It seemed to work pretty well.  Occasionally he’d come down, but not nearly as often.

So, when I found myself at the Catholic bookstore a few days later, I picked him up a medal and prayer card for St. Michael.  You’d have thought I’d given him a brick of gold!  We put the medal on a hip necklace I made for him and he proudly showed it off to everyone he encountered.

Then, a few nights later, when struggling in the dark to read him the prayer, he suddenly took over and simply recited it himself.  I couldn’t believe it!  In only a few nights, he had memorized the prayer.  And, it’s not a little kid’s prayer – with all the thees and thous!

Here it is:

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle;
be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan and all the other evil spirits
who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

And, here is Sam, praying it:

I’m so proud!

All of the children have (forcefully) given up TV for four days a week.  I let them choose the days, so from Monday through Thursday there is no TV watching.

Here are some of our other Lenten sacrifices this year:

JB is going to listen to his parents and is giving up his favorite video game

MG is giving up iPhone games and complaining when she’s asked to do something

LH has given up chocolate and will help his family with a happy heart when asked

SP has given up playing with his dinosaurs (at school and home!) and has quit saying “no” when asked to do something

I have given up beer and, heaven help me, DIET DR.PEPPER.  Yes, I have been DDP-free now for 7+ days.  And, amazingly, I am still alive.

I’m not quite sure on what Dan’s given up… I think he said he was going to to abstain from beer 3.5 days per week, when it’s over 50 degrees and raining.  Or something like that.  Oh, and he’s given up yelling at the kids.

So far, we’re all doing pretty well with our Lenten resolutions.  Of course, we do have 5 more weeks to go.

I’m pretty proud of the kids with the TV thing.  They’re finding lots of other things to do.  Like, turning over all the furniture in the basement to make forts.

And using the computer for educational purposes.  Like this:

I can’t wait until they start making money with this photography thing, so they can put it away for school.

This morning, our plans to do our usual split up were foiled, when one of us missed getting up on time.  Rather than choosing another mass, further breaking up the day, I decided that we should go as a family at 8:30.  I was feeling brave.

We parked ourselves in our usual spot – two pews back from the alter.  (I know what you’re thinking, but, as I learned from my friend Troy, it can work.  The children are at least more likely to behave when a) they can see what’s going on, vs. staring at the backs of a bunch of heads; and b) the priest can look them in the eye.)

Besides having to lay a calming hand on Child #4 and shushing Child #3, things were going brilliantly.  Then I heard a familiar crinkling noise.  I glanced over, but no, it wasn’t the baby’s toy.  He ( the little angel) was sleeping peacefully.

So I leaned forward and looked down the pew…

…to see Jack pulling a package of Pop-Tarts from his pocket!  (FYI, this is NOT a normal occurrence for our family.)

Needless to say, Dan confiscated the contraband and we made it through mass without further incident.  As a matter of fact, we even received a compliment on our children’s behavior!

I couldn’t imagine what was going on with Jack, but he claimed that it was his intent to distribute the Pop-Tarts after mass…  I guess they were just making him uncomfortable, sitting there in his pocket in church.

At first, I was disappointed that none of our family members could make it here for the baptism of our fifth child.

Then, I realized, our family did make it!

The Remicks were able to come a few days early, so we managed to spend some quality time together.

Bergen and Luke

Jack and Keegan

Maria and Zoe

Carsten and Andrew

Sam and Bergen

Luke was not left out. He's behind the pillar.

(More pictures can be seen by clicking the Flickr badge in the left hand column of this page.)

We are so thankful to have such wonderful friends and that they were able to make the long trip to be with us.  Kyle, Troy, Keegan, Bergen, Carsten, Zoë – we miss you already!!!

We’ve really had a great time hosting visitors this summer.  We have plenty of room, so if you haven’t yet, call today for a reservation!

Seriously, though, last weekend, Jack celebrated his First Reconciliation, or First Confession.  We were very proud of him, as it’s pretty nerve-wracking to pour all of your 7-year-old sins out to a priest.  We were not so proud of our other three, who had ants in their pants throughout most of the morning.

Doesn't he look so grown up? And isn't the priest tall?!?

Here’s my lumberjack reference… Gran sent a new box of clothes and the boys all got these shirts.  (Jack hasn’t had the opportunity to wear his yet, as he’s been in uniform all week.)

We love flannel!

This is Lukie’s new favorite shirt!

Teenagers, obviously.  (Sooooooo glad we’re not at that stage yet, especially when look out our windows to see that the neighbors trees are covered in it.)

What do you use toilet paper for?  That’s it?

‘Cause there are other things you can do!  Of course, you might not come up with much if you only buy a few rolls at a time and keep them under your sink in the bathroom.  But, if you by the 48 pack at Costco like we do and they’re just sitting there, on the shelf in the basement, begging for your attention, you may think differently.

As my kids did this afternoon.

With the dreaded homework out of the way, I was contentedly getting dinner prepared while the kids watched TV in the basement.  Or so I thought.  Things were starting to sound a little rowdy, and I might have gone down there, except that my mom called.  Of course, I’d much rather talk to her than hunt for disaster, so that’s what I did.  Until it got too rowdy.  Still on the phone, I crept downstairs to find Jack and Sam making towers with toilet paper rolls.  Fun, but not that fun.  So, they used more rolls to throw across the room and collapse said towers.

I pretended not to notice, went back upstairs, and continued my conversation.  Until I received a report of damage to the fuse box cover.  I figured it was time to face the music then.

I ended my conversation and headed down stairs.  Thankfully, the damage was non-existent, but the mess wasn’t.  There were rolls of toilet paper EVERYwhere.  Lucky for us, the rolls come individually wrapped, so the mess wasn’t what it could have been.  (And no one will have to worry about dust or dirt on their butts when using it later.)  There were, however, a few rolls that had been opened and tossed about, creating yet another snowstorm in the basement.

I switched off the TV and demanded that they all clean it up.  Too bad for the two that were non-culprits.  That’s the way it goes.  Everyone had to pitch in.  A few minutes before dinner, they had the basement pretty much back to normal.

As the rest of the family sat down to dinner tonight, I ran out to get my haircut.  Upon my return, the little boys were snug in their beds, Maria was preparing for a bath and Jack, freshly bathed, was stomping toward the basement stairs, complaining to me that Dad told him to clean up down there.  And, that it has to be “perfect.”

As he headed down the stairs, still complaining, he proclaimed that, “Only Mary was perfect!”

Hahahaha.  Got to love Catholic school.  When I was done laughing, I wondered what needed cleaning in the basement since it had been cleaned before dinner.  So, I hunted Dan down to ask what had happened down there.

“Do you know what they did?!?” He asked.

“Ummmm….were they by any chance playing with the toilet paper?” I asked.

Sure enough.  They’d been at it again.

“I spent the other night taking all of those rolls out of the bag and stacking them nice and neat on the shelf down there!” Dan told me.

Well, no wonder.  Usually I keep the rolls in the big bag they come in.  I guess with them all sitting out on the shelf individually they were much harder to resist.

First of all, I need to update you on Saturday’s Kiddieland fiasco.  As I said before, the trip to McDonald’s seemed to placate everyone.  Dan and I were still seething, but luckily, our children recover pretty quickly.  On Saturday evening I did receive a phone call from the woman in charge of the outing.  She was extremely apologetic.   A few things led to our demise:  a) woman was not able to pre-purchase tickets as planned; b) woman was late arriving due to a school track meet; c) woman had to stand in looooooonnnnnngggggg line; d) Kiddieland was experiencing record crowds due to its impending closure (normally, you can walk right up to the gate, purchase your tickets and go in – no lines.); e) only three scout families participated in the event; f) as I mentioned previously, we don’t know a lot of people yet, so it makes recognizing one another difficult.  And, no one (us included) wore a uniform.

I felt much better after the phone call and Dan and I are contemplating trying to take the kids this coming weekend.  It’s the final weekend Kiddieland is open.  I’m sure it will be crazy, but knowing now about the crowds, I think we can coordinate something.

If Saturday’s call made us feel better, Sunday made us feel terrific.  First of all, this Sunday was the monthly Scout Mass.  We were hesitant about participating after Saturday, but Dan and Jack showed up in uniform and Jack was thrilled to be there.  He saw plenty of his friends and Dan met several people, as well.  Oh, we also got our Kiddieland check back.  Mass was great (for the scouts anyway).

Later in the afternoon, we headed back up to church/school for the annual parish picnic.  It was WONDERFUL!  We saw tons of people we knew from school, Jack and Maria both found friends immediately upon arriving, and there was plenty to do… for free!  All of the bouncies and midway-type games were free.  There was also face painting (Jack kept those poor girls busy), tatoos, crafts, and an excellent emcee/DJ.  The food was good, and Jack expressed a desire to help the scouts sell soda next year.

As we left, Jack told me, “This definitely makes up for Kiddieland!” and as we walked home Dan (!) told me how much he liked being part of this school and parish.  That’s really saying something!  No wonder there are so many alumni families.

Tonight, Jack and Dan are at a Scout meeting.  (Earlier this afternoon, Jack’s new den mother called to introduce herself to me and to make sure we knew about tonight’s meeting.)

Saturday was definitely a fluke.  Unfortunate, yes, but we are so over it.

(Printed in Sunday’s bulletin):

Church Crying Room
People sometimes ask why our church doesn’t have a
crying room. When the church was built, a decision was
made not to include a crying room so as not to segregate
families with babies and young children from the rest of the
congregation at Mass.

When the church was renovated as part of Vision 2000,
glass doors were added to the vestibule along with a better
sound system to allow parents with a crying child to
step out into the vestibule until the child was settled, yet
still have a chance to see and hear the Mass. Having young
children in the church with the parents allows families to
be together during the liturgy and gives them the opportunity
to learn how to behave during Mass. We are blessed
to have families with young children in our parish and we
are happy that they come to Mass with their little ones.
While babies may at times make themselves heard at
Mass, they are a sign of the future of our Church and the
blessing of new life that is such a tremendous gift from
God. Let us always be welcoming and patient with these
youngest members of [parish name*].

We LOVED the parish school in Tennessee, but we felt the church could have been more welcoming.  We really didn’t feel like we “belonged” until Jack started school.  That’s when everything really came together. But, regardless of having children in the parish school, church should be a place we WANT to be, WITH our children.  It can be a struggle when they’re young.  We still have our challenges, for sure.  But knowing that the people surrounding us are understanding and encouraging helps tremendously.

The ritual of the mass may be the same the world over, but all parishes, unfortunately, are not created equal.  I think a lot of them can learn from this one.

*Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I don’t think The Internet needs to know our parish name.

Zoë was baptized on Sunday and Kyle had to leave on Monday.  Too painful to contemplate.

Anyway, here is the beautiful, freshly baptized Zoë and family.

(Luke tried desperately to re-baptize himself in the font several times during the ceremony while we were busy with Zoe, but thankfully he was unsuccessful.)

Dan and me with our new Goddaughter (we’re so proud, you’d think she was ours!):