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Necklace Making

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I pulled out this work for Turtle the other day during her "quiet time." She really enjoyed making necklaces from the shells, pasta noodles, beads and cut straws. I hope to present this to Rosebud someday soon. I remember that Turtle used to really love it when she was two and a half.

Seven Quick Takes, vol 6

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#1. It's been so long since I posted. I miss writing on this blog. Somedays I actually compose a post in my head even though I never actually post it, just so I can "write" something. I'm feeling rather in above my head these days with three little ones. Some days are so hard. Some days are manageable. But every day is challenging for me. Every day stretches me, if not to the breaking point, at least to the hurting point. I am needed by someone all the time. And that's really hard. Some days, when I'm standing at the sink doing dishes at midnight or eating lunch at 3pm, or getting up at 6am to grab a shower, or rocking a wide-awake baby at 2am, I wonder if its just going to be this hard forever. Other days, days like this: I am so very grateful to be doing what I am doing, to have these girls and to be blessed with this life. I wish those grateful, peaceful moments came along a wee bit more often, though! :) #2 On another note, we are so glad spri...

Questions, Questions

TURTLE: Mommy, why does Blessed Mother have a sword in her heart? Is Jesus sleeping on the cross? Did Jesus cry on the cross? Why the bad soldiers not like Jesus? Are the bad soldiers going to put me on the cross? Why did they leave Jesus all by himself in the tomb? ******* Can we go to that "Jesus' House"? Is that a Mackalick Church? (Catholic) Why don't we go to that Church? Why don't they have mackertackles (tabernacles) and Fathers? ******** How did [Sunshine] come out of your tummy? Did you cut your tummy? Did it hurt to get her out? How did you close the hole back up? With tape?

Thinking of

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SPRING with great longing these days. This long long winter and many many hours indoors in this little house are wearing on all of us. Turtle is whiny and bored and has many "fits" a day. Rosebud is madly jealous of Sunshine and therefore spends all her time destroying things, antagonizing Turtle and trying her darndest to hurt Sunshine through any method possible -- squeezing, biting, poking, smothering, etc. Mommy is overwhelmed, hormonal and impatient. Sunshine, dear little Sunshine lives up to her name by being the sweetest, most patient and adorable little blessing, but somedays I wonder if the rest of us are missing her loveliness because we are too wrapped up in being completely at at odds with each other. It's hard not to feel like a failure as a mother in these last interminable days of winter as I stumble through the day (in my pajamas half the time) striving to get everybody fed and clothed and bathed and read to and hugged and wondering if their frustrating b...

Seven Quick Takes, vol 5 --with pictures

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#1. I am writing this post out of escapism. I should be doing one of three important things right now and I totally don't want to do any of them. #2. I love how Sunshine got her first ashes this year. There is something kind of poignant about a baby with ashes on her head. #3. And I have to post this picture because I am in love with big sister/little sister moments! #4. And this one, because I am also in love with baby toes. I can't wait till summer so I can see the little rosy things all the time, instead of them being hidden away in socks and sleepers. #5. We made clay yesterday. Unfortunately, there wasn't much interest after we mixed and kneaded it -- it had already lost its luster after the fun pouring and measuring was over. *Sigh* Way too much work for Mommy and not enough happy-and-occupied-children time. Don't they know that they owed me that? :) #6. This is a tunnel I made for the girls back after the second February snowstorm. I was entirely miffed b...

Lent in Our Home

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Before Rosebud was born I worked in a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd 3-6 Atrium for 3 years. To mark the beginning of Lent the children would color a card with the word "Alleluia" inscribed on it and then the cards were be placed in a large flowerpot and covered with soil. The children were allowed to sing their "Alleluia" songs one last time and then for the rest of Lent they replaced "Alleluia" -- such a "special, happy word" -- in any song with "Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm" (They loved it!) At the Liturgy of the Light celebration at Easter the Alleluia was dug up and they could finally sing it once again. I wanted to do something like this with my girls this year but wasn't sure how until I saw this great, simple idea from Lacy at Catholic Icing . So, I copied it. :) On Ash Wednesday, the girls enthusiastically sang Alleluia one last time, and then we "buried" it wrapped in gold and white tissue paper in a box. Then we wrapped t...

Remembering

Two years ago yesterday I lost my Grammy. Rosebud was the same age as Sunshine is now. Grammy had never met her, though she had sent a beautiful white dress with pink rosebuds on it for her to wear. I am told that she kept repeating Rosebud's name over and over again, that she thought it was a beautiful one. She didn't really know Turtle either. It had been 15 mos since she had seen us when Turtle had been 8 mos. old. That Grammy never really knew her great-granddaughters is something I will regret for the rest of my life. I remember sadly lifting Rosebud up -- sleeping soundly-- to see Grammy laying in her coffin in the dress she wore to my wedding. I said to her: "Here's your Great-Grammy, love. She loved you very much, even though you didn't know her." Then I looked at Turtle, prancing happily around the funeral home and whispering that Great-Grammy was "sleeping" and sorrowed for her too. My daughters' lives will never be enriched by knowing ...