I'm so good at that...

I know absolutely all of you were wondering where I went after my super bold statement that basically says, "bring it on suffering and trials. Ain't nothin' but a 'thang..." So to clear the air, I posted with this confidence 1)before David went down with the stomach bug and mama was running the ship alone and 2) I was knocked in the head with the reminder that confidence in God's grace is key in finding joy (which happened at a retreat the last weekend). So I basically went on my own steam each day until about 10:30 when I put the tv on and fussed at anyone who wasn't sitting still and quiet to watch it, which was followed by fussing at anyone who didn't nap well/was SILENT during the napping phase of our day. And did I mention that David was so determined for me not to catch this bug that he basically banned me from our bedroom/bathroom. I responded so well to all this...

So after a snotty conversation about my placing too much pressure on David to just get better, not trusting that God will provide for our Christmas experience, etc etc etc I found myself at Target after 10 pm on Christmas Adam (the 23rd) buying extra decor and presents for the tree, and food for a Christmas meal and changing my attitude (because isn't Target where we all go to help adjust our attitudes (through the glory of the shoe department?).

By Christmas morning we went to mass our new parish in Mandeville - Mary Queen of Peace and had a beautiful Christmas morning...

...where I now reveal to the world that we still allow our 3-year old to have a passy in church. It's a beautiful thing, and I'm not at all sorry about it.

We headed to Lake Charles for a few days, but no pictures to show for it...sorry. I am not proud of 90% of our sick time. I totally thought I would be better at it than I was. So, get back up, girl!! Satan doesn't care how often we fall. His interest is in making sure we are discouraged enough to stay down...

We returned for a Dawson Christmas at our new house! And this time, we didn't use an iPhone to take the family photo, because our fantastically talented brother-in-love Ross (who is starting up a photography business and also makes yummy Irish Sausage out of his house) has a great camera and a good eye... and that cool thing where you can use your phone to set up a timer on your camera.

 The Family Dawson!

 Cecilia Jan! The crown should permanent, because this little lady is pure royalty!

 Jacob is a master at numchucks... I mean listing the Ninja Turtles by name.

 I just really like Pete in this picture.

 The world famous (and completely unrepeatable) Liam!

And Therese is only 4. I swear.

We spent the rest of the week spending time as a family, because David was off (that's right, the workers of the Archdiocese get 2 weeks off for Christmas... and dad's get 6 weeks off for a baby).

So the following Wednesday I received a call from my hubby that I was on list as a retreatant for a women's retreat in Ticfaw THAT weekend. 1) What retreat? 2) Where again? 3) Who's giving it?     4) How on earth did I get on this list? We still don't know how but we decided to send me... eek!! A retreat!! I should have known that was all Satan needed to make his move...

I almost titled this post "Why they really call it the cry room" because of what happened the morning before I left for retreat. I felt the nudge to get to mass. We used to go every day when David was closer and we could all go together. Since moving to Mandeville, I had avoided it like the plague if I was without my strong man who can fight Micah's 19-month-old-ness. This particular morning I decided to give it a go...
I should preface with this. In Kate's mind, cry room = failure. I'll give you a minute to laugh at me... ok moving on. So by the homily (which takes less than 5 minutes to get to during daily mass), I was in the vestibule of the church with Micah-man while in the pew, Jacob dug through my purse and found my gum and my phone, Therese whimpered that I wouldn't let her come out with me, and John Paul attempted to run the ship in his not-so-quiet church voice. We had a few stares from the lady in front of us, and by the time I decided to go to the cry room with everybody, this same lady actually helped me packed me stuff and shuffle the kids out of the pew... lovely.

So we reach the cry room, which has 1 image in it:

This is called the image of Divine Mercy. Good thing it was in there, because I was about to lay to smack DOWN! Instead I do what I do best. I began to cry, and so was Jacob, who knows that the cry room is for getting "pops" before returning to church with everyone else, and Therese and John Paul had a "we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto" look on their faces.

I whimpered through the prayers of the faithful until Therese put her arms around me and said, "Are you crying because you miss Daddy?" Yes, I told her. I miss Daddy.

So with Micah and Jacob climbing a window sill and JP and T sitting perfectly still, and my crying causing major Braxton Hicks contractions (oh because let's forget to enter GIANT 32 WEEK BELLY into this picture), we made it to communion time, where everyone was preciously approaching the Eucharistic Heart of our Lord and I was wiping my tears. Who did we receive the Precious Blood from? None other than the lady who helped us pack our things to be banished to the cry room. She blessed all my children saying, "Jesus Loves You" and all I could think was, "Good because YOU don't." See how well I handle difficult situations? I'm so good at not being perfect.

I only spill these stories in this way so that you can see why I miraculously ended up at a retreat over the weekend.... as soon as I arrived one of the retreatants said to me, "Hey were you at Mass this morning at Mary Queen of Peace?" AHHHHH!!

Anne Trufant (owner of a summer camp, speaker, retreat director, mom/grandmother, friend, employer) was the director and spoke on many things, but I took a few major nuggets with me:

St Therese...

Anne described 4 main points about this awesome saint that not only made her a saint, but that gives US the ability to become saints as well.

1) She was COMPLETELY confident in God's ability to do anything!
2) She rejoiced in her weaknesses because of this confidence (like, she got excited when she found a new imperfection... not my reaction to weakness. How 'bout you?)
3) She was humble. She LOVED being a little clump of clay.
4) She was TOTALLY dependent on God.

I picture her (in prayer) crawling up into God's lap and saying, "Ok, God, so I know you want me to do all these things, and I really wanted to be a missionary, but since I'm here in the little cloistered monastary, you're going to have to do all this in me because I can't do it well, so go ahead. I'll just be right here snuggled in your lap."  And operating this way made her a saint. She "didn't pick a pen up off the floor without great love and humility" one biographer said.

I was also reminded that being a mother is how I get to 1) become holy and 2) change the world. We can all agree that the world is not headed in a good direction, and we can all mope over this pretty well. I used to ask, "Well, what can I do? I'm just changing diapers and doing math worksheets and folding clothes (unceasingly) and picking legos up with my toes. How is this going to help anything?"

I see that it is PRECISELY in doing THOSE THINGS that will change the world... IF AND ONLY IF I do them with great love!!

So the moral is that I can do NOTHING. So He has to do EVERYTHING through me!! I pray that I may be a clear vessel for this to go down well, because when I try to run off what I've got in my own tool box, it only lasts until somebody gets a stomach bug or we have to go to the cry room...
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And just when I thought I had the "I've got a lot of kids" excuse to whine and complain.. John Paul drew this in Social Studies yesterday. The question is "Is your family big or small?" and even after a discussion, he drew our family portrait and stuck with his original answer:

 

Ok God... here I come-a-sungglin'

Bah- Stomach Bug... how God lifts up the lowly!

On this 22nd day of December, I write from a house that has been struck with a mild stomach bug. I can say with all honesty that it's really not been that bad... with 2 children checked off the "who's got it" list and one husband currently home early from work sleeping it off, I have some wonderful news to share: from the throws of one of the most difficult parts of being human, God doesn't stop trying to reach us!

In today's Gospel, Mary proclaims her Magnificat: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord!! A little further into this beautiful proclamation she says to Elizabeth, "He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly!" Today I admit that I fall into both categories: the mighty made low and the lowly lifted up. How is this possible? Well who had Christmas all planned out (well, relatively planned out) and even left all the purchased gifts in Lake Charles in order to save on packing space for when we would return later? Who lined up play dates and outings with sweet friends while we're in town (again when we visit Lake Charles)? And even deeper than that, who planned at all? "Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." James 4:15. I am quite humbled in this way...

So what is my response? 1 Samuel:7 "The Lord makes more and makes rich. He humbles, He also exalts." (Today's responsorial) and again in Job "We accept good things from the Lord, should we not also accept adversity?"

So how do I also fall into the latter category? I want to share what it looks like when the rubber meets the road, or when the vomit hits the floor, or however you wish to see it. David and I have noticed just how close he and I feel to one another and just how grateful we are for our precious family. We've hunkered down since Wednesday and done nothing but taken care of one another. Now truth be told, this is the first time since beginning parenting that we've been up at night with vomiting children (no joke... gotta love home schooling). So this being our rookie stomach bug experience it could account for the rose-colored glasses of such an experience, but I choose to believe the God is reaching out in a particular way to show us that He is present in EVERY situation. In our lowliness. Our poorness. Our sickness... He still comes to us!

Maybe Christmas won't look like it normally does, and maybe the rest of the house may come down with it over the next 24 hours, or maybe we are fine by tomorrow and will head to be with family for Christmas Adam (one family's celebration the day before Christmas Eve... get it?). Maybe our Christmas feast may entail the B.R.A.T. diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast).  Maybe I will have to run out and grab a little something for each child to be able to open Christmas morning (because remember all their gifts are in Lake Charles). Maybe David and I will have to come up with some special activities to do during these days of Christmas because we don't want to spread this particular kind of Christmas "Cheer" to anyone else.

God will make it clear soon enough as to what our Christmas 2014 will look like. For now we watch and wait... KIND OF LIKE ADVENT!  Genius, God. Genius. Clearly we needed a lesson that would be unlike others in these last few precious days of Advent. Don't you just love how God prepares us for the most important celebration in the history of man-kind? I can say "YES" with confidence, that while I would have not chosen this kind of prep, David and I trust Him and say, "He has looked with favor on his lowly servant. The Almighty has done great things for me and holy is His name."

God's will be done!

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Oh, and just to clear the air about my possibly being some sort of super-sufferer, you should know that just a mere 8 hours after typing this post, I proceeded to throw a nice pitty party in Adoration and shed my pout-y little tears because I would MUCH RATHER have Christmas the way I KNOW CHRISTMAS. So while I'm sticking to what I have said, it doesn't mean I'm doing it well... 

As Christmas approaches...

Know that the Dawson family is peaceful, joyful, and so very grateful for all of God's gifts- most especially the gift of His Son.

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." - Isaiah 9:6

This free digital collage created with Smilebox

The Post About Moving...

In case any of you were losing sleep at night just wondering when I was going to post again in order to dish out all the fantastic details of moving from New Orleans to Mandeville... your sleepless nights are over!!

On the 22 of November we packed up 4800 square feet of house and put it into two 26' U hauls... of course when I say "we" I mean David, his mom and brother Pete, and about 10 seminarians/friends who hopped across the street from Notre Dame, and three others who drove FROM COVINGTON to help us, while I changed the Pandora station numerous times (in order to provide adequate moving music) and sipped on my peppermint mocha because I'm not suppose to lift anything. And when I say "packed up 4800 square feet of house", I really mean the big sun room (among a few sun rooms) that held 3/4 of our boxed up lives and all the other furniture that we actually used (as well as the contents of the kitchen, which when packing, releases THOUSANDS of souls from purgatory). And when I say "two 26' U hauls"... I really mean that. The lives of 6 Dawson's went into 2 giant moving trucks... except for the LEGO's that I promised one six year old little man that I would take good care of... oh and the vacuum cleaner. I hadn't vacuumed the new house yet.

The contents were emptied into our little 1900 square foot house at 204 Governors Court in Mandeville... (I know 1900 sq ft isn't little, but it is actually the smallest house we've had before).

And in the last week and a half, we've had family and sweet friends come and help get our life unpacked here. By "help" I mean Michael and Erin Franco and their three beautiful children joined us for the day and Mike and David did a house note's worth of hardware store purchases for house projects and Erin watched ALL 7 kids while I unpacked boxes and hung up pictures. My parents joined us for the weekend and my mom opened Pandora's boxes in order to organize the classroom (remember how in previous posts I mentioned that I could find ANY home school stuff? Well she found them all).

And I have officially opened the last box (that I could find) today! It was filled with children's books... phew! Good thing I found it because we were only up to our knees in children's books rather than our elbows. Now we can wade through them like we used to... ah home!

We've picked back up with homeschooling and I've joined the home school group here on the northshore... "Rachel" - R.C.H.A.L so we're going to join them for First Friday Mass and I picnic this week. We're excited ("we" meaning me).

And so far, the neighborhood's hospitality has brought me to tears: the next door neighbors gave us the entire crop from their satsuma tree, we were brought a chocolate cake and a card by another couple, I got some baby gear from another family, another neighbor brought by the neighborhood directory complete with a year's supply of pencils (which we need bc I found my electric pencil sharpener, so we're running that baby ALL DAY), and we met another family with 5 kids who joined us in a bike ride... is this for real?!?!?

So here's your reward for reading...

The classroom

 The students

 The Micah Man

 The Cul de Sac... basically the best thing that could have happened to this housewife.

 I let my kids play in the street... say somethin'

 That would be Micah playing in our neighbor's leaves who have purposefully left them un-raked for my children...

 I will lovingly refer to Mama Mary as "Our Lady of Sidewalk Chalk" from now on. Micah has adorned her with all the colors of the rainbow. She likes it!

 Obligatory front door pic

 The living room/kitchen which reveals that for the first 30 seconds of every video, all four children sit lovingly together on the couch... I'll take whatever peace I can get.

 And when you move to a town with no known babysitters, you're a team! So the kids helped me take care of my new license at the DMV

 And here is a captured moment of sheer grace. All my children at the grocery store (they're all always with me at the grocery store) all on the same cart, nobody turning grocery aisles into the running of the bulls, and nobody screaming. They're are actually saying "Ah." We were a hit. I actually got a positive response when I answered the daily question of "Are they all yours?" The man said, "Well, God bless you, they are just beautiful." Thank you Lord... I needed this one.

 Potty-training Mcghee having a satsuma (we found four potties when we moved... I'll take the hint).

 The easel is finally getting used! Isn't she the cutest?

 And some more cuteness for you...

Coming to a close in NOLA...

Well almost 5 months have come and gone since we've started the adventure of moving to the wonderful and ...er... not so wonderful city of New Orleans.  If you don't know/remember how we ended up in this giant house, it is from the sheer generosity of David's boss/Archbishop who said, "Listen, David, I heard you're having trouble selling your house. We have a vacant house close to the office. Why don't you and the family stay there rent free until your house sells... take all the time you need. "

I find myself reflecting quite often these last few days over the sheer number of gifts and lessons (and honestly chuckling when encountering the things I will NOT be missing). There are a lot of things about New Orleans that people who have liven here all their lives that they categorized as things you just get used to. I will choose not to give them credence by listing them in this blog post, and instead I'l focus on what we've learned and what we will miss...

Next Wednesday we are closing on a house in Mandeville. We should be moved in just before Thanksgiving....

So we'll be moving from 4800 square feet to 1946 square feet... something I am quite grateful for... It was SO HELPFUL to have so much space in New Orleans proper, because I didn't let the kids outside by themselves (something I really didn't like) with all the traffic (both car and foot traffic). I had to constantly watch little Micah man and make sure he didn't run (with glee) into 6 lanes of traffic on Carrollton Avenue, and make sure Therese and John Paul didn't invite ANYONE who walked passed into our house to come see trains/legos/littlest pet shop, etc. With outside being a bit of a source of stress, the 6 bedroom house allowed for a dance room, a train room, a changing room, a play room, a staircase, a napping room, and a racing track (if you ever made it to the house, you know what I'm talking about). With 3/4 of our possessions in storage, I also spent the last 4 months NOT ironing, NOT vacuuming, not having 1/2 our toys/books to deal with, and NOT dusting. It's been pretty nice. I'm sure the temporary nature of living this way made it bearable...

 We only did the downtown thing one time (with the exception of the gazillion trips to the Aquarium), it's tourist glam is a bit clouded with some inappropriate- uh- professions that we've since avoided for the sake of young children's eyes. Believe me there is plenty to do even if you avoid downtown completely...

We started first grade and preK...

 We took a trip to the beach...

 We enjoyed New Orleans summertime, which means beautiful flowers, butterflies EVERYWHERE, and sweet summertime afternoon showers...

 We discovered that God gave us a parting gift from Lake Charles. Our BABY GIRL is coming in March...

 Mommy made lots of solo adventures while Daddy learning his new job...

 Micah danced with Mary every time we went outside...

 Micah decided he wanted to start school too... the requirement was that he is ALWAYS in Therese's lap...

 Micah learned to go up and down (and up and down and up and down) the 18 stairs. Therese is the BEST helper in this department...

 We will REALLY miss the parks: Audubon, City park, Daneel... the kids are feeding the BEAUTIFUL Wood ducks...

 PARKS PARKS PARKS! These saved us this summer because the trees in New Orleans are big and shady, making playing in the park totally bearable for mommies...

 We will miss this most of all... sigh... Daddy worked ACROSS THE STREET! We went outside to watch him cross the street almost every single day. The Mandeville commute is about 45 minutes...

 Mommy is thankful for NETFLIX...

What we are grateful for...

• The resilience of the children through the transition. It's like they never noticed the traffic, the road construction (which is on ALL the major roads of the city thanks to the $$$ from the Army Corp of Engineers). They enjoyed the fun, bumpy ride while all I could think was "my poor shocks."
• The Audubon institute membership. We had free entrance to the zoo, the park, and the insectarium, so we went to one or more at least once a week.
• The beautiful front porch. Despite the crazy traffic, I took my sister-in-law's advice and allowed it to sound more like waves. Coffee after a short nap on the front porch NEVER got old.
• The older three share a room. We call it the "Peter Pan" room bc it looks just like that. It was also upstairs and they stayed in their room (according to the rule) until 7:30 every morning. David and I had coffee and prayer time in (almost) silence until 7:30 (which is also because home schooling means that we don't have to be anywhere at a certain time).
• I am grateful for my children and what a joy they are. Having many many family and friends at my fingertips while in Lake Charles meant that I never had to really dive into my children if I didn't feel like it. Living in a place where the friend list is much smaller (though precious, indeed) and all my family members here work during the day, I had a choice to make: be bitter and resentful if my children were being "difficult" or really be present to them and learn more about them. It really has been such a gift that I've had such a desire for... praise God for this grace! 
• I'm grateful for the lesson that my children have learned here that we are VERY fortunate to have what we have. There are so many poor and hungry people here- and where we live, they are on EVERY corner asking for help. Therese has noticed it the most out of all of us, and her precious heart hurts for them. 
• Notre Dame seminary is right across the street...

        Just 10 years ago, David was a seminarian in this beautiful place. We have friends from Lake Charles who are here, as well as old seminary buddies, now priests/professors who are here. David's dad also runs the New Orleans Catholic Community Radio out of NDS. We attempted daily mass here a handful of times, but as you can imagine, there is no cry room, and we didn't want to scare anyone out of preaching to people "like us"... I'm partly kidding. but the lack of cryroom means that whoever takes Micah out has to pace the halls of the seminary rather than what would happen at a "normal" church parish. We'll have our sweet guys on the northshore from St Joseph Seminary College will be nice to have too...

• All the Beautiful Church parishes that we were able to check out...

St Anthony of Padua on Canal is where we frequented...

Mater Dolorosa on Carrollton...

St Francis of Assisi on State...

St Patricks...

• I'm also really really thankful for this restaurant Ye Olde Collge Inn. It is next door to our house (after you cross through the organic gardens that we were allowed to "check on" whenever we wanted. The Blancher family owns this restuarant and the Rock-N-Bowl (where David took the older kids on their feast days)

This family came to us the first week we were there with flowers welcoming us to the neighborhood. They have never stopped checking up on us. What a gift.... not to mention this...

My favorite thing: fried green tomato shrimp po-boy!

I'll leave everyone with that image. You have a week and a half to get down to New Orleans to have a free place to stay (well, it may cost you a po-boy). I'll blog next from our new home:

204 Governors Court Mandeville, LA. You may be wondering why we're choosing a 45 minute commute over living just minutes from Daddy's work? Well because I''ve chosen not to list what we don't like about NOLA, you'll just have to trust two very simple things: 1) owning a larger than 1100 sq ft home in New Orleans in not the most affordable option and 2) Mandeville is (a lot of) the beauty of New Orleans with out the noise and danger... and most of all because God made it QUITE clear that He wants us to live on the northshore...

...where I have no doubt that the blessings and the lessons will continue.