7 quick takes vol. 3

1. One of our family reunions was last Sunday...the one that is at the rec park/water park every year.  In years past everyone went for a swim at the water park, but that has died down.  We still like to go though....and we are so grateful that we happened to be gifted with season passes for our family.  So lunch was at high noon, and the kids were just waiting....and waiting...and waiting...on us to finish our overflowing plates of casseroles and meats and desserts. :P  And we had to let that food settle, so...yk...lots of waiting.... lol  They were pretty patient though, even Mariam, though no pic to prove it :)

2. And THIS...is a pic of one of to-share dessert plates...samples of just about everything and oh so decadent! 

3. No pics at the water park, but there will be some before Summer's End... :)  But this was a FULL washer of our swim clothes and towels after the fact. LOL

4. And this was exhausted Mariam, zoned out into a video, after swimming all afternoon LOL Yes, we plan to do this many a day until said Summer's End :P

5. And this is what was for dinner...cheap, quick, (and I didn't have to cook) and yes...bad bad bad mommy. :P  Yes, this will be addressed more in a later post...fair warning of mommy guilt ahead...

6.  So on to another topic:  I have a Procrastinator's "Spring Cleaning" AND Organizing Project pending for another blog day LOL  But for now, let me leave you with a new tip I accidentally discovered.  Yes, I am revealing a lot here....but after the crazy busy schedule I've had, hey..you should be more understanding and less judgemental (lol talking to myself, not really you :P ) Anyhoo...this is what my bathtub had become...ick..I know, but...when the shower gel bottle got knocked over and left to spill out, one busy morning...I found a new cheap cleaner.  It literally sat all day and took the soap scum away...rinse and go :)  Woohoo.

And 8.  La Piece de la Resistance (sp? lol no time to google)... I finally have had a bit of a green thumb...knock on wood LOL  I took a tiny little cut piece of another plant, and developed the roots in water like I used to see my mother do, and then as it began to grow, I replanted it in fresh soil, and voila!  I have a new plant. Yeah me!!!!  LOL  Perhaps I can dream big and actually do a window herb garden, and one day....yes one day...I shall have a backyard garden.  Sigh...but I digress....snicker away you ol' timer green thumbs....LOL  Ah, man I am getting so boring in my old age :P

UPDATE: Sigh, no one was paying attention to my  late-night trick there huh?  # 8?  Wha?? LOL










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Intimacy with God

I felt a blog post coming as I listened to Doug prepare to give a talk, based on the article below,  for one of his youth's prayer group at school tomorrow.

http://www.catholicchapterhouse.com/blog/2011/01/25/intimacy-with-god/

What hit me between the eyes tonight (and boy, I could write a whole other long post on how our wonderful/sorrowful Ash Wed. went today :) ) .....was this part:

Being mere humans, we tend to dismiss the people God places in our lives and the challenges we are called to overcome, as “needless obstacles.” God is asking you to embrace those things, and to use them to grow in intimacy with him.

 Wow.  First of all the little girl story is so powerful there.  How many times do I do that same thing with Mariam! :)  But....how many times does God do that with me?  And I am so consumed in my "why's?" and "but...'s" and whining that, when the really GREAT thing he was preparing me for comes along....I fear I am not thankful enough.  Argh...why didn't I just accept and have patience??  (I certainly don't want to PRAY FOR PATIENCE :P )  But ....I think it is because I am not maintaining that "intimacy with God"....that we all long for and need.  THAT is what God wants from us....intimacy. Just like in the Garden!!  Why do we hold back??? Time and Time again.  Why do we have to be reminded, or knocked upside the head to remember this?? lol

But more than this, with the passage from above....I am so convicted to stop the negative, running complaints in my head, in my heart....the ever-whining.  Why did this have to happen this way?  Why does this person in my life have to be this way or that?  And why couldn't they just be XYZ?   No.....God placed them in my lives....and HE KNEW....that *I* needed them.  Case in point:  I really always just "knew" I was going to get a Mariam in my life one day :)  If not God-forbid had it been her, then maybe Noah would have been or another child.... She challenges me more and more each day, in new ways.  She is spunky, she is bouncy, she is high energy, she is ever-questioning, ever-moving;  she "keeps me on my toes" as many people notice and say to me often, especially at Church. LOL  No, Micah and Jillian were not like that...they were easy-going and in the younger years, pretty quiet (not now though lol) and just...well easy.  I could get away with being "lazy"....okay...I shouldn't have been....and maybe there again God knew I needed that during some rough times with PPD and loss and all.  Please do not get me wrong....I am in love with Mariam, love her with ever fiber of my being.  I am not comparing her to them.  And like I said, I knew I had it coming :)  He just knew I needed her...to challenge me and kick me in the pants (maybe literally lol) and so much more.  And oh the JOY she brings as well.  Okay I've posted on this already...lol  But...it's not just with her.... God knew I needed the things in Doug too that challenge me :)  He encourages me and challenges me to jump out of my box like no one else could.  And I can think of so many other things and people in my life....that...it's just hitting me....oh wow, I've wanted to change this or that, or just be rescued from it....but no...He has molded and changed ME through all of them!  He is molding and changing me through them.  Wow.  And that means....that being the clay IN HIS HANDS....I can have quite the intimacy with HIM.  And I want more.....  I want all of HIM.  MORE ADORATION.  MORE DAILY MASS.  MORE INTIMATE PRAYER with HIM alone...shutting out all of the things that take me away.... and giving all of my worries to HIM.
And after the challenge of the movie Courageous today....and seeing the desires of my husband's heart too... I am so ready to "take it to the next level."  I pray I can rise to the challenge, and stay committed to our renewed focus......and have that greater Intimacy with God, with Christ...through Mary (along with several of my beloved online Catholic "sisters" :) )and GIVE that to my children too...teach them and teach them well, through modeling.  Holy Mary, pray for us!

Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of God, have mercy on me  a sinner.