Obama admin: birth control mandate is final; bishops vow to fight | LifeSiteNews.com

Obama admin: birth control mandate is final; bishops vow to fight | LifeSiteNews.com

Wow...

Support for Homeschooling Autism Spectrum children

Just a reminder to my readers that I help moderate a discussion group for families, Catholic home schooling their Asperger's,/ High Functioning Autism children.  The ladies on the loop are very knowledgeable and helpful.  It's a lovely forum for support and resource help.

Catholic Homeschooling for Asperger's

Wikipedia

My daughter posted this to my Facebook today and it just made me SMILE!

Wonderful post on mommy-hood from the Huffington Post....and the grueling joyful nature of it all...

Don't Carpe Diem

Messy Mondays: Seven Lies about Homeschoolers

So funny and so true....Posted this on my Facebook and got a ton of comments...some quite serious....some smiles :)

You might have to put my music playlist down on the right side margin on stop, in order to hear this.....

Here’s the thing….

…politics.  We have been having a heated discussion in our home about the Republican candidates and on-going caucuses.  It is so great to hear my nearly 21 year old son stay informed and have opinions about those running.  This young man listens to talk radio and maintains a subscription to TIME magazine, attempting to stay up on current events. He will be exercising his right to vote this time around. 

All this chatter just reminds me of how engrained it is in me to vote for a candidate that expresses my value system.  He or she must be pro-life, pro-family, pro-man/woman in the sacrament of marriage. This is why I could not vote for any one other than a Republican as they have been the pro-life party for many years now.  Doesn’t matter to me if they are Catholic, but Christian principles that were respected and held basically in common that our Founding Fathers professed must be present and acted upon…and upheld.  I just can not stand for anything less.  I truly believe that when a nation gets a grip, has leadership that maintains its morality and value system with biblical principles then government needn’t feel the need to “save” everyone with more government programs and interventions.  At least, I’m hearing a few candidates speak thus….Rick Santorum for one.  

So, it will be interesting to see history unfold in the months ahead and know that we as Americans are very much a part of the system.  I am grateful for any man or woman who exerts their effort in leadership of this great country, and grateful that we have the freedom to cast our vote and be heard.

God bless America – God bless you!

Image and Likeness

Jesus held a coin up and said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s,” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away. (Matt 22:20-22) 

We bear the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), and we are to render unto God, that which is God’s; our life. Marvel at the brilliance of Jesus today, knowing that we bear his image and likeness, and are made alive through the Holy Spirit who lives within us (I Peter 3:18).

Short Daily Devotions

Dear Lord, I have a son who is having a very hard time growing up.  He is making himself miserable and his family members miserable nearly every day; he is on medication and it has cut the miserable moments more than in half, but the ones that arise are very acute and draining.  Many days he is an emotional mess from morning to night…..bemoaning this and that, in tears, and being disappointed far too easily and not getting over it.  Today was an especially difficult day ……a reminder that he has a long ways to go and I don’t even know sometimes how to respond to him.  If you take him seriously and attempt to respond seriously, he finds fault, if you sympathize he grows worse, and if you act like you are ignoring it, it seems to go on longer and he is more sensitive than ever….obviously we can’t win. 

I know I’m not the only mother on the planet with a difficult child and I’m sure in time it may resolve….this is my prayer…that it may resolve.  In the meantime, maybe meaning several years…..please grant me the strength, the words, the wisdom and the patience to work through it….yet one.more.day.   And help to restore my resilience and spirit that I can have some joy in each day, even if very small and fleeting, and that by some miracle this son will change for the better and grow into a happy, healthy and productive young man. 

Thank you for listening. 

A stressed out Mom

It was January 2nd of 2006 that my first post appeared on this blog and I got this forum up and running for public view. I began this blog really just as an outlet - my "holy play" so to speak. And it's been such a blessing to meet so many wonderful internet friends with common interests and faith-pursuits along the way. Who knew?! And so once again, I blog the original test post that began it all back in 2006. I still find it enlightening and hope you will too. Best wishes and blessings to all my friends and visitors and may you too, like the Saints, shine like the sun!

What we find ravishing in a small child is his transparency. He attracts us without our focusing on ourselves. In some way, he makes an infinite presence tangible to us and binds us again to the divine Source like a sacrament of light. For how many fathers were the tears welling up in their eyes in the presence of their grace-filled child the divine dew that made prayer rise in their heart.

At certain times, the child, in truth, enlightens and purifies us by making us permeable to this mysterious flux which invades the being in a state of openness. Works of art, in their own way, produce a similar effect, like everything that is truly transparent here below.

The proud hurt us because they are opaque. They lock up everything within themselves and imprison us within their own limitations.

Saints free us by allowing a divine light to shine within themselves. In each one of us there is a mystical vocation, most of the time unaware of itself. Our personal self crushes us and we need to be “healed” of ourselves. We are truly happy only when we lose sight of ourselves and disappear into what is beyond ourselves. We would like to have our bondage point in someone else. We are obscurely worked upon by this aspiration which drives saints to identify themselves with God by placing their true self in Him: “And now, it is no longer I who live, God is the one who lives in me.” That is, basically the motto for all of them and it is also ours inasmuch as we discover again this childlike quality of the soul beatified in the Gospel.


Father Maurice Zundel
(+1975) Swiss mystic, poet, philosopher, liturgist and author
http://www.annesigier.qc.ca/zundel/biographie.html

Like the Magi we have Discovered a Star

It's hard to believe that I've blogged for 6 years now; the first week of January being my 6th anniversary. I will find my original piece that began it all and post it shortly. In the meantime with Epiphany weekend upcoming, please enjoy a meditation on that blessed event. God bless!

We want to identify ourselves with Christ. It is not an easy goal. But it is not difficult either, if we live as our Lord has taught us to live, if we have recourse to his word every day, if we fill our lives with the sacramental reality, the Eucharist, which he has given us for our nourishment. Then the Christian's path proves to be viable. God has called us clearly and unmistakably. Like the Magi we have discovered a star: a light and a guide in the sky of our soul.

"We have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him." We have had the same experience. We too noticed a new light shining in our soul and growing increasingly brighter. It was a desire to live a fully christian life, a keenness to take God seriously. If each one of you were to tell aloud the intimate details of how his vocation made itself felt, the rest of us would conclude immediately that it was all God's doing. Let us give thanks to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and to Holy Mary, through whom all blessings from heaven come to us, for this gift which, along with our faith, is the greatest the Lord can bestow on any of his creatures. It is a clear desire to attain the fullness of charity, the conviction that sanctity is not only possible but necessary in the midst of our social and professional tasks.

Look how gently the Lord invites us. His words have human warmth; they are the words of a person in love: "I have called you by your name. You are mine." God, who is beauty and greatness and wisdom, declares that we are his, that we have been chosen as the object of his infinite love. We need a strong life of faith to appreciate the wonder his providence has entrusted to us. A faith like that of the Magi, a conviction that neither the desert, nor the storms, nor the quiet of the oases will keep us from reaching our destination in the eternal Bethlehem: our definitive life with God.



(Christ is Passing By, #32 The Epiphany of Our Lord, St. Josemaria Escriva)

Favorite things…

Yes, it’s that time again……somewhere in between seasons I tend to latch on to new favorite things; old favorites are still a part of my life, but because of friends and family (who adorn me with gifts and gift cards and you know, generally spoil me)…I discover new favorites.

I am Caucasian, my friends can attest to this, and blonde…sometimes my hair is dumb blonde and fried….it’s thin and fragile (more so as I age, and now if part because of my thyroid difficulty).  I was SO thrilled, while looking for a hair and scalp elixir to come across Carol’s Daughter products.  I first saw them at Macy’s, but soon discovered them in many other locations (Drugstore.com, Carolsdaughter.com).  This line is primarily for women of color hair, but I am using two of their awesome products, and LOVE the hair transformation and the luscious vanilla fragrance.  The line is Black Vanilla, (leave in hair moisturizer), and another is Lisa’s Hair Elixir, hair and scalp treatment (smells great!) which both my daughter and I are loving.  What I like most is it is ALL NATURAL oils, and yet, they don’t weigh your hair down or make them oily.  Nothing silicone. Check out Carol’s Daughter yourself.

 

 

Something I don’t own, but might consider in the future, was something my brother was giving away as gifts to his in laws and our mother.  The Keurig coffee system.  Wow, I stopped at my mom’s and she brewed me up a cup of Paul Newman’s Extra bold Roast and I was in heaven.  She made hot cocoa for my son and he was loving it, because when we go shopping at the local grocer, he always has to buy some hot chocolate at the machine in the store. 

My mom’s model is this one:  Special Edition brewing system

Maybe something to consider for the future – I love my Cuisinart coffee maker but something like this might be easy for all my children to use and be more self-sufficient with – making cider and tea and hot chocolate of their choice.  I’m all for self-sufficiency! 

Another fav these days (maybe I already posted it), is simply WATER.  But not just any water, it’s sparkling water, from Deer Park.   I am easily dehydrated and grow tired of drinking regular water, so when I discovered Sparkling lightly flavored water I was thrilled.  Now I drink it regularly and it doesn’t grow boring :)

  More Favs later!

2012 Let the New Year Begin!

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
~T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"