Nicky's ninth

Nicky turned 9 this week!

I thought as the kids grew out of the baby/toddler stage it'd be easier to get them to pose for pictures.  No way José.  Teens and five-year-olds are photo saboteurs extraordinaire.

Saw this video on the news yesterday; something to rival the goat version.  No disrespect Taylor...Zach likes your song and we rock out to it in the minivan.

Habemus Papam!

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina is our new pope.  He has chosen the name Francis, or Francesco to those Italians.  Which does sound cooler, frankly.



The peace prayer of St. Francis~

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

“Preach the Gospel at all times; and when necessary, use words.”

 God bless Pope Francis!

Lent lessons

We've imposed a No Sugar Cereals rule on the kids for lent.  Lots of families do that year round anyway, of course, but we like our Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch around here.  The kids have had to tolerate speeches about the people who don't have enough to eat, period, much less their fav cereal in the cupboard every morning.  Nate came up with another idea for them during their bedtime prayers, too.  They each have to say one positive thing about the other.  It's kinda funny listening to their compliments.  "What I like about Michael is that, uh...umm...he was not mean to me today."  But it's been cool seeing how insightful they are about each other.  And they've learned to be more conscious of their positive interactions during the day so they can remember to mention them at bedtime.

We had a snow day yesterday.  I think it's been 3 years since the last one.  I had to console Nicky, who was actually bummed out because he had a Scholastic book order due to arrive yesterday.  We hung out and watched Jurassic Park.  In realizing it came out almost 20 years ago, I felt rather old.  Kids born in '93 are in college for Pete's sake.  Back in my day we had animatronic dinosaurs in movies, and CGI was yet to be overused.  And we walked 3 miles uphill both ways to the theater.