A Simple Prayer

"If you ever feel distressed during your day — call upon our Lady — just say this simple prayer:

 'Mary, Mother of Jesus, please be a mother to me now.'

 I must admit — this prayer has never failed me."
                                                           
                                                                                     --Blessed Mother Teresa

Thank You Rain

It rained here pretty much all day.  It was warm in the morning, but by the afternoon it had that uncomfortable chill in the air.

As the day wore on, I realized all we had on the calendar for tonight was dropping Mary off at her track practice; a very easy night considering this is what my April calendar looked like, and most of the stuff on there takes place between 4pm-9pm.

When I checked my email around 4pm I saw a glorious email from Coach Dave titled:

"Track Practice cancelled".

This was music to my ears eyes!

No where to go?  No where to be?  Homework is done? 

Let's rent a movie and have a tortellini picnic for dinner!!

So we did.

I think we all loved the change up in routine around here. 

Tommy's First Holy Communion

I myself am the living bread come down from heaven. 

If anyone eats this bread he shall live forever; 

the bread I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.

                                                                                                  John 6:51     

                         

                         

Tommy's Godparents: Aunt Kate and Uncle Steve

Cousins!

Anxious to get home to par-tay!

Mom-Mom: Tommy's great-grandmother

Tommy's Grandpop and Gran and Gramps

 

 

 

 

 

What a blessing to have both sides of the family come together for a special occasion.  We are truly blessed to have help in our journey in passing on the faith to our children.

God Bless You Thomas Andrew!

Weekend Highlights

I sure was happy to see the weekend come on Friday.  Some of my besties and me went out for a nice dinner.  You know you're with good friends when you each get a dessert and then pass them around for everyone to share!

Danielle, Cathy, me, and Andrea

Saturday morning I took Mary Kate to her track meet.  I'm not sure when I will learn that I never need to be there as early as they tell me to be, but  4 hours later we were done!  And boy was it ever cold. 

Mary Kate passes the baton to her friend Elizabeth

Saturday night brings us to a visit from Johnnette Benkovic at our parish.  For those who aren't familiar with her, she is a Catholic evangelist who has her own show on EWTN, hosts a radio show, speaks at conferences and retreats, and the list goes on.  She was fantastic; such a dynamic speaker.  I'm still digesting all she had to say.  I wasn't allowed to take photos once the talk started, but here's a picture of my beautiful church.

Another exciting event that happened here this weekend was the baptism of two very special boys.

My friend Eileen and her husband Ben baptized baby Henry on Sunday.  Eileen and I became friends a few years ago when she joined Moms And Tots.  She gifted me and Bill with the honor of being Henry's godparents.

My other Moms and Tots friend Emily and her husband Chris baptized their baby Stephen too!!   How cool was that to have a joint baptism for two close families?  And wouldn't you know, the godmother they chose for him is Jen, who is from Moms and Tots as well!  Stephen's journey here is as exciting as his mama's.  To read their story click here.

Emily and Stephen (l); Eileen and Henry (r)

 

Time for a little celebration afterwards...

 

 

 It was a great day.

The party was sort of like Linner ( between lunch and dinner = Linner)

The kids were STARVING come bedtime.  They were all smiles with either PB & J or cereal.

 

I made this cake today.....

 

For my little patriots.

 

With the changes in routine around here the kids have been troopers.  I'm so proud of them.

I love them so much.

Alien Invasion

Yes, I haven't posted in a week.

No, we have not been invaded by aliens.

I was all set tonight to post about all the excitement from the past week.  However, a certain 9 year old boy is having trouble sleeping at the moment. He's a little scared.  You see, with our new house rule that there is no more Disney Channel, the kids have taken a liking to the National Geographic Channel.  Apparently this morning they watched a show called Alien Invasion while I was getting ready for mass.  A certain parent, who shall remain nameless, saw this and had a little fun speaking on the subject of life forms on other planets.

It's all sweet and innocent until someone loses sleep, isn't it?

photo credit

Needless to say, someone around here is in the doghouse.




** *Tommy has just informed me that the show is called Alien Mysteries and it's on the Discovery Channel. **

Weekend Highlights

Is it bad to be thankful that the baseball game Friday night was rained out?  As much as I love to watch the boys play, being home on a Friday night is much more appealing.

That's how our weekend started and we were all in our pj's, snuggled in on the couch, eating popcorn, and watching Rise Of The Guardians by 8pm!  Pure heaven.

Saturday morning Tommy and I headed to his First Communion Retreat. It was a special morning together.  Okay, more special for me, but fun nonetheless.  While we were there Bill had the other kids at Opening Day Ceremonies at Little League.  Around noon we traded off--me to the track meet---him to snack stand duty.  We reconnected later in the afternoon.  It was a beautiful day so we snuck in a walk.

We had a special dinner Saturday night to celebrate Bill's new job.  (by special I mean we ate in the dining room instead of the kitchen and used fancy glasses to toast him)  I can't tell you how proud I am of Bill.  This promotion is not something he "went after" but was something he was summoned for, which speaks volumes if you ask me.   It will mean some changes within our family for a while, but Bill has proven many times over that he lets it impact us as little as possible.  He truly is THE BEST.

The rained out baseball game was rescheduled for Sunday at noon, which means we had to get up early for the 9am mass.

By my calculations, that was an entire weekend without Fox and Friends.  Boo!
We should be able to sneak it in next weekend before one track meet, two baseball games, a visit from Johnette Benkovic from EWTN, and two very special babies being baptized, where yours truly is the Godmother to one! 

Stay tuned!

Powder Room - The Big Reveal

Remember way back on January 24th when Matt and I started ripping off wallpaper in the powder room?  Well, here we are almost 3 months later and it's finally done!

I learned a lot about myself during these weeks.

-I have no patience for painting.
-I do not like to make decisions.
-I do not like to buy things sight unseen.

I learned some other thing along the way too.  Did you know that you cannot paint with latex paint over something that was previously painted with oil-based paint?  Well, you can't.  What I still don't know is how you're supposed to tell if there is oil-based paint on said doors and trim.

I also learned that blue painters tape really only works if you're able to put it on straight.  And, if you're able to do that, you're probably able to paint a straight line anyway, so why not just forgo using the darn tape in the first place?

Another thing I learned is that electricians charge WAY too much to install a ceiling exhaust fan.  And why do I need one in the powder room anyway? It's not like anyone is taking showers in there!

So, without further ado.....

I do love it and it was worth the wait.

The picture above the toilet is actually an Andrew Wyeth painting called Geraniums.  My Dad bought it for me a few years ago and was a little hurt I think that I had it in the powder room. Now, I think it looks great with the paint color and the farmhouse feel I was going for.

I am still trying to decide what to put in the 4 framed one.  Any ideas?  Something with the four seasons maybe?

For a trip down memory lane, here are Day One, Two, and ???

I'll sign off with a Before and After Shot.

Before

During

After

Tommy's Birthday

Tommy turned 9 on Saturday!!

His Gran and Gramps came for lunch and brought a surprise with them.

DUCKS!

 

The ducks were only visiting.  Gran and Gramps got two ducks for Easter.  All the other grandchildren had seen them, but because we live further away and hadn't seen them yet, they brought them up here to show us.

We all had lunch and cake to celebrate Tommy's birthday.

Later in the day we headed to the ball field to watch Tommy's team play a scrimmage.

Even though.....

....it was 9pm when we got home

...we still had to eat dinner

...we still had to shower and dress for bed

....mom was paranoid they'd all be getting sick from the cold air they played in at the ball field

....mom was also paranoid they'd be sick and miss PSSA testing at school


I still agreed to let them watch The Avengers movie.

Tommy was in Heaven, so the 11:45pm bedtime was worth it.

That scene with the Hulk taking care of Loky also made it worth it!  (anyone see that?)

So, Happy Birthday Tom-Bomb.

We love you.