There’s been quite a bit going on in the world and this country and my house. Interesting stuff, exciting stuff, disappointing stuff.
It’s been a while since I updated everyone on the goings on around here. And I figure you’re just dying to know how the Tierneys feel about the following subjects:
1. The Feast of the Guardian Angels
We are for it.
Happy Feast Day! It’s been a big week for feasts. Michaelmas, St. Therese, now Guardian Angels. I love cultivating the relationship between my kids and their guardian angels. Each morning before school, we say a Morning Offering, then the Guardian Angel Prayer, then we say good morning to our guardian angels, then we say good morning to everyone else’s guardian angels. Maybe that sounds weird when you read it. But in practice I can assure you it’s completely adorable.
Anyway, in celebration of the feast, I made up some printables!
Here are the Guardian Angel Prayers featuring superheroes . . .
And fairy tales . . .
And here are the fairy tale ones, with less pink . . .
You are welcome to click on the image to enbiggen it, then right click on it and choose “save image.” That will allow you to print it up to 5×7, for free. OR you can click here to purchase high-resolution versions of the images. $5 gets you the Guardian Angel prayer of your choiceThe high-resolution images can be printed up to 16×20. I recommend using mpix, or you can just print it on your home printer.
Also new this week, I shared some printables featuring Mother Angelica’s beautiful prayer for miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant loss. I made them as a gift for a dear friend who lost her baby, Joshua, at 22 weeks along. Please keep the family in your prayers. You’ll find the images, available full-sized, for free, on A Blog About Miscarriage.
As with all my printables, you are welcome to save the images to your
computer for your own personal use. You may
print the images and / or upload them and have prints made for your
personal use or to give as gifts. First click on the image to bring it up in a
new window, then right click on the image to save it to your computer.
You may use my images on your blog, just please
link back to my blog. If you would like to sell my images, please
contact me first.
For LOTS MORE free printable prayers, check out my Pinterest board.
I love making printables! I get lots of requests from you good folks for
specific prayers, but I thought I’d make things official, and offer
them for sale. For the low, low introductory price of only $10, I will
create a printable digital image, just for you. Have a favorite prayer,
quote, poem, or house rule that you’d like to be able to print out and
stick on the fridge, or have professionally printed and framed for
posterity? I’ve got you covered.
2. The Pope
I don’t know if you guys heard, but Pope Francis came to the US. There was a whole big thing. But it was AAAALLLL the way over in the tiny states in the upper right corner, so we had to make our own excitement.
Like so:
That’s my Francis + Pope Francis + St. Francis . . . for your viewing pleasure.
The Pope Francis poster/mask/hat (and the St. Francis movie) is available from CCC of America, if you need one. And probably you do.
It really was cool to start our days with breakfast and a speech by the pope. It was so great to hear his voice. Thank goodness for closed captioning though, amirite?
3. The Blood Moon
And there was a thing with the moon, that seems like it happens kind of a lot lately, but they say it won’t again for a while, so we wandered the neighborhood in jammies and bare feet until we caught a glimpse of it.
And it was pretty cool. But I think I can probably manage until 2033 without another one. Probably.
4. Being Thirty-Nine
*I* had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. And it came with my first ever surprise party. AND I was totally surprised. You can tell my husband knows me, because instead of sending me out for the afternoon, he just told me I should hang out in our room with the baby and the iPad. And I was like, “That will not be a problem.” I came out at dinner time, and my living room was full of people!
Being thirty-nine and having a newborn means I should probably write a post on being of “Advanced Maternal Age,” but I haven’t been able to make myself do it yet.
I’m totally cool with my age, and I kind of want to hurry up and be
forty because I just wanna rock THAT. But I kind of can’t stand the idea that I’m now this noteworthy creature . . . of advanced maternal age. I’m like,
WHAT?! I’m not old to be a mom. I’m not doing anything untoward to make
myself have babies past when I otherwise could. I’m REGULAR maternal
age. It’s just that I didn’t quit early.
Just to clarify, I do understand that it is difficult for many women to have children, especially their first, in their mid to late thirties. (I wrote a whole post about it!) But I just don’t love the idea of being labeled as something odd or dangerous. This is just what’s natural for me. I don’t feel old to be having babies.
Whatever, I’m sure I’ll write it eventually.
5. Mary Jane
Speaking of . . .
Mary Jane is two months old. And SUPER squishy.
Just look at all those chins. AND the jazz hands.
She is very sweet, as long as I do as I’m told. Which I mostly do. Her big brothers and sisters dote on her, especially since we ended up with a case of Butterfingers in the house (long story) and in one of
my more brilliant parenting moves EVER . . . I instituted a policy that
big kids can earn one candy bar for each ten diaper changes. (REAL
diaper changes only.) You’ve never seen such excitement over diapers.
They’ve changed diapers for nothing in the past, and they’ll do it again, but I WILL miss the enthusiasm!
6. Still Living in This House
Aww, she’s a good old house. And she’s still home.
It’s just been one thing after another, trying to buy the new (old) house. We are in escrow, but one closing date has passed, and another. The seller is being patient with us, so far. I do think we will still end up in it, eventually. I hope. But it’s not going to be easy.
St. Joseph, pray for us.
7. Jack Going to Real School
If you’re wondering how I could do that and still homeschool . . . I don’t think I could. The husband is doing the lion’s share of the driving, splitting time with the one other family in our part of town crazy enough to commit to a school so far away.
But, Jack LOVES it. He’s adjusted better than I could have hoped for. He’s on the flag football team, and ran for eighth grade class president. (The class president’s main responsibility is to host movie night each month.)
He came in second, if you can believe it. Even with his amazing celebrity endorsement.
So, I think that gets you just about up to date. It’s been a pretty great week on the blog. The two posts that went up have had probably the most lively comment sections of anything I’ve ever written. Be sure to check back in, especially on the college one. We’ve got experts and professionals in the house.
There's a group of people in our area who send their high schoolers to a classical Catholic HS an hour away (though the drive is super easy with minimal traffic). There are 3 Catholic schools in this diocese and all are an hour away from us so it is that or no Catholic HS – life in a smaller town.
I'm glad we won't be making that kind of driving decision for 8.5 more years!
Thank you for your thoughts on the whole "advanced maternal age" business. I've struggled with feeling too old and I'm only 35 on my 6th child. I have felt this pressure that I should be done by now. And fear from being too old to have babies. But reading your post on it has helped me to realize that there are a lot of lies in our culture around this and maybe it should just be normal to me (us).
Love the feast of Guardian Angels! A prayer you should (only if you like it bc I can't buy it but it is awesome) make for bed time is from night prayer:
"Protect us Lord as we stay awake, watch over us as we sleep, that awake we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep rest in his peace" Amen.
Being a far more "Advanced" maternal figure than you, I agree that having babies past 35 is not unnatural. Having a good medical team/midwife who treats you as if you're "normal" instead of decrepit helps. I understand why they have the label, but really, it bundles the individual into statistics which makes people think that all the bad things can happen only after 35. (N.B. I could go into a rant about conditional probabilities here, but I won't, but I think part of the problem is that dome medical people don't understand statistics very well.)
Enjoy that sweet baby, and your other wonderful kids. I hope that you get that dream house soon!
We went through several closing dates on our current house, too 🙁 So frustrating when you just want to go ahead and MOVE already! Definitely not a fun thing about old houses… Plus all the inspections and the ginormous list of things that can't possibly pass! Did you know that in the olden days they used to just connect water from kitchens to drain straight into the ground? Yeah. On the plus side, our grass is REALLY green!
Yes! They keep finding crazy stuff.
Re: saying hello to each other's guardian Angels. We went to Catholic schools run by nuns, and in my sister's class, they would all get up from their seats each morning, and lean out the windows with their handkerchiefs and wave them in greeting to the Blessed Lady. This has always struck me as so beautiful, and I have no doubt that Our Lady loved it. I'm sure all the angels in your company of children love it too.
When we closed on our house 3 years ago this time of year we also passed several closing dates. I think it ended up taking 90 days all in all? So don't give up hope, the process is just a lot more complicated these days!
I adore the printables! My boys have no knowledge of superheros (I know, nerd-mom fail on that one) and so they have requested the "castle" one too 🙂 Probably good since they share a room with their little sister so I can just print out one set for them all! Tahlia was especially excited about the "pwincess and dwagon" pictures.
As you know I'm a big fan of 2 month baby squishiness too 🙂 Mary Jane looks just adorable and soooo tiny!
Thanks. That does make me feel better, that it's not just us.
Good point that boys might like the fairy tale one too. Would it be better without so much pink? I could make another one and change the colors on the wording.
Oh wow you are fast! I love the gender neutral one too, printing it out now for my boys! This coincided well with our Faith and Life 2 assignment this week, which was to memprize the Guardian Angel and St Michael prayers!
Do you all name your guardian angels? I'm unsure about it, but I heard that Mother Angelica had named hers and encouraged the practice. Trying to figure out how to approach this with our daughter (and hopefully more siblings). I'd love to hear your thoughts.
We have in the past, but haven't been doing it recently. I think it's an innocent practice. But many faithful Catholics caution against doing it because there is a heretical new age practice of "naming" angels in order to try to harness their power or some such nonsense.
Good luck with the house! It's so frustrating.
I also have a baby who is super sweet if I do what I'm told. Like right now, when I'm rocking her because I put her down twice and it wasn't sticking. Ah well, she's cute. And I have a good reason to sit around.
Me too. 🙂 Productivity is down, but morale is up.
This is an accurate summary of life with a baby here too.
Thank you for the wonderful printables! You and your amazing family are always great role models for us not-so-great-Catholics! 😉 XOXO
My boys are so thrilled with the avengers/guardian angels mashups. I was juuuuust trying to figure out how to make saints on par with superheros for them. Thanks!
I salute people who buy houses! I just don't think we're adults enough to want the responsibility. Not to mention, I struggle with staying in one place longer than a year.
The prayer graphics are so lovely! What a talent!
The superhero version of the Guardian angel printable is the BEST!!!! I love it! There's just so much to love about this post. The Pope Francis hat/mask thing is amazing. I'm guessing you watched the video of the people who dressed their baby up as the pope over in Philadelphia? That's the first thing I thought of. Super funny!!
Happy belated birthday! I'm glad that you had a great party!
Oh, were you also a little underwhelmed by the moon thing? I thought it was great, but my husband and I were like, "we're being eaten by bugs. Time to go inside." It seemed like EVERYONE on social media was freaking out about it, but while I liked it, I didn't think it was ultra-spectacular. Give me a starry night sky in the flat lands of Kansas or Oklahoma any day-now that is spectacular!
Awe! I love the factoid about Micaela <3
Hmm. Technically, I think my introductory sentiment should be spelled "awww." Those pesky interjections 😉
"She is very sweet, as long as I do as I'm told. "
I feel like there is so much meaning in that sentence. So true of my baby as well, and I sure if my almost 2 year old could form a sentence she would describe me in similar terms. 😉
Also, I love the superhero versions of the prayers. 🙂
Can I get 1 superhero and 1 fairy tale for 10 bucks! Love them so much…1 for the girl and 1 for the boys room:-)
I agree about the 'advanced maternal age' label. So silly. Part of the problem, as a commenter already noted, is that so many misunderstand the statistics, but most of the problem is that most people just stop early, as you said. I've had my last two children after age 35, and if God blesses us with another, then a full half of our children will have been born after 35. We had our first at 26 and by God's grace, have become increasingly more open to a big family the older we have gotten, which has resulted in a backloaded family. I love it that way. It affords us the blessing of a wide family.
I'm chiming in about the 'advanced maternal age' thing! Our youngest right now is 20 months and I had her at 42 1/2 yrs old. I like to go in for one ultrasound just for peace of mind. I've had most of mine at home, and it's nice to know there won't be any medical surprises. Anyways, my midwife, who has been a midwife for 30 years, was soooo laid back. She totally didn't bat an eyelash at my age. The same could not be said of the doctor who did my ultrasound! He remembered me from a previous ultrasound some 4 years prior….telling in itself, and wanted to go over the probability that something could be wrong with the baby. Ugh. Basically it came down to me having a 2% chance of having a baby with any sort of problem. So I looked at him and said, so I have a 98% chance of having a healthy baby? And the problem is? Ha, ha! He figured I was too far 'gone', and didn't try to change my mind on his belief I was putting my child at risk for having him/her too soon. Oy.
On top of that I had a lady we know tell me that all babies born after 40 are coming from "old" eggs, which means that they won't be the brightest kids on the block. She repeatedly, repeatedly told me I HAD to stop having kids. Well, my youngest is by far our brightest!! No joke, even the other kids can tell she is way ahead of the game than all of her previous siblings (and a lot of them remember since my oldest few are 18, 16 and 13).
I seriously do not know what I would do without our youngest. If I would have refused to have more children, and then been given a glimpse of who I was missing? Oh, my! I don't think I could live with myself.
Blessings,
Kerri
When I was living in downtown Toronto, it seemed that most women there were just starting their families in their mid- to late thirties.