Our Lady's Children

SHE'S HERE!

2011-07-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

The Poppe family is proud to announce the birth of Marialina Catherine Poppe! Our precious little bundle was born June 18, weighing 8lbs and 5oz after just under 3 hours of labor.

We all were praying she would come at a "convenient" time, seeing as I generally have a speedy labor (45 minutes start to finish is my record!) and we live so far away from the hospital. It seems our prayers were answered in a rather amusing way:

Tired of the trials and discomforts of the last weeks of pregnancy, I wanted to see if I could speed things up a bit. Jay and I planned on going out on a date on Saturday. We knew it would be our last date before Baby Who was to arrive, so we arranged for all day babysitting for the other children. I figured a rush of adrenaline might get labor going, so we went to go see the movie 'Thor'. Unfortunately my plan did not seem to work, as I just had one mild Braxton Hicks contraction the entire time we were at the theater.

As we left the theater, we laughed at my silly adrenaline theory and decided to have an early, leisurely dinner together. After much debating, we opted for Chili's (I LOVE their avocado Cobb salad!). At exactly 4pm, and in mid sentence, my water broke. I dashed to the restroom, which was, of course, at the faaaaarrrrrrrrr end of the restaurant, and confirmed that indeed my water had broken. I waddled aaaaaaalllllll the way through the restaurant back to Jay, who wisely paid for our meal, and mouthed the words, "Lets go!!!". We hopped in the car, exited the parking lot, crossed the street and pulled into the hospital parking lot.

Yes, Chili's just happened to be right across the street from my hospital! I arrived so early, I actually had time for an epidural! Yippee!!!

All things considered, labor was joyous and uneventful, unless you count the complete panic and chaos among the hospital staff when I was the only one in the room ready for the baby to come. (Why oh why do doctors never believe me when I tell them that once I get to 4 cm, the last 6cm go at lightning speed?)

2 hours and 50 minutes after my water broke, I held my precious little Poppe Seed in my arms for the first time.

First moments

Sisters and Dad!

Happy big brother

Taking Marialina for her first ride!

Unfortunately Ryan had left for camp that morning and was not able to meet his new little sister until she was already a week old. But all siblings (and Mom and Dad, too!) are madly in love with Marialina and we can't imagine our family being complete without her!

Thank you, dear Lord, for my daughter, for a safe delivery, and for making sure we got to the hospital in plenty of time!

St. Elizabeth, pray for me!

2011-07-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

**NOTE: I actually wrote this while still pregnant but couldn't get it posted**

Every time that pregnancy test turns positive, I always resolve to model my pregnancy after Our Lady’s maternity. Meditating on the development of the child within, asking for the graces needed to be like Our Blessed Mother, and offering up all the unpleasant aspects of pregnancy should be a part of every Catholic woman’s pregnancy, right?

So why have I failed yet again, to do as I said I would do?

Probably because I am not Our Blessed Mother.

In fact, with my recent inability to sleep, constant forgetfulness and clumsiness and perpetual grumpy-frumpy exterior, I am not even my own children’s blessed mother most days. No, it is becoming apparent that the older I get, I seem to be more like Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth. And with this pregnancy especially, I have been blessed with the opportunity to identify more closely with St. Elizabeth in a few ways.

1) My husband was struck dumb. No really. He is always genuinely (though happily) surprised when I come to him with the news of my pregnancies. But now that my real hair color resembles something headed more towards silver than gold, this pregnancy seemed to have taken him by surprise a little more than usual. Thankfully, this dumbstruck phase only lasted about 9 seconds instead of 9 months, but the uncanny similarities between Jay’s and Zachariah’s affliction was not lost on me.

2) My due date. Actually, I am due in the beginning of July, but being impatient by nature and unable to bring anything I start to its completion, I have never been pregnant longer than 10 days before my due date. Therefore, since we celebrate St. John the Baptist’s birthdate on June 24^th, my pregnancy, in effect, mirrors St. Elizabeth’s in its actual timing.

3) I am now in the “advanced maternal age” category. Lets face it – I am getting old. And being pregnant in my 40s is a lot more physically demanding than being pregnant in my 20s and 30s. My 2-year-old has been running around without pants for 3 days. Enough said.

4) I will be choosing the name of this baby. And my husband will agree.

Finally…

5) I have had my Visitation. After 6 months of pregnancy, I have come to the realization that I am completely incapable of mirroring Our Blessed Mother in her maternity. And with this realization, I was then able to welcome Mary into my heart – not as a role model, but as my helper. I am in complete awe of her and humbly rejoice in her willingness to be by my side as my caretaker, my guide and my strength. She keeps me focused on God’s glorious will for myself and this baby, and I know that while she has many other spiritual children to attend, the mother of my God has come to be with me in my hour of need and will remain close to me for the next three months.

And my baby is leaping for joy.

Pilgrimage!

2010-10-27T12:53:00.000-07:00

We had such a wonderful weekend! My Uncle Don came to visit from Chicago, and after he had his fill of watching goats, chickens, ducks, dogs and kids run around, we packed up and headed to the Our Lady of the Ozarks Shrine. A group of friends gathered there as an official pilgrimage. We prayed the rosary at different stations throughout the property and ended at the feet of Our Lady of the Smiles - an official statue of Our Lady that carries with it a plenary indulgence under the normal conditions.

Here is a replica of the statue, standing outside.

Below is the actual statue in the chapel.

And here are some more pictures of that blessed day.

Our Lady of the Ozarks, pray for us!
Our Lady of the Smiles, pray for us!

So What Are Your Halloween Plans?

2010-10-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

I do not have the energy to coordinate a full-scale All Saints Day party this year. So instead, I have decided that the kids will simply dress as Saints and attend a local Catholic church's Trunk-Or-Treat party. Sure, it is not nearly as exciting or fortifying as an All saints Day celebration, but the kids still get to dress up and Mom will still get a few bites of chocolate!
Meanwhile, here is a link to an article I wrote about All Saints Day, describing a time when I was a better Catholic mother....

Lets Celebrate the Saints!

German Octoberfest - Irish Style!

2010-10-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

The kids danced at the Octoberfest this weekend. It was the first time the girls had a chance to do the famous Irish curls - needless to say, there was a lot of giggling on everyone's part!

Apparently people in the audience had running bets as to whether Shannon's hair was a wig or natural.

What do you think? We'll never tell!

And here are some more pics from the day:

St. Therese, pray for us!

2010-10-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

It is October 1, the Feast Day of St. Therese of the Child Jesus - The Little Flower and her Little Way. I looked forward to today with a sense of anticipation, eager to see how the Little Flower might make her way into the hearts of those I loved, showing all of us a hundred little ways of making her Little Way known to all. Butterflies will flutter by, music will play and rose petals will shower upon our home and family...

Ahem.

My visions of roses strewn about the house as fragrant proof of my children's and my prayers being heard and answered turned out to be dirty socks and school papers carelessly tossed and left to compost upon an unswept floor.

I was prepared to watch with deepest gratitude and joy for those hundreds of ways in which my little ones would make those little sacrifices for one another, quietly advancing in holiness. But what I should have done was brace myself for an onslaught of petty bickering and commands gone unheeded.

And when Jay returned home from a hard day's work, I patiently waited for the children to rush up to him, shower him with love, eager to share with him all they had accomplished during the day. He would lovingly dote upon them for a few moments, then gently set them aside to present his lovely wife with a beautiful rose. Just because. And trembling with anticipation, I would hold my breath awaiting his kiss. Needless to say, had I not redirected the direction in which the evening was headed once Jay arrived home for dinner, I would still be waiting for this to happen. And I'd be and turning an alarming shade of blue.

And of course, to celebrate the feast day, I had wanted to cook an elegant French dinner, worthy of royalty. I wanted to teach the children how to say the table blessing in French. And I wanted to learn how to make lace like Zelie. But that is a lot of pressure - a pressure I put upon myself all too often. And since my inner Martha Stewart is frequently hindered by a hundred little things that seem to get in the way, I have to make the best of what I have in front of me and had to compromise.

So what did I come up with? I bought a dozen roses. We had a simple dinner of salad, pasta and French bread (Yay! It was French!) We watched the movie Therese. And we polished off a plateful of French pastries when the movie was over. Nothing fancy. Nothing elaborate. Just the Poppe family coming together to grow stronger in both love and faith. And to eat chocolate eclairs.

Oh! It was a grand time for the family, but misery for me. I had visions of families all over the world, celebrating this holy Saint in ways much more beautiful and effective than we were doing. I mourned the loss of yet another feast day, feeling as though we were celebrating it as an afterthought instead of the joyous occasion it should have been. If only I had planned better. If only I was able to coordinate an arts and crafts day to decorate the house. If only we had prayed the novena! What kind of mother am I, anyway, to allow our Saint to be celebrated in such an embarrassing way!

Despite, or perhaps because of this inner turmoil, I watched the movie with a hunger in my heart. Her Little way was so little! Yet so large. Quiet as a sigh, yet its message was received as if it came to me in the form of a blaring trumpet. The Little Way is nothing more than slowly dying to oneself, so that God may begin to live within. Beautiful.

As the movie credits began, I marveled (though some in my family might have called it a monologue) out loud at how St. Therese was able to conquer her own will and mortify it for the sake of others and how in giving up herself, she gained Heaven.

I closed my eyes as I spoke, envisioning for a moment what my family might look like if we all followed her Little Way a little more closely. Am I being called to release my inner Martha Stewart and let the 'Cassandra Poppe' come through instead, with all my quirks and imperfections, talents and gifts, to learn to express my love for my Catholic faith, my Lord and His Church in ways He designed me to do it? Am I to release the pride and pressures of celebrating the way I feel we should celebrate and replace it with the humility to simply celebrate the way we are able to celebrate? Could it be that St. Therese sent flowers upon me this day in ways I hadn't realized?

The last of the pastries had been passed and were quickly being eaten. Knowing time was short, I wrapped up my monologue. "...so lets all pray for help in finding ways in which we, too, can offer up the little things each day, just as St. Therese did." After a dramatic pause to bring it on home, I prayed "St. Therese of the Little Flower..."

To which my family answered, with hearts as full as their mouths, "Rayfomus!"

**sigh** Baby steps. Baby steps.

St. Therese, pray for us, indeed.

Chickens are here!

2010-09-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

What an exciting day it was the other day! Our first round of chicks arrived (the rest should be coming in this week) Mom wanted to come along for the ride to witness first hand the joys of receiving a peeping box of biddies. The novelty of birds arriving in the mail has worn off for us, but it is always fun to watch other people's excitement when they see it for the first time.

CJ and Jay (with Shannon bringing up the rear) picking up the birds from the post office

Fulton was one excited little guy!

Proud Papa!

Even the goats were curious about who was moving in next door

Logan has already chosen her favorite

Another Clear Creek Peek

2010-09-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

We love visiting Clear Creek Monastery in Oklahoma. What a slice of Heaven on earth! I wanted to share with you all the EWTN special on this amazing monastery.

Enjoy!

I'm Up and Running!

2010-09-01T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well, toddling anyway.

I have been poking around trying to figure out how to work this blogger thing and I think I have it at last! I have made lots of changes to my blog over the last few weeks and am pleased with the overall results. While I will continue to tweak here and there, I think I can officially say I am done with the layout. YAY! I am, however, still working on the content. (And if anyone can tell me why my spacing is so strange in this post, please let me know! I can't fix it!)

And not a moment too soon.

We have started school again. (Yes, these things are inevitable and must be faced eventually.) This year I decided to move beyond formulated homeschooling schedules and plans and actually try something completely on my own. **gasp!** Yes, I know we are approaching some frightening territory here, but something had to be done or we will once again be schooling all through the summer. And who needs that? The children and I want to have a little fun with the rest of the country!

So while the kids still have their lesson planners (and thanks to MODG, these have been written out for me! Yippee!) and their daily overall schedules (6am Rosary, 6:30 dressed and Math with Dad, etc) I have changed my organization quite a bit.

In the past, I have struggled with the fact that while the schedule says that at 8:30 Child 1 will be working on a paper independently, Child 2 will need 30 minutes of science time with Mom while Child 3 will be doing religion reading on her own as Child 4 works on building a 3D cathedral model, what usually happens is Child 2 will actually be done in 15 minutes while Child 3 is struggling with a doctrine that requires Mom's undivided attention while Child 4 spends most of his time chasing Child 5 who has stolen a handful of carefully painted and detailed Popsicle sticks and thrown them outside to the dogs. And, by the way, where is Child 1?

Mom then has to console the frustrated architect and then retrieve whatever was left of the sticks as Child 5 scribbles pencil marks on the freshly painted wall. While redirecting the creative energies of Child 5, the other children either get frustrated or wander off out of boredom. By then Mom has completely lost her train of thought (and perhaps her mind) and has to go around to everyone's separate planners and see what they are supposed to be doing, and what they have coming up next so she can make adjustments. And has anyone seen Child 1?

I am so deeply and profoundly sorry from the depths of my heart if you have any idea what I am talking about.
But perhaps this might help.
What I have done is this:

I covered a bunch of index cards with clear contact paper to make them durable and clean (I learned my lesson the hard way when I spilled raw chicken juice on my first stack last week)

I wrote times on the backs of them starting at 6am up to 3:30pm in 30 minute increments

On the lined side I wrote each child's initials and what general class they were to be doing for that time slot. (English, math, phone into classes, etc)

I punched a hole through the cards and put them on a key ring

I wrote each child's assignment for each half hour time slot and stuck them to the appropriate cards

I secured the stickies with a paperclip as a backup in case they came loose

I attached the ring to a string

I hung the card/schedule around my neck

Every time a child finished early, I can see in an instant what is coming up next and adjust seamlessly

Also, (and this was key) I assigned my 3 oldest one hour each with Fulton (26 months)

I have also had the kids work with Fulton on various 2 year old projects and at nighttime, when all the other kids have "Daddy time", Fulton also has a folder of accomplishments to be proud of. Here is what he has in his folder today -

A colorful rendition of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" (which Mommy unwittingly modeled for him two weeks ago as she witnessed the scribblings on the wall. It was a turning point for us all. Really)
An oak leaf
Another leaf
An acorn
A snail shell

Which is much better than having to show Daddy this kind of accomplishment

The result: All of the children are finishing what they need to every day. Happily. And with a sense of accomplishment and pride. The baby is getting wonderful, structured time (hours outside playing a plus a tubby before lunch!) and he naps like a rock when I need him to because the kids keep him so active.
Dinners are prepared on time and the house gets 90 minutes of attention each day. Everyone's Dad time is joyful and anticipated (as in "Look at what I did!" and "Guess how sand is made!") instead of dreaded (as in, "oh no, we have to explain why we didn't get x,y and z done again")

And now I know exactly where Child 1 is.

Most of the time...

Welcome back to my blog, and have a blessed New School Year!

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

2010-08-14T09:00:00.001-07:00

Thank you for visiting our family! We are updating this blogsite and will hopefully be done in a week. Come back soon and God bless!

Pentecostal Fruit Baskets!

2010-05-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

After I grew, I finally looked a little deeper into what happened on Pentecost. The Apostles were gathered together in prayer, the Holy Spirit came to them as tongues of fire and rested above their heads, filling them with His Gifts to allow them to go forth and convert the world - rather like a massive file being downloaded into their souls. And just as those flames flickered above the Apostles’ heads as they finally understood all that Jesus tried to teach them, I had a “lightbulb” moment of my own. Pentecost is the birthday of the Church!

But then I wondered: what did the Holy Spirit bring with Him in those flames that made the Apostles so zealous to spread the Good News and so holy that they became Saints?

He brought spiritual gift baskets. Fruit baskets. Wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord are His Gifts. The Fruits are charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and chastity. We can see how important they are to our growth, but how do we obtain them? And how can you make Pentecost and these Fruits and Gifts relevant to your family?

As always, begin with prayer. Pentecost is the end result of the first novena! After Our Lord Ascended into Heaven, the Apostles closed themselves up in the Upper Room and prayed. After the ninth day, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they proclaimed “the mighty works of God.” But notice what came first. Prayer. “On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of the Promise was poured out on the disciples, gathered together in one place.’ While awaiting the Spirit, ‘all these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer.’“ (CCC 2623) Begin as the Apostles did by praying as a family to the Holy Spirit and ask for these wonderful Fruits and Gifts.

Throw a birthday party for the Church on Pentecost Sunday! In addition to the usual cake and ice cream, serve a fruit salad to represent the Fruits of the Holy Spirit, and have a gift wrapped in white and decorated with doves and flames. The gift will be something for the entire family, and something that will help everyone to grow in one of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. For instance, my family needs to grow in fortitude. The Gift of fortitude is to help us endure difficulties and sufferings willingly. A Crucifix, to be hung in the kitchen, would be a perfect gift to remind us to offer up our daily crosses for the love of Jesus Christ. Explain the significance of the gift and call attention to it as often as possible during the year.

Plant a “fruit tree.” Make a list of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit and discuss them with your family. Are there any Fruits missing in your home? Assign an actual fruit to the spiritual Fruit and attempt to grow in that Fruit. For instance, use a strawberry to represent generosity. Then, explore with your children different ways of building that Fruit within the home. Give examples of how generosity can be practiced and then watch the tree grow!

You can make this fruit tree by placing a small multi-branched branch into a flowerpot filled with sand. Whenever you catch a family member being generous, hang a small cutout of a strawberry onto your fruit tree. Keep the tree “growing” all year until next Pentecost and review how the year went. Was there a noticeable change in the family due to this Fruit? How did the Holy Spirit bless your efforts? Did you find that other Fruits also increased as you worked on your chosen Fruit? Thank the Holy Spirit for answering your prayers, celebrate with some strawberry shortcake, and then choose another Fruit for the upcoming year!

Finally, spend some time learning more about the Holy Spirit with your family this year. What is the role of the Holy Spirit and how can we identify when the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives? Open yourselves to this third member of the Blessed Trinity, and see if the Holy Spirit doesn’t bless you with a few “lightbulb” moments of your own!

Pentecost Novena

2010-05-14T20:32:00.000-07:00

Begin this evening! Check out this site for a great Pentecost novena. God bless you all!
Novena

Meloncholy musing

2010-05-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

This year is going by so quickly! So many of you are wrapping up your school year and making plans for summer. And oh, how I envy you! Summer school will once again be on the calendar for most of the kids.

It was a difficult school year, to say the least:

After losing our baby in January, it has been hard getting back into the swing of things.

Fulton has been, by far, the most demanding of all the children this year. But who can fault the little guy? He has had his challenges - development is still slow, he is still small, and the worry never quite leaves my mind.

CJ still struggles with reading, which is frustrating for both of us.

The house is only now beginning to come together into something I feel I can function in. I know how grateful I should be we have a roof over our heads, yet the constant chaos of the house has left me completely exhausted and discombobulated. However, the building projects are almost finished and my sanity slowly returns with each passing day and with each project crossed off the To Do List. God bless Jay - he has been working non-stop for over a year to get my mother's house complete, and our own as well.

But thankfully, spring is upon us and all energies have been focused on the great outdoors, giving me convenient time to sort through priorities and get myself refocused. So many things I could have done better but didn't. So many things that could have been sacrificed for love but weren't. Much to take account of, much more to plan, and plenty of things I will have to let go. I haven't quite decided what needs to go - that will take some more prayer and quiet listening - but there is just too much on my plate and not enough of "me" to take it all on. I have to learn to let go of some things, that His will be better fulfilled in my life. But I suppose that is what spring is about - learning to die to oneself that new beginnings may take shape.

And speaking of new beginnings, Pentecost will be here soon enough. The novena begins today! Lent was a painful one, with much soul searching and grace. And Eastertide has been a time to rejoice in His promises and renew both faith and hope in my heart. But with Pentecost comes the beginning of all He has planned for me. "The party is over," or so the saying goes. "Now get to work!" How will the Holy Spirit use me? What gifts will He bring to me to help me on my journey? And what am I to learn from it all? Will I master some vice or perfect some virtue? Will I convert the world or save my own soul? Only the Lord knows - please pray I have the ears to hear Him!

No more dwelling on the missed moments and personal failures of the past. I'm moving forward, towards Our Lord and Our Lady, willing to accept all that He asks of me no matter what it may be. And all I ask for in return is for His grace to discern and accomplish His will, for without Him I can do nothing.

Irish dancin'

2010-05-07T07:17:00.000-07:00

The kids can't get enough of the new living room! The constant "tappity-tap" of their hard shoes is quickly becoming standard background noise around here. Pretty neat! I think we should have turned it into a dance studio instead.

When life gives you milk...

2010-05-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

...make some butter!

The Good God has recently blessed us with a few answers to some prayers regarding healthier eating at an affordable price. Within 48 hours we were presented with some wonderful chances to improve our diets and eat organically without breaking the bank. One of these opportunities is fresh milk! Our neighbors down the road, despite having 12 children, have more fresh milk than they can possibly consume.

We bought 2 gallons last night and this morning we had lots of fresh cream to skim off the top (You have to look kind of closely at this picture - there is about 2 inches of cream at the top):

Can you believe it? This is how much cream we got from one gallon of milk!

The kids enjoyed shaking the jar of cream...for awhile. Then the Kitchenaid had to give it a spin to finish it off.

After the Kitchenaid did its magic, we strained the (now) fat-free buttermilk off and will save it for tomorrow's pancakes. A little sprinkling of salt and a few turns with a spatula gave us enough butter to fill 12 mini cupcake molds! CJ wanted to put them in a cupcake shape, so we lined the pan with mini cupcake wrappers, spooned it in, patted it down and tossed them in the freezer for a quick chill down before dinner: homemade spaghetti with fresh herbs, homemade crusty Italian bread (which I started making the night before) and fresh butter.

Bliss!
At $3 a gallon, plus all the extras we can do with this liquid gold, how can we go wrong? Deo Gratia!

Living room preview (aka boys will be boys)

2010-05-04T09:29:00.001-07:00

The floor is actually done now but this is a quick preview when it was only half done a few days ago. The boys can't stay away from it. There is so much room to burn off the wiggles - what a blessing this addition will be. Enjoy the videos!

Confirmation

2010-05-04T08:36:00.000-07:00

Ryan's Confirmation was two weekends after CJ's First Communion. What a sacramental spring it has been! It was a beautiful day and Ryan was beaming. :) Apparently Bishop Taylor told the kids that while he could single them out and grill them on their faith, he would trust they were prepared based on their enthusiasm during the ceremony. Ryan was actually disappointed, as he was quite prepared to show how much he has learned about the faith. Bless his heart! Look out world, there is a new member of the Church Militant and he is prepared for battle!

1st Communion

2010-04-14T05:19:00.000-07:00

Our son has received Our Lord! After a night of tears and scruples, he persevered. God love him - he has such a tender soul and did not want Our Lord in his heart until he was perfect. Thankfully perfection is not a requirement - just a contrite and confession-fresh soul!

Everyone's prayers and support have been greatly appreciated.

Clear Creek Monastery

2010-04-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

We attended the installation of the first Abbot at Clear Creek Monastery today. What a gorgeous day! Sunny, breezy, all the trees were in bloom - truly a blessed day. CJ's first Communion is tomorrow and he received a special blessing from the bishop! Can't promise I will have time to post more on this wonderful visit as we have a lot going on. But in case this is all you hear about it - it was GREAT! :)

I always wanted more kids....

2010-04-08T11:46:00.000-07:00

...and we now have 4 more! Goats, that is. After a surprisingly small amount of drama introducing the goats to the dogs, there is peace once more on the homestead. I think Blue (the alpha female) is still deciding what to do about them. "Should I chase them? Or protect them?" Fascinating to see those doggie brains heat up! The light colored goat is a wither (a male who is no longer umm male) He has one horn and a beard and the kids have decided to name him Gandolf. LOL!

St. Francis was working well with them all this morning and I am truly thankful.

Easter

2010-04-08T11:33:00.000-07:00

We visited Jay's parents after Mass. Ryan, Logan and Dad hid the eggs for Shannon, CJ and Fulton. I wish we had a video of the grand egg hunt - Fulton was hilarious! But I m afraid we all will have to be happy with these still shots instead.

Happy Easter! Alleluia!

It is finished....

2010-04-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

Good Friday

2010-04-02T05:33:00.000-07:00

Pray this special novena today, between the hours of 12noon and 3pm. Everyone writes down their request for this novena and places it under the Crucifix, as shown in the picture above. We pray the prayer 33 times between noon and 3pm and light a candle surrounding our Crucifix for each prayer. Last year we did this as we watched The Passion movie and spontaneously said this prayer as we watched Our Lord suffer for our sins during the movie. This year will be a little different, now that we have our prayer room, but I'll take a picture later today when we have finished.

"Oh my Lord Jesus,I humbly beg of Thee,by the merits of Thy Precious Blood,and by the Divine Heart,and by the intercession of Thy cruel death,to assist me in my present necessity. (mention your request) Amen. "

At 3pm, we blow out all 33 candles and cover the Crucifix in purple - and there He lays until Easter morning.

Divine Mercy Novena - Day 1

2010-04-02T05:17:00.000-07:00

(The following novena posts are taken from the EWTN site)

Jesus asked that the Feast of the Divine Mercy be preceded by a Novena to the Divine Mercy which would begin on Good Friday. He gave St. Faustina an intention to pray for on each day of the Novena, saving for the last day the most difficult intention of all, the lukewarm and indifferent of whom He said:

"These souls cause Me more suffering than any others; it was from such souls that My soul felt the most revulsion in the Garden of Olives. It was on their account that I said: 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass Me by.' The last hope of salvation for them is to flee to My Mercy."

In her diary, St. Faustina wrote that Jesus told her:

"On each day of the novena you will bring to My heart a different group of souls and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy ... On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My passion, for the graces for these souls."

First Day "Today bring to Me all mankind, especially all sinners,

and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. In this way you will console Me in the bitter grief into which the loss of souls plunges Me."

Most Merciful Jesus, whose very nature it is to have compassion on us and to forgive us, do not look upon our sins but upon our trust which we place in Your infinite goodness. Receive us all into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart, and never let us escape from It. We beg this of You by Your love which unites You to the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon all mankind and especially upon poor sinners, all enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion show us Your mercy, that we may praise the omnipotence of Your mercy for ever and ever. Amen.

Tissue Warning!

2010-03-31T20:58:00.000-07:00

I love this video (Thanks, Jennifer, for the heads up on this!) Have a blessed Holy Week, y'all!

New Again video

HTML issues

2010-03-30T06:12:00.001-07:00

It seems some people are having trouble with some of my posts. I'm working on it...
Sorry!

Lord willing, I'll post some HTML-error-free posts tomorrow!

1st Joyful Mystery/Humility Revisited

2010-03-27T20:47:00.000-07:00

“We offer Thee, O Lord Jesus, this first decade in honor of Thy Incarnation, and we ask of Thee, through this mystery and through the intercession of Thy most Holy Mother, a profound humility.” (St. Louis de Montfort)

We have already explored Mary’s humility within the mystery of the Annunciation. But St. Louis de Montfort challenges us to consider an even deeper humility – that of Our Lord. He does this by referring to the first Joyful Mystery as the Incarnation. The Annunciation and the Incarnation are two very different events. The Annunciation pays tribute to the exchange between the angel Gabriel and Mary - of God’s great request and Mary’s humble response. The Incarnation, however, refers to the awesome mystery of God becoming human within Mary’s womb.

Before Jesus came to us, God rarely graced His people with His presence. And when He did, His power was mighty and His people feared Him. The Old Testament illustrates both His power and the people’s fear many times over. Yet even this fear was not enough to keep them from falling into sin. His people were called to holiness, just as we are. But holiness is best taught by example, and not by fear and rules alone. So He had to try to touch our hearts and show us a path to holiness in a different way.

There is a common homily story used to illustrate why God would decide to become one of us. The story tells of a man trying to gather freezing geese into the garage for the night to keep them safe from the winter weather. Despite his best intentions, the geese were too frightened and kept running away from him. The man says to himself, “If only I could become like one of these birds, they would not be so afraid of me and would follow me into safety.” And so it was when God deigned to become one of us.

Before the Nativity, God was so powerful a human could die from the very sight of Him. So He sent His Son to us as an infant for all to gaze upon and adore, thus endearing Himself to us. When at one time His greatness required that only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies once a year and plead for the people, the Infant Jesus came to us so that we could approach Him ourselves with our every need. And while at one time touching the Ark in which God was contained brought about certain death, Jesus, nestled in the arms of His mother, allowed the world to caress His cheek.

But just as this act of humility allowed us to love and adore Him, it also left Him vulnerable to our wrath. While some gazed in adoration, others glared with hate. As some came to Him to acknowledge Him as the Savior and ask of Him all they needed to gain Heaven, others cursed Him, mocked Him and spat in his face. And while some may have kissed the Infant’s head, hugged Him and played with Him, others chose to scourge Him and hang Him on a cross.

Did this vulnerability take away any of His greatness? Did the Incarnation make Him, somehow, a lesser God? No. Instead, His wisdom has shown us, through the Inarnation and through the virtue of humility, the vastness of His awesome and unsurpassed power. And at the same time, His humility and vulnerability succeeded in winning the hearts of His people where His power and might had failed. For St. Alphonsus de Liguori states, “The more Thou appearest to me humbled and despised, the more dear and worthy of love dost Thou become to me.”

If God’s humility makes you uneasy, remember how it all ends: through perfect humility, Jesus conquers death itself! And that is precisely what we are to take away from this Mystery. St. Theresa of Avila has said that humility is simply truth. It is clearly knowing and acknowledging who you really are compared to God. And once you have obtained self-knowledge, it is only then you will be able to climb to the highest heights of virtue – by allowing yourself to remain the lowliest of all. And from that humility will spring forth our greatness in the eyes of Our Lord, where, in the end, the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

“Grace of the mystery of the Incarnation, come down into my soul and make it truly humble.”

The patience of a Saint

2010-03-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

The prayer room is almost done! After more than a year, we are finally able to use or sacred space. I painted the walls a muted yellow - or so I thought. It was a bit much so I glazed it over with brown and it now has a Tuscan look to it - very nice! Although it is hard to get an idea of what the actual color is with these photos, the ones taken with the flash are closer to the real thing. The ones taken without the flash are super yellow. Yikes!
The floor is in, the altar built, and our statues patiently await their final placement within the prayer room. Just in time for Holy Week! Thank you Lord!
The line up (there are more but these are the ones that came out of hiding first)

My personal favorite - Our Lady purchased in an antique shop in Michigan and brought to Oklahoma!
More of our Saintly crew- Shannon with her antique St. Anne and Mary statue
"Hey - you there! Straighten up those sandal straps!"

1st Joyful Mystery: The Annunciation

2010-03-25T05:57:00.000-07:00

St. Louis de Montfort is best known for his devotion to Our Lady - especially through the rosary. If anyone knows anything about me, my complete conversion to the Catholic faith is largely due to this Saint and his first method of praying the rosary. He attached specific virtues or graces to each mystery, inviting us to meditate more deeply upon each mystery as we pray. On this day, the Feast of the Annunciation, lets begin to take a closer look at each mystery and learn how we can perhaps grow in virtue and holiness. I will post frequently over the next few days/weeks. If you are not sure how to pray the rosary, visit this site for a beginner's course. God bless!

“We offer Thee, O Lord Jesus, this first decade in honor of Thy Incarnation, and we ask of Thee, through this Mystery and through the intercession of Thy most Holy Mother, a profound humility.” (St. Louis de Montfort)

Mary must have had a pretty good idea of what her life would be like. While she had agreed to marry Joseph, she had also made a vow of perpetual virginity to better serve God. And because of this vow, the thought of raising a child was quite far from her mind. Yet one day, an angel appeared to her and informed her that God’s will for her was entirely different from what she could have ever imagined. Boom! With this single message, her entire life’s expectations were completely shattered. And yet, unhesitatingly, she said, “Yes.”

Mary’s humility is clear in this Mystery. The Annunciation, while sounding like a beautiful and holy experience on the surface, was probably quite a shock to her. Yet, because she was so full of grace, she was able to realize that her life was not her own and if God wanted something different from her than what she had assumed, so be it. With a single “yes,” she immediately shed her plans for her future and took up God’s plans instead. And she never looked back.

And why should she? When one is completely humble, that person understands exactly where they stand in the eyes of God. They know for a fact that their very existence relies solely on the will of God. He creates human life so that each of us may choose to love and worship Him in our own humble ways. He gave us our talents, our spiritual gifts, our families. He willed all things that have come to us, that all may be used for the good of others and to glorify Him at all times. But if we do not possess humility, these facts become clouded with pride.

Consider what the meaning of life truly is. According to our faith, the whole meaning of our existence is to know, love and serve God in this world so as to be happy with Him in the next. Sounds simple on the surface, until you begin to examine how many times we forget this fact and slip into pride. On any given day, we are tempted to turn the definition of the meaning of life on its heels and apply it in ways that only pride could distort.

Remember what Satan promised Eve: If she ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree, she would become like God! We seemed to have inherited this inner drive to place ourselves above all others, as if that same serpent were whispering the same promise in our ear. Instead of living to know, love and serve God so that we may be happy with Him in Heaven, we are trying to make others know, love and serve us, that we may be happy in this world. When we have this mentality, we tend to get upset over even everyday annoyances. We react negatively to inconveniences, slights and hardships for the simple reason that others are not conforming to the will of our own self-made god: ourselves!

Humility challenges us to look at all life’s events through the eyes of God and placing ourselves exactly where God sees fit. Could you be like Mary and humbly accept His will if His messenger, in the form of a doctor, announced you had cancer? Or your boss announced you would have no job on Monday? Would you be able to sift through the rubble and trust that He knows what is best for you? Or would you rebel and lash out at the announcement, the messenger, or even God himself? Only with humility can we overcome such events in our lives. And it is the virtue of humility that gives us the ability to give Him our own unwavering “yes”. No matter how explosive His announcements may be.

“Grace of the mystery of the Incarnation, come down into my soul and make it truly humble.”

2009 Intercessories Family Ministry

Impossible Novena

2010-03-24T20:41:00.000-07:00

This is the eve of the Feast of the Annunciation, which is celebrated tomorrow. Please join me in this 9 month novena, honoring the maternity of Our Lady as she carried Our Lord within her womb. Pray for discernment, search your hearts and choose three "impossible" requests. The pray faithfully from now until the birth of Jesus that these requests be answered according to His holy will. There is much to pray for this year...

IMPOSSIBLE NOVENA

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us; and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Pray for us, most holy mother of God.
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

All Virgin of the Incarnation, a thousand times we greet you, a thousand times we praise you for thy joy you had when God was incarnated in you. Because you are so powerful O Virgin and Mother of God, grant what we ask of you for the love of God.

[state your first intention]

Repeat all of the above for your second and third intentions

Remember, O most Gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my mother. To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Blessed and praised be the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, in Heaven, on earth and everywhere. Amen.

A new path

2010-03-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

Back from the Catholic homeschooling conference in Memphis! We had a lovely time, but it is nice to be home, too. Even if the washing machine is still not fixed. :)

We met some wonderful people we hope to stay in contact with. It is so nice to be able to rub elbows with other people who are attempting to reach the same goals you are. It rejuvenates the soul and energizes the will to leap the next hurdles life puts in our way.

A few months ago we just heard "something" about Clear Creek Monastery. But we never really looked into it. However, the good Lord seems to have placed multiple people in our paths the last few months who are somehow associated with the monastery - so guess what. We're going! We have felt a pull for awhile now to explore the Latin Mass more deeply, and we have been invited to attend the blessing of the new abbot of Clear Creek. What a perfect opportunity!

We are looking forward to learning more and meeting up with our newfound friends again.
Shannon is especially excited, as they will eventually have a convent there. She has wanted to be a nun for many years now, and we would be more than happy to have her so close by and with so many faithful women. But perhaps I am jumping ahead of myself - she's only 10 after all!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T07:59:00.000-07:00

(This is a reposting of last year's St. Patrick's Day post - enjoy!)

Beware the ides of March. St. Patrick’s Day is coming and I tend to get a little giddy.

When we were kids, my sisters and I could hardly wait for March. Not because spring was coming, mind you. Oh no. We were excited because we would get to eat Sno-balls! Those cream filled, coconut and marshmallow covered chocolate cake treats were cherished among my sisters and I. They were better than a pot of gold.

You see, growing up, I never got the kinds of lunches other kids got. While they brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on Wonder Bread, with bags of chips and Twinkies, we were stuck with liverwurst sandwiches on whole wheat with a hard-boiled egg and carrot. We longed for the treats other kids ate and would sometimes lament out loud our culinary woes. My mother would listen with a sympathetic ear, and sometimes she would bake wheat berry cookies, but overall, there was no reason for morale to improve.

Don’t misunderstand me. My mother loved us, and she did the best she could on the income we had. Every bite of food was packed full of vitamins, fiber and minerals. We simply ate to live – we certainly did not live to eat. And that was why St. Patrick’s Day was so special. Because on St. Patrick’s Day, we got to eat Sno-balls!

If there is nothing else my mother taught us as children, she made sure we knew that we had Irish blood in us. She taught us the Irish jig. We actually loved corned beef and cabbage. And we learned to never, NEVER call anyone super! (Actually, the word was ‘souper’, but to a child they sounded the same, so super was not in our vocabulary.) We knew the real story behind the potato famine by the time we were in first grade. And did I mention that we got to eat Sno-balls on St. Patrick’s Day?

On the morning of St. Patty’s Day, the Sno-ball effect would begin. We prepared for school like an Olympic athlete prepares for competition. Get dressed in an all green outfit, braid hair with green ribbons, and straighten ‘Kiss Me I’m Irish’ pin. March downstairs and eat green oatmeal and drink green milk, all the while focusing on the green-gold prize: the Sno-ball. Wait for Dad to play Irish Night at the Pops and dance the Irish jig for Mother. Polite, Vaseline teeth smiles, arms motionless at our sides as our feet flew wildly to and fro to music only a leprechaun should dance to. Sno-balls. Sno-balls. Sweat pouring off our brow, green ribbons flying. Sno-balls. Sno-balls. At last, the school bus would come and we flew out the door, never looking back, always looking forward. Looking forward. To lunch.

We soon found that other kids in our classes looked forward to our St. Patrick’s Day lunch as well. During the rest of the year, they usually glanced at out lunches and rolled their eyes or snorted as they scooted a few scoots away (liverwurst, eggs and milk do not make for the best breath, after all). But, on St. Patty’s Day, they would actually crowd around us to gaze at our green feast. A can of Green River soda, a green apple, a few slices of green pepper and celery sticks with peanut butter. And then, there it was – a very special, just for St. Patrick’s Day glistening green Sno-ball. As I ate this lunch, the kids would ask why my family was so weird on St. Patrick’s Day. I would then begin to happily babble, between bites of cake and coconut, about St. Patrick, how one day I would live in Ireland, and about the plight of the Catholics during the potato famine.

“Famine? What’s a famine?” an older boy once asked as I licked the last of the green coconut flakes from my fingers.

Satiated, I sighed and turned to the poor, uneducated child before me. “A famine is when there is nothing good to eat for anyone. Sometimes people get so desperate that they eat strange things, just to stay alive. In Ireland, they had nothing good to eat and many people died of a disease called green mouth because all they could eat was grass.”

Looking closely at my green coconut speckled mouth and the careless remains of my lunch on the table, he snorted, “Yeah. I’ve seen that before.” And he wandered off to recess.

We laugh at the stories now, but I can also appreciate their underlying theme. We were taught about our Irish heritage in a way that made my sisters and I fiercely proud of who we are. Our passion for our history was stronger than our worries of what others thought of us, and this same passion allowed us, one day a year, to boldly bring our Catholic faith to others around us. I pray that I am able to pass along this same passion for our faith to my children as well.

Your assignment: Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! Learn the Irish jig and eat green pizza. Tape a shamrock on every part of your child that is mentioned in St. Patrick’s Prayer. Discuss the Trinity. One year we had a Conversion Hunt: I hid 200 popsicle sticks in our yard and 12 kids hunted for them like Easer eggs. Each stick was a person they found and “converted”, just as St. Patrick did. Celebrate this day while instilling in your children a strong connection to and pride for their Catholic heritage – no matter what nationality they may be! And remember to get excited about your faith yourself. Enthusiasm, after all, has a “snowball” effect on us all!

©2008 Intercessories Family Ministry

Lent?

2010-03-16T18:34:00.001-07:00

Yeah - Lent is not going the way I had planned. And it is no wonder why. I tend to approach lent like some people plan a birthday party. Lots of dreams of hairshirts and penance for me, prayerful and sorrowful children, pious husband and so forth. But apparently Our Lord had other plans.

My plan: meatless meals every day of Lent except Sunday. Friday dinners during lent would consist of homeground homemade whole wheat bread. (don't laugh - we've done this for several years in the past with no problems)
God's plan: the oven will no longer be able to regulate temperatures and is therefore useless. Therefore, the 40 day meal plan I had is also useless.
Lesson learned: Unexpected hardships should be accepted as an act of love and done so gracefully, not viewed as an annoyance and something that was "ruining" my Lent.

My plan: Give up grocery shopping for lent (milk and fresh produce can still be purchased but nothing else) and donate the savings to charity. (Again, do not laugh - we usually do this successfully, too)
God's plan: Because the oven does not work, we were not prepared to have to scrounge around for so many non-baked meals, and we HAD to eat as much meat as we usually do during Ordinary Time.
Lesson learned: Penance is not a penance if you plan for it so well it seems effortless.

My plan: Prayerful mornings, organization, clean house, scripture reading every day.
God's plan: The house will not be completed as planned, the prayer room will be stuffed full of shredded old pieces of insulation and drywall chunks, the bedroom (and the rest of the house for that matter) will be completely full of displaced things as we wait for the livingroom, schooling area and prayer room to be finished, the washing machine will also break down (making washing clothes by hand necessary) and the family Bible is WHERE?!?
Lesson learned: A laundry list of wishes and hopes for the future, when attempted in inappropriate surroundings, does not make for an appropriate lenten goal. I must take myself as I am and work from that point - not take myself from a point of where I wish I was and then expect miracles.

Thankfully I have some more time to shape up this Lent.

New plan: I will spend the rest of this blessed season doing small mortifications out of love. I will happily cook my chicken and beef meals for dinner each night (except Fridays, of course) and thank the Good God we have enough food on the table and a stove top that still works.

I will make needed purchases sparingly and avoid the obvious snacks and packaged goods. We will have to dig deeper into our hearts and pocket book for alms this year. And I will give alms before we start saving for a new oven.

I will loudly and proudly acknowledge that I am a train wreck right now and rely solely on the grace and mercy of God this Lent, that He continue to give me the graces I actually NEED instead of the graces I WISH I had. He knows me better than I know myself - and He is slowly and lovingly exposing my weaknesses to me each day, that I not only learn from them, but that I come to see how much I truly need Him to help me overcome my sinful self.

May you all have as blessed Lent as I am having!

Irish eyes are smilin'

2010-03-14T22:28:00.000-07:00

I'm so super proud of my children! They had their very first Irish dance performance today (Sunday) Please keep in mind they have only been at this for a few months, but wow! Even if I wasn't their mom, I'd be impressed. :) We have recently released CJ from all pressure to perform and compete, and as soon as that was lifted, he has shown a great desire to not only practice every day with the other kids, but even says he might eventually perform! We'll see....

The kids were appropriately critical of themselves and were very charitable in helping each other see where they might improve. I never dreamed these lessons would bring them closer, yet I have never seen more smiles and more cheerful companionship developing between them. What a blessing.

Meanwhile, they have another performance on St. Patrick's Day. Stay tuned!

Gearing up for upcoming conferences

2010-03-12T06:40:00.000-08:00

We are still deciding on a few conferences, but here is the latest schedule:

March 19-20 Memphis, TN (vendors)
June 4-5 Lenexa, KS (vendors)
June 19 Orange, NJ (speaking)
October 16 Fort Smith, AR (rosary retreat)

We're traveling light this year, as it is hard to find people to babysit a flock of ducks, but there is still a chance we will venture out for more conferences. We'll keep you posted!

Chicken update

2010-03-04T22:18:00.000-08:00

Things are not going well with the birds this time around. We ordered 40, and are down to 9 as of tonight. Looks like we'll lose another 2 by morning. :(

We are not sure what happened during shipment, but they took a day longer to get here than expected, and the weather was super cold. Not a good combination for day-old chicks! Thankfully Murray McMurray hatchery is being wonderful about it and we will have a new shipment in shortly.

Meanwhile, I will bless you with a few pictures we took of them last night. (Check out the chick asleep in the feed dish!)

I do not like green eggs and ham

2010-03-02T06:41:00.000-08:00

We are anxiously awaiting our order of chickens. We ordered a straight run of 15 partridge rocks and 25 BBQ specials. The fate of the BBQ specials are pretty obvious (mmmmmm so good!) The others we will keep around for eggs.

Yes, we still have the ducks, but we are having some issues with their eggs. The yolks are green! We brought the eggs in for testing and while they are sterile and perfectly safe to eat, we cannot bring ourselves to actually eat them. The top 2 agricultural experts in the country have been consulted in this matter, and they have both decided that they are somehow getting a hold of cotton meal. If their feed is contaminated, the contamination has been going on since October, and has affected multiple feed companies, as we have tried switching their feed. Nothing helps. And no matter how the story ends, I cannot bring myself to eat them!

I could not, would not, on a boat.
I will not, will not, with a goat.
I will not eat them in the rain.
I will not eat them on a train.
Not in the dark! Not in a tree!
Not in a car! You let me be!
I do not like them in a box.
I do not like them with a fox.
I will not eat them in a house.
I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them ANYWHERE!

Needless to say, we have some very happy dogs.

Hello!

2010-03-02T06:32:00.000-08:00

So much has been going on -our house is almost finished! The drywall is up and we're waiting for the finishers to complete their job. We could be painting this weekend! Flooring has been a hot topic around here and we can't decide what to do. Lowes has a great deal on laminate flooring but the pattern is not very attractive. I have also considered doing a faux leather finish using a decoupage treatment, but that will take up quite a bit of time, and we will have to wait until the weather warms up a little more before I take on such a project. I'll continue to think about it....

Meanwhile, Mom's house is complete, save a few little things here and there. She is settling in nicely and the kids are so happy to have her here! She had worried that she would impose upon our lives too much, but it seems the opposite is true. We can't stop coming over to her house! :) We'll find the camera eventually and get some photos up of our home projects soon.

I'm Baaaaaack!

2010-02-05T22:15:00.000-08:00

Construction disasters, sickness bordering on our own private plague, loss of internet service for a few months and a heaping helping of crosses have kept me away for far too long. But we are up and running again! I will be posting again on a regular basis...... Lord willing......

Announcement!

2009-10-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to share the latest fruits of our labor with you! Intercessories Family Ministry has been working on a new website for quite some time now, and while it is not "finished," it is ready for public use.

You will find what will eventually be one of the most extensive lists of links to help you plan your liturgical year celebrations, with information on Saints, feasts and holidays, and lesson plans, crafts and games, too.

As you will see, the site was created in a very easy-to-use format to help you plan for the days you want to highlight each month. We are by no means finished, either! Our goal is to add at least 20 new links every day for the next year, giving you over 7300 links to choose from!

We also offer you an updated shopping cart and will be stocking our cyber-shelves full of great items to help you bring the Catholic faith to your family.

With so many plans in the works, if we waited until it was finished, the site would never be available to you! So please excuse the cyber dust as you explore our new site. We hope you enjoy the website as it exists in its baby stage, and can see the vision we have for it as it grows.

http://www.intercessories-fm.com

Blessings,
Jay and Cassandra Poppe

Date #1...

2009-10-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

Jay and I went to our first "10 Great Dates" session on Friday. We had received an email earlier, announcing that Friday's session would be for date #2, so we had to quickly read up and see what homework we had missed. It kind of brought us back to my high school days, frantic to finish before class!

Date #1 consisted of walking down memory lane and making a conscious commitment to work on our marriage. We went to Sweet Bay Cafe' and went over the questions together. I had actually had a twang of panic before our date, simply because I could not remember much about when we first started dating. I didn't want him to think I didn't care, just because I couldn't remember our first date, first kiss, first time we talked about marriage, etc.

At that point, I think I was blessed with a profound insight into what it is perceived to be "bad husband syndrom". That inward writhing and mental anguish at being called onto the carpet and to have to announce that you have no idea how or when "monumental" relationship milestones were passed. My private shame would finally be exposed - I must not be a real wife. I mean - really - can you see Lucy forgetting her anniversary? And Ricky swooping in and saving the day? It never happened in I Love Lucy. But it has happened in the Poppe household. :)

So, before date #1 could even begin, I was already nervous that I might fail this marriage excercise in some way and prayed Jay would not take it too personally. But Jay, being the gracious and good humored man that he is, laughed it off and had the distinct pleasure of reminding me of all our milestones. Never was there a husband who had his wife's eyes, ears and heart more completely then when he told our own unique, romantic story.

It was wonderful. In fact, I do not remember ever having that kind of relaxed, enjoyable communication with him. Not in a long time, anyway. And I laughed so much, I actually whipped myself into a minor asthma attack. (That is always a good sign I am having fun.)

I do not want to imply that Jay and I have a perfect marriage. In many ways this exercise felt a little awkward to us both, as we started our entire relationship off on the wrong foot. We did not even love each other until somewhere between child #2 and #3, so we never had much of that initial "puppy love" stuff most people can draw upon in harder times. There is a saying about the making of sausage: It's not a pretty sight. And the same goes for our marriage - how we got there was not a pretty process. But it is a beautiful, flavorful dish we appreciate and savor, and thank Our Lord for helping us through the not-so-pretty times so that we could eventually enjoy the tremendous gift it now is.

More on our dates soon! (We did, after all, have TWO dates that night!) There was much to ponder, and I wanted to at least begin to flesh out our initial responses to the date before it got lost in the piles of laundry, homeschooling planning and diaper changes. Have a blessed Sunday and I will post more on this later!

Fireproof

2009-09-11T20:23:00.000-07:00

OK, I realize we are probably the last couple to see the movie Fireproof, but I have to say I am glad I finally saw it. My 15yo son has been bugging Jay and I to see it for quite sometime and I can certainly understand why. (And I must say, I am one proud mama to know my son sees the value in such a "chick flick"!)

A local parish was showing the movie, so we decided to take advantage of the chance to join the rest of the world, if only for 2 hours. If you have seen the movie, you do not need to hear yet another reveiw of the movie. And if you have not yet seen it, I highly recommend it!

For anyone who has heard either of us speak on our own marriage, you know the pain we went through before the Lord took over our marriage and set us straight again. Fireproof conjured up the past pain, but in ways that were safe and, in fact, healing. We have the balm of Our Lord: the gift of forgiveness and the security of knowing that sacrificial love can indeed overcome all things. Even ourselves.

For approximately the next 10 months, Jay and I have agreed to go through a marriage program. Not because we are in any crisis, but because we love each other enough to know that we are not immune to the ways of the world.

We realize that unlike the evangelical "salvation docrine" presented in the movie (once saved, always saved), a marriage itself is very much a representation of the teachings of the Catholic Church when it comes to our salvation. Just because we were saved once from divorce does not mean we can sit back and relax, assuming we are always going to stay together. In fact, because we had fallen so far, we know more than some how easy it is to fall away from each other and fall into "self". We clearly see how important it is to continue to work for our marriage, just as the fallen and forgiven person realizes how important it is to continually strive for holiness and take nothing for granted.

We invite you to join us on our 10 Great Dates -one great date a month, starting October 2. While this program is NOT Catholic, we will certainly approach this program with Catholic teachings and with Truth. We look foward to learning more about each other and ourselves, and hope you will grow, both in your Catholic faith and in your marriage, as well!

God bless you!

H1N1 X 2 = 2 loooong weeks!

2009-09-09T20:47:00.000-07:00

We wanted to start school this week. In fact, the Mother of Divine Grace curriculum highly recommends it. But it was not to be for us.

Last week, 2 of our 5 bunnies came down with the swine flu. By Friday we were in the emergency room for the 7yo, as he was having difficulty breathing. Everyone is just fine now, but we're all a bit sick of sickness. The pediatrician said (yesterday) that now is the time to get it, as the next wave coming later this year will be far nastier. I am suddenly wishing the entire household came down with this one! But apparently it was not to be. Hopefully, since we were all exposed to it in close quarters, we will have at least a little immunity to it so that if we do come down with the second strain of it, it won't be so bad.

Ah well, it is all His will in the end.

And in the meantime, instead of saying we started school on Tuesday, we will simply have to say we started school this week. Baby steps!

City Cousins visit Country Cousins

2009-09-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

My sister and her 2 daughters came from NJ to visit for a week. the accomodations were less than stellar, but the company was divine! We don't get many visitors, since we are in disaster mode with remodeling inside and out (so excuse the pictures!) but it sure was great to see them!

Goin' for a hayride!

Visiting Sequoyah's Cabin. Sequoyah was a half-Cherokee man who invented the written Cherokee language. The Indians were getting cheated out of land deals because they could not read the contracts, so he came in and created their written language. He spent the rest of his time travelling and teaching. What a fun day!

Statue of Sequoyah

Caroline, Fulton and CJ hanging out in Sequoyah's fireplace

Fulton showing off the latest in ladies' fashion

Big Guy/ Little Guy time

The ducks out for stroll and seeing who the new people are

Sometimes entertaining cousins can be exhausting!

New Jersey Catholic Writer's Conference

2009-09-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

Finally found a few pictures from my recent trip to New Jersey. Fr. Frank Pavone is such a gracious and charitable man. Please keep him in your prayers!

Calling Special Families!

2009-08-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

I am working on 2 exciting projects and need your help!

If you are interested in becoming a "trial family" for one of the two books I am currently writing, please visit the following Yahoo Groups.

Parenting book: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ifmparenting/

Rosary book: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ifmrosary/

I will be taking only 8 families per book, but once the books are finished, these Yahoo Groups will be open to all who want to join.

Thank you in advance!

In Him,
Cassandra

Checking in again

2009-08-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

What can I say? I like using other people's internet connections! I'll take this over dial-up any day!

The Catholic writer's conference ended today, and soon I will be returning home with so much. Not just with "things" (and let me tell you, I have amassed quite a collection of "things"!) but I will return with so much hope and inspiration, too! Our Lord is working through so many talented people out there in the writing world, it was humbling to be in their midst. Yet this same group welcomed me with open arms and hearts and took me as one of their own. Again, everything has not had a chance to settle in my overstuffed brain yet, so I am not prepared to post too much right now. But I will at some point.

What I can say is Intercessories Family Ministry and my writing are taking on a more defined shape and I am excited to see where Our Lord could be taking us!

I miss my "bunnies", though, and cannot wait to see them. Only a few more days and I'll be back in the country and reunited with my family, searching for duck eggs, baking bread and planning school. . . . . . and writing!

Still here! (but not really)

2009-08-05T20:12:00.001-07:00

I haven't been as attentive to my blog as I would like, but rest assured everything is fine! I am taking a "mini vacation" and visiting my sister while attending a Catholic Writer's Conference. So many people doing the Lord's work - what an inspiration! I will post more upon my return.

And then, after the excitement of returning home to my little bunnies, I'm off to Planning Land, where all my homeschooling dreams will be fleshed out onto paper. Why is it we are so ready for the current school year to end, yet so excited for the new school year to begin?

Good Mourning!

2009-07-17T20:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it. I finally cried for the loss of my father. I guess the whole ordeal was just too horrific to deal with at the time, and life has been so busy, it was easy for me to push it all aside. But yesterday, I had a hankering for Wagner and popped in a Tannhauser CD. The prelude to this opera always gave me chills - but in a good way. The music is so powerful and so beautifully done, and since my father raised me from a young age to really "listen", I allowed myself to get swept along with the multi-layered themes and notes so characteristic of a Wagnerian piece of music.

And it hit me. As the music washed over me, so did the tears. Mourning the loss of my father, the loss of time, and conversations that should have happened but never did. Within a 15 minute prelude, everything came to me at once.

As I moved on from mourning his death, I began to mourn the loss of another father as well: God the Father. How much they both have loved me, and how often had I brushed that love aside? Too busy, too full of myself, I had always thought I had known better than them both. But now I see how little I really know. I was grasping desperately at the little fragments of conversations I had had with my father during my lifetime, describing the intracacies of Wagnerian music, picking out the memories and the prophecy, the pain and the joy, all meshed together in one opera. Teaching me, showing me how, when one pays attention, the music creates amazing harmony and tells a story bigger than all its parts. Yet at the same time each instrument, each stanza - indeed, each note - has a dignity and worth only to be perceived by an ear prepared and willing to hear.

Our Creator has created us in just the same way. His plans for us are so beautiful in so many ways. I was blessed with a glimpse of how good it could be, if only I held more true to His plan. But I also saw how, with prayer and perseverance, I can still bring Him glory. At any given moment, just as a violin may be out of key, He comes to me and tightens the strings, fine tuning me and showing me how my little part in the greater orchestra of life helps to make His greater plan for us complete.

Most people may not notice if I were a little off key, or even missing from the orchestra completely for that matter! After all, there are so may others out there, doing His will so much better than I, who would know? Who would care? Overall, probably no one. But my children would. And that person I was supposed to show mercy towards would. And those times when I should have given of myself instead of taking for myself - who knows what powerful scene He had planned for me but I had chosen to write my own story instead? So He certainly would have noticed my absence as the scenes played out before Him.

My heart was heavy. I saw for the first time what an infant I am in the faith. The further along I grow, the more I realize I have not grown very much at all. Like a middle school child in her first violin recital, I felt very small surrounded by the Saints of our Church. How did they get to be so good? How did they know His will for their lives? And how do I reach the heights they have reached, with all my faults and failings?

The answer hit me as the final notes of the prelude rolled in: Practice.

I am a practicing Catholic - never quite getting it all right, but always trying none the less. And sometimes that practice is hard. But I must persevere. I must learn to listen for His will in all things: in the whimper of a child in the middle of the night, in the child struggling to read, in the never ending mounds of laundry, the growing To Do lists that never seem to get done, in the horrific things happening in the lives of others and in the news, and in the wonderful, loving moments confined within the bondries of our home. He is there. And He is trying to teach me. And I am ready and willing to listen to His instruction, to follow His direction. And as I take my assigned place within His orchestra, I will raise my bow without trembling, for I know that with Him as Conductor, even if I play His music off key and make mistakes, as long as it was done in great love for my God, it will be beautiful music to Him. And I trust that my father, as musically trained as his ear was, would think so, too.

School planning

2009-07-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

Wow - half way through July already! I am afraid to say it aloud, but I am gearing up for the upcoming schoolyear. This week is "Operation Schoolhouse" and the kids are scared. Out with the old, in with the new. We're switching over to MODG (http://www.motherofdivinegrace.org/) and so far I am very impressed with the help and support they give. Overall it looks like a program I can work with, however the Latin scares me. So if there are any MODG Latin pros out there, post your tips for me! Please!

We will be using the Workbox system to keep things moving each day, and I am thrilled to have found a Catholic Workbox Yahoo Group to keep the activities fresh. Don't you just love what the internet can do to help us through the day? Of course, for some reason I am no longer able to log on except for odd hours of the morning or late at night. But that's alright, as it helps keep me disciplined. ;)

So what are your big school plans? Have you come across sites or systems that are working for you? Was there anything out there that looked promising but turned out to be a flop? Let me know, as I am always looking for ways to improve.

God bless you all!

No pictures, please!

2009-07-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

If anyone watches Fox News, you know by now that we are BAKING. Duck eggs are coming into the house cooked and ready to eat! OK, not really - but almost!

Jay is playing it safe and staying away from construction for a few days - because of the heat. And I have decided to avoid all housework possible. Because I felt like it. But, alas! there is nary an idle moment here on Thunder Duck Ranch! For we are learning that with the heat comes a need for drastic measures when you own hybrid meat chickens. If you don't "process" them, they will "process" themselves. So we ...er...processed a dozen dinners this afternoon.

What an ordeal!

Ryan gently pointed out I should be thankful I have such wonderful men in the house to do "women's work" (aka the entire chicken process) HA! I didn't give him too much trouble for his comment, though, as he had to put up with me chasing him and his father around the house with a spray bottle full of bleach. I think they realize that if such jobs were left to me, they'd be vegetarians, so they politely sheilded ther eyes as they trudged past me through the gently Clorox-scented mist and got to work.

Life Lesson Learned #1: Married people who inherited a "bossy" gene and are obsessed about germs should NOT watch their husbands process chickens if they want to stay married.

Realizing the irreversable damage I was doing to afore mentioned marriage, I decided to clean out a place in our fridge for said chickens. They've been so hot in the chicken house for so long, you see, I wanted to make them more comfortable in their new surroundings. So, 4 garbage bags later, I was able to use the bleach spray for a far more constructive project. And when I was done, I found that there was not one but three shelves ...er.... condos unoccupied and ready for new tenants! And a whole heap of great compost hiding all around the refrigerator to boot!

Life Lesson Learned #2: It's proably a good idea to clean out your refrigerator once a year, whether you think it needs it or not.

After the condos were open and ready for business, my germ-obessive compulsions got another workout, as I was assigned to give the chickens a "tubby". I am very thorough about these things, so they had not one but three baths by the time they made it to the chill house. They will be headed to the freezer tomorrow, once they have rested. They really do look great - very healthy and lots of meat. I can't wait to cook them up! . . . This fall. . . . When it cools down.

After the dozen were done, I thought we were on a roll and really wanted to do a bunch more chickens. But Jay and Ryan "bawked" at the idea. So we stopped.

Life Lesson Learned #3: Never, NEVER make chicken puns to men who have been processing chickens outside in 103 degree heat for 4 hours. Never.

SO - With 12 chickens chilling in the refrigerator, guess what we had for dinner? Mexican food! At a real resturant. In public! Ry, Jay and I were pooped after the ordeal, and I think their eyes were beginning to burn, what with the bleach fumes and all. And the girls were such troopers taking care of Fulton and keeping CJ busy. My family certainly earned their keep today.

Surely, Ma Ingalls would never have approved of how I performed my farming duties today. Yet as I look back over everything we actually accomplished, this city girl is really starting to feel like a true homesteader after all!

We Believe! ... Or Do We?

2009-06-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

The feast day of St. Thomas is on July 3. St. Thomas does not appear too often in the bible, but when he does, his testimony is powerful. He is best known for being the "doubting Thomas", requiring physical proof of His Resurrection. It was only by touching the Precious Wounds that St. Thomas' faith was restored and he could finally proclaim Jesus' divinity. Jesus' reply to him was "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.”

Jesus’ message is simple: have faith. Believe in Him. Believe that He has risen. Faith allowed me, even as a child, to believe in His Resurrection. So, that should have put me right in the middle of the “blessed are they that have not seen” category, right?

Wrong! For most of my life, I suffered from doubts about His Presence in the Eucharist. Granted, Thomas’ appearances in the bible are not necessarily linked to the Eucharist, but like Thomas, I wanted proof where faith failed me. I wanted miracles. Bleeding hosts, if you will. Then, I thought, I would surely believe!

But why did I demand such proof? Because I did not see this belief in others. I did not see it in my parents’ behavior, nor did I see it in other people. The implications of the True Presence was huge, so I figured that either it was true but no one believed it, or it was not true to begin with.

So I researched Church approved Eucharistic miracles. At first I studied them through the eyes of the Church. Then I looked at them again through the eyes of science. Both views seemed to arrive at the same conclusion - He was really and truly present! Yet, no matter how credible the sources of information were, and just as Thomas could not believe in the Resurrection, I still doubted the True Presence.

I could never prove to myself that His Presence is real. My belief had to come from God, just as Peter’s proclamation that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” came from God. “Blessed art thou,” Jesus said to him, “because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but by my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17)

Thankfully, and by God’s grace, I finally came to believe without physical proof. And I am not alone. Any Catholic with a devotion to the Blessed Sacrament has had their faith fed by God. The True Presence is not an easy doctrine to accept. In fact, almost all of His followers left Him when He tried to teach them about this very truth of our faith. It was too strange, too unbelievable to accept.

So how do we help others to accept such a teaching, especially our children? Live what you believe! Author Jim Stenson writes that more Protestants would believe in the True Presence if Catholics lived as they believed. One man has said that he would be on his knees, face to the floor before the Blessed Sacrament if he thought it were true. But with Adoration so sparsely attended and tabernacles left alone, how could he believe?

This is food for thought. Ponder what a privilege it is to be able to actually go before God, whenever you wish, and place your prayers before Him. Or to receive Him – body and blood, soul and divinity – at the Holy sacrifice of the Mass! Then consider how others, including your children, perceive the Eucharist based on how you express this belief. Years of teaching PRE has shown me that most children are still doubting Thomas’s.

Examine where your own level of belief in the Eucharist lies.

Read the three passages with St. Thomas in them: John 11:14-16, John 14:3-6 and John 20:24-29. Consider the different levels of faith Thomas seems to have in each of the scenes. Compare his responses to Jesus to how you respond to His True Presence.

Is your faith in His Presence so strong that you are ready to die for Him as Thomas was in John 11?

Do you desire to believe but struggle to understand His teachings as St. Thomas and the others did in John 14?

Or, as in Thomas’ attitude in John 20, do you look upon the Eucharist and demand a visible miracle to prove that Christ is really present?

Actions speak louder than words. Do your actions proclaim His Presence? Do your children really know He is there? Dare to live as though He were truly present! Only then will your children and all others believe in His Presence in the Eucharist, without a doubt!

© 2008 Intercessories Family Ministry

Not so ducky after all...

2009-06-26T19:43:00.000-07:00

One of the Mama ducks is not doing well at all. She had been looking sick for a few days but it was hard to tell what the problem was, simply because

1) you are not to disturb a sitting duck and
2) she wouldn't let us get close enough to her to check it out

I had hoped that she was just a little "off" because she was on her nest so much. She built her nest way too far from the duck pool, and therefore has not been bathing twice a day, which seems to be the minimum bathing requirements for good health. The 100+ heat and no bathing left her open for infection, and she has it. We have been bringing her food and water constantly, but she is not too interested. Yet she continues to defend her nest. What a gal. Unfortunately, nature being as it it, she and her ducklings will not make it. :(

Further research reveals that her babies will probably not make it anyway. Too hot weather and a duck with a fever would mean way too hot temperatures for the littles, and since the egg shells are porous, the infection has most likely transferred to the eggs. We are not equipped for emergency incubation. If she were to survive until the hatch, the littles would be immediately infected, spreading it to the rest of the flock. Therefore, we will be 13 ducks down before the weekend is through.

Sad....

Please pray that the other ducks who visit her so frequently will not also get sick. St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us!

On Poultry and Progress

2009-06-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't know which category is proving to be the most productive lately: the Poppes or the poultry!

Jay and Ryan have been working every possible hour they can on Mom's house. It gets to be over 100 degrees in the middle of the day, and while it is hard not to think of what MIGHT be happening during those 5 unworkable hours, all we have to do is go outside, take a look and appreciate what has already been done!Sheathing has almost completely been installed and lots of floor foundation work has been done in our dressing room/laundry room area today. The trusses will be delivered on Wednesday. The next 2 days will be filled with all those miscellaneous projects in preparation for the roof to be erected. How exciting!

And then there are the birds. As you may recall, the ducks are putting on quite a show of fertility lately. Mama duck hatched 7 ducklings a little over a month ago and she is working on another dozen as we speak. Another female took this as a challenge, apparently, for she is also sitting on a dozen hopefuls. And just today, as I was making sure Mama #2 could get some water during the heat of the day, I heard that tell-tale quack of a female duck hard at work. Sure enough, under a tree is another nest in progress! There are only 3 eggs so far, so we'll see how many she decides to try. My goodness.

Khaki campbell ducks are known for their prolific egg laying (which is why we got them in th efirst place - Mmmmmmm!), but according to what I have learned are only pretty good at setting and mothering. Well, not this brood! We will go from 6 ducks to a possible grand total of 48 ducks in only 2 months!

Anyone have some omlette recipes?

And speaking of recipes, the poultry house down wind our home is getting quite full. Those adorable, fuzzy chicks are now quite large. They are regular eating machines and have the bodies to prove it! The rare chicken we recieved with our order is so tiny in comparison (and we're still waiting to see what breed he/she will turn out to be!) But they all seem to accept him/her as one of the gang, so I guess that is fine for now.Sometimes, during the day and in a rare moment when I am not carrying around Fulton, I just stand in the chicken house, gaze at those goofy looking creatures and say, "Wow! I have CHICKENS!" I can't wait for those dorper sheep!

Chicago city-girl has gone country at last! God is good.

For love of all fathers on Father's Day

2009-06-23T17:02:00.000-07:00

(My father with my daughter and son during his last days with cancer. Merciful Lord Jesus, grant him eternal rest. Amen. I love you, Dad!)

TO ALL FATHERS......

Fathers have taken a beating from the media for far too long. Once, a father was portrayed as the pillar of the family, establishing order, security and happiness in the home. But now, fathers are seen as buffoons, slaves to their wills and are treated with less respect than the family dog. Perhaps I am getting a little too sensitive in my old age, but this portrayal of fathers really offends me. And I’ve had it! It is time that fathers proudly reclaim the dignity and respect they so rightly deserve!

We are all created in the image and likeness of God, but this is especially true of fathers. Just as God is Father to all the members of the Church, fathers are the head of their domestic church. Simply put, the domestic church is a continuation of the faith within the Catholic home. What a great responsibility and honor it is to be called to imitate God the Father in such an intimate way! But how does a father fulfill this role?

Lets begin with the father as prayer leader. We are commanded to pray without ceasing and fathers should set an example and encourage their family in more prayer. If there is no prayer within the home, begin by praying by yourself each day. Ask for the wisdom and guidance you need to fulfill your role as the head of the domestic church. Then begin by saying grace before meals. Or say a Hail Mary in the car for the holy souls in Purgatory whenever you drive by a cemetery. Lead the family in a few prayers at night, or bless each family member with holy water before they go to bed. Start small but remember to build on it.

Fathers are examples of charity. If you are unclear on what charity means, its closest meaning is love. As a father, show your family charity as you encourage and discipline within your home. Praise with love when praise is due, and discipline with love when there is sin. A good rule of thumb is: if it pleases God, praise it! And if it offends God, admonish. If a child gets an A on a test, praise the fortitude it took to study. If she fails the test, admonish the slothful tendency that she entertained instead of studying. Name the virtue with every praise you give. Name the vice or sin with every admonishment. By doing this, your children will begin to see the connection between father and Father. What pleases one pleases the Other. And what offends one certainly offends the Other as well!

Fathers are also teachers. The Church reinforces this by stating that parents are the primary educators of their children. The faith must be passed down through you. Read scripture to your family. Discuss your faith regularly by applying Catholic teachings to what is going on around you – in the news, in your community and even within your parish. Speak of God as you go about your day, using the multitude of moments God gives you to teach your family more about their Creator and their Savior. And teach them through your actions as well, for if you teach His word but do not live it, they will not believe.

Fathers are also providers and protectors. No matter what your income level is, the children see that the father works to support his family. And he also protects them. The man of the house protects the family from all that is seen and unseen. This means not just protecting against a burglar or a rabid dog, but from the more subtle things like inappropriate media entertainment, secularism and selfishness, just to name a few! While these things will not result in a dead body, they can certainly make the soul dead to God.

And finally, fathers must be humble victims. He must sacrifice out of love. Ephisians 5 reminds husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the Church. Christ died so that the Church may live, and fathers should not hesitate to sacrifice for their families – the domestic church. There are a multitude of opportunities to sacrifice for the family and for Our Lord. Try to consciously give up your will for one single hour and you will see what I mean!

Begin to actively change society’s ideas of what a father is. Show your children what a man should be. And just as you strive to imitate God your Father, lead your family in a way that causes your sons to proudly say, “I want to be just like my dad!”

Walls well that ends well

2009-06-22T09:07:00.000-07:00

The wall framing is DONE on Mom's house! Woo-hoo! Only a minor accident this morning - an entire interior wall section came crashing down, splitting a board. After a quick grammar lesson on appropriate interjections, the wall went back up and ......(see title of this post)

It is now too hot to work, so its lunch time and break time for the boys until this evening.

And good news on the Catholic homeschooling front: there is now a Catholic homeschooling co-op group forming on our area! Through tears of joy, I am praying a prayer of thanks, that our children will at last know what it is like to celebrate the Church's feasts with other people who are learning and loving the faith as they are!

Thank you, St. Jude, for making the impossible possible!

Birds in May

2009-06-20T07:18:00.000-07:00

These pictures are about a month old, but hey. We all know why they are so late, so we'll just move on...
These are the "mail order" ducks in the bathtub. No, not the one we use! We had some tubs set up for them in what will eventually be our livingroom. Within a week they grew so much we had to split them up between 2 tubs. They are now in the large duck pen with the swimming pool during the day and penned up in a corner of the big pen at night. Birds are very territorial and the established flock of adult ducks can get pretty nasty to the littles.

This is a picture of the chick house Jay and Ryan built (also now about a month old) See how cute and fluffy they look? And how much room they have? Just wait til I am able to post what they look like NOW! (coming soon...)

And this picture just "quacked" me up! Mama Duck found a snake and decided it was safer up on top of the hay bales!
(And notice the line of bathtubs in the background. Compost containers! It doesn't look pretty but it sure gets the job done!)

More BDay pics

2009-06-20T06:47:00.000-07:00

We have some more pictures, but not the ones I wanted. Seems all things technical are going out on us at once! I can't get this to edit correctly, so forgive the sloppy post.

Anyway...

this is the cake the kids baked and decorated (that's a lamb on top of the chocolate cake there)

And below is is the classic after shot!

Happy Birthday Little Big Guy!

2009-06-17T06:58:00.000-07:00

The Little Guy is one years old! We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a multi-party celebration: Ryan (turning 15 in a few days) Fulton (just turned 1 a few days ago) and Father's Day.

Pizza, hot wings, sides and cake were had by all, and we were all so thankful to have such a wonderful family. We are truly blessed!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FULTON AND RYAN!

(our camera was not working, kind of like the Edit feature in this blog post, LOL! but hopefully we can get some more birthday pics soon - of BOTH birthday boys!)

With Pentecost Upon Us...

2009-05-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

I spent much of my cradle Catholic years focused on the God the Father and God the Son. God the Holy Spirit was a part of the Blessed Trinity that seemed to linger quietly in the background as I grew up, so I did not have a firm grasp of who He is. And I certainly did not understand what Pentecost was all about!

After I grew, I finally looked a little deeper into what happened on Pentecost. The Apostles were gathered together in prayer, the Holy Spirit came to them as tongues of fire and rested above their heads, filling them with His Gifts to allow them to go forth and convert the world - rather like a massive file being downloaded into their souls. And just as those flames flickered above the Apostles’ heads as they finally understood all that Jesus tried to teach them, I had a “lightbulb” moment of my own. Pentecost is the birthday of the Church!

But then I wondered: what did the Holy Spirit bring with Him in those flames that made the Apostles so zealous to spread the Good News and so holy that they became Saints?

He brought spiritual gift baskets! Fruit baskets. Wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord are His Gifts. The Fruits are charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and chastity. We can see how important they are to our growth, but how do we obtain them? And how can you make Pentecost and these Fruits and Gifts relevant to your family?

As always, begin with prayer. Pentecost is the end result of the first novena! After Our Lord Ascended into Heaven, the Apostles closed themselves up in the Upper Room and prayed. After the ninth day, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they proclaimed “the mighty works of God.” But notice what came first. Prayer. “On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of the Promise was poured out on the disciples, gathered together in one place.’ While awaiting the Spirit, ‘all these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer.’“ (CCC 2623) Begin as the Apostles did by praying as a family to the Holy Spirit and ask for these wonderful Fruits and Gifts.

Throw a birthday party for the Church on Pentecost Sunday! In addition to the usual cake and ice cream, serve a fruit salad to represent the Fruits of the Holy Spirit, and have a gift wrapped in white and decorated with doves and flames. The gift will be something for the entire family, and something that will help everyone to grow in one of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. For instance, my family needs to grow in fortitude. The Gift of fortitude is to help us endure difficulties and sufferings willingly. A Crucifix, to be hung in the kitchen, would be a perfect gift to remind us to offer up our daily crosses for the love of Jesus Christ. Explain the significance of the gift and call attention to it as often as possible during the year.

Plant a “fruit tree.” Make a list of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit and discuss them with your family. Are there any Fruits missing in your home? Assign an actual fruit to the spiritual Fruit and attempt to grow in that Fruit. For instance, use a strawberry to represent generosity. Then, explore with your children different ways of building that Fruit within the home. Give examples of how generosity can be practiced and then watch the tree grow!

You can make this fruit tree by placing a small multi-branched branch into a flowerpot filled with sand. Whenever you catch a family member being generous, hang a small cutout of a strawberry onto your fruit tree. Keep the tree “growing” all year until next Pentecost and review how the year went. Was there a noticeable change in the family due to this Fruit? How did the Holy Spirit bless your efforts? Did you find that other Fruits also increased as you worked on your chosen Fruit? Thank the Holy Spirit for answering your prayers, celebrate with some strawberry shortcake, and then choose another Fruit for the upcoming year!

Perseverance

2009-05-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

With so much going on around here, it is easy to disconnect from the outside world. And sometimes, that is a good thing! I tend to be a worrywart, and have been known to stare at the ceiling wondering what could possible happen next. But then I remind myself that no matter what, if I choose to remain close to Our Lord, He will certainly remain close to me as well.

That does not necessarily mean that nothing bad will ever happen to us. He Himself has said that the servants will not have an easier time than the Master. But it does mean that He will give me the grace to be able to accept whatever comes our way and persevere through it all. Time on earth is fleeting. Even when the worst of things are happening, if we persevere, there are great rewards when the suffering has ceased.

No matter how disturbing the news, or how viciously Mother Church is attacked, WE WIN in the end! That victory was promised to us, and He is always faithful. But how faithful can we be to Him? Whether we live in a time when our faith is persecuted or celebrated, each individual will still have his or her own private battles to fight through. Cancer, loss of a job, a wayward child or even prosperity can all be tests of our fidelity to God.

And so, tonight, should I find myself staring at the ceiling, I will remind myself that no matter what may come tomorrow or in the future, as long as I have Him beside me, I will win in the end. He promised!

Prayers for all of you and any trials you may be going through!

Gearing up for summer

2009-05-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

I just realized today that we are going to have our first real summer break this year! What a freeing feeling this will be. Oh, sure, we will still do a few little classes here and there, but there will not be the usual panic I have each summer, hoping we did "enough" to justify moving up another grade.

We're moving to MODG this coming school year, which will take a lot of pressure off of me (yay!) and put a little more pressure on the kids (yay again!) The kids just took their assessment/placement tests and did very well overall. At one point Logan (5th grade) got a hold or Ryan's English /Grammar test (for 8th grade) and completed it for him. Overall she did great! LOL! It looks like our main focus will be spelling for all the kids, and reading for CJ (1st grade).

Next year will be an exciting year for us all!

Cutest little guy in the world!

2009-05-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

We just returned form the Dr's ofice for a follow up on Fulton's lack of weight gain today. Amazingly enough, he has gained some more weight since his last weigh in and is now a hefty 15lbs 12 ounces! Good job, Buddy! He is still woefully below the weight curve, but is still developing fairly normally, so we'll see...

Meanwhile, take a look at how cute he is, now that his face is filling out! (And I am not in the least bit biased, either! I asked Jay and he thinks Fulton is really cute, too!)

Building days

2009-05-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

After a month and a half of rain, we were finally able to pour concrete on Mom's house as well as our livingroom! What a joy it is to be able to open the door from teh bathroom/laundry room and actually see a concrete floor instead of crusherdust! The floors in teh house are so much cleaner already - I can't wait until we have a living room so we can finally spread our wings!

(Above is the view from our livingroom looking out to Mom's house.)

(This is the view looking at our livingroom while standing on the slab in Mom's house.)

And speaking of spreading wings, Mama duck successfully hatched 7 of her 12 eggs! Watching those little cuties hop and skitter around is so cute!

Mother's Day

2009-05-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind in the posting again, and boy has a lot been going on!

First of all, I just want everyone to know that I have the most wonderful children in the world! Over the course of about 2 weeks, they had turned an area that looked like this...(observe the jungle!).......
...into a Memory Garden in honor of my father and grandmother.

Merciful Lord Jesus, grant them eternal rest. Amen

After the great tour of my new garden, we went to Mass. Logan wove together a beautiful crown for Our Blessed Mother to honor her as well. What a day full of beauty!

Workbox Saints

2009-04-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

OK, I am so excited about the Workbox system, but I haven't had a chance to get some "fun" things for the kids to do while I am teaching other kids. SO, I let the kids work on their I'm A Saint! Kits today. (This is the girl kit pictured here)

Shannon worked on her St. Rita and St. Elizabeth of Hungary holy cards and cutouts.

CJ, of coure, jumped right in and created his St. Michael cutout! So cute!

I can't wait for them to get going on themselves as Saints and write their own saint biography! Meanwhile, here is a sample of what they have done so far.

It has been quite awhile since the kids have been this excited about a project.
I like this homeschooling thing.....

Scheduling

2009-04-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

This is our scheduling system. The pictures are not that great, but you get the idea. The blue board is a 6ft long cork board covered in denim. The center area is for each of the students with the following categories: math, reading, english/writing, holiness, study, other and J.o.Y. The cards are lamiminated. I write the basic assignments on the back of the cards and put them in facing forward so the child can see what the assignment is. As the child completes the assignment, he/she turns the card over. There are file folders mounted on the board, one for each child. I put the printed, detailed assignments (printed from my homeschooling lesson planning software) in their folder. As they complete their assignments, they place it in the file folder for me to check.

Most of the topics are pretty easy to figure out. But a few need to be explained. The J.o.Y. card is for Jobs of Yours. We are working on the fact that work can be a source of sanctification when done with a joyful spirit, so hence, the title JoY. Daily chores and special chores are written on the back of that card. The Holiness card is for time spent with and for Our Lord. Writing a letter or drawing a picture for someone who needs cheering up, scripture reading, private prayer time, etc. Sometimes it is performing acts of charity for Mom, like taking care of Fulton while I get something else done. Under each child's name is a holy card of the Saint they want to imitate and/or use as their special Saint for the year.

The Mom column is a little different. My cards have categories based on the roles I have. Mother, teacher, wife, writer, homemaker, etc. I, too, have a holiness card, which I enter whatever virtue I want to really practice, prayers I want to learn, verses to study, etc. I keep track of these categories using my Daily Catholic Planner, found here http://www.intercessories-fm.com

This scheduling system allows us to see in an instant how we are doing during the day.

I just heard about a neat system of keeping the kids on track with their day, and I will probably find a way to work that into my schedule. The Workbox System can be seen at http://www.workboxsystem.com/

We'll see how it all works!

Homestead news

2009-04-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

We have a broody duck! After 7 months of no eggs, the "girls" started laying again. And one has taken mothering to heart. She won't let us near her nest, but it looks like she has about 15 eggs in there. Not that they all will hatch. Anyway, if they did, we'd be in completely taken over, since we have 10 ducks coming to us in May. I can't wait!

We finished painting the schoolhouse at last, and the kids were a HUGE help! Next stop - organizing the inside of the schoolhouse... HA!!!!

Fulton is standing now, and doing a little "travelling". This is good, since in other areas he seems to be regressing. (He no longer eats cereal or babyfood) We're taking him in to a specialist in 2 weeks, so I'll keep you all posted on his progress (or lack thereof).

And finally, there has been a bit of progress on the building front! I'll post specifics on Mom's house on the Hillbilly Hilton blog, but here is a picture of our livingroom. How am I ever going to get the kids to stop storing their bikes in the middle of the livingroom floor?!?! LOL!

I'll post more later!

Holy Week and Easter

2009-04-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

After unofficially giving up blogging for Lent, I am ready to post again! Just a quick recap; Holy Week was a quiet and holy time. On Good Friday, we watched the Passion and prayed a special novena, to be prayed between the hours of 12noon and 3pm. we prayed the following prayer 33 times during this time period and lit a candle surrounding our Crucifix. It was very powerful, as we would spontaneously say this prayer as we watched Our Lord suffer for our sins during the movie.

(Everyone wrote down their request and placed it under the Crucifix, as shown in the picture above)

At 3pm, we blew out the candles and covered the Crucifix in purple and there is sat until easter morning.

On easter morning, the kids found the purple was replaced with white, and beneath the white fabric was their easter candy!

Easter was joyous, of course! We went to Grandma and Grandpa Poppe's and relished the delicious food. (when you go through all of Lent with no meat, it makes these feasts quite a special treat!)

The egghunt was postponed, on account of rain, but the kids had fun playing with their cousins and they still got their easter baskets, so the eggs were not missed too much!

Thanks for stopping by!

He has risen!

St. Thomas and the Eucharist

2009-04-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

The feast day of St. Thomas is on July 3, but we did hear his story in the Gospels this past Sunday. St. Thomas does not appear too often in the bible, but when he does, his testimony is powerful. He is best known for being the "doubting Thomas", requiring physical proof of His Resurrection. It was only by touching the Precious Wounds that St. Thomas' faith was restored and he could finally proclaim Jesus' divinity. Jesus' reply to him was "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.”

Jesus’ message is simple: have faith. Believe in Him. Believe that He has risen. Faith allowed me, even as a child, to believe in His Resurrection. So, that should have put me right in the middle of the “blessed are they that have not seen” category, right?

Wrong! For most of my life, I suffered from doubts about His Presence in the Eucharist. Granted, Thomas’ appearances in the bible are not necessarily linked to the Eucharist, but like Thomas, I wanted proof where faith failed me. I wanted miracles. Bleeding hosts, if you will. Then, I thought, I would surely believe!

But why did I demand such proof? Because I did not see this belief in others. I did not see it in my parents’ behavior, nor did I see it in other people. The implications of the True Presence was huge, so I figured that either it was true but no one believed it, or it was not true to begin with.

So I researched Church approved Eucharistic miracles. At first I studied them through the eyes of the Church. Then I looked at them again through the eyes of science. Both views seemed to arrive at the same conclusion - He was really and truly present! Yet, no matter how credible the sources of information were, and just as Thomas could not believe in the Resurrection, I still doubted the True Presence.

I could never prove to myself that His Presence is real. My belief had to come from God, just as Peter’s proclamation that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” came from God. “Blessed art thou,” Jesus said to him, “because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but by my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17)

Thankfully, and by God’s grace, I finally came to believe without physical proof. And I am not alone. Any Catholic with a devotion to the Blessed Sacrament has had their faith fed by God. The True Presence is not an easy doctrine to accept. In fact, almost all of His followers left Him when He tried to teach them about this very truth of our faith. It was too strange, too unbelievable to accept.

So how do we help others to accept such a teaching, especially our children? Live what you believe! Author Jim Stenson writes that more Protestants would believe in the True Presence if Catholics lived as they believed. One man has said that he would be on his knees, face to the floor before the Blessed Sacrament if he thought it were true. But with Adoration so sparsely attended and tabernacles left alone, how could he believe?

This is food for thought. Ponder what a privilege it is to be able to actually go before God, whenever you wish, and place your prayers before Him. Or to receive Him – body and blood, soul and divinity – at the Holy sacrifice of the Mass! Then consider how others, including your children, perceive the Eucharist based on how you express this belief. Years of teaching PRE has shown me that most children are still doubting Thomas’s.

Examine where your own level of belief in the Eucharist lies.

Read the three passages with St. Thomas in them: John 11:14-16, John 14:3-6 and John 20:24-29. Consider the different levels of faith Thomas seems to have in each of the scenes. Compare his responses to Jesus to how you respond to His True Presence.

Is your faith in His Presence so strong that you are ready to die for Him as Thomas was in John 11?

Do you desire to believe but struggle to understand His teachings as St. Thomas and the others did in John 14?

Or, as in Thomas’ attitude in John 20, do you look upon the Eucharist and demand a visible miracle to prove that Christ is really present?

Actions speak louder than words. Do your actions proclaim His Presence? Do your children really know He is there? Dare to live as though He were truly present! Only then will your children and all others believe in His Presence in the Eucharist, without a doubt!

©2008 Intercessories Family Ministry

On Sno-balls and seeing green

2009-03-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

Beware the ides of March. St. Patrick’s Day is coming and I tend to get a little giddy.

When we were kids, my sisters and I could hardly wait for March. Not because spring was coming, mind you. Oh no. We were excited because we would get to eat Sno-balls! Those cream filled, coconut and marshmallow covered chocolate cake treats were cherished among my sisters and I. They were better than a pot of gold.

You see, growing up, I never got the kinds of lunches other kids got. While they brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on Wonder Bread, with bags of chips and Twinkies, we were stuck with liverwurst sandwiches on whole wheat with a hard-boiled egg and carrot. We longed for the treats other kids ate and would sometimes lament out loud our culinary woes. My mother would listen with a sympathetic ear, and sometimes she would bake wheat berry cookies, but overall, there was no reason for morale to improve.

Don’t misunderstand me. My mother loved us, and she did the best she could on the income we had. Every bite of food was packed full of vitamins, fiber and minerals. We simply ate to live – we certainly did not live to eat. And that was why St. Patrick’s Day was so special. Because on St. Patrick’s Day, we got to eat Sno-balls!

If there is nothing else my mother taught us as children, she made sure we knew that we had Irish blood in us. She taught us the Irish jig. We actually loved corned beef and cabbage. And we learned to never, NEVER call anyone super! (Actually, the word was ‘souper’, but to a child they sounded the same, so super was not in our vocabulary.) We knew the real story behind the potato famine by the time we were in first grade. And did I mention that we got to eat Sno-balls on St. Patrick’s Day?

On the morning of St. Patty’s Day, the Sno-ball effect would begin. We prepared for school like an Olympic athlete prepares for competition. Get dressed in an all green outfit, braid hair with green ribbons, and straighten ‘Kiss Me I’m Irish’ pin. March downstairs and eat green oatmeal and drink green milk, all the while focusing on the green-gold prize: the Sno-ball. Wait for Dad to play Irish Night at the Pops and dance the Irish jig for Mother. Polite, Vaseline teeth smiles, arms motionless at our sides as our feet flew wildly to and fro to music only a leprechaun should dance to. Sno-balls. Sno-balls. Sweat pouring off our brow, green ribbons flying. Sno-balls. Sno-balls. At last, the school bus would come and we flew out the door, never looking back, always looking forward. Looking forward. To lunch.

We soon found that other kids in our classes looked forward to our St. Patrick’s Day lunch as well. During the rest of the year, they usually glanced at out lunches and rolled their eyes or snorted as they scooted a few scoots away (liverwurst, eggs and milk do not make for the best breath, after all). But, on St. Patty’s Day, they would actually crowd around us to gaze at our green feast. A can of Green River soda, a green apple, a few slices of green pepper and celery sticks with peanut butter. And then, there it was – a very special, just for St. Patrick’s Day glistening green Sno-ball. As I ate this lunch, the kids would ask why my family was so weird on St. Patrick’s Day. I would then begin to happily babble, between bites of cake and coconut, about St. Patrick, how one day I would live in Ireland, and about the plight of the Catholics during the potato famine.

“Famine? What’s a famine?” an older boy once asked as I licked the last of the green coconut flakes from my fingers.

Satiated, I sighed and turned to the poor, uneducated child before me. “A famine is when there is nothing good to eat for anyone. Sometimes people get so desperate that they eat strange things, just to stay alive. In Ireland, they had nothing good to eat and many people died of a disease called green mouth because all they could eat was grass.”

Looking closely at my green coconut speckled mouth and the careless remains of my lunch on the table, he snorted, “Yeah. I’ve seen that before.” And he wandered off to recess.

We laugh at the stories now, but I can also appreciate their underlying theme. We were taught about our Irish heritage in a way that made my sisters and I fiercely proud of who we are. Our passion for our history was stronger than our worries of what others thought of us, and this same passion allowed us, one day a year, to boldly bring our Catholic faith to others around us. I pray that I am able to pass along this same passion for our faith to my children as well.

Your assignment: Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! Learn the Irish jig and eat green pizza. Tape a shamrock on every part of your child that is mentioned in St. Patrick’s Prayer. Discuss the Trinity. One year we had a Conversion Hunt: I hid 200 popsicle sticks in our yard and 12 kids hunted for them like Easer eggs. Each stick was a person they found and “converted”, just as St. Patrick did. Celebrate this day while instilling in your children a strong connection to and pride for their Catholic heritage – no matter what nationality they may be! And remember to get excited about your faith yourself. Enthusiasm, after all, has a “snowball” effect on us all!

©2008 Intercessories Family Ministry

Just a brief update

2009-03-11T06:38:00.000-07:00

The trees, berries, seeds and roots have all arrived, and guess what - we're leaving town! The past few days have been in the high 70's to low 80s and glorious. But since the plants' arrivals the day before yesterday, the weather has taked a turn for the worse. Low 40s and rainy - blech! Our soil is a healthy mixture of solid rock and heavy clay, so we can't work the "soil" when it is wet. We're leaving town tomorrow, so hopefully things will warm up again and dry out so we can toss everything in the ground when we return. we have decided to rent a mega tiller to help prep the ground. Otherwise we won't be able to get anything planted until May!

On the ministry front, we are preparing to go to Memphis this weekend. This is our first Catholic homeschooling conference (all other conferences have been Catholic, but not homeschooling specifically) so we'll see how things go. The conference is pretty small - 200 expected attendees - but it will hopefully give us a good idea of what to expect. Please pray for a safe trip!

We are plugging away at school, too, catching up from our 2+ month separation. CJ is finally improving his reading, now that we have switched his reading program. He still struggles, but he genuinely enjoys reading time now, which was a huge hurdle to get over. The girls are combining their history lessons, and their collaboration, it would seem, helps them learn. And they certainly enjoy the lapbook projects, too! Ryan is doing well with his studies as well, but we continue to struggle with English. I am learning right along side him with some of these terms. Pronouns I get - but relative, distributive and indefinite pronouns?! And how about those pronouns in the nominative cases.... Aren't you glad you're done with school?

Ah yes... Time to rally the students for school - I'll post again when we get back!

Spring preparations are afoot!

2009-02-28T07:26:00.000-08:00

Lent brings with it many chances for penance and mortifications. Most of which, it seems, comes in the form of garden preparation! I am ready to battle our bermuda-grass-on-steroids once again, hoping to get half of what I work for. I have placed my orders and here is my hope list this year:

20 asparagus
onions
leeks
3 blueberry bushes
6 raspberry stalks
a huge variety of herbs
potatoes
heirloom tomatoes
2 rhubarb roots
beans
peas
green peppers
eggplants
variety of squash
cucumbers
cantalope
watermelon
2 apple trees

In addition to this, we have placed our order for 10 more ducks and 50 roasters. I'll post some pictures later this week to show how our Lenten project is going!

Too pooped to post

2009-02-24T18:23:00.000-08:00

It seems that there are no longer enough hours in a day to accomplish all that I need to do in a day. School, regular household "stuff", conferences, writing deadlines, garden planning, duck and chicken planning, remodeling, building a home for my mother and diapering leaves me no time to sit and breathe! Yet all of these tasks are important. I have already "cut the fluff" and my plate is still full. So, because of all that, I have just been too pooped to post! But lots of exciting things will be happening soon, so I'll be more diligent with posting in the future - I promise!

Fulton has cut tooth #3 and trusts us enough to show us his cranky side. (It's a good thing he's so cute!) He is almost crawling now and is trying to communicate. He plays peek-a-boo like a pro and loves to eat with the big people at breakfast and dinnertime. He will have his "weigh in" in a few weeks, so we'll see if he is gaining any weight. We are not too worried - I think he is just a little guy!

I am looking forward to Lent this year - believe it or not. The kids have their Lent calendars I created and they are actually pretty excited to use them! (Usually they run, screaming away from me, as they can get quite tired of being guinea pigs for me!) I also came across a neat site that sells downloads of Catholic lapbooks to help us grow this Lenten season. We will be working on the Lent lapbook over the next 40 days and I'll be sure to let you know how it is going! And I'll post a link to the site, too. Even Jay is impressed with it, which says a lot, because he is sooooo NOT into the arts and crafts thing!

Have a blessed Lent!

Commitment

2009-02-07T08:34:00.000-08:00

Well, we did it. We have decided to take our show on the road and rent some booths at some upcoming Catholic homeschooling conferences! The next 2 conferences we will be at will be Memphis, TN in March (where I will be holding a 40 minute workshop) and St. Louis, MO in April. There is a good chance we will be in Texas in June and Kansas in August - but that depends on how well the first 2 conferences go. The rule is if it is 5 hours or less, we can go. Any more than 5 driving hours and it is off limits. Fulton has minimal tolerance for car rides as it is, so he dictates how far we get to travel this year!

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere

2009-02-07T08:24:00.001-08:00

Here is a job that has been a long time in coming. The girls' room was so hard to keep clean because of the flooring that was in there before. (There wasn't a floor, actually!) And with no trim around the windows and the base of the walls, it just looked junky. :(

The girls have had to live with this NASTY floor for too long! But never fear - DADDY is here to make it all better at last!

But wait!......

"Oh no! The installation instructions are in FRENCH!"

Gone is the OSB and painter's canvas drop cloth! They have been replaced with...................

PINK BUBBLES!!!!! (Fulton closely inspects Jay's work)

A very happy Shannon!

Shannon loves the "retro" look. Logan ... well, she needs to warm up tp the idea a bit, but at least she agrees that it is a huge improvement over the OSB board and canvas. Our next project in the girls' room will be patching some spots on the drywall and a thorough paint job. We have enough leftover flooring to use as wall decorations - maybe random bubbles on the wall? Or a bubbly chair rail encased in wood trim? We'll see!

I am thrilled for them - they've been so patient!

Grrrr! All this before I even finish my breakfast...

2009-02-05T05:57:00.000-08:00

I promise I will not make it a habit of posting these things, but sometimes I have to call attention to the blatant attack on the family in our world.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09020312.html

Lord have mercy on us.

And now I will go tend to the BLESSINGS that God has entrusted to me, knowing that my family is pleasing in the eyes of the Lord, even if it is not pleasing to society and even to those around me.

And the 1st Commandment is....

2009-02-04T19:18:00.000-08:00

CJ (now 7) is learning about the 10 Commandments in catechism class. He is becoming hyper aware of these commandments, which is good, but it is resulting in some pretty funny moments here!

Especially with the first commandment:

I am the Lord Thy God: Thou shalt not have strange God's before Me.

We discussed how anything that becomes more important than spending time with God is considered a "strange god". Watching sports instead of going to church, playing when it is time to say prayers, and so on. When we catch CJ getting distracted by something, we ask him, "Can (insert strange god here) help you when you are sick? Can it forgive your sins? What graces can it give?" These questions usually result in laughter. He puts the item aside and joins us for prayers or whatever God-centered activity we are doing.

Now, we pray the Rosary every morning at 6:30am, rain or shine. Sometimes some of us are a little sluggish getting out of bed. CJ has noted that sleep or warm covers can be a "strange god". So can thumb sucking. And even Fulton has been elevated to such a status as he can quickly turn praytime into playtime.

But my favorite "strange god" so far has to be.......

While Mr. Chomp may have an alluring smile and the promise of great fun, he cannot, as CJ reluctantly decided, compete with Our Lord!

St. Don Bosco's Feast Day

2009-01-30T21:06:00.000-08:00

To honor St. John Bosco on his feast day on January 31, every parent should see the movie St. John Bosco: Mission to Love (Ignatius Press). While he possessed many talents, it was his juggling that impressed me most. Not just juggling balls, but juggling the little souls that God entrusted to him. Yes – he actually juggled souls. And before you get too impressed with him, this is what we parents do as well.

I have taken just one quote from the countless choices of wonderful lines in the movie to focus on, because it reminds me of the juggler’s task: “You have chosen a difficult path. It will require enormous sacrifices and deprivations. Helping abandoned kids will bring you great joy but also much grief.” If this does not describe the vocation of a parent, I don’t know what does!

The enormous sacrifices and deprivations that go along with parenting are too numerous to count. Loss of sleep, loss of finances, loss of social and leisurely pleasur1s, and yes, loss of tempers! Moving each child from left to right, we give everything to them, expending all of our time and energy. Then, powered by these loving sacrifices, we take a leap of faith, give them some independence and toss that soul up to Our Lord.

The great joys of parenting come when we watch those souls soar towards God. We find joy when we realize that they are His, and we are pleased with their progress towards Heaven. There is joy when we catch them praying, when they generously give during Lent, when they work hard at their studies, and when they happily express love without holding back. The smiles, the peck on the cheek, growing in virtue – these are all joyful moments because we can see that they are headed towards God.

But gravity and temptation being as they are, no matter how high they may go, there will be times when they fall from grace. And so, the grief begins. We catch them; we mend their wounds as best we can by directing them back towards God’s path, and the sacraments if necessary. Then, we move them from left to right and up to Him once again. No juggler would let his balls fall on purpose, and no parent should stand by as their children fall from grace. We must remain vigilant, watching and ready for the next fall whenever it may come.

There is no telling how often we will be tossing and catching their souls on a daily basis. There are some days when all four of my children soar above the clouds and out of sight. Other days, even when I keep them at eye level I can’t keep up with the speed in which they continually fall. This kind of perseverance is exhausting, but necessary if we are to master the art of parenting.

Watch this movie and glean from it all the rich lessons and examples of successful parenting. Notice how the children flourish under his care. Don Bosco did not force his will on any of the children. He gained their trust through genuine love, so that when they fell, they came back to him for help. Some could only be tossed just a little above his heart, keeping a watchful and loving eye on it while others he could toss so high you’d lose sight of them. Those souls would only come down just to touch base with Don Bosco, and off they’d go again, towards God and their sanctification.

Just as it is the juggler’s task to catch the balls and toss them up again, it is your task, as a parent, to build trust between yourself and your children so that when they fall, they return to you for help. Be sure to be there to catch them when they fall. Show them love. Teach them contrition and how to use the sacraments, then direct them heavenward again. As their souls fly upward, this also represents all we have undergone for love of God – the sacrifices, deprivations, joys and grief. God welcomes this offering. After all, one of our greatest gifts to God is to return His children to Him in a state of grace.

Don’t lose your rhythm; don’t get so distracted with external activities and worries that you lose a child to the world. Persevere in your challenging vocation as a parent and juggler and don’t forget to ask for help when you need it! St. John Bosco, the master juggler himself, is ready and willing to obtain for you all the graces you may need.

St. John Bosco – pray for us!

©2008 Intercessories Family Ministry

Queen of lunch

2009-01-30T08:58:00.000-08:00

We took our schooling on the road and worked at GrandMa and GrandPa's yesterday. Logan was working on her history and it was about all the happenings leading up to the Spanish Armada and its demise. The chapter was especially exciting, so I decided to make it a family learning experience with a twist of fun. 2 kids were English (with Logan being the queen of course) and 2 kids were on Spain's side. They acted out everything as I read. Things got interesting when I read about the queen's underhanded dealings with Francis Drake (aka Ryan)and how this all affected theNew World. It was great fun, with everyone getting into their roles. Even Sugar, GrandPa's dog, got into the act by playing the part of Portugal's ruler who was more interested in Africa and India than in the New World. After all, that continent was the couch!

After a fascinating discussion about the 2 main conflicts between Spain (prospered from the New World and was very Catholic) and England(coveted the New World for itself and renounced the Catholic faith) and what would have happened to American if the Spanish Armada had conquered Sir Drake and friends, we stopped for lunch.

Well, it seemed that Logan had a hard time getting out of her role as the Queen of England and was being a bit ...umm... directive towards the other children as they got lunch ready. I heard form the next room one of the younger kids say in disgust, "Logan, I don't have to listen to you. You're not the Queen of England anymore!"

LOL! Gotta love it!

Ice Storm!

2009-01-28T18:34:00.000-08:00

We had 2 days of ice storms come through our area. Praise the Lord we were spared the worst of it! Some people will be without power for 3 more days! Jay got to stay home with us and help out on the schooling front, and the girls took advantage of the new "winter" scenery and tried their hand at photography! These pictures are a good reminder of why we moved here - so much raw beauty among the weeds!

Back from the Conference

2009-01-27T13:46:00.000-08:00

After a whirlwind tour of Oklahoma City, we are home again. The Oklahoma Catholic Women's Conference was a great success - we had such a wonderful response to our Rosary Quilt program and our Lenten calendars. It was a good reminder of why we are doing what we are doing.

The girls had a fun time helping at the conference and even got to meet Johnnette Benkovich (on EWTN) and had her give them her autograph. I was so surprised at how accessible she was at the conference - very friendly and willing to talk to anyone. Even me! She was impressed with the Rosary Quilt program and was interested in learning more about my upcoming projects as well. How exciting!

Ring of Fire

2009-01-21T20:35:00.000-08:00

Our parish had the most wonderful evening! We prayed what is called a Fire Rosary for Life. I don't know how common these are, but it was amazing. A whole lot of parishoners plus people from some surrounding parishes gathered together on the lawn of our church and we prayed the Rosary for an end to abortion. We all stood in a circle around a "string" of soup cans filled with sand and candles. This "string", of course, was in the shape of a rosary, and as each prayer was said, a candle was lit. By the time we were finished, we had a glittering rosary at our feet, shining towards Heaven for Our Lady to see. It was truly awesome.

And with FOCA right around the corner, I hope it helped!

Epiphany!

2009-01-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

Advent was a time to pray and prepare - much as Our Blessed Mother would have done - in preparation for the birth of Our Lord. Christmas Day through Epiphany are for celebrating His birth. Our little domestic church struggled with so many new things going on, and we did not celebrate as much as I would have liked this year. But we still rejoiced in His coming and made many new and happy memories to remember each Christmas season!

Many times this Christmas season I had tried to put myself in Mary's place. As I rocked my own baby to sleep in the quiet of the night, I gazed at him in wonder. Where did he come from? What plans does God have for this little soul? And why was I chosen to be this child's mother? And I suddenly had a powerful sense of purpose for the first time in a long time. I longed for the world to be a safe place, a loving place and a place full of Christ's Peace for my baby. Did Mary hope for as much for her Son? Or did she already know that He was to actually BE the source of that love and peace in the world?

This Epiphany evening, as we end our 12 Days of Christmas, I will approach the Infant Jesus with a new purpose. These past days have been spend assessing all of the blessings, talents and gifts Our Lord has showered upon us, and tonight, after dinner, we are each going to give to Him the greatest of our gifts for the upcoming year. In the past I have offered Him the obvious: my writing (to write for His glorification and to bring Him new souls) my ministry (to bring Him families who are strengthened in their faith and are building their domestic churches) or my work on promoting the Rosary (to bring Our Lady the many souls hungering for her guidance and to grow closer to Him). While these may be admirable goals, I have come to understand that perhaps this is not what the Infant Jesus wants of me this year. I will, of course, keep working on all of my usual projects for the greater glory of God, but this year I will go over the top for Him.

I will give Him my TIME.

I will place beside His manger a clock to signify the time that I have left and trust that He will show me what He wants me to do with it. And this year I will not be so distracted with performance and results. I lose sight of my purpose when I slip into "perfectionist" mode - so this year it will be a year of availability instead of ability!

I am excited to see where He leads me!

May the Infant Jesus, through our Blessed Mother, bless you abundantly this year!

Greetings!

2009-01-04T11:10:00.000-08:00

At long last, I have joined to blogging world! Since this is my first post, allow me to introduce myself and my family to you all.

We are the Poppe family, living and loving life on Thunder Duck Ranch - our 9 acre homestead in the Bible Belt. We are a Roman Catholic homeschooling family of 7 (so far!), not including our 4 dogs and 7 ducks. :) (The picture is of 4 of my 5 plus their cousins - both boys are mine along with the older girls in the dresses. The only one missing is the baby, who is represented with Our Lady in the header!)

I am a born and raised Catholic girl (although I went through a rather turbulant reversion process awhile back). My husband Jay converted to Catholicism about 9 years ago and we have never been happier! We have 3 boys and 2 girls, ranging in age between 14yrs and 7months.

I am just your typical stay-at-home Catholic homeschooling mom, trying to spread His Light where ever He leads me. I mostly do this within the confines of our humble home, however we do have a ministry we are launching to reignite the passion and love for the Catholic faith in families and to help families to nurture their own Domestic Church. Intercessories Family Ministry has been a labor of love for my husband and I, and it has already produced much fruit. It is our hope that as our family and our ministry grow, you will all grow with us and help us to spread the wonders of the Catholic faith through both word and deed.

That is "us" in a nutshell! I look forward to getting to know all of you and to sharing our experiences with you.

God Bless!

Cassandra