A New Year

Obviously, I have been neglecting my blog.

But, as I am preparing to start the new school term, my bloggy juices are stirring again.

You may have noticed yet another new look! We recently bought a new computer and also some new photo editing software. We have Corel Paint Shop Pro and I have been practicing with it for several weeks.

I began to scrapbook back when my first son was born, but with each new baby I spent less and less time working on it and eventually just gave up. It was a mess to drag the stuff out and it took me forever to make just one page because I agonized over cutting photos and paper etc...I read somewhere that behind every procrastinator is a perfectionist and while I still claim (blindly?) that I am not a perfectionist, I certainly see an element of myself in that statement.

Back to the scrapbooking....about a year ago I discovered the world of digital scrapbooking and messed around a bit with it, but our computer was way to slow and you need tons of memory to do this stuff.

Now with my fancy new computer though, I am finding all sorts of neat things to do with our photos. I am sure there is someway to incorporate all that I am learning into our homeschool stuff, but I haven't truly pursued it yet. Anyway, that is one reason why this blog keeps changing it's look!

I Went In, I Knew Not Where

I Went In, I Knew Not Where

I went in, I knew not where
and stayed, not knowing, but going
past the boundaries of knowing.

I knew not the place around me,
how I came there or where from,
but seeing where then I found me,
I sensed great things, and grew dumb—
since no words for them would come—
lacking all knowledge, but going
past the boundaries of knowing.

Of piety and of peace
I had perfect comprehension;
solitude without surcease
showed the straight way, whose intention—
too secret for me to mention—
left me stammering, but going
past the boundaries of knowing.

So wholly rapt, so astonished
was I, from myself divided,
that my very senses vanished
and left me there unprovided
with knowledge, my spirit guided
by learning unlearned, and going
past the boundaries of knowing.

He who reaches that place truly
wills himself from self to perish;
all he lately knew, seen newly,
seems trifles unfit to cherish;
his new knowledge grows to flourish
so that he lingers there, going
past the boundaries of knowing.

The higher up one is lifted,
the less one perceives by sight
how the darkest cloud has drifted
to elucidate the night;
He who knows the dark aright
endures forever, by going
past the boundaries of knowing.

This wisdom, wise by unknowing,
wields a power so complete
that the learnèd wise men throwing
wisdom against it compete
with a force none can defeat,
since their wisdom makes no showing
past the boundaries of knowing.

There is virtue so commanding
in this high knowledge that wit,
human skill and understanding
cannot hope to rival it
in one who knows how to pit
against self his selfless going
past the boundaries of knowing.

And if you should care to learn
what this mode of being wise is,
it is yearnings that discern
the Divine in all its guises,
whose merciful gift and prize is
to confound all knowledge, going
past the boundaries of knowing.


(Coplas: “Entreme donde no supe,” St. John of the Cross,
Spain, 1542-1591; tr. Rhina P. Espaillat)

Overheard

Me walking into the boys bedroom: Hey, where's Luke?

Lee: Oh, he's under the bed.

Voice from under the bed: no I'm not!

Merry Christmas!!

It is a cold, rainy day and we actually had to wake the kids up! Everyone got dressed and we went downstairs together. After we had a good peek at some gifts we went to Mass and everyone was well behaved. Jake loved the organ today and after Mass he thought he would go tell the organist what a good job he did :)

We are home now and Jojo and Gampy are here and we opened presents and ate some yummy french toast casserole, cheese grits, monkey bread and sausage casserole. We are stuffed and putting batteries in things and untying all the toys, freeing them from their plastic prison cells! Lee says he needs some bandaids because his fingers are sore from untwisting all the ties. Poor baby.

Christmas Eve

Whew, we made it!

We left on Friday for a whirlwinod trip to Knoxville, Tennessee to visit with relatives. We stayed with my Nana and Grandad. My sister and her husband surprised us by coming up for the weekend too. It was awesome to see aunts and uncles and cousins etc...It is something we look forward to all year, even if we do not spend Christmas Day together, just seeing them this time of year is a favorite tradition.

On the way home we stopped at my in-laws, had Christmas eve dinner (tenderloin a la Martha Stewart, yum!) and opened some gifts.

Now we are at home settling the kids down and then doing what millions of parents all over the country are doing: assembling toys!

Lee is busy putting together a beautiful wooden stove/sink kitchen thing for the girls and I am trying to wrap some gifts. Anyone have any ideas on how to wrap a spiderman kickball?

Merry Christmas to everyone!

*sigh*

A good friend just lost her daughter at 25 wks. I am just so incredibly sad for them.

She is doing as well as can be expected and all of the details (scheduling surgery, memorials, what to say to friends and aquaintences etc..) seem to be helping her get through for now.

She has to have a c-section and man, that just seems awful, that she has to have surgery. Another friend pointed out, in a kind thought, that the scar will always serve as a reminder of her daughter. I burst into tears reading that. What a precious reminder of life!

I think about my own 'twin skin' stretch marks on my stomach and the c-section scar. I have not worn my scars bravely and proudly, but I should, shouldn't I?

No matter how big these kiddos get, no matter if they outlive me or if they don't, those scars, those silvery lines are like a natural version of a tatoo, a gentle proof. I am not saying I am hopping into a bikini or buying some crop tops, but I should not feel ashamed of them. I should not feel less feminine or womanly because of them. How ironic that some very physical evidence of my femininity, my motherhood has caused me self-loathing or embarrasment.

Please pray for my friend M and her husband and two young girls.

Good Busy

Things have been busy around here. Busy in a good way, although I do have to stop and pray and remind myself to sit back and enjoy the business, not try to get through it faster.

This year is the first year I have tried very, very hard not to get so wrapped in the to do list that I miss out on the experience of doing the list becasue I am so distracted just trying to check things off.

Mary Clare has been sick (upper respiratory infection) and has had so much mucus that she coughs, gags and throws up occasionally. (sorry for the gross out) She has been so healthy and this really is her first time being sick since we came home. In a way, it has been a blessing because nothing forces you to slow down the pace of family life like a sick little one.

So between poor sick MC and me consciously trying to chill out, these past 2-3 weeks have been wonderful for us all, despite the general seasonal busy-ness Advent. Even with a sick baby, imagine that!