Sweetness

It's been a mild winter here in Texas.  And plenty of rain has fallen to help relieve some of the drought-like conditions.  So what do you get when you add rain and sunshine in the deep South.  Mosquitoes.  Yuck.

And this is what you get when you add one mosquito and Annie-cakes.

This picture was just too cute not to throw in here...

She got bitten right above her right eye.  She must taste real sweet to those pesky skeeters.  And I know what you're thinking.  You want a Baby Ruth.  And now I've found my segue.

Yesterday we solemnly celebrated Ash Wednesday.  Here's a little information on the holiday, if you will.  In the Old Testament, ashes were sprinkled on the head and over the whole body as a sign of mourning and penance.  Pope Urban II (c. 1035-1099) is credited with recommending that Catholics receive ashes on Ash Wednesday. During the Reformation, most Protestant Churches eliminated the use of ashes.  In recent years, however, many of these Churches have resumed the practice.*

And so, our little family received ashes yesterday.  Some of us for the first time.  During the service, we listened to "The Invitation to a Holy Lent".  You can read it here by clicking the Table of Contents and then clicking Ash Wednesday.  To sum it up, it's an invitation to observe a holy Lent through self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self denial.  You got it, we're giving up something for Lent.

And here's where the Baby Ruth fits right in.  I asked Orry what he might like to give up.  He had a really hard time coming up with something.  Partly because 40 days seems like a lifetime to a child.  Partly because the idea of sacrificing something is hard to wrap your head around at that age.  But never the less, we came to the consensus that we would give up sweets.  Cakes, cookies, and donuts.  But not ice cream.  Oh ho ho ho, no.  Not ice cream...

Annie is giving up painting her fingernails and toenails this Lenten season.  I told her that it's because she loves Jesus.  To which she replied, "Jesus!".  Troy is giving up lunch.  And I'm giving up cake, cookies, donuts, painting my fingernails and toenails, sleeping in past 6am, and movies.  Well, that last one is still up in the air.  Troy protested when I told him that idea because if I don't watch movies, he doesn't watch movies.  I know that one would be really hard for us, but isn't that the point?  Isaac hasn't chosen anything yet.  But he won't be eating any sweets (except ice cream) like the rest of us.

But this Lenten season we are going to try something new.  We are going to give up laziness.  We are going to finish all our projects that we start.  We are going to pick up after ourselves and not leave tasks for "later".  We are going to get through our chores in a timely fashion regardless of how much we don't want to do them.
And by we, I am mainly talking about myself, but I will do my best to see to it that everyone else participates.

Boy, after all this I think I will need a candy bar on top of a cookie on top of a cake, with a donut on the side. But I won't need the ice cream...

*Taken from The Little Black Book: Six Minute Meditations on the Sunday Gospels of Lent (Cycle B)

President's Day

Sorry about the lack of posts recently.  I've been dealing with some mysterious pain in the nerves of my mouth.  But on with the stories.

On Monday we celebrated President's Day.  Well, celebrated is an over-exaggeration.  We did, however, take advantage of the long weekend and made a trip over to Houma to celebrate the soon-to-be wedding of my little sister.

This weekend was Lizzie's bridal shower.  We had a Mad Hatter's tea party.  All the baking and cleaning, and cleaning and baking was fun and exciting as we geared up to host the party.  We ladies had a great time.  The kids had a good time too.  Since we no longer have cable at our house, they sure do like watching a little bit of TV, undisturbed and on a big screen television no less.  But some of the them mananged to get out of the house for a while.

Isaac watching his Daddy and Poppa work in the wood shop

But this President's Day was more special than any other so far.  For this year, at this time, we are learning about the Presidents of the United States of America.  If you love history, then you'll understand how exciting this sort of thing is.  We are working on memorizing the first 30 presidents.  So far we know the first 10 with no problem.  We might actually work on making a catchy tune to help us out with the other 20.  But in the meantime, we are learning some great facts about some of the lesser known presidents, like Franklin "Handsome Frank" Pierce and Martin "Little Magician" Van Buren.  A batch of cookies to the first person who correctly identifies the president whose nickname was "Uncle Jumbo".

So Happy Belated President's Day and Happy Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday!

*Congrats to MamaT, winner selected at random to receive something lovely from moi.

The Smell of Love

Ahh, Valentine's Day.  Can you smell it?  Smells like love.  Or maybe that smell is donuts...

This morning we left the house a little early in order to stop by the donut shop on the way to Isaac's school.  The kids loved the donut shop.  What kid wouldn't?  Chocolate milk, pink donuts with sprinkles, and donut holes.  That's what love is all about, right?

In keeping with our Valentine's Day traditions, we got the kids some books about love.  And here is where I will add that it's a little bit of a chore finding books that are about love and not about Valentine's Day on Valentine's Day.  But I managed.  Here's this year's picks:

For my Annie-cakes.

For Isaac.

For Orry.  And of course, it's a little bit about Valentine's Day, but it was just too cute to pass up!

Otherwise, it was quite the boring day.  Since I got my one and only wisdom tooth extracted (sounds so much better than yanked out) yesterday, I've been taking the prescribed pain medication today.  I've been a bit loopy and I've only wanted to sit on the couch and watch my kids play.  All day.  I did manage to stay awake and not just sleep all day.  That's what love is all about, right?  

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day, filled with love and laughter.  Maybe a hug and a kiss, too.   Now I'll leave you with a great quote from Helen Keller:

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart."

(Psst!  Down here.  If you would like, leave your favorite quote about love in the comments.  I'll pick the one I like the most (or maybe one at random) and send that commenter something lovely.)

Pearly Whites

There's a parable in the Bible that goes like this:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

With that being said, I'd like to introduce you to "Pearl", our "new" van.

While having the newer van is nice, I won't say that it's anything like I imagine the kingdom of heaven to be.  Although, it is quite roomy...

It took us quite a while to finally get it.  We purchased it and took it back in 2 days later to get its inspection tags.  That's when they informed us that Pearl needed an oil change (which we knew) and new tires (which we also knew).  Then they informed us that they would do all this for us free of charge and we could take a rental for the weekend since they had to order the tires.  Needless to say, we've been pleased.

Here's another quote from the Bible:

Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing.  Each has its twin; not one of the them is alone.

That being said, here's a video:

Lately and Recently

Lately we've been...

"Are you talking to me?"

• driving a rental car more than our "new" van.
• learning about the presidents of the USA.
• dealing with temper tantrums from hell.  
• watching some of the best movies of all time.
• listening to birds, day and night.
• reading The Story.
• drinking too much coffee.
• keeping up with our New Year's resolutions.

Recently we've...

• gone to the dollar theater to see Happy Feet 2.
• celebrated Troy's 34th birthday!
• added reactive airway disease to Isaac's list.
• scheduled a wisdom tooth extraction for my almost birthday.
• sorted all our LEGOs.
• started noticing new leaves growing on the trees. 

I hope you've all been busy in a good way.  More to come later!