New Blog Roll Members - July 20th
>> Monday, July 20, 2009
Welcome to our newest blog roll members! Please stop by and welcome them to the blog roll!
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I do it for LIFE
>> Monday, July 13, 2009
Today's guest post was written by Dessi from Life with Small Blessings
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One afternoon, while I was sitting outside watching my last brain cell fly away hand in hand with my last nerve call, my neighbor came by. She sat beside me and asked me the most-asked question of the century. She asked me why I don't send my kids to school. Well, with no brain cells left it was a hard thing to deal with. So I began to tell her my recorded speech. "We like the time we have together...they learn better...we have a wonderful support group."
Satisfied, my neighbor then asked the second most common question: "Why do you have so many children? Don't you know how to prevent it?" Sadly, the second question is posed by many well-meaning NFP catholics. So she asked me why I do everything that I do...what a deep question for a mother of four little ones with another on the way. Here I want to introduce the daily life of our family of little ones. Please do not sue me if you experience any trauma after reading this.
I start the day half asleep, half awake. I don't believe I have slept an entire night in 7 1/2 years. Anyway, early in the morning I am awakened by the inhumane screeching sounds made by my two beautiful sons. They have found something to fight about even before they fully awaken...that is genious!
I, their loving mom, fly out of bed, glamorous as always and in a loving tone of voice explain to them that I have a personal connection with the Gypsies. At that point the boys decide that they enjoy their company far better than the Gypsies' and they go downstairs haunted by my beautiful visage. By the time I get my teeth brushed, my youngest is in frantic search of his human bottle. I scoop him on my lap to nurse, and after a few grunts he is satisfied.
Soon I hear tiny steps up, followed by whispers and warnings of this sort: "Thomas, be careful! She'll hear you!" Or "Peter, come with me. I'm scared she'll look at me!" My boys have ventured up in front of me. The fear of the Gypsies had given in to a basic human need - hunger. I set the table in a manner befitting an "I Love Lucy" episode. After all, I am still trying to catch some sleep. Somewhere in between, my precious daughter has gotten up and is now informing me that if she was a fairy she wouldn't have to do schoolwork. Love of learning is a force that drives my fairy to tears. The table is cleaned, the boys are playing and fighting at the same time, the baby is walking around with a huge blob of oatmeal on his head. (I figure that if oatmeal is good for your skin then it mush also be good for your hair.) Left to beautify himself, the baby wanders off to somewhere in his sister's room. Where I am afraid to say because we have lost a kid or two in that ever engulfing mess!
I give my daughter her school instructions and just in time, because now I have a fight to stop. I put the pasta drainer (helmet) on my head, pick up my biggest pot lid (shield) and a wooden spoon (sword), and go after the two gladiators. To all of you out there, I can survive a fight between a Spartan and a Persian better than one between two boys before the age of reason. While I am washing the baby and now lecturing the boys in a loud voice, my daughter is having major bodily function failure. Her eyes are rolling back, her hair is standing up, her body is convulsing, all from the pain of writing the letter "P". See, if I was a fairy mom I would just have to put some fairy dust on her. But being a Catholic mom I run for the Holy water. I think I might need a priest. Or maybe I could just send her to an old-fashioned Mennonite school to put the fear of God in her.
Unfortunately, at this time I am interrupted by the doorbell. A lady from St. Louis is here to offer me some magazines. I change my cave woman look on my face (reserved solely for my kids) to a nice smile. I asked if she had any titles like "How to Sell Your Children to the Gypsies" or "Did Fairies Go to School?" or "How to Sleep While Awake." But unfortunately after seeing all my blessings behind my back, she runs off.
Now is lunchtime and I just found out that Marco Polo is so boring and Nicolas needs a new diaper. While I change his diaper (which could be used as a lethal weapon in war), I try to explain that Marco Polo isn't boring and that learning is always fun. The boys are starving already, Maria's eyes are permanently stuck in the back of her head, and I am cooking mac & cheese with a baby attached to my hip. Lunch flies by quickly and I mean that literally. There is macaroni stuck on my ceiling and by now the baby is wearing his lunch on his lap as a kilt. The boys are done fighting over who can eat faster, and I am told for the 100th time that Marco Polo is just no fun. As I try to clear the table, Nicolas is ready for a nap. With a loving voice, I tell the children that if they wake him up I will lovingly give all their toys away and then I go lie down to nurse Nicolas.
And so goes my life until my husband comes home from work. He opens the door cautiously. After all, he knows the dangers that lie behind it. Lego pieces, blocks, paper, shoes, and toys are all weapons, lurking everywhere trying to trip us. I then serve the grand dinner - hot dogs! Now my daughter falls into a seizure because we are starving her. She doesn't like hot dogs...at least not today! While we ignore our starving child, my husband and I scarf down our first meal of the day. Let me tell you, we are both very fast eaters! Before the boys' or the baby's tantrum (or whatever), which is usually about 10 minutes into dinner, we are both done. Knowing my Balkan blood, my husband quickly removes the kids to the nearest outside yard or bathtub. I can't talk, I am exhausted, and I don't remember what I did that day. Did I feed them? School? By all the chaos lying around it's evident that I did a lot, and yet nothing at the same time.
So why do I do it? For the evenings when I can snuggle my children, see them, hug them, and realize that I am the richest most blessed woman in the world. i do it for their smiles and their sleepy eyes. I do it for life. That is it. That is the answer to all of my neighbor's questions. Life. Choose life...that you may live!
Today's guest post was written by Dessi from Life with Small Blessings
photo by derPlau
Read more...New Blog Roll Members - July 6, 2009
>> Sunday, July 5, 2009
Welcome to our newest blog roll members! Please go stop by a couple of them and welcome them to the blog roll!
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The Year of the Priest and Our Future “In Vestments”
>> Saturday, July 4, 2009
This guest post was written by Cassandra Poppe from Intercessories Family Ministries and Our Lady's Children
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Believe it or not, there are solutions to the Church’s declining vocations market. I was reminded of this recently when one of my friends bemoaned, “We need more priests!” She tossed her hands up and sighed, “But, hey. What can we do?” She shrugged it off as a problem beyond solutions, and turned to watch her children play on the swings. Her apparent helplessness startled me. Couldn’t she see? The solutions were right before her, as evident as the Kool Aid stain on her shirt. Two possible solutions! I myself have four. And my sisters also have two solutions, with another one on the way. Indeed, the only solution to the vocation crisis is our very own “nest eggs” – our children.
Please note, not every child was created to become a priest or religious. However, being Catholic parents and shareholders in the Church, we must be willing to make this sizeable donation to the Church, should God request it. To scoff at the thought of such a donation, or to deny Him what is rightfully His will hurt not only the growth of that particular nest egg, but will also drastically effect the overall profit of the Church and all its shareholders in the future. I love the Church and want to see it prosper, and the only way it will thrive is by willingly investing some of my own nest eggs in the process.
There was an article in the Rockford, Illinois diocese paper awhile back that stated a fascinating statistic. Over the past five years, one fourth of graduating Catholic homeschooled males in that diocese chose to enter the seminary over worldly educational institutions. That number, to me, is staggering! Any financial investor will tell you that a 25% return on an investment is excellent. Now imagine, with this rate of return, the wealth of vocations that could come if more Catholic families invested in their young nest eggs using strategies similar to the ones used for these young men. As an insider on this particular strategy, I will slip you a few tips on how to get in on this great investment plan.
Any parent interested in investing in the future of the Church should begin with prayer. Pray that the Lord open your hearts to His will, whatever it may be. Pray that all pride can be put aside, should the day come that your son, on the day he finds he is the first draft pick for a professional football team, says, “Forget it! I’m going to be a priest instead!” Could you accept his decision as a blessing from God? Would you realize the spiritual windfall God has given to your family through your son? Or would you be tempted to cling onto him and bury him in the ways of the world?
Show your children your respect for consecrated men and women. Get to know them so that your children can see the things that they do within their specific callings. Teach them to appreciate the nun’s habit and the priest’s collar. They are signs to the world that they have chosen something far better than the world. They have chosen God! Always speak of priests in awe, and remind your children that a priest is not just a man in charge of a big building. Bread and wine change into the actual Body and Blood of Our Lord through the hands of the priest!
Attend a weekday Mass for an increase in vocations. St. Michael’s in Van Buren, Arkansas actually has a Mass every Friday morning for this specific intention. Attending such a Mass shows your children that vocations are something very important to you and will prepare their hearts to say, “Yes!” if the Lord calls them.
Family time spent celebrating the faith is the greatest deposit you can make into your nest eggs. Pledge to make regular deposits of faith into their hearts. Live the liturgical year. Persist in family prayer. And allow the Lord to call the hearts of your children to Him, should it be His will.
I have put my money where my mouth is and this plan works! 25% of my nest eggs have steadily expressed a firm commitment to become a nun for five years straight. Please pray for her. 50% of my nest eggs are very open to the possibility, but are in no hurry to make a decision. And the other 25%? Well, he wants to be a pirate. Please pray for him as well. After all, with your prayers, he too could become a great future “in vestment”!
Thank you to Cassandra Poppe from Intercessories Family Ministries and Our Lady's Children for today's article!
photo by Catholic Church (England and Wales)
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