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Faith and Family Together God granted Kevin
and me a very special gift last Sunday. We
went to Mass with my uncle Rob, who was down here from Rochester for his
daughter (my cousin) Meaghan’s volleyball tournament in DC. He came to visit my mom, and the four of us
went to Mass together at St. Michael’s.
Our pastor, Fr.
Dan Brady delivered a sermon that fit perfectly with the talk about the
Eucharist Kevin had given to the participants of the Men’s Christ Renews His Parish retreat early that morning. And
who was there to speak about their ministry and take up a second collection? One
of my favorite sisters from where my grandma spent the last years of her life:
Little Sisters of the Poor. She saw me
among the crowd and even mentioned my grandmother’s name, saying they consider
their residents as family and make sure that someone is with them, praying at
the hour of their death.
Kevin and I both
had tears in our eyes. In many ways, it
felt as if last Sunday was God’s way of granting us time in prayer with family
who knew and loved my grandmother, and an opportunity to let her legacy live on
in our minds, hearts, and prayers.
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Homemade Goodness Last Sunday, my uncle Rob made lasagna from scratch, and it was
absolutely delicious. The only other
piece of my Gram’s funeral weekend I’d really been sad to miss was time with
family and loved ones sharing a meal together, and this made up for that. It’s always amusing to watch my mom and her
youngest brother going back and forth about stuff. This visit was no different from others in
that respect. God is good!
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Leftovers Anytime: The twins have certainly been making sure they get sufficient servings
of veggies even if they don’t quite make it in their mouths the first
go-round. I’ve gotten accustom to the
girls picking up things from the floor and munching on them. When they began grabbing things from the
floor and I didn’t know what they had grabbed, I would swoop down and get the
item from their mouths, much to their confusion and frustration. After discovering that every time it was a
piece of dehydrated pea or corn kernel, I’ve left them to their grazing. I wouldn’t be surprised if a good portion of
their caloric intake each day comes from their preferred version of
leftovers.
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Photography & Scrapbooking I’ve had a passion for photography for a number of
years which I have celebrated in part by getting lots of photos of the children
in my care for their parents to enjoy.
Some of the most fun I’ve had putting together memory books and
scrapbooks have been those of favorite little people so they and their parents
have a fun record of our time together.
Thankfully my husband has been very understanding over the past few
months about how often I’ve had our dining room table covered with scrapbooking
materials.
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Singing and Dancing Another two things I’ve found that energize me and are
also lots of fun for the girls are singing and dancing. I sing a rather wide variety of songs to
them. One of the ones I’ve done has been
some of “Rockin’ Robin.” This week when
Vivi requested we listen to it, I played her both the Jackson 5 version as well
as the original Bobby Day version. After
playing these, Youtube videos for a few times in a row, I decided we’d move on
to something else. I selected a song we
hadn’t listened to five times in a row, before I went up to get one of her
sisters who’d woken up from her nap. I
come down the stairs to a near three-year-old Vivi telling me with an extra
helping of sass: “This is NOT Rockin’
Robin!” My total request live does have
its limits. When I’m tired of the song,
we move on to something else, a certain “noisy toy” might go missing, or the
batteries in something might cease working all of a sudden.
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Respect Life Talk
Wow! Glad I was given the
opportunity to talk with the middle school religious education classes at our
church this week. It's interesting to
find out how many middle school students know what abortion is but don't know
that our current president supports it wholeheartedly or that the HHS mandate is an infringement of our religious freedom because the official and forever
teaching of the Catholic Church on abortion is that it's taking an innocent
life. Many didn't realize Obamacare will force to pay for abortions and
contraception and violate our consciences (or pay astronomical fines) stand up
for our beliefs and fight against a direct infringement of our religious freedom.
I only had ten minutes to talk with one of
the groups, so I started out by asking them what the leading cause of death is
in the United States and the world.
Guesses ranged from smoking to heart attacks, but both the kids and most
of the adults present were surprised to learn that it isn’t either of those
health complications or hunger that’s the biggest killer: it’s abortion.
My mom and my grandmother are certainly two
of the most prominent pro-life advocates in my life. I am very grateful for both of them. My mom is yet again leading the 40 Days for Life campaign in our city. I know my
grandma’s prayers are joining ours from Heaven.
Lord, thank You for the many people you
have put in my life who have taught me the value of a human life from
conception to natural death. Head over to host Jen Fulwiler's fun tradition of 7 Quick Takes Friday at Conversion Diary.
