Ever wondered why you wake at night?

Of course, sometimes there is a clear reason! For instance, when I wake up in the middle of the night, it's usually because one of the lads has woken me. But other than crying babies, do you ever wake up at night, seemingly for no reason? This morning I read one possible explanation, which I'll tell you about in a minute.

When one of the children is awake, it can lead to quite a long period of enforced wakefulness for me, back and forth until they nod off again. Praying during such a time helps to make it seem less frustrating and even useful. Certainly, I don't get much time or quiet to pray during the day.

I do try. Lately, I have started to say the Divine Mercy Chaplet with the lads at bedtime. As they are so young, I thought it would be easier to hold their attention than the rosary, although I might try to alternate it with one decade of the rosary every second night.

Not surprisingly, the thing they most enjoy seems to be counting the prayers off on the beads. So I have decided to get them their own beads. What a great excuse to buy some of these great Lego rosaries from Memento Moose's etsy page. Aren't they great? My boys are eagerly awaiting them in the post.

In contrast to the rainbow beads: handy for when you're in the jungle and don't want to stand out

And the reason for insomnia? Maybe someone needs your prayers urgently! Here's the extract from St Faustina's Diary that I read today:

"809 During the night, I was suddenly awakened and knew that some soul was asking me for prayer, and that it was in much need of prayer. Briefly, but with all my soul, I asked the Lord for grace for her.

810 The following afternoon, when I entered the ward, I saw someone dying, and learned that the agony had started during the night. When I verified it-it had been at the time when I had been asked for prayer. And just then, I heard a voice in my soul: Say the chaplet which I taught you. I ran to fetch my rosary and knelt down by the dying person and, with all the ardour of my soul, I began to say the chaplet. Suddenly the dying person opened her eyes and looked at me; I had not managed to finish the entire chaplet when she died, with extraordinary peace. I fervently asked the Lord to fulfill the promise He had given me for the recitation of the chaplet. The Lord gave me to know that the soul had been granted the grace He had promised me. That was the first soul to receive the benefit of the Lord's promise. I could feel the power of mercy envelop that soul.

811 When I entered my solitude, I heard these words: At the hour of their death, I defend as My own glory every soul that will say this chaplet; or when others say it for a dying person, the indulgence is the same. When this chaplet is said by the bedside of a dying person, God's anger is placated, unfathomable mercy envelops the soul, and the very depths of My tender mercy are moved for the sake of the sorrowful Passion of My Son.

Oh, if only everyone realized how great the Lord's mercy is and how much we all need that mercy, especially at that crucial hour!"

If you're not familiar with it, you can find the Chaplet and how to say it here.

Tall Ships, big dogs and small ones too

Continuing our whistle-stop tour of Southern Ireland, we arrived in Cappoquin to spend a night in Richmond House, somewhere we remembered fondly from our pre-sprog days. The house is as lovely as we found it before and our family room was memorable for the fact that Roo and Poonch slept peacefully and harmoniously together in the same bed. (Another memory is that of Poonch sitting regally in his potty surveying the carpark below from his lofty perch on the expansive bathroom windowsill.) A visit to Granny Daddy and her gift of a pair of cuddly plush puppies helped to tire them out, although we've had so much going these last few days that they have a cumulative tiredness at this stage.

Pictured above is by far the friendliest member of staff that we met at Richmond House. Make of that what you will. The lads were very taken with this big old bear of a dog: cuddly and quiet. And so was I.

The following morning, we drove off to Waterford to what turned into a glorious Summer's day to see the Tall Ships, or should that be, to queue up for various food items at numerous market stalls. The city was absolutely packed and we strolled around with the older lads in and out of the buggy and the Little Toot in the sling. In hindsight, we would all get much more out of it when we are able to climb on board the actual Tall Ships in a few years' time, please God. One of the more memorable things was a Sea Shanty group from Exmouth who wandered around singing a most stirring song.

Despite the fact that the lads are generally very well-behaved (do you think I would be biased, now really?), there has been the odd occasion when I haven't felt entirely, shall we say, loved by certain people we have come across on this holiday. They seem to have a pre-formed negative attitude towards children, even before they have crossed the restaurant or hotel threshold. Curiously enough, in some of these places we have been pretty much the only customers. I would have thought that in the country's current dire economic state that any customer at all would be treated like a long lost friend.

Sacred Heart Novena...

....starts today. Click here to join in on the Sacred Space website.

Holiday revisited part 4, Thursday: Can you tell where it is yet?

Here is the other side of the church, the side that people know better. This is where Our Lady appeared to some dumb-founded inhabitants of Knock, Co Mayo, on 21st August 1879. We visited it on our Mayo holiday: it was in fact the reason we decided to come up there in the first place.

This gable-end is one of the parts of Knock that I love. There is a real sense of something amazing in this quiet spot, which for some reason seems almost deserted whenever I visit. In my experience, people tend to rush past it on the way to the Basilica, yet to me it is a far more attractive place. I see the basilica as just a functional place which can hold a lot of people. Lee likened it to a mart in design, which is bang on. Another part of Knock that I love is the Reconciliation Chapel. It always feels inviting and friendly, which aren't two adjectives that normally come to mind when I think of confession. On this visit, the two older lads were very good as they waited in turn for Lee and I, but I had to bring the Scroonk in with me in the sling and he was a bit busy, to say the least!

After that, the lads went off with Lee for some well-deserved messing in the playground while I went to yet another of my favourite parts of Knock: the bookshop. I could really spend hours there, and that's just in the children's section which has so many appealing books. I got some great books for Roo to help explain what's happening in Mass and some lift-the-flap Bible stories for Poonch. Then I went looking for a 'penny catechism' only to find it next to YOUCAT , which I was very excited about. It is such a great book: even apart from its contents, it is very attractive to look at and handle, with a friendly, straight-forward and approachable tone and a wonderful foreword from the Holy Father.

It was a welcome change not to have to face into a three-hour plus drive back home and instead we headed back to the hotel and our final night there. All together now: aaaaahhhhh!

Day 2, Tuesday... in Mayo!: Cycling the Greenway

We woke up for our first proper day of holiday and off we toddled to the nearby town of Newport to collect our snazzy electric bikes.

My trusty steed for the day

Electric bike + trailer= plain sailing

We had been really excited about this part of our holiday because it involved us, bikes, fresh air, nice scenery and exercise, but as Roo would say, not too much. Lee and I aren't as fit as we'd like to be, so when we heard that we could cycle about with the lads in tow with the help of an electric motor, we thought yippee! Roo wasn't too sure though- he didn't like the sound of the trailers that he and de bruvvers were going to be travelling in.

Nonetheless, we met Paul from Electric Escapes at Clew Bay Cycles and collected our bikes. And so began the pirate connections: my bike was called Grace, as in Grace O'Malley, the famous female pirate of Mayo, appropriate, as we had chosen the Pirate Queen tour. Roo settled quickly into his trailer with the Scroonk next to him, while initially Poonch was a bit nervous on his ownio behind me.

And we were off! The weather was very clement: warm and dry, with a gentle breeze to prevent us getting too hot from our exertions. And the scenery was, well take a look at this....

Mostly very peaceful and relaxing: no cars speeding by to scare the bejayny out of us. We weren't completely alone of course:

Moo!

Baa!

And we did meet some people too. A broad mix of young families, retired couples and young, fit types who seemed to me to be regular users of the cycleway. All sharing a friendly 'hello'. What a very civilised and cheery way to spend the day! And what a fantastic amenity to have in the area: a safe, superbly-maintained track to walk or cycle along. Not just for tourists, but local residents too. Aaaahh, if only there were more trails like this around the country. My Dad would have loved it.

Whizzzzzzzzzzzz!

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

It wasn't all plain sailing for me though. As the initial euphoria/novelty wore off, I realised I should have asked someone to adjust my saddle before we started as my botty wasn't feeling too happy towards the end. Overall though, we did really well, considering the last time we biked regularly was over 10 years ago in college.

And the lads had a great time: the first thing Roo said the following morning was, 'Are we going cycling again today?' So there you go, highly recommended.

Holiday revisited: Day 1 Mulranny Monday

We started the long drive up to Mayo after collecting Roo from his first day at 'big' school: he got on ok and we met some very nice parents and teachers too. We had our customary pitstop in Clarenbridge at the Provident Market Kitchen cafe, which is always tasty.

We took a slight diversion in Galway at Little Dreamers, a lovely shop for children's stuff, to pick up a new addition to the family (pictured). After that the road became narrow and the countryside boggy as we started on the last leg of the journey. Driving through the pretty town of Westport, we decided we would have to return later in the week for a browse. As we got closer to Mulranny, we noticed bits of newly refurbished cycleway running closeby the road and guessed it must be the Great Western Greenway. It looked very well made and we couldn't wait for the chance to cycle it the next day.

Eventually, we reached our home for the next few nights: Mulranny Park Hotel. This old railway hotel was built long before the Celtic Tiger's glut of ghost hotels. Our room was surprisingly spacious (as we opened the door, we all gasped at its size) with gracious sash windows and high ceilings. Some of the views from the hotel were like landscape paintings and the window tables in the restaurant were much sought after. Well, more popular than the ones near our motley little crew anyway!

Well, I was going to post some more pictures from our recent trip, but my phone suddenly broke down today (possibly caused by a grouchy Scroonk) so it will have to wait until I can get it repaired (I hope)...

We were in Mayo for a few days and it was lovely. The weather was very friendly to us so we got loads of fresh air and the lads (and us) were happily exhausted at the end of each day from cycling, swimming, pedalo-ing, fluming and bouncy castl-ing. More info to follow.

Lee's time-off continues so today we found ourselves in Limerick at the Milk Market. Then my broken phone caused us to stumble across the pop-up Etsy shop on Catherine Street on its last day. Poonch fell asleep so I had a lovely browse through handmade cards, crochet, jewellery and the like before settling on some cute felt brooches from Bettyoctopus and earrings from Silver Soul Design.

We love shopping at the market and getting to know the people who make the things we like. Vi's Sunflower Bakery is one of our favourites: when I eat her creations I always wish I could bake like her. Maybe she does classes....

We've been away for the last few days. Yesterday we visited the town where something extraordinary happened outside this unassuming little church...

Some messy fun outside

So cool! Pope speaks to astronauts

In from the sun for a while. Roo was very interested in this video, what with the spaceman floating up and making the Holy Father laugh! Thank you to Mary for posting the clip on her blog first.

Watered the plants before the sun got too hot. Great weather for potty training by the way.

Warm sunshine here already this morning. Love that early morning smell. Mr Caterpillar is still asleep in the shade of the playhouse.

Meanwhile in other news

...before the rain came.

Poonch is moving away from constantly building flat blocks of Lego (nice and portable) to more imaginative structures like this 'tower' or 'boats'. Roo meanwhile, 2 and a half years his senior, surprises us with train stations, Roman soldiers' forts and the like, all worthy of Kevin McCloud's approval.

Ascension Novena

Ascension Novena: join in?

I have an urge to do an auld Novena at the mo, so looking up nine days from now is, I think, Ascension Sunday. So Google 'n' me came up with this from the EWTN site.

Ascension Novena

Jesus, I honour You on the feast of Your Ascension into heaven. I rejoice with all my heart at the glory into which You entered to reign as King of heaven and earth. When the struggle of this life is over, give me the grace to share Your joy and triumph in heaven for all eternity.

I believe that You entered into Your glorious Kingdom to prepare a place for me, for You promised to come again to take me to Yourself. Grant that I may seek only the joys of Your friendship and love, so that I may deserve to be united with You in heaven.

In the hour of my own homecoming, when I appear before Your Father to give an account of my life on earth, have mercy on me.

Jesus, in Your love for me You have brought me from evil to good and from misery to happiness. Give me the grace to rise above my human weakness. May Your Humanity give me courage in my weakness and free me from my sins.

Through Your grace, give me the courage of perseverance for You have called and justified me by faith. May I hold fast to the life You have given me and come to the eternal gifts You promised.

You love me, dear Jesus. Help me to love You in return. I ask You to grant this special favor:

(Mention your request).

By Your unceasing care, guide my steps toward the life of glory You have prepared for those who love You. Make me grow in holiness and thank You by a life of faithful service.

No car, no problem

The car was still in for repairs today, so I was at home with the lads all day. No school, no racing about.
In answer to 'what will we do noooow, Mummy?' amongst other things, we read books, tidied Our Lady's altar, made a birthday invitation (only 4 months to go), fell about laughing at different ways to pronounce 'party', baked and decorated fairy cakes (while the little Toot obligingly slept) and ran about barefoot cos of 'sticky feet' (no, I don't know what they meant either).

Meanwhile, Lee rushed around for work, trying to avoid falling asleep at the wheel whilst doing a damn fine job for people, some of whom have no intention of ever paying him.

Can never have too many pictures of this.

Reinforcements arrived via EBay in the last few days. We love Playmobil! Thinking of getting Poonch some Egyptians so at least the arguments would be historical.

Roo agrees we should buy some 'eejits'.

The Fall of Rome

Halfway through repairing the Roman soldier (centurion? not sure of his rank) that Mum and Uncle Bee brought back from their trip to JPII's beatification. Roo was delighted with it because he has been fascinated with Roman soldiers since Easter and their part in the Crucifixion/ Resurrection. He also, bizarrely, predicted that Granny might bring back such a thing, even though she is unaware of his current interest. *Cue Twilight Zone music*
Anyway, off he went straight away to build a very impressive barracks (garrison? Must do some Roman empire homework) out of Lego. Happy out... and off to bed.
The FIRST thing he said when he woke this morning was, 'where's my Roman soldier?' eek! UNFORTUNATELY, during the night, one of his barbarian brothers, the youngest, suffering from teething, pushed Toyus Maximus off the table. As you can see, he didn't survive the fall. In hindsight, as good as he looked, he was never going to survive the rough and tumble in this house.

He is Risen!

Alleluia!

Soldiers guarding the tomb...

Roo and I have been busy making and doing the last few days. Today we put our make-and-do Jesus on the cross and at 3 o'clock took him down and placed him in the tomb. Then we put our two Roman soldiers on-guard outside and there they stand, in front of the great big rock at the entrance to the cave. (What would we do without toilet roll-inserts?) Roo is very interested in the story and it's great that he is learning the real reason for Easter.

Thank you to Lacy from the amazing Catholic Icing for the inspiration to get the lads involved in such a brilliant way.

Peace n quiet

Ah the joy of being able to play with your 'big boy Lego' and not risk having it nicked or swallowed by those little brothers.

The playschool holidays are upon us so Toot and Poonch are having decent horizontal snoozes rather than cat-napping in the car. And I am having nose-blowing competitions with Roo.

Daisy chain

Poonch and Lee gave me a lovely necklace today. They made it all by themselves from the sweetest little flowers.

Here it is at the end of a lovely sunny day where we went nowhere but Mass and the local shop (on a fruitless search for a barbecue). Soon after the photo was taken, much to Poonchy's dismay, it broke (well the little stems had withered a fair bit by then). And its ethereal beauty is in its fragility, perhaps.

Thank you, Honey Bears!

xxxxx

Little foal

For the day that's in it...

I love the images they put up on Bing everyday, but today's really made me want to share it with you. Roo loves looking through the pictures they put up too. If you click on the little © character, it tells you a little about the photo.

We could certainly do with a bit of a laugh in this country after yesterday's news. Unfortunately the story of the bail-out wasn't an early April Fool's joke.

Little pea shoots

Sturdy chaps these. So far they have withstood frost, attempted drowning and repeated toddler foot pressure. Wish them luck!

(They are the Kelvedon Wonder variety, for the record.)

Did you meet an angel today?

Anne has removed the comments box from her blog so I can't thank her for her lovely post on today's feast of the Annunciation.

Once again, her beautiful writing has struck a chord in me. I especially liked reading about the 2 year old 'angel' she met. Can't say I've experienced such a revelation myself, but I will keep it in mind the next time I'm trying to cope with a toddler meltdown!

You can catch up with Anne and her gentle wisdom here.

how to get children to eat their crusts...

Bread-making is definitely not one of my strengths, contrary to what Roo said to the little Toot this morning, ('Did you know Mummy is very good at making bread?'). The thing is any previous attempts always ended up like particularly inedible doormats, until I saw the marvellous Nigel Slater make his Lazy Loaf on telly. It's like Soda Bread, only easier to make. In about 30 minutes you can feel pleasingly self-sufficient by producing your very own bread or helping your children make it. Not only is it not inedible, but my little children really actually like it and hence Roo's confident statement. They even eat the crusts, something they avoid at all costs on any other bread. Follow the link if you too wish to see your children perform this amazing feat.

Unfortunately, and not wishing to put you off your loaf, but their eyes, on the other hand, are very crusty. All three of them have now had conjunctivitis over the last few days, which makes the poor lads look, on waking, like little zombies or Egyptian mummies. Roo is much improved, but not enough to return to playschool yet.

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...

Lá Féile Pádraig!

Happy St Patrick's Day from the purveyors of green, white and gold jelly.

New beginnings?

The votes have been cast. Please God, look after our country and its new leaders. Some of them have promised to look after the most vulnerable members of society. May your Holy Spirit enter their hearts so that they truly fulfil that ideal and ensure that everyone be protected and cherished from womb to tomb.

Gratuitous picture of pegs and washing

Yes, those are pegs on the line- the first of 2011- with the little Toot's bibs flapping cheerfully in the breeze.

They make me smile. Because they give us hope that Spring might actually be on the way. Because it means one less airer full of limp clothes and loosens my guilty attachment to the tumble dryer that I never foresaw pre-sprogs. (When we moved in, I looked at it and thought, 'well the landlord might as well take that thing away'. Ha!) And because it means the little Toot is having a snooze and I'm out in the fresh air with Poonch who could do with a lungful of something fresh as his tum is upset today.

Can you help? (Warning: political issues involved)

Ireland is currently in the middle of an election campaign. The main focus is on how the next government will affect the economic future of this country, but there is another more important issue which isn't receiving any attention.

Since the European Court of "Human Rights"' ruling in December, some are saying the Government will have to legislate on the issue of abortion. This ruling ignored both the fact that Ireland is the one of the safest places in the world to have a baby and that surely unborn children have human rights too.

Anyway, if you are still reading this, could I ask you to do one of these things? If you can vote, don't vote Labour as they want to introduce abortion here. Second, make sure your local candidates are pro-life before you give them your preference. If you can't vote, then please pray for those who can. And if you'd like to help the prolife campaign in Ireland further, you can contact them here.

We luv IKEA!

My Hero

On our way up the M7 and just wanted to post about how proud I am of Roo. He worked very hard with his speech therapist and concentrated really well during a tough assessment today.
He certainly impressed me with his explanations and reasoning skills, and I'm not just saying that cos I'm his Mum. Well done, little man!

Have sand, will play

...even if it's pouring rain from the heavens. Thank God for those great rainsuits.

Take a seat

Hello. Quite an unusual feeling I'm having at the moment. Sitting down, waiting, with none of my boys to keep me occupied, and finding I have nothing to do.
Maybe a good time to pray. Yes, that's an idea. I will pray the ultrasound of my throat goes well.

Bye bye Jesse tree

Time to take down our last vestiges of Christmas- the Jesse tree and its teeny ornaments. Roo and I learnt more about the Old Testament last Advent as we made little bits to hang on it. An apple for Adam and Eve, a rainbow for Noah, a star for Abraham, Jacob's ladder. I had planned more, such as Joseph's colourful coat but Roo's younger brothers aren't really conducive to homeschooling so we didn't get as much done as i'd hoped. But it's definitely something I'll do again. Another 'tradition' we began was filling baby Jesus' bed with hay with each kind act during Advent. Then on Christmas Day, one of Roo's spacemen appeared, wrapped in swaddling clothes, playing the part of an leanbh Iosa sleeping on the hay.

Muddy puddy!

That's what Poonch called this little oasis of joy that he and Roo revelled in on our walk this afternoon. His vocabulary has expanded in the last few weeks and he chats away, coming out with sometimes startling sentences. He has his own little poonchy take on words, pointing out 'butty...flies', 'piders', 'catty...pillars' and 'bahdies', wishing people 'happy cwisbas' or 'happy to you' when it's their birthday.

Signs of Spring

Some lovely flowers appeared today, carried by my super hubby. They were tied with a green ribbon and put me in mind of Spring as the bright sun came in the window.
As I write this, the little Toot is stirring from a long snooze and his two older brothers are asleep- an extraordinary event in this house! I'm trying to get our littlest boy into more of a routine but it's difficult during the week with Roo commuting back and forth to playschool.

Hello!

It's little me! On the swing.

Bye bye piddies!

Those were the words of Poonch as we visited the piggies for the last time today. Of course we hadn't told the lads that our porcine friends were going to the factory, but you'd swear they knew anyway, as Poonchie repeated the words during the day.

It is quite sad to think of the fate that awaits them, but they have had a much happier life than most of the domestic pigs of this world, and we do eat p-o-r-k and b-a-c-o-n (whisper). I was very glad once again, that the little pink fellas hadn't been growing in our back garden though. That is one lesson that our boys are a bit too young to learn just yet and how would we have explained their sudden disappearance?