I find it interesting…

…that even though I have not been visiting my own blog, other people have been.  One of the things that I find really appealing about the blogisphere is that it provides like-minded folks a way to stay in touch, share news, vet out ideas.  Also it provides people who just want to argue a nice safe way to do it, although I find that a lot less appealing.

So why did I drop off the face of the Earth?  My teenage daughter made a very serious complaint against the time that I was spending on the computer.  I try very much to spend an hour or less on this stupid box, but I do have to admit that on days where a lot seems to be going on I might end up spending more like 3+ hours.  Not fine.  Even at an hour a day, her point it was that I will only allow the children an hour of media a WEEK (aside form an occasional gotta-have-a-moment’s-peace movie) in addition to our family movie on the weekend.  I really believe it is bad for their brains, and I KNOW it is bad for their behavior.  So if it is bad for them, she says, isn’t it bad for me, too?  I hate it when teenagers learn to use logical thought against me.  I hate it even more when they are right.  (Valid, but annoying, is my thought.)

So then I thought, okay, I will blog only on days that I have everything else done.  School work complete, house clean, laundry done, Rosary said, Bible study done.  And you have heard nothing from me since that resolution.  What does that say?!  So why am I back here today (since it is too early for me to have everything done today)?  Well, I have a couple of things on my mind and dagnabit it, I just missed it.  The children are sleeping in this morning and I am stealing time.  And guess what?  I think I will do it again.

So what is on my mind:  The last two evenings I have gone to talks given by Moira Noonan about the occult, her experience coming away from the occult, and the ways Satan is trying to steal souls in our culture through the occult.  Now that is some scary stuff.  Especially when you see how the occult has crept so easily into mainstream media, and even into the Church.  Centering prayer anyone?  Reiki or touch healing?  She had a number of excellent points, but one of the strongest in my opinion and that is especially relevent to all of these things we see going on in the Church: God asks us to focus ourselves on HIM, never on ourselves, and never on NOTHING.  If you have a few minutes click the link and listen to her interview.  My Mom bought the book (since we never buy the same books) so I will be hounding her to finish it quickly so that I can read it.

The other thing I had twirling around in my head this morning seems to have vanished.  Typical.  So I guess that is God’s way of letting me know that I should get off the idiot box and go do my Bible study before the ravening hordes appear begging for their oatmeal, or omlettes, or whatever is on the menu today (since I haven’t even looked yet).  What is for your Firday dinner?  I am torn between seafood jumbalaya and tuna burgers, which sound gross, but are the MOST DELICIOUS THING EVER and a huge favorite around here.

 

The swimming hole

Believe it or not, I hate summer.  Not a fan of heat.  Not a fan.  Fargo is sounding great about now, and it hasn’t even gotten hot yet.

Today will be our first visit to the neighborhood pool.  The children have been pestering since Memorial Day, but the weather has just been too cold.  They do not understand that 60-70 degree weather does not warm up a pool full of water.  Then we go and they all turn blue.  I have finally caved and promised that we will go ahead and take the plunge.

The whole public bathing thing has been an interesting thing for us.  Some folks we know just have a heart attack when they hear that we don bathing suits and go into a public place.  Others are ready to throw on the season’s skimpiest bikini and come with us.  Papasully and I have seriously considered joining a religious third order or tertiary, but most we have looked at seriously have injunctions against public bathing.  I am pretty sure the writers of those rules don’t have 8 children in an un-air-conditioned house all summer.  We have a bay window facing south and it is literally not unusual for the living room to hit 100 plus degrees.  Needless to say, I am not giving up the pool in favor of wilting, whining, and boredom.

But I am interested in modest alternatives to traditional bathing suits.  And while I am not at all ready to go this far:

I am interested in investing in these for the children, both for the sake of modesty and to protect their toothpaste-white skin from a future of skin cancer:

Running a google search on modest swimwear netted me a whole bunch more options this summer than it did a few years ago.  Maybe it is catching on?

 

Whew! I’m back.

I just had to have a little break there and do some catch up work.  There is no new little sully on the way here.  Or at least 3 home tests say that there isn’t.  I have been having my glass of wine every evening with religious regularity.

I think that this recent housework meltdown is great evidence of  the need for a rule of life around here.  A few years ago I read “A Mothers Rule of Life” by Holly Pierlot.  I have to say I was rather underwhelmed with the work.  I remember thinking repeatedly during the reading that it was obvious that she did not have a large pile of children and that she had unrealistic expectations.  I don’t really need a day off to “do my own thing” every week.  I do need the freedom to go do things that need to get done as they come up.  And that has not really been a problem around here.

My problem with a rule of life is my innate hatred of rules.  I am sort of a rule breaker.  (Fortunately for me, I discovered as an adult that I am far more counter-cultural when I follow the Catholic Church than when I don’t.)  I really like the freedom to chuck it all and play all day, but then who doesn’t?  The day AFTER the chucking day always really stinks, too.

In a home rule of life there is also little to no accountability.  When one lives in community you are accoutable to all the other members, as they are accountable to you.  Children, not so much.  The person ultimately responsible for the way our day goes is me.  So I thought I might use you as my accountability!     So for the month of June I am going to live according to a rule, and I will let you know how it goes.  Since we are in “light summer schooling” my daily schedule reflects that, along with time to go to the pool.  I am also giving myself the freedom to have one “chuck it all” day every week.  So here is my proposed schedule for the day:

Rise at 7 A.M., Make bed, make coffee, do laundry #1, shower and start breakfast.
Say morning prayers and eat breakfast, do chores (we already have a well established chore rotation following all meals).
Older children start school independently, mom do laundry #2 and get on computer (1 hour limit).
Mom work with younger children on school work until lunch. Older child on lunch duty for the day should start lunch prep at 11:30 A.M.
Eat lunch and do chores.
Get ready and head for the pool until 4:00 or 4:30 (depends a lot on the heat – the hotter the day, the longer we want to stay).
Home from the pool: cleanup and prepare tomorrow’s snack and pool bag, laundry #3, begin dinner prep while children tidy bedrooms and any remaining messes in school room/rec room.
Eat dinner and do chores.
Reading time – read aloud or silently until 7:00 P.M.
Get ready for bed, say family rosary and night prayers.
Children to bed at 8:00 and 8:30.
Mom and Dad recreation until 9:30.

Any suggestions or obvious omissions? Here’s to the experiment!

 

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?

 

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

 

Sunday

Sunday is a day for Mass, family, and dear friends.  No blog post today.  Tell someone you love a quality of their personality that you appreciate today.  And come back tomorrow!

 

“Gettin’ old isn’t for wimps”

Quoted from my mum. We have been listening to some of our friends talk about being torn between aging parents and small children for years. Now it is our turn. My Dad is becoming the six million dollar man and getting all his parts replaced. Between surgeries he is in great health and is doing terrific. My mom is suffering chronic pain. She has good days where she can get twice as much as I can done, and days she can barely wiggle. We have been trekking to doctors, homeopath, massage, acupuncture. She is getting worse and we are wondering if it is fibromyalgia. Yay! After spending 3 minutes apologizing to my sister and I for asking for help the other day and saying she doesn’t know what to do to repay us, I cut in with “Ummm, that’s backwards. We are paying you back. Remember all those diapers you changed?” It is the other side of the full quiver coin.

Ecclesiasticus 3:14 “ Son, support the old age of thy father, and grieve him not in his life;” and Ecclesiasticus 8:7 “Despise not a man in his old age; for we also shall become old.” Psalms 70:9 ” Cast me not off in the time of old age: when my strength shall fail, do not thou forsake me.”

Well, at least we don’t have to change their diapers. Yet.

 

This and That

As an introduction to my blog we are a Traditional Catholic, homeschooling family with 8 lovely children. I will be commenting on our home and it’s running, marriage and gender roles, culture and politics, modesty and femininity, homeschooling, of course our beloved Church… pretty much whatever catches my fancy. As evidenced by the blog title, I have a particular interest in large family issues and also in our role as wives and mothers.