Ah...the richness of the Catholic Church! Especially during THIS time of the year - the church prepares us for the season so wonderfully! I am getting more and more excited! Last weekend after Mass we chose a card off of the Angel tree. Since we had already bought and sent gifts for a friend of mine that lives out of state, we opted to choose a shut-in. We will visit them and take them a gift sometime during the holiday season here....how fun!

I found this quote online this morning, which I think is perfect for anyone who has experienced a loss or is struggling:

"The everlasting God has, in His wisdom, foreseen from eternity the cross that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost heart. This cross He now sends you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes, understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with loving arms and weighed with His own hands to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with His holy Name, anointed it with His consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage, and then sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all-merciful love of God." ~St. Francis DeSales

An awesome prayer

I found this "prayer of surrender" here. I loved it - rather than bookmark it (or lose it) I thought I'd share it.

Loving Father,
I surrender to you today with all my heart and soul. Please come into my heart in a deeper way. I say, “Yes” to you today. I open all the secret places of my heart to you and say, “Come on in.” Jesus, you are the Lord of my whole life. I believe in you and receive you as my Lord and Savior. I hold nothing back.

Holy Spirit, bring me to a deeper conversion to the person of Jesus Christ. I surrender all to you: my time, my treasures, my talents, my health, my family, my resources, my work, relationships, time management, successes and failures. I release it and let it go.

I surrender my understanding of how things ‘ought’ to be, my choices and my will. I surrender to you the promises I have kept and the promises I have failed to keep. I surrender my weaknesses and strengths to you. I surrender my emotions, my fears, my insecurities, my sexuality. I especially surrender ______ (Here mention other areas of surrender as the Holy Spirit reveals them to you.)

Lord, I surrender my whole life to you, the past, the present, and the future. In sickness and in health, in life and in death, I belong to you. (Remain the Lord in a spirit of silence through your thoughts, a heart song, or simply staying in His presence and listening for His voice.)

Amen

My heart hurts

Life is NOT always a bowl of cherries. Sometimes you get a pit (or two).

I have really turned my life around in the past year - focused on being a more positive person, trying not to participate in gossip or drama, etc.

Lots of hard situations have been popping up in extended family - a baby born at 24 weeks (still alive), another baby that possibly has Potter's syndrome and the death of my hubby's grandmother, just to name a few.

But this time, it's personal. We are waiting on testing results. We found out that I may be going through early menopause. While this may not be a big deal to some people, and maybe it shouldn't feel like such a big deal to me, it is.

We have been blessed with 5 "normal," "healthy" children and only one miscarriage. But we have always been able to conceive when we wanted to - and sometimes when we didn't plan too! So to me, personally, this news hit hard. It means that we have some decisions to make (do we want more children, if so, maybe we should try NOW, as we don't know if/how much longer we can have biological children).

Now, my pregnancies have not always been easy - compared to some people, yes! but compared to others, no! Three out of four of my girls have been breech - the first was almost a c-section  - but she decided to turn the night before it was scheduled! The last, I was plagued with a bunch of problems including severe hypertension which led to delivering her early (AND turning her into position in LDR). And let's not even talk about my veins!

I look at babies and I love them and I hold them.....ah, they are so sweet - but yet I feel that THAT stage in my life may be over. I don't know.

We've always left EVERY ASPECT of our lives to the Lord. It hurts me to think of all these people that claim to give their lives to God, but prevent him from giving to them (by using birth control). If you're going to completely trust in God, then why not trust ALL areas of your life to him? Why is it that so many "Christian's" feel that they'll ask God for help in other areas, but NOT in the children area??? I don't get it.

So anyway, we are praying - praying for God's will to be done - because right now, I'm pretty comfortable with the seven of us (and NOT feeding in the nights or changing diapers....etc). But, we ARE open, open to the path that the Lord has chosen for us and we trust in HIM to decide what is best for us - because looking around, HE has always amply provided for us and we have faith that he will continue to do so.

Thanks for letting me "vent!"

Grace...

Last week was more than a little crazy around here. I explained the surgery and post-surgery complications in a prior post. Wednesday was pretty much uneventful (more "normal" if you will) but Thursday ended up being a day off of school because the fog was SO BAD! While we had a fun day, we DID have two extras (the neighbor boys). Friday was another "reading day" at school (every Friday is, for our Kindergartner) and we made another cute "edible" craft. Not sure if I should buy the book where she get these ideas out of myself, or just get the teacher to borrow it to me! :)

This week has already started off with Monday as a snow day, Friday a scheduled day off and tomorrow a Mass day - our Kindergartner gets to do her first reading!!

I was EXTREMELY busy cleaning last week - if I didn't know better, I would swear I were in the last few weeks of a pregnancy (I'm NOT preggo!!). I cleaned out the whole sewing machine area, including all shelves and drawers of the desk  - if you have been here recently, I apologize - I did NOT realize that area was as bad as it was!! I got rid of a 33 gallon bag of JUNK out of there and ended up finding two lost DS games (the kids were happy!). Between last week and the first few days of this week, I also cleaned out BOTH food pantries, the top of the dishwasher, a corner shelf that holds all of our crackers, snacks, etc and gotten rid of a bag of clothes out of Hubby and my closet.

Due to the fact that I organized the whole sewing area, I also found numerous unfinished projects that I am now working on finishing - oh - and I found a super easy pattern for a cell phone (or i-pod or MP3(4) player) that  I whipped up yesterday (I'll be posting on Moneyless Momma's soon).

Of course, this all in addition to the "normal" duties: making meals, sending treats to school, paying bills, schoolwork, laundry, etc.

Our son has decided that he liked going to the local private (catholic) middle school that he wants to go back again (for another day of shadowing). He has even said that he would give up (this Friday) his day off of school to go there! We are positive that this is where God is leading us - be sure to lift us up in prayer often for his will to be done (because frankly, I'm not sure HOW this is going to work, just have blind faith that it WILL!).

Hubby's RCIA classes are going well. I have decided to study whatever he is studying, so that we learn together. I feel that this will draw us closer together - not only in faith, but as a couple as well.

Last night I implemented prayer night - 1 decade of the rosary - while I thought that I would be met with resistance, I was wrong - totally and unmistakably wrong. Not only was I met with zero resistance, but they thought we were going to do MORE and probably would have said the whole rosary. I explained that we will do this every night at 6:30 - no phone, no tv (etc.). I think that we will also start off the prayers by deciding who we are "offering up" the prayers for that night.

I am humbled by God's Amazing Grace for us.

Thought for the day:

This morning, the city-wide "alarm" went off.

Not the tornado alarm - the fire alarm.

This always sends a small chill through me. It can mean a fire or an accident - just that the trucks are needed.

I recalled something that I had heard a long time ago, that I've passed on to my children: anytime you hear that alarm or pass an ambulance, cross yourself and say a quick prayer for the safety of the people going to help and for those that need the help.

You never know what that prayer may do for that person, at that particular moment in time!!