dear july….

before i forget…and you are gone…

i wanted you to know that you have been so good to us.

with your cool mornings.

and your scattered wild sweet peas on the side of the road.

of course we picked a few. for our Sacred Heart Altar.

and of course there was that day at the beach…

filled with sand and seashells. the sun was hiding. and the roar of the ocean almost lulled me to sleep…

except there was so much to see…everyone made a new friend to play in the waves with. and then there were treasures to behold…

and then we tried those scones we heard about here.

they were absolutely deliciously lovely.

i was proud to perfect my hamburger buns recipe for the bread maker. quick. easy. and loved by all.

even the pickiest of eaters.

there is still so much i could i write about…but some things will just have to be our little secret…

and instead i will close with my favorite quotable that i read this month…i hope you will enjoy it too…

“one of the commonest natural experiences of the sense of loss is tiredness: it empties us out….it is useless to reproach a tired heart. and when we are tired out the only way to God is the simplest wordless act of faith. a woman too weary for articulate prayer will find that for her the best of all prayer is the unspoken act of faith in Christ in her children when she knows that  she is setting the table and baking the cake (or scones!!) for the Christ Child, her soul will be at rest.”

thank you, july magnificat for that.

those were soothing words to this weary mama.

happy weekend friends.

hope to see you monday.

with good news of a safe and successful surgery.

 

calm. cool. and collected.

forgive me. please. but Someone. very kindly. sent a wee bit of cool weather our way and it has me under its’ spell.

and i have become a fool for boys who sleep clutching their harmonicas…now whether he is doing it out of love for said harmonica or because he knows if he doesn’t  i might just hide it somewhere really good…might be one of those things i will never know…

and maybe we are both better off.

because let me tell you…tolerating the noise sound of that harmonica MIGHT just be one of the criteria that needs to be met for sainthood.

and if that is the CASE, friends, i have failed miserably.

for i hate that little harmonica.

but i LOVE that baby.

and so i digress…

from the title of this post…wherein i tell you how calm. cool. and collected i am.

and how the sight of these peonies makes me calm….

i think it should be mandatory that people  HAVE to buy peonies at least ONE time every summer.

and then have a drink….

like my mama did at this wedding we went to on saturday.

just me and her.

i was her escort.

i made sure that she didn’t have too much wine and that her friends didn’t spin her around too much on the dance floor(that really almost happened).

hence my cautionary warning about too much wine.

at least for middle-aged ladies.

well, really any lady…because it just isn’t proper.

summer weddings are so nice.

it was kind of fun sitting around watching everyone talk and laugh.

everything so magical and enchanted. white orchids kissed by afternoon sunlight.

a tented reception. chandeliers hanging. glowing candles.

very pretty.

but all i could really think about was my new toy.

and how much i wanted to play….

so off to bed i go.

but before i do i wanted to ask for prayers. for a special intention that will hopefully be resolved tomorrow.

and if not, well, then it is not the will of God.

and i will ask Him for peace.

until then….

hope you, too, are staying calm. cool. and collected!!!!

xo.

 

 

sink or swim?

i feel a lot like that little frog.

i wait for someone to wind me up. and then i swim. but the minute i am left to my own devices, i sink.

until someone winds me up again…..

it happens during an impatient. flustered. mama moment.

i raise my voice. does he really need to eat all. day. long.? is he truly hungry or just fidgety? is fidgety even a word? if he was in a classroom setting he’d surely be diagnosed as ADD.

then he gives me a mayonaisey kiss. “i love you, mama.” and he sticks that post it note on my breast. close to my heart. i pause to read it.

holy. it says holy. “why did you write that?” i ask.

“because you are,” he says. confidently.

i don’t even know how he knew how to spell it.

and even though i am not. it means the world to me that during this small window of time. he thinks i am.

i struggle to get through these first few days of school with a very heavy heart. my grandma (my mom’s mom), suffered a stroke saturday morning.

severe enough to go to the hospital. severe enough to alter her speech and limit the use of her right hand.

this is not new by any means.

this starting a new school year with family tragedies and or difficulties staring me square in the face.

i’ve done this many times before.

so maybe i’ll just have to settle for sink and swim.

as long as Someone keeps winding me up now and again…. 

“what doth anxiety about the future bring thee, but only sorrow upon sorrow? sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. it is vain and useless to conceive either grief or joy for future things, which perhaps shall never come to pass. but it is the nature of man to be deluded with such imaginations; and it is the sign of a soul as yet weak to be so easily drawn away by the suggestion of the enemy. for he careth not whether it be with things true or false that he abuseth and deceiveth thee; whether he overthrow thee with  the love of things present or with the fear of things to come. let not therefore thy heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. believe thou in ME, and trust in MY mercy.”

 (III. 30)~from the Imitation of Christ on worry.