home, sweet home, etc...

Things have been so, so busy.

Monday we closed on our new home.  When we got home (to our current house) after the closing, we noticed a man in our yard walking around one of our oak trees.  When we inquired further, he was there "mapping" the trees.  Seems that the powers that be want to four-lane the road in front of our house.  Am I happy to be moving??

The boys are at Boy Scout Camp in Georgia, so hubby and I had to enjoy the new pool all by ourselves.  That was really quite nice.  The pool has been neglected somewhat, so it wasn't pristine, but I figured the boys are swimming in a lake this week, so what the heck! 

Tuesday, I set off with my sister-in-law and a friend.  We went to a place in our city.  Actually this site, is in a beautiful neighborhood in someone's front yard.  Mary asked for it to be built, and they obliged.

We went to get some of the healing water and said a rosary while we were there.

Wednesday, my sister and nephew and parents came to town.  I met them at the Children's Museum, had lunch with them, and then showed off the new house.  I never thought I would live in something this nice!  We have been married 17 years, and we have been "looking" for a long time.  Let me just say, that moving is going to be a long process with 30 years of accumulated "grah dieu", and that our approaches are polar opposites.  Husband's idea is to pick up a box, throw it in the truck and shove it somewhere at the new house.  Done!  My idea is to go through the c.r.a.p before we pack it (even if it is already in a box), move it, put it where it will go.



Called people to come look at the pool to give us some idea of what to do.  Only had to call six before I found one with a working number and willing to do what I asked.




Then we painted child # 1's room.  I did the prep...taping the woodwork.  A friend of dear hubby's did the painting.  It is going from an olive green to hunter green.  Still haven't settled on a color for the P.I.N.K room, yet.

Yep, just a little busy here!

come holy spirit

Trying an email entry here...uncharted territory. I can do most things from my iPad, but one thing I have not yet figured out how to do is blog. Something about my browser not supporting it. I know there IS "an app for that", but before I blow the five bucks, someone suggested that I try to email it...so here we go! My motivation for doing this is that when I go to visit my BFF in a few weeks, I would prefer not to lug the laptop through airport security, etc.

Have you noticed the past couple of weeks, everything has been about the Holy Spirit? I never really noticed it before this year.

Went to hear a priest speak at a luncheon earlier this week, and he started off with a prayer to the Holy Spirit..."Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the (your?) faithful, enkindle in them the power of your love...". I knew this from somewhere. Childhood?

I went to confession earlier in the week. My penance was to "pray earnestly" each day until Sunday to ask the Holy Spirit to "increase my capacity" to love Jesus and allow Him to work through me.

At Mass one morning, we had a homily on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and a quick reference to the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

All leading to the celebration this weekend of Pentecost...the coming of the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus said he would never leave us...He would be with us until the end of the age.

> Come Holy Spirit, come!

perspective

Nearly a year ago, my sister-in-law began to host a Rosary group in her home.  I always figured Rosary groups were for old ladies, but I have missed very few of these, and have benefited greatly.  We pray the Seven Sorrows Rosary...it was popular in the Middle Ages, and was re-introduced by Our Lady of Kibeho in the 1980's.  The prayer and meditation is always good.  Soothing?  Peace-inducing? The source of many graces?  Something about meditating on the sufferings of the Blessed Mother and Our Lord.

But also wonderful is the ever-changing group of people with whom we pray.  I love that my teen sons sometimes come with me (one more often than the other).  This week, I invited two dear people from work.  There were 11 of us - 3 teens (one of them mine), one young person in her 20s or 30's.  A few of us in our 40's.  Sister-in-law in her 50's.  One of the people I brought in her 60's...another at or close to 70.  And my mother-in-law who will be 80 this summer rounded out the group.

We start off by going around the group for those who wish to offer prayer intentions.  Then we begin.  We take turns reading the reflections at the beginning of each mystery.  No real order...someone who wants to read takes a turn.  At the end, we often stay for a little while and visit.  This week, one of our group said she had something she wanted to share.  She was diagnosed 2 1/2 years ago - at the age of 39 - with stage four Lung Cancer.  Statistics gave her a 15% chance of living a year.  A 5% chance of surviving two years.  She had written an article for our local Catholic paper.  I can not link directly to it, but it is certainly worth the effort to read, in my ever so humble opinion.  This link will get you close.  ;-)  From there, click on the June, 2011 issue.  Her story is on page 35.  She is an inspiration, and her article tackles very accurately what is truly important for us as parents and as followers of Jesus.

miss it...or not

We should close on our new house soon! The credit union called Friday to say that the title work was complete and that it had passed its termite inspection!  All we really need now is a date!

I am looking forward to a new house!  I think we are all most looking forward to not having 4 people share one bathroom.  (For the record, our current house has 2 bathrooms, but only one has an electrical outlet [note that outlet is singular] and only one has a bathtub.)  In the new house, each bedroom has a bathroom.

I am not looking forward to the moving process.  Dear hubby has called our humble abode "home" for more than 30 years.  I have been here for 17+, and the kids for nearly that long.  We have a lot of "stuff".  Not even sure where to start.  Right now it is almost a paralysis....gridlock.  I have a stack of clothes on the floor.  Nothing is really wrong with them.  I use a lot of the T-shirts to sleep in.  But, really, how many t-shirts does a person need?

I took a load of varied items to Goodwill last week.  Only about 11,473 more to go!

There are some things that I will miss when we move.

 Like the measurement of kids on the back of the kitchen door.

At one point, we used pencil.

But now...hell...just write it on there with a Sharpie!

 And the big backyard where the boys could shoot skeet with shotguns if they were so inclined.

And where one day, in the tree in the foreground of the above pic, I saw this...
(There's a story that goes along with it...)
 

 

I'll miss my little garden(s), too.
But I should be able to do some of that at the new place.

  

But there are some things that I surely won't miss.

Like living next door to a funeral home.  

They are pretty quiet neighbors, and haven't had many "customers" yet.

But when they do have business, I can water my garden and listen to the parking lot conversations.

I also will not miss living on a busy highway that is currently in a state of construction...

or is it reconstruction.

I wonder if there will be other things...like the proximity to my kids' school, my work, our church....or the "coziness" of our present house.  The places we shop.  A place for our Golden Retriever call her own. But along with that comes new places, new people, new opportunities.

Onward on the journey!

almost wordless

 Could be my new drink of choice.  In the big ol' can size. 

 

It was once called grass.  

Now it is just kind of crunchy.  

It has been way too long since any decent rain came our way.

Not all that impressive, except that it was taken at 7 pm in the shade.

And *technically* it is not even summer yet.

Ughhhhh.

It could be a long one at this rate!

blessings

My new favorite song....




Blessings, by Laura Story.  It's one of those that just jumped out of the radio the first time I heard it. 

What if your blessings come through raindrops? What if your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you’re near?
What if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise?

 

Laura has had many blessings in her life, but one of the ones that she wouldn't have signed up for was having her husband diagnosed with a brain tumor.  And yet God works through it all. :-)  Suffering included.  Or maybe most especially through suffering.

finding the rhythm

School is out for summer!  (Hearing bits of that Alice Cooper ditty playing on my boys' iPods...)  I've enjoyed a whole week of that freedom, and it surely does go fast! 

But just for the record, I did devote one entire day to a Promethean Mini-Conference that was an example of Professional Development done right!  Wondering what Promethean is??  It is about the most wonderful thing to hit the education world since computers!  I love my Promethean Board; I use it every.single.day, but there is so much more that I could do with it, and it was good to get ideas. 

I also did go visit with my principal one morning.  I wanted to see what the schedule looked like for next year, and find out the status of my room and the "consolidation".  He said for now, my room is "safe".  That is some consolation, though I know never to count on anything such as that.  However, I am done with it until I have to show up again in August.  I have spoken, he has heard, the rest is out of my hands.

My priest is taking a break this week from being a "fisher of men".  I think he's spending time in the Gulf of Mexico fishing for real fish.  And as such, there have been no Masses at all at our parish since last Sunday.  Lucky are we to have other places where the Lord waits for us. 

Every year, I see summer stretching ahead of me with great potential for getting things done.  And then, only a tiny fraction of what I envisioned actually gets done.  What happens?  For one thing...summer heat.  It just saps your strength.  Especially when anything involves being outside.  It's not even summer yet, and our temps are hitting the upper 90's.  Arghhh.  Besides the heat, the pace just seems to slow.

The priest on Tuesday mentioned that this is a season of reflection/mediation, education (read some of the books in this library...that was at the church that burnt that has daily Mass in the parish library), and service.  Frankly, that sounds like a pretty good use of summer for me, and the slower pace lends itself to some of that....especially the reflection.

During the school year, I found a great rhythm.  I would drop off my kidlet at his school and then proceed down the road to the church near my school.  There I could have 20, 30, maybe 40 minutes (if there wasn't a Mass) of time with the Lord before heading into the world of work.  It was an awesome thing, and it was time that would have been otherwise wasted with shuffling papers or idle conversation.  Now I find myself still wanting to spend that time there, but it doesn't fit into my schedule in quite the same way.  I have to go out of my way to spend that time, and I feel guilty.  It reminds me of the Martha and Mary story...wanting to sit at the feet of Jesus, yet feeling the need to be busy about so many other things.  I found this little bit of validation a couple of days ago...on Facebook of all places...posted by The Word Among Us....

Every moment of prayer,

especially before our Lord in the tabernacle,

is a postive gain.

The time we spend in having our daily audience with God

is the most precious part of the whole day.

~Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Who am I to argue with that little woman?

Still looking for the rhythm, though!