Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Phil 4:6-7



Tuesday, December 04, 2012

All I want for Christmas...


Our Blessed Mother is such a beautiful role model for women. On many days I take pleasure in imagining her in her kitchen...with her precious (and obedient) Son... caring for Him in her quiet, humble way.

On good days, I can often imagine her in my own kitchen, caring for my own children in ways I will likely never manage.

It is on days like I had yesterday when I can scarcely imagine the Blessed Mother getting through my day, though that is not because of her shortcomings, only my weak imagination. And yesterday was only the second day of Advent.

Yesterday:

My oldest son told me that the only remaining classes he needs to graduate are not offered next semester.

And his landlord (lady) told him she needs to know by Friday if he will renew his lease for the fall (which we did not think he would need to do, but now we have no idea).

My second son took a check, made out by me, for $525, to a university leasing company to obtain a lease on an apartment for next fall. He told me his roommate would repay us the half he owes (the leasing company wanted one check).

He came home with a lease to sign, and then informed me that the supposed roommate might not be his roommate (and the $525 is non-refundable). Merry Christmas.

I went to pick my third son up from school. He had failed to mention that he had to meet with his government group after school. We waited in the car. And waited, and waited.

As soon as I walked in the door, late in getting dinner started due to "waiting," my husband called to inform me that the lights had to go up on the house "TODAY" because "it's going to rain tomorrow," he said. "Get the lights out! Plug them all in! Check to see if the clips fit on the gutters with the new gutter guards! Get the boys involved!" (Yes, they were all exclamation points. He's Type A.) Does it matter that I say every year, "Don't put lights up outside. It's too much work."?

The ladders came out. Young men went up. The 16-year-old boy got on the roof, and when he was finished putting clips on he declared he could "just jump off the roof onto the grass" and he "would be fine." I'm pretty sure if I had not be supervising he would have done just that. Body cast for Christmas?

Do you think Jesus ever attempted that stunt?

When my husband got home, he finished putting lights up...before I broke it to him about the $525, and the lease.

He flipped out. He's Type A.

There was a power point presentation due today by 16 yo boy. Neither he nor I had ever done one before. In an attempt to be less sarcastic (why start now you ask?) I will just say, "it is such a joy to learn new skills. At 10 p.m."

Just before the end of the day, moments before I slid between the sheets, I discovered the master toilet was clogged. And so I used the plunger. A fitting end to the day.

If only all the problems of the day were so easy to flush away.

Today, so far:

The dean of discipline called me from third son's school. You don't want to know.

Then I had to call my husband and tell him. He flipped out. (He's Type A.)

The appraiser hired for our home refinancing called to say he was in the neighborhood and could he just come by today instead of tomorrow. Sure. My house is always in "show" condition.

It still hasn't rained. But the outside of the house looks like Christmas Vacation.

I'm asking Santa for a prescription for valium. Maybe it will come early enough to really appreciate it.

Hail and blessed be the hour...
...and the moment,
that the son of God...
...was born of the most pure Virgin Mary...
...at midnight, in the piercing cold.

In that hour, vouchsafe Oh My God...
hear my prayers and answer my pleas(e)...
...on the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ,
and His Blessed Mother.

Amen.









10 comments:

  1. I don't know if that was meant to be funny...but it was.

    If it makes you feel any better, our toilet, the upstairs one, the one the kids use all the time, is stopped up every day. Every day. I'll tell my husband about flushing away the day thing....that's great! My husband can't wait til the kids are grown and have their own houses, he's planning on coming over and taking a big dump and leaving it. .

    sorry if that was too graphic.

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  2. As my non-type A husband says, "In 100 years, none of this will matter." My response..."but it matters TODAY!"
    If we can survive long enough to get these young adults out of college, working, married and out of our homes...(whispering here) I think it will all be okay...one day.

    We have had craziness at our house too...I'm just not brave enough to blog about it! Prayers for you, Barb :)

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  3. You know, I sometimes imagine everybody else quietly and peaceful celebrating Advent and waiting for our baby King to be born... and then I read posts like this and I'm grateful that I'm not alone in feeling harassed, overworked, and occasionally flustered.

    And you are not alone, either. Davey started taking a new psych drug last night and he is absolutely miserable to deal with today. He's so bad, I told him I didn't need him to get our monthly feed order, and I wasn't even comfortable leaving any of the children home with him, so we all trooped out together. Then he was mad and sad that I didn't want him to come, but he was not so sad that he came out to help us unload 1400 pounds of grain back here at home. We've canceled our evening activities due to his mood, and I hope there is a breaking in period for this drug, because who wants to go back to living with Angry Cranky Man? Not me, I tell you.

    Happy Advent! (I'll pray for you. Maybe you'll pray for me, too? :-) )

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  4. What's really funny is...just moments before I read Barbara's post, I sent her an email asking her to pray for me.

    My girls are agents of chaos, you see--uncapped markers, dissembled board games, paper doll products EVERYWHERE--and, well, being in hyper-overdrive-nesting mode, I couldn't stop crying as I tried to cope.

    We're all in this together, ladies. Motherhood is not for the weak--stay-at-home motherhood, even less so.

    (And Jennie C., this is not even addressing the challenges in our marriage!)

    Prayers for you all. Adding them to my list of "Ouch this contraction REALLY hurts so I'm offering it up for so & so".

    Just remember the two big institutions that the devil HATES: the family and the priesthood. Let us to continue to pray & make sacrifices accordingly.

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  5. I LOVE this post!! Things are quieter around here now because we are OLD people. But back in the day, I was the Type A and it seemed that NOTHING phased Jeff. Ack! Hang in there...these "precious" holidays will be over soon! :)

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  6. Like Jamie, I thought you wrote this brilliantly and it made me laugh...not because of all the stuff you are going through...but BECAUSE of all the stuff you ARE going through. If that makes sense.

    bloggys can be very deceiving. Looks like everything is the perfect world. We have all that going on also. Except we are all healthy..knock knock. So far we have not been sick yet.

    Our problem is a 20yr old furnance that needs replacing. 8,000 dollars would come in handy right now.

    always something in life. Hang in there and I loved this post. Made my day.

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  7. AND you had time between all this to email back and forth with me about bead colors and sizes, subtle differences in gold tones,
    and medal preferences. I am impressed!
    Carol

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  8. Love and prayers to you, dear Barbara!

    Oh! And all-of-a-sudden, I can't email you again! Ugh! Yes, I am fine if you pick the color for the key fob. I trust you! You know teens ;-)

    {{Hugs!}}

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  9. Ugh, I just left a whole nice comment that got whisked away into the ether. Suffice it to say, I love you Barbara! And I'm praying your Advent becomes quiet and contemplative in a hurry!

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  10. OH boy! I am so behind on reading...just seeing this now. I hope that these issues have untangled themselves and you can count on my prayers for peace for you & your family for the rest of this Advent season! (I'm the Type A in this house, and I can't imagine what it's like to have to live with me sometimes. But I can't make it stop, either...)

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I appreciate your comments -- sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself!