Today is my birthday....I'm one more year old....

Today I get to be the birthday girl.....if you can call someone who is 51 years old a girl....
Mark and Beth went shopping and baked a cake....triple chocolate cake........it smells heavenly!
Mark is taking off work and the roads should be fine for going to noon Mass and out to lunch and out to dinner. After dinner, we will take the cake and ice cream to my parents to celebrate some more. It ought to be a good day....they're spoiling me rotten.

A blessed Thursday to all....

Another Snowday

Mark finally left for work only to find out that we're under a level 3 snow emergency. Since he's already there, we don't know what will happen now. Technically, he could get arrested driving home if the level 3 emergency is still on. Crazy enough, he had very little trouble driving in. It actually took him less time than usual because traffic was so light.
The snow has finally stopped and looks like a winter wonderland with the ice and snow. Staying in makes me realize how much my daily routine keeps me motivated and how much I rely on it. When I know that I'm not going to noon Mass it's so easy to goof off and not get much finished. Yesterday and today have really shown that to me...
I did get a lot of school finished yesterday but mostly late in the day. Having Mark home always makes me feel like it should be a day off for me too. He's supposed to be off tomorrow for my birthday, so I guess I better get in gear and get a lot accomplished today so that we can play tomorrow.. Hopefully, things will clear up enough so that we can go to noon Mass and out for dinner like we planned.

A blessed day to all....

Freezing rain

Freezing rain and sleet are falling now so we're a bit worried about losing our power. We do have a fireplace and we do have some firewood, thankfully. However, Mark already has been called from work that he should be ready to go out with line crews if necessary. They have line crews coming in from the south and they need people to show them around town and such, so the engineers and people like that get called in from their desk jobs to help out.
It's looking nasty and my darlin' husband isn't too thrilled about it all.
Will had to drive to Dayton to pick his dad up from the airport this afternoon, so I've been praying for their safe travels too. Thankfully, Beth isn't scheduled to work these next few days, so she can just stay home.
I'm making a batch of my spaghetti sauce and meatballs and Michael is helping me. Mark has been doing school with John all afternoon which is definitely a blessing to me.

I hope and pray that all of you are well....God bless....

Snowday

The snow is gently falling and is supposed to keep falling through until tomorrow. 10 to 15 inches they say now.
My darlin' daughter is happy because her classes are canceled for today and she had a big test. Now she has two more days to study.
My darlin' husband took one look outside and heard the forecast and went back to bed. A day of vacation ahead....maybe two if this forecast holds up. The day after that is my birthday and he already has it scheduled to be off. The poor guy will end up taking 5 or 6 days of vacation in January after being off three days last week for the March for Life in Washington DC.
I'm going back to bed....more later.

"A mother is only as happy as her saddest child."
This was a line from the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie "Loving Leah" that was on tonight.
It struck me....it tells so much about a mother's heart.

"At the evening of life, we shall be judged on love." St. John of the Cross

We made it back home safe and sound.....I hopefully will write more tomorrow. Thank you for the prayers!!

Packed for Washington DC and the March for Life

We're all packed to leave for our trip to Washington DC. We have to get up at 3:30 so that we can get to the church to get the bus at 5AM. I know I won't get much sleep tonight....but I'll probably nap on the bus.
I must admit I've been a bit nervous about the trip this year. I know one reason is just the old devil working on me...he does it every year. But it is stronger than usual this year and Michael is nervous too. So I ask for your prayers for peace and safety for everyone going for the March.
The trip will be shorter this year, only two days instead of three. Good in some ways, bad in others. But it's definitely something that's meant to be a pilgrimage, not a pleasure trip so we try to keep that perspective about it all.

I am so grateful for my blogging friends....I feel like we are all a circle of prayer warriors for each other. It was amazing to me how I actually could feel your prayers lifting me up the other day when I asked for them. God is so good to give us the gift of intercession; the gift of prayer; the gift of our brothers and sisters in Christ. I had been praying for guidance about a certain situation that had been nagging at me for a while and I knew I was ready to talk to the person it concerned, when I stopped feeling agitated about and started feeling His peace about it. It doesn't mean that I still wasn't scared to have to do it, but I felt confident that it was the right timing. I have paid a price for it but sometimes you have to do what you know you should and I did it out of love. I just hope that the person involves really does know that I did it out of love for them....

Hopefully, Friday I will be able to write you all about our trip...it always seems to be an adventure every year.
May our dear Lord bless all of you with His peace and everlasting joy....

Today feels like a day of mourning to me. I just read an article that said that one of the first things Obama plans to do is reverse the Mexico City policy that Reagan had first instated, was reversed by Clinton, and then reinstated by George Bush. Our money will be going back to funding abortions in other countries. Makes me feel sick....
Dear Lord, please have mercy on our country...

Baby, it's cold outside....

We're having a cold morning here....the temperature is 6 degrees below zero with the wind chill making it feel even colder. But the sun is shining and that helps me feel cheerier. I am cringing thinking about our electric bill....

I read a magazine called Faith and Family and they usually have a story every month about how a couple saves their distressed marriage. They're always written from the perspective of our faith. This month's story talks about a young couple with three children struggling with wanting to divorce and the wife goes to talk to her parish priest. These are the words he said to her and they are so true that I wanted to write them here to save them in case I ever need to say them to someone....."Divorce is when parents give up and lay down their crosses and their children have to pick the crosses up and carry them". Wow....that is so true....my brother and his first wife divorced when their son was 17, and even then it had a great impact on him. He's 35 years old now and he still says that he hates being from a broken home. He understands the circumstances, and his mother drives him crazy, but he still hates the fact that his parents aren't together; that his parents don't love each other. The wound goes deep....

I am so grateful for a stable, loving marriage. Mark's not perfect, and I am far from it but our kids know we love each other even when we've had our occasional arguments. We laugh because every time Mark and I are getting a little affectionate with each other in front of the kids, Michael yells "Get a room!" hehe....and we just tell him to be grateful that we're still together and Mark does something to flourish it up a bit more just to make him sputter and mumble some more.

Believe it or not, we still have our Christmas tree up. We've been taking decorations down, a little at a time each day this week and tomorrow we'll work on the tree and finish it up. Next week is going to be crazy with our trip to Washington for the March for Life, so I know I need to finish it all up this weekend.

Please say a little prayer for me....my heart is aching a bit right now over a certain situation in my life. Have you ever wondered what actually causes the physical discomfort and tightness in your chest when you're feeling sad? I have...no wonder they call it heartache...

A blessed Friday to all ....may our dear Lord's love ever warm your heart and soul....

Lessons of motherhood

I was just reflecting how motherhood can change and mold us. Day by day, another piece of the self-centered child in me is chipped away. Day by day he is using my experiences as a mother and spiritual mother to turn me into the person He wants me to be. Marriage began that work in me, but motherhood has multiplied it greatly; spiritual motherhood even more.
I know it will be a lifelong process....I know He uses it to help me to turn to Him; to rely on Him to be my comfort.

A blessed day to you all....

I need to think less and pray more.

A blessed Monday to all...

Hopefully not a third time....

All day yesterday, I was looking forward to going to Adoration. I usually try to go on Thursday evenings but I haven't been able to these last three weeks. Three weeks ago was the night the kids gave us the tickets for the Nutcracker, so we went there of course. Two weeks ago was Christmas Day and no Adoration and last week was New Year's Day with no Adoration. So I was eagerly awaiting it yesterday.
We usually go to confession on the Thursday afternoon before First Friday, but since that was on New Year's Day last week, that didn't happen. So I thought that I would take the boys to confession last night at 7:30, take them back home and then go to the other church where Adoration is. Mark had a meeting to go to, so he wouldn't be able to go with us.
As it turned out, Michael started with one of his migraines in the late afternoon and didn't feel up to going to confession, so I figured that he could go with Mark next week and just John and I went. Making dinner took me longer than I expected, so John and I didn't get out of the house until 7:25 and the church is almost 15 minutes away. We arrived at 7:40 and there was someone in the confessional and another homeschooling family we know with 3 children ahead of us. The person in the confessional didn't come out until 8 and then we had to wait for the family ahead of us. We ended up being there until almost 8:30. I wasn't too concerned because Adoration goes until 10. So I took John home, collected my prayer books for Adoration, and happily left to go to the other church. I was feeling so wonderful.....I always feel such peace after confession and I had lots on my mind to pray about. I arrived at the church a few minutes before 9, just in time for the final prayers being said to end Adoration. I was majorly disappointed. The person who was running it was different from the usual person and I stayed as long as I could until he put everything away. I walked out with him and mentioned that I thought Adoration usually lasted until 10, and he said that he had been told to end it at 9, so there was the explanation but it didn't help me feel any less sad. I came home to everybody watching the football game and lots of noise and went up to my room to say my rosary. I was so disappointed by this point, that I first just had a good old cry.
I had another bad night of sleeping....lots of bad dreams which has been the norm lately. I laid awake for a while, and couldn't sleep. I got up while Mark was getting ready for work and decided to lay back down for a few minutes after he left. Unfortunately, I didn't wake up again until almost 10. Yikes! Sleeping late always makes for a bad morning. I took my shower and got the boys going and we arrived at noon Mass on time. Then I started feeling bad....some girl woes, to put it nicely. The pain was really bad, much worse than usual. Right before Communion, I started feeling like I was going to faint....everything started looking foggy, I felt hot, and the pain was making me feel nauseous too. Poor Michael could tell that something wasn't right. I sat down and a woman I know was sitting behind us. She came up to check on me, and I sent Michael and John up to Communion while she sat there with me. When they came back, the faintness was wearing off and all I wanted to do was go outside and get some fresh air. So I gathered my boys up and out we went. The air did help but I was still not feeling well so we left and I missed out on Communion. Another disappointment.
Poor Michael and John kept watching me with those sweet concerned looks on their faces all the way home. I went up to my room for a while and afterwards sat on the couch while they brought me some lunch. John got me something to drink and Michael made me a delicious omelet.I am feeling better now, thankfully.
So I'm hoping that Mark and I can go to Adoration tonight...I'm really hoping that it doesn't happen a third time.
I almost afraid to look forward to it.
EDIT: I just found out that we're not going to being able to have churchhome tomorrow and I was really looking forward to that too. We haven't had it in almost two months and I was really looking forward to the prayer time together. Things have been working against this group too lately.
Actually, I think it's old satan at work.....trying to discourage me. I must be doing something right..



A blessed Friday to all......

Getting ready?

I've been thinking about the fact that I've written very little with spiritual substance on my blog lately. Perhaps because it takes so much more time to write something of that nature. It's so much easier to just tell about instances in my day-to-day life than to write out something with some thought. I do want to get back to that....
There has been lots on my mind in that regard and I have been thinking about the state of our world and about issues concerning my children. I've been having lots of bad dreams lately....I find myself wondering if our dear Lord is trying to tell me something in them. I've been lying awake at night thinking and saying little prayers and wondering if things are going to happen; if things are going to change; if God is calling me to get ready and to help those I love get ready.
We live in challenging times.

A blessed Wednesday to you all....

Sounds like a good time to take a nap....

Having a busy weekend....
Last night we went out with Paul and Denise to dinner and a movie.
This morning we went to the funeral for Suzy's dad.
Tonight we are chaperoning the homeschoolers' Christmas Dance.
Tomorrow I have a bridal shower to go to in the afternoon.

I have the largest pile of shirts and pants in my ironing basket that I have ever had....it is overflowing.
I have bills to pay and lesson plans to write for school Monday.
I'm also beginning to plan a bridal shower for Will's sister next month and I have a baby shower to plan also.

I think I'll go take a nap.

A blessed weekend to all.......

A Happy Blessed 2009 to All!!!!!

I'm busy getting ready to have a dinner party for Mark's family and our family friend from England who is visiting us this Christmas season. But I did want to take the time to wish all my dear blogging friends a blessed, holy new year....