Florida Fun... Part Two

Part of our trip to Orlando was going to Walt Disney World, of course. Knowing how overwhelming such an adventure is and how limited our vacation time was, we decided to limit ourselves to ONE DAY at the Magic Kingdom (rather than trying to traipse through all of the parks and trying to see everything). We also visited "Downtown Disney" twice and really enjoyed the sites and experiences there.

First, Downtown Disney. The boys just recently began playing with "regular size" Legos and they absolutely fell in love with the Lego Store at Downtown Disney. They loved the giant Lego sculptures and Ray was especially fascinated with the motorized parts of some of the displays. They enjoyed playing with Legos and building cars and people. We bought a new Lego set and they each got to fill a cup with assorted Lego pieces from a giant wall of colorful Lego bins. The greatest bonus was that the boys (Ray, Adam AND Jon) kept busy at the condo all week building and playing with the Legos.

Also at Downtown Disney we had lunch at the T-Rex Cafe. It was quite an experience! We ate in an "ice cave" and there was a "meteor shower" every 20 minutes. There were life-size dinosaurs throughout the restaurant. It was a very fun experience and the food was good, but expensive.

We also enjoyed some shopping at Downtown Disney. Do you think Adam was embarrassed to be seen with me or what?

Florida Fun... Part One

As I mentioned in my last post, we just returned from a really fun family vacation with my mom in Florida. We were so fortunate to be able to stay at a beautiful resort. (Thank you mom!) The best parts of the resort were the fantastic pool areas. They included lovely, large swimming pools, fountains to run through, water slides, a lazy river, sandy beach areas, hammocks.... LOTS of fun! The boys absolutely loved getting to swim so much.

This is a CPA in post-tax-season vacation mode for sure!

On Sunday we went to Mass at Mary, Queen of the Universe Church, which is a National Shrine. It's an amazingly beautiful church, including side chapels, a rosary garden, several awesome statues, and a gift shop. The liturgy was wonderful. There were THOUSANDS of flowers around the altar. I did not realize until I went up to Communion that they were all roses. Absolutely exquisite! The picture below shows only about a sixth of the roses.

This bronze statue of Saint Joseph and the child Jesus is absolutely breathtaking. You can go up and touch it. My boys literally inserted themselves into the scene and were enthralled.

If you're ever heading to Orlando, don't miss this Shrine!

Back from Vacation!

The reason I haven't written for the past week is that we snuck away on a post-tax-season vacation! Jon, the boys, my mom, and I went to a beautiful resort in Orlando. We enjoyed very sunny, hot weather.... long, refreshing swims in big, beautiful pools... a visit to a fantastic petting farm.... a great day at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.... and lots more fun adventures. We had a wonderful time.

There were several times during the trip when Ray said to me, "Momma, you have to put this on your blog!" So, for the next several days this blog will probably be a modern version of the old family vacation slide shows.

Tomorrow I get to go to the Dayton Catholic Homeschool Conference with some of my friends. Yeah! So, I'll get to blogging about our Florida adventures ASAP. Here are a few teaser pictures....

Beware of "Doctor Cyberspace"

****Warning: This is a post that will definitely NOT make you say, "Wow... she has it all together!" ;) This is real life at it's rawest!

Well, I spent half of last night dealing with a sick child and the other half freaking out that he was going to die! I am actually being dramatic and exaggerating just a bit.... but it WAS a long night.

Adam has had a bit of a stomach bug. I'll spare you the details, but basically I heard a cry for help around midnight and found him in quite a mess in the bathroom. After I got him cleaned up and back to sleep and the bathroom cleaned up, I began to wonder (obsess) about the color of the mess which came from his bowels. (Wow! No one ever prepared me for this charming aspect of motherhood!)

Here's where I made my big mistake. Instead of calling my mom and waking her up so she could calm my fears, I got online.

That was a big mistake. BIG. MISTAKE. (Sorry mom.... next time you're getting a call.)

I should know this lesson by now. I used to try to diagnose myself online and I became quite a hypochondriac for a while. My doctor finally told me to stop looking online and just call his office. (Wow.... I'm sounding really whacko now!)

Anyway, last night - instead of sleeping - I read lots and lots of descriptions of crazy-colored bowel movements. I read long lists of SCARY possible causes of such messes. I kept trying to re-envision the colors and texture of the "mess" I had just cleaned up. The online information was scary (and disgusting)! I was 94.62% certain that Adam's liver was not functioning and that I should rush him to the hospital immediately where he would be admitted and need a transplant and be hooked up to machines for the short remainder of his life. Aggghhhhh!!!!

Who needs "boogie men" when you can freak yourself out so completely in the middle of the night?!?!

After checking Adam several times to make sure he was still breathing, I eventually woke Jon up. (He sleeps so soundly the first part of the night!) Jon was not nearly as concerned as I was and not at all interested in the descriptive details of the "mess." He did, however, give me exactly what I needed. He wrapped his arms around me and said the most beautiful prayer.... and started snoring.

Oh yeah.... prayer.

So, being reminded of God's constant presence and protection, I was comforted. I placed all my fears in Jesus' Sacred Heart. I called upon the intercession of his amazing Mother. I relished the loving embrace of my husband. I relaxed and fell asleep.

Twenty minutes later we had round two of "Adam mess" .... and I was thrilled to be able to re-examine the color and texture. It was greatly improved from what I had remembered. I was so happy and relieved and began to have hope that he would actually live. Is it too much of a stretch to consider that second round of "mess" a gift from God?

Well, round three came a few hours later. This morning he actually seemed better and my fears were further relieved by a call to the pediatrician's office. He got better and better throughout the day.... so, hopefully, tonight will be more restful and no transplants will be needed this week. (As it turns out, you only have to freak out if you have weird-colored "mess" AND vomitting. Dr. Cyberspace neglected to inform me of that critical piece of information.)

The point of this long narrative: Don't freak yourself out by looking online to figure out what's wrong with you or your loved ones. Look to God, of course, for strength and peace. No matter what ills or challenges we face, he is there with us and for us.

An Ascension Craft

Since today is the Feast of the Ascension (actually celebrated in most dioceses this coming Sunday), we talked with the boys about Jesus returning to heaven and we pulled out a craft we made last year. I know it's not my original idea, but can't remember where I saw it.

Basically, you take a blue plastic cup and glue cotton ball clouds around it. Then you poke a hole in the bottom of the cup and thread a string through the hole. Attach a star to the string on the outside of the cup and attach a picture of Jesus to the string on the inside of the cup. The children can pull on the string and make Jesus "ascend to heaven."

We had such a good time making these crafts with our play group last year and the children have enjoyed them and pulled them out several times during the year. (Of course you could also do the same craft with Mary for the Assumption!)

Good Shepherd's Garden Party - Week Six

We celebrated this week's Garden Party early. This week's theme was "Oh! What a Beautiful City!" All of the symbols and stories (mostly from the Book of Revelation) focused on God's Kindgom and on our call to be queens and kings of heaven. Here are the week's symbols and some pictures from our celebration.

1. The City Gates (Revelation 21:9-14): We built a "gate" out of pretzel sticks and cheese cubes.

2. The Temple (Revelation 21:22-25): This was a blast from my past. I made "Shirley Temples." My sisters and I used to love to order these when we went out to eat as children. My boys loved the fancy umbrellas, but since they don't drink pop and Ray doesn't like sweet drinks, they were not fans of these "temples."

3. Hallelujah! (Revelation 19:6-9): We listened to the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's "Messiah."

4. The Thrones (Revelation 22:1-5): Ray decorated our chairs and turned them into "thrones."

5. + 6. The Bride and Groom (Hosea 2:18-20 and Revelation 19:6-9): We talked about love.... about how completely God loves us and about how a man and a woman give themselves completely to each other in love when they get married. We decorated the table with bride and groom votive candles (which we made and gave as favors at our wedding). We also had "bride and groom" chocolate-covered strawberries. Ours weren't nearly as fancy as the ones in the suggested plan, but they were very yummy and we enjoyed taking some leftovers to our neighbors to share.


7. The Crowns (Isaiah 62:3-5): We enjoyed a "brownie crown." The boys also wore gold crowns.

We made this Garden Party part of our dinner and we really enjoyed learning and celebrating the Easter Season in this way again. Only one more week to go!

All for God!

It's interesting how moms very rarely blog about sitting on the couch and eating cookies and letting the children dump every toy onto the living room floor. We've all done it (or something similar) though. It's just not blog-worthy I guess. Similarly, although I blog about our weekly Good Shepherd Garden Parties, you don't read here about how my mom and sisters always send me home with leftovers.... because I'll take them and make them stretch and not have to cook the next day! They joke about always asking me what's for dinner and me saying, "Leftovers." Most nights are NOT fancy, symbolic affairs around here.

Over the past few weeks several friends and I have continued the conversation about the perils of comparing ourselves with others. It's so tempting to put others on pedestals and think that they "have it all together." There is a nice little article about this today on Faith and Family Life. Check it out at: http://www.faithandfamilylive.com/features/compare_contrast_despair.

None of us have it all together. It's awesome to share our successes, but important to be real and share our struggles too. Not all of that is blog-worthy or appropriate on a blog though. As I talk with my friends I want to repeat over and over again to them AND TO MYSELF.... "Be gentle to yourself.... Accept your talents and your calling and your shortcomings. Take care of yourself and your children and do your best with discipline, education, etc. Share ideas and experiences with others, but don't allow their brilliance or success to be a measuring stick for yourself. Celebrate them for who they are and what they are doing. Keep praying and walking day by day with God and with your family. You are doing what you're meant to be doing." (Note: I mostly say this to MYSELF!)

Last week one of my favorite bloggers, Elizabeth Foss (see her blog "In the Heart of My Home" in my sidebar) posted this quote by Kathleen Norris:

"It is a paradox of human life that in worship, as in human love, it is in the routine and the everyday that we find the possibilities for the greatest transformation. Both worship and housework often seem perfunctory. And both, by the grace of God, may be anything but. At its Latin root, perfunctory means 'to get through with,' and we can easily see how liturgy, laundry and what has traditionally been conceived of as 'women's work' can be done in that indifferent spirit. But the joke is on us; what we think we are only 'getting through' has the power to change us, just as we have the power to transform what seems meaningless--the endless repetitions of a litany or the motions of vacuuming a floor. What we dread as mindless activity can free us, mind and heart, for the workings of the Holy Spirit, and repetitive motions are conducive to devotions such as the Jesus Prayer or the rosary."

That quote has stuck with me all week. I continue to remind myself that what I am doing (as I take care of our house and do a zillion loads of laundry) is holy and does transform me. It is the work I do lovingly for the good of my family, but it is also the daily routine through which God meets me, empowers me, speaks to me. It is my prayer. It is not "beneath me" (since I DO have a graduate degree and USED TO do more worldy, "important" work). It is here in this work that I praise God daily, model so many virtues for my children, and work out my salvation.

Two little related quotes to close....

First, I remember being a young adult and attending a Jubilee celebration for my Great Aunt who is a Dominican Sister. I clearly remember her best friend preaching that day and saying, "The thing about the Christian life is it's so darn daily." She talked about the everyday challenges and devotions that make up a long life of following Jesus. I remember that frequently.... It's the little things we do each day that really shape our lives.

Finally, I love the saying I heard somewhere (?) that moms change the world "one diaper at a time." Thankfully, we are past the diaper stage here.... but we could certainly insert other tasks into this phrase. We truly do change the world one load of laundry, one home-cooked meal, one storytime at a time! We're experts at it! Embrace it! Whatever we're called to do today, let's do it for the glory of God!