Sisters

Our days are filled with images like these pictures.  I find that these two can be getting along so well; then I turn my back for a second, and they're fighting.  It's usually over a toy.  Hattie likes to aggravate her baby sister.  Mary Ellen has learned to scratch and pull Hattie's hair.  They have to have everything equal.  If one gets a cracker or juice, you better believe the other one wants and must have the same thing. 

I know this is just the beginning of what will be a deep relationship.  I have two sisters, so I know the highs and lows that come with having such a relationship.  Now I get to see it from a mother's perspective, and I am enjoying watching them together so much; however, they can also frustrate me and leave me throwing my hands in the air, not knowing what the right solution is.  And they're only 1 and 3.  I tremble when I think how I'll manage when they're 15 and 17.

The other day I was at a playdate with the girls, and a more experienced mom was there with her 3 daughters.  Two of them started fighting over a toy.  She immediately took the toy away and said, "We will not love a THING more than we love each other.  When you figure out a loving solution, come and find me and the toy."  And that was the end of it.  These girls are older than mine, and this was the perfect solution, I thought, to this problem.  Not just taking the toy away; I usually do that, but what she said.  I thought that was right on.  Don't you love learning from more experienced, wiser mommies?  Most of my parenting tactics have come from them.

So hopefully by spending time with wise mommies and with lots of GRACE, I can help foster a loving, gentle, non-competitive relationship between my girls.  That's so important to me!

Why I've Not Felt Motivated to Blog Lately

Yep!  As most of you already know via facebook, I've been rather tired and drained because my body's been a little preoccupied growing and sustaining another little life.  It's hard work!

Not to mention these two keep me rather busy as well!

Sean and I are expecting to be outnumbered some time in November.  My official due date is November 13th.

This time around, I've decided to go with a midwife practice through Texas Children's Hospital.  So far I am really impressed by them.  I like my ob who delivered both of the girls, but I really want to attempt a natural childbirth this time, so I thought using a midwife might help foster that a little better than my ob could have.  And the good thing about the midwives is I'll deliver in a hospital, so if I change my mind in the midst of pain and want the epi, I can get it!  I like having options ;).

And like I said on facebook, Sean and I covet your prayers for the birth of a healthy baby and an uneventful pregnancy.

Preparing Our Hearts

Lent is about repentance and drawing nearer to Christ.  We are supposed to reflect on the things we do and don't do that keep us from Him and then try to change those things.  I mean, we should reflect and strive for holiness always, but Lent is a special time set aside for reflection and repentance.

This year, Hattie came home from school with a booklet of activities to do with your kids to prepare for Easter.  We decided to pick this one and make a Lenten tree:

Striving to become more like Christ, we need to remember to love each other better, to strive for perfect love, like He loves us.

I wrote this verse on the mirror: Therefore encourage one another and build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Then Hattie and I went outside and gathered dead branches on the ground.  The dead branches symbolize our death and ugliness in sin.

Then I cut out some colorful eggs from card-stock where we write encouraging notes to each other.  These notes symbolize our love for one another through our sin, just like Christ loves us.

It has been fun for Hattie, especially, to do nice things that are noticed and a nice comment gets added to the tree by Mommy or Daddy.

And I have to say, I enjoy walking by and seeing a new egg on the tree with something that I've done written on it because it's sometimes easy to feel overlooked and unnoticed, especially doing this job!

Can you even read Sean's dyslexic scrawl as we call it? ;)

So if you are looking for something to do with your children to prepare for Easter, I recommend this activity.  It's a good one.  We're enjoying watching our dead tree "come to life" as Easter approaches.

18 Months

We had Mary Ellen's 18 month checkup last Friday morning.  She did great considering we were at the doctor's office for 2 hours, and she woke up at 5 a.m. that morning!  Yeesh!  We got through the trauma of the shots and then had a good long rest that afternoon while Hattie stayed for lunch bunch at school - a rare treat for Hattie!

Her 18 month stats put Mary Ellen at the 90th percentile for height and the 50-75th percentile for weight.  Perhaps my predictions of her being a tomboy will play out on a basketball court someday?

At 18 months, Mary Ellen can say quite a few words; about 15, I think.  "Ball," "more," and "Dada" being her favorites and most commonly used words.  She is surely a daddy's girl who loves to eat :).

Even though Hattie had more words at this age, I think Mary Ellen is better at getting her point across sometimes.  She is passionate (my kind way of saying hot-headed ;)!).  She's a girl who knows what she wants and is bound and determined to get it.  I think I can recall a few women in her life who she gets that from :)!

She is a daredevil.  While she isn't really climbing on things yet, she tries, and she has less and less fear about things like heights.  She loves when I spin her round and round.  She loves playing outside, digging in the trash can, and unraveling the toilet paper roll.  She is mischievous with a capital M!

But she is also my cuddle bug.  One of the best parts of the day is when she wakes up while Hattie is still in her room napping or having quiet time, and I go into Mary Ellen's room and rock her with the lamp on and rub her little head and soak up the baby in her who is fleeing too fast!  She lets me hold her as long as I want in those moments.  And we usually stay that way until Hattie is up.  It's our sweet time together that I cherish so much.

So here we are at a year and a half, Mary Ellen.  You make this age wild and crazy and fun.  You are a beautiful, unstoppable toddler, and you wear me out most days, but you have my heart, and you make me chuckle and laugh constantly.  I love who you are becoming.  I'm a little afraid of your intensity sometimes, but I pray that you will give that intensity to the Lord and do great things in your life for Him, little girl.  Your mama loves you so!

40 Days for Life

Remember man, thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.

These are the words spoken by priests, on Ash Wednesday, as they mark the sign of the cross on the foreheads of men, women, and children of all ages.  It is one of my favorite traditions in the Catholic Church.

Lent is a penitential season which begins with Ash Wednesday tomorrow.  The ashes on our foreheads remind us of our mortality and are a sign of repentance.

Basically, all I am is dirt without Jesus.  And everything in me that is not of Him, my sin, is filth and death.

We worship a God of LIFE, a God who can take the nothingness of dirt and ashes and breathe LIFE into it.  We worship a God who calls us out of our deathly slumber into eternal LIFE.  We worship a God who holds all LIFE precious in His heart.

There is a worldwide 40 days for Life Campaign during Lent.  This means that for the next 40 days of Lent ahead, we are called to prayer, fasting, and peaceful activism to promote LIFE.

Catholic churches around the Houston area have organized peaceful activism at the new planned parenthood abortion center (3601 Fannin) that will be opening soon.  So for the next 40 days of Lent (excluding Sundays), between 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., you can go and pray silently for the end of abortion outside the facility.  Park across the street from the abortion center and walk over.  You don't have to be Catholic to go.  You can bring your children.  You can stay minutes or hours.

I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is "Abortion", because it is a war against the child... A direct killing of the innocent child, "Murder" by the mother herself... And if we can accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love... And we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts... - Mother Teresa 

America you are beautiful . . . and blessed . . . . The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless. If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life. - Pope John Paul II 


If you are interested in going or learning more about this campaign, go here.