think of anything. I think I have reached a good point where we have things settled here and I don’t feel like I need to have “me time”. Or maybe I just know that there isn’t much to do around here, so I am just content to sit and have quiet time on the couch in the evening.

I am grateful for…priests who “say the black, do the red”. Young men who say “yes” to God and enter the Seminary to be formed into good holy priests. I am also thankful for an answered prayer, for a wonderful husband, for a Benedict who doesn’t have a hard time taking naps, for my husband’s wonderful job and super awesome boss.

Prayer intentions for this week: For priests to have holy courage to do the right thing. For a return to the understanding of the sacredness of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. For our country and religious freedoms, all religions.

Something that makes me smile:  This doesn’t have a picture, but I was cleaning out my twitter account,  and came across a tweet Joshua posted years ago, a little thing that Karol used to call the camera “Doggie Eyeball.”

…let’s try this again….

Right now….just shy of 10:00 am. The older kids are doing their best at not finishing their breakfast (but they cannot get up until they are done.) Their breakfast is leftover chili which was also their dinner last night. I will not be serving it for lunch, hence they have to sit and eat it now! The other two are playing having a grand time. The weather here is 68 and cloudy. The wind is really blowing with gusts I’d say up to about 30 mph. It is a beautiful day!

This weekend…Joshua and I organized the upstairs clothes situation. Our closets are short and my dresses and some of his clothes touch the floor, they are also kinda small, so we often times just have clothes that should be hung up laying on the changing table. Each bedroom upstairs had an alcove area. In the rooms that the kids are in, there are built in desks, but ours is just an empty space, kinda useless too. Joshua hung up two closet rods there so we can hang up our clothes. Eventually we will put doors there too. Once that was done, we organized the clothes in the dressers, emptied out the “linen cabinet” (as Ikea calls it) and put Benedict’s clothes in there, hung clothes in the new “closet” and woosh, the morning was gone! After lunch, we worked on sorting papers in the office, it was crazy nuts in there, but looks much better.

Later on Saturday, we went to Valdosta for Confession and the monthly K of C dinner. The plan was to go to the park between, because there are two hours, but as I was walking out of the church, rain started falling. We ended up at the mall play area. It was okay, the kids had fun and the other kids were not the mean variety. We had dinner at the Knights hall then headed home.

Sunday started out early, with me heading out to teach Confirmation Class. It starts at 845, so I leave before the rest of the family and they meet me when it is time for Mass. Yesterday’s lesson was about the Mass, in particular the Liturgy of the Eucharist. I thought it went well…and Father’s homily was along the same lines, so the kids got it twice!

After Mass, our friend Margaret and her wee Baby Alan came over to pick up the bumbo seat and had brunch with us. After she headed home, we hung around a bit, then went outside. We have four pecan trees on our property or that hang over our property line and some of them are dropping pecans (or branches) already, so we gathered them and let me tell you, it makes me happy to see free pecans!

After dinner, I worked on my lesson plan for next week’s Confirmation Class and relaxed. It is nice to have the plan all done and I can focus on other things, like cleaning out the pantry.

Some plans for this week… clean an organize the pantry! I have a few skirts I would like to make for myself and for the girls. I pulled the material out a while ago, but haven’t had the time to dedicate to making them. I also have the parish Ladies Guild meeting on Thursday.  Saturday we are supposed to go to the farm of someone we know. They have goats and chickens, both of which we hope to get sometime in the near future. I also have coupons for Kroger that expire on Sunday. The closest Kroger is 1.5 hours away, but the prices there are so good that if gas were so expensive, it would be cheaper all around to drive out there and buy groceries. Since the coupons I have have are by oll the gifts God has givenne get one (including bacon and butter) that will pay for the gas there and back, so we will go and stock up on a few other things we need. (Like unbleached flour, a rarity down here). Oh and school of course, Karol is

If I find some time for myself, I would like to…well, I get the time when I go to the Ladies Guild, so I will go there, pray the rosary and enjoy some time with other lovely ladies.

I am grateful for…for my little family….a faithful Pastor and a wonderful little parish….our little plot of land in the middle of the pecan grove…
Some prayer intentions for the week:  For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and to religious life. For our good friend, Stephen the Seminarian, for Jaime and her special intention, for me and patience!

Right now… 1045 am, sunny and 68 outside, crazy kids inside. I should send them out.

This weekend…we celebrated the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, starting with Vespers on Friday night. We watched a movie on Friday night and enjoyed a chocolate snack, the kids were thrilled. On Saturday I took Margaret out for some new shirts. That child has a really long torso and is now in to the girls department for shirts. This makes clothing shopping a bit more difficult. We found four shirts for her, three were from this really neat second hand store I stopped in to. In addition to the shirts, I found two really cute dresses for church AND an Easter hat and glove set for the girls! (I will write another post about the whole cloth shopping experience when I get a chance).

Margaret and I also stopped to get a coffee at Star Bucks. The SB in our town does not have a menu listing drinks. No, I am not making that up. I haven’t been for a while and I always go through the drive thru, which has a menu. What is up with that?  Margaret got a compliment from another customer about how pretty she is. Margaret just hides behind me when she hears that sort of thing. I think she is embarrassed by it. (That too will be another post)

When we got home, there was an email waiting for us from Rev. Br. Basil Nixen, OSB. He was ordained a deacon on Saturday. There were pictures which we enjoyed! I put them in to a quick slide show as a surprise for Karol and he loved it. He does love his Br. Basil very much.

That evening we went to confession then to dinner. We went to the Smok’n Pig, and it is the second best barbecue I have ever had. The best was during the Mud Bowl 2009, made by a seminarian at the PCJ. We drove around a bit after dinner, enjoying the hot winter day. We stopped and looked at a car for Joshua. We shall see what comes of that.

Sunday we woke up late but still made it to Mass with time to spare. The rest of the day was spent lounging around. Joshua took a nap for a bit and I read. The kids must have been well behaved, because I do not recall anything. For dinner I made a chicken pot pie, for the first time and it turned out pretty good! (Yet another post, here and on FamilyHearth.)

Some plans for the week ahead:

We might go to the Okefenokee Swamp this weekend, so I need to clean and do my usual Saturday things during the week. That is about it.

If I find some time for myself, I want to…

Continue reading the book I am reading for Lent.

Prayer intentions for this week:

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for a certain young man who is discerning his vocation, for patience on a certain matter and for those who are away from God, that they open their hearts to His calling and make their way home.

Something that makes me smile:

For more musings check here!

Right now…9:56 am, the sun is shining, the temp is 54 degrees, heading for a high of 82 today! The older kids are chasing each other around the house and Benedict is on the floor spinning wheels on the wooden dog.
This weekend…we cleaned the van, well the inside of the van. Joshua took out the seats and vacuumed then steam cleaned everything. It looks and smells much nicer in there. I took a Magic Eraser and a multi-purpose cleaner to everything and wiped everything down, but forgot windows, oh well. That took us all of Saturday afternoon, but it was certainly worth it. After that we cleaned up and went to the K of C Family Social for dinner and visiting with a few people.

Sunday and the time change. We got up and made it to Mass on time. 🙂 Our friends, the Spotswoods joined us too. I hope to see them more often there.  We came home, made brunch, had the kids take naps and hung out. Karol doesn’t nap, so he was playing outside and I sat with him, upon his request. Joshua joined us too, it was a most wonderful day.

I dragged myself inside to make dinner and clean things up from brunch. I managed to get dinner on the table by 630, which wasn’t too bad and adjusting for the time change, the usual dinner time.`

Last night I made a lemon roll cake.  I made the cake last night to celebrate the baby we lost about six years ago. Each year we celebrate our short time with her and this year, I made a cake.. Karol is very interested in his sister in heaven. (We don’t know if the baby was a boy or a girl, but I always felt girl, so we named her Gianna Maria, after St. Gianna and our Blessed Mother.) He talks about her a lot and wants to know what color eyes she has. He often talks of Heaven and wants to be good so he can go there and meet his sister.

Some plans for the week ahead: I would like to put together a Stations of the Cross booklet for our family, using this.

If I find some time for myself, I want to…do some spiritual reading. I picked up Frequent Confession from the parish library to read this Lent. I hope to be able to read a bit of it this week, without interruptions.

Prayer intentions for this week: For our clergy, that they may fully and faithfully live the duties of their vocations, even when it is hard and/or unpopular. For an increase in priestly and religious vocations. Finally, for the people of Japan.
Something that makes me smile:

Discovering this writing by Fr. John Hardon, SJ

For more musings check here!

Right now…1020 am. The two older kids are bundled up and playing outside, it is a chilly 48 degrees today. Benedict is sleeping and Caecilia is pretending to talk on the phone.
This weekend…we did the weekend errands on Friday night. I drove Joshua to work after lunch, then went to the bank and the gas station. ($3.45 for the record) We picked Joshua up from work then went to the produce market for our weekly buys, then to Big Lots to look at a few things. Big Lots, why don’t I think of you more often? I bought my first sofa from there, many years ago and loved it. It was sturdy and comfy. We only got rid of it because we didn’t have room for it in our place in Illinois. We looked a sofa and their mattress selection to see what they had , then headed to the grocery store, then home.

On Saturday we were up and at-em early as we were having company over around 1230. We had invited the couple that we met after confession a few weeks ago over. We had a great time! I am glad, so glad, that we met them!

Sunday the kid woke up with runny noses. We headed to Mass and had sneezers all the way there. The kids were not very well behaved during Mass. C had an excuse, she wasn’t feeling well. Margaret however, would not turn around and face the altar and when I told her to do so, so said “Nuh, uh”. She also has lost the concept of whisper during Mass and was sassing in a not so quiet voice.  I should have taken her out and disciplined her, as she was that bad. I didn’t mainly because it had been so long since she has had to be taken out that I didn’t even think about it! Karol was mostly okay and Benedict won a gold star for being the BEST BABY EVER! during mass. During the homily, he did not take his eyes off of father. When Joshua was cantoring, he watched Papa with wide eyes.

For the Communion meditation hymn, “O Lord I am Not Worthy” was sung. Sigh. What a beautiful hymn and what a great hymn for mamas and papas who are trying to keep their kids corralled and not able to deeply reflect the gift they had just received.

After Mass, Margaret fell and skinned both knees! She cried and cried and cried because she was going to need to have a band aid. My kids hate band aids and well any sort of first aid for any real ailment. We headed home and just hung around for the day. We all took naps in the afternoon, then made dinner. We folded quite a bit of laundry and our room is presentable again. 🙂

Some plans for the week ahead: Make the covers for the couch cushions, to protect them from little kids. We also have Mass on  Ash Wednesday. I hope to go out to our little parish for Mass and hit the seafood market out there, but I am not sure if Joshua will have the day off. If he doesn’t, we will go to Mass here then. I also plan on making it Stations of the Cross during the whole of Lent with our family. The local parish has them at 730 on Fridays, so that would work perfectly for us!

If I find some time for myself, I want to…I don’t really expect any time. I am hoping to do some more spiritual reading this Lent and getting myself to bed by 9 to do it.

Prayer intentions for this week: For our clergy, that they may fully and faithfully live the duties of their vocations, even when it is hard and/or unpopular.
Something that makes me smile: Yesterday, before Mass, Karol asked to write a letter to Pope Benedict, when we we got back from Mass. Last night he told me what he wanted to say, and I wrote it down. (I convinced him to take out the part telling the Holy Father that; “you have been good and deserve a surprise, so I am writing this letter.) Joshua helped Karol write the it out in his own handwriting.

For more musings check here!

Right now:  It is currently 4:18 pm. I am sitting in the living room, with my feet up on the coffee table. Benedict is playing next to me, Karol is having computer time and one of the girls is stirring from her nap. The windows are open and the breeze is blowing in. It is 82 and sunny. The smell of dinner is coming from the kitchen, cabbage, potatoes and smoked sausage.
This weekend...I did my usual Saturday morning errands. I took Karol with me this time. I picked up some fabric to make a cover for the couches as they are looking kinda rough. We ordered a steamVac and hope to get it this week and will clean the sofa and loveseat, then put the new covers on. I went to the local fabric store and found a nice fabric to use. Karol had a fun time pointing out all sorts of crazy fabrics. We to lunch, just the two of us, because he had been so very good all week, saying OK instead of fighting on things. After picking up produce, I was done and we came back home.

We had a birthday party that evening and had a good time. We met a few more families and talked with people. Our kids ran around, playing on the trampoline and being crazy as kids are supposed to be!

Sunday found us at Mass, of course. The Gospel struck me and the kids were actually so well behaved, I was able to hear the whole Homily!

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”

I need that printed and taped to every surface of my house. With the price of gas going up, food prices are sure to go up too and that makes me nervous, but I must remember to trust in God, He will provide.

After Mass, we headed out to the house of some new friends. They treated us to a yummy lunch, then we went fishing in their pond. Margaret caught a fish, a 21 inch catfish. Now she walks around talking about what a good catcher she is! We had so much fun too. The kids keep asking to go back. We got back home and crashed for about an hour. Joshua then cleaned the fish while I talked with my long lost friend, Jaime, on the phone. It was a wonderful conversation, ah.

Oh and all weekend, I avoided the sorting of the too small kids clothes that needed to be done, so I did it this morning. Blah.
Some plans for this week: Tonight  there is a  prolife rosary at the K of C hall and we are all going. Tomorrow I am watching Cassie’s son while she goes for an appointment. Saturday our other new friends will be coming over, so I need to get things cleaned up a bit. Oh, pollen season has hit here. There is a fine layer of green stuff all over everything, even inside the house, so I need to stay on top of that. Plus I need to sew together the fabric I bought for the couch covers.

If I find some time for myself, I want to: sew the couch covers!

Some prayer intentions for this week: For an increase in vocations to priesthood and religious life. For peace in Africa and the Middle East. For the soul of my friend’s aunt, who passed away this morning and for the Vincent family, that they find a buyer for their house and farm.

Something that makes me smile: Benedict.

For more Musings, check out Patch O’ Dirt.

Right now…it is 1030 and the sun is shining, 56 degrees out side. Dinner is in the crock pot, making the house smell great.

This weekend…was full of stuff. On Saturday morning we watched the children of Joshua’s boss for a bit then I went to pick up grocery items. I had stops at the organic grocery, the produce market, the regular grocery store and the painful gas station. I was supposed to drop the vacuum off at Sears for repairs, but the traffic around the Mall was too crazy for me to deal with. When I got back from all of that, we put things away, divided and froze extra meat and sat down for a bit to relax before heading out to the K of C dinner.

Turns out there wasn’t a dinner this month, so we ended up going out to eat, finding a new Mexican place that was pretty yummy and had 99 cent Margaritas! After we got home and put the kids to bed, Joshua “surprised” me with the movie “Arthur”. I have to say I haven’t laughed  like that in a long long time.

Sunday found us scurrying around for Mass. Joshua cantored this weekend, so we had to be there early, plus I had planned a surprise trip that we were leaving from right after Mass, so I needed to make sure we had all the things together. We did have it all together and arrived on time, praise God!. Caecilia was not good at Mass yesterday, at all. When Joshua got up to cantor the Psalm, Caecilia got all excited and pointed to him and watched him very closely. After the Psalm, Joshua sat down off the the side of the ambo, for the second reading. Caecilia decided that it would be a good time to go get him. She stood up, said, “Papa” and tried to run up to him. We sit in the second pew, so I had to act fast. I grabbed her and she started screaming. I had B in the sling and carried C to the vestibule, where we spent the rest of Mass. She was most certainly a bad baby. I had to laugh though, because what else could I do? Not to mention, our parish family loves children, loves them and are understanding about misbehaving children, so it makes it easier when our kids act up. There is nothing like having a misbehaving child who needs to be taken out and getting glares as you try to take care of the situation.

After Mass, we changed to casual clothes and went on our surprise trip. We drove south to the Gulf and went spent the afternoon at the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge. We had the best time. We didn’t take the camera, so there aren’t very many pictures, and the ones we did get are on Joshua’s phone. I snapped a few with mine, but no pictures of the kids. We walked along the shore line and found a crab for the kids to play with. They loved it. There were some people riding horseback and let the kids pet the horses, which the kids loved.  After dinner in Tallahassee we headed home for the night, it was a good day.
Some plans for this week: J’s birthday is this week, so I will make a cake. I have dinners planned out for the week, so I think we will just have a laid back week, catching up on schoolwork.

Some prayer intentions for the week: For our friends who are trying to sell their farm. They have someone who is interested in it and are asking for the intersession of St. Philomena. Also, we learned today that Karol’s Godfather, Brother Basil, will be ordained a Deacon in March, on the 19th, in Norcia. We are overjoyed with this news, and are praying fervently for our dear friend! We are also praying that we are able to somehow make the trip to Roma this fall for his priestly ordination. Also, the mother in law of Joshua’s boss passed away yesterday, her funeral is this week, Eternal Rest Grant Unto Her O Lord and May the Perpetual Light Shine Upon Her.

Something that makes me smile: One of the pictures from my phone from yesterday.

Right now…it is 11:45, overcast and 62 degrees out side. Inside it is loud and crazy and the oldest boy is being mean to his siblings and has been sent to his room 4 times this morning.

This weekend was…lonely. Joshua was at the FOCUS Conference in Nashville and I was all alone. Well, I had the kids, so I wasn’t all alone, but I certainly missed my helpmate. Joshua left on Friday and came back late last night. He got to have a Catholic Family Reunion with members of the Fathers of Mercy,  Sister Lois from the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, some guys from Seminary, and Joanie Watson. In addition to that, he got to stay at the Opryland Hotel.

I, on the other hand, spent time chasing the kids around and learning about new cartoons on Hulu. The kids spent a lot of time outside, a lot of time, which was nice. Normally if Joshua is out of town, dinner via a drive-thru is a given, but not this weekend, I made all of our meals, which was actually pretty nice. I started a new mystery novel this weekend and am about 1/3 of the way through it. I looked up some homeschooling conferences and am trying to decide which ones I want to attend. Tampa? Atlanta? Jacksonville? Decisions! I think for some of them, I will have to wait for the schedule to come out and see who the speakers are.

I also looked up the Spring Training schedule for the Detroit Tigers. Since Lakeland is only 4 hours away, I hope to go. The Wings are playing in the area soon and I would love to go to a game, maybe next year.

We had made plans to go to Mass here in town and sit with the wife of Joshua’s boss, but I needed to go out to Moultrie to pick up ground beef for our parish spaghetti dinner this week. (We are one of the families making the sauce) So we went to Mass by ourselves and the kids were great! I mean, okay, well…. We got to Mass on time, with enough time to participate in the rosary before Mass. We sat in the back pew, in the event that I needed to make a hasty exit. That hasty exit happened after Communion, when C thought it would be fun to lay in the center aisle. We went to the cry room for the rest of Mass then headed home.

After Mass the kids played outside until lunch was ready, then Michele (Sam’s wife) dropped of her son so I could watch him while she went to their daughter’s ballet recital. He sat on my lap for a long time, then sat on the couch next to me, holding my hand, until he discovered the trains.

After they left, I was planning on ordering Chinese, had the order ready then saw that they place was closed on Sunday. The other delivery place in town doesn’t have an menu on line, so we scratched that idea and had hot dogs, carrots and potato chips.

I let the kids stay up late, so they were up when Joshua came home and I think he really liked that. I really liked that. I love how much these kids love their Papa! He is such a good Papa (and husband).
Some plans for this week: School, Parish Fundraiser and that is about it.

If I have some time to myself, I want to…read more of the novel and avoid the laptop. (This is getting easier and easier, oddly enough)

Prayer intentions for this week: For patience, acceptance of God’s Will and for Mothers.

Something that makes me smile: Joshua stopping at the Lodge Cast Iron Outlet to pick up a 2 qt serving pot for me to bake bread it!

For more musings, check here!

Right now…it is 11 am, the sun is up and shining brightly. We are having a lazy morning, the kids are reading books and/or playing with Legos.

This weekend was…somewhat busy and crazy! We had made plans for Joshua’s boss to come for dinner with his family on Saturday night. I woke up that morning, planning on showering, staring a load of diapers then heading out to the produce market for fruits and veggies. I went to make a bottle for Benedict and turned on the water to discover a small trickle. It was cold, 26 degrees, so I thought “frozen pipes” and woke Joshua up. He told me to turn on the hot water faucets, so I did and crawled back in to bed. The water pressure did not get much better though out the morning. I managed to wet my hair down and blow it dry to keep it from looking too funky and headed out. I went to the produce market (a place I love), then on to the grocery store for a few more items. I decided to grab a coffee and stopped at the local Sbux for one. (Say what you will, I don’t go often.) It was there I learned that we had a city wide water outage. Nice. I called Joshua to let him know then headed to the grocery store. I found out there that most other restaurants in Valdosta were closed due to the water outage.

When I got back, Joshua had managed to fill the tub up with water for the kids so they could bathe. Who knew kids got so much bathwater in their mouth? We then started boiling water, per the advisory and straightening up for the dinner guests.

For dinner we made homemade pizza and it was great. Karol was, unfortunately crazy and knocked the kids table over, spilling milk all over the place. Sigh. We visited a long time, then they headed home.

Yesterday we went to Mass at our small country parish then headed home. I fell asleep around 230 and stayed that way until about 530 or so. It was very nice. We folded laundry after dinner, so that chore can finally be checked off. Benedict decided it was a party night and did not go to sleep until 130! I was asleep around 2 and we had visitors quite a bit through the night.
Some plans for this week: Joshua is going out of town for work at the end of the week, so mentally preparing myself for that. I have arranged with Michele, the wife of Joshua’s boss to sit with us during mass, here in town, but I am thinking of just sucking it up and going out to Moultrie by myself. The biggest problem will be the early hour we need to leave the house.

If I have some time to myself, I want to…enjoy a cup of coffee and a book.

Prayer intentions for this week: Special intention for our family, for the respect for life and for

Something that makes me smile: Benedict slept almost ten hours straight three nights in row!

For more musings, check here!