Easter came in first at a landslide at 64 %,
Christmas came in at a distant second at 27%.
Alla Saints Day, Feast of Corpus Christi and Other tied for third at 3% each.

A reader very kindly posted what their "other" choice was and why.

"The favorite feast day in our family (though it is SO hard to choose) is Saint Anthony of Padua, June 13. Not only is he a holy, all around wonderful saint, he was the patron of our courtship, he is the patron of our marriage, and we were married on his feast day."

Thank you for sharing Janet. St Anthony is a great favourite in our family too! I choose his name for my confirmation name, even though I am a girl.

My brain is tired and so... I have not come up with another poll yet. The children and I will put on our thinking caps and hopefully have one up before the end of the day. In the meantime, I pray everyone has a restful and peaceful Sunday.

Thank you also for everyone's prayers and assistance the past two weeks. We have been able to pay one of the three months rent we are past due and are now praying for discernment regarding our future. Today is day seven of our novena to Saint Joseph. If anyone would care to join us on the last days of our novena we are using this one. We are asking for the graces, guidance and resources to create a stable income for our family that will allow us to meet our basic family needs while being able to maintain balance and order in our life and make good use of our graces and gifts to grow in holiness for the glory of God. We have also asked for the graces to enjoy our blessings as well as what we already have around us.

GOD Bless you all! Read more!

Goggle Ads

In yet another measure to help add to the family income, stained as it is, I have added Google ads. My understanding is that clicks on the ads generate money ... for me. But I had to agree to not click my own ads. Now I am a curious person! Very curious but to date - I have not clicked, but it is a little like that red box that says PULL in case of fire. A terrible temptation. So if anyone has clicked, please feel free to share what you found being advertised. And, please, leave comments if it is anything inappropriate for a Catholic family centered blog such as mine! Read more!

Two favorite people in my life are...

Mr. Duncan Heinz and Mrs Betty Crocker. Of late I have been trying to save money while eating in a healthier manner. So I have baking cookies from scratch and throwing in a little wheat germ when the kids are not looking, and making whole wheat bread in the bread makers. (Yes, that is plural and is not a type O.) Homemade soups have been garnished with fresh biscuits from the oven.

But sometimes I get a little tired of having to bake to satisfy a chocolate urge for snack and sometimes I am just plain tired. Like today. I have a sinus infection and neuralgia in the left side of my face. Add that to the current level stress and I really am not in the baking mood. Emma, 3, is picking up on the stress and, of course, cannot identify what is wrong, let alone verbalize it. Today she crawled up on my lap and cradled my face in her hands.
"Mummy, I'm hungy. Make me tum cookies pease!?"
I knew she was not just cookie hungry, but she was mummy hungry. I looked at her. I had not the energy to make cookies - not even for the Pope were he to drop in. Suddenly I remembered the boxed cake mixes in the pantry. There had been a two for one sale at Foodlion last week. And I had brilliantly not been able to pass up such a bargin despite my current 'gotta eat healthy' kick.

I cuddled Emma and said - "How about some muffins, chocolate muffins?"

"Oh NO! Mummy I need cookies . Pease make me tum cookies. Pease?"

"Oh, but Emma," I bribed, "If we make muffins, you can help me make them!"

I think the most tiring part of the baking the past two months has been all of the help I have been forced to accept. But a boxed cake mix! SO simple.

We went to the pantry, dug out two cake mixes, hauled a chair to the counter and we were off to the races. She stired and I measured , she dumped ingredients and I sprayed cake pans. In less than ten minutes we have four cake pans in the oven and baking. Two hearts and two circles.

Now as the children are finishing off the fresh vegetable soup, the table is adorned with two very festive looking cakes. Thank you Mr. Heinz and Mrs. Crocker! Thanks to your boxed mixes - my daughter and I enjoyed such a lovely quiet time together this afternoon and now our family will enjoy a yummy, scrummy dessert together. Read more!

Prayer please...

AGAIN... the transmission on our family van died. Possibly God pulled the plug to keep my husband home after a very difficult day. Maybe God knew Hugo would have an accident if he tried to drive to PA tonight after several hours of back breaking work. Maybe He knew Hugo's would further injure his back if he went to PA to pick up that merchandise with only the van floor to sleep on.

And maybe tomorrow the transmission will work again.

And then again - maybe not. Still, prayers are sincerely requested as I think I may be losing my mind! Fifteen days into Lent and counting.... :-)
Read more!

The boy knows the meaning of a kiss!

At the end of a romantic movie the hero always gets the girl and they kiss. Fade to black. But what does it mean if they kiss in the middle of say - science fiction? Like Voyageur, as in when Seven of Nine finds herself on Matrix Zero and falling in love and so she kisses her Romeo. Waiting for the traditional; "Ewwww! Yucky ! Gross!" from the peanut gallery, we were surprised instead by Nathaniel's response.

"Oh - Are dey getting married?"

Once again my five year old showed us the wisdom that can be found out of the mouths of babes. Kissing is sacred, not to be wasted on just anybody, and if you have reached that stage in your relationship - obviously you are serious and so.... getting married. Such sweet innocence and such purity of mind. Obviously one does not wait until they are engaged before kissing someone they love - but still, I think Nathaniel has the right idea. Now hopefully - he will still be on this same track when he is seventeen and allowed to date. Read more!

A little too real for comfort...

Given our current difficulties, a few friends came by to help out with the business. The wind was blowing leaves, debris and paper to and fro in the yard as my sons and their father worked with our neighbours, going through tri-walls and sorting items as to what was saleable and what should be desposed of. Often we were sending Noah and Teddy scurrying through the fields to catch long ribbons of computer paper that had escaped and was whipping across the fields until it would wrap itself around a tree or stump.

Gradually the sun warmed the air despite the heavy winds and the work became a little more bearable and our neighbour's wife joined the men outside. I slipped out to say hi and offer her and everyone else a choice of tea, coffee or hot chocolate. Hot chocolate was the favoured response and I returned to the house to put the water on to boil and double check the bathroom in case anyone needed it. Elsa, of late, has discovered that mysterious fountain of water that is at just the right level for her to drop toys in and then dig about trying to retrieve them. This has a habit of leaving the bathroom somewhat unusable. Thankfully the floor was dry for a change and the toilet paper still where it was suppose to be, instead of sitting in the flush soaking up the water.

While I was preparing the hot chocolate, unbeknownst to me a drama was unfolding outside. A gentlemen, tall and thin, drove up and parked his black truck in the drive and walked somberly into the back. With purpose in his stride he walked straight towards our 19 year old son and our neighbour. His demeanor caught my husband's attention causing him to stop what he was doing and watch.

The gentleman announced; "If Ah had ma gun with me , Ah would shoot you right now."
Our neighbour's mouth dropped and my husband sensing trouble quietly moved towards the man. My son fastened his eyes on him, watching his every move, ready to strike with whatever he had in hand if need be. The stranger swung his arm behind his back and chuckled saying;
"In fact, Ah do have mah gun and Ah think Ah will shoot you."

Sensing my husband's 6 foot presence now behind him, his chuckle became a little nervous and he quickly swung his hand out and made a gun shape with his fist! "POW," he said and started to laugh.

Only then did our neighbour relax and start to laugh with him, finally realizing that this was an old aquaintence he had not seen in ages.

His adrenalin still pumping, my son came in and told me the details of this crazy joke. Miguel and I chuckled over it, but I wonder if the stranger realizes how close he had come to being taken down by my 6 ' 4 " 240 lb son and my 6 ' husband. The hot chocolate ready, I called everyone in, while out of the corner of my eye I watched the stranger make his good byes and leave. I was relieved to see him go even though it had been a seemingly harmless prank. In this crazy neighbourhood, you just never know when someone might actually have a gun in the back of their pants and I am not 100 percent convinced that he didn't have a gun, given he has spent a "stretch" as seems the majority in this area have done at one time or another. Read more!

Lent...

... a time of pennance, repentence and self examiniation. Also known as a time of torture! I have had people talk about how they dread Lent as it is usually a very difficult time. This year just before Lent, as many of you know, we had a local group of guys accidently remove an item and sell it to the metal yard for scrap when this item was actually worth at least 2000 dollars for us. My thought was at the time, well - this is only a short patch. We seem to have them every three or four months. I will just hold on for this roller coaster ride and soon it will smooth out - it always does.

In sharing this piece of bad news with a friend one of her comments was; "Well - I always find Lent very hard for some reason. "
I was horror struck. Lent is FOURTY days long and I quickly rejected the thought that this string of bad luck could last 40 days until my husband reminded me that the past two Lents have been just like how this one started.
I have learned to stop asking - "SO just how BAD can it get. What else can go wrong?" as I have found that is ONE question God consistently answers for us.
But even though I have not asked that question more has indeed gone wrong. I will spare you the details but suffice to say - all that has passed in the last 24 hours has been emotionally painful, humiliating and exhausting.

Next year I think I will try to find a way to hide in a dark cave...maybe somewhere in the wilderness with a dozen loaves of bread and several jars of honey and wait out Lent there. I open to suggestions to any favorite caves you may know of. In the meantime.. prayers continue to be gratefully accepted. Read more!

I know the answer...

...so it is a rhetorical question.

What does one do when in so much pain, especially emotional pain?

Pray, of course.

But when you first feel the injury - sometimes the prayer is so difficult, no? Read more!

30 day Novena to Saint Joseph

Ever blessed and glorious Joseph, kind and loving father, and helpful friend of all in sorrow! You are the good father and protector of orphans, the defender of the defenseless, the patron of those in need and sorrow. Look kindly on my request. My sins have drawn down on me the just displeasure of my God, and so I am surrounded with unhappiness. To you, loving guardian of the Family of Nazareth, do I go for help and protection.

Listen, then, I beg you, with fatherly concern, to my earnest prayers, and obtain for me the favors I ask.

I ask it by the infinite mercy of the eternal Son of God, which moved Him to take our nature and to be born into this world of sorrow.

I ask it by the weariness and suffering you endured when you found no shelter at the inn of Bethlehem for the Holy Virgin, nor a house where the Son of God could be born. Then, being everywhere refused, you had to allow the Queen of Heaven to give birth to the world’s Redeemer in a cave.

I ask it by the loveliness and power of that Sacred Name, Jesus, which you conferred on the Adorable Infant.

I ask it by that painful torture you felt at the prophecy of holy Simeon, which declared the Child Jesus and His Holy Mother future victims of our sins and of their great love for us.

I ask it through your sorrow and pain of soul when the angel declared to you that the life of the Child Jesus was sought by His enemies. From their evil plan you had to flee with Him and His Blessed Mother to Egypt. I ask it by all the suffering, weariness, and labors of that long and dangerous journey. I ask it by all your care to protect the Sacred Child and His Immaculate Mother during your second journey, when you were ordered to return to your own country. I ask it by your peaceful life in Nazareth where you met with so many joys and sorrows.

I ask it by your great distress when the adorable Child was lost to you and His Mother for three days. I ask it by your joy at finding Him in the Temple, and by the comfort you found at Nazareth, while living in the company of the Child Jesus. I ask it by the wonderful submission He showed in His obedience to you.

I ask it by the perfect love and conformity you showed in accepting the Divine order to depart from this life, and from the company of Jesus and Mary. I ask it by the joy which filled your soul when the Redeemer of the world, triumphant over death and hell, entered into the possession of His kingdom and led you into it with special honors.

I ask it through Mary’s glorious Assumption, and through that endless happiness you have with her in the presence of God.

O good father! I beg you , by all your sufferings, sorrows, and joys, to hear me and obtain for me what I ask. (Here name your petitions or think of them.)

Obtain for all those who have asked my prayers everything that is useful to them in the plan of God. Finally, my dear patron and father, be with me and all who are dear to me in our last moments, that we may eternally sing the praises of JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH.

This 30 day novena was found here.

(You might want to check out the original post of this novena as it has a beautiful picture of St. Joseph. It was a difficult decision to decide whether to use it or not, but I wanted one of him with the Child Jesus.)

And here is another beautiful novena, this time a nine day one. Click here.

There are so many wonderful novenas to St. Joseph, it is hard to choose! But I believe that since it is the month of his feast day, I will do the nine day one I have created a link to. Our family especially needs the prayers of St. Joseph right now as we continue to struggle simply to make a living for the wonderful blessings God has entrusted us with. Read more!

I got this from Danielle...

… who got it from ramblinggopsoccermom who says she got it from Stacy…

What did I get? This idea!

Lets all get together and send a note of appreciation to our crisis pregnancy centers and prolife organizations. Know a priest who has taken an unpopular stand in a local parish and tried to teach us about the teachings of the church on contraception or pro life issues – drop him a note! Lets all do something. We can’t let the Pro abortionists be the only pro active people! Click here to find a pregnancy center near you!

HERE is where I will send my first thank you note! Read more!

Mini Poll Results...

And heeere are the results from last week's poll - "What are you doing for Lent?"
Increasing Prayer time came in first at 45 %,
What I am doing is not listed came in at a close second at 23%.
Giving Up Chocolate came in third at 7 %.

With this weeks poll, I am hoping that if people choose 'other', that they will be willing to post here what their favourite feast Day is. Please do not feel you have to, but I would love to know especially as it might be a Feast day I am unfamiliar with. Perhaps some of us would also like to post why they voted for the one they chose. Read more!

Lost and Found

We are currently trying to find God Parents that we have lost contact with in Canada and just found one God Mother, Kathy Clark, and have discovered that she has written a children's novel, A Whisper In My Heart.

Check out this book - I know Kathy's life story and I am sure that this book is going to tug at the heartstrings and be very enlightening at the same. I hope to read it myself very soon, and will post a review here as soon as we have finished reading it.

Here is the synopsis of the book followed by a short excerpt;

Ten-year-old Klari/Claire is about to meet her parents for the first time in seven years. Why did her parents abandon her seven long years ago? And more importantly, why do they want her back?

Klari/Claire is trapped in a world where no one understands her language, where the other children make fun of her and where everything is new and frightening. As she tries to gain acceptance, Klari/Claire learns something about herself, and this knowledge enables her to conquer her fears and uncertainty.

"My parents might force me to live with them, but I will not let them really know me. I will make sure that the separation they started seven years ago will remain forever. No one will ever know what I think and feel. I will be strong. I will not give in."

Why Kathy wrote this book;

"When my daughter was ten years old, she and I were on a walk together and she asked me what school had been like for me when I was her age.

As I explained what my school experience had been like back in 1963, I realized how different it was from her own. I had just arrived from another country, did not speak the language, and had a very hard time making friends. School was a big struggle for me. As I related my experiences to my daughter, I began to think that this could become a story worth sharing with other Canadian children.

In Canada, we have the privilege of sharing the beauty and wealth of our country with people from all around the world. However, we often do not appreciate the difficulties that immigrants encounter when they first arrive here. I wanted to write a book in which some of these seemingly insignificant difficulties are recognized. I wanted to encourage Canadian children to welcome people from other countries, and make them feel accepted instead of alienated. I hope my story will help children consider how their actions affect immigrant children who are striving to fit in and be accepted by them."

I can't wait to receive my copy of this book! Read more!

Whoo Hoo!

We have had ten sales from my mum2twelve's country cupboard. Thank you everyone who is supporting my little store. Look for more selections for photos and cartoons to come soon.

I also wish to publicly say thank you to everyone who has been supporting us through donations and prayers. You all have been so kind. We are very close to having one month's rent collected.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Read more!

AND theyrrrre off!

...with Anna in the lead by one marker! My surprise project for the kids was finally completed this week although I do need to make and laminate some more coupons.

Over the weekend I made a race track. With my being so involved in the business, the children really needed some self motivation to keep to their tasks and school work. So I came up with a game that seems to be helping. Each child has their own laminated race car which has their picture on it attached to a race track with velcor markers on it. To move forward one marker you must earn 10 coupons. Anna, is currently in the lead, having moved just moved one marker forward last night.

To place bets on who you think will win, simply call 1 800 GO KIDS! Your choices are;
Anna, 12, tentatively holding first place
Gabriela 15, currently in second place - about to tie with Anna.
Next we have Teddy, 9, blazing a trail hot with seven coupons. Hot on his heels is Bethany, 8, with five.
Noah, 10, who has been focused on his guinea pig who was ill and passed away yesterday morning only has three, but I suspect he will be coming along strong shortly.
Emma 3, and Nathaniel 4, each hold the last place firmly with one coupon each.

May the best cleaner win! Updates and photos to follow later to help readers keep up with their favorite. Read more!

Highlights from our trip to Ohio...

While we were traveling home I thought of several amusing incidents that I could use for this post, and now that I am sitting here there is only one that comes to mind and truly it was for me the complete highlight. We left the Raleigh area at about 8:30 am sans breakfast as I had not had time to get groceries over the weekend. We left the older crew some hard cash and a list of menu ideas. They were about to embark on Survival 101 as we rolled onto the highway towards Ohio. At about 9:30 am we pulled up to a Pilot which had a MacDonalds, or as Tanny Paul calls them – Happy Donalds. Much to Tanny’s dismay we learned that ‘No – they do NOT serve happy meals at that time of the day.’ So hash browns all around it was. And, of course, even though I only ordered twelve hash browns I got the standard double take as they repeated; “Twelve?”

We settled ourselves back into the van, re-did all the straps, buckles and seat belts we had fastened only a short 60 minutes earlier and we were off. I think we managed to get another 2 hours in before we had to have a pottie break and we started watching exit signs for Pilots. As you can tell, these are our favorite roadside stops.

We had to make several more pit stops to give Elsa a “carseat break” as she was born hating the car seat. In this way we were able to more or less maintain everyone’s sanity. Of course, in the long run this slows the whole trip down and even though mapquest had assured us that the trip was a mere 8.36 hours…. It actually took us closer to twelve. Then only ten – twelve miles from the hotel Elsa hit melt down point and her screams of rage filled the van. Bethany’s eyes filled with tears as her little sister stretched her arms to her, begging to be taken from this horrible form of restraint and torture. I peered though the rain and growing darkness watching for road signs and counting them down.

“Hup – exit 97, almost there!” I cried, trying to keep everyone’s spirits up. At long last and two more left handed turns and we were there. Hugo pulled into an empty spot and I jumped out and rushed inside to register while Hugo rescued the sobbing princess. We hauled kids, back packs, pillows, medicine bag, cooler, babas and sippy cups inside and collapsed on the couch. Within seconds the kids had found Disney channel and Hugo and I just stared at the blank screen on our TV. Elsa scrambled back and forth in ecstasy to be free to move about and roam without constraint.

“Well – the pool closes at ten, Hugo.” I piped up. His head swiveled and his eyes, owl shaped, stared at me horrified.

“The pool, you were serious about the pool?”

“Umm, yeah. I packed everyone’s suit.”

Ignoring the look of desperation on his face, I calmly explained how we would supervise five non-swimmers in the pool.

“Look, I’ll take Emma to the pool – she hates it so she probably won’t stay in it long at all. She probably won’t even go in BUT she HAS to go, you know? So I’ll take her and while I am gone, you can, ummm, put Elsa’s little swimmer on.”

I flipped one out and passed it to him. He nodded, as I jumped up and grabbed Emma. In two shakes she and I were out the door as I called back to him; “Don’t forget to change Elsa into her swimmer!”

As I suspected Emma promptly sat on one of the beach chairs lined up along the side of the small pool and said. “I’ll tit here Mummy.”

“Don’t you want to go in the pool, Emma?” I wheedled.

Uh uh, she shook her head.

“Well then, lets go back to the room.” I reasoned.

“No – I want to tay here, at the pool.” she replied as she settled her 2.5 ft frame onto the 5 foot long chair.

"Well – if we are staying at the pool – we are going IN the pool!" I said, as I scooped her up.

Less than a minute later we were wet enough for me to feel we had justified the traipse down the hallway to the pool and I toweled her off and we returned to the room.

Elsa was ready and waiting in her lovely hot pink swimmer that was adorned with a lovely little belly button in her chubby little belly! I carried her to the pool and she was breathless with delight as we slowly walked down the steps into the hugest bath tub her little eyes have ever feasted on. I let her toes dangle into the cool water and there was a sharp intake of breath and then she leaned forward in my arms to touch the water with her finger tips. We played in the water for several minutes until the hot tub beside it became unoccupied. As I walked back up the steps out of the pool, Elsa squirmed in my arms and shook her head back and forth in protest.

‘Hey – don’t worry,’ I crooned to her. ‘We’ll be back in the water in a minute.’ Carefully I introduced her to the warm water in the tub and she quickly relaxed and started chasing the bubbles that danced across the water top. She grunted and stretched and splashed and played. Sometimes she leaned into me and just sat quietly watching the bubbles, her eyes never leaving them. I kissed the top of her little red head, and smelled her luscious baby smell. And I thanked Jesus for this gift of life that he has blessed me with, not just once but TWELVE times.

Finally the timer I had set for the bubbles, reached it’s end and the bubbles died away and with Elsa relaxed in my arms, I carried her out of the hot tub, just the two of us all warm and cuddled together. I stripped her little swimmer off and wrapped her naked, warm body up in a fluffy towel and carried her back to our room where her daddy took her from me. As I gathered her jammies and fresh didies up to dress her for bed I was able to admire her rosy pink cheeks and damp soft curls from her Daddy’s arms. Once ready for bed she nestled in my arms, had a wee snack and fell asleep. That half hour, alone with Elsa, was my highlight of our trip.

Read more!

I have sweated, and prayed and debated over this thought for the past day. As I mentioned yesterday we lost a couple of thousand dollars of equipment that my husband had just purchased to sell online. (Some gentlemen, who remove metal from our property, mistakenly took it to sell to the metal yard. By the time we realized they had removed the wrong items, they had already sold it for pennies on the pound…)

We are currently three months behind in our rent. Our land lord is patient, but he has written and asked that we do something soon to avoid eviction. This loss of the merchandise is a terrible blow. I think if I were to detail everything that has gone wrong in just 24 hours; you would think I was making it up. I have placed, again, a cheque under our statue of the Infant of Prague in hopes that Baby Jesus will come through for us. Since then, I have been coming back to the thought of a donation button and almost immediately pushing it away.

Finally, I decided to give it a try. For three weeks, about half of Lent, I am going to have a Pay Pal donation button on my blog so that if anyone would like to help us out of this predicament they may. I will be honest. I am a bit embarrassed to do this as I feel as though I am imposing on those who read my blog. It is harder to receive than to give. And very hard to ask. I am especially worried I will insult my readers by putting a donation button on my page. But then I said to myself. Nobody has to give. Not one person. But, if I do not ask, no one who might like to help - can.

Please, if I have insulted you by doing this, accept my heartfelt apologies. My husband is a very hard worker, and works around the clock doing what he can to keep this business going. I am only trying to open a door through which the Lord can help us, if it be His will. Regardless of the outcome, I will remove the button three weeks from now. Thank you for understanding my trying this, and all of the prayers and notes of encouragement that you have sent our way have been very appreciated.

Read more!

We are home...

...safe and sound. What a trip. We took the five youngest and while I would parade them through the restrooms, we would draw amused glances and often drew the comment; "My, you have your hands full!" I would just smile and agree; "Yes I do!" and I would think about the calories I was burning off with Elsa grasped under one arm and my free hand tightly clasping Emma the energizer bunny who was constantly hopping and straining against my iron grip.
"But I wanna buy DAT for Lala! Oh! I dust need to buy a dolly mummy Puhleeeease!" Nathaniel, while more quiet, needed an eyeball continuously attached to him as at any moment a car model might draw his attention and he would be gone in a flash to "Heck dem out."

This trip has caused me to come to the conclusion that the reason I lost weight so readily after each birth until I reached my thirties is not because that due to middle age my metabolism has changed; but because I had so many extra hands to help by then. Someone else was able to dash after an escapee and someone else could hold a baby as I helped a little one off the toilet. I did not have to haul the baby back to the van where my husband was filling the gas tank and checking the oil, and then have to traipse back so I could then use the pottie.

Yes - this trip has caused me to be very grateful of the help I have through my older children but it has also inspired me to begin to add this help up in the terms of calories lost or gained! My older children just might find me taking little ones to the pottie a little more often in hopes that the energy spent in doing this will equal pounds lost!

Highlights of the trip to follow tomorrow hopefully, as right now I need to go start burning some calories - catching up with laundry, and other duties left undone while I was gone. Read more!

Hi ho Hi ho...

...it's on the road we go! Tomorrow early in the AM we hit the road for Ohio with only the four youngest in tow. The oldest five (of the nine still living at home, that is) are remaining behind to do school and help with the packing/shipping. Please feel free to email or fax hot meals to them - I am sure they will be quite grateful!

My husband and I are picking up merchandise for the equipment for the business, and any prayers for our safety on the road, and esp for safety for the children staying home will be greatly appreciated. Prayers for my sinus infection welcomed as well! ;-)

I hope to be able to post tomorrow night from Ohio, but we will be back by Tuesday evening if I am unable to. Anybody in Columbus, Ohio with whom we can drop in on, and share a cuppa Tim Hortens with?

God Bless!!! Read more!

Under Construction

Today I will be taking valuable time from the business to work on a project for the kids. They are all very curious as to what I am doing. Mums the word, but I am creating a racetrack of sorts on a poster... Details to follow!

Wish me luck and the kids .... patience!

And heeere are the results from last weeks poll! (almost forgot to post them!)

Our Father came in first at 62 %,
Guardian Angel came in at a close second at 29%.
St Michael came in third at 9%.
The other prayers came in as follows:
Angelus 7%
Memorare 3%
Morning Offering 3%

Besure to check out the new poll and, if you are doing more than one of these activities for Lent, vote again another day. Phooey.. I forgot to add other. Well, back to the drawing board! Read more!

Why is it...

...when you give up something for Lent... something like chocolate, you think nonstop about it? You think all day about it. You think about it every time your tummy growls, you think about it even when your tummy is not growling. You find yourself wanting it more than you normally do. You find yourself dreaming about hot chocolate, chocolate bars, chocolate chip cookies, brownies until you remember that you actually gave up something else this year. And then you don't think about it again. Not once, all day. Why is that? Read more!

Now the million dollar question is;
Was he wearing these glasses to spy for aliens in his sketti,
or
to keep the sketti sauce out of his eyes?

Read more!

Forgiveness...

...is a virtue. And one Emma obviously needs a little instruction in. This morning, as I was making my bed and moving about rather gingerly as sudden movements caused my sinuses to send send stabbing pains through my upper jaw and cheek bones, Emma asked;

"Mummy, tan I watch a mooie? Peeeeease?"

I looked sternly at her and pointed the mountains of videos strewn about the floor, decorating about three feet of space in a semi circle around the small tv in the corner of my room. I had been stubbing my toes on them as I tread cautiously about the bed.

"What about THOSE, Emma Louise?" I demanded.

To which she replied in a most adorable and sweet voice, as she sank to her kness on my bed;
"Oh Mummy! Tan you EVER fortive me?" She clasped her hands and stared at me.

Smothering a smile, I said;
"Well, maybe if you pick up all of those movies."

Her eyes opened wide and she asked;

"Oh, but whyeeee?"

Clearly while the child does not need acting lessons, she could use some instruction on what it means to ask for forgiveness. And no, she did not get to watch any movies until the videos were cleaned up. Read more!

We pray for the repose of two young souls...

...and for their mummy and daddy who are mourning the loss of twin boys born at 24 weeks gestation jsut 2 days ago on February 27th. Their mummy shared with my daughter that she and her husband were able to cuddle both for an hour before they passed away.

What more can I say - except please pray for this young family from Australia. May GOD be with them. Mother Mary, place your mantle of love and protection over them in this time of need and healing. Read more!

ASH WEDNESDAY...

1	"Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
2	"Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
3	But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
4	so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
5	"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
6	But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
16	"And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
17	But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
18	that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Mathew 6:1-6, 16-18

The Rules of Fasting:

Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 are obliged to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. In addition, all Catholics 14 years old and older must abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all the Fridays of Lent.

Fasting as explained by the U.S. bishops means partaking of only one full meal. Some food (not equaling another full meal) is permitted at breakfast and around midday or in the evening—depending on when a person chooses to eat the main or full meal.

Abstinence forbids the use of meat, but not of eggs, milk products or condiments made of animal fat. For further explanation click here.

Read more!

Desperate...

...for a laugh.

The phone rang. I was reading a book while I ate the last of my supper. Argentinean roast, roasted potatoes, onions and yams. Everyone had left the table and it was more or less peaceful.
And then the phone rang.
I ignored it. Who wants to talk to a discrumpled customer at this time of night and WHO else would be calling at this time?

It kept ringing and did not go to voicemail. I sighed, put down my book and pushed back my chair. Standing up I turned towards the living room, wishing today had not happened. Another ring clued me in that the phone was on the kitchen counter and not in the living room. I halted, turned and grabbed it off the counter.

"What the heck?" I said. (Honest!) "Phone three is calling??"

"Hello?" I answered. Miguel's deep chuckle met me through the phone and from the couch where he was sitting. I had to laugh back. The phone got passed around as I walked over to my computer so as to check my email. I listened to Emma talk to Hugo through the phone, while she was actually standing in front of him. Then the phone was passed back to me and Emma told me she was on a boat.

"A BOAT?" I exclaimed, only 5 feet away from her. "Why are you on a boat?"

"Cause!" she said and then giggled. "It mine!"

After that, Tanny Paul needed a turn and told me he was racing in a racing car!
"What are you doing in a race car?" I asked. "You don't have a license!" He giggled with delight. As I typed on my keyboard with the phone squished to my ear, I snickered to myself. What one does when they are desperate for a chuckle! Now I need to go gather up my little sailor and racer and get them ready for bed. If phone three rings - tell them I'm busy. Read more!

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST

It seems that when we, as a family, try to pray more we are attacked by the devil with a vengence. We are, at this time suffering from a virus that has affected the whole family and we simply can not seem to recover from it. My husband in particular has been very ill.

As if this is not enough, we have had one terrible thing go wrong with the business after another. We just had a couple of thousand dollars worth of equipment dissappear. Please, please pray for us. We are in a desperate situation as we are behind in the rent by a few months. With this loss of the equipment we are really up against a wall. Read more!

Is the Tide Turning?

Fox News reports that Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Abortion Protesters. To read the whole story click here ! Read more!

Prayer Time...

Our family prays (almost) daily and we try to pray the Rosary every day. We have, of late, added the Litany to the Infant Jesus and, as often as possible, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. We try our best to do it at three. I would say at least once a week, we have a day when we miss our prayers altogther. These are typically NOT very good days. It is funny how, despite knowing how much better one's day goes if started with prayer, it can still be such a struggle to settle ourselves down and just do it. Once we are actually praying, it is so easy. One Hail Mary after another and suddenly we are already on the fourth decade. Why then do we then put it off like an unpleasant chore? I truely have no idea. Sometimes, I wonder if this daily struggle helps to keep us humble, so as not to develope a sense of false pride. It is perhaps a reminder that we can do nothing without God's help andHis graces. Not even pray.

Still, as a family, we are striving to do better and we have begun to keep a book of intentions that we read outloud from at least two to three times a week just before our family prayers. When we do not read aloud from it - we ask God to remember the intentiosn we have written in our little red book. These intentions are not just for our own family, but they also cover the needs of friends when we become aware of them. We also have general intentions listed such as the end of abortion, an increase in vocations as well as world peace.

For Lent - I wanted to offer to add any of my readers prayer requests to our book.

If you would like to add a prayer request to our book of intentions please email them to mum2twelve@yahoo.com , or if you prefer, leave them as a comment. We will continue to pray for this intention until we have been told it has been answered, at that point we will change the intention to a prayer of thanksgiving, as we do for all of the intentions in this book. Read more!

Prayer Request for Daniel

This is St. Apollonia, Patron saint of dentists, dental disease and of teeth. I have a prayer request for a young lad by the name of Daniel. He met with an accident last night that caused damage to several of his teeth. It is unknown yet how extensive it is, or what kind of treatment it will require. So please pray for him, he is young, only about 9. Read more!

Trying to lose weight???

... and not having much success? Well, Your Pastoral Coach has discovered that new research has identified that perhaps we have been using our scales erroneously. Look below for a visual description of the proper way to measure weight. Read more!

How to Use Your Bathroom Scale

Read more!

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Porphyry

Hosea 2:15-17, 21-22, Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13,
2Cointhians 3:1-6, Mark 2:18-22

"Prayer is a cry of gratitude and love, in the midst of trial as well as in joy."
St Therese of Lisieux


(photo credit J. Noah age 10, Feb 2006)

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The results are in....

Favourite Prayers
The Rosary came in first at 35 %,
The Chaplet came in at a close second at 29%.
Can't decide and Other tied at 14% each.
The Litanies came in as Follows:
Litanies to Jesus 5%
Litanies to Mary 3%
Litanies to Joesph 2%

We had a lot of fun watching the votes come in. We have new one for this week. Again - it is just to the right of the posts. I am trying to figure out how to change the ability to vote more than once so that families who would like to have more than one member have a turn to vote, can do so in one sitting. Although the poll will be there all week so at least 7 members can vote, and if you have more than one computer... you can vote even more than that so maybe I don't need to change this setting. Hmmm - perhaps the subject for another poll? Remember - if you have any suggestions you would like to see a poll on email me at; mum2twelve@yahoo.com

On another note, I have received FOUR sales in my little shop. Needless to say - we are just tickled and want to thank you all for your support, whether through purchases or prayers!

This shop will continue to grow and we are so excited about some of the ideas that we have to add to our little online shop. So check back often as these changes will be soon and often!

Thanks for voting and for making it such a fun week for us! Now I am off for one of those muffins I was wearing earlier this morning with a fresh cup of coffee. Read more!

Cooking Tip for the Day

When you decide to drop muffin tin full of pumpkin muffin batter, so as to better distribute the batter, close eyes so as to be able to wipe the batter off your eyelids... instead of your contact lenses. Read more!

A Blogger Moment...

Five yr old Tanny Paul: "Teddy! You will HAVE TO lissen to me when I ham older dan you!!"

Nine yr old Teddy, with a HUGE grin: "Sure Tanny. I PROMISE when you are older than me, I will ALWAYS listen to you!" Read more!

Mr. James Fuzz Patrick

Mr James Futz Patrick, Amanda's purebreed Ragdoll, recently had a complete nervous breakdown. In the past six months we have lost two cats from his little harem and as top cat, this apparently had un-nerved him in a big way. On the day he just fell apart. He was wandering about the house hissing, and if someone passed him by - he swiped at them - claws out. Miguel gingerly picked him up, prepared to deposit him in an area where the rest of us would be safe from his razor sharp claws and mal humour. At that point James began to hiss and spit and he doubled in size as his fur fluffed out at all angles. Miguel held him at arms length as he carried the ball of spiting rage through the living room. His hisses drew my attention away from my computer.

"What on earth is wrong with Jamie?" I asked

"Nothing that I can think of." Miguel replied, as he closed the garage door where he had deposited James for a time out. then he added.
"Well - I did tell him he looked a mess with his fur so wet from cleaning himself continuously. Do you think he understood me?"

"Well, not what you said but maybe your tone." I answered.

"I guess I was kind of laughing at him and that's when he started acting so strange." Miguel said.

After a few minutes of time to think better of his temper tantrum, we opened the garage door and in slinked Jamie. He quietly returned to the kitchen and climbed up on a chair, with his back to us and stared out the window. His whickers drooped and his tail hung low.

I have a soft spot for James, possibly because he is my first baby's cat. I felt bad for him as obviously he was very much out of sorts. Cappie, the first of the two cats to die had been one of his special friends. I crouched down beside him and softly asked. "What is wrong, Jamie?"

I leaned my forehead towards him and we touched heads. He leaned into my forehead as I whispered to him.
"You are a special boy - such a handsome cat." We sat there quietly for a few minutes and then I left him. He was much clamer, but obviously still quite depressed. Over the next few months he continued to clean himself in a frenzied, maniac manner. He started showing bald spots and his tail, once a beautiful plumb, was now just a limp duster. The final straw for me was when he chewed himself to the point of bleeding.

As Noah recently said, "I don't think I can handle losing one more animal, all in a period of less than 200 days!

I didn't think that any of us could handle losing another animal, but especially not our Jamie who adds so much comedy to our life. For instance, in the days when Caila was younger and often in trouble, we did not need to say much to discipline her. We just needed to speak her name in a sharp tone of voice, and in James would come at a tear. No matter where he was... he appeared at the meer sound of possible trouble with Caila. Up on his back legs he would rise and box that poor dogs ears. Never mind she was a strapping 70 lbs and he was only about 18. Size, I guess, is in the eyes of the beholder.

I sat there, staring at my bedraggled, scratching, licking, crazy cat and wondered what to do. All research pointed to a neurotic condition and I could just see my husband's face if I came back from the vet's with a prescription for Prozac, esp. when we are on such a tight budget.

Suddenly I remembered some drops I had for my Sam. (another special case) Rescue Remedy, I think they are called. Nature's alternative to Prozac. I called Miguel and we pinned James down.

Well - after few days of feline prozac, he is pretty much back to his good natured and comical old self. See what you think.... Read more!

Read more!

"Certified" email?

What is that all about? Well, AOL and Yahoo are apparently considering charging customers who email their clients a .0025 charge to "certify" an email and guarantee it's delivery. So to put that in perspective it means that someone like Sister Patricia would have to pay AOL and Yahoo to guarantee the delivery of her Peace Card/Joy Notes.

We would have the beginnings of legitimate JUNK MAIL being delivered to our inboxes. So what if we do not have an AOL or Yahoo account? If this proved financially successful - you can bet your bottom dollar that the other providers would follow suit. How long before legitimate group lists like Sister's get lost in the millions of spam email that would suddenly become legitimate through such a tiny fee. (But still a fee that would prohibit organizations like Sister's Joy Notes from being able to afford to mail their mail!)

Such a low fee would be nothing to large corporations looking to sell us something. Look the junk mail that has been inundating the mailboxes at the end of our driveways!

To read more about what this is all about click here!

Read and pray and take action if you feel lead to. I have already sent emails to Time Warner and Yahoo offices and will try to also email my State Legislators and Senators. If I had more time I would provide links. Perhaps later this evening I will have time to do that.

Thank you Michaela for bringing this to my attention!

Read more!

Supreme Court to Consider Partial-Birth Abortion Ban

Click here for the Fox News report on this from yesterday.

We must pray, pray, pray for a good outcome of this! In our family today we will pray not only in words but through actions by offering up our day's work to the Lord. During the Rosary I will remind my younger ones how today they can also assist in this manner - by trying to remember not to lose their temper when a little one knocks over the tower of blocks they just built or when someone else refuses to give up their seat for them at the school table "cause they were here first". At snack time today, some of us can have one cookie instead of two. (This is will probably be more difficult for ME than them!) These little sacrifices are so powerful in assisting our prayers!

There is a link to the Priests for Life Novena to end abortion on the right side of my blog. Maybe today would be a good day to join in with the novena and add this prayer to your daily ones, if you haven't already. Even though I have had the link on my own blog, I have been neglecting to add this prayer to our daily ones. We will start today.

Prayer to End Abortion

Lord God, I thank you today for the gift of my life,
And for the lives of all my brothers and sisters.
I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion,
Yet I rejoice that you have conquered death
by the Resurrection of Your Son.
I am ready to do my part in ending abortion.
Today I commit myself
Never to be silent,
Never to be passive,
Never to be forgetful of the unborn.
I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement,
And never to stop defending life
Until all my brothers and sisters are protected,
And our nation once again becomes
A nation with liberty and justice
Not just for some, but for all,
Through Christ our Lord. Amen!

Read more!

Seeking...

...a home for one cute and loveable 8 - 9 month old pup!

If you recall, this summer we had a gentleman show up with two pups on our doorstep and offered us the bargain of the century: “If you all give me ten dollah – I’ll give you them dawgs.” Realizing that their fates were not very bright given he was willing to sell them to the first person open to giving him ten dollars – we kept them, with the idea of taking them to a shelter. However, the children all prevailed on me to keep BOTH puppies. (Post of July 26^th )

Foolishly I agreed and, at first, things were going very well. We had them vaccinated, I started their training and, in fact, the vet’s office was very impressed with their obedience. Then I got sick. Very sick this summer, and was almost blind for two weeks from an eye infection that was followed by a very severe sinus infection. All training came to halt. By the time I was well enough to pick it up again - they were wildly out of control and walking the kids. Or maybe I could even say, taking the kids for a run as opposed to being walked by the kids.

Still, we struggled along, precariously balancing chores, school work and the business with the dogs getting the short end of the stick. Finally, last night we held a family counsel and a vote was taken. (Much like in the original Cheaper by the Dozen, only Hugo was sitting behind a laptop, instead of a small desk.) The end result is that Zack will be put up for adoption as he is the most hyper and difficult to control in the house. He is a good dog and well deserving of a good home. But with time so tight and spare minutes rare in deed, what time we do have for training must be spent with the dog that is most responsive and easiest to train. That would be Ares and Finnegan - also still very much a puppy.

We also need scary looking dogs given the neighbourhood we live in, and Ares fills that description very well. Zack and Finnegan don’t. So when the pluses and minuses were added up, Zack just was not in the lead. It is a hard decision to make – but it is the best for all concerned because if we were to keep all three – no one is going to get trained and life will just get more and more difficult as these pups continue into adulthood, wild and out of control.

So I would like to ask you all to pray for us as we advertise for a new home for Zack. Also, if anyone is close enough to North Carolina to consider adopting Zack themselves or if you know someone who might like a happy, bouncy, cute dog who knows how to SIT on command and WAIT when you open his kennel door and is learning to WAIT so the person on the other end of his leash can enter the door of the house first, please send them to mum2twelve@yahoo.com and we can chat!

Read more!

The Joys of Having a Big Brother

Last week Miguel was getting ready to slip over to the gas station and pick up a snack for himself. Emma noticed the movement and eager not to miss a chance to visit Amit, the stations owner she dashed over dragging a sweater behind her.

“Peeease – can I tum Guel? Peeeease?”

Miguel looked at me.

“Okay,” I said, “But NO candy. Absolutely not one piece. Understand Emma?”

A little crest fallen, she nodded and Miguel flashed me a quick grin. “NOT one, Miguel!”, I admonished. He too nodded.

The door closed and there was short respite of arguing and haggling between Emma and Nathaniel and I kept working on the laptop. All too soon the door opened and Emma pranced in brandishing a bottle of juice and a little bag of chips.

Miguel grinned sheepishly at me. “Well,” he said, “ I didn’t buy her any candy, even though she couldn’t take her eyes off the shelves of it. She walked down the isles with her little hands clasped together, her eyes fixed on all the candy and did not even ask for a single piece. I just HAD to buy her something!”

The joys of having a big brother!

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Introducing my little shop front.

Well, after some struggle I have created a small storefront that is hosted by Cafepress. If you glance below the mini poll at the left, you will see the link to my store front. In it are mugs, a variety of clothing ranging in size from enfant to adult and from t-shirts to sweat shirts as well as some note cards, post cards, and a calendar. I believe the quality of the clothing is very nice as they are using the Hanes brand. As time goes by I will be adding more products as I become more proficent at adding cartoons created by Anna, photographs by the children and other pieces of art work by the children. We are trying to keep the images we use to decorate the merchandise pro life and pro family oriented. I need to take care when adding the images to product choices that they come out clear on these items as I would hate to have anyone dissapointed by something looking blurry or not perfectly clear.

If this storefront goes well, I will go ahead and upgrade it for a small fee of 4 -5 dollars a month, which will allow me to offer a greater selection. Right now I have to opt for one picture per item instead of being able to allow customers to choose from a variety of pictures on the t-shirt of their choice. At this time, my store front is completly free and unless I see that is somewhat successful, I do not feel I can afford to do more than just invest my time into the store.

Now - how does Cafepress make money if I am allowed to have this store front for free? Well - the prices you see listed are not total profit for me as cafepress is providing the merchandise while I provide the images to be displayed on the items for sale. For instance, the postcards have a base price of about 6 dollars. I am allowed to raise the price and the difference is my profit. There are 8 postcards in a set so I have the price at about 8.99 I am trying to keep my prices in line with what it would cost one to purchase a similar item in your local store. My profit line varies from a dollar to 10 dollars. On average most items will net me 2 - 4 dollars profit. So I would need several sales to make even 100 dollars.

While that does not seem like a lot of money, if people share my store front with friends and family members, I could actually start to make a little money from this. I prefer this to adding pay pal button for donations as I do not feel that I can justify that. Some bloggers truly can justify doing this as they are actually earning a living writing. While this is my goal, I am not there yet, so I do not feel that I can justify asking you to support my writing on my blog at this time. Even though my time is very tight, I am not having to make the choice between writing an article I will get paid for VS writing on my blog. Instead I have to choose, will I get up early and try to post before the business/school day starts or will I steal a little time from the business to write.

I love writing, and my children are also quite talented in various ways, as you have seen hints of on my blog. I see this storefront as an opportunity to use their talents to earn some family income. Ideally - we would love to be able to get away from the current business we are in, which we were forced into by my husband being laid off. The current business is lucrative but the hours extremely demanding and the physical demands on all of us immense. It makes being a normal family very difficult as it requires so much of every ones time that even just accomplishing the daily chores of every day life is almost impossible. I have all day been meaning to put on a load of laundry, so far the basket has made it to the top of the stairs...

So - if you would like in someway support mum2twelve's blog and her endeavors to become a paid writer or you would just like to have some comfy apparel that sports a great cartoon depicting what life in a large family it like, or a mug with a prolife message, take a look at my shop, buy something you like and SPREAD THE WORD!

Mum2twelve's Country Cupboard is open and ready for business!!

Blessings to you all!
Christi aka mum2twelve Read more!

Liberated...

Yesterday after receiving Communion, I quietly made my way to my pew with an eye on the back of Nathaniel to make sure he did not shoot out of the church and into the hall. Happily he sat down in the right pew and I joined him there. We both knelt to say our prayers and while I had my forehead resting against my hands, I thought about all of the stresses of the coming week awaiting me. And I thought about the lesson the children were on in the Baltimore Catechism. It is dealing the temporal sufferings of this world and the value of them.

“Love is purified, increased and perfected by suffering. This means not only bodily pain, but crosses of all kinds. God sends everyone all the sufferings they need on earth to cleanse, strengthen, and perfect their love. But most people waste their sufferings. They do not want them, complain about them and try to escape them in every manner possible, even by committing sin.” (Baltimore Catechism No. 2 p. 90)

We have been, as a family, talking about this and in what ways we reject many opportunities during the day to accept a small cross or to cheerfully make sacrifice. Things as simple as; cheerfully changing a diaper, offering your chair to a little one who really wants to sit by a big sister, putting down a book in the middle of an exciting sentence to answer a question. They are numberless. As I thought about this I offered Jesus to try and do better in this area, but I immediately felt so burdened by the thought of so many job titles awaiting me this week. Mummy, teacher, packer, secretary, and more. “Jesus,” I said, “I cannot possibly do this without your help. I cannot possibly cheerfully attack these small crosses and little daily sacrifices without your help. You must help me as I can only do it with you.”

Suddenly I felt liberated as I realized that I did not have to do this alone. That I was not even meant to do this alone, but that Jesus was waiting there to help me with my crosses, large and small. Such a simple concept, but one that so often eludes me.

So today, throughout the day, as I feel burdened by simple chores, when I feel too tired to be able to wash another dish, or impatient and unable to deal with another whiny voice of a child ill with a heavy cold, I will be turning to Jesus and asking him to help me with my yoke.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Mathew 11:28-30

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Introducing...

... my weekly mini poll. You can vote once a day and this week it will be for your favourite prayer. I will be changing this weekly (hopefully). Subject ideas will be welcome. Email them to mum2twelve@yahoo.com
I think this will be fun! I hope many, if not all, will participate.

Also - look for a store front to appear soon, many items will be available with Anna's cartoons on them. All will speak for family or prolife values. There will be mugs, buttons, magnets and lots of t-shirts. The kids and I are so excited about this, and really looking forward to making a little extra grocery money - with maybe a little left over for the rent too! (Which we are still behind with! Gulp!)


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7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunrise in NC by Josef Noah age 10

Saint of the day: St. Barbatus

Today's readings:
Isaiah 43:18-19, 21-22, 24-25, Psalm 41:2-3, 4-5, 13-14, 2 Corinthians 1:18-22, Mark 2:1-12


"Our Lord then declared to him: 'You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.' Christ, 'the living stone', thus assures his Church, built on Peter, of victory over the powers of death. Because of the faith he confessed Peter will remain the unshakable rock of the Church."
CCC 552


Have a Blessed Sunday!

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We are in the midst of ice/snow storm so we could lose our power and being in the south, this can be disasterous due to lack of proper winter equipment to deal with such weather related problems. Sometimes a minor storm like this can leave you without power for days and days. So when this happens, I need to focus on baking, baking and more baking. We have already purchased a little extra milk and bread as a back up from our neighboring grocery store whose shelves were emptying at the typical break neck speed with which the local residents empty them when faced with a possible electrical outage, whether due to a forcasted hurricane or a winter storm.

As a result of my mind being on the need to bake and have extra food ready in the event we can not use the stove for a few days, my mind will not settle down here at the keyboard. Yet, Danielle very kindly listed me as a possible alternative for her blog while she is gone for a few days and, if new friends drop by, I would like to have an interesting post for them to read. Over the months, my readership has also grown and I imagine few have had the time to read the earliest posts, in particular the one in which I introduce myself and my family. So since I am so brain dead, I am going to repost that essay. I hope you enjoy it. If you are new to my blog - dig around a little as there are some very humerous comics I have posted that were created by my 12 year old. Anna is currently working on a new one, and I can not wait until I have an actual website that will allow me to have a page dedicated to her art.

New and old readers, if you post annonomously and do not have a profile, but would like to hear back from me, please email me at mum2twelve@yahoo.com

God Bless!! Read more!

Let me introduce my family - or at least a few of my dozen!

(This is a picture from Thanksgiving 2004. Two children are missing, the book ends, Amanda and Elsa. )

This post is orginally from June of 2005, when I started my blog... enjoy!

Hi – my name is Christi and I am ‘mum2twelve’! A nice round even dozen, and as my son who is eighteen, recently pointed out - my children are trans generational. They spread across three decades, the 80’s, the 90’s, and the 00’s. I had four between 1982 and 1987. When first married and asked how many kids we wanted - I would always say; “I want two girls, and then two boys; or two boys followed by two girls, whichever way as long as they are born in groups of two so they can have playmates. (And I want four, God.) However, I forgot to tell Him that I meant 4 children spread over 6 or 8 years, not crammed into just over 4 yrs! So when the fourth was born, and I was asked if he would be the last, I responded that at 25 I was not ready to answer that question.

However, thyroid issues ensued, so it took four years before baby number five joined us. Gabriela Elizabeth is a miracle baby. Not only should I not have been able to conceive her because of such low thyroid levels, I should not have been able to carry her to term. Contractions started in her fourth month. She was the first of our 90’s babies and was born on her brother’s 4th birthday. We continued on to enjoy another feast of babies during the 90’s, giving birth to 5 in that decade. By the end of that decade we had nine children, and we really didn’t think there would be more. However, in 2000 number ten, a delightful remake of our 18 yr old son, was born. Same Roman nose and curly red hair, only Tanny’s eyes are blue and he has a dimple! Temperament is not quite the same as Miguel’s either. Both are very handsome and that’s not just my opinion either. According to Tanny Paul, he is “han umm” and all other males in the family are “dood lookin”!

In fairly rapid succession Nathaniel Paul (Tanny) was followed by two sisters. Emma Louise Kathleen, and Elsa Marie Bernadette. Emma is currently 2 and a half and a huge burr in Nathaniel’s life. To such an extent, that he actually cried for three days when he learned that the sonogram showed that his next sibling would be a sister. He was devastated! I am sure in his young mind he visualized Emma’s tortuous twin being born ready to walk, talk and able tease him in conjunction with Emma. However – he is in love with his darling baby sister, now 9 weeks old and definitely not a tease. (Yet…)

The oldest four children are all busy with their young adult lives, but still very involved with their younger siblings. The oldest, now 22, lives in NYC but only for another 7 short days at which time she will move to Boston where she has obtained a wonderful job at Harvard. Amanda Caroline is delighted to be a faculty assistant to two professors in her favorite department, Literature. And better yet, these Profs specialize in British and American Literature, as well as poetry – all great loves for Amanda. As she recently posted – God is good. In Boston she will attend First Day meetings at Friends Meeting at Cambridge. This daughter has left her Catholic heritage behind, and joined the Quakers recently. While this greatly saddens all of our family, we pray that her journey with God will be blessed, and maybe one day bring her back to our beautiful faith.

My second child – also a girl (God got the pattern right for the first eight babies and then He got bored with it!) is only 14 months younger than Amanda and is currently interning at Room At The Inn , a home for unwed mothers. I saw it recently and it is a lovely home beautifully decorated, and very, very peaceful! A rather joyful place for a young mother in need of support to pass those wondrous, but difficult months of pregnancy, and then to begin her recovery from birth and journey to independence with her new baby. Jennifer Alicia, typically a 4.0 student, is also attending summer school while also waitressing in the evenings. She is a bubbly personality and full of energy, but sometimes I worry about burn out for her. But then that is part of a mother’s job – worry.

Our two sons Jonathan, 19 and Miguel, 18 are giving their summer this year to our family business. We are at crossroads and determined to make it to the next level, and hopefully begin to bring in sufficient profits to support our large family without requiring outside assistance, beyond prayers that is! We are praying hard for success. When my husband lost his job three years ago due to lay offs, he immediately turned a part time hobby into a full time business. We have sacrificed our home, taken our sanity to the very edge and back and still we are not quite there – financially. But I think our family is somewhat stronger from the struggles of the past three years. Definitely we have learned the need for prayer, the need for family and, most of all, how much we depend on God to get from day to day – even minute to minute.

Jonathan, when not working for us – is a student at Belmont Abbey College which is where Jennifer also studies. This fall Jonathan will be a sophomore, and Jenny will be a senior. Where has the time gone, eh? Miguel, because of a few learning disabilities will continue to pursue his high school diploma from home. In 2006, if the family no longer needs his help with the business, he will either leave for college, or perhaps the military. My heart stops at that thought, as every mother’s does! Another area requiring prayer as my son seeks to know God’s will for him.

Well – I am off to bandage one of the many invisible ‘ouchies’ that only a “band-aid” will fix. I wonder if the fellow who first invented the band-aid realized the miracle cure he was offering to mums across the world – sometimes surpassing even a mother’s kiss in its magical ability to make it stop hurting!

Another day – perhaps tomorrow, I will catch you up with the younger crew. Until then – adios. Read more!

The Weather Pixie...

I am having a lazy day. So far I have only rearranged the dining room so as to be able to fit in a play pen for Elsa and the rest of my time has been largely spent focussing on Emma who is really not feeling well, so her ability to cope with even small stresses is next to nil. She is most happy when sitting on my lap as I read through the various blogs up for vote on Catholic Blog Awards.

Well, on The Cafeteria is Closed blog I found the little weather Pixie. I decided to add two of them to my blog, and if allowed maybe three. One for North Carolina's weather, one for Argentina and another for Canada's weather. I chose the lady with the cat for NC because of my love for cats... when I chose her it was almost 20 Celcius here in NC and she was dressed in a knee length dress. What I did not realize was that as the temperature climbs - so does the dress... Ahem. I am hoping the dress does not climb up much further, or I will either have to drop the Pixies altogether or switch to a guy pixie and hope they keep their clothes on!

Two days ago I made another discovery - this was a kind of 'DUH' discovery! How could I have not realized this sooner but EWTN TV can be viewed LIVE through the internet. This is one of few lamments I had about giving up cable, losing access to EWTN TV. (More about that later!)
Recently my husband made the comment about how polically savy we are and wouldn't be good if we were just as savy in our faithlife. He was not referring to knowledge of the faith but to our actual spiritual well being.

Of course, the main reason we are so politicaly astute is talk radio. (Namely Rush Limbaugh, but also Tony Snow, a fellow Catholic.) This lead me to try and see if we could maybe download some of the audio files on EWTN so that we could listen to them on road trips when we make especial use of talk radio. Tada! There it was - EWTN live TV, the daily Mass, the Divine Chaplet at three and also the cute cartoons my kids used to enjoy in the afternoons at the old house.

This afternoon as I sat with Emma searching the internet I had EWTN on in the background and On the Rock was playing. I had the window shrunk and was only listening. The host of this show was interviewing a wheelchair athlete who had no hands and no feet. My 19 year old wanted to see this athlete so I opened the window. We sat watching as they closed the program with an artist whose music I had never heard before. It was Tony Melendez who is also missing two limbs. His arms. Yet he plays the guitar - beautifully. His love for God as expressed through his music left a lump in my throat. You should check him out and if you haven't checked out the live TV and Radio live stream on the internet and do not have access to EWTN through your local cable - you should check that out too!

Now back to my sick chillies. Poor babies! Read more!

Ungrateful Children....

The past month, in the name of economy, I have been baking. Many a morning, of late, my children have risen to fresh out of the oven biscuits or muffins baked the afternoon before. Homemade bread either from the oven or piping hot from the bread makers has been teasing their noses. Okay, some mornings it’s been peanut butter cookies with an apple but what’s the difference between that and toast with peanut butter, I ask?

Despite two bread machine 2 lb loaves of raison bread however, yesterday’s pickings were rather slim, as I had been once more gobbled up by the business and my baking ingredients had begun to wane drastically. Sadly - I had to face facts. A grocery trip was in order. I detest buying groceries. But sacrifices must be made in this world so I grabbed a pencil and set to work making my list. On my menu plan, I scratched out cream of carrot and potato soup and replaced it with roast beef sandwiches as I knew I would have little energy left to make dinner from scratch after my marathon grocery spree.

When I left the sun was still shining, but by the time I returned lugging a van full of groceries in with me – the birds had gone to bed and the warm air had just a tinge of chill in it. As the children hurried to help me haul in the goods I heard one child yell; “Sweet!”

My ears picked up. Had he discovered the raisons I had purchased for more yummy bread? Or maybe the maple syrup for the yams we would have this Sunday with our ham dinner? What had elicited such an excited reaction?

“CEREAL guys – Mummy bought Cheerios!” To which arose resounding cheers!

Ungrateful wretches!

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Children and Teddy Bears alike are all ill...

Given we have been over run with a new virus and I am currently surrounded by sick children and their accompanying teddy bears (also ill of course), I do not have a lot of time for posting today so instead I will introduce you to a very inspiring and thought provoking writer whom I have been enjoying through Sister Pat’s Joy Notes .

Her name is Sister Janet and she is with the Vatican Radio and has a new website of her own, Pause for Prayer . So far I have enjoyed everything I have read from her. Here is Sister Janet’s addition to the Peace Card that Sister Pat sends out daily. I hope that you enjoy her writings as much as I do. If you wish to read past ones, click on the Joy Notes link above. To read today's Joy Notes click HERE.

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The young girl was whining to passers-by of her hunger and destitution when a well-dressed woman turned back and offered her a chocolate-covered sponge cake made by a famous chocolate manufacturer. The girl might have been hungry, but on seeing food rather than money, she scowled as her benefactor left St. Peter’s and this morning’s General Audience.

The begging youngster reminded me of a time when one of my Community had left a charity reception where a buffet meal had been served. The surplus food was distributed amongst those who had helped to organise the event, a plate of special sandwiches being given to my Community member. On the way home, she saw a young man begging on the steps of a church so she decided that he was far in more need of the food than the rest of us. She handed him the plate of sandwiches. One by one, he opened them and then returned the whole selection to her. “I don’t like lettuce”, he declared.

This morning’s young beggar outside St. Peter’s also reminded me of a man who banged at our gate in Lusaka one Sunday lunchtime, looking for money to buy a coffin in which to bury his child. There was only one problem: he was accompanied by the wife whom, only the previous Sunday, he’d claimed had died.

There are many rich and poor in this world, but just as “all that glitters is not gold”, so all those who are found declaring that they are poor, homeless, unemployed and the parent of several children are not always telling the truth. It is intriguing, for instance, to see the difference between one elderly “widow” when she is begging in front of St. Paul’s Basilica, when she is bent double and crippled, at St. Peter’s, when she also suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and on the bus, when I can see nothing wrong with her… unless advancing age is a disease.

There will always be some people who will play on the goodness of others for their own ends. As the saying goes, “there are those who will use things and love people, and others who will love things and use people”. Sad, but true.

Years ago there was a popular poster placed in strategic places. It declared simply, “Fragile! People are easily broken. Handle with care!”

Each and every one of us is in need, even though we don’t all resort to the streets and other public places to look for a response. There are those who are lonely, fearful, sick, worried, sad, discouraged… Sometimes we hide our poverty, perhaps at the very moment when it ought to be made known. I cannot help you if I don’t know that you are in need. You can’t help me if I am unable to tell you that I’m desperate for a listening ear and a loving heart.

We build communities of love by giving and receiving. Do I love you because I need you or need you because I love you? There’s a difference.

God needs us because he loves us. That’s amazing! God needs me!

God bless, Sr. Janet

Vatican Radio - Web Outreach and Development

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Update on Operation Barbie Storm

I wimped out.

I was too tired.

My back hurt.

These were the excuses I made, but in truth I had images in my mind of Emma’s face the next morning when she discovered them ALL missing. Morning dawned and we were again confronted with the endless barrage of costume changes. Much to everyone’s relief, Emma finally decided to move all her Barbies upstairs. However, after a short time, an argument broke out; the subject of which I was not yet party to. But we ALL heard Emma’s screams of anger.

Miguel, our 6 foot 3 inch 19 year old, decided to take matters in his own hands. He was close enough to hear that what Emma was enraged about was the Barbies. In the midst of her tirade at Gabriela and Bethany he strode in, picked up the nearest plastic container and scooped up all of the Barbies, (all fully dressed for once) slapped a lid on and left the room.

Operation Barbie Storm accomplished in one fell swoop. I could only imagine Emma’s astonished face.

In the meantime, I was enjoying the sudden silence as I continued my preparations for a study unit on the Solar System. Miguel presented me with said plastic container, tersely explained why he had confiscated them and left; returning to his duties in the packing shed. As I typed on the computer and searched for interesting pages on Pluto as well as other planets, the bulky white container sat at my feet.

Eventually Emma repented of her sin, but I guess she did not think that she could plead her case adequately enough as an advocate arrived to beg on her behalf. She chose well. Bethany with her big, brown, soft, doe eyes appeared at my elbow.

“Mummy, Emma says she is sorry for yelling at Gabriela and me. She wants to have the Barbies. Can she?”

I stared at Bethany, and her eyes stared back sorrowfully. (Yes, Emma had chosen well.)

“She says she's sorry, Mummy.” Bethany pleaded on behalf of the little one who had just been screaming at her. I continued to stare at her as I weighed the wrath of Sergeant Miguel V.S. Emma’s ability to cry f o r e v e r . The thought of Emma’s fortitude won out, and I relented. The white box was pulled out from under my desk and carried gratefully upstairs by Bethany. As I watched her little back disappear up the stairs, I resolved that I must develop a back bone and rid the house of those pesty Barbies with their insatiable need to change their worn and faded ball gowns every twenty minutes.

However, so far my back bone has not strengthened one iota. Not one. The Barbies still rule…

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