The winner of a copy of Joy in the Ordinary by Theresa Fisher is Patty!
I enjoyed Theresa's blog and would love to read her book and pass it on to my daughters.
Patty, please email me with your snail mail address and I'll pass it along to Theresa.
I hope you and your daughters love it as much as we did.
Oh, happy happy!
Elizabeth DeHority is celebrating her birthday. Let's gather a bouquet of the finest kind. Please pray for her today. Leave a comment below to wish her a happy day and assure her of your prayers. Thanks so much!
My thoughts are gathered here:
The Not Really Kindergarten Post
Leading Little Ones to the Good Shepherd
And the there's the whole preschool archives:-)
I'm excited about learning with my little ones this year. I admit it's more than a little poignant to know that we shall not walk this way again. My days of homeschooling early childhood are coming to a close. We're going to go at this for all its worth!
I'm planning to revive the The Alphabet Path and revise it, too. I'd like to leave a nice record of it for Sarah and Karoline. We will plan our days so that Catechesis of the Good Shepherd will be a cornerstone of our days. And we'll continue to love storybooks as noted above. I've got lots of thoughts bubbling in my brain, but I know some of you have pressing questions you want to toss around. So, click away and then let's start talking in the combox:-).
I find myself:
::noticing God's glory
The garden is popping! I'm so enjoying watching the neighborhood come to life. Walking in the morning gives me a chance to soak it all in and to notice even the subtle day-to-day changes.
::listening to
The USA-Canada soccer match.
::clothing myself in
Long shorts (short longs?) and a red tunic.
::talking with my children about these books
Since I'm going to share my own reading on Thursdays at needle and thREAD, I thought I'd share some reading from our family's choices.
Patrick is reading Walking with God: A Journey through the Bible.
Mary Beth is reading Joy in the Ordinary.
Stephen has asked to read the Count of Monte Cristo.
Katie is annoyed beyond belief at how the movie version differs from the book version of Mr. Popper's Penguins.
Nick is still working through the Hunger Games trilogy.
And the little girls and I are gathering all our seashore picture books...
::thinking and thinking
When I wrote this piece, I received mail from several people asking about the difference between depression and spiritual desolation. It's not really a question I'm comfortable answering from afar. I think that a good spiritual director is essential in both circumstances and can help to discern the differences.
On a not altogether unrelated note, I also got mail about a post written by a friend of mine. To those folks, I gently reiterate what has always been true here. I hold my friends close and dear. I treasure them. We are all on a journey. I value the fellowship of my friends on that journey and I pray that I can be faithful and true to them every step of the way. When they shoulder a cross, I want to be the first to help them carry it, not the one who walks the other way. And yes, sometimes it hurts. I'm good with that. There's value in suffering.
::giving thanks for
my dear man, who truly did not rest this weekend, but offered me the opportunity to hit the reset button. He's sunburned and exhausted and so very loved.
::pondering prayerfully
"The mark of a Catholic is the ability to see the Divine where it is least expected: in a baby in the arms of his mother, in bread and wine, in prayers tolled on beads, in the voice of an old man in Rome." Fulton Sheen
::carefully cultivating rhythm
Rhythm kicked my tushie last week. After a week upended with Patrick's knee, we had a three day weekend that was about a million soccer games in the boiling heat. Laundry piled up. I got totally exhausted. I had a major house project happening. I might have even eaten pizza and had a cup of coffee. My thyroid went on a wild ride. And then, I totally crashed. Wiped out. In a big way. I took the whole weekend to get back on an even keel. Much better:-).
::creating by hand
We are making new rosaries for everyone. I'd hoped to have them finished during May, but, um, see above. This week...
I made Karoline a darling sundress yesterday. Another Oliver + S pattern. I might be a Liesl Gibson groupie. She's amazing. Just wonderful. Pictures on Thursday for needle and thREAD. I've got Katie's all laid out. Hopefully, one for Sarah will also happen this week. Sewing makes me happy. Really happy.
Speaking of needle and thREAD, I've promised myself an hour or so this afternoon to go visiting. I haven't read all the links in the last two weeks. I'm looking so forward to it!
::learning lessons in
discernment of spirits. More reading here.
::encouraging learning
Summer schedule begins today. Some intensive math. IEW writing. Lots of reading.
::begging prayers
for all the people who have joined our weekend prayer community. I carried your requests with me to Mass and I will keep a candle lit for you throughout the week.
for lonely missionaries
for baby Truman, who drowned in a few inches of water , but was revived. Won't you watch and wait with us, keeping Truman, his doctors, and his beautiful family in your unceasingly prayers?
:keeping house
I deep cleaned the bedrooms of the 3 older boys last week. I also did 16 loads of laundry over the weekend. These two things are related. Yes, I think that's pathetic. It will never happen again. Mark my words.
::crafting in the kitchen
Green Smoothies. Trying some recipes of Nissa's. Actually, I'm going green in a big way for all of June. We'll see if that helps the thyroid do its thing more efficiently.
::loving the moments
when every laundry basket in the house is empty. No, it didn't really happen. But if it did, I'd love the moment.
::living the liturgy
We finished 33 Days to Morning Glory and the children did their Marian Consecration on the Feast of the Visitation. It was a lovely, lovely day.
This week is the Feast of Corpus Christi. Our mission is named Corpus Christi. I need to think of something good for this feast. Suggestions welcome...
::planning for the week ahead
Dance recital this weekend! Should make for an exciting week.
{Please pardon the tardiness of this post. I had it all queued up earlier in the week and then forgot to actually post it:-).}
The internet is a formidable force for bringing the comfort and consolation and hope of the Lord to all of us. It can be an incredibily powerful medium for community. There is an unfathomable resource for prayer here. We have on the 'net the privilege of praying for people and of being witness to the miracles brought forth when fervent, faith-fulled people pray for one another.
Let's be that community of hope and faith for one another.
How about this idea? What if I pop in here every weekend, share Sunday's gospel and talk a wee bit about how we can live it and pray it in our homes? And then you tell me how we can pray for you that week? Deal?
{And please, do return and let us know how prayer is bearing fruit.}
Gospel
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Matt 28: 16-20)
Think
What then is the relationship between the life of the person and his sharing in the life of the Trinity? Saint Augustine provides us with the answer in his celebrated phrase: "Our heart is restless until it rests in you". This "restless heart" serves to point out that between the one finality and the other there is in fact no contradiction, but rather a relationship, a complementarity, a unity. By his very genealogy, the person created in the image and likeness of God, exists "for his own sake" and reaches fulfilment precisely by sharing in God's life. The content of this self-fulfilment is the fullness of life in God, proclaimed by Christ (cf. Jn 6:37-40), who redeemed us precisely so that we might come to share it (cf. Mk 10:45). (Blessed Pope John Paul the Great, Letter to Families)
Pray
Glory be to the Father,
Who by His almighty power and love created me,
making me in the image and likeness of God.
Glory be to the Son,
Who by HisPrecious Blood delivered me from hell,
and opened for me the gates of heaven.
Glory be to the Holy Spirit,
Who has sanctified me in the sacrament of Baptism,
and continues to sanctify me
by the graces I receive daily from His bounty.
Glory be to the Three adorable Persons of the Holy Trinity,
now and forever.
Amen.
Act
In our family, we have a tradition of "Sundaes on Sunday." Since today is the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, it's only appropriate to serve three scoops of Neapolitan ice cream with three toppings on every sundae: Three in One Yum:-)!
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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