The Stations as a mother, and other Lenten thoughts...

Over at Creative Minority Report is this great post from a guest poster... and what a wonderful post it is. Her words are my thoughts, and my agony as a mother. I can remember the first time I heard a priest talk about Mary's heart pleading and the Heavenly Father answering her prayers.  Christ didn't NEED Simon, Christ didn't NEED Veronica... Mary did, we DO.

I needed to read this post this morning.  Life is tough.  Families are made up of people... sinners, some trying and some not.  Suffering is just part of it.  Are you choosing to sin?  Are the sins of others causing your suffering.  What are you doing with it?  Are you offering it up?  Are you holding on to it to let it fester and work against you?  Have you chosen to repent, or live in denial?

The truth is, you know the answer within you.  Walk the Stations if you have the least bit of doubt.

It's hard to walk the Stations, it's supposed to be hard.  It is supposed to be reflective... it's supposed to be a visual reminder of what we are uniting our sufferings too.  It's what HE came for, and we are who HE came for, and that is what HE had to do for us!  It's the heart of our faith.  He SUFFERED and DIED for us... so that we might LIVE!

That last part, might live... I didn't really get that until I was a grown up and really came to grips with the reality of sin... every sin is DEATH, a little bit of death to your soul... yes He died for us, but are we really choosing LIFE, the life He died to give us?  Or are we a slave to sin, hoping that He will look the other way at the end of days...

Being a grown up is tough, sometimes it really isn't a whole heap of FUN, and easy is rarely part of the package.  It's about the choices we make.  It can feel simple to make the immediate gratification choice, but in the long run is that really the decision that will allow your soul to be free and alive in Christ?

As people of God, we must take the long view... the big picture if you will!  Our reward is not here, and it's not now... for our treasure awaits us in heaven, and our happiness is in Christ!

 

Seriously...

I know you know the phrase, no good deed goes unpunished... boy has today felt like that. While trying to make a cheesecake, I had pressed in my graham cracker crust and was going to pick it up (the spring form pan) and move it over by the stove, when I picked it up the bottom of the pan fell out and out went the crust all over the floor... that's the kind of day it has been!

Thankfully I had enough ingredients to redo the entire crust, but by the time I cleaned it all up and set to making a new one... well tic toc goes the clock! And to show you just how befuddled I was... usually when I cook, I'm a clean as you go kind of gal, because I rather dislike all the clean up at the end...

Oh well, dinner won't have a lot of clean up so I suppose I will survive :-)...

Okay on to better things, our lovely beds are a bloomin!  Even the camillia which usually is all done by the start of March has to decided to continue blooming!  She's a beaut!

 Next up are the long beds (I only got one good shot of the very front one, maybe later I will try to grab a better one of the one closest to the house) with irises, tulips and daffodils.  The daffodils are on their way out, while the tulips and irises are just making their appearances!

Happy Spring!

Not dead, yet!

I'm alive... we're all alive... but we've all been busy in one way or another! For me, I've been trying to get as much rest as possible to get over this nose pain. The boys are headlong into the final stretch of the school year (and we are all ready for the BEACH!!!). And Daddio, well, he has been busy running. Two weeks ago he competed and completed his first half-marathon! Wow, I can't say enough how totally impressed I am with his accomplishment! Not only did he complete it, he ran it really WELL (keeping a 10 min pace, he's awesome)!

In the coming weeks I hope to have some time to type out my thoughts and progress of planning Bobcat's upcoming 7th grade year.  I know, I'm fairly shocked as well.  Actually, I really try not to think about it because I just don't feel prepared and like any homeschooling parent I wonder how ready he is!