A Mom-ism Monday kind-of-day

My second attempt at another "Mom-ism Monday" post, linking it up with Donna Marie Cooper O'Boyle!  Cheer with me now, because I actually made it on a Monday!!  Woo hoo!!

Some, "mom-isms" or "mommy moments" from this past week...

#1

On Saturday, my oldest daughters and I attended our year-end Mother/Daughter Tea for our local Little Flowers girls club.  I have helped teach and lead our group ever since Melody was in wreath 1 and we started with a group of a little over a dozen girls that met at my home once a month. We have grown over the years to a group, this past year, of fifty plus girls and going strong and meet at our church hall now!  What a wonderful gift we can give our daughters to learn about the saints and the virtues they lived as they followed Christ - and what great examples they are for us to follow!  So the tea this weekend was a celebration of all that they have learned and the friendships they have formed along the way.  It included a yummy potluck of tea-party type foods, many games and crafts, and one of the favorite memories was the breaking at the pinata.  Just picture moms and daughters in their fancy dresses swinging and beating down a pinata - funny but a blast at the same time!!  If you want a peek into our celebration, click here for my write up.  Enjoy!!  

#2

Also, this weekend, we set up little Rose's toddler bed after a couple month transition of moving many bedrooms and kids around.  She's only slept in it once so far and still prefers her crib next to mommy and daddy in our room, but it's a small step into getting ready for her being a big sister soon.  We wanted to allow plenty of time for this and the transition to be as smooth as possible, so we will allow her as much time as she needs.  But doesn't she look like such a big girl in her big girl bed....

#3

Things are progressing daily with my pregnancy!  I am over the first sixteen weeks of nauseousness, so that part of me is feeling great.  Now the beautiful varicose veins and tailbone issues begin to make themselves known.  All more to offer up in prayer for our little man!!  We got a peek at our little guy today in my 20 week ultrasound.  What a wiggly little guy his is!! And adorable, must I add!!  He was kind of a stinker and didn't swallow and show us the stomach bubble, so I had to flip back and forth from side to side to get him to perform.  Thankfully, he did near the end of the ultrasound.  When I met with dr, she also shared that they saw an "echogenic focus" and we'll be following up with another more in-depth ultrasound soon.  Dr didn't seem too concerned since everything else looked okay, but they still need to have it looked at a second time.

So, we will pray and hope and trust!!  We also scheduled the c-section for early October!  Please continue to pray for babe and I, since this will be my 8th c-section.  And, with Fulton J. Sheen having an approved first miracle, it doesn't hurt asking for his miraculous intercession in this risky pregnancy and delivery...

 Eternal Father, You alone grant us every blessing in Heaven and on earth, through the redemptive mission of Your Divine Son, Jesus Christ, and by the working of the Holy Spirit.If it be according to Your Will, glorify Your servant, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, by granting the favor I now request through his prayerful intercession - of this young baby's time in womb and delivery and safety for him and his momma -
I make this prayer confidently through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

And, our little guy's first official appearance here on the blog.  Say "hi" little guy....

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Please join in with your "Mom-ism Monday" on Donna Marie's blog as well!  Click on the picture below and add what God has been doing in your life as a mom this week.  (and don't feel bad if you are a tad late like I was last week)

Little Flowers Mother/Daughter Tea ~ 2014

***  Little Flowers ~ the girls  ***

***  Little Flowers ~ the momma's  ***

Today was our year-end celebration of a wonderful year of learning about the saints and virtues in our Little Flowers Girls Club.  Ariel was in wreath 2 and Melody was in the Hospitality group this past year. 

We began our gathering with a prayer (snitched the one Jessica and her crew used last year).

The mom and daughter pairs sat by each other and had to find their table according to a flower chart - each table had a certain flower on it - what a cute connection since our group is called "Little Flowers".  It was a so nice sitting with my girls too, because in years past I know the girls sat with girls, and the moms sat with other moms.  I was so happy to sit by my two beautiful daughters!!

 

For food, we had tea party treats and lots of mini sandwiches and desserts - potluck-style!  Of course, we also had a "tea table" so the girls and moms could pick their own flavor and make their own tea.  And, when each girl left, they were able to take home their very own teacup as a favor - what a special treat!!

The theme of our celebration was Our Lady Guadalupe and the girls colored pictures of Our Lady Guadalupe, made an Our Lady Guadalupe grotto, made a cute flower decoration, worked on a Virtue and Flower crossword puzzle and word find, and we even had 2 pinatas to break!  Wreaths 1 and 2 girls and their moms broke the first pinata, and wreath 3 and the Hospitality girls and their moms broke the second one.  Before the actual breaking of the pinata, the girls each wrote a sin/temptation and glued it onto the pinata, so as they slugged and beat the pinata, they are telling Satan and sin to "Be gone!".  It was neat to have the symbolization with this game!  All the hooting and hollering and cheering was quite funny as many of the moms and girls were in fancy dresses, yet at the same time swinging a stick and beating at the pinata!  This was one of the highlights of the celebration for sure!!

(Melody's crafts)

(Ariel's crafts)

We ended our gathering with three moms reading the "Patience" prayer from one of my favorite mother's prayer books by Donna Marie Cooper O'Boyle. 

 

++Thank you, God, for our Little Flowers Catholic Girls Club, and most especially my two darling, beautiful, faith-filled Little Flowers girls.++

Mom-isms: giving it a try!!

Sweet Donna Marie Cooper O'Boyle is hosting her first "Momisms" link-up this week (actually was meant for Monday) but she sent out a reminder today that it could be anytime this week!  Yippeeeeee!!!  How sweet of her to be patient with not-so-perfect bloggers like myself!! 

What are some "Momisms" in my life, some "mommy moments"?

1-  Running kids to and from extra summer classes and camps!!  Last week was our church's VBS and this week the big boys have a Survival 4H camp.  This week's class is only an hour long, so the days I do drop off, the littles and I just stay at the park to play.  It's been a super hot and humid this week - probably the hottest so far this summer!  But...  we have stuck it out and enjoyed our time on the Island!!

2-  This little Beauty of mine, Rose, loves her books and to be read to.  Being a busy momma of 7, it's hard to take time to sit and read to "just her".  But when her six older siblings are in bed, she takes advantage of that mommy and daddy one-on-one time.  Tonight she pulled book after book after book after book off the shelf.  What a sweet little girl and such a special time!!

 

3-  Having a crew of kids, being a stay-at-home mom, and homeschooling them often are reasons enough for people to ask me, "How do you do it?".  Well, first off, *I* do not.  God is a wonderful God who has graced me with all these little ones and He gives me what I need when I need it!  That being said, having grown up with my own mom at home with us four girls, I was mentored along the way on how to be a mother and a housewife.  That and my mom ran an in-home daycare, so I grew up not only with my 3 sisters but a lot of other "brothers" and "sisters" as well.  I'm sure this was all part of His perfect planning, eh?  My mom was very orderly and always had a system of how things happened and when they happened.  Much of my mom's God-given gifts of orderliness and organization have been passed down to me - thank you, God!!  So a here are just a few simple things that help us maintain order in our household:

***Morning routine - get dressed, make your bed, tidy your room, brush your teeth!!  How wonderful it is for the kids to start their day ready to go and also with a nice tidy room to read in, play in, relax in, etc... 

***saving jammies after being worn only one night, fold them, and put them on your bed - truly cuts down on laundry!!

***working together as a family - we don't have certain chores for certain kids, nor a complicated chore chart/schedule - my kids just know to do one or two chores for mom/dad every day and to jump when asked to jump.  When you have plenty of helping hands and bigger kids who can do more, this really works well for the whole family!

***each of our four big kids take a meal - they help me prepare the meal, set the table, put things away after the meal, and clean-up.  Fone does breakfast every day, Mario does lunch, and Melody and Ariel do dinner. It's nice to always have a helper at mealtimes, and this also is great bonding time as we work together side-by-side!! 

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Three was such a nice and doable number to think of Mommy-moments and Mom-isms for the week!  Thank you, Donna Marie, for hosting this link-up!  What fun - definitely looking forward to more!  If you would like to jump on in, click on the link below to add your yours...