Prayers Appreciated...

Tomorrow I am going on a 4 day Ignatian Silent Retreat.  This will be the first silent retreat I have ever attended, and I am so thrilled by the opportunity.  Before I got married I spent a few years seriously contemplating a vocation to the religious life as a cloistered nun, so this retreat might give me a small taste of what that would have been like.  My husband is slightly worried that I might not come home  :}  I know I will miss him and our boys within a day of being gone, so he has nothing to worry about!

But truly, I would appreciate some extra prayers over the next few days.  Please pray that I can rest in God's presence and use the quiet to hear His whisperings in my heart.  I often spend my prayer time peppering the Lord with questions and talking unceasingly about my worries and ideas that I never even give Him the chance to respond.  So please pray that I can just shut-up and listen! :)  I feel like God has been trying to lead my soul down some new paths, paths that confuse and frighten me.  But I am hoping that this retreat will give me some clarity, peace, and also some healing.

Oh, and please pray for Paul and the boys too!!!  They might need the prayers more than I do!  :)

Picture Day (our own silly way)

Up until last year, my boys did Picture Day at school just like every other kid...  They smiled a cheesy smile that didn't capture their uniqueness, they stoicly stood in front of a generic blue backdrop, and they gave the photographer a very big check before knowing if the pictures would even turn out.  But last year, I decided I was tired of spending so much money on pictures that I really didn't like enough to display on the wall, so I started taking my own pictures.  I readily admit that I am not a great photographer.  I've taken only 1 class (and that was 15 years ago in college learning how to develop negatives in a darkroom!).  I honestly don't know much about shutter speed or aperture.  But I do know how to look for an authentic smile and a gorgeous backdrop--plus, I have Photoshop--and that's good enough for me!  :)

It's alarming to me how much the boys have changed since I took their photos last year.  My oldest son and my youngest son especially look so much older to me.  But oh, how I love these boys and watching them grow into such holy gentlemen!  May the Holy Spirit give my husband and I the graces we need to guide their souls to love and serve God in this crazy world!  And May Our Blessed Mother watch over them, protect them, and guide them ever closer to her Son!

St. Therese Wisdom and Cupcakes

Yesterday was the feast day of one of my favorite saints:  St. Therese of Lisieux.  So in her honor, we had a feast of cupcakes!  I found this simple idea of rose-topped cupcakes on the blog "Catholic Cuisine," and I was happy to find a fun (and easy) way to remind my kids of St. Therese's sweet love of Jesus and her heroic life of sacrifice.  The more I read about St. Therese's spirituality, the more drawn I am to it and the more I pray that the Lord will give me the grace to fully live it.  St. Therese makes "the little way" of loving Jesus and loving others sound so easy, but I am finding it to be SO HARD!  I keep re-reading the profound book about her spirituality called "Joy in Suffering" by Bishop Noser, and I know deep down that it is what God is calling my soul to embrace, but I am just so weak.  When I read about the myriad ways she finds joy in suffering, my heart exclaims: "Yes!--that's it, that's what I'm going to do!" and then I try to do it...and fail...over and over again.  I am thankful that our God is patient and full of mercy.  So I will just keep picking myself off the ground, dust off the "knees" of my soul, and try again.  St. Therese, pray for me to live the Little Way!

For just a taste of St. Therese's spirituality, here's a paragraph from the book I mentioned above:

Having such an almost boundless confidence in the tender love of her heavenly Father, St. Therese surrendered herself entirely to Him.  By "abandonment" she understood the embracing beforehand, blindly and with joy and enthusiasm, of all that it pleased God to send her, no matter how great the suffering involved.  Her life was like a blank sheet of paper at the bottom of which she affixed her signature and then placed it in the hands of God, to let Him write thereon all that might please Him, accepting in advance, with joy, whatever He would write, not knowing what it might be, but convinced it would be only for His glory and her own spiritual good.  "The good God," she said, "wills that I surrender myself like a very wee child who does not trouble himself as to what will be done with him."  In her illness St. Therese confessed:  "I am now sick and I shall never recover.  But I am at peace.  For a long time past I have not belonged to myself; I am wholly surrendered to Jesus.  If it please Him, I am content to have my suffering prolonged for years... Ever since I have given up ALL self-seeking, I lead the happiest life possible."  (page 58)

St. Therese, pray for us to have your childlike faith and trust in God,

and such boundless, contagious JOY like you and my sweet son Nathanael have!  :)

Our Lady of Czestochowa came for a visit

Last week a very special grace came to our community.  The traveling icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa visited our town, which has been traveling from town to town across the entire world since 2012 on a pilgrimage to inspire greater devotion to Jesus through Mary and to awaken Christians to the urgent calling to build a culture that protects life from conception to natural death.  The pilgrimage is officially called "The Ocean to Ocean Campaign in Defense of Life," which is being carried out through the pro-life missionary organization called Human Life International. The pilgrimage started in Russia, which is quite fitting, since Russia was the birthplace of abortion-on-demand and holds the staggering statistic of 8 abortions per Russian woman!

The icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa is also called the "Black Madonna" due to Mary's dark skin which was probably caused by candle smoke over the years.  According to tradition, the original icon was painted by St. Luke on the table belonging to the Holy Family.  Centuries later, St. Helena brought the icon from Jerusalem to Constantinople, and it eventually found its final home in Czestochowa, Poland.  The traveling icon that I was blessed to be able to see and touch is a beautiful replica of the original, and was blessed by the bishop of Czestochowa before it began its pilgrimage across the globe.

Here is a picture of the original icon in Poland:

Many miracles have been associated both with the original icon and with the newly painted icon made specifically for the "Ocean to Ocean Campaign in Defense of Life."  The original icon was often carried into battle, just like the Ark of the Covenant was carried into battle in the Old Testament, and brought about miraculous military victories over the years.  Many faithful Christians believe that asking for the intercession of Our Lady of Czestachowa aided in ending Communism in Poland, as well.  The new icon has been brought to many abortion clinics where faithful Christians have asked for Our Lady's intercession, resulting in many saved babies on the day the icon was present, and even the complete closure of a few clinics within days of the icon's visit.

I believe that I witnessed something miraculous at our own Planned Parenthood here in Helena.  Fr. Peter West, who is the priest that is caring for the icon on its pilgrimage, brought the icon to our Planned Parenthood the day before our 40 Days for Life campaign began.  A few days later was a scheduled abortion day at our Planned Parenthood.  A group of us came to pray at 8:00am.  The abortionist arrived, but no clients came for the first hour, which was very unusual (typically, the abortion clients arrive first-thing in the morning).  Three clients came later in the morning, but that was the lowest number we have seen on an abortion day.  Perhaps the extra intercession to Our Lady helped spare the lives of some unborn children in our town, just like in many others around the world!  Praise the Lord!

Here is Fr. West and a few of my pro-life friends praying at Helena's Planned Parenthood:

There is so much rich history regarding this icon.  If you'd like to read more, here are a couple of great links that I found:

http://www.hli.org/2013/08/history-black-madonna/

http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/czesto.htm

And for more information about the Ocean to Ocean Campaign, here is their website:

http://www.hli.org/hli_campaigns/ocean-ocean-pilgrimage/

Our First GIRL-toy!!!

This is noteworthy, this is memorable, this is worth pictures and blogging about...  

For 13 years I have been surrounded by boy-toys.  I have been in the middle of Nerf battles and pretended to have jet air raids more times than I can count.  But now, we finally have a girl-toy in our house!  The other day as we were strolling through the toy aisles at Target, I had an epiphany:  my boys need to learn how to be sensitive gentlemen rather than just war-mongers that blow everything up.  So, I turned down the "girl-aisle" and suggested to Nathanael that what his castle collection at home really needs is a princess for the knights to protect.  His eyes lit up, and he selected a Princess Sofia doll.

As soon as we got home we started some chivalry training, and that night Nathanael tucked Princess Sofia snugly in the castle dungeon, surrounded by brave knights willing to give their lives in order to protect her.  Yes, we still have some training to do, but hey, it's a start!  :)   

Three cheers for Sofia, the Princess!

Three cheers that chivalry is not dead at our house! :)

Caught in the act...

For years I have been trying to grow big, orange pumpkins to use for decorations in the Fall, and every year I only get a few teeeny-tiny green pumpkins.  So, last year I did some research and learned about hand-pollinating, where you take a male pumpkin flower and brush its pollen onto a female flower (just in case the bees and butterflies don't do their job well enough).

Male pumpkin flower

Female pumpkin flower

So I tried it this year.  I admit, it was a little embarrassing at first--I may have even blushed.  :}  My husband thought it was hilarious as he watched me go out to the garden many-a-morning to help my pumpkin plants mate. Apparently, he thought it was so funny that he even caught it on camera.  It was the only time I've seen him pick up my camera in 5 years!  :)  What a stinker.

Caught pollinating...

But, I do feel slightly vindicated now that I can see the fruits of my labor.  We got 10 big, beautiful pumpkins this year!  Some of them were still green when I had to bring them inside to avoid our early Montana frost, but even those have now turned orange.  The kids and I had so much fun watching them grow all summer, and now we have our very own pumpkins to decorate our home and to turn into "Saint-O-Lanterns" in October.

Proof that hand-pollinating worked!

Aren't they pretty?

They make our living room look so Autumnish :)

Here's the cutest pumpkin of all! :)

HAPPY FALL!!!

Joseph, our TEENAGER!

We now have a TEENAGER in our house, and Joseph celebrated his birthday in true teenage fashion.  He didn't want a party, nor presents, nor party favors (he wouldn't even let me bring treats to school this year!?!?).  He just wanted to invite a few buddies to go mountain biking with his ne mountain bike.

They had an epic time despite the strenuous uphill climb, despite the dangerous switch-backs, and even despite the 3 crashes involving scrapes, bruises, and a cactus impaled in a leg.  Danger and blood apparently make things more fun for boys.  Good thing they have their adventurous father to help make birthday parties like this one happen.

Here is Joseph with four of his best and bravest buddies!

From left to right:  Daniel, Isaiah, Aidan, Alex, and Joseph

Dear Joseph,

Daddy and I are so proud of the young man you have become...

Calm and confident,

Smart and witty,

Athletic and artsy,

Handsome and helpful.

You now where shoes bigger than your mom,

and deodorant daily like your dad :)

We trust you to mow the lawn

and babysit your brood of brothers.

How crazy, how wonderful.

We love you

our first teenager.