Thursday, April 28, 2011

Pro-Life Message

I saw this on facebook and am reposting it here for my non-fb friends.



A worried woman went to her gynecologist and said:  'Doctor, I have a serious problem and desperately need your help! My baby is not even 1 year old and I'm pregnant again. I don't want kids so close together.

The doctor said: 'Ok, what do you want me to do?'

She said: 'I want you to end my pregnancy, and I'm counting on your help with this.'

The doctor thought for a little, and after some silence he said to the lady: 'I think I have a better solution for your problem. It's less dangerous for you too.'

She smiled, thinking that the doctor was going to accept her request.

Then he continued: 'You see, in order for you not to have to take care of 2 babies at the same time, let's kill the one in your arms. This way, you could rest some before the other one is born. If we're going to kill one of them, it doesn't matter which one it is. There would be no risk for your body if you chose the one in your arms.

The lady was horrified and said: 'No, doctor! How terrible! It's a crime to kill a child!

'I agree', the doctor replied. 'But you seemed to be OK with it, so I thought maybe that was the best solution.'

The doctor smiled, realizing that he had made his point.

He convinced the mom that there is no difference in killing a child that's already been born and one that's still in the womb.

The crime is the same!

 
(Actual photo of the feet of a preborn baby at 10 weeks gestation)

If you agree, please SHARE. Together we can help save precious lives!

"Love says I sacrifice myself for the good of the other person. Abortion says I sacrifice the other person for the good of myself..."

Jesus sacrificed Himself for the good of sinners! That's perfect love!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Regina @ 4 months ...

...trying her level best to get both fists in her mouth at the same time



...totally in love with her new favorite toy.
I TRIED and TRIED to configure this video so it would play vertically instead of horizontally,
but every time I uploaded the edited version, it reverted to the original.

But you get the idea. She loved it.


In the Words of C. S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis once said:

"God's work in our lives can be painful, but His ultimate goal is to transform us into something better. "

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised."

"But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of--throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards."

"You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but he is building up a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself."

Monday, April 11, 2011

a dream

I found this on another blog, but it really hit me where it hurts.



In my dream I saw an absolutely beautiful wrapped present. (My favorite kind of present to get...I totally appreciate a good gift wrap!) However, as I looked at that present, complete with a perfectly tied wire ribbon, the following thoughts flooded my mind:

My home was like that beautifully wrapped present....lovely to look at and wonderful to make the box pleasing. HOWEVER, it became very clear to me that I needed to remember that the thing that made the present of value wasn't the nice ribbon or the expensive paper, or even the box. The treasure was the actual GIFT housed within the box. The contents of the box was what mattered! The bow would be untied and the paper eventually cast aside....but the CONTENTS of the box...MY FAMILY....was what mattered!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Two Inspirational Poems

Splinters From The Cross
Little headaches, little heartaches,
Little griefs of every day,
Little trials and vexations,
How they throng around our way!
One great cross, immense and heavy,
So it seems to our weak will,
Might be born with resignation,
But these many small ones kill.
Yet all life is formed of small things,
Little leaves make up the trees,
Many tiny drops of water
Blending, make the mighty seas.
Let us not then by impatience
Mar the beauty of the whole,
But the love of Jesus bear all
In the silence of our soul.
Asking Him for grace sufficient
To sustain us through each loss,
And to treasure each small offering
As a splinter from His Cross.

The Tapestry
My life is but a weaving between my God and me,
I do not choose the colors, He worketh steadily.
Oftimes He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent, and shuttles cease to fly,
Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful in the skillful Weaver's hand
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Favorite Subjects.

I bet you thought I was going to write about the twins. They are usually my favorite subjects. Or Regina. No, I'm talking about my favorite subject in school. Homeschool, that is.

Math.

I don't remember it being my favorite subject when I was going through school, although I did get decent grades and managed to make it all the way through a statistics course in college. But somewhere along the last 12 years, it has become my favorite subject. I love teaching it to the younger kids, and I love re-learning it with the older kids.

Brian recently went through a few chapters in Algebra with the slope-intercept formula. That was all new to me. I must have daydreamed or dozed through it in Geometry class as a sophomore, but after a few tries I had it down even better than he did.

Now we are working with equations, and it's sort of pathetic how much I am enjoying myself. *There are 39 coins made up of pennies and dimes. The total value is $1.83. Write two equations, one for the number of coins, and one for the value. *Find three consecutive integers such that five times the first integer plus twice the second is equal to six times the third.

He worked in his book, I worked on the pink sheet. I won.


I love teaching/learning Latin, and grammar.

I love sharing my knowledge of Spanish with the kids, although we're doing Latin as our foreign language instead.

I love sharing classical music, poetry and art, and teaching them to draw.

Teaching them to read can be tedious, but I love the moment of discovery when they find they can actually READ.

I love learning history, though slogging through textbooks can be a drag.

I hate teaching spelling. Too tedious for me. I was one of those natural spellers, and I can't relate well to someone to whom it doesn't come as easily.

I love science, especially the higher sciences.

I love teaching the kids how to write in cursive. I'm neutral on teaching them how to print. I hate teaching them how to write compositions. This is probably because I'm so opinionated that if they're not writing the way I would do it, I sort of automatically think it's wrong.

I hate craft projects.

I love teaching them to touch-type.

I love showing them their way around a kitchen.

In general, I just love those "light-bulb" moments when I have found just the right way to explain something to them so that it makes perfect sense. I love when their enthusiasm for a subject finally measures up to my own.

Sometimes - quite often, actually - I get so discouraged with homeschooling that I just want to give up. Making this list has been therapeutic in that regard, reinforcing some of my reasons for wanting to homeschool in the first place.

Stations of the Cross, Closing





The Resurrection of Jesus
We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You
because by your holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices that they might go and anoint Jesus. Very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had just risen, they came to the tomb. They were saying to one another, "Who will roll the stone back from the entrance of the tomb for us?" for it was very large. But looking up they saw that the stone had been rolled back, and upon entering the tomb they were amazed to see a young man sitting at the right side and clothed in a white robe. He said to them, "Do not be terrified. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him." (Mk. 16, 1 to 6)

Let us pray: I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day he arose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Stations of the Cross, Fourteenth Station

Fourteenth Station

Jesus is laid in the tomb

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you,
because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world

Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Jesus, and wrapping it in a clean linen cloth he laid it in his new tomb, which he had hewn out of rock. Then he rolled a large stone agains the entrance of the tomb and departed. (Mt. 27, 59 and 60)

Reflection: I will praise you, O Lord, for you drew me clear and did not let my enemies rejoice over me. O Lord, my God, I cried out to you and you healed me. O lord, you brought me up from the lower world; you preserved me from among those going down into the pit. Sing praise to the Lord, you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger lasts but a moment; his good will is for a lifetime. At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with dawn comes rejoicing. (Ps. 29, 2 to 6)

Let us pray: Almighty and eternal God, on the edge of sadness when all seemed lost, You restored to us teh Saviour we thought defeated and conquered. Help us, we beg You, so to empty ourselves of self concern that we might see your hand in every failure and your victory in every defeat. These things we ask in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns forever with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Click on the picture for a link to an excellently-done corresponding page on the Catholic Stations of the Cross.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Chocolate Milk

Clare was an arrestingly beautiful child who had a personality to match. She loved everybody, and everybody loved her. Except her big sister, but we won't get into that now.

It's hard to look at that angelic face and imagine that she could be anything other than perfect.

But I just have to share this little story for my blog-friend Nicolle.

In 2004, my oldest son was chosen for a little-league All-Star baseball team. What this really translates to = several EXTRA weeks added onto the end of a long, hot, slow baseball season. One Saturday in September, we drove about an hour to where the games were being held, and I dropped my son off to warm up with his team. We had to wait for a game or two (and who knows how long they can last), so I took the kids to a small pizza joint for lunch to kill some time.

That day I had with me Brian (8), Conor (6), Clare(3) & Theresa (11 months). Keeping them happy, occupied and quiet for who knows how long was a real chore. We ordered our pizza, and then I bought the kids chocolate milk and chips to snack on until the pie was ready.

The pizza joint was really rather small, and there was an older gentleman there, eating alone. He had to be in his late sixties at the youngest. I don't know if he was just a grumpy old man in general, or if he was gruff because my kids were misbehaving, or if he just wanted to eat alone at his local pizza place in peace. . I was trying my best to keep them contained and quiet, but hey, they were four little kids being held hostage by a baseball game. Heck, I wanted to misbehave, too.

Now go look at Clare's sweet face again. Then picture her slipping away from our booth for a moment - just a moment, mind you, while my guard was down - easing over to the old man's booth, and beaming at him with that angelic smile, just before deliberately spraying a mouthful of chocolate milk right onto his table, the floor, and down the front of her dress.

"Getouttahere!" he snarled at her, gruffly. I remember apologizing to him, wiping off his table and wiping up the floor, and wishing I could just disappear. I'm certain I was trying not to cry, but probably not succeeding very well. That's all I remember, though.

I still count it among one of my worst Mommy moments.

So Nicolle, please don't cry over spilled milk unless Boyd spits it at somebody.

Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who was the Best Baby Ever


who took six hour naps



and had magical, bubbling spit.


The end.

Crunch. Ouch.


Tree, meet Van.



Van, meet Tree.

Stations of the Cross, Thirteenth Station

Thirteenth Station

The body of Jesus is taken down from the Cross

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you,
because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world

When the soldiers came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead so that they did not break his legs, but one of them opened his side with a lance, and immediately there came out blood and water. Joseph of Arimathea, because he was a disciple of Jesus (although a secret one for fear of the Jews), besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave permission. (Jn. 19, 33 to 34, 38a)

Reflection: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and I will bring you back to your land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. O my people! I will put my psirit in you that you may live. You shall know then that I am the Lord. I have promised it, and I will do it, says the Lord. (Ezechiel 37, 12 to 14)

Let us pray: Beloved Saviour, You returned to the Father all that He had given You, so that He might restore all to You a hundred-fold in the glorious resurrection. Help us, we beg You, to give generously of ourselves in all that we do for You, so that like You we might be made perfect in a new resurrection.

Click on the picture for a link to an excellently-done corresponding page on the Catholic Stations of the Cross.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Stations of the Cross, Twelfth Station

The Twelfth Station

Jesus dies on the Cross


We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you,
because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the curtain of the temple was torn in the middle. Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said, "It is finished. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Then, bowing his head, he died. (Lk. 23, 44 to 46; Jn. 19, 30b)

Reflection: My people, what have I done to you? or in what have I offended you? Answer me. What more should I have done, and did not do? I led you out of the land of Egypt, and you prepared a cross for me. I opened the Red Sea before you, and you opened my side with a lance. I gave you a royal sceptre, and you have given me a crown of thorns. With great power I lifted you up, and you have hung me upon a cross. My people, what have I done to you, or in what have I offended you? Answer me. (From The Reproaches of Good Friday)

Let us pray: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Click on the picture for a link to an excellently-done corresponding page on the Catholic Stations of the Cross.