With Praise and Thanksgiving

It's been a while, so I'm going to link up with Kelly at This Ain't The Lyceum  for 7 Quick Takes today! I present to you seven random things I like, and for which I am grateful today. 1. Lent! Time to repent! I do like Lent, and with a weird rib-area cartilage injury and a bad cold to set the pace, it's shaping up to be a really Lenty Lent. I'm using the Blessed is She Lenten journal for my daily prayer time and am trying...t r y i n g this 5-Minute sacrifice. I did fairly well at it Wednesday, and pretty crappy Thursday. So there you go. Onward and upward. I will embarrassingly admit that it took me until my 35th year to realize that I don't have to read all the things on the interwebs, even if they are about a topic of interest to me. The webs are awash with posts about how to Lent, and but thank goodness I resisted the urge to click on all of them and just licked on this one  by Jenny at Mama Needs Coffee. Of course you know I want to share everyth...

I can't say much about yesterday except that I took cranky to new levels. I did not win Advent yesterday, but I did listen to a couple of Advent podcasts this week that I wanted to share. The Art of Simple - Episode 49: Guilt-free Holidays Tsh gives a simple explanation of a few Adventy things, like St. Nicholas Day, the 12 Days of Christmas, and gives a peek into what her family does for Advent. I love hearing what different families do to celebrate the liturgical year.  Fountains of Carrots - Episode 56: Advent Low Down The main thing I took from this was the idea one of them had to not multi-task for Advent. To just do the thing you are doing, and be present there. I am so bad sometimes about putting all my focus on productivity. Can I knit or clean pictures off my phone or make a grocery list while also playing a game with the kids? Can I Christmas shop online while we are eating lunch? Can I answer emails and texts while finishing up my Christmas cards? I have pon...

Since we stayed in Fargo on Saturday night, we headed to the 10:00 Mass at our old parish, St. Joseph's, on Sunday morning. I enjoyed it so much! Fr. Larry gave a great homily and said Mass reverently and the kids weren't terrible. We wolfed down donuts and headed to the gym. I got to visit with so many of my favorite old friends. Such a joy! I felt real joy and delight. We ate lunch with our family besties and the I'm all smiles just thinking of Sunday. I'm not against new friends, and I find myself able to picture us settling here, but there's just something about sweet old friends. I love them so much, and felt so happy to hang with them like the old (Sun)days.

Photo courtesy o f  Kristen Lynch. You can see my spouse and a kid's head in the lower right! Consecration. Photo courtesy of Kristen Lynch Last night (actually Monday night because I wrote this yesterday)  we went to a special Mass held at our new parish. The bishop and all of the priests from our diocese are here for Presbyteral Days. I don't really know what that is, but I know there were something like 75-80 priests at the Mass. We took the kids, even though 5:30 p.m. isn't their best time of day, and only one of them seems to "like" church. We thought it would be cool to see so many priests together and fun to do evening prayer with them, too. So many men dressed in the same white vestments was pretty cool to see. Bishop Folda's miter kept the little one engaged for a while, and overall it was just a cool experience. One kid fell asleep, another got a bloody nose, and the third yelled "That Father wearing him hat!" during the bishop...

I listened to this homily by Father Bryan on Tuesday. It blew my mind. I intended to write about it, but then...life, sick kids, volunteering at school, maybe online shopping. Anyway, I listened to it again today: The Logic of Mercy . Wow. Stop reading and go listen. I've never heard this parable approached in exactly that manner, and I love it. Jesus died for each one of us as if we were the only one. Kind of mind-blowing to think about, isn't it? I really miss getting to hear him preach every week. I'm so grateful that he podcasts his homilies because they are so good. Insightful. Convicting. I love the way he seems to approach each set of readings from a big picture standpoint, teaching us about how those little bits of the Bible fit in to the larger story of salvation, while also managing to find ways to apply them simply to our real, daily life circumstances. He really has been given a gift for preaching. The podcasts are fantastic, but if you can hear him prea...

I'm sure I've mentioned it here several times already, but I really enjoy my Blessed is She email subscription. It includes the daily Mass readings and then a short reflection by one of their many contributing writers. Most of the reflections give me something worthwhile to think about throughout the day, and it's an easy way to work daily scripture reading into my schedule. Another thing I love about it is their weekly wallpaper. I don't use them every time they have a new one, but most of them are just so pretty that I can't resist. Here's this week's: So pretty! I shouldn't look at my phone as often as I do, but it's nice to have a beautiful painting and a verse of scripture (most often from the Sunday gospel) when I do.  Today's reflection by one of my favorite bloggers on the reading we all know about the Good Samaritan, kind of blew my mind. Check it out here . 

My day 123 post is sitting half-written on the computer screen but I'm tired, so I'll publish that one tomorrow. It's my blog and I'll publish out of order if I want to!  I just listened to this amazing homily by Father Mike Schmitz at the University of Minnesota Duluth. I'm grateful for his priesthood, his courage, and the way he confidently speaks the truth. I'm grateful my parents raised me in the Catholic Church, because I often wonder I would have the courage to convert. I'm grateful that Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against his church and that he would be with us until the end of time.  Check out the homily (5/1/16) here:  http://bulldogcatholic.org/heroic-confidence/ . Then make that amazed cat emoji face. That's what I did. 

Happy Easter! Christ is risen! He is truly risen! The joy I have experienced so far this Easter is somehow different than Easters past. It is probably the result a combination of things: I've been  trying  to put God in his rightful first place in my life. I've had varying degrees of success and daily failure, but that, along with this year's gratitude experimen t, are helping me be happier in general. The celebration of any holiday with children also has a default joy that can't be found elsewhere. They showed such excitement and delight at Easter baskets, dressing up for church, and hunting for eggs in the backyard. It's hard not to be happy around all that! While I was nervous to discuss crucifixion and Resurrection with 3- and 5-year-olds, the kids and I did have some good chats about Lent and Easter, and they also survived 4.5 hours of church services in 4 days. Win. Kids are so open to information and they have an innate understanding of God that I wish I...

Lent decorations are a thing! I love these from Happy Nest Home Goods ! I had psyched myself up to visit the sacrament of reconciliation when our priest joined us at mother's group to take questions and hear confessions yesterday. I had examined the conscience and felt as ready as you can be to face your sins and faults and beg forgiveness for them. But then we ran out of time. Since we always go to mass on Thursday evenings and a friend had volunteered to keep tabs on the little people, I figured I'd just go right before Mass. Then of course I was yelling at the kids and was in a rush to make it on time, so I ran in flustered and not at all ready. The funny thing is, it doesn't really matter if we are ready. The grace and the forgiveness are there waiting. No one cares if I'm flustered and sweating and nervous. Both of our parish priests are such excellent confessors, which makes going much easier. A certain priest I like to go to is understanding yet firm an...

I'm certain I've mentioned it before or at least linked to a podcast, but one of our priests generously records and posts his weekend homilies on ye olde interwebs for all to hear. Father Bryan is certainly one of the most gifted homilists I've heard. He's young and faithful and orthodox and holy and passionate. He definitely uses the gifts he's been given for the glory of God and for the benefit of others. I am certainly inspired by him to at least evaluate my gifts and how I can put them to better use. His homily from this weekend was just...wow. Spot on. Please take 16 minutes to listen to it here:  http://evangelicaldisciple.com/2016/03/07/its-all-about-food-sermon/ . I'll wait. Even if the content of Father Bryan's homilies wasn't always solid and convicting and terrific and terrifyingly real (which it is), I believe his genuine desire for our salvation and holiness would be evident. You can hear the passion in his voice and that touches me as ...

Today was a very average day, with the fact that 3/5 of us are in varying stages of a pretty bad cold tugging the day to maybe slightly below average. I just hate watching the family suffer and not being able to do a whole lot to help them. As I was doing supper dishes and baking banana bread for breakfast, I thought about what my gratitude item for the day should be. At that time, whatever I was watching stopped with a new break to announce primary election results.  It's seeming likely we'll have to pick between Trump and either Hilary or Bernie this fall, and that is almost enough to make me give up gratitude for good. I realized that if I was an atheist who believed that this world was all we have, I'd have little to place my hope in and I would easily fall into despair.  Through Christianity, I know this world isn't "it" and that something better awaits, so I can stand on hope and faith that what Jesus said was true. This isn't it, so the ...

I said it in one of the early posts , but I love Wednesdays. On Wednesdays, we drop off #1 at preschool and go to 8 a.m. Mass, followed by "Mach" which stands for M others A nd Ch ildren. My middle son loves it so much, as did the big one when he went last year. The baby just tolerates it, but that's good enough for me. We meet Wednesday mornings throughout the school year in the basement of our church. There are usually about 8-12 moms there. Many of us go weekly, and some show up monthly or just whenever they can. There are some moms with older kids, but in the core group who is there every week, the oldest kids are about seven or eight. There are several pregnant moms right now, and many newcomers who have just babies, too. Mach is such a supportive and encouraging group of people. Online you read about "mommy wars" all the time and I absolutely have never experienced any of that in this group (or at all, really). We don't all do things the same, and...

I love Lent! As someone who struggles with self-denial and self-control, I like this time that the church sets aside for us to detach from ourselves and reattach to the Lord. I find myself feeling contented by the simplicity of it, but also challenged by the depth of it. In recent years as I've learned more about my faith, the liturgical year, and myself, I have understood why my Lenten "sacrifices" in the past have not always been fruitful. I think it was because I was just denying myself something (or trying to) and usually doing it for prideful reasons, rather than looking it as a sacrifice that I could give to Jesus in an effort to grow into closer relationship with Him. As I learn and understand more, I look forward the prayer, fasting and almsgiving that we are called to during Lent. In an effort to hold myself accountable, I have started to write down my plans for Lent. I have found this to be helpful for me as the season becomes long and I start to lose my foc...

Today I'm grateful that I have one more day  to prepare for Lent. I've been thinking about it a while, but I'm not quite ready yet. I'm mostly ready for myself, having printed my Waiting in the Word scripture study journal just seconds ago. I have the book we'll be reading  on my nightstand. What I do not have ready yet is how we will "do" Lent with the small people. I have a few ideas, but I still need to talk them over with the other household adult before we decide for sure. In the mean time, I have lots and lots of Lenten blog posts to peruse. Here are a few, most of which I've read, but all of which I would be well served to revisit: Carrots for Michaelmas: 8 Picture Books for Lent and Easter Catholic All Year: 66 Things to Give Up or Take Up for Lent Carrots for Michaelmas: 40 Resources for Lent and February Liturgical Traditions The Mission Life: Recognizing God's Providence in the Midst of the Desert Pierced Hands: ...

Tonight after confession, the Divine Mercy chaplet, a friendly chat with our Pastor, and Mass, I was reflecting on what a great parish St. Joseph's has been to us, lo these last 10 years. The parish's motto is "Led by the Spirit" and, although it's not perfect (what parish is?), I have certainly felt the Holy Spirit at work there. We got married there and stuck around, even though it's across the river and in a different diocese, and there are other churches closer to our house. We feel so at home at St. Joe's and even though our anniversary came and went, I still feel surprised that we've been there almost 11 years. Some of our dearest friends are gifts from God to us through St. Joseph's. One of the perks of being one of the largest parishes in the diocese is that we always have great priests. We've had at least seven or eight priests there, but only two pastors since we joined, Father. Larry and Monsignor Mike. Both of them are sheph...