Friends

Here's a little preview of what is to come. The funny part is that this is the only picture that the kids were instructed to "be goofy" for.

I have a lot of nice lengthy posts in my head that ya'll may or may not ever have the privilege to read. While I keep you wondering I thought I would share some pictures of some very goofy kids, 3/5 of which are ours. On our way home from my grandpa's funeral in Kansas we stopped to stay with some dear friends in Minnesota. Bill and Meredith have three wonderful kids...well, we are assuming the third is wonderful..she/he isn't due to arrive until the fall. We were too busy enjoying our time that we all forgot to take pictures of our visit. These pictures are an attempt to capture our time there...guess the kids sum it up quite accurately.

The pictures don't tell of much needed late-night chats with great friends who are plugging down the same path as we are or of all the wonderful meals that seemed to come right after another. Bill is godfather to Aidan and Brett and I are godparents to Isaac who although we joke about being a mini-Aidan (remember, same path) truly is a unique almost 4 year-old who is a pleasure to be around. And doesn't that last picture say it all about Simon...he's super sweet! Our short visit was a great ending to a not-so-wonderful-reason-to-be-traveling.

My baby

So, "this" is the reason I'm not quite where I want to be on my "Spring Cleaning" list. Actually, in all fairness to this precious baby, she's been pretty darn great. We have the upstairs completely finished. The kids' bedrooms are absolutely clutter-free and everything they own (which is a lot less than before) has a spot.
My next main project is the kitchen. We don't have the best set-up in the kitchen so I'm going to have to be pretty creative in order for it to feel "clutter-free".
Can you tell I'm sick of clutter? I'm done with it! It's gone, outta here! We don't have a huge house, but I have a feeling that it will seem a lot larger than it is if we just get rid of some of the stuff we have. The bedrooms already seem a lot bigger. I realize that with a family of 6 we are going to have stuff, but I've also discovered the less we have, the more we cherish what we have. The kids are playing with the toys they have now. They are reading and rereading the books that have been recently unearthed. Something else I have discovered is that the more kids we have the less things we need. That sounds wrong, but truly, the more children in this house, the more the kids play with one another and don't need a ton of toys. Poor Veronica can't get a moment to herself!

What brought this sudden desire to get rid of stuff? Well, this Spring has been one full of reflection on my part. A young mother of four from our parish is battling leukemia, my grandpa is within days of his death, several mothers are undergoing some very difficult pregnancies where holding a baby at the end is not necessarily a guarentee. Let's just say I've had a lot of time to reflect on the important things in life. My children might still annoy me at times, but I thank God that I'm here to be annoyed by them. I might not feel up to cleaning my house or making dinner, but goodness I can so by golly, I will. Do I want to read "one more chapter"? Not always, but I need to. Is it really that important that I have lunch ready for my dear husband when he walks home from work? Not really, but I'm going to anyway. Am I super-woman? Absolutely not, but by the grace of God I'm trying to live each of my days more fully than the last.

And now some humor that I think my grandpa would even appreciate. When he was younger my grandpa shot his leg during a hunting accident. He had it amputated and has never let the fact that he only has one leg slow him down, at all. Well, when Brett got home last night I told him the sad news that my grandpa was fading quickly and we'll need to be making some plans to go to KS for a funeral. He is of course sad. He thinks very highly of this WWII vet, loving husband and father of 6! Anyway, after enough time had passed so this comment would not seem uncaring, Brett looked at me and said, "You know Meghan....I've always known that he was on his last leg!".

Trials

Do you ever feel like everything is going wrong in the lives of everyone you know? My goodness a lot of people are going through some major serious trials right now and I'm not sure I can handle much more. I think I need to stop answering my phone. If anyone else calls with less-than-stellar news my repsonse may be "Didn't your mother teach you that if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all"?

Realistically I know this isn't possible. God allows us to be tried for our greater good. He doesn't make these evils, I know that, but He does allow them to happen. I stopped asking "why?" a long time ago. Like Aslan the Lion says, "It's not your place to know"...or something like that.

I don't mean to be so vague. I will go into more detail at some point...most likely when my baby isn't crying...lol! And I'll post happy pictures because we have lots of those.

I'll end by saying that a lot of people in my life could use some major prayers. Not, "So and so is having a bad day" type prayers, but some major, super duper serious prayers!

From my living room

I'm posting this from the recliner in my living room. Our desktop bit the dust and so we splurged and bought a laptop. We are planning on setting up my dad's old desktop this summer, but since we have no connection to the outside world other than by that nifty thing we call the "internet" we decided to go ahead with the laptop. I now have a wireless connection and I'm super excited about it. Yipeee!!!!
I'm less excited about the fact that I can't seem to access my email account. I'm sure I'm missing some very important emails.

In other news:
Aidan has his First Holy Communion this Sunday. He and Brett spent some good time this evening making his banner. It turned out really cute. I'll post pictures when I figure out how.

Gianna and I were coloring this afternoon and she wanted to be the teacher. When she picked up a color I asked her, "What color is that?" She looked at it, obviously having no clue what color it was and looked right at me saying, "Mommy, I'm the teacher remember."

I believe I've done enough on this computer for the night. Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs get ya!

What's New?!

I'm glad you asked. First of all, I've finally succeeded in using the computer "sparingly". I no longer feel the need to check my facebook friend's updates every 20 minutes. :-) What brought this about, I'm not sure. I'm amazed how how many hours there are in a day when I'm using the hours I've been given in a productive way. Yay!

In other news: Brett and I have taken a position with the diocese as the new directors of the Newman Center. Brett's employed on paper, I'm employed through an "understanding" with the Bishop. We have been putting in countless hours getting the place cleaned out and spruced up. Hopefully when the students return next year it will have a different feel and different look. We're hoping to put in many hours now so we can sit back and let the place run on it's own (through the student officers) more or less. It's been a great experience so far. We have so many ideas for the place and have great support from the diocese. We really want to make this a place for the students to grow in their faith and development meaningful and true friendships. Yesterday was spent running errands for the retreat that our fearless traveling nuns are putting on for the students and putting a together of box of activities for the kids to have so we don't have to cart stuff back and forth when we are working there.

The semester is winding down, which means single-motherhood for a couple of weeks. If these allergies would vanish I would be thrilled, but I'm extremely thankful for the green things I've been seeing. I'm not sure what you would call them...buds? Could it be?

Bath Baby!

I had forgotten how wonderful and relaxing it can be to bathe a baby in the middle of the afternoon or in the early evening. Just when the rest of life is getting a little hectic it is nice to draw a nice warm bath and spend some quiet time bathing the baby. Luckily it is just as relaxing for the baby. She loves her baths and I couldn't resist getting the camera out.
This is where I need to mention that I love Veronica's tongue. There have always been certain aspects of each kid that I just can't get enough of. With Veronica, it's her tongue. She has the sweetest little tongue, and I love that it's always sticking out. It must be an age thing because I have a friend whose daughter was born a day before Veronica and her tongue is doing the same thing.

He is Risen!

Happy Easter everyone! We went to the Easter Vigil Mass last night and it was as beautiful as ever. Just pictures today, nothing profound about Jesus's Resurrection although it is indeed profound!