Thursday, January 29, 2009

Religion with Kain

Me- Ok, now, what's the ninth commandment?

Kain- Thou shalt love thy neighbor's wife.

Monday, January 19, 2009

G.R.O.U.C.H.

Too much yelling and angry tones in your house too?

I'm starting a new campaign. It's called G.R.O.U.C.H., which stands for Getting Rid Of Ugly, Crabby Hollering. Wanna join? Keep track of when you first lose your temper each day and blog it.

Today's first infraction....

8:12am- "JAAAAAACCCCKKK! I SAID GET IN HERE AND LET ME WIPE YOUR BUTT!!"

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Back to the Ordinary

Christmas is done
And it's back to the Ordinary...

Ordinary meals, ordinary cares,
Ordinary lessons, ordinary prayers,
Ordinary children I tend the needs of,
This ordinary family with ordinary love.

It isn't very ordinary,
This Ordinary Time.

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Today, we put the Christmas tree to the curb. Tomorrow begins Ordinary Time. I am so glad. :) One of my very favorite things about the church is the church year, the liturgical year with it's times of fasting and times of celebrating and times of...ordinary. I'm ready for ordinary again.

The cable for my digital camera is MIA, so I can't post the rest of my Christmas pictures! Also, I dropped my camera on New Year's Eve, so I can't take any pictures until I get that fixed. Waaaah! Without my camera, I feel like I've lost a limb or something. "Wait!" I'll say, when the baby does something cute, "Let me get my....Oh. Never mind."

We started back to school this week, just part time. I was going to wait until Monday, but I'm glad we didn't wait. It's taken us all week to get two days of lessons done. Ouch. Kain, especially, is having a hard time getting back to work. So am I, frankly. It's a big leap to get back to "doing it all". I've made some big changes in our schedule and routines to try and help, but it's been exhausting.

The kids started basketball practice this week. Neither has played before, but they decided to give it a try with a nearby Upward team. I also enrolled them for a couple of classes with our homeschool co-op and those will start at the end of the month. We've been sticking pretty close to home since Tess was born, but now I feel ready to get out more. Maria will be dancing in a feis (an Irish dance competition) at the end of the month as well. I have to get my camera back by then!!

Tess is 7 months old now and *so* very much fun. She can now say 3 words, "Mama", "Dadda" and "Nuhnuh", our word for nursing. She loves to play peek a boo and roll, roll, roll all over the house.

I wish I could blog more...the kids are out of reading and rest time already! I'm having a really hard time finding time to blog, though I want to blog more! Ah well...that will come...right now we have to focus on getting back to our "normal".
Jack is poopy and Tess is fussing and we have a house to straighten, so off I go. Hi ho. Hi ho.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Novena, and an idea

January is the month of dedication to the holy name of Jesus. Here is a novena and litany shared by Kori for the month.
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"May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most mysterious and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified in heaven on earth and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ in the most Holy Sacrament of the altar."


Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus
V. Lord, have mercy on us.
R. Christ, have mercy on us.
V. Lord, have mercy on us. Jesus, hear us.
R. Jesus, graciously hear us.
V. God the Father of Heaven
R. Have mercy on us.
V. God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
R. Have mercy on us.
V. God the Holy Spirit,
R. Have mercy on us.
V. Holy Trinity, one God,
R. Have mercy on us.
V. Jesus, Son of the living God, R. Have mercy on us.
Jesus, splendor of the Father, [etc.]
Jesus, brightness of eternal light.
Jesus, King of glory.
Jesus, sun of justice.
Jesus, Son of the Virgin Mary.
Jesus, most amiable.
Jesus, most admirable.
Jesus, the mighty God.
Jesus, Father of the world to come.
Jesus, angel of great counsel.
Jesus, most powerful.
Jesus, most patient.
Jesus, most obedient.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart.
Jesus, lover of chastity.
Jesus, lover of us.
Jesus, God of peace.
Jesus, author of life.
Jesus, example of virtues.
Jesus, zealous lover of souls.
Jesus, our God.
Jesus, our refuge.
Jesus, father of the poor.
Jesus, treasure of the faithful.
Jesus, good Shepherd.
Jesus, true light.
Jesus, eternal wisdom.
Jesus, infinite goodness.
Jesus, our way and our life.
Jesus, joy of Angels.
Jesus, King of the Patriarchs.
Jesus, Master of the Apostles.
Jesus, teacher of the Evangelists.
Jesus, strength of Martyrs.
Jesus, light of Confessors.
Jesus, purity of Virgins.
Jesus, crown of Saints.
V. Be merciful, R. spare us, O Jesus.
V. Be merciful, R. graciously hear us, O Jesus.
V. From all evil, R. deliver us, O Jesus.
From all sin, deliver us, O Jesus.
From Your wrath, [etc.]
From the snares of the devil.
From the spirit of fornication.
From everlasting death.
From the neglect of Your inspirations.
By the mystery of Your holy Incarnation.
By Your Nativity.
By Your Infancy.
By Your most divine Life.
By Your labors.
By Your agony and passion.
By Your cross and dereliction.
By Your sufferings.
By Your death and burial.
By Your Resurrection.
By Your Ascension.
By Your institution of the most Holy Eucharist.
By Your joys.
By Your glory.
V. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
R. spare us, O Jesus.
V. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
R. graciously hear us, O Jesus.
V. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
R. have mercy on us, O Jesus.
V. Jesus, hear us.
R. Jesus, graciously hear us.
Let us pray.
O Lord Jesus Christ, You have said, "Ask and you shall receive, seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you." Grant, we beg of You, to us who ask it, the gift of Your most divine love, that we may ever love You with our whole heart, in word and deed, and never cease praising You.
Give us, O Lord, as much a lasting fear as a lasting love of Your Holy Name, for You, who live and are King for ever and ever, never fail to govern those whom You have solidly established in Your love. R. Amen.
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I have a secret motive for posting this here. Kori hasn't put these prayers on her webpage, and if I have them online somewhere it will be much easier for me to access them next year at this time. I have been using a brilliant organizational idea the last few months. I really can't remember if I came up with this or read about it somewhere. Anyway, you all know I'm always looking for fun ideas to use for the seasonal year and the church year. Many times, though, I come across a great idea when it's too late to work it into my own plans, or when I am feeling too overwhelmed to take on anything new. I needed an easy way to keep up with these ideas.

I tried printing them out to save, but that wasn't satisfactory. I really have a hard time keeping up with papers, and often I would print something out only to leave it, forgotten, on the computer desk, and find it later a doodled, crumpled mess. Plus, I was using a lot of our expensive colored ink that way. Then I tried copying and pasting into office documents. This was better, but I lost a lot of the content of the website this way, like pictures and such.

Now I have 12 folders in my "favorites" file, one for each month of the year. When I find a great idea, I will just save that webpage in my favorites folder for that month. When I'm doing my monthly planning, I can look through the folder for that month for ideas. And best of all, even if I don't use an idea that year, it is still there, waiting, for another year.

I realize I could still lose an idea if the content is deleted or moved. I've saved lots of webpages over the years though, and I rarely have had that happen. I think I'd lose many more ideas with one of my older methods.