We beg you for your intercession in this season of the year when we wish to plant
our spinach
and our lettuce
and our radishes
and our onions
and our carrots...
And in this season of the year, when we wish to put away
our coats
and our boots
and our gloves
and our scarves
And hang our clothes out on the line
And send our children out to
to yell
and warble
and run
and jump
and swing
and play
and generally get 'the stink blown off of them.'
Please ask for God's mercy on us --
that the snow might cease --
that the weather will be henceforth warm and pleasant
and that the moisture might fall down in soft gentle rains --
that it might really be spring.
I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. ~Abraham Lincoln
One of the very few reasons I had any respect for my mother when I was thirteen was because she would reach into the sink with her bare hands - bare hands - and pick up that lethal gunk and drop it into the garbage. To top that, I saw her reach into the wet garbage bag and fish around in there looking for a lost teaspoon. Bare hands - a kind of mad courage. ~Robert Fulghum
It's not easy being a mother. If it were easy, fathers would do it. ~From the television show The Golden Girls
With what price we pay for the glory of motherhood. ~Isadora Duncan
The only mothers it is safe to forget on Mother's Day are the good ones. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown?
What's that suppose to mean? In my heart it don't mean a thing. ~Toni Morrison, Beloved, 1987
Now, as always, the most automated appliance in a household is the mother. ~Beverly Jones
Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease. ~Lisa Alther
My mom is a neverending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune. ~Graycie Harmon
If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands? ~Milton Berle
When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. ~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty
An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy. ~Spanish Proverb
Women's Liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's the men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one's likely to do anything about that. ~Golda Meir
Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together. ~Pearl S. Buck
A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan
Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in my field, since the payment is pure love. ~Mildred B. Vermont
It's really just one more chance for a cozy day of indoor games
with cocoa by the woodstove. We'll miss these days come July!
Music For The Day:
Though she is preparing for her final vows, and is probablynot on the computer these days, this French version of April Showers is dedicated to Sr. Alice Marie:
Some things we'll play:
Faeries being somewhat of a theme around here at the moment,we'll print out some of these:
I think it's time to resurrect the card game "98 " to sharpen up some addition skills around here.
And maybe a kid-easy game of Scrabble later when the tile terrorist (Yuyum) goes to bed. Note to those who may not know: Scrabble is a whole different game when our hyper-competitive teenagers aren't around! And, since Daddy is out of town for the weekend and it's just me against the 5-9 crowd, I might actually have a chance (a chance, mind you!) to win.
See, I play for the beauty of the words, not with a mind toward sabotaging my neighbor... (Ahem! You people know who you are...)
Clothes Hanging Out To Dry Spring Bulbs Winking Up At Us Children Outside Playing in Their Shirtsleeves
That Was Yesterday
~ This Is Today
Our yard this morning...
&
The Forecast for the Eastern Plains (us) Today:
(Doggone it, though. Daddy didn't get a snow day!)
PS: Anybody notice the missing shoe in the picture of the three girls in the salad garden (above)? Scroll through the pictures below and see if you can find where it is!
Tomorrow is the Feast of the Annunciation (postponed 'til the 31st due to its regular day falling in Holy Week this year). What a joyful and beautiful feast! This is the day the Archangel Gabriel brought the Virgin Mary the most important message ever delivered. This is the day that God came to earth, the day Our Blessed Mother consented to be the Mother of God. Today begins the nine month count-down to Christmas, the birthday of Jesus.
In celebration, we'll crown Our Lady 's statue with a circlet of white roses. We'll sing Mother Dearest Mother Fairest, Hail Holy Queen and maybe Sing of Mary (below). We'll also get some white flowers and arrange them around the feet of our statue.
For dinner, in honor of the perfect purity and beauty of Mary, the girls and I want to try to make an all-white menu. I'm thinking chicken breasts, curried rice and shrimp salad and white rolls. Also, hmm... maybe cauliflower. But, it'd be fun to find some white asparagus (if I can afford it!) and blend up some hollandaise. (Just to make it good and fattening.) We'll have either white grape juice or iced white tea to drink. Then, for dessert we'll make some cream puffs sprinkled in powdered sugar, or, if we're feeling really ambitious, maybe some divinity (though this is such son, Jon's, specialty, nobody else around here has ever bothered to learn how to make it... )
Also, since the great Archangel Gabriel has special importance in our home (our tenth child is named for him), I'll probably run through the choirs of angels with the children and explain the orders of rank in Heaven. I'm hoping to look through some Old Masters' paintings online and print out the largest, best version of St. Gabriel we can find, back him with cardboard and tack him near our statue of the Blessed Mother somewhere. If we're really ambitious, we may try to create or cut out other angels to place near her feet, as well. We'll see how much we can get to.
88888888888888888888888
Then, on Tuesday, to welcome in the new month of April, and in the spirit of lightheartedness, we'll play with some Palindromes and topsy turveys . I'll post a few fun ones I found tomorrow night. And, who knows what other surprises and foolishness we might discover? Stay tuned. &:o)
L-R: daughter Michelle, friend Lisa, friend Tim, sons Kevin, Jon, Dominic, friend Adam
Please excuse the unannounced blog vacation! I found out Saturday afternoon that, in spite of our previous resolve, my wonderful husband was loading up the gang and some of their friends and bringing them all home with him Easter Sunday! What a welcome and happy Easter surprise that was! As you can imagine, their being here has kept me pretty busy, all by itself. But, I also traveled to the Western Slope on Tuesday for my friend's rosary and funeral, and only got back last night. (It was a lovely, sad funeral, but we feel sure that if Angela is not already enjoying the beatific vision, she will soon be.)
But, anyway, I'm home now. Except for our oldest son, Paul, we're all here. And then some. &:o)
Tonight we're pulling together a double birthday party for Kevin and Jon, whose birthdays, the 25th and 28th of March, will never again (in their lifetimes) both fall outside of Lent.
Kev 19 ** ** Jon 17
So I have a roaster full of roasts cooking down to delectible yumminess for barbeque and we'll be making a big southern trifle (We call it "Sumpin' good") of oreos, whip cream, and mocha flavored pudding for the birthday "cake."
The gang is out visiting friends right now and I have the house to myself and the five Littles. So, we'll make a path through the backpacks and paraphernalia that comes with teenagers, clean the bathrooms, and get a leg up on laundry while the coast is a little clearer. Then, tonight after all the aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents arrive, I'll see if I can coax the Omaha contingent to sing for us. So, stay posted to see what they come up with for us.
And, Oh, Yeah! Meet the newest member of our family:
I can't help but feel like it looks a little too "soccer-mommish" for me. Our big old 15 seater van was a kind of badge of our highly-prized, big family weirdness. But, the poor old girl is only worth about $2500 and it was going to cost $2000 to fix her. Yikes! And, honestly, the gas was killing us. We travel about an hour to Mass, and are 40 minutes away from the nearest Walmart. Need I say more? And, while I will miss all that wonderful space in the big van, my poor back sure appreciates the ease of loading the babies into the minivan! (And it's runs so quietly and smoothly, I feel like I'm driving a hovercraft!)
To Bunny or Not To Bunny,
That is the Question...
A kind commentor mentioned that she was waiting to hear how we celebrate Easter. And I though, "Well, um, gosh, I thought I did that..." But it occured to me that I didn't mention maybe the most significant thing about our traditional Easter celebration, and this is likely the detail she wondered about. See, I did describe all the things we do, but I completely forgot about that thing we don't do.
Yes, folks, you guessed it. We don't do the bunny. We have no quarrel, whatsoever, with families who cherish this tradition. Heaven knows, I don't want to get into that discussion! But, we just have never felt that the pretend "magic" and "mystery" of the Easter Bunny was better than the real Magic and Mystery of Our Lord's Resurrection. It just seems a little distracting to us. After a good Lent, it seems a little, well... inconsequential...
We enjoy coloring and hiding eggs, but the children know that Mommy or Daddy or sometimes Aunts or Uncles or Big Brothers do the hiding. (I think the repartee resulting from that knowlege during the hunt is way more fun!) I make up Easter baskets, and sometimes we hide them, but usually we just have them waiting on the dining room table on Easter morning. As long as there's candy after the long sugar drought... Well, seriously, the kids don't care where it comes from! In general, our celebrations are more about being together and enjoying the Feast for the sake of the Feast, and we've never missed the invisible rabbit.
Other mythical creatures that we wave at as they pass our house through the year:
