As I was doing some clearing out of the bookshelves today, (yes, a sign of nesting) I found some of my old Familia materials and in particular some of the Next Sunday Ideas. Five years ago when I first started going through the Familia study, I found them to be very nice visual lessons for kids on Gospel readings for the next Sunday. I’m glad I kept them and look forward to actually using them now.
The researchers told a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida, that the most benefit they saw was from 24 fluid ounces of Guinness – just over a pint – taken at mealtimes.
Think I can convince my beloved to pack a pint in my daily lunch?
Pregnant women and nursing mothers were at one stage advised to drink Guinness – the present advice is against this.
Sorry dear, guess I’ll have to drink your pint too. 
…if you have a city of Austin public library card you have free access to their entire eContent collection, which can include eBooks, eJournals, and eAudiobooks?
So cool.
don’t say anything at all.
This especially pertains to people who have never been pregnant commenting on the size of this 7 month pregnant women. For example, don’t say things like, “When are the twins due?” “Are you due any day now?” “It looks like you have sextuplet in there!” Adam can verify that I had an emotionally poopie day yesterday.
I think I look fine for 7 months despite what insensitive people say. I’ve kept up my 2.75 mile walk 5 mornings a week. And this is probably the healthiest pregnancy I’ve had so far. I realize that when pregnant with Gianna I was probably borderline depressed for the last 3 months as I cried almost every night. I’m still pretty tired with this pregnancy but at least I’m happy and keeping busy.
I’m D minus 8 weeks come Thursday. No signs of nesting yet as I’m just trying to keep up with cleaning the regular stuff around the house. Next week we’re starting up with the 1st grade homeschooling books in anticipation of the slow down in late September and early October.
Today we had our first Catholic Women’s Health and Fertility Forum. We had a good turnout for two weeks of advertising. We had about 30 people there and 5 speakers talking about the Church’s teaching, Fertility Care and Women’s Health, Modern NFP Methods, Osteoporosis and Menopause, Infertility and Fruitfulness in Marriage, and the prevelance of strokes among women. We had tables with information from: Creighton Model, Couple to Couple League, Stroke Scan, Total Health Chiropratic, Weight Watchers, La Leche League, Bradley Childbirth Method, Doulas, Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas, Catholic Bioethics Center, and a bunch of miscellaneous info on Catholic teaching of NFP and contraception.
I walked away with something new from almost every talk. I found some of the new NaProTechnology research to be very interesting. Apparently, there is a lot of information about a woman’s health based on her mucus cycle. And Creighton teachers are starting to learn to ‘score’ a woman’s mucus cycle. This score can tell which health risks and procreative risks a woman is more likely to have such as infertility, miscarriage, osteoperosis, etc. Also one Creighton Model Medical Consultant in Ireland has some interesting findings that link infertility with food allergies and sensitivities.
I found the talk on Infertility and Fruitfulness very profound and beautiful. We live in a society that does not appreciate how a couple can be fruitful outside of bearing or adopting children. Certainly many infertile couples are called to adoption, but not all. The presenter gave her and her husband’s story on how their infertility has impacted their lives. They’ve always been open to life in their 15 years of marriage but never been gifted with children. They’ve never felt the call to adopt. But instead have put their lives into their ministry work and missionary work with an indiginous tribe in Brazil. And through that, God has blessed their marriage with much fruit through their spiritual parenthood.
I can see a lot of potential for next year with more time to put something together.
She’s so obedient! And really, who needs the ball anyway?
After the Great International Beer Festival, all the brewery presidents decided to go out for a beer. The guy from Corona sits down and says, “Hey, señor, I would like the world’s best beer, a Corona.” The bartender takes a bottle from the shelf and gives it to him. The guy from Budweiser says, “I’d like the best beer in the world, ‘the king of beers,’ a Budweiser.” The bartender gives him one. The guy from Coors says, “I’d like the only beer made with Rocky Mountain spring water. Give me a Coors.” He gets it. The guy from St. James’s Gate sits down and says, “Give me a Coke.” The bartender is a little taken aback, but gives him what he ordered. The other brewery presidents look over at him and ask, “Why aren’t you drinking a Guinness?” The president replies, “I figured if you guys aren’t drinking beer, neither would I.”
There are two accounts of Jesus calming storms in the gospels. Jesus starts out with the apostles to sea in the first occurrence (Mk 4:35-41). It is then that a great storm arose; strong winds, high waves, and the boat is filling with water… and the Lord is asleep. You know he must have been dog tired from preaching all day (Mk 4:1-33) to sleep through all that let alone the commotion twelve grown, frightened men must have been making trying to keep the boat upright.
Now I can totally picture this: one apostle finally can’t take it anymore and wakes him – not with a simple “Uhm, excuse me, Teacher, but we’re having a bit of trouble with the boat.” but rather “DON’T YOU CARE WE’RE GOING TO DIE!” (Mk 4:38) So, the Lord arises, quiets the storm with a simple command, and then chastises the apostles for being cowards and their lack of faith. And without skipping a beat, I can imagine Jesus laying down on his cushion and going back to sleep leaving the twelve staring at each other dumbfounded wondering “Who is this guy?” (Mk 4:41).
It’s pretty safe to say that the apostles have not seen our Lord perform a miracle of this magnitude given their reaction, yet you have to love his casual reaction as if to say “Oh yeah, not only can I heal the sick, but I can control nature too!”
Lord, may I learn to place my trust in you during fearful situations instead of freaking out. Amen.
Thank you for the prayers you offered for my sister. She called yesterday to give me the update on her last appointment. It turns out she has liver and spinal hemangioma. These are benign tumors on the blood vessels of her liver and spine. This actually all started when she went in to have her liver looked at again for the growth she had on it. That is when the doctors noticed the spot on her spine.
From what I’ve read so far, it sounds like it is congenital and benign but the doctors still need to watch it to see if it grows. She does have many of the symptoms from it: back pain, abdominal pain, and a feeling of fullness from eating very little.
She still has some followups with her oncologist and bone specialist. And she’s starting physical therapy on her ankle soon. Hopefully she won’t incur any more injuries and can let her body heal.
My Holy Hours this summer read pretty much like the beginning of “A Tale of Two Cities”….It was the best of times. It was the worst of times…
With the kids home for the summer and not going to the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd on Wednesdays, they have been joining me for my Holy Hour at that time. I’m the only person who has signed up for this hour and that means that I have no backup to call upon if I just have a feeling that it’s not going to be a good day. On the flip side, when we are the only ones there, we don’t bother anyone else and I can softly talk to them about Jesus and I can teach them how to pray. The Adoration coordinator was kind enough to even make me a sign that explains that our hour is an hour to bring young children to visit Jesus and asks for the extra patience of other adorers while we are teaching the children to adore our Blessed Lord.
But inevitably my Holy Hours this summer have been less than holy. I found myself in tears a few weeks ago when we were just not having a good prayer hour. The straw that broke my back that day was when Fulton started climbing one of the kneelers in front of Jesus. Some days I come home asking, “Why do I put myself through this?” The other people there probably think I’m down right crazy to be taking the kids to Adoration. And I’m sure they could do without the extra distraction.
Before having children I used to be a big mass and adoration snob… now I feel like one of those people I used to criticize in my mind. This is probably why those opportunities to practice patience with the children during mass and adoration are met with huge failure. Sometimes I feel my efforts are futile… Unfortunately, it takes some serious threats of time out and things we can’t do later to get them to behave. Or, like today, it took taking them out and administering serious discipline before we could go back in and have some quiet time.When I mention to other moms that I take the kids, they wonder how I do it. Honestly, it’s still a work in progress. And by no means are we perfect.
This is not to say that they couldn’t do well and we haven’t had great days. Therese is so beautiful…if she can focus and not tell-on or complain about Fulton. She’ll get a cushion and kneel in front of the monstrance and pray. Today she prayed 3 decades of the rosary with me–in Latin–and a very kind woman told her she would become a nun and could marry Jesus the way that she loves Him. Muffin can be okay too if you can get past the songs she sings to Jesus–ones she makes up and others like the ABC song. If she’s engaged in good book and not being a ham, she’s pretty quiet. But Fulton stretches me and my patience to no end. He’s good if he’s on my lap. Unfortunately there’s not enough room on my lap for baby G, Fulton AND Gianna (the jealous baby sister). I know some people think I expect too much…Even Adam has said that. But I’m their mom. Aren’t I supposed to expect the ideal from them instead of mediocrity–especially in the way they treat and talk to Jesus?
I found this lovely prayer book in out stacks that is specifically for Family Holy Hours. And so far everytime I’ve taken it to share with the kids, there are too many people visiting Jesus to talk to them about it. If nothing else, I’ve enjoyed reading it and look forward to sharing those prayers with the kids…someday.
