Friday, December 21, 2007


Christmas is upon us! I am up at 4:30 am Friday, unable to sleep with worry. I have adoration on Christmas morning, smack in the middle "doing Christmas" and I don't know what to do! I would normally ask a relative to take the hour but...they will all be "doing Christmas" - without me! Anyway, quite the pickle and I'm worried. Of course, things always seem worse then they are in the middle of the night. Maybe the Lord will provide a spotless lamb in the brush...oh, that was someone else's pickle.
So, I've been intending to post a few Moses specials for you as your Christmas gift. Here he is, at his best:
"It's dark again. [this was when the time had just changed and he was fascinated that it just kept getting dark] The sun is sleeping. Where the sun's bwank bwanks?"

"I love daddy. Gecause he my favorite friend." (and yes, my friends, I happened to be rolling tape for this one - preserved for posterity)

"I want to cut off my big, big toe." Yikes! So, I figured out that he meant he wanted to clip his toenail.

After we prayed night-prayers with him one night: "This is good. You are two wonnerful kids."

"Grandma thinks me handsome." Heck yeah!

"Sometimes I say, "cwappy"." Which I take to mean, Mommy, sometimes you say crappy and you need to stop because now, sometimes I say crappy (which, btw I've never heard him say except in this sentence - oops, there I go rationalizing again).

"This is amazing oatmeal!" Who knew? I wasn't aware that oatmeal even had an amazing side.

I've been layering his PJs at night and putting on his Michigan sweatshirt but sometimes he rebels: "Mommy! Take off my sweaty-shirt!"

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Worth the Hype: Vacuum cleaner belts

So, I feel like a total housekeeping dunce. For months I have been faithfully vacuuming 3 times a week and feeling more and more discouraged each time. I finally reached the height of frustration when my brother spilled fish food on the floor and I couldn't get the vacuum to suck it up. The hair from my postpartum balding was EVERYWHERE and I'd taken to crawling around the living room, putting my head parallel to the floor when the sun was shining in the window and picking up as many hairs as as I could see that way. I even asked a bunch of friends about their vacuum opinions - certain that I had to go and buy a new one like, yesterday. Lily has started to really crawl in the last 2 weeks and I was getting desperate. A friend graciously let me borrow her vacuum (probably so that she could put her baby on my floor when she came to visit without fear for his health) and finally it dawned on me that I had owned the vacuum for 3.5 years and I had never replaced the filter, the roller brush or the belt. Lo and Behold...the belt was broken.
I have had lots of examples of broken belts in my day - I think that my mother bought them wholesale and had bins full of them when we were little because she ALWAYS seemed to be changing them. So it is not from unfamiliarity with the problem that I suffered. I guess I just thought that MY belt would never break (don't ask me how a person can be arrogant in so many areas of their life - it must be my own special gift) and therefore blocked that solution from my mind.
So last night we switched the belt and this morning I vacuumed - for the first time in probably 3 months - it looks so great!!! Who knew?! It doesn't matter how often you vacuum if your vacuum is broken - it won't help! I was so happy that I just sat down on my couch and put my feet up and gazed with love at my clean floor. And I won't even go into the details of the hair that ended up in the filter - wow. I don't know how many more kids I'll be able to have - a few more and I'll end up looking like my husband ;).

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Worth the Hype: Weight Watchers plus others

I'm done! I've finally lost the last 30 lbs that was hanging on after Lily. Now, I realize that some of you only gained 30 lbs total with your children. Well, in my dreams. This 30 was after the initial 20 lbs were shed. And the sad part is that I was so excited to "only" gain 50 lbs with her because with Moses I gained (doo, doo, doo) 70 lbs. Seven-O pounds. That pregnancy increased my overall weight by roughly 70% - nearly doubled my weight in 9 months. Ouch. Literally.
Now, the question you may be asking is, what the heck does she eat while pregnant? While I occasionally had a bout of 1/2 a carton of chocolate ice cream, or, say, a whole pumpkin pie, solo, by noon - I can count those occasions on, well, on 2 fingers because it happened those two times. So, I don't really know. It's a little distressing to gain that much and a little more distressing to work my butt off for 8 months after having the kiddo in order to get back to feeling like myself. Truth be told, I'm not at my pre-pregnancy weight - I'm just at a weight that I arbitrarily set for myself as a good weight for me to be. OK, not so arbitrarily, I did use the BMI chart and pictures of myself at different weights to decide.
So, I wanted to tip the hat to Weight Watchers, Outsmarting the Female Fat Cell, and Strong Women Stay Thin. I just ordered the Weight Watchers materials (core food guide, dining out guide, and point calculator) from ebay and did it on my own. I really liked that they have a point adjustment for nursing mothers - a guilt-free way to "diet"/"control portions" and nurse! And I just love the other two books, Outsmarting and Strong Women, they really keep the health perspective at the forefront and help me to not get caught up in vanity and over-concern with looking skinny. Also, they are really big on the tremendous job a women's body just did to grow a baby and how it needs some TLC during recovery while at the same time offering a kick in the butt to get back into shape eventually. They don't expect you to be near your goal until 8 or 9 months so, I'm right on track according to them :). Anyway, I've been waiting for 8 months to write this post so here it is!!! Maybe I'll add picture later today...let you in on my shame and my triumph :) Yea! Guilt-free eggnog!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Getting home on time

I was on a plane yesterday flying from Kansas City to Chicago and saw a man die. It was so awful, so, so awful. He walked onto the plane and I commented to David that he looked like Kramer from Seinfeld but with giant glasses. He looked about 45 years old. He was 4 rows in front of us and 15 minutes into our 1 hour flight the people next to him called the stewardess who was running the beverage service. He looked like he was having a mild seizure and then he went limp. There was all sorts of running around and they pulled him into the aisle and laid him down right in front of us. A doctor and a couple paramedics who happened to be on the flight shocked him a few times and did CPR for the rest of the eternally long flight. Everybody was crossing themselves and the stewardesses were crying and counting to 10 over and over for the paramedics. It looked just like a scene from ER except there were people crawling over each other and over seats to get passed the dying man and pass the defibrillator to the doctor or pass the oxygen tank or more gloves.
Obviously we had priority landing at the nearest airport and we were, "flying at maximum speed due to a medical emergency", but he didn't respond to the CPR for at least 30 minutes. He just passed on, right there in front of us. A stranger to everyone on that plane. It was awful, so awful.
They took him out on a stretcher and then the captain turned off the fasten-seatbelt sign and we all got up, took down our carry-on luggage and dispersed into the terminal. And that was it. Nobody said anything, nobody said a prayer or blessed the body...we all just went about our business. David and I caught our connection (which we probably would have missed if we hadn't had priority landing). Nothing changed. We weren't even inconvenienced by this man's passing. I desperately wanted to miss our flight. Or to have to stay in Chicago overnight -maybe be stuck on the plane extra long. I wanted my bags to be lost. Anything, anything to mark the passing of that stranger. It was awful, so awful to just walk to our gate, stand in line at the McDonald's, eat Chicken Nuggets, board the plane and get home on-time. A man died and I caught my flight.

May the soul of that faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace...

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Nannies *updated*

For the long nights you lay awake
And watched for my unworthy sake:
For your most comfortable hand
That led me through uneven land:
For all the storybooks you read:
For all the pains you comforted:
For all you pitied, all you bore,
In sad and happy times of yore:
My second mother, my first wife,
The angel of my infant life -
From the sick child, now well and old,
Take, nurse, the little book you hold!
- Robert Louis Stevenson

I just came across this section about nannies in a book I'm reading and it has brought me a whole new appreciation for the fact that my kids get a mommy and not a nanny, or worse, a daycare center. Thank goodness we live in the time that we live in - not that I'd mind having an extra set of hands around occasionally to help with the nitty-gritty of mommying - but when it comes down to it, even the nitty-gritty of discipline, healthy feeding, diapering, cleaning, etc. is bonding me to my kids in a very deep and powerful way. When you serve someone your love for them and your ability to see Christ in them deepens.
I'm so grateful to be living in a time where moms can be moms and don't need to leave that up to the hired help. Here's a part of the description of the relationship between a child and his nanny during the hight of Victorian England's household structure. This description reminded me so much of the relationship between all the children and Nanny in Brideshead Revisited. I guess you could make the argument that in that tale it was the faith of Nanny, quietly praying on her beads, that gave the example which served as the "twitch upon the thread" more then their heroically virtuous and somewhat intrusive mother. Who knows...just a thought for those of you who have read or watched Brideshead.
[Gawthorne-Hardy] speaks of grown men who remained stoically dry-eyed when
discussing the deaths of their mothers, but who dissolved into tears when
discussing their nannies. On visits home such men frequently dashed past the
drawing room where their parents sat waiting and tore up three flights of stairs
to visit Nanny in her nursery. It was common for public school boys, sent off at
the age of seven, to cry not for their mothers, but for their nannies, who
tended to mourn their charges' departure as they would a death.

Yea 21st century! I'm glad I wasn't raising kids 100 years ago, or rather, not raising them.


(quote taken from To Hell with All That - Loving and Loathing our Inner Housewife, by Caitlin Flanagan)

Friday, November 9, 2007

What? Russian?

Your Inner European is Russian!
Mysterious and exotic.You've got a great balance of danger and allure.
Alia is the Russian
Your Inner European is French!
Smart and sophisticated.You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.
David is the Frenchie

Thanks Maria.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

My Boy

The quotable Mo

At Mass, looking through the cryroom window during the consecration:
I see the Lord! [Wow, I think to myself. I'm raising a mystic.] Look, the Lord is praying!


I like Grandma. She's a fun, fun, fun, fun kid. No. She's a fun, fun, fun, fun muvver.

Me: You know what Moses? My throat hurts.
Moses: Oh mommy. You want me to rub it?


On the way home from a Halloween Party.
David: You spent a lot of time with ____.
Me: Yeah, I invited her and she didn't know many people
Moses: I invited her, too.
Me: I met her on the Women's Retreat.
Moses: I met her on retreat, too.
*sreeeech*
Moses: What was that?
Me: I forgot about the stop sign and I had to stop quickly!
Moses: I had to stop quickly too...........(long pause).............it was your fault mommy.


Moses: Mom! There's a Haro-o-opter.
Me: Oh! You're right - there's a helipcopter!
Moses: No! It's a Harold-the-copter! [who knew Harold's last name was copter?]




Sunday, October 28, 2007

Fall Adventures

This post is rather picture heavy but I think it's worth it. Can I help it if my kids are so cute they compell me to sit at the computer while I have a terrible sinus infection in order to share their cuteness with the world? No, I can't help it. So, here are a few pics of the fun that we've been having this Fall.

Pumpkin Patch David and I took the kids down to pick pumpkins at Wasem farm, nearby. Moses enjoyed the doughnuts, but the actual pumpkin picking did not go over as well as I'd hoped.
Me: (excitedly) Moses! Do you want to come with me and pick a pumpkin right out of the patch?!
Moses: Ummm. No. Let's go home.
Well, what can I say? It was 90+ degrees out, bees were swarming like crazy and it was crowded with crazy people who think that hot weather in October is a treat. WhatEVER. Sometimes as parents we are the ones who have to fake excitement - the kids can just let it all hang out (see picture on left for visual).
Eventually we ended up with three randomly selected pumpkins, although if you were judging by the amount of pumpkins Moses declared not "the pumpkin", then you would think that these three were very special, indeed.























Doughnuts and cider are the reason for this smile.




























































On the hunt of the perfect pumpkin. You can't see it in this picture but be assured, there was copious amounts of sweat and bees.











Applesaucing
This is one of the events that I look forward with the most all year. I don't know why exactly but I think it has something to do with harvest, autumn, domesticity, the color orange, compost piles, yummy smells, fabulous friends and thankfulness. Anyway, this year the "canning buds" accomplished getting 97.5 quarts of applesauce canned. And Lily has already done her part for king and country by consuming a a couple quarts herself.

Don't look too closely at the picture - it's actually salsa that we canned months ago but, well it's the closest I could get.












Little Boo at the Zoo
Well, the name alone will get you there. Go marketing consultants. Let's just crunch some numbers. 6 moms. 13 kiddos under age 4. Phew. It was an adventure - a darn stinking, cute adventure.

All in a line - this was, by FAR the most organized we were of the whole trip.






























Could a pot of honey BE any sweeter?



















That's my little Pooh.



















He used to be "scary of the seals" but now he's fascinated.














Moses' "favorite friends", Ben and Geno

















This picture just sums up my experience of Little Boo at the Zoo.

















Fall Foliage Train Ride
Just today we went on a steam engine train ride to see the leaves. Moses' train obsession continues strongly and so this was just a big fat winner for all of us. Gorgeous Fall colors, happy families, cider and doughnuts, and of course a conductor and a train. Well, life doesn't get much better folks.












More Fall adventures are coming our way and since it is far and away my favorite time of year, I'm just lapping them up. Stay tuned for an adventure coming to a town near you.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Is your husband working too much?

He might be if this is the comment your son makes after dropping him off at work in the morning:

"I like Daddy, Mom. He's fun! He come over again soon?"

One of these days life is going to settle down for David. Hmmmm...maybe then he'll read this blog ;). Just kidding.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Sunrise, Sunset

Tonight there was a beautiful red sunset that made the whole sky hot pink. Moses was walking by the window and this is what he had to say upon the sight (w's usually = l's).

"Uh oh. Red sky. Wow! The sun painted it! It's wuvwy. It's cwever!"

I'm sure that God appreciates someone thinking his work is clever for a change. It reminded me of the section in Orthodoxy that Chesterton is talking about the mundane things of the world really being extraordinary. Forgive me this extended quotation, I can't possibly say it as well as he and Moses do.

"The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is
due not to my activity, but to my inaction...it might be true that the sun rises
regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not
to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life. The thing I mean can be seen, for
instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially
enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of
life...they always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again
until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in
monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger then we."

Well, out of the mouths of babes. Thank you, Lord, for being so clever as to make the sun set tonight. It was truly lovely.

Eavesdropping 2

David: (upon seeing snot running down Moses' upper lip and into his mouth) Moses, do you need a tissue?
Moses: No, it OK. I have mine bwank-bwank.
David: Do you wipe your nose on the blanket?
Moses: Yup.
David: Please don't wipe your nose on the blanket - that's why we have tissues.
Moses: (in a very consoling tone of voice) Ah. It's fine Daddy. I have mine bwank-bwank.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Monday morning redeemed


It's a tired sort of day. I was up and down all night long nursing Lily and each time I'd get up I'd feel my sore throat getting worse and worse. Strep has been hanging around in my family so I'm leaning toward that diagnosis.
Then the other child made several attempts from 3 a.m. onward to change beds. The first new bed was in his doorway. David got up and saw him sleeping on the floor and put him back in his bed. The second new bed was a little further out, in the hallway. The third new bed was immediately outside of our door and this time he turned on a light and brought all of his blankets too. So, ultimately, we woke up tired, overwhelmed and already behind (no exercising or Mass this morning). And if there is one thing that I do not like it is being behind on a Monday morning. The whole week seems colored by it.
The kids, on the other hand, woke up very pleased with the world. In fact during the 15 minutes that it took us to get into the car, drop Davidoff at work and then get home again Moses had expressed these sentiments:
I wike Daddy's work.
I wike Fr. Lobert.
I wike Fr. Lobert's church.
I wike everybody.
I wike Gordon.
I wike school buses. (which, by the by, he firmly believes are all occupied by highschool football teams)
I wike these stairs.
I wike these holes. (the space inbetween each stair)
And all this wiking took place before 7:30 a.m. They say, "when mamma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy". This is true. But today it's definitely working in reverse. Thank you Tony Mo, I wike you awot.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Once upon a...

Yesterday Moses offered to read me a book. This is the first time he's wanted to read to me and I was really looking forward to finding out what he retained from what I read to him. He chose his Giant Dump Truck book that we have had from the library for months. It's a book about a particular type of dump truck that works in quarries and mines. Someday the information in that book is going to win me a game of Trivial Pursuit.

Moses: (opens to blank page with only the library bar code) Once upon a potty - I mean - Once upon a time...in a far away land...there was a dump truck. You ready to turn the page, mommy?
Me: Sure, bud.
Moses: There was a one (pointing to the page number at the bottom of the page). And there was a two (pointing to the next page). You ready to turn the page, mommy?
Me: Sure, love-boy.
Moses: There was a three. There was a four.
Etc., Etc., until the end of the book. Apparently the information that we learned in that book will not help him win any games of Trivial Pursuit.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Eavesdropping


Overheard from the Living Room:

(Splash, splash)

Dad: OK, Moses, I'm going to wash you off now - we need to rinse. Oh, don't pee. Well, don't pee ON Lily.

Moses: Ha Ha - Daddy - me pee on Lily, look.

Dad: No, Moses- DON'T pee on Lily- it's not funny. It's very, very yucky.

Moses: (dissapointed) Oh, OK. Stop me pee on Lily.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Houston, we have a problem...

Just got back from retreat. Now I'm on the computer doing my best impression of escapism. I was clearly not prepared for re-entry - my heat shields are burning up, the oxogyn is getting very thin, and my voice is high and squeaky. So, here I am, trying to ignore the smells and sounds coming from the children and poking around on Facebook and blogs. How do I deal with this level of need and chaos on a daily basis? My brain must have been fried somewhere along the way, because after a weekend of calm and quiet and prayer and adults I am clearly not able to handle all these sensations.
Well, there is just only so much escapism allowed to a mom and I have used several days worth here so I will be cleaning up the strained peaches from the carpet first and then fixing one malfunctioning control at a time until my brain is back to being fried enough that it can process the madness of multi-tasking without overload. Don't they have some sort of simulation machine set up for mom coming home after a retreat?

Thursday, October 11, 2007

The bloom is off the Lily

It is here. The stinky poo. Which, as an aside, means that Lily has made her foray into the world of eating solids. She has taken to it as only my monster girly could. The very best words to describe my darling girl-child are:



Fat and Happy.




And the way she is eating it looks that they will continue to be the best descriptions of her for some time. I have to admit that I am really surprised and a little sad that she is already 6 months old and is moving away from me. No longer am I the only source of sustenance. BUT food makes her so happy and it makes me happy so we now have something more in common. Oh, and the answer to the perennial question, "Would a Rose smell as sweet if you fed it solid food?" is emphatically, "NO".




Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Cathedral Builder


I don't know who Charlotte is and I'll admit (with a modicum of embarrasement) that this is a forward that I received but...well, I really appreciated the sentiment and the imagery, so, here it is.

I'm invisible...

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?' Obviously not. No one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible.

Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this? Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Pick me up right around 5:30, please.'

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude -- but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going .... she's going ... she's gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself as I looked down at my out-of-style dress; it was the only thing I could find that was clean.

My unwashed hair was pulled up in a banana clip and I was afraid I could actually smell peanut butter in it. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.'

It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: 'To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'

In the days ahead I would read -- no, devour -- the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals -- we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God who saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.'

And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.'

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.'

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder.

As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand-bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.'

That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, 'You're gonna love it there.'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible moms.

Build on dear friend!

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Worth the Hype, 3


My new wet/dry hair straightener. For $22.00 at Target I can go from jumper-homeschool-mom-with-frizzy-half-dried hair to Rachel from Friends in 10 minutes. No blow-drying necessary.
I may post before and after pictures sometime if I ever let my hair go the way of the frizz again but it's doubtful...

Home and Gardens


Jeanne Marie Laskas is a really fun author that I've been reading a lot of over the past couple months, I just finished her 3rd book last night. I've marked lots of passages that I want to share with the little part of the blogosphere that Love Life fills up but I'll just start with this one because it exactly states how I feel about housekeeping. Since I live in a little apartment and have no balcony (cue: much wailing in my heart) my home is my garden.
Gardening is all about the urge for excellence, which a gardener never achieves, which is what keeps the gardener hooked. Gardening is about power. You are the master of that world. You are the king and queen and the duke and the duchess. You see what happens when you can tame a four-by-six slice of nature, and pretty soon you think: What about ten by twenty? You tame, and you tame, and you tame, and all you can see is what is not tamed.

That is my gardener spirit at work in my little slice of apartment eden to a tee.
Link to picture.

Friday, September 28, 2007

My friend Joshie has a blog that is so worth checking out, here's a sample post for you. I always find good, thought-provoking, inspiring and funny information on his blog. This post in particular is just so right on. Go Joshie!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Baby Talk

Prequels here and here.





What? Gregory's calling Lucy?! No way! I thought I was his girl. Well, I'll just have to give him a call and get this straightened out. It's so strange though...
I thought she and I were BFF.
ExCUSE me? You expect me to call him on this tired, old car phone? This is totally embarrasing.
Heya' Greggy-boy - what's up? I mean seriously, an older woman? I know she's cute but -
Hold on a minute, I feel like I'm being watched.

























What?! You were listening in?! You've ruined my whole life! Gregory will think I'm such a baby, can't even have enough privacy to make a phonecall!

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Liturgy


I just started reading Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, and I found that he has said what I think about liturgical discussion and disputes perfectly. So, with no further ado...
[Liturgy.] There is no subject in the world (always excepting sport) on which I have less to say then liturgiology...The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.
But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping...A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. You know what I mean. Try as one may to exclude it, the question, "What on earth is he up to now?" will intrude. It lays one's devotion waste. There is really some excuse for the man who said, "I wish they'd remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks.

Rats! I laughed for like a year when I read that.

He (We) finishes up by saying...
I can make do with almost any kind of service whatever, if only it will stay put. But if each form is snatched away just when I am beginning to feel at home it it, then I can never make any progress in the art of worship. You give me no chance to acquire the trained habit.

More God Bwesses

After Mass today Moses found his pal Norah, the daughter of good friends of ours, and they ran up and down the pews after each other (don't judge me!) and then up and down the hallway. When she had to leave he tackled her so she couldn't go and then proceeded to whine about missing Norah for the whole ride home. So, tonight at night prayers...
"And God bwess Norah. And God bwess Norah running. And God bwess me running. And God bwess the chase."
Even funnier when you take into consideration that both sets of parents have long ago decided that they are a match-to-be. God bless the chase, indeed.

Friday, September 21, 2007

My Radio Life


Well, I was obviously born and raised in a radio culture. For the majority of my day the radio is on and I'm either not listening or half listening. I'm rarely REALLY listening (maybe while I'm cooking or nursing). But, these are the shows that I get snippets of all day long (local stations for those in the area).
7:30 - 9am, Music and Company with Tom Allen.(89.9 Canadian NPR, weird, huh?) This is classical music that I get started with. Tom Allen is awesome. He's funny and he makes the music relevant and therefore more enjoyable.
9 - 12 pm, Laura Ingrahamm (1600) Politics, FUNNY, culture and she is a Catholic convert (for serious, not like some)
12 - 1 pm, nothing or Rush (760)
1 - 2 pm, Dr. Ray Guerendi (990)Catholic Parenting advice - the best
2-3 pm, Dave Ramsey (1600) Money Advice, no-debt philosophy and awesome baby-step plan that David and I are making our way through. Good inspiration to be frugal.
3-4 pm, Dr. Laura (1600) Some good, some bad but generally makes me a better wife.
4-6 pm, well duh. Al Kresta (990). "Looking at the world throught the lens of Scripture and teaching of the Catholic Church" Just about everything makes it through this show and it has great analysis and great interviews.

At 7 I switch to TV - JK, a little ;)

I don't have all these shows on all the time but if I'm going to listen during those times, these are what I listen to.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Four Delicious Years



Here's to 75 more delicious years. Cheers (virtual clinking).

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Phonetic Foibles

We looked into the living room and saw Moses knocking Lily over. After dutifully doing his 3 minutes in the naughty chair he gets up and walks over to Lily:

"Wiwy, I farry for knockin' you up."

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Worth the Hype, 2

Mom's Advice

Boy oh boy. It has been a rough, rough ride here in the Love family household for the past few weeks. There's been next to no sleep because I'm an idiot. You all read about my brilliant, easy transition to the BBCB, right? And the followup that showed the downward slope the transition was taking? Well...it's just been...oi. I've never felt so defeated in my life. This less-than-3-year-old was ruling my world and I was just at a complete loss.
The fatal flaw in the BBCB transfer was the oversight of the bottle. You may not like how Bush handled the whole WMD thing but, trust me, it was nothing compared to the great bottle oversight of '07. Duh, duh, duh! You do NOT put a child into a sleeping arrangement without bars BEFORE you wean him from a bottle!!! You take the bottle when he can't do anything about it except cry in the dark.
So, we took the bottle away. His heart broke, my heart broke. We just broke. We broke down - seriously broke down. Once the sobbing turned into pitiful whimpering (over the course of several days) he decided that if he couldn't have a bottle to sleep with then he would self-medicate with all manner of distraction. Mainly, playing in his room and not taking naps anymore. Which, oh - my - gosh, he still needs.
The whole thing spirled downward to the point where he wasn't going to sleep at night until he fell asleep on the floor, then he'd wake up all disoriented and freaked out in the middle of the night and would take an hour to calm down again. He'd refuse to take a nap and his behavior during the normal waking hours was turning the whole family into schizophrenics with ticks.
We have removed everything from his room - there's nothing except his dresser and the bed. We have spanked and spanked and spanked - to no avail. We have used "blackout" techniques. We've tried rewards. We've tried praying. I have no hope, I can't think of a single thing that we havn't tried. Until!
Ahh, ahhh, ahhh - enter, mom. She gives me advice.
I bring up the carseat. I put him in it. He sees that he is in a desperate situation and sobs. I tell him it's a warning - if he gets out of bed then it's the seat for him: he'll stay there until he falls asleep. I let him out of the seat, he climbs in bed.
We have now had 4 bed-time successes and I've never even had to use the seat. Just the mention of it makes him cry. He hasn't gotten out of bed once and he's such a doll when he's gotten enough sleep! Happy, happy Loves.
Worth the Hype 2: Mom's Advice

Monday, September 17, 2007

Night Prayers with Moses

"And God Bwess Unco Nicky and Unco....hmmmm....Nicky and Unco.....Nicky. And God Bwess Unco Evan. And God Bwess Uncle David - oh mommy - Uncle David is my sister."
Picture from here.

Worth the Hype



I was at my friends for dinner the other day and was poking around their kitchen and noticed a little whiteboard on the fridge that had an ongoing list entitled "Worth the Hype". Such a good idea. I'm stealing it. But, I'm giving credit where credit is due: Anne and Tim.
So with no further delay, my first entry on Things that are Worth the Hype:
DailyLit.com
I don't know how much hype there's been about this but I'm really enjoying it. You can get a book in bite-size chunks in your inbox each day, just during the weekdays or on Mon, Wed and Fri - your choice. You "subscribe" for free and then you can read books in 5 minute increments that you would not usually find the time to read. If you're like me then you like to have a nice empty inbox and will read just about anything in order to be able to delete it.
Upsides - easy to manage; free; some of us are more likely to do something if it involves electronics
Downsides - since it's a free service the books are limited - mostly classics that are out of print long ago - but you can certainly find something that hits you with a, "I've always wanted to read that!" feeling. Also, you can't underline. For those of us underlining addicts this causes much frustration that can only be slightly allieviated by use of the ctrl C and ctrl V and a Word doc.
Of course, nothing, nothing beats the feel and smell of an old, much loved book and I'm a big, big fan of cushy armchairs, steaming mugs of hot chocolate and a quiet evening chuckling and/or crying with an old booky chum but...
yeah, right. I have 2 little ones who don't sleep in the evenings (or afternoon, or mornings for that matter) right now and I'll take what I can get. So, Anna Karinina - here I come!