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 6:30-34

The apostles gathered together with Jesus
and reported all they had done and taught.
He said to them,
"Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while."
People were coming and going in great numbers,
and they had no opportunity even to eat.
So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.
People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.
They hastened there on foot from all the towns
and arrived at the place before them.

When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.

Think

I have always seen rest as time set aside from daily tasks, never as days of idleness.
Rest means recuperation: to gain strength, form ideals and make plans. In other words it means a change of occupation, so that you can come back later with a new impetus to your daily job. ~Josemaria Escriva,

Pray

Holy Spirit, please remind me that at every moment I am cooperating in the human and spiritual formation of those around me. At every moment: when I work and when I rest, help me to pray as with childlike faith and let my peace of soul shine through when people see when people see that I have suffered, that I have wept, and still I smile. {adapted from the words of Josemaria Escriva}

Act

Go away by yourself and rest awhile. Take Jesus with you.

Go out and play!

It's a happy thing to know how to play. ~Emerson

Almost all creativity involves purposeful play. ~Maslow

The true object of all human life is play. ~ G. K. Chesterton

When children pretend, they’re using their imaginations to move beyond the bounds of reality. A stick can be a magic wand. A sock can be a puppet. A small child can be a superhero. ~ Fred Rogers

Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play. ~Matisse

Truly wonderful the mind of a child is. ~Yoda

Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery:  He has not been broken in two by time; he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life.  ~G.K. Chesterton

Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon.  A happiness weapon.  A beauty bomb.  And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one.  It would explode high in the air - explode softly - and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air.  Floating down to earth - boxes of Crayolas.  And we wouldn't go cheap, either - not little boxes of eight.  Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in.  With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest.  And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination.  ~Robert Fulghum

needle & thREAD (and Giveaway Winner)

It all began with this skirt. Karoline loves this skirt. It's a Hanna Andersson, circa 2002. Mary Beth wore it for years (the beauty of a tiered denim skirt with elastic waist), then Katie wore it. Now, it's Karoline's. 

But Sarah wanted it. She really, really wanted it. She said she liked long skirts. She pulled it on. It fell to the floor around her ankles. I tried to explain that the skirt was really old and there was no way to get one in her size. Then, I remembered that Mike had put this shirt in the giveaway pile.

Please excuse the poor picture. It was a denim shirt given to Mike by a cable network back in his freelance days. Since he no longer works for that network, he really can't wear a shirt with its logo. The shirt was still in great shape, but the logo earned it giveaway status.

I knew I had several spools of jumbo ric-rac stashed in the sewing room.

I told Sarah I had an idea. She was kind of horrified to see me take scissors to Daddy's shirt.

But a few hours later, she had this new skirt to wear. I tried to pesuade her to wear a different shirt, but she has a signature style and this is it.

And it passed the twirl test!

Two twirling girls in ric-rac skirts! I so love ric-rac. And denim. And happy girlies. (Don't look too closely; there are still some basting threads in Sarah's skirt. She was rather eager to wear it.)

No picture of my book this week. I'm reading a PDF advance copy of Vinny Flynn's new book. It's a good read; I'm sure I'll share it with you more completely later.

The winner of Joanna Figueroa's With Fabric and Thread is Leah, who said:

I'm sorry you're not feeling well. Prayers for a speedy recovery. Definitely a good idea to wait until you're feeling better to continue your project. I've messed up many projects in the past not heeding that advice. The buttons are so cheery; I'm sure the the girls will love them, and they complement the sundresses beautifully!

I've been following Needle & ThREAD since its beginning and have finally decided to join in. I'm not tech savvy, and I'm new to Flicker, so I hope I did everything right. Here's a link to my current project:http://www.flickr.com/photos/leahsblessings/7559471330/in/pool-1961221@N22

Leah, please email me your mailing address and I'll send it out to you lickety split.

Do be sure to pop over and check out her beautiful quilt topper. And remember, you don't have to blog to join us. Just upload your pictures to Flickr.

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 thREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and thREAD 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:-).

40 Ways to Keep Summer from Slipping Away

It's more than halfway through July. I paused a moment or two this morning to put to paper my intentions for the rest of the summer. I find that if I'm intentional, I'm better able to fully engage in the moment. I don't want to let a second of summer's goodness slip away unappreciated. So, I resolve to

1. Make sure it is Mama in prayer that my children see first thing every morning. Much preferred to Mama pounding away furiously at a keyboard.
2. Exercise both morning and evening. Evenings, with Mike.
3. Eat three small meals a day, nothing more.
4. Keep my kitchen Whole30 compliant.
5. Sit down and eat together every evening.
6. Completely refurbish the Homemaking Notebook, update routines, discard the unnecessary.
7. Paint the house.
8. Limit social media to pre-determined times of day, for very small, pre-determined periods of time. For me and for my children. 
9. Actually shut down the computer when finished instead of merely closing the lid or clicking "sleep."
10. Sew something for an hour (or more) every day.
11. Polish up the Alphabet Path and make two week lesson plans for every letter, transferring them to PDF so that I don't have to consult the computer for my lessons. And update that tutorial.
12. Make peach jam.
13. Whittle my Google Reader down to the top ten most inspiring blogs. Check in with them once a week. Read books the rest of the time
14. Keep my Instagram circle small. I treasure those snapshots of the lives of intentional women.
15. Stick to the "more prayer, less coffee" routine.
16. Take myself off every junk mail list and unsubscribe from all email blog feeds.
17. Keep a Mason jar of fresh flowers on the center island in the kitchen every day.
18. Visit every playground in my neighborhood at least twice before September 1st.
19. Make in-real-life play dates once a week--for me (pedicures might be involved).
20. Keep the first and last hours of every day free from digital interference.

21. Go to Adoration at least an hour a week.
22. Indulge in unlimited pillow talk. Sleep in if necessary.
23. Make a fresh pitcher of fruit infused water every morning. Drain it by the end of the day.
24. Keep my cell phone completely off in the car.
25. Plan a date night once a week.
26. Help Mike plan a 25th anniversary trip for September.
27. Watch the sunrise with Nicholas.
28. Kiss them goodbye when they leave the house. Every one of them. Every time.
29. Take Karoline fishing. Let her sing. Sing with her.
30. When someone--anyone, everyone--speaks to me, look him/her in the eye for the entire conversation. (Unless we're sitting and doing handwork together;-)
31. Stand in the pool and let her jump to me. Over and over and over.
32. Go to a Brad Paisley concert with my absolute favorite 17-year-old and his darling girlfriend and her awesome mom.
33. Finish knitting "Katie's" sweater so Karoline can wear it this fall.
34. Read five picture books a day to a child on my lap.
35. Pray the rosary together every night.
36. Tell my kids how much I love to watch them play.
37. Lots of bubble baths, followed by kid massages. 
38. Say "yes" to as many crazy, creative kid ideas as humanly possible.
39.Let Sarah paint my toenails.
40. Help Kristin plan a Christmas wedding.

Gathering my Thoughts After a Weekend Away

I find myself:

::noticing God's glory

I'm in Charlottesville for a few days and it's always so easy to be swept up in the beauty of creation here. We picked peaches in an orchard on a mountain yesterday. It was 95 degrees and the peaches were fuzzy, but oh! the views. Worth every bead of sweat. 

{The view from Carter Mountain Orchard}

I head home this morning. It's hot there, too, so maybe I won't miss here;-)

::listening to 

The whirring of the ceiling fan.

::clothing myself in 

Yellow polo shirt and white capris. I am desperately in need of clothing.

::talking with my children about these books

G is for Gold Medal: An Olympic Alphabet. I'm a big fan of the Sleeping Bear Press Alphabet books. Michael will soon be off to spend nearly a month in London covering the Summer Olympics for USAToday. This is our week to get in the spirit.

I did a terrible job packing: no bathing suits for little girls, no special pillow for Karoline, no toothbrush, no nebulizer... the list goes on. I don't know where my brain was. And I left a stack of books at home, waiting to become my summer reading in the sunroom in Charlottesville. Where I am. And they are not. These books:

Beauty in the World: Rethinking the Foundations of Education  (This one is really good and I'm really sorry it's sitting there by the front steps at home.)

7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess

Talking Back to Facebook

 

::thinking and thinking

about being 20-something. While I was sick last week, I stumbled onto a long list of 20-something blogs. And I read through them all (or so it seemed). I'm so glad there was no internet when I was a 20-something mom. I'm so glad I wasn't tempted to preserve in words my every whine. It's a good thing I couldn't record every time my husband worked long hours, every poop, vomit, or runny nose, every last little moment of discouragement or loneliness that comes with being home alone with little ones. I'm glad that wasn't the brand I put on how I lived my vocation. I'm glad my husband wasn't forced to see grumbling in print every time he logged on hoping to see sweet pictures of his kids and the wife for whom he was working so hard. I'm so glad my complaining doesn't still stand as a testimony for my children to read. And I'm glad because, in the moment, I was forced to talk to a friend instead of sending missives into cyberspace. I could pick up the phone at naptime and spend no more than a few minutes relating a hard day. She'd be empathetic and share her trials, too. (Bonus: I wasn't reading everyone else's whining and propogating an entire network of discontent.) And then we'd move on, usually outside. I didn't have a car of my own. I was limited to my own small neighborhood. I wasn't looking in anyone's windows, especially carefully edited windows in far off places. I spent a lot of time walking to the park with my kids. I spent a lot of time talking to other women while we pushed swings and with our kids slid down the slides. You can do that when you don't have a smart phone in your hand.

We didn't wallow.

But maybe that's because by the time I was a 20-something with two children, my friends and I had had occasion to think a little differently about what a hard day is. When I was 24, God hit the "pause" button. After reading those blogs, I think that cancer might have been a bigger blessing than previously considered. God said, "Those ordinary days filled with diapers and diaper pails and blueberries all over the floor and a really heavy toddler who wants to be held--do you want to keep living them? That man who leaves here every morning and often works late into the night, the one who travels several times a month and leaves you to fend for yourself with these small people, do you want to keep building this life with him? The ability to conceive babies, are you going to continue to take that for granted? Do you want to think big thoughts, to look beyond today to a future that stretches full of hope? Do you want to believe in something worth fighting for, worth suffering for? Or do you just want hang out and keep whining about dirty carpet and tiny paychecks and babies who won't sleep through the night? Do you want to keep clicking aimlessly and tweeting discontent?"

He didn't actually say it. But He meant it. And after reading what might have been if there had been the Internet and if there hadn't been cancer, I'm glad it was the way it was. I'm glad my friends lived around the corner and came over to wrap arms around my shoulders while my hair fell out, to gather up my little boy and take him to her house while I was in the hospital. I was a better mother before the Internet. And after cancer. (But I don't want to learn lessons that way again, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Just being clear, there.) In the midst of my 20-something whiny blog reading binge, I heard from a mom diagnosed with cancer 10 days after learning she is pregnant. She's 20 weeks along. Please pray for her. Pray hard. Those are some challenging days.

 I'm told it's a generation gap. That I don't understand how that generation thinks and how they communicate. Maybe. But I find myself wanting to beg the woman in the screen: Before you log on to record forever how grumpy you feel in this moment, cup the face of your child in your hands. Think to yourself: I don't have to worry that her runny nose is a virus that could kill me because I have no white blood cells. I don't have to run and grab a bandana to cover my bald head when the UPS man comes to the door. I can take this sweet face and kiss that forehead and dance around my living room. I can throw up the window and seize the day and head outside for a long stroller walk. I can snuggle with them at naptime and then slip away while they sleep to get online scrub the kitchen floor and get a head start on a yummy meal. I can gather myself as evening comes to whine on Facebook pray Vespers with the universal church and count my blessings aloud to God. I can take a few minutes before the love of my life gets home to tell Twitter how I'm a single parent brush my hair and pull on a clean shirt and smile when I greet the man who sacrifices for me and parents with me. I can live every single moment like the gift it is because I have traded a valuable day of my life for it and I don't know how many of those I have to live. 

End of rant. Next time I'm sick with a cold, I promise to read light fiction instead of marathon surfing (Grace Livingston Hill anyone?), but really, I'm sort of glad for the reminder myself.

::giving thanks for

a couple days in a home away from home, with people I love, and mountains that never fail to restore my spirit.

{Queen Anne's Lace. Rotting Peaches. You can overlook the smelly bad and delight in the beautiful, no?}

::pondering prayerfully

Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent. ~St. John of the Cross

Also really praying about the content in the sidebar links week.

::carefully cultivating rhythm

I don't know why I thought we'd have all kinds of free time and boundless energy this summer. That has not been the case at all. This week has promise for lots of quiet and some sleep, though. Ever hopeful, right?

::creating by hand

Sundresses to finish and some quilts to sew.

 

::learning lessons in

making jam. We picked 24 pounds of peaches. I'm planning to experiment with a couple types of jam. Suggestions gratefully welcomed:-)

::encouraging learning 

I'm going to clean out school baskets this week and polish up the plans a bit. Most of my students are off on adventures.

::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 Jessica.

 
{tea in the sunroom}

:keeping house

I have some decisions to make ASAP about paint colors in, oh, pretty much the whole house.

::crafting in the kitchen 

Still fine-tuning a solid three week paleo meal plan. So far, sweet potato and sausage hash and bacon-wrapped asparagus have been big hits. There will be far fewer people around the table this week. Not as many palates to please:  Good time to experiment!

::loving the moments

Nicholas played nine holes of golf at my father's club yesterday. My dad can't golf any more. But he passed along his love for the game to Nicholas a few years ago. Then, he invested in it last year. (Click; it's cool.) Nick has been faithfully practicing at the course near our house. So, my dad took him out in the sweltering heat yesterday and he watched while Nicky shone. They both came home beaming. I'm just so happy they got to share it.

::living the liturgy

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Children with me at home this afternoon will probably be able to persuade me to make something with caramel, even though we all know that caramel has absolutely nothing to do with Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.

::planning for the week ahead

Patrick and Mary Beth are in Ocean City at a dance competition. (Mary Beth is dancing. Paddy is just along for the ride. I'm certain he'd want me to clarify that.)

Katie and Nicky are staying in Charlottesville for the week. Katie will go to pony camp and Nicky will go to golf camp. And they'll get plenty spoiled by grandparents along the way.

Mike is back in Coral Gables. 

Michael is leaving for London.

At the end of the week, when Mike returns, we're going to go visit him in his DC office and play tourist at the Smithsonian. Ride the Metro. Cool stuff that is easier with only 4 kids.

It's going to be quieter at our house with only 4 kids at home. Ought to impact the grocery bill significantly, too. I will miss the other five. I won't miss the laundry. 

Oh, and we're going to fingerpaint with our feet outside.