From the dim and dusty corners of my home to the dim and dusty corners of my mind, there are often areas best left alone.
About a year ago, Dennis uninstalled one of the ceiling fixtures above the kitchen island, and preparing dinner became a dim proposition. Today, though, he replaced the faulty light socket, and dinner prep is already a brighter experience.
Today, in the Catholic Church, we celebrate the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, who wrote:
We may know with certainty that nothing belongs to us except our vices and sins. We must rejoice, instead, when we fall into various trials and, in this world, suffer every kind of anguish or distress of soul and body for the sake of eternal life.
Let all the brothers, therefore, beware of all pride and vainglory. Let us guard ourselves from the wisdom of this world and the prudence of the flesh. Because the spirit of the flesh very much wants and strives to have the words but cares little for the manner of working; it does not seek a religion and holiness in an interior spirit, but wants and desires to have a religion and holiness outwardly apparent to people. They are the ones of the whom the Lord says: Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. The Spirit of the Lord, however, wants the flesh to be mortified and despised, considered of little worth, rejected and insulted. It strives for humility and patience, PURE SIMPLICITY and true peace of the spirit. Above all, it desires the divine fear, the divine wisdom and the divine love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Let us refer all good to the Lord, God Almighty and Most High, acknowledge that every good is his, and thank him “from whom all good comes for everything.” May he, the Almighty and Most High, the only true God, have, be given, and receive all honor and respect, all praise and blessing, all thanks and glory, to whom all good belongs, he who alone is good.
— published in Magnificat, October, 2012
Today, for the first time ever, I bought a nebulizer and gave a child a breathing treatment. I expect that, even though I have almost 18 years of mothering under my belt, there will be many more first times with Danny in the days to come.
He’s doing much better now, too, after his third treatment today.
Danny is ten months old. All year, I’ve been taking a picture of him on the 29th of each month. It’s fun to look back and see how much he has changed since he was born. This shot was an outtake — only because it didn’t fit the format of the other shots. But boy, I sure think it’s cute! I love the way he squints his little eyes when he smiles and laughs.
October is Down Syndrome Awareness month and so I feel sort of obligated to post or say something. We found out about Danny’s Down Syndrome a few hours after his birth. I’ve written about it more on my own blog. But I think it’s important to say that life is a very precious thing and all life, no matter how different from our expectations, is a beautiful thing of immense value.
Looking at someone’s bookcase is a good way of finding out what they value. If there are no books on it, or no books in the house — it makes me shudder.
Bridget and I picked these up at Barnes & Noble yesterday. She and Luke will be reading them for the literature courses they’re doing, and I’ll be working right alongside them. Bridget and I can’t wait to dive in; Luke: not so much.
Whenever I need literature, I look to Barnes & Noble Classics. They are a great value. Of the nine titles we just picked up, three of them were free.
I must have had Henry in mind when I chose today’s Call. We sometimes refer to him as the Hengineer, because he never stops creating or thinking about creating. This afternoon, he demonstrated the new game he invented (another one!), in which players try to get a football into a small soccer net and/or kick goals over the net. His brother Sam was not around to play defender, but I got the gist of things.
I’m not feeling very inventive today. It was rainy and grey all day, the light around here was pretty wretched. So, I’ll tell you a little story about this big monkey and my inventive (or really imaginative) second son.
It was many years ago, while we were visiting my parents in Houston, that we came across this big monkey at their local Zany Brainy. The then two-year old was in love with monkeys and ran to the display and grabbed the big monkey. I left him with my mother while I went to look at puzzles with my oldest son. When I returned, the two-year old had taken two smiliar (but much smaller) monkeys and laying the big monkey on the floor, had put each of the smaller “baby” monkeys at just the right position to be nursing.
When I pointed that out to my mother, she thought it was the funniest, most inventive thing she had ever seen. Thanks to Grandma, Nicholas left the store with two out of the three monkeys.
Today was the first meeting of the first group of American Heritage Girls at our school/parish. The group was chartered by a very energetic (and well-organized) bunch of ladies from the parish. It was a nice meeting, and it looks like it will be a good group for our precious daughter.
I’ve gotten very at getting rid of stuff: clothes the kids have outgrown, toys they no longer play with, old books, and even letters I’ve saved since high school. But some things are precious to me, mainly because they were precious to my mom. Those items reside in the cherry hutch.
This place isn’t too far from our house. Whenever I drive by, I sigh. It’s actually for sale, with about 60 acres of land. While it’s tempting to dream about the possibilities, the reality would not exactly be sunshine and lollipops.
You would think that ten miles out from Washington D.C. there wouldn’t be much farm land or farm houses. But there is Wolftrap and now that the performances are over we are free to roam about the grounds which includes the original farmhouse. It’s very lovely in the fall and spring. Before the summer show crowds take over.
My oldest son is a senior this year. He will be taking the SAT for the second and last time next Saturday. A lot is riding on his score and although he feels comfortable with how much he has prepared, we continue to push him to study.
I am not a fan of shopping (clothing, gifts, groceries — oh, how I dislike grocery shopping), but once in awhile, I push myself to get out there and spend some money. Yesterday, Bridget, Stella and I actually enjoyed our afternoon among the clothing racks. We each got something new, and I picked up some birthday gifts.
Four years ago, when the major renovation on our house was just about finished, we went down to New Hampshire for a weekend that included a family reunion and a day at Storyland. While driving through North Conway, we passed a colonial-style house painted pumpkin orange, with cream trim. I fell in love and pointed it out to Dennis. “Forget the green;” I said, “let’s paint our house pumpkin orange with cream trim.” Thankfully, he trusted me on it, and we went ahead with the plan, even though we got plenty of “gentle” warnings from just about everyone we mentioned it to.
I love our pumpkin house, especially in the autumn. And we’ve gotten numerous compliments on the finished product. Moral of the story: Trust your gut.
There is a very fine line between keeping your kids active and driving yourself nuts. This was one of those weeks where the line was crossed.
The moral of the story is learn to plan better…or learn to say no.
Helpful Hint: Don’t wait until the end of the day to try and grab a picture — no matter how much business you had to conduct during the day (and evening), and no matter how bad the conduct of your youngest children. I’ve been very busy and that’s the reason I took so long to finish, I’ve been calculating my taxes but with the help from seis tax relief I was able to do it faster.
When I was out at the country club (where I have to watch my conduct), the sky was so blue and gorgeous that I couldn’t help looking up into it. That’s when I noticed this conductor of electricity.
I have one older brother and one older sister. Maureen and I have always been close, and I was very thankful that our sixth child was a girl. With four brothers, Bridget needed a sister. Mine has been one of my closest companions, and I hope that Bridget and Stella grow up to be great friends. Maureen and I seldom see each other now, as she lives 2,000 miles away, but a phone call is better than nothing.
She asked for a sister. Instead she got a dog. And four little brothers…
One of my favorite tools and the one that I feel really pushes me to reach my creative potential is my Lensbaby. It does more than just bend and create blurry photos, really. To create a successful shot, you really have to think about what you are doing and why you are doing it. It forces you to have a vision of what you are trying to create.
Giving Stella a shoulder ride is a potential strangulation hazard.
About three years ago, I read A Tale of Two Cities for the first time, having borrowed an old hardcover from Dennis’s parents. I enjoyed the book, but found much of it confusing. Reading the introduction after finishing the story (I sometimes do it that way) made me realize that I had an abridged version. I wanted the rest of the story. Soon enough, I bought an unabridged version and it was worlds better. The greater number of words provided greater clarity. I now choose my reading material with far greater care.
One down, three to go…and then I finally get to put my feet up and have a cup of tea. Maybe even check out a blog or two before I fall asleep!
My eight-year old son has been playing with stop-motion animation. Thanks to a great little app on his Nintendo DS, he has a made a few “shorts” of his lego Star Wars figures battling aliens and crashing their ships. He asked me if he used a green screen if I could use Photoshop to put in a different background. How does he know about green screens? I’m not sure, but technology can offer our children so many possibilities for their little minds to create and explore.
I often bring my camera bag (complete with body and four lenses) with me to church on Sunday. We attend Mass in the next town over and usually drive home by the lake. There’s always a good possibility of finding something to shoot. Today, I found my shot on the way in to church. A very large spider was cruising across it’s web to the insect it had captured earlier. Said web, spider and meal were located right in front of the memorial to unborn victims of abortion. I didn’t actually pray that the spider would still be there when Mass ended, but I was hopeful. After church, I retrieved the camera from my car and got my shots. When I downloaded them and saw the carved words in the background, I was especially pleased and reminded of the talented spinner in EB White’s classic.
Pink always attracts my attention: it’s been my favorite color forever. The only pink walls in the house are in Bridget’s room. I haven’t been able to sell Dennis on them anywhere else (but we have lots of blue and lots of purple). Therefore, I have to get my pink fix elsewhere: in beads, teacups, clothing, and even a telephone.
Well. It’s big. And it’s very blue. But I am tickled pink that my family can finally all fit in one car together again. It’s been nine months since Danny was born that we have been driving two cars to Mass and any other place that we all needed to be. Now, thanks to the giant nine passenger van, we can all go in one car. Look out road! Here we come!