Falling on His Grace

Luke 12:13-21 Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters ...

A friend of mine gave me couple books and lent me a few movies after I asked for some advice regarding helping promote a love of God in our home. The movies were part of the Little Cherub series and were very good. And only 25-30 min long, which meant the boys were not sitting in front of the TV for very long. The books were a couple by Max Lucado, a Christian writer who also writes children's books. We read A Hat for Ivan this morning, and both the kids and I enjoyed it. It's about a 9 year old boy growing up in a town where everyone wears hats that illustrate what they love to do and are gifted in: baking, fishing, music, etc. Ivan's father is that hat maker. At 10 years, children are given their first hats, and Ivan is excited to get his. When he is on his way to school one day, one person after another give him a hat. The baker gives him a baking hat; the music teacher gives him a music hat; the firefighter gives him a firefighting hat, etc. Each time, "Ivan was ...

Andy and I were playing "Don't Forget the Lyrics" board game tonight. We use youtube and the internet so that we can hear the songs as well as reading the lyrics. One of the songs tonight was "Singing in the Rain." This video of Gene Kelly is awesome. Enjoy! Please note, because of copyright laws, I cannot publish this video directly on my blog. But the link directly to the video on youtube works.

I've been posting Our Lady's messages in Medjugorje on the side of my blog. Is anyone interested in reading them if I post them in the main body of my blog? This is her July 25 message to Mirija: "Dear children! Anew I call you to follow me with joy. I desire to lead all of you to my Son, your Savior. You are not aware that without Him you do not have joy and peace, nor a future or eternal life. Therefore, little children, make good use of this time of joyful prayer and surrender. Thank you for having responded to my call." Someday I can also post more background regarding these messages if anyone would like. God bless you!

Luke 11:1-13 Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test." And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,' and he says in reply from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.' I tell you, if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persi...

Just thought I'd share: Working part time is going great! I feel I have a much better balance between home and work, and my patience with the boys seems to have quadrupled, as has my ability to enjoy them! Yay! I'm more sure than I was before that when I do get to stay home full time, I will truly enjoy it, as will the kids!

Blaise started vacation Bible school today at St Peter's and loved it. He didn't give us many details of what they did, but he's excited to go back tomorrow with his friends Frank and Isaac (another Isaac, not his brother). On our way home, he told me the van was dirty and needed to be washed. Well, that was true enough. So I put the boys to work. They learned how the clean a car, though they didn't very well figure out how to see a job through to its completion, so much of the cleaning fell on my shoulders while they played... until I got the hose out again to rinse the car. We had a good time, and the boys did a great job. And why not stop there? Blaise decided his bike needed a bath too, so I have him some clean water and a towel and let him have at it. Here's Blaise taking a short break from washing in order to manually jack up the side of his bike to check that his training wheels are turning well.

As a way to reflect on the following Sunday's Gospel, I'm going to start to post more often on the Gospel. When I looked up this Sunday's Gospel reading, I was pleased to see it's the reading about Mary and Martha. It's a wonderfully challenging yet simple Gospel. Luke 10:38-42 Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me." The Lord said to her in reply, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her." "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things." Is this not rampant throughout our society? So many of us are anxious and worried about m...

The boys have been enjoying some fishing lately. They went fishing on a lake with my family and us just over a week ago. Though they didn't catch anything, they had fun. So Andy went out and bought them fishing poles. Blaise took to casting pretty well. We went fishing yesterday at a nearby lake with the boys' new fishing poles. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera, but the boys, especially Blaise, had a great time. They each brought in their first fish: Isaac first with a blue gill then Blaise with a sun fish. After that, we must have caught and released 15 more fish, including one small bass.

Some recent happenings around here include my cousin's wedding reception. He and his wife got married in Mexico then had a reception in Wisconsin. (An aside, what is your opinion on the common marriage of today, ie two people living together then being married by a justice of the peace, outside a church of course? I have mixed feelings, as this type of marriage is a contract, an agreement, and really just comes down to a piece of paper that is too easy to undo. On the other hand, there is a form of commitment, which is at least adds some dimension of permanency beyond sharing a roof and unfortunately a bed. What do you do in this case, when you are invited to the wedding and/or reception? I was glad in this case to have an excuse to not go to the wedding but felt ok about going to the reception.) Anyway, the boys had a great time with the pinata, their little cousin Addy and a new friend, David, as well as the rest of the family. As you can see, they couldn't get enough of the ...

Less than a year now until Andy graduates. What a nice thought. We're enjoying our summer, with his being off for the time being. He signed up for 2 summer classes and is currently in between them. So things are calmer around here. Also, I cut back to part time this last week, from 30+ hours to 20+ hours, and it is seeming to make the difference I was hoping it would! I still feel drained after my late days (at least this week), though not as much since I start the two days later and so am not working 10 and 11 hours on those days, as I was before. And I have one more day off (Monday) to spend with my boys! I hope you all enjoy your 4th of July weekend! May God bless America and bring us all back to hoping and trusting in Him!