Lord, That I May See

Rosebud's really interested in the bathroom and everything that goes on within. She wants to be present any time someone is in there. She likes to look into the toilet when Turtle's using it and say "poo? poo?" She likes to flush it over and over. She likes to see her diapers, asking "poo?" again. She wants to hold a wipe to clean herself. She loves to sit herself down fully clothed on the little potty chair. When I occasionally let her sit between diaper changes, she's thrilled with standing up and sitting down, feeling her bare-ness and reading books. *Sigh.* I think it's time for Rosebud's potty training (or "toilet learning" if you don't mind me "going all Montessori on you", as my husband always groans at me. :) People think I'm crazy. Sometimes I think I'm crazy. Sometimes this whole "raise my kids the Montessori way" endeavour seems to really be about "raising my kids the hardest way I can fi...

http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com/ FOR TODAY: March 30, 2009 Outside My Window . . . blue skies, smiling at me I am thinking . . . of a really nice Sunday outing in the sunshine yesterday I am thankful for . . . the truth that a move to the city that was and still is very hard, at least enabled my girls to be able to be close to cousins. Aren't these girls cute together? From the kitchen . . . fried chicken for dinner tonight. This is my fall-back-behind-the-power-curve-Monday dinner. :) It's so easy and everyone in the family likes it -- which is a very rare thing!! Here it is in case anyone else is in the "ack, its Monday" mode too. :) OVEN FRIED CHICKEN I use boned chicken pieces like thighs and drumsticks since people in my house prefer dark meat to white. Preheat the oven to 425 Melt a whole stick of butter in a 9X13 pan Put the following into a baggie and shake: 1/2 c flour, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper Pu...

A year ago I wrote this post about our way of saying the Stations of the Cross during Lent. Part of what I wrote was this: I think that the sensory experience of the light and darkness, the flickering shadows, the hushed prayers of so many childhood Lenten Fridays, have given me a love for the opportunity to withdraw into a dark, shadowed corner, as it were, alone with the suffering Christ. I retain from those days a desire for these sacred stations to be hushed, a quiet personal examination of conscience, a whispered sorrow in the "heart's room." I smile a little wryly as I re-read this post now. Our stations are so different this year! But how wonderful they still are, in their own way. This year we are joining with friends, another family with a young toddler, to pray these prayers together, the three of them, and the four of us. "Alone", "hushed" and "quiet" it surely is not! The children argue (and sometimes cry) over whose ...

because she once asked me to post a picture of my china. :) Montpellier, by Mikasa When I was putting china on my wedding registery 4 years ago, I got alot of comments about how unpractical and silly it was to ask people for something you would never use. I also recieved some hints that I was choosing a pattern that was too expensive. (It is bone china and 4 yrs ago it cost $79.99 for a 5 piece place setting -- though it is substantially more now from what I can gather, since the pattern is no longer manufactured.) Though these comments bothered me at the time, I am glad that I categorically ignored them. Because I love fine china. I would collect it if I could. I love the way it feels so smooth and delicate. I love the way it sounds -- little clinks and chimes of elegance. I love the way it looks -- shiny and perfect. I love the way I feel when I'm using it -- like a lady in a storybook or a Jane Austen movie. It reminds me of the rare and special tea parties at my Gra...

O 3 inch heels, you looked so good, sitting there amid the other shoes on the rack smooth and sexy and so very tall, I couldn't resist your charm long sought after and shyly denied out of previous failures to fully "own" the look that un-me breaching of style, a stepping into the unknown But like the girls in old movies, graceful in their high black pumps, arching feet so sleek and dainty, calves so shapely and slim I've always wanted to wear you, master you, dance in you Because I love your curves, your cute rounded toes, your black shine And now I have you, bought on sale after years of wishing you're cute and sexy and I feel oh so hot in you but when I walk . . . you rule my feet, making them slow, and sore and precarious I feel eyes on me pityingly and me with a little toddler to run after my bending, or lifting, or running is curtailed by you, O shiny 3 inch heels And yet, I stubbornly persist, through pinched toes and shaky balance because, O 3-inch heels, ...

1. I ate lunch before 3pm every day this week. (Or almost every day!) **** 2. I got my poor, exhausted mommy body out of bed in the pitch dark this morning and went to 6:30 mass for St. Joseph's Feast Day. It was calm and quiet and I got to hear the homily . . . just heavenly. **** 3. When Turtle had her first ever earache this week and cried almost without stopping for 4 hours in the middle of the night, I wondrously had in my cupboard a bottle of Garlic Ear Oil that I had the incredible presence of mind to purchase over a year ago "in case" such an emergency ever arose. I am never that prepared ahead of time. Ever. Come celebrate more Small Successes at Faith and Family Live !!

are dragging on and on around here, as evidenced by today's episode. Neighbor, Bill, jokingly over the fence to me: Why are those kids so fussy? It's Springtime! And I'm thinking: Hmm, so he's noticed it too . . . Boy, I sure wish I knew! Cm'on, Spring!

For Lent this year, one of my resolutions is to take the girls to daily Mass on Wednesdays. Daily mass by myself with both girls is difficult for me right now. Even that short little half hour crawls by and I spend every bit of it shushing little voices, stopping the girls from fighting, removing the baby from under the pew, trying unsuccessfully to distract her with a bottle or books, picking up said bottle or books from the floor where they are thrown, making trips to the bathroom or the vestibule and most frustratingly, trying, trying not to mind or think of what other quiet, child-less, daily mass goers are thinking about my children or me. There is a church near us --one we do not usually attend on Sundays as a family-- that I like to take the girls to. The pews are slanted slightly down toward the altar and circle the entire sanctuary so one can see clearly the Holy Sacrifice from every place in the church. The tabernacle is lovely and every Sacred Vessel and article of the Mass...

We are so glad that "park days" are here again!

From this: To this: in five days!

So often, this beautiful woman writes with words that speak to me like little else. The Fear of Silence