2016 Week 18 in Review

The Week in Pictures: 

It wasn't the best week for pictures but here is a quick hello/ update from each of the children!

It's hard to keep up with our little John - he's always on the go.  Though not yet walking he'll take steps here and there. He is an all-terrain crawler and gets around pretty well outside though we may need to invest in new pants for the next child.  He has 8 teeth and is working on more.  He loves being outside especially on our new swing set, taking baths and playing with his siblings.  He's loving that we have 2 full baths in our new home and will request a bath anytime we're near a bathroom.  He likes to "drive" the car before getting into his car seat so he sits in the driver seat (with the door closed) while I buckle Thomas in.  He's not so fond of confined spaces including church pews, mom's arms and our school room.  He's pretty good at letting us know his likes and dislikes and has picked up a few ASL signs  - "milk," "food" and "up". 

      

Thomas is always eager to be first at everything and is passionate about all he does.  You'll often find him with a sword in hand. He loves learning his ABC's and can actually write "T," "O" and "M." He loves his dry-erase white board and will draw pictures of himself fighting monsters and will often ask me for spelling words.  A reluctant potty trainee, he is pretty good with prompting right now but we still have a lot more "training" to do.

Luke will be 6 in a month!  He loves building with Legos.  Math is his favorite school subject and he has already finished his kindergarten math book and begun the first grade math book I ordered for next year.  He's also enjoying the "Life of Fred" read alouds we are doing for math enrichment.  He's not so fond of writing but is great at reading simple words and beginning readers.  He's a sweet and thoughtful big brother and has been sharing his "super doggy" with John at night so "John will wake up happy."

Here's Luke's latest Lego creation. (He inherited his sister's pink Legos.)

It's such a joy to have our Miriam and a blessing to have another communicant in the family!  It's been a rough week for her as she hasn't been feeling well and was up most of the night with an ear infection Friday.  She's become an avid reader and is reading through our collection of chapter books.  She recently really enjoyed "The Light Princess" by George MacDonald and entered a contest at the Library where she read 26 books by different Authors with last names for each letter of the alphabet A-Z. 

 Master Lego builder, amazing big brother and dad's right hand - we are really enjoying our 10 year old!  William's Lego creations are pretty impressive and he's often problem-solving and building with materials around the house.  He loves to ride his bike, listen to Brian Jacques audio books and help dad with the many new house projects.  It's a joy to have such a great helper and he loves to play with John pushing him in his little minivan and on the new swings. William continues to benefit from the Stern Center tutoring and is making steady progress in his school work and looking forward to building forts this summer.  

 Miriam and William began piano lessons 2 weeks ago.  We are blessed with a piano teacher who will come to our home to teach them.  They are both doing well!

 A fun picture courtesy of Phil - foam swords and light sabers are great for early morning sword fights:-)

I was just excited about this "sacrament wall" in the kids room.  It's right next to our "play Mass" altar up there. We have this beautiful baptism picture that William's Godfather gave him and I put the baptism pictures of each of the kids around it with a special holy water font underneath.  I might try to make a "First Communion" wall too :-)

 Here are a couple projects I'm working on - a little Sacramentary for a peg doll swap.  I'm painting 13 of these for a peg doll Mass set swap I'm doing.

 This was a Monstrance for our play Mass set that I painted for the kids.  

In the works for Simple Saints: 

St. Michael the Archangel

Highlights from the Week: 

I am so grateful for all Phil does for our family!  We really missed him this weekend as he spent Friday afternoon/evening, all day Saturday and half of Sunday at the St. Anne's Shrine with engaged couples.  Sunday Mass definitely goes a lot more smoothly with dad around!

We began "home school swim lessons" at The Edge in Essex - for the next 5 Fridays the kids get to spend an hour in the water for lessons.  

Miriam unfortunately was up much of Friday night with an ear infection which necessitated a call to our new pediatrician.  He personally met us at his office in "work clothes" to take a look at Miriam's ear and then called in the prescription to our local pharmacist whom he knew by name.  The joys of living in a small town!

Saturday was a beautiful day and we were able to get the bikes and scooters out and ride on our road which is essentially a long driveway for the five houses in our sub-division.  John really loved the infant bike seat.  

Praise the Lord for His many blessings!  The Easter Season has flown by and I can hardly believe this Thursday we'll be celebrating the Ascension!  We're lucky to be in a diocese that has preserved the Thursday celebration so we'll be celebrating by attending morning Mass and then having dinner with friends.  May Our Lord bless your week and know we'll be praying for you, please also remember us in your prayers!

    

2016 Weeks 16 & 17 In Review

Week 16 and 17 in Pictures: 

 

This week Miriam made her First Communion on her 8th birthday! In preparation for her First Communion, she had a retreat through the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.  The day before the children receive their First Communion, they receive their First Confession.  In Miriam's case it wasn't her first but it was still a wonderful way to prepare her heart to receive Our Lord for the first time!

 After their confession, the children renewed their baptismal vows and were robed in a white garment and lit a candle they had made while on retreat.

Miriam had Thursday evening and all day Friday to do many special activities in preparation for her confession on Saturday and Communion on Tuesday, her birthday.

 Getting ready!

 Miriam received her First Communion on Tuesday, April 19th at Christ the King Parish from Msgr. John McDermott.  This is the same parish we had the blessing of attending daily Mass at while living in the parish rectory for our first 3 months.  It was a  joyful day and a blessing to share it with the parishioners there as well as many of our homeschooling friends.

 Miriam received a new bike for her 8th Birthday :-)

 Amidst the joyful preparations for Miriam's First Communion, we were blessed to spend time with some old friends from LaCrosse diocese -  Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George.  Phil asked them to come and visit while they were travelling around the East coast and while they were here in Vermont they spoke to around 500 people - not bad for a 48 hour visit.

The boys and I were blessed to join them for lunch (Miriam was on her retreat)... 

and Miriam spent time with the sisters Friday evening.  

 

Around the house we have been working on many projects!  We planted 4 apple trees.  

We also were able to get a free play set.  Phil and William brought it to our house in 2 trips with the trailer.  It still needs some work but the kids are already enjoying it!

 Phil built a new sandbox and was able to find some free sand to fill it!

 The kids love their sand hill.  

 Phil built himself a work bench and a side table for me to use in the school room for painting my peg dolls.

 And my favorite amazing project was the bookshelves Phil built me so that we could get our books out of boxes and organize the basement.

The basement play space is coming together and we are almost completely unpacked.  There are a few boxes to unpack in the garage, basement and a couple closets but our home is now almost box-free and it's great to be able to find things again!  

 Today we walked in the St. Albans Maple Fest parade with the Vermont Right to life group.

The kids got to ride in this cool car - do you see Miriam in the back seat?

A neat fact about St. Albans  (which is about 20 minutes from Fairfax) is that it is named for the first English martyr.  

Highlights from the last two weeks:

 These past two weeks were filled with many blessings!  We rejoice that our second child can now receive Our Lord in Holy Communion!  How beautiful it is to see our little ones growing in faith. Each day presents it new challenges, joys, struggles and graces that help us hopefully to grow closer to Christ and become more like Him.  Recently, Facebook reminded me that 4 years ago we celebrated our oldest children's 6th and 4th birthdays in Stevens Point with the amazing families there who had become part of our family at St. Peter's Parish.   Little did we know know then that we would soon be called on a pilgrimage of faith that would lead us to Gaylord, MI and then to Green Bay, WI and now to the diocese of Vermont in Burlington.  Each step on this journey has been challenging and joy-filled and has prepared us for the next step.   Praise God for His many blessings and may we be faithful to His call!  Our prayers are with you please continue to pray for us!      

2016 Week 15 In Review

The Week in Pictures: 

John turned 1 today!!!  Where did the year go? 

It's also only 9 days until Miriam's 1st Holy Communion & 8th Birthday!  This weekend, among other preparations for this special day, I made a white garment for her to wear next Saturday.   This week, through the  Catechesis of the Good Shepherd,  Miriam will be on retreat Thursday evening(4-6), Friday (9-4) and Saturday(9-4).  When she goes to Confession as part of a retreat with the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in preparation for her First Holy Communion, she'll be clothed in a white garment and renew her baptismal vows.  

We now have a "new to us" piano!  Miriam is excited to begin piano lessons again!

Father Henry Furman, our pastor, came to bless our new home.  We enjoyed a wonderful evening with him here for dinner - what a blessing!

This is the beautiful view from our front porch. 

Highlights from the week: 

My head is spinning :-)  Life is joyfully busy and each day if full, praise God!  I am so grateful for the many blessings and the joys of settling into our new home.  We are mostly out of boxes and the house is slowly becoming home.  We're looking forward to celebrating Miriam's First Communion next week and having friends join us for this special occasion.  Our prayers continue to be with each of you during this blessed Easter Season - please pray for us!

2016 Week 14 In Review

The Week in Pictures: 

 Aunt Jenny came to visit us!  She drove all the way from Wisconsin in "Molly" her trusty car to spend Easter week with us. 

 She did the finishing touches on Miriam's 1st Communion dress while she was here. 

 Jello Easter eggs :-)

 She made these amazing eggs for each of the children!

 Miriam's beautiful First Communion dress made from the Wedding dress I wore in Rome when Phil and I received our "Sposi Novelli" Papal Blessing on our honeymoon.  Thank you Aunt Jenny!!

A bit of Super hero fun - here are my "Tiny Titans" :-)

 We set up the "Play Mass" Altar in the boys' room and Thomas was really excited to play Mass.  In fact, this morning while the older kids were home schooling, I found him upstairs in his room playing Mass.

 I was asked to paint Our Lady of Guadalupe for the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help along with some more St. Therese peg dolls.

We made a Rice Krispie Lamb Cake to finish off the Easter Octave.  

I had intended to frost it but due to sickness we kept it really simple :-)

Highlights from the Week:

We loved spending time with Aunt Jenny but the days passed much too quickly and were way too short - we miss you already!  

Thomas and Phil had been fighting a cold and it caught up with everyone else on Saturday.  Poor John was up every hour so unfortunately the younger children stayed home with Mom on Divine Mercy Sunday.  Everyone is on the mend now though I can hear the echo of coughs as I type.  

May the blessings of Divine Mercy Sunday and the delayed Feast of the Annunciation be with your families!  Our prayers are with you, please continue to pray for us!