Praying to St. Francis for Child's Vocation

My son's 15th birthday was on Saturday but we celebrated this evening.  Yesterday was the feast of St. Francis of Assisi and my son has wanted to be a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal since he was ten years old.  Although I don't know if he is truly called to be a friar or not (I would be thrilled if he was) I figure the week that includes these two happy days would be a good time to write a post that includes a mother's prayers for his vocation. 

St. Francis, pray for my son as he discerns what God has planned for him in life, that he may learn how to be truly holy and his only desire be to do God's will.  Amen.

Raising the Garden

Here's a picture of my husband and Angelboy doing some father/son bonding while building a raised garden (I hope the neighbors don't mind that I got them in the background).  Our soil has a high clay content in our back yard and we haven't had much luck growing anything for the past couple of years, so we decided to give the raised garden a try.  We are all excited about the prospect of growing things in our little patch of dirt.  We may divide it up three ways so we can grow anything we want as we all have different ideas of what we want to grow.  We better get a move on; it's only getting later and later in the growing season.

Seven Quick Takes Vol. 12

1.  For Valentine's Day my husband made lobster tail and pork chops; and as if that were not enough he made chocolate mousse also. (I made the home made whip cream.)  Neither of us had had chocolate mousse before.  It was heavenly and it makes me so happy just thinking about it.

2.  Angelboy and I are seriously thinking that he will go to high school next year.  I think it will give us both more space and perhaps strengthen our relationship.  We may decide to go back to homeschooling but you don't know what will work until you try. 

3.  I am making French Lentil soup, salmon croquettes (recipe on back of can, I was originally going to make tuna salad using salmon), and homemade bread.  That sounds really good for a Lenten Friday supper.

4. I read a lot of the benefits of menu planning.  The only time I really plan a menu per se, is when I am going to try a new recipe and I need to make sure I get the proper ingredients from the store.  Otherwise I mostly buy the same stuff at the store and work with this.  Could anyone tell me why they think or don't think planning menus is helpful?

5.  One thing I am trying to do this Lent is to keep my in between meal eating to a minimum.  I think this will help me to be more mindful of what I eat.  Am I hungry?  How much do I need to eat to satisfy me?  What can I choose that is healthy?  I try to focus on the fact that I need Jesus more than I need that slice of cheese and learn to rely on him for happiness.  O.k. I am trying to loose a little weight too.

6.  I wasn't going to do seven quick takes but its much more fun to read everyone else's when you have some of your own to share.

7.  I'm trying to teach pumpkingirl how to help me clean the kitchen by sweeping, wiping, scraping off her plate and putting the recycling in its proper place.  That should keep her busy for a while.

For more quick takes see Jen and http://www.conversiondiary.com/.

Okay, With a Few Adjustments---Maybe It Won't be so Bad After All

Well, we are back to the dreaded homeschooling.  That's right. Dreaded. 

I was not looking forward to starting again.  I was seriously thinking of sending Angelboy to the public Jr. High full time as soon as Christmas break was over. 

I dreaded the task of organizing the week and telling him what we were doing and when.  But you know what I did?  I gave him the books and had him organize the week and what we would be doing from each book.  This included: math, science, and language arts so far.  I'm giving the resonsibility (well a lot more of it anyway) to Angelboy to make sure we get schooling done.  He just tells me what to do and I will do it.  I'm here to help out if he needs me.  Well it probably won't be that simple but the idea is that I need and expect him to shoulder more responsibility for his own education.   I think he will do well with this.

O.K. the other reason I was dreading it was because he is fourteen and sometimes it seems like he has an opinion about everything which means that it seems like he contradicts me on everything.  When did this start to happen? It has become more and more apparent that the teenage years are here. 

There does seem to be a glimmer of hope though.  We both agreed that everything seemed much clearer after the break and we actually enjoyed the schooling that we did together.

Maybe we can do this.

Seven Quick Takes Volume 8

1. I had a beautiful Christmas. Although there were disappointments like my sister not coming and not being able to get very much alone time in with my husand, I felt that the consistent practice of our Advent devotions had the effect of making a little bit more room in my heart for Jesus. For me this meant things such as being touched by the fact that Almighty God became a helpless baby subject to human care. God is truly humble.

2. Here is a picture of the dutch oven my husband gave me for Christmas:

It's really beautiful. The picture doesn't do it justice. My husband also got me the cook book Soups from a Monastery Kitchen by Brother Victor-Antoine. Here is a picture of my cut-up vegetables, carrots, celery and turnips, that I used for making soup out of the book:

Many of the soups have relatively simple ingredients and are surprisingly tasty despite that.

3. I find myself looking forward to Monday when we will begin homeschooling again after a looooong amount of time off. I am having Angelboy plan what he will do next week with Math, Science, Language, and Geography. I may plan history, religion, and whatever else. I hope having him plan his own work and take more responsiblity for his own learning helps cut down on what I have to do. I was seriously thinking about having him go to public school full time after Christmas break because I didn't feel I was doing a good job of keeping on top of things and was worried about him getting a good education. We will at least finish this year at home. Next year is high school so we will see.

4. I think Angelboy would probably do well with keeping his faith and morality if he did go back to public school. I think having him home for the past 3+ years has been wonderful for grounding him in the faith. It's also been 3+ years since I have been in public school teaching. I am certain that much has changed in that short amount of time. They were just beginning to deal with the cell phone issue back then, but now I think that cell phones among teens is much more prevalent. Face Book is also much more widespread than it was just a few years ago. I know there is a lot of bad things that go on in public schools but there are also a lot of good kids and teachers. Its difficult deciding what to do.

5. One thing I would really like to do this year is get up earlier in the mornings on a more consistent basis. I would exercise and blog among other things and have time to plan my day. I need to reflect on what I would like to accomplish this year and make plans. Some solid plans to change certain behaviors and attitudes would certainly be a good idea. I need to work on patience and accepting times when things don't go as planned.

6. Last year I made the resolution to go to monthly confession and followed through even when I really didn't want to go. I need to make another commitment like this. First Friday Mass? Weekday mass at least one day a week? Daily rosary? Any ideas?

7. Well I need to get ready to go to church now. My husband is making blueberry muffins. Yum! One of the accomplishments I can claim for this year is more regular posting on my blog. Granted it started later in the year but it happened none the less. I look forward to another year of regular blogging. It is certainly one of my favorite things.

For more quick takes go to conversiondiary.com

I'm so Proud

Today my 13 year old son was enrolled in the brown scapular. He took the initiative to ask Father before mass if he would enroll him. I did not know he was going to do this. He was watching a Mother Angelica Episode about the brown scapular. I think this is what got him excited about it.