Happy Feast Day, St Joseph!

For today's feast, I'd like to recommend St Joseph's website, where you can find prayers to the great foster-father of Jesus. If you need another recommendation, then according to the site, none other than St Teresa of Avila had this to say about him:

"I took St. Joseph for my patron and advocate, and I recommend myself unceasingly to his protection. I do not remember ever to have asked anything of him that I did not obtain.

It seems as though God gives to other saints the grace to assist us in some certain necessity; but according to my experience, St. Joseph assists us in every want. Our Lord, wishing to make us understand that, as He was obedient to His foster-father here upon earth, so He now can refuse no request in heaven. Many persons who have invoked him by advice have experienced this truth, and the number of his clients increases daily and corroborates what I declare.

For several years past, I have asked a special favour at his festival, and it has always been granted. If the request was not judicious, he has denied it for my greater good. I implore those who do not credit this to make the trial for themselves. Let him who has no guide in the way of prayer take this great Patriarch for his director. He will not go astray."

The Novena to St Joseph starts today!

The countdown to our beloved St Joseph's feast day begins today. Being so close to Jesus and Mary makes him a powerful intercessor for us down here on earth.

As ever, Lacy at Catholic Icing has some great ideas for sharing the devotion with your children: something I intended to do, until our printer decided to stop responding this evening. Roo was very impressed with the printer earlier on today though when he scanned in his picture of a roman cavalry soldier and his chariot (above) and then emailed it to Dada and Uncle B.

Today we had a great day at home. Lots of time outside in fresh Spring air and sunshine, messing about with the wheelbarrow, cut grass, sandpit lid (makes a great toboggan: Mum or Dad have to pull it though), digging, squidging soil, planting seeds and cycling/ running/ tractoring laps round the house. Then the lads' newly opened shop and café kept them busy indoors in between times. The little Toot, barely 18 months old had a surprisingly long bout of play in the café, giving very personal attention to some of the customers: spoonfeeding them no less!

don't you just love it?

as mentioned in my previous post.... the amazing, the incredible, the fantastic inflatable Nativity scene! Lee thinks it is really tasteless, but it made me and the lads laugh, especially Toot, who was in fits of giggles as Poonch repeatedly knocked the sheep over. Roo is just out of shot, patting one of the Three Kings, possibly because that was the part he played in the school Nativity play this year.

Really struggling to keep this in mind...

Pondering the most important things !

...and finding it hard to believe that this time last year, the tree was decorated, the house was tidy with food for our guests and I had a 4 month old baby to tend to.

Happy Baptism anniversary, little Toot!

Feeling just a bit overwhelmed this year with everything that still needs to be done.

Ta-dah!!! We have a winner!

I am delighted to announce that Sandra from Life Sublyme has won the book on St Joseph that I mentioned in the last post! She has a beautiful blog which is really worth visiting, in which she discusses her own battle with chronic illness (Lyme disease) and how her faith has helped her through the suffering.

Congratulations Sandra! Thank you for dropping by and I hope you enjoy the little book as much as I did.

1st Birthday Freebie!

I have been reading this little gem of a book in spare moments while waiting for the little Toot to drop off to sleep. It was one I picked up during our recent trip to Knock. After Mass in town this morning, I bought another one because I would love to share it with someone else!

So in honour of St Joseph and in thanksgiving for the impending first birthday of our youngest boy, who is named after him, I am going to give it away! If you would like to receive it, just leave a comment on this post before Sunday 21st August. Then if I get more than one reply, I will draw a name from a hat and publish who won in a new post as well as in a follow-up comment on this post. So when you comment, be sure to check the box that emails follow-up comments to your email address or check back to see if you are the lucky recipient! I will post it out to whoever wins. Good luck!

St Joseph's Day

We have a soft spot for St Joseph in this house and one of the lads is named after him. I had hoped to go to Mass this morning. Me and the lads were all ready and in the car, but I couldn't go through with it as the two older boys looked so sick with the little alien eyes they've developed in the last day or two.
Not going made me think what I could do in honour of the faithful servant that God chose to watch over His son on earth. If I get a chance, I will make a little cake to celebrate his feast and then I will properly fast for the rest of Lent. I haven't really given up anything this year, partly due to the breastfeeding and partly cos I meant to consciously Be a Nicer Person instead, but I didn't do that either. Just now, Fr Groeschel on EWTN has inspired me to once again make a little sacrifice for what remains of Lent. So here goes...

Chicken noodle soup for my soul

Just enjoying some Heinz chicken noodle soup with the little Toot on my lap. Had some heartening words with Roo's nursery teacher today which made me inordinately happy- he is joining in well, helping out and making friends- two in particular that he likes to sit near each day.
Less heartening was our research into a lovely site close to the nursery. Not much luck there with previous planning applicants it would seem. Not sure even St Joseph can influence the planners! Talking of whom, I made it into town to register our lickle baby's birth at last! We decided to call him Joseph, or at least the Irish version of the name, pronounced Yosef. With all the Marian connections throughout the pregnancy, I thought it appropriate. He was also blessed with one of Padre Pio's mitts while in my tummy, so given that it's his feast day today and his devotion to Our Lady, it all ties in serendipitously (if that's a word!).
He is a sweet little fella, but quite unsettled- possibly suffering from reflux. Absolutely adored by his big brothers who love to hug and kiss him at every opportunity and won't go to sleep until they've had a little spoony cuddle next to him. Poonch's enthusiasm meant he was unintentionally rough at first, but is improving all the time.

Back to the Wowee house

Well, our holiday at home continues and this evening we find ourselves at the Wowee house. It is completely our house again because I'm afraid the sale fell through. The people who had agreed to buy it have bought another house in the estate instead because the builder dropped the price lower than ours when he found out we'd had an offer.
So we will have to keep up the prayers to St Joseph and Louis and Zelie Martin.
Here's a picture of the pretty rosebush outside the front door which is covered in fragrant little flowers at the moment. Very enticing, no?

St Joseph Helps

I recently found this lovely website in celebration of St Joseph, which is run by Sr Kathryn. I have started praying the novena, which you can read more about here. He seems to be interceding for us lately and please God, he will continue to do so.

St Joseph's Day

Today is the feast of St Joseph. One of the reasons people ask for his intercession, at least in this country, is to help sell or buy houses. Some people bury a statue in the garden of the house in question, but that strikes me as superstitious. I am praying for his intercession though, that someone will buy our lovely house in Ballymacarbry. Its price is very negotiable: I must get on to the auctioneer to reduce it.

Meanwhile, back in this house, the boys continue to get more grown-up. Poonch has been properly walking for about 2 weeks now. As Lee pointed out, his knees don't bend as he ploughs headlong on his way. He's like the penguin in Wallace & Gromit's The Wrong Trousers, but without the sinister connotations. Roo's language has really expanded lately too and we have great conversations together. He has started getting curious about what things are made of or what they might eat. Hence the title of yesterday's post.

I'm still a bit in shock today. I did a pregnancy test yesterday and it was positive! I am really surprised and feel weirdly unprepared. I definitely want more lovely children, but am worried that I won't be well enough to mind Roo and Poonch. I'm also worried that I'll be slammed into hospital because of the phoney 'obstetric cholestasis' that I was supposed to have last year. It had a terrible effect on Roo and I don't want him and Poonch to go through that again. And I'm still breastfeeding Poonch and had hoped to continue for a while longer. I feel he's still only a baby himself. I asked Roo if he'd like another baby and he said, 'we already have a baby', and that pretty much summed up how I felt.
We are happy really, but just weren't expecting to be expecting again so soon... although I'm not sure yet when 'soon' is. I'll have to wait for a scan to find that out. Which is also worrying me, because these hospital people always underestimate when your due date will be, meaning many women go 'overdue' when they actually aren't and babies get induced out of their cosy dens before they're ready. Ooopsie... don't get me started on my pregnant-women-and-hospitals rant.
Welcome little baby. We are looking forward to meeting you!
Today is the feast of the Holy Family. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, watch over us and protect us and help us to be more like you!