Lord, That I May See

On a walk the other day with my two little ones, Sunshine decided that she wanted to collect items to "nature study."  We ended up with a large collection of things in the basket of the stroller.  She enthusiastically chose a leaf from almost every plant we passed, dead leaves from the gutter, three different kinds of pine-cones, flowers, magnolia pods, pieces of bark, a little BB that she found and, at the very end, the prize of a bird feather.  She was delighted with everything she found. And I, the distracted adult, balking at the need she had to stop every five feet and at the mess of crushed leaves that I was charged with, how much I have to learn from my little Noticer . What treasures there are in our path if we have the eyes to see!

Grandpa and his bird watching log -- Easter 2012 Sunshine at prayer time (doing my heart good!): Thank you Lord for giving us Grandpa Thank you Lord for giving us Daddy Thank you Lord for giving us Grandpa and me Right where we are.

and the man that he is as we await his birth into eternal life.   I love you, Grandpa.  "Good to be with you" (as you always said) in your final time with us. 

My friend from  Painted Toes  sent me this image.  (Click to enlarge and read the quote -- I absolutely love it!)    I love to read news stories (there's a site called the  Good News Network  that looks interesting!) that celebrate this truth, that there are "so many caring people in this world." In honor of yesterday's anniversary, I wanted to post two stories about that fateful day that I found inspiring. Tell me what you think! The Story of the Man in the Red Bandanna This second one is so amazing to me -- to call 9/11 a gift! The Gift of 9-11 And lastly, I wanted to share a quote that I heard this past weekend: Whatever did not fit in with my plan did lie within the plan of God. I have an ever deeper and firmer belief that nothing is merely an accident when seen in the light of God, that my whole life down to the smallest details has been marked out for me in the plan of Divine Providence and has a completely cohe...

Sandpaper Letters And Sandpaper numbers Math Lesson -- Multi-digit Subtraction for Turtle Rosebud is learning about long vowels  And "Magic E"

I love  this post from Hands-Free Mama .  Love, love, love it.  There are many ways in which I could have written such a post.  I have that little Noticer in my family, my own little "Lover of Life."  I also, say "Hurry up" more times a day than I say "I love you," and I too have been hit before with the damage I am doing to my daughter by rushing her.  It's always amazing and, as I believe, a work of the Holy Spirit, that different realizations in one's life come to coalesce at the same moment in time into a message that one needs to hear.  That message is coming to me through Sunshine. Dr. Maria Montessori speaks eloquently of the "Apostolate of the Child," in her book The Child in the Church.  This is the idea that the child is a great source of grace that enters the family to move and form the adult, to aid in bringing bring the adult to Christ, to in fact  change the adult world.  The child fulfills this God-given apostolate wit...

I've been waiting to sing this song to a little boy for a long time.