Where It's At

After mass a few months ago I talked with a woman who had just had her ninth child.  I went over to talk to her and show my two year old her new baby.  She said something about how it is so good to come and see everybody at church.  I replied with sympathy, "You probably don't get out a lot, do you?" implying that with nine kids 12 and under it must be difficult.  She said without blinking, "It's overrated."
 
I have to admit I was slightly taken aback.  Getting out of the house is what we all long for as stay at  home wives and mothers, isn't it?  Yet in her brief answer she expressed a firm sense of purpose as a homemaker and mother that said, "The rest of the world doesn't know what it's talking about, staying home with the kids is where it's at because this is important and fulfilling work."  She implied that being blessed with nine beautiful children was way more important than being able to do whatever you want whenever you want to.  She radiated a sense of joy and confidence that made me think (despite all my doubts) that staying home with the kids really is "where it's at."

Though it is still nice to get out occasionally, too. 

Small Successes Vol. 3

1.  I think after four years I have finally found contentment (although imperfect)and have come to see the dignity inherent in being a wife and mother and how it is a truly great things to be able to stay home and take care of your own children.  This waxes and wanes, of course, but it it is gradually becoming more consistent.  I am starting to believe that this is really the place I am supposed to be.

2.  I went to see my three nephews who are visiting their dad (my brother).  There is a good chance they will be here next week too.  I was hoping to see them twice this week but don't think we'll make it.  I am hopeful that I wll be seeing them more this summer.

3.  I made it to a play group that was started by someone from our homeschool group and I was glad that I did.  It ended up being a lot of fun.  I thought about bringing my nephews but decided we would see how it went with just us first.  Maybe next time.

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Dreams of a Clothesline Realized

Alleluia! I finally found a workable solution for a clothes line at a fairly reasonable price.  On last weeks quick takes I talked about my woes in digging a hole in the ground for an umbrella style clothesline and how some of the freestanding clothes lines online were $200 or more.  Well I took a look at the local hardware store and what did I happen to find but a Sunline Tripod Portable Clothesdryer with 64 feet of drying space at about $60 dollars.  Here it is holding its first load of laundry.  It didn't hold everything from my relatively large load of laundry but it held just about everything.  I can use it indoors too.  I think that's pretty good and am very happy with it.

Seven Quick Takes Vol. 15

1.  I got a haircut on Saturday!  I think it has been at least a year since I got my hair cut.  It's amazing how good I feel.  It was really long and I wore it in a pony tail all the time.  I had it cut above my shoulders and layered.  I'm just thrilled with it and my husband likes it too;)

2.  It was hot at the beginning of the week: the upper 80s and maybe 90; but the past couple of days have been so beautifully perfect.  Yesterday I went on a weed pulling rampage.  It was easy because the ground was just the right amount of wet.

3.  It looks like we may have to look for other options in my wish for a clothesline.  We got an umbrella clothesline that requires a hole to be dug in the ground for installation.  

We called to have the underground utilties marked but it seemed like no matter where my husband dug he always ended up hitting an underground cable t.v. line anyway. Some other possibilities are  Mrs. Pegg's Handy Line and something that attaches to the house like this one.  They are kind of expensive but it seems that these may be the best options for our limited space and it will end up paying for itself (though maybe not as quickly as I would like).

4.I hate Facebook.  When someone says something that rubs me the wrong way (i.e. discusses politics) there are times when I feel I just have to comment and tell them (politely of course) that they are mistaken and here is why.  That is in the heat of the moment and then comes the next day when I feel embarassed and am loathe to check my email in fear that they may have responded back.  Sometimes they don't but when they do I just delete the response and hide from the whole situation.  Isn't that silly?  I recently did yet again but this but this time I moved the email with the with the response to a special folder and will perhaps look at it later when I have time to think about it and not become upset or preoccupied about it.  I think I have a misplaced sense of guilt about speaking my mind. 

5.  Memorial Day weekend is the annual Renaissance Fair.  We may go to this as we haven't been in a long time.   Much of what goes on isn't purely "Renaissance" but a mix of many time periods and there seems to be a certain Wiccan element as I recall.  Something cool I remember from last time I went was a woman who made cookies form medieval times.  She talked about how it was the man's job to beat the eggs because they didn't have mixers and the eggs had to be beaten for a long time.  The cookies were beautiful as they were made with a cookie mold.  I think it will be fun.

6.  Smileyboy's first birthday is July 3rd and I often find myself thinking how hard it is to believe that at this time last year I was pregnant.  He was due July 2nd and I was sure he would come late as my first two children were induced at two weeks past the due date.  My water broke on July 2nd and my labor wouldn't get started because of how he was positioned.  Thank goodness he moved to a better position before it was time to push.

7.  Our garden is starting to look really good.  I wish I had a picture handy to post.  It will be interesting to see how much stuff we get.  It's a small garden but maybe we will get enough tomatoes to do a little canning.  We have beets so I may be able to try pickling some and maybe freezing the greens.  I have never done this before so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

Have a good Memeorial Day weekend and for more Quick Takes go to http://www.conversiondiary.com/.

Feeding the Other Side of Me

 I am (as I think we all are) trying to figure out who I am and who God wants me to be.  Being a wife and mother is pretty much a given and, as I wrote about here, should be the starting point and the basis of everything else that I do.   I am a wife and mother who cooks, cleans, launders, teaches, plays with her kids(notice how the cooking and cleaning are at the beginning of the list--that needs to change).  The domestic side of me romanticizes (romanticizes?) about frugal, "self-sufficient" living with more homemade and less store bought.  This includes gardening, canning and freezing, cloth diapers, hanging laundry out to dry on a clothes line, making homemade bread, raising our own milk cow(maybe) and chickens (maybe).  Everything except livestock  are all very realistic possibilities at the moment.  Included in this domestic dream are three more kids (at least!) by the age of 46. 
Then there is the other side of me who thinks, "More kids!?"  Won't that just prevent me from doing what I want to do?  I want to go out with friends for coffee.  I want to go see concerts in Chicago.  I want to find a career when the kids I have now get old enough (at least that's what I tell myself sometimes).  I want to travel to Europe and sit in a cafe with a glass of wine and brush up on my French.  I want to do the things I have never gotten to do before it's too late.  I also want to be able to do age appropriate things with my oldest; things that we can't do with the little ones along. 

But I need to stop and ask myself:  what are the truly important things in life, and what is God asking of me?  Won't God provide me with the things I truly need?  And won't the things that God wants for me provide more happiness and fulfillment than anything that I could ever hope for myself?  In fact maybe I already have everything or at least the opportunity for everything that I mentioned above inside and outside of the domestic realm.

The truth is, I procrastinate.  I don't call to sign up for that continuing education French class; I put off calling up a friend to go out for coffee;  I fail to take advantage of the plentiful concerts and museums in my own community; and I put off looking for a baby sitter for the two little ones so my husband, teenage son and I can go out to a movie or concert together. And the truth be known, the more years that go by, the more content I am to stay at home and sip wine or just go away for a weekend a few hours away in  Wisconsin.  (Did you know they have vinyards there?)  And I am growing more and more content as a housewife and grateful that I can focus much of my time and energy on the domestic front.

So perhaps the answer to my dilemma is that God has already offered me so many opportunities to enrich my life with things that I would like to do but I haven't been doing my part.  He is also gradually putting new, more important desires for domestic things in my heart to replace less important desires for what one may consider more glamorous things. So yes, I still have interest in things not seemingly related to the domestic front; and I can still do these things if I put in the effort but at the same I am developing a true love for my domestic responsibilities and know that they are of eternal value.

Thinking of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla for Mother's Day

I have started to reread the biography entitled Saint Gianna Beretta Molla: A Woman's Life by Giuliana Pelucchi.  It occurs to me that this is an appropriate selection as Mother's Day is coming this Sunday.  Gianna Beretta Molla lived from 1922-1962.  She was a wife, mother, and physician.  During her fourth and final pregnancy a tumor was discovered next to her uterus.  Instead of choosing abortion or to have her uterus removed (which would be allowed by the church but would have obviously resulted in the death of her child) she chose the course of treatment that was the riskiest for her own life and ended up dying shortly after the birth of her child.  It is said that her whole life was devoted to the will of God which prepared her for her final, heroic act.  I think she is a great inspiration for those of us in the vocation of marriage and I am always moved whenever I read about her.  I ran across the Litany of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla and thought it was particularly beautiful.  I have included the concluding prayer from the litany below:

Lord of life, we thank You for the heroic witness of

Saint Gianna Beretta Molla. You have taught us that

there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life

for others. Saint Gianna did this, not only as she

gave birth to her last child, but also in her everyday

life as she died to herself so that she could live

wholly for You. What selflessness we see in her!

Help us, we pray, that through the intercession of

Saint Gianna, our society may regain a sense of the

sacredness of all human life. Fill us with her spirit

of courage to suffer any struggle rather than deny

You and the sanctity of human life. We ask You

this through our Lord, Jesus Christ, your son, who

lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one

God, forever and ever. Amen

(Composed by a priest from Alabama and offered to

the Society of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla)

Seven Quick Takes Vol. 14

1.  I posted about Angelboy and my husband putting together a frame for a raised garden here.  Well here is a picture of the garden with the dirt in it just waiting for the plants to come and live there.  Hmm...I guess it depends on how fond of gardening you are as to whether or not you find this picture very interesting.

2.  There is a woman I know who just had her 9th child at the age of 42 and she had her first child at around the age of 30.  Isn't that amazing!  I love it when older women are able to have large families.  It's unorthodox to have nine chlidren in todays society, but it is even more unorthodox to do so beginning in your thirties and continuing on into your forties.  I can appreciate this as I had my second and third child at the ages of 37 and 39 and am hoping God gives me the strength I need to accept more if it be his will.

3.  I had a really bad attitude last week.  Then I saw the above mentioned woman with all her nine children and her new baby and my attitude changed.  If she can have her 9th baby at the age of forty-two with the oldest child being 12 how can I claim to be stressed out as a housewife with two little ones who gets mostly plenty of time to herself and has plenty of help.  (O.k...I don't have nine, but it is still hard to get it all done sometimes.)

4.  Speaking of older women having children...I had an ultrasound done of my ovaries on Tuesday.  It was kind of depressing as the ultrasound technician told me my ovaries were small.  She then said that this was good in that it is normal for your ovaries to get smaller as you get older, and then added, "unless you want more children."  Ugh. 

5.   We finally got an offer on our condo and the closing is scheduled for May 25.  I pray that it goes off without a hitch... or at least minimal hitches, anyway.  I dream of the day when we will be paying only one mortgage.

6.  We got a Brill reel lawn mower today (Those are the push lawn mowers without motors).  Our power lawnmower died and we had been thinking for a long time about getting a reel lawnmower.  Our grass hadn't been mowed yet this season so our grass was pretty long and we had even longer gone-to-seed Dandelions  sticking out of the grass.  The mower did great with the grass but it didn't mow the dandelions so we have a yard full of dandelion stems sticking up.  Very ugly.  We may have to power mow these some way and then start over again by mowing them with the reel lawnmower before they get very long again.  I guess you have to mow your grass pretty regularly as the manual lawn mower doesn't do as well with tall grass as the power lawnmower.  We'll give it a chance.

7.  Tomorrow is May 1st and the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.  Wow!  Goodbye April.

Thanks for reading!  You can read more qt's at conversiondiary.com.  Have a good weekend!