Fast
Think of a time when you knew you were a good wife or a good mom. Recreate that moment today.
Pray
When some small person tugs at your sleeve, remember that God's voice is sometimes very small.
Give
Be your real self. What does it matter if every person in the world admires you but none of it is real? Give the real you.
Once upon a time, I learned to knit. And I started blogging knitting. I was happy in my little knitting world. My friend Sarah said insisted she wanted to learn to sew. I tried to talk her out of it. I told her sewing with little people around was totally impractical and completely un-doable. I sent her pictures of darling handknits. And finally, we agreed we'd do both. We'd learn to knit and to sew.
Then she got pregnant. :-)
I didn't. :-(
I teased her that I'd knit and sew enough for both of us. Worked for her. I promised--PROMISED-- a baby quilt. February seemed so far off. I had plenty of time. I ordered fabric before Christmas. I knew I'd get it done as soon as we got back from Disney. So, Sarah said the baby wouldn't come until the quilt was finished.
I got started late last week. Around 40 weeks and 2 days. Imagine my panic on Saturday when I discovered, much to my dismay, that I'd made a pretty major cutting mistake. On Saturday. Late. Before two days of postal holiday. Oh, dear. That meant that if I ordered fabric, the soonest it would go out was Tuesday. it meant that I would definitely order from the place with the fastest shipping I know. Even still, I wouldn't get it until Thursday and then I'd sew Friday and Saturday and maybe mail it Monday. Poor Sarah. Baby stuck all that time...
I sewed and cut everything I could without the new fabric. And I rearranged the week to make sure that as soon as it comes, I'll stitch like crazy. And there it stayed, in my dining room, taunting me. She said she wouldn't have a baby without a quilt.
Alas, baby girl was thinking no such nonsense. She didn't need a quilt to make her entrance. She arrived just fine while the fabric was still in transit.
Everyone in the Foss house was Delighted to hear the news. Delighted, I tell you. And just as soon as the package arrives, containing more fabric from the Delighted line, we will go back to our regularly scheduled quilting.
In the meantime, you might like to mosey over the Fat Quarter Shop. Currently, I'm looking at new fabric to make a quilt for our anniversary. I have a whole shelf full of fabric set aside for this purpose. However, I learned, much to my chagrin, that my sweet husband is not a fan that particular designer's fabric. {Please note: the fabric he doesn't like isn't pictured here. I won't post that because, regardless of whether he likes it, it's someone's art and it just doesn't feel right to post something negative about someone's art.} So,would you please take a look at this and this and this and {this with this} and tell me which you like best? If you leave a comment, you will be entered to win a Jelly Roll of lovely Sandhill plums fabric, compliments of the Fat Quarter Shop.
Sometimes I think that the devil drives the information superhighway. He claps with glee when moms log on. Lent is a time of discipline. Ascetism is about growing in self-discipline. This prayer helps me to see how I must order my time and my attention. Quiet stillness is a good thing. Idleness is not. Concern is a good thing. Despair is not. A home to grow in is a good thing. Chaos in that home is not. Encouragement and support in my vocation is a good thing. Empty talking is not.
Layer by layer, we peel away the things that stand between ourselves and godliness. We make more time for and pay more attention to the good things. And we leave behind those things that are not.
Thank you. And bless your heart!
Fast
Let the answering machine pick it up! Let your caller leave a message and only return essential phone calls today.
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Pray
"Blessed are the ears which hear God's whisper and listen not until the whispers of the world." (Thomas a Kempis
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Give
"Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough; money can be got, they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go." (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta).
Fast
"Outward sacrifice, to be genuine, must be the expression of spiritual sacrifice: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit..." The prophets of the Old Covenant often denounced sacrifices that were not from the heart or not coupled with love of neighbor. Jesus recalls the words of the prophet Hosea: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." The only perfect sacrifice is the one
that Christ offered on the cross as a total offering to the Father's love and for our salvation. By uniting ourselves with his sacrifice we can make our lives a sacrifice to God." (CCC #2100)
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Pray
Listen. God is speaking to you right now. Stop interrupting.
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Give
The new evangelization is accomplished with a smile, not a frown ... it is all about a 'yes' to everything decent, good, true, beautiful and noble in the human person. The Church is about a 'yes!', not a 'no!'
—His Eminence Timothy Michael Dolan, Cardinal-Archbishop of New York
Read or watch the entire reflection here. Truly a gift for this time.
I'm Elizabeth. I'm a happy wife and the mother of nine children. I grab grace with both hands and write to encourage myself and others to seize and nurture the joy of every day. I blog here with my daughter, Mary Beth, a wholehearted young lady on the brink of adulthood.
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