Gathering my Thoughts After a Weekend Away

I find myself:

::noticing God's glory

I'm in Charlottesville for a few days and it's always so easy to be swept up in the beauty of creation here. We picked peaches in an orchard on a mountain yesterday. It was 95 degrees and the peaches were fuzzy, but oh! the views. Worth every bead of sweat. 

{The view from Carter Mountain Orchard}

I head home this morning. It's hot there, too, so maybe I won't miss here;-)

::listening to 

The whirring of the ceiling fan.

::clothing myself in 

Yellow polo shirt and white capris. I am desperately in need of clothing.

::talking with my children about these books

G is for Gold Medal: An Olympic Alphabet. I'm a big fan of the Sleeping Bear Press Alphabet books. Michael will soon be off to spend nearly a month in London covering the Summer Olympics for USAToday. This is our week to get in the spirit.

I did a terrible job packing: no bathing suits for little girls, no special pillow for Karoline, no toothbrush, no nebulizer... the list goes on. I don't know where my brain was. And I left a stack of books at home, waiting to become my summer reading in the sunroom in Charlottesville. Where I am. And they are not. These books:

Beauty in the World: Rethinking the Foundations of Education  (This one is really good and I'm really sorry it's sitting there by the front steps at home.)

7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess

Talking Back to Facebook

 

::thinking and thinking

about being 20-something. While I was sick last week, I stumbled onto a long list of 20-something blogs. And I read through them all (or so it seemed). I'm so glad there was no internet when I was a 20-something mom. I'm so glad I wasn't tempted to preserve in words my every whine. It's a good thing I couldn't record every time my husband worked long hours, every poop, vomit, or runny nose, every last little moment of discouragement or loneliness that comes with being home alone with little ones. I'm glad that wasn't the brand I put on how I lived my vocation. I'm glad my husband wasn't forced to see grumbling in print every time he logged on hoping to see sweet pictures of his kids and the wife for whom he was working so hard. I'm so glad my complaining doesn't still stand as a testimony for my children to read. And I'm glad because, in the moment, I was forced to talk to a friend instead of sending missives into cyberspace. I could pick up the phone at naptime and spend no more than a few minutes relating a hard day. She'd be empathetic and share her trials, too. (Bonus: I wasn't reading everyone else's whining and propogating an entire network of discontent.) And then we'd move on, usually outside. I didn't have a car of my own. I was limited to my own small neighborhood. I wasn't looking in anyone's windows, especially carefully edited windows in far off places. I spent a lot of time walking to the park with my kids. I spent a lot of time talking to other women while we pushed swings and with our kids slid down the slides. You can do that when you don't have a smart phone in your hand.

We didn't wallow.

But maybe that's because by the time I was a 20-something with two children, my friends and I had had occasion to think a little differently about what a hard day is. When I was 24, God hit the "pause" button. After reading those blogs, I think that cancer might have been a bigger blessing than previously considered. God said, "Those ordinary days filled with diapers and diaper pails and blueberries all over the floor and a really heavy toddler who wants to be held--do you want to keep living them? That man who leaves here every morning and often works late into the night, the one who travels several times a month and leaves you to fend for yourself with these small people, do you want to keep building this life with him? The ability to conceive babies, are you going to continue to take that for granted? Do you want to think big thoughts, to look beyond today to a future that stretches full of hope? Do you want to believe in something worth fighting for, worth suffering for? Or do you just want hang out and keep whining about dirty carpet and tiny paychecks and babies who won't sleep through the night? Do you want to keep clicking aimlessly and tweeting discontent?"

He didn't actually say it. But He meant it. And after reading what might have been if there had been the Internet and if there hadn't been cancer, I'm glad it was the way it was. I'm glad my friends lived around the corner and came over to wrap arms around my shoulders while my hair fell out, to gather up my little boy and take him to her house while I was in the hospital. I was a better mother before the Internet. And after cancer. (But I don't want to learn lessons that way again, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Just being clear, there.) In the midst of my 20-something whiny blog reading binge, I heard from a mom diagnosed with cancer 10 days after learning she is pregnant. She's 20 weeks along. Please pray for her. Pray hard. Those are some challenging days.

 I'm told it's a generation gap. That I don't understand how that generation thinks and how they communicate. Maybe. But I find myself wanting to beg the woman in the screen: Before you log on to record forever how grumpy you feel in this moment, cup the face of your child in your hands. Think to yourself: I don't have to worry that her runny nose is a virus that could kill me because I have no white blood cells. I don't have to run and grab a bandana to cover my bald head when the UPS man comes to the door. I can take this sweet face and kiss that forehead and dance around my living room. I can throw up the window and seize the day and head outside for a long stroller walk. I can snuggle with them at naptime and then slip away while they sleep to get online scrub the kitchen floor and get a head start on a yummy meal. I can gather myself as evening comes to whine on Facebook pray Vespers with the universal church and count my blessings aloud to God. I can take a few minutes before the love of my life gets home to tell Twitter how I'm a single parent brush my hair and pull on a clean shirt and smile when I greet the man who sacrifices for me and parents with me. I can live every single moment like the gift it is because I have traded a valuable day of my life for it and I don't know how many of those I have to live. 

End of rant. Next time I'm sick with a cold, I promise to read light fiction instead of marathon surfing (Grace Livingston Hill anyone?), but really, I'm sort of glad for the reminder myself.

::giving thanks for

a couple days in a home away from home, with people I love, and mountains that never fail to restore my spirit.

{Queen Anne's Lace. Rotting Peaches. You can overlook the smelly bad and delight in the beautiful, no?}

::pondering prayerfully

Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent. ~St. John of the Cross

Also really praying about the content in the sidebar links week.

::carefully cultivating rhythm

I don't know why I thought we'd have all kinds of free time and boundless energy this summer. That has not been the case at all. This week has promise for lots of quiet and some sleep, though. Ever hopeful, right?

::creating by hand

Sundresses to finish and some quilts to sew.

 

::learning lessons in

making jam. We picked 24 pounds of peaches. I'm planning to experiment with a couple types of jam. Suggestions gratefully welcomed:-)

::encouraging learning 

I'm going to clean out school baskets this week and polish up the plans a bit. Most of my students are off on adventures.

::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 Jessica.

 
{tea in the sunroom}

:keeping house

I have some decisions to make ASAP about paint colors in, oh, pretty much the whole house.

::crafting in the kitchen 

Still fine-tuning a solid three week paleo meal plan. So far, sweet potato and sausage hash and bacon-wrapped asparagus have been big hits. There will be far fewer people around the table this week. Not as many palates to please:  Good time to experiment!

::loving the moments

Nicholas played nine holes of golf at my father's club yesterday. My dad can't golf any more. But he passed along his love for the game to Nicholas a few years ago. Then, he invested in it last year. (Click; it's cool.) Nick has been faithfully practicing at the course near our house. So, my dad took him out in the sweltering heat yesterday and he watched while Nicky shone. They both came home beaming. I'm just so happy they got to share it.

::living the liturgy

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Children with me at home this afternoon will probably be able to persuade me to make something with caramel, even though we all know that caramel has absolutely nothing to do with Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.

::planning for the week ahead

Patrick and Mary Beth are in Ocean City at a dance competition. (Mary Beth is dancing. Paddy is just along for the ride. I'm certain he'd want me to clarify that.)

Katie and Nicky are staying in Charlottesville for the week. Katie will go to pony camp and Nicky will go to golf camp. And they'll get plenty spoiled by grandparents along the way.

Mike is back in Coral Gables. 

Michael is leaving for London.

At the end of the week, when Mike returns, we're going to go visit him in his DC office and play tourist at the Smithsonian. Ride the Metro. Cool stuff that is easier with only 4 kids.

It's going to be quieter at our house with only 4 kids at home. Ought to impact the grocery bill significantly, too. I will miss the other five. I won't miss the laundry. 

Oh, and we're going to fingerpaint with our feet outside. 

Lord, Hear Our Prayer

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 

Mark 6:7-13

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey
but a walking stick--
no food, no sack, no money in their belts.
They were, however, to wear sandals
but not a second tunic.
He said to them,
"Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave.
Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,
leave there and shake the dust off your feet
in testimony against them."
So they went off and preached repentance.
The Twelve drove out many demons,
and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Think

“Christ has no body now, but yours. 

No hands, no feet on earth, but yours. 

Yours are the eyes through Which 

Christ looks compassion into 

the world. 

Yours are the feet with which 

Christ walks to do good. 

Yours are the hands with Which 

Christ blesses the world.” 

~St. Teresa of Avila

Pray

Dear Lord,

You ask to be prophets in our day. You send us into our families, our schools, our parishes, and our communities on a mission for Christ. Please equip us. Fill us with your spirit and grant us your grace. Make us truly holy.

Act

Jesus sent the apostles out with so little and asked of them so much. And those true friends of Jesus--they were happy. Make a list of the "stuff" that stand between you and your ability to leap to your feet, tie on your sandals, and do whatever He tells you. Resolve today to get rid of it.

Preparing for the Feast of St. Anne

I've dusted this posted off a bit and updated. The feast of St. Anne is July 26; you have plenty of time to get ready.

First, the novena. I shared here how fruitful my novena to St. Anne was a couple years ago, with regard to the nitty gritty of our lives. I think that mothers are naturally considering the management of their homes and their schedules this time of year. For me, forever more, that will a St. Anne thing. I heartily encourage you to offer it all o St. Anne to bring before our Lord. 

Sometimes, a saint finds you.

And those are very, very special times, indeed. Four years ago, around this time, St. Anne found me and I will be forever grateful.   There is no saint more dear to my heart, nor more frequently invoked by me than the grandmother of our Lord. She walks beside me, whispers in my ear, and makes sure I get my laundry done! My binder of St. Anne prayers is well-worn and nearly memorized.

July 26th, the Feast of St. Anne and St. Joachim, was a Sunday the first year I truly celebrated  and it found me in a beautiful new church at the baptism of my godson. And every prayer we prayed there went to Louisiana, too, where Bryce Mitchell was being baptized.

July this year finds me taking up my binder of prayers once again, not for a pregnancy this time, just for the comfort of knowing that such a dear mother is listening and praying and interceding. Tradition teaches us what we know about St. Anne and her husband, St. Joachim. I think though, that some saints come to be known even more dearly in our prayers. It is in praying with St. Anne that I have grown to love her.

I've included here for you a copy of my favorite, now very familiar prayers. There are short daily prayers, a chaplet explanation, a litany, and two different novenas. Depending on whether you want to finish on the feast or the day before, you want to start a novena on the 17th or 18th.

My St. Anne chaplet broke a few weeks ago, so I do plan to spend these days of preparation for the feast repairing it. Alice Cantrell provides a lovely illustrated tutorial here,should you want to try your hand a crafting this beautiful aid to prayer. I have found that handwork that aids our prayer are the crafts that are most treasured and beneficial in our home. We don't always bead a chaplet, of course, but decorating a vase to fill with flowers next to a saint's icon, or pouring or dipping or decorating a candle to be lit on the feast are also favorite, simple, meaningful family traditions. And sometimes, there is no craft at all.

St. Anne is the patron of mothers, of grandmothers, of women in labor, of seamstresses, of homemakers. July is also the month to celebrate St. Martha. With two patrons of homemakers so close together, I've taken up the habit of sewing new aprons in July. If you aren't a seamstress, perhaps a splurge on a pretty new apron or the purchase of some kind of household help might be in order.

A tea with Grandmother (and Grandpa, too, to celebrate St. Joaquin) would be a lovely tradition. Here are some St. Anne tea ideas, graciously shared with us trhough the kindness of Charlotte.

In our family, we celebrate a name day on St. Anne's feast. There was considerable argument around our dinner table when we discussed what to name our baby girl. It was settled by giving her both names: Sarah and Anne. (To this day, two of her brothers have yet to call her "Sarah." They only call her "Annie.") My mother, Mike's mother, my stepmother, and I all share Sarah's middle name. But only Sarah Anne gets the extra "e":-). And oh, how we love to celebrate Sarah Annie!

Our family looks forward to feast days with quiet, familiar joy. As a child grows, the day takes on its own traditions because the child begins to make it his own. For instance, the Feast of St. Michael around here always smells like incense and a kahlua devil's food cake baking in the oven. That has been Michael's preference for as long as I can remember. For the longest time, we had pizza on the Feast of St. Patrick because Paddy insisted on it.

St. Anne's feast will begin for me as all days do, with the Liturgy of the Hours. I'll pray the Morning Prayer and Office of Readings by myself in the quiet of the dawn. Both prayers bring me into the celebration of the feast with the universal Church. I will light a special candle, put her statue and her icon on our little prayer desk, and make sure that the children notice when they awaken. Then, it's up and out the door. The true "feast" is the Eucharist and we are fortunate to be able to go to daily Mass on feast days, where we celebrate the feast with the community of God. Father delights our children by always, always speaking about "their" saints. Usually, there is a special blessing after Mass for the name day child, as well. And there might be donuts on the way home, too;-).

Sarah Anne is old enough that she will certainly express her preference for dinner and dessert as is our family custom. Already the lobbying has begun as certain brothers try to persuade her that her favorite dinner resembles their favorite dinner. Almost certainly, there will be chocolate for dessert. Sarah Anne is a big fan of chocolate. 

The day will end for my sweet Sarah Annie with more of that heavenly scent, this time it's St. Anne soap and lotion (as much a treat for me as for my girl). Sweet dreams, my darling girl; your heavenly grandmother continues to be so very good to us. Blessed, we are, those of us whose name means "grace." (Note: I have a wee bit of this lotion left and one candle I've saved for the day. Sadly, Trish isn't taking orders right now, but I hope she opens again for business soom.)

St. Anne prayers and devotions:

Download Prayers to St Anne

Can we Divorce-proof Our Marriages?

I still remember it vividly. They seemed the perfect family: one girl, one boy, both darling. Mom and Dad were together at swim meets and ballgames. They lived in a lovely house. Their children went to great schools. And then, the day after the younger graduated high school, her mom up and left. Walked out. At least that’s the way it looked to those of us watching from a distance. Just like that: marriage over; family dissolved. Read the rest here, please?

needle & thREAD

Best laid plans and all that. I've gotten very little sewing in since last week. A summer cold has had me horizontal since about three hours after I put up last Thursday's post. I tried to sew a little on Friday and then I decided it was better not to sew and mess it all up in my fevered stupor than to trudge on. Maybe this afternoon will see the big completion. I commit no promises to print.

I did do a lot of reading, mostly clicking around on the web because I found I couldn't wrap my brain around real books. I did a ridiculous amount of Paleo diet research and after carefully considering dozens of recommendations from friends on Facebook and elsewhere, I bought Everyday Paleo and Make it Paleo, both of which look every bit as good as promised.

What about you? Sewing? Reading? A little of both? What's on your summer reading list? Do you have a summer sewing list?  Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and theREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and theREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-).

Giveaway reminder:

 I have had Joanna Figueroa's With Fabric and Thread on a book rack on my desk lately. It's just such lovely eye candy! Yesterday, I read more carefully the apron pages. Last year, we determined that we'd make a new apron every July in honor of the feasts of St. Martha and St. Anne.  With Fabric and Thread  has the perfect retro reversible apron. This book is so lovely that I'd like to share it. Anyone who links up here at needle & thREAD this week  will be entered to win a copy of  With Fabric and Thread. Winner will be chosen and announced a week from today, July 19.