sorta reminds me of the ugly stepsisters

What. The. Hell?

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but no spoilers please (updated)

Reading Sarah's Key.

Can't breathe.

Somebody get that poor little boy out of the cabinet.

UPDATE: Though it is a page turner and therefore was finished in two nights, this book will not go on my favorites list.

update from outside these four walls

We planted our earth box gardens 9 days ago and the plants have grown so much. Just the tomatoes alone have grown about 7 inches! The cukes and squashes have each grown about 4 inches.

Also, Mamma Thrasher, who had constructed the coarse foundation on the day I took pictures, finished the inside of her nest the next two days afterward with much finer material. Today I peeked in and she was sitting on at least one egg. I didn't get a good look in there because I felt bad for scaring her away.

As I type this, I am looking out of the window and there are three Mourning Doves playing in the bird bath.

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This Thursday is no. 2's birthday. He will be 14. Pretty soon these kids will catch up to my age and we can all be young adults together!!

Oh, and whaddaya get for a 14 year old boy?

this is the day

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"Today is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

How many times recently have you just. stopped. to enjoy the day? Stopped all the errand running. Paused all the kids' activities. Said "no" to everyone else except the beautiful family that the Lord blessed you with?


Our society is full of people with overly busy schedules, myself included. We complain about the days going by so fast! How many times have you said, "I swear the days are getting faster!" I remember as a child it would take for. freaking. ever. to get to my birthday or Christmas. But each year since I have had kids, the days get faster and faster. Weeks go by at the speed of light.

Just yesterday my kids were learning to sit up by themselves. Now the oldest is driving.

This Lenten season, however, I got a taste of that slow snail's pace we used to have as kids (at least those of us older than 40). You know, when you went out in the morning after breakfast on your bike and rode and rode and played with friends all day long until dusk when the mosquitos started stinging. I always knew it was time to go home and go inside when my legs got itchy.


Today, Easter Sunday, was the epitome of a day with a relaxed pace. We awoke at 6:30 a.m. and got ready for 7:30 Mass. After Mass we came home to have breakfast with friends. It was so nice the four of us adults sat outside on the front porch and talked for hours. Then we got the dishes cleaned up, spiffed up the house a bit to get ready for the week ahead, and then went over to the house of some other friends. Their kids are the same ages as nos. 1, 2, and 3.

The kids swam in their pool all afternoon. They got out to eat dinner and to play a game of bean bag toss, but pretty much the rest of the time they were like fish and were swimming and enjoying the water. The grown ups got to sit and chat and the clock ticked a little slower than normal. They made a bonfire and we roasted marshmallows and their son, the oldest, played the guitar. The kids sang songs that they knew and laughed and burned tons of marshmallows. YUM.

It was just the perfect day.

We all need days like that (more than we allow ourselves) to teach our children to relax. Our kids are learning how to juggle a thousand and one extra-curricular activities, but we are doing them a disservice if we never teach them how to relax.


That is my goal this year: build in as much time to be together as a family without distractions from totally enjoying the day that the Lord has made. Oh sure, a busy person will argue that they can enjoy the day the Lord has made for them while being busy at the same time. But that reminds me of Martha and Mary from the gospel. You know the story.

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There is a difference between appreciating a day that the Lord has made versus really being out there and fully enjoying it.

Soaking it all up. Absorbing every molecule of the day.

It is the ultimate way to be thankful for a day.

yeee-owwww!

Ok, so I was putting no.1's hair up into a bun with one of these before she headed out the door to dance class with a friend. I had a little bit of a hard time, but didn't think too much of it. Once I finished that, I went into the kitchen and proceeded to put the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. All of a sudden, there was a throbbing, stinging pain that kept getting worse. I thought I had perhaps accidentally cut my hand on a knife in the sink and looked down only to see a frightful sight:

Just above the middle knuckle (palm side) was bright purple and there was a huge knot that hurt like crazy. Immediately I got weak and that cold, clammy feeling you get when you are about to pass out.

Mental panic ensued.

I thought it was a huge blood clot that had worked its way through my veins and was headed to my heart. Or a parasitic blood infection that was about to pop out of my hand, something along the lines of what happened to Sigourney Weaver in Alien.

My friend who was taking no. 1 to dance pulled up in front of the house and I hobbled to the car. "Look." I said, showing her my hand. "Oh, you broke a little blood vessel," she calmly stated.

Right away I felt better.

"You mean it's not a blood clot on the way to my lungs? Or a worm with sharp teeth about to break through my skin?" "Nope," she laughed, "I've had that happen before. You'll be fine." And then she added the words that made me need a nap and a Geritol pill:

"Getting old is hell, ain't it?"

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The weird thing is that I still don't know how I did it.

photo taken a day after "the mystery accident"

grab your beads, let's roll

Did you know that a set of Rosary Beads is not only for praying the Rosary?

You can also pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

And speaking of Divine Mercy...

beginning today and lasting for 9 days is the Divine Mercy Novena.

No beads necessary for the Novena.

Powerful. Stuff.

Trust me.

earth boxes & herb pots

• 2 Beefsteak tomatoes


• 1 Better Boy tomato


• 1 Sweet 100 (grape tomato)


• 1 Buttercrunch lettuce


• 1 Broccoli


• 2 cucumber


• 2 yellow squash


• 1 zucchini


• 2 basil


• 1 parsley


• 1 cilantro


• 1 strawberry


• 8 bags potting soil


• 1 bag dolomite lime


• 1 bag 10-10-10 fertilizer


• and 1 gorgeous Saturday afternoon
  

That day could not have been more beautiful. Perfect for planting veggies and herbs and being outside with the five people that King and I love most.

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Oh, and 2 blueberry bushes.

They will go in the ground this weekend.