We were discussing at brunch today our favourite times from 2017. Our kids must have really short term memories, because all they could come up with was, "Presents. Presents. Presents." Opening Christmas presents. Last week.

We did more than open presents this year. And I dare say we had more fun and more memories from other favourite moments than present opening. (Here they are... in no particular order).

Our longest, most expensive memory-making event of the year was our summer trip to Ontario. It was long-overdue and a pretty great all-around trip. Minus the bugs. Oh my, the bugs. We had so much fun hanging out with my family and revisiting all our old stomping grounds in and around Barry's Bay. Joseph recalled today, "I liked going to see those boys in Barry's Bay." Shout-out to the Craines!

(Don't mind the awkwardness of all the positioning and the tree in that photo... we've never been great at family photos)

Dan and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. I have no memory whatsoever of what we did...meaning probably nothing. We never go on dates. We've never even had a babysitter other than family. And I can't remember the last time we did anything without the kids (before Emilie was born? before John Paul was born?). Having said that, marriage just gets better and better. Looking back, those first months and years were so much more difficult. We understand one another better and we're just so much happier than back then (doesn't mean we complain less though...). And, we've started having chai (tea) together on Sundays in lieu of a date. We send the kids off and... talk... about mostly unimportant stuff.

We did so many day, weekend, and little trips this year it's hard to recount them all. From our "pilgrimage" to the new Rider stadium in Regina, countless early, early morning drives to Saskatoon to attend the Latin Mass (every 2nd weekend for a few months in the Spring), Sunday trips to Nipawin to be with grandparents and tend our garden, driving hither and thither for hockey Joseph's hockey games last winter, weekend getaways in Saskatoon with relatives and friends... it has been a wonderful year for getting around.

For the first time since we bought out house in 2014, we did not have a big renovation project on the go in the summer. We (read: Dan) finished our basement "workout" room in the early winter of 2017 with help from Dan's brother, Stephen, painted the remaining hallways and doors in our upstairs, and did another quick basement bedroom job paint and carpet. Okay, that's actually not just nothing, but compared to other projects that disrupted our entire house for weeks on end... it was nothing! We have now repainted every wall in our house. My point, actually, was that we had more time to enjoy ourselves. Which we did.

The year was also one for visitors. We are definitely not seasons entertainers, but we got a fair number of guests in the summer and we did okay, I think. We hosted lots of family and friends from near and far. We are ready to do it again. Our door is open.

Joseph turned 6 and started grade 1. He has been losing all his teeth, reading everything he gets his hands on, and growing up mentally and physically. We enjoy our winters at the hockey rink and watching him improve his speed and stick skills. Joseph loves hockey. Big time. We love his little creative side, seeing his drawing, crafts, and indoor and outdoor building projects. Joseph has a little of a shy side, but has no problem bossing his little siblings around. He is a great little student, loves homeschool, and continues to make leaps and bounds in his learning.
 

John Paul turned 3 in March (so he's 3 months away from turning 4 now). He is our speedy little energy ball. Not wanting to be outdone in anything, John Paul is doing school, colouring and cutting constantly, pouring over books, and competing in everything. His brain is sometimes way ahead of the rest of him and he sometimes jumps and stutters while he's trying to get what's inside his head out of his mouth. For a kid that's generally very loud, John Paul can be quiet and speechless, thinking. He is a great little help picking up toys, washing the table, and cleaning the house (when he puts his mind to it!). We are so interested to see his little personality come out more and more (challenging, but fun!) as he learns to draw, do things for himself, and think about things for himself.

Emilie is 18 months old now... and not a baby anymore (but still has "nuh nuhs" and likes to sleep with mommy if she gets her way). In fact, she has three of her own "baa-bies" which she tries to carry around all at once. She rocks them, shushes them, and sometimes puts them to bed. Emilie continues to bring us so much joy with her sunshine smile and happiness. But she's a little personality all her own, with a temper and destructive streak: her favourite word is "nooo"; her favourite past-times are eating and destroying. She goes to great ends to colour on shelves, eat uncooked macaroni, and dump the potty (not her pee). But she is just the cutest, the way she sings and dances, gives kisses and hugs, and kneels to say her "Ma Ma" Hail Mary's. 

At the beginning of the year, I had a word on my mind for the year: contentment. For a perfectionist, it's a bit of a hard thing. But I wanted peace and joy, whether perfect was a part of it or not. I wanted to stop imagining my perfect (unachievable) life and live happy in my real life, my real house, with my real kids. I like to think I'm letting go and living more contentedly than I was -- a long way from perfect, which is perfect. So if you see my house a mess (I'm ignoring it), my kids wearing ripped or mismatched clothing (I let them dress themselves), and uncooked pasta all over my floors (I give up!), but we're reading books, doing science projects, and having dance parties... you know, we are content and living the life. It has truly been a wonderful year.

There you have it, a year in review. It's New Year's Eve. We pulled out the chocolate milk, crackers and cheese and wished our kids a happy new year at 7pm. They are now sleeping! Which is probably where we will be... long before midnight. We're living the life! To you and yours, Happy New Year.

Big League Card (ahem... again).

Yay! We made Fr. Z's blog again this year! He only publishes a few Christmas cards each year. We're 2 for 3. Ok, he didn't spell Tisdale properly, but so what? Merry Christmas Fr. Z.

Concert 2017

Joseph would like to present a Christmas concert to you all. The songs were selected by Joseph.
Merry Christmas!

Christmas Carols Guessing Game

You've seen these before, right? See how many songs you can get.

Answers:

On Being God: A Concerted Effort

Yes, another self-indulgent blog. What else is there to talk about these days anyway?

Our school Christmas concerts are now over. I've had a headache ever since they ended. Lack of sleep catches up to us all. The concert I'm in charge of (grades 3-5) went very well. Thanks be to God. Or is that "Thanks be to ME?" Doing yet another concert has made me feel like God in a way. No, not in the all-powerful way. More like in the way of how God makes things work despite human weakness.

I take charge of almost everything. I do the lights, the sound system, fix the sound system, replace the sound system computers 3x, even minutes before the first performance, backup up all sound system items in two different ways, organize all practices, set up, decorate, clean up, and everything in between. It takes about 100 hours out of my life. I try and spoon feed jobs to other teachers. All the pressure falls on my shoulders. The other teachers are blissfully unaware of what happens behind the scenes. I think of how at our local library we went for a Christmas craft night. The library worker had crafts set up in such a way that you'd have to be a fool to mess up the craft. And sure enough that's what people do, mess up. That's just life.

I think of how God works in the world. He surely spoon feeds us. He is deeply concerned with every little detail, whether we notice or not. He takes on our burdens, all too often with us not even noticing. Relationships break? God works behind the scenes to mend them. Pressure from life? "Cast all your cares on Him, because He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7). Need beauty in life? Look around you, it's everywhere. Though don't we just take this for granted? We would be fools to mess this life up, and of course that's just what we do. Yes, I get to play God for a month and a half. Right?

To make a festive reply: Poppycock.

I mess up sound systems. Somehow God makes it right. I lose my temper with others. The Lord's peace prevails. I try to create beauty. The voices of little children, surely the most beautiful sound of all, are right in front of me in abundance. I lose sleep from stress of making things perfect. Again, "Cast all your cares on Him..." All the pressure is taken by God. I would have to be a fool to not know this. And surely I still mess up. That's life.

Being in charge of such an event is difficult... if you are in charge of it. It turns out I am not God after all. I'm not even an angel. I'm just like every other person. Messing things up, but being uplifted, unknowingly, all the same. And I think I would have it no other way.

 Our arts ed class practicing.

The End of the World.

A cross has appeared in the sky over Tisdale. GO to confession everyone.

"Then this world passed, and the glory of it" (Lord of the World). 

He's Coming! (not Santa... well maybe him too)

Advent has begun! About time too! We dutifully waited to begin our Christmas preparations until Advent arrived, yet there are now only three weeks of preparation. No matter. Let's just enjoy it.

Last night we went out to our usual Saturday night (Sunday) Mass. It started out great, with the entrance hymn being O Come Divine Messiah. It was all downhill from there, unfortunately. We had a deacon and a couple of diocesan employees out for Mass. Mass was centered around a rosary project. You see, 20 parishioners made some 400+ rosaries to be given to the inmates at the P.A. penitentiary. Well done. The unfortunate part is that this chewed up about 20 minutes of the Mass. We had speeches on it. Mentions of the rosaries all throughout Mass. Talks about how this connects with the diocesan programs of restorative justice and forming intentional disciples. There were pictures taken, and many self-pats-on-the-back were had throughout. Somewhere in the mix I believe there was a first Sunday of Advent Mass. But really, what does that matter in comparison to the great job of making rosaries? We should've invited some prisoners to Mass to share in the festivities, such as a certain Bishop of Rome did (never mind they escaped...).

So yeah, a great start to Advent. I didn't dare talk to Becca about it last night. It's too infuriating. This morning we settled down and, with the help of a great Adventcazt by Fr. Z, got our day, and hopefully Advent, started off right.

We started hauling out our Advent decorations out. Emilie was a big help with this.

The boys also set up some items on the window.

And Joseph, ever the creative one, made his own pop up nativity set!

And I was able to set up our little Creche scene which I had lovingly made this fall. The darn thing took a loooong time to make. But it was fun. This is the view from our window.

And it lights up at night!

It was not just Advent preparations we did today. 

First, a little work out. Thumbs, or muscles, up for finally hitting the 300 club with bench pressing!

On to other things. So much to do...

Ahh you can see the relief in this picture...

 ...as I flooded our rink several times. It will be ready soon. 

Hopefully I can get to flooding it this week also.

 Yes, that was a dog you saw in the last picture. We've been dog-sitting my parent's dog Emma the past few weeks while they've been on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. They take Emma back tomorrow. We'll miss her! She's been showered with attention. We make sure to take her on several walks each day. Today we needed to get some tree branches for our wreath, so we went to "Mama Mary's Park."

Um, Emilie loves to eat snow. So she falls over on her face deliberately and then eats to her heart's content.

The result:

 Emma loved it! Emma loves everything.

The wreath was set up. 

 And we sat down to a yummy supper of biscuits and stew. O Come O Come Emanuel, and ransom captive Israel. Captive as in jail? And rosaries. And pat's on the back. And... let it go. Have a blessed Advent.

Winter Races

Our kids spend so much time outside. All summer long, whenever they had too much energy, we sent them outside to run around. They were so inspired by Ti Jean that it was always a question of "Am I as fast as Ti Jean? As strong as Ti Jean?" We were dreading winter and the inevitable long hours spent indoors without having the possibility of sending them outside to expend their energy. We had forgotten about their favourite winter pastime. Now, we get to enjoy this every night. And the sweet little girl that wants to imitate her brothers in everything, including taking off her shirt (this particular day she wasn't allowed to).

Handing on a mess

A few nights ago I woke up from a vivid dream. In the dream I was in Barry's Bay at the wonderful St. Hedwig's church. Daily Mass had started and I was thrilled to be back to enjoy a peaceful and prayerful Mass. That is until someone started the entrance hymn. A band kicked in and played a raucous worship opener that even a charismatic-charged Protestants would drool over. Badly shaken by this new craze at the church of my wedding, I pressed on ahead at Mass. There was more commotion later on. Before the readings a group of people jumped to the front by the altar and took some booklets and formed them into mini megaphones. These people were pretending to make trumpet noises with the makeshift-a-maphones. They were goofing off at the front, and many in the congregation were laughing and singing along.

To quote Roch Carrier: "This was too much. It was too unfair. This is persecution!" I shouted as loud as I could: "Stop!!!! What are you doing?! You're a disgrace to this church!" People turned and looked at me. Some were relieved. Others were shocked at my outburst. It didn't matter. I think some people tried to kick me out. I woke up feeling quite satisfied with my defense of the this house of prayer.

I think maybe my soul subconsciously was anticipating the Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran, which began the upcoming morning. There I was a few minutes later saying morning prayer with the words: "My house will be called a house of prayer." Did my soul subconsiously know that this great feast was approaching? Or was the dream just a coincidence? Actually, the reason I dreamed of this mess at St. Hedwig's probably stemmed from a prayer comment at the previous night Mass I attended (in Tisdale). It was the prayers of the faithful and our priest asked if anyone had any intentions to add (ho hum... cause that's how we feel like we are participating at Mass...). One lady, who runs our youth programs, piped up that she wanted to pray for the youth of our parish, and that the programs running would turn around and be successful (openly hinting that they were failing) and that the youth would find a love of the Lord through them. A desperate plea I thought. But it got me thinking. Why are we doing the same thing while expecting different results? Oh yes, that is the definition of insanity as is often quoted. That's it. We're insane in our diocese.

A couple of years ago our parish, in accord with our diocese, announced exciting 'new' measures to bring the youth back to the Catholic Church! These included lots of activities, youth Masses, praise and worship, and a watered-down Jesuit printed catechism. It was the 1980s all over again. It was, and remains, insane. No, this is not what we need. Praying for the youth to return to the faith through our diocesan programs is like expecting to win the lottery... when you don't even have a lottery ticket. Or praying for a sunny and beautiful 25 degrees Celsius on your wedding day... in January. Or for Justin Trudeau to spend money wisely. This is not sane.

"Ok smart guy," I'm sure you're saying, "just what do you suggest." I suggest what the Church, and yes even Vatican II, teach. The perhaps most quoted line from Vatican II (after the misquoted "active participation") is that the Eucharist is the "source and summit of the Christian life" (Lumen Gentium 11). It's actually quite simple: Fix the Mass!

That's right, fix the Mass already. There can be no return of youth, sustained growth of parishes, or renaissance of Catholic culture until we realize the Mass must be held sacred. The Mass must be prayerful, beautiful, mysterious, and uplifting. It must be what the world is not. Otherwise we can get the same false buzz from our everyday lives. And for heavens sake, the Mass must not be about us. Now there are other elements to growing Catholicism. Catechism. Family life. Sacraments and Sacramentals. But they all must be rooted in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass must be carried out properly. Otherwise we have little to no chance of changing things.

We are embodied creatures. We must rely on our senses. If you don't believe me, read Aristotle. That we rely on our senses means that what we take in affects our thoughts, words, actions, and even our souls. Can a Catholic grow in their faith with a reverently-impoverished Mass. Yes. Is it happening? Behold the fruits. A resounding NO. Why? As I said, read Aristotle. There is an insistence on emotionalism, looking at ourselves (ad orientem would sure help fix this), and trying to appeal to the modern world. I think of how our bishop has this thing with calling people around the altar at the Our Father and holding their hands. The look on the children's faces is sheer embarrassment. Why come to Mass? And... they don't. Hence the desperate plea of our parish youth leader. I wrote to the bishop once about his love of hand-holding, among other things. I think I used the word effeminate once or twice in the letter. He never acknowledged that he received my letter. Maybe I should have written in French? Or claimed to be a devoted follower of Jesuit James Martin? My gist was this though: be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, and stop thinking you know more than the organic tradition of the Church. And for heavens sake stop forcing your hand on others. Is this so hard? Once again look at the fruits... apparently yes.

I realize things will get worse before they improve. I was forwarded Pope Benedict's famous prediction of a smaller human Church the other day. He made that prediction nearly 50 years ago. Our Lord's words of "where two or three are gathered" might someday become more literal than expected. And "My house will become a house of prayer" might someday be our own house only. Or, might I suggest, we fix the Mass before it gets to this? Before all the youth leave never to return. Before St. Hedwig's turns Protestant. Before no more Filipinos show up to artificially sustain our church numbers. Before my nightmares become reality. Fix the Mass. The holy things for the holy. There is no other way.

We must place ourselves in the hands of Our Lord. Not the literal hands of our bishops.

Rebuilding Catholic Culture: Millette Style

Yes, though the wolves attempt to take over the world, we try to restore Catholic culture one step, or dance step, at a time. Needless to say, John Paul is a hit in this video.

And upon this rock I will build my Church...

It's so hard to blog about anything these days. The Church, and the world, is such a mess. Sigh. Remember this?

Well from Poland we have:

I hope it's fake. But the website that put it up, StudioQuatro, apparently is a Polish website that specializes in high-end recordings of people's momentous events. Apparently this is at a Jesuit church in Poland.

I wonder how many years the couple lasts until... nevermind.

A stellar birthday

A little while ago, probably around the time of Gord Downie's death, the boys asked me what kind of a birthday cake I wanted. I joked that I wanted an angel food cake with strawberries that made a checkerboard floor. On the floor I wanted a policeman on horseback. And, of course, I wanted Bobcaygeon sung instead of Happy Birthday. Well, be careful what you wish for:

Thanks guys! You lit up my day! Like thousands of stars... forming bright constellations and, revealing themselves one at a time and... um, thanks!

Reforming Ecumenism

There is good reform.

And there is bad reform.

Though in fairness to the bad reform, we wouldn't get pick up lines like this without the likes of Luther and Calvin...

Today many ill-informed, evil, or just plain stupid Catholics are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. I am commemorating another day. It was ten years ago on this day I got my first true glimpse of ecumenism.

Yes, I was studying at Redeemer University College. A Calvinist-esque place where I intended on quickly finishing up my degree and getting the heck out of there. I could tell something was up leading up to October 31st. There were posters speaking of the upcoming Reformation Day. So the day hit. I more or less expected it to be the usual Halloween style day. Some people dress up. Some don't. Maybe a prof hands out candy. Whatever. But that day wasn't at all like that.

Let's just say where I grew up in late fall it is hunting season. Well at Redeemer, in my experience of Reformation Day, it was hunting season on Catholics. The Reformation was constantly brought up in class and in the hallways. Catholicism was frequently ridiculed, mocked, and sneered at. It was all very eye-opening. But what else could I expect? I was on their soil, so to speak. I sucked it up that day. I took my punches. The sin of being a Catholic. A proud Catholic.

But just as with the counter-Reformation, I doubled down the next day and counter-punched Protestant ideas all the more fiercely at class. A couple of profs appreciated this. Others definitely not. And that, I believe, is the ecumenical movement. In other words, what ecumenical movement? The fuzzy show of unity is a mask. There are differences that will never be overcome. There is bitterness that will continue. No surprises. We just deal with it. And we certainly don't celebrate it.

Yes, 500 years of Luther and his kin. A parting shot Luther: If you were saved, it was only through the merits and grace of the Catholic Church.

Now that wasn't a very ecumenical thing to say was it?

Raising Culture

The world is a mess right now. Many good Catholics are at a loss as to what we can or should do. Look, we won't get very far unless we can start changing things (i.e. culture) right in our own areas, and more specifically in our own homes. 

Here is a great example of building Catholic culture. This is Luke Levesque's place. He is a fairly young Catholic father of, hmm, I think 6 kids. He has some land near Saskatoon. The man works hard and is quite smart. Well yesterday, on the Traditional feast of Christ the King, he erected a cross on his land.

Catholic culture indeed. Great job Luke and very inspiring! Viva Christo Rey!

Points to Ponder: Pictures and Such

Points to Ponder on a cold a windy Sunday afternoon.

1) Choc it up to...

Mommy thought it would be fun to give the kids chocolate zucchini muffins with Nutella and strawberries for breakfast, because "it's Sunday."

The little angels. What could go wrong?

Ten minutes later...

Around and around and around they went.

Can we just stick to oatmeal tomorrow?

 2) Hockey

The hockey season began a few weeks ago. I am in my first year as a coach. I was talked into being a head coach, and now I also somehow ended up being the one who plans all the practices for both teams. Yesterday we had a hockey jamboree. It was way too long (3 plus hours) but Joseph loved it! It was neat seeing him as a second year player. All the best players from last year have moved on to senior novice. This leaves Joseph and a couple of others as the far and away best players out there. That's the thing with hockey. Every second year is your year to shine.

Here's Joseph going in for a breakaway.

Here he is returning after scoring.

Scoring was a little too easy for him against some of the younger kids. We'll be playing some harder teams later in the year.


3) Snow, snow, snow, snoooow

Yes we had winter arrive earlier last week. It's since somewhat melted, though today is quite cool with it blowing snow. I can never get tired of the reaction of little kids when they see snow for the first time in the fall. They are so pumped. It was like Christmas over at the school, and same with our backyard.

4, 5, and 6) Riders: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Things are never boring in Riderville. There has been lots going on lately. We have a great team this year.

The Good:

A week ago our top receiver, Duron Carter, became a defensive back. The opposing team's quarterback, Bo Levi Mitchell, mocked in on twitter, saying he'd throw 25 balls his way. Well, Carter got the last laugh. He picked Mitchell off and ran it back for a touchdown. I just love the call by our radio guy Rod Pedersen!

The Bad:

Well, bad and good. On Friday old Mosaic Stadium was torn down. I had the live video link playing at school for my students to keep an eye on. And then...

The new stadium is simply awesome. I love it. Still though, so many memories were with the old one. I thought Rod Pedersen (already mentioned) had some great thoughts on the demolition. From his blog:

"It's fitting the Riders won Friday night on the same day the Grand Ol' Lady came down. No stadium in Canada has hosted more pro football games than Taylor Field but now she's just a memory. I was there Friday to pay my respects but thought the image of the grandstand toppling over was undignified. (Like an old man falling over on his face). I know it had to be done, but wish I hadn't looked."

The Ugly:

Yes, the Riders won handily on Friday night, beating Montreal in what was the return of Darian Durant. This is how we closed out the first half though. A collective groan was heard around the province. Sigh. Watch at 3:50 of the video.

Again... Sigh.


7) Books

We've really cut down on our TV watching. So I figured I could splurge on some books. A few arrived recently (more on the way).

I started The Man in the Iron Mask. So far (300 pages in) it's excellent. I'm really looking forward to reading Anthony Esolen's book. I enjoy his work at crisis magazine. I'm sure many of you have read his incredible take down of Jesuit heretic (repetitive) Fr. James Martin. As for Chip Gaines' book, hey, he's a very entertaining guy.

That's all I have for now. We still have to brave the elements here and get outside. Yucky. Have a great week.

Fall Recap & Photo Dump

First off, we celebrated Joseph's 6th birthday way back at the beginning of September. He is growing up to be a fine little (not so little) man.

Joseph requested a chuck wagon cake for his birthday. Uh huh! Thankfully, Daddy came to the rescue and built a chuck wagon from Lego because oh my, there is no way I could draw anything of the sort (despite Joseph's assurances to the contrary).

His favourite birthday gift is a crazy contraptions book with Lego technic (this one) which he uses every single day. Oh, and he lost his second front tooth just in time for his birthday...

We've been on some beautiful fall hikes (one of which Dan already shared). While in Saskatoon one weekend, we took a little walk by a man-made lake in a rather fancy part of the city. The boys loved seeing a little otter swim around. The houses around the little lake even had paddle boats and canoes in their backyards. Pretty cool for living in the city! 

We've enjoyed a couple walks to the top of "Mount Tisdale". John Paul made up this huge story about how it's first name is Mount Tisdale, it's middle name is Mount Carmel, and it's last name is Mount Tis. Uh huh. We're not sure either.

We harvested the last of our garden on Thanksgiving weekend. It has been so much fun and so rewarding having our own little plot of earth. We are still eating garden carrots this week (they have been our sole carrot supply for 3 months! and we've eaten tons!). And we still have a lot of potatoes to eat in the basement. The kids have really enjoyed it too.

Thanksgiving weekend also found us visiting with cousins in Nipawin and playing with some new baby kittens. Our kids just love hanging out with their cousins. After two weekends in a row seeing cousins, Joseph has been complaining that they all live too far away and can't we see them more!

A little indoor fun of late involved impersonating Grandpa and Grandma Millette with potato heads and potato head accessories. I love Emilie's cute little lady glasses on the end of her nose!

And my favourites from this photo dump! We have some beautiful paths in Tisdale that we've shared over and over again. The railroad tracks go over a big old wooden bridge, the path runs under it and through the woods and over some bridges. It is so beautiful during the fall. We took a couple walks there this year again and snapped some photos of the kids. Fall sunshine = gorgeous. These beauties are completely unedited, but I wish I had the skills to do a bit of work on them.