Saturday, January 13, 2018

New Year, New Saints, New Photos

Happy New Year everyone! Our family has a fun New Year's tradition of picking patron saints instead of resolutions for the New Year, a tradition we borrowed from St. Faustina's convent. I read about this tradition of picking a special saint to get to know and to ask for their special intercession throughout the year in The Diary of St. Faustina, and it has become a fun and meaningful tradition for our family. Every day on our way to school we say a rosary, followed by each person calling out the name of their saint that they picked on New Year's day. It never fails to make me smile when I hear my boys (especially the little ones with their sweet voices) call out their saint, and then we all say "Pray for us!" It's a fun and holy way to start each day and to start our New Year. Let me know if you'd like me to draw a name for you.

Here are the saint names we picked (or perhaps I should say God picked them for us because He knew we would need the intercession of this particular saint for a reason):

Paul: St. Elphage
Maria: St. Rita and St. Blaise (yes, I needed two saints...it's a long story) :)
Joseph: St. Bernard
Michael: St. Apollonia
Dominic: St. Gemma Galgani
Nathanael: St. James the Greater
Isaiah: St. George

I also have a personal tradition of picking out a "word" for the New Year to meditate on and try to live out during the year. I think it was Ann Voskamp that got me started with this tradition. I think that Ann prays for a special word to come to her in prayer or be revealed to her somehow, but this year I decided to use Jennifer Fulwiler's "word of the New Year generator" :) You just click a button and a word is given to you! Kinda fun :) The reason I like it is because if I try to pray and think of the word that God wants to give me, I'm always over-analyzing and second-guessing myself to determine if this is really my word, or if I just thought of it myself and wanted that word subconsciously. I know, I know. I drive myself crazy with how I over-think everything...imagine how my poor husband must feel! :} So anyway, the word generator is a better choice for people like me, and here is my word of the year:

FALL

Yes, it's the word "Fall." At first I was like, wait...what??? That word made no sense to me and I didn't like it. And I was tempted to pick a new word... But I stopped myself and tried to ponder what God might want me to embrace spiritually with this random word. And the first thing that came to my mind was St. Therese. I had recently read about how St. Therese tried not to ever get discouraged when she "fell" into a particular sin or weakness, but rather trusted like a child in her Father's mercy and simply asked Him to pick her back up again. She trusted completely that He would run to her, pick her up, and quickly forgive her and keep loving her---no matter how many times she fell. Just like a tiny child trying to climb up some stairs and falls over and over again, the daddy would keep picking the child up, encouraging her to try again, assuring her that he will always be there for her if she falls. That's how it is with us in the spiritual life. We keep trying to climb the stairway of perfection to please God, but we keep falling. And God keeps picking us back up, encouraging us to try again, and is deeply pleased (not disappointed) when we ask Him for the graces we need to climb the stairs and the mercy we need when we fall (which is bound to happen to all of us no matter how hard we try). So, with that analogy in mind, I think the word "fall" is perfect for my soul this year. I have a tendency to easily get discouraged when I fall, beating myself up interiorly, worrying about how I must have disappointed the Lord, rather than trusting in His boundless mercy.

So that's my goal for 2018:
to TRUST in God's goodness and mercy when I FALL...
and to NOT GET DISCOURAGED.

Pray for me! :)

And last, but not least, here are some new pictures of our wild and crazy family :) We had a sweet photographer named Crystal Nance take our photos. She did a great job and was so patient with us regarding scheduling conflicts, editing, etc. The photos are a concrete reminder to me how quickly our kids are growing! Joseph and Michael look like young men already, and even my baby looks so grown up (especially in the photo where he is standing with his hands in his pockets). All the photos remind me just how blessed I am to have such a holy and handsome husband to provide for us, 5 holy, healthy, and handsome boys, and this gorgeous property to live on. Thank you, God, for all these blessings and even the ones I do not see!

Monday, January 8, 2018

Advent and Christmas Recap

The Christmas season is now over, and I'm finally getting around to posting our Christmas photos! There are so many photos that I think I will just let them do most of the talking...

Hiking in search of the "perfect" Christmas tree.

(We learned there is no such thing as a perfect tree,

but it was fun searching!) :)

Snowball fights as we searched...

Kids seem somehow cuter when they are outdoors...

...and also when wearing snow pants and flannel shirts :)

What a joy to take in the gorgeous view and fresh air!

I love living in Montana!!!

Paul thinks he found the perfect tree...

...and Isaiah thinks he did too! :)

Heading home with our "nearly perfect" tree...

...and our nearly perfect kids--ha ha :)

Here is our tree covered in lights.

There is just something so magical and wonderful about Christmas lights.

I love waking up each morning to this sight.

We continued our Advent tradition of placing hay in the manger

for each good deed, hoping there will be plenty of soft hay

for Baby Jesus to sleep on when Christmas arrives.

We also did the fun tradition of moving the Wise Men each day of Advent,

imagining them following the star to find the newborn King.

Isaiah was my biggest helper moving the Wise Men.

He also liked to hide them and have me try to find them :)

Each night at dinner we would read from Ann Voskamp's Advent devotional

and then place an ornament on our Jesse Tree (followed by a piece of candy). :)

And each evening before bed Paul would read our Advent adventure book

by the author Arnold Ytreeide. Our whole family looked forward to the book each night

(even our teenagers...although I don't think they'd admit it) :)

I'm embarrassed to admit that this was the first year we decorated cookies.

Cooking is just not my thing, and little boys just don't seem to get excited about cooking either.

But, I think this will become a new tradition because it was so fun (and delicious).

Finding treasures in the stockings Christmas morning!

And there was lots of soft hay for Baby Jesus on Christmas morn :)

Hopefully all of our good deeds and attempts at preparing our hearts for Christmas

consoled Jesus' heart and made Him smile :)

Watching children open presents is always a joy!

Isaiah happy with his new LEGO set!

Natey happy with his new LEGO set...

We should have bought stock in the LEGO company long ago :)

Dominic is happy with his new gift from his god-parents.

Thank you Dann and Rachel---you are always so generous and thoughtful! God bless you!

Isaiah and Michael checking out their new gifts.

The littlest 3 had a LEGO building party for much of Christmas day :)

Isaiah proud of his mini X-wing fighter that he built (mostly) by himself :)

Joseph was happy drinking Coke and laughing at Garfield comics on Christmas day :)

Grandma Jean (Paul's mom) came to visit for Christmas.

She had fun hanging out with the older boys...

and the younger boys :)

Here is Grandma and the little ones waiting for our hotel room

at Fairmont Hot Springs to become available.

Funny how both young and old are entertained by electronics these days :)

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas. It was great to spend time with Grandma Jean/Mom H. We especially loved her marvelous cooking! She is one talented lady in the kitchen, which is a gift to me because I am not :) And she is always so generous when she comes to visit, insisting on paying for everything, which is also a beautiful gift. I pray that God will bless her generous heart abundantly! Paul and the big boys did some skiing at Discovery and Great Divide. I loved soaking in the hot springs at Fairmont with the little boys and sleeping in most mornings during Christmas break :) We hope your Christmas was grace-filled and fun-filled too, and that Jesus found room in your hearts to fill you with His love and mercy and graces for the New Year!!!

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

Our Lady of Guadalupe,

Pray for us all!

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe today! I hope you feast on Mexican foods today! :) I'm making taco lasagna with chips and salsa, and rose-shaped cinnamon rolls for dessert. Perhaps your family could also gather to pray a rosary today, and imagine how Juan Diego would have prayed with tender trust to our Lady once he saw her beautiful face and heard her loving voice. He affectionately called Our Lady, "Senora mia, mi nina" (my Lady, my little girl"), and she tenderly called him "Juanito," or her little Juan. May we have such a tender love for Our Mother Mary too, and give thanks to God for allowing her to appear to Juan Diego and other humble souls throughout history to teach us about her motherly love, and God's fatherly love and mercy for us all! You may also want to share with your family some of these miraculous facts about Our Lady of Guadalupe and Juan Diego's tilma:

Our Lady of Guadalupe Fact Page

Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Saint Juan Diego on December 9, 10 and 12, 1531.
The image is proven not to be painted by human hands; no natural or animal mineral colorings, or paint, are found on it
The image has remained intact with all its original vibrancy for 475 years. The natural life span of a cloak made with fiber from the gave or maguey plant is only about 30 years.
The image is a pictograph which could be read and understood by the Aztec Indians.
On her rose garment is a topographical map of the location of her apparition.
Our Lady appears as a beautiful young Indian maiden and Queen.
She is wearing a blue-green mantle (the color worn by royalty) covered with stars.
The stars signify she comes from heaven – the Queen of Heaven. The constellations are in the exact position as appeared before dawn on the morning of December 12, 1531.
Her robe is colored rose or pale red and covered with Aztec flowers, symbolic of an Aztec princess.
In the center of her robe, overlying her womb, is a four petal quincunx flower in the shape of a cross which is the sign of the Divine and the center of the cosmic order to the Aztec. The Virgin’s Baby, Jesus, is Divine and the new center of the universe.
Her hands are joined in prayer and, therefore, she is not God but clearly there is one greater than she and she points her finger to the cross on her brooch.
Her fur cuffs symbolize royalty.
She wears a black maternity band signifying she is with Child.
A black cross is on the brooch around her neck. This signifies she is a follower of the God of the Spanish Missionaries, Jesus Christ who died on the cross for all.
She stands in front of the sun. The sun symbolizes the greatest Aztec god – Huitzilopochtli. She announces the God who is greater than their sun god.
She stands on the moon. The crescent moon symbolized the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent moon god. She has clearly crushed and defeated him.
The image depicts Revelation 12:1: a woman clothed with the sun with the moon at her feet
An angel with eagle’s wings supports the Mother of God. The eagle was the “bird of the sun.” Here the eagle is the servant of the Virgin. She holds her mantle in one hand and robe with the other, signifying the Son she bears is from both heaven and earth.
To date the image cannot be explained by science.
The image on the tilma was able to do what up to that time the missionaries were not able to do significantly. Namely, clearly explain Christianity to the Indian people. The proof is in the fact that after the apparitions, eight million natives of Mexico converted to Catholicism from 1531 to 1538.
A doctor once heard a heartbeat coming from the image using a stethascope over the womb area.
The eyes of the image have the refractory characteristics of human eyes, and they miraculously reflect the image of the witnesses present at its unveiling, including Juan Diego and the bishop.

I also found this article by the modern-day Catholic "prophet" Charlie Johnston very interesting, especially how the actual title "Guadalupe" is actually a mispronunciation of the Aztec word that Juan Diego used to refer to Our Lady---"Coatlallope"---which literally means "she who crushes the serpent." How fitting!

In 1531, the poor peasant, St. Juan Diego, was visited by Our Lady several times on Tepeyac Hill, near what is now Mexico City. Most of the missionaries in the Americas were well-intended, but they had utterly failed to convert the Aztec Indians. The average Aztec was caught between a rock and a grinding stone. Their indigenous faith, the cult of Quexlcoatl (the infamous feathered serpent) required constant human sacrifice. The pyramids always ran red with human blood. The Spanish and Portuguese explorers frequently enslaved native peoples. The problem was so bad that, in 1430, Pope Eugene VII had made enslaving a native of the Canary Islands a matter of excommunication. In 1537, Pope Paul III explicitly extended the punishment to the enslaving of American Indians, as well.

The Aztec culture had long prophesied of a woman who would free them from the bloody requirements of Quexlcoatl. When Juan Diego tried to report the messages of Our Lady to his bishop, the bishop quite reasonably demanded some proof. On his last visit to Our Lady, a bunch of wild roses were blooming at the hilltop out of season. Our Lady told Juan Diego to gather them up in his tilma (an apron made of cactus fibers, commonly worn by working peasants) and take the flowers to the bishop. When he dropped them from his apron in front of the bishop, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared on his apron. (Interestingly, tilmas rot, usually within 20 years – and never last more than 40. Diego’s tilma, with the image of Our Lady on it, still stands in the cathedral in Mexico City, vibrant almost 500 years later). The titles of Our Lady are always related to where she appeared or to what her primary role in that appearance is. Diego explained to the bishop that this woman was, in Aztec "Coatlallope", which roughly translated means “she who crushes the serpent.” The bishop, however, mistakenly heard the name of the European Spanish City, Guadalupe, rather than the Aztec phrase, which is how the title came about.

The miraculous image spoke simultaneously to two cultures. I could go into detail on what it meant to the Aztecs, but suffice it to say it was recognized as the deliverance from the bloody cult of Quexlcoatl. Within a decade, 10 million Indians converted and the Cult of Quexlcoatl was consigned to the ash heap of history. When the missionaries failed, Our Lady came herself and accomplished the conversion to the worship of her Son, Jesus--the Christ. In today's culture, our little efforts to re-convert Europe and to convert Islam may fail, but so long as we hold fast to Our Lady’s mantle, she will prevail. (excerpt from Charlie Johnston's blog: https://charliej373.wordpress.com/

Lastly, here is the recipe for the rose-shaped cinnamon rolls that we like to make on this Feast day: http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2015/07/st-elizabeth-rose-bread.html

Our Lady of Guadalupe,

Pray for us all!

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Michael's Top 20 Wildlife Photos

Ever since we moved to our new house in the woods, it seems that our son Michael has fallen in love with wildlife. At first he just liked to be with the wildlife...

...and then he discovered he could capture the wildlife on camera and share God's creation with others.

I recently printed a bunch of Michael's best photographs, framed them, and put them on a wall in our house because there were so many beautiful photos and I really wanted to encourage him with his talent and his love of nature.

Many of you have already seen these pictures sprinkled throughout my blog over the past 2 years, but I thought it might be fun to put some of Michael's best photos all in one post for people to enjoy. I am so proud of Michael for his hard work and dedication with the art of photography. Perhaps I'm a bit biased, but I sure think my son has talent with a camera. His natural talent, coupled with a passion for wildlife equals a great combination. What makes the combination even better is that God, in His infinite goodness and foresight, chose to bless our family with a home surrounded by wildlife. God must have known we would have a son who would love to take pictures of His beautiful creation and glorify Him in that way. All of these photos, except for the mountain goat, were taken right around our house!

So, without further adieu, here are 20 of my favorites from Michael's growing portfolio: