I's been a busy momma

Date night!

 

How to keep sane and still spend time with my kids while they are away? I painted the Peach pits' room. The exhausting part was cleaning up the pit that was her room but its done.

Mother Cabrini

"Neither science nor speculation has ever or will ever make a saint"

 

The rarely seen cumulo-nipple cloud

Morning cuddles

Its funny how I haven't noticed this until, well I was in mass. Yes, I think of all sorts of odd stuff during mass. Today I was thinking, I'm a cuddler, shock I know. Mind you I don't like being pawed at like Peachy pawed me all weekend. She was stroking my hair like I was one of her dolls, good grief! Would you stop it! But I do so enjoy morning cuddles with husband, with the kids. It's the best. I was thinking how I missed that, when I suddenly thought, "oh I guess I've still been doing that".

See I get up early and lounge in bed, twiddle my rosary beads, saying my prayers, nodding in and out of conscientiousness, taking my temperature and continuing my morning talk with God. Eventually I get my lazy butt out of bed but not after my morning cuddles...

Grow where you're planted.

These were words spoken by Mother Teresa to a philanthropist with a restless heart taken from Archbishop Jose Gomez's Baccalaureate Address at USC

The entire transcript can be found here. Here's an excerpt:

You are in this world for a reason! God has a plan for each one of your lives. He has something that he wants you to do. Wherever find yourself "planted," wherever you find yourself in this life, you must seek God's will for you.
Wherever you find yourself, remember: God loves each one of you very dearly -- as if there were no one else in the whole wide world but you.
Sometimes I think this is the hardest thing for people to believe in -- God's personal love for us. We think that this world is so big, that the universe is so vast -- how can God possibly care about every one?
But he does, my friends! God cares for you very deeply.

My Daily Med: "Have I been with you for so long a time

and you still do not know me?"
This passage reminds me of...gonna say it...wait for it...yep... Catholics.
Cradle catholics, those "been catholic my whole life", " I was raised Catholic", cafeteria Catholics, lillie and poinsetta catholics ( ACE catholics - advent, christmas, easter) whatever your personal favorite is, that's what the reading today speaks to me about and I'm not immune. I completly accuse myself of being guilty too.
The thing is each and every time we enter into the holy sacrifice of the mass, we have the opportunity to meet Jesus. It's not some abstract idea of a real presence. It's him in the flesh, body, blood soul and divinity and do we take the opportunity to meet him, to know him, to love him, to serve him each and every moment of our lives? The hard and fast truth is that every person that meets Christ is transformed. You never leave him the same way you came. Never! Read any of the Gospels. The magi, the first to meet our Lord, went home a different way. That's important! That should happen to us too.
So often it doesn't. Why is that? Is it because we never met him? Are we just like Philip who listened to Jesus' preaching, ate and drank at his table(Eucharist) and camped out with him (adoration) but never really met him/got to know him?

If we never knew him, who's fault is that? It takes 2 to enter into a relationship and it takes 2 to maintain that relationship. He's doing his part. Are you doing yours?

:-(

Apparently Peachy tried to call this weekend to talk to me because she had a bit of a meltdown and was missing her mama. It's been ~ 3 weeks that we've been apart.

So today I sent Peachy and him-sir monkey boy each a letter. Hers was all to do with her audition (waiting with baited breath as the cast list comes out on Wednesday) and his was, well, all about how I'm doing in Star Wars Clone Wars... cheating pretty much.. love the internet!!! Oh, and I totally opened with "May almighty God bless you, blessed you FIRST!!! Ha ha!" That'll get his goat and he'll totally have to top me (and I'm ok with him outdoing me in holiness, 'cause I figure it'll only help bolster my argument when I get to plead my case before God). Bring it on!

I sealed each letter up and sprayed my perfume all over them. Hopefully when they get their letters, it will smell like mama and not like the postal service.

I'm on a mission

from God.

No not the Blues Brothers... although... hilarious.

I once had it explained to me that prayer life is SO important. Being faithful to your prayer life, mass, and holding the teachings of the church and living them out are so vital to your life and prayer is where we get our marching orders, so to speak.
Do you check in daily for your marching orders? Do you not get them if you do check in? Here's the thing, not everyone is a general in need of battlefield instructions and worthy of war room intelligence but do your time and you'll find that you'll get put in the battle where you are most needed with all the equipment you need to carry out your mission. General, corporal, mess cook, soldiers all need to check in and get their orders. No one is immune and each and every one is needed for the battle. So grab your gear, check in for prayer. It's time to roll!

A majority of Catholic women use birth control

Well that's the finding of the Guttmacher 'Planned Parenthood' Institute.

I'm not surprised. It comes back to fear and control. I want to control on my own terms the whens,  wheres and hows of MY fertility. Personally, I think it's a control addiction, and we control addicts are not free. We are trapped by our own argumentative walls and we look around and call it freedom.
In the middle of a most intimate encounter you want to stop and go oh, hey, hang on, 'do you have protection', or ' let me put this on' or reach for some spermicide... oh, yeah 'cause that's sexy. Let me tell you when I'm in the throws of a passionate embrace that's the oh, NEVER thing on my mind. I got more important matters that require nothing less than ALL of my attention.

And yet, people buy into the lies of contraception with their rickety walls of arguments....
...if we didn't have birth control, we'd be overpopulated - Bullshit. There's enough resources for any child. We have a distribution problem not a resource problem.

...families would be large and poor and couldn't afford anything - Bullshit. What's wrong with large families? Children grow. They will take care of aging parents. They will contribute to the economy. They are our future.

...I can't afford to have kids - Bullshit. Breastmilk is free and if it's important enough you will find a way

...I'd have 20 kids without birth control - Bullshit. Do you gain 20 lbs just because you like cake and ice cream. Besides a woman is only fertile a few days out of each monthly cycle.

...Kids take time and energy and I wouldn't have time for work, hobbies, stuff I like to do - No Shit Sherlock! It's called self-sacrifice. It's called dying to yourself and guess what??? It HURTS. It's suppose to hurt, but (and here's the doozy) as much as it hurts, there is no greater high because this is where the divine meets humanity, in the dying.

And that my friends is freedom. Having the courage to live (albeit counter-culturally) responsibly our relationship with each other (and with God) in the way he has called us to himself, either single (chaste and celibate) or married (chaste). Each way requires a dying to self. One way is not harder than the other but one is made specifically for me to embrace, to love and to live in freedom, not in chains, but we prefer our chains to our freedom.
Why?? Chains are familiar and are in our reach. The unknown frightens us, so we try to control, well everything. If we were really in control, we wouldn't be afraid. We'd control our fear and let courage lead us out of darkness and into light, so we could truly live in freedom.

Don't drink the Holy water!!!

Seriously!

I actually had to say that last night with (oh, no not MY kids, shocking I know) with the PSR kids. I can't believe I actually had to say, 'Don't drink the Holy water'.

Seriously, come on now.

Damn you Eric Clapton

I love Clapton music, his Yardbird days, Mayall days, Cream days, Winwood days, Derek and the Domino days and even his cocaine daze because it's part of who he is but damn him.

I put on a Clapton CD while winding down on Friday night and his Wonderful Tonight came on, not a bad song. I've always thought it a little hokey, a song written to help guys get laid. That's always been my opinion of it, but tonight it touched off a tearstorm.... because the fam is gone, because I'm in that part of my cycle that always warrants tears, because it reminded me of my husband, because I'm lonely...haven't felt lonely but who knows?

However in hindsight, I suppose it was perfect storm conditions, and I guess I should thank him for getting that over and done with quickly.

Atheist to Catholic courtesy of JPII

In her own words from the Washington Post

Where the rubber meets the road.

One interesting talk we had in our parish school of religion with the 6th graders was all about Osama bin Laden and how he was dead. Some of the kids were very happy about this and it was a teaching moment:
So I asked them, "Well, what does Jesus tell us to do for our enemies?"
They replied with hesitation" to pray for them" but clearly this was not what they wanted to do. They replied, ' But he was a bad guy. It's good that he's dead.'
To which I answered, "Is that what the church teaches you? Is that what we've discussed here? To rejoice when our enemies suffer? Is that what Jesus taught us to do?"

Well, clearly they knew the answer, but they struggled with the 'doing'. In the end we did agree to pray to God to have mercy on his soul but it wasn't easy.

I often struggle with the doing too. It's hard when you know what you should do, but you don't want to do it, you don't feel like doing it and every fiber of your being tells you, your heart's not in it. What I've learned is that it doesn't matter if your heart is in it, if you feel it or not. What matters is the will and the 'doing', regardless (and sometimes in spite of) how you feel. (It's a sweeter gift to God too, doing from sheer will as opposed to out of a desire.) I for one fail more often than I succeed in this particular area. Too often I'm quick to give up, but I have the hope that with God's grace I will persevere in persevering when the rubber meets the road.

Wacky Wednesday

This is just hysterical. Maybe not as funny as Hoohah happenings, but funny nonetheless

Star Wars: The home invasion

Even in their absence Monkey boy and Peach pit can make me laugh hysterically.
I scoured the house looking for my umbrella because it's pouring rain outside. As I arrive to work, I reach for the umbrella, open it for protection from the driving rain and discover that said umbrella fell victim to a light saber battle and now sits in two distinct pieces good only as a blunt instrument that won't do any good against enemy sith operatives or the rain.

Hoohah Happenings

Today from Saint John of the Cross

My spiritual director loved this saint and Teresa of Avila of course. I found this quote from my spiritual direction site and thought I'd highlight it here.
Whoever falls while heavily laden will find it difficult to rise under the burden.

Merciful mutterings

Pat Archbold's had a few good points in his Supply side of Mercy posting. I have to agree with his assessment, where he suggests that if we are to encourage the sacrament of confession, we need to make it available and present to the ones who need it the most. When I was in France, I noticed that the year of the priest really made an impact on the priesthood. St. John Vianney's example inspired many to offer the sacrament of confession at all sorts of hours. In one church, I noticed they promised to have a priest available for the sacrament from ~8:30-12:00 and again from 14:30-17:00, a luxury indeed these days.

Fortunately, the confessor was different from the priest celebrating mass at 9, noon and 1700. People naturally lined up for confession as they walked in for mass. Confession was in this clear glass case, so people could see the priest hearing confession (the penitent was behind the screen). The call to penitents was loud and clear. That silent calling pierces the conscience and nags way better than any loudmouth shrew ever could.

Pat talks about the limited hours for confession and yes, they are. He points out that confession by appt doesn't really work for the ones who sorely need it. (It works for loonies like me who'll gladly confess in a store, office, moving vehicle, park bench, stadium, living room, hallway or public venue... and yes I have all of the above... not ashamed of it 'cause I walked away a saint each and every time. Well sometimes I sat a saint but that doesn't have the dramatic flair of walking away.)

Archbold's analogy to supply side economics however, made me think of another, my dad and fishing. See my dad loves to fish. He goes and collects all his gear, worms, lures and parks his butt on a stump, in a boat, on  a pier (basically, anywhere near water) and sits. Honestly, I think the man can go for days on a bag of cheesy poofs. He gets all excited when the fish bites even if it gets away. At the end of the day, even if he's only caught one or two, it was a fabulous day. There are the stories of the ones that got away of course. You see it doesn't matter to him that he wasted his day parked in the sun hoping a fish would bite his line, what mattered was that he was THERE. Being there made all the difference in the world.

That being said, God's doling out mercy. Get your butts to a confessional or if you're like me, to a park bench near you.