“My great-great-grandmother, great-grandmother, grandmother, mother are all alive for me because they are part of my story. My children and grandchildren and I tell stories about Hugh, my husband. We laugh and we remember–re-member. I tell stories about my friend, the theologian Canon Tallis, who was far more than my spiritual director, with whom I had one of those wonders, a spiritual friendship. I do not believe that these stories are their immortality–that is something quite different. But remembering their stories is the best way I know to have them remain part of my mortal life. And I need them to be part of me, while at the same time I am quite willing for them all to be doing whatever it is that God has in mind for them to do. Can those who are part of that great cloud of witnesses which has gone before us be in two places at once? I believe that they can, just as Jesus could, after the Resurrection.”
Tag Archives: family
Quote of the week
By which I mean, “Lucy’s favorite thing to say right now.” Here it is:
“Stop sneaking me up!”
By which she seems to mean, “You’re getting on my nerves!”
A Charmed Life?
We have such beautiful girls. Samantha is fighting her molars, but at the same time she has started giving hugs and kisses, and I don’t think there is anything in the world cuter than a hug from a 14-month-old. We are truly blessed. And I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, with the NFP discussion going on on a friend’s blog. Some people struggle to figure out their signs and when they’re fertile, and it leads to frustration, fights, and general trouble. I, on the other hand, have a regular cycle and a hard time not knowing if I’m fertile, now that I know what to look for.
Goodbye, Goldilocks
I thought Lucy was still in bed yesterday morning. And I went to put away come clean paintbrushes, and was surprised to see her standing at the table in the learning room. I was even more surprised by what I noticed next:
Do you see it? The little pile there under the scissors. That’s right, Lucy reached that milestone every little girl reaches at some point in her life: her first self-imposed, clandestine haircut.
I almost cried.
But instead I laughed, and yelled, “Craig, come quick! Bring the camera!”
Babies and Sisters…
It’s amazing how kids learn. It’s so totally effortless. There are always the examples of four-year-olds casually using curse words in polite company, much to their parents’ embarrassment, or course. Yesterday, on the other hand, Lucy was walking around the house with her Fish do the Strangest Things book, standing on top of things, holding the book in front of her, and proclaiming, “A reading from Saint Paul. Babies and sisters…” I stopped in my tracks. She is clearly paying much closer attention while she wiggles away through Mass than we have been giving her credit for. (I asked about the “babies”, and she seemed to think that made more sense than “brothers”, which is understandable I guess since she has a severe lack of brothers at the moment.) Anyway, we are redoubling efforts to have such good influences and Saint Paul and his letters around, so that her osmosis can do its thing.
Christmas Cards!
Here are the first photos from the Great Christmas Card Photo Round-up. Thanks, Veronica, Tom, and Clark! If you want to send a cool family picture with your home-made card by Lucy (or if you have not received your card and want to remind me to hurry up!) send me an email.
And here’s the card with their lovely description:
“I think it looks like Winnie the poo walking towards the right while holding a stick with a beehive on it, and bees following him.”
We are one Body
We went to a “young adult” gathering in the Baton Rouge diocese last night, and it got me thinking. So I’m really just thinking out loud (as it were) here, most of this isn’t clearly formed yet, but it has been bothering me for a while. The meeting itself was fine, they had a change of plan since the speaker had to cancel, so we had dinner, discussed what we would like to see from the young adult ministry (they’re really just getting started) and then had a brief prayer service. But it was the assumptions underlying the conversation that interested me most.
Christmas Cards
So I was thinking…we didn’t take any pictures of the Christmas cards that Lucy is making before we sent them out. But it would be really cool if she got to see who they went to, so…if/when you get yours (there are still a lot to go in the mail and if you think I forgot you or don’t have your address, just email me) if you could send a picture of you and your family with the card, I could post them on the blog (if you don’t mind, of course) and that would be really, really cool. Maybe we could put up a map too, and make this a regular geography thing. Anyway, I would enjoy seeing your beautiful faces with Lucy’s beautiful artwork. : )
The house is mine!
[evil laugh] Craig and the girls are out, so I am free to eat ice cream before dinner, sew, and write on my blog! Sweet freedom!
But ice cream aside, (or inside, as the case may be), I now have the problem of which of the hundred things I’ve thought about writing about in the last few weeks will actually make it on the page. Well, enough stalling.
Car, interrupted
The CD player in our Honda has been out of order for a while now. It will take a CD, but just make a disturbing flapping sound and sit there. Which is a problem, because, especially on eight-to-ten-hour drives, being able to put on some appropriate mood music for the girlies can come in very handy. So, yesterday, we took matters into our own hands.
There are instructions on the internet for disassembling your car. With photos. So Craig removed the top dashboard piece, the one with the air vents in it. And the case around the gearshift, and the “not an ashtray”, and the pop-lid storage thingy, and finally, (finally!) the control console.
