Pretty Pickle Pix Post

We made up the refrigerator dill pickle recipe as we went along, basing it loosely on the one in this post.

Calendar Craziness

Are you-- like me --struggling to make all those calendar items work as the school year begins? I'm thinking that adding something might be even more important than deleting. Read more here please: Family Time-Management Simplified.

(Hmmm. Can't wait to see what this looks like after I fill in the weekends...)

Quick Labor Day Almanac

I find myself:

::noticing God's glory

The maple trees on Freedom Street took a very long time to fill in last spring. Now it is summer's end and they look like they might turn straight to brown. I'd be so sad. I love that treelined street...

::listening to 

The microwave defrosting the lamb roast I forgot to defrost last night (and the night before and the night before that). I'm determined we'll have it for dinner tonight.

 

On White's Ferry on the way to Maryland. Mike and I have spent the last two days driving all over Maryland and Northern Virginia.

And questioning our sanity.

::clothing myself in 

A super-cute skirt from Open Arms. At Open Arms, refugees earn a living wage taking recycled t-shirts and turning them into seriously adorable skirts. Open Arms is not a charity, but a "social enterprise", a sustainable, for-profit company working to achieve a social purpose through the materials they use, the products they sell and the impact they have. As such, Open Arms measures its success against a triple bottom line that is economic (employ), ecologic (engage) and social (enjoy). Win. Win. Win. 

::thinking and thinking

About a comfortable suburban existence and how this ^ is keeping balls in the air in my world. Thinking a great deal about social justice and how the gospel calls us to live. Are these the stresses He intends for us? 

::pondering prayerfully

"The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” . ~Blessed Mother Teresa

::Carefully Cultivating Rhythm

As the seasons change and I try desperately, frantically to make my calendar behave, I find myself again drawn to the rhythm of the Liturgy of the Hours. Could it be that living that rhythm gives meaning and direction to the secular rhythms in our lives in a real and tangible way?  More on that on Wednesday.

::creating by hand

I'm going to knit this week. I made the To Eyre shawl shortly before I stopped knitting last year. It was way too small. It's been re-drafted into a larger "outdoor" shawl. I think I'll give it a go.

::learning lessons in

Doing things that terrify me. Much, much more on that next week.

::encouraging learning 

Is there anything lovelier than a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils? I think not.

::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 a dozen personal intentions--each of them precious and urgent. 

::reading

Mindset. I just downloaded the audio version of this one, so I haven't much to report.

I'm listening to this book. It was highly recommended by a soccer mom from Nick's team. 

Someone asked how I manage my listening books. I'm super auditory, so I love to listen to books. It's what I do when I clean and when I drive and when I sew. I find them on Amazon and click through to Audible (I have a membership there). I download to my Kindle or to my iPhone. Kindle audio quality is really good--and I just have the basic Kindle. 

::keeping house

Mary Beth and I worked on daily school and extracurricular schedules; now to work on the chore chart. It's been a long time since we've had a really workable one. This is the season we nail it.

::towards being unplugged

This week, I'm going to try not to use my phone for social media at all. And I plan to be away from my laptop a lot. We'll see how that balances things. I've noticed that since getting an iPhone, I'm on Twitter more. I still don't really like Twitter, so that's probably not the best use of my time. I'm also on Pinterest a lot less (likely because Pinterest's app is not all that great). I'd like to be better at making all my online time meaningful and none of it mindless. I'd like to make my writing time a set chunk, worked into the schedule, all written down with everything else. I tend to try to wedge writing in around everything else. And that is making meeting deadlines pretty awful. If I had a set time, I could get to work, get it done, click the laptop shut and walk away. 

::crafting in the kitchen 

Mary Beth is cooking this week.  All week.

weird iPhone self-portrait

::loving the moments

Last weekend, Patrick and Hilary gave Mary Beth and me their Brad Paisley tickets. Patrick proposed the idea late Satruday afternoon. We had just spent the whole day out in the rain at soccer and being outdoors in more rain didn't appeal to me so much. But...it was Brad Paisley and a chance for a Girls' Night Out with my favorite girlfriend. So my girl and I stood huddled under a Neat Sheet (I forgot my umbrella) and took in a really good concert. And the whole time, I kept thinking that I must be the luckiest mom in the world to be standing there so close to my teenaged daughter, sharing music and deep conversation. I'm ever so grateful.

Seven--count 'em-- seven ponytails. I love this picture.

::giving thanks 

for my "village." My boys play soccer. My girls and I have a community of friends forged on the sidelines. I'm grateful for these people. The girls see soccer games as many kids do weekly play dates. And there is an abundance of soccer siblings their ages to keep them company. Heck, together, my friend Becca and I have 18 kids. And that's just two families! (Truth: no one else's family is mega like that but there are lots of soccer friends for them.)

::living the liturgy

For years, our mission church has met in the elementary school gym across the street from my house. This weekend, it moved to an auditorium at a nearby new high school. It's a good change--the acoustics are a million time better. We've traded bleachers for real seats. Much, much easier to concentrate without the posters encouraging us to work out and eat right. But we all miss being able to walk to church. I'm seriously eyeing the houses being built near the new permanent church site.

::planning for the week ahead

I'm going to spend the entire day today making lists and checking things off.

More almanacs at Suscipio.

Lord, Hear Our Prayer

photo credit: Nicholas Foss

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-filled 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 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
--For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. --
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"
He responded,
"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."

He summoned the crowd again and said to them,
"Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.

"From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile."

~ ~ ~

Think

"First upon awakening in the morning, turn your thoughts to God present everywhere; place your heart and your entire being in his hands. Then think briefly of the good you will be able to accomplish that day and the evil you can avoid, especially by controlling your predominant fault."

~St. Jane Frances de Chantal

Pray

God, please show me the good you would have me do. I beg you to reveal to me my predominant fault. Let me see it as you see it. then, grant me the grace to control the fault and to do your will.

Act

Follow St. Jane's direction exactly this morning. Turn your thoughts to God and place yourself in his hands. Think of the good you can accomplish. Think of your predominant fault. Resolve to do good and to avoid that fault. Ask fo rthe diligence to keep your resolution.

~the September 1 devotion from Small Steps for Catholic Moms

needle &thREAD

I conquered sewed one of those figure eight scarves at last. It took me far longer to cut it than to sew it. The sewing was simple and Anna Maria's instructions were excellent. I have one more to sew, hopefully today. It really looks pretty when wrapped just right around my neck, but I didn't have it in me to learn how to take a self-portrait just now.

I am listening to Anything again, after I drop the boys off at soccer. I'm learning even more the second time. Together, Stephen and Nicky and I are listening to Kisses from Katie to and from soccer. The two books are read by the same woman and she absolutley nails the tones of both books. I highly recommend the audio versions. Oh, and while sewing, I listened to the first two installments of the Bloom Book Club discussion of 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. Well written, meaty books all. 

And when I feel like I'm going to burst if I don't talk about the potential for our anythings with someone, I'm finding that Nicholas is feeling much the same way. So we ponder it all aloud. As my children get older, I am ever more grateful for the community I find in this family.

What about you? Sewing? Reading? A little of both?  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 thREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and thREAD 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:-)