Prayers for the Murphy Family

🎶 Can the human heart refrain from partaking in her pain, In that Mother’s pain untold? 🎶 

On Friday night I posted over on Instagram: 

{We are praying for a special intention tonight 💔 sometimes the crosses given to those dear to us seem so heavy. I would be grateful if, in your charity, you would offer a prayer too} 

#thirdstation #jesusfallsthefirsttime #fourthstation #jesusmeetshisafflictedmother #fifthstation #simonhelpsjesuscarryhiscross #jesusitrustinyou #motherofsorrows #oropronobis

 Today I shared an update and wanted to post here on the blog too: 

Thank you for praying for the special intention I mentioned on Friday night. At that time I had no idea just how heavy the cross was going to be for my brother Brian and his family, and how scary and heart wrenching for all of us. 💔

This past Saturday, Brian and his wife Meagan were at the hospital preparing to deliver and say goodbye to their sweet baby girl, she was due to arrive next month but her precious heart stopped beating... Her sweet smiling face had already captured all of our hearts and she will be missed dearly. Millie Frances was born asleep Sunday morning. It was such an honor and blessing to be there when she arrived, hold her tiny little body, and kiss her beautiful forehead.🌹 

 

Meanwhile their three year old daughter, my niece Evie, was really sick too due to the flu combined with her bleeding disorder that left her with a nose bleed that just would not stop. My sister Mary and I called her doctor’s office and Brian left the hospital to meet Evie and I there Saturday afternoon. (At this point it had been bleeding for 24 hours.) The doctor sent her home following her labs, but by the middle of the night it had gotten even scarier and Mom (who had taken over watching the girls for the night) called Brian to come back and take her to the ER. Sunday morning, just after Evie had been given her first transfusion, stabilized, and admitted to the Pediatric NICU, I messaged my brother to hurry back to labor and delivery, Millie was about to be born. Evie had another scary day on Monday and needed another transfusion, but as of yesterday she is much better and is finally HOME! Thanks be to God! ❤️ 

Please, please, pray for healing, comfort, and peace for my brother Brian and his family. 

They have been through so much. 🙏🏻

Murphy Family Reunion

All of my siblings are in town this weekend for a Murphy family reunion! It's the first time all 12 of us have been together at the same time in over 13 YEARS! I figured this would be the day I'd go into labor... #murphyslaw ... but I made it and we were even able to get some family photos including a fun reenactment of one from 21 years ago! #ilovemycrazyfamily #firstbornoftwelve #sixgirlssixboys

Here is one with us all lined up by age starting with the youngest...

... and one more with husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, and all but four of the grandchildren. 

While the cameras were out we got a family picture too! Sean and our oldest son have arrived back home again after spending 2 1/2 weeks in Arizona caring for my father-in-law, who is currently suffering greatly due to rapid stage 4 cancer. I'm so sad he had to leave, but also relieved that he will be here for the birth of our little girl whenever she decides to arrive.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life with Like Mother, Like Daughter. ~

{pretty}

We had so much fun celebrating my {pretty} little sister's college graduation last weekend!  

From her Facebook post: 

What a journey.

It all began with a half scholarship to University of Dallas in Texas starting out as a biology major in pursuit of physical therapy. 

After a year of liberal arts classes, amazing friendships, working at the coffee bar, I was lucky enough to study abroad in Rome for a semester. During this time I was able to SOMEHOW by the grace of God manage a 3.8 GPA AND travel to 5 additional Countries! Upon returning from Rome, I decided that University of Dallas was too far from home and didn't have the exact college program I wanted. 

I transferred to Oregon State University and changed my major to Exercise Sport Science. I am more than grateful that I took the risk of living with my best friend. Together we took some of the most challenging and amazing classes including Chemistry and Anatomy ;) 

I was able to pay the majority of my schooling thanks to babysitting and waitressing at amazing places like Flat Tail and the Corvallis Country club. Thanks to also working at Coffee Culture I was able to stay caffeinated and energetic in my classes after I FINALLY changed my major to Public Health- Health Promotion/Health Behavior. 

After 5 years of travel, education, friendships, and the NEWMAN CATHOLIC CENTER (my foundation in Corvallis), I finally got my Bachelor's of Science =)

Excited to see what God has in store for me next. 

-Deo Gratias.

{happy}

The kids were very happy to be playing a game of kickball at Grandpa & Grandma's with so many of their aunts and uncles! 

{funny}

My amazing parents with 8 of their 12 children. I love my {big, crazy & definitely funny} family!

{real}

Homeschooling definitely has it's perks, along with occasional complications... Last week the boys received their Varsity Letters for golf. This afternoon we picked up their Varsity Letters for ice hockey. Now they will have to decide which high school's letterman jacket they'd prefer, because they are way too expensive to buy two of each! #homeschoolproblems 

#twolettermanjackets #varsityasfreshmen

38th Birthday Daybook

Outside my window…
Rain, rain, rain... lots of rain this weekend! In fact we currently have a flood warning. Our children keep hoping it will turn to snow, especially after seeing all the snow on the way to the boys' out-of-town hockey game last weekend, but it's too warm here in the valley.  We've had more snow than usual this winter, but it never sticks around for long. It was the snowiest December on record up in the mountains around us!

I am thankful... 
Even though Sean and our oldest two were out of town Friday-Saturday for the boys' high school robotics tournament, I still had such a fun birthday with family and friends. We headed to the rink at 9:30 yesterday morning, for a game and practice. My brother and his family showed up to visit for awhile and then ended up having my five youngest over for the afternoon while I met up with a friend for lunch. After that we headed to my parents home for dinner. It was such a nice day!

Learning all the time…
It's hockey season! Each week our eight year old is the first player suited up on the bench waiting for his game to start. He looks forward to his hockey game all week long!

Do you remember last year's End-of-School Interviews?  Well, our oldest daughter is getting her wish! The girls were so excited to start the Learn-to-Play Hockey Program last week. We are at the rink so much already, what's one more hour a week, right? ;)

Celebrating the liturgical year...
I ordered extra candles from the Cloister Shoppe last October to save for Candlemas, but will probably order a few more beeswax tapers to have blessed this year as well.  You can find and scroll through all our past Candlemas posts, including our Candlemas Cookies, in the archives here.

From the kitchen... 
My mom asked if there was anything special I wanted for my birthday this year.... Yes, as a matter of fact, there is a special cake I had wanted to make for Thanksgiving or Christmas and never had the extra time or energy. I told her that was the only thing I wanted and I even had most of the special ingredients, including the arrowroot starch and unflavored beef gelatin. If anyone could pull it off it would be my mom! She is amazing in the kitchen, especially when it comes to cooking or baking healthy and healing foods.

Not only did she pull off the cake, she made a delicious dinner for all of us, and even had my dad pick up balloons. He wouldn't agree to the "38 balloons!" that she requested (hahaha! I can not picture my dad picking up any balloons at the store, let alone thirty-eight...) but he did bring home eight!

You can find the recipe for the Pumpkin Spice Cake with Gingersnap Crust here. 

I am working... 
My birthday gift to myself this year?  Hitting "Weight Maintenance Mode" for the first time in at least thirteen years! I only "maintained" my weight loss for about a day last time, finding out I was pregnant the next day with our oldest daughter, so really it's the first time since I got married. It's been a long, hard road, but I'm so grateful that I discovered the Autoimmune Protocol last March and have been able to start regaining my health, and losing all the extra weight as an added benefit!

Here is a little update from the various charts in my TargetWeight app this morning:

I am going...
to start going through all the clothes in my closet again soon. I have very few pieces of clothing that fit! Since last March I have dropped from a large to a small (or loose fitting medium) in tops, and from a size 12 or 14 to a 2 or 4 (depending on the brand) in pants/skirts... Crazy!

I am hoping...
I wouldn't mind losing up to five more pounds, toning, and working on building muscle, but I really don't want to lose any more than that and need to figure out how to get enough calories in my limited diet to maintain my weight... I'm also hoping that I will start having some success adding additional foods back into my diet. So far I haven't been very successful and it's been incredibly frustrating to say the least.

I am praying...
for so many intentions, including my mom. At this point she has decided to "wait and watch" to see if her tumor grows before scheduling surgery. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for her, and for my husband's parents. We are continuing to pray that my mom's tumor starts to shrink (she has been trying a number of alternatives) or that at least it doesn't grow any more...

Pondering these words…
from a homily given by St. John Paul II back in 1979:

"In order that Christian marriage may favor the total good and development of the married couple, it must be inspired by the Gospel, and thus be open to new life—new life to be given and accepted generously. The couple is also called to create a family atmosphere in which children can be happy, and lead full and worthy human and Christian lives.

To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others and share their burdens (cf. Gal 6:2; Phil 2 :2). Each one must show concern, not only for his or her own life, but also for the lives of the other members of the family: their needs, their hopes, their ideals. Decisions about the number of children and the sacrifices to be made for them must not be taken only with a view to adding to comfort and preserving a peaceful existence. Reflecting upon this matter before God, with the graces drawn from the Sacrament, and guided by the teaching of the Church, parents will remind themselves that it is certainly less serious to deny their children certain comforts or material advantages than to deprive them of the presence of brothers and sisters, who could help them to grow in humanity and to realize the beauty of life at all its ages and in all its variety.

If parents fully realized the demands and the opportunities that this great sacrament brings, they could not fail to join in Mary's hymn to the author of life—to God—who has made them his chosen fellow-workers."

I am listening…

I haven't had much time to read to the kids this past week, but my dad has been reading to his grandchildren! He stopped by one afternoon, when he had a little break in his work day, with a book he has had since he was in kindergarten. Last night, as soon as we arrived to their house, he started reading from Winnie the Pooh. I loved it when he read to my siblings and I when we were growing up, and I love hearing him read to my own children even more!



Around the house...
Sean and the boys beat us home last night, and we ended up coming home to a warm fire, clean kitchen (I had left a mess and a sink full of dishes), homemade cards and pretty flowers on the island.

My birthday gift this year was a new purse and a new wallet, courtesy of our home owner's insurance following the theft last month... My husband decided to just let me pick them out myself this time and I ended up choosing a classic (not too deep! don't want to be tempted to keep too much in it ever again!) black leather satchel, but the wallet I choose is so pretty and colorful! 

At first I wasn't finding anything I loved and almost decided on the Fossil Emory Clutch, but then I asked the sweet sales lady if she had a favorite wallet.  She said she did, and that it was a Patricia Nash wallet over in the designer section, but that it would be on clearance if they had any left. She had to do a little searching but found one last wallet in "Antique Rose" and it was nearly 50% off. Perfect!!! 

 

One of my favorite things...  
I sure love my large immediate and extended family and all my dear friends, including all my friends here at Shower of Roses. I'm so blessed to have you all in my life! I didn't have time to respond to everyone, at least not yet, but it was so much fun to read through all the emails, texts, and messages thoughout the day. Here is one from my sister Jenny that put a huge smile on my face late last night:

"I want to wish my big sis Jessica a happy birthday! She's one year and two months older than me so we had lots of adventures together as little girls. I bought my first car from her and she helped teach me to drive. She helped train me for my first real job when I was 16 and she was 17. We've worked in business together at various times and I've always learned a lot from her. She's so smart and successful with whatever she puts her mind to. But most of all she's the most incredible mother and teacher to her seven children that she home schools, as well as a wonderful wife to her husband. Thanks Jessy for inspiring me and loving me. Happy birthday!!!! xoxoxoxoxo"

Such great memories... even teaching her how to drive, including (at least looking back now... I was pretty mad at the time!) that night I let her drive my little 300Z and she almost crashed into the front of a house (use the BRAKE, Jen, NOT the gas pedal! lol) but was stopped by their row of bushes! I later refused to teach her how to drive stick, a whole other terrifying experience, until after she paid me for the Acura Integra I was selling her! Unfortunately that job/sales training I gave her wasn't enough to keep her from getting fired by Trump. ;)  

This week's plans…
Mass, homeschooling, additional classes, tutors, work, hockey... pretty much the same as usual. 

A little peek at my day...

I had a little help blowing out the candles while Dad played his guitar and everyone sang "Happy Birthday!"

Thank you to everyone who made my birthday so incredibly special. I love you all! 

{this moment}

From Instagram earlier this afternoon: 

My baby brother, and very first godson, is 20 today!!! He was born the day before my 18th birthday, and was basically the best birthday gift ever! With ten more kids in between the two of us, today is the first day in TWENTY-FIVE YEARS that our parents don't have at least one teenager! ;) 

Happy birthday David, I love you! #soblessedtobefromalargefamily #butboydoesthismakemefeelold

A Statue of the Holy Family for Dad and Mom

Even though many of my siblings were not able to travel home for Christmas this year - it ended up just being three of my brothers and I out of the twelve of us, unlike last year when nine of us were together - I was still able to coordinate a special gift to give our parents when everyone came over on Christmas Eve! It was so much fun to plan and visit with all my brothers and sisters, currently spread out from Hawaii all the way to Australia, in a private group message on Facebook. It's been way too long since we've all been together!

With the health challenges my mom is currently facing it was so nice to surprise her and Dad with a special gift - an outdoor statue of the Holy Family for our own parents who have sacrificed so much for us all over the years.

Prayer for Parents 

from Mother Love

Infinitely good God, Thou who hast imparted to me through my father and mother, my maintenance, a Christian education, and so many other benefits, I thank Thee for Thy bounty. Grant me the grace to show them the obedience that I owe them, sincere love, and great reverence. Never permit that they should suffer chagrin and trouble through my fault; but keep and guide me in the way of Thy fear and Commandments, as I have been taught. Reward them richly for all the good they have done me. Be their protector in danger, their helper in every care and anxiety. Grant them long life, good health, and a blessed eternity. Amen. 

Seven Quick Takes :: Instagram Recap & More

It's time for another Instagram Recap in Seven Quick Takes! 

— 1 :: NPLTW —

#NPLTW Second and Third place winners in the National Pro-Life T-Shirt Week 2015 photo contest. #prolifegen (and our oldest daughter came in at Fourth place, just a couple points behind her brother!) 
First place went to Melody's son, Peter!  No… I'm not going to start using their names on the blog, but I do think it's pretty awesome that the winner's of the recent National Pro-Life T-Shirt Week contest were Peter, James and John, and in that order! ;)

Captain was actually holding one of his own sonogram images (Task #6-Holding a sonogram image of a baby.) in this picture. He pulled it out of his baby book!

— 2 :: Another Win! —

On Tuesday morning Ranger found out that he had won last month's clean teeth drawing at the orthodontist for $50 in Baskin-Robbins gift certificates!

— 3 :: Baptisms and Birthdays —

Last Saturday we attended the Baptism & reception for a sweet baby boy. 

Welcome into the Body of Christ, little one!

Afterwards we headed to my brother's house to celebrate his 29th birthday that day, and my brother Kevin's 21st birthday which is this Saturday! Of course… Lighting candles turns into a lighter fight.

— 4 :: Curriculum Plans —

  

I know it's already the end of the school year... but I finally got around to posting our 2014-2015 curriculum plans. Better late than never, right? 

If you missed it you can find it here:

Our 2014-2015 Curriculum Plans and Checklists 

— 5 :: Ascension Thursday —

I posted all the rest of the pictures from our annual Acsension Thursday picnic here and a little video over at Instagram. The feast of the Ascension has been transferred to Sunday in our diocese... We will continue our celebration with Sunday Mass and Ascension Pancakes this coming weekend!

 "Getting ready for a family game of soccer!"

"It's crazy out there! We decided to watch {or rather dodge balls!} from the sidelines. Almost bedtime... Everyone should sleep well tonight!"

— 6 :: Art for Our Lady —

Bring flow'rs of the fairest, 

Bring flow'rs of the rarest,

From garden and woodland

And hillside and vale;

Our full hearts are swelling,

Our Glad voices telling

The praise of the loveliest

Rose of the vale.

Kimberlee recently announced the Marian ATC Swap 2015.
Be sure to visit Pondered in My Heart for all the details and to sign up! 

— 7 :: Feast of St. Dymphna —

May 15th is the feast of St. Dymphna, Lily of the Emerald Isle. In honor of her feast Regina Martyrum Productions just released the audio story of St. Dymphna! It's over an hour long and I'm looking forward to listening to it later this afternoon with our older children. (Note: The subject matter of this story can tend to a mature theme.) 

Right now Regina Martryum Productions is having an 18 HOUR FLASH SALE!

You can purchase two audio stories and get one free with coupon code DYMPHNA15 at checkout.

You can find additional saint stories for the month of May in our Book Basket!

You can follow me on Instagram here.