Quick Takes

1

Er, Tuesday. Moving right along...

2

Jesus was fully God and fully man, so obviously he had a fully-functioning digestive tract. Yep, guess where this is going...  Something tells me that Iain might be among the first to delve into this particular dimension of Christology, without a hint of disrespect. He just headed for the bathroom chanting, “we are going to the Potty of Christ.”

3

To cure the “I have nothing to wear” disease, I’m thinking of creating my own Look Book by taking pictures of each of my wearable outfits. I guess that reveals that I don’t have many outfits. I’m okay with that, especially since I’m in a balloon-up-’n-down family-growing season of life. But seriously, when I’m drawing a blank I could look through the pictures, pick something, throw it on and run out the door to whatever event I would’ve otherwise been 20 min late to. It would also enable my husband to give an opinion when I desperately plead “what should I wear?”

4

I love to sing. I was in choir from 5th-12th grade. I’m humble enough to know that I don’t have a stellar voice, and being twelve years out of practice has taken its toll. However, it wasn’t until Mark and I decided to do simple recordings of our favorite Advent songs that I fully realized that I have a vocal range of only about 8 notes, with an ideal range of maybe 4 notes. On top of that, my vocal control and ability to find and stay on pitch are all but gone. It was a depressing revelation, but it has also prompted me to sing more, hoping that I might retrain this warbley little voice of mine.

5

Iain loves being involved in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program at our parish. We were out of town for the orientation, so I’m pretty clueless about what goes on in the Atrium. I get little glimpses during the course of daily life: “Mom, that angel’s name is Gabriel!” or he’ll sing lines from a song he’s learned.  Today’s glimpse was prompted by the Christmas song “Mary, Did You Know” which I can almost guarantee they haven’t sung at Atrium. He stopped singing mid-verse to ask me, “What are the actions for this song?”
Glad to know that he’s internalized that every song has actions.

6

Speaking of “Mary Did You Know” here’s an awesome Star Wars spoof on it:

7

On a different note altogether, fellow parents, I have a question: What non-corporal forms of discipline do you find effective for getting-out-of-bed and don't-want-to-clean-up types of infractions when the "go to your room/time out" is not an option because a) they're supposed to be in their room or b) that would let them off the hook from cleaning up.

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Nearly Pentecost!

"The Church has endeavored to help us experience Easter as the feast of feasts, as the basic reason for all celebration and all joy, by causing the Easter octave to last for seven times seven days. So the feast of Pentecost on the fiftieth day after Easter is not in fact an entirely new feast; it rounds off the circle of the seven times seven days, which signify our breaking out of subservience to time into the boundless joy of the children of God" (Joseph Ratzinger, Seek That Which is Above).

As an aside, I LOVE this little book. It's short chapters of reflections for the church year speak to me every time I read it!

I've mentioned before how I appreciate that I live in a climate where even the weather reflects our Lenten journey - the slush, mud, leafless trees and dead grass all help me enter into the Lenten experience. It a very real way, it is a fast of the senses.

How beautiful too, that the feast of Easter and it's glorious 50 day celebration has (at least this year) taken us through the journey of Spring green, flowers, sunshine - everything in nature that is new life. I was sitting in the sun yesterday, just basking in the glory of God's creation and the blessing that is all that God has given us in this house and property. It is all so beautiful and I am so deeply humbled and thankful for it.

Life Is Good

...Well, except the Lenten weather which has finally made its appearance halfway through this penitential season. But even the days on end (5 now, I believe, after 2 solid weeks of sunshine!) of overcast skies, fog and melting snow can't dampen my spirits because I'm hopeful that this means an early (for MN) Spring. Having said that, I give the weather until the first week of April before I will get up my hopes for green grass, flowers and leaves on trees - until then I have no real assurances that Ms. Winter won't "bless" us with an extended stay.

This morning was a bit of a victory for my brain. When Lydia was about 4 months old I was diagnosed with classic post-partum depression (PPD) and a blood-test also showed that I was low on many important vitamins/minerals/chemicals. Since then, I've been dutifully taking quite a few pills to get myself healthy and balanced. Let me tell you, I feel better than I've felt in years! To the point, I woke up early this morning to nurse Lydia and was actually excited about the day...excited! I remember feeling like that when I was under 10 - every day was a brand new adventure, even if there was nothing in particular planned. Under 10 to 28 - that's roughly 18 years and suddenly I had a little taste of that again. Crazy. Wonderful. It's amazing what being in optimal health will do for a person.

Besides feeling great mentally and physically (did I mention, I'm also now below my pre-Lydia weight!) We've had an exciting week, but it's March and that appears to be our pattern:

March 2005 - got engaged

March 2006 - moved to Minnesota

March 2009 - closed on our house

March 2010 - bought a minivan! Hurray!

We may own the most beautiful minivan I've ever seen - well, the exterior anyway. The interior is, uh, used. But to be honest, I'd rather have a not-so-nice interior than exterior. When we're driving down the street, no one will know that there are weird stains, worn seats and patches on the ceiling. All they see is a gorgeous silver Dodge Grand Caravan Sport (2000). Yes, it's pretty. Thank you, Jesus. It was also a steal at $1600. Crazy. God is good. Hopefully it won't die tomorrow (we did have a mechanic friend look it over before we bought it).

Mark and I are on a roll, enjoying the many home projects we can accomplish as a team. I am so grateful for how well we work together. Doing projects with Mark is a great joy and and it's so fun to stand back and marvel at them together when they're done. I may have mentioned that we finished the drop ceiling - all except the small landing at the bottom of the stairs. Maybe I'll get to that this weekend. The downstairs office, hall and bathroom look SO much better! Now we're on to an office-to-bedroom conversion. Well, actually it will be more of an office/bedroom combination. Since we've had an average of a house-guest a month since we've moved in, we decided (ok, I decided and got Mark excited) to make our office space downstairs a guest room. We have my sister followed by Mark's parents coming for a stay in the next month and we're looking forward to them giving the new setup a spin.

I apologize for the absence of any pictures in these past months of posts. I really should get some up soon. The kiddos are so big now - Iain looks like a little boy instead of a big baby, and Lydia looks like a big baby because, well, she is. The house is beautiful as always, and getting better project by project. Like I said, life is good. God is good. It doesn't feel much like Lent around here - thankfully (?) we have the weather to remind us of the season. :) God bless you all!

He is Risen!

Like father, like sonDad and the grandkitty
Betsy and Mark, tired after a very long Easter Vigil
Home sweet home, well, the parking lot anyway

Happy Easter! Mark and I had an absolutely wonderful Easter Triduum, though technically I think we celebrated a Quartet. We made it to 4 different Triduum/Easter celebrations at 3 different locations, making for a diverse and somewhat exhausting weekend. Despite the running around and trying to enter into the season, we thoroughly enjoyed the company of Mark's parents who hopped over the pond to join us for a week. Spending quite a lot of time with Mark's parents, celebrating Easter and the baptism of the baby daughter of a British-turned-Minnesotan friend of the family, and having dinner with a Scottish-turned-Minnesotan friend of the family, all on various days thoroughout the week of Mum and Dad's visit, left me feeling as though I was the one on a British vacation. It's a little odd being in my "hometown" and being nearly in the minority with my American accent, but certainly a nice change of pace. Mum and Dad flew home on Easter Tuesday, which to Mark's great delight left me feeling quite sad for a few days (I think I miss them even more than he does.) I hope and pray that we are able to see them again, soon! Mum and Dad just sent us a few pictures that they took during their visit with us, which I'm posting for the enjoyment of all.

God's Blessings

The Lord is very, very generous to Mark and I. He never ceases to provide for us! To honor and thank the Lord, and hopefully be a witness to the Lord's great love for those who strive to love and serve him, I want to list some of the material ways he has blessed us, recently: a free trip to the zoo, free movie tickets, sales on grocery items, beautiful shoes for me that were a fantastic deal (one pair was a mere $2.50!!), very inexpensive handsome glasses for me from myeyeglasses.net, I give them 5 out of 5 stars! Endless buy-one-get-one-free coupons for wonderful date nights, a BEAUTIFUL nativity set that was given to us unexpectedly exactly when we were wishing we had one, providing (free) every single piece of furniture and appliance we own (yes, they match and are in good condition), a (free) anniversary getaway that included an eight-bedroom mansion on a lake, money that shows up exactly when we have unexpected bills to pay such as wisdom teeth extractions, etc. A cat that goes in the toilet - sorry, that's not a material blessing, but I just heard a few "plops" that are music to my ears!!! Sense and Sensibility, one of my favorite movies, BRAND NEW for $1.85 (that was just this morning). The list goes on, and I know there are countless other examples that I can't think of at the moment. Maybe you're asking why the Lord does this for us? I can't say for sure, but I can guess that the Lord might not be so generous if we didn't a) tithe without fail, no matter what and b) recognize that we are simply stewards of his gifts, and they are given to us to lead us and others to Him. I hope and pray that we are good stewards of the gifts He gives us and do in fact use them for His glory. Come, Lord Jesus!