How toddlers can help with dinner

Hooray! Photo uploads are working again! I promise to work on New Zealand posts this weekend.

In the meantime, here's a Matthew moment....

He can stir the soup after the burner is turned off :-)

Matthew came downstairs and wanted to help with dinner yesterday evening. Unfortunately, everything he wanted to help with was either sharp (chopping onions with a knife), or else he wasn't strong enough to accomplish much (grating cheese).

Then, I remembered something Joseph likes to do. "Matthew would you like to slice the olives?"

"Yes!"

Out came the egg slicer and an open can of black olives, along with a bowl for the finished product. I demonstrated with one olive.



Matthew took a turn, then said, "It's your turn." I thought it might be my turn for the rest of the olives, but I offered him another turn, which he took.

He then continued slicing. After a few minutes, I asked him, "Are you having fun?" "Yes," he replied.

A few minutes later, he informed me, "Mommy, I'm still having fun."

He repeated this information every couple of minutes until the entire can of olives was sliced.



Then he happily left the kitchen, having helped, and not been under foot (really he's usually under arm, as he tends to put the step stool right in front of me where I'm working and climb up between me and the counter or sink so he can see what I'm doing).

Swans

During our recent trip, we "captured" a couple swans--one in Tokyo and one in Rotorua, New Zealand. Can you tell which is which?

Things about babies

The kids had a baby-name discussion several months ago and all suggested fairly reasonable names. Except Matthew. After the submissions of Peter and Andrew and David and Benedict and Maximilian (notice all the boy names--after so many boys, we all default to "boy" when we think "baby"), Matthew said, "No, our baby is named Pancy-wancy, and he will grow up to be a camel and live in the barnyard, in the fence where he will be safe." No other names could be suggested without vociferous protests from Matthew saying, "NO, his name is Pancy-wancy!!!"

Lately, the barnyard hasn't come up, except from the older kids, and all of us have taken to calling this poor child Pancy-wancy.

I pray it will be forgotten after he or she is born and has a real name.

We are waiting to find out if it is a boy or a g irl. Katie and I are still praying hard for a sister for her, and Katie is fairly sure she is. I have to say that I did pray to St. Therese of Lisieux that we might be given another daughter, thinking that she, who was so close to her sisters, would have sympathy for Katie, who has none. I asked Our Lady of la Leche, too, just for good measure. With the two of them asking, how could Our Lord say no?

... ... ...

Matthew, sitting on my lap the other morning during piano practice:

"Mommy, what's that bump on your lap?"

"It's our baby."

"Pancy-wancy is in there?! When will he come out?"

"When he is big enough."

"Oh."


Matthew, sitting on my lap during Joseph's school time later the same day: "How does the baby get out?"

me: "Ummm..."

Joseph: "He comes through a dark tunnel and then there is LIGHT!!"

Me, thinking to myself: "Thank you, thank you, thank you Regina Doman for that one!!"

... ... ...

Earlier this morning, after watching a video of their cousin, Simon, Matthew began talking to the computer and saying, "Hey Simon, what does a monster say?" Then, since the video was no longer playing, answering for him, "grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr."

A Day of Prayer and Penance

Today is the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion nationwide. Since the decision, approximately 48 million children (source: Priests for Life) have been lost to our nation because their parents had no hope.

Which ones would have brought a peace settlement to the Middle East? to Iraq? to Afganistan?

Which ones would have found a cure for AIDS?

Which ones would have discovered new ways to clean up chemical mess in our environment?

Which ones would have lived a life that brought joy and hope and healing to every person they met?

--through art or music or literature or dramatic performance

--through spiritual or medical or mental health professions

--through simple friendship

What a tremendous loss to the diversity and beauty and intellectual life of the United States!

And in the bargain, we have so many women who fell prey to the lie that abortion is a solution with no emotional cost: the best, the only, way to solve a problem pregnancy. So many women who felt lost and unsupported and in the midst of physical illness and fear and sleeplessness made a terrible choice that brought intense emotional pain and suffering.

And so many men who mourn children that they didn't want to lose. Or perhaps they only recently have begun to regret their pressure of or lack of support for their wives or girlfriends.

And children without siblings: children who know why they are without siblings and who endure that knowledge with often unspoken pain.

And so today, we pray and offer penance in reparation for this great stain upon our nation. We beg God for forgiveness and healing and the deep conversion of hearts needed in our culture. We pray for a return to the recognition of simple human dignity for children in the womb and for the blossoming of a culture of life in our nation and in the world.

9 days of prayer

March for Life

Walk for Life West Coast


United Stated Catholic Bishops Pro-Life Office

Human Life International

National Right to Life

Feminists for Life

Silent No More

Project Rachel

Birthright

Crisis Pregnancy Centers

Technical Difficulties

We haven't been able to post any photos to the blog.

Noticed that, did you?

We're very sorry. For some reason, we're having a problem with Blogger and aren't able to upload photos. Sometimes we're not even able to save posts. So for now, I've been working on writing some posts in Word that I will copy over to the blog when the image uploading issue is resolved. Katie has written at least one post, too, and is waiting to add it until she can get the photos working.

In the meantime, I'm looking into a Shutterfly account or some other way of showing you some photos from our New Zealand trip.

So what are we doing with all the spare time now that we can't blog (it hardly seems worth it if we can't put photos on here)?

--Katie got her ears pierced Saturday. I forgot the camera, but her friend's mom took a couple of photos on her camera. Hopefully, Katie will be able to share these on her blog soon)

--She is in her last weeks as a mother's helper to dear friends who are PCS-ing (moving to another location) in a few weeks. She is really going to miss helping my friend, Lauren, with her 2 and 1 year olds each week. So we'll probably be looking for another mom to lend a hand to over the next few weeks.

--Tommy now has one regular daytime babysitting job, and the potential for two more (one interview today, another probable sometime this week). With all the deployed and TDY husbands on base, a lot of moms really need a break, even if just for a couple of hours one morning a week, so it's possible he'll become very busy with this new business.

--He's also thinking of applying for a paid job at the chapel. This only came up a couple of days ago and Fr. talked to him about it on Sunday. It's an administrative job, is part-time, and it would last until he leaves in the summer, just after our new priest arrives.

--Patrick and Tommy went night sledding on base with a group of Patrick's friends Sunday night. The ski hill, which is really only used as a sledding hill, is fairly well-lit at night, so they sledded and then went to the 24-hour cafe on base for breakfast food with the group before giving some rides home and finally rolling in here around 11:30. Thank goodness it wasn't a school night. And thanks be to God for cell phones.

--We took the younger kids sledding on the ski hill on Monday. We're too old and boring for night sledding ;-) Since last year's snow was so minimal, it was the first real use Matthew got out of the beautiful sled Grandmom and Papapa gave him for Christmas/birthday last year. He looked like a little king sitting in the sled as we pushed and pulled him down and up the slope. He loved having the sides to hold onto, and I loved how stable the sled was--nice and wide and very secure for him. He wasn't nervous at all, even going down the big hill by himself. It was so much fun to have John home for the day and to get out and play with him (I have a few photos on my phone, so if I can figure out how to get them off, and if the photo upload starts working again, I'll share).

--Thanks to the generosity of my husband and eldest son, I started back with the women's Bible study at church last night. It's on Mondays, which conflicts with Boy Scouts. But I asked Tommy if he would mind alternating weeks with me (he going to scouts one week, I going to Bible study the next), and as he was agreeing, John mentioned that he doesn't need to be at the scout meeting every week, so he could take a week, too. So now, I get to go to Bible study 2 out of 3 weeks, and John and Tommy each only miss 1 out of 3 weeks, and Patrick has a ride every week. Hooray! I'm really looking forward to the study--we're using the Ignatius Study Bible to read and discuss the Gospel of Matthew. Good stuff!

Home again, home again

We've finally caught our breath and are settling back into our home routine. So much has happened in the past month, it's hard to know where to start. But I guess I do know.

Tommy is home. That's the biggest news. We are happy to have him back with us. He has mixed feelings. While he's glad to be back home, he's not so glad about the way it happened. Living in community, especially a tiny community like REACH, has its challenges. Especially for an 18-year-old with a strong personality. Some of Tommy's strengths also turned out to be weaknesses within a tiny group. While it may help the community life aspect, it's unfortunate for the retreat ministry, I think. Tommy had much to contribute in that area. I'm still his mom after all and can't help feeling that way ;-) It's also unfortunate for Tommy. The next semester on REACH, with the travel and long series of retreats would have been an opportunity for real growth in spirituality and maturity. For whatever reason, it appears that his place is at home for a little while longer.

All that being said, It's nice to have our family together again, even if it is only for a short time. I am especially happy that Tommy will probably be home when the baby is born in June. His commitment before meant that he would miss the birth and we would have to delay the baptism a month in order to have him here for that. So I am grateful to God for that blessing in spite of the circumstances that have led to it. And I can't help feeling that He has a reason for it. We may not know what the reason is, but I am confident there is one.

When Tommy was in his last months at Reach, he called home several times to ask for prayer over the situation there. I prayed several novenas to the Infant of Prague. Never before have I received a "no" answer in prayer to the holy infant, but this time the answer was clearly "no." So much so, that I prayed several extra novenas (following the example of Abraham's persistence), asking again the same request: that Tommy be allowed to stay on Reach and do God's work there. For a short time, it seemed that the answer might be positive, but in my last novena, it was again, clearly "no." This probably sounds a bit far-fetched to some of you, but it has given me peace about the situation. For whatever reason, either the good of Reach, or the good of Tommy, or perhaps both, Tommy was not to stay. It's what God wants.

Several people have asked what Tommy's up to. He has applied for several paying jobs on base, and will start on Thursday volunteering a couple of days a week during the lunch hour as a receptionist/clerk at the base chapel. He's looking into some daytime babysitting jobs. He has also begun the process to become a Red Cross volunteer. This is needed before he can do any other volunteer work on base. He'd like to help out at the hospital, which means a bit more training before he can get started. Hopefully, by the end of January, he will be set to start volunteering officially.

Since he can't take any university classes without endangering his deferral at the University of Dallas, he's also begun reading his way through the books he hasn't read yet on the UD recommended reading list. Last week it was "Everyman." This week, it's "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." I think he's planning to talk with his Uncle Daniel about reading some other works together and discussing them in greater depth. This would be good for him. He has expressed a feeling of mental stagnation over the past semester and is looking forward to doing something a bit more challenging.

We've been talking about a practical math course. It's tax time and there are those annoying, but highly necessary, Financial Aid forms to be completed in the next few weeks. And scholarship applications are a full-time job in themselves, he is discovering.

Finally, he's counting the days until school starts in the fall and he can get back out on his own again. He is 18 after all. :-)

Please keep him (and all of us) in your prayers during this readjustment phase.