Falling on His Grace

Like so many families seem to be doing this week, we went today to see Toy Story 3. It was likely the best movie I've seen in quite some time. I laughed, and I cried, through the whole movie. Yes, you read that right... I cried. What? It's a kids movie! About toys! Well, you see... I'm a mother, and I've got little boys. And, well, Andy (the main human character) is going away to college. And of course they had to show flashbacks to his younger years playing with all his toys, making up scenarios for the toys, running around, and just being a little boy. And then, he's suddenly this big kid, a 17-year-old, packing up and getting ready to leave for school. Well, it gave me a sense of flashing forward , to my boys growing up and moving on, and even just simply not being little boys anymore, losing that playfulness of youth. And my little Blaise doesn't look so different than young Andy, making the whole scenario seem so much more real(and my Andy, Blaise's

I find the classic question by Protestants to be intriguing. Are we saved by faith or by works? What!?? First of all, we're not saved by either. We're saved by the grace of God! In no way can we secure our own trip to Heaven, whether by strong faith or worthy deeds. Secondly, what's the difference, really?? Love and charity are both products of faith. "We love because He first loved us" (not sure the verse). Love is of God; all love comes from God. We are incapable of love except in relationship to Him, who is the source of that love. If we know God and have true faith, how can we not love God? And since we are all created in the image of God, if we love God, we must love others as well. And what are good works really but our acting in love and charity to our fellow human beings, out of love for and faith in God? Without faith, works are dead; they are empty. In the same way, without works, faith is dead; it bears no fruit. Jesus commands us to follow Him and then

One day, already about a month ago, the boys (Blaise especially) was really excited about helping me. And I had a few things I wanted done. So I did what any mom would do: I put him to work. First we reorganized the closet, using cardboard shoe racks my mom had been getting rid of. He helped me vacuum out the dust, pile one on top of the other in the closet, and place shoes in them. Before we just had a pile of shoes in and around the closet. Much better! While we had the shop vac out, he worked on vacuuming the garage, while Isaac brought a few things to the recycling can for me (basically because he wanted his picture taken too) Blaise and I also reorganized the quiet time room, using a desk my parents also needed to get rid of as a TV stand. I have to say, while that's not what the desk was made for, it looks much better than the old diaper boxes and safe we had been using before. Because Blaise is enjoying helping out, I've started giving him his first unofficial chore, whi

This is my goal: For our home to be a refuge, a place where the pace is slower than the world outside, where joy and love are abundant, and where God is welcomed and celebrated.

I have so many posts floating around in my head... mainly about the boys. But they take so long to write, complete with pictures and all. The ones that take less time are ones like this: I AM NO LONGER WORKING FULL TIME!!!! WOO HOO! I just finished my last week of full time work and will cut back next week to 20-23 hours!!! Yay! I'm so excited to spend more time with the boys and be less busy! I'm hoping this will help with feeling more balanced in terms of spending my time in ways that I more strongly value.... such as with my family and hopefully more often in prayer and such. Perhaps I'll be able to post about some of our adventures and times together! Oh, yes, and I have a great weekend planned, seeing some wonderful friends both days this weekend - most notably, I'll be spending some time with a few great friends Sunday evening - Katie from HuMAMAe Vitae and Sarita, who is a missionary with her beautiful family, as well as another one or two friends. And I'm h

I finally have (hopefully) enough time to finish my post! I'll repeat what I already said, since my next thought flows together. For ease of reading, I'll put anything new in italics. " Paradigms power perceptions, and perceptions power emotions . Most emotions are responses to perception - what you think is true about a given situation. If your perception is false, then your emotional response to it will be false too. So check your perceptions, and beyond that check the truthfulness of your paradigms -what you believe. Just because you believe something firmly doesn't make it true. Be willing to reexamine what you believe. The more you live in the truth, the more your emotions will help you see clearly. But even then, you don't want to trust them more than [you trust God]" ( The Shack , Wm Paul Young). I see this clearly illustrated in my own life. The paradigm I too often live by lately is that my life is too difficult that that too many expectations and re

" Paradigms power perceptions, and perceptions power emotions . Most emotions are responses to perception - what you think is true about a given situation. If your perception is false, then your emotional response to it will be false too. So check your perceptions, and beyond that check the truthfulness of your paradigms -what you believe. Just because you believe something firmly doesn't make it true. Be willing to reexamine what you believe. The more you live in the truth, the more your emotions will help you see clearly. But even then, you don't want to trust them more than [you trust God]" ( The Shack , Wm Paul Young). The paradigm I too often live by lately is that my life is too difficult that that too many expectations and responsibilities are being thrown at me. This drives me to perceive any setback or struggle to be unfair and to be more than I can handle. Therefore, I am quick to feel anxious, stressed, angered, impatient. If I can switch my paradigm from &

We finally emptied pictures from our camera onto the computer. I had taken several pictures of projects the boys and I had done and will do a short series on those. The first one was done soon before Thanksgiving 2009. While I had planned to frost these, I was too tired to attempt the frosting with the boys. One last picture, just because it's cute:

Not sure what to say about my week at home. But I feel like I should say something since staying at home is what I am SO looking forward to. So I will write just a few observations. 1. I'm more tired than I thought I'd be. I know staying at home is hard, and so I was partially expecting it. But I didn't think it would be so exhausting getting things done around the house. I had a list for the week: laundry, wash the kitchen floor, and clean the bathrooms. And keep up on dishes. Oh, and several phone calls. The laundry and dishes were not a big deal, but the day that I cleaned the kitchen floor and the day I cleaned the bathrooms did not go well at all. When I would just hang out with the boys, things went well, but as soon as I would try to check anything off my list or spend any amount of time in another room, the whining and clinging started. I would just sit and spend all day with the boys if I could, but then the house would be in shambles. 2. I still have a lot of work

This is a question especially for all you moms who have boys 5 years and older: When can one expect a boy to start behaving during Mass? By behaving, I mean staying reasonably still, being fairly quiet, listening when we ask them to settle down, and facing the front most of the time. Our older boy is nearly 5, and I'm wondering what I can expect from him especially, and when I can expect him to improve further. Our 3 1/2 year old is most of the time better than our nearly 5 year old. Currently the boys only come to Church with us on average every 2 to 3 weeks because I am so exhausted by the end of Mass when we bring them with us. But I also want the boys to get used to going to Mass and to know it's just a part of our lives, and my husband and I also like to participate in Mass together. Are we doing the boys a disservice by not bringing them, or is it ok in the long run to keep them home? Any tips on getting them to enjoy Mass or on wanting to come with us or wanting to beh

Yesterday marks the one year mark until I hope to be staying home following Andy's graduation. One year! I started this countdown unofficially at 23 months. Nearly a year has passed since then. Looking back, the year has gone somewhat quickly, especially the last three months. This week, I'm home with the boys. I took the week off as a break from work as well as to take an opportunity to spend time with my boys. Yesterday we had a nice morning, but it all blew up around noon, as the boys were tired and recovering after a wonderful weekend at my parents' cottage, but they slept until 7:45 this morning - unheard of in this house - and are fairly recovered now. And we're enjoying this day, with relatively little whining. This type of day is the reason I want to stay home - being able to guide and direct them in how to behave and how to talk, and to enjoy them. We even did a project this morning! I will include a picture of the finished product. The house isn't clean, b