The Feast of St Joesph x2

At 7:02 am on Sunday Morning,  I heard the scurry of not-so-little feet down the stairs. 

Sunday morning. Now if it was a weekday, I'd be dragging them out of bed at 8. 

So what gives? Sunday days are a break from Lenten observances here in the Wilhelm house. And there isn't any secular media in Lent. They have recently been introduced to a show called Avatar the Last Airbender by some friends and it is their new obsession. Bryan took them to the library Friday and they got 3 seasons on DVD. 

So I guess I'll be glad they only got up at 7. 

This was the 7:04am view. It didn't really change until bed, save Mass and meals. 

If you hadn't heard, 2 year Olds can be rather opinionated. 

This one was throwing a fit because his mom said he could not walk around with a bowl of Sunbutter, nor take it upstairs to Dad. 

He actually tried to get it himself. 3 times. Mom won. But it wasn't a happy battle. 

This is the proof that whomever is on entryway clean up can blame Judah for always creating a mess in their area. He gets a lot of joy out of throwing his stuff over the edge. He doesn't like to put it between the spindles,  he prefers to throw it over the handrail. It's good exercise,  I suppose. Lots of squats and stretches.  

Dad took Judah out of Mass on Sunday,  so he didn't fall asleep during Mass and crashed on the way home. 

This was Dad waking him up at 4:19 when Mom looked at the clock and panicked he would never sleep tonight. (Spoiler Alert- it was a terrible night.)

Mom. What did you make? I want some! 

I had to cut him off because ewe hadn't had dinner yet. However, these brownies are made of black beans, so I wasn't sure if I should even tell him no. 

And if you're wondering, Elijah asked if they were gluten free, but no one complained/suspected anything and the pan was gone before lunch the next day. As in they all kept sneaking more. 

Why did I make black bean brownies? We opened some cans of black beans for the soup supper that we didn't use and I didn't want to waste them, especially in Lent! But seriously, they are a completely reasonable option for a healthier dessert! 

This is the recipe I use.

It has been Sooooo cold. But the sun was out and we thought it wouldn't be too bad to take a walk. We were wrong. The wind was vicious and miserable. This was Judah, of his own doing. 

I tried to pull his hat up and get him to look and he pulled it back down and gave me the no pictures sign. 

In continuation of St Patrick's Day celebration, Micah insisted that we make Irish potatoes. They're a little coconut cookie made to look like a little potato. Micah doesn't like chocolate so he's always looking for a different dessert option! 

I use this recipe and I sub cream for coconut cream to make them dairy free. They are no bake and come together in minutes. 

The beginning of a rough night. Judah doesn't want to go to bed, he needs to "Go talk to Elijah for a minute!" And then he tried to convince Elijah to take him up to his bed to play. 

Mom said no so they went to chat elsewhere. 

He finally went to sleep but was awake for hours during the night. He wanted to talk to Daddy! Daddy did not want to talk to him nearly as much at 2 am. He had so much to say. Stories and questions. He was very animated. 

Finally around 5, I got him back to sleep in our bed. 

Which meant I awoke late and the morning was a rush to get out the door to Mass downtown. Cardinal Burke was in town offering Mass at St Joesph's Shrine for the feast of St Joeseph. We had never been to a Pontifical Mass and it seemed like a great opportunity to go. 

However, Judah absolutely refused to get up. 

And then we had a fit when I took off his boots (because he still wanted to sleep) and tried to get him dressed. 

I did prevail in getting him dressed, and we made it downtown in time to find seats, so that was a win. 

I always love the skyline of a city. 

Although, we shouldn't have been so hasty to take the first open pew we saw, because our view wasn't the greatest. Well, mine, anyway, as I was tucked behind a confessional. You can see Selah had a better view. 

There was much photography during the Mass, I am sad to say. I was tempted, but I'm glad I did not because there are much better photos that were taken and shared by the Shrine! (The following are not my photos.)

The ashrine is 150 years old, and they are working on raising money for restoration efforts. It's so beautiful,  it's hard to go back to our home parish which was built in 1962 after a fire destroyed the original church. It is missing all of the workmanship and beauty of earlier buildings. 

Well, no nap meant a very tired little guy. He was watching a St Joesph movie with the kids and looked so miserable. 

Shortly after dinner he was sitting with his dad (watching those airbenders again) and fell asleep. I wasn't too excited to put him to bed at 630 but that was they way of it. He wouldn't get up. 

The positive was, I had uninterrupted time to make bagels. I also made pretzels but those were eaten so fast I never got a picture. 

After 14 hours of (interrupted) sleep, Judah woke up happy! But still no pictures, please. 

Bonus, throw back to Sela hwhen she was 2 or 3. This was one of the times she easy supposed to be napping, but she climbed out of her crib and cleaned her bathroom and self with her soap and toothbrush. That was a new bottle of soap before she started. At least I got a clean bathroom out of it.