Thankfulness

Today is my birthday and I woke up feeling a deep sense of gratitude!  I have SO MUCH to be thankful for!  A few years ago, my dear friend, Sr. Jessa Ebuenga SOLT, reminded me that all the gifts that I receive are a manifestation of the love of God.  How generous He is!  I am blessed with a loving husband who always supports me, builds me up, helps me with the house and kids and prays for me and our family!  My children are HUGE blessings to me!

Bub never ceases to crack me up, is so sweet and cuddly and amazes me with his talents and gifts!  Bee is the sweetest baby!  She always pops her head up when I come in her room in the morning and greets me with a smile!  She is happy and is growing so much!

I am thankful for my extended family.  My parents have ever been a model of generosity to me.  They inspire me to be giving and loving.  They have not only given me life and a wonderful childhood,

but a strong faith foundation.  My siblings have always been true companions and dear friends (not counting our childhood spats! - I do think my sister left her sock on my side of the room to this day!)  I am so thankful for my aunts and uncles who have also shown me such generosity! 

I am thankful for my husband's family and all their generous support and love.  They help in so many ways and always make me feel at home with them.  I learn so much about my faith from my in-laws and I am ever grateful!  My siblings in-law (wish there was another name) are also great sources of generosity to me. My thanks also to all the aunts and uncles who have adopted me as their niece.

I am thankful for my dear friends and their families.  I am blessed with the kindest and sweetest friends.  Their lovely words of encouragement, prayers and thoughtful acts astound me.  They are more like family to me than anything!  I wish I could list each kind act that has been directed toward me even in the past two days, but I don't have the room for it!

My heart is full!!!!  If all these gifts are truly a manifestation of God's love for me (and I ardently believe they are) then Our Gracious Lord is generous indeed!  Who else can see to my spiritual, physical, and emotional well being through the gathering of so many loving souls?  Each person makes my life richer and helps me to be more in love with Love Himself.

My prayer for today is for each of you - that you will receive the blessings that you bestow on me in return 100 fold!  I will present this prayer though the intercession of our Blessed Mother (Yet one more gift of God to me) because I know that she will (according to St. Louis de Montfort and speaking with imagery) present my prayers to God on a golden platter making my prayer ever glorious and generous to Him.  Know that you are being presented to God today on behalf of our Loving Mother and to the great Joy of God Himself!

I love you all! -Mikki

My Treasure Part 2

What a treasure!  He is always filling my life with giggles! Need I say more? 

I love you bub!

Katie's Wildflowers

My wonderful friend Telia is selling these LOVELY hair clips on Etsy!  Check them out!  Bee wears her creations and they are simply sweet on her!  They are all handmade (with the neatest stitching I have ever seen) and I guess I can't say enough about them! 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/KatiesWildflowers?page=2

My Sweet Treasure: Part 1

By Beautiful Bee is actually 8 months now!  She is growing so fast!

St. Joseph and St. Andre Bessett

I am convinced that when we are willing to conform our will to the Will of God we are also allowing ourselves to see the many graces and gifts that God gives us all the time, and which we usually take for granted or (worse) pass off as coincidence or luck. 

I love to wonder at the many little miracles that I experience every day.  There are so many answers to prayers that I see that I could hardly document them all!  I would like to tell you about a miracle my husband and I have recently received in an answer to our prayers about his job.  He is now working in archives at the archdiocese and he LOVES it!  He loved his old job too, but it was only part time.  We are so grateful for the wonderful people he worked with these last four years.  His new job suits him so well and is basically his dream job.

This is how it took place.  We had heard of St. Andre Bessett, who was a Canadian brother of the Holy Cross order who, through prayers and example, led so many to a devotion to St. Joseph.  St. Joseph the worker is the patron saint of fathers and especially helps families (as he did the holy family).  We asked in a special novena (9 day prayer) that our family would be taken care of financially and spiritually (I especially asked for peace on the matter). We started the novena on the feast day of St. Andre and sure enough I was  granted peace (not an easy thing for me) and soon after, we learned of the job opening - not only was my husband able to get the job but his start date (which was bumped earlier out of necessity to the department) was the 19th - the feast of St. Joseph!

I want to remind everyone that we are here to help each other get to know and love our Lord more.  When we are gone from this earth this doesn't change, in fact it is stronger.  We ask each other here on earth to pray for one another and we believe in eternal life so doesn't it make sense that we will continue to do this in Heaven? - Those souls in Heaven can (and desire) to continue to pray for us.  Don't forget to ask these friends for help!  They love to pray to God because they know His power and might - for they see Him face to face! Above all, trust in Jesus in EVERYTHING!  Consider the lillies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet Solomon in all his glory was not clothed as one of these! How gracious God is to us and how abundant are His gifts!

St. Andre and St. Joseph, Pray for us!

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day!

Sorry so late, but I had to post our St. Patrick's Day picture! 

Lent 2011

Bub has been learning so much lately and blossoming into a very helpful little man.  This lent he has been helping me out with different household chores and then gets to put a penny in a piggy bank each time he listens to mommy or helps out.  (Basically any kind deed is rewarded).  For him (right now) the reward is getting to help and putting the penny in the bank (he doesn't know the value of the penny yet).  At the end of lent he will get to put all the money he earned into the offertory basket on Easter Sunday.  I think he will like that too!

We have also done the "egg prayer" as we call it.  It is the stations of the cross with each egg containing an item or picture that represents one of the 14 stations.  Here are some pictures of ours.  To get the how to visit Catholic Icing at http://catholicicing.com/2011/03/stations-of-cross-eggs-for-catholic/

Have a great Lent!