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.