The "Plan" Part of Planning for a Peaceful Home

In prior columns, I’ve explored the ideas of a morning offering andof time set aside to listen and hear God. Now, for the “plan” part of the plan for a peaceful home.

We begin by offering the day to the Lord, opening ourselves to the grace He freely offers and ensuring that even our failures are redemptive. Then, during a time of spiritual reading and meditation, we listen to Him, and we resolve to do whatever He tells us to do that day. Usually, I write this resolution in a little notebook, where I can refer to it and remind myself of it throughout the day. The resolution fits within the context of my daily life, my work in the world, my vocation in the home. And it’s that “daily life” component that needs a clear direction.Read the rest here.

And then c'mon back and tell me your best planning tips in the comment box.

Meditation: What Better Day to Begin than Today?

Last time, we took a look at the difference a morning offering canmake in the effort to bring peace to our homes and our hearts. When we offer the day to God, His grace is sufficient for whatever the day holds. Our successes are gifts to Him and our “failures” are made valuable by Him.

I pray my morning offering the first time I nurse my infant in the morning. While a new baby can often cause chaos in a household (and mine sometimes seems to), this time, I’ve pegged my plan for interior peace to the indisputable items on the baby’s schedule: her feeding times. Since she’s still really little, there are many of these times and they lend themselves well to the spiritual practices crucial to interior peace. Read the rest here and

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after you read there, come back here for some resources.
This is by no means a comprehensive list. Instead, it's a smattering of the resources from several different charisms.
Books that lend themselves to meditation:
Divine Intimacy
In Conversation with God
Imitation of Christ
Listen My Son

And here's one on the web that is just great. Use it only if you won't be tempted to cut your time short or be distracted by the rest of the world wide web at your fingertips:

Mini-retreat (10 or 15 minutes) with the Salesians

Plan for a Peaceful Home

St. Josemaría Escrivá calls it the “heroic moment” — that spacebetween sleep and waking when we assent with our entire beings to overcome the creature comforts of slumber and cozy bedding and instead rise to face the morning.

The heroic moment is our first victory of the day. Instead of hitting the snooze button, we get up and get going. Sometimes, I have to ask for the grace and strength to just meet that moment. And I do. The day begins with prayer. That’s a good thing.

I have found that no matter how well organized I am before a baby is born, there is some re-shuffling of schedules and routines to be done once baby arrives. It’s no secret that this time I was a bit unprepared...
Read the rest

Getting Back on Track

For some people, early pregnancy is a few of weeks of fleeting nausea and then there's a huge burst of second trimester energy. Not for me. At least, not for me in the last few pregnancies. This time isn't quite as bad as last time. I'm actually vertical occasionally and I've already left the house more during this pregnancy than during the whole nine months last time. Still, I'm dragging. I'm still pretty nauseous. My handy-dandy glucometer tells me I still have a perpetual case of low blood sugar. This time, I'm also very cranky. That's new for me. I'm trying not be cranky, but the crankies keep winning. Life feels very out of kilter. It's time to get back on track. But I know I will be challenged by the effort involved in balancing my physical (in)ability with my hopes of restoring peace to my home and to my heart.

A friend recently reminded me of the burnout chapter in Real Learning. Good idea. I started by reading that. Then, I made myself a list of the things I know to be necessary for me to pull myself out of a funk:

• I need to sleep more. A nursing toddler combined with a husband who keeps very irregular hours are really not good for this aging pregnant woman. I need to nap and to figure out how we can all co-exist peacefully in this house at night.
• I need to re-establish a household routine and restore the order necessary to making sure that our lives run smoothly. There's a little voice that says that I can't expect optimal functioning while pregnant and sick but there's a louder voice that tells me that the stress of a poorly run and messy household makes me feel much worse. Not quite sure what the solution is here but I'm reading Simplifying Your Domestic Church, a free download from CHC in hopes of being inspired. The truth is,  I've never seen Peter Walsh or Martha Stewart address the unique challenges of homeschooling a huge family and keeping up with the "good things" while pregnant. I have high hopes that the CHC people will be a little more understanding and a lot more practical.
• I need to get outside early in the day every day and I need to make sure that I keep our nature dates every week. I know that this time nurtures me in a way nothing else can.
• It always helps me to do something creative with my hands. I lost my Miraculous Medal necklace several weeks ago. I figured I'd find it by St. Anthony's feast. I didn't. I still haven't given up hope, but I think I'll make a different one for now.
• I need to keep writing. This is probably the trickiest of the resolutions, because I'm really wrestling with whether or not to publish any more. My life keeps filling and interacting with the world outside my home often drains me of energy and attention for things--and people--inside my home.It's clear I need to drastically reduce internet time again. It's a constant dialogue with God. I only want to do His will. And then, I'll be hit with something at 4 AM and know I won't be able to sleep until the words are allowed to spill out. There's no doubt that I need to write. It's the parameters I need to put on the publishing that are not so clear. To that end,
• I need to re-commit to my resolve to  organize my life around the rhythm of prayer and no other rhythm. This is the big thing. This is how all the other pieces will fall into place. I've been re-reading Jen's series on bringing peace to daily life. She has so many, many good things to read there. And so much of it is counter-cultural:-). The more children I have and the older they get, the more I find myself being drawn into the culture. Even though my children aren't in school, I have to meet the demands of other people's schedules and I have to consider how other people think I should be spending my time because they are pulling on my children's time. And then there is the cacophony of voices whispering, while heads are shaking in disbelief over the lifestyle we've chosen. It's a lonely world out there. Even within the homeschooling community, there can be a very real sense of isolation. Only God is constant. Only God is ever ready to be the light in the darkness. He wants me to seek Him. He wants me to find Him. Even though I feel like I'm barely going these days, I need to take those "hard stops" and pray-- often.

So that's it: the grand plan for getting back on track.

Beginning right now.

The Power of Prayer

We didn't go to see the Pope yesterday. It's a long story and I'll tell you later. I'm sad about it, but I'm choosing to focus on who did go to see the Pope yesterday and just how extraordinary his day was.

Let's begin about two months ago. Our family has been pondering some big decisions and we've added some new prayer intentions in the past few weeks as well. When first these things popped up, I asked Mike to make some time to go to adoration. I was fine with whatever decisions we made and whatever events unfolded, I just wanted to know he had spent some quality time mulling it over with Jesus. But Mike's been traveling and busy and even on the day he'd set aside in early March to sit in the Blessed Sacrament chapel at the Shrine, he was interrupted. The production team wanted to go over every detail of the Pope's time there in light of Secret Service requirements. Mike was there for hours, but he never got any time alone with God. And I admit to being very frustrated. That was well before Holy Week. And I began an incessant prayer campaign. I wasn't necessarily pleading for any outcome; I just wanted him in front  of our Lord for a chunk of time. I switched my wedding ring to my right hand and every time I noticed it, I prayed he'd have adoration time. Weeks later, I wasn't even noticing the ring was on the wrong hand any more, so I took it off altogether so I'd remember to pray. And then that became "normal." So I put the ring back on. Dozens of times every day, I asked God to call my husband to Him.

Mike left the house early yesterday to drive down to his office to meet Jimmy, Christian's godfather. Together, they needed to drop by the Secret Service headquarters to have Jimmy's picture re-taken for his press credential. From there, they would continue on to a DC hotel where the press corps for the Shrine visit was sequestered before being escorted to the Shrine by the Secret Service. Usually, Mike is the director for EWTN events at the Shrine. He sits in the truck outside the building and calls the shots. On this glorious day, though, he was going to run camera. That way, he'd be in the same room with the Holy Father. But which room?

The Secret Service wanted everyone in his place three hours before the Pope arrived. Mike's "place" was the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. For three hours, he sat alone with his camera and Jesus and awaited the Holy Father. Then, from behind that camera, he prayed with the Pope in front of Our Lord! The Pope went on downstairs to the Crypt Church for Vespers  and to address the Bishops' Conference. The Secret Service told Mike to stay right where he was.  Until the Pope left the building. For  six hours, on the Pope's birthday, in the company of the Pope for some of the time, my husband sat in the Adoration Chapel of our favorite church.

God answers praying wives with great generosity, doesn't He?