Moments on a Monday

I find myself:

::noticing God's glory

The garden is popping! I'm so enjoying watching the neighborhood come to life. Walking in the morning gives me a chance to soak it all in and to notice even the subtle day-to-day changes. 

::listening to 

The USA-Canada soccer match.

  

::clothing myself in 

Long shorts (short longs?) and a red tunic.

::talking with my children about these books

Since I'm going to share my own reading on Thursdays at needle and thREAD, I thought I'd share some reading from our family's choices. 

Patrick is reading Walking with God: A Journey through the Bible.

Mary Beth is reading Joy in the Ordinary.

Stephen has asked to read the Count of Monte Cristo.

Katie is annoyed beyond belief at how the movie version differs from the book version of Mr. Popper's Penguins.

Nick is still working through the Hunger Games trilogy.

And the little girls and I are gathering all our seashore picture books...

 

::thinking and thinking

When I wrote this piece, I received mail from several people asking about the difference between depression and spiritual desolation. It's not really a question I'm comfortable answering from afar. I think that a good spiritual director is essential in both circumstances and can help to discern the differences.

On a not altogether unrelated note, I also got mail about a post written by a friend of mine. To those folks, I gently reiterate what has always been true here. I hold my friends close and dear. I treasure them. We are all on a journey. I value the fellowship of my friends on that journey and I pray that I can be faithful and true to them every step of the way. When they shoulder a cross, I want to be the first to help them carry it, not the one who walks the other way. And yes, sometimes it hurts. I'm good with that. There's value in suffering.

::giving thanks for

my dear man, who truly did not rest this weekend, but offered me the opportunity to hit the reset button. He's sunburned and exhausted and so very loved.

::pondering prayerfully

"The mark of a Catholic is the ability to see the Divine where it is least expected: in a baby in the arms of his mother, in bread and wine, in prayers tolled on beads, in the voice of an old man in Rome." Fulton Sheen

::carefully cultivating rhythm

Rhythm kicked my tushie last week. After a week upended with Patrick's knee, we had a three day weekend that was about a million soccer games in the boiling heat. Laundry piled up. I got totally exhausted. I had a major house project happening. I might have even eaten pizza and had a cup of coffee. My thyroid went on a wild ride. And then, I totally crashed. Wiped out.  In a big way. I took the whole weekend to get back on an even keel. Much better:-).

::creating by hand

We are making new rosaries for everyone. I'd hoped to have them finished during May, but, um, see above. This week...

I made Karoline a darling sundress yesterday. Another Oliver + S pattern. I might be a Liesl Gibson groupie. She's amazing. Just wonderful. Pictures on Thursday for needle and thREAD. I've got Katie's all laid out. Hopefully, one for Sarah will also happen this week. Sewing makes me happy. Really happy. 

Speaking of needle and thREAD, I've promised myself an hour or so this afternoon to go visiting. I haven't read all the links in the last two weeks. I'm looking so forward to it!

::learning lessons in

discernment of spirits. More reading here.

::encouraging learning 

Summer schedule begins today. Some intensive math. IEW writing. Lots of reading.

::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 lonely missionaries

for baby Truman, who drowned in a few inches of water , but was revived. Won't you watch and wait with us, keeping Truman, his doctors, and his beautiful family in your unceasingly prayers?

:keeping house

I deep cleaned the bedrooms of the 3 older boys last week. I also did 16 loads of laundry over the weekend. These two things are related. Yes, I think that's pathetic. It will never happen again. Mark my words.

::crafting in the kitchen 

Green Smoothies. Trying some recipes of Nissa's. Actually, I'm going green in a big way for all of June. We'll see if that helps the thyroid do its thing more efficiently.

 

::loving the moments

when every laundry basket in the house is empty. No, it didn't really happen. But if it did, I'd love the moment.

::living the liturgy

We finished  33 Days to Morning Glory  and the children did their Marian Consecration on the Feast of the Visitation. It was a lovely, lovely day.

This week is the Feast of Corpus Christi. Our mission is named Corpus Christi. I need to think of something good for this feast. Suggestions welcome...

::planning for the week ahead

Dance recital this weekend! Should make for an exciting week.

Lord, Hear Our Prayer

{Please pardon the tardiness of this post. I had it all queued up earlier in the week and then forgot to actually post it:-).}

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

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Matt 28: 16-20)

Think 

What then is the relationship between the life of the person and his sharing in the life of the Trinity? Saint Augustine provides us with the answer in his celebrated phrase: "Our heart is restless until it rests in you". This "restless heart" serves to point out that between the one finality and the other there is in fact no contradiction, but rather a relationship, a complementarity, a unity. By his very genealogy, the person created in the image and likeness of God, exists "for his own sake" and reaches fulfilment precisely by sharing in God's life. The content of this self-fulfilment is the fullness of life in God, proclaimed by Christ (cf. Jn 6:37-40), who redeemed us precisely so that we might come to share it (cf. Mk 10:45). (Blessed Pope John Paul the Great, Letter to Families)

Pray

Glory be to the Father,
Who by His almighty power and love created me,
making me in the image and likeness of God.

Glory be to the Son,
Who by HisPrecious Blood delivered me from hell,
and opened for me the gates of heaven.

Glory be to the Holy Spirit,
Who has sanctified me in the sacrament of Baptism,
and continues to sanctify me
by the graces I receive daily from His bounty.

Glory be to the Three adorable Persons of the Holy Trinity,
now and forever.

Amen. 

Act

In our family, we have a tradition of "Sundaes on Sunday." Since today is the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, it's only appropriate to serve three scoops of Neapolitan ice cream with three toppings on every sundae: Three in One Yum:-)!

needle & thREAD

Hello, sewing friends!

I welcome you to needle and thREAD. What have you been sewing lately? 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. Do visit the Flickr page. There's some amazing needlework there.

       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:-).

I've read two Grace Livingston Hill books in the last week (much reading between soccer games--bliss out in the sunshine, on a blanket, under an umbrella). The first, The Mystery of Mary, was like a novella you'd expect to find in a women's magazine. There was very little plot or character development and it was fairly implausible. It didn't take long to read it, though, so I'm none the worse for the wear. The second, A Voice in the Wilderness, was far better. The storyline was more believable than The Enchanted Barn, the first GLH I read. Set in the Arizona desert, the cast of characters was well developed and the plot was strong. There were lots of little nuggets I enjoyed.

Grace Livingston Hill has a definite "formula." Young women of strong Christian character and independent spirit bring dashing young men to the Lord and the young men, in turn, protect and defend them in the moment and forever. It's wholesome entertainment, I suppose, but this week, I'm going to take a little GLH break and look at some of your other suggestions from previous weeks.

After I finish putting my house in order.  :-)

Incidentally, I think that GLH does inspire attention to homemaking and that's a very fine thing. There's also a wonderful inspiration to feminine loveliness. 

I'm also powering through Hail, Holy Queen because I promised myself that I'd read it this May. And I only have a few hours left. 

I haven't gotten much sewing done--actually no sewing at all. I have managed to wash fabric and trace patterns and cut out one of the six jumpers I have planned. I promised the little girls two sundresses each by mid-June. So, beginning tomorrow, sewing binge:-) 

Hold me to it, friends. Next week's post should have much sewing and perhaps a wee bit less reading.

When the world seems dark and your soul feels cold

The day shone brightly upon us, sun glinting off the lake, all a promise of summer’s dawn. Still, she shivered in the warmth and pulled a gray, hooded sweat jacket tightly around her.

“I just don’t feel it. I don’t feel God. I don’t feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. I feel bone dry. And, well, cold.” Another shiver and a tug on her zipper. Please read the rest here.

Sometimes I have to stop and take a day or two (or three)

to gather my thoughts and order my environment. To change seasons and adapt my rhythm with grace and dignity. Or, to just order my kids around and clean and de-clutter in a frantic frenzy until I can stop hyperventilating.

Some notes on that:

Blessed the husband of a good wife,
    twice-lengthened are his days;
A worthy wife brings joy to her husband,
    peaceful and full is his life.
A good wife is a generous gift
    bestowed upon him who fears the LORD;
Be he rich or poor, his heart is content,
    and a smile is ever on his face.

A gracious wife delights her husband,
    her thoughtfulness puts flesh on his bones;
A gift from the LORD is her governed speech,
    and her firm virtue is of surpassing worth.
Choicest of blessings is a modest wife,
    priceless her chaste soul.
A holy and decent woman adds grace upon grace;
    indeed, no price is worthy of her temperate soul. 
Like the sun rising in the LORD's heavens,
    the beauty of a virtuous wife in her well-ordered home.
-from the Book of Sirach

A Homemaker's Prayer
 May I have the strength and the will to do the humble tasks, that make a house a fit abode for my loved ones. Clean floors, shining china, dainty curtains, clean sheets, good food, a cheery fire-may my willing hands make these things possible.
But Father, let me remember that man does not live by bread alone, that material things but make a proper setting for life's real treasures of mind and spirit. Give me patience and understanding and kindness and humor and love in abundance, and charity for all. May the spirit of happiness, of joys and sorrows shared, of unity, of the peace that passeth understanding linger here! Help me to keep the path to Thee open and easy to find for the little ones in my keeping. And let there be laughter here.
And last, dear Lord, help me to remember the stranger without the door. May there be warmth enough on our hearth to share with him.
Is this too much for one so weak, so full of faults as I, to ask? At least it can be a goal toward which to strive, and to Thee all things are possible. Amen

-Mrs. Howard Peet 

Prayer to St. Anne for Homemakers
Dear St. Anne, we know nothing about you except your name. But you gave us the Mother of God who called herself handmaid of the Lord. In your home you raised the Queen of Heaven and are rightly the model of homemakers. In your womb came to dwell the new Eve uniquely conceived without sin. Intercede for us that we too may remain free from sin. Amen.

More Links to inspire your  clean-sweeping:

Cocooning and Flying Free

My Not So Simple Life 

More on simplicity

Rhythm and Prayer

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

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

More Home Management Notebook Links  

The entire homemaking archives in the Heart of my Home. 

 

Here's some chatting about Cleaning and Simplifying  at the Faith and Family Livecast!

Podcast Notes:

Simplicity Parenting. A very thoughtful parenting book. I It's not Catholic, but it's just good, plain common sense. Combine it with Lifeline, for a simple parenting library. Very simple;-).

CrazyBusy, Overstretched, Overbooked and About to Snap! This is lifestyle simplification for adults.

Simplifying Your Domestic Church a beautiful, thoroughly Catholic guide to bringing simplification principles to your environment.

Keep it Simple: The Busy Catholic's guide to growing closer to God. This is simplicity for your prayer life.

Homemaking Prayers

A Homemaking Library:

Join Me for Tea
Home-Making
Open Heart, Open Home
Martha to the Max: Balanced Living for Perfectionists
Splendor in the Ordinary
Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World
Holiness for Housewives
Mothers and Daughters at Home

I'll be back here on Thursday for needle & thREAD!