The blog name and where I got it

I have received so many complements on the name I picked for this blog. I thought long and hard on the name. It is not easy to sum up one’s life, family and faith into a few words.

I turned to my favorite little known book. I was given the book during one if Mimi’s cleaning fits. She gave me boxes and boxes of books, some I kept and others went to the library. When I came upon an older paperback with a cute picture on the front I tossed it into the ‘keep’ pile. At the time she gave me the book I was eight months pregnant with Sugar, Pooker was 4 years old, Goobers was 1 year old and Bear was under a year. (Goobers and Bear are 15 months apart and Bear and Sugar are what some refer to as Irish Twins. They were born within one calendar year of each other. Bear was just 11 months old when Sugar joined the crew.) I could relate to the picture on the cover. The cartoon picture had kiddos everywhere. They all looked young, mom was holding a baby and a stork was flying by with another. There is also a nun in the picture (I think as a reference to Catholic School), and nun meant Catholic. I kept the book. I didn’t read the title or the book. I just liked the cover.

Flash forward just a few years, after Sugar we had Moogie, and now another one was on the way. We were headed out of town so I grabbed this book off the shelf just in case I had time in the car to read. I could still relate to the picture. To my delight I was in stitches the entire drive. I even read most of the book out loud to my DH because it was just too funny to keep to myself. The book was the tales of a Catholic mother of 10. She wrote with love, faith and humor. I could relate to so much of what she wrote. I read it every pregnancy and any other time I might need a pick-me-up. The book is titled I Should Have Seen It Coming When The Rabbit Died, by Teresa Bloomingdale.

My copy is in bad shape. The cover is destroyed, the pages are yellow, but flipping through it just now I found a hidden and forgotten four leaf clover. A quick internet search on her name brings up copies of this book for sale on e-bay and other resale sites. It also brings up many blogs in which people have written about how much they loved this book.

What does my blog have to do with a rabbit, you wonder? This wonderful book ends with a 2 and ½ page epilogue titled “The best is yet to be.” Teresa takes the reader through every stage of life and each time her father tells her, “the best is yet to be.” Adolescence, senior year of high school, college, graduated with a job and independence, dating, falling in love, being a newly wed, being a new parent, the children’s accomplishments and sacraments, her children’s teen years . . .at each step had her father reminding her that the “the best is yet to be”. She was enjoying each stage and her father hadn’t told her when the “yet to be” was.

She knew she had reached it, “ . . . (at her firstborn’s wedding) At a nuptial
Mass, in our parish church, with family and friends all present, my husband
holding my hand as our son and his bride exchange vows, I looked at my family:”
Here she describes each member of her family. You know them by now because this
is at the end of the book. She tells the reader about her extended family and
friends. Every one is there. . . “All my loved ones were there, with the
exception of my father.” Her father had passed away.

“Oh, Daddy,” I silently prayed, “this is what you meant! This is the time. This
is the best!”
And I swear my father whispered to me from his heavenly home:
“That’s what you think, sweetheart. The best is yet to be!”
Incredible,
isn’t it? All this . . .and heaven, too!

Wow, to me Teresa Bloomingdale summed it all up so beautifully with that ending. My kiddos drive me crazy every single day. I end my days with tears, sometimes; but always in prayer. We have a very busy and hectic life. We disagree, we struggle with finances, we go through washers and dryers every two years, we live in a home that is never completely clean, and we crash on our pillows at night. That might make it hard for some to believe my next statement. I love my life and I would not trade it for all the money in the world. Even when life is completely insane I feel so incredibly blessed. God must really love me! “All this . . .and Heaven!!”