Fortified And Filled

Back to the mission. Onward Christian soldiers. I returned home yesterday afternoon from a truly wonderful retreat experience. It was so funny because I had no sooner arrived home and dh wanted to get out of the house and take the kids out for a treat. It was kind of cute witnessing him having the "I've just got to get out of the house" feeling rather than myself. He did a fantastic job in my absence I have to say. The house was in decent shape and all four children were dressed and had been taken to Mass.

I had a great, great retreat weekend! I admit when I settled into my room Friday after the first meditation had been given and I read over the points Father had given us for reflection, I said an Our Father and then I pulled out my notebook and thought I would use the quiet and the extra time to do lesson plans and menu plans and other. Isn't that awful! But, something nudged at my heart and I looked up at the crucifix and I promptly put the notebook away and sat in the quiet and realized that if I began to meditate and pray that I would not be interrupted and therefore it would be fruitful rather than frustrating. I am the richer for having spent the retreat in prayer.

Our retreat was lead by a fantastic Priest of the Legionaries of Christ, Fr. Timothy Mulcahey. He really has a gift for giving some rich points for reflection. His sense of humor was a delight as well.

This was a silent retreat so there was no talking until Sunday at lunch. We were told we should not even make eye contact with the others so as not to distract one another or tempt one another into talking. I was dismally bad at this. I constantly found myself smiling at everyone I passed and I would repeatedly remind myself that I was supposed to be avoiding eye contact. No Theresa of Avila am I, that's for sure ~laughing~

Thank you for those of you who prayed for me while I was on retreat. I felt your prayers!
God is good.

God Love You and Keep You

Going Monastic This Weekend

This morning we are having light lessons, mostly reading, for mr. Sam, I am. Right now he is working on some handwriting practice. Little John Paul and Maryn will be allowed Sesame Street and a Veggie Tales sing along so as to keep them from getting too "creative" ~smiling~ while mommy packs a suitcase for them and for me.

This afternoon I will be checking into the Spiritual Life Center, close by, for a silent retreat. An all weekend silent retreat. I am both looking forward to it and dreading it. It has been three years since I've been on a retreat, so this will be wonderful time to pray and mull over with our Lord all that I ponder in my heart, but, admittedly, I am a homebody at heart and find it difficult to detach from my family. I mentioned to my friend Denise that I am so accustomed to praying within and around our family circus that I wonder if I'll be able to pray within silence ~laughing~. I love silence but I am just having a hard time imagining silence for two whole days!!

For my loved ones who read this blog, but for the life of them would never, ever admit it ~wink, wink~ there are some very inspiring posts to read and be fortified with ...

Denise has a very inspiring quotable post today on not quitting...on further thought, go on down through her other recent posts as well!
Alice has more adventures from San Francisco, with plenty of laughter and pure sunshine, to share
Dawn has yet another warming example of why it is so important doing what we women do
Kristin also mentions how our routines (and wonderful outings to a children's garden) work their ways into our children's hearts
Annie has a link where you could purchase a Beautiful prayer manual or peruse her blog and print many of the prayers from this manual that she has shared
Jennie, always witty, is an ongoing example of brave, loving motherhood amidst trial

Have a wonderful weekend!

God Love You and Keep You

A Eureka! Moment

We are into our third day of school around here. My kindergartner is at her Catholic school until 3 p.m. and my 2nd grader is being homeschooled full time. We continue to have a snack/tea time at 4 most everyday where I put something yummy out on the table, with milk or juice for the kids and hot tea, usually, for me and we say a short prayer (usually to Our Lady). We read the Gospel, we read a saint story or do a special little something for a particular feast day. It's all so flowing. I don't even "announce" we're going to sit down for this, I just put the snack and juice out and they come ~laughing~

I had gleaned the inspiration for this from 4 Real. Many there (and within their blogs) discussed this being the natural time to incorporate the liturgical year and the catechetical lessons I've always done with the children. So, I began doing our daily reading and Faith formation acitvities within this time frame, most days, about a year ago. It has turned out to be such a natural, easy fit. I will often times read an extra chapter for Bridget from a current read aloud we are doing and she just loves that she gets in an extra chapter or two a day. Now that she's at school this is becoming a comforting "I'm glad to be back home" time for her and we sit and go through her homework together. Yesterday, Sam even decided to linger at the table with us and he worked on some math - by his own initiative! Woah!

My point is that it seems I've always been a homeschooler of sorts so maybe that is why I and Sam are feeling mostly comfortable as we ease into learning here at home. Thank God for small miracles.

Now, if I can just quit having those pop- up- in- bed-at-midnight moments of panic wondering if I'll be able to teach him all he needs to know this year I'll be doing just fine. You see, I really am just a novice at all this afterall and yet it seems the foundation has been laid. Unwittingly.
God is good.

God Love You and Keep You

Fare Thee Well, sweet summer

I have been busy, busy, busy planning, organizing, researching, purchasing and praying. It must be the beginning of a new school year. This will be my first official homeschooling type post ever because this is the first time I am a full time mother-teacher (in the formal sense anyway).

This morning dawned bright and early and the Fall schedule was set into place in earnest. I awoke a hare earlier than usual. I got dressed immediately in the clothes I laid out last evening. I washed my face, brushed my hair and pulled it up into a little french twist at the back, swept some blusher on my cheeks, dabbed on a bit of Rose beige lipstick, put a spray of my everyday perfume at the nape of my neck, and put on my lucky earrings - the pretty little diamond studs given me by my dearest and nearest.

I then went into the dark kitchen and turned on the lamp at the end of the counter, and poured my first cup of coffee of the day. I enjoyed it immensely in the early morning quiet of the house. Then I crept out onto the front porch as the sun began it's upward dance into the sky and I prayed my morning meditation from the Magnificat amid the flowers, bees, birds, Mr. Hubert, kitty supreme. I was having that "glad to be alive" moment. Today was going to be momentous.

Bridget began kindergarten at our beloved Catholic school. As I felt those pangs of seperating from her after taking her in to her classroom I kept asking myself "what was the reason you're not homeschooling her as well this year?"

Sammy gave me the answer later as we began his first day of lessons here at home ~smiling~. He worked hard for me and was quite willing and eager to begin (I'll admit some surprise at this). He stuck with it, along side me, for 3 full hours with only 1 ten minute break, from which he returned on his own. Really, I had thought our beginning days would be 1 to 2 hours for a month or so. This may still turn out to be so. We'll see.

It was intense. His activity level and distraction quota were very high. His curiosity and talking and question asking were almost non-stop so as to precipitate my secretly begging the Blessed Mother for grace to respond without any weariness or impatience. She didn't fail me.

But, all in all, the day went gracefully well. Bridget came home in the afternoon glowing about all that went on at her school and her new friend, Grace. Sam seemed as if he was taking this learning at home seriously. The younger set (JP and Maryn) drew, looked through books, worked with stickers and paper and were mostly occupied happily except for one small irritable incident having to do with only one graham cracker left on the plate.

I know that God has given me a softly padded entry into this school year. I know there will be some difficult days. So, why am I unafraid and so incredibly at peace? Because I know that God is leading the way. I love not having to feel like I have to try to force Sam into some mold he's never going to fit into so as to please a teacher. I love that he doesn't have to feel stress over learning.

I have entered this with little anxiety due to prayer, the 4 Real boards, some great homeschooling books, and all these great blogging homeschooling women that I know!! What more could I want?

Sam's comment at the close of lessons today was a major boost... "Mommy, I'm really, really, really glad you're going to be my teacher" Yes, well, dear kiddo of mine, that's going to go far on those days when you make your mom question her very sanity in ever attempting this ~laughing~.

But for the record, I'm really, really glad I'm going to be your teacher too. One of us may not make it through your childhood but we're gonna die trying, right?

Because It's 102 (In The Shade)

Some pooped out kids with their beloved Oma (grandma)

Lately, it has been so, so, so hot. Even too hot for swimming, although we are still going to the pool about 1 to 2 times a week. Instead, we've been taking off for afternoon field trips to indoor places with cool, very cool air, and preferrably with no opportunities for consumerism ~smiling~ like the big library, the children's museum, the ice cream shop (okay, a little consumerism) and the indoor play center at the Y. Most recently we took off to Exploration Place, a state of the art science and history museum and activity type place. We had a great and fun afternoon.

A few highlights of the afternoon

I mention that little bit about consumerism because the goal I've been secretly working on with two of my children in recent weeks has been this notion of "keep them out of the stores!" in an effort to ward off an abundant wave of "I wants" and "Can I have this or that". Not to mention the fact that the last time we were in Wally world (walmart) my budding readers noticed the word s-e-x on 5, they counted, magazine covers, and they concluded this was something big and what is it, mom? Personally, I thought it intelligent of them to draw the correlation between frequency of a word and its' popularity, however, I am NOT going there with them. Yet. Don't you love how I'm trying to draw a positive out of this situation? ~laughing~

Well, to conclude I'm leaving you with my very loose recipe for what I refer to as my go-go juice. My picker-upper so to speak, because as the temperatures rise so their energy levels are rising as mine are plummeting ~sigh~

Blackberry Smoothie

In the blender I am mixing together about 1/2 c. vanilla yogurt, about a cup of orange juice, a banana, a handful of frozen berries, a handful of ice cubes, a squirt or two of honey, a sprinkling of ground flaxseed, and a tsp. or two of Splenda. It is so good it even replaces ice cream for me.

And I think it might just be keeping me going as the peanut patrol is mopping the floor with me lately - whew! :o)

God Love You and Keep You

Dying To Live

Today's Gospel reading from John 12:24 became my "life verse" two years ago. This was inex-

plicable to me at the time as to why I felt such a strong attraction to a verse that, objectively, seems anything but attractive. But there it was, and I read it many days straight and came to memorize it. And repeat it. I knew God was probably trying to say something to me. He was.

Through this verse and the attempt to live it out ( Iwill be doing the attempting part for the rest of my life, no doubt) Christ has proven to me...

1. That He loves me tremendously and will be there through every circumstance

2. That His joy and peace are the only kind that last and are unshakeable and that in Him all joys are true joys but without Him, even those things that seem so good are not that great ultimately UNLESS lived out with Him and through Him.

3. That He cannot be outdone in generosity - there is nothing I've given over to Him that He has not bountifully returned in a hundred, unexpected, delightful ways. Joy seeming to be the main gift but what a gift!!

I come back to this verse every time I need to remind myself of what I want to be all about... in the end. Believe me, it is not as scary a verse as it may at first seem ~smiling~

"Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies it produces much fruit."

I am from Kansas, and Oklahoma originally, and I have had occassion all my life to see beautiful, expansive fields of golden, life-bearing wheat swaying in the breeze. When the sun kisses these fields it is an incredible sight. It's an image for me that is conducive to reflection on this verse showing that if the grain dies, what it produces is amazing. If it does not die, all that's there is a barren field with some weeds - unremarkable, with nothing to gaze upon and no good for anyone.

If nothing else, I don't want to remain a boring grain of wheat - brown is such an unattractive color - except of course unless it is chocolate we are speaking of ;o)

God Love You and Keep You

p.s. - we had a ferocious thunderstorm the the other evening and my computer monitor on the computer where I can access my e-mail was fried. Nada. So until I can get a new one I cannot read or reply to any e-mails any of you might send me - this may be a few days to a week :o( so please do not think I'm not "lovin you", I'm just out of commission for a bit as far as e-mail goes.

My Little Happy Place

I've been the good mommy today. I've filled countless cups full of milk, gatorade or water, made three meals, doled out snacks, hugged and kissed any and all scrapes, bruises, or bruised feelings and took the peanut patrol swimming. Glad to do it. I feel very blessed to have these little people around the place ~smiling~.

However, not one to be overly martyr-istic, I know when it's time to go to my "happy place" which is what I have been doing for the last hour and a half, since the lights went out for the children.


I left part of the dinner dishes in the sink. They'll wait until tomorrow. I'll fold that last bit of laundry later.
Okay, honestly, that will be tomorrow too.

Instead, I took a warm shower,

I used the citrusy shower gel that I received for Christmas from one of my sisters as opposed to the normal Dove soap usually used and loved. Ahhhhh.

I put on my favorite summer pajamas: my dh's boxers and a soft white sleep tee.

I made some tea.

Smoothed on some pretty smelling lotion.

Wrote a little, and pasted some things into my homekeeping notebook

Read a few blog posts which made me sigh happy, sigh gratefully, laugh, cheer and cry

Wrote this post

And now I will be heading for my bed to read the Magnificat and then to finish off the rest of an inspirational novel I'm reading currently - Echo In The Darkness by Francine Rivers.

... all while listening to a rousing thunderstorm boasting the mighty power of mother nature out there right now. Have I ever mentioned that I really love thunderstorms? I don't know why, but they fascinate me.

It doesn't take much to make me happy I guess, but the point is, that it does take something here and there to keep this lady full of love, life, and go go juice. So, please, Be very, very nice to yourself sometime this week "because, doggonnit, I like you, and you are okay" ~laughing as I remember the Gordon Smalley skits from snl long, long ago.


May God Love You and Keep You

A lighthearted little meme

Jen tagged me for a meme and I'm happy to oblige ...

A Picture of Now, Between Past and Future

1a. Describe your outfit.
A white tee shirt, blue shorts, a miraculous medal, melon toe-nail polish

2a. Are you listening to music?
If you can call the 'America's Funniest Videos' theme song music ~smiling~
b. Was This Intentional?
Yes, it's our family Sunday evening tv viewing.

3a. Describe the objects within arms reach.
My 'everything' notebook that I begin my weekly pre-planning in, the remnants of
Sunday's paper, the Land's End kids Fall catalog (about to order new jackets for all),
and the book I just read to the peanut patrol (The Weight of A Mass - made me cry).
b. Choose one object and tell where you aquired it.
The book 'The Weight of a Mass' I
found at the church library and I snatched it up since I was eager to have a new book to
read to them. Diary of a worm, Curious George, and Thomas the Train can only go so
far for so long.

4a. What room are you in?
I'm in the family room with the rest of the crew. I'm in my favorite chair with my laptop
having a contest with myself as to how long I'll be allowed to sit here and type without
company on my lap or a need to heed.
b. To What extent is it yours?
Well, I spend half my life in here it seems. I clean it daily. I decorate it. I read all the
above mentioned books in here, and many more besides, I stub my toe ten times a day
on the blocks on the floor in here, so I'd say it is very much mine -
and very much everyone's.

5. What were you doing before starting this post, and what would you like
to do next?
I was bathing and then reading to the kids. Next I am going to tuck them into bed after
the show is over and then...
share some ice cream with hubby and read a few more blog posts while he watches some
tv, then probably take a bath, pray my rosary, and off to sleep.

I, In turn, tag Denise and anyone else who would like to play along ~smiling~

Goodnight, sweet dreams, and don't let the bedbugs bite!

Life Is Fragile

My heart aches tonight. Life is fragile. So very, very fragile. And precious. Each minute golden and incredibly important as it is the building block for the next moment, and that moment, a building block for the next, and on and on until finally we lay our heads down to rest and we've lived a day. If we close our eyes at night and our world is intact, our beloved ones alive, well, and reasonably happy, the children loved and fed, the house warm, and a certain sense of sureness that tomorrow will be the same, then we have lived a miraculous day. We have been in the presence of holy angels, dispatched by a Father in heaven Who loves us passionately.

How very tenuous is the gossamer thread of life?

Ask this Catholic Military Priest (you cannot NOT cry when reading this)

Ask any of these people who were the amazingly lucky survivors.

Ask Jennie how precious each letter she receives is.

Ask my brother and his wife and their children, who just found out he will be going back to Iraq with an Army National Guard unit after Christmas. They had just gotten life back to normal after his last deployment ended in Afghanistan, he returned home, got going in his job again, and have recently moved with his recent promotion. Please pray he won't have to go, and if he does, that Divine Providence will bring him safely home again.

It's a crazy world but we have a good God. Tonight, upon curling up between cool, cotton sheets and listening to hubby fall off to sleep, I'm going to send up especially heartfelt thanksgiving for the miracle of today.

God Love and Keep You.