Babies On The Hiking Trail

A boy and his (my) walking sticks

Hiking with little children has been a bit of a different experience. We still are terrible at estimating the time it will take us, despite our best efforts to plan ahead. We set out to hike Warwoman Dell and part of the Bartram Trail, and didn't make it to lunch until 3pm. But we had a lot of fun.

All bundled up and ready to hike

We parked near Warwoman Dell and hike 1/4 mile to see one waterfall. Then got back in the car and parked past a giant mud hole (so we wouldn't get stuck in it later in case it rained) that made us grateful for our four wheel drive.

First waterfall/uncooperative 3-yr-old

Snug as a bug and ready to hike

The Hubs had gone hiking with Little Man here before and got lost looking for a waterfall. We didn't find it this time either. But we did see this one...

Not the one we were looking for

We ran into some people hiking from the opposite direction and they couldn't find the elusive waterfall either.

Same waterfall, slightly different picture

After checking the time, we turned around and headed back to the car. All of the shedding of the wintery layers as the day warmed up and all the stops for trail mix slowed us down much more than we realized. And then a very patient baby couldn't wait any longer.

Nursing on a log. A momma's gotta do what a momma's gotta do

Same waterfall on the way back. Waiting for the boys to catch up

Carrying Little Man over some mud

Happy as a clam

We made it to lunch in Clayton around 3pm. It was a great day!

Happy Easter!

I'm linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter for {Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}. And since there is a wholelotta {pretty, happy, funny, real} going on around here, I'll let you choose what is which.

So, remember this gem?

a.k.a. my issues with committing to a paint color

After much weeping and gnashing of teeth, I finally committed to a color. Easter was our goal (which we thought we'd meet easily...ha...haha) because we were hosting family from both sides for the weekend and Easter lunch. We managed to get the trim and two walls painted. At least, the walls that did get painted were the ones that had the paint samples on them. They were starting to make us twitch. Of course, now that they're gone, I'm starting to lose motivation to finish the other two walls.

Ah :) no more paint swatches :)

I think that I've mentioned that we've started milling our own wheat? Well, I tried using our wheat for my Easter cake, which calls for AP flour and I didn't do any research, yadayadayada and....

almost completely hollow but tasted good

I was pretty determined to make the cake since it's a family recipe, and I don't have many of those, and I knew my family would love it (which they did), so I hacked around some forums for about 10 minutes (which I should have done anyway), and after braving a three-and-a-half-our-priest-skimps-on-nothing (including using full-sized drink pitchers for baptisms)-vigil-mass with our two year old and getting to bed around 1 am, I got up early and made cake #2.

Ah, much better. 

We had a blast with all the family, ate our traditional lamb, risotto, homemade bread, salad, etc meal (my husband is a beast in the kitchen; I did the cake), and then enjoyed watching the kiddos hunt for eggs.

hunting for eggs

My niece and her Easter stash

Grandma hid them well in the bushes

Mommy getting in on the action

My nephew and his eggs

hustling to find more eggs

adorable

Cousins 6yrs, 3 1/2 yrs, and 2 1/2 yrs.

Cousins with babies at 37, 22, and 17 weeks gestation

Grandparent and Great Grandparent love

After all of the egg hunting and the food eating we just enjoyed hanging out together. So what do you get when you cross one entertaining cousin with a deliriously silly cousin?

We got to enjoy some low key time with my sister's family after everyone else left. The kids had a blast playing in the yard (watched by us through the window). Before we realized what they were doing, the cousins had discovered a fun way to go down a small hill in our yard.

We hope your Easter was as wonderful and joyful as ours! Happy Easter from my family to yours!

A Tad Ramble-y and Keeping Sunday Holy ~ Part 2

...This is Part 2 of something with an unknown amount of total parts at this time (with gratuitous pictures from Thanksgiving included).  Here is Part 1.

In Part 1, I told you about where the "keeping Sundays holy journey" began.  And that we put up our cell phones.  And that we've failed.  And that's ok.  Because we're continuing to try.

Putting up our cell phones had an instant impact.  It created a void... it made space.  And I immediately struggled with that space.  I had to deal with that void... I wanted to fill the down time... I wanted to Facebook through the boredom... I wanted to text my way through the awkward silences... I wanted to Pin through...

... I think you get my point.

Pasticciotti - an Italian cookie with almond custard in it

I found myself reaching for my phone to fill the space.  But the whole point was to create space.  Space for conversation, space to connect with each other, space for prayer.  But I didn't deal well with the space.  It made me feel angsty.

So, I started being intentional.  I had to be intentional about putting up my phone, in a place that made it a real effort to get up and grab it.  We started planning activities to fill the space - like going to the park.  Or going hiking.

Pasticciotti was a success = Happy Mother-in-law

When we first came up with the idea to make changes to "make Sunday holy", I thought it was going to be more like  1. Put up cell phones.  Check.  2.  Make next change.  Check.  3. Etc.  But, by keeping the big goal in mind, things have sort of just snowballed.

I didn't know exactly what keeping Sundays holy would look like.  But I knew how I wanted it to make us feel.  I wanted all of us to feel loved and connected to each other, to feel rested and rejuvenated for the week ahead, and to feel closer to God.  We've tried several times to try to have the house cleaned by the weekend so that we can relax.  But weeks are busy, and blah blah, you know my usual excuses.  But once we had a goal for Sundays, it became easier and I got better to have the house picked up by Sunday.

Notice I said I got better.  

3 out of 4 looking at the camera = success; Joey, Ava, Matthan, Sophia

If we don't go grocery shopping Saturday morning, it seems the whole week gets thrown off.  Including Sunday.  I hate meal planning and shopping, and I like cooking when I have money to buy the ingredients I want and all the time to make the recipe and someone else to clean up the mess.... which is never.  So I drag my feet and meal planning gets done, oh you know, saturday morning before my husband leaves for the grocery store.  And it's more like late afternoon when we begin our weekend.  Which spills into Sunday.  But with wanting to capture a certain feeling for Sunday, I've gotten better about staying on top of the grocery stuff.

They discovered that "Baby Matthan" will follow you if you have goldfish crackers

I've gotten better about having a meal plan and shopping list ready.  Which has snow-balled into being prepared for the week, which makes me more peaceful on Sunday.  I've been more proactive about having a simple recipe or crockpot meal for Sunday dinner so that my time is not spent so much in the kitchen.  Which means I'm also not starting off the week with a disaster of a kitchen because I used every bowl while cooking and I don't want to be in the kitchen because I want to be with my family so I didn't clean the kitchen, so now it's left for Monday morning.  Boo.  So things have gotten better. 

But it's not like once I start getting the hang of things it continues.  I get the hang of it one weekend and then I have to start all over the next weekend.  And lately, we've been traveling or chaperoning youth group retreats or feeling under the weather, and my husband ended up at the grocery story yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, and the meal I chose to make was (new) uber complicated and we spent a few couple hours in the kitchen and dinner was late, and Matthan went to bed late.  The Hubs made a comment like "if the goal is to be connected as a family and spend time together, we shouldn't be grocery shopping at all on Sunday".  That was hard to hear (because he had gone shopping late because of my lack of staying on top of things), but he was right.  Sigh.  Will try again next weekend.  We did spend the time in the kitchen together making said uber complicated dinner plan and Matthan played around us in the kitchen so at least we were together.  Making lemonade out of lemons, ya know?

"Baby Matthan needs a halo because he's an angel" - The cousins

But that got me thinking.  What if I couldn't shop on Sunday?  I'd be forced to get my booty in gear when it comes to meal planning.  And if everyone didn't shop on Sunday then stores wouldn't have a reason to be open and their employees could go home and be with their families... and we'd all just be a little more affected.

The troops heading to the park (not pictured: me, Paul, Peanut & Charlie (the canines))

I've learned thus far that you get blown in the direction that you're leaning. (Is that a cliche or can I get credit for that?).  These past couple weeks I have really struggled to put my phone down.  And that has led to me being less on top of things.  It has led to me being less at peace and less connected. It usually starts because we have a lot going on with holiday planning and present buying and trying to keep up with the every day things, and I feel like we just got back from our Thanksgiving travels yesterday.  And a lot of things are on my phone.  I have emails with present ideas from family, on my phone, and I have lists that I've made of stores I need to go to for gifts, on my phone, and my grocery list is, on my phone, and my recipes are, on my phone, and the weather is, on my phone, and directions are, on my phone...  And so I pick up my phone to (insert productive activity here) and several minutes later I've found an interesting article to read posted by someone on Facebook.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, when I'm intentional, things snowball in a really good direction and one thing flows from the other and Sundays are awesome which flows into the week ahead.  And when I'm not, things flow in the other direction, and it's pretty lousy.  But I do have to say that as tough as it's been to achieve the goal...

it's been totally worth it.

Rolling on the floor and snuggling with his blanket in front of the fire

How do you and your family keep Sundays holy?  Do you have any suggestions for me on how to avoid falling off the wagon when all my stuff is on my phone (so as to have it all in one place and be more efficient)?

Stay tuned for Part 3.

Monday Musings (vol. 9): G.K., Ramsey, and Sundays...

... i.e. Part 1 of something with an unknown amount of total parts at this time.

"Anything worth doing, is worth doing badly."  ~ G. K. Chesterton

Ages ago, I read a blog post about making Sundays a day of rest.  And then I forgot about it.

Some of you know that we have been on a "keeping Sunday holy kick" around here (for anyone new around here (Welcome!) you can read more about this here, here, here, and here).  Recently, I stumbled on that blog post again (mentioned above), and in it, the author says, that if you make Sundays a day of rest "you will see God's blessings showering on you and your family".  And so, I want to share with you where this journey has taken us... the struggles... and the blessings.

All journeys have a beginning.  And a few months ago, when we decided to start being intentional about Sundays, we were suffering from roommate-itis.  The three of us had many days where we went about our business in a parallel manner, but never really intersecting.  Sure, the usual duties were getting accomplished, but we weren't really connecting.  I would be playing with Matthan, and be too quick to answer a phone call or post a cute picture of Matthan on Facebook.  We would be at dinner, and one of us would be too quick to look something up on our phone and then get distracted by emails.... Matthan especially needs to work on this (insert sarcasm sign here).  There was a lack of intentional time being spent and a lack of meaningful conversations being had.  We were missing each other, sort of passing each other like roommates.  We weren't fully engaged with or fully present to the other two.

 

There are several things that we have discussed changing or improving in our family, but we have had little progress and many failed attempts.  It is in my nature to want to do something perfectly the first time.  And when I fail (because, Hello!, I'm not perfect), I wallow and decide that it can't be obtained so it's not worth doing.  Here's where G. K. and Ramsey come in.

I found this G.K. Chesterton quote: "Anything worth doing, is worth doing badly.", and I felt like I had been set free!!  I needed someone to give me permission to try...and to fail.  And to try again.    This quote has had a profound effect on me (maybe I'll write about that at some point...).  Now I've never read Dave Ramsey's book (books?), but I have been told of his method of having people pay off debt starting with the smallest debts and working their way up to the biggest debts.  I argued with someone that this idea did not make sense to me because it seemed like people would pay more money in the long run because of interest building up on the bigger amounts of money (pretend that my argument sounded really eloquent and I used a lot of large financial words, okay?).  But I was told that it's more about the small accomplishment and the feeling of success with the little debts that help people work towards paying off the bigger debts.  And that is a concept that can be applied to our lives in general (I could write a blog post about just this idea... I might).  

So, while there were several things that we wanted to change in our family, I kept coming across the concept of keeping Sunday holy in the things that I was reading and listening to, and decided to follow this prompting, even if it meant doing it badly.  I took a deep breath, let go of my perfectionist tendencies, and decided to go where I had gone and failed before (changing something in our family), and decided to start small.  I really really wanted to rush it and strive for all the ways that I had in mind to make Sundays holy for our family... but again, I had to start small.  With the big picture of what we wanted in mind, The Hubs and I discussed what one thing we could change that was 1. something that we could change now, in this stage of life, 2. a truly attainable goal,  3. would make an almost instant impact.

And that is how we decided on putting up the cell phones on Sunday.  Have I failed?  Yep.  Have I given up?  Nope!!  One small step for our family, one huge flippin'-ly-ginormous mega step for me and the development of my perseverance!!

Stay tuned for Part 2.

"I have not failed.  I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."  ~Thomas A. Edison

Monday Musings (vol. 8): Obligation

The word "obligation" carries a negative connotation with it in the modern American usage.  It brings to mind taxes, bills, middle-of-the-night feedings, or other tasks that bring about a groan.  Washing dishes also comes to mind (anybody with me on this?).  

Okay, okay, washing dishes does not technically fall under the proper definition of "obligation" (as in the one I found on the internet):

"noun  1. an act or course of action to which a person is morally or legally bound; a duty or commitment."

One of the things that irked me when I was learning about the Catholic faith were the Holy Days of Obligation.    

Just so we're clear, a Holy Day of Obligation is a feast day on which Catholics are obligated to go to mass and refrain from any work or activity that hinders the worship owed to God.  An example is the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, or more commonly known as Christmas.

I don't like being told what to do, or that I have to do something.  

Holy Days of Obligation are part of the Sunday obligation (Catholics are obligated to go to mass on Sundays).  There are weekends where we're very busy and I wake up on Sunday not wanting to go to mass.  I groan about having to get myself ready and dress and feed my toddler and get our family to church at a set time, while kicking myself for not packing the diaper bag the night before.  Not to mention toddlers have a knack for pooping as you're about to walk out the door to get to anywhere with a set time (How do they do this?).  I admit, there are Sundays where I make it to mass simply because I'm obligated.  

But, there are Sundays where I make it to mass despite the hinderances because I love God and I yearn to please Him.  I'm free from the obligation because I'm doing it for the relationship.  

I dug a little deeper into the word "obligation".  Since the 1560's, the main modern meaning of the word "oblige" is "to make (someone) indebted by conferring a benefit or kindness"

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only son, so that everyone that believes in him, might not perish but might have eternal life."  John 3:16

I'd say that God has conferred a great kindness upon me, and that I'm indebted to Him.  

I still groan sometimes about getting to mass on Holy Days of Obligation, and those are the days that the obligation feels like a heavy weight.  And I use to argue that those days had no meaning.  That there was no meaning in me simply going out of obligation, going through the motions; that it was all just ritualistic (as if rituals are a bad thing, a topic for another day).  But there is meaning.  And usually, it is those days that I need to go the most.  That my heart and attitude clearly need adjustment, and when I "just show up", God always meets me where I am.

There are some days where just showing up is all I can muster.  But what I've learned is that the just showing up can be the most important choice of my day.  And it is a choice.  While I am morally obligated to get to mass if I am able, no one is holding a gun to my head forcing me to go.  It is still my choice whether or not I go.  And although it is small, and God deserves better, it is in that small choice to just show up, that I'm saying "yes" to God.  And He can use that.  In even the smallest of ways I'm choosing to turn my heart to God when I could have said no to Him and just stayed in bed.

And I continue going through the motions until I get to those days when I go out of love, out of my relationship with God, out of gratefulness for what my Lord has done for me.  And I do not bear the weight of the obligation.  In fact, I am thankful for it.

If At First You Don't Succeed

View from Tribble Mill Park walking trail

So, do you remember me telling you about us trying to keep Sunday holy by putting down the iPhones?  That this practice was supposed to make space in our lives for God and family time?  Well, last Sunday (as in more than a week ago) was a big. giant. fail.  I can't even remember if we had made any plans to "fill the space", but by Sunday afternoon I was laying on the couch and had been on my phone for about the fourth time before I even realized it.  Pathetic.  

Hanging out, eating Puffs while Daddy fishes

The hubs and I sort of passed by each other all weekend.  Staying off of my phone was harder than I thought, but that is because I didn't have a plan.  We don't work well 'round here without a plan.  

This weekend, we were intentional.  We had a plan.  The plan was not perfect, but we had a fabulous weekend!  In case you haven't already noticed from the beautiful pics amongst my rantings. 

We went "hiking" over at Tribble Mill Park (this is a free parking, county park for anyone in the area, with a sweet playground from what I could tell).  I say "hiking" because we chose the three mile paved loop around the lake which is more walking rather than hiking.  There are woodsy trails that loop off and back on the paved trail but the view from them isn't very interesting.  We realized that we had been to this park before with Tim's college roommates when Matthan was about four months old.  

Tim has recently gotten into fly fishing and we stopped along the trail.  I entertained Matthan on a blanket nearby.  

Daddy showing Matthan a fish

How does one have a blissful Sunday afternoon on a blanket with a toddler?  Easy, when your kid doesn't like grass.  Blanket = invisible fence.  He did eventually play with the leaves around the blanket all the while keeping as much of his body on the blanket as possible.  I put snacks around the edge of the blanket to give him some physical activity.   Snacks plus my car keys gave Daddy a good 45 minute fishing session.

At one point, Matthan started putting leaves in his hair - a big step for a kid who doesn't like to touch the earth.  I think he heard me giggling because he then picked up a fistful of dirt and dropped it on himself.  I didn't catch that prime moment on camera, but here is a little video of him exploring his surroundings.

He laid on the blanket with me for several lovely minutes (thanks to my car keys) before Daddy decided it was time to go home for lunch.  

Chilling on the blanket with Mommy