Because Children Tell it Best

In the spirit of St. Valentine's day....
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds,"What does love mean?"The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love"Rebecca- age 8

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."Billy - age 4

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."Karl - age 5

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."Chrissy - age 6

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to makesure the taste is OK."Danny - age 7

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."Bobby - age 7

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,"Nikka - age 7

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving andsmiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."Cindy - age 8

"My mommy loves me more than anybodyYou don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."Clare - age 6

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."Elaine-age 5

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Brad Pitt."Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."Mary Ann - age 5

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."Jessica - age 8

And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,"Nothing, I just helped him cry".
When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need.
Sent to me by Sr. Bernadette Ballasty in Chile
HT: Nancy Scarlata
Malaspina Communications

St. Blog's Cinema Reccommends Cause of Our Joy

If you found the name of this blog in the National Catholic Register article, What's Playing at St. Blog's Parish?" welcome!

I have two blogs, and have a post on my movie reviews on Causa Nostrae Laetitiae, my other blog. This is my homeschooling Catholic family blog, where I share my experiences raising three daughters Gabby. 13, Isabella, 9, and my special needs almost 5 year old Christina with Down Syndrome. Stay a while and get to know them, and watch them teach me what it is to grow in love. See why they, with the Blessed Mother, are the cause of my joy!

The Little Flower's Way of Sacrifice

I read The Story of a Soul as a teenager, and it marked my life forever. I decided to become a cloistered nun, and live a life of sacrifice and prayers. Well, my vocation is different as a married mother of three girls, and the prayer is more irregular, but the opportunities for sacrifice remain.

A good way for us to 'keep track of' our sacrifices is with Therese's 'sacrifice beads'. The purpose is not to get prideful about our sanctity, but merely to remind ourselves that little acts of love throughout the day DO add up, and to remind us to offer them for a good cause. I like to remember something I read in the news, like Portugal's referendum on abortion, or a sick or deceased relative, or for the good of my family.

Therese, as a girl prayed fervently for the conversion of a condemned criminal who was an atheist, and she read in the paper that at the last moment, he reached for the crucifix and kissed it, she rejoiced that her prayers had been successful.

Sometimes, when my daughters are at the end of their patience with me or one another, I just say, "grit your teeth, and pull a bead!" Then, when something wonderful happens, I remind them to take partial credit for it, because of their sacrifices.

There are kits available to make these beads, or they can be made with any large wooden rosary beads, string, a miraculous medal and a crucifix. The trick is to cross-thread the beads, so they can be pulled and remain in place.

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

Go and visit Just Another Day in Paradise for a amazing slideshow and litany in honor of Our Lady of Lourdes.

The Individual Education Plan Meeting and the Homeschooling Mother

Melissa Wiley just attended her son's first IEP meeting in order to obtain speech therapy for him. It's a scary thing to sign the paper which puts your child in the pipeline of public education, but we must remember that we are consumers of bits of the system, and we take their suggestions into consideration, and accept them according to our own judgement. It can be difficult, and we need to support one another when self-doubt sets in.
Christina, age 4 who has Down Syndrome was in the system since birth, and I have signed so many IEPs I lost count. I've had 5 therapists coming to the house,for 4 years, which can be quite invasive, as they are eyeballing the cleanliness of the house, and how busy the older girls look while they are there(look busy girls!)Last year, the IEP committee, combined with these therapists, bullied me into putting Christina in a special needs pre-school. I looked for a local school with a short day (2.5 hours)and she had a very caring young teacher. However, a year later, her test results showed no increase in progress compared with home,and the school officials refused to let me meet next year's teacher, so I went with my mommy instincts and withdrew her from school. Now, once again, the therapists come to the home, but this time, two of them have been badgering me to put Christina in kindergarten next year. Sigh. That's why it was so good to read about your self-assurance as a homeschooling Mom of a special needs child. We need to organize a support group, like NAATHAN.What do you think, readers? Is there a need here?

Just Whose Values are We Teaching Our Children?

One of the great unspoken tenets of public schooling is the chance liberal educators see to indoctrinate our children in their world view. As a former public school teacher, I can assure you that public school teachers consider parents the 'great unwashed' who are barely qualified to raise, much less educate their own children. They see themselves as saviors who will enlighten our children in the ways of political correctness. Reading, writing and 'rithmatic are secondary, which explains the national test scores in America. Why do you think Adolf Hitler made homeschooling illegal? If you have any doubt about this, just try and tell a schoolchild that you don't believe in Global Warming! My CCD kids were horrified when I told them! They have such trust in their teachers, and take everything they say as doctrine.
Melissa Wiley posts about a PBS special on homeschooling which features the ubiquitious Robert Reich, Clinton Secretary of Labor, not Education, portraying homeschoolers as parents brainwashing their children in their own values. So? Better our Catholic values, than their libertine, 'anything goes' nonsense!
One parent night at my public junior high school in the 1970's, my attorney father asked an important question, "what do you mean your teaching 'values clarification' to my daughter?
Whose values, are you teaching her?"
The Social Studies teaching, not used to being questioned, got flustered,and turned to charm mode, "oh, you know, right and wrong", to which my father continued to press him, "No, I don't know what YOU consider right and wrong, please tell me since you are teaching the class, what do you base your morality on?" This went on until the teacher's back was quite literally to the wall, at which time his face was beet red,and he stammered, "we teach the values of the Constitution of the United States!"
This shows how teachers since the sexual revolution, have taught their Kinsey-based pseudo-morality to your children, with very little opposition from parents, and less from clergy. When my parents opposed the sex ed program's teachings on homosexuality and abortion, they had NO backing from friends or priests, only a courageous school board member, a Baptist, and his minister stood up to get an alternative health program which they disparagingly labelled, "Health B". When I tried to sign up for this program, the teacher queried me condescendingly, saying, "what's the matter, honey, your parents don't want you to learn about sex?" I, having rehearsed my answer at home, shot back, "NO, I know all I need to know on that subject, my folks just don't want YOU teaching it to me!"

Homeschool vs Catholic School: Can we work together?

Fr. Totten asks Amy Welborn if there is a way for homeschooling families to work with the Catholic school to the benefit of both. The posts are most enlightening.

THESE are the Good Old Days!

"Let's watch our videos", Isabella's been insisting, to break up the winter doldrums. Cabin fever had set in, lots of freezing temperatures and not a snowflake in sight makes for three restless girls. So, I relented, and we started unpacking our family videos which usually center around birthdays, Christmas, sacraments and big snowstorms.
Well, it's 2 hours later, I still have an ache in my side! What a great time we had! As Isabella said, "there's a big laugh in every film."
Not only is surprisingly touching to see your grown up teen as a bouncy toddler again, or your verbose 9 year old as a quiet toddler, and the frail baby who is now an active preschooler, but watching our interactions which seemed so serious at the time, are hysterical to us now. We didn't realize what comic talent we possessed.

Daddies take toddlers for sled rides and topple them face-first into the snow, when the puppy jumps aboard, pinata-bashing leads to birthday girls getting boo-boos on their foreheads, we laugh over babies with bed-head, and the girls shriek,"Mom, why did you videotape me with that awful outfit?"
We all make mental notes on which videos to show to potential husbands with the caveat, "so, you really want to marry her? Watch this first."
I hope we can replace our broken camcorder with one that I can post online you we can share the good ones with you. Sit down with the kids, and re-visit the 'old days', and you'll realize that the best is yet to be.

Lenten Resources from The Trapp Family

I am a big fan of "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers" wherein Maria details many lovely celebrations, both liturgical and familiar for the Easter season which we seem to have lost from our transplanted European culture here in the US.
I love the detail she takes in describing how to decorate the Easter eggs, it's a true art form; no supermarket decorating kits for the Trapp family! Especially touching is the description of the Easter Triduum, and the emotions it evoked in even the smallest child. She tells of the intense beauty of Catholicism at it's best.
There is a blog called, Around the Year with the Trapp Family which goes into Lenten customs in great detail. See what they have to offer to help you plan your Lenten observations.

How Special Daddy Is, He Allows Me to Do What I Do Best: Homemaking and Mothering

Thanks Danielle, for reminding me that my husband has gifts that I don't! He is very physical with the girls, and they love it, he pushes them harder to reach their goals than I can, and no one else can show them what their husbands should be like.

When I teach on Saturdays and he's in charge of the house, my Christina looks like a World Vision child, dirty, in her pjs at 3PM, hair stuck together to the back of her head in a ball, sporting a saggy diaper, yet she's SOOO happy to be playing with him, she could care less!
You know what else? He's funny! We'll watch a silly kids movie or a comedy, and he'll use the laugh lines with us over and over again till they become a 'Daddy line'. Something Dad always says. This gives our family it's own identity as we now have inside jokes. The girls think Dad is the funniest guy alive.

And thanks, Man with the Black Hat for praising homemakers. I'm so often tempted to say, "I'm a homemaker, BUT I teach English", to justify my staying home most of the time, and that's too bad. Homemaking is an honorable profession, which can be taken to the height of an art form, as so many of you bloggers do. In honor of homemaking, I hereby give you:

the view from my kitchen window.

There's my prized African violets, my only successful indoor plant in a long time.

The curtains, no, I'm not talented enough to sew them, but I did tack the lace trim and silk tassels to the toile curtains, for an elegant touch.

I have bought houses by the view from the kitchen window, and wouldn't even consider a home where the sink faces the wall. You just spend too much time there to miss out on life staring at nothing. You should see the sunsets from here!

See the playhouse? I have the girls in my sights most of the time here,at the swings behind it, and the locked pool deck gate as well. Good for peace of mind.

See the winter version of my well-loved Mary garden? In a month, there will be Primroses and Crocuses there. I'll post the pictures.

Sometimes, I remind myself how lucky I am to have a husband whose hard work permits me the luxury of being a full time homemaker, homeschooler, and mommy.

Thanks, honey,

and Happy 15th Anniversary

What I wish I had the courage to say in person

A note to the elderly who like quiet at Mass to hear themselves pray (who doesn't?) PLEASE leave the crying room to parents with noisy children! Or if there is no crying room, leave us the last pew, so we can make a quick getaway to the vestibule.
Don't sit there and scowl at us if junior gets restless, we're doing our best to hide in the back. Take the front pews we dream about occupying someday. . .in about 10 years.
For a funny take on Catholic Mass etiquette, see my post on Causa Nostrae Laetitiae.

The Catholic Carnival is Up

Go and enjoy the company.

There's a New Lenten Blog

Go and visit These Forty Days.

The Catholic Blog Awards Nominations

HT Curt Jester
Nominations for the 2007 Catholic Blog Awards are now being accepted. This year the categories have been streamlined and categories such as most bizarre blog have been removed. Also there are no seperate men and women categories this time.

1. Best Overall Catholic Blog
2. Best Designed Catholic Blog
3. Best Written Catholic Blog
4. Best New Catholic Blog
5. Best Individual Catholic Blog
6. Best Group Blog
7. Best Blog by Clergy/Religious/Seminarian
8. Funniest Catholic Blog
9. Smartest Catholic Blog
10. Most Informative & Insightful Catholic Blog
11. Best Apologetic Blog
12. Best Political/Social Commentary Catholic Blog
13. Best Insider News Catholic Blog
14. Most Spiritual Blog

Go and vote for your favorite blogs!

My Hero Turned 75 Last Week

My two brothers, Rob and Bill,(seen here with my Dad) their spouses, my Mom, and I collaborated on a birthday party for my father, Ralph for his 75th birthday. You can see a slide show here.
Let me tell you why he's my hero. Born during the depression to Jim , an Italian immigrant from Pietrelcina (the birthplace of Padre Pio) and Filomena, an Italian-American born on Mulberry Street in the heart of New York City's Little Italy. Ralph William Crafa was born breach at 13 pounds into the kitchen of a working class family of six children. Sharing a large old house in a working class neighborhood in Flushing, Queens with various relatives was a study in Italian American culture. Their father played mandolin, violin, and 4-string banjo in an Italian band. Often, practice was in Filomena's cavernous kitchen, while she made Sunday dinner of macaroni with homemade sauce.
Life was difficult for the Crafas during the Depression, but they all went to St. Michael's Catholic School, and enjoyed baseball games in the backyard when their father wasn't looking. He had a large tomato garden in the small yard, which provided tomatoes for Filomena's fresh Italian tomato sauce. Once, the boys joked, "Hey, Pop, if you see a tomato with stitches on it in your garden, DON'T eat it!".
World War II broke out and the Crafas sent their dog Queenie into the military, since they were all too young to sign up. Their father had volunteered for World War I, but, as he like to brag, "the Kaiser heard I was coming, and quit!" The German Shepherd served with distinction, and when she returned, the boys went to pick her up, and were warned that the war might have changed her temperament. As they opened the crate, she jumped into their arms like old times!
She had an intense dislike of the vegetable vendor, however, and used to chase him down the driveway, spilling produce as he ran!
Filomena took a job to help support the family, as a receptionist at Flushing Hospital, where she translated into Italian and Spanish. This left the two oldest daughters, Teresa and Barbara in charge of the brothers on Saturdays. The orders from Mom were to clean the house, and the boys were to have money for the Saturday double feature when they cooperated. They, however, had a better idea. They wreaked havoc until the sisters threw them out, and locked the doors. Then, they knocked incessantly on both front and back doors till Barbara would beg Teresa, "just give them the money and tell them to get OUT of here!"
When the Korean War broke out, Joe went into the Army, and Ralph volunteered for the Airforce. He spent the next four years at the base in San Antonio Texas, dealing with the inevitable cultural clashes. Like when the Southern privates played what Ralph called, "hillbilly music" under his barrack window, waking him up in the morning, Ralph countered the next day by blasting his favorite singer, Mario Lanza's operatic arias. Going into downtown San Antonio was a culture shock as well, as Ralph's black friends had to enter the movie theatre from a separate entrance, sitting in the balcony, or were barred from his favorite Italian restaurants altogether. He couldn't understand segregation, because on Prince Street in Flushing, blacks and whites lived together in harmony.
Returning home to start college at 21, Ralph's found his family had moved to West Islip, halfway down the South Shore of Long Island, to a little home on a lake. Ralph who always had artistic talent, painted a seascape mural on the living room wall, which has remained there for the last 50 years though his parents had long since sold the home. He attended Adelphi University on the GI bill, while holding down a full time job, at Doubleday close to the school, and graduated Magna Cum Laude, going on to Fordham Law School. While at Doubleday, Ralph used to cross Franklin Avenue to pray for a wife at the statue of St. Anthony at St. Joseph's Church. An Irish Immigrant mother of three named Helen prayed in front of that same statue, for a husband for her daughter, who was working as a secretary at LILCO, while attending night classes at Hoftsra University. Around this time, Ralph's friend Don set him up with a girl named Eleanor Bonk, who lived near Doubleday in Garden City. After two years of dating, my parents married in St. Joseph's Church, in front of the St. Anthony statue where both Dad and my Grandmother had prayed.
Their early married life involved sacrifice, living in the old house Helen and Theodore owned in Garden City, as Dad continued to hold down a full time job as one of the first computer programmers at General Motors in New York City, as he attended Fordham Law. He used to arrive home on the train from the City at 11:30 at night, eat dinner, and go to bed. Their only time together was on Sundays during my Dad's study breaks, when they would eat dinner with one set of their parents.
Soon I announced my coming into the family, and my mother quit work to prepare for my birth. She lost her father that year, saddening my first Christmas. By the time Dad was studying for the Bar Exam, I was teething, and crying so loudly, the neighbors would tell my Mom, "She's going to be an opera singer!". Of course, being a fan, Dad like that idea!
Four years later, my brother Bill was born, with a deformity in his legs that required him to wear them in casts for months. Dad's first job as an attorney which he held for 20 years, was at the Aetna Insurance Company in Garden City. My parents bought our home in Northport when I was entering Kindergarten, a charming town with a century-old Main Street ending in a lovely harbor. Dad had a long commute, but wanted to raise his family here. The year was 1967.
Three years later, in 1970, my youngest brother Robert was born. We grew up roaving around our quiet neighborhood and soon the boys and I were old enough for baseball. Dad was an umpire for my softball games, and a coach for the boys' Little League teams. Soon he found himself Commissioner of the entire Northport Little League.
To be continued. . .

The Sorrows behind the Joyful Mysteries: The Presentation of Our Lord

Isabella, Christina, and Gabriela pray at the Book of Life at the Shrine of the Holy Innocents, where their three brothers are memorialized in the Book of Life.You can register your miscarried children's names here.
As we grow older, some of us realize that just because we love God, it doesn't leave us free from pain and suffering in this life, in fact, the closer you get to our Lord, the more He seems to demand we detach from the world and want only Him. Padre Pio said it was like when a baby is weaning(from the breast), you give him a little sugar in the bottle, so we, in our spiritual infancy got a lot of good feelings from prayer. As you get closer to the Lord, He often seems to hide, to remind us that we love Him for His sake, not for the rush we get when we pray.

This period, the dark night of the soul, as St. John of the Cross called it, began for me when, as a new mother to 18 month old Gabby, I found myself pregnant again. I was thrilled. For 3 weeks, I was so happy, I even toured a birthing hospital. That night, I began to spot, and soon Patrick Simeon's 6 week old life was inevitably ebbing from me.

Why do they put miscarrying mothers in the labor and delivery area, where the joyful sounds of birth are everywhere? I saw a 16 year old mother who had just delivered a baby, and I wanted God to tell me, "why me, and not her losing the baby?" I wouldn't let my OB do a D and C until I myself checked the sonogram screen to see that the baby was detached, and gone. Then I let out a wail of the banshee, at the horrible news that my son had died on St. Patrick's Day. My aunt Teresa, a nurse at the Catholic hospital, kept trying to console me, but it was useless.
The next morning, I left the labor and delivery area empty armed and with a broken heart. I attended a wedding, though not the reception, as I was still weak. I saw an old friend, hugged her and just sobbed. My husband was just as devastated, but couldn't express his feelings the way I had. He was just afraid to conceive again and relive the pain.
On the Feast of the Presentation in 1996, I read this testimony at a special Mass of healing from miscarriage, stillbirth, and abortion. We read our stories, named our babies on special certificates, and offered them on the altar of the sacrifice of the Holy Mass. It was very healing for me, and for those timid single girls who came alone, sitting in the shadows, mourning their abortions. I believe it was my offering to God of the suffering I endured at the loss of Patrick Simeon, for those post-abortive women which prepared my heart for a new baby.
Our next pregnancy was successful, four years later, Isabella Maria was born. Two miscarriages followed, and I began to feel cursed, like the barren Old Testament women, and never dreamed that, five years after Isabella's birth, that God would bless us with my little Christina, who has Down Syndrome. I refused all tests beside sonograms, fearing that they would cause a miscarriage, and she was healthy at birth, however, only my family and I knew about her Down Syndrome before she was born. How did we know? Let's just say that we had some advance knowledge from Someone who loves us infinitely. Wait until my article comes out in the May/June issue of Faith and Family to find out!!

Gabby and I made up this quiz on the Baltimore Catechism, try it on your kids!

Do You Know Your Baltimore Catechism?We made up this quiz after I 100% on the Bible quiz, then checked the top quiz list, and saw that there were no Catholic quizzes there (and some horrendous ones on the occult and sex.
Thanks to savy, well-catechized Catholics, "Do You Know Your Baltimore Catechism?" has made it to #43 in the quizzes!
Well done! If you don't get a good score, buy a Baltimore Catechism here.

You are a 100% traditional Catholic!

Congratulations! You are more knowlegeable than most modern theologians! You have achieved mastery over the most important doctrines of the Catholic Faith! You should share your incredible understanding with others!

Do You Know Your Baltimore Catechism?
Make Your Own Quiz

Catholic Kingdom Activities and Writing Contests

There's a perpetual carnival at Catholic Kingdom. It's a medieval themed website full of creative activities for Catholic children. Their motto is, "Learn, Love and Live the Faith". I picked up a flyer about it on the March for Life. Take a look.

Sam Brownback on Homeschooling

"I would like to take the opportunity to highlight the work of the Home School Legal Defense Association. Currently in America, we see the erosion of the family unit, increasing amounts of violence in video games and television shows, and a general lack of concern for the sanctity of human life. Pro-family groups like HSLDA are pivotal in setting America on the right track. While HSLDA continues its important work, we should remember that a society can remain healthy only when every human life is treated with the respect and dignity it deserves."
—Senator Sam Brownback

Homemaking Meme

HT Barb, SFO Fridge and tagged from A Catholic Mom in Hawaii
1.Aprons – Yes or No? If Yes, what does your favorite look like? Sometimes, when I am doing some serious baking, I put on an apron I bought for my trousseau when I was 14 and dreaming about raising a family someday. It's in need of repair, Isabella wore it to look like an impoverished St. Germaine last All Hallow's Eve. I'm starting to get inspired to get a new one for National Wear an Apron Day!

2.Baking – My favorite things to bake are: breads, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, birthday cakes, and Irish Soda Bread....nothing like a hot slice of soda bread with melting butter and a cup of tea.

3. Clothesline – Yes or No?No, and I miss it, but the dogs steal the clothes from the line! I enjoyed the outdoor experience of hanging the clothes out,especially in the spring, and the way they SMELL!

4. Donuts - have you ever made them? No. I'm afraid of deep frying!

5. One homemaking thing you do every day: I always empty the dishwasher, a job I hate!

6.Freezer – Do you have a separate deep freeze? No, wish I did.

7. Garbage Disposal – Yes or No? No.Too scared of little hands!

8. Handbook – What is your favorite homemaking resource? I pick up tips from my favorite bloggers.

9. Ironing – Love it or hate it? Or hate it but love the results? Yes to the latter.

10 Junk Drawer:Yes or No? Where is it? My whole desk is one big junk drawer.

11. Kitchen – Color and decorating scheme: I have designed my new kitchen after a troupe of little black labrador puppies buzz-sawed through my sagging, peeling, waterlogged 40 year old cabinets(nice doggies!)

It's got natural cherry cabinets with a peach colored tile floor, and a colonial blue walls, with a big print of the shoreline of Lake Como on the wall, that makes it Tuscan.

12. Love – What is your favorite part of homemaking? Teaching the girls to be good housekeepers, and cooking together for holidays.

13.Mop – Yes or No? Yes, and I do enjoy it!

14.Nylons – Wash by hand or in the washing machine?In the washer, in a lingerie bag, but I dry them on the line. Alright, sometimes I wash them in the bathtub with me a la Crocodile Dundee!

15. Oven – Do you use the window or open the oven to check?I open it up.

16.Pizza – What do you put on yours?I like very thin sliced peppers and onions, extra cheese, and sliced canned mushrooms if I have any.

17.Quiet – What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?I either read or check my favorite blogs.

18. Recipe card box – Yes or No? What does it look like? It's a pretty cream colored card box with a fruit pattern. I have recipes dating back to my Nana who died in 1971 (Italian sauce, etc.)

19. Style of house – What style is your house? A 1960's cedar-shingled, expanded Cape Cod house, with no front dormers, but a large back dormer and attached garage. It has stained moldings and wood floors upstairs and down, I've added a fireplace and opened the walls in the back of the house to help the flow a bit from kitchen to dining room to homeschool classroom.

20. Tablecloths and napkins – Yes or No?Paper napkins, cloth placemats.

21.Under the kitchen sink – Organized or toxic wasteland?Organized once it gets out of control, but usually it tends toward toxicity!

22. Vacuum – How many times per week? I'm blessed with two daughters who fight to be able to vacuum.

23. Wash – How many loads of laundry do you do per week?At least 6 times a week

24. Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off? When it's crunch time, like an upcoming event or holiday.

25.Yard – Yes or No? Who does what? My dh does the grass and the vegetable garden, I'm in charge of the Mary garden, and the flower beds, the poor girls get dog poop patrol!

26. Zzz’s – What is your last homemaking task for the day before going to bed? Set the coffeemaker up in case I'm too lazy to get up with my dh the next morning.

Want to play? Let me know in the comment box.

I'm doing better than I thought teaching Bible history to Gabby!

You know the Bible 93%!

 

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

Take the Bible Quiz: I did!

You know the Bible 100%!

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

ABC's of Child Raising

HT A Catholic Mom in Hawaii
She found this Ann Landers column amoung her things. A real treasure.

"Educate Children in Beauty" says Pope Benedict

The Holy Father has just said we must educate children in beauty. He calls for parents to be guardians of children's use of the media. This reinforced my desire to do a good job home educating Isabella, Gabriela, and Christina this week. It's nice to know the Pope understands the importance of our work as homeschooling mothers, to keep the coarseness of the media from robbing our children's innocence and corrupting their natural inclination to seek the beautiful, turning it into a lurid fascination of the sensational, which is too common in society.

Housecleaning tips for moms who are busy blogging

HT A Catholic Mom in Hawaii
Many frazzled homeschooling moms ask me how I get time to go on the internet and blog, and I ask them if they've seen my house lately.
I tell them that, for my sanity, sometimes, blogging more and sweeping the floor a bit less is beneficial. Don't ask my husband's opinion on this!

Finding Meaning in a Mother's Suffering

One of my favorite bloggers, Karen Edmisten has a terrific post about the feast of Candlemas, which we celebrate Friday, and the loss of children which so many mothers have experienced. Why on this feast? Because, as proud as Mary and Joseph were to present their Son in the temple, and have Him acknowledged as the Son of God, Simeon's prophecy cut through their happiness like the sword that would part Mary's heart at the crucifixion. Would Mary ever know true peace of mind after that? Soon they were fleeing for their Son's life into Egypt. Her happiness was really the joy of communion with God, and not attachment to the circumstances in which she found herself.

As mothers, we will encounter heartbreak at the most unexpected moments, and we must turn out eyes toward Heaven, and offer it as a gift of love to our Loving Father. That way, not a tear of ours will ever be wasted, but will be joined with the suffering of Christ's Passion, and bear fruit in the salvation of this sinful world.

Mater dolorosa, ora pro nobis.

Great Minds Think Alike

I usually go online after everyone has gone to bed, as do many of you, from the traffic I see on my blog(which has tripled in the past two days of my March for Life coverage, thanks!).
Last night, I was sneaking downstairs to write an endorsement for Senator Brownback from the perspective of a Catholic mother of a special needs child. I often get ideas during adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and try and write them down as soon as possible afterwards, before I forget them, however, Christina, and began to cry before I had a chance to write, so I went upstairs and fell asleep with her.
This morning, I found some traffic from Students for Brownback on Causa Nostrae Laetitiae, my political blog.They had already found my endorsement there, and posted it on their website.They highlighted, as has the Washington Post, and People for the American Way, Senator Brownback's mention of Christina in his talk at Bloggers for Life.
So, in her own small way, Christina has become a voice for the voiceless, the unborn Down Syndrome child who has an 80% chance of being aborted. This is even more urgent since the ACOG(American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) have recommended that all pregnant mothers receive a new type of screening for Down's, which will result in some to the 20% who survive being aborted. You go, Christina!
Senator Brownback has garnered the endorsement of Fr. Frank Pavone, of Priests for Life, Dr. Alveda King of Silent No More, and Dominoes Pizza magnate, and Ave Maria University Founder, Tom Monaghan. I am honored to join such august company in endorsing Sam Brownback for president!

My March for Life 2007 Slide Show

Is now available, with many other videos of the March on YouTube.

What did Christina Do to Upset the ACOG?

During my discussion with Senator Brownback, he reccommended George Will's article on pre-natal testing for Down Syndrome babies. He has a son with Down's and often writes about him in his Newsweek column.

Generations for Life Encourages Youth to get Pumped for the Pro-life Cause

Go and see Generations for Life post on how excited the young people are on the March for Life, and how they can bring that enthusiasm home with them to make a difference in their schools.

More Photos from the March for Life

A lady from Virginia is trying to organize homeschoolers into a pro-life group. The website is www.homeschoolersforlife.com I told her we are mostly active in pro-life here on Long Island, but not as a unified group. It's something to consider, as it would send a powerful message about homeschooling.
Christina was so cold (we were mostly inside, and only ventured out for an hour of the March) but she reached out to Sr. Katherine of the Sisters of Life, whom we see regularly. We marched with them in Manhattan on the Feast of the Holy Innocents.
This young man was handing out literature for my friend Sam Brownback and needed a hat and pair of gloves desperately. I told him he was in good company.
Isn't this a striking photo with the Blessed Mother next to him?
I wonder if it's a sign?!



Fr. Thomas J. Euteneuer of Human Life International was waiting to be interviewed by EWTN, when I asked him to pose for this photo. He gave me permission to use his weekly email on my blogs. He is a tireless crusader for the rights of the unborn.

Susan Andrews Brindle and her sister. She is the sister of pro-life activist Joan Andrews Bell, and has written the series of children's books, "The Catepillar Who Went to Mass", and "The Preborn Christ". I told her I marched with Chris Bell her brother-in-law(Joan's husband) and son in New York. Pro-life people get to be a big family in the trenches, and this is our family reunion.

My March for Life 2007 Slide Show

Is here. Go see more photos and commentary at Causa Nostrae Laetitiae, my other blog.

You Gotta Love this Man!

I just HAD to meet Senator Sam Brownback, whose career I have followed since he converted to Catholicism in 2002, after he worked on awarding the Congressional Medal of Freedom to Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa (reading their works made him want to be a Catholic).
When he and Ted Kennedy worked together to inform pregnant mothers whose unborn child had Down Syndrome about their potential for fulfilled lives, so they wouldn't abort their babies, my respect grew, when he brought a lovely blonde model with Down Syndrome to the Samuel Alito hearings as a testament to the tragedy of the lives taken by Partial-Birth Abortion, I admired him more, but, when he made friends with Christina, and talked about her in his speech at the Bloggers for Life Conference yesterday, I was completely sold. He is a sincere, articulate, intelligent pro-life hero, who deserves our full support in the next presidential election. He represents Catholic morality proudly without shame, and knows how to get elected when the chips are down.

BROWNBACK FOR PRESIDENT!!

Living Lives of Loveliness Fair

It's my first Living Lives of Loveliness Fair! Go to Living Without School and see what we resolved to do for our New Year's Resolutions. It's nice to have company when you're trying to overhaul your life!

New Years Resolutions are on Track

The girls and I have spent much of the last two weeks de-cluttering the house, and we are proud to announce we have recirculated ten boxes of our junk, someone else's treasure via our church thrift shop.
Just remind me not to go there for three months. Some long forgotten and neglected stuffed animal might be rediscovered, with cries of, " oh, I remember this bunny, this was OURS, can we buy it back, Mom?"

I'm not the Pioneer Type

Jen, at As Cozy as Spring, has a funny post entitled, "If I were married to Pa Ingalls". As I re-read the Little House books with Isabella, some similar thoughts were coming to my mind. Now I can own them, and laugh!

Isabella wrote a letter from one of the Magi to Baby Jesus

Oh, my dear King who lies in a manger and thy surroundings so humble and pure, the gift that I bring is not fit for a King like Thee. A King whose Father created the earth, a King who brings peace to men of good will. A King who is praised as a tiny Child, and I've heard the angels sing praise over all the earth. This day I'll never forget because today, I have seen a King greater than me.

We Took Down the Christmas Tree Today

And my dh gave the girls a lesson they won't soon forget. He set the tree up in the yard, and set it on fire. What a conflagration! It was incredible how fast and how HOT it burned!
They agreed to be more careful about checking the water level next year.

And So Did Gaby

Here is my gift, I lay at Thy feet,
Gold I bring for Thou art a King,
Thou art the Son of God,

Born in a stable so humble a place,
So gold I bring, for Thou art a King.

The Liberal Elite Discuss Homeschooling

PBS, no friend to home schooling had a show recently where it was discussed.It's reported by Lucky Severson in Religion and News Weekly.
HT: A Catholic in Steinbach
Here's the best quote from SEVERSON:
"As of now, churches seem reluctant to tell their congregations to put their kids in private or home schools. But even without that endorsement, the U.S. Department of Education acknowledges that home schoolers are growing ten times as fast as the general school age population."

Two Lives have Ended in My Family

On my father's side, I come from a close extended Italian family. Most of us still live around New York City, and meet for baptisms, weddings, and wakes. Some cousins still get together socially in the summer, or go to Yankee games as a group. We have a tour of Yankee stadium planned for my Dad's 75th birthday later this month. We enjoy each other's company, and have loud, animated discussions punctuated with some Italian expressions whenever we're together. Most of us are better off than our parents, and I'd say most lean Republican. More than half, I'm afraid, have stopped attending Mass regularly. We are typical second generation Italian-American immigrants.

Great Aunt Anna
Recently, the clan met for the funeral of my great aunt Anna, who had just celebrated her hundredth birthday a few months earlier. Anna spent her most of her life caring for her disabled daughter, Cecilia, who is confined to a wheelchair. Her hundredth birthday party was a large, catered affair, and she was the queen of the day, with her snow white hair artfully done up in a French twist.
Anna's brother, my Grandfather, Vincenzo, was born in Pietrelcino, Italy, ten years after Francesco Forggione (whom we know as Padre Pio) was born there. They were baptized in the church of Santa Maria del Angeli, but, unfortunately, I have only this to prove that we might be related. Someday, I want to research this, and find a mutual cousin in that once obscure village perched, as my grandfather told me, "on the side of a rock, that's why it's called Pietrelcino".
Anna's life ended in triumph, as the matriarch of a large, happy, successful family who revered her, and needed her, even as her mind began to fail. Her funeral was packed with mourners, and she had a funeral Mass in the church she had attended for years.

Great Uncle Rocco
On my Italian grandmother Maria's side, there were 9 children, the first generation born in the US, in little Italy in Manhattan. Rocco was the youngest of the family, and since his mother died when he was three, was raised and babied by his father and older siblings. As a young man, he joined the Army(there was no Air Force yet) and became a pilot in World War II. Rocco was such a skilled pilot, he became an instructor upon graduation and never saw combat. Discharged honorably, he became a commercial pilot and lived the good life. Plenty of money went to his head, unfortunately, and he lived the life of an international playboy, with all the accompanying vices. He married and divorced the same woman twice, and had only one daughter. He was fun loving and generous, but was constantly in debt, and it ended his career as a pilot prematurely. The family lost touch with him.
One day, picking up my father at the local airport, a taxi driver was offering him a ride. It was uncle Rocco, but he didn't recognize my father at first. The years of alcoholism and dissolute living had certainly robbed him of his looks and zest for life. Through the years, my father's brother, uncle Frank took Uncle Rocco under his wing, feeling sorry for him, as he lived in boarding house, and had lost touch with his daughter. He brought him to family events, where he was not always welcome, due to his changed behavior while drinking. Rocco would always call his nieces and nephews at the end of the month, when the wine and cigarettes ran low, and they learned to avoid his calls.
I had Uncle Rocco over for Christmas and Easter, as he was my last living connection to my Nana, who died when I was 9. He was pleasant enough, though he drank heavily, and teared up when my girls presented him with home made Christmas cards. Uncle Rocco always wrote beautiful hand-written thank you notes that made me cry. His heart, despite everything, had remained tender. Sadly, he refused any kind of help to reform his life.
His last Christmas with us was tragic. Someone had mistakenly left a bottle of Scotch in front of him, and it was his undoing. He became loud and abusive, and demanded to go home, when the party was at it's height. My Goomba (slang for Godfather) Cosmo was in his Christmas storytelling mode, where he recounted with all the sound effects and Italian expressions, his adventure driving a horse and cart into Manhattan on Good Friday for pizza. The horse got away from Uncle Cosmo, and went on a wild ride, shattered the tailor shop window, and ended its wild ride by smashing into a police carriage. We love this story, and ask for it every year.
But Uncle Rocco raucously insisted on going home immediately.
My husband and I reluctantly took him home. He was completely wasted, nasty, and unable to walk. On his way into his apartment, he stumbled, though my husband had his arm around him, and gently let him collapse into a heap on the ground. Somehow in the melee, he had broken a bone, and for the next year, blamed my husband for it. When he entered the tiny, bare apartment, whose contents had been sold for liquor, it occurred to me that we couldn't leave him alone, as he was incapable of walking. I called the ambulance, and fought with him to make him go to the hospital. My poor daughters were wide-eyed in the car, watching this debacle. That was the last time I saw him.
Rocco was bounced back and forth during the next year from hospital to nursing home by social workers, who came to know him as one of the most difficult men they had ever worked with. They understood our refusal to take him in, as he was incorrigible. Finally came the news last Christmas, that he was, at age 86, dying of liver cancer. After several phone calls, I gave up on finding where he was, (in order to get him a priest for last rites) and I offered up the Divine Mercy novena so that in his dying moment, he would accept the mercy of Jesus, and die in a state of grace, as he had already lapsed into a coma.
He died this week, and as he was indigent, and his estranged daughter wouldn't come home to bury him, was left to charity for a burial. My aunt Assunta asked to be informed of when his funeral was, and they called a half hour before Uncle Rocco was to be buried in the military cemetery out east, where I live. I rushed to dress and pack up the girls for our last corporal act of mercy for Uncle Rocco, burying the dead.
The military ceremony which he had requested was attended only by myself and three daughters representing the family, two men he had roomed with, and an unidentified woman. It was touching to see the dignity of the two air force soldiers stand at attention, saluting his flag-draped coffin while taps was played. A priest read the spiritual meaning of the flag, and it was handed to me, Rocco's great-niece as the next of kin. We prayed the Our Father together, and went forward to take a rose from the flowers on his coffin, a tribute from his daughter as we offered some final prayers. A simple, yet dignified service for a complicated and tormented man. I will pray for his soul for years, to alleviate his suffering in Purgatory. I had begun to pray that he would die in a state of grace two Christmases ago, when I saw the kind of life his desperate soul had been leading.

While volunteering at the nursing home of the Little Sisters of the Poor,this advent, I attended Mass, and in his homily, the priest discussed our upcoming family Christmas celebrations, including "that relative we only mention in whispers, and only invite once a year, while we hide the liquor bottles". He asked us to be charitable to this relative. Be kind to your Uncle Rocco, he is what Mother Teresa called the poorest of the poor in your family, for the sake of Christ who loves the sinner.

Review of "Charlotte's Web"

Charlotte's Web is part of a happy memory of public school for me. I had a lovely teacher for 3rd and 4th grade, Mrs. Spolski, who read it to us, along with many other classics, like Stuart Little, Misty of Chincoteague and the Little House books, and to her I owe my great love of reading. So, when it came out as a movie, I knew I had to go see it.
The new "Charlotte's Web", has all the charm and magic one would hope, and is faithful to the story. I loved that it was set in the early sixties, when it was written, it had just the right touch of innocence.
And, oh, those special effects are so great! The new version seems so real, I almost found Charlotte cuddly, and I am nearly arachnophobic.
Isabella (age 9) and Christina (age 4) and I enjoyed Charlotte's Web tremendously. Christina sat at the edge of her seat much of the time, enjoying the antics of the animals, while Isabella loved the funny crows, who though not in the original story, do provide levity when the story gets emotional.
That, I think was the genius of Charlotte's Web, it's emotional depth, it was an allegory of growing out of innocence, leaving childhood fazes behind, and confronting some of life's difficult moments, like death, and parting.
Treat your family to it, you'll be amazed at the discussions it will bring up on the trip home!

I'm Thinking of moving my blog

To a new Catholic host, StBlog's.com It still needs a LOT of tweaking.
I like the idea of a Catholic community, due to some of the offensive blogs which sometimes come here via Blogger.
I don't like the idea of all the work involved, not the least of which is helping my readers to change any links they may have to Cause of Our Joy here, so I think I'll keep both blogs running to ease the transition.

Take a Look at Shaylee's Montage

She is as Sweet as Cherry Pie. I just can't get enough pictures of Down Syndrome kids!

One More Soul

I have a post on the pro-life website, One More Soul, a resource for all things pro-life, and especially good for Natural Family Planning materials.

The Catholic Underground

I have wanted to get to the Catholic Underground since I first heard about them at the Friar Suppliers picnic last September. Friar Suppliers collect money, then purchase food and supplies to feed the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. I finally made it last Saturday, and was thrilled to pull up to the beautiful church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, and see the Sisters of Life walking in. The church was in darkness, except for Our Lord in the Monstrance, and we spent an amazing hour singing "O Come Let Us Adore Him" and listening to meditations from one of the Irish friars. Confessions were ongoing, and the hour ended with Benediction.
After filing downstairs with the large crowd of younger New Yorkers, we were greeted by a band, pictured here, of Friars who surprised my daughter, as they really rocked!
We share coffee, and met some on fire Catholics, then listened to a talk by the producer of the film "Bella". He told of leaving a prosperous career as Latin American business mangaer at Fox studios to begin Metanoia Films (Greek for conversion). "I wanted to make films that if the Virgin Mary sat next to me during the screening, I wouldn't have to cover her eyes."
He described how the star, Eduardo Verastegui, the Mexican Brad Pitt wanted to make a film where Latino men weren't portrayed as gangsters or Latin lovers, so took part in the production of the film.
"Bella" came to the one of the producers as a sort of vision while driving from Arizona to LA, which left him wiping tears away as he drove. It was shot in 24 days in New York, while the producer and Verastegui stayed in the Friary, and attended daily Mass in the trailer. Catholic symbolism is interwoven throughout the film which is wholly pro-life (see review) but the producer Leo Severino(see picture) asked us not to call it a pro-life film, as that may limit it's audience.
It's artsy, colorful and emotionally complex, and not at all preachy, yet because it has a pro-life perspective, he's hoping it doesn't get labelled and sidelined.
Well, the audience at the Toronto Film Festival didn't think so. They gave it the People's Choice Award, over 3.499 other films, an honor shared by films such as "The Princess Bride" and "Life is Beautiful", who went on to win Oscars.
"Bella" is due for release in April, and there will be a premiere beforehand, which I will be attending. This sort of engaging the culture is just what Pope John Paul II encouraged us to do, as part of the New Springtime of Evangelization. Encourage your family and friends to see
"Bella", and watch the movie's haunting theme of unconditonal self-sacrificing love, and engaging Latin American culture, touch the hardest hearts.

Have a Good Laugh at the Christmas Antics

Of Mikala's toddlers at the Magdalen Diaries.

The Catholic Carnival

Is up at Kicking Over My Traces, go over and spend some time with fellow Catholics.

Los Tres Reyes

Last night,to round out our Christmas lessons with the celebration of Epiphany, or in Spanish, Los Tres Reyes(The Three Kings) my First Communion Class went on a mini-pilgrimage 3 miles to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Island, in Eastport, NY to visit the life-size nativity which is so dramatic and realistic at night.

Here are all the Heavenly Angels, and here we all are at home in the stable with Baby Jesus, who has been adorned with many gifts from grateful pilgrims.

O Come Let Us Adore Him!

Why do I blog?

One of the most pressing reasons for starting this and my other blog, Causa Nostrae Laetitiae, is to share the joy of mothering my daughter Christina, who has Down Syndrome. These children are so misunderstood, and I want my readers, by having a daily window into my life, to pass on the cause of my joy, having this special preschooler to caress my face, to giggle in the bathtub, to horse around with her sisters, to be Daddy's little girl, who never leaves his side, and to constantly amazes us with her progress in speaking, running, climbing, and understanding of her world.
Maybe that way, expecting moms who are given the news that they are carrying a child with Down Syndrome will see this, and decide to give life to them, and not be afraid. Here's a group of moms in Myrtle Beach, SC, who are organizing to do just that.
Some other great resources for parents faced with an adverse prenatal diagnosis are:
Prenatal Partners for Life, and Be Not Afraid. Please pass this information on to your friends who are pregnant, so that if they receive some frightening news, they don't have to face it alone. Prenatal Partners for Life has an original song entitled, "On the Road to Bittersweet" which I love, and dare you to listen to dry-eyed!

Happy New Year Around the World to my Readers!!

How to Foster Vocations in Your Children

I remember being a teenager and contemplating religious life. The Church was in turmoil then, before Pope John Paul, so looking back, I think it might have been providence that I chose marriage. My point is, however, when I joyfully told a priest in my parish that I at 14 thought I had a calling to religious life, he recoiled as if bitten by a snake, and muttered something about going to Mass and listening to God. Good advice, though I could have used a better reaction.

I'm trying to do a little better, by letting my girls see orthodox religious who are truly in love with their vocation, and the Lord, and stepping back and saying very little. They know they could come to me with questions about either vocation, and discuss it if they want.

Today, we watched the encore of "Life on the Rock", which features the delightful Sisters of Life. They described the lives they led before discovering their vocations, and how God led them to the sisterhood. One lady acted in "Sesame Street Live" as Grover, one was a cancer researcher who had a chance to embrace Pope John Paul during World Youth Day in Denver 1993, and the third was an avid mountain climber, who had trekked the entire Appalachian Trail. My girls were interested in the program particularly because we had just marched with them to protest abortion, and enjoyed adoration and a lovely buffet lunch afterward.

"That's the sister who asked if we were having turkey!" Isabella exclaimed as she recognized the sister who had embraced the Holy Father.

Feast of the Epiphany is Tomorrow: what will be your gift?

"Following the example of the Wise Men we adore the newborn King, and offer Him the gold of a loving heart, the frankincense of persevering prayer, and the myrrh of our readiness to labor and suffer for Him."

God Bless!!!

Jack & Joe
ProLifeSearch.com

Keep the Party Going!

Thanks for Karen Edmisten's reminding that we are still celebrating the twelve days of Christmas. Go to Catholic Culture for ideas to round out your 12 days of Christmas celebration.

Feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

This is a saint which many of us homeschoolers look to for inspriration.
Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton is a true daughter of the American Revolution, born August 28, 1774, just two years before the Declaration of Independence. By birth and marriage, she was linked to the first families of New York and enjoyed the fruits of high society. Reared a staunch Episcopalian by her mother and stepmother, she learned the value of prayer, Scripture and a nightly examination of conscience. Her father, Dr. Richard Bayley, did not have much use for churches but was a great humanitarian, teaching his daughter to love and serve others.
The early deaths of her mother in 1777 and her baby sister in 1778 gave Elizabeth a feel for eternity and the temporariness of the pilgrim life on earth. Far from being brooding and sullen, she faced each new “holocaust,” as she put it, with hopeful cheerfulness.
At 19, Elizabeth was the belle of New York and married a handsome, wealthy businessman, William Magee Seton. They had five children before his business failed and he died of tuberculosis. At 30, Elizabeth was widowed, penniless, with five small children to support.
While in Italy with her dying husband, Elizabeth witnessed Catholicity in action through family friends. Three basic points led her to become a Catholic: belief in the Real Presence, devotion to the Blessed Mother and conviction that the Catholic Church led back to the apostles and to Christ. Many of her family and friends rejected her when she became a Catholic in March 1805.

To support her children, she opened a school in Baltimore. From the beginning, her group followed the lines of a religious community, which was officially founded in 1809.
The thousand or more letters of Mother Seton reveal the development of her spiritual life from ordinary goodness to heroic sanctity. She suffered great trials of sickness, misunderstanding, the death of loved ones (her husband and two young daughters) and the heartache of a wayward son. She died January 4, 1821, and became the first American-born citizen to be beatified (1963) and then canonized (1975). She is buried in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
HT Catholic online

New Years Resolutions

Go over to Causa Nostrae Laetitiae, my other blog to read my New Year's Resolutions, so you can hold me accountable. (Thanks to Danielle Bean, who was brave enough to do it first!)

Loveliness of Motherhood Fair

A beautiful way to start the year is by reading the Loveliness of Motherhood Fair organized by Helen at Castle of the Immaculate.

Midnight Madness: the Girls celebrate 2007

My Mother Always Had Faith in Me

I want to tell you who is behind my new success as a writer. My mother is responsible for these blogs I write, and for my article being published in "Faith and Family" this spring. She has believed in my writing talent from the very beginning, and has waited nearly forty years, since I first began to write, to see me make something of it.

When I had a wonderful second grade teacher in public school, and began to come home with a notebook filled with Haikus and stories, my mother would make such a big deal of them! I wrote a collection of poetry in fourth grade with another wonderful teacher, about the different ages of man, youth, middle-age, and old age, which she still brags about. Early on, I felt that my talent was writing, and that I would go far.

Then came those difficult adolescent years, and not-so-wonderful teachers, they told me NOT to share my story about dying with the other students, as they might mock my work, and my inspiration died in me. But not in my mother, who still encouraged me to write, reminding me of the quality of my work, and my gift for expression of the deep thoughts of others. When mediocrity was celebrated around me, in the late 70's, and all that mattered was to act as if one were bored and turned off by everything in life, I wrote a journal and kept my faith and my idealism alive. Mom was there, encouraging me not to give up on myself.

When finally, I had had enough of the imposed mediocrity of my public high school, where no one cared if you could write, Mom brought me to her high school reunion at an all-girls convent school, and when I wanted to transfer there, she found the money to make it possible. My first paper was just a paragraph using the spelling words, but when I read it in class, the girls cheered! My confidence resurged, and, by the end of high school, after seeing Pope John Paul II in Madison Square Garden, I won a poetry contest at Catholic Daughters for the poem I wrote about his trip to the USA. Mom proudly brought me to the awards ceremony, telling me she had known I could do it all the time. I aced the SAT's English section, and received awards, again, Mom was behind me, beaming, telling me the sky was the limit.

Although I began as an English major in college, intending to pursue a career in writing, I got discouraged because I was afraid of facing rejection as a Catholic in the often atheistic world of journalism. After a few months working in Europe, however, I began to write poetry again, and I returned home to get my Masters to teach English as a Second Language. I worked in a university environment, and felt at home with those who loved learning , and strove for excellence. Mom told me she always knew I would end up as a college professor, that I fit in there.

Seventeen years later, teaching English to foreigners, homeschooling three daughters, including my 13 year old who has begun to win acclaim for her essay on her sister Christina (see post) my mother was still gently nudging me to write, reminding me of my past successes, and how I amazed her since fourth grade with my poetry. I had written and published an article in the Monfort Magazine, "Queen of All Hearts", 1995 on the Holy Father's visit to New York, but didn't try to write anything more.

This year, again, thanks to Mom's quiet urging that I write if only to use my God-given talent, I finally began to believe in myself, and began writing letters to the editor in "The National Catholic Register" who, not only printed them, but often highlighted them.

My reflections on the passing of my beloved Pope John Paul II, were printed in "The National Catholic Reporter", and "Faith and Family", and I began to think of freelance writing as a real possibility. Guess who wasn't at all surprised?! I wrote for the parish paper, kept up the letters to the editor, and began my first blog last October, held my breath, and submitted a query to "Faith and Family" about writing an article about Christina's birth.

No one was more excited for me than Mom, not just for my success, but for my newly re-born belief in myself as a writer, that which she has known all along. Thank you, Mom, may God repay your patience with me, and may I repay your faith in me, by instilling the same self-confidence in my three daughters. I dedicate this blog to you.