Tearing down the Walls

31. March 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: Small Successes · Tags: , ,

It’s important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph. So on Thursday of each week, we do exactly that. Here are some of the small successes I am thankful for from the past week:

1. I finished taking off the first layer of wallpaper in our living room. I started this project in January and it has been a good slow process but a good stress-reliever. It feels good to rip off paper instead of yelling at my family.

2. Got the second and last layer off one wall with the help of a steamer, some warm water, a spatula, and my children. This part is very tedious and harder work. I’ll have some bulging arm muscles when it’s all done! (pictures later)

3. Most importantly: I’ve spent much-needed one-on-one time with my 4 year old! We met mama “A”, daddy “A”, and baby “a” this week and he has been finding A’s and writing them like crazy! This is definitely what he needed. We also had a great spring break last week and I also enjoyed time together with my daughter all week.

You did it! Share it with others at Faith and Family Live!


Everybody has a water buffalo

30. March 2011 · 4 comments · Categories: Whiney Wednesday · Tags:

Simplemama’s

1. My 4 year old. I love him soo so very much. He makes life fun that’s for sure. I know he loves me but lately he’s developed what the ‘experts’ call “seperation anxiety”. I wouldn’t call it that exactly though since he only does this when I am in the same house or building as him and I am not right there next to him every. single. second. If he can’t see me, he panicks and runs around yelling and crying looking for me, afraid I’ve left him forever I guess. He doesn’t do this when I leave him with parents and he knows I’ll be gone but will come right back.

2. Lately he’s been obsessed with Veggietales and their Silly Songs. We own this VeggieTales – The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown movie and he could watch it every day probably all day long. We also own the CD. So when he’s not watching the movie, he comes upstairs and listens to the CD upstairs, and there’s no escape for me then. I now walk around the house singing “Barbara Manatee….You are the one for me….” with my children and sometimes I serenade my husband when he returns home from work: “you are the one for me…sent from up above…you are the one I love!”

3. When I’m not singing and dancing about my endangered love to Barbara Manatee, I can’t stop hearing the Song of the Cebu or the Dance of the Cucumber. My favorite, though will always be the Cheeseburger Song. So if you see me and I start randomly singing about manatees, cebus, cheeseburgers and pirates who don’t do anything or if I ask you, “oh where is my hairbrush?”… Well now you’ll know why.

It’s good to do a reality check in our ‘perfect’ lives. Get the code for the picture here and link back here if you want to join Whiney Wednesday in your blog. Then leave a comment here (even if you don’t have a blog) or on the Erika Marie/simplemama facebook page if that’s easier.


Easy Focacia Bread

29. March 2011 · 6 comments · Categories: Food · Tags:

A few years ago, I shared a Rosemary Focaccia Bread Recipe from Betty Crocker’s Best Bread Machine Cookbook: The Goodness of Homemade Bread the Easy Way. It’s easy, quick, and wonderfully delicious. We eat it plain, especially if my husband is around after it’s done baking. Or we save it for sandwiches or butter it as a nice accessory to a spaghetti dinner. You can adapt this recipe in many ways. I’ve used coconut oil instead of olive oil, or melted butter too. I like to sprinkle it with shredded cheese (as pictured below) or exchange the rosemary for other herbs. I’ve also used a little wheat bread instead of all white bread flour. It doesn’t work quite as well but it’s edible still. It’s very versatile and makes for a great side to bring to family or social gatherings. But you might have to make a few batches as it gets eaten up very quickly!

 

 1 Focaccia, 8 servings

¾ cups water, 2 tbs olive/veg. oil, 2 cups bread flour, 1 tbs sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 ½ tsp bread machine/quick active dry yeast, 3 tbs olive/veg. oil,  2-3 tbs chopped fresh rosemary leaves, and Coarse salt, if desired 

Measure carefully, placing all ingredients except 3 tbs oil, the rosemary and coarse saltin bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough/Manual cycle. Do not use delay cycles.Remove dough from pan, using lightly floured hands.  (I actually just turned it upside down onto the baking sheet)  Cover and let rise in warm place about 30 minutes or until almost double. Heat oven to 400’ F.  Make depressions in dough at 1-inch intervals with fingertips.  Drizzle with 3 tbs oil. Sprinkle with rosemary and coarse salt.  Bake 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve warm, or cool on wire wrack.  Success tip: Be sureto chop the rosemary leaves instead of leaving them whole.  They can become dry quickly during baking, which makes them sharper and can be unsafe to swallow.  Do-Ahead Note:  After you have patted the dough into a circle on the cookie sheet, cover it with plastic wrap.  You can refrigerate it from 4 hours up to 48 hours.  Before baking, remove the dough from the fridge and remove plastic wrap.  Cover with kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for about 2 hours or until it is almost double.  Then continue as the recipe tells you. 

 



On the scale of pain

28. March 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: Random · Tags: , ,

More from Mary and Me: Catholic Women Reflect on the Mother of God, chapter 4, Our Lady of Sorrows: Grieving Losses:

Mary’s female nature, paired with the tragedy she endured, makes her a truly relatable figure.

One of the women [in her book] reflected: “While there are female saints that I pray to, I think that the loss of her Son, the way she lost him…I can’t imagine a more intense pain than she must have gone through. She’s someone who has gone through the ultimate form of pain, so I fell like, ‘Can you help me with my teeny, tiny pain, because you’ve been there, you’ve been through a lot greater – help me with my insignificant pain.’”

“…though the average life is made up of millions of neutral to happy moments, it’s the painful experiences that often become the most indelible markers on the journey. These moments of suffering are reminders of a reality that we tend to forget: the fragility of life, and how quickly and unexpectedly it can be taken away.

There was a night when I was rocking a very cranky baby, I don’t remember now which one, and I was tired and frustrated and really just mad because I wasn’t snuggled up asleep in my warm and cozy bed. I looked at a picture of Mary and couldn’t help but enviously think, “Lucky you. I bet life was just so hard for you…raising a perfect son and all. I bet he never gave you any problems.” But then, as if to politely yet humbly correct me, she answered, “It’s true. He was perfect. But I did have to watch him die for you, a sinner.” oi. “Oh. That’s true,” I thought. From then on, I’ve tried to remember that even though Mary was conceived without sin and raised the Son of God, she still understands pain and she can still pray for me to suffer through it with grace, instead of grumbling and whining like a spoiled little brat.

This also makes me think about pain and suffering and how there’s no fair way to compare one person’s struggles to another’s. My life can be very hard sometimes. But when I compare it to other’s lives, I know I am very blessed and shouldn’t complain. Still, even though I know I could be homeless and starving or living in a war-stricken place or even suffering from a disease or illness or any number of other tragic scenarios, it doesn’t ever really help to change how I feel when I’m in the middle of a hard time. Sleepless nights with cranky babies and long days with whiny ungrateful little beasts precious children beasts doesn’t seem that bad comparatively but when you’re in it, it just is. I can’t discount my struggles or make them seem unimportant, that doesn’t make them go away. Like my wise friend, Mary, said, our life still goes on. Instead, I need to continually try to accept these hard times for what they are: Opportunities for Grace. For me, I often do this through Mother Mary’s loving heart of prayers. When I can’t do anything, when I’m so pathetic that I can’t even pray anymore – she can. She can pray that I will have the grace and humility to offer my little struggles as a prayer for those who are suffering far greater than I could ever imagine; that they too will accept their struggles as an offering of love to God. Through Mary’s prayers, I can pray when I’m having a hard time for those who are hungry, homeless, abused, impoverished, grieving, angry, or whatever else it may be–that they can find God through the chaos and reach out to Him and let Him rescue them. In the end, it’s not really about what the struggle is that matters, it’s how we deal with it.


Poop here…snot there…whine, whine, whine

23. March 2011 · 7 comments · Categories: Random, Whiney Wednesday · Tags: , ,

Simplemama’s

1. My 4 year old does not know how to wipe his little derrier on his own yet. This means that whenever he needs to do this, he calls out to me, very loudly, “Help me wipe, please!!” And then when he doesn’t hear me coming or answer, he yells it out again, this time louder, “HELP ME WIIIIIIIIIIPE!” And then, sometimes even a third time….”HELP. ME. WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPE PLEASE!” 9.5 times out of 10 his bowels decide to let loose when I have just finally gotten the baby to sleep. So, being the loving mother that I am, I make him wait long enough for me to get the baby sleepy enough to lay down. By then, his feet have started tingling while he hangs from the seat and he’s now only pathetically whispering,

“help me wipe…please?” 

2. Snot, here, there. Everywhere. Snot. (hmmm, this was the same whine I had the last time I whined….anyone have any cool anti-snot lasers?)

3. My 17 month old has turned into a screaming monkey again…(as I blog) that does not sound very good when my ears are all clogged up and my head hurts from clogged sinuses and ‘allergies’.

It’s good to do a reality check in our ‘perfect’ lives. Get the code for the picture here and link back here if you want to join Whiney Wednesday in your blog. Then leave a comment here (even if you don’t have a blog) or on the Erika Marie/simplemama facebook page if that’s easier.


Lean on Our Lady of Sorrows

21. March 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Faith: Mary, Random

Thoughts from Mary and Me: Catholic Women Reflect on the Mother of God
Chapter 4: Our Lady of Sorrows: Grieving Losses

And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his other Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many may be revealed-and a sword will pierce your own soul, too. (Luke 2:33-35)

During Lent, we often meditate upon the suffering of Jesus; what He did for you and me. It’s also a time to connect more deeply with Mary. As a mother now, I can relate to the profound suffering and pain she experienced through Jesus’ passion. Often it is too hard for me to think about it. But Mary is there for me, holding my hand and letting me lean on her as the women watching Jesus carry his cross and die also did.

Ginny Kubitz Moyer, author of Mary and Me: Catholic Women Reflect on the Mother of God shares that it was not always easy to identify or even focus at all on Jesus’ suffering. She was “critical of what [she] saw as the negativity of traditional Catholicism, and such images seemed downright unhealthy. Why keep emphasizing the suffering…There’s enough loss in the world; why can’t church be a refuge, a place to escape from thoughts of pain?”

Later she began to understand the true meaning of suffering and why it is important to not only focus on it but even embrace it.

The best way to heal from pain is not to run from it, but rather to acknowledge its existence.

Ginny also realized that in order to really understand Jesus’ suffering and get through our own, we need someone who has been there before. We need Mary; Our Lady of Sorrows.

Thanks to Christ’s Resurrection, we know that earthly suffering is not the end of the story; nonetheless, for those who live in the midst of any kind of anguish, the long view can be very hard to embrace. It’s during these trying times that we wonder whether there really is any other sorrow like our sorrow.

For some of the women I interviewed, the fact that Mary has experienced intense grief makes her a very accessible figure. She’s not the superficial friend you call only when everything is going well, but the woman who understands your pain, and who lends support at your most vulnerable moments.

Read more in Mary and Me: Catholic Women Reflect on the Mother of God


Social Media: Friend or Foe?

20. March 2011 · 6 comments · Categories: Random · Tags: , , , , , ,

I’ve mentioned a couple times that I am trying to simplify my Facebook use, especially now during the liturgical season of Lent, when it is appropriate to take time away from ‘noise’ and be silent in order to hear God. I’ve continued to use it for “necessary communication”. I’ve updated the page and groups I administer to communicate information about meetings and important updates. I also found it necessary to inform everyone that we are now on Spring Break and to share the exciting discovery that I am the descendent of a famous Colonel of the Mexican Revolution.

I have not done any random status browsing; scrolling down the home page to see if anyone has done anything interesting in their lives or if there is something I should be aware of or could add my two cents to. This has been harder than I thought and has had good and bad results. I miss captioning my life through status updates and feel excluded and left out of my friends’ lives or other intellectually stimulating discussions that I enjoy so much. It reminds me of the first day or so of the spiritual silent retreats I’ve done in the past. It’s hard to be disconnected when I’ve been connected for so long. God’s voice is suddenly very LOUD, almost deafening.

It’s become so easy to use Facebook to keep up with my friends and family and as a way for them to keep up with me.  I heard someone on NPR a few weeks back talking about how we almost don’t need High School Reunions anymore because of social media. By the time you get to the reunion, there’s nothing left to talk about that hasn’t already been shared on Facebook or Twitter or blogs. I’ve noticed this also at a few weddings I’ve been too recently. I had the chance to see a lot of my friends and old acquaintances in real life, yet I observed that many of the conversations and discussions at those weddings felt empty and almost pointless. “Yeah I saw that on Facebook,” or “Well didn’t you see that on Facebook?” and then of course the ever popular, “Friend me! [so I can stalk you but never really talk to you]”.

When I tried to explain that I didn’t use Facebook as much anymore it was like I was saying I didn’t use email or have a cell phone. Facebook and social media are the new email and cell phones. Apparently, if you don’t have it or use it, you’re pretty much a loser and if you don’t use it then you’ll have no real way of being involved in others lives anymore.

My Lenten fast from using it unnecessarily has given me a little more time to live real life, albeit undocumented. I’ve spent a little more time doing what’s called parenting instead of saying “just a minute” so I can finish browsing or updating my status: “is browsing Facebook while her children kill each other before they starve to death”.

Instead of desperately looking for God’s answers and Voice on the Internet, I’ve been looking for Wisdom from the Source and have sat quietly away from the computer, thinking and praying about truly attaching myself to God’s Will.

As good as this time away from Facebook has been and will be for the next 32 days, I’m not ready to swear it off forever. I think it can be a good tool, if used correctly. Pope Benedict XVI’s expressed this in his message for the 43rd World Communications Day message, New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship. 

“The new digital technologies are, indeed, bringing about fundamental shifts in patterns of communication and human relationships… These technologies are truly a gift to humanity and we must endeavor to ensure that the benefits they offer are put at the service of all human individuals and communities, especially those who are most disadvantaged and vulnerable.”

 “Their popularity with users should not surprise us, as they respond to a fundamental desire of people to communicate and to relate to each other. This desire for communication and friendship is rooted in our very nature as human beings and cannot be adequately understood as a response to technical innovations. In the light of the biblical message, it should be seen primarily as a reflection of our participation in the communicative and unifying Love of God, who desires to make of all humanity one family. When we find ourselves drawn towards other people, when we want to know more about them and make ourselves known to them, we are responding to God’s call – a call that is imprinted in our nature as beings created in the image and likeness of God, the God of communication and communion.”

“The desire for connectedness and the instinct for communication that are so obvious in contemporary culture are best understood as modern manifestations of the basic and enduring propensity of humans to reach beyond themselves and to seek communion with others. In reality, when we open ourselves to others, we are fulfilling our deepest need and becoming more fully human. Loving is, in fact, what we are designed for by our Creator.”

He reminds us though that what we say online is real, and we should pay attention to how we communicate.

“It is important to focus not just on their undoubted capacity to foster contact between people, but on the quality of the content that is put into circulation using these means. I would encourage all people of good will who are active in the emerging environment of digital communication to commit themselves to promoting a culture of respect, dialogue and friendship.”

So yes, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and social media can be helpful and can lead us to God if we allow it. But we can’t get lost in it or forget to continue living in realspace. Social media is part of our lives now, but it is not life itself.

 “Life is not just a succession of events or experiences: it is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful.”


Justice from the book of Wisdom

18. March 2011 · 3 comments · Categories: faith

I’ve been slowly reading from the book of Wisdom whenever I can throughout the day.

I love the very first line.

Wisdom 1:1 Love justice*, you who judge the earth; think of the Lord in goodness, and seek him in integrity of heart;

*The side note in my bible: Justice: not merely a cardinal virtue of that name but the universal moral quality which is the application of Wisdom to moral conduct.

My prayer: Lord Jesus, help me apply your Wisdom to my moral conduct; in how I treat others and myself, in my thoughts, actions, and words.

Then later, Wisdom Chapter 2 is amazing. At first I applied it my own life and the world that we live in today. Then I looked deeper. It is not about me. It is about Jesus. It is about what would happen to him about 100 years after Wisdom was written and what still happens to those who are persecuted in His name today.

1 they who said among themselves, thinking not aright: “Brief and troublous is our lifetime; neither is there any remedy for man’s dying, nor is anyone known to have come back from the nether world. 2 For haphazard were we born, and hereafter we shall be as though we had not been; Because the breath in our nostrils is a smoke and reason is a spark at the beating of our hearts, 3 And when this is quenched, our body will be ashes and our spirit will be poured abroad like unresisting air. 4 Even our name will be forgotten in time, and no one will recall our deeds. So our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud, and will be dispersed like a mist pursued by the sun’s rays and overpowered by its heat. 5 For our lifetime is the passing of a shadow; and our dying cannot be deferred because it is fixed with a seal; and no one returns. 6 Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are real, and use the freshness of creation avidly. 7 Let us have our fill of costly wine and perfumes, and let no springtime blossom pass us by; 8 let us crown ourselves with rosebuds ere they wither. 9 1 Let no meadow be free from our wantonness; everywhere let us leave tokens of our rejoicing, for this our portion is, and this our lot. 10 Let us oppress the needy just man; let us neither spare the widow nor revere the old man for his hair grown white with time. 11 But let our strength be our norm of justice; for weakness proves itself useless. 12 2 3 Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, Reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training. 13 He professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of the LORD. 14 To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, 15 Because his life is not like other men’s, and different are his ways. 16 He judges us debased; he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure. He calls blest the destiny of the just and boasts that God is his Father. 17 Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him. 18 For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him and deliver him from the hand of his foes. 19 With revilement and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience. 20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.” 21 These were their thoughts, but they erred; for their wickedness blinded them, 22 And they knew not the hidden counsels of God; neither did they count on a recompense of holiness nor discern the innocent souls’ reward. 23 For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him. 24 But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who are in his possession experience it.

Jesus knew that his life on earth would not be all smiles and laughs. His Father told him what he was getting into: “This will be hard. You will experience much joy and happiness and find comfort and support with your family and friends. But then, in the blink of an eye you will see their sin, their betrayal, and it will cut into your heart. They will slander you; scourge your body and your name; your integrity and your dignity they will not spare. They will mock you and your authority. They will think they are king and you will have to let them think so for a time. They will cloak you and crown you in pretentious honor and glory. They will then give you their heavy debts, their burdens, their problems, their responsibilities, their mistakes, their sins. They will give it all to you and watch you and laugh at you while you drag it up a hill. You will see those who once looked at you with love now look at you with hate; a hate instilled by their own sin. They hate their own sin and let it cloud them. They’ll take their sin and nail it onto you. They will watch you suffer and bleed and cry out in pain. And then they’ll let you die, in their place. And after all that, many of them will still hate you.”

Jesus knew all this and yet he said YES.


Small Successes Thursday, March 17

17. March 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Small Successes

1. Caught up on 2 months worth of Quicken updates. Now I know where all our money is going.

2. Got up early at least once this week and got to shower and do some computer stuff all before everyone woke up and came down for breakfast! I even had time to pray by myself for a few minutes!

3. I have done some form of exercise (walking, zumba, etc) every day this week. Yay for warm weather to bring me out of hibernation!

Celebrate what you did do this week with other moms.


A homeschool daydream

09. March 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Elizabeth

“Bye honey! I love you! God bless you! Have a great day! Bye!” Elizabeth called after her daughter as she jumped out of the van.

“Bye mama!” Emily quickly called back before running to catch up with one of her first grade classmates.

Elizabeth followed the line of cars out of the drop zone and caught one last glimpse of her daughter in the rearview mirror before she disappeared into the school building.

She had a sudden urge to turn the car around, jump out of the van and run after her. She’d sweep her up and bring Emily back home with her forever.  At home they would make delicious whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes together and eat them with sliced bananas and maple syrup drizzled over the top. While they ate, Elizabeth would read aloud from The Secret Garden or The Little Princess, cultivating beautiful seeds of loveliness and mystery in the soil of Emily’s rich imagination.

After breakfast, Emily and Elizabeth would get out their paints and canvases and sit in their wildflower garden outside on the windless and warm sunny day and they would paint beautiful gardens on their own canvases. Elizabeth would whisper to Emily not to look now but that she was pretty sure she saw a little fairy in the lilac bush spying on their work. At this her wide-eyed daughter would carefully set down her paintbrush and slowly tiptoe around the yard looking for any sign of a fairy.  

While Emily chased imaginary fairies, Elizabeth would go inside and get Emily’s favorite blueberry muffins and lemonade she’d made the night before and bring them out with a blanket and the library books they’d borrowed after yesterday’s story time. Emily would giggle with delight and help her mama spread out the blanket and pick out which book to read first. Then Elizabeth would work on some of the laundry while Emily played with her math manipulatives and phonics sound pouches her mama had made her. After this was done, they’d pack a healthy and light lunch into a pretty picnic basket and hop on their bikes for a ride to the nature center down the road. They’d walk along the paths, Elizabeth following closely behind Emily as she led them on their adventure through the mysterious forest, stopping every now and then to listen to the robins in their nests or the woodpeckers high in the trees. They’d spot and identify animal tracks, plants, bugs and other marvels of God’s creation living wildly and free in their grassland and forested habitats.

On their way home, they’d swing by and visit Jesus in the perpetual Eucharistic Adoration chapel of their church and or pray a rosary before an afternoon snack before dinner. While Elizabeth prepared dinner, Emily would get out her writing pad and pencil and write a story about their day with pictures to remember it by. Then she’d clean off and set the table for dinner. Before her daddy came home and their day together ended, Emily would give her mama a big bear hug with an extra kiss and say, “I love you, mama”. And Elizabeth would smile and look deeply into her daughter’s sweet loving eyes and respond right back, “I love you too, my beautiful Emily.”

Related Posts with Thumbnails

« Older articles