The Revolving Door

Do you ever feel like you are continuously going around one of those revolving doors, seeing where you want to make your getaway but constantly missing the exit only to go around again?

That seems like our life at the moment!

Life is full. Life is exciting. We never have a dull moment in our home.
Our home is constantly alive with not only our children and their lives but the friends that come over and spend time, often overnight or a day or two.

The day to day busyness is topped off with extra events that seem to constantly follow one another.
We have so many things happening in our lives with various members of the family that it just seems a blur some days.

One day I will write about how I believe it is so much easier with  a whole bunch of little kids than a heap or even a few older kids ☺

Of course we have been leading up to the great feast of Easter and we have many traditions and preparations for this time of year as well as the feast days prior to this (so many blog posts to share....sigh)

Naturally at this time see more Liturgical play with the children and this was so funny to see as the little ones had a combination of both the Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo Mass. We attend both and so the children were mixing it up

We actually went on a bush walk together for the first time in ages and I loved that the little ones were able to walk the whole 2 hours without being picked up and carried at all.

I have been busy myself researching Herbal Remedies and implementing various medications in our Home. I have just enrolled in Vintage Remedies - Botanical Medicine Course and I have plans to enroll in another Herbal Course as well.
I have great and exciting plans for using both these and some of my other skills in developing a home based business.

One of the major factors in my lack of time has been that Vellvin is doing her Deb ball in just under two weeks and as well as that Saxon is partnering a friend of Vellvin's.

So there have been many weekends of dance practise and the  making of her dress, of which I am only partially through.

These are just a sprinkling ow what has been going on in our lives but a taste of what life is like in our revolving door  journey at the moment.
I hope you are living each moment of your own lives to the fullest even if they reflect our own!

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Home Made Games - Horse Shoes

Outdoor play is a big part of our children's lives.
I encourage lots of outdoor time as I believe it helps the children both physically, mentally and emotionally.

Just the other day the children found a heap of horse shoes and one of the games they started to play was of course that old game of Horse Shoes.
This was suggested by Autumn as she was outside with the little ones and they were looking for something to play, something different to what they had been playing

A simple stick found laying around and shoved into the damp earth provided the required catching part of the game.

 Trahaearn  was the first to have a turn........

followed by Arwen of course.
Well technically they played together for a while.

 The game was such a great success that the older children wanted to play as well.

The dividing up of the horse shoes was a bit of a trick as there seemed to be some better choices than others ☺

 Yep one of the advantages of lots of family around is that we can have a good competition.

Someone prefers to try things by her self and so waited till the others had moved on to other pursuits.

And that is a typical type of day in our home with the improvisation of whatever can be found just lying around!!

Blessings to you and your homes,
 
Linked to - Wise Woman Linkup
Linked to - The Art of Home Making Mondays

Hello there!!

The days pass and our life keeps moving.
There are twists and turns that we don't expect but that life of ours keeps moving ever forward and what we are able to accomplish varies.
So again I find that the season of my life at the moment means that I just don't get here as often as I like.
I still have many partial completed posts of what we are doing in our lives. I have been making lots of the home made health and beauty recipes. Some for the colds we have had others to use as hair and body cleaning products, which I would love to share but just don't get around to doing

 I have been spending as much time as I can helping our emerging readers and spending time being there for them,

Stephen and I have spent some time working out how we can spend more time with each other and then individually with each of our children each month.
We felt that as our children get older and tend to spend m ore time away form our home it actually is harder to spend quality time with each child.

Hence we have re-instituted family board game night, each week, that is preceded by a family meeting at least once a month and more if needed.

Since starting this we have had quite a few small outings out both of us with several of the older children.

One of the ways that I spend time with the little ones is at bedtime.
Even though our bed time routine is not what it has been in the past or as I would like it to be still, I do spend time with our little ones getting to sleep.
These two especially often get cuddled to sleep and we listen to 'sleepy music' or The Rosary on my phone as they nod off into dream land.
Of course there are nights I drift off too :)

Like I said I have been making our home made products for out health and I do still share bits and pieces on my Instagram. It is very easy to post just a pic with a few words. Sometimes that  means writing a blog post about things seems so much harder.
I mean writing a WHOLE post can take more time and so we have a cycle of non posting too.

 Vellvin and I are also trying to eat more Trim Healthy Mama and have been discovering many interesting and exciting foods.
It certainly has made me feel as if I am missing out on favourite foods and we have fond so many that we absolutely love. For example the baked custard above is soooooo delish!!

With the warmer weather we have been  spending time out side again.
Lots of water play again and I have never know a child that did not want to wash their own bike.
Really I think it is just an excuse for  getting wet, Seriously though I don't really mind that. I so enjoy the children playing outside and anything that encourages that I am am all for.

We also went through a stage of making tents for picnics and play and these are just a couple of version that the children came up with.

We have had a Confirmation and a First Holy Communion which required preparation for four of our children as well as two white dresses to be made for Moran and Myffwyn.

Life is busy, life is a challenge, life is a Blessing and like everyone else we prioritise for those things that are most important. Therefore I am thankful to be sharing it with those most special people in my life- my family!!

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Confirmation for Rogan and Moran

Last week we were blessed to have two of our children, Rogan and Moran, receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Traditional Latin Rite.

Leading up to this time has been a wonderful and yet challenging experience.

Challenging in the fact that I have been preparing them (mainly Rogan- more on this in a minute) using our plans from previous children and then we had a few extra lessons with Father prior to the Confirmation. These challenges were mainly in  trying to memorise lessons and also realising the seriousness of what being a soldier for Christ actually means.

We gave  children  the choice of being confirmed in the Traditional Latin Rite or within the Novus Ordo Rite.

They clearly choose the former. 

The reason for giving them the choice is that we attend both of these Masses and while we love the beauty of the Latin Mass we are still willing to attend Novus Ordo.

Preparations at home also meant preparing each of the children a traditional iced fruit cake, as each of their older siblings have had.

Simple but effective. They both had the colour ribbon of their choice and a dove symbolising the Holy Spirit.

On Moran's I also added the same flowers that were on her Confirmation Dress.

Making each of the girls their own dress for Confirmation (and First Holy Communion) is something I have done each time. Ieven finished this one with time to spare :)

Moran's dress was quite a simple  and we used her favourite colour- purple to add embellishment to it.

I hand sewed on each of the purple petals along the hem line and then sewed a french knot in the center of each petal for added effect.

The girls have all had Coronets made for this occasion and I love the fact that they still love to wear them afterwards. Moran's I simply put new ribbons on to use again. However I will be making Myffwyn one for her First Holy Communion next month too.

Rogan dressed in his suit with a new tie. Sadly boys don't get the whole new dress thing but hey he did look handsome still!

The Confirmation and then High Solemn Mass was so very, very beautiful,  (extra and better photos are here) and truly brought home the many symbolic meanings of the Mass that you do not see every day.

Moran had Anna-Lisa as her sponsor and took the confirmation name of Dymphna - no surprise there as St Dymphna has been her special saint for many years.

Rogan took the name of Maximilian-Michael, two powerful intercessors, and had a family friend as his sponsor.

A very fuzzy group shot of the twelve newly confirmed children and the Bishop,Clergy and altar boys.

Yes, yes, cuteness factor- I had to add this one. Arwen wanted to wear Eden's coronet to the Confirmation.

The Bishop spoke to each of the children after the Mass and that was lovely to see. I missed Rogan talking to him, but apparently The Bishop loved Rogan's tie.

He was also very open to individual photos after the Mass as well. The Bishop has a very real and personal way that I have seen displayed each time I have seen him interacting with the children. He certainly gave a very comprehensive talk to the children for about 45 mins prior to the confirmation on the fact that Confirmation was a life long commitment to Christ God, being a soldier for Christ and the fact they need to have a living faith daily through the use of prayer, bible reading and the Sacraments.

Beautiful girls! Can you see our grandchild there too?

Rogan and his sponsor. Thank you!!

Presentation of certificates after we had eaten the bring and share dinner.

Cutting of the communal Confirmation Cake with Father.

It was a very long night of socialisation and then clean up. I think we got home about 12 midnight.

So the whole cutting of the individual Confirmation cakes did not happen till...........

Yesterday, Sunday after Mass again. So Rogan and Moran were again dressed up.
So cutting the cake for Moran

and Rogan.

Before cutting the cake we sing these words to the tune of Happy Birthday-

May God Bless you this Day,

May God Bless you we pray,

Live for Jesus dear........

May you serve Him always!!

And may we live for Jesus this day and always too!!!

Blessings to you and your homes,