Nap anyone?!

This post is going to be short and sweet because a nap sounds pretty good right now (and you have to sleep when the baby sleeps) BUT I also don't want to just graze over how proud I am of my family and all of their accomplishments.  I can't put into words how much I value them.   I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not the best at discerning His voice but their joy filled hearts are clear signs of His presence and remind me that He is in all things.  Sure to be the most prevailing memory over the past two months is Chad's call to conversion. I am extremely proud of his commitment to the Catholic church and even more proud that he is able to receive Our Heavenly Father in the Eucharist.  The past two months we have certainly made alot of family memories:

- Chad's First Communion and Confirmation into the Catholic church

- Surfside Beach for Father's Day

- Chimelewski Blueberry Farm 

- Typhoon Texas

- Dallas to visit family

Praise Him in this storm!

In the thick of COVID-19 quarantine days there is so much to be grateful for.  We refuse to allow fear to seep into our lives but rather trust in His greater good.  God has afforded families an opportunity to reconnect with each other ... to set work aside and just rest in Him.  This is a massive RESET button that the world so desperately needs.  Rather than take that for what its worth and bask in this chance to be reborn in Him, the world has gone into this self induced great depression!  What the heck people ... get with the program.  Release all your anxieties to the Lord and He will provide. Can I get an AMEN?!

We have continued along the straight and narrow .... baseball season came and went, we managed to finish the school year, we celebrated the most beautiful Easter season with family, and went on some fantastic hikes to Lake Somerville State Park and Huntsville State Park.

I also wanted to give a shout out to Father Wayne.  Praise God for priests who walk through this life with us.  He has been here for our family through our most trying days and also our happiest of days. He has gone out of his way to make us a priority, baptizing 3 of our 6 children.  He is not only a great priest, but a great friend.  Chad has also attributed a huge part of his conversion to Father Wayne.  We took a road trip to College Station over the weekend where he blessed the girls columbarium.  Emily and the kids were able to meet us there as well (another good thing that has come out of coronavirus ... having family nearby that we hadn't seen in years).  We ended up having a fantastic lunch at Chicken Oil to finish off the amazing day!  God is good.

I'm also proud to say that Chad will be received into the Catholic Church in just 10 days on Pentecost .... eeeeek.  I'm so proud of how hard he has studied our faith and how he continues to ask for God's grace each day to become a better saint.

That's all she wrote … because it . is . late (its really only 10pm, but that's late for this mama).

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit ...

With a resounding AMEN!  I'm still in the thick of "baby fog" as they call it.  Not quite sure the day of the week or the time due to lack of sleep but I'm trying to take it a day at a time.  Sometimes I wish there was a pause button on everything going on around us so we could just take time to "breathe and be."  Sit with God and rest in His blessing of new life. Little "Gus" has been battling an ear infection for upwards of a month so we are keeping a close eye on him while baseball season and after school activities have reared back up keeping us on the go. Dubs is refusing to relinquish her "youngest in household" title but also killing it on the "mama in the making" game being incredibly helpful with "her baby." We celebrated Layne's baptism February 15th at St Michaels with Father Wayne and his Godparents Ali and Aaron.  Our hearts were full with such joy as we gave him back to the Lord.  Here are some pictures from January and February.

"Truth, by which the world is held together, has sprung from the earth, in order to be carried in a woman's arms." - St. Augustine

Early December brought about some restlessness while I nested and "patiently" tried to wait for Christmas and the miracle of new life!  Patience is always a work in progress in our household.  We celebrated the birth of Jesus on another very special date, my birthday, December 21st.  This strategic move to celebrate early, with little one's induction scheduled for Dec 30th, turned out to be a blessing from above.  God knew all along that Layne Augustine would be sharing a birthday with Jesus.  Oh the irony ... all throughout this pregnancy I was calling it an "Immaculate Conception."  With no disrespect to Our Lady, rather we were trying not to conceive, the Lord had a different plan!  A divine and powerful miracle of birth to share with the Holy Family.  Layne has brought so much light into our lives in the midst of trying family trials with unemployment at the forefront.  Not only are we basking in the perfect gift of life, I am proud to share that God has been at work on Chad's heart growing his love and admiration for the Catholic faith.  Saint Augustine, as quoted in the title of this blog post, is the son of Saint Monica.  She is the patron saint of conversion to the Catholic faith as she prayed for many years for her son to have a conversion of heart. Layne's middle name, Augustine, seemed fitting for this reason and it also helped that we have this name in my family. He is also the patron saint of brewers which is a pretty neat fact.  Layne's first name is after the infamous Layne's in College Station.  All of our other children were named after places that hold a special place in our hearts. College Station is now the final resting place of Avyn at the Aggie Field of Honor and the birth place of our favorite restaurant, Layne's.  It is equally as fitting since Chad and I met through the good ole' Aggie network.  We topped off the month with celebrating Wrigley's birthday as we were blessed to have Grandma and Bill in town.  The hit of this Christmas has been the laser guns (and of course Toblerone chocolate) from grandma!!  So how's that for an eventful December ... 

Click HERE for more pictures

Rich & Rebecca

Grandma & Bill's Visit

Wrigley's 7th Birthday Bowling

Oldest and youngest cousins (AJ, Will, and Layne)

Our little baker