So Big, and Yet So Small – The First Day of Kindergarten

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Amy

Yesterday morning, when I went in to wake Miss up for her first full day of kindergarten away from home, I stood and gazed at her for a second before rousing her. I brushed her hair back from her sleeping face, and as I looked at her in profile, I saw her, right then, as a two-year-old. In sleep, her big-girl face took on the baby-like qualities from when she was smaller, and it almost took my breath.

^ In the upper left-hand corner of that photo is Miss at about 18 months.

I almost didn’t want to wake her. I wanted to just stand and look at her. She looked so little and so big, at the same time.

I wasn’t sure how I would feel about today. I knew it would be hard/weird to send her to somewhere else for a full day. I knew it would feel strange to know that my little girl is big enough for kindergarten, even though next week she’ll be back home with me, and we’ll be doing school at home most of the time. I knew I would be nervous and excited for her.

She was certainly excited.

So, did I cry when I dropped her off?

No. I didn’t. I felt the throat tightening, eyes burning feeling for just a moment when she first started to walk away with her class. But it passed pretty quickly.

However, it was certainly a strange, and in some ways difficult, day. I kept feeling like a part of me was missing. At lunch, sitting with just my two youngers, I noticed how odd it felt to not have Miss there. That was the hardest part. That’s when I almost cried.

Sis: (to Lass) “You be Pincess Pesto, and I be Affa Pig, and Mama, you be Supa Why!”

Me: “Okay! Too bad your sister isn’t here. She could be Wonder Red.”

Sis: (looking sadly at Miss’s seat) “We need to go get her!!”

That moment, that little-sister-missing-big-sister moment, is when I started laugh-crying, as I said something like, “We can’t yet. She’s at school.” I almost spiraled into all-out bawling, feeling acutely the void left by Miss’s absence right then. But I pulled it together and rallied with more Super Why! pretending. It helps when you know all the words. . .

For most of the day, I kept looking at the clock and wondering where Miss was and what she was doing right then. “11:07, I wonder if she’s having lunch yet?” Super Friend kindly texted me a photo of her grinning from ear to ear on the playground at recess and let me know that she seemed fine at lunch.

By 1pm I was checking my watch every five minutes or so, to see if it was time to go get her yet. I missed her.

At pick up, I realized how much fun she had had, and how grown up it made her feel to have had a full day at school, away from Mom and sisters.

She and her sisters played with other kids on the playground for a bit after dismissal. Miss kept following Sis around, helping her on the relatively large play structure. She came to me and told me that I didn’t have to watch Sis, because she would take care of it.

The whole day, I was struck over and over by the juxtaposition of so grown up with so teeny tiny. She was acting so responsibly, and so big with her little sister. Yet the older kids careening around her dwarfed her.

Her uniform clothes were so grown up.

But in them, she looked so teeny tiny.

I guess that’s one of the tough things about the start of kindergarten. Our little ones are so big and so small at the same time. This makes it hard to let go. At least for me.

I must say, I am quite relieved she will be back at home with me next week. I think I’ll be able to handle this for one and a half days per week.

Baby Catholic Answers All the Things, Volume 3 – The Priesthood

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Amy

My friend Liz asked:

Do Catholics have a “priesthood?” If so, how is it used and who is given it?

The short answer is this: Yes, Catholicism has a priesthood. Catholic priests are celibate men who experience a calling to a vocation in the priesthood. They attend seminary and are ordained priests, able to administer sacraments and perform other duties involved in ministering to a parish community.

And now the longer answer:

As I understand it, the process of becoming a priest basically begins with a man experiencing a call to serve God in the priesthood. Usually he prays quite a bit about this to discern if this is his true path and may meet with a spiritual or vocations director to assist with this discernment. He obtains a college degree, then goes to seminary. I’m not sure of the sequence of events, exactly, but a candidate for the priesthood also has to at some point undergo quite a bit of interviewing, background checks, and psychological and medical assessments before he can be ordained and assigned to a parish.

There are three levels of ordination in the sacrament of Holy Orders (the sacrament by which a man is ordained). The first level is the episcopate. This is the ordination of a bishop. A bishop is ordained by other bishops and stands in a direct, unbroken line from the apostles. All episcopal ordinations must be approved by the pope.

The second level of ordination is the priesthood. This is what people typically think of when they think of a Catholic priest. There are not enough bishops to minister to all the people in a diocese, so lay priests carry out this duty. Priests exercise their powers only in communion with their bishop. In fact, during their ordination they vow to maintain obedience to their bishop (there are also priests who are ordained to particular orders such as the Dominicans or Franciscans, and I believe that their vows are a bit different in that they are obligated to obey their order, rather than the bishop of the diocese, and their duties can be quite different too, but I’m less familiar with this type of ordination, so I’m just going to leave it at that).

The third level is the diaconate. A man can be ordained as a transitional deacon while on his way to becoming a priest, or as a permanent deacon. A permanent deacon can be married, but a transitional deacon must remain celibate, as he is preparing to become a fully ordained priest.

^^ From left to right, a seminarian, a priest, and a deacon ^^

When a man receives the sacrament of Holy Orders, the bishop lays hands on him and says a consecratory prayer asking God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and for the gifts to fulfill the duties specific to his ministry. Once a man has been ordained a priest, he is spiritually changed and he is granted special graces according to his level of ordination.

Deacons can read the Gospel during Mass, preach a homily, and perform the sacraments of baptism and marriage.

Priests can perform all the duties of deacons as well as being given the special ability to act in persona Christi, or in the person of Christ. This is the way in which priests are able to administer the sacrament of the Eucharist, by consecrating the bread and water and turning them into the real presence of Christ, His body and blood, through transubstantiation during the Mass. Priests are also able to act in the person of Christ when they administer the sacrament of reconciliation. Priests can also administer the sacrament of anointing of the sick and sometimes the sacrament of confirmation, as in cases of adults who are confirmed at the Easter Vigil (like I was).

^^ That’s me with our priest’s hands on my head during part of my confirmation ^^

^^ Here he’s marking a cross on my forehead with Holy Chrism oil ^^

Bishops usually perform confirmations and they are the only ones who can perform the sacrament of Holy Orders.

This is just a quick summary of what bishops, deacons, and priests have the authority to do. Of course, they have many other duties and responsibilities in their positions as well as administering sacraments and preaching during Mass.

Some people get upset by the fact that only men can be ordained as priests in the Catholic Church. The reason for this is that priests are acting in the person of Christ, and Christ was a man, obviously. The Catholic Church does not see men and woman as interchangeable, as some may argue they should be. Instead, the Church sees men an women as suited to different, yet complementary roles. Further, the ordination of men is a tradition that goes back to Christ Himself. He chose only men as His apostles.

The last issue I’ll mention about the priesthood is another thing that people seem to often misunderstand: celibacy. Priests and bishops are required to commit to lifelong celibacy as a prerequisite for ordination. Permanent deacons can be married when they become deacons, but I don’t think they can marry after they are ordained.

In our society, people are so inundated with the idea that it is unnatural to not have sex, whether married or not, that the idea of celibate priests is mocked and debased. People claim it is freakish to be celibate and usually do not bother to try to understand why the Church has this rule.

In fact, celibacy was not an original requirement of the apostles and early Catholic priests. In the early Church there were some problems, however with corruption and nepotism among priests, favoring their offspring and/or passing Church property to their spouses and children upon their death. In 1075, Pope Gregory VII issued a decree which effectively prohibited married priests from acting in the ministry. This was formalized by the First Lateran Council in 1123, and the Roman Catholic Church has required celibacy from priests ever since.

Consecrated celibacy is seen by the Church as a gift that God bestows on those called to the priesthood. It is a way for priests to be more like Jesus, to be more focused on their faith and duties. Saint Paul said, “I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.” 1Corinthians 7:32-34

Liz, I hope that answers your question adequately 🙂

******

I’ve had a request to discuss confession, so that will be my next topic. What do you want to know about? The rosary? Saints? The Catholic Church’s stance on birth control?? Keep the questions coming!

Five Favorites – Little Moments

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Amy

My five favorite little moments of this week.

1. Watching the girls play in this tall grass:

I took the next picture thinking I was going to capture a total “Little House on the Prairie” moment as they were running, slightly downhill, through the grass. Laura and Mary for sure:

2. Our “Secret, Special Snack” up on the platform of the swing set. They thought this was pretty awesome, and kept talking about all the animals that wouldn’t be able to “get us” or take our snack because we were up so high. My arm wasn’t long enough to get a selfie of all four of us:

3. My eldest in a nice display of sisterly love and helpfulness.

4. The other night after I put the girls to bed, I saw several deer right near the house drinking from the pond.

I could hear that Miss was still awake, so I ran downstairs to get her so she could see them. The first thing she said, when I told her there were deer right by the house and I wanted her to see them was, “I can’t believe I’m up so late!!!!” She giggled like she was getting away with something and ran back up the stairs with me. She said the same thing over and over. “I can’t believe I’m up so late!”

Clearly it was much more exciting to be up out of bed five minutes after I had tucked her in than to see four deer up close.

5. The fishing tournament weigh-in.

My husband and our brother-in-law won the tournament.

The girls kept grabbing his plaque and telling their cousins, “My Dad won this.” The pride in their voices was priceless.

Happy Father’s Day to my BFF.

For more favorites check out Five Favorites at Moxie Wife.

Five Favorites – My Beauty Tips

Posted on May 14, 2014May 14, 2014 by Amy

This is going to be my first ever post linking up with the lovely Hallie’s Five Favorites series.

I know that you have all been on pins and needles waiting to hear from me on an important topic: My Beauty Secrets (those of you who know me in real life, please stop laughing). I know you’re eager to hear me weigh in on this. Never mind that I wear yoga pants nearly every day, have no idea how to apply eye shadow, and spend months at a time in desperate need of a lip waxing. This here is important stuff, and Five Favorites is just the way to share it with you all.

So here they are, my five favorite beauty products:

-1-

Ava Anderson shampoo and conditioner.

These don’t necessarily leave my hair feeling or smelling or looking extra awesome, but they’re completely free of harmful chemicals and that makes me feel good. All of the Ava Anderson products are. My sweet friend Holley is one of their consultants, and she turned me on to the company. You can get the products here.

-2-

Maybelline cover stick in yellow.

It has to be the yellow one. I have terrible dark circles under my eyes. I’ve tried many different products in different shades to try to cover them up. This cover stick is the only thing that does it without looking bizarre.

-3-

Cetaphil stuff.

We use the soap and the lotion here. Miss has very sensitive skin and this is the only stuff that keeps it from reacting. Just using other types of hand soap when we go to other places can give her a rash on her little hands, but the Cetaphil lotion clears it right up. And I like it for myself too.

Unfortunately I am scarred by the images that came up on Google when I was looking for one to use in this post. Apparently lots of other people use this stuff for some, um, pretty severe skin problems?

-4-

Goody plastic kiddy barrettes

I wear these a lot since I got bangs cut. It probably won’t surprise you to know that I sometimes don’t really feel like doing my hair. Or sometimes I just can’t seem to make it look right. So I grab one of these and clip the bangs over to the side so they won’t bug me all day.

Not only are they fun, but they actually work better than any other barrettes I’ve tried on my super thick hair (I did actually try to buy some plain brown “adult-ish” barrettes to use at first instead of pilfering the girls’ stash, but they didn’t work worth a darn).

-5-

Burt’s Bees Pomegranate Lip Balm

I don’t like to wear lipstick, I’m addicted to chapstick, and I like having a little bit of color on my lips. Also, I don’t like chapstick that feels sticky or too thick. This stuff is perfect. I keep one of those ^^ in my bathroom, one in my kitchen, and one in my wallet at all times.

And now you know all the essentials for hair, skin, face, and lips. Amazing stuff, yes?

To see more posts from people with favorite things, go here.

A Beginner’s Guide to Holy Week

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Amy

This has been an incredible Holy Week so far. I have never in my life focused so much on the events and meaning of this week. Similar to my experience at Christmas, I have now actually learned to whole story of Jesus’s death and resurrection and the week leading up to these.

Tomorrow is Holy Saturday and I am so excited to finally and officially enter the Catholic Church. But for today I’m trying to stay focused on the crucifixion. So, I’m going to keep this short.

I wanted to do lots of things this week to help the girls (and myself) understand and focus on the events of Holy week. I got most of my ideas for the things we did this week from this post at Catholic All Year.

Tuesday we listened to our Stations of the Cross CD.

Wednesday the girls and I read Matthew 26:14-16 about Judas’s betrayal of Jesus. I hid 30 quarters for them to find and we talked about what Judas did. I went to confession for the first time. It was a difficult and amazing experience. I might write more about it later.

Yesterday I hid our Resurrection Eggs. After the girls found them we opened each one as we read the book Benjamin’s Box. I changed the reading of the book slightly on the page about the institution of the Eucharist, but otherwise it was a great book to help them understand the events of Holy Week.

After nap time they watched The Prince of Egypt while I cooked dinner. I made a somewhat Passover-ish dinner, with Lamb, asparagus, flat bread, and red grapes. Miss informed me, “Mom, they didn’t have asparagus at the Passover!” I guess next year I’ll feed them bitter greens.

We read the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet and had a family foot washing. The girls really got into this.

My husband and I went to Mass. It was beautiful.

Today we have a morning play date where we will have a special Story of the Passion snack with Super Friend and her family. We will do the Stations of the Cross again. I will go to Adoration. I am making this crown of thorns bread with our dinner.

I think my girls have really learned so much this week through all these different activities. And so have I.

I have had such an amazing experience of support and love from so many people this week with unexpected gifts, prayers, and words of welcome and encouragement. Thank you all.

Adoration and the Kindness of a Stranger

Posted on March 7, 2014March 7, 2014 by Amy

Lent has begun! I am feeling quite energized by it, though I’m trying not to be the crazy Baby Catholic who has to Give Up All The Things for Lent and totally go overboard. I’m please with what I have decided to do.

As I mentioned before, we’re giving up ice cream as a family. So we had an ice cream party for mardi gras.

And I have committed to two other specific things as well:

1. I’m giving up time (spent online) in order to exercise daily.

2. I’m praying at least a decade of the rosary daily (in addition to regular prayers).

There are other things I am trying to work on also. I’m doing more spiritual reading (actually, I’m just continuing the reading I always do, but I’m making an extra point to read things that are spiritually stimulating). I’m reading my Bible more. I’m writing in a Lent journal. I’m making a greater effort to focus on gratitude, patience, and humility.

And another thing I plan to do more frequently (hopefully weekly) during Lent is to go to the adoration chapel. I love going to the chapel and it’s something I don’t make time to do often enough. There is something transformative about the experience of adoration, and since I can’t receive communion, it’s the next best thing.

So, on Tuesday I went to the perpetual adoration chapel as part of my preparation for Lent. I wanted to spend some time in prayer, get rid of all the yucky thoughts and feelings I had after all the illness we’ve had in our house, and focus on being thankful. Of course, I can do this anywhere, but there is something special about being in the chapel. It’s beautiful and peaceful.

I’ve been to the chapel a few times before. This time, as always, I walked in, past several others sitting in the chairs, up to the kneeler in front. As I did I happened to notice an elderly gentleman sitting in the second row back from the front of the chapel as I passed. I didn’t look at him directly or speak to him (that seems to be taboo), but I noticed him.

As I got down on the kneeler, I began to think of everything that has happened over the past year, good things and not so good, and my eyes began to tear up a bit. Then I thought about it some more, and I felt a few tears roll down my cheeks. Then I let loose with all my thoughts and prayers about ev.ry.thing. I prayed for patience. I prayed to be a better mom and wife. I prayed for humility. And before I knew it, I had huge tears dropping from my face onto the velvet top of the kneeler, and my nose was beginning to run. I had a passing thought of “darn, I don’t think I have a tissue” (I had left my purse in the car), but then I returned my focus to my praying and did my best to sniff quietly until I was finished.

When I was done with my prayer, I sat back into a chair in the front row of the chapel. By that point I had quite a lot of snot running from my nose, and I looked around for the box of tissues I remembered seeing the last time I was in the chapel. It wasn’t there.

I was trying really hard to just sit and be peaceful and not sniffle too loudly, but the snot was starting to run into my mouth, and I was getting kind of frantic. I searched in my coat pockets just in case there was a forgotten tissue in there, though I knew there wasn’t. I bowed my head so my hair would act a a curtain to cover my face, and I tried to just be and ignore the snot. But then to my horror a long string of snot began to extend from my nose down toward my hands in my lap. I quickly ran through my options. I could wipe the snot with my hand. I could use my coat. I didn’t want to get up and look around for the box of tissues, because I didn’t want to disturb anyone else or, uh, drip on them. I wasn’t ready to leave, and I didn’t want anyone to see my snotty face if I got up and walked out, so I didn’t want to do that (it wasn’t until much later that it occurred to me that I could have gone out, found a restroom, composed myself and then returned, duh). I glanced at the monstrance and thought, “Help?”

Then. Oh then. A box of tissues dropped onto the seat beside me. That elderly man I had passed on the way in, who happened to be sitting right behind me, noticed my distress (how could he not at that point?) and came to my rescue with the tissues.

And you know what? That simple act of kindness made me start bawling again. I grabbed four tissues from that box, wiped my snot, grabbed a few more, blew my nose, and then held up my hand to him and mouthed “thank you” with my head still bowed/ducked forward. Though he couldn’t see my face, that lovely man whispered “you’re welcome” as I sat there and sobbed.

I managed to compose myself fairly quickly, and he left shortly thereafter.

After my nose emergency was resolved, I was able to sit and just take in the peacefulness of the chapel. I had prayed. I had cried. I had blown my nose. I was then able to just be.

I left the chapel feeling different. Lighter. I felt humbled and so grateful for so much. And I smiled to myself as I walked to my car and thought about the man who had helped me. It was such a small thing for him to do, but it really moved me. Through his gesture of kindness, that man was a reminder to me that God is in everything and everyone, if only we are open to Him.

The Best Laid Plans

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Amy

My plan was to write this, post #6 of 7, during nap time today. Unfortunately, well, this is what I did during “nap time” instead:

^^ Lest you think I’m heartless, she wasn’t crying from being sick but because her movie was over.

I did not write. I hovered with a bucket. I washed said bucket. I did lots of laundry. I used a not-very-environmentally-friendly number of sanitizing wipes. Both surface and skin varieties. I scooped up a 3’X5′ rug with some vomit soaked toys on top and threw the whole bundle in the garbage without one ounce of remorse. We have too many toys anyway. I watched both the sequel and the prequel to “The Little Mermaid,” but I didn’t write.

Now I’m watching Thor 2 with my husband and praying for little girls who sleep through the night. And I need to stop blogging and pay attention, because this movie is weird. Here’s to hopefully moving beyond the stomach virus and on to bigger and much better things.

More On Yoga Pants. And Kindness. And Being Judgmental.

Posted on September 25, 2013September 25, 2013 by Amy

I have had an interesting response to last week’s “Yoga-Pants-Wearing Mom” post.

The post was featured on BlogHer, and it has received quite a few comments over there and on their Facebook page. Apparently lots of people have opinions about the matter of whether or not moms should wear yoga pants and/or what it says about us if we do.

Most of the comments in response the post weren’t bothersome or even surprising to me. There were people who mentioned their beliefs that people who wear yoga pants: look like “slob[s],” don’t “have respect” for themselves, or disappoint their husbands with their clothing choices.

Meh. I’ve read it all before, which is what prompted me to write the post in the first place.

The one thing that kind of bugged me though, was the comments suggesting that, by wearing yoga pants, I (and other moms who do this) am somehow not setting a good example for my children.

Huh.

I have a hard time understanding that one.

I do lots of things to try to set a good example for my daughters. My choice of pants is not something that I see as a big example-setting opportunity.

So then, just what kind of example do I set when I wear yoga pants?

Hmmm.

Maybe I’m letting my kids know that I’m not overly concerned with what others think of what I wear.

Maybe I’m telling them that I value being able to have fun with them more than I value wearing a certain type of clothing.

Maybe I’m showing them that I am confident in myself regardless of how I look.

Does wearing yoga pants send the message to them that I don’t value myself? That I think it’s okay to not take care of oneself?

Um, no.

My kids might get that message if I frequently criticized myself or made self-deprecating comments, and I happened to be wearing yoga pants while doing so.

It might send that message if I wore dirty yoga pants and also never showered or brushed my teeth or exercised.

But I don’t do those things. Crisis averted.

Perhaps my wearing yoga pants tells my girls that it’s more important to be active and embrace life than to dress up and then worry about getting dirty or rumpled.

Maybe it tells them that it’s okay to wear what makes them feel good instead of what everyone else says is “fashionable.”

Who knows? Honestly, at this point I doubt that my girls are taking any kind of “message” from my choice of pants.

However, I know that they do and will always get the message from me that, except for a few times in life when it is appropriate and prudent to be concerned about how your clothing is perceived by others (i.e. during a job interview), it’s okay to just be yourself. And it’s important to let others do the same.

My kids dress themselves every day. Aside from an occasional veto for seasonal inappropriateness or a stain, I let them choose what they wear, and I don’t interfere. I don’t care if they match. Except when we’re going to church or for certain special occasions, I don’t care if they’re dressed casually. I intentionally only buy them comfortable clothing, because I don’t want them to feel constrained by what they’re wearing either.

I want them to feel free to run and climb and get dirty and play.

But more than that, I don’t ever want them to get the message from me or anyone else that’s it’s cool to judge other people based on how they look or what they wear. I want them to get that it’s more important to be kind than to be wearing the latest fashion fad. That what they do is more important than what they wear, and likewise for those they encounter in life. I hope they will choose their friends and mates based primarily on how those people treat them and not on how popular those people are, what kind of car they drive, or if they wear the “right” clothes.

A random little boy helped Lass on the hay bale fort yesterday. She was so excited to tell me about this and how kind he was to her. She never once mentioned what he was wearing or what he looked like.

I like talking to them about how to be kind and helpful to others. About how good it feels when someone else treats them that way.

I don’t spend time talking to them about what others look like except when they occasionally ask, as of course young kids do.

And when they say, “Mom, why is that man so fat?” or “Why is her skin so brown?” my response is simply, “Because people come in all shapes and sizes, and that’s okay.”

So there you have it. What started out last week as a glib post about wearing yoga pants has morphed into a commentary on kindness and trying not to be so judgmental.

That said, I’ll add that I’m not a Pollyanna, and I know that it is human nature to judge. I’m certainly no saint when it comes to having judgmental thoughts about others. I try not to act on them, and I don’t discuss them with my kids.

They will have plenty of time to learn about the judgments people tend to make about each other. I’ll do my best to help them make good decisions for themselves and to treat others with respect and kindness, regardless of differences.

But for now, we’ll wear comfy clothes and just play.

Farewell to Summer

Posted on September 23, 2013September 22, 2013 by Amy

Ah, fall.

We have beautiful, cool, sunny fall weather here, to go along with the official first day of the season yesterday.

I have mixed feelings about this change of season.

I absolutely love when the weather gets crisp, the air feels fresh, the leaves start to change. Fall. is. my. favorite.

But, I’m sad to see summer go. For one thing, the start of fall means winter is one step nearer and will almost certainly arrive before December 21st when it officially begins (which here means many loooong months of freezing temps, snow, and ice = blah).

But I’m also a bit sad to see summer end because we had an amazing summer.

We did almost everything on our Summer Fun List.

There were only two things we didn’t quite do.

We didn’t get ice cream from an ice cream truck. I didn’t see one all summer. I even tried to find a local ice cream truck company online to see if I could call and get their routes. Not one. So, I improvised and just bought a few different ice-cream-truck-ish ice creams for my girls to eat at home. One was chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream on a stick. The other was a classic orange push-pop. I’m saying “close enough.”

The other thing we didn’t totally mange to complete was to catch fireflies. We tried. Three times. The first time was on the 4th of July. It was too windy. The second time was when our friends came over for a cookout and movie night. It was too cold. The third time was when we were at the Farm in early August. Apparently all the fireflies were dead by then. Who knew they didn’t last all summer? I didn’t. Anyway, we got out there with our nets (the first time). We saw some fireflies (the first time). We just didn’t actually catch any. Next year I’ll know better to make sure we get that one done earlier in the summer.

This past month has been really full of fun end-of-summer activities. I had a lot of stuff to cross off the list by Saturday.

When my parents were here we did a lot. You may remember our camping adventure, which was one thing we checked off.

Since the butterfly garden wasn’t at the Iowa State Fair this year, we took the girls to an amazing children’s garden that has lots of different areas based on picture books.

They even had all the books laminated and available for reading! Heaven.

They hardly had any butterflies in their actual butterfly garden area, but on our way back to the car, we saw this one:

He kindly stayed still long enough for both of the girls to touch him.

We joined forces with Super Friend and her three girls for a trip to a local farm.

The very last thing we completed, just under the wire on Friday morning, was bubble painting.

Naturally, the bubbles were the actual attraction of this activity. But we did make a few “paintings” too.

“Cheese!” I just love how Lass says it.

We are in the progress of developing a “Fall/Winter Fun List.”

After this summer, I am a total believer in having one of these lists with my kids from now on. We did so much stuff this summer that I might not have done without it. The girls really loved checking everything off, and got extra excited about our activities when I told them something was on our list.

I don’t know what it says about me that I need a list to prompt and remind me to do new and exciting stuff with my kids. I guess I don’t really care. The list was awesome.

And now that we’ve done it once, the girls are really into helping me think of fall and winter ideas. I love their fun suggestions.

A sneak preview with some of the things they have come up with so far:

Miss – “Drawing faces on leaves” and “Jumping in a pile of leaves.”

Lass – “Catching snowflakes” and “Making snowballs.”

Stay tuned for the rest of the list soon.

I Am a Yoga-Pants-Wearing-Mom

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Amy

In the past few months, I’ve seen several things online dissing yoga pants. Sometimes indirectly, sometimes not.

I’ve read articles in which moms are chastised for wearing yoga pants to the grocery store or playground. “Yoga pants are for wearing to yoga!,” they say. These tend to be written with a pretty transparent suggestion that the author is trying to “help” the poor, misled mothers who dare to go out of their homes in yoga pants and *gasp!* no makeup. As in, “Moms! Wake up! You are ruining yourself and your children! You would feel so much better if you put on some high heels and mascara! And by the way, you are a sloth! Love, Your online BFF who hates you.”

I’m here to stick up for the yoga pant.

And for the moms who wear them.

Hello. My name is Amy, and I’m Yoga-Pants-Wearing-Mom.

There, I said it. Is that so wrong?

No it’s not. Here’s why:

First of all, yoga pants are comfy! Duh. With three kids under five I spend lots of time squatting, kneeling, bending, sitting on the floor, and otherwise contorting myself to get on my kids’ level. When I am at home, I wear yoga pants 99.9% of the time. Jeans are not my friend.

Lots of people might say, “Sure, you wear yoga pants at home, but there’s no need to wear them out of the house!”

Well. I disagree. When it comes time to go to, say, the grocery store, and I’m corralling three kids to go to the bathroom, get dressed, brush their teeth, do their hair, get their shoes on, and so forth, the last thing I’m thinking of is, “Gosh, I’m wearing yoga pants and about to put on flip flops! That’s not acceptable. I better go change into some jeans and a cute pair of shoes!” Nope. I don’t do that. I usually do manage to brush my teeth, put on deodorant, brush my hair, and put on a little bit of makeup. But beyond that? Forget it. The yoga pants stay on.

Plus, I just can’t justify the extra laundry that would result from my wearing two different outfits every day. I wear clean (okay, mostly clean, sometimes I don’t notice the peanut butter smear/toothpaste drip/other unknown stain until I get home) yoga pants and a tee shirt, and have no interest in changing into a different outfit for an outing, which I would just end up changing back out of upon arriving home again. Double the laundry, and why bother? No need, I say.

Contrary to what some people seem to think, I don’t wear yoga pants because I don’t care about my appearance. I don’t wear them because I’m depressed and can’t manage to dress myself. I don’t feel unattractive because I’m wearing them. It doesn’t make me feel better to get dressed up when I go the the grocery store. It makes me feel uncomfortable. And clumsy.

I wear them because they’re comfy, and I’m lazy about changing into different pants and doing extra laundry. And that’s it.

Yes, of course I do wear jeans or other nicer pants sometimes, but with each child this effort seems to have gotten less frequent.

I wear yoga pants to the grocery store. To the library. To the park. To Target. To play dates.

To be clear, I do have a few rules about my yoga pants.

I don’t wear them if they have stripes down the side. That just seems to scream “I’m exercising!” in my opinion, and I don’t feel the need to make that statement. “I’m comfy” is fine with me.

I don’t wear yoga pants to restaurants. Except occasionally when we take the kids to a super casual place for a family date night and I forget to change before we leave. Okay, I confess, that’s what usually happens for family date night. So, let me rephrase that to say that I don’t wear yoga pants for evenings out with adults. I actually love to get dressed up for date night with my hubby.

I don’t wear them to organized outings. For example, I wear them to the library, but probably not to story time. I wear them to a play date at Super Friend’s house, but not to a play group outing to the nature center. Well, most likely not.

And I don’t wear yoga pants (or jeans) to church.

Aside from those few things, I’m all about my yoga pants.

I’m in a coffee shop typing this and wearing them now. Comfy.

What are you wearing?

Motherhood and Miscellany

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