Oh, yes!!!

Those who know me know that C.S. Lewis is one of my all-time favorite authors, and is, in fact, a spiritual mentor for me. Someday I will get a chance to meet him, although I must confess I'll be so tongue-tied I'll probably only be able to mutter a quiet, "Wow! I loved every one of your books! Thanks..." before I slink away, wishing I could have thought of something a little more profound to say.

So, it is with great excitement that I saw on Faith & Family the announcement that Focus on the Family Theatre would be putting out The Screwtape Letters:



Run, don't walk, and buy this for the the C.S. Lewis fan in your life!

I'll let you in on a little secret...

If you (or your sweet little ones) need a little bit of inspiration in the cleaning department, settle them down for an episode or two of How Clean Is Your House?



You will be amazed at how quickly everyone wants to clean up afterward!

He did it again!

You may remember my "experiment" of last week -- trying to keep Sunday work free, and asking God to work it out so that I didn't go crazy from the mess on Sunday, AND that I didn't get too behind on Monday.

He answered that prayer in a wonderful way.

So, this past Saturday evening I asked Him again. We worked hard all day Saturday -- shopping, cleaning, raking, etc etc etc in an honest attempt to get all the weekend work done before Sunday. I even emptied out the dishwasher Saturday evening so that we would wake up with a clean slate, ready to start the day and get ready for Mass.

Wow.

Sunday went so smoothly it was amazing. In fact, the only "work" I had to do was empty out the dishwasher as I was finishing up cooking supper. I was able to chill... not get upset with family members for lounging around when there was stuff to do... take a nap... take an amazing walk in the afternoon. Wow. It was wonderful!

So, what about Monday?

I thought it was starting off rather badly. I had forgotten about a morning concert that we were supposed to attend, which threw the whole morning off. Thankfully, one of my dear, dear, wonderful friends graciously offered to watch my little one so that we could actually GO to this concert (did I mention she also has an active 2-yr old? And a 3-month old? Yeah, she rocks). Then, she further blessed us by somehow managing to feed us all afterwards...

...which brought us home at 1:00 pm, with still no homeschooling done.

The kids (mostly cheerfully) got started, and continued on throughout the afternoon. We babysat another friend for about an hour and a half, and then we left at 5:00 pm to take our RUN.

Yes, for the second school day IN A ROW, the Wanna Be and I managed to get our kids out for a run. I'm not sure how long (distance-wise) our run/walk really is, but when you're dealing with two-year olds and four-year olds who need carrying/tending when they fall down/etc etc etc, it's long enough.

We got home at 6:00 pm, managed to get the house clean in TEN minutes, and then sat down for a late supper.


The whole point of all this is to say that throughout this hectic day, laundry was still done (in fact, I'm right on schedule), homeschooling was finished, meals were made, and the house took no time at all to clean up.

I was NOT behind at all today. It was another blessed Monday!


I can't even begin to claim, "I've discovered the secret of the universe! Just don't work on Sunday and God magically makes your Monday a dream come true!"... but I can say that, with this very small set of data points, it feels a bit like when you first start tithing, and somehow God makes the amount you have left work... better. I won't say time has slowed down, but it seems like I'm able to get all the things done that need to be done, even when normal chaos erupts.

I hope you had a wonderful Monday as well!

Ah, but will she rest on Sunday?

That's the goal, people... it's the goal.

All that planning last night paid off. I was able to take two of my kids with me (Reilly and Christopher) for a day o' shopping. Ten stores and 4+ hours later, Reilly said, "Mom, I'm never, ever going to ask what's taking you so long at the store again."

Yes indeed, I outshopped her!

I spent more than I wanted to, but I have STOCKED UP on so many things I think we can safely live through a several week-long blizzard... not that that's going to happen, mind you, in upstate South Carolina, but it feels good to know that if it did, we'd be prepared.

As long as the power stayed on, that is.

But, if it went off, we'd just cart all the perishables out in the snow, and we'd be golden.... couldn't heat up anything in the kitchen, but hey! at least nothing would go bad, and we'd fire up the grill and get creative with food prep.

After we got home, it was an afternoon of serious work. The kids worked on getting the back yard raked while dh worked on the new homeschooling room and I worked my tail off getting laundry done and the whole house clean.

I'm pooped. I'm seriously pooped.

After a nice, long bath, however, and a relaxing drink (French connection... 2 parts brandy to 1 part amaretto. Total yum!), I am thrilled to say that I am done for the day.  For the next 24 hours (barring a sudden vomit episode that will throw the house house into a panic), I will attempt to do nothing more than focus on lots of God, lots of family, and lots of rest.

Let's see how tomorrow goes, and how Monday works for me as well!

Whew.

It's been a busy day!

I won't bore you with the details, but I will say that, inspired by this video



The Wanna Be and I decided we were going to give exercising en masse a shot. If the nuns can take the kids in their care on a four-mile run every day, we can certainly do some sort of group walk/run a few times a week!

The kids were incredibly excited about doing this (God bless 'em!), and I was amazed at how far they were able to run! (Marie, too!) Grace, of course, not having had a nap today, decided this was NOT the time to do any sort of exercise, so yours truly got to carry her the whole way. I wasn't able to run, but I'd like to think that I got an extra dose of exercise just from holding her while I tried to power walk!

I'm telling y'all this not to brag, but to hold myself accountable. I do NOT want to be this out of shape ever again, and scheduling-wise this is the only way I'm going to be able to do anything. (some of my friends are probably reading this saying, "You can always go jogging with us at 5:30 am!" I admire their dedication, but there is NO WAY I could get up that early unless someone's life depended on it..... and even then I'd probably be mighty grumpy and complain a whole lot.)

Hopefully I'll be able to report some sort of success next week!
--------------------------------------------------------------

After everyone went to bed this evening, I sat down to work on getting my coupons and grocery list together for tomorrow. It took a little over two hours, with a break in there to make banana bread for tomorrow's breakfast. (I despise... hate... and loathe banana bread; my family, however, loves it, so there you go.)

As you may recall from posts from earlier this year (like this one, and this one), I am one of those "crazy binder ladies" that you see in the grocery store.

Yeah, I admit it.

Once I saw how much money I could save every week, it would have been a crime for me NOT to go this route. The planning takes some time, of course, but the results are worth it. On a big week -- that is, when I'm stocking up on things -- I'll spend around $200 (that includes all cleaning products, diapers, pet food, etc. EVERYTHING.) It still sounds like a lot, until you divide it out.

I am feeding each member of my family on $22 a week, AND getting enough to share... to stockpile... and to feed us all well.

I believe that's worth the time I spend!

Now, however, this pooped mama is going to bed...

Did we live through the same day?

Sometimes I wonder if my children and I are living through the same day.

For example, I got up this morning to the sound of my daughter crying. It was obvious that she wasn't feeling well. I carried her around for the first few minutes of the day, trying to get breakfast served and take care of all those early morning tasks.

She ate breakfast (all of it)... and then decided to throw up.

Up for less than 20 minutes and I'm already dealing with vomit. Not a good way to start any morning.

I cleaned her off, started the laundry (of course!), and tried to get dressed.

As I was still dealing with a fussy 2-year old... AND trying to get dressed... AND trying to put some make-up on, the doorbell rang.

It was our next door neighbors (and dear friends), telling us that their basement had flooded. (It had been raining non-stop since Tuesday morning... remember me being on the roof? Yeah, that was because I was warned that this was coming). My kids BEGGED to be able to go over there and help, so I told them that would be a great idea. (I couldn't go over, of course, since I had a sick kid to deal with. They didn't need to be exposed to some horrible virus on top of everything else!!) They threw on yucky clothes and boots and spent hours taking out toys and carpets and bucket after bucketful of water.

Homeschooling day shot.

Extra laundry to do.

Vomit to deal with.

Choir practice cancelled (since the baby was sick).

I got very little accomplished that I had planned today.

And yet as my son Christopher, tired and grungy as he was from a day of hard work in a wet, wet basement, came into the kitchen to see what was for supper (chili), he grinned and said, "You know, Mommy, this has been the best day EVER!"

I hope they never lose the ability to see the good in things, or to find a way to make even yucky tasks fun!

Sabbath Rest, part 2

Subtitled: You can do almost anything in a skirt! *grin*

But we'll get to that later.



I'm getting some great responses in the comment box for my last posting! Thank you!

So, I went to bed on Saturday night, laying out all my problems to the Lord with this whole Sunday rest thing. I had recently read... what was it... the messages from La Sallette?... that spoke about Jesus being angry that people were working on Sunday and not honoring it as a holy day.

That's what prompted this to begin with.

I believed that Sunday was to be a special day, of course, but some of the little details were bothering me -- how much is too much? At what point do I cross the line into "working"?

I asked Him to show me how to deal with ALL of the stuff that had been left undone on Saturday, to make Sunday a day of rest that would please Him, and to help me not get swamped on Monday.

Here are the answers I received.

After Mass on Sunday, we went home and had our usual doughnuts/tea/coffee break. We emptied out the dishwasher, and then it was time for me to take Christopher to Sunday School. When I got back (right around lunchtime), I found dh in the kitchen, packing lunches for everyone. Seems they took a vote while I was gone and decided a picnic and hike was the plan for the day. I wasn't thrilled with the whole idea, but off we went.

We were gone for hours (God's answer, therefore, was to get me out of the house for the day so I wouldn't be bothered by the mess). When we got home, there was just enough time for me to get supper started (easy roast), and then crash and take a well-deserved nap (exercise does NOT rejuvenate me. It puts me to sleep!). When I got up, I finished up supper preparations and we had a nice, leisurely dinner. That was followed by normal toy pick-up and bedtime for the kids.

By evening (9-ish) I consider Sunday to be over, so I have no qualms about planning out homeschooling for the next day.


So what about Monday, Lord?

Well, the baby got me up early (groan) and so by 7:30 am I had stripped our bed and started work on our laundry. I got the kids working on the most pressing jobs (dishwasher, sweeping, and bathrooms), and sat down at 9 to start homeschooling, feeling pretty good that the day had gotten off to a good start.

At 10, a change in plans brought us 4 more children to spend the day with us.

Sounds like a disaster, right?

It wasn't. It was an answer to prayer.

I had been given a free casserole from a church function a few weeks ago which had been sitting in my freezer. Lunch problem solved. I spent prep time making (store-bought) cookies instead for the kids.

After homeschooling, I had kids running inside and out, making huge messes, but somehow all of it got cleaned up. With so many eyes watching everyone else, I had the time I needed to get the laundry "through the system," and to catch up on more weekend stuff.

A call from a friend with news of rain on Tuesday prompted a serious yard blitz. I got all the kids outside with rakes and together we cleared the front yard in very little time. I got up on the roof to blow leaves out of the gutter before the promised rains came (and as I'm writing right now, there is a nice, steady rain coming down.)

When my friend came to pick up her kids, she directed them to do a massive toy pick up in the house while I swept the entire place.

Final results? My Monday, which I feared would be a disaster, instead found me:

--ahead of the game on laundry
--ahead in bathroom cleaning (I even washed the bathmats and shower curtains!!!)
--right where I was supposed to be with homeschooling
--ahead of the game in terms of food prep/meals (I ground wheat berries, too!)
--ahead in deep-cleaning/straightening up
--and WAY ahead in yard work (I blew leaves out of the gutter!)

And all of this was done by 6:00 pm.

I'm sitting in a clean house, no longer feeling grit under my feet, feeling pretty darn happy that I only have a little bit of laundry to do for the day. Our homeschool plans are in place, I wouldn't be embarrassed to have unexpected company, and lunch today is already in the works (homemade chicken soup for a cold, rainy day)


I'd say the Lord took care of the Monday stress!

Sabbath rest

I have a question that's been bothering me.

The question is this: How do you define "work" on Sunday?

I try to make Sunday a day set apart -- you know, lots of God, lots of family, lots of rest. At least, that's the goal. However, I also want to make Sunday dinner extra special (since it's the most important day of the week!), so that requires lots of time in the kitchen. Does that count as work? I have a friend who, in her celebration of Sunday, goes rather low-key for Sunday dinner to make it a more restful day.

Each of us is trying to make Sunday special... so where do I go with this?

Also, Sunday is most definitely NOT a day of rest for me, since my house seems to EXPLODE on Sunday. It's unreal -- the toys, the clothes, the general "dirtiness" of day-to-day life seems to pile up on Sunday, and I spend my day gritting my teeth and bemoaning the fact that I'm going to be waaaaaaay behind come Monday morning, when I have to tackle the huge weekend mess PLUS start homeschooling again bright and early.

Am I the only one who's struggling here?

I'm looking for any and all suggestions -- how to you make Sunday special? What do you do with the mess, or the odd jobs that pop up unexpectedly?

Soda love

I really must thank Danielle Bean for putting this video on her blogsite. At first I thought it was mildly interesting, but then as time went on, I found myself captivated more and more by this man who sells little-known sodas in his store.

It reminded me somewhat of the book 100 Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating. We think we have an impressive array of choices in our supermarkets (and compared to other countries, I'm sure we do!), but in reality we are used to ONE type of tomato, ONE type of cucumber... or eggplant... or carrot... and we have no idea the wide array of vegetables that Our Lord created for us to enjoy. My neighbor, for example, gave me one of the heirloom cucumbers he grew this year, and I was STUNNED -- it was light green, very dense, and shaped like a curly-cue. I had never seen anything like it before, and it was delicious!

This man celebrates the fact that there is more to the soda industry than the big name brands. His store carries everything from Moxie (my mom's favorite... blech. She is one tough New England girl, I tell ya!) to cucumber soda.

If you want yet another chance to cheer for the underdog... the small mom and pop businesses that give life flavor and variety... then take a few minutes and watch this video!

There's a reason why I read his blog

The Internet Monk is one of my favorite bloggers, hands down. Whether I agree with him or not, he always has something to say that makes me THINK.

While his latest post is the kind of post that makes me anxious -- fearful, even -- he gives us a good reminder, especially in the month of November, when we remember all those who have died. Very few of them, I imagine, got up that morning thinking, "Well, I guess this is going to be my last day here!" Whenever I hear of someone dying unexpectedly, I mentally project myself into their day. Did they have any clue that that pair of socks they put on would be their last? That they were buying their last cup of coffee? That they would be spending the last 20 minutes of their lives doing something wasteful, or offensive to God?

It's a good reminder to me to live MY life as if this were my last, but when I allow my mind to wander and think about this being the last day of someone I love, I get pretty flaky, and burn myself out trying to ensure that their "possible last day" was everything it was supposed to be, and then some. I either drown in regret ("I didn't play trains with Thomas and if this is his last day, I'll never be able to get over that") or work myself into a frenzy, never stopping to take the time for myself that I really do need.

So I have to play a bizarre mind game with myself -- living in constant awareness of my own mortality, while trying to avoid thinking of others' mortality.

Still... my own personal battles aside... this is a wonderful post, and I hope you take the time to read it.

Let's see if this one works

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I think...

... I should just give up trying to blog during the month of October.

Seriously.

October is always a ridiculously busy time in our family. We have 5... FIVE... kids' birthdays in October (3 in the same week), a mother-in-law's birthday, an anniversary, preparations for Halloween/All Saints' Day, AND (this year) a visit from my parents and a trip to Florida.

Whew.

[and just for fun, did you see what my husband transformed my daughter into? That was a mighty impressive costume... I'm not sure if you can tell it or not, but that tape reel is functioning. She got many oohs and aahs from the neighborhood as she made the rounds on Halloween!]


But, now we're in the much more relaxed (please, God!) month of November, and I'm hoping to start blogging all the things I've had going through my head the past month or so.

In the meantime... in honor of All Saints' Day (just passed), All Souls' Day and the month-long extra emphasis on remembering the dead, I wanted to bring up again some great books that I have found inspirational:

Saints Behaving Badly
This one is a fun, quick read, and one that I can recommend heartily. Each saint is introduced with a brief description of who they were, before the transforming power of God's grace in their lives -- therefore, you get stunning chapter titles like, "St. Mary of Egypt, Seductress" or "St. Olga, Mass Murderer" or even "St. Vladimir, Fratricide, Rapist, and Practitioner of Human Sacrifice." I mention those last two in particular because (according to my dad, who does a lot of genealogy research) I am a direct descendant of those two.

There you go. It's your little bit o' trivia for the day.

"Did you know that Chez Ouiz chick is a descendant of St. Olga and St. Vladimir?"

It will brighten someone's day, I'm sure!


My Life with the Saints
Another great book that I have reviewed before. It was such a comfort to me to see the true humanness of each of the saints mentioned in the book. If you don't love Bl. Mother Teresa before reading this one, you most certainly will afterwards!


The Lure of the Saints
This book is quite interesting. It is (as you can see in the subtitle) a Protestant's view of the rich tradition of saints.  There is a difference on opinions, obviously, in some of the ideas presented in the book; however, I am encouraged to read passages like this:

Prayer is the most popular and accessible spiritual practice for relating to the saints. There is praying with the saints and praying to the saints. Each day, I do both, and neither practice means that I am forgetting that my relationship with God is accomplished through Jesus Christ.

Praise God!


Other books which I can recommend are:

• I Believe in Love  
• Apparitions of Modern Saints 
• Autobiography of St. Therese: The Story of a Soul 

I could list a whole host of others, but for now I'll stop.

What is your favorite book on the saints? Please leave a comment and tell me... I'm always looking for new books to read!

I really do teach them better than this...

Me: "Thomas, what is a mortal sin?"

Thomas: "Ooh! I remember! It's two sins stuck together!"

Disney World

Before any MORE time goes by (arrggh! There are never enough hours in the day to do what I'd like to do!), I wanted to at least post that YES, we did, in fact, make it down to Disney World.

Long story made short: my husband got a great deal on a place to stay on one of his (very few) business trips, and he's been planning this vacation ever since. All we had to do was come up with the funds for Disney World (which are expensive), but a one-day trip to "The Magic Kingdom" wasn't nearly as much as I thought it would be. The place where we were staying also provided $100 in "Disney Dollars," so we ate at the park for free (whoo hoo!).

Those who know me know how much I dreaded this trip. It wasn't just the drive there (which would be long), or the preparation and packing (also long) -- it was the frustration of trying to herd seven small(ish) children through a crowded park, getting on rides (while dealing with those who wouldn't be on that particular ride), and all the waiting.

Let me say for the record that Disney World is SO MUCH EASIER than other amusement parks... especially one which will remain nameless, but boasts many a flag over the grand state of Georgia. For starters -- you can bring your own cups in, so getting water was easy. Two, there are actually bathrooms and water fountains all over the place, so you can find what you need quickly and easily. Three, the whole place is child and family-friendly (duh), so we didn't have to jump hoops to get what we needed. Four (and this is the big one) we could ALL RIDE THE SAME RIDES, so I didn't have to sit on the sidelines for hours with the little ones while waiting for the others to get off the ride.

So we all got to ride the magic carpet...


...and Pirates of the Caribbean...


...go through the Hall of Presidents...

(You better believe THAT counted for homeschooling! What was funny, though, is that most of the kids thought these were real people. When they found out they weren't, they were HIGHLY amazed).

...go through the "Small World" ride...

(Don't tell me I'm the only one who had this record as a child! )

...ride the merry-go-round...



...and many, many others. The only ride the kids DIDN'T like was the Haunted Mansion. I feel bad about this one. *I* loved this ride as a kid (and so did my dh), but our kids were a bit traumatized by the whole thing. Most of them just rode with their eyes closed the whole time. Please keep in mind that these are the same children who watch LOTR on a regular basis and have NO trouble with orcs. (I've got my own theories about that).


We spent the next day touring Fort Christmas, which tied in nicely with what we had been studying in American history (Andrew Jackson, the Trail of Tears, the Seminole Wars, etc). It always makes such a difference when you can actually visit a historic site, rather than just reading about it in textbooks!


The rest of the time was spent swimming, celebrating (two!) birthdays, and enjoying each others' company. The trip came to an end far too quickly, and by Friday we were back on the road to go home.


I've got much more to say about the things I learned about myself while on this trip, but I'm afraid that will have to wait until another day!

St. Isaac Jogues and St. Jean de Brebeuf

Today is the feast day of St. Isaac and St. Jean, two amazing Jesuit priests who faced terrible hardship and ultimately gave their lives while witnessing to the Hurons in the 1600s. You can learn more about them at Catholic Culture.

We had read this book (and I read this one) last year as we were studying this time period in American history, so hopefully the kids will remember enough about these amazing saints to have a decent conversation during homeschooling this morning!

In honor of their feast day, I made Indian fry bread for breakfast (I had to take this picture FAST before the kids inhaled them all! Put a little bit of powdered sugar on these and they taste like doughnuts...)

We will also be listening to the Huron Carol this morning. This is a Christmas carol written by St. Jean de Brebeuf in the Huron (Wendot) language in 1643. If you EVER get a chance to listen to Bruce Cockburn's version of it, I highly recommend you do so! It is a haunting melody and I think it's just beautiful. In the meantime, here is another beautiful rendition of it in Huron, French, and English by Heather Dale.



However you choose to honor these saints, I hope you have a blessed feast day!

We're Back!

Whew... what a long trip that was!

I'll try to post about our vacation this weekend, but for now... can you tell where we were? (I'm sure you can!)