Gathering My Thoughts
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I find myself:
::noticing God's glory
Nick and I went early to training Monday night to try to capture with the big camera the spectacular sunset we’ve seen at the soccer field nearly every night for the past couple weeks. Alas, not so spectacular; maybe tomorrow. (This means you get iPhone shots from the weekend for today's post. Note the very sweet, nearly perfect coffee shop in Old Town Leesburg. You can bet I'll be back there!)
::listening to
quiet. I’m in the car while Nicky trains. I’m tempted to listen to music, but right now the quiet thumping of soccer balls off in the playing fields suits me fine.
::clothing myself in
Yoga pants, t-shirt, Nike jacket and shoes. I’m still hopeful I’ll work out today;-)
::talking with my children about these books
We’ve moved on to the letter C. I doubt I’ll get to too many Storybook posts this week because I need to write birthday posts (my kids are big fans of birthday posts). Here’s the C book lineup. I’ll share some specifics on some of them next week. (we’re taking two weeks for every Alphabet Path letter this year).
::thinking and thinking
Wow. My brain is abuzz. I was talking with a friend the other day. She also has a large family and her first few children are young adults. We were talking about how it doesn’t always turn out how you thought it would. Actually, I think she said something like, “All those Christian parenting books are read in the 90’s? They lied.” Lots of people successfully resolve midlife crises at such a point in their lives by accepting that we didn’t know all we thought we did and trusting that God’s grace will fill in the gaps. I think my friend and I trust that there is sufficient grace, but we’re probably digging deeper than most moms to try to tweak the parenting philosophy. After all, we still have lots of children home to raise.
::pondering prayerfully
"We greatly influence others with our thoughts. We can be very good or very evil, depending the kind of thoughts and desires we breed. If our thoughts are kind, peaceful, and quiet, turned only toward good, then we also influence ourselves and radiate peace all around us. However, when we breed negative thought, that is a great evil. When there is evil in us, we radiate it among our family members and wherever we go. So you see, we can be very good or very evil. If that’s the way it is, it is certainly better to choose good!” ~Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica.
::carefully cultivating rhythm
Sunday was Michael’s birthday. Monday was Katie’s. Wednesday is Patrick’s and Friday is Karoline’s. The rhythm is likely to break cadence a bit.
I’m finding that the biggest detriment to the discipline required for rhythm is social media. As the political climate is ever more heated and ever more charged and as there is increasing debate about the Church, I’m finding that social media is a vortex. The problem—for me—is not time spent posting. It’s reading something and then trying to walk away from it and having it live in my brain for hours (or days). Where is the fine line between being educated and engaged and distracted and disturbed? I've been trying to step away from social media entirely on the weekends. On Sunday, I logged into Facebook briefly to wish Michael a happy birthday. I ended up clicking on just one link to just one article. But that one article so bothered me that I stewed on it all day. It still bothers me. Far better, I think to be a little less informed and a lot more peaceful?
::creating by hand
I’m still awaiting Katie’s fabric:-(. I did make Karoline a top last weekend and I’m hoping to get one made for Sarah today. Then, maybe I can finish one for Katie before the weekend. Maybe. Maybe.
::learning lessons in
Paths to college. Michael accumulated a huge number of dual enrollment credits before going to college, pretty much on a typical schedule. He graduated college early because of those credits. Christian began community college after homeschool high school and then transferred to a four year college, two years later. Patrick took some dual enrollment credits and then began college a semester early, in the winter of 2013. Each scenario has had its pros and cons. As Mary Beth explores her options, there is no clear-cut path, only much to ponder.
::encouraging learning
I don’t want to let “B” week get away entirely without telling you how much I love the Jan Brett Website. We studied her wonderful books last week and took many rabbit trails down the site, especially enjoying the drawing lessons in her videos.
I think Mossy is my favorite of the Jan Brett books, but it's really hard to choose just one. It truly needs its own Storybook Year post.
::begging prayers
for the lonely, depressed, and discouraged.
for all the intentions of our prayer community.
And for that sweet little intention very close to my heartJ
::keeping house
I need to craft a written housekeeping schedule once again. It’s been way too long. My obstacle? I don’t want to sit in front of the computer long enough to get it done. Same with a good recipe/meal plan. I know that doing these digitally is the most efficient; I just can’t bring myself to sit still in front of the keyboard long enough to get it done.
::crafting in the kitchen
I thought we were shifting into autumn menus. It’s going to be 85 most of the week. Maybe not so fast..
::loving the moments
when they run all happy crazy to welcome home their big brother.
::giving thanks
for a teenaged girl who would drive four hours roundtrip on Friday and then four hours round trip on Sunday so that her brother could come home for the weekend.
living the liturgy
Today is the Feast of St. Therese. There will be roses.
::planning for the week ahead
Lots of birthday and name day celebrating this week. And…some of us will go to Charlottesville on Thursday or maybe Friday. Paddy plays Friday night. Then to Harrisonburg for Family Weekend on Saturday. Then Mike and I have our 30th high school reunion back in Northern Virginia Saturday night. Soccer and soccer on Sunday.
