Just another Catholic mom blog - crazy, blessed, happy, silly!
22/52: Our May Crowning
Friday, July 17, 2015
--1--
I posted this yesterday but it displeased the Facebook filters and they hardly showed it to anyone...
So if you're on Facebook, would you hop on over and click "Like" if you haven't already? I promise the romper post will be epic! Plus it means I've beaten the Facebook system, because they emailed me this morning to be like, "Hey! You should pay us to promote your page!" So help me stick it to the man!!!
--2--
Andrew doesn't like having his picture taken. But Peter's too adorable not to post this picture anyway... Sorry not sorry!
--3--
We planted mini sunflowers this year and I LOVE them (even though shortly after I took this picture something ate many of the leaves and petals of the plant...). So this is a reminder to myself to plant them again next year - real sunflowers are fun but gosh they get so awkwardly tall... These are way more contained!
--4--
And we have more wildflowers blooming in the Mary garden, some of which are TOTALLY crazy-looking. What in the world IS this? Awesome, that's what.
--5--
Speaking of Mary, we never got around to doing a May crowning and the kids asked to do one the other day because the zinnias are blooming like crazy. Think she liked it?
--6--
I let John Paul and Cecilia do some salt painting a while back and the pictures have been hanging on the playroom windows since then... Until today.
Why did I take them down? Because I found the twins climbing on the furniture, licking the salt off the paper.
"It's our dog food!" defended Mary Claire.
Nothing like a little snack of salt and glue.
--7--
This super-quick post brought to you c/o both twins actually sleeping during naps (third time this week!!!) and Peter eating Cheerios in his high chair. Time to clock out! Check out Kelly's place for more Quick Takes!
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
One of my favorite things about my husband being a Latin Mass devotee (even though I'm not... I know, MIXED MARRIAGE!) is the fact that he knows all the proper Marian antiphons for the liturgical year, and teaches them to the kids. Hearing the twins sing the Ave Regina Caelorum is one of the cutest things I've ever heard.
So now that it's Easter, we're singing the Regina Caeli - do you sing it too? You should - it's definitely the easiest of the Marian antiphons!
Kendra made all the printables of the Regina Caeli in English so I said, "Hey, can you do it in Latin!" and she graciously declined (I dunno, gestating a baby and homeschooling 7 other kids apparently doesn't give her time to satisfy my whims?). So I figured I'd make one myself with a picture of Mary from our May Crowning last year:
Want to download a high-res version? Here it is!
If you want to pray the whole prayer in Latin (or English), you can find it here. It replaces the Angelus during Eastertide, and the chant is normally sung after Compline (or right before bed if you're us!).
And if you need the chant melody, here it is sung by monks, with the notation right there!
If you're a singing family, or even if you're NOT a singing family, I think this is a really nice thing to add into your daily routine if you aren't doing it already. And I guarantee your kids will love it - we're only on the third day of the Octave and the twins keep requesting the "Special song for Mawwy!"
Friday, April 11, 2014
--1--
Can we just appreciate how absolutely adorable a toddler is, even from behind? The chunky legs, the poofy skirt (puffed up more by a cloth diaper), wispy hair... I'm so spoiled to have two of them at once!
--2--
And it's a good thing, because Cecilia is distinctly NOT a toddler anymore...
She wanted me to take pictures of her dancing, and I'm just really confused by the hands behind the head...
She was trying so hard to do her "ballet" but it just doesn't work up on a bookshelf... And makes it look like the hip pop is a little too purposeful!
Of course, this one was pretty impressive, if I do say so myself!
--3--
And no, those shorts in the picture above are not shorts that can be classified as "clothing" - they're intended to be layered under a skirt or dress so that she can flip or somersault to her heart's content without flashing everyone... But she's convinced that if she pairs them with a similar t-shirt, it makes the outfit into a romper. As long as she doesn't leave the house, I'm not arguing - I pick my battles.
And I really pick my battles these days, because this girl for whom 2 was a breeze is making up for it in spades now that she's 3...
"YOU CAN'T HOLD ME! I'M NUFFIN' AND YOU CAN'T HOLD NUFFIN!!!"
"I WANT ALL DA DOORS IN DA HOUSE TO BWEAK SO DAT SQUIRRELS CAN GET IN!!!"
"DAT WOULD NEVER HELP!"
"I'LL KEEP DA POTTY CLOSED FOREVEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!"
"DAD, YOU DIMWIT!!!"
"NO DON'T CALL ME CECILIA! I'M NOBODY!!!"
"NOBODY SAY ANYFING!!! STOP TALKING!!!"
Not once has she thrown one of her epic tantrums over something that matters - she just seems to arbitrarily choose to be the grumpiest child on the planet and take it out on everybody... But oh, her threats are so hilarious that I can't help but enjoy the tantrums, which I probably shouldn't do!
--4--
Despite the tantrums, most of the time she's lovely - we're getting close to the end of our Lenten prayer chain and she and John Paul have started leading the prayers which is adooooooorable! They're still pretty formulaic, but last night she was praying, "God, please bless Father Andrew with... Please help him be a good pwiest for his people, and... Please help him be healthy and... Please... Help him be healthy... And please bless him wif love. And John Paul, what do you want God to bless him wif?"
Adorable. I about died at that last line, where she just parroted what Andrew and I say during these prayers!
--5--
John Paul found Andrew's Jerome Biblical Commentary today (an old hardcover, not the edition in the Amazon link) and just about died of excitement... A BIG book! Maps! All the facts!
He's just. So. Strange. Whenever Kelly gets around to writing her list of:
Well, I can tell you one 4-year-old who will ABSOLUTELY choose those books over video games.
Nerd.
Big nerd.
But you knew that.
--6--
This week's posts:
Growing Up (my kids are weird... REALLY weird...)
Is that it? Well, I got the skirts on the Easter dresses sewn AND the bodices are halfway done... Productivity and blogging don't exactly go hand-in-hand!
--7--
Not all the daffodils have been picked by the kids... They've actually been doing a halfway decent job leaving them alone, and Cecilia knows she's allowed to pick any and all dandelions and wildflowers she sees growing, so she usually comes in every afternoon with a handful of wildflowers clutched in her chubby little grip so that she can give them to Mary whenever we go to church next. Maybe this will be the year we get an outdoor statue and plant our own Mary garden? I know Cecilia would love love LOVE it... Any suggestions for statues?
Today I let her pick ONE daffodil. She took that to mean 4. Close enough.
Check out more Quick Takes at Jen's (and convince her to make my house a stop on her DC tour)!