Sunday, January 29, 2012

Choosing a parish...almost for the first time.

My husband and I were married at the parish we had always attended (he since birth, me since converting at age 18).  We were members there for awhile and then switched to St. Raphael.  I don't recall feeling very torn.  Maybe it just felt like the right fit to us, maybe it's because we hadn't had kids yet, maybe it's because we really didn't feel like we had friends there yet (I don't mean this in a negative way - it's just that we went to Mass and then left, we weren't really involved in anything there).

We've been at St. Raphael for about 19 years now.  We've had 8 kids baptized there, 5 have received their first confession, 4 (almost 5) their first communion, 1 confirmation.  2 of our sons are altar servers along with my husband, my oldest daughter is one of the church librarians.   The 2 boys also serve one morning a week.  We have some really good friends at that parish.  But here's the funny part.  We don't see most of them at Mass anyway.  We go to a very early Mass.  We mostly see elderly people there.  There is one elderly couple in particular that attend with their disabled son.  Every single Sunday we are there we go out of our way to walk past them.  The woman loves to hold out her hands and hug the kids.  While she is loving up the kids, I see the smile on her husbands face.  I presume he's happy she's happy.  The kids enjoy it too - they head right to her.  If we do switch we will miss them.

We moved 6 months ago.  On a good weather Sunday it takes 20-30 minutes minimum to get there.  During rush hour for daily Mass...40+.  Guess what.  We didn't frequent morning Mass.  With 2 parishes each less than 10 minutes from here,  we are working on changing that. 

One parish has the Sunday early morning Mass time that we prefer.  This parish has some really good priests.  One in particular is fabulous.  The parishioners are very friendly.  Early Mass isn't very crowded; we stand out.  One couple approached us this morning to introduce themselves and tell us it was nice to see a family fill the entire pew (actually, we take 1 1/2 pews at this church).  It also makes a nice one trip for confession and Mass on Sunday morning.  (sorry but it's true.  Convenience helps to make confession more frequent).  And, the priest this morning was wonderful in the confessional as well.  But, it doesn't really feel like home. 

The other parish has a little later Sunday morning Mass.  It's quite crowded.  The pastor is incredible.  His homilies leave you wanting more.  I'm not sure anyone would notice we are new there and that's O.K; we do know many families that are parishioners there.  Our neighbors are parishioners there and their son attends the school.  They seem to have an active youth program and are very friendly to homeschoolers.   The pastor welcomed us warmly and gave us many reasons to join ;) ).   Our family cannot fit in most of the pews there either.  The pastor smiled and pointed us to a small section of longer ones.  Aha!  This doesn't feel like home yet either, but it does feel like it could easily become home.

Wherever we end up, we will be attending daily Mass more frequently at one or both of these close parishes.   No rush hour to contend with for either of them.  Just nice county roads with a nice short drive. :)



Happy 4th Birthday.....

to our niece Zahra!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Abigail - 7 wks


Abigail - incognito (well, really just not looking)

Poor little girl was so tired she cried thru her diaper change (well, I couldn't leave her with a messy diaper!) and she fell asleep before I finished.


Strange picture: Good idea

We owned this baby bath seat for well over 12 years ( I like the fact there is no cushion that needs dry out - just throw a small towel to avoid slippage).  For over 12 years everytime we had an infant we moved it out the way for daily showers and back again so we could walk in the bathroom.  Duh...it has suction cups!  I realized it could easily stick to the tub wall up high and not be in anyone's way.

Sorry, this is exciting for my life right now :)

Friday, January 13, 2012

Levi Lavallee here I come



Logan turned FOUR yesterday, but this picture was taken when he had just turned 2 (and we had snow!)  He already loved snowmobiling and would run and get the helmet and ask us to take him.  After watching Levi Lavallee over and over (his new super hero) he can't wait until we get some snow.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Celebrations

Yesterday we had Abigail baptized.  January 8, 2012

And here's some more interesting information:
  1. Her godparents are our 2 oldest kids (Anna and Nathan).   How cool is that?  As my sister said, "You know you have a big family when..."
  2. Abigail was actually baptized on Anna's baptism anniversary day.  We normally have dessert and light their baptism candle on their anniversary  - but we forgot to do that.  And later Anna asked if the older kids could watch Percy Jackson - so we'll have her dessert and light her candle in a few days.*
  3. Anna and Abigail were our only kids who were baptized when they were over a month old.  Abigail missing the first opportunity at our parish 'cause she just wasn't eating and thriving, and her momma didn't bounce back as fast either.  (both reasons have been discovered and both have been dealt with).  With Anna we really wanted her uncle Andy to be the godfather but he was studying in Europe and we waited until he got back (only later did we learn we could have done this by proxy!)
*We need to wait a few days because:
  1. Jan. 9 (today) is her dad's birthday
  2. Jan. 10 is Wyatt's last class before his first confession in a couple weeks
  3. Jan. 12 is Logan's 4th birthday.  (we've been counting days...he is thrilled that he is down to counting on 1 hand :) )
  4. So...Anna, if you are reading this.  What would you like for dinner on W night?