Monday Moments

{These Monday moments? Jotted down on Sunday. Full of prom pictures. There's a Grandma in Florida who wants to see them all. Please indulge her, y'all.}

I find myself:

::noticing God's glory

Morning walks are full of signs of new life. Little buds, new leaves, berries not yet ripe. There are ducklings and goslings in the lake and I think some new bunnies under the hedges. The weather was absolutely glorious this weekend.

::listening to 

Sarah and Karoline playing "Prom." Kristin came over as the pre-prom bustle started bustling. She spirited the little girls upstairs for hairdos and makeup and manicures and pedicures. Then they put on dress up clothes. This is the (new) game that will never end.

::clothing myself in 

Cropped jeans, my favorite gray shirt and a big apron with strawberries on a field of black. This apron best hides beet stains and roasted beets are on the menu for dinner tonight.

::talking with my children about these books

Since I'm going to share my own reading on Thursdays at needle and thREAD, I thought I'd share some reading from our family's choices. 

Mary Beth and I are digging into the free Grace Livingston Hill downloads on Kindle. She didn't get terribly excited about hers but I read mine cover-to-cover over the weekend. Happy sigh. This is remarkable because it is only the second fiction book outside of books for my children's education that I've finished since 1990. It's also the second book I finished last week:-).

 I used to read fiction voraciously. Then I got cancer. I never finished a fiction book on my own again. I'm not sure why and I haven't spent much time analyzing it. Partly, it's because I hate conflict and every good book has some conflict. But that's not the all of it.

Whatever it was, I'm cured! I've begun my second Grace Livingston Hill book and I'll also be back tomorrow to share with you the very first fiction-for-mama book I've read in the last two decades.

::thinking and thinking

On Saturday, Patrick hurt his knee. We don't yet know how big a deal it is, but our hearts stood still in the moment, for sure. I was dispatched to drop in on Hilary and let her know that plans for prom would most definitely change. I interrupted the merry afternoon she had planned to ready herself for the big dance to tell her that Patrick was going to go on crutches. He wasn't to drive and he'd have to be really careful. What's more, he might be a little preoccupied, because knees are rather important to boys who plan on soccer careers. 

She responded with nothing but concern for him, with absolute certainty that they'd change whatever plans necessary, and the assurance that if it was in his best interest, they didn't have to go at all.

For his part, he determined not to show any sign of pain, not to take any pictures with crutches, and to dedicate the evening to making her smile. 

And smile she did.

They went to dinner at the home of friends and then, after dinner and before the dance, paid a visit to Mike's parents so that Patrick's grandparents could take in the glorious sight they were. 

It was an early evening as proms go, but the memory will linger happily a long, long time.

::giving thanks for

a sweet girl whose blue eyes brim, not because she's sad for herself, but because she cares so much about my boy.

::pondering prayerfully

When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?" She answered "Go home and love your family."

::carefully cultivating rhythm

Hah! A few weeks ago, I ordered a big box of curriculum kinds of things. I explained to a friend that my thought was that I wanted an underpinning of things that would happen everyday--a little grammar, a little math, a little handwriting, a little spelling, some foreign language. I prefer more creative endeavors, and many days we do those, but I wanted something that would be there whatever came.

My words to my friend were, "I just want to be sure we hit the rhythm of learning even on the Mondays when I get up and say, 'Nicky hurt himself in Sunday's match. I'm off the doctor-xray-doctor. Just do the regular and keep things going.'"

We're going to test that this morning. Insert Paddy instead of Nicky and Saturday instead of Sunday. Here we go.

::creating by hand

We shall see. I've been known to accomplish quite a lot in medical waiting rooms. 

::learning lessons in

trust.

::encouraging learning 

I'm endeavoring to make sure that one day a week is dedicated to learning out of doors. From now until it's way too cold. Every week. Promising myself.

::begging prayers

for all the people who have joined our weekend prayer community. I carried your requests with me to Mass and I will keep a candle lit for you throughout the week. Elizabeth DeHority has left an update in last weekend's combox, for those of you who are continuing to hold her in prayer.

for lonely missionaries.

for Patrick.

for the repose of the soul of my Aunt Christina, who died this morning.

for baby Truman, who drowned in a few inches of water in a bucket this weekend, but was revived. Won't you watch and wait with us, keeping Truman, his doctors, and his beautiful family in your unceasingly prayers?

:keeping house

Patrick is going to re-write the chore chart. Mine is not working.

::crafting in the kitchen 

I ended up not going to the dance competition. Mary Beth's Saturday dances were shifted to Sunday and she went with Hilary and her mom. I stayed home with Patrick, changed out ice packs, and tried to be positive and cheerful. I gathered the first herbs from our kitchen garden to make roast chicken. We're having carmelized rosemary sweet potatoes and a spinach salad with beets and bacon dressing. Sunday dinners are wonderful, aren't they?.

::loving the moments

when I wonder if my heart could be any fuller.

::living the liturgy

We are using  33 Days to Morning Glory  in preparation for Marian Consecration on the Feast of the Visitation. Soon!

We'll celebrate Pentecost Sunday this coming weekend. My plans are just taking shape, but I know that Saturday's soccer will take us to Poolesville and that means we'll pick strawberries to be a part of a 7-fruit salad. I love the feast of Pentecost, but I admit to being a little sad this year to see the Easter season end.

::planning for the week ahead

When a week begins with an 8 AM appointment to the team doctor, followed by an MRI, I hesitate to make plans.

{Photo credit? Who knows? Some are mine; some are Hilary's mom's. Some might even be Stephen on my iPhone.}