It’s almost a universal response these days. I tell someone we havenine children and they respond with some variation of “Wow! That’s like ‘Jon and Kate Plus Eight’ only with one more. I don’t know how you do it.” Let’s just set the record straight from the get-go: My life is nothing like Jon’s or Kate’s.Read the rest here.
Last weekend, we celebrated Pentecost at St. Bede in Williamsburg. I can't do justice to how beautifully this parish lives liturgy. The building itself is architecturally perfect. If someone plopped you down there without telling you where you were, you would easily guess you were in a Catholic church a stone's throw from colonial Williamsburg. While the architecture was American Colonial, it was perfectly married to Reverent Catholic. Words fail me here.
The liturgy was a beautiful Novus Ordo Mass, proving that that is not a contradiction in terms. It was reverent and relevant and completely orthodox, despite the round church. Who knew?
I wish I lived in that parish. I can't wait to go back.
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To Fit and Happy...
I have carried a 17 pound baby in a front pack for hours and hours and hours in Jamestown (in 90 degree heat and total humidity), in Colonial Williamsburg for three hours one day and five hours the next, and up and back on the sidelines of a soccer field for two breathtaking games.
I'm sore and tired.
but happy:-)
State Cup Championships
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The Captains before the match begins
Game winning goal and euphoric reaction. There was a yellow card issued for excessive celebration
Patrick: I have no regrets. I'll be telling my grandchildren about that yellow.
We had an awesome 4-day weekend. It is highly likely this will be a sports blog for the next few days as we post pictures and highlights and lots of great memories. For now, I have mountains of laundry and hundreds of e-mails. And the most important task at hand is figuring out where all eleven of us can stay when Patrick's team represents Virginia at the Regional Tournament in Huntington, WV the week of July Fourth.
If you have any great ideas, let me know. I'm serious. There appears to be no room at the inn...or the cabins...or the campgrounds.
There is a wonderful book now available for pre-ordering. I had the privilege of reading this book in its pre-publication format and then I had the distinct honor of writing the foreword. What this means for you is that I have already written a review of Mary Gildersleeve's new book and I can share the news of its publication with unabashed joy!
The Foreword to In His Name: Nurturing Creativity in the Heart of Your Home
You hold in your hands a delightful treasure. This little tome will inspire you, encourage you, and awaken in you the creator you were created to be. And you, in turn, will bring that same awareness to your children. Together, you will become troubadours of beauty. As you read, you will become aware of God’s boundless beauty and you will be encouraged to bring it to your home and to share it with your children.
Mary Gildersleeve tells us that we have a God-given responsibility to be creative, to create beauty for beauty’s sake, and to live with a sense of purpose. I couldn’t agree more!
God has made each of us to be creative. Do we take the time and make the effort to nurture that creativity within ourselves and our children? Do we make our homes havens for artists and handcrafters? Do we surround ourselves with examples of the good and the lovely? If we don’t do those things as well as we would like, we will after reading this book. In its pages, we will see clearly that we are called to be artisans and that to neglect beauty is to neglect God himself.
As creative homemakers, we gather all our senses to bring beauty to our homes and fill the lives of those we love with warmth and joy. We satisfy the hungry with crusty, homemade bread. We welcome the weary to our homes with pitchers filled with roses clipped from our own gardens and arranged just so on furniture rubbed to a gleaming glow. We comfort the cold with woolen socks and handknit scarves made especially for them. We lighten the load of the troubled and the stressed with the sounds of well-played pianos in our own living rooms. We engage our senses to bring the goodness of beauty to the people we love.
So too, can all our senses bring beauty to the education of our children. Education in the arts is no less important than academic education. Creativity will launch our children beyond the boundaries of their intelligence. A creative child knows how to think outside the box—to seek fresh approaches and novel ways of understanding things. More importantly, a creative child will have a greater, deeper, truer understanding of God. There can be no understanding of philosophy or theology without imagination and creativity.
All children are made in the image of their Creator. All children are creative. And we are called to nurture that creativity in the hearts of homes. The precious souls entrusted to us deserve nothing less than our careful, intentional provision for the development of creativity. This book is a quick read, but don’t read it quickly. Instead, read it in small snippets, taking the time to meditate on the messages here. Call upon the Creator to show you his unique plan for nurturing creativity in your home and ask him for the wisdom to make it so.
God bless you and your efforts to bring grace, and light, and loveliness to your family!
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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