Time to Build Another Trophy Shelf

This fine collection is the weekend's rewards.

 

The first one went to Nicholas, whose team won the 3rd grade boys league championship. Nicky has been a nervous wreck the entire season and threatened to quit before every game. Now, he has decided that basketball was "pretty cool." And he says he can't wait to do it again next year. We'll see...

The second trophy belongs to Mary Beth. Her team made it all the way to the championship and then their point guard didn't show up because she had a soccer game at the same time. Poor Mary Beth did every thing she could to play her position and the point guard's. They fell just short of being the champions and lost in the finals. Her trophy is slightly shorter, but Karoline likes it best because of the pony tail:-)

 

Trophy #3  belongs to Stephen. The last Championship Game of the weekend was Stephen's. They were down by 13 at halftime. The stands were packed. It was hot and loud and the place pulsed with excitement. Stephen was on fire (and everyone was calling him "Super," short for Superman). I have never seen a little boys' basketball team with so much heart. They won 39-36. Stephen had 14 points, giving him 199 for the season.

 

That leaves three more trophies. They all belong to Christian. He coached all three teams.One grateful parent after another came up to tell me how much they love him and how happy they were to have a coach with such a wonderful way with kids. He's intense and passionate and very quiet. A most unusual combination. He inspires kids with a love for the game and then he is the most patient teacher I've ever witnessed. And when the season came to end, the league commissioner singled him out as the only coach with three championship teams and the other coaches rose and gave him a standing ovation.

 

 

[Note: Patrick, who can't bear to be left out of a good sports story, reminds us that his Soccer tournament in Richmond was rained out. He managed to get himself invited to a local tournament, played entirely on turf. So, he played in the rain, scored 2 goals and 3 assists. His team lost in penalty kicks. He also reminds us (incessantly) that he made his penalty kick. By all reports, it was a beauty.]

The most miraculous thing of all must be that Mike saw every single game this weekend. I'm thinking that St. Joseph and John Paul the Great had a hand in that.

Kindness

Devout people are, as a class,the least kind of all classes. This is a scandalous thing to say; but the scandal of the fact is so much greater than the scandal of acknowledging it, that I will brave this last, for the sake of a greater good. Religious people are an unkindly lot. Poor human nature cannot do everything; and kindness is too often left uncultivated, because men do not sufficiently understand its value. Men may be charitable, yet not kind; merciful, yet not kind; self-denying, yet not kind. If they would add a little common kindness to their uncommon graces, they would convert ten where they now only abate the prejudices of one. There is a sort of spiritual selfishness in devotion, which is rather to be regretted than condemned. I should not like to think it is unavoidable. Certainly its interfering with kindness is not unavoidable. It is only a little difficult, and calls for watchfulness. Kindness, as a grace, is certainly not sufficiently cultivated, while the self-gravitating, self-contemplating, self- inspecting parts of the spiritual life are cultivated too exclusively. Rightly considered, kindness is the grand cause of God in the world. Where it is natural, it must forthwith be supernaturalized. Where it is not natural, it must be supernaturally planted. What is our life? It is a mission to go into every corner it can reach, and reconquer for God's beatitude His unhappy world back to Him. It is a devotion of ourselves to the bliss of the Divine Life by the beautiful apostolate of kindness.

~Fr. Faber Spiritual Conferences.

About Elizabeth

Elizabeth Foss is a cancer survivor who lives every day grateful for the gift of life. She is very happily married to Mike Foss and mama to nine children from 5-25. Recently, she added "Nona" to her titles as she welcomed her first granddadughter. She finds the charm, the wonder, and the cacophony of big family imperfection to be great inspiration as she strives to meet the challenges of daily life with creativity and grace.

A featured columnist for the Arlington Catholic Herald, Elizabeth has written an award-winning family life column for 21 years. Her work has appeared frequently in Faith and Family Magazine and Catholic Digest and she has also been been featured at Catholic Exchange, EWTN, and The Washington Post. She was a frequent contributor and Managing Editor of Welcome Home. You can listen to Elizabeth on archived Faith and Family Livecasts.

Elizabeth published her first book, Real Learning: Education in the Heart of My Home in 2003. The book is now in its third printing. The philosophy in the book is brought to real life on Serendipity, a free blog jampacked with curriculum, books, and teaching ideas. She has authored a second book, a book of daily meditations, Small Steps for Catholic Moms, with friend and colleague Danielle Bean.

Online,  Elizabeth's blog, In the Heart of My Home, has received numerous awards, including Best Homeschooling Mom Blog (2006 and 2009) and Top Ten Blogs for Christian Women. 

She chats with friends around the web at 

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Favorite Baby Toy Ever

Several of you have written to ask about the saint dolls that seem to be present in almost every picture of Sarah Annie lately. They are Catholic Folk Toys and they are, far and away, her favorite toys. She spends her days lining them up on the windowsills, taking them for rides in her walker, putting them in baskets and giving them kisses. Lots of kisses. Truth be told, I bought these dolls for me--Sarah's birthday bash was just a good excuse;-). So, I'm really tickled that she loves them all so much. I've corresponded with their creator recently and she's up and running and ready to take your orders. Think Easter baskets, ladies!

Mantel Letters

The purpose of this post is to help along the search process here in the Heart of my Home. I can't count the number of ladies who have written to me frustrated that they have searched and searched for "mantle letters" but they can't find all the posts--the ones telling how to make them or the ones that tell which words I've chosen for which month.Indeed, "mantle letters" is up there among the most popular in the Lijit cloud on the righthand sidebar.

When  you search "mantle letters," you only get two posts. That's because those are the two posts when I spelled "mantel" wrong and hit publish before I corrected it. If you spell "Mantel" correctly, you get lots and lots of hits. And now, even if you spell it wrong, this post will pop up and save me from the awkward situation of correcting someone's spelling when they write to ask:-)

What about the words? How did I choose the words? I'm glad you asked! Now, I can give you the whole answer. For the most part, the words change every month. 

January: Joy

February: Simplicity

March: Simplicity is replaced with Repent on Ash Wednesday

April: Alleluia appears on Easter morning

May: Grace

June: Gentleness

July: Humility

August: Charity

September: Diligence

October: Patience

November: Gratitude (the letters actually say "Grateful.")

December: We have Prepare for the first three weeks of Advent and then we replace it with Joy on Gaudete Sunday.

Our new book is a collection of doable daily devotions. Each month's devotion is organized around a virtue. And the virtues for each month look very much like the ones in the list above:-). In the book, March is Sacrifice and April is Courage and December is Peace. There is a study guide to go with the book. There, you will find an essay on each virtue and some questions and thoughts that will lead a contemplative mom on her own or a whole group of moms studying together. There is also a section in the study guide that contains the Lenten meditations. So, with the study guide, a group of local ladies could gather once a month, talk about the virtues, see what God's word has to say, make some resolutions to encourage each other to grow, and then go home and use the devotional for daily reinforcement from the saints.

And you can paint some letters and put them on your mantle mantel to remind you all month long:-)