Pictures, where are you?

I really really want to post some of the latest absolutely adorable pictures of what the kids have been up to. But the thing is, we just bought this amazing new 10MP camera... and we have dial-up, so it takes an unjustifiably long time to upload any file that isn't pitifully small. I'll get around to tolerating the long process sometime soon. Maybe. Hopefully.

Cold but not forgotten

You poor last swig of coffee. You're ice cold, but i'll still force you down. Piles of laundry, sticky breakfast cereal hands, popped confetti-filled balloons, sibling quibbling - none of it could force me to spill you down the drain. Though your allure and aroma are faded, I'm faithful and committed, down to the last drop.

Like Magdalen at the Sepulchre

(Subtitled "Yet Another Good Reason to Have Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in Your Parish" or alternatively "Moms of Young 'Uns Show Up without Notice (most of the time).")

Last evening, I was able to scrape together a few spare minutes and managed to get out of the house without my entourage and into a local parish, so as to spend a few moments in silent adoration of our Eucharistic Lord . Joe was home for the night with zero outdoor work plans, we just wrapped-up dinner, the kids were all fed and happy, and even Leopold had a full belly and empty diaper. The DH was willing to do the supper clean-up if I "just hurried up and got out the door without lolly-gaggin' so Rosemarie'd stop saying 'coat!'."

So off I went - alone (alone!?) - to a quiet chapel, expecting be able to flop my wearied and thirsty self down at the feet of Jesus in person. Just for a few mintues, which were, to me, worth their weight in gold.

I, like M. Magdalen, went with great hope and expectation to the place where I knew Jesus's Body would be, needing to be with Him. And, when I showed up, they had taken Him away.

This was not my home parish, so of course I didn't read the bulletin wherein, I am sure, the priest had noted the early reposition of the Blessed Sacrament on that day. Gotta accomodate the Lenten Mission. But I had gone to Him in great haste, holes-in-the-knees jeans and all (Joe was shooing me out the door, remember?), desiring to lay myself down to pay homage to the King of kings by simply being with Him. To watch and pray with Him. But He was gone.

Gone because of human scheduling conflicts.

*sad face*

The moral: Every parish needs perpetual adoration! Sometimes we need to be with Jesus unexpectedly, at weird hours, in the stillness of dawn like Mag, or just for those few minutes of sanity that descend upon the home right after supper time. What can i do to help make this happen? Anyone? Anyone?

We spent our sunday

rediscovering the fun of fishing our pond and revisiting water's edge rules so as to prevent near occassions of wetness.

Seriously, though, after looking at this picture, i have to ask myself, "What wouldn't i trade to be a little tyke for a day?"

Never too young to know how to impress the ladies

What i heard him say yesterday while dressing:

"Hey mom - I think i'm going to wear my more handsomer socks today. You know, since we're going to be visiting Gracie."

Looking forward to this:

The family and i always await with pregnant anticipation the blooming of the variety of wildflowers that carpet our woods.

Needless to say, that's where we've been spending a great deal of our time - in the woods or in the yard, discovering afresh the ways that God reveals Himself to us in the created world.

And if i have the courage to venture outside with 3 small children, then noone has an excuse to stay indoors! So get off the computer and turn your gaze out the window and accept spring's invitation. Take your coffee out there tonight after supper. That's what i'll be doing.