Gathering My Thoughts

I find myself:

::noticing God's glory

The trees are just beginning to turn. Autumn is so beautiful in Virginia. I’m determined to read the camera manual and try to capture it this year. For today, though, it's old pictures from my phone. I beg your pardon.

::listening to 

soccer practice.

::clothing myself in 

old jeans and lightweight sweater. It was nippy today; I actually wore a denim jacket out this morning.

::talking with my children about these DVDs

we just finished Mark Hart’s T3 Matthew: Thy Kingdom Come. Now, all of us are watching Fr. Barron’s Catholicism. I’m taking notes as we go and we’re talking and talking about it. Absolutely, positively highly recommended for almost all ages. Sarah (nearly 5) didn’t catch the whole thing, but Karoline (nearly 7) definitely did. I kept wishing Christian were at home, because I know he would have appreciated both production quality and content.

::thinking and thinking

about the economy. And health care. How’s that for a deviation on the norm ‘round these parts? Mike and I have a definite, firm “date night” planned because we need to look carefully at the health care that we like and see how it compares much less affordable health care that we will be compelled to purchase on October 1.

::pondering prayerfully

“There are also all sorts of things in our spiritual life where a thing has to be killed and broken, in order that it may then become bright, and strong, and splendid.” –C. S. Lewis.

::carefully cultivating rhythm

Last week stunk. No sweet way to put it; it just stunk. It was one of those weeks when every time I popped back up, determined not to let yuck get the upper hand, I got splatted with more yuck. Stinky yuck. And that always messes with my rhythm. In the end, though, it’s usually rhythm I find first on my way back from mucking through the yuck. So that’s goal: yuck mucking. And that’s about as specific as the complaining is going to get here because I’m still not into blog whining.

::creating by hand

No kidding. My girls need some shirts. Binge sewing to begin Tuesday morning.

 

::learning lessons in

eating habits and whether it’s all worth it. I’ve been working pretty dang hard on diet this year. Last week, amidst the yuck, I had a doctor’s appointment. Essentially, my doctor looked at my chart when I called for a routine refill of thyroid meds and said she wouldn’t do it unless she laid eyes on me. Something about not having been to the doctor since January 2011. The plan was just say hey and draw thyroid labs. Once I got there though, she ran as many blood tests as she could. All of which conjured up a significant and utterly disproportionate post-cancer PTSD.

Lo and behold, the results came in and I learned that I’m one of the small percentage of people whose lipid profile puts her in the “able to reverse heart disease” range. Extraordinarily good news from the lab. Pat on the back from the doctor. Who knew? Now I do.

And I’m ever more resolved to eat mindfully.

::encouraging learning 

Homeschooling high school is hard work. That is all. See above whining policy.

::begging prayers

for the lonely, depressed, and afraid.

for all the intentions of our prayer community.

And yes, for that intention I was keeping quiet; it’s still very close to my heartJ  

::keeping house

They say fall cleaning is even more important than spring cleaning because you’re going to spend the coming months all closed up in the house. To that end, I’m trying to work some heavy-duty cleaning into the schedule. Like rhythm, clean gives me a sense of control 9however false that may be), roots me, and offers a cheerful perspective. Clean is a good thing.

::crafting in the kitchen 

I feel like I’ve been grocery shopping uncontrollably lately. Seems like every time I turn around, we need one more thing and then I go and come back with lots more. I’ve resolved to eat from pantry and fridge for the next two weeks, with the exception of the Farmer’s Market on Saturday. Speaking of the market, it was much smaller last weekend. Much, much smaller. Makes me so sad.

::loving the moments

when they all work together to make a tent village of sheets and blankets in the living room and when I tell them to clean it up and they protest, saying Daddy promised to watch Monday Night Football in the tents with them. Alrighty then. They can—and did—have fund with that.

::giving thanks 

for the body of Christ and friends who will read your texts and love on your kids and then find other people to love on your kids—all from a couple of states away.

living the liturgy

We began the St. Therese novena on Monday. I like to start this novena on the Feast of St. Padre Pio and finish on the Feast of St. Therese. It’s not too late! Join us?

::planning for the week ahead

Mike will go to Charlottesville tonight. I’ll watch Paddy’s match from here, streaming on my computer. Thank goodness for streaming games!

Patrick called last night to tell me Zach was coming home for the weekend. Paddy isn’t coming home (he’s going to Syracuse), but Zach needs a breakJ.

We have our annual birthday tea planned for Friday with my friend Megan and her daughter. They’re going to school this year and Megan is working up at the parish. I miss them. I’m looking very forward to catching up.

I might try to buzz up to Harrisonburg to see Christian.

Lots of soccer this weekend. All local.

Lord, Hear Our Prayer

Gospel
Luke 16:1-13
Jesus said to his disciples,“A rich man had a stewardwho was reported to him for squandering his property. He summoned him and said,‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship,because you can no longer be my steward.’The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do,now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do so that,when I am removed from the stewardship,they may welcome me into their homes.’He called in his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said,‘How much do you owe my master?’He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’Then to another the steward said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’He replied, ‘One hundred kors of wheat.’The steward said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note;write one for eighty.’And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.“For the children of this worldare more prudent in dealing with their own generationthan are the children of light. I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth,so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.The person who is trustworthy in very small mattersis also trustworthy in great ones;and the person who is dishonest in very small mattersis also dishonest in great ones. If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth,who will trust you with true wealth? If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another,who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other,or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.”

Think

"Why did the Lord Jesus Christ present this parable to us? He surely did not approve of that cheat of a servant who cheated his master, stole from him and did not make it up from his own pocket. On top of that, he also did some extra pilfering. He caused his master further loss, in order to prepare a little nest of quiet and security for himself after he lost his job. Why did the Lord set this before us? It is not because that servant cheated but because he exercised foresight for the future. When even a cheat is praised for his ingenuity, Christians who make no such provision blush. I mean, this is what he added, “Behold, the children of this age are more prudent than the children of light.” They perpetrate frauds in order to secure their future. In what life, after all, did that steward insure himself like that? What one was he going to quit when he bowed to his master’s decision? He was insuring himself for a life that was going to end. Would you not insure yourself for eternal life?" ~ Saint Augustine (Tip of the bonnet to Fr. Steve Schultz)

Pray

Sweet Jesus, Please open my heart and my mind to the urgent call on the Church in my time. Help me to clearly see and hear and know and understand what you have me do.

Act

Read the Pope's interview. Read the whole thing. It's 12,000 words, so don't try to read it on your phone. Maybe plan to read it over several days. Print it off for your spouse. Require your big kids to read it. Carry it around and read it while standing inline and waiting for carpool. But read it. And here's the hard part: don't make judgements, don't listen to commentary, don't engage in conversation about it until you've prayerfully read it for yourself.

How can we pray for you this week?

needle & thREAD

It's been a rough week around these parts, the kind of week where the little inconveniences of a fire in the dryer and a broken dishwasher and croupy colds all around pale in comparsion to real life tragedy (that's my stepbrother talking to ABC). 

I have attempted to sew, but all those pre-sewing details have stood in the way. It's tricky to do the pre-washing of fabric when the dryer isn't functioning. At long last, I finally have this delicious pile ready for pressing and cutting.

And I did get around to that necessary but tedious pattern tracing.

Of course, I'd need to clear the table to actually pin the pattern to fabric and get going. And I will. Probably today. But right now, I'm kind of pleased that day after day our table looks like this. We're getting it done and that's a good thing.

In addition to all that reading and all this reading, the only other reading I've done is my C. S. Lewis Bible (I'm very fond of Lewis' quotes interspersed throughout) and Youcat. When Youcat first burst onto the scene, there was a considerable amound of grumbling. I don't know if it's that my Facebook feed at the time was particularly contrary or what, but people seemed to think it wasn't Catholic enough? So, I just didn't even take a look. I ordered it the other day, along with the study guide and the prayer book. It begins with an invitation to read from Pope Benedict. I think he's Cahtolic enough, no? I think it's going to work beautifully in a discussion format with my middle- and high-schoolers. I'm well pleased.

That's all I've got for today.

What are you reading and sewing this week? 

I am eager to hear!

  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:-).

Gathering My Thoughts

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I find myself:

::noticing God's glory

I love the way the sun sets at the soccer field. It’s happening earlier and earlier each evening. Next week, we might miss it altogether. I am determined to bring my camera tomorrow in order to attempt to capture it. The iPhone just isn’t cutting it.

::listening to 

soccer practice.

::clothing myself in 

Denim shorts and an orange shirt, neither of which I owned last spring. When we first saw possibilities for the cover of Small Steps, I didn’t much prefer the one that was chosen. It’s been a few babies since I’ve felt comfortable in shorts and orange isn’t really my color;-). When I received word that the “shorts cover” was indeed the cover chosen, I went shopping. I try really, really, super hard to be wholly authentic. If my book had a picture of a lady in shorts with an orange shirt and her feet up drinking coffee, by golly, I was going to make every effort to try that whole scene at least once. So, I did.

I still rarely put my feet up. I don’t drink coffee regularly. My couch does not match my orange shirt. And the orange shirt still isn’t really my color. But the denim shorts?

I kind of love them.

::talking with my children about these books

we spent a lot of time talking about 9/11 books last week. The kids seemed to keep revisiting them, much more so than in years past. We haven’t yet talked about the recent D.C. shooting. I put a ban on all television where they might be exposed. I spent a fair amount of time making telephone calls in my car so that I was safely out of earshot. I need to figure out how to approach this one. This time, it’s going to take me a few days to find words.

::thinking and thinking

About God’s unique call. I wonder sometimes at the damage done by a women’s movement that fought so hard and so long to persuade the culture that women can do it all—be wives, mothers, employees, employers, artisans, crafters of the ideal life. No ceiling, no boundaries, no limitations. But there are, aren’t there? Natural law makes it so. There are only so many hours, so much energy. We can’t do it all and we likely will burn ourselves out trying. The culture tells us we can. God doesn’t. God calls us uniquely to live as He created us and He grants us abundant grace to do it. He didn’t create us for burnout. That feeling of being stretched too thin, doing everything halfheartedly and nothing well? That’s not of God.

::pondering prayerfully

Let yourself be seen by all as you really are. Just as we are in the sight of God, so let us be in the sight of all.

~ St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

::carefully cultivating rhythm

We are in the second full week of the total schedule. I’m finding my writing pockets. Those are like little nuggets of gold. Writing does for me what knitting does—it calms me; it organizes my thoughts; it leaves me feeling full. I get a little stressed out when I’m not sure how I’ll fit it in. It relaxes me to see those golden nuggets of time reveal themselves.

::creating by hand

I did the things Monday that keep me from sewing. I prewashed a whole bunch of yardage. And I traced. I ordered some patterns (that I thought I’d already ordered but apparently in my sleepless stupor last week I never sealed the deal). I’m planning some shirts and dresses for my girls and a little love bundle for the mail. Now, I might actually get to sew!

::learning lessons in

appliance maintenance. Just in case there is someone else out there who doesn’t know: Take the cover off your dryer every month. Vacuum out the inside. I’m not talking about the lint screen. You have to clean that every time you switch loads. I’m talking about the innards, where the heating element warms the drum. Lint gets in there. And it can catch fire. When it does, it causes the thermostat to overheat, igniting the safety valve which shuts the whole thing down. That’s the best case scenario: you get a load full of dried clothes that smell like you had a wild time in a smoky bar and you have to replace the thermostat.

The worst case scenario is the stuff of nightmares.

Really, go vacuum out the inside of your dryer.

::encouraging learning 

We’re hitting that sweet spot between planned lessons and following rabbit trails. I’m not an unschooler; been there, done that, paid a huge price. I have a plan and I have some non-negotiable essentials. But I do love a good jaunt in  an area of interest that reinforces the whole notion that learning is fun and has purpose.

::begging prayers

for the victims of the tragedy in Washington, D.C., both those who lost their lives and those who lived through the horror. My stepbrother works in Building 197. He saw unspeakable things.

for all the intentions of our prayer community.

And yes, for that intention I was keeping quiet; it’s still very close to my heartJ  

::keeping house

I am nearly caught up after being without a dryer for 9 days. Go me.

::crafting in the kitchen 

This morning I made a quick decision to return to Monday Night Football Geography. With that decision, I committed to cooking on Monday nights according to the cities that are playing. Tonight’s dinner was super fun.

::loving the moments

It’s been a rough couple of days. I caught some sort of virus late last week and it has hung on. That, coupled with a lack of sleep, a mountain of laundry, some great ideas that I don’t have time to get into print, an unintentional oil spill and cleanup to rival BP in my driveway, sewing projects that are not yet begun awaiting the magic moment, and the very tragic news of Monday morning had all combined to bring me way, way down. I sent a friend a quick note around midday Monday and she stopped and spent an hour just talking and sharing and understanding. I love the moments when I feel understood. We really need to do that for one another, don’t we? We need to understand.

::giving thanks 

for the safety of the people I love tonight. Really, it’s not to be taken for granted.

living the liturgy

We are approaching my favorite stretch of liturgical feasts. I’m so grateful for the way that the liturgy aligns with birthdays in my life. Five years ago, we began the novena for St. Therese on the September 23, the feast of Padre Pio. I began to bleed that night and the doctor in the NICU told me that birth was imminent. My baby was 28+ weeks in utero. I didn’t deliver. Instead, I spent several days in the hospital and then I returned home where I was forbidden to get out of bed. I surrounded myself with the saints. I’m going to tell you more about that tomorrow. Just know that those saints kept me safe in their prayers. My daughter was born –early, but healthy—on the vigil of All Saints. So very appropriate. And, not long after, when my world crashed and rocked and I began to question the Church because of the people in the Church, I could not walk away. Because I could not leave the communion of saints, I could not leave the Divine Office, and I could not live authentically without living the liturgy.

::planning for the week ahead

I return to the eye doctor Tuesday at noon. I would dearly love for her to tell me that we’ve made progress on this whole warped eyeball thing. I only have one ear. My eyes are working at about 50%. Just know this: I have an incredible sense of smell. So there’s that.

Mike is taking a bunch of boys to watch Paddy play Tuesday night. It’s absolutely beautiful soccer weather. That’s a good thing because we’ll return to Charlottesville Friday and then we’ll begin State Cup for Stephen back here on Saturday and there is a match for both Stephen and Nick on Sunday.

I do love to watch them play.

Pumpkin Spice: Hot or Cold, either way it's healthier than at Four-bucks

As the season changes, I'm drawn to those orange chalked signs that promise steaming mugs of fall, complete with whipped frothiness and steam infused with nutmeg. 

They cost a small fortune. They require leaving home. And really, they're sticky sweet.

We can do better.

My friend Sarah has her hands full these days. She's got three babies under two and they have three siblings. Busy, busy. And sleep deprived beyond imagination. Sarah has sacrificed milk in order to try to conquer her wee ones' tendency towards ear infections. So, she's been drinking Pumpkin Spice Via mixed into coconut milk. She froths it with a handy-dandy dinglehopper. It's quick and tasty. But the mama bear in me says,

"Girlfriend, you are demanding incredible things of your body. You're depriving it of sleep. You're the sole source of nutrition for two babies who have deliciously fat cheeks and thighs. You need to take care of you. So let's make this sweet indulgence a little healthier."

We have two choices here, the hot and the cold.

First the hot:

12 ounces warm coconut or almond millk ( I prefer almond) Homemade almond milk here for people who aren't loving on twin babies right now.

1 teaspoon instant expresso (or just plain old instant coffee)

1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup canned pumpkin (or up to half a cup, which is a legitimate vegetable serving)

scraping the seeds of a vanilla bean into this mixture makes it an exceptionally undulgent luxury

sweetener to taste:  here's where you can make a huge difference. I think PSLs at Starbucks are too sweet for my taste. Pumpkin Spice Via has 60 calories--all of them sugar calories, the equivalent of 4 teaspoons of sugar. I drink my version with unsweetened almond milk and just one teaspoon of raw honey. You can play with this to your taste; think maple syrup or molasses or honey or even sugar if it's just too much work to look at alternatives. It's unlikely that you really need 4 teaspoons of sugar, though.

You stir it all to blend and then froth it with a dinglehopper. Alternatively, you can put it all in the blender and give it a whirl. Sprinkle the top with more pumpkin spice.

The cold version:

This is a legitimate breakfast. Real food:-)

12 ounces milk or milk alternative

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup almonds

1/4 teaspoon pumpkin spice

1 teaspoon (or more) raw honey or maple syrup  (if you like)

1 teaspoon instant coffee or expresso

the seeds of a vanilla bean if you are so inclined

Blend all of the above until it's smooth. Then add a handful of ice and blend again. Pour and sprinkle a little more pumpkin spice on top. 

[Alternatives: You can eliminate the coffee altogether. You can add half a frozen banana. You can freeze brewed coffee into ice cubes and use those instead of water ice and in place of instant coffee.]

So, there you go, a healthy alternative to pricey autumn-in-a-cup.