Contemplating Halloween Revisited

Maybe a possible solution to the "Halloween issue" instead of boycotting Halloween all together is to use this as a teaching moment. Here is a wonderful link that I found.  Enjoy!

Obviously, I am still trying to figure out this blogging thing.  I thought I had linked the link, but apparently had not.

By the way, there are also links from this link that are great so keep searching once you are here:

Here it is:  http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2010/10/saint-o-lantern-link-up.html

SHIRT OF FLAME: WHY I KNEEL

Since the only meaningful thing I did today was laundry:  didn't shower, didn't get dressed, basically ignored my kids all day (did I really admit that), I had ample time on my hands between loads.

I found two blogs which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!!!

One is here with a link to a post that brought tears to my eyes.  I have NO doubt I will be posting a link to another in the near future.

SHIRT OF FLAME: WHY I KNEEL: "Genuflect: late Latin genuflectere, from Latin genu, knee, and flectere, to bend. Date: 1630. 1.a. to bend the knee. b. to touch the knee to..."

Contemplating Halloween

Contemplating Halloween

In addition to laundry, laughter, and jammies on this Friday, (now afternoon and still no shower), I have been contemplating Halloween which is around the corner.  I know many families who do not "celebrate" Halloween and I respect them for that choice.  Bruce and I have allowed the boys to dress up and trick or treat that past few years because, let's face it, to them the only meaning it holds is that they get to dress up and  get candy.  

Having said that, I feel that this will be the last Halloween that we won't have to think about what Halloween actually is or means.  So I have been thinking about that alot lately.  I have heard some who claim that Halloween, which actually means "Holy Eve", has it's tradition as the Eve of All Saint's Day and there is nothing wrong with celebrating the traditional Halloween.  After all, we celebrated Halloween when we were children, right?  I guess what is eating at me or disturbing my peace about all of this is that while Halloween is fun with the candy, treats, dressing up, and a little spookiness, the underlying premise of Halloween is that it has become a celebration for what is evil.  However, the scariest part of all is that it is packaged to children as fun.  It makes me almost want to cry when I see a child (or baby) dressed up as the devil or a witch. I mean there is no such thing as a good witch.  How can a person reconcile serving Jesus Christ and being a witch?  It's like oil and water.  Wicca is real.  There are real witches.  Some may say I am making too big of a deal.  Maybe so.  However, I DO know that we exist in the midst of a spiritual world which is in a constant battle for our souls.  One side is working to assure our salvation and that our eternal souls are spent in the kingdom of God while the other is NOT.  It just seems prudent to do all you can to NOT give the other side any advantage.  Is celebrating Halloween opening a door that we don't want opened?  I'm not 100% sure of that, but I am certainly going to pray and discern over the next year.  

Friday

Casual Friday

It is 12:30 and for the second Friday in a row, I find myself having not showered and still in my jammies.  Besides the fact that I am the biggest procrastinator I know, I  think the reason for this is that we go and go and go all week long that on Fridays (when we have no real place we have to be), I just enjoy lounging around all morning long.  Who am I kidding?  My 4th load of laundry is in the washer while 5th and 6th lay in sorted piles on my kitchen floor.  But I do enjoy not having to rush to be somewhere.  Even if I do enjoy it so much so that I can't even bring myself to shower and get dressed.

Missing My Camera

A few months ago I dropped my camera on the ground.  As a result, it doesn't close and the battery is always dead.  The only way I can take a picture is immediately after my battery has been charged.  This leaves those spontaneous photo ops gone forever.  There were two this morning that were hilarious and I really regret missing them.   However, both reminded me of old photos of Andrew so I am going to attempt to at least give an idea of what they were.  

1st - Above is Andrew at about 21 months.   Ok, I was unloading the dishwasher in the kitchen when I look into the living room and am surprised by the cutest little moon. Picture Mark in this exact same outfit (shirt and boots), but with no diaper AND bent over cleaning up toys.  It was hilarious!!!
In an aside, Mark is 34 months old and wearing the same jammies Andrew wore at 21 months)

2nd missed photo op - Again this is Andrew at about 19 months wearing his Halloween costume, which looked at little snug then.  The missed photo op was that Andrew (my boy who absolutely LOVES to dress up and pretend)  had that same costume on today.  He wore it for almost an hour.  I have no idea HOW he got it on.. I do know that when he was ready to take it off, it took us about 10 minutes.  He started to panic at one point and when it was finally off he said, "I thought I'd have to wear that forever." 

Humility

Humility - Freedom from pride and arrogance.  Enables one to have a sense of one's own unworthiness through imperfection and sinfulness.


Wow - Did today's gospel touch anyone else?  The basic lesson for me was humility.  It was the parable about the Pharisee and the Tax collector praying in the temple.  The Pharisee spends his prayer time boasting of all the wonderful things he has done while the tax collector humbly acknowledges his sinfullness and unworthiness before His Creator and begs for mercy.

Have you ever prayed the Litany of  Humility http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/Litanies/humility?  Red Flag Alert:::: don't pray it unless you are truly prepared to practice that virtue.  It is a very difficult one.  I have been practicing that virtue for almost 20 years and feel that I am no closer to being humble than the day I first prayed that Prayer. I struggle greatly with humility because 1) I am a first born child and by definition, bossy, in almost every sense of the word b) God blessed me with 16 years of being a single Catholic women.  AT which time, I learned as much as I possibly could about my faith.  The second is not where I struggle.  I have  a love and passion for my faith that bears in me a strong desire to share it with others.  However, the combination of  1 and b can make me look like a bossy know-it-all at times.

Practicing the virtue of humility requires you to possess a full knowledge of your sins, failings, weaknesses, skeletons in your closet, etc. while at the same time maintaining a firm confidence in your dignity as a child of God made in His image and likeness, graced and blessed by Him, your Creator.  If you tip too far to one side, you can fall into despair, the other side, self-righteousness.  Maintaining that balance is not easy.  The freedom comes in the fact that I cannot do it alone and I am, indeed, in need of a Savior who lovingly died for me 2000 years ago.  When I am able to acknowledge that and allow Him to save me, I am, at least a little, practicing the virtue of humility.

PracticingVirtues

My newest adventure with Jesus is practicing virtues.  A very good friend of mine recently introduced me to The Virtue Store www.thevirtuestore.com.   It's a discipline (for lack of a better word) program designed to help your children identify and build virtues.  I immediately LOVED the idea, ordered the program,  and spent days waiting by the mailbox for it to arrive. 


For me, it's important to sow those seeds of faith and develop that relationship with Jesus as much as I can.  With the way today's society and culture is heading, I sometimes fear for their souls if I don't.   I want to help provide them an anchor and as many tools as possible for when they hit those teen - young adult years.  I try to stay grounded in prayer myself and am constantly begging the guidance of heaven.  I recently heard Scott Hahn say that at night before he goes to bed, he sometimes goes into his children's room and prays to their guardian angels, asking for them to help him to know the best way to bring his children to Jesus and heaven.   Beautiful.  I started doing that and not long after was when I discovered the Virtue Chart.  


What surprised me (not sure why it surprised me, I should have expected it) was that I found myself in desperate need of practicing the virtues right alongside my boys.  God is so good and I am so happy to say that I am always eager to embark on any adventure He puts in my path.  


So, here we are, practicing our virtues.  Please pray for us, especially me.  

Pumpkin Patch

Photos are finally download from way back in October.  Some catching up to do.

We took a day trip with friends to our favorite pumpkin patch.   Although there are several pumpkin patches near town,  we have been traveling a little over an hour to this one for 3 years now.  Bruce likes to search the internet and plan Sunday day trips to the most obscure little places around Texas.  We always have a great time and this is no exception.  Obviously there is face painting, hay rides, pumpkin painting, hay and corn mazes, and lots of home bakes pumpkin goodies.  There is always this cute little bluegrass band which Bruce and I particularly enjoy.  Of course, there are pumpkins.

Andrew as a tiger.

Which, of course, meant Mark had to be a tiger as well.

Mark driving a tractor.

I just had to include the entire sequence of shots in the pumpkins because it depicts Andrew's personality so well and is so funny when viewed in sequence.

This is boring.  Hurry up, Daddy.

Dad, do you need help because I know how to take excellent pictures?

Time to readjust. Just give me a minute.

Silliness sets in. 

Whoa!! Did you see that?

Not sure what's going on with the tongue, but did anyone notice that Mark has barely moved?  

My sweet Markie

Markie:  Can we go to the park now?

Mom:  I'm sorry.  We're not going to go to the park.

Markie: You said we going to park.

Mom:  I know I said maybe we can go to the park, but I changed my mind.  Sorry.

Markie:  Can we go to the park when you done changing your mind?