Morning Mothering

 Brigid found the baby bottles and I found the babies.  The girls wanted to feed the babies so up on the chair they went.  Just like Mommy. 

Mommy normally doesn't drink from the bottle, but we are still working on the fine details of being a mommy.  They just warm my heart when they are this adorable!

 We interrupt this blog post for a bit of Brigid bed head.  I kissed that spot a hundred times more this morning.  I just LOVE when she has bed head.  Remember her seven hair bed head when she was much, much smaller?

It's gonna be a great day!!!

Recovery Assistance

Oh the joys of recovery with helpers.

Advice Worth Taking

Brech's fortune cookie tonight.

Best. one. ever.

A Week Later Weak Knee Update

It's been a week since the surgery.  I've hobbled along with and without the crutches.  It's gone from sore to unbearable back to sore again.  I'm sure this is not going to be a fun recovery.

 It is swollen again.  The physical therapist had a new brace for me to try on today.  It was tight and after I wore it all afternoon my ankle swelled up to nearly "twin pregnancy" size.

 This rectangle/T-shaped bruise is a result of a twinnie throwing a Peterson's Field Guide to Mushrooms at my knee.  She had completed "reading" what she wanted to read and just threw it to the ground.  My knee happened to get in the way I guess.  I had to talk myself through that pain.  Wowsers!!!  She did look somewhat scared and tried to make it better.

I'm not sure I'm going to like putting the brace on and off.  You can see where the outline is on my knee.  I did wear for a quick nap this afternoon and it wasn't comfortable.  My plan is to wrap it at night so I don't have to wear the brace.  

The knee is "loose" enough that when I walk it wants to go left and right and buckle inward instead of outward like a bend knee should be.  I'm not confident in its ability to do what I want it to do even just getting into bed and rolling around at night.  Silly knee anyway!!

When Lunch Takes Too Long

 Brigid

 Kiara

When lunch takes too long, babies fall asleep.

By too long - I mean five minutes.  

These girls are either off or on, but hardly ever drowsy.

Early Morning Learning

 When no one else is awake, what's a baby to do with herself?  

Does she pitch a fit and irritate her mom? 

(Yes, in fact, most mornings.)

Does she pick a fight with her sister over which side of her mother's lap she should be sitting on?

(Yes, that's happened quite often around here.)

Does she fall on the ground and roll around in a desperate attempt at getting attention?

(Yes, yes...and especially when she doesn't feel well.)

What's a baby to do with herself?

Mom has a solution for twinnies! 

 Mom gets out new (to them) toys.

Kiara wonders why Mom hasn't gotten these out before.  

So much more exciting than a silly old purse.

 Brigid giggles and giggles.

 See, Mom, look at my hand.

 They traded boards and learned how to turn the light off and on.

 They were so sweet, so good, and never fought over the boards or lights.

They played for a good thirty minutes before they got bored.

See, Mom.  See what I can do.  Watch me, Mom.

NO, watch me, Mom.  Help me with this one, Mom.  

Ok, so this was mostly a series of grunts, whimpers, laughs, and hand motions - but I got the idea.

Modestly Beautiful

I requested a pamphlet idea on modesty on a group page on Facebook.  As it turns out some of the ladies suggested I write one.  Talk about feeling completely unqualified for a task!!  I couldn't find inspiration and no matter what I wrote it just didn't sound right.  So I decided to write a letter to my daughters. It isn't much, but it is my words and thoughts.  I thought I would post it here so I could have a record of it for when the girls get older.

Dear Daughter of the Lord,

What is beauty?  Beauty can be found in many things.  Beauty is a mother holding her newborn baby.  Beauty is a rose bud blooming.  Beauty is an act of charity to a stranger.  Beauty is a hug from your mom.  Beauty is found in a compliment from your dad.  These things are beautiful when shared and received.

Who is the most beautiful woman you know?  What makes her beautiful to you?  What makes your best friend beautiful? Is it the way she fixes her hair? How about the clothes she wears?  Is it the smile on her face?  Maybe it is the happiness in her eyes?  All of us are beautiful children of God.  Some of us have prettier faces while others have more beautiful hair.  This does not mean that those without the pretty faces and beautiful hair are any less beautiful.  You, my daughter, are as wonderful as can be because that is how God made you.  You are beautiful just the way He created you.

How does modesty enrich our beauty?  Is modesty only making sure your skirt is long enough or your shirt fits your body correctly?  No, modesty is much more than just what clothes we wear and how we wear them.  Modesty takes our God-given beauty and enhances it into elegance.  I want to give you some simple ways to practice modesty in other parts of our lives.  Even grown women need to do these things.  The examples will not include how long your skirt should be or any other guidelines like that.  You know what you should and should not be wearing.  You know why you should not be wearing them.  I trust you enough that I do not believe you will wear inappropriate clothing.  Remember when practicing modesty in these instances you will also help protect yourself against vices and sins.  A lovely woman who acts and dresses respectably will be respected by others.  You will be a blessing to those around you and an true example of the Catholic Church’s teachings.

Modesty in our speech will show others that we are sensitive to the feelings of those around us. This includes watching what words we say to others and with what tone we say them.  Our words should always be helpful, not hurtful.  You should try to compliment your friends and family every chance you are given.  We feel better about ourselves when we are told our smile is beautiful or the color of our shirt makes our eyes sparkle.  A young lady who is soft-spoken and kind with her words is a treasure to her family.

Modesty in our actions includes acting lady-like around others.  You will be more beautiful to the Lord and to others if your actions are thoughtful and compassionate. The young lady who practices charity, shares her laughter with others, smiles at someone, and is patient in difficult situations is far more beautiful than the top model who dresses in the latest fashions.  The beauty of the soul far outshines the beautiful of the body.

It is very important that we take care of our bodies.  Making healthy food choices and drinking plenty of water helps our bodies to look and feel better.  We should also get enough sleep so our attitudes are pleasant.  All of these things will help us fulfill our responsibilities to our family and God.  You cannot take care of others if you do not take care of yourself first.

When choosing what clothes to wear I want you to remember to pick clothes that are comfortable.  You cannot be a happy person in uncomfortable clothes.  We should dress ourselves for the glory of God and for the vocation God has guided us into.  If we are dressing to impress others then we are not being modest in either dress or thought.  A modest girl is not boastful or draws attention to what she is wearing.  We would not want to be the source of jealousy for other young women or gain unhealthy attention from young men.

We should always take care to be the very best example in all our actions, words, and attire.  I believe that some of the most beautiful women in this world are the women who worked hard all their lives, wear clothes at were considered outdated decades ago, and continue to sacrifice for those around them.  Their true example of womanhood is incomparable.  We are to be in this world, but not of this world.  We, as good Catholics, should hold ourselves to a Mary-like standard.  Our Blessed Mother is always depicted in modest clothes, but more than that, she was always a model of virtue.  If you try to be virtuous in your life you will automatically be modest.

You are already one of the most beautiful young girls I know.  Your love of God and your neighbor, your joyous nature, your appreciation of beauty shows how amazing of a child of God you are.  Remember that we love you just as you are.  You are a jewel in our treasure box.  You are a blessing in our lives.

Woodworking with Dad

Stephen has been working more and more in the shop with Darren lately.  His latest projects have been a shelf for his room and one for Gianna's room.  This is the shelf he made for Gianna.  He's going to be a great woodworker some day.  Thanks Stephen!

"Knee"d No More Excuses

On Thursday the 15th I had surgery on my left knee.  I could have picked a better day.  The day before both Cormac and Rex had fevers and were just out of sorts.  That night the twins were sick with fevers and up most of the night.  Both Darren and I were exhausted that morning, but lucky for me my check in wasn't until 9:45.  My friend Karla and her kids came to babysit for us.  What a blessing it was to have them come watch sick kids and not even bat an eye.

The nurse who was preparing me for the surgery had a paramedic student put my IV in.  The first time didn't work.  The second time didn't work.  The third time it finally took.  I have to admit I was a bit panicky at this point.  I had been dealing with the emotions that were bound to come with having surgery in the same hospital again.  This was one of the triggers that brought those emotions to the surface.  The nurse had said something about how they tried to stay away from putting the IV higher than my hand or wrist area so that if I needed blood they would have access to the good areas.  Trigger...trigger!!!!  Then she asked me if I could be pregnant.  No, I can't be, hysterectomy. Ok, then I didn't need to give a urine sample.

After that they moved me to the "staging" area.  The nurse in this area was different so she had to ask some of the same questions.  She was asking if I had given a urine sample yet.  No. Did you do something permanent like tubes tied or hysterectomy. Yes. Half of a trigger.  This is when I met the doctor and he explained a little about what he was going to do to my knee.  The plan was to clean up the cartilage and cut a ligament that pulled one way. This is suppose to help it from being "pulled out" of place.  He did say that with my hypermobile issues this could end up making it worse and I would have to have another surgery.  Regardless, this is the first step. 

The surgery itself was fairly straightforward and short.  I had two stages of recovery and I did fine through both of them.  No nausea or problems from the surgery.  When they were ready to discharge me I got dressed by myself and put on my own socks and shoes.  That was a big accomplishment.

 Here is my knee all wrapped up.

 This is with the wrap off.

 Seriously - two holes.  Wow, all this discomfort for two holes.  

I have a brace on all the time.  I stopped taking the pain pills almost 24 hours ago.  My knee is sore, but it isn't terribly uncomfortable yet.  It does feel very loose.  I'm not sure what it is actually doing though.  Thankful for the brace right now.

 This is what my amazing sister-in-law sent me.  I can say that because I know it was Maria's idea and not John's.  I'm not saying John wouldn't have thought of it, he just wouldn't have ever acted on the thought.  It sure made my day better.

The first one I opened - yes...life is good.

Visitors for Brunch

 Kitty had visitors for Sunday brunch.

 Meet Larry, the minnow.

 Spot, the perch.

 Spot and Kitty spent some quality time sharing the same tank space.

 The look in his eye says it all...

who does that fish think he is?

 Larry, on the other fin, was more than happy to give Kitty his space.

 Poor Spot just never got the message.

Here I thought they were being cozy - but no,

Spot had got sucked into the filter intake and was stuck.

Spot didn't last long before he kicked the bucket.  Kitty was having none of that dead fish for brunch though.  We went to church and while we were gone Kitty decided to have Larry for a mid-afternoon snack.  It was quite entertaining watching the kids freak out about putting that poor perch in the tank with Kitty.  "Can't we set up the other tank for the perch, Dad?"  "I don't know anyone who has a pet catfish and a pet perch."  I guess all visitors will overstay their welcome at some point.

Communion of Saints Wall

 I updated our Communion of Saints wall recently.

I had taken down all the holy cards and pictures when the new windows were installed.  Silly me stacked them on top of each other so when I went to put them back up the tape took the layer of holy card with it.  Faces, hands, clothes - missing.  Holy cards - ruined.

I got smart this time and laminated EVERYTHING!  I picked out fewer holy cards so I could have more room for the Church Suffering and the Church Militant.

 Our tour begins with Darren and I surrounded by our parents and, in my case, grandparents.

 There are three different colors of hearts on the wall.  The lighter pink is our family and Godparents who are not related to us.  The brighter pink is my side of the family while the more coral(?) colored pink is Darren's side of the family.  The picture above shows Blase, Stephen, and Cormac's names as well as Darren's siblings and families.

 This is Rex and Brech's part of the wall.  The "Baby" hearts you see are those families who are expecting this year.  We will put up new hearts with the baby's name on it after they are born.  I think I will have to replace all my family's names at that point because I am out of that color of heart.  I'm ok with doing that because this time I'm going to be smart and buy a truckload of the same color.  Below Brech's name you can see my siblings who are either not married or are too young to be married.  Since we will not be having anymore children they won't be honored to be Godparents for us.  That does break my heart a bit, but there are plenty of babies coming in the family yet and there will be more than enough opportunities for Godparenthood then.

This is the girls' corner.  I'm not sure if you noticed, but the Godfather and/or husband is always on top.  I did that on purpose as a way of showing respect to their role as main provider of their family or that Godchild.  I do believe that the Godfather's role is comparable to the father's role in a family.  The Godmother is more so the heart of the two for sure.

Did you notice the squares on all of the kids' names?  Those would be the names of the priest which baptized them.  The kids are always asking who baptized them so I found this to be an easy way for them to remember who that priest was and also remember to pray for them.  The only person who is on the board twice is our good friend, Fr. Corey Litzner.  He baptized Gianna for us and then we asked him to be Kiara's Godfather.  The only person on the board THREE times is Darren's former parish priest when he was growing up and the priest who was in residence in my hometown.  (Since our family attended the TLM in Rapid City, we didn't have him for our priest.)  His name is Fr. Arni Kari.  He baptized Rex for us when he was born and then we asked him to baptize Brigid and Kiara for us.  It was a great honor to have him baptize the twins.  Fr. Kari was amazingly helpful to our family when Mark died.  He said some of the most helpful and healing things for many of us.  To have yet another connection with him will always be a treasure in my heart. 

 

 That concludes our tour of the Church Militant (at least those of us on the wall).  For those of you who do not know who the Church Militant are - they are those of us still alive and working our way to heaven.  The Church Militant can help the Church Suffering and be helped by both the Church Suffering and the Church Triumphant.

The next stop is the Church Triumphant.  

These would be the saints in heaven.  They can help the Church Militant and the Church Suffering, but are in no need of help themselves as they have attained their reward of heaven already.

The Church Triumphant we have on our wall are some of our favorite saints.   These are the ones that mean a lot to us for various reasons, including namesakes, personal favorites, and chosen patrons.

 The final stop is the Church Suffering.

These would be the souls in purgatory awaiting the time until they are clean of venial sin and can enter heaven.  These souls WILL be saints.  They cannot help themselves, but the Church Militant and Church Triumphant can.  I try to stress to my children the value of including them in our prayers on a daily basis.  Who wouldn't want to have a bunch of grateful souls praying for you when they get to heaven?  My dad always included prayers for the most forgotten soul.  I try to still remember to think of and pray for them.

 This is a close up of some of those in the Church Suffering section of our wall.  While I put them in the Church Suffering section does not mean they are there.  It is with hope I put them there and with faith that I know God knows best.   I would love to know for a fact that I can move them up to the Church Triumphant section, but then I don't want to forgot to pray for them in my haste of assuming they are saints.  Better to pray for them and them not needing it than to assume they don't need it and wishing I had prayed. 

Off to the side of the Church Suffering is our short list of priests.  How did I choose which ones to put on the wall?  Well, if I had a card of their ordination or if I recalled their name from having them as our priests in the past - then I put them on the wall.  Some are there because they are my favorite priests, like Fr. Kenneth Dean, SSPX, or because they are considered special friends to us, like Fr. Michael Irwin, FSSP or Fr. Michael Driscoll, or because they are in need of prayers due to their current assignment, like Archbishop Alexander Sample (who is one of our favorite people too!).  If I had more room I would put every priest I have ever known on there.  There are so many and they are all in need of prayer.  We recall their names every day in our Prayer for Priests we say during our morning prayers.  The young man's picture at the bottom is the son of my kids' former swimming teacher from Michigan.  He was studying to be a priest and my boys thought that was the neatest thing.  I cut out his picture from the diocesan newspaper before we moved so we could remember to pray for him.  I need to add another name to our list - Mr. Ben Rivard, son of Gianna's Godparents and our dear friends.  He will be going to the seminary soon.  I have considered adding a special prayer for all the seminarians during our morning prayer time.  I am thinking this is the push I need to do it.  God bless all our priests, seminarians, brothers, and sisters who help us in so many ways!

If You Give a Mom an Afternoon

 The Fire Hazard Formerly Known as "The Christmas Tree"

When the Christmas tree becomes a fire hazard you have to take the decorations off. 

When you take the decorations off a tree you have to put them away.

 When you put Christmas decorations away you might need to organize the boxes, 

label them, and put them in some nicely arranged order.

When you organize boxes in the corner you might feel compelled to organize a shelf or two.

 When you organize one or two shelves you might look over and see the other shelves are not in order so you proceed to box all the plastic plates, silverware, and cups in boxes and label them as well as all the napkins and tablecloths.

If you organize the plasticware in the house you might decide to organize the food as well.  

This happens to work out in your favor as your husband requests a Sam's Club shopping list.

This comes after a morning of this - as posted on my Facebook page this morning:

I'm not sure if I should call this a victory or a typical distraction in my life. I walked downstairs to get a Pepsi (slap if you want!). I heard the dryer going so I made a quick detour to see if the clothes were dry. They were so I moved clothes around and wanted to start another load. I'm down to two loads left in the whole house at this point - want. it. finished. So I decided to wash the boys' clothes so I didn't have to walk upstairs. I remembered that Blase needed to try on size 16 pants to see if he needs the slims or the regulars. I called him to do that then started to load the washer. Then I decided I should probably put away his size 14's so that he has room for the 16's. That led to going through all his drawers and putting away the summer or too small things. I found some items that would fit Stephen at this point. SOO, I stopped by Stephen's room to go through his clothes. That led to going through his junk drawer that is actually suppose to be his pjs/socks/underwear drawer. Then I found some things that should be in Cormac's drawers. That led to going through all of Cormac's drawers, including his treasure/junk drawer. By this point we have thrown away a few things, organized 8 drawers, and put away the treasures in the proper places. Then the dryer and washer were almost through their cycles. Prior to coming downstairs I had put some leftovers in the microwave. So I finally grabbed my can of Pepsi and went up here to eat lunch. So was that a victory? Or a distraction with benefit of accomplishment?

It is just a day for distractions with accomplishments I suppose!

Checklist

Last night I made this list so I wouldn't forget anything.  

The cell phone is missing from the list - so I forgot the cell phone.

The kids were obviously an afterthought, but I didn't forget them.

We pulled out of the driveway at 9:11 AM.  Not bad for us.  In fact we were early enough I could give the boys the "you will behave yourself or else" pep talk/threat.

It was a great meeting.  It was a beautiful morning.

Everyone's a Comedian

Stephen needed a bit of encouragement to motivate him in school.  I wrote down all the subjects he was caught up in to show him that he was indeed doing well in those subjects.  He is behind in math and in science.  I told him he could use the sticky notes to show what subjects has finished for the day.  I peeked at his wall this morning and found this.  "cause trouble"  "cause more trouble" "cause even more trouble" Everyone's a comedian!  I am sure he will have no trouble causing trouble.

UPDATE: I found out that it was Blase who wrote the sticky notes.  He purposely tried to make it look like Stephen's handwriting.  Stinker!  What a good laugh Stephen had when he looked up and saw them.  Funny, funny kids!

Downton Abbey

Last night I spent some of the best hours of the week with some new"ish" friends watching Downton Abbey.  We had, as my husband put it, a girl night.  There was wine and hot tea, scones with fresh berry sauce and freshly whipped cream, and homemade chocolate.  Anna was our baker with the mostest for the night.  Anna's cousin did some amazing hairstyles on some of us.  I gave a few foot massages.  Mary gave neck massages.  It was very much a "girl" night.  We had such a great time.  I can't wait until next Sunday evening.  In fact, is it Sunday yet???

I have to say that I am the "old woman" of the group.  My husband asked if this meant I was going to be a good influence on them.  I honestly answered that those lovely ladies probably think so, but I know differently.  They will be the good influence.  I will probably be the black sheep trying to get everyone in trouble.  I'm good at that.

This is my second group of amazing ladies here in Fargo.  They keep this treatment up and I might never move away.  What blessings God has given us these last few years!!