June 10, 2014

Gathering My Thoughts

June 10, 2014/ Elizabeth Foss

I find myself:

::noticing God's glory

There are lots of bunnies in my backyard. They're living in the trees by the playhouse. Not at all shy, they often treat us to scampering antics as they run and play with one another. I'm very afraid for my garden. Researching fencing this week....

::listening to

Karoline slurping tea. My hour for awakening keeps creeping earlier as I try to squeeze in alone time before the children join me. I need this chunk of time every morning to set my head on straight.Today, I rolled out of bed at 4:45. She was up at 4:50. Need a new plan.

::clothing myself in

new shoes. I bought a new pair of Jambu shoes for this summer. I wore last year's pair every day from April until Ocotober and they made my feet so happy. It was definitely time for a new pair. Love them!

::talking with my children about these books

Civil war books this summer, as we visit battlefields in Virginia and Pennsylvania. We've added a few new ones to the old Serendipity list. The children all like these Interactive History volumes:

The Civil War

The Battle Of Bull Run

::thinking and thinking

about morning time with the Bible and how it anchors my day.

::pondering

"The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in and out of the wind."

C.S. Lewis

::carefully cultivating rhythm

Summer begins for real this week. We've discussed the summer schedule. "School" year 'round will have to happen here. As I gridded in all the comings and goings, I recognized that we won't have a single week where someone isn't away for something. I'm introducing my children to the concept of "Make Up Work." We do lots of things all together and I can't suspend them all this summer, so certain people will have to catch up on what they missed when they return.

::creating by hand

I'm making a pretty gift to tuck into my carry on bag this week. I'm flying to Colorado to visit with Sally Clarkson! I have a little somehting for her. I'll show you next week.

::learning lessons in

blog hosts, podcasting, website transfers. We're trying to move this blog to Squarespace. This blog is old--over 8 years old--and the code is tangled mess. So, the move isn't happening very smoothly at all. Technical learning curves have been frustrating me for some time now. I can see what I want and I know that the technology exists to create it, but I don't have the technical know-how. When I try to learn to learn something new (as I have with podcasting) the rest of my domestic world falls down around me. I blog in the margins. Learning new technical things creeps way into the main column of my life. And then, there is the inevitable stress that comes with the overlap.

You know what that does? It breeds envy. I find myself looking around and seeing all the cool things other people pull off--e-books and digital magazines and social media blitzes and blogs in brand new spaces and beautiful digital art--and I am envious. How do they do that and still be a wife and mom and run a household and remember to make sure that everyone has clean socks?(And cream for the coffee--there's vanilla ice cream; that will work today, no?) How do they do that with a house full of kids? Do their kids not need to eat three times a day? Do they not need someone to hold their hands through every single problem on every single page of the math book? Do they not get sick? Is it only me who finds the day-to-day responsibilities to be more than enough to fill the waking hours, even when one arises at 5 AM? How in the world can all these people learn all these new things? Yeah, I have no idea.

But here's the thing: For some reason, it's really hard for me to do the technical things that take other people much less time. I don't know why, though it has been suggested that it's my aging brain. As I endeavor to stumble along and I learn just a fraction of what I really want to learn, I have a new appreciation for the kids in my life who struggle academically. They know what they want--their hopes and dreams stretch out in front of them. They think big thoughts and they have great ideas. But they get bogged down in the challenge of the learning curve. It's hard to learn something new while the world barrels ahead at full speed. Sometimes, it's really, really hard.

So, here I am full circle. When we decide to educate at home, we ride that learning curve with them. And sometimes, that means we put aside our own learning, because yes, actually, they do need someone to sit with them for every single math problem. Those math problems stand between them and their futures.

And what of my techie aspirations? I don't know. Maybe this is not the time for that. The thing about vocation is we never have to question priorities. I stood before God and everybody and pledged my whole life to a man and to the children that we would welcome. I promised to give it my all. I promised surrender. While I am tempted to think it's about my life, it's not, really. It's about God and it's about living a seamless testimony of obedience to His holy will.

So, I have to trust that He, knowing how earnestly I intend to keep my promise, will grant me the grace to stand at my kitchen sink or sit in front of an algebra book or pull clothes from the dryer and know that this is the moment and the place in which I am to glorify Him. If it is His will, all the rest will happen in His time.

::encouraging learning in

My teenagers and I are going to begin this course this summer. It's the Summer Reading List, if you will. We've already read some of them and a couple we may skip. It's going to take more than the summer, probably, but we will make a dent in this list.

Great American Bestsellers:

The Bay Psalm Book

Common Sense

The Last of the Mohicans

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Ragged Dick

Little Women

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Virginian

The House of Mirth

The Jungle

Main Street

The Maltese Falcon

The Good Earth

Gone with the Wind

How to Win Friends and Influence People

The Grapes of Wrath

Native Son

The Catcher in the Rye

To Kill a Mockingbird

Catch-22

The Woman Warrior

John Adams

::begging prayers

Please pray for Elizabeth DeHority who begins a a new chemo regime today, even though she's been given almost no hope of it making any difference at all.

And pray for people struggling with doubt and faith and fear and hopelessness.

::keeping house

We had a baptism party here last weekend, so some deep down cleaning happened last week. It's nice to move about in a place of order. I could get used to this. But I better not, because--ahem--I'm leaving them for three days and I know what can happen to order and cleanliness in three hours if my back is turned. Three days? Le sigh.

::crafting in the kitchen

The unusually late winter and cool spring have meant that there is nothing but strawberries at my Farmer's Market. I'm so eager for tomatoes and okra and fresh garlic. They were actually selling hothouse tomatoes at the Farmer's Market last weekend. Seems like it shouldn't be allowed. We have perfected the fish taco, however, as we wait for market meals. Our Friday summer dinners are crisp and fresh -- but those tacos would benefit from vine ripe tomatoes, too.

::giving thanks

for our sweet beautiful Lucy Shawn, who received the Holy Spirit on the Solemnity of Pentecost. She is pure joy!

::loving the moments

when the boy nearly grown texts me to tell me that one day he will marry a girl just like his mom.I have no idea if that will really happen, but it's nice to think that he thinks it's a good idea.

living the liturgy

It's always a little sad when the Easter season ends. But it's as if God knew we'd have to be weaned from the season of celebration gently, so there are three Sunday feasts in a row: the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, The Solemnity of Corpus Christi, and The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. That's pretty exciting for Ordinary Time.

::planning for the week ahead

I leave early Thursday to go to Colorado Springs, so I'm scrambling these couple days to leave things here in good shape during my absence. I'm really looking forward to spending a couple days with Sally. I intend to soak up wisdom and lean into her mentoring--I'm very grateful for wise women who understand mothering teenagers and young adults and can help me to be an intentional, wholehearted mother for a lifetime.

June 05, 2014

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

June 05, 2014/ Elizabeth Foss

{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.

June 04, 2014

Because Home is a Very, Very Good Thing

June 04, 2014/ Elizabeth Foss

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

Summer Resolutions

June 02, 2014/ Elizabeth Foss

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.

May 28, 2014

Summer in the Little Oratory~ Chapter One

May 28, 2014/ Elizabeth Foss

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

In The Heart of My Home

In The Heart of My Home

Journal

In The Heart of My Home

Gathering My Thoughts

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

Because Home is a Very, Very Good Thing

Summer Resolutions

Summer in the Little Oratory~ Chapter One

In The Heart of My Home