When I was pregnant with my first child, I received a “baby book.”  Yellow, rather old-fashioned with drawings in soft pastels, I couldn’t wait to begin filling in the blanks…first haircut, first tooth, first smile…all of those “firsts.”

I was quite dedicated to filling out those pages and managed to chronicle the first five years of my eldest’s life…

Then I had a second child.  Juggling the needs of two little ones, I only managed to keep up with this little daughter’s baby book until age three…

My third daughter?  Age two…

And then the first boy.  I had no less than two baby books (one traditional and the other a journal) and a calendar.  Age one…

Do you see where this is going?  As the years went by, and the days were filled with nursing infants, housecleaning, homeschooling, meal preparation and all the other busyness that goes with the care and feeding of a large family, I just didn’t have the time to write down all the cute things they said and did.  The intentions were always there, but I was in the midst of living life and had no time to write about it!

When I started this blog a little over 18 months ago, I was thrilled to discover how quickly I could post the day’s events…those funny, quirky, adorable things that my children do, day in and day out.  I could share some of the challenges of raising a large family and hopefully, offer encouragement to other Catholic moms.  This medium seems to suit my hectic lifestyle and allows me to “jot down” those sweet memories, quickly.  There’s no real method to my madness, just the occasional hastily typed paragraph of sweet sayings and the nuttiness that is an inherent part of our daily life.

In the hopes of organizing my thoughts, I’m going to begin posting a weekly “memory jogger.”  Please feel free to join me…this is quite informal and really, simply serves to remind me of those weekly joys that my “busyness” might otherwise file for future reference…and never retrieve!  There is much beauty in the vocation of wife and mother, hopefully these weekly posts of day by day memories will provide further illumination.

Welcome to the very first Busy Mom’s Weekly Reflection:

A moment of grace on Monday…learning that a dear friend is carrying a very heavy cross, being given the grace to pray with the children on her behalf…

A moment of thanksgiving on Tuesday…while watching Galahad lovingly prepare breakfast for his siblings without being asked…softboiled eggs and soldiers!

A moment of laughter on Wednesday…listening to my children laugh maniacally while watching Laurel and Hardy…they are true connoisseurs of comedy!

A moment of joy on Thursday…watching five year old Emily dance in a patch of sunlight on the kitchen floor, twirling like a prima ballerina…

A moment of peace on Friday…ah, peace.  This one implies quiet, and we’ve had a very noisy day!  A mock battle, complete with K’nex propelled shrapnel.  Quite dangerous!  Right now, though, I hear their laughter…watching a silly movie, weapons put away for the moment.  That’s peace, right?  Or at least a truce…

A picture paints a thousand words…the view from my kitchen window this morning, as I prepared my husband’s coffee.  Shortly after I received this quote from a dear friend:

“Every sunrise is a message from God and every sunset His signature.”

Blessings,