Daybook for Mother's Day

Outside My Window

There are all kinds of flowers eager to burst into bloom. It’s truly the height of spring.

I am Listening to

Elmo’s song.

I am so Grateful for

1.)    Dear local friends who have made me take care of me this week and come along to add a lot of laughter and good advice to the adventures.

2.)   Spanx.

3.)   A big brother, who dropped everything on a Friday night to rescue his younger brother and to offer encouragement in what is an increasingly discouraging challenge …

4.)  Bifocal contact lenses. What a great, great invention! I only have one ear, so keeping reading glasses on while I looked down to read was darn near impossible. God bless the person who invented these little gems.

I'm Pondering

We fall, we step back, we step forward, we feel embraced, we feel abandoned, we feel energized, we feel slammed on the ground. We feel paralyzed and puzzled. We feel – accidie.

It’s okay.  Just – and here is the lesson of monastic life – keep praying. Keep letting yourself be shaped by the Psalms. Keep serving and working. Pay attention. ~Amy Welborn

I am Reading
lots of books on St. Benedict. I plan to make a list of them in another post and perhaps to annotate, but I wanted to take a moment here to talk about this prompt and others. I tell you honestly what I’m reading or wearing or cooking or whatever. I don’t edit myself much, mostly because my daybook is where I gather my own thoughts. I sometimes pretty much forget you’re reading. But you are. And so are other people. Some of them write to tell me they disapprove of what I’m reading or wearing or cooking (or cleaning even). It is my challenge to learn to listen to those criticisms without having them rock my world.

I mention what I’m reading, knowing that most of you understand that reading is a process by which we understand better people who are not ourselves. We are called to make believers of all nations. We are called to be salt and light to the world. I don’t think we can do that very effectively if we don’t listen to anyone who isn’t just like us. (Note: I also talk to strangers in the grocery store and at the ballpark and find what they say to be very interesting.) And I think that you all can think for yourselves. You are not going to assume that everything I read is the gospel. Actually, nothing I read except for the gospel is the gospel. All I can assure you of is that if I’m reading it, it’s making me think. Sometimes, I never get around to telling you what I think. I finish a book and move on and that’s that. You never know if I thought it was good or bad or weird. Because, I sometimes forget I was telling you about the book at all. So, “I am reading” (or eating or wearing) means just that—I’m doing it. It doesn’t mean I’m telling you to do it. Or even that it’s good. It just means I’m recording an honest snapshot of my imperfect, always seeking life.

I am Thinking

About  how hard it is to write when I know that every word is being judged and scrutinized and people are waiting and watching for me to fall. And fail.

 And I will.

We always do.

I am Creating

Lesson plans. Lots of lesson plans. We’ve been writing like crazy, but none of us at Serendipity has posted anything. We’re doing some serious discerning about sharing. See the two prompts above.

On my iPod

Acedia and Me. I was going write about this, but I’m kind of burned out on it right now. Amy Welborn has a good review here.

And the Anchoress, here.

Storybooks from touchoo.com

Towards a Real Education

We are test driving a Family Bible Study and a new plan for the Liturgical year this week. I’m looking forward to having these two components be the core of our studies this year. It has been very therapeutic to work with some dear friends to craft these plans. Even if they remain forever private, they are better for having been born of the need to stop and hear God in the voice of the liturgy.

Towards Rhythm and Beauty

I have been giving thought to the way I look around the house day in and day out. Do I walk with rhythm and beauty? Or do I drag through my days looking like I just woke up? I’m working on this in a big way lately, with lots of encouragement from my friends (the ones who regularly see me looking like I just woke up;-).

I am wearing

Earrings, again. I finally got my ears re-pierced. And I got bifocal contacts. Quite the week for self-care, last week was.

To Live the Liturgy

It is a paradox of human life that in worship, as in human love, it is in the routine and the everyday that we find the possibilities for the greatest transformation. Both worship and housework often seem perfunctory. And both, by the grace of God, may be anything but. At its Latin root, perfunctory means "to get through with," and we can easily see how liturgy, laundry and what has traditionally been conceived of as "women's work" can be done in that indifferent spirit. But the joke is on us; what we think we are only "getting through" has the power to change us, just as we have the power to transform what seems meaningless--the endless repetitions of a litany or the motions of vacuuming a floor. What we dread as mindless activity can free us, mind and heart, for the workings of the Holy Spirit, and repetitive motions are conducive to devotions such as the Jesus Prayer or the rosary...

~Kathleen Norris

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I am Hoping and Praying

For a child for whom life itself is a constant challenge. I am humbled by his holy struggle.

In the Garden

It’s true what they say about wave petunias—they spread like crazy! I am so looking forward to a whole bed of purplish pink!

Around the House

 I think it’s time to shop for rugs. The wood throughout echoes and oh how loud it is here!

From the Kitchen

Fish tacos. Mike doesn’t like them at all. I think they’re awesome. Mike’s rarely here on a Friday night. Works for both of us.

One of My Favorite Things

Girls day out. I took my first one in five years last week. It’s a happy memory.

Sarah Annie this week

 She has decided that Stephen is her favorite. She calls him all the time.  We all call Stephen “Super” (it’s short for Superman). Sarah Annie can’t say Super. She calls him “Pooper.” Poor Stephen.

A Few Plans for the Rest of the Week

I just got the to the end of a Mother’s Day Daybook and haven’t mentioned Mother’s Day at all. Mike’s in Utah. Yesterday was the book signing and so the week kind of geared up to that. Today, Stephen plays an hour south of here in the morning and Nicky plays 1  1/2 hours north of here in the afternoon. Sarah and Karoline both have fevers and Christian still has pneumonia. I have no idea how this day is going to work. So…any personal consideration of Mother’s Day slipped my mind until I noticed a whole bunch of pink construction paper happening all over my house last night. We have no specific Mother’s Day plans. But we have a lot of kids—no doubt something will materialize.

Some real life planning and curriculum testing with Marisa later in the week.

Picture thoughts:

"Pooper" and Sarah Anne