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It’s been a wonderful lull between Christmas and now BAM–Lent. I’ve kinda cleaned up the house, arranged our schedule to have more togetherness and less messy running ’roundedness. And I’ve even allowed my daughter to categorize her threads by color. She’s really going after thread right now. In writing my weekly newsletter for the Waiting in the Word group of Christian moms, I realized, yes, I’m into threads too. I’m looking for slender but strong connections to God. I’m looking for less me-time and more Him-time. How do I really turn to Him? How do I really center in Him? I’m so busy with life with small kids, the crying, the spilling, the hugging, the snuggling, the swim lessons, the reading, the hitting fences with sticks repeatedly. This is how. I wrote a scripture study with my two good girlfriends. We broke the six weeks of Lent into six struggles we face as moms of little kids, and then paired those with six attributes we strive toward. selfishness . . . to . . . sacrifice frustation . . . to . . . forgiveness judgment . . . to . . . love envy . . . to . . . gratitude failure . . . to . . . humility anxiety . . . to . . . surrender Buy the bundle. It includes the study, a printable journal, a bookmark with lectio divina steps, and a calendar to print with all the Bible verses we picked. Today and tomorrow,…
Read MoreDear Daddy, Baba, Hey You, Mister FixIt. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! This is you: 1) fixing anything broken. all the time. 2) out shoveling in the coldest of days. 3) carrying the toddler around to “look for bunnies” in the yard = the ultimate distraction. 4) always ready to buy an airplane ticket for any of his kids or grandkids to come home or visit each other. 5) always ready to get me ice cream late at night when I’m pregnant. 6) the first one to volunteer to pick you up late at night from any thing–a flight, a party, a roadside disaster. 7) the first one to volunteer to drop you off anywhere in the early morning–a flight, a surgery appointment, work. 8) reading religious newspapers while watching World Series of Poker. 9) finding the latin mass in Vegas whilst playing poker all night long. 10) ending phone calls with “you too, pal” after you say I love you. 11) playing hockey twice a week at age . . . wait for it . . . 68! 12) always up for a construction project, especially the demolition part. 13) naming the composer and name of any piece of classical music. 14) singing along to all Led Zeppelin and ACDC. 15) the only person in our family guaranteed to answer his old fashioned flip telephone, day or night. 16) calling religiously from Costco to see if we “need anything for the kids.” {organic chicken broth & mozzarella, please} 17) when you ask the tot who is…
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Children are surprising. I have said a million times that I never thought I’d be a mom whose son wore athletic gear, and lo and behold. My brother’s shirt from 30 years ago, but still. I’m surprised at my son’s love of both knights AND pirates. Two seemingly completely different sorts of fantasy. He fell in love with knights last summer. In part due to my lego set from childhood, and in part due to these two books: Look inside Castles & Built to Last. Then we found this at a second-hand sale, missing the sword and shield. But that’s okay because my mom gifted him with this handmade set for his birthday, Christmas, and every event from here on out. And presto. Add a few hand-dyed silks as cloaks from my sister and BOOM: the love of a knight was born. Sprinkle in Jim Weiss’ King Arthur CD on repeat and you have Sir Gwaliwad, feared by dragons and loved by small children. (that’s his self appointed title.) I’ve promoted knight imaginative play for a number of reasons. Chivalry. Manners. Courage. Hard work. Skills. Endurance. Including your sister as Maid Marion who is an expert equestrian and skilled swordswoman. Help the poor. Charging around with your lance a lot. so punny, Nell. Then at his nature school, his buddies started in on their newest passion: pirates. I have to say, pirates have not captured my fancy like knights did. He insists that they’re all bad guys. I guess there’s merit to empathic…
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Like, really did. What would happen in our marriage? Well, he showed me what would happen because for some unknown reason in December, or was it late November?, my husband of nearly seven years decided to LAVISH me with verbal affirmation. I mean, it was hilarious. It was over the top. It was insane. It was . . . amazing. To this second of this very day I’m not entirely certain what inspired him. He thinks it was when we had our home blessed by our wonderful priest with a particular prayer: the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart. He felt like the graces we received from that kicked him into constant personalized affirmation land. I figured it was a way to battle against the winter blues that inevitably accompany long cold dark days away from us at the office, peppered with periodic trips out to our family Lodge in Wisconsin. But I digress. Here’s what happened when my husband totally met my love language needs (and who knew my need for verbal affirmation was really so inordinately deep?): 1) We laughed. A lot. They say laughter is the best medicine. It’s not as though I was ill, or our relationship was in a rough dark place (as it has been, haven’t all of ours?). Everything was just fine. Not splendid, but certainly not abysmal. But we laughed and laughed of his daily babblings about what a wonderful wife I was, and an award-winning mother, and a chef beyond compare (lies,…
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What a wonderful weekend! It was more action packed than usual, but all with wonderful things. Starting with dear friends for Pizza Fridays, Saturday had Moms group, swim lessons, errands, take out, and Sunday rounded out with a sweet early mass, brunch with friends, sewing sewing sewing, and lots of dancing to this song. My stellar husband wound up the weekend making a castle for the kids out of a huge box and everyone is a knight wielding a lance now. Pirates & knights. It’s our life. Kelly asked about what I’ve been reading lately so I dished. Others had WAY better ideas than me so go hop and read. Bridget has been listing her weekly meal plan to my GREAT delight. The lemon chicken?! And when I saw that Grace had a groundhog day at Target I was like YES THAT WAS ME LAST WEEK. Looking way less cute, but still. I’ve started being part of a sweet instagram sale group. We’re all Catholic artisans. Everything is at least 25% off and free shipping. We post all day Tuesdays (and that’s the only day to buy). This week I have this little set! Check out our IG account (Shop Zelie & Co) and follow! My own Whole Parenting Goods shop is clearing out leggings and there are only a handful left with free shipping before I release spring fabrics! Use code {freeshipping} for it. Over here. Laura & Nancy & I strike again and make a Waiting in the Word…
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I keep searching my mind for an excuse. I’m sleep deprived. Yeah, that’s nothing new. I don’t feel great. Well, again, three kids in, this is no surprise. I’m not pregnant so no matter how badly I feel because of broken sleep, little alone time, next to zero exercise time, I’m not throwing up. I’m moody. Well, even though my little nursling turned into a weanling, and then back into my longest nursing tot, my hormones feel really stabilized and I can’t blame them. I’m scanning my mind for an excuse. Any semi-palpable reason for being not nice. It’s habit, really, that’s what I’m finding. As I’m about to preface my short remark, my cross look, with a “I’m _____” and then come up truly short. Without a distinguished cause. Just simply because I’m used to complaining and not being NICE. In reality, my days are so easy and delightful. SweetPea is almost 4 (in April, our shared birthday) and BabyLoves is 20 months and finally starting to say words you can understand and they both still nap 2 hours a day. And SuperBoy? He’s easy going, five and a half, and loves to read, play with his legos, listen to his Jim Weiss (today all about ancient Egypt), and hardly has those knock-down drag-out tantrums he was prone to a few years back. They’re all healthy. They all love to eat and easily poop. I can put all three to bed at night if need be and they can actually…
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