My little ones ...

... are growing up.

Hey mom, this one's for you. Hope it brightens your day as you recover from your surgery! Love you!!


Kate wants to be a big girl now too.

take my hand, sis.

let's walk awhile

we'll show you the way

we'll stick together in thick or thin

we'll bring each other joy

we'll show each other love

A little laundry ...

I'm not sure where I got this idea, online somewhere several years ago now.  I'm sorry I don't have a link and can't credit this.  This is just a fun and easy little activity my girls enjoy.  Since I have to keep Maria out of the kitchen (see previous post), I thought I would divert her energy into the laundry room.

Buy some plastic clothesline and clothespins.  Find a safe place to hang it in your house.  Get some small items like baby washcloths, tea towels, or if you quilt - charm squares!  (You know, those pretty pre-cut squares of coordinated fabric that are nice to get out and pet once in a while!)  Maybe add a cute little wicker basket for the pretend laundry and voila.  Great for imaginative play and fine-motor skills!

What's the best advise?

Here's a question I ask, I get asked, or I come across online all the time.

What is the best advise for surviving homeschooling and other life adventures with babies and little ones and larger families?  Or just surviving being a mom, no matter how many kids you have?  Well, never leave them alone, for one thing. Not even for. five. minutes. seriously.

I do have the best advise though, I do have the answer!  The definitive answer!  And it doesn't involve a bunch of links to lists of how to keep your babies happy under the table while you homeschool, make dinner, clean the house, do the laundry, run a home-based business, and have neighbours over for tea.  The answer came, as most things do for me, at Mass.  Let me tell you the story :).

Going to Mass with little ones is always a challenge.  Always.  Because they like to be busy, which is just so normal.  And its hard to be busy for an hour in a narrow, squishy pew.  So its a given that either hubby or I are at the back to let Kate crawl around, and one of us is fielding Maria who tends to just yell and scream at the drop of a hat if something sets her off.  We don't do food during Mass, we don't bring in clunky toys (but soft cloth dolls OK in a pinch!), we don't let the kids go in and out of the pews.  So during Mass we just try to survive and some days are good and some days are not.  All around me I see other families doing the same thing.  Our church is FULL of babies and children - and our Church as an institution does not typically segregate the babies off into a daycare room. We don't have babysitting areas with hired or volunteer caregivers.  We do have an optional Children's Liturgy but its geared towards ages 4-6, and its only for a part of Mass.  And you know what, I'm glad that we include our littles in the Mass proper, that's how they learn to behave and what to expect; I can't imagine worshipping in a room devoid of children.  Nevertheless we are always glad to see the end of Mass and we think, Hey! Survived another one!  And every now and then someone will approach us afterwards and tell us what a beautiful family we have or how much they enjoy sitting behind us and watching it all ....

Such was the case recently.  There is an elderly couple that often sit behind us and say hello after Mass.  They have four grown children of their own, the youngest is now 40.  

      oh, she smiles warmly, just watching you all reminds me so much of us when we were your age
you understand then? i ask, but its more like a statement
      oh yes! she looks me right in the eye, you just persevere!  you just persevere!


per.se.vere (verb) continue in a course of action even in the face of difficulty or with little or no indication of success

Well finally. Someone who tells it like it is.  No sugar coating about how this time of life will eventually pass or how its all such a blur or how to just embrace and enjoy it because it will be over before you know it.  Uh-uh, nope.  You just persevere.

I pray that God grant you and me the grace of perseverance.  The grace to continue on with little or no indication of success!!  We cannot avoid difficulties and struggles in life, and Catholics actually place great value on such suffering.  It is redemptive, it is not worthless, it is never pointless, it has great meaning, it is integral to life itself.

You just persevere.

Because it is so worth it.

We Welcome All Ages in our Homeschool!

Boy, if only our family were still a family with just our two older kids (Group A) and I was homeschooling them, what a great academic education they would get!  I imagine oodles of time spent with them learning and immersing ourselves in the best that homeschooling has to offer.  At the age they are now it would be so much fun!  We would ponder over the classics in depth, we would diligently recite our latin and french chants every morning.  We would dig into history and discuss and write endless papers and then discuss some more.  We would visit museums and linger over each exhibit, with no baby in tow and no preschooler tugging on our pants and no five-year old whining for something to drink (Group B).  And oh, there would be time in the day to pursue my own interests - sewing, knitting, scrapbooking, reading, studying ... Supper would easily be on the table every evening and the house would be spotless. Right?

Well, I have been thinking about this lately and here's what I've come up with.  I think having a baby and a toddler and a kindergartener in the house alongside my teen and tween is the absolute best thing in the world!  Life would be completely too serious if I didn't have those three little girls to keep me hopping.  What a blessing to be starting to homeschool A (5), with the other two not far behind.  It brings back memories of all the fun things we did when I first started homeschooling my older ones.  It's like having a second crack at it!  And frankly, if I only had Group A, we'd probably all sleep till 10 or 11am, and our homeschool might not get rolling until after lunch.  So much for a good education!


Furthermore, there is something profound I witness when I see my older ones interacting with and caring for my little girls.  Their faces light up, all of them. Who doesn't want to cuddle a baby?  What teenagers would refuse the unconditional love that babies and little ones bring to their world?  I can't help but think that my older kids, in all likelihood, will become parents one day. And this is truly the best training ground I can give them for the most important job in the world.  A solid foundation in Parenthood and Family Life 101.

 
So yeah, our homeschool days can get crazy.  I might spend an hour on math with B (14) and that might be it for one-on-one time for several days.  Or, we might all get to spend a good stretch talking and discussing if Group B gets busy with something.  It doesn't matter, I know they are all learning and thriving in so many ways.  We are so blessed.


We welcome all ages in our homeschool.

May God give you peace and contentment with whatever your situation is right now.  No if onlys.