What I Wore on Sunday: August 4, 2013

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What I Wore On Sunday

The bear child was up at 6:45 (!!!!!!) this morning so I had no excuse for not making it to church except for sheer sloth on my part.

My normal Sunday look.

Ahem.

Daniel and I made it with a few minutes to spare and other than pitching a fit when one of the teens tried to take him out into the hallway to slam doors (his favorite thing in the world), he was fairly good today. We skipped the special music and part of the sermon in favor of doing a few laps around the block and he let me stay until the end when he melted down rather spectacularly after he ran into the fellowship hall and realized that I hadn’t followed him. Oops! At least I actually made it through without having to have Jon bring me the Eucharist at home today?

Sam and I.

Dress: Kohl’s.
Flip-flops: (not shown) Old Navy

(Ignore my double chin. It only appears when I look down.)

This was actually my Easter dress from last year but it’s one of my go-to dresses for church because it makes me feel pretty. It has an empire-waist and a really swingy skirt which I think looks kind of vintage. I’ve used it for a Broadway touring company show in Los Angeles as well as for a funeral and a wedding because it tends to be dressy enough that I can pair it with heels but also something that allows me to move which is essential when I’m having to keep tabs on Daniel.

My cats made themselves scarce for picture-taking today so I had to settle for my hospital cat Sam. My mom got him for me when I was stuck in Good Samaritan Hospital (known as “Good Sam” to the locals) for 5 days around my 21st birthday and I’ve had him with me every time I’ve ended up in the hospital since then with the exception of my c-section (though Jon brought him up for the last night of my hospital stay).

My necklace

Necklace: made by my friend (and maid-of-honor and Daniel’s godmother) Rebecca. It went well with my dress and I’m glad I got to wear it today.

Go visit Kendra and the other beautiful people at Fine Linen and Purple.

Random Act of Kindness

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To the woman in front of me at the grocery store,

I saw you giving the little girl in front of you 50 cents so she could buy her bottle of Coke instead of having to have the checker put it back. I’m glad she thanked you politely (it shows good manners on her part) but I appreciated that you did not make a big deal out of it and joked that it was the weekend and she needed her Coke. Thanks for making my day better.

Love,

The person behind you in line who smelled like a gigantic tea bag from all the wintergreen oil rubbed into her joints

7 Quick Takes: Praying Compline, Harry Potter as An Adult, and a Prayer Request for a Friend

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Praying Compline. It was suggested to me a time ago that praying one of the Offices daily would scratch a liturgical itch. I chose Compline because I can pretty much guarantee that I’ll have some quiet time after Jon puts Daniel to bed to sit and pray. It’s been a really good discipline because it gives me something that calms me at the end of the day and a time when I can really let loose and pray about the things on my heart. Seeing this article today just affirms what I’ve been feeling with this.

— 2 —

The story behind “Lord, I Need You” from Matt Maher. Why yes, I’m obsessed with this song. How can you tell? Anyway, the song reminded me of the hymn I Need Thee Every Hour. It turns out that I was right and there is a connection.

— 3 —

My yearly donor call from Planned Parenthood. I was talking with Thomas when the phone rang.

J: Jen
C: Caller

*phone rings*
J: Hello?
C: Hi, my name is _________. I’m from _____________ and we’re calling on behalf of Planned Parenthood.
J: Can I cut to the chase? I’m pro-life so I’m afraid I’m not the person you want to be asking for a donation.
C: Thanks for letting me know that. You do realize that only 3% of what we do is abortions, right?
J: Totally aware of that. I also know exactly which facilities perform abortions, which perform aftercare, and which just do clinical things. I’ve worked with kids for 10 years and considered that knowledge valuable.
C: I’m glad you’re so informed. Anyway, I’m calling to ask if you can make a $150 donation today.
J: I can’t. It’s not in the budget and it’s not a donation I could make without talking to my husband and I’m positive that he wouldn’t approve of it.
C: *haggles with me a bit more on maybe making a smaller donation* Well, thank you for not hanging up on me and hearing me out. I also appreciate you being so polite.
J: No problem. Have a nice night.

I’m not posting about this to glorify myself or paint myself as a virtuous person. I had someone actually ask me to post my transcript of the call.

— 4 —

Orphans. Do you see these three adorable children?

First row: Brett and Iris.
Second row: Kaia.

BrettIrisKaia

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and they are in the homestudy stage. Kaia has met her family and they are in love with her!!! 🙂

Click on their names to see their Reece’s Rainbow pages.

— 5 —

Prayer Request. The middle brother of a high school classmate passed away almost two weeks ago from a series of seizures. His memorial service and funeral Mass are on Friday and Saturday. I know Craig (my classmate) would really appreciate if you would keep him, his sister-in-law Krystine, his niece Nicole, his nephew Dante, and his parents in prayer because these next few days will be brutal.

— 6 —

Prerequisite baseball Quick Take. the Giants have won two games in a row to take their series with Philadelphia this week. They have been the cellar-dwelling team of the NL West lately so I’m hoping this starts an up trend.

— 7 —

Will all the Harry Potter fans please stand up? I saw this on the Internet today and loved it. I wish J.K. Rowling would write some books about the characters’ adult lives.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

Five Favorites: Miscellanea (X)

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Five Favorites

Einn

Litany Run. I’ve been involved in the fundraising for Jenn’s Litany Run. She did a marathon a few months ago and is doing the Water to Wine half marathon in a few weeks. She’s got 28 days to get $25K of debt paid off so she can enter as a postulant. I have not met her in person but I have received the nicest thank you letters from her, telling me that she is praying for Daniel (he was one of her prayer requests that she prayed for during her marathon) and encouraging me in my vocation as a mom. If you could share this on your pages and/or donate to the cause, that would be awesome.

Tveir

“We All Sing the Same Song” Please raise your hand if you remember this from watching Sesame Street in the 80’s.

Þrjár

“I Don’t Want To Live On the Moon” This one is part of a classic Sesame Street episode on Netflix and I’m trying to memorize it so I can sing it to Daniel when he ends up in the hospital again. (Music is calming to him.)

Fjórir

My nail person. I love Tina to death. My massage therapist recommended her and I have nothing but appreciation for her. Not only does she remove my callouses with a Dremel tool, she does hot stone massage on my legs and makes my toes pretty. I like her so much that I’ve even allowed her to do gel nails on my hands. My fingers and toes are currently various shades of plum with pretty designs in white and silver on my thumbs and big toes.

Fimm

Husbands who bring their wives Lipton Pure Leaf Raspberry Tea. Just sayin’. 🙂 (Yes, I have a wonderful husband who puts up with me being a princess about things.)

Go love up Hallie and the others.

52 Weeks of Blogging with a Purpose: If I Could Turn Back Time…

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This week’s topic: if I could turn back time…

I try to live my life without regrets but there are things in my past that I wish I could do over.

If I could turn back time, I would make sure Daniel got the high-risk screening in Montana. Granted, our lives were in such chaos at the time that it would have been ONE MORE THING but it would have let us know that there was a problem before we reached southern California and had to figure out how to get him help.

If I could turn back time, I would not have compared Daniel to every other child I encountered. Doing all the comparing just made me feel like the worst mommy ever… and for things that weren’t my fault.

If I could turn back time, I would not have been so jealous of moms with normally-developing kids. This has been another source of stress in my life and it’s one that kept me from appreciating Daniel as much as I should have. I’m not going to lie — it is hard having a kid with special needs — but it is ten times cooler when he hits those milestones.

If I could turn back time, I wouldn’t have procrastinated as much in high school. I did get good grades but they could have been better if I hadn’t put things off until the last minute.

If I could turn back time, I would have gone with my strengths in college and double majored in History and Linguistics. I’m glad I had all the Biology and Chemistry but my college GPA would have been better if I had gone with history classes and language classes, areas where I excel.

If I could turn back time, I would have learned NFP before I got married. The Pill had some negative effects on me and other forms of contraception don’t appeal to me. I wish I would have learned how to read my body to know what my fertile signs were so that I wasn’t in the dark about how my body works.

If I could turn back time, I would tell myself not to sweat the fact that I was never invited to Homecoming because it was overrated and I had better times at the formals in college. It really depressed me in my junior and senior years not to be invited and I spent a lot of time wondering what was wrong with me. The answer: nothing. The really awesome guys who I hoped would ask me all turned out to be gay. Yeah… didn’t see that one coming.

If I could turn back time, I would take better care of myself. I’m having to drop a chunk of weight and am finding that doing so is a catch-22. My fibromyalgia is better with exercise… but the exhaustion makes it hard to exercise. I really need to find something I like doing and stick to it.

If I could turn back time, I would ignore the lies I was being told by Satan that any church I attended would give me crap because my parents weren’t there. I was thoroughly welcomed when I *did* start attending church and they were fine with the fact that I attended by myself.

Now go see Becky and what everyone else would do if they could turn back time.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: July 29, 2013

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY July 29, 2013

Outside my window… sunny and cool for this time of year — only in the 80’s.

I am thinking… that naps are wasted on cats and on the young.

I am thankful… for access to good medical care.

In the kitchen… chicken marinating.

I am wearing… green “Online Debate Team” t-shirt and black running shorts.

I am creating… blog entries and devotions.

I am going… to have a crazy day on Friday with parent training for Daniel’s ABA therapy, a doctor’s appointment, and a massage.

I am wondering… if Daniel will nap today as he’ll have had school plus 3 hours of ABA therapy.

I am reading… Going Going Ganache by Jenn McKinlay. I still have Apologia pro vita sua on my NOOK but I needed something light for a little bit.

I am hoping… for a quiet night.

I am looking forward to… my nail appointment on Wednesday.

Around the house… got vacuuming done today.

I am pondering… too many things internally.

A favorite quote for today… ??You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth of falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it??? ? C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

One of my favorite things… quiet. I don’t have it at the moment and probably won’t have it until Daniel goes to bed unless he decides to nap after therapy today.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Morning Prayer tomorrow with Anne, mani/pedi on Wednesday morning (I feel like a yuppie suburban mom), and my crazy insane Friday of activities. Daniel also has therapy today, Wednesday, and Friday.

A peek into my day… Sharing the video of Matt Maher at World Youth Day again. What can I say? It’s powerful.

Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook

Am I This Passionate About My Faith?

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It was unfortunately a typical Sunday for me — no church because either Daniel or I was sick (in this case, me) so I did the Sunday readings on my own. I was reading through my Facebook this morning and my friend Kate had posted this video.

It’s Matt Maher singing “Lord, I Need You” at World Youth Day during Eucharistic Adoration and it almost brought me to tears to see. (I think if I wasn’t so tired, it would have induced tears.) For one thing, you’ve got 3 million young people kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament and praying. For another, Maher himself is kneeling as he’s playing which shows that he gets the gravity of what he’s singing.

It brings to mind the question of whether I’m this passionate about my faith. I do actually have an excuse for missing church this Sunday (still getting over bronchitis) but for the last few years, I will admit that I’ve had a lot of Sundays sitting in church and wanting to be anywhere else but there… regardless of what church I am in. It has nothing to do with Jon’s previous parishes and synods throwing us under the bus and it doesn’t mean that I hate Jon’s preaching or that I don’t support his ministry. It isn’t a crisis of faith — I’m passionate in my love for God and in my belief in Jesus Christ. There is still something that just isn’t right and seeing this video is showing me that I’m missing something.