Working the System

I apologize for the poor formatting of this post. Blogger is not letting me space between lines. The latest way to get out of consequences: 1) "Samuel, why did you stab Rose Marie with your toy sword?!" Sam responds, "It was an accident." (i.e. you cannot punish me for "accidents") 2) "Samuel, why did you pour your milk on the floor?" Without skipping a beat he looks at me and says, "Oh I forgot!" (i.e. "forgetting," is just like an accident and thus there can be no consequences.) This, "Get out of jail free card," now applies to all KNOWN rules in our house such as: we do not use the broom as weapon, it is for sweeping the floor; we do not jump off the top steps, you will crash at the bottom; you only need a little bit of toliet paper for wiping, not the entire roll; we do not pretend to make soup in the toliet; etc. Now everytime I catch him breaking one of these rules, I am quickly met with the trump card of "It was an accident," or "I forgot." Everytime he responds this way, it stops me dead in my tracks and I have to hide my smile. He is too smart for his own good, but he is incredibly adorable. :)

Little Joys

What a wonderful week! These past few days have been full, but happy. I am so grateful. Thank you for the prayers! I am trying to look harder and see more clearly the joyful moments :) Here are a few snapshots:

1) St. Patricks Day was filled with green pancakes, "stained glass window shamrocks," green sprinkled cupcakes and finished with a Irish Dancing performance by my sister and her dancing class! The whole day was full of fun and good ol' Irish spirit! I love Feast Days!


2) This mischievous little face! Although sometimes I can swear that he drives me to the brink, he also keeps me on my toes. And besides...how can you resist that face! :)



3) My little rainbow! I feel like she is changing so quickly these days. Recently she has started our days by climbing into bed with me in the morning and catching me up on all important information I will need before I get Sam up.

Hello World!

Here I am once again, after another long hiatus. This time, I cannot say that it has been insane schedules or busy business...it has simply been life that has kept me away. I don't want this first post back to be "doom and gloomish," but I'm afraid that feeling is probably what has kept me leery of posting. For whatever reason these last few months I have been plagued by a "heaviness," that I have struggled to shake off. Maybe it is the weather. Whatever it is, I have struggled and wrestled recently to find joy and laughter in my daily routine. I realize that our days are not always filled with laughter, but sometimes finding it is effortless and at other times, you can feel like it has been days since you felt a full smile cross your face. So, there...it is out there and I said it. Hopefully, I will feel more free to post since I have been more honest with myself. We shall see.

Now that I have put it out there, I will say that the word, "joy," has been my focus this Lenten season. I realize that it may seem an odd focus for the penitential season, but I am finding it so helpful this year! When things or days get hard, or when I am particularly missing the things I have given up, I am trying to find my joy. It is not enough to simply, "give up stuff," for Lent, but even more, we need to be joyful. We need to be joyful in what has been given to us by Our Heavenly Father. We need to be joyful while doing our daily motherly duties. We need to be joyful in the knowledge that we are loved by God. We need to be joyful while standing at a crossroads in our lives and awaiting God's direction. We need to be joyful even when we don't know what it is that God is asking of us. Not that any of this is always easy, but for now, it is what I am trying to find. If I find helpful hints during this season I promise to share them. :)

For now, here are some pictures of the people in my life who make me joyful and who I am trying to be more joyful for! Enjoy!

1) My little comfort...
2) I love how often they are hugging these days! They like to hug before nap times, at bedtime and first thing in the morning.

3) My little man on his very awesome ride! He is just too cool for school!

4) Tire Swings!

5) My boys fixing the car together. Sam is definitely Daddy's little buddy!