Advent Gratitude

Only 4 days until we celebrate our Savior's birth! As I was reading some of my friends blogs I was just stuck by how much I have to be grateful for and what a beautiful gift it is to have a season where we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Incarnate Lord with such joy. I just want to list some of the things I'm thankful for right now :-)

A son who is happily playing with a bucket of snow, and a couple cars in our mud room.

A sweet daughter who is joyfully spinning a chair around in the library and letting me type this blog post.

The baby who is now 17 weeks in utero and that the queasiness is beginning to abate.

A wonderful husband who has so generously helped on a regular basis with dishes, laundry & cleaning & shopping the past few months and is just a great father and spouse.

The many small blessings of everyday - the little joys in smiles and hugs, unexpected happy moments and the gift of being able to spend each day at home with my children.

A beautiful, rich Catholic faith and community that is so much a part of my every day.

And well so much more but my time is up :-) I hope and pray everyone has a truly Merry and Blessed Christmas!

Family update

Well it's official - we're expecting baby #3 due sometime towards the end of May or beginning of June. Praise God for His many blessings!

Latest addition

Here's the Latest addition to our menagerie - Polish Roosters - they are already making friends with our Guineas and the kids love to chase them :-) Cleo is waiting for her chance to get them- see her in the background.

Rainy days

Gotta love those rainy days when you have an umbrella handy!

Dancing - the joys of little ones

Yesterday William pressed the button on our "Fridge Farm" and grabbed Miriam and said "Let's Dance." It was just such a cute photo opportunity I thought I'd share it :-)

How to make a Saint Paul Pinata

From start to finish this project took about 2 weeks because I let the children add a few layers during their Vacation Bible School week - it could be completed in 1 week if time was short.

Items needed - Time, imagination, recyclable items (listed below), newspaper, flour, water, paint

Step 1: I found a picture online to use as my reference of what St. Paul looked like and then assembled random recyclable items to make the basic shape...I used a cereal box(it will hold the candy), some water bottles/ a pine sol bottle & a milk jug & a hanger I stuck them together with masking tape. It's important that you put a hanger in at the beginning and make sure it will hold the finished pinata.


Step 2: Get the Paper Mache ready - you need flour, water, & newspaper. Tear the paper into strips (it's easier to tear with the grain) & mix 2 parts water to 1 part flour (I always estimate).

Step 3: Prepare the workspace with newspaper & place the strips in the flour/water mixture & then smooth onto the pinata. Make sure to use long strips to secure loose parts - when it dries it will be very strong.

Step 4: Cover the entire front of the pinata and let dry (on a hot summers day, it was ready to move in a couple of hours but it can take a lot more time in cool weather.) As soon as the pinata is dry to the touch, you can turn it over & cover the back. On the same day, I was able to hang my pinata to dry.

Step 5: When the 1st coat on the Pinata is dry, cut a hole and add candy. After it was full, I covered the hole with masking tape & we put two more layers(the 1st 2 days of VBS). I also added a book by "paper mache" ing over a folded newspapar. The more layers you put on the stronger the pinata will be.

Step 6: Paint the Pinata - I just used craft paint from Michael's.

Step 7: I added a sword with Masking tape & then the kids had fun hitting him with a foam covered bat. (see 1st picture)

July Project

The big project for me in July was our Parish Vacation Bible School. For the past 4 years we've been writing our own curriculum - I generally do the teaching points & then one of our very musically talented parishoners does the music, other volunteers teach & Phil handles all of the nitty gritty tasks & the actual directing and coordinating during that week. The overall theme was "In the Footsteps of St. Paul" in honor of the recently concluded Year of St. Paul. Each day followed the life of Saint Paul from his conversion and the focussing on the adventures he had while on the Missionary Journeys. Each day always has a Saint or Saints & Prayer that the kids learn. Everything went really well this year! I wasn't able to stop with just writing the teaching points this year though but ended up organizing the crafts and a skit - thus the kids & I were exhausted by the end of the week but I think everyone had fun. Here's some pictures of our crafts. I'd upload the Curriculum but I'm not sure how to post a pdf file.

Fourth of July Weekend

4th of July weekend in review...

Grandma Lawson visited

We set off Fireworks

We saw the Stevens Point Parade

Mom had a birthday

May God bless our Country and grant that our nation may foster Life from conception to natural death.

June at the Lawsons

June has been a fun and busy month for our family! In Wisconsin - spring comes around the beginning of June, the days get much longer & everyone seems to come alive! Lucky for us, this is the time of year when Phil's job isn't quite as busy & he is able to take some vacation time so the first two weeks of June we had dad at home :-) We began by planting our gardens - we have a vegetable garden, a Jesus, Mary & Joseph Flower garden & a strawberry & pumpkin patch.



Another exciting day for us was our trip to Mt. Olympus Water Park in the WI Dells (we got free tickets from our credit union) so the trip only cost us $5 for parking & gas!

Grandma Lawson came to visit us for a weekend after our trip to the Dells. We realised that Miriam definately takes after Phil's side of the family - she looks just like grandma!


The next big event was the arrival of our new guinea fowl - we picked out 4 from the Nordbergs (unfortunately 1 didn't make it throught the first night). I think Cleo is the most excited person in our family - she's been intently watching the keets grow.


That same weekend was our Parish picnic at St. Peter's, while we didn't win the big raffle prize of $2000, William did win a nice mini raffle prize which included a bubble grill, 2 chairs, 2 butterfly nets & bug catching kits - He and Miriam have been really enjoying this prize!






Friday June 19th, The tritz boys came over to play for the morning and here's a picture of the kids enjoying the new bubble grill.



Saturday June 20th, we had a delightful day at the Milwaukee Zoo with Grandma Lawson (we were lucky to get free tickets from Phil's Aunt Kay). William & Miriam really enjoyed the train ride at the end!

For Father's Day, William & Miriam made a special pencil holer with their pictures on it for Dad's desk and gave dad a new hammock. As the month of June comes to an end, we're just enjoying our summer weather and the fun times together with family & friends! From our family to yours - hope you're having a great summer!

Patty's random morning musings

I have a bunch of great post ideas that take more than a few random minutes to finish...perhaps I'll get them up soon. In the mean time here's what my day allows...

Personal space takes on a whole new meaning when you have 2 kids & a dog fighting for your lap.

Miriam is sporting her first pigtails today - it is so much fun to have a little girl with cute curly hair :-) Pictures to follow later - pictures take more than a random few minutes to upload -my downfall in blogging.

The other morning, I had a rude awakening at 5:30am - as Phil left to go to an early morning meeting, Cleo (our 90 lb Weimeraner) decided to take his place in bed.

White shirts and kids with muddy shoes don't mix.

Last night we enjoyed our first homegrown lettuce salad. Gardens are great!

oops - there's crying that's the end of my spare moments for now.

Have a wonderful day

Some Fun times

Miriam enjoys playing with the Rabbit at Grandma Lawson's House

A Sweet Mother's Day Card

William gives Miriam a push

A Productive Day

Today was a beautiful day & quite productive. Laundry is done (relatively speaking) and hanging out on the line; the kitchen's a bit cleaner (counter & stove top are shiny clean); I started working on the curriculum for our Vacation Bible School - In the Footsteps of St. Paul; learned how to use twitter, & fixed an annoying problem on the computer that had mystified me for weeks now. Now this evening I get to enjoy an evening out with other Mom's at a local restaurant while Phil pitches for our Parish Softball team's 3rd game. Thank God for little favors & happy days!

Mom's little helper

Here's the real reason my blog isn't always up-to date :-)

Miriam is One

Miriam's Birthday was on Divine Mercy Sunday this year - both kids had birthdays on great feast days! How quickly this year has gone by - and Miriam has some great accomplishments already - she started walking at 10 months & 1 week (earlier than her brother) and to great fanfare as it was right in front of Grandma Lawson while we were visiting in Milwaukee. She is also already communicating well - says mama & dada at appropriate times & to the correct person (though sparingly) and can sign milk, more & hurt. She has a climb every mountain approach to life and enjoys standing on chairs "look mom no hands" and has to do everything big brother is doing.

To celebrate the kids birthdays, we had a party on April 18th - Grandma Lawson, Great Grandpa & Great Grandma, & Cousin Carrie made the trek up from Milwaukee to celebrate. Thanks for celebrating with us - we had so much fun! William had fun helping to make his "Thomas pinata" and really enjoyed eating the Winnie-the-Pooh cake.

William is three!

Wow where did the time go - my little baby boy is now 3 years old! He had a great B-day on the feast of St. Joseph. It's nice that his birthday is a solemnity - since it falls during Lent, we can still celebrate. :-) We had a fun morning at a friend's St. Joseph celebration. And later that evening we He had a birthday cream puff, some ice cream from Coldstone creamery (check out their b-day club for free ice cream on your birthday) & three special gifts (1 from Mom & Dad; 1 from Grandma Lawson & 1 from Grandma & Grampa Gomez & 6 Uncles)- all Thomas the train presents - he was so happy! Have you ever noticed that Thomas & trains are always crashing into things, getting into scrapes & getting messy? No wonder little boys love the Thomas episodes...the day after his birthday William smashed a poptart on Henry & after that was cleaned up painted him a new color (luckily it was just water colors).

Cool You Tube Site

The Vatican has a channel on You tube and you can subscribe to get the news updates they are posting there. It's almost like you're in Rome watching the Holy Father! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe1tOAxDWqY

Happy Belated Birthday Uncle Joey!

Uncle Joey Gomez turned 16!!! Happy Birthday March 10th. We hope you had a great birthday!

Love, William & Miriam (&mom & dad)

Craziness

The last few weeks have been a bit hectic! The week before Lent, we had some extra penance to prepare ourselves for this holy season: Sick kids(ear infections) which led to a doctor visit and very little sleep, a car accident (just before our Dr's appointment in the only car that fits everyone), a strained budget...just a reminder for us to place our trust in God and keep looking toward our final goal. Our little bit of hardship proved a good reminder, as this Holy Season of Lent began, to prepare our hearts to celebrate the great mystery of our faith made present at Easter when Jesus emptied Himself completely, willingly died for us conquering sin and death, showed us the path to eternal life, redeemed us and raised our dignity to adopted sons of the Father.

Having to cut back a little, a car accident in which no one was hurt, and children who are only sick for a short while don't seem so bad when put in persective and we were blessed with a new 1998 Pontiac Montana mini-van (well new to us anyways).

On Ash Wednesday, while Phil was giving out Ashes at the 8am Mass at St. Peter's, he was photographed and the picture made it in our Stevens Point Journal.

The following weekend Patty & kids travelled to Milwaukee so Patty & Miriam could attend the Women of Christ conference while William stayed with Grandma. While in Milwaukee, Miriam decided to dazzle everyone by taking her first steps - right in front of Grandma. She has since been diligently perfecting her new found skill and is walking quite well - a quick jump into the toddler stage!

Phil, back in Stevens Point, helped lead an amazing discernment retreat for young adults: The John Paul the Great Young Adult retreat while we were away. On the way home, Patty & kids took a slight unintentional detour to visit Green bay...there must be some magnetic pull...and everyone made it home safe & sound.