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Sunday Funday

We started the day off with mass at St. John’s.  Nana & Papa (my parents) showed up and surprised us.  I love seeing the boys’ expressions when they see any of their grandparents.  It’s always pure joy.  Since we had more adults than kids, we kept Shecklet #2 with us instead of having him play in the nursery.  The boys did really well.  I wonder if they were on extra-good behavior for their grandparents…

Our house was full of lovely women and super cute kids this afternoon.  We figured out that today’s group was a mix of 1st, 2nd & 3rd cousins from my mom’s side of the family.  It was really nice to be able to spend time with all of them today.  Shecklet #1 and Shecklet #2 enjoyed showing off for the group.  It’s so funny what the two of them will do to entertain others when they’re in the spotlight.

While Shecklet #2 was napping this afternoon (after our guests departed,) Shecklet #1 helped me put together brownies for an impromptu dinner at our friends’ house.  He cracked the eggs (with just a little help :)), stirred the batter, and scooped it from the bowl to the pan.  He is really big into helping lately.  I wish I could bottle some of his enthusiasm and have it on hand for when he gets older.

The day ended the way it normally does, but with a small, sweet little twist.  We said bedtime prayers with the boys like we always do and I picked up Shecklet #2 and held him while Jake rocked a little while with Nolan.  Nolan asked me to sing a song for him.  (This has become part of the nighttime routine along with having his back scratched.)  So I sang “Jesus Loves Me,” and he joined me like he usually does.  Next, he asked me to sing the song he calls “Daisy” or “bicycle built for two.”  Well tonight, instead of waiting for me to start the song and join me, he sang the song himself – and remembered most of the lyrics, too!  It was so sweet to hear his little voice.  He sure loves music!

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Graced & Gifted

Today I had the chance to attend a Catholic Women’s Day at St. John the Baptist Church in Savage.  My friends, Sarah and Michelle accompanied me; we really enjoyed the day.  I can’t say I had an “ah-ha!” moment, but did came away with a lot to process.  I have been given 3 opportunities to think about and discuss “grace” this week – two on this past Wednesday and then throughout the day today.  I’m assuming at this point that God has something He wants to tell/show/teach me involving this subject…

There are several points from today’s talks that I’ll be working through over the next few days & weeks:

From Liz Kelly’s talk:

  • When Jesus entered human history, He extended a dignity to women that had never existed before.
  • Jesus is an intimate friend to us.
  • Loneliness reminds us that our hearts have not become so bitter that they cannot break.

From Ann Osendorf’s talk:
Prayer based on Spiritual Exercises by St. Ignatius:

  • G – Gratitude & Praise: praising God opens our heart for Him.  It enables us to appreciate His gifts for us.  Gifts are sometimes in the gift of what we have not received.
  • R – Request for Light & Strength: part of God’s grace is asking for the willingness to do what is difficult.
  • A – Attention & Awareness: grace builds on nature.  We need to recognize the areas in our life that need fixing so that God can give us more grace.
  • C – Charting the Course to Holiness (Contrition & Confession): God’s divine grace is all about love.  We’re either moving toward God or away from Him.  We need to ask Him to not let go of us.
  • E – Entrustment: surrendering the piece of our heart that needs healing.

From Christina Smith’s talk:

  • For what do you hunger?
  • “Nowhere does the Gospel say: ‘Go away,’ but always ‘come to me.’ ” – Mother Teresa
  • “God is with us.  This is our joy.” – Mother Teresa

From Kimberly Hahn’s keynote talk:

  • We all have a place of service.
  • Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it.  – Proverbs 3:27
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We’re learning to share

Today and tomorrow we have an extra little guy at our house.  Friends of ours are attending a conference not far from where we live, so their little man is spending some quality time at the Sheck house.  Nolan and Lincoln think the temporary addition is pretty fun to have around.  They enjoy entertaining him and are doing a fine job showing him how to play in creative ways.

We did have one interesting event today that I thought was worth mentioning.  When lunchtime rolled around, I placed our friends’ son in Lincoln’s highchair.  You would have thought I was giving him Lincoln’s most prized possession.  Lincoln stomped his feet, started crying, and was just about to pull out his tantrum face when I picked him up and walked to the side of the table where we have Nolan’s booster chair.  I asked him if he wanted to sit in Nolan’s chair and the crying stopped instantly.  Who wants to sit in the high chair when Mom offers the big boy booster seat instead?  He was SO proud to sit next to Nolan at the big table and use a placemat.  Now that he’s experienced eating at the table (instead of next to it) we’ll see if he’ll even go close the high chair at meal time again.

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Consequences

The thing I dislike the most about being a parent is having to discipline.  I hate being the bad guy.  I wish someone would invent a fool-proof way to get my kids to listen to what I’ve asked them to do (or not do) and have them follow through.

Today Shecklet #1 was having a overly-whiny afternoon, so I told him he would be taking a nap.  No tantrum was thrown when I said it was time to head upstairs (which was positive) but the little guy refused to stay in bed.  This tends to happen when he naps, so I’ve been having him sleep in our bed instead of his so at least Shecklet #2 has a chance to get a good nap in.  I swear I went back upstairs to check on him a half dozen times.  A few times he was just sitting up on our bed, so I had him lay back down.  But at one point I walked in to find the lamps on and clean socks, that were previously in the laundry basket, strewn all over the room.  Apparently I missed the memo that nap time meant throw the laundry everywhere.  At this point, I had to follow through with the consequence for not napping that we had talked about – no afternoon trip to the park.  I don’t know who was more disappointed, him or me.  It hurt to have to say we weren’t going, especially when he turned on the waterworks, but I knew I had to remain firm.  I’m hoping that one of these days, something will click in that little 3-year-old head of his and he’ll understand that his actions have consequences.  Until then, we get to keep working on the meaning of cause and effect.

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Water & Graces

The boys and I spent time in the backyard this afternoon.  They got to play with squirt bottles while I gave the lawn a quick once-over with the lawnmower.  (It was my attempt to keep the mosquitoes at bay – they seem to really love my kids.)  As you can see from the pictures, Shecklet #1 has the correct form down pat.  Shecklet #2 on the other hand is still learning how to manage the squirter.  Actually, maybe the direction of his bottle is intentional.  He figured out that he can actually squirt the water into his mouth if it’s pointed this way.  Smart boy!

This evening, “Auntie Lissa” (this is how Shecklet #1 says Auntie Larissa) came over so Jake and I could attend a meeting at our church.  We’re part of a small group of people who meet once a month with a seminarian friend from the St. Paul Seminary to discuss a topic of our friend’s choice.  The overall goal of the meetings is to give our friend a chance to discuss parish and family life from the laity’s perspective.  Tonight’s topic was a re-visitation of last year’s first meeting topic, “graces we have received over the course of the summer.”  I couldn’t help but reflect back on how much our family and friends have supported us through prayer this summer and what a huge blessing that has been to our family.  We know that the peace we have felt throughout recent difficult situations is an answer to the prayers being said on our behalf.

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And so it begins…

When I was getting my masters at the University of Minnesota, blogging was still an “up and coming” craze.  I wonder if that dates me…  There were a  couple of professors in my department who were said to be “authorities” on the new phenomenon.  I thought the idea was just odd.  I couldn’t imagine who would want to follow the random craziness that is often MY life.  Never did I think I would jump on the blogging bandwagon.  Yet here I am, attempting to write about the daily goings on of the our house.

Being a stay-at-home-mom, I don’t usually get much time to reflect back on what has happened during the day.  Life with a husband, 2 boys, and 2 dogs is pretty…let’s just say, “busy.”  That said, Jake suggested I set a timer for 5 minutes every day and write down my thoughts.  I liked the general idea and so a blog was born.  (We’ll see how I do with the every day thing.)  I have no idea what direction this adventure in thought-publishing will take, but I’m excited to see where it goes.  Feel free to join me for the journey!

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