Life at Home

Memorial Day-book

Outside my window...typical Ohio Memorial Day...warm and rain.  I woke up to a thunderstorm. 

I am wearing...tank top and knit shorts.  It's a cleaning out the basement outfit! 

I am reading...Tears of God, Small Steps for Catholic Moms.  Divine Intimacy.  After Rich's hospitalization last week, we got Time Management for Catholics that I hope we will be reading together.  

I am nurturing my heart...by taking care of my husband.

I am nurturing my mind...(repeat)  I'm feeling particularly drawn to simplification these days...time management...really considering how the Lord wants me to use the gift of His time.  We've put some changes into motion since Rich got out of the hospital last Wednesday.  The experience brought some previously murky relationships and commitments into sharp focus.  A blessing!  Now we need to hold fast, which will be challenging.

I am nurturing my body...I am swimming again.  Three times last week.  While the kids are at swim team practice at the outdoor pool I go swimming at the indoor pool. 

From St. Francis de Sales:  "I tell you not to deprive yourself of the rest or the medicines or the food or the recreations that are prescribed for you.  You can exercise a kind of obedience and resignation in accepting these that will make you extremely agreeable to our Lord."

I am nurturing my soul...by working Small Steps for Catholic Moms daily.  

I dance with my Father...Ann says, "If God makes a list of my laments, I will make a list of God's love. If God has a list of my pain, I will make a list of my praise. If God writes a list of my tears, I will write a list of my thanks...keeping the list of His love, keeps me in joy."

29.  spontaneous kisses

32.  vanilla yogurt with pineapple and family favorite granola

34.  AAA coming to tow away my smoking car

37.  quiet holidays 

I am holding in prayer...a friend whose father may be fading.  Intentions for peace in all families, but especially those struggling with old hurts and instability.   

We are learning...moving to summer mode.  Madeline's goal for the summer:  master those math facts!  I made a reading list a mile long for Matthew.  I don't intend to insist that he read it all; my goal is to introduce him to something other than The Lord of the Rings this summer.  Wonderful literature, yes it is, but I think he could use some variety. 

Around the house...Updating our list from last post: 

1.  purge and clean the garage;

2.  DONE!  finish the spring clean-up of all the gardens;

3.  decide the fate of the two crab apple trees that have been struggling and losing limbs for two years;

4.  SUNROOM DONE!  wash windows inside and out;

5.  TO BE DELEGATED prune all shrubs;

6.  move and remove select shrubs; 

7.  Matthew's room (paint, bedding, mattress and box spring);

8.  Carpet cleaning;

9.  Clean and purge basement storage area.

We celebrate the season...time for Ordinary Time.  I have no plans other than to change the felt runner on the family altar and get some letters for the mantel.  Why won't this font change to be consistent with the other points?  Maddening!

From the kitchen...Matthew is home for the summer.  I need to feed him lunch, he reminded me yesterday.  Sounds like a challenge.  We were standing in Trader Joes at the time, so I let him have some fun.  What he chose will likely last a week, which is a brief respite only.  Trader Joes is too far away to visit weekly.  We'll be on to Plan B soon enough.  I was able to plan dinners for most of this week last night.  The weekend will be revealed, but I have to have a plan for the week so I know what to do when I get home from evening swim team practice. 

Grilled chicken, cole slaw and raw veggies tonight.

Tuesday:  tacos/taco salad (using up filling made last week)

Wednesday:  Steak and farfalle pasta (recipe pulled from a magazine)

Thursday:  Subs and fruit (baseball night)

Friday:  Chicken sausage, grilled onions and salad

Activities for the rest of the week...evening swim team practice.  That's it.  Ahhh. 

A picture thought to share...from a trip to the Columbus Zoo on Saturday.

Mother's Day-book

Outside my window...streaming sunshine and white puffy clouds, but the temps are in the 40s.  Brrrr. 

I am wearing...polka dotty knit pj's.  I have a terrible cold and stayed home from Mass today to avoid infecting the congregation at St. Mary's.

I am reading...Small Steps for Catholic Moms.  Divine Intimacy.  Thy Will Be Done, a collection of letters of spiritual direction by St. Francis de Sales.  Oh how I love St. Francis de Sales. 

I am nurturing my heart...by placing focused attention on how we as a family are spending our time.  We are very busy, too busy, really.   Now I'm going to start blathering, so if you don't want to hear it, stop reading here and go on to the next blue type.  We (like everyone else on this planet) have gifts.  We want to be generous with sharing our gifts.  We are however struggling with sharing our gifts in a particular situation, because what we do is never, ever good enough and rarely thanked; where our intentions are consistently misconstrued; and where we end up in situations where we are being used.   Perhaps when we are consistently beaten up in a particular arena it's an indication that we need to bow out of that arena?  We can shine our lights, but when others seem to want to throw gasoline and make a conflagration out of our little lights we feel a responsibility to protect others (and ourselves, I'm not that unselfish) from being burned.  I am struggling with the impulse to take the time and energy I give to certain elements of our volunteerism and point it back at myself and my family.  I know I'm far more comfortable being a homebody; but is that what I'm supposed to be doing?

I am nurturing my mind...I'm feeling particularly drawn to simplification these days...time management...really considering how the Lord wants me to use the gift of His time.  I'm feeling unnerved after the chaos of the last couple of months.  Time to sit back and regroup.

I am nurturing my body...See above.  The miscarriage is finally complete, but now I have a cold.  On the day between the completion of the miscarriage and the onset of the cold I took a good walk around the soccer fields.  Whoohoo!   One day of exercise in the last month!

I am nurturing my soul...by taking part in the Women of Grace study and reading Divine Intimacy daily. Again, what does the Lord want from me in this area?

I dance with my Father...Ann says, "If God makes a list of my laments, I will make a list of God's love. If God has a list of my pain, I will make a list of my praise. If God writes a list of my tears, I will write a list of my thanks...keeping the list of His love, keeps me in joy."  I will continue start again to follow her example.

I am holding in prayer...college kids looking for jobs.  Elizabeth Foss and the people sending their opinions to her inbox.  All mothers, this Mother's Day. 

We are learning...the basics.  This week is testing week for Madeline.  We choose to fulfill Ohio homeschooling law's assessment provisions by giving Madeline a nationally normed standardized test.  It's not the only option, but it's the easiest option for us.  I consider the test a hoop-jumping exercise, as it has never told me anything I didn't already know.   And my kids have historically tested well.  :-)

Around the house...Rich and I have made the list of projects and are going to prioritize soon.  The baseball schedule makes attending to household projects difficult.  We rarely have long stretches of free-and-clear time to focus on time consuming projects, so the chipping-away method is just going to have to do.  On the list: 

1.  purge and clean the garage;

2.  finish the spring clean-up of all the gardens;

3.  decide the fate of the two crab apple trees that have been struggling and losing limbs for two years;

4.  wash windows inside and out;

5.  prune all shrubs;

6.  move and remove select shrubs; 

7.  Matthew's room (paint, bedding, mattress and box spring);

8.  Carpet cleaning;

9.   Clean and purge basement storage area.

We celebrate the season...oh dear.  

From the kitchen...I have no idea yet.  I do know I will likely be making a TON of sloppy joes for the baseball tournament we (meaning our team) is hosting next weekend.  Good thing I have lots of beef.

Activities for the rest of the week...our adopted college student is graduating tomorrow.  I'm not sure I'm prepared for the emotions bubbling under the surface because of this event.  The other kids have swim clinics all week, baseball all next weekend, but only one baseball game during the week.  I have an eye doctor appt on Tuesday.  Pretty mellow week, as they go.

A picture thought to share...not a single picture taken this week.  See?  Time management is an issue...