Where did Jan., Feb., and March go?

JMJ

I can't believe I have more pictures than I am able to post.  The days slip by and I think I will have more time to post tomorrow; then the days turn into weeks, then months. 

This was a nice day in March, around the time of the boys birthdays. 

The boys birthdays were hard because it was Lent and everyone was sick.  Actually, I think we were sick most of February, too.  We were well for a little bit, and now a few of us have colds again.  It could be worse, but I will certainly rejoice when the warm weather is here to stay and we are all well in body (an hopefully mind and spirit as well!). 

We have slowly moved to a Gluten free diet because of some of the problems Henry has been having.  He stopped sleep through the night a month or so before Cecily was born.  I don't mean that he gets up once or twice.  I mean that Craig was getting up with him between 15 and 20 times a night.  He doesn't want to  sleep with us, nor have one of us lie down with him.  We really have tried everything.  So I started cutting out wheat.  But the more I read, the more I realized that wasn't enough.  Now, we are doing a modified GAPS diet.  I will have to write more about it later, but it certainly has been a good Lenten trial. 

Christmas 2010

JMJ

I am sorry I can't type more. 



Craig said his favorite part of Christmas was when the kids came downstair and were transfixed by the new Christmas train.  They just stood there for about ten minutes and watched.  Truly childlike wonder. 


This is the table St. Nicholas brought for them.  He also brought a children's snow shovel, which Joseph actually got to use that day. 












Henry and Anastasia were enthralled, not with their presents, but with the packing peanuts! 




Aine become quite the "material girl" in her new clothes and sunglasses. 




The reason for it all!  We love this nativity set.  It is beautiful and durable.  Craig and Joseph built the stable. 

Anastasia's Birthday

JMJ

I am sorry I a so late in posting these, and the kids are going nuts behind me, so I can't take the time to give a lot of info. about them. 

This is Anastasia with her birthday present from us.  I didn't know how to wrap it, so I used a big piece of pink fabric because I knew she would like it if it were pink.  First thing Joseph said that morning after he saw it was, "Aine has a big birthday present wrapped in a curtain!"  The kids curtains are made of the same material. 





Anastasia is so sweet.  This is the first thing she said once she knew what it was: "It's a doll house for US!"  she never thought that she wouldn't share it with her brothers. 


The whole family pitched in and made noodles.  It was a lot of work, but they were REALLY GOOD!


The kids playing with her gift from Grandpa and Grammy Dresch.  Aunt Jessi put the bow in her hair.


Anastasia blowing out her candles.  Uncle Shane did the crushing of the pomegranate to dye the frosting pink.  It tasted great, too.  

A Quiet Morning and Cecily 3 Mo.

JMJ

I spoke to a friend today, also a mother of four-under-four, on the phone and told her it had been a quiet morning.  After I told her all the events of the morning, we both laughed, because in a house with four young children, "quiet morning" is a relative term. 

For breakfast, Anastasia ate most of a banana and three small bowls of cereal completely on her own.  This made breakfast and the whole morning in general more peaceful. 

Just after breakfast, we heard a big truck of some sort, and all ran to the window ( not me, but sometime I feel like it!).  Much to this mother's delight, the city crew was working right in front of our house with a cherry-picker and wood chipper.  This kept the mobile children transfixed while I switched loads of laundry.  Then Joseph was yelling something about Henry getting blood everywhere.  Sure enough, Henry had a cut on his thumb which was bleeding profusely.  Henry didn't seem very upset about the cut, only that the blood was getting all over his other hand and he couldn't just wipe it off on the widow sill.  I cleaned him and the window and got a band-aid on him, but I could not figure out how he cut himself.  I did a thorough inspection of the window and frame and found nothing that could cut a little finger.  I finally concluded that he had bitten his own thumb--he's teething and has his fingers in his mouth most of the time.

Around snack time, Henry climbed up in the Anastasia's seat and asked for food. 
He looked around and then said, "Y-eye boke Ya-ya's Boe." (translation: I broke Aine's bowl.) 
I said, "No you didn't . . . where is Aine's bowl?" 
To which he replied, "Y-eye ut-it in-ya tash!"  (translation: I put it in the trash.)  
"No.  Really?  Let me see."  Sure enough, there was a broken bowl in the trash.  So THAT is how Henry cut his finger.  It made sense now, but I don't know how this child has ingenuity to reek havoc and get in exactly the same place I left him in such a short period of time.  At least it was a small cut! 

So, all in all, it was a quiet morning.  To be more precise, it was a successful morning.  Not uneventful, but all ended well.  What will the afternoon hold? 

And now for something completely different:  Pictures of Cecily!  She is three months old in these pictures.



        
               

Where did December go?

JMJ

Well now, here I am on January 15th writing my first post in over a month.  Hmmmm.  I think having four kids is a little bit time consuming!  I think I am going to start posting 5 min. stream of consciousness posts.  That is the only why I will EVER post on this blog.  I am so sorry to you family member--for whom I started this blog--who are far away.  I am a terrible correspondent.  I always have been, and *sigh* am admitting that I probably always will be. 

Anastasia's birthday was two days before Christmas.  It was lovely because not only did her Godparents, Uncle Ben and Aunt Jessi, get to be here, but most of my family as well.  I asked her what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday.  she said, "Ummmmm.  I want a pin-t cake."  Meaning a pink cake.  Well, since the firetruck red-40 overload, I swore off food coloring, so I did a bit of research and we used pomegranate (compliments of Uncle Shane) to tint the icing.  It works very well and didn't hurt the flavor of the cream cheese frosting.  We also has a pin-t dinner with salmon, homemade noodles and Alfredo sauce.  Grandma Spiering gave us a hand crank pasta maker for Christmas and that was my first experience with it on my own.  Okay, it wasn't on my own.  It took the whole family (five adults and two children intermittently) to make a batch of pasta big enough to feed us all one healthy serving.  It also took us about 2 hours!  Looking at the little pile noodles we had slaved over, all agreed that it was worth it just because we were all  working on it together.  It was fun!  I tried not to be discouraged and the pay off was big when we all tasted dinner! 

Christmas was lovely here in Virginia.  I cannot explain how much more special Christmas is when there are small children around.  Seeing the wonder in their eyes on Christmas morning as they watched their new Christmas Train was priceless.  I was very afraid they were going to think Christmas was all about getting presents, but everytime we asked them what was special about Christmas they would say that Baby Jesus was born.  I have faith, of course.  I know that Christmas is Jesus' birthday.  I know that Christmas is the fullness of time when God became man.  I know all this, but the children, they KNOW it.  they know it with their whole being.  They're faith isn't tainted with the attachments to the world, the worried of adulthood.  Their wonder at the Christ child is simply that.  Christmas for me is Jesus, and baking, and wrapping, and planning, and budgeting, and cleaning and, and, and. . . But it should not be so.  This Christmas I really felt the wonder of God made man more that ever before. 

We are so very blessed.  But, I will have to wax eloquent (I'm so vane!) about that later.  Life is happening so quickly but I have definitely been here at the computer longer than 5 minutes!  Here's what else I will have to write about some other time:
pig butchering
sprouting my own wheat before grinding
Cecily Cecily Cecily
Henry's bumps and bruises/near death experiences
Aine's trying threes
Joseph becoming a big boy
Classical conversations
Atrium
Rabbits
Heating with wood


Mea culpa!  I am not even going to re-read this post, so please excuse all the errors and typos that I know are there but don't have another 10 minutes to correct. 

Padre Pio's Christmas Meditation

JMJ

Thank you, Mom Spiering, for passing this along. 

Far into the night, at the coldest time of the year, in a chilly grotto, more suitable for a flock of beasts than for humans, the promised Messiah – Jesus – the savior of mankind, comes into the world in the fullness of time. There are none who clamor around him: only an ox and an ass lending their warmth to the newborn infant; with a humble woman, and a poor and tired man, in adoration beside him.
Nothing can be heard except the sobs and whimpers of the infant God. And by means of his crying and weeping he offers to the Divine justice the first ransom for our redemption.
He had been expected for forty centuries; with longing sighs the ancient Fathers had implored his arrival. The sacred scriptures clearly prophesy the time and the place of his birth, and yet the world is silent and no one seems aware of the great event. Only some shepherds, who had been busy watching over their sheep in the meadows, come to visit him. Heavenly visitors had alerted them to the wondrous event, inviting them to approach his cave.

So plentiful, O Christians, are the lessons that shine forth from the grotto of Bethlehem! Oh how our hearts should be on fire with love for the one who with such tenderness was made flesh for our sakes! Oh how we should burn with desire to lead the whole world to this lowly cave, refuge of the King of kings, greater than any worldly palace, because it is the throne and dwelling place of God! Let us ask this Divine child to clothe us with humility, because only by means of this virtue can we taste the fullness of this mystery of Divine tenderness.
Glittering were the palaces of the proud Hebrews. Yet, the light of the world did not appear in one of them. Ostentatious with worldly grandeur, swimming in gold and in delights, were the great ones of the Hebrew nation; filled with vain knowledge and pride were the priests of the sanctuary. In opposition to the true meaning of Divine revelation, they awaited an officious savoir, who would come into the world with human renown and power.
But God, always ready to confound the wisdom of the world, shatters their plans. Contrary to the expectations of those lacking in Divine wisdom, he appears among us in the greatest abjection, renouncing even birth in St. Joseph’s humble home, denying himself a modest abode among relatives and friends in a city of Palestine. Refused lodging among men, he seeks refuge and comfort among mere animals, choosing their habitation as the place of his birth, allowing their breath to give warmth to his tender body. He permits simple and rustic shepherds to be the first to pay their respects to him, after he himself informed them, by means of his angels, of the wonderful mystery.
Oh wisdom and power of God, we are constrained to exclaim – enraptured along with your Apostle – how incomprehensible are your judgments and unsearchable your ways! Poverty, humility, abjection, contempt, all surround the Word made flesh. But we, out of the darkness that envelops the incarnate Word, understand one thing, hear one voice, perceive one sublime truth: you have done everything out of love, you invite us to nothing else but love, speak of nothing except love, give us naught except proofs of love.

The heavenly babe suffers and cries in the crib so that for us suffering would be sweet, meritorious and accepted. He deprives himself of everything, in order that we may learn from him the renunciation of worldly goods and comforts. He is satisfied with humble and poor adorers, to encourage us to love poverty, and to prefer the company of the little and simple rather than the great ones of the world.
This celestial child, all meekness and sweetness, wishes to impress in our hearts by his example these sublime virtues, so that from a world that is torn and devastated an era of peace and love may spring forth. Even from the moment of his birth he reveals to us our mission, which is to scorn that which the world loves and seeks.
Oh let us prostrate ourselves before the manger, and along with the great St. Jerome, who was enflamed with the love of the infant Jesus, let us offer him all our hearts without reserve. Let us promise to follow the precepts which come to us from the grotto of Bethlehem, which teach us that everything here below is vanity of vanities, nothing but vanity.

Cecily and random thoughts of a sleep deprived mother

JMJ

I can't believe she is six weeks old already!  We are all well, but life is pretty crazy.  I hardly have time to sit down, let alone post to the website.  Wow, no one can prepare you for how hard parenthood is.  The day in and day out struggle is completely indescribable.  Thank you to anyone who is praying for us, because I know I need every bit of grace and then some.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you. 

Life is hard but oh so good.  God is good.  Happy Gaudete Sunday. 

Here are so pictures for those of you who are starved for news from the Spiering home front.  Again, I am sorry I haven't posted more often since Cecily's birth. 

A few more from her first day.





Anastasia is such an attentive big sister.  They are going to be best friends!



All the kids really love her and are so sweet to her . . .



. . . even if not always gentle.



And here are the three oldest dressed up for Halloween.  They didn't actually go Trick or Treating until two days later, but they didn't really know the difference and we have very obliging neighbors who didn't mind off-loading some of their leftover candy.  Joseph is a knight, Aine is a princess, and Henry is a frog . . . prince.  Hence the belt to hold up his sword.  Joseph didn't want to look too friendly because he is a tough knight.  Craig made his shield out of a left over party platter and Joseph made his sword out of his construction set.   



Will post again someday . . . can't promise when.  God bless!  Veni Emmanuel!