A Better Day

I did have a better day today. I had a talk with both of the people who I was upset about yesterday and things have improved. I was upset with two of the people dearest to my heart and I was having a hard time dealing with the anger I felt. At Mass today, I lifted up the anger to God and asked Him to please help me deal with it and in both cases, He did.
I always struggle with my prayer life when I'm angry about something. I tend to think of anger as being something bad but I know I need to get away from that feeling. It's not the anger that's wrong, it losing your temper and/or acting in an inappropriate way with it that's wrong. I need to learn that lesson. Growing up, anger was always thought of as a bad thing at my house and I know it's because my poor mom had to deal with her father's alcoholic temper. I don't blame her, she was just reacting to the trauma of her childhood and never had anybody to help her really deal with all of it.
So I need to get past that mindset and know that just because I'm angry doesn't mean I'm being bad unless I act in a sinful manner because of it (and I must admit that sometimes I do lose my temper in those situations.) In one situation yesterday I did lose my temper and yelled (which I felt really bad about and apologized for) and in the other, I kept praying for the Lord to help me with the anger and He did and hopefully, I didn't handle it too badly.
I guess that's a bit confusing...
But anyway, thank you for the prayers sent my way. I do really appreciate it and I know those prayers helped me.

I'm off to bed. We're having Mark's family over for New Year's Day and I have a lot of work to do tomorrow plus the homeschool moms are having a Mom's Lunch out, which we haven't done in over a year. I'm really looking forward to that.

A blessed peaceful night to all......I can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of the year.....

I had a crummy day.
It started crummy and it ended it crummy and inbetween wasn't too great either.
I want to write about all the crummy stuff but I guess I shouldn't. I'm just going to bed.

God bless...

Christmas Weekend

The last few days have been very busy....
Our Christmas Day went very well. We actually had sunshine for a change...a beautiful day. My parents were healthy and we were able to spend Christmas dinner together at my sister's home.
Friday we spent a bit of time cleaning up our house after the mess and I made a huge batch of barbecue for dinner today. We had Community Mass in the evening and then went to friends' home afterwards for some Christmas cookies and a lot of fun conversation.
Saturday found me up early to morning Mass. I came home to Michael making marvelous omelets...they were wonderful! I told him he can make me an omelet any time his little heart desires. I spent the afternoon with grocery shopping and getting ready for today's dinner. Last night found us at a local pub listening to Will's Irish band.
Today was 11AM Mass and lunch out afterwards. I had invited Will's band to our house for dinner so they arrived around 5. They decided to turn it into a recording session using our piano. So all evening they have been singing and playing Christmas carols. Many beautifully done....
The only problem is that it is now almost midnight and my dear husband has to get up at 5:45 to go to work. I really didn't expect them to go this late and I'm hoping he can sleep. He put in the earplugs he uses when he goes shooting and hopefully he will be able to drift off. If he can't sleep, I guess I'll just have to kick them out...hehe....

I hope all of you have had a blessed Christmas weekend....may you sleep tonight in the comfort of His gift of love..

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

May you know His peace and joy.......

What a day....

First we sadly received the news that our sister-in-law's father died. This is Suzy's dad and Jack's grandpa. Losing someone at Christmastime is so difficult. I had a baby brother who died in a tragic freak accident (before I was born) five days before Christmas and it was always such a sad memory to carry every year.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.....

This morning while Mark was in the shower, Michael and I were downstairs talking. We could hear water dripping madly somewhere and started looking. Here water is dripping out of the ceiling of our front hall closet, right under the shower stall in our bathroom upstairs. I run upstairs to tell Mark to turn off the water and Michael grabs a bucket and towels. Lovely mess.

Next my brother Bill calls to tell me that both of my parents are sick with a stomach bug of some sort. We had plans with them for tonight which included dinner. So all day I've been saying prayers that they will be better for tomorrow and Christmas Day. Every year I find myself wondering if it will be their last Christmas and I hate the thought of them spending their last Christmas sick.

We spent the day finishing up a few shopping chores, baking cookies, and wrapping presents.
We did go to noon Mass and now I'm going to finish up my day here by saying my rosary.....peaceful time with our dear Lord....

A blessed, restful night to all.....may you sleep in the comfort of His peace....

An Early Christmas Present

Wednesday night our darlin' children gave us an early Christmas present....
They presented us with tickets to see the Nutcracker last night, a gift certificate for dinner at a restaurant downtown including tip money, a gift certificate to Graeter's for some ice cream after the ballet, and a night at one of the hotels downtown. We had a room on the top floor with a view of the river...very nice. They also gave us some delicious rolls and orange juice for our breakfast.
It was wonderful...
I rushed around yesterday trying to get some things finished and packed up an overnight bag for us. Beth drove me downtown to pick up Mark from work and she dropped us at the hotel. We checked in and Mark got dressed up for our evening (Beth had already worked her magic on me at home). We walked to dinner and had a wonderful time there....our meal was great. Then we walked to the ballet. They had bought us tickets in the balcony but when we arrived, they exchanged our tickets for ones on the floor...even better! That was the first time I had ever seen the Nutcracker performed and it was beautiful.
We walked to Graeter's afterwards to enjoy our ice cream and then walked back to the hotel.
We slept in until 9 and enjoyed our breakfast in bed. We checked out around 11, went to the Art Museum to do some Christmas shopping, went to noon Mass downtown, ate some lunch, did a little more shopping on the way home and arrived home around 2:30. I hated to see it end....
Now back to all the craziness here but it was a lovely break....one I'll long remember...

December memories

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted. Life has been crazy.
I've been having a mixed week....moments of that pre-Christmas joy and moments of being heavy-hearted.
I realized that it was a year ago today that I saw my brother for the last time before he died of cancer. The weather has been the same and it feels like those days when he was here to me. Memories and emotions are such amazing things...
For those of you who remember our little nephew, Jack....his grandpa is now dying of liver failure. Suzy flew out to Arizona last Saturday to be with her parents during this time. Very difficult...especially since the other two children's birthdays are both this week and she's been away. It's bringing back memories of our Jack dying and David too.

Hopefully, I will find some time to write some more later this evening...something more cheerful. Now I need to figure out what to have for dinner and get things ready for the piano tuner who's coming at 6.

A blessed day to all....

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

My house is beginning to look a lot like Christmas....
My Christmas cards and everything that goes with mailing them are laying on an end table in the living room.
Christmas lights are strewn about the living room in piles depending on whether they need new bulbs or not.
Some lights are up outside.
The candles are in the windows.
Bags, boxes, and packages are piling up all over my bedroom and the kitchen counter.
The suit bag that I keep the Christmas wrapping paper in is lying on the living room floor.
That nice pre-Christmas mess....hehe......

I spent the morning at the hospital with my mom. She needed several routine tests done that had to do with her heart condition. It was a long morning because we thought we were going to get a break between tests and be able to get breakfast, but that didn't happen. So we were all pretty hungry by the time we left.
I did get a lot of schoolwork finished with John while we were sitting there and I did take my book along so I was able to enjoy a little of that too.
I also managed to make homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner which everybody at my house loves. We spent dinner tonight absolutely laughing our heads off. Beth was in a silly mood and she got us all started. Dinner took longer than normal simply because we were laughing so much. I probably ate less than normal which is a good thing....hehe....

I hope all of you have had a blessed Wednesday....may you sleep in the comfort of our dear Lord's love....

Happy Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

A blessed Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of our dear Blessed Mother to all....

Isn't that a mouthful? hehe...

Twenty-two years ago today we brought our Beth home. They called us early on Friday the 5th to let us know that we had a beautiful baby girl and we spent the weekend in a mad dash to get ready. Then early Monday morning on this glorious feast day we went to claim our precious new daughter. I was sooooo nervous and happy and scared all at the same time. Our social worker when we adopted Beth was a bit formidable at first but once we came to know her, I really liked her. She was the social worker we dealt with for Beth and Michael....and I wish we could have had her when we adopted John. Life would have been so much better that year.

It was raining that day and we're having rain today too but this time it's freezing rain....lovely! I'm hoping that the temperature goes up enough that it isn't too bad driving to go to noon Mass. I'm taking a break from school today for the holy day. Michael's co-op was switched from today until tomorrow so I'm resting up today. I'm not feeling my best...I think I'm fighting off a cold. I had a million plans for what I wanted to do today but I think I'm going to take things at a slow pace instead. I guess God had other plans for my day.

Here is the prayer from the Magnificat's Advent Companion for today. I wanted to share....

"Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, sustain my efforts to persevere in the good. Obtain the grace for me to flee the horror of sin and to embrace the good of virture. Help me to remain always united with you, my loving Mother and Immaculate Queen."

A blessed day to all.....

Schooling blues...

I've been having a frustrating time with teaching my John lately....Wednesday was a really bad day. So bad, that I just sat here and cried a bit.
When we adopted John, he was 21 months old. He had the skeletal size of a nine month old and weighed 14 lbs. He looked pitiful. Absolutely no body fat anywhere (even his little rear end..it was perfectly flat..no curve to it at all). The back of his head was flat from lying down all the time.
He had no teeth, no growth hormone in his body, and his digestive tract was lacking in some necessary enzymes because they had shut down production due to severe malnutrition. It made changing his diaper an adventure for months.
Our pediatrician looked at me at John's first visit and asked me if I seriously wanted to do this.
Of course, I did. He was Michael's biological brother; the answer to Beth's First Communion prayer and the answer to my prayers for another child.
I had to remind myself of this over and over that first year....it was horrible. Our social worker was terrible....absolutely no help at all. In fact, she made things more difficult. I was so glad when the adoption was finalized and I didn't have to deal with her any more.
Schooling him has been a struggle. I've taken him to a tutor who has her master's degree in special education who told me repeatedly that he is much better at home with me than in the system. Last year, when I took John in for his yearly checkup, that same pediatrician told me that he is amazed at the progress that John has made...that he is much better than he expected him to be. I keep trying to console myself with those words.
But teaching him is a struggle....his progress is extremely slow. I go over and over the same things with him before he learns them. These last two years, he's really slowed down in math which used to be his strong point. As long as it was arithmetic where I could show him the concept of addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc., he could learn it and after much practice, he was able to do the problems. Now it is becoming more abstract and he gets lost. I can show him how to do a type of problem and he can do it at the time, but come the next day, he forgets and I have to start all over again. Very frustrating. I have tried lots of different programs and lots of different methods, but the progress is always slow.
I finally have him reading around a 4th-5th grade level, but I still have to read his history, science, and religion to him to help him retain it better. Reading is still a slow process for him.
Several well-meaning relatives have suggested I send him to school, but I really don't think that anyone is going to sit there and spend hours trying to teach my Johnny. They simply don't have the people and the time. But of course, I have moments of doubting myself.
I guess I didn't worry about it so much several years ago, when adulthood still seemed far away for him but now he's 15 and I'm thinking about the fact that in three years, he will be 18 and adult age. Right now he's a 15 year old with a 15 year old body and 15 year old hormones, but around 10 years old emotionally and mentally.
Mark and I talked about it some the other night and we guess that I will just have to try to keep teaching him beyond the normal age and pray that the dear Lord sends a job that he can do. I have to trust that He has a plan, but some days I get so sad for my Johnny and so frustrated that it has to be this difficult.
Give me a trusting heart, O Lord....

A blessed Friday to all....

The Night Sky

If the sky is clear at your house, look to the southwest sky. In the early evening, you should be able to see two bright "stars" close together. They are the planets Jupiter and Venus....beautiful! The "star"to the left is Venus, and the one to the right is Jupiter.
Right now, the moon is just a bit to the upper left of them.
An awesome sight to behold.....it is unusual to see two planets so close to each other and these two are the brightest planets there are, so it's even better.

A blessed, peaceful evening to all....