As you can see Peter loves fruit!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Luther Reaches First Class
Luther is now a First Class Boy Scout. He's got a way to go to become Eagle, but he is working hard and enjoying the steps.
He went on two week long campouts this summer and a few weekend ones. He has more fun weekend campouts coming up this fall as well. He will get to enjoy canoeing and white water rafting. It makes me nervous, but we have to let go sometime and trust God with our precious children. 
Nanny's visit
My dear mother in law(from my first marriage) came to visit us this summer. It was a short but sweet visit and we were so happy she could make the trip down. She was recovering from a brown recluse spider bite, which made her not feel well. But she was a trooper and even took a dip in the pool!
As you can see, Peter has a hard time adjusting to new people.
Peter's Surgery
Since about the age of six months, Peter has had recurrent ear infections. Unfortunately, this summer the pattern continued and after a consultation with an Ear,Nose, and Throat specialist, we decided to go ahead with Ear Tube surgery.
Peter looked so cute in his little hospital gown. He was very good and was actually in a good mood until the nurse carried him away for his sugery. Thankfully it was all over within 25 minutes and he did great. He was cranky for a couple of hours, but with a little Tylenol and alot of loving, he was feeling better by lunchtime.
We feel that the surgery has been a success. Peter has not had an ear infection since his sugery over 2 months ago and he even had a cold which usually triggers them. We are thankful to the Lord for a great outcome all around.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
We are back!
Hello there! Yes we are finally back. It was a great summer and a rough summer. I went through some medical problems that unfortunately kept me from my blog for some time. I am feeling so much better, and I want to thank all of you, that knew what I was going through, for your prayers and phone calls. Mom thanks for coming down and helping me out!!! You're the best!!
Well, alot of stuff has happened. Where to begin. Sara turned 19 and Anthony turned 7. We decided to go away for Anthony's birthday. We went to the Atlanta Aquarium and the Coke Factory. Both were a blast. We had high expectations of the aquarium so we were a bit disappointed. But we had no expectations of the Coke factory so we were pleasantly suprised. Isn't that how it goes?
We had some fun times with friends and had them over for swim parties. We have recently had many problems with our pool chemicals. We have poured hundreds of dollars of chemicals and still have had problems with algae. We get our pool water tested and do what the pool professionals tell us to do, but to no avail, GREEN!!! AGH!! So we are debating whether it would be more financially wise to switch to salt water system or hire a pool guy next year. There are pros and cons. So we must do our research. Anyway, we hope to get it in good shape again soon so we can enjoy the last few weeks of hot weather outdoors in the pool.
We didn't get hit with any bad weather from the recent hurricanes, yeah! But we did have a few tornado warnings when my mom was here. So we spent some time hiding in the bathroom :)
But for the most part it has been a good summer, all things considered.
We started homeschooling 5 weeks ago and are progressing fairly well. (So long as mom can stay patient with her distracted students.) For the most part, we are keeping up with our schedule and still making time for outdoor activities and homeschool field trips.
Nicolas and Anthony are playing soccer this fall. They are having alot of fun and doing alot of running! Luther is up to first class in Boy Scouts and working on other requirements to get him to Eagle. Sara has been better with her fibromyalgia pain these days (thanks to God). She is a big help with Peter and she keeps the boys in line. She has daily challenges from her condition but she tries not to let that stop her from doing what she can to help the family. Please keep her in your prayers for further health improvement. She wants to do so much more. Tom is loving his job and doing very well on his current projects.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The Domestic Monastery
By Ron Rolheiser OMI January 7, 2001
Carlo Carretto, one of the leading spiritual writers of the past half-century, lived for more than a dozen years as a hermit in the Sahara desert. Alone, with only the Blessed Sacrament for company milking a goat for his food, and translating the bible into the local Bedouin language, he prayed for long hours by himself. Returning to Italy one day to visit his mother, he came to a startling realization: His mother, who for more than thirty years of her life had been so busy raising a family that she scarcely ever had a private minute for herself, was more contemplative than he was.
Carretto, though, was careful to draw the right lesson from this. What this taught was not that there was anything wrong with what he had been doing in living as a hermit. The lesson was rather that there was something wonderfully right about what his mother had been doing all these years as she lived the interrupted life amidst the noise and incessant demands of small children. He had been in a monastery, but so had she.
What is a monastery? A monastery is not so much a place set apart for monks and nuns as it is a place set apart (period). It is also a place to learn the value of powerlessness and a place to learn that time is not ours, but God's.
Our home and our duties can, just like a monastery, teach us those things. John of the Cross once described the inner essence of monasticism in these words: "But they, O my God and my life, will see and experience your mild touch, who withdraw from the world and become mild, bringing the mild into harmony with the mild, thus enabling themselves to experience and enjoy you." What John suggests here is that two elements make for a monastery: withdrawal from the world and bringing oneself into harmony with the mild.
Although he was speaking about the vocation of monastic monks and nuns, who physically withdraw from the world, the principle is equally valid for those of us who cannot go off to monasteries and become monks and nuns. Certain vocations offer the same kind of opportunity for contemplation. They too provide a desert for reflection.
For example, the mother who stays home with small children experiences a very real withdrawal from the world. Her existence is definitely monastic. Her tasks and preoccupations remove her from the centres of power and social importance. And she feels it. Moreover her sustained contact with young children (the mildest of the mild) gives her a privileged opportunity to be in harmony with the mild, that is, to attune herself to the powerlessness rather than to the powerful.
Moreover, the demands of young children also provide her with what St. Bernard, one of the great architects of monasticism, called the "monastic bell". All monasteries have a bell. Bernard, in writing his rules for monasticism, told his monks that whenever the monastic bell rang, they were to drop whatever they were doing and go immediately to the particular activity (prayer, meals, work, study, sleep) to which the bell was summoning them. He was adamant that they respond immediately, stating that if they were writing a letter they were to stop in mid-sentence when the bell rang. The idea in his mind was that when the bell called, it called you to the next task and you were to respond immediately, not because you want to, but because it's time for that task and time isn't your time, it's God's time. For him, the monastic bell was intended as a discipline to stretch the heart by always taking you beyond your own agenda to God's agenda.
Hence, a mother raising children, perhaps in a more privileged way even than a professional contemplative, is forced, almost against her will, to constantly stretch her heart. For years, while raising children, her time is never her own, her own needs have to be kept in second place, and every time she turns around a hand is reaching out and demanding something. She hears the monastic bell many times during the day and she has to drop things in mid-sentence and respond, not because she wants to, but because it's time for that activity and time isn't her time, but God's time. The rest of us experience the monastic bell each morning when our alarm clock rings and we get out of bed and ready ourselves for the day, not because we want to, but because it's time.
The principles of monasticism are time-tested, saint-sanctioned, and altogether-trustworthy. But there are different kinds of monasteries, different ways of putting ourselves into harmony with the mild, and different kinds of monastic bells. Response to duty can monastic prayer, a needy hand can be a monastic bell, and working without status and power can constitute a withdrawal into a monastery where God can meet us. The domestic can be the monastic.
Carlo Carretto, one of the leading spiritual writers of the past half-century, lived for more than a dozen years as a hermit in the Sahara desert. Alone, with only the Blessed Sacrament for company milking a goat for his food, and translating the bible into the local Bedouin language, he prayed for long hours by himself. Returning to Italy one day to visit his mother, he came to a startling realization: His mother, who for more than thirty years of her life had been so busy raising a family that she scarcely ever had a private minute for herself, was more contemplative than he was.
Carretto, though, was careful to draw the right lesson from this. What this taught was not that there was anything wrong with what he had been doing in living as a hermit. The lesson was rather that there was something wonderfully right about what his mother had been doing all these years as she lived the interrupted life amidst the noise and incessant demands of small children. He had been in a monastery, but so had she.
What is a monastery? A monastery is not so much a place set apart for monks and nuns as it is a place set apart (period). It is also a place to learn the value of powerlessness and a place to learn that time is not ours, but God's.
Our home and our duties can, just like a monastery, teach us those things. John of the Cross once described the inner essence of monasticism in these words: "But they, O my God and my life, will see and experience your mild touch, who withdraw from the world and become mild, bringing the mild into harmony with the mild, thus enabling themselves to experience and enjoy you." What John suggests here is that two elements make for a monastery: withdrawal from the world and bringing oneself into harmony with the mild.
Although he was speaking about the vocation of monastic monks and nuns, who physically withdraw from the world, the principle is equally valid for those of us who cannot go off to monasteries and become monks and nuns. Certain vocations offer the same kind of opportunity for contemplation. They too provide a desert for reflection.
For example, the mother who stays home with small children experiences a very real withdrawal from the world. Her existence is definitely monastic. Her tasks and preoccupations remove her from the centres of power and social importance. And she feels it. Moreover her sustained contact with young children (the mildest of the mild) gives her a privileged opportunity to be in harmony with the mild, that is, to attune herself to the powerlessness rather than to the powerful.
Moreover, the demands of young children also provide her with what St. Bernard, one of the great architects of monasticism, called the "monastic bell". All monasteries have a bell. Bernard, in writing his rules for monasticism, told his monks that whenever the monastic bell rang, they were to drop whatever they were doing and go immediately to the particular activity (prayer, meals, work, study, sleep) to which the bell was summoning them. He was adamant that they respond immediately, stating that if they were writing a letter they were to stop in mid-sentence when the bell rang. The idea in his mind was that when the bell called, it called you to the next task and you were to respond immediately, not because you want to, but because it's time for that task and time isn't your time, it's God's time. For him, the monastic bell was intended as a discipline to stretch the heart by always taking you beyond your own agenda to God's agenda.
Hence, a mother raising children, perhaps in a more privileged way even than a professional contemplative, is forced, almost against her will, to constantly stretch her heart. For years, while raising children, her time is never her own, her own needs have to be kept in second place, and every time she turns around a hand is reaching out and demanding something. She hears the monastic bell many times during the day and she has to drop things in mid-sentence and respond, not because she wants to, but because it's time for that activity and time isn't her time, but God's time. The rest of us experience the monastic bell each morning when our alarm clock rings and we get out of bed and ready ourselves for the day, not because we want to, but because it's time.
The principles of monasticism are time-tested, saint-sanctioned, and altogether-trustworthy. But there are different kinds of monasteries, different ways of putting ourselves into harmony with the mild, and different kinds of monastic bells. Response to duty can monastic prayer, a needy hand can be a monastic bell, and working without status and power can constitute a withdrawal into a monastery where God can meet us. The domestic can be the monastic.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
My Parents Visit
My mom and dad came to visit us two weeks ago. I know, it's been a long time since I really blogged. But we had an awesome visit. We hung out by the pool, did odd jobs around the house, shopped, saw some sights or just hung out and played dominoes. I hadn't seen my parents in about a year so it was wonderful to spend about 9 days together. We were so sad to see them go, but will cherish the memories of this visit. Love you mom and dad! And miss you already!
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