Happy St. Joseph's Day!

Here's the last one in our week of feasts: The Solemnity of St. Joseph. This is a big day at our house. Joseph's name day and a break from Lent. (It says so in Canon Law. Who am I to argue?) Happy name day, Joseph!

We read two stories of St. Joseph today. One of which is a favorite book of Joseph's: Good Saint Joseph from the Catholic Book Publishing Co. Then we sang some St. Joseph songs. The old favorite "St. Joseph was a Carpenter" is still a big hit with the preschooler. And we have recently learned a song that goes, "St. Joseph, St. Joseph, teach us how to obey. St. Joseph, St. Joseph, protect us on our way..." It includes verses about each time angels came to St. Joseph and told him what God wanted, emphasizing his obedience and protection of the holy family. Matthew then made a card for John, since St. Joseph is the patron saint of fathers. And I had a little card ready for Joseph, too, since it's his name day. Fun stuff!


Joseph chose the dinner menu: hot dogs, mac & cheese, corn, and strawberries. I made cream puffs for dessert, as I traditionally do. I read about the Italian tradition in The Year and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland (now back in print from Sophia Institute Press). That was one of the first books I read when we started thinking of home schooling, and it has become one of my favorite books about living the liturgical year. Over the years, we have incorporated quite a few of her ideas into our family celebrations.

After dinner, John gave Joseph a Name Day Blessing from the Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers book (USCCB).

Enjoying every bite!

Deliziosa!

Patrick took a couple of cream puffs with him when he left this evening. He's on his way to Tokyo with the soccer team again, this time, for games against Kinnick High School. He'll be back in the wee hours of Sunday morning, take a nap, go to Mass with us, and sleep again for awhile in the afternoon. These trips involve 12-hour bus rides each way, a day on the base where they're playing, and playing at least 2 soccer games, sometimes 3 during the visit. Thankfully, when our snow melts, he'll have some weekends off when the other teams travel up here.

St. Joseph, protect him on his way!

To You O Blessed Joseph (Ad Te, Beate Ioseph)

To you, O blessed Joseph,
do we come in our tribulation,
and having implored the help of your most holy spouse,
we confidently invoke your patronage also.
Through that charity which bound you
to the immaculate Virgin Mother of God
and through the paternal love
with which you embraced the Child Jesus,
we humbly beg you graciously to regard
the inheritance which Jesus Christ
has purchased by his Blood,
and with your power and strength
to aid us in our necessities.

O most watchful Guardian of the Holy Family,
defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ;
O most loving father,
ward off from us
every contagion of error and corrupting influence;
O our most mighty protector,
be propitious to us and from heaven assist us
in our struggle with the power of darkness;
and, as once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril,
so now protect God's Holy Church
from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity;
shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection,
so that, supported by your example and your aid,
we may be able to live piously, to die holily,
and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven. Amen.
New St. Joseph People's Prayer Book

What did he just say?

Reading and watching the video here.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The Breastplate of St. Patrick

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In preachings of the apostles,
In faiths of confessors,
In innocence of virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today through the strength of Heaven
the rays of the sun,
the radiance of the moon,
the splendor of fire,
the speed of lightening,
the swiftness of the wind,
the depth of the sea,
the stability of the earth
the firmness of rock.

I arise today through the power of God:
God's might to comfort me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to lead me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's Heavenly Host to save me
from the snares of the devil,
from temptations to sin,
from all who wish me ill,
from near and afar,
alone and with others.
May Christ shield me today
against poison and fire,
against drowning and wounding,
so that I may fulfill my mission
and bear fruit in abundance.

Christ behind and before me,
Christ behind and above me,
Christ with me and in me,
Christ around and about me,
Christ on my right and on my left,
Christ when I lie down at night,
Christ when I rise in the morning,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone that speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

The Breastplate of St. Patrick has been translated in many versions from the original Irish and Latin. I like the version above, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Today is Patrick's name day, so we will take a small break from our Lenten sacrifices and enjoy corned beef, parsley-boiled potatoes, green beans, green salad, and a mint-chocolate chip ice cream pie for dessert. We also usually play Irish music all day. The younger kids often watch this video, and hopefully will help me decorate the table with shamrocks, a green tablecloth, and a statue of St. Patrick. We will pray the Breastplate prayer together after dinner along with night prayer. This is one of our favorite Saint's days, and coming in the midst of Lent, it makes a nice reminder for everyone of the reason why we are working so hard to come closer to Christ.

Happy name day, Patrick (and John Patrick, too)!

This morning

John and I were in our room playing with Meghan when the sounds of an argument rumbled in from Joseph and Matthew's room. We couldn't hear what they were saying until Matthew yelled at the top of his lungs, "NO! Your ideas are not GOOD ideas! Only mine are!"

American political discourse in a nutshell, I commented to John.

"At least he knows what's important," John responded.

Hakkoda

A friend posted this YouTube video on his Facebook page. It was the winning video in a Nature Valley Granola bars contest. It shows a lot of the really fun parts of living in northern Japan. Enjoy!
And please consider a visit. We miss you all!

Nine months

Believe it or not, Meghan is nine months old. With each baby, the first year seems to fly faster and faster, even though I want to cling to each moment and hold them all in my heart.

We went to Meghan's well-child check-up on Friday and the doctor told us, "Developmentally, she's a rock star." You have to love a doctor who confirms your suspicions that your child is simply amazing.

Meghan weighs 18 lbs, 1 oz. and is 27 inches long. She dropped to the 50th percentile for weight but remains in the 97th percentile for height. I failed to write down her head circumference again. I'll have to call and check on that, but it was in the correct range on the growth chart. All in all, she's growing fine.

One nice thing about her being child number six is that I don't worry so much about weight numbers anymore. When Patrick was a baby, he took a similar plunge from 75th to 50th percentile in weight at this same time (between 6 and 9 months). At the time, the doctor had me worried that he was losing too much weight. Now, knowing that he's fine, I'm not worried about Meghan at all. She's following a family pattern. Thankfully, this doctor did not tell me to feed Meghan cookies, which was the helpful advice of the doc who saw Patrick at his 9-month check-up. This doctor said, "She looks great. She is developing well. Her height increase tells me that she's well-nourished. I'm not worried at all about this weight change."

Hooray for Meghan!!

And she's up!

In celebration of her 9-month birthday, Meghan did this on Wednesday:

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The gate is now up at the bottom of the stairs.

*Photo credits: John

When the four-year-old parents

"So, Meghan," says Matthew as he plops himself down on the floor next to his 8-month-old sister, "let's talk about college."

Overheard

Joseph was in the entry hall taking off his snow clothes when the doorbell rang.
"Matthew!" Joseph said in an annoyed voice, "Just come in!"
The doorbell rang again.
Joseph opened the door and in his best Jeeves voice said, "Yes, Sir."
"Hello, I'm fire. I've come to burn down the house," said Matthew.
Joseph, continuing in his Jeeves voice. "As you see, we have a large supply of water for putting out fires and also we have twelve fire extinguishers right over here."
"Well, then, I want to flood your house," tried Matthew.
"Sorry, sir. To keep away floods, we have a large supply of fire, and if there is a flood, we simply put the fire in the water and turn all the water into steam. And then we open the door and let all the steam out."

Operation Rice Bowl

It's become a family tradition to participate in Catholic Relief Service's Operation Rice Bowl. CRS provides a calendar we can use during Lent with suggested offerings and sacrifices.

One of the more talked about aspects of Operation Rice Bowl in this household is the suggested menus for each Friday. They are meatless dishes from different countries around the world and some are quite unusual. You can find them on the calendar. Our children still talk about a certain dish we tried years ago from one of the African countries (I think) that had peas and bananas as the primary ingredients!

The ORB site has some other items like a World Awareness Quiz that might prove educational. Check it out.

Time for a new bed

Meghan has outgrown her bassinette.


Last week when I went to get her up from her nap, I found her trying to sit up in it.


I wish I had abs that strong!

So we re-arranged our room again to replace the bassinette with the Pack and Play. We had to move the bed over another couple of inches so it would fit, but it's the best option we have to allow me some sleep along with the convenience of being near for nighttime nursing. Sometimes Meghan gets scared when she wakes up and can't see us (day or night). From the Pack and Play, she can still at least see my arm, and often my face, if I'm facing the right direction while sleeping, so she feels secure and peaceful in there.

No more crunches, though. It's a shame. They were pretty cute.

7 quick takes

1. I have succumbed to the pressure from my local and college friends to join Facebook. Maybe I'll be more successful at keeping up on Facebook than on Twitter. The whole thing seems a little high-school to me. Maybe because I only have 4 friends. Or maybe because I am suddenly keeping count of my friends. Very high school. In a Napoleon Dynamite sort of way. Or a Judy Gibbons sort of way. Or something.

2. On to things that matter: Meghan now has 8 teeth!

3. Patrick went to a high school basketball game today. I think it's the first time ever. Then he and his friends were planning to watch Jeeves and Wooster episode 1. I can't wait to hear what they think of it. We love them. (thanks to Dan and t for introducing us to them :-))

4. Matthew still calls his cousin Claire "Claire-y Dairy Strawberry" when he talks about her. That was a silly thing the kids called her for one day 2 years ago (the last time we saw the cousins). I'm not sure how to gently change his habit before we see the cousins again this summer. She definitely won't get it.

5. Dinner tonight is at the club. It's a holiday. And I'm still resting on my laurels from the delicious (if I do say so myself) cherry pie I baked yesterday. :-)

6. I finally emptied 2 months worth of photos and videos off my camera today. Let's see how long it takes me to do something with them on the blog.

7. Katie has been asking for a dollhouse, but we haven't gotten her one. So she and Joseph have taken matters into their own hands. They are building a doll house out of kleenex boxes. It's pretty amazing. Curtains, rugs, pictures on the walls cut from old calendars.

Instructions

We always wished our babies came with instructions.


Meghan did. :-)




Happy St. Valentine's Day with love from all of us.

:-)

Good out of bad

Catholic author Amy Welborn's husband, Michael Dubriel, passed away suddenly last week. He worked for Our Sunday Visitor publishing, and for the rest of the month, they will contribute double the amount of what would have been the proceeds of his books to the children's college funds.

Go buy a book!
https://catalog.osv.com/lp.aspx?code=F92BBH63#

Outside...

it is still light at 5:05 p.m.!

Okay, so the streetlights are on, but John just came in from work, and I was surprised because it was still light out.

Relief from winter darkness is on the way!

Now I will have to start looking at the clock in order to know when to cook dinner.

It's a problem I'm happy to have. :-)

Meghan eats

applesauce
avocado
bananas
butternut squash
carrots
grapes (seedless and peeled--yes, I peel them, but she only eats about 1 at a meal anyway, and I'm not giving her any more because they don't agree with her, even though she loves the taste)
oatmeal
pears
rice cakes (brown rice)
rice cereal
sweet potato

So far, I've been able to find almost all the foods she needs in the grocery stores. We haven't had to buy any baby food other than the first rice cereal. I'm hoping to keep that up. It just seems so much better to give her fresh foods that I steam and mash myself.

Next week....she's moving up from mashed to eating small chunks with her fingers. She already does this with bananas and soft-cooked pears, rice cakes, and sweet potato, so it should be an easy transition. Bring on the bibs with sleeves!

Things I don't want to forget

Matthew calls the art easel a "weasel."
As in, "Mommy, I want to draw on the weasel now."
It is so hard not to laugh.

Sounding worse, feeling better

The coughing is loud and repetitive, but the headaches and earaches and sore throats are gone.

John went bravely back to work on Wednesday.

By Friday, Matthew was the only one who still had a fever. Today, he's much better, playing without tears so far.

Time to do all the chores and errands on my list from last Saturday when this first hit me. I can almost convince myself that we never missed a day. ;-)

Ever have a really great idea of something to write while you're doing something else and then when you sit down to write the idea is totally gone?

Me, too...

Advil nation

Over the past several weeks, during our bout with whatever this scourge is that has been visited upon us, most of the non-nursing members of this family have taken some form of Ibuprofin (who knew there were so many?): Children's Motrin liquid suspension, Motrin Jr. chewable tablets, Advil tablets, Kirkland Ibuprofin caplets. Not to mention Infant Tylenol drops delivered at just the moment that Meghan's tummy gave out and up came all her dinner. Purple medicine, milk, and bright-orange butternut squash cascaded down her furry, pale-pink sleep sack. Which brings to mind the Extra-strength Tylenol Rapid Release Gels--two, thanks, with the coldest water you can pour.

Last night, after Meghan fell asleep, I checked on Matthew. His temperature, which had been hovering around 100F all day, was 104.5! I am not kidding when I say that the digital thermometer was blinking a warning. I woke him enough to drink some Children's Motrin and a cup of water. An hour later: 98.8, where it stayed all night. Praise God!

Last night, and tonight, and for many nights hence, when I turn to my journal to list the 5 things I am grateful for from the day, the first on the list is going to be Ibuprofin (with Tylenol thrown in for good measure, despite the butternut squash).

Dominoes

Saturday...Judy...click

Sunday...John (again--he must not have really had this the first time around)...clack

Monday...Matthew...thud

That's everyone. Please God, spare us from a re-run.

Snowshoeing Trip

Setting out

God's good earth

Going up

Looking back to where we started

Almost there

At the cabin

Troops 9 & 14

Inside

The Snow Monsters

Heading back

Still snowing

Break time

Winter Land

Rear view mirror

Nature's art

The road home

Kiddie lit

Yesterday, Matthew approached me with a library book in hand.

"Mommy," he said, "Will you read In Which Curious George Takes a Job to me please?"

Yes, he added "In which" to the beginning of the title.

Winnie the Pooh is everywhere. :-)

Coming up for air

We've been sick. Cold, fever, earache, sinus infection sick. Everyone in succession from John to Patrick to Katie to Joseph to Meghan. Praying that Matthew and I will be spared. And I can get back to writing something on this blog.

Back to the infirmary.

Baptism of the Lord

In the new calendar of the Catholic Church, Christmas ends today. Our readings at Mass in the past several weeks have given us glimpses into the childhood of Jesus: little moments in His life with Mary and Joseph. Today the story takes a leap forward to the adult life of Jesus and the beginning of His public ministry.

This morning's Gospel reading (Mark 1:7-11) is the briefest account of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River. Like the "hidden years" readings of the past several weeks, however, there is a lot to learn from the few words and actions we are given. Our pastor pointed out one lesson this morning by telling the story of the baptism of an adult who died unexpectedly the very next day.

Remembering the Baptism of the Lord reminds us of the importance of receiving the Sacraments. God has given us these avenues of grace in order to help us in our journey to heaven, and we do well to embrace them. We are reminded that Jesus, who is God, and therefore had no need of Baptism, received John's baptism anyway. And we know that we are to follow His example in all things.

To celebrate the Baptism of the Lord and our Baptisms, we lit all of our Baptismal candles at brunch this morning, along with the Christ candle we made during Advent and have been lighting throughout the Christmas season. We lit Tommy's candle for him, too, even though he is back in the U.S. now, visiting my sister and her family before returning to UD next week.


The light brought another table decoration to Joseph's mind. "Mom, when is Candlemas?" he asked. We are a people of feasts, after all, and Candlemas (Feb. 2) is the traditional end of the Christmas season. I like that he unconsciously made that connection. :-)

For some photos of the place of Jesus' Baptism in the Jordan, visit my friend Ammanmom and read her post about Bethany Beyond the Jordan. She and her family visited the site during Christmas break. Lucky!!

Lunch

As I gave Matthew his lunch Saturday, I was thinking of how conveniently-sized Japanese dishes are for kids.


No unnecessary touching of different foods.


Happy lunch man!

Another time, I'll think a bit harder about portion size in relation to body weight and how what I think of as kid-sized dishes are adult-sized dishes for the Japanese. But not today. It's still the Christmas season, after all. ;-)

A partridge in a pear tree

Photo credit: Katie Riordon

Rather, a Green Pheasant in a crabapple tree.

Photo credit: Katie Riordon

Make that TWO Green Pheasants.

Photo credit: Katie Riordon

We often see one and keep trying for photos, but haven't been very successful.



When I went closer, this gentleman got nervous.

I'll be on my way now.

Oh, okay, just one last pose.

By the time I looked up from the camera, he had flown off.

The Green Pheasant is the Japanese national bird. Like the California Quail and Ring-necked Pheasants we knew in Yakima, the males and females live separately in winter. In the spring, we see them together. Last winter, they nested in the little woods behind our house. We frequently saw the females, but the male is more secretive. Just about the time someone said "Hey, the pheasant is in the yard," he raced into the woods. No photos for him.

We did get these unsatisfying shots of one of the mamas and older chicks in the fall.



You can see why we didn't share them with you then. There were six or seven chicks. I hope there is another successful brood this spring. I love seeing them scooting around the yard and around the neighborhood. And I'm hoping for better photos. :-)

Mochi eating

I found Mochi ice cream in the commissary this week and brought it home for a new year's treat. How ironic that we ate Japanese-style dessert imported from the USA!


I'm sure I would find it in the Japanese grocery store if I looked. But it would be more expensive. The commissary system creates a surreal sort of economy.



The mochi was yummy! Much better with ice cream in the middle than bean paste.



But that's just us.