Monday, February 19, 2018

My George - 7 years old

George turned 7 years old on October 15th.  Time flies.  They do grow up so fast.  I cant believe he is already 7.  He has always been my baby.  Being my first baby, I have cherished every moment I spent with him.  Yes, he drives me insane most of the times, but yet his charming smile, and the love he pours out on me, makes me want to be with him all the time.  My Georgu...you make my motherhood journey incredibly fun and exciting.  He is in 1st grade this year. Can you believe that???  To me, I feel like he is still in preschool..haha  I am sure all mothers feel this way about their children.  It doesn't matter how old they are, they will always be our babies.  


This kid, he loves helping me.  He will be always around to do small things for me here and there.  Sometimes, certain chores are not his favorite, but if it is to help with cooking, he is always ready. Since Lent began, he has been waking up early morning before I wake up, and he goes and cleans up the living room, school room, unloads the dishwasher (all the plastic bowls and the nonbreakable dishes) and sets up the plates on the kitchen table for breakfast.  After he is done with all this, he will come and wake me up and takes me around the house and shows me all that he did.  Awww....this boy, he sometimes just makes my heart melt.   I don't know how he can do that.  Yes, he wants to fill up the sacrifice bean jar with all these good deeds, but I still don't understand how he can do that everyday for me.  And this makes my life a whole lot easier because now I don't have to clean up the living room or school room.  I can only thank the Lord for the good heart He gave my boy. 

My sunshine..that smile!!!

My handsome little boy



These three can play together forever.  George and Anna are constantly playing.  They are almost three years apart but still they both play like they are the same age haha... One of the charisms of George is that, he can entertain any age group kid.  If it is a baby, he will play with the baby.  If its a preschooler, he will try to entertain them and with his own age group kids, he plays totally different.  It is a gift. 



He loves feast day celebrations and making funny faces..lol  He loves playing silly games and running around and being crazy.  There are times when I don't like so much energy, but what can I do.  God made him that way and I just have to go with the flow.  He is so loud, that my ears hurt lol



He loves to take care of Mary.  He always says to me how much he loves babies and he loves taking care of them.  



 For his 7th birthday, he had requested for a Batman themed cake.  I somehow managed to make one.  As you can see in the picture, he couldnt contain his joy and excitement seeing the cake lol 



I found a batman backpack on clearance at Target and bought it for him.  He absolutely loved it.  He knows how to have fun.  I sometimes wish I could be like him.  Just so free and happy.



 He has been a part of the homeschooling group Blueknights.  We go once a month to attend Blue Knights.  It is a great time spend with boys learning about saints and doing different activities.

Holding my nephew



He loves coloring and drawing. I still remember when he was around 4 years old, he hated coloring.  He hated sitting down and doing anything.  I used to worry so much whether he would ever be willing to color. A year later, he started coloring, drawing and painting so beautifully.  Since then he always enjoys anything to do with Art.  Sometimes I just give him some paint and ask him to paint anything that comes to his mind.  Few weeks ago, he painted this picture below and he described it as him watering the plants with his dad last summer.  So last summer, since Sony was home during the summer vacation, him and George would wake up early morning and used to go water the plants.  This was a great experience for him.  I was so surprised how even the littlest things you do at home with parents can bring great and cherishing memories for children. 


For him it was always hard to sit still and pray during morning prayer and family rosary time in the evening.  But this year he has overcome that struggle and he sits and says all the prayers with us.  In fact, he wears his rosary around his neck all the time, which he got during his kindergarten CCD class last year.  Every night before he goes to bed, he will remove it and puts it on the shelf.  And every morning, without forgetting, he will put it back on the neck.  He tells me that when the rosary is around his neck, it helps him to be good. I am just so blessed to be his mother.  I had so much difficulty in the early years just disciplining him and helping him understand what is right and wrong.  I am just so proud of him especially when I see how far he has come from being so fidgety and hyper, struggling to sit still and do things quietly.  







I try to do school at least 4 days a week.  George likes school but he lovesssss playing..haha  So it is always hard for me to get him to just sit down and do his work.  He really tries hard.  He loves his school work, but he always gets tired when he has to do school for more than  half an hr.  I do have to give him small breaks in between but other than that he is very good.  He finishes most of his school work and now that he can read, once I teach him the lesson, he can work on his homework by himself.  I still have to keep telling him to focus but he does a pretty good job with a little push. 



We recently enrolled him in a basket ball class.  He has been asking us for over a year to send him to basket ball class. Finally I was able to get him into this class at the park district.  He loves it.  I still remember how he used to hate leaving me and going anywhere.  And here he is, totally loving being on his own and enjoying the time with his friends.  I am just so glad that I am finally seeing some detachment haha


I hope one day George can read this post and know what a blessed boy he was. I wonder what all God  has in store for this little drummer boy of mine.  I can't wait to journey along with his child and see the many beautiful ways in which God uses him.  I pray that he will follow Christ and choose the holy path always.  Love you my Georgy boy.  

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Lent has already begun for us Eastern Catholics

We are Syro Malabar Catholics who originated from a small place called Kerala, in India.  St Thomas the apostle came to India in 52AD and after hearing his preaching and seeing his good deeds, many came into the Christian faith.  For us Lent started on Ash Monday.  



I sometimes cannot thank the Lord enough for my catholic faith because my faith brings a lot of color into our day to day life.  We as a family had just ended Advent and Christmas season and within a short period of break we enter into the next liturgical season, Lent.  What a beautiful way to keep track of ourselves and also keep us accountable.  Here we have begun our 50 days of Lenten sacrifices and penances leading up to Easter Sunday. 



In our family, we follow the liturgical season very strictly.  For all the Catholics, Lent is a time to look into ourselves and make changes by doing small and big  sacrifices. Yesterday, we went to our church for the Ash Monday service.  We all received our ashes as you can tell in the pictures.  I always take the pictures right away because the ashes don't stay on our kids by the time mass ends.  So because I really love their cute little faces with the ashes on them, I make sure to take these shots.  




My Anna fell asleep on our way to church and woke up just for this moment when I was taking the picture and she went back to sleep lol
 Like the previous years, we always put up our Jesus Tree which helps us to journey along Jesus's life here on earth, as we read each bible passage starting with the Presentation of our Lord in the temple all the way to Resurrection.  I made these little felt tree and ornaments almost 4 years ago.  We have been continuing this ever since.  As the kids have grown older, I am seeing how much they cherish these customs, and they grasp the bible passages much better because they have something visible which connects to the bible passage that they hang on the Jesus Tree.  So yesterdays was the ornament of two pigeons which represents the offering St Joseph made to God while Him and Mary took baby Jesus to the temple to present him to the Lord.




We always make sure to color the sheet which goes with the feast day or the special occasion the church is celebrating.  So yesterday the children enjoyed this coloring sheet from Holy Heroes, which they colored yesterday on Ash Monday.  Now my Mary has also joined the older two in doing every little activity.  I have to make sure I keep an extra for her in all that we do.  She makes sure she gets a turn to blow the candle, hang an ornament on the Jesus tree and all the other stuff we do.






The Sacrifice bean jar is mine and kids favorite part of Lent.  I have been doing this with them for the past 4 to 5 years.  This Lent since yesterday I have been noticing how much they love to do little sacrifices or good deeds so that they can put a bean in the jar.  Its just amazing how small gestures like this can encourage children to do penances and sacrifices.  I highly recommend everyone with little children to do this for Lent. Today both George and Anna cleaned up the living room, school room, arranged all our shoes which were just laying around messy, all without being told.  I could see them running to put a bean in the jar after they do each of these small help.  It really helped me because I now don't have to go clean up the mess.  I should put this bean jar out through out the year lol..  I am not sure whether it would work out this well if I did that haha...




We also use the Lenten Calendar from Catholic Icing and follow through it till Easter.  This helps the kids to have an understanding of how far we have reached in Lent.  I don't have a picture of it to show here.  I also follow the Lenten Adventure with Holy Heroes.  Please sign up, if you already haven't.  It really helps you and your children to stay on track and understand Lent much better. 

And for me, I gave up sweets, Facebook and I am trying to eat healthy and work out at least three days a week during this 50 days of Lent.  As a family we are trying to daily mass during this time and also go to adoration as a family at least once a week.  We are also planning to do a 1000 piece Lenten Puzzle of the Last Supper.  Lent is praying, fasting and alms-giving.  I hope and pray that we will be able to stay faithful to all these decisions we have made.  Let us pray for each other and stay close to Jesus in this Lenten journey.