{pretty, happy, funny, real}

{Pretty}

 

This sweet baby is just so pretty. iPhone shots don’t do her justice. This weekend, she’ll be baptized. Camera is on charge already!

{Happy}

 I couldn't decide where to put this--happy or real. This combination monster virus thing is for real. It’s been ten weeks or more since the saga began. And still, at least one visit to the doctor for someone every week. This week, we had two. Nicholas went to see a cornea specialist yesterday. He has about 24 scars across his eyes. Not much we can do but wait. Karoline went today. Nicholas’ treatment has been tapered way back and she doesn’t need to see him for a couple months to evaluate. So, his weekly Mommy Dates are coming to an end. Karoline was similarly released; she'll return next month. As happy as I am to be finished with the additional appointments, I'm going to miss the Mommy Dates. Maybe I will take one child at a time to the store with me henceforth. Karoline in the grocery store is quite the happy adventure. This child cannot sit still. So she dances her way through the store, frequently forgetting where she is. She is just so over-the-top happy! Usually, people smile and and sometimes, they even applaud. Please don't tell me her behavior is inappropriate. She's the eighth child; I'm old. She gets away with way more...;-).

{Funny}

 

It’s hilarious to watch this household change its orbit every time Lucy walks through the door. (Actually, Lucy doesn't walk through the door, does she? Every time Lucy is carried through the door...)There’s a compelling force that pulls every one of them into her presence. They argue and jostle to be the one to hold her. They compete with one another over who has a better “baby touch.” Paddy frequently cries, “No fair!” because he’s not home as much as the others. It’s a grand baby contest—Foss style. The other day, she came to visit because word on the street was she’d learned to smile since we’d since her 48 hours previous.  They all gathered ‘round and made ridiculous faces and more ridiculous noises. I suppose I should have gotten baby smiles with my big camera. Instead, I got them—adoring her!

{Real}

When you work in sports--whether on television or in print--people always talk about how "cool" your job is and how "fun" it would be. It is cool. It is fun. There are lots of super cool and fun opportunities. However, the reality is that it's not all fun and games when one is a sports journalist. This Facebook post literally made me cry. I know how much he admires his dad and I know how much he wants to be home more than his dad was. And. I know how hard it is make it all happen the way we want, while building a career and providing for one's family. Super hard. There's a learning curve and a sacrifice for the dads. And there's a learning curve and a sacrifice for the moms. Really, this post is a reminder that the kids learn and sacrifice, too. Michael is going to Brazil to cover the World Cup. People, that particular sporting event begins June 12 and ends July 13. He gets to come home sooner if the US loses. It's kind of strange to hope the coach is right on this one. But I do. 

Because Home is a Very, Very Good Thing

This is a Very Important post. 

When we seek to live a seamless life of authentic faith, we have to begin at home. Home is important. Sometimes, in the hustle and bustle of the world Out There, we lose sight of that. We shouldn't. What we do at home matters very much to Him. And it matters very much to the people He has entrusted to our care. 

In chapter 2 of The Little Oratory: A Beginner’s Guide to Praying in the Home, the authors explore how a life of faith is visibly expressed in a home and how that expression, in turn, nurtures the life of faith. Leila and I spoke about homemaking and hospitality and "holy decorating." We're are of one mind that this isn't about shock and awe religiosity in home decor, but about thoughtful expression of faith throughout a welcoming home. I hope we can join you while you fold a couple loads of laundry or carefully make a bed. Probably, the audio isn't quite loud enough to be a part of dishwashing (but my goal for next week is to make it so;-). Wherever you go on your daily round, think upon these things. I think they'll bless your family.

Remember to check last week's post to see if you won the giveaway.

And now, lots of helpful links for homemaking inspiration

From Auntie Leila's blog, Like Mother, Like Daughter:

 

Order and its importance in the home

 

 

Hospitality posts:

Feeding Your Children's Friends: 

Civics through Partying

Bonfires

 

Holy housekeeping

Start in your bedroom

 

Pretty over the kitchen sink (lots of links there to go visit and see how people made their places pretty!)

 

Flow in the kitchen, also about making it pretty

 

Gathering in the family room

 

Building family culture with furniture

 

 

And right here, In the Heart of My Home:

 

Dear Friend, Please Come Visit

Entertaining Angels

On Being Intentional and Making Lists

Why Bother with Cleaning? (But then, be sure to read this one and this one, too;-)

Laundry, Linens and Love

Cocooning and Flying Free

My Not So Simple Life 

More on simplicity

Rhythm and Prayer

Homemaking Companion Notebook (with lots of forms to use, if you like)

{once upon a time, when we shared our bedroom with baby girls}

And another giveaway! This one is for the dads, just in time for Father's Day.

I have another copy of  The Little Oratory: A Beginner’s Guide to Praying in the Home to give away this week. I truly believe that this book is an indispensable resource and no home should be without a copy. I also think this book study this summer could transform lives and it's not too late to join us. The book can be read out of order. So you can get your copy and start where we are or read all night and get caught up or begin at the end and meet us in the middle. Whatever suits you. Just get one and read it. And I'd dearly love for you to talk about it with us. Anway, back to the dads in your life, this volume was co-authored by a man who is a husband and a father. He gets it. The book is distinctly systematic, helpful, and even masculine in a way that religious books usually aren’t.

Another title Sophia Institute Press publishes is The Father of the Family: A Christian Perspective by Clayton Barbeau. I haven't read this one, but reports are that it is a must-read for men. 

Sophia Institute Press is offering both of these books to one of my readers. I'd love it if you entered to win below. The giveaway will end on Sunday, June 8th and the winner will be announced within this post-- you’ll get your books in time to give them for Father’s Day!

Listen to the whole Summer in the Little Oratory Series!

Chapter 1::The Christian Life: bringing it home

Chapter 2:: Home is a Very, Very Good Thing

Chapter 3:: Making the Little Oratory in the Home

Chapter 4:: Towards Living the Liturgical Year at Home

Chapter 5:: Praying the Hours and Sanctifying Every Moment

Whew! Got all that? If you're still with me, please chime in below. I'd love to hear what you're thinking about living the spirit of this book in your very own home. Leave a link to your blog post or just speak up in the combox. Also, if you'd like to share photos on Instagram (I always like to do that;-), use the hashtag #littleoratory so we can find them!

An InLinkz Link-up

Summer Resolutions

Did you hear? June is the new January.

I can see the promise as I flip the calendar page just a month ahead — white space. There will still be activity; there is no offseason for this rowdy crew of kids. What will happen, though, is that all the activity will not be concentrated into those precious hours after school and before bedtime. The days, no doubt, will be busy, but the evening hours will hold fewer obligations outside our home. This summer, that means the table is going to be set for dinner every night, unless we happen to plan a picnic and take it on the road.

Dinner happens here every night of the year. When the children were smaller and I had more control (any control) over the schedule, dinner was always a sit-down all-together affair at 6:00 p.m. Over the past few years, as they have grown, it’s rare for us all to be home at the dinner hour. To that obstacle there is added the obstacle that came with Dad’s taking a job in the city. His commute and the timing of his workday puts dinner for him around bedtime for everyone else. So, dinner still happens. I plan it, shop for it, cook it, and it is eaten in shifts — little clusters of two or three people at a time, most often at the counter before or between leaving home to go somewhere else.

And I hate it.

Usually, on Sundays, we manage to all sit together. Often my son, his wife and their baby join us. No, that’s not exactly true. Even on Sundays, it’s not all of us, because youth group is on Sundays at dinner time, and that has two teens away from the table and at church. I’ve never quite understood that — the church is competing with the family for Sunday dinner. I am, however, grateful for youth group, so I’ve got my sight set on conquering other evenings for the cause of togetherness.

Recently, I had the pleasure of talking with Leila Lawler, co-author of the new book, The Little Oratory. Among other things, I asked her how to protect the spirit of prayer from the tyranny of workday busy-ness. One of the first suggestions she made was to guard family dinnertime. She insisted it was imperative that families all sit down together. But what about soccer practice, I protested in my mind. What about dance? What about that play rehearsal? How to overcome the reality of the long commute from the city?

I didn’t voice a single objection. Instead, I just listened. And I knew that she was right. Eating together as a family is vital to the life of that family. Indeed, Leila said, “Dinner together is the natural sacrament of the family.” The natural sacrament. The lifeblood. The vehicle for grace. We can’t miss this moment of opportunity.

So, it’s time for a summer resolution. We will have dinner as a family more often than not. It will be the default mode. It might be later than in years past; we have to give Dad time to get home. But it will happen. I’m not going to look ahead to the fall, when all the evening white space gets filled with scribbles of several different colors. I’m just going to take the gift of summer space for what it is. And I’m going to fill it with one thing: real meals around the table all together. The natural sacrament of the family.

Summer in the Little Oratory~ Chapter One

 

Let's talk about Chapter 1.

Funny thing happened on the way to this first installment;-).

The Podcast Take 1 had some glitchy audio. I didn't hear it when we recorded because, well, I don't hear at all in my right ear, so with headphones on I sometimes miss things. Big things. Christian tried to fix it. Joy tried to fix it. James (Joy's husband) tried to fix it. I got tired and frustrated and the whole household was talking about Mommy's podcast and The Little Oratory. At one point, Sarah Annie was listening to it with headphones. Such is life around here sometimes.

The next morning Leila was very gracious (really, very, very gracious) and we agreed to re-record it late in the afternoon. In the meantime, a conversation began with my children. 

"What exactly is a Little Oratory?"

"Should we do it?"

"Do we already do it?"

"Why is it beneficial?"

And off we went, discussing the first chapter and more. It's a discussion that continues today.

The Second Take is better than the first. But there are still audio glitches. This time, Sarah jumped in and cheerfully helped me to polish it in post-production. Bear with us, the sound does improve right around the 2 minute mark. 

So, without further ado, here's our little chat for you. You can download the audio by right clicking and choosing "save link as" or you can right click and open with iTunes:

An aside that is a bit off topic but not really: Towards the end, it is 5:00 in my house. My cellphone was on silent, but I forgot that muting one's phone does not mute the alarms. You will hear "chapel bells" chiming to remind me to pray for my husband on the hour. They go off all day long, each hour designated to pray for something specific: his friends, his health, his job, his role as a father... It's probably very "unprofessional" to have the chimes go off, but, well, it's sort of fitting, too, isn't it? Those are not prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours, but they are most definitely the prayers that go with the Hours to pace the rhythm of my day. So, yes, the chimes are part of the real life "charm" of this particular recording. Unintentional, but there you go...

I'd love for you to listen in and then to talk to us about your own prayer space and how you envision bringing this life of prayer into your home. And, if you don't yet have your very own copy of The Little Oratory, it's not too late! Order away, listen in, and join us anyway. Just to make my point that it's absolutely not too late, I'm offering a fresh, lovely copy of the book to one of you who comment below with your own thoughts about the topics we've discussed in the podcast.

As you listen, you'll hear Auntie Leila refer to these posts on Like Mother, Like Daughter:

Visiting Therese

Praying with children

 

Sacred Sundays

 

Family Dinner

 

 

 

Please let us know what you're thinking about The Little Oratory. Leave a link to your post below. and please, please, let's talk! If you don't have a blog, you can still join in. Share thoughts with us below and soon, there will be a place for photo sharing on Like Mother, Like Daughter. We can do this together this summer. I'm so looking forward to it!

Listen to the whole Summer in the Little Oratory Series!

Chapter 1::The Christian Life: bringing it home

Chapter 2:: Home is a Very, Very Good Thing

Chapter 3:: Making the Little Oratory in the Home

Chapter 4:: Towards Living the Liturgical Year at Home

Chapter 5:: Praying the Hours and Sanctifying Every Moment

The Giveaway Winner is Marcia, who wrote, "I loved the podcast and that we need to keep brainstorming ideas to cement the beauty of incorporating the family dinner (at least weekly) into our busy lives. I appreciated the encouragement and that there isn't always a 'one size fits all' approach. I soaked up the grace last Sunday after I planned a 'hot lunch" for the family which although was more labour intensive in the morning did lend to a more relaxing afternoon knowing it would only be eggs on toast for tea. I need to definately put in more effort decorating the table and look forward to pulling this off more often! I also want to try Ann Voskamp's beautiful printable grateful jar notetags and perhaps hand them out to everyone around the table and store in a pretty jar as a visual to remind us to keep on counting our blessings! 
Thanks Elizabeth and Leila and keep the great ideas coming!"

An InLinkz Link-up

A Glitch or Two

Any moment now, there will be a post here with a podcast with Auntie Leila and the grand kickoff of our Summer in the Little Oratory book study. Any moment. Just as soon as we get past the technical glitch. Stay tuned. I promise to be right back.

And any moment, I'm also going to tell you all about Sarah's ebook all about Teaching From Rest. She actually, truly has a guide to unshakeable peace. Imagine that?

After that glitch is unglitched. 

I was up way too late last night, fussing at glitches. But His mercies are new every morning and so, today, I'm greeting the dawn determined to bring you something beautiful very soon. And not to throw my computer across the room and turn into something that rhymes with glitch. 

Prayers appreciated;-)

{Also, when the glitches start crawling in my ear and taking up residence in my head and I'm really, truly struggling to find a state of rest, I limit my online time to creative blogs. They are usually the breezy breath of fresh air that forces its way into my lungs and propels me into the sewing room where my fingers take over and my head gets a rest. This post moved me to tears. It's a fabric line introduction--likely won't do a thing for you. But for me? Well, I just get it. I really do. }