Meditation

“...next to the Blessed Sacrament Itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses.”

C.S.Lewis

I Like You!

My aunt Eileen sent me this link back in 1985 (thanks for the reminder, Pamela). My grandson loved it then and still does. Have fun.

Correction: that would have been 2005. Thanks, Richard.

Happy Passover

I was reminded recently of some great goodnesses that were done to and for me in the past. In honor of those very kind and generous folks, Happy Passover!

Fun Monday - Spring is about to spring!

Our Hostess this week is Janis. Her assignment? Here is what I want you to do.....Take a photo of whatever represents Spring to You....and tell us why.

I thought about this long and hard. Asparagus used to mean spring to me but now it, along with everything else, is available year-round.

Flowers blooming used to mean spring to me but, as some of you know, it is still snowing occasionally in our corner of the world.

Swimsuits in the department stores used to mean spring to me but they now appear as soon as the Christmas decorations come down.

So now, this
is what means spring to me. My husband converted to Catholicism 5 years ago this Easter. I cannot think of a better symbol of rebirth. As you can tell from the picture, Moose did not quite make it through the Easter Vigil ceremony.

Now I know

Grey's Anatomy tonight was very interesting and thought provoking. One of the storylines involved a terminally ill woman who, according to the Washington state law portrayed in the series, wanted to avail herself of "Medically Assisted Suicide". This involved, again according to the series, the patient verbally requesting this assistance twice at least 15 days apart and 2 doctors agreeing to this course of action. Her primary physician would then write her a prescription for barbiturates which she could take at her own discretion.

My grandson was in and out of the room because another storyline involved one of the doctors having flashbacks to his time in a MASH unit. My grandson is fascinated by all things military.

I took advantage of one of the times he was present to ask him, regarding the first storyline, what was wrong with it. He immediately told me that it was all backwards. This led into a discussion of the fact that, no matter what your motivation, taking your own life is denying God the chance to work miracles. It is not our job to question God's timeline. Moose absolutely understood all of this and agreed with me and, not coincidentally, with our Church.

As he went to take his shower, it struck me forcefully how true this is in my life. My first husband died when I was 20, he was 25, and our daughter was 4 months old.

I later remarried and had my second child who is Moose's mother. I have always understood, intellectually, that if Steven had lived, I would not have had Julie. I would probably have had another child, but it would not have been Julie. To say that I would have missed her is an understatement.

But tonight, I was brought to my knees by the knowledge that, had Steven not died, had I not had Julie, Moose would not exist. Moose would not exist. Just typing that sentence has brought me to tears once again.

We discuss, in my 5th grade catechism class, the fact that God absolutely intends for each of us to be right here, right now. Once again, I intellectually KNOW all of these things. I just didn't know them until tonight.

Now I know.

Cereal Box Project

Moose's school project, due today and finished this morning, was really kind of fun. The kids had to read a book and then design a cereal somehow related to the book.

The book Moose read was "The Capture" by Karen Lansky. This book is about an owl and his friends who are kidnapped, brainwashed (it didn't take), escape and set out to warn all of the other owl kingdoms about the rampant evil about to be unleashed.

The genre was science/fantasy fiction. It was a great choice. Moose had just finished the Percy Jackson books and was convinced that if Rick Riordan didn't write it, he wasn't reading it. This project had to be a book that you had NOT already read.

Mrs. Hicks, the wonderful librarian at Moose's school, suggested this. He fought it, he wouldn't read it, he just flat out wasn't going to like it. He finished it and then he got the second book in the series out of the library! Hurray!!

The front of the box, artwork by Moose. Talons in reference to the owls, of course. You can't see it but those are round oat cereal bits with marshmallow talons.

The left side of the box, with summary.

The right side with ingredients (characters) and setting.

The top: Book, Author, Pages and Rating (4 stars)

and finally, looking every bit as much of an orphan as his mother ever did, the Moose with the completed project.

Fun Monday - Wherefore art thou?

Our hostess this week is the lovely Sayre. Her request?

If you could live anywhere, where would it be? What would you do with your time? Who would you live with? How would you get there? What accomodations would you be living with? Tell me about this life you have fantasized for yourself!

OK, this is pretty easy for me since this is a VERY old fantasy of mine. Let's start off with some lovely lyrics from Lerner and Loewe:

"A law was made a distant moon ago here:

July and August cannot be too hot.

And there's a legal limit to the snow here

In Camelot.

The winter is forbidden till December

And exits March the second on the dot.

By order, summer lingers through September

In Camelot.

Camelot! Camelot!

I know it sounds a bit bizarre,

But in Camelot, Camelot

That's how conditions are.

The rain may never fall till after sundown.

By eight, the morning fog must disappear.

In short, there's simply not

A more congenial spot

For happily-ever-aftering than here

In Camelot.

Camelot! Camelot!

I know it gives a person pause,

But in Camelot, Camelot

Those are the legal laws.

The snow may never slush upon the hillside.

By nine p.m. the moonlight must appear.

In short, there's simply not

A more congenial spot

For happily-ever-aftering than here

In Camelot."

All right. Now we know where and, as I sit here in the falling snow on the first day of spring, why. With whom? Ah, that's easy. I would live in Camelot with the very delectable, very listenable, and very easy on the eyes Sam Elliott. It would not matter if it was the young Sam or the current Sam. No matter at all. There would be no Lancelot in my kingdom. There would just be Sam.

I cannot think of too many changes that I would make to the original (Lerner and Loewe version) Camelot. There would definitely be indoor plumbing and enough ice for decent refrigeration but that's about it. Oh, wait. I would own a printing press and an absolutely amazing library.

That's it. Chivalry and heraldry and honor and no snow after daylight. What more could a woman want?

Fun Monday - Why Tuna Fish?

Our hostess this week is Faye from Summit Musings.

Our assignment?

... to share your memories of school lunches. What kind of school did you attend--public, private, parochial, city or country? Did you bring lunch from home or buy in the school cafeteria? Or, did you go home for lunch? What did your lunch look like? Who prepared it? Who did you have lunch with? Was this a happy part of the school day? What did you do during lunch time other than eat your PB & J sandwich?

I went to school back in the day when, by today's standards, our parents were trying to kill us. There were no car seats, no seat belts, no bicycle helmets, no pads except for professional football players and we drank warm milk at lunch time.

I went to Catholic school. Our school had no cafeteria and no gymnasium. We had no lockers and there was no lunchroom. Our lunches lived, in brown paper bags, under our desks until lunchtime, At lunchtime, we put our school materials inside our desk, took out our place mats, said grace, and ate lunch. There was milk available for $.10 but it had been sitting out in the breezeway since the milkman delivered it early in the morning. Most of us chose to just have water after lunch from the drinking fountain.

My mother made my lunch. Even after she started working nights, she still made our lunches. My dad always got lunch meat and cheese and us kids got peanut butter with homemade boysenberry jelly or jam. I so wanted store-bought Welch's grape jelly. I never got it. Mom also included a couple of homemade chocolate chip or peanut butter or oatmeal cookies which I always tried to trade for Oreos, This even though we were not allowed to trade food or even talk to each other during lunch. There was also a piece of fruit.

This menu only varied on Friday. Friday fasting was not contained to Lent when I was growing up but was an every Friday occurrence. On Friday, the peanut butter sandwich was exchanged for tuna fish. Yep, tuna fish that had been sitting in a bag on the floor in the classroom for 4 hours. It was warm and soggy and smelled nasty and everyone had the same thing. On rainy days, you could add the smell of wet wool sweaters for a truly memorable olfactory experience.

It wasn't until I was a grownup that I wondered why I could not have just had peanut butter - it's not meat, you know. Oh, well.

My grandson is in Catholic school now. His school not only has a cafeteria, it has some of the best cooks in town. They pride themselves on never repeating a menu during the month. Parents and grandparents alike stop in to have lunch with the kiddoes. Sometimes progress is a great thing.

What a good girl

Stations of the Cross

and he did not set the church on fire! Good job, Moose.

Update

I have now completed a week and a half at my new job. I love it! I come home after working my shift and, instead of heading directly to bed to collapse, I now cook meals, carry on coherent conversations and just generally get to live.

When I went in for my physical, my blood pressure was a little high, which surprised me. My blood pressure has always been on the low side. Turns out it wasn’t the fried food or the grease or the salt. It evidently was stress. One week later, back to normal. Life is good.

My husband, God love him, has picked up all of the stuff that I don’t have to try and cram into my day. Since his retirement, the laundry and the dishes are evidently now his domain, along with grandson wrangling.

My life right now is just so blessed. Yeah, there are bills. There is enough money to pay them. Yeah, there are conflicts. There is enough grace to solve them. It is all just good.

Class Projects

My grandson’s school had their annual auction on Sunday. This is the major fundraiser for the school. In addition to sheds and 4-wheelers and sides of beef (this is cow country, you know) each class does a project.

For Moose’s class this year, each child had to bring in a verse, Scripture or something else spiritual, that either has meaning to his family or that spoke directly to him. Moose and I googled “saints” and “quotations”. The results were amazing.

After reading just a few quotes, we came across this one from St. Francis of Assisi.

Moose instantly said, “That’s it”.

I asked if he didn’t want to look at some more and he looked at me like I had rocks in my head,. “But, Grandma, that one’s perfect. Why would I keep looking?”

Why, indeed.

Moose has always had a very close relationship with God. He is very sure of God and His love and of his love for Him. He is also aware, because we (his mom and me and his teachers and everyone else) tell him, of his faults.

Maybe it’s time to lighten up…or maybe, it’s just time to recognize God’s work.

I am so confused

Remember this? Okay. Then this will make sense. Sort of. Not really. Maybe. Ah, heck.