I'm Back!

It's been a long while since I've posted anything, but I've been busy taking care of sick kids and shuttling them to sports activities.

Today was just a relaxing day. I watched a movie (Tower of Terror) with Kathryn and Ryan. Emily wanted to see some duckies at the park so we went there for a little bit. Now we are back at home and ready to start some dinner. I think we'll have some Chili Beans with crackers. After clean-up, I'll plan my menu for the week.

Sports Season

Kathryn started her soccer season (at least with her first practice) today. She had lots of fun although she started out nervous, having to meet all the new girls. She will have practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It was so,so cold today! We just finished with a good rain today so we were left with clouds and cold wind. The girls were all huffing and puffing so they didn't hardly feel it.

Tomorrow is Ryan's baseball practice as well as Kathryn's REP (religious education) at church.

So, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are all taken up with some activity. I don't know how I'll like that. I'll need to adjust my menus because there's not much time to do any dinner cooking after practices. I'll have to plan for some easy things like spaghetti, pizza, fish sticks, quesadillas, Crock Pot recipes, or hot dogs.

Well, I'm off to look through some cookbooks!

Lent 2007

Lent will begin this Wednesday and I'm feverishly trying to plan something for my family to be more active participants. I am serious about getting my family to live a more serious Catholic life. I've been reading through other blogs and web sites to glean ideas and there are just so many! I hope to be able to share some sites that I've been looking at.

Next time I'll post about my goals for this Lent, individually and for my children. I need to keep in mind not to be unrealistic and set goals that are so high that I slip in the first couple of days.

More to come.

Prayer

This is one of my favorite prayers:

Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me.

Body of Christ, save me.

Blood of Christ, inebriate me.

Water from the side of Christ, wash me.

Passion of Christ, strengthen me.

O good Jesus, hear me.

Within thy wounds hide me.

Suffer me not to be separated from thee.

From the malicious enemy defend me.

In the hour of my death call me

and bid me come unto thee,

that with thy saints I may praise thee

for ever and ever.

Amen.

My Son

Ryan is my middle child. He is 5 years old. He has the most beautiful long eyelashes and has the biggest heart. He always has hundreds of kisses for his mommy. He can also be quite rambunctious.



After we had Kathryn, we had 2 miscarriages and were wondering whether we'd be blessed with another child. We were mightily blessed with Ryan on September 4, 2001. He goes to preschool 3 half days a week. Come September, he will be in Kindergarten.



Today was his first day of practice for Spring Foal Ball. His team is the Chicago White Sox. His teammates are all 4 or 5 years old. It is quite cute to see these little ones play. Most of the time they are oblivious to what's going on. They just like to run and tackle the ball when they are on the field.

This is a picture of Ryan last fall. His team was the UCLA Bruins. Ryan is such a joy. He's my Little Man!

Random Tidbits

Not much going on. Just my day to day struggles trying to be the best wife and mother I can be. In other words, trying to live my vocation to the best of my ability. So many times I fall short.

My main goal right now is to put my best effort at trying to keep house while at the same time be available to my kids and husband. I'm trying to find the balance. I think something important I need to do is to make a schedule. I've never really lived by a schedule other than when I was a full-time worker outside the home. I'll make that my assignment for the week.

I have some rumblings in my head about some future posts that I'd like to do:

• Story behind the title of my blog
• Thoughts on my vocation
• A little something about each of my kids
• A little something about me

I'm not a good writer but I hope that by writing on this blog I'll be able to clarify and express my thoughts much better.

Wonderful Discovery

Due to logistics of time, I went to a different church for Mass last Sunday. I've been wanting to visit this church as I've been thinking of sending my children to this parish's school. I was so happy when I heard the cantor singing songs in Latin. Even though I grew up in the 70's & 80's, I'm more of a conservative, more Orthodox Catholic. I'd like to see the Mass celebrated in a more reverent way. I even would like to see some Communion rails spring up. As it was Respect Life Sunday, the priest gave a pull no punches homily about abortion and how we as a society have lost all respect for life, preborn, born, and the elderly. It is very rare that I will hear a priest speak about anything controversial. I was pleased to hear this as I think that most priests try not to upset anyone during their homily. I wish more priests would incorporate more Church teaching in the homilies rather than blandly talking about "touchy, feely" things.
I think I'll visit this church more often. Maybe it wasn't an aberration.

I think I'm coming down with a cold. I've been lucky so far since it's been making the rounds here since December. Hopefully my Zycam can nip it in the bud.

Nothing Much

Nothing much going on. Mom's coming over to watch Emily while I take Ryan to the doctor. He's just getting his ears checked after having an ear infection. I could take Emily but why torture myself! I never know how long the doctor will take to step into the examining room. Emily could easily start running down the halls or open every drawer in the room. No thanks.

Went to the library today with Ryan and Emily while Kathryn went to her religious education class at church. Ryan is always good in the library and today Emily surprised me with good behavior. We checked out about 4 duck books. She's into ducks, horses, and doggies. I was able to leave without checking out about 4 books for myself. I have quite a stack at home already.

Weather has been very cold lately. The news said that Malibu had some snow today! I wish we could have a tiny bit of snow here someday. I'd actually settle for some rain. We are so dry here. I'd love to have enough rain that I wouldn't have to use my sprinklers so much. It would save us some money.

That's it for now.

Dropping the Ball

My DD Kathryn is 9 years old going on 16. She's very much into fashion, looking good, and overall being "cool". I'm trying to stress to her about just being herself and cultivating the good that comes from inside. She has plenty of time to act 16 when she's 16.

Anyway, she likes looking at those magazines that have all those Disney Channel stars, Nick stars, etc. I usually look them over myself before I let her buy them, but today, I dropped the ball. We were at Barnes & Noble in the magazine section. She was looking at her stuff and I was looking at my stuff. I was preoccupied with what I was looking for when she told me she picked out the one she wanted. I barely glanced at it and said OK. It looked just like all the other ones that she's gotten in the past. Once we got home, I had a better look at it. It was definitely not appropriate for a 9 year old. It talked about first kisses, what your lips say about you, how to write love notes, and other things related to those topics. That stuff may be OK for a 16 year old but not my 9 year old. If I would have been paying attention in the first place at the bookstore, I would have told her she couldn't buy it. I gave her her money back (she had bought it with her own money) and ate it up myself.

I know that is not the worst incident that could have happened, but I really try to maintain my children's childhood innocence for as long as I can. I know they'll be exposed to those things and worse, but I want to enjoy them with their young innocence while it's still there. I only have them under my wings for such a short time. I want to make the most of that time and impart to them the things that matter most.

Beginning

Well, I guess I'll give this blogging a try. I really don't know what I'm doing or how to do this, but I'll try to figure things out as I go along.

I hope to be able to add pictures, add links, etc. I love to read so eventually I'd like to add a list of what I'm reading or plan on reading on my sidebar but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. I'll probably write about goings on in my family as that's my main focus in life along with my journey in being a serious Catholic Christian.

I look forward to see where all this takes me on my journey.