Happy Thursday!
Today, the kids and I did make it a truly special day, as we celebrated the feast of the Ascension (40 days after Easter already!?). We feasted. We prayed. We partied. And I think we learned.
“Wow, Ethan, that sounds like a great day, but what does that actually entail?” you might be asking. Oh, let me tell you!
A Day of Feasting.
Breakfast oatmeal – bananas, oatmeal, cinnamon, blueberries, dried cranberries, and white chocolate chips. Our son chose the blueberries. I chose dried cranberries, and our daughter chose white chocolate chips. All in a baking dish, popped in the oven, then served with nice tall glasses of hot chocolate! I love breakfast. Then we snacked on beans and cheese with chips for brunch. Lunch consisted of homemade pizzas. We had chicken and salads for dinner and finished off the day with some celebratory pints (from the local ice cream parlor).
We Prayed.
Today we prayed in many ways. Of course, we continued our prayers for mama. For her strength, courage, health, safety, and for peace, joy, and happiness in her heart. We offered up our work/chores for others – especially during cleanup time(s). When we went to go to adoration – one of the kids passed out in the car, so we sat outside the church and prayed on the outside. LOL. Almost made it inside.
We Partied.
Going into these 10 days home with the kids, one of my goals was to be more active and work out. Wouldn’t you know it, these kids just don’t want me to do that by myself. So today, my work out was part of our party portion. We had a dance party. Shout out to my workout buddies from back in the day when we would do Insanity – Total. Muscle. Confusion!
We also painted, played outside, and even played with dirt. I know, every good party includes some dirt.
Today’s goals:
- Feast and glorify God.
- Pray for mama.
- Stay hydrated.
Today’s reality:
- Oh… we feasted.
- Lots of prayers.
- Our son had field day – he was certainly hydrated. Daughter was relatively hydrated going back and forth between water, orange juice, and “baba!” Me… I’m close.
This week has been a doozy. One of the things we have been infusing into the days is a lot of prayer. While I stand there and sometimes look at my extremely energetic children, they have caught me off guard this week a number of times when we have been adding in different elements of a prayer life. Take for example, the other day. The kids and I had some St. Benedict medals and Benedict bracelets, and I told them we could go get them blessed by a priest. Our son was all about this. We went to the nearest church that has a perpetual adoration chapel. We went into the Chapel probably for five minutes. here, in a true silence, both our children genuflected together before finding their spot. Never have I seen them do this together. As we knelt on the kneeler in and faced the front, quite close to the monstrance, I briefly whispered Who was in there. I took a moment, closed my eyes, and entered silent prayer. When I opened my eyes, I peeked over; both our toddlers were kneeling with hands clasped and wide eyed looking towards Jesus. They would look around this small Chapel at the sacred art, the painted ceiling, and this stained glass, but their gaze would realign and pause on the monstrance every few seconds. upon leaving, the large narthex of this church was where we crossed paths with one of the parish priests. When I approached him, both kids came up and waited silently, while they held out their own bracelets to be blessed. They had been listening before when I told them earlier that day what the priest could help us with!
This is just one of the instances from this week. Many more have happened, and I truly think that it will continue to happen. Having such small children, I have realized especially this week that it is so refreshing to hang out with no ego. To be truly open. Growing up can be hard. And don’t get me wrong, I think having the EQ to understand when someone else is and is not a decent human being to be around is a strength everyone should build for their own safety. But some experiences can close off our minds and our hearts, it happens to all of us. Perhaps, if I can learn from our kids to not put up so many shields and be a little more open to any given moment and those around me, God will be able to work a little more on chiseling away my fallen nature and I can grow in holiness. I pray daily that we as a family will grow each day in holiness, and that the two of us will grow each day in our marriage and in our parenthood.
Before I hang it up for the night, here are just a few notes for Mama:
We are still doing well. Today we introduced our two-year-old to all of our loyal friend, Winnie the Pooh. She was completely thrown off, it was awesome.
Not sure our son is ever going to want to swim in a pond, lake, or ocean… we read a children’s book of Jonah.
We are working towards a food breakthrough… Our son asked for noodles with red sauce to eat tomorrow! For those out there unaware, he usually only eats alfredo sauce on his noodles. We’ll test it out and keep you posted.
Oh! And I got bored tonight. Well not really, but I could not sleep and since I don’t have homework I did something else. There’s another surprise for when you get home… but I ran out of supplies. And no, I’m not going to tell you until you see it. 🙂
Forever yours,
Ethan
Ethan Avina 
Sounds like a wonderful day.
LikeLike