a few for you

I've come across a few items lately that have given me great pleasure, and thought they'd be worth advertising on this humble page. Here they are, with brief comments, in no particular order:

1.) The Sensuous Garden by Montagu Don
A gardening book written by Joe's and my fav author.
(must confess we mildly worship the Brit - we may name a son after him)
Highly recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in flowers or veg.

2.) Moby Wrap baby carrier
I like it so much that my beloved baby sling has been temporarily shelved.
Need i say more?
Okay, i will, since you're shocked and scandalized.
It works so well for me b/c i am mostly at home and constantly mobile. Leopold sleeps for hours while he's taped securely to my body and i get oodles of work done without disturbing him or having to readjust him... but we do find 2 drawbacks that are non-existent with slings: a.) i have to set him down when i want to put it on, and it does take some time to wrap it and b.) it's really really awkward to nurse in, or to access body parts needed during said maternal act.

3.) Crayola's triangular crayons
I've noticed Rosemarie has great writing utensil holding skills, and i attribute them to the configuration of these colorful lovelies. A must-try if you have a toddler.

4.) Holy Baby! 7 Prayers in 7 Languages
Scored this dvd for $1 on eBay last spring.
I can overlook the freaky-looking computer-generated baby nun only b/c the kids now know how to pray the rosary in German, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and will occassionally be caught speaking a sing-song Vietnamese when playing make-believe with their food at the dinner table. Also helpful in foreign language development skills (duh) and promotes the concept of the Church being universal.

5. Double-Stuf Oreos
(Uh-huh!)

Date Night with the Wait Staff

Needless to say, Joe and i don't treat ourselves to many candel-lit dinners or nights out on the town. We're too budgeted and too romantic on a daily basis in the comfort of our own home to bother with those sorts of things... unless we have a gift card and a free sitter - er, um - grandchild-time-deprived grandparents. Last night, all those stars were aligned, so we braved the winter cold and headed out to dinner after dropping off the two eldest children at Nana and Pop's house (where they were treated to Happy Meals - lucky!).

We were (or at least *I* was) looking forward to an hour of dim-light, yummy (free-ish) food, and uninterupted spousal converation. So we took our seats at a secluded booth and ordered our drinks and platters of buttery seafood. We began discussing refinancing, gardening, the division of labor problems inherent in parish offices, our deep love for eachother, yada-yada-yada. I'm sure you can imagine how divinely romantic it all was. The dialogue would have been quite fluid, the romance blazing, and the night flawlessly dreamy were it not for the wait staff.

Don't get me wrong - they brought our food in record time and provided me with an abyss of cherry Coke, so the food service was great. But they just wouldn't stay away!!! Call me Miss Complainy Pants, but as a restaurant patron, if i wanted to know how cute your 6 year old granddaughter was when she said, "Orock Babama is MY president b/c Iiiiiiii voted for him!" I would have initiated a political conversation. And if I thought it appropriate for you to go into a five-minute monologue about your 5 daughters, their spouses, their ex's, step-grandchildren, out-of-wedlock relations and the fruits thereof, etc., then I .. wait, i DON'T think that's appropriate at all. And why do you? Also, i know my baby is adorable (thanks for noticing, and no, for the seventh time, we don't need a high chair), and I really am sincerely glad you love children, but could you please refrain from having an ongoing googey-goo conversation with him EVERY time you pass by our booth? I'm trying to have a romantic evening with my husband. We won't be dining alone again for at least a year.

Maybe i'm a snob, but i'm constantly critiquing modern customer service, and I think that dominating a dining couple with wait staff family trivia ranks among the capital offenses. So last night, despite our efforts to 'keep the love alive,' we came home having learned more about 3 waitresses than we did about eachother.

Rant complete.

January 22, 2009

Too many years have passed.

For a live television feed of the March for Life in Washington, D.C., click here. Thank God for EWTN!!!

[We certainly couldnt count on the mainstream media to stick around for a few extra days to give this national event any attention. The reporters are probably still recovering from the love fest - i mean, the Inaugural Ball - which was, as they bragged, "For the first time not exclusive to Washington dignitaries and elites." I lost count of all the pop-icons, Hollywood deities, comedians, and other multi-million dollar personalities whom i watched dance and laugh the night away. Thanks for the invitation, B.O. I feel so included now.]

This morning's reflection

My husband and i have always admired the monastic characteristics of winter, and when the earth is shrouded in her mantle of white, I'm reminded of the silence of a soul in adoration of the Most High.

Catholic -isms (not to be confused with Catholicism... although sometimes they end up being the same thing)

A new one to be added to the treasury is this:

Regarding Ring-Around-the-Rosie, a Catholic preschooler may, when referring to that beloved childhood pasttime, mispronounce it as "Ring-Around-the-Rosary."

And since I consider such misunderstandings to err less on the side of irreverence and *much* more on the side of oh-my-goodness-that-is-so-cute-how-could-i-possibly-correct-that?-i-wish-he'd-stay-4-years-old-forever, I smile in my heart and we play anyway.

Prayer Request

Asking for your prayers for my mama who will be undergoing invasive brain surgery on 02.04.09.

Thank you, and may God reward you for your powerful intercession!!

Censored Madness

I get myself into this kind of overly ambitious mess all the time. But there are rewards, i suppose. Like getting to snap and share photos... if you have a husband who is willing to dig the camera out of the diaper bag and come into the sloppy w.c. to play the role of photographer.*

So here.
This picture was crying out from the depths of digital memory logging,
"Share me!"

You *can* hear that, can't you?!

(*photo credit: J. Schmizzle)

'Tis the Season of the 3-4-5's

Meaning that, for a short (excedingly too short) time in my life, i find myself falling into that tiny population of those who have 3 kids under 4 years of age after 5 years of marriage.

I've not been part of this group for long, but i'm already counting its blessings and seeing how precious and how darned fleeting it is.

There are lots of diaper changes. Many messy hands and jellied mouths. The tumbling to the floor of siblings whose legs got twisted and tangled in the midst of their affection. Milky babies. Milky blankets, spit rags, onesies, wool sweaters, jeans, carpets, et al. Crumb-cluttered kitchen floors. Bathrooms that get nasty quick. Piles of itty bitty laundry and mud-caked Carharts that mock my domestic effort to keep up. Interupted rosaries. Toddler voices learning prayers. Ruins of toy set-ups. Requests to dance to radio music after supper dishes are done. The cooing of a sleeping baby. The crying of a sleep-deprived toddler. The peaceful, well-rested and pensive gaze of a preschooler. The coffee. The embrace of a spouse. Perfect love. God's grace.

It's busy. It's crazy. Sometimes it's overwhelming. But it's filled with huge joy. Unsurpassable happiness, in fact, especially when i recall that this home of mine that's been filled with the love of my spouse and children is my path to heaven, my refining fire, my delight.