Busy

We have been busy with swimming lessons for the past two weeks, and I have been getting things ready for our new school year which will begin July 20th. It is so stinkin' hot right now, we'd rather school now and take more time off in the fall. I'll share more about school later...

The weather has been in the triple digits...add in heat indexes and it is h.o.t. I try not to complain because The Man works outside in it all day long...12 hours long! One of our air conditions broke. We had it fixed and then a couple of days later the other one broke; all are fixed now, thankfully.

The baby is getting his molars. One is through, one is just about to break the gum line and one is just a purple blood blister...poor little fella!

10 Honest Things

Thank you Allison for thinking of me and passing on the award. To accept, I must share ten honest things about myself:

1. I have irrational fears about my health.

2. I believe that divorce hurts kids of any age and stays with them.

3. I believe, "There but for the grace of God go I..." (I am not referring to divorce, just life in general....)

4. Each child we have been blessed with has infused our family with more grace.

5. I do not like for people to re-tell a movie or show they have watched.

6. I like to re-tell a movie or show I have watched.

7. There are many things a cherry limeade and a good song can cure.

8. Making my husband laugh is one of my greatest pleasures.

9. I do not want anyone laying on my pillow.

10. I can still do a flip off the diving board at 37 years of age and having birthed six babies.

I Hope He Knows My Voice

This weekend was an important one. My third daughter received her first Holy Communion. But before she could approach Our Lord, before she was able to receive Him, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, she had to make her first confession. She greeted me on Saturday morning, her eyes still heavy with sleep, but a heart ready for the Sacrament of Penance; "Today is my first confession," she proudly proclaimed. She looked like a baby, standing in line with the other "babies", waiting their turn to reveal their sins to Christ in the confessional.

I have always gone to my parish priest for confession. Some people choose to go to a different church where they can be anonymous. "I know Father will recognize my voice," they cry.

I pray He recognizes my voice.

I pray that Our Lord knows me in the confessional. It is Our Lord I am confessing to, not Father. It is Our Lord that forgives, not Father. (We are free to confess to whichever priest we choose, and I fault no one for choosing a priest they do not know. As long as they are seeking another priest for anonymity and not because they are shopping around for a priest to say what they want to hear.)

Some Scripture and early Church Father references concerning confession.

Pictures Are Worth How Many Words?

Yesterday was my third daughter's first Holy Communion. I had, and continue to have a head cold. I would like to submit proof of my head cold. (What is up with the baby?)

( I am saying, "I'm going to the van, to uh...nurse the baby, yeah that's it. I'll get out in time for the reception.") (Mass was over, right now they were having a Corpus Christi procession)

That (humiliating) piece of evidence is important for the following picture.

The one and only picture of my daughter receiving for her very first time. A good friend tried to soften the blow, "Our faith is a mystery that we cannot see..." That really was a good try.

Why do you ask, did I not give the camera to The Man? Good question. A question someone in a non-cold-like state would ask. The Man somehow always ends up in sport mode. He thinks he is taking one picture when in reality, he is taking 85 pictures...frame....by....frame. Not me, no sir, I take spot on pictures...unless I have a head cold, and it happens to be a once. in. a. lifetime. picture.

The Year of the Priest

Pope Benedict XVI has declared the Year of the Priest to start June 19, the Feast of the Sacred Heart. We are so blessed to know some very holy priests through our diocese and especially the Fraternity of Saint Peter. In honor of these wonderful servants of God, friends of our family and lover of souls, we are going to learn a prayer for priests to recite daily with our lunch time prayers:

Keep them, I pray Thee, dearest Lord,

Keep them for they are Thine

Thy priests who lives burn out before

Thy consecrated Shrine.

Keep them, Thou knowest , dearest Lord

The world, the flesh are strong

And satan spreads a thousand snares

To lead them into wrong.

~~~

Keep them for they are in the world

Though from the world apart

When earthly pleasures tempt, allure

Shelter them in Thy Heart.

Keep them and comfort them in hours

Of loneliness and pain

When all their life of sacrifice

For souls seem but in vain.

~~~

Keep them, and oh, remember Lord,

They have no one but Thee

Yet they have only human hearts,

with human frailty.

Keep them as spotless as the Host

that daily they caress,

Their every thought and word and deed,

Deign, dearest Lord, to bless.

I Believe

My children played soccer this spring. They had fun playing, we had fun watching. After soccer practice, my children would repeat various conversations they had with the other children; the usual homeschool, big family, you're Catholic questions.

One day my 9yo daughter said a little girl asked her what Catholics believe. She said she tried to explain but did not think the little girl understood. So I started thinking about how I would answer that very question. My thoughts started to confuse even me!

Cue the Holy Spirit...

Then it dawned on me...a simple explaination of what we believe:

~I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth...

~and in Jesus Christ His only Son, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary and became man...

~He suffered under Pontius Pilate

~He was crucified, died and was buried

~He descended into hell

~the third day he ascended into Heaven where He sits at the right hand of God...from there He shall judge the living and the dead

~I believe in the Holy Spirit

~the holy Catholic Church

~the Communion of Saints

~the forgiveness of sins

~the resurection of the dead

~life everlasting

That's what we believe, I told my daughters. The next time someone asks, you remember what you proclaim every time you go to Mass...that's what you believe.

Then I asked them why there was so much talking during practice!

A Mother

Eleven years ago this month I delivered my first baby. My mother in law came over to help out; laundry, dishes, etc...for the two of us plus one. I felt overwhelmed, incompetent, and sore. Yep, sore. I had read, thought and planned the birthing process. Not once had I ever given thought to the fact I may be sore afterwards...huh? When I walked, I heard that old western flutey (yep, flutey is a word) song. I also felt a sense of peaceful purpose.

After about a week, she would come by one or two days a week, the rest of the time I was on my own while The Man worked. Each morning he made himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to take to work for lunch. He also made me two peanut and jelly sandwiches; one for breakfast and one for lunch. I had just had a baby, how, in the world, was I going to care for my precious pink bundle...and...and...feed myself? Honestly, this is a for real story, as my three old would say. My girlfriends tease me about this to this day. They can just imagine me starving if The Man had not been so kind as to make me two sandwiches. Ha ha, very funny girls...

I have loved motherhood in more ways than I ever imagined. I was raised around women who did not seem to take joy in their motherhood. Seem, is too soft a word...their words were, have a couple of kids while you are young, so that way they will be out of the house by the time you are 40ish and you can get back to your life. Of course that assumes you would even want kids.

When they handed my daughter to me, I knew, deep down in my soul knew, why I was here...I was here to be a wife and mother. I had not appreciated being a wife until I came into my motherhood. I realized I had a vocation to fulfill, a means to my salvation. I was not just floating through this life.

This bears repeating, I have loved motherhood in more ways than I ever imagined. Thanks be to God for the first, of many blessings...