family life | Revolution of Love

I have a few minutes before I have to get to work so I thought I’d make a quick post and catch up with you!

Life has been going well here. We are busy with the holidays and preparing our hearts for Christ. It is a little easier when I am pregnant (and can feel my little one squirming inside of me) to connect with Our Lady and how she must have felt waiting for the Savior’s birth as she felt Baby Jesus move and kick inside of her. Blessed be God!

Speaking of my little one, I am beyond the half way point now, at almost 2 weeks. We went for an ultrasound two weeks ago and we were able to see a glimpse of our little one’s face. Here is a pic of Baby Rol #4. Blessed be God!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Periscope or Katch (past Periscopes), GoodReads, Letterboxd, or Spotify, 😉

This morning my sister forwarded me an email from Holy Heroes’ Advent Adventures. It sounded interesting so I signed up. Check it out for yourself. Here is a copy of the email.

If your family life is anything like ours, it seems that Advent comes at the most hectic time of the year. It is easy for our children to get caught up in the commercialism, materialism, and the me-ism of the culture’s pre-Christmas (or should I say “holiday”?) frenzy.
Instead of the frantic activity of “Only XX shopping days left until Christmas!” the Church prescribes something different: prayerful, conscientious, joyful preparation for the days approaching our celebration of birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
But, you’re really busy.
You have a lot to do to prepare for the wonder of Christmas Day.
So, this year, here’s how you can prevent your Advent plans from being overcome by the hub-bub of what the world tells you is the proper way to spend “the Christmas season:”
Take your family on the fun, free, and easy “Holy Heroes Advent Adventure!”
It’s free, it costs you nothing, nada, zilch. And you’ll get almost daily fun, easy, free–and time-saving!–activities for Advent.
You’ll find that we have done all the work for you, so you can also enjoy the Advent Adventure with your family. And you will all–from youngest to oldest–actually learn something during Advent which (we pray) will help you on your way to heaven.
It’s free. Click here to sign up.
Nearly every day during Advent, we will send you an email with a link that takes you to that day’s activities.
You’ll see short videos, listen to short audio selections, download coloring pictures, word searches and games, take quizzes to see what you’ve learned, and more.
NEW IN ADVENT ADVENTURE 2010:
***New Jesse Tree videos and printable, colorable ornaments (complete with Scripture citations) plus–BONUS!–a video and ornament for every “O Antiphon” which we pray the last 7 days of Advent
***More quizzes suitable for all ages and abilities to reinforce what you’ve learned
***New coloring pages and fun based on Glory Stories artwork and audio recordings
***A new discount code for all Adventur-ers which not only gets you discounts on every order, but also some surprise free stuff, too
***Now available for purchase: our year-after-year re-useable Jesse Tree DVD! Yes, ma’am: it can be used EVERY Advent, year-after-year, because we added EXTRA videos and EXTRA printable, colorable ornaments which you won’t see online in our free Advent Adventure…so although Advent changes in length every year, you’ll always have enough content to fill your Jesse Tree (and no excuses for not finishing the tree you started–the kids can pop in the video every day whether you’re too tired or not!)
It’s free, it’s for children of all ages, it’s fun AND educational, and all you have to do every day is open the email we’ll send. Enroll your own family, or forward this email to your grandkids, nieces and nephews, and friends.
May God bless you and yours,
Your Advent Adventure Guides

Wow, did the whole month of September pass without me making a single post? That’s pretty bad, even for my sporadic posting schedule. Well, it was a big month and we had lots of things happening. I’ll touch on the highlights.
Today Third Grade…Tomorrow College
School started once again. Bella is now in the 3rd grade. The other day she told me, “Just think, Mom, today I’m in 3rd and next year it will be in the 4th and soon it will be in 8th grade. Then high school. Then college. Then I’ll be married with my own babies…” Egads. Let me make it through third grade first!
Bella also celebrated her 9th birthday. It’s hard to believe it was just nine years ago that she was born one month early and on the day of our baby shower. It became a birthday party instead.

The Independent Three’s
As for my next little student, Andrew is not in regular preschool yet but he is getting a taste for it with a co-op preschool with younger siblings of homeschoolers. He loves it. The rest of the days I teach him at home following the Little Saints Pre School Program. We are both enjoying it, particularly when I remind myself to be patient with Mr. I-Do-It and bite my tongue and keep my hands to myself.

Fire and Ice
Our resident toddler, John Paul, continues to be the little man of the house walking around like he owns the place. He is has a fire and ice temperament. He is either really mellow and kick back or all fired up and angry. Brian says he knows where he got his fire from…I don’t know what the heck that is supposed to mean??

Falling in Love Again
Brian and I have been doing well. For awhile there I felt like we were drifting apart a bit – nothing major but just getting caught up in all the busyness of life. But these last few months we have been trying to spend more time together and stay more connected with each other. We reminded ourselves of why we fell in love with each other in the first place…
Well, all that second honeymooning didn’t go unnoticed when I made a trip to Target for a pregnancy test. I seriously thought my cycle was just acting up again and going extra long like it used to in the past. I took the test and saw two lines. I said to myself, that’s funny I don’t remember two lines being negative. And then it hit me…omg. I’m actually pregnant???? I was not expecting that! I’ll save my reaction and struggle for another post but right now I am happy to say that yes, I am preggers and officially in my second trimester. So say a prayer for me that all goes well!
(And at least now you know why I’ve been too preoccupied to post! Have a great week!)

I love this blog post from Faith & Family Live! It was just what I needed to hear. (Thanks, Rachel!)

Encouraging Women

Several years ago, when my boys were very, very little, a friend with older children told me to enjoy these years–because they were “easy.” Compared to what she was going through with teenagers, I guess it seemed like my life with four boys under aged five was a cinch.
She told me to enjoy these grand years and I proceeded to hyperventilate–things certainly didn’t seem all that easy from where I stood!
Now that I have some older children (but no real teens just yet) I see what she meant in a sense –things are a bit simpler when the children are younger. But I will tell you right now that life with little children is challenging in a very unique way, and I have found it to be the most challenging.
I still remember how very discouraged I felt after that comment. I didn’t need to hear that things were going to get harder because I felt like I was barely treading water as it is. Comparing myself to others didn’t give me any extra grace to move through my day.
Likewise, I think it can be very easy for mothers to look at a family with more children and wonder “how they do it” (I certainly do this from time to time). It is tempting to compare family size and then wonder why we struggle to get through the day when another woman with more children seems to do just fine. But this gets us nowhere!
As women, as nurturers, as mothers-to-be or mothers of many or a few, we need to encourage each other. None of us should ever feel like we are doing less (or made to feel that way) because our family size is smaller or our children are at an “easier” stage–we are all operating on the grace given to us to live our own life, the one God has given us. There is not grace for me to have nine children because God has given me six. Likewise, the mother of three children has the grace for that–she doesn’t need grace for anything else.
Be encouraged! Whether you have one baby or six babies, whether your children are tiny or teens or somewhere in-between–keep up the good work. And don’t compare–don’t think for a minute things *should* be easier because you have fewer children or older children–embrace where you are at right now and know the grace God sends will be exactly what you need, to help you through your day.

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Category Archives: family life

Quick Catch-Up & A Glimpse of Baby Rol #4

Holy Heroes’ Advent Adventures

September 2010 Recap: Birthdays and Babies

Faith & Family Live! : Encouraging Women

Andrea Bocelli tells a “little story” about abortion.