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Outside my window...
I am thinking...
...about a dear lady who went from being an online friend to an IRL friend yesterday. She is a spiritual sister from the South, and I look forward to another day when we can sit and chat because the time we were together yesterday wasn't nearly long enough. ;-)
I am thankful for...
...Monday morning quiet and a hot cup of coffee
...the Stations of the Cross
...texting with my boys
...good priests
...Sunday suppers
..."cheating" on Sunday during Lent (because it's little Easter you know)
From the lesson plans...
...Noah is doing really well in Algebra 1/2. A month or so ago we made the agreement that of the 30 practice problems he does everyday, he could skip one for every one he gets right (I get to decide which he skips). It's been a great motivator -- I can't remember the last time he missed a math problem. And math takes about 20 minutes each day instead of an hour. Moving onto WWI in history, plant growth in science, continuing to read about St. Joan of Arc and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in reading (interesting combination) and beginning St. Isaac and the Indians.
Faith is finished with her phonics book and said she wants to start another, so I need to order the next book. She just finished MCP C and I'm not sure if I should order Seton's phonics for Grade 4 or MCP D. I'm not certain we've used any of Seton's own phonics books, so I don't know how it compares. Any thoughts? She is still working on Timez Attack, though she is not quite as excited to do math now that the newness as worn off. Still reading Little House in the Big Woods. We are both very much enjoying the Faith and Life student and activity books, as well as My Path to Heaven. Pushing through most of the rest to get to the end of the year.
From the kitchen...
...some leftover dinner rolls with butter and honey for breakfast, leftovers for lunch and Reubens for dinner. Yum.
I am wearing...
...khaki trousers and a blue and white blouse, haflinger clogs.
I am creating...
...I finished the sweater! Woohoo! And it fits and looks very cute! Pictures to come. Today I might cast on a sweater for Doug's niece for her birthday in May. I hope it goes as fast as Faith's sweater went.
Lots of rosary orders in the queue -- just waiting for supplies to arrive.
I am reading...
... Everything is Grace by Joseph Schmidt, FSC. I'm almost finished and have thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'm also reading To Kill a Mockingbird, which until I got into it I thought I had read before. Unless I pushed the memory to farthest corners of my mind I have not, I admit somewhat sheepishly (how did I escape high school and college without reading this classic?).
I am hoping...
...for less severe storms than are predicted today. And safe travels for my loved ones and friends.
I am hearing...
...the birds outdoors -- they are really carrying on.
Around the house...
...not quite as clean as I would like, but I don't know that anything will change about that today. The kitchen and family room floor needs a good cleaning, and maybe that will get done. I forgot to tell you that I bought myself a floor steamer and I like the way it works -- much easier than mopping.
I am going...
...with a friend to her parish mission tonight to listen to a dynamic young priest from our diocese...if it is no longer storming.
One of my favorite things...
...spring flowers, or even just spring green. I love seeing the earth come to life after a long, harsh winter. I noticed yesterday that all my roses are starting to grow new leaves, and there are strawberry leaves all over the garden -- no rhyme or reason there. A couple of parsley plants came back, and the sage is already about a foot tall, as are the chives.
I am praying for...
...my niece Rachel who is recovering from having her thyroid, lymph nodes and another tumor removed just over a week ago
...Doug's Uncle Walt who learned last week that he has bladder cancer and will have to have the bladder removed after chemo therapy
...my Godfather who is having heart trouble and was hospitalized while on vacation
...several priests and soldiers
...and all of the babies whose mothers are contemplating abortion this week.
A few plans for the rest of the week...
...an appointment with an endodontist for me (prayers appreciated, you know how I love the dentist), homeschool gym and drum lessons.
Thought for the day...
This morning I read this passage in Everything is Grace, and once again I realized that St. Therese was far from an ordinary woman. I know that her "Little Ways" can apply to all of us, but she was extraordinary in every way. I wish I could share the entire book with you.
During the last year of her life (Therese) recognized that God has given me the grace to understand what charity is (SS 219).
First Therese noticed that the original commandment of charity from the Old Testament was to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). To love others as she loved herself, however, lacked the depth of the call in the new commandment of Jesus, "love one another as I have loved you" (John 13:34). The reference point of the new commandment caught her attention and challenged her: Jesus had said to love "as I have loved." She was not to love others as she loved herself, but as Jesus loved. She quickly came to understand that her own love for her Sisters certainly did not have the breadth or depth of Jesus' love.
The second element Therese noticed was that Jesus' love for his disciples was not diminished by their faults and sinfulness. Therese was aware, however, that she did discriminate in her love, and that those personalities who were more to her liking received more of her attention and affection. Now she felt herself drawn to respond to these two challenges.
The seeds of the response of the first challenge, the call to love others as Jesus himself loved them, had already found a place in Therese's heart when she had learned to position herself at the foot of the cross. She knew then that her place was to receive Jesus' love and share that with sinners. But only now did it come to her with forceful clarity that this sharing Jesus' love was the very essence of the fulfillment of the new commandment. She could love her sisters as Jesus loved them only with Jesus' own love. Ah! Lord, I know that you do not command the impossible, she wrote. You know better than I do my weakness and imperfection. You know very well that never would I be able to love my Sisters as you love them, unless you yourself, Jesus, still loved them in me (SS 221).
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Oh, my goodness! "To Kill a Mockingbird" is my favorite book. Ever. I re-read it every few years. Hope you like it too.
ReplyDeletePrayers for the dentist visit.
We had storms come through around 4am. I hate those kind, the kind you can't see coming, but at least everyone was home! They moved through very quickly, left some quarter sized hail behind along and scared the dog with all the lightning and thunder. I hope yours aren't as bad as predicted.
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