Monkey nuts

Making cookies for 'tiny school' on tour.

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.

Little shoes

Don't you just love baby shoes? Well I do. On the left are Poonch's first pair. And the others belong to his big budda.

"that prayer saved us here"

It's great to hear some good news. Yesterday there was a miracle outside a primary school near Galway. Here's the report and some amazing pictures from today's Irish Independent, and below, some extracts. Interesting that the bit about the prayer wasn't in all newspapers' reports.

In all, 75 infants aged four, five, and six were about to go to the collection area when the accident happened.

Mr Kennelly said it appeared somebody was "looking out for the children" as they were all kept safe. ...

Mr Kennelly said that just a short time earlier, the entire school community had gathered in a classroom and said a simple prayer.

The principal is anxiously waiting for a decision by an Bord Pleanala in respect of an application to build a school hall and the prayer service was led by local parish priest, Fr Des Walshe.

"I'm not overly religious, but I certainly believe that prayer saved us here," Mr Kennelly said.

Poonch and I went swimming yesterday while Roo was at school. It's the first time we've been since he started walking confidently and he was a bit hesitant. Bit dubious about the shower... hmm... frowny little face, bit wobbly in the kiddy's pool: not helped by 'jug', which he insists on bringing everywhere and doesn't help his balance. Just generally not enjoying it. And he usually laughs at the drop of a hat. He's a happy little chap.

He reminded me a bit of Roo, lips going slightly blue, shivering due to lack of movement: he used to move his legs like a frog when you'd hold him up in the water. It didn't help that I'm pregnant and can't carry him all the time like I would have done before he was walking, although the water is brilliant for taking the weight. As I came out of the pool with Poonch, I felt the full force of the weight of both babies and it really struck me what my body manages every day.

I feel guilty about what has happened because it's mostly because I am pregnant that I haven't gone to the pool with the two lads lately and I'm worried Poonch, who was always so comfortable in the water, will have developed a fear of it, just because it's become unfamiliar to him.

an endangered species... we hope.

We are back again from another lovely weekend at the fab Wowee house. Every one of us loves going there. Poonch points out the car window and says 'this, this' when we get there. Roo loves, among other things, its proximity to his 'tuddens' and Lee and I always enjoy the little break it offers.

We recently had some good news about the house, which could mean that in the near future our West Waterford getaways will be no more. Bittersweet for sure. I will write more about it anon, but in the meantime, we are praying everything goes well.

Here are some more photos from our tour of Lismore Castle yesterday.

Carved stone bird from fireplace in the banqueting hall.

Bewildered butterfly

The May blossom is out in profusion. Honey bees making the most of it.

The lovely park in Pery Square. Best playground around too.

Divine Mercy Sunday

Well I couldn't make it to the Divine Mercy celebrations as the boys would never sit through 2-3 hours of it, but today at Mass I noticed these flowers on the altar and I thought they were appropriate for the spirit of the day. They are so exuberant and startling just like the graces that flow today.
Two years ago tonight, a complete miracle happened when Roo ended his gruelling habit of waking in the middle of the night for 2 to 3 hours at a time. I put it down to the fact that my Mum and brother were praying for me/ us at the ceremonies that day. I had made the Divine Mercy Novena but couldn't get to the special mass.
I was at the end of my tether and felt abandoned by God in those cold lonely hours I spent next to Roo's cot praying he would go back to sleep. He would start crying whenever I made a movement away from him in the direction of my warm bed. But from that night on he would go to sleep without one of us bound to his cotside and relied on himself to get himself back to sleep when he woke (as all of us do momentarily several times a night).
A miracle indeed.

Easter

Well, we are approaching Divine Mercy Sunday now, so it's about time I wrote about what we did over Easter. Lee was off so we went down to the Wowee house on Good Friday evening. Roo wondered why Joseph didn't help Jesus when the 'shouldiers' were 'being mean' to him. He's only 3 so we haven't gone into too much detail. He knows that Jesus 'went away and came back again' on Easter Sunday. Friday's was the maiden voyage for us in the new (used) car. It's lovely and comfy and has lots more space in the boot (including 2 extra seats in the back for Roo's friends- that's how we helped him realise it was a good idea to change the car- he's not usually too keen on change is our Roo).

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and I had a lovely chill-out hour getting my hair cut while the lads did ...other stuff. We spent the r

est of the day taking it easy around Clonmel and later tootled around Cappoquin (where we tried the cappoquino coffee - disappointingly too hot and expensive, but ok when it cooled down) as well as Lismore and Melleray where we tried in vain to have Confession.

Easter Sunday was a lovely day, clear and bright. We spent the morning enjoying the weather for a change, and discovering signs of the Easter Bunny around the house and village. (Roo and Poonch got a whole herd of chocolate cows as Mum and Uncle Bee bought one each for them unbeknownst to each other. They were upstairs on the jumper hill next to Jesus' empty tomb.) Ballymacarbry is a lovely village with the Nire river running alongside, but it would be nicer to take a walk through it if there was a decent footpath there. Every so often we'd have to run the gauntlet with the two lads in the buggy on a busy road.

Later on we followed the bunny to Mum's house where we had lamb for dinner, nom nom... thanks Mum. We went to Mass in Holycross Abbey (above) that afternoon. It seemed a bit flat, considering it was Easter Sunday. I miss the Easter Vigil, it's much more atmospheric and exciting, but too late for the babbas. And in our local town there is a dawn Mass at 6am which we would love to go to at some point, probably a better bet for the lads too.

Lismore on a showery day

Staying in the Wowee house (Roo's name for it) so we went to nearby Lismore for a stroll.

Statue of St Carthage with Red House Pub in background

Entrance to Lismore Castle.

St Carthage's Holy Well. With crystal clear water.