Daybook

Outside my window...gray -- it's Ohio. Most of the snow has melted leaving mushy grass behind. The dog must stay out of it -- she gets so muddy. The kids never did manage to get their creek hockey to work so now the net is in the basement and they are using tennis balls instead of pucks.

I am thinking...about lesson plans I need to work on, and a grocery list.

I am thankful for...a day off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day -- high school boy is home. Not much of a teacher am I? Or maybe I'm totally the teacher; I guess they love a day off, too.

From the learning rooms...finishing a geography unit on Norway and getting back to Latin. We're almost finished with our second quarter.

From the kitchen...leftover pizza for lunch, Chipotle burgers with slaw, Sweet Potato Fries, and Fruit with dip for dinner.

I am wearing...khaki pants and a nay and white striped turtleneck and...my Haflinger clogs (what's new?)

I am creating...putting the back on the baby quilt I was working on. And I need to get to the bead store -- my mother-in-law asked for two Our Lady of Sorrow Chaplets, one for her and her sister. I have white mother-of-pearl beads and garnet crystal and need some pretty silver spacers.

I am going...to the grocery store.

I am reading...about halfway through Betsy in Spite of Herself if only I had a big chunk of time to sit and read.

I am hoping...that my college boy finds his focus. He was home yesterday and I could tell by a few things he said that he is not enamored of his classes this quarter -- he really needs to find his major and get into some good classes.

I am hearing...Faith and Maggie tousling in the next room. Maggie loves her girl and the feeling is mutual.

Around the house... regular laundry and ironing. My schedule is working well, I did everything I planned last week.

One of my favorite things...sleeping late and a day off school.

A few plans for the rest of the week...mom's night out with a best girlfriend on Thursday. On Friday our parish is having Eucharistic Adoration ending with a special nighttime Mass in memory of Roe v Wade.

A lingering thought... one of Mother Teresa's quote on abortion. Ironically those who find war offensive, think nothing of the war between a mother and child that goes on every minute in this world.

"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even his life to love us. So the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love - that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion. "