Can we Divorce-proof Our Marriages?

I still remember it vividly. They seemed the perfect family: one girl, one boy, both darling. Mom and Dad were together at swim meets and ballgames. They lived in a lovely house. Their children went to great schools. And then, the day after the younger graduated high school, her mom up and left. Walked out. At least that’s the way it looked to those of us watching from a distance. Just like that: marriage over; family dissolved. Read the rest here, please?

needle & thREAD

Best laid plans and all that. I've gotten very little sewing in since last week. A summer cold has had me horizontal since about three hours after I put up last Thursday's post. I tried to sew a little on Friday and then I decided it was better not to sew and mess it all up in my fevered stupor than to trudge on. Maybe this afternoon will see the big completion. I commit no promises to print.

I did do a lot of reading, mostly clicking around on the web because I found I couldn't wrap my brain around real books. I did a ridiculous amount of Paleo diet research and after carefully considering dozens of recommendations from friends on Facebook and elsewhere, I bought Everyday Paleo and Make it Paleo, both of which look every bit as good as promised.

What about you? Sewing? Reading? A little of both? What's on your summer reading list? Do you have a summer sewing list?  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:-).

Giveaway reminder:

 I have had Joanna Figueroa's With Fabric and Thread on a book rack on my desk lately. It's just such lovely eye candy! Yesterday, I read more carefully the apron pages. Last year, we determined that we'd make a new apron every July in honor of the feasts of St. Martha and St. Anne.  With Fabric and Thread  has the perfect retro reversible apron. This book is so lovely that I'd like to share it. Anyone who links up here at needle & thREAD this week  will be entered to win a copy of  With Fabric and Thread. Winner will be chosen and announced a week from today, July 19. 

Friendship and Fear

In the wake of that ferocious storm a couple of weeks ago, all phone service was down, but the internet was working. I clicked on Facebook and searched a dear friend's name in order to send her a message about plans for the day. Her name didn't pop up. I clicked on my friends list. Her name wasn't there.

I felt my blood run cold. I mentally ran through every word of the previous conversation we'd had. My pulse quickened and tears sprung to my eyes. "Oh, please, God, not her. And not again. Please, not again."  Please join me at MomHeart to read the rest...

Thoughts on Tuesday

I find myself:

::noticing God's glory

The wave petunias are taking off--hooray! And we have tomatoes and zucchini in the garden and an abundance of basil. Nicky has been a huge help to keep the garden healthy through the intense heat.

The weeds are super healthy, too, Maybe tomorrow I'll tackle them again.

::listening to 

Katie, Karoline, and Sarah playing together. They are so blessed to have one another. I have to smile at God's plan for these three little girls in a row at the end. Great idea, that one.

::clothing myself in 

a white blouse and denim clam diggers.

::talking with my children about these books

The little girls and I are reading The Twelve Dancing Princesses over and over again. I don't know why--they're just obsessed with it.

::thinking and thinking

about weddings, particularly about small weddings. Did you have a very small wedding? Have you been a guest at one? Tell me about it, please. We've got a wedding to plan.

::giving thanks for

electric power, internet, cell phones and landlines, running water, open gas stations, ATM --all things we unexpectedly learned we can't depend upon a couple weekends ago.

Oh, and what a nice break in the temperatures today, too. It's not even going to hit 90.

 

::pondering prayerfully

"Intimacy with The Lord is achieved by cheerful readiness to do the will of God."

~ St.Basil the Great

::carefully cultivating rhythm

 my plan this week is to write absolutely everything in my planner. I've gotten out of that habit and I think I create stress for myself by not committing it all to writing.

::creating by hand

These sundresses are taking a ridiculously long time to finish. I was hit by a whopper cold on Friday and have barely moved ever since. But I am determined to have them done by needle & thREAD on Thursday.

::learning lessons in

Paleo diets. I've been surfing lots of paleo sites while I wait for this cold to leave the premises. I've managed to sketch out some detailed menus plans and to dispatch a teenager to the grocery store. We'll see if I can muster the energy to actually cook today.

::encouraging learning 

I always think we're going to get so much accomplished during the summer. And then we don't. But it's still early in July. Perhaps we will?

::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.

:keeping house

I keep reminding people to do laundry as I hang out horizontally all day. The best I can hope is that the laundry is indeed happening. As the laundry goes, so goes the rest of the household.

 

::crafting in the kitchen 

I have been following these dietary guidelines for treating hypothyroidism. It's pretty much a Paleo diet. Now that I've spent so much time clicking around the web, I feel more hopeful that one can eat like this and still be a foodie. I have yet to actually try to bring it to life in my kitchen, though. And I'm still unconvinced that I really need to give up tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and mushrooms, too. Time will tell.

::loving the moments

when my little girls are so excited about going to Grandpa's that they beg to pack a week in advance. Well, I don't exactly love the begging, but I do love that they're excited to go to Grandpa's.

::living the liturgy

Look for a "prep post" for the feast of St. Anne real soon. Friday, I think.

::planning for the week ahead

I don't know. I just want to feel functional. Mike comes home tonight from an extended trip to Chicago and then Dallas. I would dearly love to be chipper and cheerful by then.

Lord, Hear Our Prayer

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

 Mark 6:1-6

Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, "Where did this man get all this?
What kind of wisdom has been given him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?"
And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,
"A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house."
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Think

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.

    For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths. But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:1-5)

Pray

Dear Lord,

Please help me focus. The world around me is flashing incessantly with messages that are not yours. I am distracted and my faith and courage falter. Fill me me with yourself. Give me grace and strength. Help me to open myself to you, to be willing to listen. Squash the prideful self-sufficiency that sets me apart from you. Instead, quiet me, please, and let me listen to what you whisper to my soul.

Act

Plan right now for some specific time every day this week to be still and quiet and listen to God. Do you have a friend who will hold you accountable in your walk with God? Find one.