A Birthday Poem for Caroline from Mamina (and Paw Paw)

I know you don't remember
When you were only three,
And like a little cream puff,
You sat upon my knee.

All the day you sang a song
As different as could be,
And I wondered what was in your soul
That made you fly so free.

"What's in a name?" asked Juliet,
Her Romeo in mind.
I dreamed a dream and then I heard
The secret word for Caroline.

They say it's weird, and so it is,
Really quite insanely wacky,
And yet it's true, although absurd,
The name I heard was Cacchi Lacchi!

~~Mamina Hudson, April 2011

An October Birthday!

On October 6, at 9:54 p.m. Schamelot was blessed with its newest inhabitant, weighing in at 10 lbs. 2 oz. After two days of grueling deliberations, we have finally decided on a name...



We proudly present our little maid, Marian Ireland Kathryn Thérèse





Thanks be to God and St. Thérèse for her safe arrival!

The Birthday Rosary

I decided this year that it would be nice to establish the custom of praying a whole Rosary (just 5 decades--I'm not a saint!) for each family member on his birthday. We pray each decade for a different intention as follows:

1st decade: purity of heart
2nd decade: success in all endeavors
3rd decade: discernment of a vocation
4th decade: a long and holy life
5th decade: a happy and holy death

The last birthday we celebrated was my oldest son's and when one of his siblings accidentally started to announce the third decade when we were supposed to be on the second, my son piped up, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, you skipped one!" anxious not to get jipped out of the full benefits of this budding family tradition.

Not sure how much it had to do with the second decade being for "success in all his endeavors"...

I love raising kids!

A Birthday!

Yesterday was our oldest son's fifteenth birthday. He's growing up to be such a good young man. We're very proud of him. To show him how proud of him we are my husband gave him a special gift...

This was just a warm up gift, a power tie by Ralph Lauren. He even knows how to tie it all by himself!

We're earth friendly here at Schamelot, so we rarely wrap presents (we're really just lazy!). He had to sit with his eyes closed for some time while his Dad layed out the whole spread.

His younger brothers were quite impressed with the gift and heightened his anticipation with comments like "Holy Cow!" and "No way! I am so jealous!"

His eyes are still closed and the loot just keeps piling up.

Finally, the moment we were all waiting for. The reaction. At first speechless, then the smile slowly creeping across his face, afraid to touch anything let it should all vanish--a black powder rifle with all the fixin's! What more could a 15 year old boy want?

Happy Birthday to our precious son of whom we are so proud. May he live a long and holy life in the bosom of his loving family!