Happy New Year...

...from our family to yours!



Adam invited some friends over last night. We started off quietly with a game of UNO moo for several of the boys while we set out food and started snacking. There were blocks downstairs and trains upstairs for all the boys to play with but later things got a little crazy and Anthony broke a blade off the ceiling fan in his room. Catherine's 100th day of school necklace broke, too, so I've been picking up beads all day. I doubt I'll find all 100 of them. We settled the kids down with The Polar Express while the rest of us enjoyed playing Apples to Apples (Junior), which lasted well past midnight because we were having so much fun.

We had one puking incident (is there ever a party without one?) compliments of Catherine, who gagged on a dilly bean that she hadn't chewed thoroughly. We joked a little about how terrible it would have been if she'd been sick...so, of course, she woke up with a fever this morning and has been lying on the couch covered with blankets because she's got chills and aches all over. Sigh.

While I don't have chills, I've been cold all day and am not looking forward to the next week of temperatures with highs in the teens. I've been wearing a jacket to stay warm and Anthony asked me, "Mom, are you going nowhere?" Yes, dear - fast.

Fortunately, Jesse came back over today to help Adam split wood and get it in our basement storage room. Now we'll be able to heat the house without emptying our propane tank for at least the next two months. Adam's not sick either, but he's plenty sore from all that hard work in the cold. Thanks to Jesse for the help - and thanks to our friend Jeremy, who came over with a JD tractor the other day to dig the firewood out of the snow for us.

So...I've been thinking about New Year's resolutions and read this last night as I finished up my last book for 2008: "Resolve to pray always: Pledge yourself to pray - really to pray...with the intensity that must come from the heart that is trying to catch the spark of divine love." (pp 62-63, Holiness for Housewives, Hubert van Zeller) Then, of course, Father Najim also recommended spending more time in silent prayer in his New Year's post at Live Holiness. So...there's mine. Did you make any?