Happy Thanksgiving!

Father in Heaven, Creator of all and source of all goodness and love, please look kindly upon us and receive our heartfelt gratitude in this time of giving thanks.

Thank you for all the graces and blessings. You have bestowed upon us, spiritual and temporal: our faith and religious heritage. Our food and shelter, our health, the loves we have for one another, our family and friends.

Dear Father, in Your infinite generosity, please grant us continued graces and blessing throughout the coming year.

This we ask in the Name of Jesus, Your Son and our Brother. Amen.

So busy.

It's very busy here in our house preparing for the Thanksgiving Holiday.  I've been asked to make a "squash casserole" as part of my contribution to our family meal on Thursday.  I've never made one before and I have been scouring the internet trying to find the right recipe.  A friend has agreed to share her family recipe with me as long as I swear on the life of my first born child that I won't share it!  That's a tall order....and I do love my first born very much....so I guess I'll have to comply with her wishes.

In other news, I had some more dental work done last week.  Yuk!  I hate the dentist.  I hate everything about the dentist.  In this case, I had two very old (like...over 20 years) crowns that decided to crumble at just about the same time.  Unfortunately, there wasn't enough of either the crown or the post left to save.  The only option was to pull the teeth.  Unfortunately, I had two teeth pulled on Wednesday.  It didn't take long and I wasn't in too much discomfort at the time.  Since then, the one on the left is giving me some trouble....much, much, much too sore.  The one on the right seems to be healing fine.  To top it all off...one of the them was right in front...which means I either look like Granny from Beverly Hillbillies....or I have to wear something that they call a "flipper".  It reminds me of the "retainer" I wore after my braces were removed when I was in the 5th grade.  Anyway, the left side is causing a lot of paid in the surrounding gum, the sinuses, and the side of my face.  This, in turn, has created a headache that just doesn't want to go away.  I've been slugging prescription grade ibuprofen every six to eight hours just to be able to function!  I wonder what my liver looks like right now?  No...never mind, I don't want to know!

The Christmas Trees have arrived at our parish! Our Men's Club sells Christmas Trees as a fundraiser every year.  These are very special trees as Father blesses every single on of them personally! They were supposed to come yesterday afternoon but the truck bringing them from North Carolina was delayed and they didn't get here until almost 1:00am.  Dan was on the list for helping to unload them...consequently, he will be sleeping in this morning!  Helping out at the tree lot is a very enjoyable tradition in our family.  The kids play, the adults talk, we roast marshmallows and pray the Rosary!  I love this time of year!

School is on hold for the rest of this week.  To be honest, we haven't gotten much done over the last two weeks.  My new schedule of Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues is not really working.  We're going to have to try something else.   I'm changing the schedule up a bit and I'll keep you posted on the progress.  Incidentally, Amelia got 100% on her very first spelling test!  I'm very proud of how well she is doing in school.  This is so cool for me to see!  I see her learning and growing right before my eyes and I'm in awe.  She's very bright and I'm a proud Mama!

I have a special prayer request of you, my friends.  A close friend of ours was recently diagnosed with Large Cell Lymphoma.  I don't know all the specifics, but I do know that surgery to remove the tumor is not an option.  I am not sure if the decision was made for traditional/conventional treatment or not (there was some talk of going the more natural way), but whatever decision he and his wife make....I want them to be covered in prayer!  Please add PR & DR to your prayer list!  Thank you so much.

Well, that's it for now.  In my next post I will share our plans for Advent!!

Happy Tuesday, everybody!!

The Fortieth Rose

".....Be that as it may I shall say no more than to assure you, in the words of  Blessed Alan de la Roche, that the Holy Rosary is the root and the storehouse of countless blessings.  For through the Holy Rosary:

1.  Sinners are forgiven;
2.  Souls that thirst are refreshed;
3.  Those who are fettered have their bonds broken'
4.  Those who weep find happiness;
5.  Those who are tempted find peace;
6.  The poor find help;
7.  Religious are reformed;
8.  Those who are ignorant are instructed;
9.  The living learn to overcome pride;
10.  The dead (Holy Souls) have their pains eased by suffrages.

One day Our Lady said to Blessed Alan:

"I want people who have a devotion to my Rosary to have my son's grace and blessing during their lifetime and at their death, and after their death I want them to be freed from all slavery so that they will be like kings wearing crowns and with scepters in their hands and enjoying eternal glory."

- From: The Secret of the Rosary, St. Louis De Montfort

I absolutely love this book (The Secret of the Rosary)!  I have been reading bits and pieces in conjunction with the Preparation for Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary.  At times, some of my non Catholic friends have brought up the Rosary as one of the "problems" that separate us from our Protestant brothers and sisters.  Lately, as I've been meditating on the readings and on the Rosary...I figured something out!  I had an "aha" moment!  There IS a difference between saying the Rosary and praying the Rosary.  Semantics you say?  Nope.  Here's why:

"In order to pray well, it is not enough to give expression to our petitions by means of that most excellent of all prayers, the Rosary, but we must also pray with real concentration for God listens more to the voice of the heart than that of the mouth.  To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect  and reverence; it would make our Rosaries fruitless and would make us guilty of sin.  How can we expect God to listen to us if we ourselves do not pay attention to what we are saying?" --The Secret of the Rosary (Forty-Second Rose).

We are supposed to be meditating on the various mysteries, not just spouting off the memorized prayers.  I think of all the times I've whizzed through my Rosary just to "get it done" without really even thinking about the Life of Christ at all.  I am going to make a real effort to pray my Rosaries from now on.  How about you?

Wordless Wednesday-Dryer Find Edition

Found in dryer this morning!

Carnival of Homeschooling

Good Morning everyone!  Happy Tuesday to you!  The next installment of the Carnival of Homeschooling is up over at the NerdFamily Blog!  This edition is called Open House!  Please take a few minutes to click on over there!  You won't be disappointed!

13 Years Ago!

Happy Anniversary, Honey!  Thank you for the last 13 years!  Thank you for our babies!  Thank you for loving me and treating me with honor and respect!  Thank you for being there during rough financial times, through cancer, through the terrible twos, threes, fours, fives, sixes and through the horrible "addicted to electronics" stages of our son!  Thank you for allowing us to homeschool, even though it's not your first choice!  Thank you for your commitment to Holy Spirit, Holy Family and St. Pius Schools!  Thank you for keeping the car filled with gas so I don't have to do it!  Thank you for your dish pan hands!  But most of all, thank you for joining your life with mine on this day, 13 years ago!  There isn't any place else I'd rather be!

I love you more today than I did on our wedding day!  You truly are the love of my life!

How do you know when......

.......there is a breast cancer survivor living in your household?

Answer:  When you offer to help your kids clean up the play dough and you notice that your 6 year old has made the breast cancer symbol.....perfectly! 

Dreams

I had an interesting dream last night.  I was in a HUGE church.  It must have been St. Peters because it was full of Cardinals, all dressed in red.  They were standing in a circle celebrating mass.   The altar was in the center.  Each of them had their own chalice and they raised the cups during the Consecration in unison.  As they were holding them in the air, a small white Host rose from the cups and hovered over them.  Then, at different times, the white Hosts turned a dark red and began to pulsate!   I was speechless.  I began to tingle all over and I realized that I was witnessing a miracle.  There were other people around me except they could not see what I was seeing!  I kept saying, "Don't you see what's happening?" but I got no response from the people around me.  Then, it was over and I woke up.

I've been thinking about it all day, replaying it in my mind and trying to figure out what it means.  I used to have a book about dreams that gave quick explanations about what certain things meant.  For instance, I read that when you dream about weather, it usually means "change".  I used to dream a lot about tornadoes.  I still do sometimes.  They aren't recurring dreams, just different scenarios around the same topic...tornadoes.

I find it interesting that in my dream last night, I was the only one who could see this miracle as it was happening.  There must be some significance to that.  But, whatever the dream meant, I enjoyed dreaming it and I plan to pay special attention at mass tomorrow during the Consecration!

A Question For You!

The author of one of my very favorite blogs has recently asked an interesting question, "What does 'when the well runs dry' mean to you, and what do you do about it?"  I've been pondering these questions for the last few days and what  I've found is that, I don't really have a definitive answer.  I've decided that I'm "wishy-washy"! Does that make sense?

I'll start off by saying that I don't remember how old I was the first time I heard this term.  I'm pretty sure I was in grade school though because I know I was asking my dad for something.  It was probably some new item that I'd seen advertised on television.  I remember that he clearly said to me, "Nancy honey, I'd love to give that to you but I'm sorry to say that our well has run dry."  I took that to mean that we didn't have the money, that our bank account was dry, that it was empty.  At the time, there wasn't much for me to actually do about it, accept to say that I shrugged my shoulders and moved on to the next thing clogging my prepubescent mind.  I guess you could call it, acceptance, mostly because....you just didn't argue with my dad!

Another way of looking at it, and this is where I think I most identify with the term, is to say that emotionally, my well has run dry.  I am emotionally spent.  As a woman (more specifically a wife and a mother), my vocation is to be the primary nurturer.  We are programmed to work towards meeting the needs of others.  Sometimes those needs can be overwhelming.  Whether it's meeting the needs of my husband, my children, the household or even extended family, it can take it's toll on my emotions.  For me, I know I'm at that point when I cry.  When I allow my emotions to get to the point where I have nothing left of me to give and all I can do is shed tears, then I know that I'm at my wits end and I need to take a step back and re-group.  For me, it usually means taking a trip to a quiet bookstore or just a drive around town..ALONE....just God and I.  Just this simple step alone can begin to refill my well. 

My well can also run dry spiritually.  I know you've heard the term "desert experience", right?  To have my well run dry in this context is probably harder than any of the others.  Feeling separated or abandoned by God is never a pleasant experience.  Whenever I am in the midst of this crisis, I often wonder what it was that I did (or didn't do) to push God away.  Did the spiritual dryness come because I didn't have enough faith?  Will God bring me back into His fold again or will I have to endure the fire of refinement forever?
During these times of spiritual dryness, I lay low.  I don't do anything drastic. I usually seek the advice of a trusted priest and then, well, I just simply pray.  Even though sometimes it seems as though God doesn't hear me in the desert, I pray anyway.  I pray that I'm open to whatever it is that He's trying to show me. I take advantage of the Sacraments and keep a rosary with me at all times....even if all I do is just hold it!  Sometimes, I'll even sleep with it!

Strangely enough, my emotional well is pretty dry right at the moment.  I'm sorry if this post seems superficial  and impersonal, but, I'm having trouble digging deep these days.  Right now I seem to be just going through the motions.  I have a lot going on.  Please bear with me as I "fill up my well".

If you would like to add your comments to the discussion, please do so here or at Aspiring's Blog. 

Carnival of Homeschooling

This weeks Carnival of Homeschooling is up over at The HomeSpun Life.  This week's Carnival includes subjects like Lifestyle, Faith and Classical Music!  You might be able to find answers to questions like "Are you enjoying your homeschool journey?" Go check it out!

The twelve preliminary days

Yesterday was Day One in the 40 Day Preparation for Total Consecration to Jesus Through Mary For Families (I've talked about this apostolate before).  Our aim is to renew our Consecration once per year and so, this begins our next family journey.

I'm always amazed at how quickly the words of St. Louis de Monfort or of Pope John Paul II can cut to the core of my soul.  These are the words I read yesterday in the very first meditation:

"Ask the Holy Spirit for the grace to break with everything that displeases God and to become a person for others in imitation of the Holy Family.  As disciples of Christ we must struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil.  The world has a very strong attraction."  And further:

"You can easily test yourself to see where your heart is by examining your small talk and conversations--are they constantly going to money, sports, or other things that are not drawing you into God's presence?  There is nothing wrong with money, spots, or the appreciation of nice things and the beauty of the world, but if these possess us so that we do not develop an interior life and a relationship with God, then they are working against us."

Gulp! (Clears throat and scratches head!)

Please pray for me as I renew my Consecration.  I can see that this is going to be a time of cleansing and penance that is much needed.

Come Holy Spirit, please awaken us to all you have in mind for us during these days of renewal and help us to let go of all sin, of the "spirit of the world," and of all else that leads to sin so that we can truly live this Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary in union with St. Joseph.

Totus Tuus!

Carnival of Homeschooling: Singing a Happy Song Edition

The latest edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling is up over at Dewey's Treehouse.  Pop on over when you get a chance to check things out!

A Winner!

Congratulations to Jill from A Long Way to Sainthood as she has won the Pink Prayer Book!  Jill, please email me your address and I'll get this out to you ASAP.

As you go about your day today, please take a few moments to remember all the souls lost to breast cancer and for all of those who work so diligently to find a cure!

Help Us, Oh Lord

Lord God,

as the election approaches,

we seek to better understand the issues and concerns that confront our city, state, and country,

and how the Gospel compels us to respond as faithful citizens in our community.

We ask for eyes that are free from blindness

so that we might see each other as brothers and sisters,

one and equal in dignity,

especially those who are victims of abuse and violence, deceit and poverty.

We ask for ears that will hear the cries of children unborn and those abandoned,

men and women oppressed because of race or creed, religion or gender.

We ask for minds and hearts that are open to hearing the voice of leaders who will bring us closer to

your Kingdom.

We pray for discernment

so that we may choose leaders who hear your Word,

live your love,

and keep in the ways of your truth

as they follow in the steps of Jesus and his Apostles

and guide us to your Kingdom of justice and peace.

We ask this in the name of your Son Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.