I loved this article at Faith and Family Live. Enjoy.
Category Archives: Family and Love
Hard Core
2 CommentsSomeone referred to our family as “hard core” Catholic when we were at a party this weekend.
Hard core is usually found modifying other choice words, and I’m pretty sure Catholic isn’t one of them. I had to chuckle. Actually, when I started this post, then went back to edit it, my parental controls blocked me. That made me chuckle again.
I couldn’t help but reflect on what makes us worthy of such a description. I don’t sport a mantilla, the girls wear pants, we consider ourselves rather hip. (And now I suppose even contemplating our hipness has knocked us down a few notches.) Henry plays the drums and beat-boxes like a madman. We love Harry Potter and Santa and let the kids dress up as goblins and the like for Halloween.
Okay, we homeschool a Catholic and classical curriculum. But we also gleefully read the Diary of a Wimpy kid. We block out a majority of commercial television and record the Duggars, but we also regularly watch Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs and What Not to Wear. Our favorite family movies are It’s a Wonderful Life and the story of St. Therese of Lisieux, but we can’t get enough of the slapstick mayhem in Home Alone, What’s Up Doc, Nacho Libre and Kicking and Screaming. We love to sing in church, but I also love Lenny Kravitz, Ani DiFranco, Queen and old David Bowie. Go figure.
And yes, we have five children. But that’s only one more than four — and we know many people with four.
After a little more contemplation and some discussion, the only things Richard and I could think of that earned us that moniker are that we pray together (and apart), we still regularly go to church and we try (as much as our imperfect selves can) to teach to our children how to live and love our faith. We try our hardest to help them see this world through the lens of our faith (instead of the opposite), to love one another and to serve — all in the name of Christ. Which hopefully makes our cores not so hard but much more loving.
Do salmon swim upstream?
1 CommentHenry and I were looking on Youtube for some video of salmon swimming upstream to go along with our study of vertibrates — fish, specifically.
As I often do, I marvel at the scope of material out there on that new-fangled durn youtubey thangy. It’s amazing — seek and ye shall find. Sort of. We sure were surprised when we came upon this one. A good laugh was had by all.
Jesse is a friend
Leave a commentA few years back we made a Jesse Tree to use as part of our advent preparation. I believe I said something like, “So help me, we’re going to have a holy advent if it kills me.” So my dear spouse fashioned the tree. Helen decorated the ornaments, I tied ribbons and hot glued and our tree grew from wooden dowels and discs into a much-treasured family tradition.
Starting on the first day of advent, we read daily scripture that tells of the genealogy of Jesus. Then we hang a little ornament on the tree. It’s similar to an advent countdown, but with a scriptural focus.
Jesse is a friend.
This is our fourth year, so the readings are familiar to the older children. Henry can’t wait to hear about Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac and the stories of destruction–especially the serpent in the Garden of Eden and the great flood. Mary Claire takes charge and organizes our nightly gathering and does most of the reading or designates a reader.
I’m especially eager this year for the readings about the birth of Jesus because Lillian is all about the nativity. We’ve been reading books and are frequently talking about the birth of Christ. We make special efforts to stop and admire all the outdoor nativity scenes that adorn the local landscape. (Because if we don’t, I’ll never hear the end of it from my 30-pound back-seat driver.) And every time she sees an angel she folds her hands in prayer and says solemnly, “And the angel of the Lord said, hail Mary, full of grace.” I look forward to her recognizing those same stories as we gather as a family and read from our Bible, counting down another day closer to Christmas.
The best part about the Jesse Tree is that it brings us together nightly. It’s a series of quiet (okay, not always quiet) moments that have turned into memories we will treasure. And those memories are centered where they should be — around Christ.
Yello!
1 CommentI hate yelling at my kids. But like many moms who philosophically disagree with yelling, I still find myself doing it more than I’d like. Why? What’s the secret to getting their attention without raising my voice? Have I conditioned them not to respond unless I yell? Is a normal toned request the white noise of their lives? Is it normal to yell when you leave the house with simple instructions to follow through on one or two simple things and you return without those things being done? How, then do I make my point? It seems ridiculous to punish someone for not putting the milk back in the fridge, so I raise my voice instead. As if that’s punishment enough and going to drive home the point. And guess what? Next time, they probably will still forget to put the milk in the fridge, even if I asked. And the only thing I accomplished is breaking my own desire for calm parenting. I’m all for suggestions. Got any?
Can you spell S-L-A-C-K-E-R?
Leave a commentI’ve been a complete blog slacker these past few weeks. I’ve started about a dozen posts, all requiring more thought than my time allows. With Thanksgiving and a bunch of other important things — like our dear priest in critical condition with H1N1, I’ve just had other things on my heart and mind. Please continue to pray for Fr. Gerry. He needs our continued prayers.
Ever just feel like this?
Leave a comment
Sleepy Girl
War of the Rosaries
Leave a commentWe put saying the rosary on our calendar. That sounds like it takes away some of the romance of our relationship with God. But like any good relationship, there is work involved. You have to make time for each other. The truth is God always makes time for us, we’re the slackers. So that’s why that rosary deserves an entry on our calendar. Actually two.
Sundays and Tuesdays are Rosary days.
Imagine this, I call the children, singing their names: Perpetua, John Paul, Benedict, Agnes, Damien. I’m blinded by the streaking light of their bouncing halos as they jump to their knees, eyes toward Heaven …
Okay. It’s nothing like that.
The plan is to gather the kids and pray together as a loving family of God. It’s just that sometimes the loving part of the plan is foiled when expectations aren’t met and someone is late, or the little kids are more rambunctious than usual, or a certain teenager who has the ability to stay up until the wee hours starts to fade by the end of the second decade, or a dear little baby complains through the whole thing.
But still, we do our best to follow through. We say intentions for people and causes, we end up laughing at least once or twice (because if we didn’t, we’d go insane). And we get through that Rosary, always grateful that we took the time. By the end I’m often looking forward to our next attempt and wondering if I’ll ever actually know the words to Hail Holy Queen.
You better watch out
1 CommentLast year, Lillian quickly decided the man in the big red suit is scary.
You better watch out!
We went to breakfast with Santa at church, and as soon as he made his appearance, she disappeared under the table. And fast. There was no overcoming this fear. I carried her up to see him, with the hopes she’d see it was all really harmless. But no luck. She clung to me for dear life. She accepted a gift from him, with me as the conduit. There was neither hand-to-hand nor toy-to-kid contact with the jolly guy.
It is clear this year that she has an understanding of Santa’s role in the present giving. She’s always joyfully pointing out his image whenever we see stores decorated in the Santa-centered “holiday” theme. She’s told me countless times that she wants Santa to bring her a princess castle. I thought, great, she’s over whatever fear she had.
Today while we were driving, she announced that I needed to give Santa some money so he could buy her the castle. We chatted about this idea for some time, then I reminded her that she could just sit on Santa’s lap and ask him for the castle herself.
Silence.
“You don’t want to sit on Santa’s lap?” I inquired. “How about if we write it down? Then you can just slip him a note when you see him.”
Silence.
After some thought she finally responded, “No, we can just mail him the note in the mailbox instead.”
Fostering love
5 CommentsLast week, we attended a Halloween party hosted by a lovely family. They have five children, seven and under. The house was decorated adorably, games were planned and played, even the food fed the theme. All of that was great, but one moment made it the best party ever.
Fostering Love
Our hostess was busy preparing her laptop to show the guests a video clip where her children’s faces were fit into a comical clip of the Monster Mash. As her computer loaded, it revealed a desktop photo of their baby getting baptized.
Her five-year-old son pointed to the photo, “That’s when Itty Bitty got dunked. When he got baptized. Right Mom?”
Through the busyness — waiting for the computer to finish booting up and the website to load — his mother affectionately smiled at him and said, “Yes, it is.”
Then he inquired, “Did the judge say we can keep Itty Bitty yet?”
She looked at him and said, “Not yet. Hopefully soon.”
Other adults in the room inquired about the status of the baby’s adoption. Postponements, future court dates were briefly mentioned. Then, that dear boy looked up at his mother and asked, “The judge said you can keep me, right?”
“Yes. We can keep you.” She reassured him. “The judge said we can keep you.”
He asked a few more times, interjecting his query Continue Reading »
Five Halos 