Hanging with Sew

We had such a great time this week with Sew! She is like part of the family. I really wish we had had a few more days since we didn't get to fit everything in. We did go to the zoo.... and Jenny came with us. I had the zoo pass less than a week and got her to go to the ZOO, which has ANIMALS and is mostly OUTDOORS (all things she's not fond of ;) We all enjoyed the penguins - we happened to catch the penguin feeding...

When we got home, Sew decided she was going to organize our entire kitchen! I didn't take before pictures, but here is my pantry after.... she is the BEST!!!! She was like a machine. My kitchen never looked better.

Jenny and I went to Walmart, and got all these glass jars and Jenny bought a label maker.

She got a little "label happy" towards the end...

My mom babysat on Friday night so we all got to go hear Ken's band play and eat a nice dinner. We had a great time and several other friends came too.
I used all of Jenny's pictures since I can't seem to find my camera at the moment - there might be some new pics when I find it!

We also watched the movie Food, Inc. on Saturday night. It took us 4 HOURS to get through because Ken kept pausing it and "discussing" the ideas in the movie. I enjoyed it and will probably watch it again by myself so I can see it straight through. I've been asking Ken to watch this with me for a LONG time and he finally agreed. It was very interesting.

Sew, we had such a great time with you! Thanks so much for everything, all the cleaning, organizing, helping with the kids, and being such a great friend ;) We hope you come back soon!!

Look what Sew's doing to my Bud ;)

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He really did start walking yesterday, he took about 10 steps! But he wasn't into it after awhile ;)

We are having a great time!

John Paul's first Easter

Oh look! The bunny came! Mom bought them baskets with their names on them.

Madeleine got a big blow-up globe - both kids like it. The Easter Bunny didn't bring any candy to our house - it's a good thing because they got overloaded by the Easter egg hunt at church on Saturday, and the Grandmas.

I took probably 20 pictures - maybe I'll do an outtake post ;)

Madeleine having fun at Grandma's house

Opening their Easter baskets. Madeleine got a really cute house that folds out, and came with furniture and a whole bunny family (Mommy bunny, Daddy bunny, Madeleine bunny and John Paul bunny.) It has her name on it too! John Paul got a car to push around - his favorite thing to do! And a bunch of other stuff too!

Grandma and Madeleine

Grandma, Papa, the kids

Family picture

Madeleine got a new leap touch junior book

Papa and John Paul. My dad was really proud of his shirt - it says:
Toyota. Once you drive one, you never stop. ;)

I forgot to bring my camera to Ken's parents house, but we went there later that day. They hunted for eggs, ate a ton of candy and a delicious ham dinner, and played outside with their cousins.

We are so excited - Miss Sew is coming tomorrow! (She must like us - this is the third time she's been here!)

Easter Vigil mass and Prayer Buddy

was beautiful. Long, but beautiful. Here's what happened about an hour in.

Dad: PSSSST. Do you have internet on your phone?
Me: Yes.......
Dad: Check the score of the Duke game!
Mom: her trademarked "disappointed click."

We had a great Easter and I will post pictures tomorrow.

Also, my prayer buddy was Fertile Thoughts. John Paul has been sick for 2 months, and that involved a lot of extra waking up at night. I made a point to remember her during those times, offer the loss of sleep up for her and her unborn baby! A, I'm going to send you something, but after you find out if your baby is a boy or girl ;)

I'm not cutting it yet!

Today on our walk with the kids in the double stroller:

Madeleine, running her fingers through her brother's hair: "Mommy, you really didn't do a very good job combing John Paul's hair today!"


I took the Bud back to the doctor this morning for the infection that won't quit, so we didn't get to do our Good Friday lesson plan. (But it worked out, since Grandma read her a bunch of books about Easter at her house.) Yesterday we did Holy Thursday and I focused on Jesus washing his disciples feet. After going over it 20 times, she remembers that Jesus washed his disciples feet, and he was trying to teach us to be kind and do things for other people. I asked her what kinds of things she could do to serve, and she said she could pick up her toys.

Anyway, one of his ears is better, but the other is still infected. Well, he said this could be a completely different infection. He also thinks he has a sinus infection draining into his throat making him cough. So, another 10 days of antibiotics.

In other news, I don't have my Ergo yet, even though I check the front porch about 50 times a day. I did, however, get a nice Jehovah's Witness tract. Just what I always wanted. You invite one Witness in, and you never hear the end of it.

Ken and I decided to split up for Easter mass this year. I'm so excited because I haven't got to pay attention in Mass for 3 years and a month. AND, I get to go to the Easter Vigil! I can't wait. That is my favorite mass ever.

Bud's new words

So, we went to DQ today, and Bud said his first two words together. He pointed at mom's ice cream and said,

"A bite!"

I thought it was just a fluke, but he said it several more times! Boy knows what he wants.

I am taking him back to the doctor tomorrow. He can't stop coughing now. He just can't kick this thing. Say a prayer for him if you think of it. I hope they don't put him on more antibiotics - they don't seem to be helping at all.

And, our Holy Week activities are in full swing. I'm not exactly sure if any of this is sinking in though. Here's a typical conversation.

(Right after we read and talked about Palm Sunday.)

Grandma, "Madeleine, what did you read about today?"

M: "What?"

Me: "Madeleine, what did we just get done reading about?"

M: "What?"

Me: "What animal did Jesus ride into Jerusalem?"

M: "A giraffe?"

Me: "What did the people wave in the air when Jesus rode into Jerusalem?"

M: "A stick?"

Me" *sigh*

Holy Week begins

As nervous as I was about Palm Sunday mass, everyone was really well behaved! In an attempt to actually listen to the Passion Gospel, I decided to nurse John Paul during it. I actually haven't done that in public for a while, but it worked like a charm. He nursed during the entire gospel, and then kind of dozed off. So for the first time in probably 3 or 4 months, I did not have to leave the church once! It was really nice.

We are skipping Before 5 in a Row this week and focusing on Holy Week. We're doing a lot of reading from our kid's Bible Stories book - they have stories from Palm Sunday through Easter. We are also going to use our Can You Find Jesus book for the appropriate days.

I have some fun crafts planned too - a stained glass cross with tissue paper for earlier in the week and a Watercolor (her favorite) picture of the 3 crosses on the hill for Good Friday. I'm also planning on making Hot Cross Buns.

While searching for ideas, I came across several great sites. I am going to make a new section of my sidebar and post a few links.

In other news, John Paul finished his second round of antibiotics today for his ear infection that won't quit. I'm still not sure he's better. I might call the doctor tomorrow. What do they do after antibiotics don't work? Poor little Bud.

So excited!!!

Today on babysteals.com there was an ERGO baby carrier for 50% off - I have wanted one of these for years! (But I didn't think Ken would be all that thrilled with me buying a $135 baby carrier, so I never got one.) Even the used ones I've seen are over $100.

So I finally got one- this one - and I can't wait!

I can't wait to use it on hikes this summer, in church, farmer's market, etc. The best part was, after I ordered it, I found a check for $60 from my aunt that I had forgotten about! (I had sold her some of my stamps.) So that just about covered it.

Pictures coming as soon as I get it!

Is some of this actually sinking in?

We've having a bible verse of the week, and this was our verse last week. It went with the book Katy No Pocket, which I highly recommend. We didn't talk too much about it, but we talked about being kind and what it means to be generous once or twice.
So yesterday I went to the Starbucks drive thru (I know!) and got an iced chai and I got M an oatmeal raisin cookie. She kept giving bites of her cookie to her brother. I told her that was a very kind thing to do. After a while she said, "Was I being generous, Mommy?" YES! She shared her music toys with him today and said she wanted to be generous. What a good girl!

This is our verse for this week. We are reading The Snowy Day and the pictures are a mixture of watercolor and collage. Here's our spring collage with our bible verse:

And speaking of watercolors.........
She is LOVING them. We did it yesterday and she begged to do it again today. She painted for at least an hour. We do all this stuff during John Paul's morning nap. So....
I had to go get him so I left her alone with her paints for 30 seconds.... and THIS is what I come down to.

Oh my....

Notice the sleeping cat who has been styled by someone in this house.

11 months!

Stop growing up so fast Bud! He's doing really well, and learning new things every day. He says several words now, Mama and Tee Tat are his favorites. He also says Dada, Papa, Ball, and he tries to say Car, and if I ask what a car says, he tries to say "Vroom Vroom" It's pretty cute. He also thinks ALL animals are Tee Tats, as we found out at the zoo this week. He would excitedly point at the animals and say "Tee Tat!" or sometimes he says Tee Tee Tee Tee TEE tat! when he's really excited. He's also doing the signs for "more" and "milk" and by milk he means the almond milk or coconut milk I sometimes give him in a cup. He really likes these, but especially enjoys stealing sips of his sister's milk! The other day I was in the kitchen and he was really quiet in the family room. I peeked in at him and he was guzzling his sister's milk. I got a little glimpse into my future in that moment.

He is super mobile. He is a really fast crawler and he pulls up on everything. He walks around furniture really fast barely holding on, but has not attempted walking yet. I know he will do it soon though!


He is still pretty loud and demanding, especially when it comes to food! He is the best eater ever. Last week when we went to the doctor, he weighed 20 lbs (with his big diaper, clothes and shoes). He can pack it away, and he'll eat anything. I think his favorite is macaroni and cheese though! He is sleeping really well these days too. He goes to bed around 7:30, sleeps til about 5am, nurses and then sleeps again until about 7:30. If we could just cut out (or delay) that 5am feeding.... He also takes a really good morning nap and afternoon nap.

He does stand up by himself for a few seconds! This is the first time I've ever caught it!
Last night we had some good friends over for dinner. They have an 8 month old little girl, and John Paul and Megan had about a 10 minute conversation together across the table! They were actually looking at each other and "talking," and even pausing to wait for the other baby to talk! It was so cute!

He's a very easy-going baby most of the time, until we walk into the church doors. Then he turns into a screaming, thrashing, boneless little heathen. I hope this phase ends pretty soon so I can actually pay a little attention.

*side note* Speaking of church, we went tonight. Ken was out in the narthex with John Paul during communion, so I carried Madeleine up there. When I received the host, she said very loudly, "Can I have one?" Then I received the Precious Blood, and she said, "Can I have some, PLEASE?" The Eucharistic minister thought that was pretty funny :)

I can't believe that the next time I do an "update" on the Bud he will be ONE. It seems like we were just waiting for him. I was really sad when Madeleine was 11 months, because she was my first baby and I did NOT want her to turn one. I am not sad this time around, probably because I've been through it before. Plus I'm really enjoying getting to know my little boy and seeing him grow and learn. He is a wonderful blessing in all our lives!

I am SO not cut out for single motherhood

I could have told you that before, but now I know for sure! Ken left me for an ENTIRE WEEK with these two wild kids to go to Washington DC. If his bosses and co-workers had MET my kids before, I'm sure they would have set Ken up with video conferencing or something instead of making him go :)

I obviously didn't want to say I was all alone on here or facebook while it was happening, but he's back now and I'm so glad!

The hardest time of the day by far was bedtime. John Paul is ready to be put to bed at 7pm. I had to figure out what to do with Madeleine while I was putting him to bed. I either had to put her in front of the TV or in her room with a stack of books and hope she didn't get into trouble. It was a little stressful, but she did great, most of the time.

We went on LONG walks every afternoon since the weather was so beautiful. We went to the zoo twice - I'll post more on that later with pictures. We had a great time, I think we might have to get a zoo pass. We also went to Story hour on Wednesday and Music Class on Thursday. We had breakfast for dinner one night, ate out two nights, and I actually made boxed mac and cheese last night - and the kids went nuts for it!

Mornings were tricky too - I had a very small window of time to get in the shower without worrying about these two.

Even with the hard parts, we really had a good week. I was really nervous about it, but like some other things (flying with them by myself, etc) I got a pretty good confidence boost this week - I actually made it through and we had a good time! Yeah!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We celebrated with green cookies.... (and silly smiles for the camera!)

And ice cream! Are my kids spoiled or what??

Firsts

Both of my kids have their first ear infections. I called the doctor yesterday about John Paul, because he's been sick for 2 1/2 weeks and wasn't getting better, and I thought maybe he had pinkeye. At the last minute I asked if the doctor could look at Madeleine too, because she's been sick for a few days too. So, John Paul has a sinus infection and ear infection, and Madeleine has an ear infection. They're both on 10 days of antibiotics. Hopefully that will knock it out. We've been lucky so far that no one has had to be on antibiotics yet. I'm loading them up with probiotics, just in case that helps. The pharmacist said it was a good idea.

In other news, the weather has been absolutely beautiful here! We are enjoying our double jogging stroller and twice this week so far I've walked about 6 miles - to the grocery store/ outdoor mall and back. It feels SO good to get out.

The other day we walked to a little playground behind the baseball field at our Church/school. We had a great time playing on the playground (they even have baby swings!) and then Madeleine noticed the baseball field. I took her out there, and we stood on home plate. I told her that a pitcher throws the ball and the batter hits it way out in the field and runs the bases. We ran the bases together several times. There was even a catcher's mitt there she got to try on. I love how she's always learning and is so interested in the world around her.

We are LOVING our Before 5 in a Row book. This week we're reading The Big Green Pocketbook by Candice Ransom, illustrated by Felicia Bond. Friday we are going on our first "field trip" - a trip to see a jewelry store. The little girl and her mom go to a jewelry store in the book, so we are going to see a real one. The lesson tomorrow is being thankful, and we are going to write her thank you notes. I LOVE doing this with her!

Pirate cake and party outfit

What a weekend! I'm a little tired to do a whole post on the party or my beautiful 3 year old right now, but here's a picture of her party outfit....

When we went to Party Tree to get her plates and napkins, she saw the pirate hat and hook that she just HAD to have. She really wanted to wear them to her party, so I designed her party outfit around the hat and the hook :) I made her tutu - totally winged it but it came out great. I ironed on her pirate patch on her shirt, made her legwarmers (I guess you can't see them here but they're black and gray stripes), and she got her shoes from our friend Mary. She didn't feel well when she woke up from her nap, but as soon as she saw herself in the mirror, she was ready to go :)

And here is her Pirate Ship Cake!

I thought it came out pretty good. I brought the kids over to Mom's house this morning and decorated it. It's just two round cakes cut in half. Rolos for cannons, Mom made the sails, and some Playmobil pirates.
Also Pirate cupcakes. These were carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Delicious!
And one more view of the pirate outfit. I'm afraid she's going to want to wear it everywhere now!
We really missed Uncle Mike, Aunt Jenni, Eli and Jude! And both of my kids are sick. But other than that it was a great party. I'll post more later - right now I'm going to lay on the couch :)

Last day of 2 years old

I'm so looking forward to Madeleine's birthday tomorrow! We discussed what to get her, we thought maybe a little bike, or a kids digital camera. But there's still snow on the ground so she wouldn't be able to ride the bike for a while. (We still want to get her one, closer to the summer - craigslist or freecycle!) The digital camera is a good idea, since she loves to take pictures with my camera. We suggested that to a set of grandparents. :) I found this kitchen on craigslist for super cheap. I mean it was a fabulous deal, I just couldn't pass it up. I had to drive about 45 minutes to get it, and their house was pretty gross. They had several cats and dogs and their house was filthy. The kitchen was in great shape, but pretty dirty and the kids had written on it with pen. Also the floor was totally ruined by their cats. I almost decided not to get it, but I actually felt like these people really needed the money. I didn't even try to talk them down :) They gave me a bag of accessories, like some food and dishes, but it was missing quite a few of them. So I called Step 2 on the way home, ordered a new floor, new set of food, new set of dishes, new phone and new microwave panel. All that stuff was super reasonable, even with expedited shipping. So today was a little warmer than usual, and I took the kitchen out to the driveway and scrubbed the whole thing down and used a magic eraser on the pen and crayon marks. I got all the stickers the kids had put on it off, and scrubbed every piece of food and the rest of the accessories with lysol. I'm not kidding, the thing looks brand new! It looks like I took it out of the box and set it up. I'm SO happy with it! So after Madeleine went to bed, we set it up in her playroom with all her food, dishes, new floor, little stool, etc. It looks so great. I can't wait to see her face tomorrow when she sees it!

I also bought her a little wooden table off craigslist a while ago, and I have it set up with some little plates, flowers, and knitted cupcakes I made her. That's going to go up in her room. She's going to have a great birthday!

Her party is on Sunday, and I have a GREAT idea for her cake. I hope I can pull it off :)

Morning naps

One of my favorite times of our day is John Paul's morning nap, because for an hour I get my girl all to myself. We do all kinds of things that John Paul can't do yet, like play with all these tiny animals.



We've also been doing "school," and we're using a book called Before Five in a Row. We read a classic book together, and then there are little lessons that have to do with each book. The first book we are doing is Blueberries for Sal. We read it, and then the math lesson was to collect blueberries (or something - we used blocks and pretended they were blueberries.) I put them all over the house, and we "picked" them and put them in a bucket. Then we counted them, and I said, "If you have 5 blueberries and you eat 2, how many do you have?" She did fantastic and now she wants to play with her "blueberries we don't really eat" all the time. The next day we did an art project about the book, and then a history lesson. There's also music and we're making animal flashcards, and practicing classification. I really love this and I love doing it with her! She is learning so much.

This week we're going to read Corduroy. It's her birthday week! I can't believe my girl is going to be 3 on Friday!

The Thrasher

So we tried to go to Stations of the Cross tonight. As soon as we walked into the church, the thrashing started. Then the random loud yelps and screeches. I ended up standing outside in the narthex with the culprit and heard exactly, oh, ZERO of the Stations. Oh well, it was a good try.

Before we get too far away from the little Bud's 10 month birthday, let me tell you about his recent accomplishments. He's standing on his own for a few seconds, and now he says "Hi" and waves, in addition to his other four words (Mama, Dada, Tee tat, and ball.) He waves at EVERYONE, and everyone comments on what a sweet, smiley baby he is. Of course they don't see him every time I'm trying to cook a meal, hanging onto my pant leg and screaming his fool head off. He is pretty cute though.

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The best thing we've ever done for our house

The carpet before (and we were cleaning the room so stuff is piled everywhere!)

The playroom. And I didn't even take pictures of the kitchen and dining room, but picture awful linoleum and more awful carpet.
AFTER!!! I LOVE it!! Dining room:
Looking from the playroom into the kitchen and dining room:
Playroom:
I love our new floors!!! I feel so much better about having John Paul have the run of the downstairs. It's easier to keep clean (especially since I got a Shark!) It just makes our older home look so much nicer. Thank you Uncle Sam :)

Now to get everything put back together.....

Rough week around here

At Grandma's funeral, John Paul was pretty irritable and didn't look like his usual smiley, happy self. He went downhill from there, and today spiked a 102.6 fever. I spent the day holding a whiny, cuddly, runny-nosed baby. (It wasn't all THAT bad :) Also our floors aren't done. I would have gone to my mom's house today but since the Bud was sick, we were stuck in one room. I did call the doctor, and the nurse told us to come in tomorrow if he still has a high fever. I'm praying no one else gets it. I think he got it from Ken, who had a "man cold" while we were gone to Florida (thank goodness we missed THAT one! :)

The floors look fantastic, even though they're not quite done yet. I cannot wait for it to be all done and to put everything back to normal.

John Paul is 10 months old now, and I haven't done his post yet. He turned 10 months on the day of Grandma's funeral. I sure have a lot of stuff to blog about.

We decided to give up meat for Lent. I got a few new vegetarian cookbooks and I've been trying out some recipes. I have to say, with all the delicious food I've been making, it might not be that much of a sacrifice! I might have to come up with something else in addition to the no meat. If anyone is worried (MOM), don't worry. I'm making sure everyone gets plenty of protein and all the necessary nutrients.

A lot can happen in a week

We flew down to Florida on Monday, and my Grandma died on Tuesday. So we ended up flying home Thursday and went to the funeral home today, and we'll go to the funeral tomorrow.

We did have a great time in Florida, and it was really nice seeing family today. I'll have some more stories and pictures later, in the meantime please pray for my Grandma Irene. Apparently she went around to everyone in the nursing home on Tuesday saying, "I was just coming around to say goodbye, I'm going home today." The nurses said she must have said that 20 times, and she died that evening. She knew.

Destination Jesus and Valentines Day

We had a great weekend, even though as usual for Valentines Day, we spent most of it at Destination Jesus. We didn't get a picture together this year, so here is our Valentines Day last year. This is the same table I worked this year, but this time I got to leave Bud at home with Grandma :)
I worked the 8pm-12am shift last night front door security. It was slow for the first few hours, so I actually got to attend the last of the Eucharistic Procession, and even hit Reconciliation and hang out with a few Franciscan Sisters. After that though, it got crazy as we had to get all the kids (900 of them) on buses with their chaperones to go to their sleeping locations.

Earlier in the day I had taken Madeleine and John Paul over there for a half hour to see Ken play in the band. Madeleine was so funny and had a great time. She started dancing in her little uncoordinated way (think Elaine on Seinfeld), right next to the bleachers filled with kids. They were all smiling at her and then they all started dancing just like her! It was so funny! I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. And boy did she love all those kids dancing with her! She did not want to leave.

Today they got dressed up for Valentines day and we went to mass with the Bishop. I figured out a way to get a good picture of Madeleine - I have to say, "Don't you smile!"
Waiting to go in to Mass. Bud had a shirt that said, "Mom's little Love Bug" and his bib says "Future Pope" which was quite a hit with the priests and sisters!
This was the altar they set up in the gym at Guerin Catholic high school. It was absolutely beautiful.
Madeleine has a friend Olivia who is the daughter of the drummer in the band. She LOVES Madeleine and always wants to dance with her. This was last year.
and dancing with Olivia this year. She had a great time although she got really dizzy!
So, we are headed to Florida tomorrow for the week while our new floors are installed. I'm really excited about seeing Madeleine's Godparents and their kids. I'm also quite nervous about traveling with both of them again. We did ok in November going to Florida but we have some new issues now. One is that Madeleine is still fairly newly potty trained. I'm going to make her go before we get on every plane, and as soon as we get off. I am really hoping to avoid a situation where we can't get to the potty, or worse, that I have to bring both of them into the bathroom on the airplane. The other thing is that John Paul is really mobile now and doesn't like to be held for extended periods of time. I am hoping he gets his own seat at least part of the time....

So if you think about it, say a prayer for us tomorrow morning! We will be back on Thursday or Friday. Happy Valentines Day!

Global warming

We've basically been snowed in since last weekend. Schools have been canceled, they never plowed our street, and other than a quick trip to the grocery store with everyone else in the state before the last big snowfall, we've been here. Madeleine was banned from TV for 3 days (more on that in the next post) so we've been cooking, playing, having tea parties, decorating the playroom, drawing pictures, coloring, doing puzzles, etc. It's actually been pretty fun. I've gotten some knitting done too. Here's John Paul's latest vest. I LOVE it. Poor kid, I make him wear it about every other day :) It has cables shaped like owls on it.

And here are the four snowman hats I made for my blog friend. Now that she got them I can show them on here!
And we've also gotten outside a little, even though it's been super cold. Madeleine enjoyed making snow angels,
playing with Daddy, (while I watched from the screened porch!)
and trying to wade through the snow drifts.
Unfortunately, the Colts lost but we had a great time watching the game anyway (the first part anyway!) Now that the Superbowl is over maybe Ken will quit bugging me to get a new TV :) Actually we're about to make some pretty major home improvements. Ones we WANT to make this time, not like the furnace, dishwasher, hot water heater and water softener. Let me tell you, I LOVE spending money on things like that. Yeah. But next week, we're getting new "wood" laminate flooring in our playroom, kitchen, and dining room! I am SO excited. I should take some before pictures. I can't wait until it's done, I think it's going to make this house look so much better.

Keeping God in the little things

Today I went to a talk at our Mom's group about Keeping God in the little things. I think I had a big grin on my face the whole time because in the first 5 minutes of the talk, the speaker quoted one of my favorite bloggers, Mum2Twelve! (She's really Mum to 13 now.) How cool is that?? The speaker had some great practical ideas about keeping focus on God during the day, even through mundane tasks.

One suggestion I really want to emulate is to put little inspirational quotes, scripture verses, poems, prayers, etc around the house. For example, she read a little poem called "Thank God for Dirty Dishes." I'd love to print that out and put it right by my sink. I'd also like to put some things like this around in cabinets, by the changing table, etc, and keep my mind focused on God throughout the day. My mom had a needlepoint picture that she made the whole time I was growing up that said, "Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow, for babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep, I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep." I must have read that 1000 times growing up and it stuck with me! (Probably a little too literally, just ask my mom!) So I'm going to ask you guys, can you give me any of your favorite inspirational short quotes? I was thinking I'd put the Kimberley Hahn quote, "I'm changing culture, one diaper at a time" by the changing table. What else do you have for me?

Some other ideas were pray for each member of the family as you're folding their laundry, pray the rosary in the shower, have a special prayer place in your home with books, holy cards, rosaries, medals, etc, pray when you see an ambulance, fire truck, or police car, bless your children before they go to sleep or before they leave for the day.

Another thing I am going to do is put a little statue of Mary by my sink, and light a candle while I'm preparing dinner to remind myself of how the Blessed Mother prepared meals for Jesus and Joseph. I'm sure she did it with love even when baby Jesus was hanging on her leg just like John Paul has been doing to me!

I'm also going to start looking at Catholic Cuisine and incorporating some "holiness" in our meals. In fact I'm going to add that to my sidebar. I'm also going to add Gayle, the speaker today, to my sidebar. She is pretty great!

By the way, I'm totally open to other suggestions to keep my focus on God through the day! What do you have for me?

Pirates

Madeleine is obsessed with them. Why? I do not know. It all started when we got this book from the library.

We got it about 3 weeks before Christmas, and read it probably 5 times a day. She got really sad when it got closer to the time we had to return it, so Santa brought her this book and the first one, Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies. She LOVES these books. She makes me read them several times a day, and knows each one word for word. When I put clothes away upstairs, Madeleine sits in her chair and "reads" them to John Paul. It's really pretty impressive - it's kind of a long book and she doesn't miss one word. I'm kind of getting an idea about doing a "Henry" cake for her birthday. Surely I can do a bunny with glasses, right? :)

Ken got her another pirate book at the library yesterday called Dirty Joe the Pirate. Guess which book I had to read 5 or 6 times today?? What is it with pirates?

In other Madeleine news, she is completely potty trained! She hasn't had an accident for over a month. I was putting pull-ups on her for bedtime but she never got them wet. So I asked her about a week ago if she wanted to try to wear big girl underwear to bed. She has done perfect! It's SO great to have only one kid in diapers! Today I picked up a Winnie the Pooh wooden step stool on Freecycle, and she LOVES it. She calls it her "stander" and has washed her hands about 20 times today, and also washed several of her babies' hands.

So I watched 19 Kids and Counting today (after I taped it last night.) It was about the newest baby, Josie, being born at 25 weeks at 1 lb 6 oz. As Michelle was being wheeled back, not knowing if the baby would live or die or if she would live or die, Jim Bob said, "We praise God in the good times, and praise God in the bad times." Wow.