Day 4: 20{4}40

61. Blooming Violets
62. warm spring days
63. melting snow
64. grace
65. the Library
66. new books and videos and CD's from the Library
67. a newly crawling baby
68. cloth diapers
69. St. Adalbert's
70. The parents who volunteer to teach CCD
71. The parent who helps me in the office :-)
72. That the Sacrament of Confirmation gives the grace necessary to those receiving it
73. the innocence of children
74. Guardian Angels
75. That God gives the grace to accomplish all that is necessary
76. Bedtime
77. A husband safely home
78. An evening that I did not have to wear a jacket
79. Happy children, fed, bathed, and snuggled in their beds for the night
80. That every day is a new beginning and opportunity to grow closer to Christ

Day 3: 20{4}40

41. Blogs
42. "For God so loved the world that He sent His only-begotten Son"
43. The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help
44. Calculators
45. Divine Mercy
46. Tradition
47. The Magisterium
48. Pope Benedict XVI and the Papacy
49. Holy Orders
50. Baptism
51. Confession
52. Eucharist
53. Confirmation
54. The Holy Spirit
55. Irish Dancing Music
56. Life
57. The Treasury of Grace
58. Redemptive Sacrifice
59. The Resurrection
60. The Paschal Mystery

oops - forgot to post this yeaterday:-)

Day 2: 20{4}40

21.  Mass
22. The Eucharist
23. Homemade granola
24. Legos :-)
25. health
26. working vehicles
27. Sunny days
28.My time at Magdalen College
29. My grandfather
30. My grandmother
31. a washing machine
32. a dishwasher
33. The Institute for Pastoral Theology
34. Airplanes
35. The sacrament of Matrimony
36. The Internet
37.Clean sheets
38. A baby's laugh
39. Clean floors
40. A Clean kitchen

Lunch time fun

We had some frosting left over from William's birthday cake and so for fun we made sandwich faces:

We just used a glass to make the circle shapes.

It's Lent!

On Fat Tuesday, I spent some time looking for ideas for Lent.  I really enjoyed looking at all the great ideas on people's blogs and was inspired to make our Lenten bulleting board:

In the cross on our board, I put 40 coins and each day the kids get to put one into the mite box for our Diocese's mission.  The kids love it.  We also made lap boards (in the envelope above) with a Lenten calendar to count down the days that I printed off from Catholic Icing.  They also enjoy the coloring but it's been hard for them to just color 1 square at a time.

With the kids we are praying a decade of the rosary together reading a story from our children's bible (they get to choose each day). We're also giving up sweets as a family.

Phil and I were able to go on retreat together at the beginning of Lent; wow - it was a great blessing  opportunity to re-focus on the important things in life - namely Christ and His Church. I loved especially just having time to sit and pray in front of the Eucharist; of course the reflections we were given on the Universal call to Holiness were great! Also, I'm trying to get to daily Mass more often - when Phil is home in the morning I've also been able to get to morning Mass without kids - it is so nice to have quiet reflective prayer-time. I am so grateful! For Lenten spiritual reading, I've been reading the awesome reflections from the prayer book: "Divine Intimacy" though it's based on the Tridentine Calendar, the meditations are great and they are really helpful, I also an reading St. Paul's letter to the Romans. 

Another mom who blogs at "A Minute Captured" from the Catholic mothers Blog Roll stopped by and left a comment so I checked out her site.  For Lent she's writing 20 things she's grateful for each day - What a great way to help prepare one's heart for a true celebration of the greatest gift - so though I'm late to join and probably won't get to 800, I'm starting my list today:
1. The Catholic Faith
2. Mary, who said yes to God and Motherhood
3. For my amazing and wonderful husband
4. For Lent and time to remember that our ultimate goal is heaven
5. For William my amazing, first born who is already five years old
6. For Miriam, the beautiful daughter who is so loving and wonderful a beautiful gift from God
7. For Luke, the sweetest baby ever
8. For a warm home, thanks to our wood stove and the labor of my husband
9. For the Sun
10. For family, especially siblings even when they are far away

11. For a new rug, that is soft and a great place for Luke to play and crawl

12. For friendship with other mothers

13. For St. Peter's Parish

14. For the many wonderful priests I've been blessed to know

15. For fresh eggs from our own chickens

16. Naps

17. Nursing babies

18. Scripture

19.  Sunday Mass

20. Sunday as a day of rest

Happy 3rd Sunday of Lent!

William's Birthday

On March 19, 2011 St. Joseph's Day, my first born son turned 5 years old!  Wow - the years have passed by so quickly!  We celebrated a bit early since Grandma was visiting from Milwaukee. 




He asked for a lightning McQueen cake - he really likes that Lightning McQueen is a fast race car. The cake wasn't quite like the picture that came with our mold but William was happy with it :-)

For his birthday we got him his very own tent - he was so excited that he slept in it in his room for the first few nights. 

Happy Birthday William!