Easter Sunday 2014

Since Maggie's due date was April 16 (according to the midwife) and April 21 (according to my watch) I didn't make Easter plans.  I had no idea when Maggie would arrive, or if I'd be feeling up to doing anything.

I bought Evie an Easter dress, and one for Maggie just incase.  I bought and arranged Easter baskets for both girls.  I'm glad I did!

I didn't make it to Mass on Palm Sunday.  And had it not been Easter Sunday I probably would have skipped this Sunday too, but it's the most important liturgical celebration of the year and I didn't have enough reason to miss it.

Some how our family of four was up, fed, showered, dressed, and out the door smack in the middle of the 15 minute departure window.  Gold star to us.

We arrived at church just in time to catch our favorite priest outside.  He blessed Maggie and told us he was celebrating one of the auxiliary Masses in the chapel.  Score!  A chapel full of 150 people instead of the church or parish hall full of hundreds sounded perfect for our little family.

Evie was so well behaved and Maggie didn't make a peep.  I am so thankful we decided to go and celebrate Easter Mass.  God rewarded our efforts of taking a 12 day old and 2.5 year old to Easter Sunday Mass.

After, we went to a friend's house for a brunch party. Her husband came into the Church the night before.  They had a baby boy the day before Maggie was born, so it was so great to celebrate our new arrivals together!

Then it was on to my grandparent's house for our traditional Easter basket hunt and lunch.  Evie had a little mini egg hunt just for her.

And my dad had Maggie duty so Eric and I could spend time looking for eggs and our basket with Evie.

After all the Easter morning fun was had, our little family went home to take naps.  We finished up Easter Sunday with dinner at Waffle House in our pajamas!!!


Watch us grow!  Easter 2012 | 2013 Savannah | 2013 Beaufort (our last one with Uncle Jim!)

Her Name - Margaret Clare

If you know Eric and I at all -- you know that we arrive at big decisions with lots of thought and significance, and take naming a child very seriously.   And many of you have already asked when we'll tell the story of how we arrived at our new baby's name,

Margaret "Maggie" Clare

First, we had both assumed we were having a boy.  Not anything to place money on, but enough that we'd started talking boy names first.  We'd even picked one out before the twenty week ultrasound that revealed we were having a girl.  Back to the drawing bored.  We were really stuck.  It took us 36 weeks to come up with Evie's name .

Once we found out we were having a girl I had to dig out the baby name books and iPad apps all over again.  I cleared them of our favorites from last time. Our top 5-10 names weren't really striking a chord with us again.

Here are some important points to us in choosing a name, keeping in mind our last name reads like "burglar" as in a thief -

• No names that are nouns, because they become an adjective-subject:  Rose Buergler
• Nothing that sounds funny with Buergler:  Ima Buergler, Cat Buergler
• Nothing on the top ten list.  Eric and Elizabeth are both top tenners. (Yes I know Swistle explains that it's not a big deal any more to be a top-tenner)
• But nothing too weird, either
• Something timeless, classic
• Something religious
• Bonus: Does not have to be an "E" name (we named Evie Genevieve so we would have freedom either way)

Eric and I made a list of names we liked that we couldn't necessarily use:

• Catherine - my sister's name, see also "Cat Buergler"
• Emma - Emma Buergler sounds awesome at first, but then it sounds like "I'm a burglar"
• Evelyn and Everly - Too similar to Evie (these were runners up for Genevieve as a real name)
• Meredith - Eric has a baby cousin with this name
• Sophia/Sophie - Top Ten

And then we started poking around the books and apps.  One of the books I have lists sibling sets of boys and girl names.  (We love the book and web versions of Baby Name Wizard)

Popular with Catherine and Elizabeth was Margaret and Josephine.  Eric wasn't crazy about Josephine.

At first glance I wasn't crazy about Margaret so as a variation we talked about Magdalene, with the nickname Maggie (shout out to our friend Cassi's daughter for this name/nickname)

We started typing or texting Magdalene but it was too tricky to spell (I still triple guess Genevieve. We learned our lesson).

Margaret seemed to keep popping up.  And it was everywhere.  The name kept smacking us in the face.

Most significantly - when Jennifer Fulwiler did her Patron Saint of the Year generator  mine landed on St. Margaret of Clitherow.  A sign?  I think so!

After I read St. Margaret's story, the name became really special to me.  St. Margaret was charming and witty. She was a convert.  She hid priests and seminarians in her home during the political unrest following King Henry VIII.  Her son became a priest.  She was publicly tortured to death for her faith and work on Good Friday (her due date was Holy Week). She was later recognized for her bravery as a woman by Queen Elizabeth.

And if that wasn't enough, Huffington Post wrote a piece in January on Old-Fashioned Names that Need to Make a Come Back.  Number One?  Margaret.

After some prayer and trying it out around the house, it was decided. Her first name would be Margaret.

Next was the middle name. We toyed with Mary Margaret Buergler or Margaret _____ Buergler.  I've had two girls come through my Confirmation program with the name Mary Margaret and it's always resonated with me.  But the more we talked about it, it's hard enough having a nickname based on just your first name, but trying to explain to the teacher on the first day of school "No, my name is Mary Margaret but I go by Maggie" just seemed to be too much work.

On to a middle name.

We had considered Clare back when we were working on Evie's name and middle name.  Clare has become very popular in our area, especially among Catholic friends.  But it didn't stop us. Saint Clare of Assisi was one of my patronesses back in college.   She too is a woman who fought for priests, and started her own order of women religious based on simplicity.  We (okay, I) debated on how to spell it. With or without an "I" -  Clare without an "i" is the traditional European way to spell it, and is how Clare of Assisi is spelled.  Claire with an 'i" is a more American way to spell it.

The two saints Margaret and Clare seemed to compliment each other nicely.  Strong women who prayed for priests and protected the Church.

It took us almost 36 weeks to decided on Evie's name, but we nailed Maggie's in about two weeks after we learned she was a girl. The hardest part was keeping it a secret.  And even harder was keeping Evie from spilling the beans to our family!  We made it to week 36 before she told my mom, but she's the only one who ever found out!

Most popular guesses for baby girl were Emma, Magdalene (good guess, Susan!), Lucille and Catherine.  I think now that our family has figured out our style the next one will be harder to stump the family!

Introducing.....Maggie!

Introducing...

Margaret "Maggie" Clare

Born 

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

1:19 pm

7 lb 14 oz

20.5 inches

Eric and I are so in love with our precious baby girl.  Evie is already an incredible big sister!  

We can't wait to share her birth story, how we chose her name, and all about her first week at home!  

On Retiring...

Back in January I spent a long time discerning my vocation -- Do I continue with my current job or find something a little easier to juggle two kids?  Do I quit working all together?  

I wrestled for a long time (I have an entire post on this, I just need to edit it when I'm not so emotional), but finally decided that being a full-time stay-at-home-mom is what I am being called to do.

I gave my notice in mid-February and shortly after gave a firm deadline of April 4th as my last day.  I had a lot of things to do, including find, interview and hire my replacement --- which still hasn't been done --- as well as finish up some tasks that I usually do this time of year.

With the help of my great co-workers we managed to get everything finished and divided out.

I cleaned out my cubicle.

And found this gem - the shirt from the first retreat I did :)

But it still didn't feel real.  I have been working at this parish for nine years!  The kids whose names are on that first retreat shirt are married with kids (one is older than mine!)! One works with my husband!   They are actually older than me when I was their youth minister. 

Monday morning the emotions started to kick in....

But even the Wednesday going away lunch didn't feel real...

It wasn't until I wiped down my desk and found this year-old sticky note that had fallen under my desk phone...

 And I lost it.  I hard core ugly cried at my desk for a full hour.  A few folks stopped by and we reminisced.  But when my mom called to see if we could move our lunch date earlier, I was thankful.

I packed the last few trinkets in my purse, grabbed my framed art off the wall and walked out.  I didn't say goodbye to anyone.  I couldn't.

How do you say goodbye to nine years of friendships, nearly one-third of your life?  You don't.  You walk out the door and mentally wave, "See you soon"

I cried for a good bit while having lunch with my mom.  But then life went on.  I had a doctor's appointment, Eric and I went on a date, and I woke up for a jammy day just like any other Friday.

I don't expect this to really hit me until the church finalizes the hiring of my replacement and all the events I used to be responsible for have started to take place.  I am counting on the arrival of our baby girl to help with the emotional detachment from work, but I do not even know if that will happen.  I think time will be the only way to move on.

And the thing is, people just don't seem to understand why I am being so emotional over this. They're asking "aren't you excited to stay home?"  Well, YES!  YES OF COURSE!  I wouldn't be doing it otherwise.  It's just closing a huge door of my life.  The ministry where I met some incredible teens and their families, I met my husband,  I made and lost friends, something that kept me grounded and faithful, and something that has really truly shaped my life.... how do you just turn on/off a switch and easily say goodbye to that?

You don't.

And I don't care that I've been crying for weeks about it.  It's time to move on, yes, but I need to savor the past a little longer.