Here are my contributions this week:

Julianna, Unlimited, in which I illustrate Julianna’s, er, non-angelic moments

Looking For A Line, a reflection on consumption vs. charity

Spring Makes Me Happy (fun with our new DSLR)

He’s Cranky? Run Some Bath Water! (Warning: very cute baby pictures!)

7 Things You Can Learn at a Kickoff for Down Syndrome

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And my favorite blossom of all:

This week at So Much To Say, So Little Time, I…

…re-posted some thoughts on prayer

…reflected on how we can’t divorce concern for others’ opinions from our own self-identity

…shared a cuddle with Julianna

…showed off my class clown in training

…scolded a driver

I also tried to sneak a little TOB into my fiction offering this week. I’m not sure it worked, really. However, I’ll just blame the kids pulling on my arms and legs and shouting in my ear while I wrote it. That’ll do, won’t it?

It is also the first Saturday of the month, so I’m linking up with Elizabeth Esther’s Saturday Evening Blog Post carnival, with my favorite post for the month of April, for which I chose to share “Core.”

Highway (Photo credit: bibendum84)

Note to the driver of the red sporty car on the interstate:

1. I have three small children in my van, and it’s raining. Hard. I can barely see out my windshield.

2. I am going two miles per hour over the speed limit. The truck in the right lane, six car lengths ahead of me, is going the same speed as me and spitting up an impenetrable wall of mist.

3. I am not going to pass it. Refer to #1.

4. I am not going to drive in its baffles. Refer to #1.

5. I am not moving out of the left lane, no matter what gestures you choose to throw at me upon passing me.

6. Besides, you don’t even have your lights on, Mr. Arbiter of the Rules of the Road. In this rain, you became invisible before you cleared the truck.

7. I get your irritation, but that’s too bad. My family’s safety is more important than your need for speed.

Sincerely, the mom in the blue van.

(BTW, I have a fiction prompt up today too, if you’re interested.)

Nicholas’s illness meant that Michael and I had a beautiful visit to my old parish stomping grounds last Sunday.

The Trouble With Absolutes–a parenting post that applies to a lot of other areas of life, too

Julianna got a new bed this week, which she adores, and I shared pictures.

Alex had two moments on the blog this week: a sad moment at baseball and thoughts on his beautiful heart, on the occasion of his seventh birthday.

I realized this week that my life is a comic strip.

Alex gave me a great motherhood moment this week.

Nursing Michael gave me two posts: a reflection on trying to exclusively breastfeed and be a professional, as well as a tiny spiritual insight.

My latest post for Catholic Mothers Online didn’t generate any comments, which I found a little disappointing, as I think it’s a very important topic for an election year, when people are already screaming at each other and already no one is listening…

I wrote a fiction piece this week.

“It is no good to tell an atheist that he is an atheist; or to charge a denier of immortality with the infamy of denying it; or to imagine that one can force an opponent to admit he is wrong, by proving that he is wrong on somebody else’s principles, but not on his own. … we must either not argue with a man at all, or we must argue on his grounds and not ours.” (from St. Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox, by G.K. Chesterton)

This is the subject of my latest post for Catholic Mothers Online. Hope you’ll click through!

Balance is…(you fill in the blank).

I told a story of teenage awkwardness and why I’m grateful for it.

On Wednesday I shared some perfect moments that needed a home.

My children like to be Close To Me. It’s adorable. And wonderful. And exasperating.

And in my 7 quick takes post I shared some fun stories this week.

Am I laughing or crying? Crying. Definitely crying.

I’m typing these up on Thursday night as I listen to my poor baby crying upstairs. He’s got the family cold, and is so, so tired, but he won’t nurse, and holding him is like holding a cranky, squirmy, unhappy child who will.not.go.to.sleep, even though that’s all he wants. It wasn’t supposed to be this way…he was almost asleep, despite the noise of siblings crowing as Mommy read them good night stories…but in the last five minutes of his night feeding, Nicholas’s nose started bleeding. I held a tissue to Nicholas’s nose while Alex moved the baby off my lap, and…well, that was the end of that. Poor baby!

(Poor Mommy. I don’t know if I’m going to make it. Surely he’ll nurse now? Surely? Surely?)

(In case you’re wondering, Daddy was not at home to help during the drama.)

Anyway, a few fun stories for your Friday….

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An Easter Story: On Easter Sunday, I sang the psalm at our church–a Gospel setting of Ps. 118 by Grayson Warren Brown. The kids recognize it because we have it on video from Nicholas’s baptism, and before Mass Nicholas was humming it softly: “Be gwad, we-joice.” On this particular setting, the music ends pretty much with the last note of the final refrain, so the whole church was poised in silence as the sound died away, and my daughter, nestled in the congregation with one of her babysitters, shouted, “YEAH!” 850 people cracked up. It was awesome.

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An Easter Image: Speaking of Easter, here’s the Easter Tree, adapted from my book, from the first grade hallway of our school–on the first Sunday of Lent…

and on Easter Sunday:

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Light at the end of the tunnel Eastern end of Newchurch No2 Tunnel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The light at the end of the tunnel: Nicholas is beginning to be trustworthy to go outside by himself. He will do as directed and stay in the garage for five minutes while I go change a diaper or get other kids ready to come out and play, and I no longer feel like I have to watch him like a hawk to make sure he doesn’t vanish. I’m not ready to let him out on his own the way Alex does…but I can see the light.

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The light at the end of the tunnel, 2: Julianna has been going to the bathroom without being told. This is huge.

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That light at the end of the tunnel…is sometimes an oncoming train: Lest we get too excited, however…I thought Julianna had finally outgrown trying to kill her baby brother. Then I found her smashing his face into the Boppy, such that he truly could not breathe. I swear that girl is giving me gray hair.

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Motivation and Inspiration: My grandmother gave me a book for Christmas called Rediscover Catholicism, by Matthew Kelly. For the first hundred pages I was skeptical; it seemed he was talking in generalities and never getting to specifics. But the chapter on fasting really convinced me. I can’t do justice to the thought process behind it, but in a nutshell, the he says that in order to truly be free, we (mind/soul) have to be in control of the body (WANT! WANT! WANT!). Otherwise we’re just obeying physical cravings. The way we achieve discipline is through fasting. He suggests that at every meal, you should deny yourself once. Not a huge thing, just a tiny thing. I’ve been doing it this week, and talk about redefining meals as a spiritual exercise! It really resonates with me, because in the post-Easter return to sweets, I always have trouble with self-control.

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Photo by wstera2, via Flickr

A Seasonal Muddle: Not long ago I was shaking my virtual head on Facebook, reflecting on the weird mixture of seasonal projects I had underway. But I don’t think I fully processed it until yesterday. Early in Lent, I was doing radio interviews on Lent, finishing an Advent bulletin insert, brainstorming a Christmas bulletin insert, writing a rough draft of a book on Ordinary Time, and rehearsing a choir for Easter. I didn’t know which way was up. All I can say is…I have a healthy new respect for those in the liturgical publishing industry. How do they keep their heads on straight?

Sunday Snippets this week, but Ruth has issued the invitation; who am I to naysay? Come join us to see what’s on the mind of other Catholic bloggers this Holy Week

Here’s my week in a nutshell:

Persecution Complex

The Drama Next Door

The Many Names of Julianna

A Palm Sunday hike

Good Friday Thoughts