Love Life - Our Grand Tour

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."

Loves and Loveletts

Lex - somewhere in her mid-30's. Homeschooling mom as well as a homeschool graduate. Lives in a little Burg in the Appalachian mountains but will always have a little Michigan inside her. Mother of 6 that were born within 9 years of each other. Lover of audiobooks, praying through singing, birding, asparagus patches, and photographing kids. Grateful for the gift of community - the beauty, the ugly and the mediocre. Follower of Christ.

John - Late 30's Theology Professor, aka The Love Doctor. Always burning the candle at both ends he works hard during the day to form the future of Catholic priests and in the early mornings and evenings he carts children to and from activities and makes his wife mean G&Ts. Evangelization, providing music for Mass and adoration, sharing insights from St. Thomas Aquinas are what he's most known for in his professional life. Doing the dishes every night, dropping everything to meet us in the ER, and fixing the constant rotation of things the kids break are what he's most popular for here at home.

Anthony - Thirteen. Geography and grammar are where he shines academically - both requiring a precision that Anthony has a hard time not overusing. He enjoys playing soccer as often as possible and he stands out on his team as being a guy with his head and his body in the game - attentive and thinking. He works hard on living with equanimity as an introvert in a crowded, loud, busy home.

Rosie - Ten. Leader of "The Tribe": the three loveletts that were born within 2.5 years. She is a hard worker in school and rarely requires my help, just plugs along and gets her stuff done. She takes a lot of art classes and keeps a nature journal and I love what she is able to observe and translate through a pencil. She loves to make up all sorts of games and fun pretends for the younger member of the family. Everyone should be so lucky as to have a Rosie.

Thomas - Nine and all E. Energetic, enthusiastic, eager, excitable, extroverted, exhilarated and engaged. The only trouble we have with Thomas is that it's hard to keep him busy enough - he has an appetite for life that can be overwhelming! He's been this way ever since he mastered crawling. He was off and the rest is history. Anthony wrote this limerick about Thomas this year.

My brother is energetic

His body is super frenetic

He yells and he jumps

and he gives us all bumps

But Thomas is never pathetic.

This is all true.

Cecilia - Eight. Cece is such a great "smack-dabber". Smack-dab in the middle of the family and always wanting to be part of the team. She is generous, inclusive and positive. We often call her excited, positive, can-do presence, "The Power of Positive-Ce". She has none of her older sister's innate sense of fashion and often rollicks around in outfits that make me question her ability to see colors. And patterns. And cleanliness.

Catherine - 5 going on 30. Probably the most thoughtful and caring person in the house. She is totally normal when it comes to wanting to run with the big kids and "do it myself" and other such developmental standards. What sets her apart in our family is that she is so tuned into how other people are feeling and how her actions effect them. When she throws a fit (which she still does occasionally) she is the only child to offer unprompted apologies and amends. She is our sunshine.

Gloria - 3 and THE BABY. She is well ensconced in her role - having no desire or inclination to reliquish her tyrannical hold on all the people older then her. We do her bidding and she entertains us by singing herself little songs, letting us tickle her and having big beautiful eyes and super long eyelashes.