While They Were Sleeping » Uncategorized

A Prayer to Etienne Gilson

christina — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:59:47 +0000

“Please pray for me to Our Lord that, instead of merely writing something, I may be something, and indeed that I may so fully be what I ought to be that there may be no further necessity for me to write, since the mere fact of being what I ought to be would be more eloquent than many books.”

-Thomas Merton, Dialogues with Silence

I feel this way fairly often. Do you?

More Christmas card pics

christina — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:04:26 +0000

Courtesy of Taylor Newton, here are pics of her, the card Lucy made for her, and her lively Sugar Gliders.

Mother knows best

christina — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:45:50 +0000

So Lucy likes to take down the spices (and extracts, and colored sugar) from the spice rack and smell them. This is usually a harmless passtime, which possibly develops her sensory awareness, so usually I let her be. There have been a couple of spills (sesame seeds come to mind), but, as I say, it’s all usually harmless.

So yesterday, I noticed Lucy pouring the orange sugar from the bottle into the bottle cap and eating it. I questioned her, and she denied eating it. I warned her that the things on the spice rack go in foods, but aren’t very tasty by themselves. (Not true of colored sugar, but it was a general statement.) I walked away.

I heard screaming. I returned to Lucy, who had an empty bottle of peppermint extract in her hand. She reeked of peppermint. And she was screaming. She claimed she had not drunken it all, (I’m not sure how much “all” was to start with) but it was gone. So I hugged her, trying not to laugh but failing miserably, and poured her some water. Thus ended Samantha’s nap, and Lucy and I had a discussion about listening to Mommy and the proper treatment of things in the spice rack.

When we told the story to Craig, I asked Lucy if she would be eating anything else from the spice rack.

Sheepish smile. ”No.”

Samantha and Lucy Getting Down

admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:53:14 +0000

In my (Craig) first guest post ever…

My Mountain?

christina — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:17:15 +0000

[The background of the computer comes up with one of those pre-loaded picturesque scenes of mountains]
Lucy: We have to get me one of those mountains!

Night Prayer

christina — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:03:22 +0000

I really liked this prayer which Chris and Kelly shared with us from Compline in the Book of Common Prayer (Anglican).

“Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.”

Update on Dad

christina — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:12:17 +0000

Dad had some good news and some bad news. He came home from the hospital Friday, and the chemo seems to be working well. Mom says he looks good and he sounds good, and actually seems stronger than before he started the treatment. But they also found that the cancer is in his bone marrow, which is not good, and they have planned two more treatments in his series, so that there will be eight instead of six. I think that means he’ll be finished somewhere around Christmas. The worst part of the chemo is supposed to be 7-10 days after the treatment, which is around July 23, so he’ll need extra prayers then. Plus that is the day my brother is having his back surgery, so please keep him in your prayers, too.

Update on Dad

christina — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:02:55 +0000

My dad got his diagnosis yesterday. The background – he had been having pain starting back in the end of May, and the doctor thought he had an infection, so he did two rounds of antibiotics. When that didn’t work, they started doing scans looking for kidney stones, and instead found a large lump in his lower abdomen. After the biopsy and more CAT scans and such, they have decided it is stage 4 lymphoma.

In other words, my family needs lots and lots of prayers right now. There are five stages lymphoma is categorized into, and four basically means large tumors and lots of spreading. So they’re starting chemo on Monday (assuming that his heart tests as strong enough to under go it), and Dad will spend most of next week in the hospital to make sure he can handle the chemo. Then a couple of weeks off, and another round of out-patient chemo (most likely). They expect to do six rounds, and I’m not really sure what comes after that, but that will take most of the rest of this year.

It’s more than a little strange to wonder (very seriously) if your father will still be alive at Christmas time. Lots of deep thought swirling around right now.

We’re still here in Texas, but planning on leaving tomorrow (Sunday) morning to get back for Craig’s last week of summer camp, a going-away party, Fr. R.B.’s visit, and then Lisa’s wedding. It does leave me wishing we had found a job here after South Bend, rather than in New Orleans. But there’s not much to be done about that now. I’ll try to keep updates coming, and please know that we appreciate your prayers very, very much.