We have started juicing everyday. I got a new set of juice recipes, and I love them. I never liked the taste of the juices we made, and so never took the juicer out. But with these new recipes, it is now a daily event.
Strangely, I have been popping out of bed every morning with a new surge of energy. I wake up earlier than usual, and am not groggy. I jump out of bed, and instead of making coffee, I make a red drink with blue-green algae. That really perks me up. I make coffee for Ron (or vice versa), and then drink coffee a little later in the day. But I have heard that an alkaline drink first thing in the morning has great benefits.
Finally! I'm doing what I have wanted to do all along. Sometimes it takes such patience for things to fall together! Patience, patience, patience! But then, it falls into place!
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
Surrender
In Mass yesterday, I was kneeling and praying about the three most challenging things in my life right now. I recognized that in the first area, God has been prompting my heart to "surrender" and not worry. Then I considered that in the second area, I have felt a strong message to "let go." Then I realized that in the third area, there is no recourse but to "yield to God" and let Him be in charge. And in a flash, all three came together in my mind, with a powerful awareness: "In all things, surrender to God. Step aside. Do not try to fix, change, or control, but rather, spend your energy praying. Beg God to be the one to fix, change, and control." Upon this "Aha" moment, I almost fell out. I almost fainted. It was like the experience when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. I was filled with such awe and love for God, and all I could see was the GLORY of GOD. I kept repeating, "The Glory of God, the Glory of God." God's glory was so overpowering and beautiful to me.
I think God was trying to say, "Yes, Kathryn, you are finally listening to me. Let go! Your effort is better spent at intercession than at worry or management of issues. Be small! Let me be big!"
I am thankful for that grace-filled moment, and I pray--yes, I intercede!--that God can make that ephemeral awareness a habit, an ongoing and lasting cornerstone of how I handle what life brings.
I think God was trying to say, "Yes, Kathryn, you are finally listening to me. Let go! Your effort is better spent at intercession than at worry or management of issues. Be small! Let me be big!"
I am thankful for that grace-filled moment, and I pray--yes, I intercede!--that God can make that ephemeral awareness a habit, an ongoing and lasting cornerstone of how I handle what life brings.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Wonderful Grandparents
What a blessing it is, to have such engaging, intelligent, magnanimous grandparents! It was such a joy to see them in this past week. They even spent a day in our homeschool!
While Mom is not in this picture, she was the star of the show! She colored Catholic images with Leigh, she filled our home with roses, she took each child out for a special outing, and she took Ron, Dad and me to a play on Rothko. What a lovely person, and a fabulous Mom!
While Mom is not in this picture, she was the star of the show! She colored Catholic images with Leigh, she filled our home with roses, she took each child out for a special outing, and she took Ron, Dad and me to a play on Rothko. What a lovely person, and a fabulous Mom!
Top Five
The top five things that are going well right now:
1. When I told Clare she could not have makeup that she had been offered as a gift, she accepted it without a fuss.
2. When I serve lentil soup and broccoli for lunch, they say, "Yay!"
3. When I tell Leigh to clean her and Annie's room, she says "Okay," and actually does it.
4. Annie just keeps herself busy through most of the homeschooling day.
5. Ron and I are so happily married: it is better now than when we were newlyweds.
Each of these five things is the fruit of prayer and labor. They are like vegetables ready to pick, after months of tilling, cultivating, weeding, fertilizing and watering. I use words and incentives, but I also just pray. The one about Annie especially: who knows when a toddler will become easy to manage in homeschool! But all Christmas break I prayed, "God, help her to turn the corner! Please, please! Let this semester have been the last one that she wrecks the day!" And sure enough, I cannot point to a day on which it shifted, but for weeks now, she just fits right in! Thank you, Lord, for answering my prayer!!!!!
1. When I told Clare she could not have makeup that she had been offered as a gift, she accepted it without a fuss.
2. When I serve lentil soup and broccoli for lunch, they say, "Yay!"
3. When I tell Leigh to clean her and Annie's room, she says "Okay," and actually does it.
4. Annie just keeps herself busy through most of the homeschooling day.
5. Ron and I are so happily married: it is better now than when we were newlyweds.
Each of these five things is the fruit of prayer and labor. They are like vegetables ready to pick, after months of tilling, cultivating, weeding, fertilizing and watering. I use words and incentives, but I also just pray. The one about Annie especially: who knows when a toddler will become easy to manage in homeschool! But all Christmas break I prayed, "God, help her to turn the corner! Please, please! Let this semester have been the last one that she wrecks the day!" And sure enough, I cannot point to a day on which it shifted, but for weeks now, she just fits right in! Thank you, Lord, for answering my prayer!!!!!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Learning what is most important
It was a day in which God was palpably present in our home.
The night before, I felt compelled to call the school day off--not to rest, but to do something unusual. I've never done that before. I thought, let's go to a museum. But it was Monday, and all museum's are closed that day.
So we went to Mass.
It was so powerful. It was the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The kids and I had intense discussions about how Mary helped Bernadette be the radical kind of Christian we are all called to be. I told them that I was not sure that I could do what she did, that I would need much help from God to be as humble as Bernadette. I think that was significant for them: that this is an adult's struggle, to become totally yielded to God.
Then we did not have the wonderful, exciting events that I had hoped. But we did some simple acts of mercy. It felt like "not enough" to have warranted no school.
But then that evening, I had us all watch "The Song of Bernadette," given the Feast Day of our Lady of Lourdes. We watched all 2 and a half hours of it, and the kids were riveted. We were intensely wrapped up in it. By the end, the children were crying, that it was so amazing how God had worked in Bernadette's life, and how Mary showed the world the foolishness of atheism, and the power of her Son.
The kids literally went to bed crying, and resolving a stronger commitment to Jesus. The Holy Spirit was moving in them.
I learned something powerful too: that when the Holy Spirit tells you to do something you do not understand (like cancel the normal school day for no apparent reason), you should do it. Even when you do not see what the benefit is, just trust Him. He is teaching me to surrender these days. Boy, did He deliver! In the 11th hour, my children had the most intensely positive religious experience that I can remember. The Holy Spirit swept them off their feet. I had nothing to do with it: it was all God's work.
The kids learned what God wanted to teach them about the Christian life, and I learned, I hope, what God wanted to teach me, about surrender: God is powerful, and I am not.
We are all in God's school in this house. Not always very good students, but He teaches us all the same!
The night before, I felt compelled to call the school day off--not to rest, but to do something unusual. I've never done that before. I thought, let's go to a museum. But it was Monday, and all museum's are closed that day.
So we went to Mass.
It was so powerful. It was the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The kids and I had intense discussions about how Mary helped Bernadette be the radical kind of Christian we are all called to be. I told them that I was not sure that I could do what she did, that I would need much help from God to be as humble as Bernadette. I think that was significant for them: that this is an adult's struggle, to become totally yielded to God.
Then we did not have the wonderful, exciting events that I had hoped. But we did some simple acts of mercy. It felt like "not enough" to have warranted no school.
But then that evening, I had us all watch "The Song of Bernadette," given the Feast Day of our Lady of Lourdes. We watched all 2 and a half hours of it, and the kids were riveted. We were intensely wrapped up in it. By the end, the children were crying, that it was so amazing how God had worked in Bernadette's life, and how Mary showed the world the foolishness of atheism, and the power of her Son.
The kids literally went to bed crying, and resolving a stronger commitment to Jesus. The Holy Spirit was moving in them.
I learned something powerful too: that when the Holy Spirit tells you to do something you do not understand (like cancel the normal school day for no apparent reason), you should do it. Even when you do not see what the benefit is, just trust Him. He is teaching me to surrender these days. Boy, did He deliver! In the 11th hour, my children had the most intensely positive religious experience that I can remember. The Holy Spirit swept them off their feet. I had nothing to do with it: it was all God's work.
The kids learned what God wanted to teach them about the Christian life, and I learned, I hope, what God wanted to teach me, about surrender: God is powerful, and I am not.
We are all in God's school in this house. Not always very good students, but He teaches us all the same!
Friday, February 1, 2013
Homeschool High Points
We are finally achieving the homeschool that I had envisioned so long ago: the family learning together, not using workbooks, but using "living books": books that make the subjects come alive. Mary, Clare and Leigh (and sometimes even Annie) sit with me on the couch. We read the Science Encyclopedia and make flash cards on a few facts per day. The girls have SO MUCH memorized from those flash cards, even though I have never made the girls study them. We also read the Bible, and the kids are voracious for more stories each day. In past years, Leigh, Clare and I have done Toddler and Youth Bibles, and now we are using an Illustrated Children's one for older kids. They are truly getting a handle on the Bible stories: their content and their sequence. Then we do History and Geography together. We are doing ancient history. The younger girls are understanding how amazing it is that any civilizations have cropped up at all, and what it takes for tribes to develop into a civilization, and what it takes for a civilization to become an empire. Mary is doing written compositions for each ancient civilization. She used to cry doing history assignments. Now she is facile with them, and mastering the material. We are doing map work with each child coloring their own map, learning where countries are relative to each other. On a whim I decided we would do countries around the Mediterranean, which means African, Middle Eastern as well as European countries. This breaks up the typical "one continent at a time" routine, and it feels fresh and interesting.
We sketch, we do music together (piano, violin, guitar and cello), we read books aloud. All of this "experience of learning" is balanced with the daily discipline of daily math, spelling, handwriting and phonics. They also memorize daily: a history time line, a poem, a Bible verse, and Italian vocabulary. Jake and Mary are studying Latin with Ron.
Jake is doing some of these subjects with us (memory work, geography, Italian, music), but he is also doing independent work (he just reads World History and literature by himself for fun) and the co-op.
It is a packed day, and I never stop. But they are joyfully engaged with the material.
Most of all, they like being together. They enjoy their shared day, and Jake and the girls are being knit together in a way that is not otherwise possible. They take their breaks together, the girls dressing up and playing with dolls, or listening and dancing to the first ever set of pop music I have allowed. They are growing close in a way I could not have imagined.
I would not give this semester for anything. It is exhausting, but it is the highest point our homeschool has ever achieved. I have worked toward this for years: doing one part of it with Jake, and other part with Clare or Mary. But never before has it all come together like this. I am so, so grateful!
We sketch, we do music together (piano, violin, guitar and cello), we read books aloud. All of this "experience of learning" is balanced with the daily discipline of daily math, spelling, handwriting and phonics. They also memorize daily: a history time line, a poem, a Bible verse, and Italian vocabulary. Jake and Mary are studying Latin with Ron.
Jake is doing some of these subjects with us (memory work, geography, Italian, music), but he is also doing independent work (he just reads World History and literature by himself for fun) and the co-op.
It is a packed day, and I never stop. But they are joyfully engaged with the material.
Most of all, they like being together. They enjoy their shared day, and Jake and the girls are being knit together in a way that is not otherwise possible. They take their breaks together, the girls dressing up and playing with dolls, or listening and dancing to the first ever set of pop music I have allowed. They are growing close in a way I could not have imagined.
I would not give this semester for anything. It is exhausting, but it is the highest point our homeschool has ever achieved. I have worked toward this for years: doing one part of it with Jake, and other part with Clare or Mary. But never before has it all come together like this. I am so, so grateful!
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