oops. I think I deleted a lot

Just so you know, I did not mean to delete all the comments. If I can get them back, I will, but I just outsmarted myself by messing with the settings and didn't import them. I will attempt later to get them back, since many were valuable to me. They are saved, I think. If you need to log in now to comment, I apologize, but I do find trolling annoying. If you have a disagreeable comment to make, the least you can do is have the balls to tell me who you are.

I like disagreeable characters. I love chatting with them. I just like to know who they are. Common courtesy, dontcha know. You can be disagreeable as long as you use your brain, instead of trolling on purpose, which used to be called bullying. And as we know from elementary school, bullies are cowards.

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2010!!

Happy New Year

I figure I've got 3.5 seconds before Gianna would like a word with me. She is six weeks old tomorrow! Wow. That was quick. She sleeps pretty well, but she seems to seriously want time with Daddy when he gets home, which is 11 pm. A bit late, but I'm happy to hand her over and go to sleep til she gets hungry or he gives her back. I think it's hilarious. Not really. But an odd trend for one so young.

Today is the end of a decade. The last time that happened, I was on my way north from LA, with my husband, about three months along with our oldest. We were driving a Saturn SC2 with a cat in it. Said cat is still alive, and now belongs to my sister. SC2 is long gone. Sadly.

This year was quite a year. Really quite a year. Some things I probably should not say too much about, yet strangely enough those were some of the biggest things. Probably the biggest thing, to sum up, was that we got out of debt. All of it. Except the mortgage. Wow. In fact, I just got a letter from HSBC that my dinky little $300 credit card has been cancelled due to lack of use. I was going to do that myself, but oh well, too late now. Grr.... Our credit cards were paid off last year almost to the dollar by our tax refund. We have not touched them since. I've also been such a good girl that my new debit card allows me to withdraw enough in one swoop to fix the car when it breaks. Last time I had to write a check.

Why? Because of Dave Ramsey. We LOVE Dave Ramsey. If he was Catholic, he should be a saint.

The other big thing this year is that we had baby #5. Gianna is doing great, and we are happy to have her. She is just beautiful. All the kids adore her. Daddy adores her. It's funny, because at the start of this decade, I was totally panicked about just one, because we had no money. Now, I have five. What happened? A lot. Much of it spiritual, much of it circumstance, but as Obi-Wan Kenobi says in the Star Wars movies, "There is no such thing as coincidence." Coincidence is my personal reason for believing in God. Just the way He speaks to me, I guess.

Will I be having five more children this decade? While physically possible, I don't really think so. But I can't really rule it out, either. I am in my early 30's after all. A new house and van will have to happen, though. Seriously getting tight around here.

Gianna says my time is up. Have a blessed new year, new decade, and get busy turning over a new leaf. It's exciting!

Fatherhood post

Happy Father's Day!

We need more "real men". Please father your boys as such!

If your children don't see their father, find someone nearly equivalent to fill in the gap!


http://donotbediscouraged.blogspot.com/2009/06/thoughts-on-fatherhood.html

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! Nine years ago, I got a present for Mother's Day, and also flowers all the way from Gonzaga, because I couldn't be there for my friends' graduation, I was busy giving birth exactly one year after my own college graduation! I have to say, I was not predicting that!!

But I'm so glad my oldest child is here, alive and well. We sure were panicked when he showed up, but it all turned out well. I wish more people knew that it all gets better if you just work hard and make good, right, and sometimes hard decisions. To the moms who do that every day, and the dads who help them, Happy Day to YOU!

I'm stealing this today for your Mother's Day quote from President Teddy Roosevelt. Good man, good man.

http://donotbediscouraged.blogspot.com/2009/05/happy-mothers-day.html

And from Organic and Thrifty, we have an intro to the fun of Farmer's Markets this summer: http://oreganicthrifty.blogspot.com/2009/05/to-market-to-market-we-go.html

AND, this was an awesome video. Actually, I will just link you to this blog, too. The 9 minute video is worth watching, to see how someone totally transformed their yard and now they have 6000 lbs of produce from about 1/8 of a football field per year. The only sad thing for me is OF COURSE they can do that! They live in Pasadena! But still, it is beautiful, and I'm working on my own jungle paradise here.

http://salesianity.blogspot.com/2009/05/living-real-simple-life.html

Here's to a beautiful summer!

Happy Easter Vigil 2009

The Catholic Church, even in America, continues to grow. They must know something the usual media suspects don't. :)


www.catholicnewsagency.com

Catholic Church prepares for tens of thousands of U.S. converts


Washington D.C., Apr 1, 2009 / 04:09 am (CNA).- Tens of thousands of new Catholics are expected to join the Catholic Church in the U.S. in 2009, with many doing so at the Easter Vigil liturgies on April 11. Converts to Catholicism are known as catechumens if they have never been baptized and as candidates if they have received baptism in another Christian community and now seek full communion with the Catholic Church.

The Archdiocese of Atlanta, where Catholics have traditionally been a minority, estimates that 513 catechumens and 2,195 candidates will enter the Catholic Church in 2009, about 1,800 doing so at Easter. The figures do not include infant baptisms.

Father Theodore Book, director of the Office of Divine Worship for the Atlanta Archdiocese, said the archdiocese has been “blessed with an authentic dynamism” during recent years. He cited the archdiocese’s annual Eucharistic Congress, saying it draws nearly 30,000 participants.

“One of the many blessings that we have received from the Lord is the large number of individuals entering the Church,” he said.

The Archdiocese of Seattle will reportedly welcome 736 catechumens and 506 candidates, while the Diocese of San Diego will baptize 305 and receive into communion 920 other baptized Christians.

The mostly rural Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama reportedly will have 445 new converts. The diocese’s Cathedral of St. Paul could not hold them and their families for the Rite of Election, which had to be held in three separate ceremonies.

At St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, California resident Heidi Sierras will represent North America at the Easter Vigil, where she will be baptized by Pope Benedict XVI.

The 2008 Official Catholic Directory listed 49,415 adult baptisms and 87,363 people received into full communion in 2007.

Copyright @ CNA
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com)

Lenten update

Here's a cute picture just to focus on the peace I hope to achieve during Lent.


I'm really not sure when I'm going to be making my Lenten plans.

I do know that I would like very much to have them figured out. I think I need to look at some books and make some easy plans. There is a soup supper and Stations of the Cross over at our parish on Fridays this Lent, and I'd like to make it to those. Tomorrow, being Ash Wednesday, I can go to Mass and then babysit for a good part of the day for my friend Rikki. Good thing we had a good homeschooling day today.

My Lenten commitment is really going to be not yelling at the kids. I know, I know, that's a silly one. First, of COURSE I should not yell at them. Um... yeah. But secondly, can I really do better? We will soon find out. I will also limit my online time much more severely, at least for six weeks. The other thing we need to do is PURGE. I am so going through their TOYS!! Oh. My. Goodness. We do not need this many tiny toys for me to step on. We are going to decide which ones we truly love and get rid of the rest. I mean it this time! Tantrum, tantrum, tantrum.

Rikki showed up this morning with strings of real Mardi Gras beads from New Orleans. She and her husband went some years ago, and they still had quite a bundle, which my children are in love with. They really are fun to see. Someday I'd like to go see the real thing.

In other news, while I am not naming this relative here, I'd like you to pray for them. A relative of mine (not immediate family) is considering Catholicism as a home for the family. They were not raised Christian, but do love God, whatever you may call Him. They have a deep sense of the mystic and spiritual. I am very excited for them and plan to send a little package this Lent. And only really because of Facebook are we even having that conversation. God is so good.

Enjoy Fat Tuesday, see you during Lent!!

Happy Valentine's Day to me

This is what the two eldest children drew for my valentine. If you look closely, I think you will see that I am supposed to be pregnant. I'm not, just so that rumor doesn't get away. But I asked them why I was pregnant in the picture.

Gabe said, "Because we want another girl. There are too many boys around here."
Brandon said, "No, we want a boy."

I told them I think adoption guarantees that gender thing, but pregnancy is not a good way to go about getting what you want if you have a strong opinion like that.
Silly children.

I do have one more spot in the back seat, but that car is soooo not paid off in case we, say, adopt and then get pregnant. Because Murphy lives at our house, that's the kind of thing we can predict. So, sorry kids, but it was a nice thought! We'd just prefer a teeny bit more room for error and less debt before we go thinking things like that again!

Very, very cute.

Pictures, as promised

Playing in the snow this week! YES! I LOVE SNOW!










Simbang Gabi celebration at a local Catholic church. Very, very interesting!! :) I was too busy chasing kids to get many pictures, and besides, it was ridiculously crowded. Must be a Filipino event, alright. Food and people, people and food.



A St. Nicholas table topper. How cute is that?


I'm glad I have Ethel to remind me. I did promise pictures. I have some good ones from our Nativity play, too, but they haven't made it off the camera yet.

Here we go!

We gots snow!

It is gorgeous outside! It is also frozen at about 28 degrees. Hooray! We have a Christmas pageant today, so we'll see how that goes, but I certainly hope anyone who lives around here has chains and knows how to use them, even if the snow only comes around a few times a year. It is supposed to stay near or under 30 degrees for the next week, so I guess the white stuff.will be sticking around for a while.

Last night we went to Simbang Gabi, which I'd never been to before. It is the same, approximately, as Misa del Gallo in Mexico. Silly ol' Spaniards, taking over the world! It was a very peppy Mass, with lots of procession and decor, and sparkly things. Fr. Olson strongly believes in a normal, by the book Mass, so there was also incense in good places and he kept it as usual as possible while still allowing for cultural fun.

The party after was standing room only, but the food was AMAZING. And gone quickly, surprisingly. There was a whole pig with the head still on, there! They also had grade school and middle school aged children doing dances from the Philippines, and they were spectacular. I will post pics when I get them off my camera. Wow.

Anyway, hooray for snow! Have a wonderful Gaudete Sunday!

OK PEOPLE, I know you are out there...

I'm dying to know, why does hardly anyone ever leave comments? Do only certain ladies whose names start with E love me? I just found out a bunch of you are reading this crazy blog, and now I wanna know, won't you please love me with a comment once in a great while?
Please? Loveablogger!

Or do I have the settings wrong and you can't get in or it's too complicated?
You can email me to let me know if that's easier. I'm not exactly a blog goddess, and have hardly explored how the whole thing works yet.

Happy Fourth of July everybody! I actually get my husband for the holiday this year! He usually worked nights or was too tired from working nights to come with me, so I had children crawling up my forehead as young toddlers when the fireworks went off.

Thanks for sticking the 4th on a Friday, honey!