Feast of Saint Christopher

My husband's name is Christopher so obviously we needed to celebrate this feast day big time. And by big time I mean making his favorite dinner and baking a cake. The kids were both very excited all day Saturday since I hyped up the cake to them and made it seem as though it would all be a great big surprise. We couldn't manage a surprise because Chris needed to spend all day studying for the Virginia bar exam which he is taking this week, so we needed to schedule in the party. 

The kids had a great time helping me make the cake. By helping I mean watching me mix the batter and tasting probably handfuls of raw batter while my back was turned. They especially loved the blended butter and cream cheese for the icing which I'm sure tasted amazing since I hadn't mixed in the sugar yet. Lenny was a bit disappointed that the cake was green, though. After watching my brother and sister-in-law's baby gender reveal, he is dead set on making a cake "the color of the baby." (I just keep imagining a fleshy translucent cake full of veins.) I guess once we figure that out we'll have to bake a cake together. He wants to surprise daddy and is very upset with me for being so adamant that Chris will be coming to the doctor's appointment with me and will already know. I guess he'll have to "forget" so we can surprise him anyway. 

Chris's absolute favorite dinner is Thai chicken which I learned from a slow cooker cookbook I got as a wedding gift but now I always make it in the oven. It's ridiculously simple and so good. You mix a cup of salsa, 1/4 cup chunky peanut butter, 2 tablespoons lime juice, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, and a heaping teaspoon fresh ginger. Then just pour it over chicken and bake. So good with rice and broccoli. We even had it when we did the whole 30 diet, just swapped almond butter for peanut butter and fish sauce for soy sauce. I really wish I had a picture to put here but maybe you can just imagine the rich and chunky dark red sauce on top of chicken and rice. It's just a little spicy and sooo good. I literally can't even ask Chris for dinner suggestions because he will always and forever only say Thai chicken.   

This cake was a new recipe to me; thanks, Pinterest. http://pinterest.com/pin/24558760445506552/  I am completely obsessed with fruit flavored desserts so I was all over this key lime cake when I saw it. I just swapped the Orange juice for lemon juice cause I didn't have any. It was the bomb dot com. And since I weirdly do not have round cake pans I just made it in a large rectangle and less work for me so yay. I also added lime zest on top which was not a hit with Lenny who demanded I take off the onions before serving him a slice. 

Something about making a fuss over someone just makes days like this feel so special. We talked all day about how great daddy is and how hard he works for us and loves us. Lenny and Carolina were so excited and even though the only thing different from our regular routine was the cake, we talked it up so much that they couldn't help but feel the joy of celebrating someone you love! It's things like this that I want them to remember- the way we always did something special on feast days and asked our patron saints to pray for us and how we always celebrated each other. I'm sure they will also remember the way they drive each other crazy and how I was always forcing them to do chores and how they didn't get to see certain movies or stay out past 9 or whatever. All kids remember the negatives. I read once that it takes ten positive moments to override one negative instance. So for our kids I want the fun to outweigh the day to day, boring stuff that is the same for every family. I want them to remember how our family is different- how being Catholic is different in such a good way, that we love our faith and had fun living it out and not just on Christmas and Easter but all year long. I want to make Sunday the best day of the week and family prayer, if not fun, at least bearable. (I still remember trying to keep from falling asleep while kneeling on the cold kitchen tiles at a hard wooden chair praying the rosary right before bed. Not my fondest memory ever.) 

Kids who don't celebrate their faith grow up to be adults who lose their faith. Yeah, it's asking a lot to expect a dinner and a cake to safeguard my children's faith for life. I obviously know that it will always be between them and God, my job is just to show them how joyful living your faith can be. So I'll try. I'm basically a miserable failure so far because the cakes and fun are few and far between the frustrations and chores and bedtimes and broccoli. But hey...

When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong!

Sometimes it's hard not to wonder why being pregnant has to be so hard. Especially now that I have already carried two babies to term, my body feels like it's crapping out on me. Not yet, body! I need you to keep yourself together!

After the horrible morning sickness, my first pregnancy was a breeze. I felt good, with the exception of Braxton-Hicks, which weren't all that bad. I could bend over, jump, play, do whatever. Then with the second, I started feeling those aches and pains everyone always moans about. But still, I could live a normal life, pick up my toddler, be on my feet all day. And now with this baby I feel like I am dying, starting with my hip joints decaying and slowly spreading out over my body so that by the time I'm nine months I will be bed ridden and probably comatose. 

I have had on and off hip pains for probably ten years now because of scoliosis but it's pretty serious right now and I just want to punch my hips right off my body. I seriously cannot walk sometimes. Or sit, or lay down, or whatever. Now, it's like, I vacuumed the other night and then I couldn't roll over in bed without practically weeping. We had to switch the almost two-year-old into a toddler bed from her crib because I seriously struggle to get her in and out of there. Half the time I am limping when I walk and it looks like I'm doing the third trimester waddle when I am only 12 weeks. TWELVE. Shouldn't I technically have zero aches and pains at this point?

Hi baby! Stahp hurting meeee. Love you!

Not only that but I can feel my uterus aching. What? Like I might possibly already be feeling Braxton-Hicks. Not cool, body. Not cool. Yeah I know I don't give you enough exercise and during these past two months of morning sickenss I have been eating pure junk. But can you cut me some slack. Thanks.  

So with all of this I sometimes forget that it's all part of God's plan. He's all, girl. I got this! I got your back. And it's like a rainbow WWJD bracelet slap to the face. Loving some St. Paul today on the solemnity of his feast day, so of course I have to get my answers from this dude. He says:

The Lord said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. 

Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong. 

 

(2 Corinthians, 12:9-10)

God is not weighing me down with unnecessary burdens. He is giving me a gift of His love- His strength in my weakness. Suffering is a point of contact between heaven and earth, a kiss from Jesus that molds us more closely in his image as we suffer in love as he did. 

If my goal is really to get to heaven, I need to be thankful for these aches and pains of pregnancy. Not only do I get to work with God in the creation of a human body necessarily intertwined with a human soul, but I get to take the gift of self that Jesus gives me and offer it back to Him along with my own suffering, as a perfect gift of love, because it is the gift of Him in me, and He is perfect. 

Now the hard part is reminding myself of this constantly, not wasting a minute of these nine months complaining or looking for sympathy. Not sure I am quite there yet but hey, tomorrow is a new day. Also tomorrow is the feast of the first martyrs of the church. Nothing like some people who actually died for Jesus to guilt me into getting over myself and suffering cheerfully, right? I can do it!

Relaxing on the hammock helps too :)