Lord, That I May See

#1.   Happy Feast of the Annunciation!   I always love kneeling at Mass during the Creed on this Feast.  Thank you Mary! Thank you Jesus, for coming down from heaven for us!    In my home their have been various debates/text messages/discussions about the burning question of eating meat or not today.   Not that I have a need to eat some bacon today, but . . . well, you know.  Anyway, ultimately, I liked this simple post that says "Mary said yes! Jesus is worth celebrating!"    So have a happy feast! #2.   Turtle's birthday party was a success -- even the cake, which is not my strong area.  I didn't turn the cake into a pile of crumbs and I didn't forget any ingredients (like, ahem, I did for Rosebud's birthday).  The birthday girl helped make her own party hat.  Turtle also sliced the strawberries and decorated the cake with Rosebud. The girls' two little Strawberry Shortca...

#1.   Rosebud did not die by her mother's hand today.  Plus, after a long day, when dinnertime involved a flat out "No" to eating and throwing food on the floor, and thrashing and thumping in her chair, I was cool and calm.  No power struggle.  No yelling.  Food was eaten and floor cleaned up.  It was a miracle.  But I'm still gonna take the credit. :) #2.   The rosary -- that we resolved to say every day during Lent -- was actually said tonight.  All 5 Luminious Mysteries.  And it only involved a baby playing with matches, a bigger girl falling off the couch, a big sister pushing a little one and being carried screaming to her room, and Daddy losing it.  But we finished it. #3.  . . . . Annnd, after sitting here for 5 minutes, I've got it:  The diapers got washed and dried.  (Now all I have to do is fold them and get Sunshine back out of disposables.) Whew.  See more Small ...

Happy Birthday, Turtle! On March 22, 2006 at about 10:30pm, our world was changed forever.  Your little dimpled chin and those dark, deep eyes and the small bundled warmth of your little body stole our hearts in an instant. Thank you God, for 5 years of  our sweet, smart, passionate, inquisitive and sensitive big girl! We are having "Pah-sketti" ("you know, Mom, the noodles you can curl around and around?") and Strawberry Shortcake tonight, by request. As I said something today about being 5 years old, Turtle corrected me: "No, I'm still 4.  I don't turn 5 till dinner and the party." That's my precise girl! :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I just realized that this blog is 4 years old today.  

A life of faith is a life of gratitude -- it means a life in which I am willing to experience my complete dependence upon God and to praise and thank Him unceasingly for the gift of being. A truly eucharistic life means always saying thanks to God, always praising God, and always being more surprised by the abundance of God's goodness and love.  How can such a life not also be a joyful life? It is the truly converted life in which God has become the centre of all.  There gratitude is joy and joy is gratitude and everything becomes a surprising sign of God's presence. ~ Fr. Henri Nouwen

Its a momentous thing to be the source of some small innocent child's perception of the world, the source of their understanding of love, God, suffering and death.  Frankly, it's a scary thing.  And I'm struggling.  I'm struggling with self-doubt -- am I sharing this the right way? How can I help these precious little ones see the Faith for the beautiful reality that it is? I'm struggling with truth and "white lies"-- how much truth is too much?  Can I hide parts of the truth from them? Lent seems to bring up such hard subject matter. Why are we getting Ashes on our heads?  Is Jesus dying on the cross right now?  Did the crown of thorns hurt Jesus?  Why?  Why are the bad soldiers whipping/being mean/poking/pushing Jesus?  Why is there rope around Jesus' hands?  Was the tomb comfortable?  How do we get to Heaven?   And then there's the hardest one of all, the one that encompassed a whole semester of why-God-became-a-man the...