I’m Busy Playing

Elias will play for hours. He loves toys, especially sets with guys in them. He will imagine, create, solve, and explore. He loves all forms of play. 

This was a bakery. There’s a cake, meatballs on sticks, and some unnamed rolled out flat thingy. 

This was his Batman cape. He decided it didn’t work very well. 

His sketchbook is very important to him. He works in it regularly with a purple and pink highlighter. 

I was rescued from the water four times one day for no particular reason. Thank goodness for the water rescuer!

He loves his fireman goulashes and raincoat. He can button the jumbo buttons all by himself. 

He also loves his backpack and daily asks “when I can go to preschool? I put all my potty in the toilet now...can I go to school?” I used that as his main motivator/timing mark for starting school because I didn’t realize he would potty train in three days!

Tree house coffee shop play date with his little buddy. 

He has recently rediscovered bubble baths...of course we’ve only done two this week due to the water restrictions for NE. He plays until there’s not a single bubble left and the water is no longer warm. 

Time At G&G’s

I’m back to weekly fluids, so Elias is back to a lot of babysitters. He’s been spending lots of time at G&G’s lately, and doing all the fun things. 
He set up his own fire truck!

And made bread in the bread maker, which he hadn’t done before. 


Baking his favorite...gingerbread cookies. 











Playing with the new take apart race car. 

Playing Guess Who

So Many Ideas

E: I have an idea mom. 

Me: what is your idea?

E: we can paint our car to look like a fire truck!

Me: that’s an idea!

Augustine: that would be too expensive. Daddy won’t let you do that. 

Me: It would take a long time do paint it. 

E: I know! We can just sing a song!

Me: to make the work go faster?

E: yes!

E: I don’t want to go home. 

Me: why?

E: I don’t like our home. 

Me: that makes me feel sad. I work hard to make it happy and cozy for our family. 

E: I don’t like it. 

Me: why?

E: because of the chips and meatballs and....the basketball hoop. 

Me: 🤔🙄

E: Mom, God did make us. Who made our lemonade?

Augustine’s First Confession

Logan thought good and hard about ways to prepare Augustine for his First Confession. We talked about it a lot, Augustine learned about it in school, and the Logan took him on a Confession Pilgrimage around town. 

Augustine chose 8 churches in town to visit. He and Logan went to each one and explored the confessionals in detail, talked about what Confession is, why the Catholic Church has it as a sacrament, fears he may have about it, and what he’s excited about too. Augustine loved it and is keeping most of it a surprise for Lewis when he’s in 2nd grade. :)

We bought Augustine a suit for First Confession and he LOVES it. He looks so sharp and is very focused when he wears it to Mass. 

His little brothers had a front row seat to watch their big brother receive this sacrament for the first time ever. 

Lewis helped the Sisters prepare gifts for the 2nd graders. 

Augustine wrote down the sins he wanted to confess and then taped them shut with packing tape and Star Wars tape. It made me laugh, but I get it. It’s private between he and God. 

Each 2nd grader received a beautiful little crucifix after their confession. Augustine said confession was a little different than he expected but couldn’t put his finger on why. 

A Night of Fun

Grandpa Mike invites us to CASNR Community Night every year and it never disappoints! My boys love it. So simple but fun. They serve a simple dinner, have a TON of games to play, and have a live animal show. 

This is definitely the favorite. 

My boys must have played 10 times each. 

This one was fun too. You had to answer question about an animal...and then pick a prize. 

Their favorite part by far was the animal show. Thanks G&G!

Lenten Prep

We will “bury”the word Alleluia tomorrow morning, and “resurrect” it on Easter. It seems to be a very tangible way for the boys to learn about lent. 

I love the saying above the mantle as a constant reminder for our family to choose each other. It went well with Valentine’s Day, and works for Lent as well so I’m leaving it up to be a reminder for 40 more days that God chooses us with every heartbeat too. 

My family loves the sacrifice hearts. Each night at dinner during lent we place a heart in the chalice to represent a sacrifice we made that day. 

We have the stations of the cross up too as a reminder of His Passion. 
These vases I made for Valentine’s Day were still out, and there just happens to be three of them, so I’m contemplating what we can have each boy fill their vase with. Maybe gratitude slips or coins for tithing or ways they’ve loved Jesus through loving others...

I’ll be going through my Lenten Journal again this year. 

Yes, it’s a few years old but I love it and don’t want anything different. As for sacrifices, I’ll keep growing a human in this “body that can’t quite keep up this time” and call it more than enough. 

Happy Lent!

Augustine’s Room

Augustine started a conversation with me the day after Christmas about his bedtime, which was 730pm. He gave me multiple reasons as to why he thought he was ready for a later one. I was impressed. All of his reasoning was valid. 

I’d been thinking for a few weeks that a room of his own would have multiple benefits, and with a later bedtime than Lewis he would definitely need his own space. 

We decided he would swap rooms with Elias, but Elias’ room was atrocious. It was the room that needed the most work in the whole house, and luckily the smallest room too. Half the ceiling was unfinished, and half the floor was original hard wood covered by a carpet remnant...all due to a built in bed from the 70s that we ripped out on closing day last year. The walls were half old plaster covered in wallpaper, the other half wooden paneling which was also due to said built in. The curtains were too long for the window because it’s what I had to use on move in day, and we have plans to eventually get most of the carpeting out of the house and restore the gorgeous 1930s original hard wood floors. 

So naturally we would take off the wallpaper and paint everything to match, finish the ceiling (turns out that was driving Logan nuts and I had no idea he even noticed), buy new curtains that fit, and get the carpet out. 

Simple, right? Said no one ever about any house project big or small. 

After getting the wallpaper off we quickly realized that some of the plaster was in bad shape and not paintable. We decided to turn the project over to very able friends from our parish and happily pay them for their expertise. They did not disappoint.

They removed plaster from the exterior wall, and let our boys help. 

The big boys couldn’t have had more fun!

Lewis got the added bonus of 3-4 days a week for three weeks straight of play dates with his best friend because the friends we hired just happened to be her parents. 

Since the wall was down to the studs they added insulation. 

Then they drywalled the whole wall. 

They used a wood panel removed from the other wall to even out this wall instead of spending more on new materials...brilliant. They had a dozen money-saving ideas. 

Meanwhile, Augustine built his new drawers with a little bit of assistance from me. But only a little! 

They painted the room gray with white trim, adding some new trim for a nice clean finish. Meanwhile, Grandma Susan and Augustine sewed curtains and a matching throw pillow. 

Grandma Susan also helped me wood wash and oil the beautiful floors. 

After three weeks of hard work, we moved him in! There are still a few more wall hangings I’m working on, but otherwise it’s finished!



Grandma Kathleen crocheted the beautiful red throw blanket, which he sleeps under every night. I also bought him a weighted blanket...pure magic, people. 

Augustine received this crucifix for First Confession and it’s perfect in his room. 

We are all quite pleased with how it turned out, but most of all Augustine is very happy with his new room all his own. He was even granted his later bedtime...745pm. 😉