Time After Epiphany Daybook

Outside my window, it is foggy again. We have had foggy mornings with beautiful blue skies in the afternoon for the past week or so.

In the kitchen, the children are planning the menu that they want when I have our baby.

Breakfast:
Waffles
Fruit Smoothies

Lunch:
Grape and Tuna Sandwiches or Soup (cut up grapes taste delicious in tuna fish sandwiches)

Dinner:
Pizza or Hot Dogs
Fruit Salad
Root Beer Floats

I am enjoying listening to Catherine and Bernadette singing, various children playing the piano for fun, and Bernadette practicing her violin. The other day while we were talking to my dad via Facetime, my two oldest amused my dad by singing Wheel the Perambulator for him. They used to sing this nonsense song to Elizabeth often when she was a baby. Now, my dad is looking forward to hearing and watching Bernadette play Vivaldi's Concerto in G Minor, 3rd Movement or something by ear on her violin. One of these days, I should maybe record one or more of my children singing or Bernadette playing by ear and share it here.

I am thankful that we can communicate with my dad via Facetime. Elizabeth and Kieran like to see him and blow kisses to him. My three youngest children have never actually met my dad. I miss him a lot and wish that he didn't live so far away. He was a great father when I was growing up and is very good with children. I have often thought that he is a child at heart because of his understanding and patience with children.

Photo taken by my husband

I am hearing Kieran say, "Daddy work." He is also looking at the photo below and saying, "Teesa, Berdette, Finnian, Packick, and Eliabeth (sounds like Elizabeth without the z)." The other day, I said, "I am going to the library." Kieran responded, "No, wait." Occasionally, we pick my husband up in the library parking lot. Last Saturday, I stopped at the library and had Catherine return some books. As we waited for Catherine to return to the car, Kieran started calling, "Daddy." He called for his daddy the rest of the way home. I guess that our little boy associates waiting in the library parking lot with picking up "Daddy".

I am praying for my baby and my husband. My husband has a lot to finish at work before our baby is born. I am so thankful for him and often pray that St. Joseph intercedes for him, helping him to become a great saint, to be the best husband and father that he can be, and granting him final perseverance. I think that the sacrifices that our husbands make for our families are often overlooked and under appreciated. May God bless my husband!

In the learning rooms

Playing Blokus

We have been busy with lessons, puzzles, and games. Elizabeth was so happy to be able to do this puzzle all by herself. I congratulated her on doing so and spoke to her about some of the states, but I wasn't surprised that she could put the puzzle together on her own.

USA Floor Puzzle

When Catherine was about three, my parents, knowing how much I liked puzzles and how much I had enjoyed visiting Notre Dame Cathedral when I was in college, gave me this 3-D puzzle of Notre Dame Cathedral. Catherine helped me build it and it has graced the top of one of our bookcases ever since. Friends who see the puzzle always comment on how much they like it. I think that puzzles provide a wonderful and fun means of improving a child's spatial reasoning skills.

Notre Dame Cathedral 3-D Puzzle

I am thinking about what I will read this Lent. I have had The Cross and the Beatitudes: Lessons on Love and Forgiveness by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen on my wish list for over a year and know that I want to read it. I just need to decide whether I should buy the copy linked above or this one. I am also thinking about rereading I Believe in Love: A Personal Retreat Based on the Teaching of St. Thérèse of Lisieux by Fr. Jean C.J. d'Elbee. If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know.

I will definitely be trying to read The Liturgical Year. Our old assistant pastor recommended this series to our parish a little over a year ago. A few months later, a friend recommended it, saying that St. Therese's family used to read from this series each day. I am not very consistent in reading from The Liturgical Year, but when I do I learn a lot. This series provides not only a greater understanding of the Church year, but also of the saints. Through this series, Dom Gueranger has left a wonderful gift to the faithful.

I am pondering

"God exalts none but the humble."

~ Abbe Francois Trochu, Saint Bernadette Soubirous, p. 384~

I am reading Children and Parents by Ven. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. It is full of wisdom, as is evidenced by this quote:

"There is also the relationship between purity and faith. The want of faith in the modern world is not due to the fact  that men are not given reasons for faith; rather the reason comes from want of proper conduct. The impure may see all -- except God, and that is why in the end, they will see nothing. Sin will not cheat a man out of the fragrance of the rose, but it will cheat him out of that sweeter soul-fragrance of the Divine, which is folded in every petal."

p. 178

Plans for this week 

• A follow-up doctor's appointment for my oldest son who has an infected tonsil
• My last ultrasound for this pregnancy. Theresa and Patrick are excited that they will be coming with me.
• A violin lesson
• Mass
• Symphony rehearsal, followed by a pizza party
• Trying to get things ready for this baby's birth. I was happy to finish all of the ironing on Saturday. Now I need to conquer Mount Neverrest (a.k.a. the laundry). Just as I think that I am almost there, someone wets their bed, etc. However, I know that I am simply being given an opportunity to pray more for my family as I wash their clothes and linens.

A picture thought

Elizabeth and Elizabeth's Doll