Throwback Thursday - Get It In

Six years later, this is still a lesson I struggle to learn. My biggest trial lately is just learning how to deal with the constant mental demands on my life.  The fact that it seems so difficult even to finish a complete thought without interruption.  Here is this week's throwback post about praying in the midst of distraction.

My Little Mary

I've never done a link-up before, but I have been meaning to write a post in honor of the month of Mary about how our little Mary got her name.  My orginal hope was to do it on Mother's Day, but that had me on an unexpected whirlwind vacation alone with my husband (the first we've ever taken alone together for as long as we did - six days of pure bliss!) and I was not able to post.  So when I found out that Elise over at In Endless Song was hosting a link-up of posts on Mary, I didn't want to let the opportunity slip away. (Thanks for the encouragement, Elise!)  So without further ado, here is my story of how the Lord has chosen Mary for us.

"Princess" isn't a bad word

There’s an older gentleman at our church who takes up the collection, who absolutely loves my girls.  He speaks loud enough to suggest he may be slightly hard of hearing, meaning the whole church (or at least the ten pews closest to our vicinity) can always clearly hear him say, “How’s the family?  Oh look at the little princess!”  He never fails to stop us after Mass to say hello, to tell us of his children and grandchildren, his beloved wife who has passed on (and whom he loves more than anything), all the while addressing my five-year-old as, “the princess”.  She beams every time.

Throwback Thursday - Like a Child

"Let all the earth cry out to God with joy!" That's the psalm for this weekend.  The kids and I just finished talking about it, and how every day, every moment contains with it the possibility for joy.  Particularly during Easter, the Church turns us towards joy - the joy of the risen Christ, the joy that all the sufferings and trials we endure are not in vain.  It is not a false or fabricated joy, built on its own reasoning and doomed to crumble under the weight of its own inadequacy.  This is what happens when, as St. John of the Cross says, we caught so caught up in the method of our devotions that we loose sight of the reason for devotion itself - that deep, passionate, personal relationship with Christ.  The one that realizes joy is more than a feeling of elation, that joy can exist simultaneously with fear, that joy in fact gives us what we need to weather any kind of suffering.  It is hope and trust that sees us through the most difficult parts of our journey.

Throwback Thursday - Kids: Can't Live With Them, Can't Live Without Them

The timing of these throwback posts never ceases to amaze me.  As I recount the story of a particularly frazzled evening with my kids many years ago, I am just returning from a six-day vacation alone with my husband, our first ever.  We returned home grateful for the time away, for the gift of our children, and the family and friends who lift us up and give us the opportunity to get away knowing our children are in good hands. Someday I'll write a beautiful post along those lines but until then, here's the other side that is so often the reality, and equally beautiful.

Throwback Thursday - Thank God for Nature

I love reading these old posts, because it reminds me how very different life was.  It seemed so overwhelming at the time and yet, God still reached in and somehow guided me through those years, and I can have faith that if He did it then He will do it now, and He will do it in the future in whatever life brings my way.

Like My Boy

Jeff and I were in the kitchen this evening when we heard a basement door open.  The kids had been in bed for a bit, and I heard the spleepy voice of my six-year-old calling me from the basement, muttering something.  I sped to the basement, fearing that maybe he was sick (isn't that always the first thing that pops into your mind when a child awakes in the night?) Then in fact, he told me the real problem.  "I think I need someone to lay with me for a bit until I fall asleep," he said. "I'm a little bit scared."

Throwback Thursday - Lest I Forget

Six years ago it was a little easier for me to get used to the daily interruptions of motherhood.  Now I have twice as many children and infinitely more interruptions, and this has become the single biggest challenge of my life. How to function in a world when finishing a job, a task, a sentence, a complete thought, without being interrupted seems like such a luxury.  It seems like a daily assault on my senses, and never ceases to remind me of how impatient I am.