First things first! So happy to announce that dear friend and occasional Carrots contributor Katherine and her wonderful husband John welcomed a precious baby boy (their first) into the world on Halloween! He is just perfect and I’m itching to get to Boston to snuggle him. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
In the Liturgical Year: We have had the best time celebrating Hallowtide! We’ve never really celebrated Halloween with Benjamin before. He’s been entirely uninterested and last year I had a one week old baby who overshadowed Halloween with all her teensy sweetness. Darth Vadar got to go to a kids’ Halloween party in the park in my parents’ neighborhood followed by his first ever trick-or-treating. It was perfect.
On All Saints we went to Mass in the morning as a family and then got to have special breakfast at our favorite neighborhood restaurant with Daddy. Such a treat! That afternoon we celebrated with an amazing feast at a friend’s house.
This morning (All Souls) we went to pray at the Old City Cemetery with some little friends. We brought Gluten-Free Soul Cakes and they brought Hot Cocoa. We saw Civil War graves (Confederate and Union soldiers) as well as the grave of the first priest of our parish buried there 100 years ago. So cool! Definitely an outing that we should make an All Souls tradition!
Did your family do anything special during Hallowtide?
Pregnancy Update: Almost 12 weeks! The Zofran is still helping keep the morning sickness manageable and I’m so grateful. I’m also feeling less exhausted which is a huge blessing. And for those of you who shared your experiences nursing while pregnant, thank you so much! It was so helpful to hear your stories. Lucy was wanting to nurse ALL THE TIME over the weekend and it was wearing me out. But then I realized that she was cutting a tooth and so needed that extra comfort. After it cut she stopped asking for “nuh” as much and as of yesterday has almost entirely stopped asking for it and seems very dissatisfied when she does nurse (for literally 5 seconds). I tried putting her to bed last night without nursing. We just snuggled on the couch I usually nurse her on and she played with the crucifix on my necklace like she usually does while nursing. She relaxed and her eyes started to flutter so I put her in bed and she was out like a light. I’m so glad that weaning is her idea and that it’s not an emotional battle!
Links:
I was featured on Blogher this week!
What to do with babies while homeschooling: Simple Homeschool
Our fall chicken harvest (contains real life farm-to-table images): Simple Bites (I loved this one! Reminded me of our chicken doomsday a couple of years ago and all we have to look forward to when we harvest our meat birds in a few weeks…..ugh).
Declutter out of love for God: Kitchen Stewardship (I love the reflections Katie has inspired by the writing of St. Therese “Without love, everything is painful, everything is tiring, everything is burdensome. The Cross, taken up hesitantly, is crushing; taken smilingly, by free will, and with love, it will carry you much more than you carry it.”)
Why I Lost Faith in the Pro-Choice Movement: Jennifer Fulwiler
And prepare for awesomeness:
The Quotable Benjamin:
“Today’s All Souls Day so we can’t think about anybody who isn’t dead.”
“I should take my lunch box to the costume party because Darth Vadar probably had a lunch box. Or at least some kind of box he keeps his lunch in. Wait, does he ever eat lunch? If he does….HOW?!”
Instagram Worth Sharing (I’m carrotsformichaelmas on IG):
Lucy snuggle bug!
Happy All Souls, everyone! I hope you have a lovely weekend 🙂
So glad you’re feeling better, and what a blessing that Lucy is starting to wean herself! I love the idea of praying with friends in a cemetery for All Souls’ Day, and am a little jealous you caught a morning mass for All Saints’; the only one that worked for us was a 7pm (our little guy’s bedtime) and it was a bit of a struggle!
Morning Mass was great. I hate taking the kids to 7pm masses. They are always fussy and exhausted! Good for you for toughing it out!
Look at you being featured on big-time websites! Way to go! Also so glad you’re feeling better and I love the idea of going to the cemetery…I’ve always really loved cemeteries for some reason. : )
Me, too!
I meant to write a comment when you asked about nursing & being pregnant & I never got around to doing it. My 5 children are all grown now, but I had 3 in 4 years without a nursing break. My oldest son was 22 months old when our daughter was born & he was still nursing. When I was in the hospital after our daughter’s birth the nurses told me that I could only nurse every 4 hours & only 5 minutes on a side. I told them that I was still nursing our son & they wanted to know how I was going to do that. I told them I wasn’t sure, but it would work out. They had to send their nursing director in to talk to me & try to convince me other wise. I nursed our daughter first & then our son got what was leftover. We did this for 6 months & then he weaned himself. Our daugher was still nursing when I had our 2nd son when she was 19 mo. old. I felt like I nursing all of this time was really taking alot out of me & so I told her that they milk was for the new baby now & she was old enough to understand & was fine with it. I, too had terrible morning sickness for the 1st 5 months & could hardly function. With my last 2 pregnancies I got shots of Vitamin B12 for the 5 months that helped to take the edge off of the nausea. Each time I was pregnant I would wonder how in the world I forgot how sick I was, but it was all worth it. I am 62 & would still love to be pregnant again. My family all think I’m crazy. I don’t remember how I found your blog, but you remind me of my husband & me when we first were married. We are both Baptist, but my husband’s employer was involved with a Catholic prayer group & we started going to their prayer meetings & ended up moving to the town where most of the members lived & joining the group. We were a covenant prayer community & raised our children in it. We still belonged to the Baptist church & were very involved in it. Everyone else in our prayer group which is called Servants of the Father’s Love was Catholic but us. We said we were the token Baptists. We still meet, but have lost a lot of members over the years to moves & death. The members of our prayer group fully supported us in our church & came to our children’s baby dedications & baptisms. The priest in our group even assisted in the weddings of our kids who feel like these people are family. My husband leads the music for our prayer group & at our church. It sounds like you have a good support system, too. I enjoy reading your blog & pray that the morning sickness & exhaustion pass for you soon.
Thanks for your prayers and for sharing your nursing experience! How strange that the hospital staff was so against tandem nursing?!
And we do have Baptist roots. Daniel’s wonderful parents are Baptist and we owe so much to them for raising him to love the Lord and the Holy Scriptures. Thanks for your encouragement 🙂
Glad you’re feeling better. Henry tried to steal the show at last night All Saint’s Mass by exclaiming “No!” when the priest came over to say “Peace be with you”. =D
Haha! I love that. I’m so glad Benjamin’s not the only one that makes a bit of a spectacle of himself at Mass.
I love the cemetery trip for All Souls! Even before we decided to become Catholic we observed All Souls, so this year it seemed extra special. 🙂
It was our first time doing it this year! Since we’re still recent converts, we’re still forming so many family traditions for the Christian year 🙂
Glad the weaning is going well-I find that so hard when I get pregnant, but I pretty much dry up instantly, it makes me so sad!
It was that way with me, too! I think if I weren’t feeling so crummy I could have done more to up my milk supply but just surviving was difficult so I’m so grateful she was ok with being done!