Open to Life

So, I've been doing some reading lately.  Heavy in the superficial suffering of motherhood, I opened Dark Night of the Soul in search of a consoling quote to affirm my cross.  What I found instead what an invitation to journey into the depths of my soul, with the promise of deeper union with God in His Divine Love - something I realize I have never even come close to understanding (and am so very far from).

Open Door Policy

It's the first morning in a loooooong time that I'm set to start the school day on time (*gasp!*) So why did I choose to write a blog post right now?  Maybe I have some sort of aversion to order (I'll have to talk to my husband about that).  Really, I mostly just want to get this sweet memory down on paper before it leaves my brain.

A Quiet Place

Ever since I became serious about prayer life, I've longed for a quiet place for just me and the Lord.  When I still lived at home I managed to get an old kneeler from my parish and set it up in my room, but it quickly became a catch-all for a million other things except my knees.  In our first apartment we set up a small corner in our spatious spare bedroom, but that was quickly taken over by so many things we could barely even fit in the door!  When we moved here and started having children, well you guessed it - any spare space we had quickly needed to be put to use.  At least in that case it wasn't just clutter, but I still have always wished for just one extra room, if only a small one, to dedicate to quiet prayer.

Everything I Need

We packed up our Christmas tree yesterday (which though it seems late, still way beats the year we left it up until February, and one of the kids had a major meltdown when Jeff took it out, thinking he was killing Christmas!)  This year, due to space limitations in the living room we decided to take the leaf out of our dining room table and put it in there, in the corner that is closest to the living room and where you could still see and access it from our main living space. It was one of those ideas seemed good at the time, but really (really) sucked when we actually did it.  What was I thinking taking the precious little space out of the room that is arguably the most used in the entire house, a) for meals and b) for school?  Craziness.  I won't do it again.

The Sensitive Soul

Have you ever had an emotional day, only to have someone say, "you must be pregnant," or "it must be PMS"?  Pretty much ever since I hit puberty these questions have been a reality, whether it has been from people around me or just me within myself, whenever I get a tad emotional I start to think, "What's wrong?  Am I pregnant?  Am I close to my period?"

The Great School Switchup - First Grade Edition

I wrote in my last post about my struggles with two distracted students, but my action plan focused on my nine year old.  Today I have the opportunity to test drive our new school day on my six-year-old as well, and I'd like to share some of the things I am trying with him.

The Great School Switch Up

Today was our first day back to school after Christmas break, a day I am normally counting down to following all the craziness of the Christmas holidays.  Not so this year.  This year, I dreaded it.  I was so not into it this morning when school time arrived.  Maybe that's because a severe ice storm in our region saw us without power for three days (a minor suffering, considering many lost theirs for a week or more) and all of our Christmas plans shuffled around for ice or snowstorms.  Maybe it's because Jeff is still on vacation this week, and I'd rather lay around and enjoy the week with him (but feel I can't justify another week off after the two we've already had).  Maybe it's because by the time Christmas break arrived, I was completely spent with the physically and mentally taxing aspects of daily life in a homeschooling family with four students and two babies at demanding ages (three and one).  Who knows exactly what caused it, but it took everything in me to get into gear this morning.  And the results of that were evident.

Cut Yourself Some Slack for New Years

It being New Year's (okay, well New Year's plus two days) I've been thinking lots and seeing lots posted about resolutions.  Usually there is one thing that is completely self-evident, that I don't even need to think about what I should do, it's just there. I hear someone else, read something, see something somewhere and go, "aha! That's it.  That's what I need to work on." This year however, I find it's quite the opposite.

Finally NFP Makes Sense!

Do your New Year's Resolutions include getting a better grasp of Natural Family Planning? Mine doesn't.  Which might be why I don't find it such a chore.  In fact, for the first time in my ten years of marriage, I feel like I'm finally starting to get it.  I should clarify that this post is neither a baby announcement nor an announcement of postponement, because while I feel that the question of whether we are trying for another baby is a private one, the one thing I will offer is that we believe it is a decision to be revisted and discerned on a month-to-month basis.