Wee room for a wee lass. . . . .

Ronia has been in our room for a year now and really she still sleeps in our bed, but Ben has been feeling the need for a room where we can shut the door and have husband and wife chit-chat away from the ears of the children, even one year olds who are distractingly cute when they wave and say "hi" three times in a row. He kept talking about the pattern of "Couple's Realm" from our favorite-oh-so-favorite book that everyone is sick to death of us evangelizing for, Patten Language. (will someone PLEASE give Ben and Anna a new favorite book?) In this pattern it is emphasized that the married couple need a space that is specifically their own. In olden times even the canopied bed with curtains would suffice in a tight space.

It gave me impetus to move Ronia's nap mat and little things out of our bedroom and into our closet, which is really not a closet but an old stairwell converted into a closet complete with a window. I love old houses because everything has switched places so many times that the ridiculous is always possible. I hung up little pictures for her and put a little chair and some books in there too. I have been calling it her little "nidino."

Anyway, now when we are having serious discussions away from the children (or watching Battlestar Galactica --cough, cough) and they come knocking on our bedroom door Ben has taken to shouting "Couple's Realm!" really loudly until they go away. Success? Of a sort.

Here is what I found out in the yard the other morning.

I finally finished the writing and research for a talk that I gave this past weekend on the Genius of Woman and the Spiritual Craft of Homemaking. Reading John Paul II is always laborious but SO rewarding. His sentences are just packed with so many ideas but it was wonderful to revisit some of his writings which I haven't picked up since college.

Homemaking is a subject that always has resonated with me, mostly because I think it can be somewhat undervalued. It is however important to remember why so many women abandoned it to begin with. The structure of modern society is definitely not very commodious of the craft . Nonetheless home arts are experiencing a sort of renaissance even on a secular level thanks in part to the recession, as well as the fact that many women are feeling cheated by the current career model (which is still very male oriented in its structure). This is a good thing and I hope that we can banish the cookie cutter doormat housewife of the fifties, and welcome a newer bolder image of the homemaker.

I also found this wonderful Madonna called the ShutzmantelMadonna (sheltering cloak Madonna) which I used and thought was a very powerful image for homemakers. In it Mary shelters all sorts of people into her cloak. I love that.

Go, SchutzmantelMadonna! (gotta love German)

It's spring! We have been traveling in Indiana visiting relatives and having a grand old time. Now we are back home and spring literally burst out in full force. I have even cracked out the sandals in March. Ronia has turned one and I am sad that this time with her as a tiny baby is past. She already wants to play outside with her sisters and spends lots of time being pushed around in the wheelbarrow.

Also the other day I found her in a planter contentedly letting Julia shower her in dirt.

Oh and I had a wonderful blog post about how wonderful it was to take the train but I'm not sure what happened to it.
Looking forward to St. Paddy's, Z's Birthday, and St. Joesph's day. . . . a little Lenten respite.