Lawn Chair Catechism, Week 10: Steamrollers

Despite my inability to actually write up a post each week, I am reading along. I have gotten a bit behind here and there but not so much that I couldn't easily catch up. I have to say, this book is perfect for someone like me. The chapters are relatively short and it's an easy read. It's packed full of great information, but presented in an easy to follow way.

That being said, I really wanted to write a post last week but simply ran out of time. Last week's chapter was on the sacraments of initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist). It really had me reflecting on the importance of these sacraments and especially on witnessing my own children's baptisms. I've still not shared pictures from either Baptism, and I have some really nice ones. I may still. One day.

But let's move on to the healing sacraments: Penance and Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick.

I have a love-hate relationship with the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. My first one was in the second grade. For my second, I was in my mid-twenties, probably around 26 or 27 at the time. That's a long time to go without the graces of this sacrament. I remember how wonderful it was to finally go again. I had gotten to a point where I understood the importance of Reconciliation and knew that I needed to go again (after many years of poor catechesis followed by years away from the Church) and wanted to go, but was scared to take that next step. I ended up at a retreat and knew that was my time. I remember being a ball of nerves prior to going in and then feeling amazingly light when I walked out. I totally felt like a new person.

I thought of this when Paprocki says "that at our deepest core, we are unable to sustain ourselves." In other words, we need God's graces to survive in this world. I certainly felt this that day that I went to the sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time in 20 years. We are all sinners and we need Reconciliation to help us grow as Christians. We need to physically voice our sins and hear that we are forgiven. We are physical beings so it only makes sense that we engage all our senses in seeking God's forgiveness.

I'm still not very good about going to this sacrament, but at least I've gotten a bit better. It always takes me a while to get up the gumption to go, but once I'm there I'm always grateful that I made myself do it. It's been harder since I've had little children in my life. I'm pleased to say that my church is adding times for Reconciliation on Sundays, right before and right after the Mass that we usually attend. It's just once a month, but hey, better than nothing and it's very doable for both myself and my husband. I'm already planning on going at one of the next opportunities I have. Can't wait!

I love, too, how this is one of the sacraments of healing. I think we often forget that our soul needs healing as well. Even more reason to not take this sacrament for granted. We need to take advantage of the availability of it and try to go on a regular basis. And I'm talking to myself here too. As I said at the beginning of this reflection, I have a love-hate relationship with this sacrament. It's so hard to make myself go, and yet the wonderful feeling of forgiveness is unbeatable.

The Church needs to see a resurgence in people taking advantage of the sacrament of Reconciliation. Can you imagine how strong the Church would be if more people were receiving the graces of Reconciliation on a regular basis?

This post is being linked up to the Lawn Chair Catechism series on CatholicMom.com. Go check out the post for Week 10 HERE for discussion questions and more discussion and reflection on both the sacraments of Penance and Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick.

7 Quick Takes in which I make cookies, brag about babies, and much more

--1--

Sorry for the recent dry spell on the blog. I had quite a run there for a bit in June, but then life got a bit busy. Sometimes it's best for my energies to be elsewhere and the blog suffers. But that's okay. It happens. If you've followed me for very long at all, you know that I always come back. Eventually. So what has been going on lately? Well, let's review ...

--2--

We hosted our group of aspiring Benedictine Oblates for an evening this month. St. Benedict's feast day was July 11, but we couldn't get together that day. So we got together the next day instead. I decided to make cookies for the get together and intended to write a blog post to share my accomplishment, but ... well, see #1 above. So here's the short version. It was a "simple" sugar cookie recipe. "Simple" only applies if you've rolled out dough before, which I had not. Ever. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've ever used the rolling pin for anything but flattening chicken, which requires no actually rolling. And then there was the decorating icing, something else I had never done before. It ended up being a late night. A few pictures of my cookies:

Working on rolling and cutting the cookies

Icing the tops to look like St. Benedict's medal

A close up.

Finished plate. Personally, the chocolate ones were my favorite.

--3--

Silas is now 7 months old. As of this past Saturday. He's such a cutie!!

--4--

As you can see in that picture, he is also starting to get on his hands and knees. He isn't crawling yet, but I bet he will be soon. This kid is always moving. He kicks his legs all the time, does "the Superman" when he's on his belly on the floor, and he's gotten really good at turning himself around to look in different directions. He's so active that I'm a little worried. Once he is mobile, he's probably going to give me a run for my money!

--5--

We have started trying to give Silas solid foods. This week we've given him some banana pieces to play with at dinner. He gets some in his hand and gets a taste, but doesn't seem to want to do more than that. Thursday night after he played for a while with it, I gathered up the pieces, mashed them up, and attempted to let him taste it on a spoon. He has yet to take to a spoon. However, I let Hubby take over and he must have the magic touch. Silas got a good taste after that and seemed to get a bit more interested. We're going to keep working on it and I hope we can get him some avocado, carrots, and sweet potato soon. 

[Side note: he had another appointment Thursday to check his weight and he needs more calories. He's not losing, he is gaining, but not a lot. He's healthy though, so we just need to try to encourage him to up his calorie intake. We're not too worried.]

Silas starting to realize he can eat this stuff Mommy and
Daddy have been giving him all week.

Mmm, that spoon tastes good!

--6--

So, we had an interesting weekend just last weekend. I'll spare you all the details and try to give the short version. Peter was sick on Friday and by lunch time I wasn't sure that he was going to get better on his own, so I called the doctor. We spent 2+ hours at the doctors office, including going down to X-ray and having the pediatrician bring in at least two other pediatricians to listen to him. By 4:30, I told Hubby to meet me there so I could go get the other two from day care (since I knew that Silas, especially, needed to eat and I was the only one who could feed him). So Hubby took Peter to the ER where they spent another 2-3 hours. While in the ER they determined that he had pneumonia and they admitted him (some of that ER time was just waiting for a room up in the Children's Hospital wing). So Peter spent the night (Hubby and I ended up switching places, with help from a friend, and I spent the night with Peter). He was discharged the next day and we were home by lunch time. He has been doing so much better since!!

Since coming home, he has been using the nebulizer three times a day, is on an antibiotic, and is running around playing like any normal 3 year old. He sounds great! Now we're also dealing with a horrible diaper rash (thanks to the antibiotic) which I believe is now also a yeast infection. So we have probiotics to help with that and I need to call and see if I can get a prescription diaper cream. Oh the fun!

The Children's Hospital has a program (unit? something?) called Child's Play. We were visited on Saturday by a lady from the program who asked if she could get us any movies or toys. At that point I knew we were being discharged soon, so I told her maybe a couple puzzles to help us pass the little bit of time we had left. She came back with a pack of three puzzles and a Batman toy. AND ... she said we could keep them. They were all brand new and in the packages still! I was shocked! And grateful. Peter was SO excited. Once we were home he insisted on taking pictures with his new toys.

This is a "monster" truck the pediatrician gave him on Friday.
She was his best friend after that!

Peter with his Batman toy. SO excited!!

--7--

Garden update!! We have stuff growing! Hubby even picked some of the yellow squash:

Our first vegetable harvest! Ever!

BONUS take: I had the opportunity to review a DVD from Ignatius Press! It got published on Catholic Sistas last Friday. Check it out HERE. I enjoyed having the opportunity to do a review for them and I hope I'll get to do some more.

Jen Fulwiler, usual host of 7 Quick Takes, is busy with the Edel Gathering this weekend. I hope there will be more such gatherings in the years to come. You can follow the event at hashtag #edel14. So, filling in for Jen this week is Carolyn Svellinger. I'll be linking up to her post. Go on over and visit and check out all the Quick Takes posts!! It'll be a fun time.

Garden Update

Thursdays are usually for Small Successes at CatholicMom.com, but I'm not feeling all that successful at the moment, even with the small stuff. Instead, how about an update on our little garden!

A few weeks ago I posted pictures HERE of our new garden getting started. Just the finished boxes, put in place, and filled up ready to go. Since then we've been watching it slowly grow. Here are just a few current pictures.

So here is a view of the full garden. My husband put together a cage of sorts with some PVC pipe and a green mesh and put it over the bush beans that you see on the left side of the picture. We have lots of rabbits around here and they like the bean leaves. So far, no rabbits have gotten in. Next to the beans Hubby planted a bell pepper plant and one plant each of yellow squash and zucchini. In the box in the back of the picture are 4 tomato plants (where Hubby is standing) and basil.

It's a teeny tiny bell pepper!! Isn't it cute? It's about an inch tall. I can't believe we are growing things that we'll be able to eat one day. Can you tell I'm a total newbie to this. I'm sure my husband is amused.

We also have the start of some tomatoes. I tried to get a picture, but apparently I wasn't very successful.

And just for fun, here is how my children like to ride their bikes: over to the landscaped corner of the yard where they can play in the dirt. And apparently it is cool to pile the dirt on the seat of the bikes. Doesn't that sound like fun? I don't think so, but I'm not a three year old boy. The three year old boys find it incredibly fun! They crack me up.

Lawn Chair Catechism, Week 6: Union Workers

I gave myself a challenge this summer to read along with CatholicMom.com the book A Well-Built Faith and to blog about it. I knew it would be hard to squeeze in the time to not only read but to also write a blog post each week. And since this is week 6 and it's only my 3rd post, I'm obviously not quite meeting the challenge. But here we are once again, I'm not giving up! So on to our Law Chair Catechism discussion:

This chapter was chock full of information! Full to the brim! I don't even know where to start, so it's good that we have access to the leader's guide with some helpful discussion questions. The first two questions really get to the heart of what I took away from this chapter. I'll just touch on each of those.

What does it mean to say that spirituality is not just a slice of the pie that represents our life, but is the whole pie?

There is an exercise in this chapter where Paprocki lists several things that make up our daily life (work/school, eating, sleeping, play, family, exercise, spirituality, etc.) and asks the reader to create a pie chart in which you show what percentage of your time is spent on each of these things. I've done something similar to this before in leadership/management classes or workshops and in a "Seven Habits," Steve Covey seminar I did once. I was tempted to do it again because it is always an eye opener, but I ended up skipping it. I knew what it would reveal and it wouldn't have been pretty.

What I wasn't expecting was for Paprocki to then tell us that the spirituality component shouldn't be just one small (likely embarrassingly small) slice of the pie, but it should encompass the whole pie. Everything we do should revolve around our spirituality.

Reminds me of when St. Paul tells us to pray without ceasing.

Then I read this question and I thought about recent events. Hold onto your hats, I'm delving into current events:

The Hobby Lobby, Supreme Court lawsuit that came out this week is all a result of people who are trying to live and breath their spirituality. Their religion, their faith, their spirituality has infused itself so much into their daily lives that it influences their work life as well. It is commendable.

It is so easy to check our religion at the door, to keep it to that one hour on Sundays and not bring it home with us. But then we are nothing but frauds. We need to remember always that we are sons and daughters of God. We need to be charitable and loving to all those we come in contact with so that they wonder what makes us so special. We need to let our Catholic faith influence how we do our business, raise our families, and interact with our everyone we meet in our lives. We need to consider what our faith teaches us when we vote for public officials and people to represent us on every level of government.

That is freaking hard! Yes, we are going to fail. But we need to keep trying ("Always we begin again" as St. Benedict says). We should set aside time throughout our days to stop what we are doing and spend even just a few moments in prayer. We should make our work a prayer, whether your work is filing sales reports, cleaning the house, working at a retail store, going to school, changing diapers, running a business, whatever it is offer it up as a prayer.

This is something that will be a difficult challenge for me. But I think (I hope) I'm up for it.

What's the difference between belonging to the Church and being the Church?

It's so easy to think of church in terms of the parish we attend each week. That's the "church" where we know people, where we give our money, and where we spend time each week. We may know intellectually that our one parish is part of a much bigger, universal, world-wide Church, but it's often hard to completely grasp what that means. We don't see it, especially if we live in an area with only one Catholic Church.

I think for me, as I came back into the Church fully, I got a sense of the world-wide Church on a smaller scale by being a member of the Cathedral parish in my diocese. Between that and some involvement I had for a short time on the diocesan level I was able to expand my horizons some and see the Church as a bigger body than just my one parish. Of course, the Church (with a capitol C) is 100+ times bigger than that. But the point is, I, all of us, don't just belong to a parish or belong to the Church, we are the Church.

There would be no Church without the people, you and I, in it. Reminds me of the song that goes "We are all one body ..." (which I realize is based on Scripture, but the song is what popped into my head first). Jesus came to save and he left us a Church so that we could all be one. He didn't leave us a building, he left us a leader. We just celebrated the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul this past Sunday. Jesus called Peter the "rock" upon which He would build His Church. Peter was just a man, a poor fisherman, but he became the leader of the Apostles and the foundation upon which the Church was built.

How interesting that it was a person. We are all people and together we make up the one body that is the Church. When I think of it that way I really begin to see how much bigger the Church is then just the millions (billions?) of people on this earth who are members of the Catholic faith. Do you see it, too? It's the communion of saints!

The communion of saints: all those who have been received into Heaven, all those who are being cleansed in Purgatory, and all of us here on earth, still fighting the good fight. All of us together, saints in heaven and saints-in-the-making on earth are members of the Church. We ARE the Church.

How cool is that?

For more discussion on Chapter 6 of A Well-Built Faith: A Catholic's Guide to Knowing and Sharing What We Believe by Joe Paprocki, go visit the Week 6 discussion at CatholicMom.com.

Bored Puppy Syndrome and Other Odds and Ends

Recently a friend of mine referred to her young children as bored puppies. The reference was to the craziness that seems to come out of nowhere when it is time for quiet time or nap time or bed time. I immediately realized that I too have a couple of "bored puppies." Every. Single. Night.

We have the same bed time routine every night. It hasn't changed in months and months. But that doesn't matter. Put them to bed, turn out the lights, crack the bedroom door ... and then the partying begins.

Part of the issue is that it is still light outside at this time of year. That certainly doesn't help things. You leave two three year old boys in a semi-dark room for just a couple of minutes and the chatter starts. That chatter quickly escalates, especially if no one goes in to put a stop to the madness!

This was Monday night. Which really isn't any different than most any other night. I was feeding Silas in his room listening to things slowly get out of hand in the room down the hall. Nothing like two bored puppies chewing up everyone's shoes and nothing being done to stop it. At least in this case there was no destruction. But still ...!

By the time I was finally able to put Silas down (who was only half done and didn't care for being stuck in his crib when he wanted his second course) I walked into the other room to find Bored Puppy Syndrome in full bloom: they were in the opposite beds, there was lots of giggling and shrieking, stuffed animals went flying through the air, and bed sheets were all twisted up. Honestly, I have no idea how I managed to NOT laugh at the antics. I play mean mom on TV, but really I'm laughing on the inside.

The amazing thing is how quickly these two little guys can hop back into their beds and have all the stuffed animals back in place. Two seconds flat. Seriously! Those are some mad skillz!

Threats of timeout, a chat with Hubby, and then I managed to get back to Silas. I continued to listen to things escalate once again (they just can't help themselves) and watched as Hubby enforced timeout. Eventually we had two sleeping boys. It just takes us an hour or more to get there. It is so much like watching bored puppies it's surreal.

In other news, Silas is now 6 months old and I did not get a picture of him on the day of. But we're finally having some professional pictures done this coming weekend and I can't wait to see some beautifully done pictures of all three boys! He also had his 6 month well visit and he's doing well. He's growing and gaining weight but apparently plateauing on the growth charts. He's healthy though, so we're not concerned. I'm going to take him back in a month just for a weight check and as long as he's going up we're not going to worry about it. He may just be a peanut. That's okay with me.

We did attempt to start him on some rice cereal, but it didn't go over very well. He was completely confused by the spoon. The boys had no interest until well past 7 months old, so I'm tempted to just put it away and wait. Hubby thinks we should keep trying. "We" would prefer to wait, but "he" is welcome to keep at it if that's what "he" wants to do.

Finally, I forgot to post here that I had an article up on Catholic Sistas this past Friday. Check out Marriage: A Catholic Understanding when you get a chance. I was especially surprised that Big Pulpit linked it up on their Friday Extra post. Never would have guessed that in a million years, but very honored by the link up.

Speaking of Catholic Sistas, if you don't follow the blog, I encourage you to check it out. We're currently working on a series of posts on the Anima Christi prayer (part 5 went up on Monday), there is a series started on Proverbs 31, and this coming Thursday I put up a guest post that is a letter from a mom to her unborn daughter who is not expected to live very long after birth (prayers for all of them, please!). The Thursday post will bring tears to your eyes! I'm amazed too at how this worked out. I won't go into details, but as it turned out, Thursday is also the day this precious baby will be induced. Putting the post up that day is a total coincidence. God works in amazing ways!! Anyway, all I can say is, we have a lot of good stuff going on at the blog. Posts go up usually four days a week and we have a lot of great talent.

There's a brief update on the goings on in these parts. I've been so sporadic with my blogging lately, but I do like to share when I can. I'm hoping to do another Lawn Chair Catechism post this week, too (I missed last week). Hopefully you'll hear more form me soon!

7 Quick Takes: Cinnamon Rolls, Doughnuts, Pizza, and Other Non-Food Takes

--1--

Not food-related: yesterday at Catholic Sistas there was a post all about fathers. It was a post in pictures and it was fun to look through. Sweet pictures, funny pictures, and everything in between. If you get a chance, go on over and check out 12 Things Catholic Fathers Want To Tell You About Themselves. I contributed a picture to the endeavor. I bet it won't be hard to figure out which one it is. 

--2--

Speaking of awesome dads, my little boy's awesome dad took him to a doctor appointment last week. Ethan had to have an echo cardiogram done and the appointment got made for a day and time that would require me to either bring the baby with me and cancel a meeting or ask Hubby to do it. So Hubby agreed to do it and he took Ethan in. I think the two of them had a good time. I was told that Ethan was really good, he brought his "baby" with him (a small blanket with a monkey head in the middle), and he got to watch Curious George during the echo. Hubby said he didn't seem to mind the procedure at all. And then afterwards, Hubby took him to a local bakery for a cinnamon roll before dropping him off at school. The cinnamon roll was definitely a highlight for the boy! He still mentions it and even Peter will randomly tell us, "Ethan doctor, had cinnamon roll." I think Peter is going to need his own "Daddy Date" soon, cinnamon roll included.

By the way, the echo cardiogram was good. He has a heart murmur, but apparently it's nothing to worry about.

--3--

This morning, both of the big boys got to have a little daddy time. Their daycare was having a "Doughnuts with Daddy" time this morning, so Hubby took the boys in a little early for that. I had them take the van and I loaded it up with all the usual stuff I bring every day. Silas and I came a little later and I fed him in his room as normal and then Hubby brought the boys by to say good-bye to me before heading up to their room. We then switched cars in the parking lot and both headed off to work. I like that our daycare does little things like this for the kids and parents. The boys had been looking forward to having doughnut with daddy all week. Although, I think the appeal of the doughnuts was bigger than time spent with dad. But that's okay, they'll still remember it.

--4--

Since the boys got to have doughnuts today I couldn't resist having a little treat myself. So after leaving the daycare I made a quick stop at the same little local bakery that Hubby had taken Ethan to last week. I bought myself a cinnamon roll and the guy running the cash register stuck two in my bag. I almost didn't notice and then he made a "side" comment and I realized what he had done. Two for the price of one! This is why small businesses are so great!! And those cinnamon rolls were so yummy!! Mmmmmm!

--5--

Enough about doughnuts and cinnamon rolls, we went out to dinner last night as a family. For a family with two working parents, it's amazing that we do so well cooking and eating at home for the most part. But every once in a long while we do have to improvise. So last night we went to a local pizza joint. We had gotten a gift card at Christmas time for this place but hadn't had a chance to use it until now. It's very close to campus and a very popular place so we knew we wanted to wait until things slowed down at the university. And it's summer now, so things are definitely slower! The restaurant was still really busy, but at least we managed to find parking.

The whole experience was a comedy of errors. As I approached the restaurant I saw Hubby walking up the sidewalk to the front door. So I expected him to get us a table and I'd be able to walk in and plop the kids right down. After I managed to get all four of us out of the car and arrange how we were going to walk in and slowly make our way to the building, we got in and could not find Hubby anywhere!! I texted him and got no reply. The hostess finally puts us at a table and I happened to look out and see Hubby standing outside at the corner of the building between the two front door. Obviously he hadn't gotten my text so I wasn't sure if I should bother calling him or not. I tried to arrange the toddlers at the table and eventually gave up, left all three kids there, and went and grabbed Hubby. Then we had a cup of milk spill (what is with waiters who grab a bunch of napkins for you and then plop them down right in the middle of the mess? Now how am I supposed to clean this up?). And then Silas didn't want to be left out, so he had to create a pooping mess for me to clean up. Glad the food was good!!

--6--

The funniest thing about our experience out last night was when Ethan decided he was finished eating. He climbed down from the table and told us he was finished. "I done, I done," he kept saying. I was trying to get him back into the booth and out of people's way. We were sitting right near where the wait staff was coming in and out of the kitchen.I was trying to reason with my toddler (which I know is pretty useless anyway) that he still needed to sit with us, that he didn't have to eat anymore if he was done, and that, unlike at home, there was nowhere for him to go. None of that was convincing him. "No! I done, I done." It was crazy and silly all at the same time. I was inwardly laughing at my "creature of habit" toddler while I was trying to keep him from tripping over the people coming in and out of the kitchen area. Eventually we did manage to get him back into the booth and he even ate some more of his pizza too.

--7--

Our weekend plans will hopefully include a trip to the library, some house cleaning, writing some thank you cards, taking Hubby out for breakfast on Sunday, and maybe even me cooking dinner Sunday evening. We'll see about that last one. Hope you have some great weekend plans! Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!!

This week's Quick Takes fun is being hosted by Kathryn of Team Whitaker. Go visit for more blogging fun!

Small Success Thursday, No. 8

#1
We have our garden boxes done and in place. Admittedly, I had very little to do with this. Unless you count keeping the children out of the way while Hubby worked on the boxes. Which really, that can be quite the task! Especially with a baby. Try keeping two toddlers inside the house while Daddy is outside sawing or painting or doing other things with power tools. So, okay, this is definitely a success for me! I shared a couple pictures of the early stages of the garden boxes in THIS POST. Here's the rest of the pictures:

Painting the concrete board

Finally in place, dirt sitting by ready to go in.
I did help with placement, which took many tries.
And those boxes are much heavier than they look!!

Dirt in and seeds planted. I wasn't home for this part,
Hubby and the boys did all this together. Silas and I went shopping.

The success here is that this is finally all done and 99.8% of the credit goes to Hubby. Can't wait to see what we get out of this!

#2
As of this week I have now been back to work for three months. This also means that I have been successfully pumping for three months! With as much of a struggle as breastfeeding was in the beginning and how much I was not enjoying it, I really, truly thought that we wouldn't continue once I returned to work. But we did. Twice a day every day I leave my office (or I leave a meeting early or interrupt a conversation with a coworker or student or stop doing something right in the middle or ... something), and I walk to a different building to pump milk. And I've been doing that twice a day, every day for three full months now. I never thought I'd last this long. And Baby Silas is doing great!! Isn't he cute?

Almost 6 months old!!

#3
I took a walk on Monday! I finally did what I have been saying I want to do. Monday after dinner and some play time, Hubby took the twins up to do baths and I stuck Silas into the ring sling and we went for a walk. I think I managed to walk about 30-35 minutes. It felt great and Silas got a little snooze in as well. I had a little baseball cap for him that he looked sooooooooooo cute in. Oh my goodness, this boy! I got back home just after the boys had had their evening snack and read some books and Hubby was getting ready to get them upstairs to bed.So far, that's only one day this week, but it's a 100% improvement over last week and the week before that and the week before that and ... well, you get the idea.

Bonus #4
I have finally completed my application to start the process of becoming a Benedictine Oblate through the St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana. I've have been praying about this for several months now and have had the application sitting on my desk since March. I finally got it filled out and am handing it over today to be mailed off with several others. Thus starts a new journey! I haven't mentioned this previously and I don't know how much I'll share about it on the blog (at least initially). Eventually I may share a few things, but we'll see how things go. The process to become an Oblate takes at least a year, possibly longer if you're juggling a young family at the same time. Prayers appreciated!

What are your small successes this week? We're all sharing over at CatholicMom.com.

Big Brother "Reading"

I so wish I had a picture to go along with this post. But when this happened I was feeding the baby and I didn't want to intrude on the moment by trying to capture it with a picture. Anyway ...

Saturday I was sitting in our family room feeding the baby when Ethan brought a book over for me to read. I told him I couldn't read right then but that I would once the baby was done.  But he couldn't understand this concept. I'm assuming that at this age there is no concept of time and everything must happen NOW because there is no such thing as later. So far, all evidence points to this conclusion.

After much frustration (on Ethan's part) and many tears, somehow Peter ended up agreeing to "read" the book to Ethan. Ethan was immediately happy again and I watched to see how this would go.

I saw Peter take the book into his lap and Ethan sat down on the floor next to him. With the two of them sitting right next to each other (which by itself is the cutest thing ever), Peter opens the book.

"Someone ripped this book." Peter says. The text block is tearing away from the cover on this book (can you tell I'm a librarian?), Ethan agrees, and I laughed to myself at this exchange.

I found a picture: the book.

Peter proceeds to flip to the first page and says, "One dog." Moving on to the next page he continued with almost the exact words of each page.

I was impressed when I heard him "read" on the page with the picture of a maze, "One dog going in, three dogs going out." And then he got to the first exchange between the two dogs about the hat and it was perfect:

"Hello. Hello. Do you like hat? No, don't like hat. Good-bye. Good-bye."

I was sitting across the room in tears from holding in my laughter. I was enjoying listening to Peter read with a little help from Ethan here and there as they went through this book page by page. And for three year olds, this is a pretty lengthy book.

The kicker for me is that this is a library book. It's been in the house for only about three weeks. But library books are so loved here that we read every single one, every single night. So I've started limiting how many we bring home. And unfortunately we don't get to the library as often as I'd like so we end up keeping them for the whole four week loan period.

I love that the boys love books so much. I also love seeing how well they can get along when they want to (it doesn't happen all the time, I can assure you). And I love that Peter tried to read the book and did a pretty good job at it too. I can't wait until the day when they really can read a book! Oh the worlds that will open up to them.

Lawn Chair Catechism, Week 3: Who's the Boss?

When I saw the title of this week's chapter I immediately thought of the old TV show "Who's the Boss?" It was one of my favorite shows as a kid, but I never could decide who really was the boss.

There's no question who the boss is here. It's God! This chapter is all about authority: who has it, who is it passed on to, and what it means for us today. Many things struck me about this chapter, including the idea that Tradition (with a capital "T") is one with Scripture, the two cannot be separated. Also, that Tradition is the passing on of Church teaching, NOT just acts of doing something the same way over and over again, i.e., "we've always done it that way."

Since returning to the Catholic faith over a decade ago and learning more about the faith in the process, I was taught the difference between Big-T Tradition and small-t tradition. However, I hadn't actually associated Tradition with the Magisterium in quite the way that is presented in this book. Reading through this chapter I had kind of a "duh!" moment. If Tradition is the passing down of the Church's teachings to subsequent generations, than it is obvious that the Magisterium is the keeper of Tradition, guided by the Holy Spirit. In the same way, we wouldn't have Holy Scripture if it weren't for Tradition. It's not like the question of the chicken and the egg. In this case we know that Tradition came first and Scripture second.

Oh how that would shock our Protestant brothers and sisters! But I digress ...

This question from the leader's guide goes along well with my thoughts from this chapter:

What advantage does having a Magisterium--an official teaching office--give to the Catholic Church?

This is one of the reasons I love the Catholic Church. In my few years away from the Church, I never felt drawn to other faith traditions (small-t tradition, by the way). I didn't consciously leave the Church, it was more of a slow falling away in the busyness of going to college and being out on my own for the first time and never really internalizing the importance of my faith. I believed in God, but didn't see the importance of attending a service on a weekly basis. I had occasion during my college years and early 20s to go Mass and I did, but never felt the need to make it a habit. I also attended services at other churches, but that usually had more to do with circumstances (peer influence or music gigs on Easter or other special days) than it did with me "checking out" a different faith.

Once I was on the path to reconnecting with the Catholic Church and re-learning my faith, I truly came to understand why the Catholic Church makes the claims that it does. And once I understood the history of the Church, the oral traditions of the early Church that led to the compilation of the Bible a few centuries after Christ, and how the whole hierarchy thing works, the concept of the Magisterium fell into place.

The keeper of Tradition has to come from somewhere!! Scripture and interpreting Scripture--there has to be an authoritative source. If not, then what? If there is no ONE interpretation of Scripture than every single person can have their own interpretations and then everyone is right and no one is wrong. That just can't work!! Not with humans, no way. I've seen enough of human nature to know that God would never just leave it up to each of us to form our own interpretations of Scripture. 

And this idea of an authoritative source feeds into my librarian brain really well. Maybe that's why I accepted it so easily. In any case, it made sense and I knew that only the Catholic Church could be the One True Church. Why? Because of the Magisterium.

The advantage of the Magisterium? It makes the Catholic Church an authoritative source. It creates a unity in the teachings of the Church such that everyone (all 1 billion plus Catholics in the world) are all on the same page. It gives us a place to turn for understanding Scripture. It unites us and puts us all on the same page. From the richest Catholics to the poorest Catholics, we all have the same teachings, interpretations of Scripture, and understanding of Tradition.

Now when I listen to my priest give a homily or I attend a Bible Study discussion, I know (hopefully) that I am being taught through the lens of the Catholic Magisterium, guided by the Holy Spirit. There is no room for one individual's interpretation of Scripture, that only creates chaos.

I guess I would also say that another advantage of the Magisterium is that it adds a level of comfort for those of us in the pews. It's nice to know that no matter where I go, which Catholic church I attend, the teachings are the same.

For more discussion on this chapter of A Well-Built Faith by Joe Paprocki, check out today's edition of Lawn Chair Catechism on CatholicMom.com.

Catholic Writer's Award: Receiving and Giving

The lovely Lynda at Flowers for Francis blessed my blog with this delightful Catholic Writer's Award, originating at Melanie Jean Juneau's blog. I love beautiful art such as that included in this award. It just makes it even more special.

I'm touched to receive this award. And although I see that there are no rules associated with it, it seems only right that the blessings should be passed on. So I am going to do just that! Here are my picks for a few deserving blogs (just a few, because I could literally list 2 or 3 dozen):

• The Breadbox Letters by Nancy Shuman. Another Kentuckian with an exquisite blog. Actually she has more than one, and I would follow all of them, but then I'd have to drop something else. So I'm sticking with this one for now. But if you visit her blog, check out her other writings too. I know she'll appreciate this award because the art work is right up her ally, and that'll be evident as soon as you land on her page.
  
• My friend Michelle's enchanting blog Tales from the Side of the Tub. Michelle and I met online several years ago, are now Facebook friends, have been able to meet IRL [In Real Life] once, and we both write for Catholic Sistas. She's the mom of eleven and has such awesome kids. And they are always saying or doing hilarious things. So she's chronicling them on this blog. I especially love her story of why she named the blog as she did and I'm even going to link it for you so you can check it out HERE.
  
• Another favorite of mine is My Favorite People by another friend. She's the mom of six and her youngest is only a day younger than my Silas. She and I also know each other through an online community and we did meet once when I was on a business trip to Dallas. But she's a Midwest girl now! Her children are beautiful and are her favorite people. She shares all about them on her blog. I love seeing her almost daily posts of what her favorite people are up to. 

There are so, so many others I could add to this list, but I need to stop somewhere. From my understanding of the award:

The award has no strings attached.

No rules, no obligations.

A simple acknowledgment of great Catholic writing which brings joy, truth, freedom, or encouragement to others.

It can be someone who writes about prayer; their struggles and pain, bringing hope to others; life in God; faith stories that make you laugh.

Pass this award on to a fellow Catholic writer or two.

Post the recipients name and blog if applicable, award title, logo with a simple link back to http://melaniejeanjuneau.wordpress.com/.

Happy blog reading!!

7 Quick Takes Friday: Two #7QT, Birthdays, Fun, Exercise, and Too Much Food

~~1~~

Today I not only have this meager #7QT post, but I'm also posting over at Catholic Sistas. Today I'm sharing 7 saints that are good role models for dads. I was inspired to take this on by the upcoming Father's Day holiday. It is one that I think is a bit overlooked. I think this is a nice way to begin thinking about all the amazing ways fathers influence our lives. Check out Role Model Saints for Dads at Catholic Sistas today.

~~2~~

I also have to tell you that my post at Catholic Sistas today will be my last 7 Quick Takes post there for the foreseeable future. I'll still be writing once a month in my other time slot (third Fridays), but trying to do two posts a month over there was getting to be too much. So I'm dropping this one thing. But never fret!! Another ink slinger Sista is taking over the reigns and I'm sure she'll have some great ideas! So if you've enjoyed the 7 Quick Takes posts at Catholic Sistas, they will still be continuing, just not by me. I'm looking forward to seeing what topics are covered in future posts.

~~3~~

Saturday we had a birthday party for the boys. They turned three on Friday and we celebrated (in a small way) on Saturday. We invited the grandparents to dinner that night and kept it to a small affair. My parents came up from Atlanta and we enjoyed hamburgers, French fries, and coleslaw, followed by presents and cake and ice cream. The boys got to run around in the backyard and chase bubbles, we ate outside (which the boys were really looking forward to), and we had a purple and yellow cake. We also had way too much cake! I ordered a half sheet thinking a half was the size of what is really a quarter sheet. I'm sure the look of shock on my face when the lady at the bakery brought me the cake was priceless. We also learned that the boys have forgotten how to blow out a candle since we put away the Advent wreath in December. There's a skill we need to work on again. Overall, it was a fun evening. [Pictures were taken, but not by me. So I have none to share right now.]

~~4~~

Since my parents were in town for the weekend we decided to find something fun to do. So on Sunday we checked out the local Children's Museum. We had never been and it was a lot of fun for everyone. I went ahead and bought the year-long membership while we were there. I think it'll be a great place to take the kids a few times during the year. The boys fell asleep on the way home which got me thinking: this would be a great way to get a nap out of them. I don't mind a little driving around after a trip to the museum so they can sleep and I can listen to some podcasts on my iPod or just some good Catholic radio. Oh the things we will do for nap time!

~~5~~

Doctors, doctors, and more doctors. Since the boys turned three, it was time to go in for a well check-up. They did really well! Peter wasn't too sure about the scale and didn't like that he had to take his shoes off, but he did it and the nurse got all the measurements she needed out of him. Once he was done, Ethan was eager to get up on the scale and put his head under the measurement stick. Blood pressure screenings also start at three, and both of them did great. Got a reading on the first try. They also did really well during the physical exam. I was so impressed with them!

We are going to have them re-evaluated for allergies and we got that appointment scheduled for a few weeks from now. Their current doctor told me she doesn't trust allergy testing done too early, and since we now regularly feel the boys foods that they had originally tested positive for, I'm inclined to agree with her. I'm looking forward to this re-evaluation. It'd be great to not have to worry about epi-pens!

We also learned that Ethan has a heart murmur. What's interesting is that I had an echo cardiogram done when I was pregnant with the boys. The first one showed a possible issue with Baby B's heart (Ethan), but the follow-up echo I had done showed nothing out of the ordinary. So I'm not totally surprised by this. I also feel like it was mentioned before, but there was nothing in his chart about it. So, on Thursday Ethan was scheduled for an echo cardiogram. It was done just to make sure there is nothing to worry about. So I'm not worrying about it unless someone tells me that I should. Hubby took him to that appointment and said he did great. He also took him out for a cinnamon roll following the appointment. What a great dad!

~~6~~

I need a pedometer. Actually, I do have one, it just needs a new battery. But really, I could have used a pedometer on Tuesday. What a day! I was on my feet so much! I don't think I sat down for longer than 30 minutes until around 3:30 that afternoon. Part of the issue was that I overslept by a LOT! So then I as running from one thing to another right away. And then once I got to work I was in my office for all of 20 minutes before I had to walk to the main library for an interview that took 30 minutes, then I walked back to my office, was there all of 10 minutes before I was off to go pump. I got back around 12:30, cleaned everything, got my lunch, ate, and then headed to my next meeting at 1:30. Back to my office at 2:30 for just a few minutes and then it was off to go pump again at 3:00. There is no way I didn't get the recommended 10,000 steps that day. I really wish I had had my pedometer that day.

~~7~~

The "Too Much Food" Take. If we're friends on Facebook you might have seen me mention on Thursday that I ended up walking away from the vending machine with way more than I expected that afternoon. But I didn't explain. So here's the story.

I grabbed $1.25 from my purse Thursday afternoon and headed up to the third floor of my building. $1.25 will get me one item from the things in the bottom half of the machine. The top half are all more like $2 each. Total rip off, but sometimes you just don't care. Anyway ... after I purchase an item one of our IT guys shows up next to me to get a drink. We say hi, I'm about to walk away, but then he got angry with the drink machine. I turned around to see what happened and I see him put a dollar into the vending machine. He then proceeds to get angry at that machine too. During his fights with the machine, I had started chatting with him about a monitor problem for one of my staff members. But that conversation got derailed while we both tried to figure out if the vending machine was capable of returning his dollar to him. Apparently it is not.

So, turns out the drink machine wasn't taking bills for some unknown reason. He then proceeded to stick the dollar in the vending machine in the hopes it would give him some quarters if he asked for change that he could then use on the drink machine. But as we discovered, giving change is not something this machine was interested in doing without a purchase first. I told him to just go ahead and get something, he could save it for another time. Instead he insisted that I get something for me. After some back and forth I told him I'd repay him and I entered the number for a bag of Peanut M&Ms. The machine spit out two bags! So now I had the bag of cookies I had come up there to get, plus two bags of Peanut M&Ms.

I ended up giving one bag of M&Ms to one of my coworkers. And my IT friend ended up using his credit card on the drink machine to get what he had wanted all along. I didn't even realize that these fancy machines now take credit cards. That's a piece of information I wish I didn't know!

Check out Conversion Diary for more 7 Quick Take posts!! Have a nice weekend.

7 Quick Takes Friday: Sick Baby (Sort of), Prayer Group Resurrected, The Zoo and Large Family Comments, and Adventures in Poop

~1~

Last week we had a sick baby. Poor guy was not too happy Tuesday. He did well on Wednesday with the help of some Tylenol, but we went on in to the doctor on Thursday and found out he had an ear infection. We got an antibiotic. I'm not crazy about going that route, but the poor guy is so little and I felt bad for him. Well, I shouldn't have felt bad. I couldn't figure out how to get the stupid medicine in him. We tried a dropper (about 25% effective), a syringe (0% effective), and mixing it with breast milk in a bottle (50% effective). So by Saturday night I was done. We tried with a bottle on Sunday morning since that method had actually worked once, and he completely refused it. At that point I figured the antibiotic was pretty useless anyway. And Silas was doing great. So we moved on.

~2~

Up until this week, I was about 4 or 5 days ahead of Silas in terms of stored breast milk in the fridge. It was nice to have a buffer and every once in a while I would freeze some so I didn't have an overabundance in the fridge. Last Tuesday I pumped once at work before I got the phone call that baby was sick. I ended up home the rest of the week and then we had a three day weekend. So by this Tuesday I had moved a lot of the milk from the fridge into the freezer and all I had left was the 4 ounce bottle from the previous Tuesday. So I'm slowly catching back up again this week. He's had plenty to drink each day between what I had in the fridge, taking out a frozen bag from four months ago, and pumping each day. My pumping sessions basically get me just enough for him for the next day, but sometimes I'm a little short. This is why I really liked having that buffer. Tuesday I pumped 7 ounces; he normally eats around 8 ounces during the time he's at day care. By some miracle I managed to get about 9 ounces on Wednesday. So now I have a tiny bit extra. Maybe I can build up that buffer again. 

I will say too, I was actually wondering if I really needed this buffer and if I was ever going to use all the milk I keep freezing. (One day I need to go through all the frozen stuff and see how much I have, I'm very curious!) I learned this week that this is why I need that buffer and why I have all this frozen milk. It will get used. Eventually.

~3~

My Cursillo small group has gotten back together again! It has been over a year since we last met, maybe longer. It was so nice to get together again, share what we've been doing, how we're growing closer to Christ, and to pray together. We're now meeting once a month, early on a Saturday morning so as to not interfere with the day too much (translation: not leave the kids with the husbands for too long), and I think this is going to work out great. Very much looking forward to this continuing!

~4~

Saturday (after my Cursillo group met) we packed up the kids and headed up 75 to the Cincinnati Zoo. We had last been there in October, so the boys are a bit older now and seem much more interested. Plus, I was 7 months pregnant then, so I was kind of tired on that trip and moving slowly. This was a perfect time to go. The boys had a great time (they got to ride the train!!) and they loved the animals. I also got to wear Silas in the ring sling and he fell asleep while he was in it. He is so cute when he falls asleep in the sling. He has the most contented look on his face. I love it so much!!

~5~

While at the zoo we were heading up a ramp towards the area where the giraffes are and we passed a family on their way down. I really didn't notice them too much because I was pushing the stroller, had Silas in the sling on me, and was trying to keep Ethan from running into someone (he was holding a handle attached to the stroller, which I think makes him feel secure enough that he doesn't think he needs to look forward, so he's often walking way off to the side as far as the handle's cord will stretch and looking off at things to the side or behind us; thus, I spend a lot of time with my hand on his head guiding him forward and keeping him from running into other people or other things).  Hubby was just ahead of us with Peter and the wagon, but close enough that it was obvious that we were all together (each of us with a toddler that look identical to each other probably gave it away too). Anyway, this family passes us, but like I said, I didn't notice them too much (I mean, come on, it's the zoo on a Saturday, there are a lot of people around). But I looked up when this girl said something obviously directed at us. She couldn't have been more than 11 or 12 years old, but she distinctly made a comment in our direction about the number of children we had. Her exact words:

"Three kids?! What a pain!"

Seriously? It's only three. Even the family behind us heard and the woman behind me commented on how rude the girl's comment was. I was just speechless! But it really made me wonder about this girl's parents. What in the world are they saying in front of their child that an 11 or 12 year old girl is commenting on someone's "large" family? Or that an 11 or 12 year old girl even has it in her head that three kids is too many? For Pete's sake, it's only three kids! I know so many people with way more than three!

I think that was my first encounter with a rude "too many children" comment. I just never expected it to come from someone so young. How sad.

~6~

A Catholic moms group I'm in often has a "Toddlers in the Pew" thread on Sundays. We certainly have our share of adventures there, but this past Sunday it was the 5 month old who showed everyone up. It was during Communion, we had already received and gotten back to the pew, had knelt to pray; Silas was a little antsy so I sat back on the edge of the pew with him just to change position a little bit. Then I heard a familiar noise and quickly moved my hand off his bottom. I've been there too many times: he poops, my hand is right there, the poop goes right up his back. Only this time it did not go up his back. It somehow managed to go out his legs ... and then got on my shirt ... my pants ... and, yes, even my shoes. *Big heavy sigh.* Very quickly I put him in his car seat, grabbed the diaper bag and my purse and left immediately. I mumbled something quickly to Hubby as I rushed out, leaving him with both of the boys.

So I head out of the church, trying not to knock over people waiting in the communion lines as I try to get out as quickly as possible. I head toward the hallway down which the bathrooms are located and where I know there is a real changing table, not just one of those pull down things, and I pull on the door and it doesn't budge. It tried a few more times and nothing. How could the door be locked!! I was mortified!

Now, let me pause here and say this. I have never known this door to be locked, particular when there are lots of people in the building. Several hours after this event happened, I was thinking about it and, in the heat of the moment, I realize I wasn't thinking clearly. I distinctly remember looking between the doors and did not see the deadbolt between them. And yet I couldn't open the door. Why? It's possible the door should have been pushed and not pulled. Once again: *Big heavy sigh.*

But since at the time I thought the door was locked, I panicked, momentarily. Then I realized that the nursery was across the hall and I knew they would have a changing table. Plus really nice volunteers, mostly all moms themselves, who would take pity on me. Until I got Silas on the changing table, I didn't realize the extent of the mess. Ick! It was bad.

On top of all that, by the time I had us cleaned up (as much as I could anyway), Mass was over and I wasn't seeing the rest of my family leaving the church. So I hauled Silas back in to find Hubby still in the pew. I was a bit annoyed at first until I realized that he stayed there because there was also poop on the kneeler and the floor.

Yep, it was bad. 

~7~

Finally, this is birthday season around here! Wednesday was Hubby's 43rd birthday. Happy Birthday, Honey! And today is the boys 3rd birthday! Can you believe they are already 3 years old? We're having a small party (not even really a party, but that's what we're calling it) on Saturday with just us and both sets of grandparents. This is such a fun age for birthdays! It's the first time they really understand it. As much as a 3 year old can understand these things. It should be fun and I promise to take some pictures. We're having a purple and yellow themed birthday party for them. I can explain why later.

Have a great weekend and check out Jen's 7 Quick Takes over at Conversion Diary. Thanks for hosting, Jen!!

Small Success Thursday, No. 7

Wow, April 10 was the last time I did a "Small Success" post. Time is totally getting away from me these days! My days are full, seem chaotic, and the failures often loom large. There are so many failures or things forgotten. It's precisely for that reason that I need to try and take some time every now and then to recognize the things that have been successes, however small. And believe me, my successes are teeny tiny these days!

So here we go:

#1
I shaved my legs. [Small successes, right?] Seriously, this hasn't been done in a long time. I was pregnant, we moved, the shower in our bathroom is small, winter happened (and who really needs to shave in winter, #amiright?), and then we planned a trip to the zoo and it's gotten hot. So yeah, I finally broke down and used the tub in the other bathroom. It felt so good!!

#2
A small success at work: I finally cataloged a music score that had been sitting on a shelf by my desk for *coughcough* almost 4 years *coughcough*. Don't know why I left this particular one for so long. Just one of those things that gets forgotten. But it felt great to get it done and pass it on and see an empty space on a shelf. An empty space that I expect will get filled up pretty quickly again.

#3
Last night I turned the TV off at 8:00 PM. This is a big deal. I often feed the baby around 7 PM and turn on the TV to watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. Once the TV is on, it tends to stay on, which means I don't get a whole lot done the rest of the evening. Last night I turned it off once Jeopardy ended [have you been watching it, I've been cheering on the champion now for weeks, love it!]. The boys went to bed a little after 8 PM and I was able to get the dishes finished, clean off the kitchen table, vacuum under it, get Silas' bottles ready for the next day, switch the laundry to the drier, and feed the baby one last time and get him to bed, all by 10:30 PM. I then was able to sit back and read from A Well-Built Faith and write up a short blog post on chapter 1. It felt great to get all that stuff done early in the evening and then have some time to myself rather than what I've been doing, which is the reverse and is very stressful.

Those are mine for this week. How about you? Join in on the fun over at CatholicMom.com.

Lawn Chair Catechism, Week 1: Part 1, Chapter 1

This summer I am challenging myself to read and keep up with the Lawn Chair Catechism book being discussed over at CatholicMom.com. The book this summer is A Well-Built Faith: A Catholic's Guide to Knowing and Sharing What We Believe by Joe Paprocki.

If you want to join in, the complete schedule is at the Lawn Chair Catechism page and includes a link to the Leader's Guide (where the weekly discussion questions can be found). It's not too late if you want to join in. Just get the book and start reading and jump in whenever you can.

So here we go:

My first thought, when I saw the acronym H.E.L.P., I got worried. It often takes me a while to remember what an acronym stands for, especially when it's not just one word for each initial, as is the case with this one. But, just one chapter in and I think I'm getting the hang of it. Maybe! I'm sure I'll be flipping back to the Introduction throughout my reading of the book to constantly refresh my memory.

But I like the idea of it:
H = Holding onto the faith (the Creed)
E = Expressing the faith (sacraments)
L = Living the faith (Catholic morality)
P = Praying the faith (prayer)

By the end of the book, I may have this well ingrained in my head. Let's hope!

Tonight, before I got around to reading this first chapter, I was nursing the baby in his room before putting him to bed. As I rocked in the glider and he ate I realized that I did not bring my iPod Touch up with me as I usually do. I got over the initial disappointment rather quickly as I came to the realization that this was a perfect time for some prayer time with God. A good time to speak with him and try to listen as well.

It was hard at first. Unfortunately I don't do this often enough. I hate to admit that, but what better time for a little honesty, right? So I found myself contemplating the intellectual knowledge of God versus the emotional or "heart knowledge" of God. I always feel like I understand things on an intellectual level and I accept them on that level, but that I lack in the area of pure emotional love for God.

Imagine my surprise when I started reading and got to the part where Paprocki discusses ideas versus beliefs. It was all right there! To believe requires both head and heart. The head part is easy for me; the heart part I find a little tougher. I often find myself asking God, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief."

In the little of this book I have read so far, I think it will speak well to my thirst for head knowledge. On the other hand, I can see that it will likely help foster my desire for my heart to swell with a greater belief in our beautiful faith, too. It's there now, it's just not as balanced as it should be.

This first chapter establishes what the four pillars of the Catholic Church are. I'm looking forward to getting deeper into each pillar and the richness found within each.

To wrap this up, this section from the Introduction chapter speaks to me strongly and gets to the heart of my own need to balance things:

"God is actively present in our lives, shaping us into the person that reflects his divine image. Learning about our faith is not simply an intellectual exercise. It is a movement of the heart. St. Anselm taught that theology can be thought of as 'faith seeking understanding.'" (pg. xiv)

This reminds me that I am right where God wants me to be. I may be more drawn to learning about the faith on an intellectual level, but God will use that to help shape me to accept more and more with my heart. It strikes me in a powerful way. It makes me wonder what all God has in store for me!

How exciting!!

This post is linked up to Part 1: The Creed and Chapter 1: Laying a Firm Foundation {Lawn Chair Catechism} at CatholicMom.com. Come on over and check out the discussion.

Growing Kids and (Hopefully) Veggies

Everything is growing around here. It's spring!!

Silas is now 5 months old, as of Monday. Here's the picture I took of him:

I've been playing around with the website picmonkey.com. The above picture is the result of playing around with several different features. Fun, right?

Anyway, he's getting so big. And he's such a happy baby, too. He's a little under the weather this week, but generally he is so good and smiles so easily.

The boys are hitting an interesting phase. They are almost three and I think I'm becoming a believer in the "Terrible Threes." Without going into detail, things have just been ... well, challenging, for lack of a better word. Hopefully we'll all survive this next year.

Besides our growing boys we're also hoping to have a garden this year. We're getting a late start, but since it was actually cool this last week, it seems to be a late starting growing season this year anyway. Not that I really know, I've never done this before. But Hubby has been hard at work building our raised garden beds.

The house we bought last summer had a garden spot already that was overgrown and obviously neglected. Hubby cleaned it up and it's been sitting there ever since, waiting for us to do something with it.

Hubby working on the raised beds (the frame is upside down in these pictures):

He has two of these almost done now, which will give us four spaces of about 4 feet by 4 feet each. I plan on documenting more of this endeavor, so expect more pictures soon.

And one last picture. I tried taking some pictures of Silas and I using our new ring sling. Selfies aren't really my thing, but here's the best I could do:

He looks like a redhead here, but he's definitely a blondie (for now)

Bonus picture, the boys were in the backyard while I was taking pictures of the garden area and they insisted I take their picture too: