tis himself!

"I can't repay the lessons That you taught when I was small.
Or give you gift for gift The daily treasures I recall...
I can't return encouragement And loving words of praise.
In quite the way you did for me Through all my childhood days.
But there is one gift that I can give, It's all the love you've earned.
For love is what you always taught... And love is what I learned."

“These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.” 

― G.K. Chesterton

pictures from laura and mikey's party

welcome little Miss Cecelia Irwin! 

Welcome Master John Hilleary!

Those two are only a week apart in age.

(would they be 3rd cousins twice removed?

5th cousins once removed?

or probably just not related, haha)

so blessed!

The Wittman ladies :-)

and the Hillearys  :-)

.......and today is Mary and Grant's first wedding anniversary.

May God bless you always!!!

Those who

linger long

over the 

incense of self love

are 

soon

incensed,

period.

Mikey and Laura are expecting.....

Thanks be to God.

May our Lord bless him and his beautiful family!

Due just before Halloween.

thank you for your prayers!

“There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.” 
― G.K. Chesterton

Welcome, Sebastian Jude!

Sebastian arrived June 11, 2014

Thanking God for a smooth delivery!

He weighed in at 8 lbs 3 oz.

Everyone is doing well,

thanks be to God!

sneak peak at his hair color :-)

Welcome Sebastian!

  “Go and find Him when your patience and strength run out and you feel alone and helpless. Jesus is waiting for you in the chapel. Say to Him, ‘Jesus, you know exactly what is going on. You are all I have, and you know all things. Come to my help.’ And then go, and don’t worry about how you are going to manage. That you have told God about it is enough. He has a good memory.”

St. Jeanne Jugan

"The most deadly poison of our times is indifference. And this happens, although the praise of God shall know no limits. Let us strive, therefore, to praise Him to the greatest extent of our powers." - St. Maximillian Kolbe

Couldn't we say

some of the saints

were

hard ass....

St. Jerome,

for one,

known as the patron saint of grumpy people.

Some of the saints

were 

 bad ass....

 think of

St. Nicholas,

shown here punching

the heretic Arias.

maybe we can even say

some of the saints

tended toward being 

smart ass, too....

St. Teresa of Avila, you think?

who said,

"Lord, if this is how you treat your friends,

it's no wonder you have so few!"

But not one of the saints

was in the least little bit

half ass

when it came to following Christ!

And that is the biggest decision i will make today,

and every day of my life.

i really hope and pray 

we will all be

SAINTS,

bad ass, smart ass, or hard ass!

ok, so this is

what it has been like

 waiting for The Call from tee and pat...

sometimes........

but,  

sometimes,

it is a lot more like this:

(drawing from the blog "Mama Knows Honey Child.")

So in an effort to deal with the suspense, 

and get busy with something

size 3

free pattern from Simple Simon and Co.

this was a great distraction, errors and all!

No word from Tee....

Remember the song, "I've Got You Under My Skin"?

with lyrics:

I've got you under my skin.
I've got you deep in the heart of me.
So deep in my heart that you're really a part of me.
I've got you under my skin.

Scientists have discovered children's cells living in their mother's brains. 

How amazing is this?

And how amazing is God to make this possible?  

I recently read an article from Scientific American on this subject,

which added a deeper facet to the mystery:

"In addition to exchange between mother and fetus, there may be exchange of cells between twins in utero, and there is also the possibility that cells from an older sibling residing in the mother may find their way back across the placenta to a younger sibling during the latter’s gestation. Women may have microchimeric cells both from their mother as well as from their own pregnancies, and there is even evidence for competition between cells from grandmother and infant within the mother."



you can read the article here.

"The highest knowledge is to know that we are surrounded by mystery."

Albert Schweitzer 

Praise to God! The pergola is up!

from the tv room

from the nook

We are so thankful

because the deck was a very hostile environment with the glare and the heat

thanks be to God in His Mercy!

Jeanne brought in a sweet little visitor from 

the back yard

to the delight

of 

the littles.

after introductions were exchanged,

he was returned

to the nesting box....

but not before

Kateri "signed" bird,

which Libby taught her last week.

This is the sign for bird.

Are you making your own lunch today? :-)

     There are three workers sitting on top of a high rise eating their lunch, one Italian, one Aussie and one Irish guy.   They all open their lunches then the Italian says,  "Man, if i have to eat pasta again for lunch tomorrow, i will jump off this building."  Then the Aussie guy says "If i have to eat bacon and egg pie again tomorrow for lunch, i will also jump off this building,"  Then the Irish guys says, "if i have to eat green bread sandwiches again tomorrow, i will also have to jump off this building."


      So the next day they all open their lunch boxes again and the Italian has pasta so he jumps, then the Aussie and finds he has bacon and egg pie so he jumps and the Irish does the same. 


       Anyway when it came to their  funerals the three wives get together and the Italian wife says, "if i knew he didn't want pasta again, i would have made him something else."  The Aussie wife says,  "Yes, me too, if i knew he didn't want bacon and egg pie i would have made him something else." Then the Irish wife says,  "i just don't get it, he made his own lunches!"

“We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel.

“We must be prepared to undergo great trials in the not-too-distant future; trials that will require us to be ready to give up even our lives, and a total gift of self to Christ and for Christ. Through your prayers and mine, it is possible to alleviate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it. . . .How many times has the renewal of the Church been brought about in blood! It will not be different this time.”  

– Bicentennial talk given in the United States by the future St. John Paul II, then Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Kraków, Poland

The above quote begins an article by Fr. McCloskey.  You can read the rest here.

costume notes

distressed, but not torn yet,

and i hope the "sweat salt" bleaching

does not look like

baby powder!

seriously wrong first impression!

the best way to add the overall "dirt" is

acrylic paint diluted in water

and sprayed on.

for the darkest dirt,

i popped open the hood and wiped off the car engine!

probably someone driving by thought,

"that woman knows squat about fixing a car"

The lovely and gracious

Eileen H. found a wedding dress at

the little old town manassas thrift store

for $10 as is!

really not terrible....

it's a little long in the back, but it might serve the purpose very well!

we will see what kelsey says,

yea or nay,

about these costumes.

nancy shared this picture from tee's baby shower

*

*

*

*

*

and  ken has had fun with demolition

no more upper framing for the deck

or vertical posts....

which gives it a whole new look.

Ken has been assembling a pergola from costco 

and now the 4 posts are on the deck,

but not mounted,

just waiting for the ceiling to be put in place.

tee is due on tuesday

.

.

.

.

we have been monitoring her closely!

thank you for the prayers!