There are very few that we have shared so much with over the last 7 years. Our reunions are always filled with the presence of Christ but even more so this weekend. Our families kneeling together and sharing our night time prayers left the greatest impression on me. Even our night time prayer is the same! Fulton leading us in the Divine Mercy Chaplet one evening, and all the children praying for each other with such love, left me with such gratitude to our Lord for blessing our lives with their friendship. I can still remember when the Holy Spirit prompted me to open our home to them when they were looking for an apartment 7 years ago. And they said yes! Our lives have never been the same since. Blessed be God!

Through the years we have enjoyed unwrapping this gift over and over as we meet new families that come to our parish, or we say good-bye to great friends who move away and our friendship continues to bloom across the distance. We make memories celebrating the great feasts of our Church or celebrating the blessings of our families in the ordinary days of our lives. We support each other when we need it. We are honest and build each other up when we need that too. We share our lives and our families.

Yesterday at Mass, the kids and I were sitting in the front pew and Adam had to serve as an alcolyte. Our friend Peter was  behind us (and his wife was in the back with the baby) and another family we have recently gotten to know was to our right. And actually it was just the dad, Ryan, and the two older girls (ages 4 and 5) because his wife was in the back with their baby.  During the Eucharist prayer, Fulton had to go to the bathroom. Rather than parade (because that’s what it would have been) all four kids out from the front row, I took him and the baby and asked Peter to keep an eye on Therese and Muffin. We managed to come back by the beginning of the Agnus Dei. But as we were coming back, Ryan left with one of his girls, leaving the other in the pew by herself. So the time to go to communion came and Ryan hadn’t returned. Thankfully his daughter knows us (and loves Therese) and so she went up with our family. Holding up the communion line for a couple of minutes, there I was blessed with these 5 wonderful children. And in that moment I felt truly blessed that we know, trust, and are at ease with the people sitting around us in the pews at church to step in and help one another with our children.

I have to play ‘single parent’ today and tomorrow as Adam is busy with a work project and unavailable to us. In a semi-disastrous and challenging moment taking the kids to class at church today, our dear friend Elizabeth who’s baby I watch once a week gave me a much needed hug and later her husband called to invite themselves to bring us dinner tomorrow night.

These are the  sweet gifts of our friends in Christ. Thank you friends!

There were discovery rooms with animals and insects; physical science; earth science (with a really cool tornado); the mammoth excavations; anatomy; sound; optics; simple machines; play cars; bubbles (which I would recommend bringing a change of clothes). It was a great time. It was hard to leave.

Wednesday we went to the school days of the Renaissance Festival. Thankfully the ‘school days’ are quite a bit more toned down than the regular days which Mrs. Cey and I quite appreciated.  We went to watch the Cast in Bronze (the guy who play an organ like contraption but it plays bells–really  LOUD bells).  We stayed for two minutes and left because it was SO loud and the kids had insisted on sitting in the front. Then we watched the birds of prey and the jousting. We walked about a bit and saw some of the trade skills. I let the kids ride one ride and our day was complete.

Thursday we took the kids to the Houston Museum of Art to enjoy some artwork from the Renaissance period.  Then we enjoyed a picnic and ran over to the Natural Science Museum to watch “Starry Night Express” at the planetarium. It was a perfect movie since both our home schools are studying astronomy as well. Afterward we took the kids to the park to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Thank you to our wonderful friends for hosting us and sharing this adventure with us!!

We had a great time with great friends at the Texas Alliance for Life dinner. Abby Johnson was awesome!

Here we are with Sr. Mary Judith and Sr. Mary Jacinta.  Blessing to see them again. Sr. Mary Jacinta hooked me up with some fabulous plays that the sisters wrote on Blessed Imelda Lambertini and St. Tarcisius for their sacrament prep kids that we will hopefully use for ours.

After this child fell down…“Mommy, I have a sky scraper on my knee.”

At dinner time, spooning up some quinoa…“Ok, little quinoa. Get on the boat. Time to go to my tummy.”

“When I become a boy like Fulton, I’m going to pee standing up.”

This morning on the way home from Mass…“When you have two more babies, can we have a bigger van?”

We are honored and blessed to welcome a new God son to our spiritual family! Corbin was baptized this afternoon and became a son of God and brother in Christ.

Fulton and “Uncle Andrew” and “Auntie Elizabeth.”

The God fathers and the God sons.

Gabe entertaining Muffin.

Our wonderfully silly kids! (Gianna, Kolbe, Malia, Therese, Fulton and Gabriel)