The Beauty of A Sacramental Marriage

 

My husband and I are celebrating 8 years of marriage today.  Today, and every day I thank God for the gift of my husband.  The past 8 years has included many beautiful moments and a fair share of struggles as well, and our marriage continues to stay strong with the grace of God in our relationship.  The beauty of a sacramental marriage is such a true gift from God.  God loves us so much that He comes in communion with us through this sacrament in an intimate way and through that love new life may be created. 

 

The beauty of a sacramental marriage starts on the wedding day, exchanging vows, uniting with God and intimately conjugating the marriage, but the sacrament is a daily gift.  I see the beauty of a sacramental marriage each day with every act of service and devotion that my husband and I give to each other and to God.  Through the messy kitchen, the dirty diapers, the long work hours of residency, through each moment we are united with God and he makes us stronger together through Him.  He makes it easier for us to get through each day and come together in prayer and thanksgiving for Him and for each other. 

 

Today I thank God for the beauty and the gift of a sacramental marriage.  Today I celebrate the gift of my husband and I thank God for the gift of the 8 years that we have had together.   Today I pray that we are blessed with many more years together. 

 

Here I reflect back on the joy of our wedding day and the beauty of a sacramental marriage with some of my favorite Bible verses and quotes about the sacrament of marriage.

 

"The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love, has been founded and endowed with its own special laws by the Creator. By its very nature it is ordered to the good of the couple, as well as to the generation and education of children. Christ the Lord raised marriage between the baptized to the dignity of a sacrament."

-Catechism of the Catholic Church 1660

 

 

"And the two shall become one flesh.  So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate"

 - Mark 10:8-9

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 

 - Ephesians 5:22-24

"God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  And God blessed them, and God said to them "Be fruitful and multiply."

- Genesis 1:27-28 

 

"God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him."

- 1John4:16

 

"A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become on flesh" - Genesis 2:24

 

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

 -1 Corinthians 13:4-7   

 

 

 He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. - Proverbs 8:22

 

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." - Ephesians 5:25

Happy Baptism Anniversary Luke

We love finding fun and special ways to incorporate our faith into our home.  One of those ways is celebrating our children's Baptism Anniversaries!  We get out their Baptismal Candle to light while we say a special prayer for them.  We also try to get them a special small faith based gift and do something special throughout the day. 

 

Today was our youngest child Luke's Baptism Anniversary and we had a great day.  His big brothers started their week of Vacation Bible School at our Parish today (if you have children going to VBS, make sure to check out all of this years songs on YouTube!) so for the first time EVER he had the morning alone with Mommy.  We had a great time getting a special blessing, visiting some friends, spending some time in the prayer garden and going to the park!  Our little Luke LOVES the prayer garden at the church as much I do and he walks right up to the statue of Mary to fold his hands in prayer and say "Hail Mary!"  He was even more excited though to reunite with his brothers after their morning at camp! 

 

 

Then later at home he got Tomie DePaola's Book of Bible Stories.  We love Tomie DePaola books and this one is one that we have gotten from the library and treasured.  We are so excited to have it as a part of our family collection to read again and again in the years to come. 

 

Happy Baptism Anniversary our dear Luke.  We hope that you always know the love of God in your life and always come to Mom and Dad with any questions that you have as you learn about and grown in our Faith! 

 

A brand new little Catholic, 2 years ago today!

Celebrating Father's Day

My husband and I always knew that we wanted to have children.  Yet, once they came along I think parenting and being a Dad was more difficult than my husband expected.  A lot of things in life come very easily to him, but parenting was HARD!  Going through some of those tough, but amazing times by his side though has helped me gain such a better appreciation of the father who he is today and how much he has grown over the past 5 1/2 years.

Here are a few things that I love about my husband as a Father to our children and some things that we have learned along the way!

1.  He Forms Relationships with Our Children Differently Than I Do

With each new baby that is brought into our family I gush with an outpour of love and probably hormones.  Instantaneously I cannot imagine my life without this little one and my life is forever changed.  Now, I am not saying that my husband does not love our babies and connect with them, but I have learned in time it is definitely in a different way and sometimes on a different time table.  The biggest thing that I have learned is THAT IS OK! 

All of our babies have loved breastfeeding and have breast feed on demand around the clock for months!  With my husband's crazy work schedule as a physician I have always gotten up at night with our babies.  I see now how much more our babies NEED me and are simply around me more than him.  This "lack" of time that our babies used to have with my husband used to bother me.  Yet it was not a lack of quality, just a different quantity of time.  I see now that his connection and relationship as a Father with each child is just growing in a different way.

Now when we add babies to our family my husband is a ROCKSTAR at entertaining and making our other children feel truly special when I need to focus my attention on the new baby. 

2.  He Plays Differently

I am with our children for a majority of the time between staying at home and homeschooling them.  We love to cuddle, read books, go swimming, make crafts, do puzzles, but when they are with their Dad playtime is completely different.  I used to helicopter over my husband with his parenting but I have learned how FANTASTIC his way of playing with our children is for him and for all of them.  He gets down on the ground a lot more than I do to physically interact if it is playing sports or simply rough housing with them.  He puts on their favorite songs for a dance party in the living room.  He goes out of his way on his way home from work to pick up a special treat or toy to surprise them.  He throws them super high like a rocket in the swimming pool!  All of these things are different than what I might do and they love it! 

 

 

3.  He Shows Our Children That Our Marriage Comes First

 

My husband is really good at loving our children, but is also awesome at making sure than he and I have time to connect.  Sometimes he is very busy with work and I want him to spend time with the kids when he is finally home and he instead will plan a date night.  There have been times that I wish he would just rather re-connect with our children, but then he helps re-focus me how important it is for our marriage, our family, and especially our boys to see him prioritize our marriage.  He is a fantastic role model for our boys and I know they will look back to their childhood and be able to take tips from him to bring into their own marriages or parenting.

 

 

4.  He Gets to Know Them Individually

 

All of our children have very different personalities, different hobbies, different likes and dislikes and my husband is great at connecting with each of them at their level.  We started something earlier this year where at the end of each week one of the children get to go out on a special date with Dad.  Usually it is just something small like going to get ice cream, playing at a park or play place, picking out a new ball and glove at the sports store, etc.  The kids love their one and one time with Dad and I know it is really great for him as well.  Usually when he walks in the door from work he is bombarded with hugs and "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!!!" followed by 3 little voices trying to share all of the stories of the day.  It is so great for him to have this special focused time to hear what is on their minds and get to know their hearts a little better!

 

 

 

5.  He Is A Great Role Model

 

My husband is a fantastic role model for our children, which I think is especially important right now when we have all boys!  He is a very hard worker and always determined to do the best at everything that he does.  Our children see this in him and always talk about how Daddy is "helping the people" as an Emergency Room Physician.  He is a great leader in our faith and has gotten so great at sitting with the big kids during mass if I need to take little ones out for a while.  More importantly he shows them by example what it is to be a faith filled servant of God.  He shows them how to treat others with respect, how to use their manners and how to have fun!  He is a fantastic man and we will be so lucky and blessed if our sons grow up like their father!

 

 

Happy Fathers Day!!!

Summer Family Vacation Fun - 7 Quick Takes

 

We went on a summer family vacation this past week to Wisconsin with my in-laws. It was a lot of fun, a handful of stress at time with little ones, and in the end we created a lot of great new memories!  It is about a 9 hour drive to get from Nebraska to Wisconsin so we knew we had long journey's there and back in the car together as a family.  On the way there we probably heard 500 times "Are we there yet? How much longer?", etc.  We finally got to the point where we set up a visual timer for the boys on an I-pad so they could watch the time get closer! 

I was so glad that there was this awesome article published right when we started our vacation to help me put everything into perspective called "A Vacation Survival Guide for Catholic Moms".  The author brings up some awesome points including: Bringing God Along, Treating Your Husband Like a King, Cultivating Attitudes of Gratitude, Staying in Perspective and more!  If you are going on a vacation with your family this summer definitely read this first!

Here are a few highlights from our trip!

 

--- 1 ---

Packer Nation

Our boys love going to Green Bay where we have extended family and to also be in the land of Packer Nation!  We were able to drive by the Stadium and check out some cool history all about the Packers!

--- 2 ---

Mini Golf Fun

We took our little guys to play mini-golf for the first time and let me tell you, it was hilarious!  Our oldest son was a natural, kind of like he is with most every sport.  Our 3 1/2 year old was so funny, like usual!  He could do it ALL BY HIMSELF, and had a kind of shuffle board effect going on where he would just keep pushing the ball along!  Our youngest was just so happy to be playing with the big kids and had a blast!  Lots and lots of laughs for all involved!

--- 3 ---

New Memories

 

My in-laws had the blessing of being able to purchase a beautiful piece of land that has been in their family for generations called "The Pines".  It is an awesome wooded area that was so much fun to explore with our boys.  We also were able to have our first family bonfire on the land and break out some fun campfire songs!

 

--- 4 ---

Family Time

My husband and I each have only one sibling and neither of them currently have any children so our kids are the only grandchildren on both sides of our family right now.  It is so much fun to go to Wisconsin where my mother - in -law's extended family is, for our children to get more of an experience of a big extended family!  They had a blast with a handful of their extended cousins!

--- 5 ---

Tradition

My mother - in - law's family has something truly unique and special in these times that her family history has been preserved in an amazing way.  Her aunt and uncles still live in the same town where generations of her family lived and created deep roots!  It is so wonderful to have a place where our children can go to and learn about the history of their family through visiting the cemetery, or the historic village started by their past relatives!  It is truly a special place for all of us.

 

--- 6 ---

Amusement Park Excitement

There is a little Amusement Park in Green Bay, WI that my husband and his brother grew up going to each summer.  It was a lot of fun to take our crew there and let them have some fun!  Our oldest son got to go on the big rollercoaster with Dad and Grandpa and sat right up front!  They had lots of great rides to be enjoyed by all.

--- 7 ---

Family

 

In the end the most important part about family vacations is time spent together as a family.  Life sure gets crazy between my husband's work schedule, homeschooling, events with the kids, family and friends!  It is sure nice to be able to step away for a little while, enjoy time together and create fun family memories!

 

 

For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain't The Lyceum