More from the Better Part

I continue to appreciate The Better Part. I find I especially like the section "Christ in my life" which often has Jesus speaking in the first person.

"Jesus: When I look at you and think of you, which I am always doing, I picture you loving the life I created you to live. I know that now you still struggle and suffer, but this is only a passing stage. You are still recovering from sin. You are still in rehabilitation, and that always hurts. Keep going, keeping seeking my will. Keep getting up every time you fall. I am right at your side. I am leading you to a life that will fill you with more joy and wisdom and love than you can possibly imagine. I am the life, and I want you to spend forever with me."

Roses on the mind

We had a fantastically lazy weekend. We did a few little things around the house - one of those weekends where we barely left the house. I made a quilt top which was very fun. Now I get to figure out how I want to quilt this one. By hand? Using the machine? I don't know yet. Quilts are so fun as they take on a life of their own while working on them. I had St. Therese of the Little Flower on my mind while working on this one. Faustina and I are reading a longer book about here that has no pictures. Here is a picture of our neighbor's beautiful rose bush that I get to see every day across the street. I love it. Someday, I'd love to have a beautiful rose bush in my yard.

I guess Faustina and Jude like it too. I came up stairs to see them snuggled together under the blanket. They informed me that they were camping.

And this picture? Just because he is so cute!

She's 19

It is nearly impossible to believe that Auntie is 19 years old today! And even harder to believe that she graduates in a few weeks and is headed out to Hillsdale in MI on a full scholarship. We're so proud of her! We'll be lost without her next school year since we were so lucky to have her over most every Thursday for dinner the past couple years. I guess we'll just have to head out her way to visit her!

News on the baby front

He is five months. Craaazzzzzy!!

He is now rolling over on his own. He is super duper smiley. He is teething like a madman. And he has moved from sleeping bundled up in carseat at nighttime to the bassinet next to our bed. He is growing up!

Playing

Lately, I have been working on a new quilt inspired from some pretty fabric that a friend sent my way. This new project has sent me several times to the fabric store, frustrated me, I've sewed and then torn apart many many blocks for the quilt, I just start to get something done and then I get interrupted (which is to be expected). And I find myself loving spending time working on what I consider to be a modest mini little work of art, but then I find myself wondering at the same time if I am wasting time and should be doing something else.

Well, there may be a bit of truth in both of those thoughts, especially since I tend to kind of get engulfed in whatever I am doing. But I think back to when I was teaching and I read Josef Pieper's "Leisure: The Basis of Culture" with my junior girls. His main idea is that a person needs time to think and create and in the end, the result of this leisure time is the products which allow culture and society to advance in beauty and new ideas. Well, I have kids to take care of, chores to do, things to clean, food to make and the lists go on. But, at the same time, I think it is okay and healthy for the kids to see me using skills and making things too. I find that I am learning a lot and I was inspired to organize my fabric a bit.

After I'd been working on this quilt for awhile, I realized that it is turning out to be very similar in color and tones to this quilt my Grandma Ruby Lee made for me. It is now on Faustina's bed.

I really am proud of the skill sets in my family. I look around my house and I marvel and my Dad's beautiful handiwork in the crib he made for our kids. It truly was a labor of love and service. He put in so many hours and I am excited to think that he work will get handed on down to my great grandchildren. I can honestly say, when we have new friends over and show them our place, my favorite thing to show off to people is the crib my Dad made - people are stunned. This frame that my brother, Aaron, made is my absolute favorite. He used the natural grooves and curve of the wood to create to create this gorgeous frame.

And then I look around at our main living space and I love how talented my dear husband is at creating a warm beautiful space for us to live in. He is so good at decorating and seeing space.

As I look around and see pretty things people have created, I am reassured that it is worth time (if there is any) to spend time making things. In the fall of '09 I took a quilting class and made this quilt which I really do love. Hopefully this will get passed onto someone else someday to appreciate.

Rainy days

Between last night and today it looks like we have received at least 4 inches of rain. Jude, not surprisingly, put on his rain boots and enjoyed the puddles for awhile this morning. Jude is a 2 1/2 year old and he has the typical 'terrible two' moments of throwing a tantrum, be crabby, or testing limits to see how much he can get by with. But, in general, he is quite difficult to stay mad at. A few nights ago when he kept getting out of his crib for bed I told him I would spank him, hard, if he got out again. He started laughing hysterically and wouldn't stop giggling. He made me laugh even as I was telling him I would spank him. I assured he still would receive a spank if he got out again. Well, of course, he did. And then he wasn't laughing when I spanked him. But after I left his room, he yelled out to me that he was sorry. He is quite the likable little boy and tends to be the center of entertainment in our household a great deal of the time.




Jude's cherubim body is in full glory here (yes he does have white undies on!). His abc's are coming along...

Our Joseph

On Sunday,Joseph spent the evening with us and I am absolutely smitten to see how enamored the kids are with him! He is hilarious, so kind and gentle and he always says exactly the right thing to the kids to love them, have fun with them and teach them all at the same time. Really, he is such an amazing young man. We didn't see him as much this past spring semester, but we will be more diligent in bugging him next fall after he returns from his summer ventures.

It fills me with much hope to see the fine seminarians that we will soon have as priests to go out to teach and be Christ's presence to our world. May the Lord bless Joseph's education and the work God has for him now and in times to come.

Our FOUR year old Princess

Anyone who has been around Faustina, lately, knows that 'princesses' is the theme of her life right now. And thus, it was the theme of her birthday today. The last week she has spend most of her time in this pink outfit with her 'birthday tiara' from Mrs. Ahlberg. Today she spent the day in her purple princess outfit from Lizzia. We are princessed out around here!

Happy 4th Birthday to our oldest and only girl! Between mass, brunch, watching a movie, spending time with close friends and Faustina going to dinner with Grandpa and Jeanne, she had a day filled with fun and blessings.

20 years of the Pottery Tour

Last weekend, Mother's Day weekend, was the 20th year for the Pottery Tour. We have gone to it the past 7 years or so and it always proves to be a fun time. Only 45 minutes north on 35E from us, there are about 5 farms that host many different potters' art work from MN as well as many other states. This was the first year Faustina will probably remember it and she seemed to appreciate the art and, thankfully (!), she was careful with it as she looked at it. It was a gorgeous day. Bob Briscoe is probably the biggest display and they have an amazing array of delicious foods to eat for everyone, a keg of beer, and a band playing. He probably is my favorite potter. Everyone loves to see babies, so of course Benedict was a hit. And Faustina arrived sporting her dance outfit which cannot help but catch a person's eye since it is bright yellow!

Here we are at Will Swanson's farm (he is the potter sitting on the bench with Faustina and Jude). He always has little rabbits and animals for the kids to pet.

Here are a few pieces we got. We needed a few more bowls.

And then my hot pads were getting pretty grungy, so we knew we would get a lot of use out of this trivet.

Blindly following

Sometimes in our spiritual life, we come to a halt because we insist on understanding and searching into God's plans for our soul. A faithful soul, on the other hand, does not linger to inquire about God's actions; even though not fully understanding them, it believes, following blindly, if necessary, the manifestations of the divine will. This is pleasing to God who does not ask us to understand, but only to believe with all our strength.

- The Four Church Fathers and the Virgin of Seven Sorrows with Saints
GUARDI, Francesco

Happy Mother's Day....to Mary!

What better role model to think about on Mother's Day than Jesus' mother. This picture doesn't do the beautiful statue justice - but it truly is gorgeous. I was there when the guy was installing her. He said it was the third statue of her he installed since the family was not happy with the other 2 he had put in!

Quite possibly my favorite Scripture is the Wedding at Cana. I love it for a few reasons.

- it is a joyful wedding celebrating marriage! It is a very real event that we all have experience with and Jesus was right there with everyone else celebrating with everyone else.

- It is Jesus' first miracle

- It is awe inspiring to think of the servants and their wonder at seeing Jesus turn the water into wine. They were the first to know what happened because they actually filled the jars with water themselves and then, all of a sudden it was wine!

- The wine Jesus gave them was far better than the earthly wine they were drinking before. It makes sense to me that as I figure out God's will for me - it is far better than anything I could come up with.

- Mary was the first to be aware that they were running out of wine. Like so many women aware of their surroundings, she appealed to Jesus and asked him to help.

- Jesus listened to his Mother even though he said "It was not yet his time".

- Jesus and Mary seem to have this unspoken understanding of each other. There is an intimacy, trust, and gentleness there. Spouses, family member, and friends experience this and it is clear that Mary and Jesus are a holy example of that intimacy.

I like this quote from "The Better Part":

"Jesus treated his mother with love and respect. He sees her not only as God's chosen instrument, but also as the woman who brought him into the world, took care of him when he was a helpless infant, and taught him to speak, to pray, to work, and to live. Both Jesus and Mary were free from sin, but that made them more human, not less. And so the natural incomparable bond that forms between a mother and her son was deeper, purer, and more binding in their case than in any other case in human history."

Hard hatted Jude

More work on the backyard. This is Faustina and Jude's afternoon entertainment. Today, instead of fighting to get them to take a rest time, I'm going to let them enjoy the nice weather while watching the workmen put in a new cement sidewalk and slab. We shouldn't have to worry about water leaking into the basement anymore. Thank goodness!

Creative spaces

We took the kids to Ikea tonight to check out some possibilities and get some ideas for how to arrange our current space. And, wow, they certainly are a mecca for organizational ideas! Our next step is to get some bunk beds, and then get rid of a lot of stuff - mainly bigger pieces of furniture that we have kept around but not used since we sold Mike's house in Burnsville years ago. A springtime....into summer...cleaning. Garage sale season is here, and we will have our own, pretty soon here.

Past the 4 month marker

Benedict is closing in on 5 months in May. Unbelievable. He is past the infant stage and he is so very round, soft, and cute. I love this age!

The Better Part

A few years ago, my SIL gave me this book The Better Part as a birthday gift. I had lent it to a friend for awhile, so I have only just been using it during prayer times. It goes carefully through each of the Gospels and for each passage there are four categories to reflect on: Christ the Lord, Christ the Teacher, Christ the friend, and Christ in my Life.

I am going through the Gospel of John and today's passage was on John the Baptism seeing and recognizing Christ for the first time. The catagory "Christ the Friend" is a paragraph written from Jesus' perspective in the first person. I particularly appreciated today's.

"Christ the Friend - John saw "Jesus coming toward him."

Jesus: How much I love to do this. I never force my way into anyone's life, but I come towards everyone. I want to attract their attention because I want their friendship and happiness. I am always taking the first step. Isn't that what happened with you and me? Don't you remember? I caught your attention. Even before that, I had been coming toward you in many ways. It's like when you are in love, and you go out of your way to run into the person you love, just to get a glimpse of them, just hoping that they will stop and talk to you. I love you like that. I even come right up to your heart and knock, hoping you will let me in. I always have more to give you, more to teach you, more for us to do. My love never runs out of words, attention, encouragement, projects - my love never run out, period. Keep welcoming me, keep looking out for me. I am still coming toward you, and I will never stop coming toward you."

I was struck by the power of the message of love in this passage. Reflecting on this passage coupled with the book I am reading by C.S. Lewis "The Four Loves" - it is mind boggling to try to comprehend God's love for us and what that looks like. A good way to start the day.