What I wore Sunday vol 9

So just doing a quick What I Wore Sunday post.  Today has been a crazy day with a sick husband,   kiddo and an ill napping baby.  The kiddo woke up with the most terrible rash with a fever, and he's still on antibiotics from the ear infection he had just a bit ago. Grr! The rash spread all over his body but the since he's breathing fine, the doctor on call said to just bring him in tomorrow but a mom still worries about her kiddo when he looks like this:

But on to wiws.

Here's the outfit:

I know I wore white in the middle of winter, but eh, social graces aren't something at which I've ever done well.

Cardigan: my mama gave it to me, not sure where she got it

Shirt: Walmart (broke the target streak)

Dress: my neighbor gave it to me thinking it would fit my style, I think she was right

Belt: I don't remember, but I bought a few years ago for Halloween to be some video game character that my husband insisted on me being. 

Tights: Reebok outlet (does Reebok even exist anymore?)

Leg Warmers: MIL gift

I hope you all are in better health than my little family is.  If you can send some prayers up for us that we can be healthy once again sometime soon, that would be so appreciated.  Love ya'll.  

Check out some more outfits at the linkup hosted by Fine Linen and Purple!

Reflections in the face of tragedy...

Tragedy has hit.  We pray for the victims, and the families involved in the Sandy Hook shootings that they will find healing in their unfathomable loss. I don't pretend to know what it feels like to lose a child, and honestly I pray I don't have to because I'm not sure if I could handle it.  I don't deal well with death in general, so maybe this is why I choose to focus not on the grief but on what can be changed so that this doesn't happen again.  For myself, I think I learned to not be so harsh to my children even if babyland is hard and toddlers so inane things.  One of my primary goals in life is to get my family to heaven, this doesn't negate Jesus death at all, but simply means that I along with my husband are the primary teachers to our children.  We want our children to love God and remain on the path of seeking him.  So this tragedy, while made me question why? and still does.  It also made me want to hug my babies more and try harder to teach them to be faithful, good little people who want to seek Jesus.  People who would rather value and save life than take it. People who stand up for the weak and downtrodden.  People who help where needed etc.

“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”

-Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

I guess my other question that stems from this tragedy is not about gun control, but simply how have we as a society failed young men that they think they have to come to such monstrosities to make their point?  I am left to wonder this, because I am raising two boys currently. While they are a long way off from being young men, I still wonder how we or at least I can prevent this for my boys.  Part of it may be in what I wrote in the latter part of the last paragraph, but I think there is more.  What that is I don't know, what are your thoughts here?  How can we make history not repeat itself?

This image below puts a whole other spin on a Christmas tree, and it feels appropriate at a time of tragedy.  It gives me hope, comfort and most of all love.

What I wore Sunday, the sick kid edition (Vol.8)

It's time again for:

This week, I went to church alone, the rest of the family was sick at home.  Such a weird feeling not to be wrangling children in mass, but it was good to be able to focus, slow down and reflect, especially during the season of advent.  

And since my children missed me for the whole 2 hours I was gone, I apparently had to include them in the photos because they needed lots of mama hugs. So here goes, What I Wore Sunday, the sick kid edition.

 

Necklace: Made my by aunt who owns a jewelry shop in the Poconos. 

Undershirt: American Apparel

Dress: Clothing Swap

Belt: Super old and have had it forever and its falling apart, though you can't tell here!

Tights: Present from my MIL, not sure where she got them, but she's a fan of Macy's so probably there

Boots: my standard Airwalks from many other posts,

Sick Child in PJs: Benjamin

Here is some of the detail on the dress that I thought was fun.

And here is the necklace, simple, but it does the trick. 

And last, some out takes with the sick kiddos who needed lots of mama hugs post mass.

Check out more outfits at the linkup happening at Fine Linen and Purple

Gingerbread, Gingerbread

We had a gingerbread house decorating party.  Here were the results.

It basically took 2 days to put this all together, but it was really fun seeing our friends, adults and kids decorate the houses.  

Have a blessed week!

What I wore sunday, vol. 7

Last week I was sick, but this week I am not, thank-you Jesus for feeling better!  Here's the outfit:

Scarf: from an alpaca fair, not sure which one, my husband likes llamas a lot so we tend to go to these things or get things from them.

Shirt: Clothing Swap

Skirt: Target

Boots: Payless

So I tried out the scarf deal that you all were rocking in previous posts.  I think it worked, though maybe a chunky necklace would have been better. Overall since we were putting together 12 gingerbread houses for guests today, this outfit was kind of thrown together in like 5 minutes, but it hopefully worked right?

Check out some more outfits at Fine Linen and Purple! 

Awesome blog post by Rebecca Frech.

Shoved to Them: The Secret Society of St Nick

Not Perfect...

Today was a rough day.  It just seemed there was a lot of acting up and tantrums and not sleeping going on.  I had to discipline, I probably lost my cool way more than I should have.  I probably should have prayed more to Mary to ask Jesus to be a more gentle and patient parent.  There was a world full of should haves.

But the thing is the day happened and amongst the bad there was good too, there was really. :)

The thing that stuck out to me most though was despite me not being the best parent I want to be, my kids love me anyway.  I could put the 2.5yo in timeout a million times and he would still want me to read him another story or sing another song with him.  He still wants me to sit near him and comfort him until he falls asleep at night, not perfect me.  The 1yo still wants to be rocked when he wakes up or picked up when he feels uncertain by again not perfect me.

And this is a good realization I think, because sometimes I see a hard day like today as a day that was just full of messes and tantrums and cries and time outs.  But love was there.  Love from me, imperfect as it may be and love from them in their childlike trust.

Thus, from this I guess as hard as a day can be, as hard as parenting can get sometimes. I do it in love, and to quote the Rocket Summer, "Nothing matters but what we offer in love."

Controversy or Understanding

There was a conversation that happened on the twitters that stuck with me. It presented the argument that "a marriage could survive off of 1.5 careers not 2."  So what does this mean exactly?

I posted this in the CathSorority feed to see what people thought of it, without any context.  It caused some heads to turn because it made one feel like one should be on the defensive about life choices.  But I don't think that was the original intension of the statement.  Here's what I think they meant... (note: you can totally disagree, I just wanted to share my thoughts and experiences here.)

When this statement was made, perhaps the author was saying that there only one person can have a full time job and pursue their goals, but I don't think that's true.  I do think however, that they were trying to say that their needs to be a balance.  A balance between work and family life.  Maybe the numbers should be 0.75 and 0.75 to make it equal and non-sexist.

When its equally 0.75 this probably means that both people have full time jobs, whatever that may be, earning money or not.  However, they also have a devotion to family and to responsibilities outside of work, things like faith and love and helping each other to dream.  This is what I think the statement author was getting at, the understanding of their being something outside of career or work.  That both people in a marriage cannot be totally set on it being about me, me, me.   Coincidentally, I think this applies to a SAHM too, because there is definitely a lot of work that goes into raising one's children. There's love too, but a lot of work nonetheless.

So, does this statement say that you can't pursue your goals, IMO I think not.  I think it actually wants you to dream even more, just together and not separate so much.  Because really, when we get married (at least as Catholics) we take on the responsibility of helping each other get to Heaven.  If we can't dream to do good things, if we can't build something worth living for, how is that helpful?

Ultimately, people come from all different places and careers and financial brackets, and there is no one solution that fits all.  Maybe there is some outliner example that fits a 2 career mold, but I think if I had to do this, I would be missing out on a lot.  I would miss that interaction to dream, to be a family, to love and to sacrifice for each other.  And that is what I think the author is meaning here. But feel free to disagree, as life wouldn't be full of variety if we all thought the same thing after all.  :)