Category Archives: Catholicism

Sunday rest, weekends are best!

It was a brisk one here this weekend…no snow, but with lows in the 30’s and highs in the 50’s, that’s a little on the cold side here in sunny FLA. On the bright side, the cooler weather made it positively perfect for a fire in the backyard on Friday night. Some of us even brought our fish and chips out and ate around the fire; it was fabulous end to the workweek.

Saturday morning I picked up my girlfriend and we hit the gym I snagged a Groupon for (6 weeks of personal fitness training/group environment–seriously HARD!!!!) and joined in their AMRAP challenge. As Many Rounds As Possible of: 25 Jumping jacks, 20 Basketball jumps, 15 Pushups, 10 Burpees and run to the stop sign and back (a pretty long block) and repeat for 35 minutes. y’all. Holy hurtness. I did 6 Rounds. The winner (who I’m sure was like 15) did 9, the woman’s winner did 8. I was proud of myself, especially considering I can’t run, so the down and back was walking. It’s going to be an interesting 5 more weeks….Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturday mornings. These guys are seriously professional, encouraging and motivating, even making sure they know their clients by first name….all 40 of us on Saturday! It’s refreshing. The professionalism.

Sunday was full on NOTHING! Mass was great. I mean who CAN’T relate to the woman at the well? We all FAIL. We all fall short. We can all receive that everlasting water, that grace, that mercy; we just need to seek Him out. If we can but take a minute and not judge others, but turn our gaze inward we can see we are ALL the same and we can ALL receive grace and healing in our broken-ness.

Follow that message up with a quick little trip to Target for some essentials and a day of just puttering, relaxing, tackling bills and thank you cards for 1)yummy food and 2) I job I didn’t get, some Downton Abbey (which I purely cried my eyes out on), homemade mac and cheese with ham and ALL the kids home and chilling out all day, was a total home run. The only downside? Today is Monday.

Have a great week, y’all!

It takes a village, even for grown-ups!

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It’s been an interesting week and in light of Sede Vacante (no Pope at the moment, in case you missed any/all of the news), it’s a somber time as we wait on the conclave to decide our next Pope. Historical. Fascinating. In light of this transitional time, I thought I’d do my version of 7QTs with Jen and throngs a little differently and offer up some inspiration I’ve come across the blogosphere this week. Be motivated. Be inspired. Enjoy.

1. No one knows what the next minute holds — but you let ourselves be moved into it anyways. Because somewhere inside of you, you know Someone holds it.

Ann Voskamp “When you are tired of worrying”

2. Sometimes you just need a plan….

1) shaken, lea prays. i go to God for help…

2) let God take care of His part. look at Him. not at the enemy.

3) my job is obedience. the battle is the Lord’s.

4) praise and worship Him. walk by faith in His promises not by sight. 

Lea “I didn’t think I needed this book”
3. :: REMEMBER TO LOVE THESE LITTLE SOULS..just LOVE them . I can not fix all of everything about them…I can not be perfect and complete for all of them at all the same time…but I can have LOVE for them and show that in ALL that I do for them and around them…

The Little House that Grew

4. Sometimes we need reminders on making it through the day…during Lent

Fast

Every time a child interrupts you today, stop what you are doing and look into his eyes as he talks.

Pray

“My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

Give

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta)

Elizabeth Foss Fast. Pray. Give.

5. There is a fine line between celebrating your gift, using it for the glory of God, and practicing humility.

Katherine “Finding your Gift”

6. And of course, Pinterest/Tumblr..

7. And this one, just warmed my heart, through and through. What an awesome experience, truly awesome! Can you imagine? I don’t know if I could wash my child’s forehead again!!!!

‘When I see you, I see the Church is alive.’
-Pope Benedict XVI

Most blessed baby…EVAH!!!!!!

Mama Needs Coffee (Image cred and you really have to go read her posts on Papa Bene’s Popemobile exit….Really. go. NOW. go. HERE!!!!)

To flu vaccinate or no….

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An interesting debate to be sure and I’m curious to see why YOU have to say about this. Of course, this won’t be all serious, I do have some funny-ish stuff to report as well 😉

So, a few months back I heard Mac and Katherine on Catholic in a Small Town podcast discussing Katherine’s preference NOT to get the flu vaccine….#203, you can check it out on iTunes…and it got me thinking about the flu vaccine and WHY do I bother each year? Is it worth it? What am I subjecting myself to? It opened up an internal can o’ worms for certain.

Anyhoooo…I work in the medical field, my employer provides the vaccine to me at no cost each year and so, I get the vaccine. I’ve not had the flu in 10 years and quite frankly, would prefer to not have it again. However….due to the controversial issues on the flu vaccine for our kids…I’ve not had them get a flu shot. Ever. That I remember, anyway. Questionable ingredients, 62%ish effectiveness rate, roll of the dice on which strain we’ll actually come in contact with, ACK…it’s too much, so we’ve opted out. However…..things ’bout to change in these parts!

Our 15 yo son came down with Flu B last weekend. I already blogged on all THAT fun here if you missed it the first time around and the kid ended up missing a WHOLE FLIPPIN’ WEEK OF SCHOOL!!! yes, High School. Good times. The kicker is that I actually started getting sick at the end of the week last week, sucked it up for a couple of days (chalking it up to allergies and pollen), however, by Saturday afternoon–after an ENTIRE day of solo and ensemble stuff with our 13 yo and tag-along 9 yo daughter, I came home and went to bed and got up yesterday. Monday. Ugh. Fever’s gone and I was back to work today, but still…..ain’t. quite. right. And I WAS vaccinated!!! WTH??!?!? So when I brought the 15yo BACK to the doc yesterday for additional antibiotics for “possible” pneumonia still not resolved as a result of his flu….I decided next year EVERYONE gets the vaccine. Mine didn’t last as long as his, certainly wasn’t as brutal and you know “Ain’t NOBODY got time for that” to be staying home with sick kids, for kids to be missing a week of schoolwork (the stuff the teachers didn’t email…) and we ALL know Mama don’t have time to be sick..even though Daddy is a pretty fantastic taker-carer.

So, what’s your take? Flu vaccine or no?

On the upside…..I got a TON of reading in. Finished Screwtape letters, almost finished A year of biblical womanhood, completely caught up on my Daily Catechism readings—(I MAY have been 3 weeks behind). Mailed a long overdue encouragement card and ordered The Power of Positive Thinking to go with said card. Slept so much my back ached. Lost a few pounds. Woke up from a nap to find Hubby and 75% of the kids playing Monopoly….WITHOUT blood shed. True. No joke. Prayed. (It was a good few days to be on my heart…you are so covered it’s ridiculous). Continue to play with PicMonkey and learn a little more.

Phew. It’s been a long couple days.

7QT Return, Ta DAAA!

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With my whole social network fasting apparently I have more time to blog…who knew??? So, I’m jumping back in with the tried and true at Conversion Diary with Jen and her peeps…of course, I’m not #1 like Grace, but she’s a new mom again and clearly not sleeping anyway…so go check ’em all out…

1. Fresh into Lent, folks…Fresh. Into. Lent. You know what that means, right? All those sacrifices and desires to help more, pray more, do more, etc are FRESH and “technically” two days in we should be going strong. Ammiright?? Riiiiight, so remember…no meat today. And if perhaps, halfway through that double with cheese you remember “ACK…it’s Friday!!!”, just start over. We are imperfect people, God knows this. His joy is in our TRYING to do better. And when we screw up, dust ourselves off and try again….that’s what we can choose to do. So, in the classic words of Dori from Finding Nemo…”just keep swimming”!

2. What did you give up for Lent? Perhaps you are instead focusing on praying and have some plans of monastic retreat or super fasting to add some oomph to your prayer life, or maybe working in the soup kitchen or homeless shelter….what’s the plan, Stan? I gave up Facebook and Twitter. It’s quite freeing and I actually look forward to this each Lent. Now, you might say, but “Tracy, your blog shows up on Twitter?” Yes, it’s set that way automatic, but I am not CHECKING said Twitter account.

3. Did you get your ashes? We did. I must say it was practically WW3 getting there. A serious force of crazy, crappy, grumpy, tempers came over our household IMMEDIATELY prior to leaving. We persevered anyway and let me say, people….GOD prevailed. Oh yes he did defuse that 13 yo, 15 yo and 2 young ladies who readied themselves in their Mass finery only to see EVERY to the ONE was in their regular clothes (including yours truly, fresh off the JOB train in her scrubs). Hubs took everyone home after the distribution of ashes and I stayed to wait for our 7th grader to take him home after his RE class. We came home to fish and chips awaiting. (AKA, fish sticks and fries) God is good. All the time. All the time. God is good.

4. Ash Wednesday I also went to Adoration (a weekly Lenten practice for me this year). Unknowingly, I arrived during the church’s Mass celebration, therefore the Eucharist was not in the chapel, but in the church. ENNYWAY….I still prayed the Rosary and intentions and fully enjoyed my quiet time. If you have noise in your life (you don’t need to be a parent for this) you should take time to go to Adoration…shoot, even if you’re not Catholic….just go…it is AWESOME. Peace, quiet. Total gift. I’d live there if I could. Really. Logistically though, just not going to work.

5. Saved me some cash this week. Went in to quit the gym, just not feeling it, and I’ve been working out at home (not this week so much…but mostly-ish) but they love me so much they comped me 2 months and lowered my monthly rate to $5. Sheesh, alright. I’ll come back. $5, c’mon. Who CAN say no to that???

6. Along with my social fasting, weekly Adoration visit and prayer intentions….I am also trying to focus on some spiritual reading. This week I finished C.S. Lewis’ “Screwtape Letters”…wow. wow. wow. If you haven’t read it….do it. Next up…”Visions of the Children” by Janice Connell. And continued reading of Saint Faustina’s Diary (although that is taking YEARS. Literally. YEARS!! tremendously rich reading. small bites only)

7. Finally, if you read yesterday’s post on our little Romeo and his Valentine’s flower promise…I’ll tell you how it went: He made his first deposit to his math teacher (who, although killing him, has been incredibly helpful and challenging) and from then on out had “hordes” of ladies following him around for roses. He had them labeled and did have a couple extra (to which I was also a recipient….smart boy!)…but he admitted at dinner that it was an impossible task to please all the ladies on Valentine’s Day. Not to mention expensive. He’s a mess that one. A sweet mess. **For all you Bachelor fans out there….I asked him if he was prepping to do a teen Bachelor and he was unaware of the show/concept etc….PHew. I don’t watch either, but have the gist of it from some of you…who will remain nameless for the obvi reasons.

Have a great week y’all and enjoy the weekend!!! We won’t be shoveling snow…thank you, JESUS…but will be wearing jeans and hoodies this weekend here in Central FLA. Brrr. High of 50ish tomorrow. Yikes!! 😉

making the trek

Trekking through life: Faith, family, friends and a whole lot of coffee!