Summer Morning

Coffee on the back porch.  Canning waiting to be done.  Fresh eggs ready to roll off the counter.  This vignette pretty much says it. 

The children still snoozing, I got up early and made a pot of coffee last Saturday morning. It was deliciously chilly outside, so I grabbed my old navy blue sailor jacket and my camera, and, coffee cup in hand, took a stroll down the canal trail near our home. 

Will you walk with me?

Praying for Melanie

Melanie Pritchard, a well-known and respected advocate for life and for the virtue of chastity (and a friend of a friend), is in critical condition after complications during the birth of her second child.  Would you please join us in praying for this Mama who needs to be well soon to care for her beautiful new daughter?  St. Gerard Majella, St. Anne, Our Lady of La Salette, please intercede!

Update:  Thanks be to God, and no doubt due to the multitude of prayers, Melanie appears to be out of the woods.  Still a long road to recovery ahead, but the prognosis appears miraculous.  You can read updates here.

LIfe Is Like A Merry-Go-Round

Some people do the spinning.

Others are just along for the ride.

Some hang on sensibly.

Others cavort with reckless abandon.

And then there are those who just lie in the grass

with their eyes shut.

(It's anyone's guess: 

 Either the spinning makes them dizzy

or they're sleepy and just don't care.)

Which one are you?

*BTW: These shots were taken Sunday afternoon at Ridgway town park, where the hanging scene in True Grit was filmed.  Though they're becoming scarce in suburban playgrounds around this country, noone would dare take this rusty, old, spinning wheel of death out of John Wayne's playground.  Tough kids play here.  This is real Colorado.

Favorite Prayers Meme

Grandma K. over at A Bit of the Blarney tagged me last week  for the Catholic Prayer Meme.   This is a great thought-provoking meme.  Here are the guidelines:

"Name your three most favorite prayers, and explain why they're your favorites. Then tag five bloggers - give them a link, and then go and tell them they have been tagged. Finally, tell the person who tagged you that you've completed the meme... The Liturgy and the Sacraments are off limits here. I'm more interested in people's favorite devotional prayers."


 
  There are so many prayers that come to mind, I don't know where to start or how to narrow my favorites down to three...  The Mass and the rosary come first as the greatest prayers, of course, but I think that's assumed by most Catholics...  So many others to choose from, though... from my daily repertoire and from those that we use occasionally, when we want to call in the "big guns."  It's hard to come up with just three!   But, after some thought, this is what I decided on:
 
1. I love the Prayer of St. Francis. 

Such a beautiful lyrical prayer, like you'd expect from St. Francis (my Confirmation saint), but also solidly practical.  It's a three-parter.  The first part tells me what I must be: an instrument of God's peace -- a necessary thing in any vocation, but an especially important thing for a mother.   What do I need most to do in my home every day?  Sow love, get injuries pardoned, grow in and impart faith and hope.  With God's help.  

Then the second part of the prayer tells me what I must not be: a needy, self-centered whiner.  There are people out there who don't need this reminder, but unfortunately, I'm one of the ones that needs the constant poking -- and the alternative suggestions:  console, understand, love.

The third part of the prayer is the payoff: ...for it is in giving that we receive, in pardoning that we are pardoned, and in dying that we are born to eternal life.  Such a gentle, but firm hand on the shoulder, this prayer.  Go this way, Lisa.  Do this.  Don't do this.  And this is why. 

My favorite prayer. 

2.  My second choice I'm cheating on.  I have two prayers of St. Thomas Aquinas that we've depended on through the years.  First, The Student's Prayer: Grant me, I beseech Thee, most merciful God, prudently to study, rightly to understand, and perfectly to fulfill that which is pleasing to Thee, in the praise and glory of Thy Name. Amen.* * * * * *  We've prayed this prayer to start every home school day for seventeen years or so.  It is straight-forward, simple, and says it all, not only for the student, but for all of us, I think.  

The second St. Thomas prayer that we love and use often is similar -- The Prayer to Know God's Will: Grant me grace, O merciful God, to desire ardently all that is pleasing to Thee, to examine it prudently, to acknowledge it truthfully, and to accomplish it perfectly for the praise and glory of Thy name. Amen * * * * * *  I'm not exactly sure why this works, but we've always used this one when making decisions about car buying.  We think St. Thomas would have been a good mechanic, happily puttering around with motors while pondering the mysteries of the universe.  But, aside from its use for automotive endeavors, this is a short, easy prayer for a teenager seeking God's will for a vocation; for a family making decisions about its children's education;  for counsel on moving to a different home...  You name it.  We use it often.

St. Thomas rocks.

3. The third prayer that comes to mind is actually a novena -- a new one to us and a long one that is a little difficult to get all the way through, but so very worth it.  The Novena To St. Joseph.  We prayed this novena right before we put our house up for sale and St. Joseph definitely came through  for us.  But that's not why I choose this novena as my third favorite.  It was through this prayer that I found a greater love and understanding of the wonder and importance of St. Joseph than I ever had.  In the words of this novena, which change with each of the nine days, you walk through the life of this greatest of saints and learn the power of his virtues in a deep way.  We always loved St. Joseph, but after saying this novena, we honor and love him more than ever.  St. Joseph, patron of the universal Church, pray for us!

* Now, I'd like to tag the following friends to see what their favorite three prayers are:

1. Sarah
2. Ann
3. Kim
4. Charlotte
5. My daughter, Theresa

Feast of Our Beloved St. Anne

Prayer to St. Anne, Mother of The Blessed Virgin, Grandmother of Our Lord

Beloved of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, mother of the Queen of Heaven, take us and all who are dear to s under your special care. Obtain for us the virtues you instilled in the heart of her who was destined to become Mother of God, and the graces with which you were endowed. Sublime model of Christian womanhood, pray that we may imitate your example in our homes and families, listen to our petitions, and obtain our request request. Guardian of the infancy and childhood of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, obtain the graces necessary for all who enter the marriage state, that imitating your virtues they may sanctify their homes and lead the souls entrusted to their care to eternal glory. Amen.

Makes My Monday

Sunday Night at the Drive In

Our little valley has the last two drive-ins still surviving in Colorado.

We heard there was a cartoon double feature last weekend and jumped at the chance to go!

The parking lot was full of moms and dads who sometimes chose (like I did, because the seat was more comfy) to sit in the front seat of the car while the kids took their places right in front of the family sedans or minivans in camp chairs.

 

The heat dissipated as the sun sank behind the movie screen.   Crickets chirped, mosquitoes buzzed.   The children who had beenrunning around their cars, playing with the speakers, and crisscrossing back and forth to the candy stand all calmed down and took their seats.  The screen finally lit up.   And everyone -- moms and dads, too -- stepped into the world of Woody and Buzz and Andy. A summer night at the Drive In -- an experience my parents remember and my children now share.  Wholesome good fun. Stuff memories are made of.

Note to self:  Clean windshield and fix crack before next time.

More Monday posts over at Cheryl's!

Dog Days

"The Romans referred to the dog days as diēs caniculārēs and associated the hot weather with the star Sirius. They considered Sirius to be the "Dog Star" because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Large Dog). Sirius is also the brightest star in the heavens besides the Sun. The term "Dog Days" was used earlier by the Greeks.

"The Dog Days originally were the days when Sirius rose just before or at the same time as sunrise (heliacal rising), which is no longer true, owing to precession of the equinoxes. The Romans sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather."
Wikepedia

July 24 -- Aug 24
National Dog Day:  August 11

Early Morning Coffee on the Back Porch

...with my honey ~ who would shoot me if I blew up an extra large photo of him here... (Having: freshly ground Starbux French roast, French vanilla creamer, and a tad of sugar)

And a hummingbird  ~ who doesn't care how big the picture is. (Having: Sugar, water, hold the coffee and cream)

Quickish Takes

1.  All the boxes in the house are unpacked.  I would say something like "Wahoo!" except for the fact that I still have a whole barn of boxes and bins yet to go through.  I had planned to do a thorough weeding out, paring down, and all-'round simplifying excursion through our stuff before we moved. But that was when I thought it would take forever to sell our house. Since it took only about a month, listing to signing, to turn over the old place, we had barely time to get it all boxed and out in time, much less sifted through and organized. 

And so I'm turning up boxes that have just plain old trash in them; boxes with a jumble of items from spoons to laundry detergent to cleats packed up together; overpacked boxes bursting at the seams; and boxes with hardly anything in them.   After we finished canning all the apricots, I found my cuisinart packed up with sewing notions, and a couple days ago my camera charger showed up in in a box of miscellaneous that included all the dishes we almost forgot to get out of the dishwasher the day we moved... 

And then there was this:

Maybe we'd better not open this one.

2.  Check out the neat 3-D crucifix Anna made for me.  She conceived, figured it out, and made it all by herself...

3.  "William, are you eating on the sofa?"

"Um.  No?"

4.  Now that we're kinda settled in -- I know where the toenail clippers are now and the coffee pot and beans are all set up and easy to access on a bleary-eyed morning -- I've had a little time to reflect on how I feel about moving away from the old farm, and I've gotta say that the first word that comes to mind is relieved.  We worked long and hard, in two attempts over five years' time, to finally sell the place -- and it was a determined effort.  I'm glad to finally be done with the whole process.  Selling a house is nerve wracking, and there are so many reasons it was time for us to move on.  It was too much for us to care for anymore, for one thing; with Dan away and no big boys around anymore, the girls and I were not up to the task of  the multi-faceted production our old farm was. And, we felt that if we were ever going to sell it, it had to be soon because later could stretch a long ways down the road and we're not getting any younger or more energetic. 

 

 

But, that said, there are things I miss about the old place.  I miss my perennial beds, my heirloom roses, my established garden area.  I miss being an easy drive away from my extended family.  And I miss the way it used to be: when the old cottonwoods and lilac hedge were so thick and healthy that they hid the house from the road; I miss when the boys were all home and got up at the crack of dawn to milk the goats and tend the chickens and mend the fences; I miss the front porch visits of our neighbor who boarded her horses with us...  

 

But, many of my favorite things are history now:  my neighbor  moved to North Dakota and took her last horse with her; the lilacs are still blooming in the back of the old house, but the old trees are dying and will soon be gone; and my big boys have grown up and moved on to their own good, productive lives.  My memories of the farm are sweet-- sometimes sun-baked and sweaty -- but sweet, and I cherish them.  But, I'm excited about planning out my new garden beds; the trees here at our new house are young and healthy and the hay fields are green and sweet smelling; we're close enough to see my family several times a year; we're a short drive to some of the most beautiful highlands in the world; and we can walk across the hayfields to visit with Jesus.  It's all good.  We're keeping the old memories and making new ones, too.

5. Speaking of the new house, tho'...  (and I hope it's not getting tiresome, this one-track mind of mine, but if I don't unload and share it my head just might explode.)  We entertained our first guests yesterday.  Our friends, Cheryl and Jess and family, came over to this side of the mountains for a camping trip (which, unfortunately got rained on, daggone it...), and stopped by for a visit before they headed back home. 
(Smiling and waving, Cheryle!)

 I've been feeling sensitive about dragging out the ole camera to document everything, though, so I didn't take pictures of the evening.   I'm feeling the need to be more focused on the present; I want to enjoy events first-person and not through the eyes of my blog -- something that has been a temptation for me in the past....

But, anyway,  it was so much fun seeing our old friends and the kids just had a blast as Cheryle and Jess's kidlets are all around the same ages as ours and equally energetic and imaginitive! It was such a good time. We had corn roasted in the fire pit, BBQ beef and pork, made in my big roaster, salad, orange slices, and ice cream Sundae fixins brought by our guests. Plus plenty of swinging and sliding on the jungle gym, playing with kitties, catching up with the grown-ups and even some games of chess.

 Here are some shots of the day after the night before.

6.  And here's me having a piece of Olathe Sweet Sweet for Nicole and Baby Gavin, as requested:

Here ya go, Nicole.  Can't you just taste it??

(Heads Up:  Watch for a Fed-Ex box middle of next week...)

7.  Finally, I have to share  this insightful post  from  City Wife Country Life .  If you're at all like me and have a tendency to occasionally relapse into "needy wife-ness," go have a read!   It's good medicine.  H/T: Nadja at  Patch O'Dirt Farm

Lots of Good Stuff over at Jennifer's, including lists and lists of more Quick Takes posts!

What We're Doing Wednesday

Look at 'em! T'ousands of 'em -- Comin' in from Valley Gloam by bus! 

Not really.  When we went and picked these apricots on Saturday, we were so enthusiastic about the heavily laden, beautiful old trees that we just couldn't stop ourselves.  We picked and picked and picked -- and picked some more.  It was great fun.  It was like a contest to see how many we could get...

 What was I thinking? 

We've already shared a box, though, with the folks at church and canned or froze about two-thirds of the rest.  But, yikees, these guys are so small, we spend half our time peeling and pitting them. The kids love the slime, but I'm getting a little tired of it.  But =sigh= we'll enjoy the jam come winter time; I can just imagine us shivering in closer to the woodstove, eating some toast and jam for breakfast, reminiscing about the hot July day we picked all those apricots...  They're sunshine in a jar now.

* Bozo button for anyone who knows where that first quote comes from... ;o)