Postcards from toddler-dom!

So lately, what with having a fourth child and everything, it seems like all I do all day is take care of children. And yes, I'm a stay at home mom, its what I do essentially. But when I mean ALL I do all day is take care of children I mean ALL I do all day is take care of children.

Theres a constant din in the background. I have to sometimes force myself to take a timeout from discipling everyone else! When I'm not breaking up fights I'm answering to the myriad demands of 3 tiny very demanding people. When they're not fighting or demanding they're eating....usually food I provide for them and have to cook. And when they're not eating they're asking me questions. Like "But what does Belle say to the Beast when he stops being a Beast?" or "Where does the sun live?" or "Why do I have to go to the corner for hitting Dom with a toy hockey stick?" Oh, and when all that isn't going on and sometimes at the same time, they're all creating individual works of vague mess.

Sometimes in the midst of all this toddler-ness that "To whom much is given, much will be required" quote hits me. And then I think, "Damn right!" or "Hells to the yes" or "True dat". Most days its asked of me constantly, times four little mouths. Don't you just hate when quotes from the Gospel up and hit you in the middle of your real life?

All this is to be expected when you have three toddlers so close in age- all the fighting, questions, noise, mess, repeating, teaching, cuddling, nurturing, that is. Clearly if it was easy to have multiple children close in age everyone these days would be doing it. But its just not.

I am deep in toddlerhood. So deep I can't imagine what the other side must be like. So deep I can barely imagine popping out the other side!

But hopefully if we keep on slogging through we'll make it. Right?? 

"To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others."

-Blessed John Paul II

Spring Dresses

Just had to share these adorable dresses and skirts from Anne M Cramer.

Don't they feel spring-y and lovely?

I could easily be very happy sipping tea in any of these three...or all!

As seen on The Daily Spark

Sucked back into Flannery O'Connor

Partly because I've been on the fence about what kind of novel to read next, and partly because I lack both time and attention span, I started re-reading Flannery O'Connor's short stories. I thought I'd just give myself a refresher on my favs but pretty soon I was totally sucked in and reading some stories I've never read before.

Its incredible how great her writing is that by somehow swirling these bizarre characters with brutal incidents beautiful profound tales emerge. My favourite part in reading anything she writes is the feeling of not knowing whats going on in the beginning of the story and being blown away by the time I read the last sentence! 

Ash Wednesday

Well Ash Wednesday has snuck up on me again. At least this year I have the excuse of having a small infant, but usually I let this beautifully sacrificial time go by the wayside. Its not that I don't have the good intentions to give things up, its the follow-through and the prayer that should go with it that seems lacking most years. 

Somewhere along the line I've heard the great advice that each Lent you should both give something up and add something. Add something like a new devotional, new prayers, readings etc. Good holy stuff in other words. This idea is great for those of us who let our daily prayers slip, or need something new to jazz up the old prayer life.

So this year I'm a bit stumped. I'm thinking of maybe a daily Chaplet. I think a commitment to a daily Rosary might crash and burn, getting up early for silent meditation is laughably impossible right now, and I'm just not feeling the pull to anything else. 

Anybody got any great ideas for a mom with too many young children and not enough time? What are your great intentions this Holy Lent?

Have a Blessed Day of Fasting and Abstinence!

Some baptizing going on...

We've got a new little sanctified soul in the house! Max was baptized these past weekend so we were all pretty excited. Its so nice to know you've done your part as a parent and got your kid into the Church, whew! 

Every baptism brings to life the crazy awesomeness of this sacrament to me. Its really incomprehensible to us, but the whole biblical background, and of course, Christ's words on the power of baptism really blows me away.

All your sins are forgiven. Period.

Ridic. 

Max was perfect by the way. I have no idea how pouring water over his head doesn't wake him up but me moving an arm in the middle of the night does, but it made for a quiet Mass. And then there was cake and a party.  

Heres a crazy picture of us and the lovely godparents.

Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James

It's with a heavy heart I write this little review.

Because of my great love of both PD James and all things Jane Austen it is sad to put into words what a disappointment Death Comes to Pemberley was to read. I grant you my expectations were pretty darn high. PD James is my fav contemporary mystery writer, who usually has beautifully thought out plots, character development, and spot-on prose. The characters of Pride and Prejudice are, well, perfect as we all know. So the combination of the two should have resulted in some awesome drawing room mystery involving our favorite characters in a carefully thought out dramatic murder mystery. How hard can that be to write?

Unfortunately this novel is not up to par with PD James' repertoire of great mysteries. The most glaring fault of the book is its incredibly slow pace. Usually James' books build to a climax. The tension and plot discoveries of the mystery usually have a riveting pace that keeps you guessing, you know, the fun part of murder mysteries. But Pemberley isn't a very exciting place in this novel. The crime occurs in the beginning of the novel and the sequence of events is repeated ad nauseum, but without new insights as to who the real killer is. No new excitement is offered and it seems painstaking to have the same events repeatedly told to different characters, an inquiry, and finally a trial. I kept thinking there would be an exciting twist, a second crime, Darcy revealing the true killer, but was continually disappointed.

James also breaks a golden rule of mystery writing and brings in a totally undeveloped and unrelated character as the real killer of the story. I found this baffling as James has never stooped to such a position in all her other mysteries. This not only left me disappointed but downright angry. How could the author take the easy way out that way? And to not involve any original Austen character as the real killer??

Another deficiency of the book was the sparse showing of Elizabeth's and Darcy's relationship. The two are hardly in the same room throughout the story, and the times of actual conversation is almost rationed. It seemed such a shame to have the world of Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage so poorly employed in the story.

I feel as if there were such big problems with this book that the discussion of how PD James handles Austen's characters is irrelevant, however, I liked the way James dealt with the characters. They felt instantly familiar and there was nothing glaringly contradictory to Austen. It just made the disappointment all the greater that this book missed the opportunity of making a really great mystery using such beloved characters!

Anyone else read it yet?

Lots of love

via purlbee

Hope everyone has a wonderful lovey day!

My little valentines woke up to special treat, and we may bake some special cookies later on.

For me and my beloved we'll be eating some chocolate together and maybe putting the kids to bed early?? 

Thats a hot date!