A Peacful Christmas Eve

"In this night of reconciliation, let none be angry or gloomy. In this night that stills everything, let nothing threaten or disturb. This night belongs to the sweet One; let nothing bitter or harsh be in it. In this night that belongs to the meek One, let there be nothing high or haughty. In this day of pardoning, let us not exact punishments for trespasses."


-St. Ephraem the Syrian

Extreme Teething

What, you haven't heard of it? Apparently it's the latest baby craze. What these babies are doing is one day they just completely stop eating and cause their mother to become painfully engorged. Then they worry their parents to death by not eating for another four days except for a few sips from a syringe here and there. They worry their parents so much that they decide to take them to the emergency room because their doctor told them that the baby is probably dehydrated. When the baby gets to the emergency room the doctor will explain to their parents that the reason for the eating strike is teething. That's right, the silly parents went to the emergency room for teething. The parents try to explain to the doctors that, really, they don't care about the teething, they just want to make sure the baby is hydrated, but to no avail. The doctors keep trying to solve the teething problem, and then finally administer IV fluids as if to make the parents feel like there was a REAL reason for coming to the emergency room.

My daughter doesn't do anything half-a**. Not even teething. I kind of love that about her, as stupid as it makes me look sometimes. Who goes to the ER for teething...

Things I'm Thankful For This Holiday Season

1. Parents on both sides of our family who are willing to fly in at the drop of a hat anytime we need them. The military is lonely at times, especially when you need help and have no family around. I'm so thankful our family has always been here in our times of need. I'm particularly thankful that my mother-in-law flew in to help over this time of sickness in our lives.

2. Watching my Peanut use such good manners and be so loving. He says "Tu-Tu Me" (excuse me) every time he  burps, sneezes or needs to get by someone. He also hands his sister toys and says, "yeargo Baa" (Here you go Belle).

3. The end of my husbands school semester. The fact that he only has one left.

4. The means to travel to see family over the holiday season.

5. My Catholic faith during the season of Advent. I marvel in the richness of this season and the readings at mass. I would feel so empty if this season was nothing more than buying gifts and sending cards.

6. My sisters, who I am missing very much during these holidays.

7. My husband who works so hard for this family and my children who are healthy and growing every day.

8. Watching Peanut learn the story of Christmas and become obsessed with Mary, St. Joseph and particularly the baby Jesus. He always wants to hold him and kiss him, even if it's just in his story books.

What are you thankful for this advent season?

A Defferent Kind of Advent

At the begining of this Advent season I was so determined not to let another Church season pass by without using it to grow closer to Christ and thrive in the richness of the season with joyful expectation of the Baby Jesus' arrival. I had pious resolutions to put our television in a closet and replace it with a statue I own of a pregnant Virgin Mary (I still plan to do this in a week or so). I gave up facebook (which I could write a post about all in it's own) and I resolved to read from a devotional every morning. But Christ had something so much more special for me to start this Advent season, and it has helped me grow closer to Him much better than any of my personal resolutions would have done.

As I stated in my last post, my family has been very sick. Peanut started out with a high fever, crying all the time, miserable with a horrible ear infection. I was to follow with a lost voice and sore throat. When we returned home from Thanksgiving my husband became very sick with terrible fever, cold, body aches, puking and pink eye that was so bad he couldn't even open his eye. My little Belle followed with fever and pink eye. Needless to say, we were all sick. But as you moms out there know, moms can't get sick. There is no time for personal rest when your family is sick. Only self sacrifice, which is the fastest way to the heart of Christ.

For this Advent season I have had the blessing of being able to serve my family in their illness. I have been engulfed for the past two weeks in nothing but their care. All of my personal obligations for play dates and book clubs have ceased, and I have locked myself in the home to tend to their needs. What better than suffering and servitude to make a heart long for a peace that only the Christ Child can bring? Somehow in the smallness of my very own home I have come, through this illness, to experience a longing of heart for better health and a hope for a new day. A longing that surely the Jewish people felt as they anxiously awaited their savior in their hundreds of years of "advent".

Christ had much bigger plans for me this advent season than I could have ever planned for myself, and I am so thankful for that. May your advent bring you a longing for hope and a peace of heart that only the Christ Child can bring.

Sick Sick Sick

I am sorry for my lack of posts lately, but my entire little family got sick over Thanksgiving and we are still recovering. Thanksgiving was filled with no voice for me, a sick two year old with a 104 fever and a double ear infection that got so bad it caused his ear to bleed, a husband with fever and body aches and was topped off with a case of HORRIBLE pink eye for my husband and my little Belle. Don't get me wrong, the company and food was great, but we are still sick around here. Please keep us in your prayers and I will be writing again as soon as I'm done being nurse mommy and nurse wife. St. Lucy, pray for us.

Why I don't Exercise

Wanted to take the kids for a walk today. Just a short simple walk. Fed Peanut so he wouldn't be hungry half-way through. Put shoes on both kids. Couldn't find my shoes. Spent 30 minutes looking for shoes. Settled on a different pair. Found the pair I wanted on the way out the door. Switched shoes. Baby pooped. Changed diaper. Peanut poops. Change another diaper. Load kids in stroller. Go to get dog and realize he doesn't have a collar on. Forget where I put collar. Spend 10 minutes looking for collar. Put dog on leash and head down the driveway. Roll my ankle and go sliding down driveway on knee (in new pants, by the way). Make sure neighbor didn't see. He did. Go back up driveway so he doesn't see me start to cry. Lose all pride I ever had. Tell myself I was too far to turn around now. Walk around the block limping half the way checking on my bloody knee every five minutes. See why I don't exercise?

Following

If the spiritual life is filled with peaks and valleys, I am definitely in a valley. My prayer life is completely dry, and I am lucky if I remember to say my daily offering. Every night I kneel at my bed to say my usual night time prayers and think, "I hardly thought of you at all today, Lord. How easily I forget about you these days." I know we all have valley's, but I don't like them. I don't like them at all.

Last weekend we needed to attend the Saturday evening vigil mass, because we were helping with a pro-life university outreach all day on Sunday. I really don't like theSaturday vigil mass. In my experience, most people attend it with the attitude of "getting church over with" and come in with shorts and a Hawaiian shirt on at best. I was a little miffed at having to attend this mass, and even more miffed we had to attend a church I didn't particularly care for with a priest who reads canned homilies from the pulpit. Then my friend's words came to my mind. I remember him telling me, "pray to the Holy Spirit that He will give you some nugget of wisdom, no matter how superfluous the homily may be." So I did.

I asked the Holy Spirit for a nugget, and that's just what I got. Nothing more and nothing less. The kids were restless during mass and so was my mind. Just as the priest was wrapping up the homily I realized I had heard almost none of it and made one last attempt to listen. And then I heard this:

"And so you think of Him, but you do not follow Him."


Nugget. That short little sentence explains my valley. I think often of what I should be doing. I think of ways I should be living and think of prayers I should be praying. But I am not following. I am not doing, which is what following is all about. Following Christ demands action. Action that I am often to scared and down right lazy to take. But if I, a Christian woman, do not follow, do not act, who will? I am the salt of the earth. We are the salt of the earth. And it's time for action.
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