the swing of things

funny we should end our first week of school in the same place we started.

only this time we brought friends.

and shared some of our favorite things with them.

and they shared some of their favorite things with us.

there was lots of good food and music.

but just when we were really getting into the swing of things. it was time to come home.

sometimes it is hard to bring yourself back from moments like these.

to face real life.

the dishes. the laundry. the schoolwork.

the repetition. the monotony.

it can be such a pain.

especially with all of the stuff we’ve got going on ’round here lately.

however….

“when the Divine LIFE came to this earth, He reechoed the lessons of the Thrill of Monotony. St. Peter asked how many times we should forgive. Peter thought seven times was enough. Our Lord said, “seventy times seven”. there were three sweet monotonies in His Life-thirty years obeying, three years teaching, three hours Redeeming. He passed on to us the thrill of being born again, which was made a condition for entering into the Kingdom of Heaven.

because God is full of life i imagine each morning Almighty God says to the sun, “do it again”; and every evening to the moon and the stars, “do it again”; and every springtime to the daisies, “do it again”; and every time a child is born into the world asking for a curtain call, that the heart of God might once more ring out in the heart of the babe.

LIFE is full of romance and thrill when it has one overall purpose, namely, to be one with a LIFE that is Personal enough to be a Father; one with a Truth that is Personal enough to be the Wisdom from whence come all Art and Science; and one that is Personal enough to be a Love that is a “Passionless Passion, a wild Tranquility”.

life is worth living when we live each day to become closer to God. when you have said your prayers, offered your actions in union with God, continue to enjoy the “Thrill of Monotony”, and “do it again”!                  

~Fulton Sheen, Life is Worth Living

and so off i go…

to “do it again”!

oh, yes…

summer days are some of the best days.

fresh veggies from the csa. i’ve never eaten more greens in my life.

really, is there anything more fun than blowing bubbles with bare feet? whether you are 6 or 60 i think not.

girl “friends” visit and barbie fashion shows. judging these types of things is so hard for us mamas.

Sacred Heart atc’s abound. and i am so pleased to feature them on our june altar. which has such a sweet. red. glow in the evening.

life is good. because GOD is good.

happy thursday friends!

i leave you with a blessing for you and yours from me and mine:

Sacred Heart Blessing

May the Grace and Blessing of My Sacred Heart be with you

May the Peace of My Sacred Heart encompass you

The Merits of My Sacred Heart plead for you

The Love of My Sacred Heart inflame you

The Sorrows of My Sacred Heart console you

The Zeal of My Sacred Heart animate you

The Virtues of My Sacred Heart shine forth in your every word and work

And may the Joys of the Beatific Vision be your Recompense in Eternity.

~Amen.

dough-ray-me-not

why hello there blogland friends. have you missed me?

i have been trying to keep myself dry. and sane. as we were hit with a really bad storm last week. which kept us pretty much inside for days upon days. which is interesting. to say the least. when 3 out of my 4 children are rambunctious boys.

luckily my girl and i had some much needed girl time with a dear friend and her sweet daughters. she introduced me to this book. we drank tea and sweet milk. there was lots of doll playing and fashion talk. they took pictures and laughed. we did a bit of knitting together and she brought me an apron made by her very own hands out of the prettiest bird fabric as a gift. because she knows how much i love birds. how blessed am i to have found a real life friend. after all. these. years. who loves to sew like i do. (but she’s much better at it than i am!)

i am sort of in an overwhelming homeschooling funk. could be winter blahs. but i am feeling pressure. praying for grace and peace. and playing around with lesson plans and ideas. but i won’t bore you with the details of that.

that dough recipe we discussed last week is here. i did add more flour. and more butter. and then some boxed cornbread mix from trader joes (because i was out of plain cornmeal). that was how the sweetness was achieved and it worked out well. everyone loved them. they were flaky and soft. i even wrapped the dough. stored it for fresh morning corn tortillas and those, too were yummy.

rachel ray, i am not. all this cooking has me tuckered out.

and feeling fat. i think i’ll be taking a “bread” break and plan some low-cal/lower maintenence meals.

my “sourdough” wasn’t sour. i feel like i wasted 6 days of my life “caring” for starter. and it flopped. the freezing cold temperatures we’ve been having could have something to do with it. but who knows.

don’t get me wrong. it was still good bread. it just wasn’t the sour i had hoped for.

well, wishing you all a lovely week.

hope i’ll find something nice to say about the next few days….as i anticipate another storm. 

oh, spring…where are you?

orange ya glad?

we have a place to vent our deepest fears. and quirky habits. and we lovingly support each other?

please know that i don’t condone messy houses. or being unorganized. i really do try each and every day to be a better homemaker. teacher. person. success is elusive. but that is totally beside the point.

today my guest friend commented that she loved my “shabby chic” look and i said that the hardest part was keeping it looking less shabby and more chic. and that is not easily done in a house with 3 boys + 1 man boy. but i have never cared so much about having things just so that it interferes with the comfort level of anyone living here.

unfortunately i am a pack rat and my robert downey jr. looking husband is a minimalist who complains about fire clearances if the furniture is too crowded. but that is only the beginning of our many differences. he likes modern. me pure country. but i/we make allowances. he’ll eat organic ketchup. and i, well, i’ll drink tap water in a pinch.

i think that is really what i was trying to say. make allowances with that voice in your head. or you can ignore her altogether. 

besides, most of you dear readers have children so much younger than mine. i can usually rally enough help me to do a quick pick up and get presentable looking real quick. and as for the deep cleaning, that has to wait for the times that it can get accomplished. i wait for the lists and dustbunnies to tell me when. and sometimes i even ignore those dustbunnies too. they speak ever so softly…

so tea was as successful as i could possibly manage. i won’t bore you with gory details. i did, however, much to my dismay forget to clean a “pile” of stuff i’d swept up early this morning. usually the broom remains in place and that is my “cue” that my work is not finished. well, someone hid the broom. it was must’ve been satan. because i didn’t notice it  until everyone was gone.  sitting there all nice and piled.

and finally, orange ya glad that we are entering a season that embraces orange?!!??! i love the color orange and am looking for ways to sneak it into every room. orange with turquoise, green, red, purple, gold and brown in my dining room. orange with pink, fuchsia, black and maroon in the family room. i don’t mind seeing it here there and everywhere. will i be tired of it come the end of november? probably. do you bring fall colors and decorations into your home decor?

nothing profound

i don’t know that i have anything very profound to report this evening. today there was a basketball game. our team won. 48 to 26 was the score.

it has been so humid here. and the outrageous cost of our june electric bill has caused me to re-evaluate what number we can comfortably keep the thermostat at. 78 was great. but i had a really sick feeling when i saw what 78 costs. needless to say any and all upstairs chores have to be completed either later in the evening or very early in the morning, because that is the only time it is even bearable up here. my computer is upstairs too, which is the main reason behind my infrequent posting. y’all wouldn’t want me to faint just so i can let you know what is going on in my world, now would you? besides i am rather enjoying the emails back and forth that some of my dear little friends and i have been sharing.

in fact this morning i was a little hormonal  teary-eyed thinking about communities. and some of the people i have met because of blogging.. nothing negative, mind you. just a bunch of wonderful, faithful, loving women, many of whom i’d like to bring together for a home-cooked meal, here. with candles and twinkling lights. some good wine. laughter and conversation. and while i know that is highly unlikely, unless i were to win the lottery or something. i want you all to know how lovely you are.

nadja recently gave me the true heart award again and this is my official thank you to her. if you have never visited her, please do. she is so sweet i could eat her. but that would be cannibalism. and besides she has a precious new gem to take care of. and if you are reading this and have not received this award for some reason, i hereby bestow it upon you, you wonderful readers!

i am also very excited-and nervous- to say that i have been commissioned-meaning getting paid– by a dear friend in real life to make her two darling daughters some handmade dolls-like my lola– for Christmas. i am rather nervous. i don’t know that i have all of the doll making kinks worked out, so if anyone has any pointers they’ve learned along the way, please feel free to let me know.

and finally, this quaint little picture is of  some felted blueberries i made for the dollies to eat. they need their anti-oxidants too. i have a bunch more cut out, but a whole basket full will take time.  don’t they look adorable in that tiny depression type dish? they aren’t real antiques. but i just knew my girl would love them.

 i am reading a novel. i left it at my parents’ house and my mother took it over for a week. she gave it a pretty good review. like a good mother she said there were a few subtle things she wanted to cross out with a marker. but i gently reminded her that we don’t do such things to library books. it promises to be a page turner. and after that terrible murder-mystery that i just read-and was GRAVELY disappointed in-in the end-i hope it delivers. i don’t know that i’ll be getting any more books like that again. it left me feeling very unsettled. true crime stories tend to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

sewing related news: i am progressing on the alphabet quilt. i finished Ll tonight. i need to  sew /piece the blocks for Mm-Xx, Yy and Zz  in the upcoming week and i’ll work on the embroidery/letters as time allows. i am ready to burn all of my yarn. my knitting isn’t going very well. i had to take a step back. re-read some knit/purl instructions. and learn a lot about tension. too much tension isn’t good. in life or knitting. good night dear friends. happy weekending.