Easter

Since it is still the octave I am not late posting for Easter. Right?

DG, RA, and Blake went to the Vigil Mass. PG, KJ and I stayed home. They said it was beautiful. They met up with Nana and Blue Truck, who said the kids did the best they have ever seen them at Mass. Maybe I should send them to a 3 hour Mass every Sunday. The deacon (who is baptizing KJ in a few weeks) sang the Exsultet. We had no idea he could sing! Apparently the cantor did a beautiful job as well. Everyone was very excited (and tired) when they came home.

After 7 hours of sleep, they "hopped" (no we don't do the Easter bunny - but I couldn't resist the pun) out of bed to find their baskets. we don't hid eggs - we hide baskets.

Then DG and RA went to Nana and Blue Truck's while PG, KJ, Blake and I went to Mass. Father gave a wonderful homily and actually Confirmed 5 people at mass. KJ and I went about an hour early to get a seat and PG and Blake were able to walk in 10 minutes before Mass, which for PG is 10 minutes too early. Although without having to deal with his brother he did much better.

After Mass we all headed to Nana and Blue Trucks to have dinner with my mom's whole family. 15 of us is a bigger Easter than I have ever experienced. It is so nice to live around family. Have I said that before? :)

My mom took our family Easter pics so I will post those later. (Mom if you are reading this -- I need those pics.)

I will post RA's b-day later as well!

Scouting

Well this year we dove in with both feet to the world of scouting. RA is part of American Heritage Girls. If you have never heard of it before, you should check it out. http://www.ahgonline.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=18722
As they say they are dedicated to the mission of building women of integrity through service to God, family, community, and country. RA is in the youngest part of the troop: Pathfinders. I help the older girls who are in jr/sr high: Pioneers and Patriots. We are a small troop about 15 families (all Catholic and most home schooled -- at least right now). We have so much fun and are learning so much.
DG became a cub scout this year. He is a wolf. And a couple of months ago they got their second wolf. Blake is a den leader for wolves. Again a smaller pack (they just started this year) but a great group of families. There is a lot of the same families in both cubs and AHG.
So we are busy.
One of the great things DG has done this year was to earn his religious award. He and I (primarily) worked on it in conjunction with school. It was a great process and this weekend he received it at Mass.
If you have kids and they aren't in scouts, think about it, pray about it, and if you want ask a scouting family. It is worth it.

Merry Christmas and to all a good night

Well, I am getting ready in about half an hour to wake the little ones to prepare for Midnight Mass (the moment we look forward to every year). But we started the evening with the best Christmas presents -- Nana and Aunt Katie put together photo albums for each child and Nana says she wants each one to come over at the end of the year and do another page with her. Then we had Chinese food with Nana, Katie, Blue Truck, Aunt Nancy, and Uncle Ed. We returned home and put everyone to bed. Then I decided to decorate Jesus' Birthday cake as I really don't like to do those while the kids are hovering. And guess what I backed up the sink rinsing RED icing off of dishes. (I am very grateful for a loving and understanding husband -- although at that point I was just glad I had a husband.) So some pictures to remember the evening by:

Oh What A Day!!!!

So... my wonderful husband works with some parishes in Pueblo (about an hour away). And today on the feast of Corpus Christi there was a Eucharistic Procession. So we decided to go. It was at 2pm and the details we received said Mass and procession. So we got up this morning, had a nice breakfast, went for a walk, came home, got ready and drove. We arrived 30 minutes early to the church, looked around, did the obligatory introductions and grabbed a "worship aid". The cover of the worship aid said, "Vespers, Procession, and Benediction". No mass!!!!!
So we went to Vespers, Procession and Benediction. Now it is about 3:30, it takes an hour to get home so lets get food before we drive. There is a 5:30 mass at our parish. At 4:30 still sitting in the restaurant, ok now what? Well, we can't go to the 5:00 mass locally because we just ate. We could go late to our home parish but when will the check come. The entire ride north, I called Catholic parishes between where we were and home to check on evening masses. I found 3. One 15 minutes from our house at 4:30. One downtown (20 minutes from home) at 7, and one 35 minutes from home at 7. Well, I guess we are going at 7. And the one closer to home makes sense. Now what to do until 7. I know drive around in a deluge of rain, stop at a closed toy store and stay under the awning until the hail stops. Now go to Mass. Being the optimist I am, the kids will be awful, the Mass will be crazy and this will be "one of those nights".
Here is my grace for the day, it was the most beautiful liturgy I have been to in a while and "the big kids" did the best they have in Mass in a long time. (PG and Daddy were in the back.) When we got home the kids went right to bed with no fuss. AND, we got to go to 2 different beautiful cathedrals in the same day. Can I just say, architecture can make or break a liturgy?!
Praise God for all His ways. They aren't mine. I would never have suggested today, but what a blessing.