snot funny

So... stopped in briefly at the Loves on Saturday after a long LT training day and dinner... Tony Moe wanted to read stories before I left, so we sat down on the couch, side by side, each with our own book. As we were "reading" i looked over to notice his finger almost two knuckles up his nose- lovely- I asked nonchalantly, "Whats up there?"


Anthony responded, also nonchalantly, "Um, boogers."


Me: "okay..." and we went back to our books, commenting on things we found interesting as we read through the books. A few minutes later...


Anthony: "Snot tastes good."


I thought I had heard wrong, sometimes its hard to tell with toddlers, but no, the laughing from his parents and translation confirmed that he did just tell me that snot tastes good. No comment from Aunt Reenie on that one :D

Priesthood

On Saturday, we had a Core Member University (CMU) at CTK, which is a training day for core members. There were several parishes represented and it was a good day. Lisa from national LT was there speaking to us, and though I've heard most of it before, it was a good shot in the arm, a good reminder of how important this work is, and to never be satisfied with mediocrity in the ministry. It was interesting to hear different parishes share and many had questions about working with their priest, convincing him to take time for their teens, etc. I was reminded of what a blessing we have in Fr Ed, who is committed to the teens and just loves them to death! He is 100% behind youth ministry, our LT program, and most of all, our teens. How often do we stop to thank him and really appreciate what a gift he is, rather than criticizing him for his humanity? On Sunday night, Fr Ed did a stump the pastor night with the teens, where they write down questions and he sits and answers them. It is amazing to see a room full of 75 teens, hanging on every word he says. They love him and know that he loves them - he takes time for them, believes in them, teaches them the truth, and just absolutely loves them. What a gift!

After the training day, I was talking with a friend about a situation in a nearby parish and the priest being resistant to God's work there. He'd like things to remain safe and in a nice box, and God clearly has other plans. As we were talking, it hit me like a brick wall, God is working on this priest and Satan wants to thwart that. And rather than berating the priest or recounting his shortfalls, it is our job to pray for our priests, our pastors, other priests that serve us, all priests and clergy. Those guys are on the front lines of the battle, and clearly Satan wants to take out the guys that bring us Jesus.

Yesterday was priesthood day (not sure what the official title is) in the diocese of Lansing. Fr Ed's homily touched on the reasons Christ the King is leading the nation for seminarians- why is it? Jesus. Families who are committed to Christ in His Church and are evangelizing their kids from day one. Life Teen and a strong commitment by the parish to foster faith in our young people. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our area and upon our parish. I am again just so thankful to be where I'm at, in this place, this parish, this region, where God is clearly working. There are certainly challenges, as with anywhere, but what a blessing to see some of the fruits of God's work in our young men being so open to the call to priesthood.

And it didn't stop there! This morning the priest scheduled for the 6.45 Mass didn't show up, so Dcn Bill who just happened to be there today, did a Communion service. Dcn Bill S, a 70-year old man from our parish, who, after his wife died, was called to the priesthood. Although I can't say I'm particularly close to this guy, I absolutely love him! For as long as I can remember, he has a ready smile and always served the parish constantly in so many areas. It has been such an inspiration to see him answer God's call to priesthood, when other men his age (including the priests) are retired and taking it easy, Dcn Bill is in seminary and just a few months from ordination. In fact, the bishop of Saginaw, where he will be ordained, even gave him a parish to begin caring for, although he cant be named pastor officially until his ordination. He is a man full of joy and full of the love of God! What a faithful servant, willing to lay down his life, his plan to do God's work. And what an inspiration to me to continue to serve the Lord in the little things He is calling me to.

I encourage all of you- and mostly myself- to pray for our priests, to thank God for the gift of the priesthood, to pray protection on each of them, to pray for more vocations to the priesthood. And don’t forget to let our priests know that we are praying for them and appreciate their service.

The garden...

The garden ended last night... its kind of sad going out and stripping the plants of everything left ... and yet satisfying at the same time. Its been a lot of work trying (and failing) to keep up with it, it has provided endless vegetables, endless meditation time, endless excuses to play in the dirt, endless tomatoes and peppers and everything else a lot of which i will be eating until next summer... and now its done for the year. Well, sort of done anyway, I now have a lot of tomatoes that will ripen a few at a time until Christmas... as well as all the food preserved to last through next summer.

End of the garden looks something like this:
-3/4 bushel of green tomatoes
-2 large bowls of green cherry & yellow pear tomatoes
-1 overflowing large bowl of sweet peppers (some rather small)
-1 large bowl jalepeno peppers
-a salad worth of lettuce
-carrots left to be dug up



What I grew this year (in the vegetable garden)...
-lettuce (all summer)
-beans (mid summer)
-peas (spring/early summer)
-carrots (need to dig up and freeze now)
-pumpkins- for all the vines i got one small pie pumpkin, need to bake it and make pie soon
-tomatoes- constant stream all summer, eating them with every meal, snacking on them constantly, giving them away to friends, feeding them to Suzie, plus I canned 40 pints of salsa, 18 quarts of canned tomatoes, 6 quarts marinara sauce and have an overflowing bowl on the counter right now
-jalapeno peppers - see above- 40 pints of salsa, and now overflow being frozen for later use
-sweet bell peppers, fairly constant stream of peppers throughout the summer, now i'm freezing the overflow for stir fry
-cucumbers- it was a mixed year for cukes. the pickling ones didn't do well, only got a couple so no pickles this year. the salad ones did okay and only ripened in batches of 10 each time.
-strawberries- okay crop early summer, but i probably need to space them out more for better yields.
-rhubarb- my first attempt- looked like it was growing well and nearly ready to eat, until Chance dug it up and ripped all the leaves off during his visit (grrrr). I'm hoping the roots are still intact enough to grow for next year.

I also started a Home and Garden journal for entering info about what worked and didn't work. Its nice to write that down so next spring when i remember that i had a brilliant idea but can't for the life of me remember what it is, i can just flip through and find it.

I'm also tracking canning stuff- what we did, what we liked, how much we got, etc. Its fun to write it all down and know that next year we can do less guess-work and actually just look back at the journal. :D

Happy End of the Garden my friends.

What a weekend!!

It was quite a weekend- crazy busy to say the least!! Let's see, some vital stats from said weekend:


Friday night- grocery shopping, nice visit with Betsy Pink


Saturday (all day) - 4 good friends, 2 tots, 7.5 bushels of apples into 97 quarts of applesauce, a beautiful day, lots of work, lots of fun, lots of mess. A good day all around, with a few minor casualties and applesauce to feed the masses for the coming year.


Sunday - Mass, sunshine, wrapping gifts, Jane Colette's baptism (no more pagans) and as Deacon Dan reminded all of us- the most important day of her life- what a blessing to be part of it, party to celebrate Jane's baptism, Geno's and Lucy's birthdays, lots of kiddos, baby snuggles, toddler playtime, and even a few adult conversations thrown in. Then Life Teen and finally home to bed.

Monday- ouch.

Revenge

So... many of my readers (all 3 of you) may remember the prank Kara and I pulled on our friend Nick several years ago, its too long to go into all the details, but basically i convinced him that my dog Maggie (who he hates) had died. The sobbing over the phone had him convinced and he even admitted that he cried when his dog died, so i didn't feel so bad. Anyway, that was 3 years ago and ever since he has been plotting his revenge. This weekend, while I was away on the CTK women's retreat...

in case you can't count them all, that is 1500 bows on my house, surrounding bushes, basketball hoop... thats a lot of bows. When we pulled up from retreat, I had a good laugh!! nice job guys!

Btw, I spent an hour and a half on Monday night removing bows and was only half done. I'm sure the neighbors are all wondering what on earth is going on. The paper delivery lady came out and insisted on hearing the story and wondered if it was my birthday. Nope, I gave her the very short version and she thought it was hilarious. Last night I spent another hour with the ladder and got the rest of them off. Note to self, if you decide to bow someone's house, the duck tape and masking taped bows come off easily, using the bow adhesive makes it impossible to get off. Tonight i need to razor blade off the windows. Anyway, last night Scott (my next door neighbor who hates dogs and thinks i am dumb) walked by and said "It looks like you've got plenty of bows for your Christmas wrapping." I laughed and agreed, so he asked "Did something happen to Maggie? I couldn't figure out what the message on the garage meant." I told him the short version of the story, he laughed and headed home. More evidence for him that I am crazy. :)

It was a good prank- other than the lingering bow adhesive on the siding and basketball hoop. But I still won- there really is nothing to top convincing your friend your dog died by sobbing on the phone and getting him to admit that he cried when his dog died too :D Not to mention the other people that were caught on the same prank to lesser degrees... Yes, it sure was good.

Pruning

I really do learn a lot about God and about myself through my adventures of a homeowner and gardener (or wanna be gardener). Today's tidbit is about my Rose of Sharon bush. When I moved into my house in November of 2002 it was hard to tell exactly what all the shrubs around the house were. I was pleasantly surprised the following summer to find the large shrub in front is a rose of sharon bush, that blooms with beautiful purple blossoms all summer and fall. I love that bush!! The sparrows also love that bush and it always seems to be full of happy birds, fluttering and singing.


The first couple years I lived there I didn't do anything to this large bush, and it continued to grow and bloom beautifully. The best time for pruning the rose of sharon is late winter or early spring- so usually I forget to do so since that is not the time of year I'm out in the yard much. Two years ago, I got my act together and actually went out the prune it in February, and spent a lot of time trimming the branches back and shaping it. The following summer, it bloomed more than I've ever seen! It was breathtaking for the whole summer and fall. Last year, once again, I forgot to prune it (yeah, I still don't do much in the yard in February) and this summer it only had half its usual amount of leaves and 1/4 the flowers... rather overgrown and bare and sad looking. Don't get me wrong, it still did bloom, but very very sparingly and especially compared to previous years, it was kind of disappointing. A few days ago, although its only October, I trimmed some of the lower branches that were in the way of the lawn cutting and some dead branches too. I really need to remember to do a thorough pruning in February.


Looking at my sad rose of sharon in its overgrown state made me think about my life lately. Do you ever feel like your life needs pruning? Somehow it grows and grows and grows and without pruning, it gets to the point of being so busy trying to support the size of it that it doesn't have the energy to flower. I think I'm there in life right now. I'm feeling overgrown and flower-less (metaphorically speaking). I'm not sure how exactly to prune or what needs to go, but it is time to do some pruning...

Remember your death...

I've got a lot of thoughts rattling around this brain of mine lately- kind of a confused jumble most of the time, so i apologize if this is totally incoherent...

My great uncle Ev passed away last week and his funeral was yesterday. Uncle Ev was 86, great husband for 62 years, father to eight children, grandfather to 19, great grandfather to 2, uncle, great uncle to many many more, and friend to all. He died very suddenly, had been doing well, healthy, living his life, and then he died of a heart attack. It was and is a shock to all of us, particularly his family. And yet the more i think about it, the more I think that that is exactly how I would choose to go... I remember watching my grandma suffer so much in the last year of her life and it was incredibly painful for her and for all of us, certainly beautiful in the midst of the pain, but incredibly difficult. When she died, it was almost a relief to know that her suffering was finally done. My Oma, my grandpa's second wife, also suffered a lot in the last months of her life, and finally died with her family at her side. But Uncle Ev, he was playing cards with my grandpa a few days earlier, still going to daily Mass, bringing the Eucharist to the homebound, enjoying his family, his hobbies, his life. And then, almost without warning, it was time to go.

Yup, if i had my say, that's exactly how I would want to go... still in the midst of all of it and then bang, heading out. His death and the suddenness of it is a reminder of how fragile life is- any of us could go at any moment. When I die, I don't want there to be regrets... I want to be ready at a moment's notice for God to call me Home... Am I ready? Are there things I need to do? People I need to reconcile with? Have I told my loved ones just how much I do love them? Do I say it enough? What would they say in my eulogy (now that is an interesting and scary thought... hhmmm)? On a practical and yet personal level- Are there closets I should organize just in case someone else has to deal with it when i leave? Should I write a will? What do i have to put in a will anyway? Who would take care of my pooches if I was gone? ... so much to ponder...

I think it was the Carthusians (but I could be wrong) that used to greet each other with "Remember your death brother." What a good reminder for us- to live today as is it is our last day here, our last opporunity to love God and our neighbor on this side, our last opportunity to make a difference and to do all things, large and small, with love.

The end of summer...

So I think its time to admit to myself that summer is just about done. I love summer and always think it will involve more camping trips, more relaxing, more sailing, more projects around the house finished... and instead if flies by and is over almost before its begun :( Rather than complain about everything i didn't do (which is my first inclination) here are a few highlights from my summer:

-Stubie youth conference with my teens

-July BBQ at my place with lots of friends and their kiddos

-Softball- lots and lots of softball, winning the championship!!

-the Pannings wedding

-Cousino Long Lake

-biking with Suzie, we finally mastered it!!

-Cous family reunion- more time to hang out with the cousins

-Donal & Lindsey's engagement

-Geno's t-ball games

-the garden- currently known as "The Tomato Forest"

-canning peaches with my buddies

-an overnight at my aunt's cottage on the lake

-an overly affectionate Maggie (which is quite a personality switch that has occurred somewhere between lots of vacation- i think all the sudden she realized she likes me :)

-adventures in Montana

-my newest niece, Jane Colette

-50 acres and a Poodle, by Jeanne Marie Laskas

-the new patio door (thanks to my dad)

Next up...

-CTK Women's retreat (Michele and baby Stephen coming to visit from FL for that retreat)

-LT Training Conference thingy

-Applesaucing with friends

-Munchkin Costume Party

-Life Teen Retreat: SUPERLIFE

-Visit Cheryl in Massachussetts for a long weekend

-Thanksgiving

-ahhhhhhhhhh....

Back on track...

The last few weeks I have somehow fallen off the track. Track? you ask, what track? No, Betsy, this track has nothing to do with the tracks you used to have. For several years now I make it a point to wake up early to get to morning Mass (6.45 am) every week day except Friday (i usually go to the 5.30 pm Mass on Fridays). Daily Mass is such an incredible gift and it really does give me the grace to keep going, one day at a time, one moment at a time. I know myself and my job well enough to realize that if I don't get to Mass to start off the day, I won't make it. My dad gets to noon Mass regularly, but I never seem to get out the door to make that happen. and a 5.00 pm doesn't work well either since that means wrapping up the day and being out of work by 4.40, which never happens. My best bet is getting up early and giving God the first hour of my day, before everything else crowds for attention. And once I've given God that first hour (usually the hardest one for me), its easier to let Him handle the rest of the hours that follow.


Anyway, the last few weeks I've somehow fallen into the bad habit of turning off my alarm and getting another hour of sleep instead of getting up and making it to Mass. It started with my sore back causing excruciating pain when i woke up, but that is mostly better now and it just started to be a habit- letting the tiredness win and missing out on the best part of my day and my life. Frankly, my life really doesn't work so well for me when i don't get to daily Mass. The last few weeks I've struggled with depression, hopelessness, and extreme distraction... and it wasn't until yesterday that i really put two and two together and realized that a huge part of that is that I haven't been getting to Mass. What can i say, I'm addicted and this withdrawal is awful.


Yesterday I was reading "Pray and Never Lose Heart" by Sr Ann Shields, who was talking about setting aside time to pray and never being so busy that you don't take the time to pray. And I was convicted again and decided October 1st was a good day to get back on track- not only is it a new month, but its also the feast of St Therese, my patron saint. So this morning, although I was running late (still gotta get all the way back on track I guess), I made it to Mass... and it was good. And now I'm ready for the day... St Therese, pray for us.