Miss me?

I had to make quick mention of the reasons why I have not been posting the last few days.  First of all, I seem to be over-run with nausea.  I took a pg test, which came out negative.  But since I am throwing up every single day I am going to take another one tomorrow.  Second, my sweetie’s family is coming for Eccentric’s First Holy Communion in two days and I am totally freaked out because our yard is half way torn up from a xeriscape project, my garden is in SHAMBLES, I have two boatloads of laundry, a messy house, and oh yeah, we STILL aren’t done with the school year.  It is a good thing they love us and don’t care that much about our house!!  I will resume regular posting just as soon as the current crisis is over, I promise!!

 

Crosses! Get your tailor made crosses! Crosses here!

You have to read that title in your best newspaper boy voice.

Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

So many people I know comment on how they think they could live so easily with the cross that someone else experiences. Maybe if we had the other person’s cross we would find it as difficult as they do.  But maybe not.  I think more often than not, the other person’s cross WOULD be easier for you. And that is precisely why God didn’t choose it for you.

I was talking to my friend yesterday about about how our trials are just exactly in line with the things we hate and just aren’t good at.  God is all knowing. He just knows me so much better than I will ever know myself.  He knows my faults and my graces, and just exactly what I need to overcome in order to get to heaven.

I think God tailors our cross to best help us get to heaven.  One of my sisters is the most organized, energetic, fun, lovely women in the world.  She has all the qualities of a great mom.  And no children.  I am crazy, lazy, messy, and rather emotional.  Nice combo.  My husband is a saint.  Oh, and 8 sticky Mick’s running around.  Soemtimes even I wonder what God was thinking.  So I am left with this: God picks our cross special made to help us overcome our worst qualities in order to help us get to heaven.

God is all good.  He only gives me good things, even when they don’t feel that great.  A good example of this is the chores that I give to my own children.  A couple of the children really hate to brush their teeth.  Gross, I know.  So guess what?  I hound them.  Those teeth are getting brushed every morning and every night whether you like it or not.  This is obvious.  If they don’t bruch their teeth they will get cavities (which cost a lot of money to fix), they will have related dental probelms, but also they will have other illnesses.  Studies show that poor dental health leads to all sorts of other problems, including heart disease.  If they learn as children to take good care of their teeth, hopefully when they leave home they will continue to do so.  So when God asks me to do something that I hate, like spending my whole life washing dishes, it is for my own good in the end.  Even if sometimes it seems like a tedious waste of time.

And finally of course, God is all present.  When I don’t feel like I can get up one more time at night, or do one more load of laundry, He is already there with me.  He is in the bathroom with me when I am holding a child’s hair for a night of barfing.  And he is there when I say for the four hundredth time in a day as I perform some menial task, “I do this for you, O Lord”.  Because that is my cross, I am a housewife and it really isn’t my cup of tea.  But it will bring me sanctification if I can just learn to embrace it in all of it’s diapers, dishes, and dust.

 

By the way…

…if you eat 10 blobs of dough and 14 of the Best Oatmeal Cookies Ever you won’t feel so good the next day.  And you won’t want oatmeal for breakfast either.

 

Aren’t we the good neighbor?

The US has agreed to sell nuclear weapons fuel and technology to The United Arab Emirates, reports WorldNetDaily.  Isn’t that nice of us?  I am sure Iran and Iraq will feel so much better now knowing that their neighbors are going to be all nuked up.  What I would like to know is why our government feels the right to tell one country that they CAN’T develop nuclear weapons, and then turn around and sell material and technology to someone else.  Considering the results of the US in setting up governments, selling weapons to foreign countries, and supporting warlords, this is bound to bite us in the backcrack someday.

Given the hulabaloo over the UAE owning and running US ports a couple of years ago I am surprised that Bush would take this step.  Especially considering his lame duck status and (hopefully) some desire to see the White House remain Republican.  But when you consider the liberal bent of the Republican Party anymore, he probably figures it doesn’t really matter anyway.  Whoever ends up in the White House (unless of course it is Ron Paul) will likely follow the same course towards global government and regulation of free trade, religious freedom, and civil liberty as any other candidate would.

Grrr, argh.  They should just let me run the country.  At least I can balance a budget.  And I don’t make any bones about being a domestic dictator. 

 

Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association endorses Ron Paul

The Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association has sent out the following press release:

May 5, 2008

For immediate release:

Following our Spring Strategy meeting, the officers of the Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association discussed the candidates running for various offices throughout the State of Oregon.

OCFA is an organization that seeks to protect the privacy and property rights of farmers and homesteaders and to preserve the right to direct transactions with consumers. OCFA works diligently to effect positive change throughout Oregon. We are affiliated with NICFA, the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association and are pleased to offer our endorsement to Ron Paul running for President.

Dr. Paul shows a genuine concern for the People of Oregon. He is a champion of personal property rights and we feel shares our values of hard work and dedication. OCFA feels strongly that Ron Paul is the best person for President and strongly urges the People of Oregon to support him with your vote on Election Day.

Sincerely,

Sharlyn Homola, Vice President
OCFA
3849 Green Valley Road
Oakland, OR 97462
www.OregonCFA.org

 

The Best Oatmeal Cookies EVER

My apologies to any silly’s who are sensitive to oats, because there is no better oatmeal cookie.

1.  1/2 pound butter or margarine (I would never use marg.)

2. 1 C. firmly packed brown sugar

3.  1/2 C. granulated sugar

4.  2 eggs

5.  1 tsp. vanilla extract

6.  1 1/2 C. flour (Celiacs and those wanting the richest flavor, use GF oat flour)

7. 1 tsp. baking soda

8. 1 tsp. cinnamon

9. 1/2 tsp. salt, optional (I do use it)

10.  3 C. GF oats

11.  1 C. raisins

Mix first 5 ingredients until creamy.  Then mix in next 4 ingredients.  Stir raisins and oats in by hand.  Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 350 10-12 min, or until golden brown.  Oh, and this is like the only GF recipe that you CAN lick the batter!!  HOORAY!

 

Plastic

I just read an article in Discover magazine that is just so frightening that I had to post it.  Generally speaking I think it is a cop-out to just post an article that someone else wrote.  But this is a must-read.  Here is just a teaser of the whole article:

“The most pressing question about plas­tic, though, may be whether daily exposure alters the health and fertility of our children and perhaps even our children’s children. It turns out that the hormonelike chemicals in plastic may remodel our cells and tissue during key stages of development, both in the womb and in early childhood. When pregnant mice are exposed to chemicals in plastic, the mammary and prostate tissue of their developing embryos proliferates abnormally, and sensitivity to hormones is forever turned up. Perhaps most disturbing is the significant increase in chromosomal abnormalities in the eggs forming in those embryos. Those are the eggs that will make the next generation. Thus, if the worst-case scenario proves true, early exposure to plastic can reshape not just our children but their children, too.”

Click the Discover link at the top to read the rest.  Maybe buying all that Tupperware after Princess was diagnosed with Celiac disease was a mistake?

 

My Favorite Song

Click here and hold on tight:

 

Who Are You?

Does anyone else hear ‘Who’ in their head when reading that title?

“Oh! that you could turn your eyes towards the napes of your necks, and make but an interior survey of your good selves.”   -William Shakespeare, “Coriolanus”

I have to admit that truly trying to know myself is very difficult, and not something I enjoy at all. In times of self discovery I am tempted to focus mainly on my faults and shortcomings rather than my gifts and talents. Focus on our faults is essential to overcoming them, but we must not exclude the gifts which God has chosen to bestow on us in order that we may grow them and use them in a manner that gives glory to Almighty God.

Before we can ever truly accept and love another person, we must first understand ourselves and our own personalities. As an example, my primary fault is passion. I tend towards extremes of emotion. When excited I am fun and gregarious and contagious to other people. When angry everyone within reach or shouting distance had better watch out! Knowing this is beneficial, particularly in my relationship with Papasully. Papsully is not nearly as volatile as I am, and is a stabilizing factor in my life. Also, before marriage I was able to talk about the issues this fault in me causes in my life and make sure that he could handle that sort of wife. Fortunately Papasully has a forceful personality and has no problem telling me when I am out of line and stopping me from looking before I leap!

Knowing myself is an area that I need to spend more time on.  I believe this is a life-long process, as we change and learn and grow.  The person I am today is different that when I was a newlywed and different than I will be when the children leave home.  Please give me your recommendations on resources.

My favorite books for getting to know yourself (and your loved ones) are “The Four Temperaments” by Fr. Conrad Hock and “The Five Love Languages” by Dr. Gary Chapman.

“O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.” -St. Augustine

 

Garbage Day

Eccentric is preparing for her First Holy Communion in two weeks.  Yesterday was her first confession.  In preparing her for her first confession we were talking through the ten commandments and they way they apply to children.  Of course that first confession is always a bit nerve-wracking.  We always have the children write their sins on a napkin so that they wont forget anything and when they are done they can flush the napkin down the toilet.  My analogy with Eccentric was this:  Confession is like garbage day.  We go all around the house gathering up trash on garbage day so that there won’t be any left.  We put it all out for the garbage man and he comes and takes all that stinky, ugly trash away from our house and we never have to see it or smell it again.  When we go to confession we gather up all our sins and give them to Jesus through the Alter Christus.  He takes away those sins through the Redemption.  We never have to have those stinky, ugly sins on our souls again.  So we want to make sure that we never leave any sins out because we don’t want to leave any blackness in our souls.

Jesus gave us this beautiful Sacrament of Penance to help relieve our souls of their burden.  Not because HE needs to hear our sins, since He already knows them in a deeper and more painful way than we ever will, but because WE need it.  Don’t believe me?  Turn on talk radio today.  So get going to garbage day!!