The Shroud of Turin

A genuine replica of the Shroud of Turin is on permanent display at the Ukranian National Shrine of the Holy Family in DC. We have a very dear friend of the family (Monsignor Joaquin Bazan) who lives in DC so we went to visit him today and to see the Shroud. The Shroud of Turin, for those who might not know or remember, is a linen cloth which miraculously has the image of the face of a crucified man. It is believed to the be the burial cloth of Jesus. So Josiah would know what he was looking at, we studied the Shroud on Friday. He was so excited to see it today! The kids did really well for our entire visit...

My family with Msgr. Bazan... when it was time to say goodbye, Lydia waved at hollered at him, "BYE BAZAAN!" It was hilariously cute. In this picture she's standing on his walker ;)

*The story is... Father Joaquin Bazan was good friends of  my parents many many years ago when they gave Engaged Encounter weekends. She came to him, pregnant with her 4th child (three boys already) and said, I want a girl. He said, "I will bless you to have a girl, as long as you name her Joaquina!" (the feminine form of his name, also a Saint.) My Dad of course, named me Lisa Marie... and he told Fr.Bazan that there wasn't a Saint Joaquina. WELL, he mailed me a Saint card... sure enough, Saint Joaquina de Vedruna was as real as they come. Fr.Bazan has always called me his little Joaquina.

Oh... and what is my confirmation name? You guessed it. ;o)

Here is the shroud... can you see his face?

(The singed areas are where the cloth was folded when it was in a chapel that caught fire in 1532.... As Josiah explained to Grandpa ;) hehe)

Josiah with the shroud, and an information sheet on the shroud.

Josiah pointing to the face of Jesus in the shroud.

Love and Blessings...

- Lisa Marie Joaquina ;o)

Coat Hanger

...because lots of tiny jackets and coats (several for each child) are hard to find space for... I asked my dear husband to make us a hanger with "LOTS OF HOOKS!" and put it at a height just high enough for a 2 year old to hang her own coat up when she stands up tall ;o)
My sweet hubby got a piece of wooden chair rail, stained it with some wood stain and screwed on some hooks. Then anchored it into the wall. (The beautiful deacon's bench you see below is not made by him... but is also GREAT because the kids each have a basket they pull out and throw their shoes in whenever we come into the house!)

I wanted to post this since I know at least one friend who is hoping to get her husband to make one for their kids soon too... ;o) hehe.
Enjoy!
(p.s. Thanks hubby!)

Prayer for Japan

I copied this from my friend and family member over at jenhenspen.blogspot.com... she is right, we have no idea what it must be like there right now, we all need to pray. (And she attributed it to Barbara, at MommyLife, so thank you too!)

Prayer for Japan

 











Making the rounds on the Internet - I was unable to find the attribution, although I learned this is adapted from a prayer written after the Haiti earthquake.
Most of us live such comfortable lives here that we need to purposely remind ourselves and our children not to grumble about small things, but to keep it all in perspective and to pray for those who face adversity most of us have never come close to:

Prayer for Japan

Lord, I just want to say THANK YOU,
Because this morning I woke up and knew where my children were.
Because this morning my home was still standing,
Because this morning I am not crying
Because my spouse, my child, my brother or sister, my parent does not need to be buried or to be pulled out from underneath a pile of concrete,
Because this morning I was able to drink a glass of water,
Because this morning I was able to turn on the light,
Because this morning I was able to take a shower,
Because this morning I was not planning a funeral,
But most of all I thank you this morning because I still have life and a voice to cry out for the people of Japan .
Lord I cry out to you, the One that makes the impossible, possible,
The One that turns darkness in to light,
I cry out that You give those mothers strength,
That You give them peace that surpasses all understanding,
That You may open the streets so that help can come,
That You may provide doctors, nurses, food, water, and all that they need in a blink of an eye.
For all those that have lost family members, give them peace, give them hope, give them courage to continue to go on!
Protect the children and shield them with your power.
I pray all this in the name of Jesus!!!

Lent 2011

This Lent has been laid back, relaxed, but so far wonderful and precious. The kids and I have been learning about Lent in little man's kindergarten curriculum and making little crafts and discussing the faith. It's so beautiful to watch our children's spiritual lives blossom right in front of our eyes, and to hear them talk about God, or Jesus, so naturally like their best friend. Having children makes you truly understand what Jesus meant by saying we need to have faith like a child. 

At the beginning of Lent we talked to the kids about sacrifices and what it meant to "give up something for Lent"... why we do it (to show Jesus how much we love Him) and also explained that we're trying to prepare our hearts for the resurrection- Easter! (Easter, to the  kids, still means- CANDY so that's very exciting of course!)

Josiah has always been naturally very spiritual so it's especially exciting to watch him grow in faith. This year we had a little box marked "Goodbye for Lent- See you on Easter!" and we asked the kids to think of something they  may be able to give up for Lent. (We figured one small toy or something would be fine... afterall they are just 4 and 2 yrs old.) However, Josiah said, "you're going to be so surprised, wait until you see what I'm giving up..." he ran to his room and got "Poppy" - the beloved popple which has been his favorite bedtime friend the past few months. We were so surprised, asked him if he was sure and told him we were really proud of him. He told us the first day that he missed him, but so far they've been amazing about it! He also gave up a movie that he likes, but not his favorites ;) Lydia gave up her baby doll "Ally". Michael is doing his special diet/fast again, and I gave up all TV and movies (long story). Anyway, we each traced our hand and hung up what we were giving up along our piano.

we also made a "crown of thorns" out of playdough and toothpicks. The idea is that each time anyone makes a sacrifice for Jesus they can remove one of the thorns. By Easter all the toothpicks are removed (hopefully!) and the crown is covered with flowers! Josiah is VERY excited about this! He has come up with sacrifices all on his own... (one day he gave up watching playhouse disney in the morning, another day he gave up juice and drank only milk and water.) Most of the time we let them pull one out when they do something nice, like help their brother or sister, or clean up their toys. So far they've really enjoyed this tradition and I think we'll stick with it. Having it sitting on the center of our table- kinda like an Advent wreath would be during Advent, has also kept out hearts in the season and has helped me to stay focused on Christ too...it's nice.

 (Bowl in center is where they drop the toothpick after pulling it out. I took these the night we made it-- Ash Wednesday, when Lent began. We are about half way through the toothpicks now!)

Hubby and I bundled up the kids in their jammies tonight and went to confession. That too was wonderful, always good to bear your heart and soul and claim the forgiveness Christ promises us.

We're looking forward to celebrating a new beginning as Easter rapidly approaches!

crochet til you get bersitis

Well I'm sorry I haven't blogged in forever. I have all these pictures (and videos) I've been meaning to share, but obviously just haven't gotten around to finding the time to do so!

I gave up all TV and movies for Lent. I have been spending my free time reading Karen Kingsbury's Baxter family drama- excellent Christian fiction... if you haven't read them- go read them. As well as crocheting.
A lot of crocheting.
As my sister so excellently put it... this must be a baby boom. About every other woman I know is pregnant or has just had a baby. I have a list a mile long of things I'd like to crochet, and unfortunately not much time to crochet them. Currently I'm completing a surprise for a new little baby girl our friend's had, whom we will get to meet soon. I also have recently been having pain in the joints of my fingers/hands and it has limited my ability to crochet. I'm not sure what exactly it is (and I'm too lazy and unmotivated to go to my rheumatologist- again this month- to pay another co-pay for him to say, "Oh yes, you have bersitis in your fingers now as well as your knees... have a nice day!") which is most likely what it is. Who knows. Could be arthritis in my mid 20s. right? why not? or ...technically am I late 20s now? I guess considering I am turning 27 tomorrow, this could be the case. Hmmm. Anyway... that's random. If the pain keeps causing me problems perhaps I will go in, but for now, ignore the pain. Keep on goin'. It's one of my mottos in life!

My hubba-hubba is doing splendidly as always and rockin' the business world with his fabulous smile and dazzling intellect. My son is challenging me daily with his dazzling intellect (clearly passed on from his father) and I still think he's secretly 16 years old. My 2 year old daughter is currently expanding her vocabulary by leaps and bounds and has started appropriately using (by herself- in conversation- no copying her big brother) the word "Flabbergasted". Yes folks, that's my 2 1/2 yr old! Of course, Daddy teaches them this language, so really he's to blame. ;) Her songs are my favorite though... tonight in the car she was attempting to sing Barney's "I love you, You love me!" song but it came out something like this...
"I LOVEEE YOUUUU... YOU love me! won't you give me a hug and kiss too!" (Okay it's not so cute reading it- it's really cute when she sings them though." She will also belt out the alphabet and my favorite part is "....H-I-K-K-L-MENENO-P!" and her happily out of tune yelling version of "JESUS LOVES ME THIS I KNOW!!!!" Hahaha. So cute.
Baby boy is getting tall and LOVES to climb. He recently had his first experience "swimming" in Grandma's hot tub and boy did he LOOOOVE that. Looks like we're going to have a little splashy happy fish this summer on our hands. The pool should be very interesting.

Well, I've rambled on and on and have gone from bersitis to the pool. Really, what more could you want to know?

Ok, ok, I'll post some cute pictures again soon :)
Nighty night!

UPS to God

Scene: Mommy and Lydia coloring together in a color wonder book, snuggled up on the couch.

Mommy: "I think I'm going to make this beautiful picture... for YOU! Who are you making your picture for?"

Lydia: "for Granny!"

Mommy: "Oh really? ... that's very sweet. But how will you give it to her?"

Lydia: "well she'll just look at it."

Mommy: "But Granny is in heaven now."

Lydia: "Oh that's ok... we can just put it in the mail and she'll see it."


*The precious mind and heart of my 2 1/2 year old!!*