Fall 2019 Daybook- Marriage & NFP Edition

It’s ...

been cold already, with some rain, and windy during the past weeks but beautiful the last few weekends.  These pics below are of our last summer hurrah- Labor Day Weekend at Port A on the Gulf Coast of TX.  Fall is here now.

Cate's first time seeing and feeling the ocean (Gulf).

She loved playing in the water.

We went on an island hike.  Saw lots of nature.  Kids felt tortured.

Outside on our Turkey Ranch...

The ground is parched with dry grass and leaves blowing everywhere this fall. Our stock pond is the smallest (driest) I've ever seen it but I still love my frequent walks around it.  My husband is working to train our newest horse, a pony for Mary that she named S’mores.  I have such a love/hate relationship with the horses...  

From the bookshelves...

Marilyn Shannon’s Fertility, Cycles, & Nutrition.

I love this book and use it a lot personally and with students (because it’s practical yet thoroughly researched), recently gave one to a student couple as a wedding gift. Trouble shooting for irregular or erratic cycles. Time-tested and research-based nutrition advice, including a basic bread (machine) recipe.

With my hands...
Several loaves of my own (Cycle) Healthy Zucchini Bread made with half wheat flour, half sugar & local honey to sweeten, lots of fresh zucchini, half the oil, protein from yogurt & pecans, and ground flax. And it’s still moist and delicious. A favorite of my older boys- don’t tell them the full name.

In my head...
Our monthly Married Couples Group has been meeting for over a year and we are so grateful for that group of friends. We’re on our second good book- Men, Women, and the Mystery of Love by Edward Sri. Started with Forever by Jackie & Angel Francois.  Such a fun read with your spouse and to talk over with friends- one chapter had us all share our meeting/dating/engagement stories.  

On my heart...
Our NFP student couples, from our previous and current class series. Their openness and hard work has been inspiring.  Also, the "Ask Christopher West" podcast. I love the dynamic between the Wests.  Wendy West's gentle wisdom and love washes over me when I listen.  

Most recent road trip adventure...
the Fall Silobration in Waco with my mom and Cate.  Finally, Magnolia!  Fun but also very... sterile?...feeling to me.

I love, love, love this pic of catethegreat.

Of holidays and holy days... 

Mark's 11th birthday pool party.

And the big eleven year old as St. Augustine on All Saint's Day at school.  The Fifth Grade puts together a presentation for the entire school.

A Prayer for this Fall...
St. Therese's feast day is in the fall, Oct. 1.  As is John Paul the Great's, Oct. 22.

Merciful Father, in the name of our lovable Jesus, my Mother Mary, and all the Saints, I ask you to set me on fire with Your Spirit of Love and to grant me the grace of making you deeply loved.

~St. Therese

Summer Highlights Daybook

It’s ...
triple-digit hot outside but I am on our shaded front porch because even when I oversleep the morning cool, I still need to get outside. #catethegreat is napping in her crib in our room.
Also outside...
Dragonflies are abundant this summer and I’m seeing so many of their beautiful double-winged bodies on our property in the blue & green variety.

From the bookshelves...
Mary & I recently finished Hellen Keller from the Childhood of Famous Americans series.  I remember enjoying Florence Nightingale in that series myself and we enjoyed reading this one and talking about our Cate so much.
With my hands...
I’m sipping iced coffee and typing, resisting the urge for another Chessmen with it. I’ve baked a lot of chocolate chip cookie bars lately for our school faculty, Mary’s class for her recent birthday, and the football team but Chessmen are my good & easy go-to for afternoon coffee time cookie, “biscuit” as it would be called on the Great British Baking Show. :)  

Since I'm thinking about food, here's a pic of this summer's seafood feast with My Cowboy.

In my head...
I’m musing on a podcast I recently discovered: Emily P. Freeman’s “The Next Right Thing.” So. Good. Leaves me feeling peaceful and inspired. And empowered. A new favorite of mine, to add to Danielle Bean’s weekly “Girlfriends” and Leah Darrrow’s less frequent “Do Something Beautiful.” (Such a good one recently on integrating faith & psychology! Need to remind My Cowboy to listen to it.)  I’m adding all Emily’s books to my reading list.
On my heart...
Lately? Constantly. How to love Cate and everyone else, beginning with myself, better.  More truly, more resiliently. More humanly. I know with God’s grace that love expands and multiplies to meet the needs. My downfall is still in not trusting enough to slow down and recognize my own needs before I feel desperately overstretched.
Clinging to Christ by the “Little Way” of Cate’s middle-name patroness Therese has become a source of insight and grace in my days again. More on that another time.
#catethegreat update...
She has finally been fitted for her wheelchair seat and back! It was an impressive process involving measurements then vacuum-packing her in two beanbag-type pillows which were 3-D scanned and uploaded right in front of us. A 3-D model will be made from images and her seat/back supports from the model. Her first wheelchair, a manual one, should be ready in about a month. I’m trusting we’ll be ready for it ourselves by then.  

Below is the Montessori space I set up for her this summer, an IKEA trip and my project while M&M were at The Pines.

Recent road trip adventure...
We went to OK City one Sunday this month. It was too hot.  Kids were grumpy.  Parents got that way too.  We visited the cemetery where Bl. Stanley Rother is currently buried- all but his heart which remains in Guatemala.  We prayed there for Cate's healing.  We saw JP’s (and all of ours!) good friend who recently relocated for lunch at his job. We bought a new set of steak knives at a popular kitchen goods store we don’t have at home.

Outside the chapel where Bl. Stanley Rother is interred.  Lake Nocona pic above was our early summer weekend adventure thanks to some friends' sharing their lake house.  Port A vacation still to come this Labor Day weekend...

Quote of the month:
From James Bryan Smith, interviewed on “The Next Right Thing” podcast-
“I am one in whom Christ dwells and delights. I live in the strong and unshakable Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is not in trouble and neither am I.”
It reminds me of St. Teresa of Avila's-
“And all will be well...”. I recently read that her deeper conversion happened at 39! I’m only 42- there’s hope for me yet!!

Our Lady of the Grasshopper!?

The Little House series devotee inside me found this historical article fascinating and such a real testament of faith.   Article here about a German-American farming community saved from a plague of grasshoppers by the intercession of the Blessed Mother, Our Lady of the Grasshoppers. And I’m glad to know it’s source even exists- the International Marian Research Institute at (Catholic) University of Dayton (Ohio).  Happy Feast of Our Lady’s Assumption!