7 Quick Takes - A Day Late

I figured I'd jump on this bandwagon too.  Whatever gets me writing, right?  Please forgive the fact that the link is for Friday and today is Saturday.  We can just overlook that minor detail.  ;-)

1.  The Moms' Group I coordinate has infrequent Sunday evening potlucks.  We all like them, it just seems to take a lot of effort to coordinate and host one.  And then the majority of us are married to either military or military support which means there are always some husbands traveling.  I miss our whole family gatherings and have been scheming up a plan for the next one.  Right now it looks like it might be a potluck-eating-Frozen-watching (kids) - pajama wearing (kids again) - board-game (parents) evening.  I'm trying to decide if I'm biting off too much or if it will work.

2.  The rocker/glider in my bedroom is normally covered in clean clothes waiting to be returned to closets and dressers.  [real world confession]  I've been a little more on top of the laundry lately which means the rocker can be used again.  By Mac.  I've caught him numerous times rocking the baby dolls and singing them lullabys.  Lullabyes?  I'm not actually sure how to make that plural.  My heart swoons a little.  How can it not when a big clunky three year old boy cradles babies and sings to them when he thinks no one is looking?

3.  Cora has been perfecting her signature.  Currently it's capital c, capital o, capital r, lower case a  except she has a non-traditional way of writing her R - a high circle with two lines coming down from it to form the R legs.  I haven't really worked on penmanship at all with them, so it's interesting to see the natural evolution of letter formation.

4.  Our home parish is about a 25 minute drive away on weekdays.  The kids and I just can't make Holy Day services there so we go to a closer parish that has better times.  The kids behaved surprisingly well at the Ash Wednesday Mass.  After Mass, an old man stopped me on the way out  and said "You should write a book."  "Oh?" was my puzzled response.  "Yes," he responded, "you should write about how to get children to behave in church."  I smiled, blushed, and thanked him.  "Today was just a good day for us."  And that's the truth.  In all my infinite wisdom, I have learned that child behavior in Mass is somewhat the luck of the draw.  And that kindly old man had luckily not observed the days when a certain young female acts demon possessed and stops the homily with her foul behavior.  Still, it felt nice to get a compliment.

5.  I don't often talk about the dog.  Figured it was time to mention him a bit.  Hank, the Great Dane, is a stereotypical Dane.  He's fairly gentle, though clumsy, and loves kids and people-food.  The latter can be problematic.  Several times after clearing plates down the disposal, I've caught the dog with his front paws on the counter, staring forlornly down the drain.  Guess he would prefer all food scraps went into his bowl, rather than the garbage disposal. 

6.  Changing gears back to embryo adoption.  The agency decided to pursue matching us with two smaller sets of embryos (each family has two embryos for a total of four, or enough for two transfers), so our profile is out to both families now.  Matching with two families simultaneously is harder to coordinate.  We'll just have to see how things play out!

7.  I really loved today's Lenten reflection from flocknote, especially as we continue this very long journey towards growing our family again.

Excerpt from the Diary of St. Faustina:

Although it seems to me that You do not hear me, I put my trust in the ocean of Your mercy, and I know that my hope will not be deceived (Diary - 69).
 

Meditation:

My Jesus, when I repeatedly ask You for something and I get no reply and nothing seems to change in my life, I fear that You are not there. I grow discouraged and I feel alone. Help me to trust in You in the midst of the darkness. Teach me how to walk by faith and not by sight. I place my hope in You, and I believe that Your love and mercy are as deep as the ocean. There is nothing that is beyond Your power. Strengthen my faith, O Lord!

- Fr. Joseph Roesch, MIC

Lent

7 posts in 7 days link-up - Day 7 (I made it!)




I don't have much self discipline.  As an adult, that's kind of embarrassing.  As a parent, it's kind of humiliating.  How can I teach my children if I struggle with being a good model?  On the bright side, at least my kids observe my struggles towards virtue and know that I keep trying.  I guess we're learning to live virtuously together. 


Lent provides a great point in the liturgical year for me to refocus or even start over.  Virtue is unattainable without Christ's gift of Self; perfection is unreachable except through a life of grace and in grace.  "During Lent, let us spend the gift of time seeking the wisdom of heart taught by self-sacrifice, so that, dead to sin, we may rise to new life in Christ in whom death has died."  (Magnificat, Morning Prayer, Ash Wednesday 2014)


I'm trying a couple of new things this year in order to gently provide more opportunities for self-discipline:


We'll go meatless two times a week, Wednesdays and the obligatory Friday. 


I've signed up for the Father Barron Lenten study, www.lentreflections.com .  A devotion should be emailed daily - let's hope I can keep up!


I've rather slacked off at self-care ever since we moved to Texas in 2012.  I need to schedule dental visits for myself and the kids, an endocrinologist visit for me (thyroid issues), and a hysteroscopy with the fertility clinic (miscarriage follow-up).  Plus I need to figure out how to fit some regular exercise in my daily schedule.


The biggest Lenten sacrific is one I know I really need to do - getting up before the kids. (There's no way I'll start waking up with Bryan, that's just ridiculous (he leaves as early as 4:40 some mornings!))   I've got a time in mind and if that doesn't work, then I'll tweak it a bit.  I just hate getting out of bed in the mornings!  I'm not a morning person.  Or a night person, for that matter.  I just kind of trudge through the whole day, looking longingly at the couch (hence check-up for thyroid problems).  I know by forcing myself out of bed in the mornings before the kids get up, I can say my prayers, read my daily devotions, have my coffee, and, God willing, be a more pleasant person all because I had a few minutes of me-time.  Well, me and God time. 


The nice (or perhaps not so nice) thing about posting my Lenten "resolutions" here is accountability.  I have made my plans public and now I'm open to nagging.  Or at least those casual reminders of "hey, how's that working out for you?"


And now, a Lenten anecdote before I share a beautiful little Lenten prayer I found while browsing the internet. 


In college I tried a whole host of rather extreme Lenten acts.  The most short lived was the time I gave up hot water in my showers and tried to take only cold showers.  I may have lasted three days.  Tops.  And that was living in Texas, someplace that isn't typically cold during Lent.


Prayer of Saint Ephrem
O Lord and Master of my life, keep from me the spirit of indifference and discouragement, lust of power and idle chatter.

Instead, grant to me, Your servant, the spirit of wholeness of being, humble-mindedness, patience, and love.

O Lord and King, grant me the grace to be aware of my sins and not to judge my brother; for You are blessed now and ever and forever.  Amen