Along the lines of Marriage...

Max, the new cat, and Joe-joe, the old cat, have had an expectedly rough beginning, so the day that their greeting simply consisted of some intense feline sniffing was cause for great rejoicing among the children. But the underlying expectations in their jubilation had previously escaped me until I heard Isabelle proclaim, "Oh, now they like being with each other! Peter, come on, now there are going to be baby kittens!" And expectantly she sat down in front of the two cats to wait.

Unable to discern the best angle from which to attack this misunderstanding, I left truth in the hands of time.

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Butterfly

The other day Peter declared his earnest desire to see a plenitude of butterflies, young, old and everywhere in between. Perhaps we could find a butterfly farm, was my suggestion, which as you can guess, was an extremely intriguing concept. Why would people want to raise a bunch of butterflies, pondered our eldest. After a moments thought, I suggested that some people liked to let the butterflies go after they got married.

After a long pause, he asked, "how do they know the butterflies got married?"

Mass-In-Sanity

Recently Jeremiah and I have decided to make attending daily mass a higher priority in our lives, knowing we could both benefit from the sacramental graces, especially as the children's reasoning skills become more fine tuned.

But, simply walking into daily mass with four young children is a commotion in itself, before ever braving the dreaded monotonous homily or the solemn silences of the consecration with a two year old whose attention span is fitting of his age and a five year old who is certain his command carries the force of a king, or at least enough to dictate every action of his distracted little brother. And then there is Luci, with whom the slightest glance from the grandmothers behind us excites squeals, jumps and echoing growls. Which in turn, enraptures big sister to the point of awkwardly dragging both baby and mom to the ground in an embrace that is as desperate as it is clumsy.

Therefore, fully aware of our potential notoriety, and perhaps because of our fixation on its possibility, we entered mass the other day with our mission firmly in our minds, to get in, restrain arms, legs and mouths and get out. As we made our way past the Holy Water fount, we realized our eldest two were headed for the pivotal front row, a row given to the saints, those who are declared such by all observers because their children behaved so well during mass or those who are pushed into sanctity by the extreme humility required to gather one's pride along with the children after they have drawn the attention of an entire church. Either way, this day we felt our sanctification could come through less public means, and so a tip-toed chase down the isle began.

Only moments later, having safely secured a pew in the back, we realized, due to the serene atmosphere around us, the absence of our two year old. Retracing our steps, he was found in the place we so hastily left him, by the Holy Water fount, and in typical two year old form, was eager to continue the activity which had captivated him for the past two minutes, having discovered the hand in the form of a cup, is much more effective for blessing oneself with Holy Water than only a few daintily dipped fingers.

With renewed vigor and an awareness of the battle yet to come, I suppressed my laughter and escorted our son, holy water still rolling off his saturated bangs, to our pew discreetly tucked in the corner.

Confident that the theory of leading by example is true, and hopeful in the effects produced by large quantities of holy water, Jeremiah and I stationed ourselves between children and stared actively at the priest as he processed down the isle, when a sudden echoing thud caused us to turn in bewilderment towards our oldest daughter. We watched in amazement as she held on to the pew in front of us, leaned back until her arms were fully extended then slammed herself, with great determination, back into the pew. Fearing the entire church would soon notice our four year old's convulsions, we flattened her into her seat in a hope to discern what had possessed her to act in such a way, and if the explanation were not that simple, then to at least discern what she might have been thinking. Upon investigation, we realized she had gently propped her book up on the back of the pew in front of us, and was proceeding to conduct an experiment to determine the exact velocity her body needed to reach in order to dislodge the book and send it flying.

Refusing to be bested by childhood curiosities, we are continuing in our pursuit of sanctifying grace, and the humility necessary to make the best use of it, and so, you, Our Larger Lot, can expect more installments of Mass-In-Sanity.

Check Out our Papa!

The Vatican has a new Youtube site, http://www.youtube.com/vatican.

I love our Church, presenting the Universal Truth, that transcends time, location, culture and even technology.

Good Morning...?

Max has warmed the hearts of the entire family, as well as that coveted spot between mommy and daddy every night, much to our dismay, having only recently evicted Luci from it. But he is phenomenal at putting children down for naps, perhaps because of his exceptional ability to wear them out in anticipation of the naps. And, as any new member of a family quickly leaves an indelible mark, Max has left his...

with the assistance of a door, a strand of beads, and a 7:00 AM high speed chase.





And four new stitches.

Confession

Overheard from the back seat while driving yesterday...

Isabelle: "Peter, what is confession?"

Peter: "It's when you go into the little room and tell the priest all the mean things you did to your kids."

We'd had a pretty rough morning...

In with the New, Out with the Old

Peter: (while musing over our new kitten) "Max is a really little kitten. He is a lot younger than Joe-joe."

Mommy: "You're right, Peter, he is a lot younger than Joe-joe."

Peter: "Yeah, Joe-joe will probably die before Max. In fact, I think he is probably already dead, I haven't seen him in a while."

In this situation "a while" refers to 24 hours, and thankfully, Joe-joe is still hanging onto life with his decrepit six year old body.

Welcome Max

Meet Max, the newest member of our family, and the result of a long, exhausting search. Apparently we have an over abundance of coyotes and birds of prey that snatch up kittens in the DFW area if you let your cats outside, or at least, that is the reason we were given for not being allowed to adopt from various rescue groups.

I think the unstated truth was a prejudice against young children. But in the end we found our little Max (Isabelle's Christmas present) needing a home before his owner moved out of the country.

And although he has already suffered a few tail pullings, and some unnecessary toddler roughness, he has yet to need to entertain himself or seek out a warm lap in which to rest.

He has become quite attached to all the kids (Daniel's attachment maintaining itself from a distance).

He and Peter spend at least an hour every day running through the house chasing strings, beads and balls, much to his mother's delight.

They even read a book together.

Wax Teeth, Yum...

Remember these? I am not sure why I thought they were so great growing up, but thank you Uncle Matty for introducing my children to them.




It didn't take Peter and Isabelle long to decide chewing on flavored wax was about as appealing as it sounds.



But much to the older children's dismay, Daniel's teeth were never found after this picture was taken.

Discoveries

After staring at Luci for a few minutes this morning, with an expression of deep thought, Daniel declared,

"Woo-woo have ears!"

The Number Nine

Today's blog was brought to you by the Number

9

Calculations...

Yesterday, listening to the pleasant sounds coming from the "kitchen" in the bedroom, I weighed my options, and decided a carefully calculated risk was my best hope of getting to the garage and rotating laundry before nap time. Quietly I laid Luci in the bedroom, far enough removed from the "kitchen" action to hopefully avoid the showers of affection from her sister, but close enough to be contented by their noise and activity.

When I returned, this is what I found...

I had a huge miscalculation in the area of sisterly interest, but at least Luci seemed to be enjoying the cooking show.

Good Will, Good Buy

Every year, after Christmas, I carefully itemize my want list, allotting value to each item according to function, design and length of desire, then I meticulously interpret the not always so clear value system, arriving ultimately with the most desirable object in my life on which to spend my Christmas money. This year, due to a particularly frugal fall, and perhaps, the lack of a before mentioned list, I had managed to retain all of my birthday money, which, added to a very generous Christmas, had given rise to the hopes of a thrift acquisition of possibly the four most desirable objects in my life.

With this hope swelling in my heart, I raced to the nearby Thrift Store focused on the possibility of cute serving platters, retro mixing bowls or even the elusive storage unit to organize my life. But never did I dream of finding my third most desirable object, and for only a dollar!

And to make my dreams even sweeter, it requires no electricity and is perfectly kid friendly.


In fact, so kid friendly that Peter could hardly contain his excitement to process every edible object in our kitchen, beginning with the cheese for our nachos that evening.



Peter, after two minutes of grating...



After five minutes of grating, trying another angle...



Perhaps it needs the lid, after seven minutes of grating...


Isabelle helping, after ten minutes of grating...




Isabelle has given up, after twelve minutes of grating...



Daniel wondering if we will ever get to eat, after fifteen minutes of grating...


Daniel, wondering "Seriously, how long is this going to take?" After seventeen minutes of grating...


If you too were hoping for a thrifty food processing Christmas list relief, you should check the Thrift Store near us, I think they will have one soon.

Boys & Girls

Girls are sweet and kind...

They cuddle, and wrap their sisters in blankets to play house.

They make their mother's heart warm with the presence of sisterly love.





Boys bang pots and pans through out my house, and think they are adorable enough to request I take a picture of them too.

On a snow slide

People always ask me, with unmistakable disbelief in their eyes, "How do you do it?!" after they have mouthed the numbers one through four, and I have grinned in acknowledgment of they're all being mine. Well, I hardly get to see Luci, as she is always playing with her siblings...

I caught this one on her second lap.

Or having tickle fights with her Daddy.

Where's Stuff Mart?

We went to the store today, needing to return and exchange various items, one of which Peter was extremely excited about as the exchange would benefit his train collection. Getting caught up in all the excitement, Isabelle declared, "Daddy, I need to get my money so I can get some stuff at the store too!" Understanding the need to be a part of the stuff getting, daddy replied, "What kind of stuff, Izzie?" With only the slightest pause, she stated, "More stuff to go with my other stuff!"

Merry 8th Day of Christmas!

We hope you enjoy these pictures from our Christmas Day Celebration.

I think Daniel was a little surprised, and groggy, after his siblings woke him as early as they could, to find the toys Daddy and Mommy set up for them under the tree.

But when he found his pull Dog-dog, he perked up nicely!
(on a side note, Dog-dog has been into a little trouble recently. I am not sure what he did, but he received two spankings and was told "Dog-dog, you listen me!")

Peter and his new Round House.

Isabelle with the newest additions to her barn yard.

Peter was also delighted to have a mean Diesel 10 (I am a little concerned as to why he was so excited to get the "mean" engine).

Isabelle's imagination was ecstatic to have a unicorn to visit her barn yard.
This is her ecstatic face.


And what little boy would not delight in a shopping cart, to please his mommy with by shuffling around trash and dirty clothes. It only takes twenty trips to carry all the clothes from the hamper to the washing machine. We would love ideas on a toy to help sort the clothes once by the washer.


Here are a few from our Christmas Day feast.

A feast worthy of a newborn King!