"...The bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.”/Jesus in Scripture

The baby group in grandma's outfits - 2 year old Birdie Barbara, soon to be one year old Magdalene Rose, 5 month old Thomas Robert, and 4 month old Regina Maria!  Oh my!  They are such a blessing to our domestic church/family!  

New LIFE is the greatest of Gifts!  So many prayers at this time in our country for the end of the horror of abortion!

LOVE LIFE from conception to natural death!  

This will grace my wall shortly!  The 4 little ones in the arms of their parents with Our Lady and Aunt Little Sister Hallel!  

All 22 of our grandchildren are so blessed to have her example to them of the beauty and JOY to be found in answering the Lord's call with a "yes."  "I promise unto death!" is the final vow she spoke 4 years ago in Saint Pierre, France with 24 of us there - 3 in the womb!  

Missing some at the First Communion mass for Luke Lanoue.  Hallel and Benedict must find mass to receive Jesus every day of their living the LIFE of a religious Little Sister!  

Jesus in John 6 today speaks of how He comes to us in His Body and Blood each day!

"...this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my Flesh for the life of the world.”  John 6

Luke with his family on Sunday - receiving Jesus for the first time, and at school each week and at Sunday mass each week with his family!  

Our greatest JOY is sharing mass as a family each week - no matter how far we are apart in distance we are always united in the Eucharist!  What a JOY for the 33 to be together for this special day for Luke as we were together to share Faith/Family/Farm time with our nun, Little Sister Hallel!

"Body of Christ"  "Amen"

Always hold onto your Faith and allow Jesus to come to you in Word and Sacrament sweet Luke Paul!  

On Friday we attended mass at the Catholic School where Hallel went for 9 years along with her siblings, dad and his siblings and now her nieces and nephews!  

Time with Jesus after for adoration!  Both morning and evening in The Community of the Lamb there is deep prayer time with Jesus on the altar in Adoration!  

On Saturday we attended the CCW mass for the Diocese that was here in Marshall church.  Mary was serving and we sat with one of Pat's cousins, who is the mother of Fr Paul Timmerman.  

Hallel and Mary after mass - she went home with new driver Mary, who turned 16 on April 19th!  "I want to check out her driving."

Hallel and Mary make me smile!  LOVE that at this point in Mary's journey she will ask the Lord to show her the path he has planned for her and will consider all the wonderful options there are for her to bring her LIGHT into the world!  

When we arrived in KC to bring back Hallel and Benedict - Jesus was there in Lumen Christi/Light of Christ chapel and we stepped in to say "hello" to Our Lord and Savior in his humble wooden monstrance.  

"My Lord and my God."  "It is the Lord!"

I love the first reading from Acts today of Philip and the Eunuch where he shares The Way, the Truth and the LIFE with him by sharing Jesus in The Word!  

Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this Scripture passage,
he proclaimed Jesus to him.
As they traveled along the road
they came to some water,
and the eunuch said, “Look, there is water.
What is to prevent my being baptized?”
Then he ordered the chariot to stop,
and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water,
and he baptized him.
When they came out of the water,
the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away,
and the eunuch saw him no more,
but continued on his way rejoicing.  Acts 8

In the 5 days we were away the leaves burst forth in the trees in KCK!  It added to our feeling that he have been out of this world for those days and now we are returning to the Real World!  Our days of huge meals, mass, and prayer and just spending time together sharing our common journeys... we were in our own world altogether!  

The cold and the rain allowed our farmers to join us more than if we had been putting the crop in!  It even allowed hubby farmer Pat to join us both round trips to KCK!  14 hours on the road on Wednesday to pick them up and 14 hours round trip on Monday to take them back!  Kind of miraculous for him to be along at this time of year!  

They have mowed the lawn 3 times already and there are leaves and lilacs - it was spring there and with rain overnight again we are still with no crop planted - prayers for the farmers!  

My kitty Ignatius with a crowd of military kids around him while grandma was in her office for a brief time.  No blogging for all those days and then some made it seem kind of other worldly to me.  I mourn the touching moments that I will not be sharing now due to my aging mind and all the distractions that keep me a bit foggy.  

Sweet Magdalene got some time in grandma's big jacuzzi!  Grandma will be going to help out on May 11th in Seattle.  Maggie will have her surgery on the 13th and I am needed to help out with the other 6 kids!  Prayers for Maggie Rose as they release her skull bones that fused 24 years too early!  

Such a sweetheart!  

With her cousin, Birdie Barbara, who is exactly a year older than Maggie!  Fun to get them together, and dressed alike!  My favorite thing to do after having 4 girls in a row!  Next favorite is doing girls' hair!  Yes, the topknot is my work!  

Birdie's smile is pure LIGHT!  

Maggie's smile is megawatt LIGHT!  

Hallelujah and Hooray!!!  

The three 5 year olds!  Josephine will turn 6 this month!  

The girls with their babies and brothers from the 3 year old group in 6 weeks!

The 3 little boys in grandpa Pat's huge hands - Hector, Jude and George.  They were in their mother's wombs when we were in France for Hallel's final vows 4 years ago!  The last time that our 5 kids were together!  

3 boys in 6 weeks!  Our closest group yet, and becoming good friends!  

Oh, Evangline!  

The 3 five year olds with their babies - our 3 oldest were all expecting together 5 years ago, and in this last year also!  Evangeline with her baby sister, Maggie.  Josephine with her baby sister, Regina.  And Joy with her baby brother, Thomas!

Joy and Thomas - he is truly a sign of new life for our farm family.  Joy is such a lucky girl to be a big sister!  

The bigger girls in blue with Hallel! 

My crazy dressing alike gets a bit hard with the older ones.  They might never wear them again, but I at least got some pictures!

Now the 8 older boys!  Go Twins for a picture at least.  

At least you can see the faces of the 3 three year old boys - interesting it must be true about the terrible 3s!  The rain stopped enough to get outside on Sunday for these!  So grateful!  

My heart is filled with gratitude and love for each one! Our Love grows more with each new LIFE!  That is a lot of LOVE!  Little Evangeline spent all her time with the "nuns".  "I want to be a pink nun."  I guess there is such a nun.  

The Sister-Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration lead a quiet life. They are 20 in total and are considered cloistered Roman Catholic nuns, meaning they rarely, if ever, leave their church in Philadelphia. 

I learned that it is true!  There are pink nuns!

With John - we are partial to blue -the original habit when the order started in the 70s was made from blue jeans!  "The color of the sky and the shape of the Cross." describes their habit.

Walking around the farm where she grew up.  The rain stopped on Sunday, but no sun the whole time they were here and rain on the other days.  She went out on Sunday for her dad to show her around the cows and calves and she road in the payloader with him, too.  She was one of my most farm girls!   She and I put a cow border around her bedroom when she was about 12.  

Bedding the cows and calves when the rain finally stopped.  So far they continue to be healthy!  

Always on in the kitchen and the bedroom.  WE have calved out almost 150 with just a few left to have their calves. None were born while Hallel and Benedict were here.  Hallel did put on some rubber boots and go around the farm with her dad.   Benedict went out with the kids to feed the bottle calves, too!  

"look how nice they look with all that dry bedding."  

"It is so good to see them laying down and comfortable after all that rain and cold."

Grandpa Pat and Ruth and Paul spend long hours caring for all their animals on the farm!  He loves to share his life with his extended family!  He now has Gus and Bernadette coming from the Cities to show pigs at the County Fair this summer!  Here we go!!!  4H is in our blood as is the county Fair!!!

How I loved to see Hallel with her new nieces and nephew!  I have yearned for her to meet them and have her LOVE grow more with each new LIFE!  We shared our LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT for our days away from the world sharing our domestic Church/Family time!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah!  

So many prayers for protection of ALL LIFE from conception to natural death!  

From meditation today - recalling a special friend, who was in Adoration when she started down the narrow path to heaven forever!  

Dad today in the prayer of The Church!  LOVE!

Fr Denny at Consecration for the funeral mass for Carolyn today - she used John 6 for her Gospel!  The Church was full and most all went up to receive Jesus!  So amazing!

The farm wives 6 years ago today - the beans were being planted!  Nothing planted yet this year - Lord, be with the farmers, and allow us to get the crop in.

May crowning and May for Mary!

Rose Again for Crowning of Mary and Rosary!  

Arms full of LIFE!  

Can't get enough!  Always more love comes with each new precious LIFE!  Bless-bless, Barbara Luke and the 50- 33 with us and 17 in heaven including our parents!  

Josephine getting them to smile - so wonderful to get them all awake and in a good mood!  I give the credit to the Lord and all my prayers for these precious keepsakes to cherish now and always!  

Salve Regina - we sang this before bed!

Hallel sang this - remembering going to Wicked when she went to Chicago to get her Visa before she traveled to France in 9-11-2008!