Welcome to my weekly post, Daybook Online Journal. This is a post where I gather all the ordinary things that happen or are happening in my day to day. Things like what I’m reading or listening to…eating and cleaning and learning…These are the small moments that make up my blessed daily life; and I want to remember them. I’d love to read your Daybook in the comments section. You can use my prompts or make up your own to include items important to you; mine change depending on season and circumstance.
Daybook Online Journal: Confirmation
Thanking God for…
::my Catholic faith
::laughing with my man
::watching our children
::growing with them all
::candles lit in prayer
::a reading chair in my bedroom
Praying…
I am praying hard and a lot. I am praying for Chris, this time away working is hard enough when in you’re in your own home, surrounded by your own people…it’s much harder when you’re in a hotel room, alone.
Pondering…
I am pondering living a joyful, Catholic life. I’m trying to find my footing between living a faithful, sacramental, Catholic life in this world–joyfully–without being of this world. What does that look like? For a number of years I was led to believe that skirts only, Gregorian Chant or classical only, on your knees for rosary only–was the key to living a “good, holy” Catholic life. I saw families filled with rules verse joy, militaristic parenting binding out of fear rather than love and a “holier than thou” attitude” lacking the joy of the Lord; who wants to live that way? And how’s that going to work out as an evangelization effort in the home to keep our children Catholic and outside the home to bring other into the fullness of the Church?
So does your neckline and hemline indicate the state of your soul? The intensity of your prayer life? Your “holiness?” Of course I’m speaking within reason here. Do shorts make you an automatic heathen and skirts an automatic saint? Are there those times when the windows down and a good song turned up (and I’m not talking Mozart) are just what your momma heart need to recharge on the way home from the grocery store? When your daughter massages her daddy’s feet during family rosary is she being any less prayerful?
Listening to…
“You’ve mixed some sweat with it, taken a shovel to it
You’ve stuck some crosses and some painted goal posts through it…
You know you came from it
And someday you’ll return to this…”
Anyone who knows me, knows how much I strongly dislike leaving my patch of dirt I call home. But as soon as I round the corner and see my silos in the field…all is well. I get it. I get why my grandparents said they would never leave their farm until they had to and then live in a nursing home just a couple of miles from their own piece of dirt instead of living down here with me even though it would have kept them out of a nursing home and surrounded them with family. I get the ties a patch of dirt can have on someone.
Reading…
My large print Bible
(Loving the large print for my tired eyes.)
The Catholic Bible Concordance for the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSV-CE)
Look what I just found when finding the link to the Catholic Child Guidance booklet,
Children and Parents: Wisdom and Guidance for Parents
Fulton Sheen and parenting…get in my cart!
Speaking of Fulton Sheen, I had the opportunity to quickly introduce myself to a sweet and brave Fulton and his momma this weekend. While waiting for the Confirmation Mass for my Maximilian to begin (which I had leave as soon as it started) I recognized a little boy our family had prayed for when I came across his story of being burned in 2013. His momma said he just underwent another surgery on his cheeks so he could smile more. He was adorable and it’s amazing to see the prayers of so many walking around in the body of little guy.
Around the House…
The kids picked around 75 pounds of peaches on Saturday. Today we are going to make freezer jam!
In the Kitchen…
See above as I would imagine that process will take over our kitchen.
Our Domestic Church…
My sweet Maximilian was confirmed Sunday. Although I missed the ceremony and Mass be assured I inhaled his fragrant head all evening. There is nothing like the smell of chrism!
Saving Money… Even though I have not been so great at conscientiously saving money and children can be expensive, we are eight payments away from paying off our house! Our goal was to pay it off in five years. It will actually be six years, but paid off is paid off! Our treat to ourselves for paying it off so quickly is a trip to the beach…Florida, get ready!
Captured…
Hi Jenny,
You amaze me with you energy and all the dimensions there are to your life…As for understanding signs of holiness…I leave that to God to read each person’s heart…I don’t look too much like a religious sister…But my heart is with God. Your heart so clearly belongs to God…and is shared with so many others…I see a real life holiness in you…
Wow, Clare, very humbling words my friend. Thank you. Please pray for me that in the end I will hear, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”