a daybook for the week

Outside my window...

Rainy with a cool breeze. Perfect morning.

I am thankful for...

Finding housing in Chicago for Mr. B. Personal prelatures. Personable spiritual directors. Disney movies on rainy days.

I am thinking about...

Homeschool plans for next year. Last year for PreK-3, I was really lenient. I never forced M to do schoolwork. I tried to make it organic. She flew through worksheets and excelled beyond any expectations. I plan on being more structured (which means very little to this homeschooling mom right now!) and more hands-on this year. I have so many ideas and for once, I'm not riddled with anxiety!

In the Schoolroom...

Nada. We're done! Technically, I guess we're always learning, though. That's what a good homeschooling mother says, right?

From the kitchen...

I'm failing miserably at cooking right now. Perhaps it's because of our new internship schedule, perhaps because none of the cooking utensils are mine, I'm not sure. My dinner prep goes a little something like this:

3:00pm - wondering what's for dinner

3:30pm - still wondering

4:00pm - should really get out of the pool and start thawing out meat. There's no microwave, so I put it on low in the oven. 

5:00pm - kids clamoring for food. Mommy ends up snapping (see Webster's definition of "witching hour" and you'll see my kids) that I'm trying to cook dinner and Daddy's not home anyway, so why are you asking for food when you could be outside playing or you could be upstairs playing and why are you throwing yourself down on the ground now, stop hitting your sister, that's not nice, do you think that makes me a happy mommy? AND DO YOU WANT ME TO BE A HAPPY MOMMY?

They end up eating sandwich meat, a veggie, and a fruit or cheese for dinner at this time.

5:30 - still battling over dinner because for whatever reason this is the season of tantrums and nothing I give them aside from candy or ice cream is good enough to eat. Oh, and did I mention that I'm trying to cook real dinner while doing this? Whatever happened to family dinner time??

6:00 - start loading kids up to go pick Mr. B up at the train station. But wait, NOW they want to eat the dinner the previously said was disgusting and made their stomachs hurt.

6:05 - reminding them threateningly that they'll miss standing on the train station platform to watch the train come in.

6:20 - out the door

6:22 - run back inside to make sure I've turned off the oven and stove (have I mentioned I struggle with anxiety?).

6:25 - finally get to the train station and lug kids up on the platform

6:31 - Mr. B gets home

6:40 - home to a meal that has grown cold and mushy and disgusting

7:00 - "Mr. B, don't eat this. This is gross and it's making me feel sick." "No, my darling precious wife, this tastes delectable."

9:00 - "Are you hungry, Mr. B? Let's get Taco Bueno."

I am creating...

• a blog. This blog. I'm proud of it's prettiness.
• hands-on activity ideas for my girls and their schooling next year. 

I am working on...

patience and gentleness with myself and my girls. It's a slow process, but I see the grace of Our Lord and the wise words of saints, my spiritual director, and my husband that I cling to.

Also, correcting the normal dinner night routine. Ahem.

Clicking Around...

• http://www.scarves.net/scarf-tying-index.html - Little known fact about me: I love fashion. I love thrifty fashion. I just love clothes. I spend naptimes catching up on my housewife fashion blogs. My newest fave:
• http://www.natthefatrat.com/ - a Mormon fashion blog.

I am reading...

• a collection of letters St. Francis de Sales wrote to those living in the world. Mr. B's Mother's Day present to me and I love it. He's one of my favorite saints and always has something relevant and poignant for me to read.
• Just The Way You Are by Barbara Freethy. It was a free Kindle download and I'm not far into it. It's not great, but it fills a reading need.

I am praying for...

a special intention for a dear friend; innocence and purity for our family; the SSPX situation; Mr. B's internships; for courage for all Catholics, especially in America right now.

I am hearing...

E cooking me "dinner." It consists of a "super duper hot doughnut" which I owe her $4 for. 

The sounds of The Adventures of Winnie-The-Pooh coming from upstairs. M is cuddled under blankets, with her favorite bear, watching one of her favorite bears on a rainy day.

Around the house...

It's not our house, so not much. I maintain cleanliness and orderliness, but aside from that no projects. :) It's nice! However, around their house, the owners have lots and lots of books about art history, religion, history, and music. I love it. I love that everywhere you turn, you see music, photography, the Faith, art. The house is peaceful. I can just feel the walls smiling with memories of happy squeals, laughter, and love. PS. They homeschool and have five kids and are professors at the local Catholic university.

One of my favorite things...

Watching my girls grow brave and self-confident in the swimming pool. M's still nervous about getting off the first step, but thankfully, it's a giant first step, so she just contentedly floats on an inflatable turtle while E swims away. I love it. I love hearing M cheering for E as she swims farther and farther out "by herself," which really means I'm right next to her, but not holding on to her. I love the pride she has in her little sister. I love that E encourages 

A few plans for the rest of the week...

A night spent with dear friends tonight. A lunch with a newly-acquainted Traditional Catholic attorney and his wife tomorrow. Dinner with Fr. Mozzie (the name my spiritual director has been given my friends). Mass on Sunday.

A Picture I am sharing with you...

Nothing says summer like shorts, ice pops, Dora shoes, and heart-shaped sunglasses.

Happy Friday on this Feast of The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus!

Why The Story of Your Souls?

For those who aren't familiar with the precious saint in Heaven, St. Therese of Lisieux, you should be. She's amazing. Under the direction of her Mother Superior (also, her biological sister, Pauline), she wrote an autobiography called, The Story Of A Soul.

Saint Therese encouraged souls to live in a little way (hereby known as The Little Way. Clever, eh?). She knew she would do no great deeds for Our Lord. Few are called to. Of course there are great saints who lead armies, write Summas (what? You haven't yet?), lead nations, lead Holy Mother Church, but most of us aren't called to that. 

The Little Way is an image that tries to capture Therese's understanding of being a disciple of Our Lord, of seeking holiness of life in the ordinary and the everyday. She based her little way on two fundamental convictions: first, God shows love by mercy and forgiveness, and second, she could not be perfect in following Our Lord. Therese translated The Little Way in terms of a commitment to the tasks and to the people we meet in our everyday lives - giving these things all our, simply for the love of Our Lord. 

In living out her life of faith she sensed that everything that she was able to accomplish came from the generous love of God in her life. She was convinced that at the end of her life she would go to God with empty hands. Why? Because all was accomplished in union with God.

So, that, dear friends, is why I half-way plagiarized the name of a famous saint's book - our family has clung to the way of life that St. Therese teaches. 

We do every little task for the love of God. In fact, as we begin each day with our girls, we come up with the day's rules. The very first one is always, without fail, "Do everything we do today, for the love of God." 

It's kind of hard to be uncharitable to one's husband when you have on the forefront of your mind that you're being rude and short for the love of God. Wait, what? (Please note: do not ask Mr. B how many times I am rude and short to him in a week. It is never. Never, I say.)

We're not famous. We're not brilliant (though I contend Mr. B is, he's just pretty quiet about it most of the time). We're not wealthy. We're not called to great works.  We go to school, go to work, clean the bathrooms, wash the dishes, fold the laundry, wipe a face, hold a hand, get up repeatedly in the middle of the night, wake up early, and even say our prayers when we don't want to, simply because these things please Our Lord.

St. Catherine of Siena (who I am sure is a great bud of St. Therese up in Heaven!) once said, "If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze."

Mr. B is called to be a Catholic husband, a Catholic father, a Catholic student, and eventually, a Catholic lawyer. He does all he does to be the best of those he can be. He grows in holiness through doing the best he can at all of these, and doing so FOR the love of Our Lord. He offers up every annoyance, sacrifice, hardship, and pain of being those things, along with all joys and triumphs. And it is through that, that we pray for his eventual sainthood.

I'm called to be a Catholic wife, a Catholic mother, a Catholic homemaker. I do it with love (failing time and time again!). I pray that doing so in the Little Way leads me to Heaven.

Don't think your children get out of this, either! St. Therese was only 24 when she died. Children are called to obey parents and be students and good sisters or brothers. They can live The Little Way just as easily as adults!

And since I'm trying to dutifully live out The Little Way, I should probably get off the computer and feed my clamoring children dinner. 

St. Therese, pray of us!

source for The Little Way explanation: http://www.romancatholicism.org/therese2.htm

Welcome!

It's easier to keep up with us via a blog than any other means of communication. Fie you, technology of ease. Don't you know we're old-fashioned? 

And because Mr. B works in the legal arena, I thought a private blog was best. Sorry for the annoying request to prove your personhood with mundane math problems or the spelling of ridiculous non-words. We're a pro-life family and believe that you are fully a person. You just have to prove it to us before you can read our titillating tales.

I also may or may not struggle with a tinge (update: Mr. B corrected my word usage to avalanche. Whatevs.) of anxiety and putting pictures up of our wee ones caused that tinge (ahem) to burn a bit. There are some creeps out there who I'd rather not be handed full access of our family pictures and history.

Thanks so much for understanding!

My hope for this blog is to be a documentation of our little family's little  story. Our ordinary days of school at home, spending time with family and friends, with each other; our extraordinary days of adventure (sometimes those may or may not include treks through the mountains of dishes and laundry that organically appear overnight in our house); and little commentaries on beautiful devotions and traditions of the Faith (of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic variety, that is) that our family embraces and loves.