On the Feast of St. Francis

Canticle of St. Francis

O Most High, all-powerful, good Lord God,
to you belong praise, glory,
honour and all blessing.
Be praised, my Lord, for all your creation
and especially for our Brother Sun,
who brings us the day and the light;
he is strong and shines magnificently.
O Lord, we think of you when we look at him.
Be praised, my Lord, for Sister Moon,
and for the stars
which you have set shining and lovely
in the heavens.
Be praised, my Lord,
for our Brothers Wind and Air
and every kind of weather
by which you, Lord,
uphold life in all your creatures.
Be praised, my Lord, for Sister Water,
who is very useful to us,
and humble and precious and pure.
Be praised, my Lord, for Brother Fire,
through whom you give us light in the darkness:
he is bright and lively and strong.
Be praised, my Lord,
for Sister Earth, our Mother,
who nourishes us and sustains us,
bringing forth
fruits and vegetables of many kinds
and flowers of many colours.
Be praised, my Lord,
for those who forgive for love of you;
and for those
who bear sickness and weakness
in peace and patience
- you will grant them a crown.
Be praised, my Lord, for our Sister Death,
whom we must all face.
I praise and bless you, Lord,
and I give thanks to you,
and I will serve you in all humility.

-- St. Francis of Assisi

In honor of the Saint that loved all of God's creation, I thought I'd do a post/update on our family pets! :)

It's no secret that we are a pet family.

This is our red Beta fish...whose name eludes me at the moment.  We've had him for about two years.  

The trick about Beta fish is to get ones that look lively
at the pet store.  Also, we've had better luck with the
common variety as opposed to the fancy tailed ones that
are less hardy.  We also haven't had luck with the babies.

You all know my friend Reina, girl who saves my sanity by getting me out on walks each day.  She reminds me of Pongo in "101 Dalmatians" gazing lazily out the window, and going CrAzY on me when I put my shoes on and head toward the door.  I kid you not, I have to SPELL the word "WALK" or she'll begin her tail wagging frenzy and sniff and wiggle and jump on me...  ugh.  I love her.

I pretty much see my Beta as something along the lines of a house plant.  They require almost no care and add life and color to the corners of my home. "Blueberry" also joined our home about two years back.  But he's one of a very long line of succession of Beta fish.  I've kept fish since I first had children and wanted them to be able to gaze and ponder the wonder that is a creature that lives in water!

I need to do an official post introducing "Muffin".  Muffin is a teddy bear (bichon frise/shih-tsu mix). She is for the whole family, but is special to my middle girls, who campaigned for a small dog, that they could walk more easily than my Reina. ;)

you've seen our aquarium before. It's 40 gallons, which is just a bit more fun than the beginner 20-gallon aquariums out there.

I do not limit our love of animals to pets!  Every fall we find a wooly bear caterpillar or three and make homes for them in Ball jars.  Just catch-and-release, we haven't yet raised them to butterflies!

 I've said before that despite Reina's name, Wilma (our himalayan) is the true "queen" of the house!
She's adjusting to the new puppy just as she slowly befriended Reina.  Lots of curiosity, a bit of hesitant playfulness, and keeping wary distance.  We'll all feel more comfortable together over time.  In the meantime, extra cat treats!

The priest at Mass today mentioned St. Francis's stigmata.  He said St. Francis so meditated on the passion of Christ that it became physically apparent in his hands.  I think everyone is happy to focus on the animal and nature-love of this powerful Saint, but his waters run very deep.  It really is a challenge to imitate him--more challenging than pictures of fluffy kitties and puppies make it seem.

Perhaps St. Francis was able to draw strength from his delight in all of creation.  Strength to suffer for the God whom he learned to love by finding Him in all of His glorious creation.

 "Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made." 

Southwest Summer Reprise

If you've followed my blog for any amount of time, you may be sick of my drive-by-phone-camera pictures of the gorgeous rock formations that we pass on our trip to and from my Mother-in-law's home.

But I can't really imagine posting about the summer without pictures, since it's worth a thousand words.  In this case, the words all speak of how far away and how foreign this land is to our home.

I randomly grabbed pictures from my phone, and this one is on our way home.  Eowyn had just barfed all over a Wendy's in Amarillo, Texas.  We immediately headed for the nearest hotel and called it a (long, hard) day of travel!

At this point Arwen was on antibiotics and medically prescribed doses of ibuprofen.   The next day my husband would make a dash to the Urgent Care at 5:30am and be diagnosed with walking pneumonia.  He was prescribed antibiotics as well.

This is Galadriel sitting atop the van before we left.  She...was happy to be heading home.

 Upon arrival in my husband's home town, we had one dinner with his brother and my sister-in-law and the kids' cousins, and then that family (which is a huge source of fun and socialization for us when we visit) left town for the year.  That's another story, but we were alone with my loving, fun mother-in-law for the remainder of the visit.  The girls, especially, were bummed.  But we watched lots of hometown baseball games and celebrated my mother-in-law's 81st birthday.  We were trying to have fun and enjoy our time.  About a week into our visit, Gramz got the flu.  It hit her so hard that she began to fail to know what day it was.

Gramz prefers to eat out, but she was no longer able to leave the house, so we brought food in.  One particularly sad night we had dinner out, alone.  That was a first in that town.

Slowly she began to improve.  Just as we thought we might be able to leave on schedule, my husband came down with her sickness.

This water park was a desperate attempt to keep the kids' spirits up as we waited to see when Dad would be healthy enough to drive us home.

Our long days of waiting were filled with visits to Hobby Lobby, taking advantage of off-season sales on flannel.  We made lots and lots of blankets.

 Yep, even my big boys (who will kill me if they see this picture on my blog!)

We visited my mother-in-law's farm, where there is a pond.

 We bought paddles for the very old boat there, and one afternoon we brought Reina along, just for fun.

 The kids caught skinks.

 Gotta love skinks!

 We found a lake with floatie things.  The kids had a lot of fun here.  Not to complain, but it was 100 degrees every day and Sam won't get into the water.  So, hot for me.  I did splash off to stay alive.

 Back at Hobby Lobby, we bought little bird houses to paint.  And we painted.

Sweet, slow summer days.  The boys got to golf a lot.  Much harder on my girls.  But we tried to show lots of love to Gramz, tried not to wish away our summer days,  or our time in the Southwest.

Life is best lived when we try to appreciate the gifts of each day.  After a month of trying to appreciate all of the little things, we headed home, with Dad doing "better."

We made it home just in time to celebrate Galadriel's 13th birthday.  We ordered a bunch of school books, joined a bunch of fall activities, and took a couple weeks to recover from things like pneumonia.

Now, as September nears it's end, I am so grateful to be home.  So grateful for our daily routine.  So grateful for every day of health and peace.

September

I'm super behind on blogging.  Well, I guess i just took a break without realizing it.  The annual month of our summer spent in the Southwest without access to internet is to blame.  I want to catch up on all of that in another post.  Right now I just want to jump right in to where we are now: three weeks into a new school year.

Upon arrival home, we were behind on all of our fall sports and activity sign-up.  After a couple frantic days, we were up and running.  Ballet didn't start until this week, which gave me a couple weeks to "just" get in the groove with football (Bilbo), soccer (Rosie and Legolas), choir (Galadriel and Rosie), piano (Galadriel and Bilbo), and violin (new this year for Rosie and Legolas).

 

If that sounds like a lot, notice that none of my first three are in anything.  Soccer and football will be over soon, as the seasons are short (like, 6 weeks).  So, all we'll be left with is the music an ballet.



In the schoolroom we had other issues, namely, our 3 1/2 year old aquarium.  It wasn't a happy place. This picture is taken as it had *begun* to clear out.  I bought all new "guts" (filtration system) and now it's looking beautiful again!  But "phew!"--because a murky aquarium (40 gallons worth of mirk) is not a pleasant addition to anyone's study environment!

Bilbo conducted one of his first experiments in science, learning about density.

The egg is more dense than water, but salt changes the density!

I'm working on finding my "groove" in the schoolroom, bouncing between the needs of my littles and finding time to check that my older students are keeping up with their lesson plans.  I'm not saying it's been perfect, but we're up and rolling.  So that's something!

So much more to expound upon, and absolutely no more time!  This installment will have to hold us over until my next unjustifiable break on the computer!  Happy September!

Thirteen

I have someone very special in this house who just turned 13.  Thirteen!!  That makes four teens under this roof.  I've mentioned before how much I love teens.  This youngest teenager has been on the brink of being a teen for a good long while now, and I'm glad it's official!  

You can't be this stylish, this much fun, this capable and helpful without being a teen! 

Galadriel was a very moody little baby who gave me, perhaps, the most trouble of any infant.  I had my first taste of mastitis with her, and by 9 months I was moving her into her own room to sleep (usually we're happy to keep the babies close until after a year)--no one was happy!  Then she became, perhaps, my strongest willed 2-year-old (hitting her head on the floor when she didn't get her way).   I'm pretty sure her older sister earned some major heaven points in trying to put up with the most difficult 3 and 4 year old, whose idea of getting attention was to kick and annoy until she got that attention.

When she turned about 5, Galadriel entered a whole new sphere of life.  She discovered "Pinkalicious", princesses, and all things pink, sparkly and feminine.  Six brought gymnastics!  Galadriel was a whirling cartwheeling leotard wearing gymnast for the next couple of years.  Then sadly, tonsil and adenoid surgery made it hurt for her to hurdle top speed and flip upside down.  All was well because ballet filled the gap.

Galadriel grew, and became a baker, and a basketball player.

With a big, kind, warm heart.  She still can get a little bossy in the girls' room...but mostly just in order to make those other girls clean up!

Galadriel struggled to read, but overcame!  And now has the very best taste in literature of all of my children (I hope they're all reading this!): she's a Jane Austen fan!  After years and years of Tolkien addiction around this house, I have finally found my dream come true!  Nothing sounds better to us than planning our next Jane Austen movie night!  (I should add the caveat that I also love Tolkien, but not the movies.  And, well, Jane Austen is a special all of her own).

 So helpful with her siblings, such a diligent home schooler.  So very helpful around the house.  She's the one the other kids sort of roll their eyes at as her parents praise her, once again, for being the one to (fill-in-the-blank chore without being told).  But luckily they can't help but love her because she really is lots of fun!

Thirteen is full of promise.  Thirteen is the brink of all sorts of exciting adventures.  Thirteen is sweet and a little sassy.  Thirteen might have some tears, but even more smiles.

Happy Birthday Galadriel,  We love you!!