Thursday Tea Time - 1st Edition

My good friend Judy from Benmakesten and Homeschool Faith and Family Life has participated in this meme every week for a long time.  I look so forward to Judy's posts about her Tea Time...especially when she posts pictures of here tea cups or other drinking vessels.  For me, it's a way to share a friendly quiet moment with her...even though we live so far away from each other.

The meme is hosted by Ruth at Celebrate Friendship.  Ruth describes it this way:

"This meme is purely for heart's sake. This is an invitation to have few minutes each Thursday for a tea break in front the computer and answer the following questions:
1. I'm having...(Share what kind of tea/coffee/drinks you're having.) You can share a bit about your teacup/mug.
2. I'm feeling....(no need to explain why if you don't want to)      3. On my mind....(random thoughts)
4. Then leave a line, a verse, or a quotation to encourage the readers (and yourself).
It doesn't have to be long. Just a light talk to make hearts light. You may want to add a photo or two."

So here is my first attempt at this meme.

1.  I'm having......my first cup of coffee this Thursday morning!  I'm enjoying it with 1 packet of Splenda and some half & half.  The mug is one I purchased at Starbucks several years ago.  I bought it because it reminded me of Fall....my favorite season. 

2.  I'm feeling......a little tired this morning.  I need to get the kids up, but once I do, our morning will begin in FULL FORCE and I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet.  I can hardly wait for Easter break when I can let them sleep a little longer in the morning.

3.  On my mind......lots of things.  Tuition for the 2012-2013 school year is first and foremost.  It's a daunting task that must be addressed very soon.  It's times like these when I miss homeschooling the most.  Since that is not an option, I need to move on and allow myself to embrace traditional school with a new zeal and determination.

4.  My favorite verse has always been John 3:30....."He must increase, but I must decrease"

Here is my mug:

 

Please stop by Ruth's blog and join in on this fun meme!  I waited way too long.!

Wordless Wednesday - St. Louis de Monfort Edition

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Uncomfortable

Today is the first of 12 preliminary Days that begins my renewal of Total Consecration to Jesus, through Mary for Families.  This spiritual journey does not start off easy and then gradually get more intense, it's intense from the very beginning.

The first thing I read this morning was, "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."

Wow. 

I want to.  But it's hard to gather the courage to ask.  I'm afraid of what God will require of me.

I pray that along this road, I can find it within me to truly seek to break from EVERYTHING that displeases God.

Total Consecration

Tomorrow, I will be starting the 40 Days of Preparation for Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary for Families.  I've done it before and I blogged about it here and here.  I won't repeat myself again, but I'm feeling the need to revisit this spiritual journey. 

For more information, you can also click on the image of the Holy Family on my side bar.  That will direct you to the Apostolate for Family Consecration's website.  The Apostolate suggests the following:

"It is recommended that you block out a period of time each day to read and prayerfully reflect on the meditations selected for the particular day of the preparation period. Pray and talk to God, His Mother and St. Joseph about what you are reading. Invite the Holy Spirit to guide you, so that you don't rush through the readings and prayers. The objective is not necessarily to completely read all the meditations for each day, but to set aside some time every day for reflective reading of the daily meditations. You can always go back to them later after you have completed your consecration. In fact, you are encouraged to regularly reflect on these readings even after you have made your consecration. Try not to become scrupulous; if you aren't able to finish the daily readings on some of the days, it doesn't mean that you cannot make the consecration or that you need to start over again. Just keep proceeding and do your best; Our Lady understands."

Whenever I am feeling led to begin a spiritual "pilgrimage" through prayer, I aways come back to St. Louis de Montfort and Blessed John Paul II. 

If you have never experienced the Total Consecration, I highly recommend it.  You will not be the same.  Will you join me?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Image credit

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
The rain fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

I miss it!

Have I mentioned lately how much I miss homeschooling?  Some days it's all I can do to not stand in the  middle of the street and scream!  It's very hard to drop them off at school every morning knowing that I'm not a part of their learning day.  I don't get to see the light bulb go off when they've mastered something or see the frustration in their eyes when they are stuck.  Yes, I help them with their homework and interact with them after school....but it isn't the same.

I miss not having to get up at a certain time in the morning.  I miss not even having to get dressed to
"do" school.  It was really enjoyable to have all 4 of us sitting around the dining room table, each of them doing their own lessons and me being there to help when they needed it.

I miss how they would scatter in an instant when I would announce "break time" or how the girls would tip-toe around when Nathan was doing a timed math lesson.  I miss how they would ask, "can we be done?" toward lunch time and then, sometimes, ask if they could do more school work after dinner.  I miss how we were together all the time.

I miss ALL of those things....and many, many more.  I have no regrets about last year!  NONE!  I wasn't always easy, but I'd like to think we all did a good job....even on the days when it was like pulling teeth to get Nathan to do his math.  Incidentally, I'm pleased to inform you that it's not JUST ME!  He complains just the same about his current teacher and says he hates math just as much!

Amelia has struggled with reading this year.  I guess what I really mean is that she is struggling to keep up with the other kids.  She feels bad when all the other kids get to wear paper crowns  when they have mastered their AR (accelerated reader) points, or when they have their name written in gold on the "list".  I hate that she's feeling bad about herself because she has to see a special reading teacher a few days a week.  She says the kids make fun of those that have to go to "Mrs. C's" room. 

If we were homeschooling, none of that would matter.  She could read at her own pace and not be penalized for it and we could celebrate when she moved up a level....no matter what that level was.
I've talked with the principal and her teacher at length about her immaturity and the fact that she is behind in reading.  We will need to seek some summer school help in order for her to be promoted to the 3rd grade.  I would feel horrible if she wasn't allowed to move up!  Her teacher blames homeschooling.  She didn't come out and say it like that....but she beats around the bush....a lot!  I wouldn't call her anti homeschooling...exactly....but I would say that she is not in favor of it. 

This is just one hurdle of our lives...there will be many more, I'm sure. 

If you are a homeschooling mom....get down on your knees and that God that He has allowed you the opportunity to be with your children.  If you are consider this journey, please don't think about it too long.  You'll just talk yourself right out of it!  JUST DO IT!  I promise that you will not have any regrets and that the time you spend with your kids will be precious to you.  You'll wish you tried it sooner.  And for those naysayers out there....don't knock it till you've tried it!  Seriously, get your children away from these government schools and start making the changes you need to make in order to keep them at home.  It will be the best decision you ever made.

St. Patrick

Did you know that St. Patrick was a visionary?  I didn't.  I have always associated him with the conversion of a bunch of idol worshipers by using the shamrock as a symbol for the Trinity.  I had no idea that God had told him in visions that he would convert all of Ireland in the process.  I also had no idea that he was the Patron Saint of snakebites.  Apparently, there is a legend that he drove all the snakes out of Ireland.  I guess I never associated Ireland with lots of snakes......which would stand to reason if St. Patrick drove them all out!  Hmmm.  Interesting.

I love learning new things about Saints.  Frankly, I think our Catholic Saints are a true untapped resource on our spiritual journey!  These men and women lived through tough times and yet they were willing to be martyred for the sake of Christ.  These should the role models for our children...not sports figures or movie stars.

It isn't often, in this day and age, that we have the opportunity (yes...opportunity) for martyrdom....at least not in this country.  However, there are people in other parts of this world that are truly persecuted and killed for their christian faith.  It's happening everyday.  For instance, there's the story of Dorothy Stang, a sister of Notre Dame.  She died after reading the Beatitudes to her killers.  Can you imagine?

As for St. Patrick, there is no historical account of how he died.  Suffice it to say that his Sainthood comes from his virtuous and holy life and by the souls that he helped to save...although he was never formally canonized by the Pope.

So, when you wake up on Saturday morning...think about St. Patrick and what he managed to accomplish for God....converting an entire country!  Maybe he can inspire us along our walk to encourage even just one person in hopes of showing them (either by word or example) the way to heaven.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In the obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In the predictions of prophets,
In the preaching of apostles,
In the faith of confessors,
In the innocence of holy virgins,
In the deeds of righteous men.

I arise today, through
The strength of heaven,
The light of the sun,
The radiance of the moon,
The splendor of fire,
The speed of lightning,
The swiftness of wind,
The depth of the sea,
The stability of the earth,
The firmness of rock.

I arise today, through
God's strength to pilot me,
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptation of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
afar and near.

I summon today
All these powers between me and those evils, Against every cruel and merciless power
that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul;
Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning, Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me an abundance of reward.

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.

When St. Paul referred to putting on the “Armor of God” in his letter to the Ephesians (6:11) to fight sin and evil inclinations, he could have been thinking of prayers just like this one! We may not wear combat gear in our daily lives, but St. Patrick's Breastplate can function as divine armor for protection against spiritual adversity.

(Prayer and last paragraph credit).

Facebook

Facebook is getting on my nerves.  Actually, I guess it's the people on Facebook....my friends.  Sometimes I wonder why I keep my account.  I mean, I enjoy being able to connect with family and friends on a regular basis, but, the world is so political now that it's really hard to go through even one day without ticking someone off or someone ticking me off. 

Sometimes I think we (my friends and I) do it on purpose..to provoke each other.  That just seems wrong.

I'm tired of always having to avoid the HUGE elephant in the room.  I'm tired of beating around the bush.  Why can't we just agree to disagree on some subjects.

On most days, I'm good at avoiding confrontation.  But lately, I haven't been able to let a good story pass without commenting or re posting it to my wall. Inevitably, someone has commented in a negative way and I feel like I sound like a broken record trying to explain myself.  Why do we do this?

I really, really have to work on letting things slide right off my back.  On the other hand, I could just change the privacy settings on my FB account and not allow people to comment on my status updates.  Or, I could delete the whole account and be done with it.

Did I mention how much Facebook is getting on my nerves????

What is my purpose?

What is my purpose for blogging?  Obviously this isn't a question for you to answer...I'm just thinking out loud here. 

Originally, my purpose for blogging was to journal about my breast cancer experience.  I wanted it to be a chronicle of events and feelings so that my children had something tangible that they could hold onto in case I didn't make it.  Later, after treatment, it became a place to journal about family life and raising kids in this crazy world.  At times it was a personal diary where I wrote about personal struggles, failures and fears.  And for a very short period of time, it became a place to keep track of our homeschooling experience.

Over the past several months, I've been really struggling with this blog.  I never know what to write.  I've lost several subscribers.  Heck, I don't blame them....I rarely update the blog and when I do, it's usually pretty negative.  I wouldn't want to follow that either.  Even though losing readers did sting a little, I've tried to keep in mind that I wasn't writing for them anyway.  If I were to be brutally honest, I've always been shocked that anyone other than family would be interested in reading my blog.  Here's a shocker....my very best friend in the entire world doesn't read my blog!  She knows I have one, but she's just not interested. 

Although I will never totally let this blog go, I need to begin to really search my heart about the direction I want it to go.  I've been brainstorming.  I have some ideas.  For instance....

Diary:  Just a place to write about random thoughts and happenings in my life that have no real relevance or purpose other than to me.

Themed:  I could make this a theme oriented blog...like breast cancer, cooking, my Italian heritage or how to live a Catholic life in the chaos of this world.  The thing is, there's thousands of those blogs out there.  I can think of nothing that would set my blog apart from any of the others.  My time (in this case) would probably be better served visiting all of the EXISTING blogs out there with these subjects as their primary focus.  All you have to do is to take a look at my side bar if you want to read some really great  blogs!

Political:  I'm not sure I could even pull this one off.  I'm so tired of politics and the talking heads of the world that I really DON'T CARE anymore about who said what, when & where about whom.  Everybody has an opinion and the only one that would really matter here...well....would be mine.  I don't love having political or religious conversations/debates anymore.  They bore me.  In most cases...I'm not going to change my mind and you're not going to change yours.  I think we can all just agree to disagree with some people and call it a day.

Weightloss:  In truth, I have another blog about weight loss.  Not many know about it...and that's how I wanted it.  Although I am losing weight right now (AGAIN), I just don't feel motivated or led to talk about this publicly.  The bottom line here is..."Do you really care if I've lost a pound or gained a few ounces?  Do you really want to know what I had for dinner or how I satisfied a craving"?  I didn't think so.  Boring!

Tutorial:  Absolutely not!  About the only thing I'm really, really good at is complaining and I'm sure no one needs to be "taught" how to do that!  Besides....it's LENT!


So as you can see, I'm not sure what to do.  I'm not sure where I'm heading.  All I know is that, I want to go somewhere new and I want all of you guys to come with me.  If you have any bright ideas, I'm open.

I'll let you know what I come up with.