A Books! and Chickens!! Daybook

Outside my window it is…nighttime, dark.  Winter in north central TX is here- cold, gray, often wet & windy lately, and below freezing at night regularly now.  Too little, too late as far as the rain goes.  So much of our yard is dead-beyond-recovery from the drought.
I am thankful for #…688: "Time to recover, organize, plan."  I started my own list of "1000 Gifts" after reading the book over a year ago.  It was a way for me to focus on the good and all I had to be grateful for as we were preparing for Jesse to leave for his deployment this time last year.  It still helps me in those ways and I use it in my prayer the many mornings I am crabby or hormonal.  I should post an excerpt of my list again...

I am hoping and praying for…my brother this Christmas as he continues to work as an English-language teacher in Thailand; for a friend in the process of adopting from Poland!; for Jesse as he prepares for Oral Boards the week after and we travel w/ him to San Antonio; for my MOMS group as we begin an ENDOW study next week.  I hope and pray that last one is a part of my life for years to come, like CCL and teaching RE.  Not necessarily all at once but each for long seasons.

On my mind…lots of friends and family I haven't heard from this year!?  Is everyone like me and did less this year?  As in few cards for the Gorleys?  :(  I managed to get a photo card out but did not finish decorating or mail any gifts or do any baking.  I started out behind and then had severe & paralyzing back pain that put me in the ER less than a week ago.  It also kept us home this week.  We are not traveling to see my in-laws b/c I am just recovering now, as in able to walk around without serious painkillers.

Noticing that the kids… are growing up so fast.  And it doesn't get any easier or more simple.  I've got to write an update on each of them here soon.  This is becoming my only family scrapbook/journal.

A few plans for the month…family visits for the New Year (hopefully pending full recovery), the trip to San Antonio for Jesse's test, then back into our regular, albeit relaxed, school schedule.  I cannot do an intense one and be a peaceful momma so this must be what is the right fit for us.  I need to do some spring school planning, too.  Goal setting with the big boys.  

From the bookshelves…I have a lot of books on my mind lately...A Little Way of Homeschooling which I have been slowly reading on my iPad this school year.  We do a mix of everything here including a minimal amount of formal lessons for big chunks of the year and I like to do a little reading on unschooling as we head into those times b/c it reminds me how much they are always learning on their own and so, alleviates my guilt.  :)  This is how I do a lot of my reading- several things at once, on-going as I need them.  I often don't finish them before going on to something else but I usually cycle back to them again, too.  Then, other books apply to and are finished in a season.  I read Made From Scratch this past week while I was laid up b/c of my back, after giving a copy to a friend.  She gave me The Joy of Keeping Chickens which I have not read yet but will soon I'm sure b/c we have chickens of our own!  (Finally.  Thank you, dear Jesse, for your work on the coop and pen and making that 2 year dream for myself and the kids come true.  On to horses for you and John Paul, God-willing.)  I gave Jesse a few books to give me for Christmas, which I look forward to reading: A Charlotte Mason Companion, Render Unto Caesar, Charity in Truth.  Best read of 2011: The Reed of God, which I finally finished.  Now my spiritual reading is Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila, mostly b/c of her influence on my beloved Edith Stein/Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
In the kitchen…we just finished a lot of leftovers, including a variation of 7-Can Soup that Jesse had made.  We eat a lot of soup in the winter.  Potato is our favorite.  Thankfully, several friends have shared Christmas cookies with us as gifts, etc b/c I was going to go into depression w/out them.  I did bake a cake.  We bought pies.

On the Church calendar…it is now the Octave of Christmas and today is the Feast of St. Stephen.  Really, Christmas has just begun and the season does not end until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.  We had a good and simple Advent this year, by the grace of God: nightly day's Gospel after dinner w/ wreath lighting & singing of "O Come, Emmanuel" and a decade of the Rosary at bedtime prayers.  We also read from our Advent Storybook each night and the boys each had a traditional chocolate calendar.  We made "O Antiphon" paper ornaments and sent them to god-siblings but did not get them hung on our own tree that last week before Christmas.  We always wait to put our tree and other decorations up until at least Gaudete Sunday, only empty nativities out before that.  We put Jesus into our indoor and outdoor nativites on Christmas morning which I really liked this year b/c it is harder to keep the gift-hype down as the kids get older and more of them know what to expect.  We still do St. Nick and their stockings on his feast day, Dec. 6th, which is also Mark's Baptism Day.  But since we go to Mass the night before now (when they were little, we would go Christmas morning!), I like the pause to put Jesus into the mangers b/f the dive into and focus on the gifts on Christmas morning.

Pictures I’m sharing…from our big trip to beautiful Oregon in November to see close family friends, including one of our godsons.  I used these on our Christmas card in black & white.  More pics soon now that I have my own camera again.

Long time, no post- more from Houselander

It's been a long time since I posted anything thoughtful here.  Constant full days and I think the Chaput quote at the top is partly responsible, as well: I may be thinking about on-line reading and a post but then as I open my blog page and scroll past that quote, I always know there is something else more important I should or could be doing!

Still slowly reading The Reed of God, by Caryll Houselander.  So good, especially for Advent.  She reflects on the life of the Blessed Mother with Christ, her on the "Finding in the Temple:"

...Why must we be always seeking for the lost Child?

Why must we be always feeling the pain of loss?

If we did not, we should not realise that our idols are not God, are not Christ.

Bad as they are, they match our limitations; and if they should content us, we should never know the real beauty of Christ: we should not become whole.

It is one of God's great mercies that, although our vanity and our fear and our other mean passions crave for satisfaction, when they are satisfied, we are not.  There is an essential  you, an essential me, who cannot be satisfied excepting by God: that is why the sense of loss saves us from complacency in our idols and drives us to go on seeking for the lost Child....

We know Him only by continually learning Him anew; we get away from false gods only by continually seeking Him; we hold Him only by losing Him....

...[A]fter all: "Seek and ye shall find."

His meaning is Love.

Not so ordinary Ordinary

From Caryll Houselander's The Reed of God, which is helping me to know & love the Blessed Virgin Mary better than ever before (among other things!):

To put aside suddenly every motive except this single one, the forming of Christ in our life, is not so easy for ordinary people who are to remain ordinary.

Thanks, SP for the copy!  :)

Fruits of Summer

• One watermelon! & three squash!!! are growing in one of our front beds.
• Mary can stand for several seconds & loves to practice walking w/ help.
• She also just cut her second top tooth, making a total of four up front.
• And she "prays" w/ us whenever we pray together.
• Mark taught himself to swim.
• And is pottying more than before and wearing pull-ups.  These did not make a difference to the other two boys.  They do to him.
• Best of all, he & Mary play some together now- his toys, of course, & at his discretion, of course.  She doesn't care.  She adores him.
• Several friendships for the older pair have budded or grown.
• Piano tunes are heard in the house again, now from both of the older set. 
• Science experiments were conducted, including slime & explosions.
• We've finally begun the long-awaited Indian/Native American unit and have a field trip planned.  Maybe three.
• The momma is training for a race w/ a neighbor-friend, often w/ several children along.  This is, perhaps, actually good training for staying focused & light on the feet amidst the obstacles of a trail run.  At least this is what she is telling herself.
• A new sewing machine lives in the house, one that has been the secret to completing an old project & starting anew (& a new...several things).
• The momma also learned to crochet, taught by a patient mother-in-law.
• Many good books read including the Redwall series for the only other readers in the house and Simplicity Parenting, Keeping a Nature Journal, Holiness for Housewives for the momma.  All recommended, especially the last.
• We are living a new rhythm that is more little set-inclusive & creative, that I hope to carry into the official school year of English and math lessons.
• Plans are made for that next school year & many supplies are ordered.
• We have survived the heat and Jesse's deployment and are eagerly anticipating his return in the next couple of weeks.  Still no date...

A Long Summer's Daybook

Outside my window...  a hot wind is whipping all the bushes and trees back and forth, as if it is coming from a couple directions.  The surface of the pool water has peaks and waves, making it look more like a lake than a placid pool.  Fire danger has been extremely high here.  I even dreamed about one last night and woke up at 4am worried and checked windows and the radio.


I am thankful for...  our parish and my MOMS Group there.  We moms see each other a lot and have been crafting at our meetings this summer.  The community at our parish is such a source of strength for me right now in the last leg of this deployment.  Everyone really cares for each other and takes care of each other and it reminds me of how I think the early Church must have lived.  I cannot feel too alone, which is a struggle right now with my husband gone, no family here, and living out in the country.  (Although, I remember city life feeling lonely at times when I was home w/ young children w/out my husband, even in the midst of all those people- which to me is somehow worse than the peaceful solitude of the country.)

And I am thankful for a surprise package from Jesse, my birthday gift early b/c he thought "maybe I needed it."

A handmade journal of camel leather w/ sunflower pages and a bead & shell bracelet.  Both Kuwaiti items.

I am hoping...  that my husband leaves Kuwait on time and arrives home just before Mary's 1st b-day on August 18th.  I really would love to celebrate it quietly with him home on her "real" day.  We will have a dinner/party with my family when we go to see them the first time after he gets back but I would love for her best b-day gift to be a lot of good quiet time w/ her Daddy.  She really seems to still know him b/c she gets excited seeing him over Skype and babbles at him but, being the Momma's girl that she is, I'm afraid real real-time is going to be a little scary for her at first.


On my mind...  travel plans!  Plans for two trips to Ft. Worth to see my family these last six weeks of the deployment, including a Rangers game over the 4th and the RB&BB circus! for the kids for the first time in August, a treat from their Mimi.  Also, plans for when my RHL (consider that my opinion on the recent conversation at Testosterhome!) is finally home, including another weekend in Ft. Worth w/ a trip to the Dallas LEGO store (b/c I know HE will love that as much as the boys) and a short real family vacation! to the OK mountains.  No holiday to celebrate or party to plan while we are there.

We are also making fall plans for some animals to join our brood here- about 6 chickens and 2 horses, I hope.  To go with the 4 children, 1 slowly-calming dog & 1(no longer Tom!)cat.  And his most recent family (Momma & 3 kittens!) that we are now sometimes feeding, too.  Another one of those things I never expected from myself, the former cat-hater.

And I am (always) working on plans for curriculm for next year, including Montessori pre-school materials for Mark here at home.  He's very ready.  Yay!  He may also go to some pre-school at our awesome parish.  He. is. Mark.  Hear. him. roar.



Noticing that...Said toddler is getting the good nap he needs after our late movie night Fri.  We had a mom's movie and a kid's movie going.  He went back and forth between both before he finally fell asleep here..

The effort to reach this tempatation must have exhausted him b/c the box was still closed!

A few plans for the week... swim lessons for a MOMS-friend's kids, a meal to another MOMS-friend with a beautiful new baby boy, Summer Family Week at our parish, aka VBS w/ tracks for parents, including one on Theology of the Body & talking to your kids about sexuality.  Did I already say I love my parish?  It is my prayer they will hear it from us first in a positive and meaning-filled way & so know the beautiful gift that our bodies are.


From the bookshelf...The Well-Trained Mind, Hainstock's books on Montessori at home, curriculum catalogs.  On the way from an amazon.com spree- Growing Up Sew Liberated, this & this for the fall hobby-farming plans.  Big boys are reading the Redwall series this summer and loving it!


In the kitchen...a good recipe for Gazpacho and a fun one for baby jello jigglers.  Ingredients purchased, just need to get to work!  Thanks, Mom.  For everything lately, especially for forgiving my weaknesses (like my tendency to hold things in until I explode) and listening to my view of things.


On the Church calendar...big Sundays these last four: Ascension, Pentecost, Holy Trinity, and today Corpus Christi.  Haven't done anything (except the most important- Sun Mass!) to celebrate.  Lacking creative inspiration in that department right now...


Some recent photos...

First more of Mark Ignatius:

His current obsession includes going shirt-less with sunglasses.

  

This was a "Mark & Mommy date" when the Dallas Zoo came to our nature center, which will forever go down in Mark History as the-day-Mark-bolted-to-the-stage-to-try-to-hold-the-9-ft-boa-constrictor-when-Mom-turned-to-put-her-camera-away.

 Could this pensive boy be the same little guy?

Remember the one of Mark playing his instruments for Mary?  Now she plays...well, mostly chews.. on them w/ him.

And Miss Mary Constance at 9-10 months:

She's another water-bug.  Her first time in the water here.  Those 2 bottom teeth are completely in already.

 She's cruising along the couch now but she still loves to crawl into fun spaces.

And she's eating some table food, mostly Cheerios.  She LOVES them.  Also, some feta cheese, egg white, banana. 

(Those details are for Daddy.)

Finally, the big baseball players at their team party at our house:

John Paul was grumping b/c they shortened his name to John.  Already long-forgotten, proving how unnecessary the trophy even is.

Easter Pics

On Easter Monday, we went to the Botanic Gardens and dodged spring rains to get some pictures of the cousins.  Ok, our kids and one cousin.



So beautiful I had to share

Vlad.  Our family and the big boys' Conquest Club in San Antonio prayed & prayed for this little boy and we raised & donated the first few hundred dollars in his adoption account with Reece's Rainbow.  I listed him as a prayer of thanksgiving in the sidebar here when I found out from the amazing AMT that he was to be adopted.  This is the link to Vlad's new family's blog.  So, so beautiful.  God is so good, so faithful.  You have to see for yourself.

The story of him in our lives started w/ me looking over the Reece's Rainbow website, talking to God and praying about international adoption.  I have always felt a call to adoption since I was a much younger single woman and Jesse & I talked about it before we married.  But I, we have always felt a call to domestic, foster adoption.  (We fostered two sisters during Jesse's residency who were with us for 2 months over the holidays in 2006/2007, our own "hosting" experience now that I think about it.  They returned to biological family- but that is another story for another night.)  Anyway, I was thinking & praying a lot about international adoption (b/c I had multiple friends interested in it that I wanted to really support & b/c of non-profit work AMT was leading us to do) and asking God to help me really understand that call.  From my own limited perspective, I just couldn't see how families could fall in love w/ a photo of a kiddo across the world and know God's will, God's plan from the beginning.  Not that I didn't believe them, but I wanted to truly understand it.  Well, God answered my prayer.  I truly fell in love w/ Vlad from 1 photo and, most amazingly, so did my husband.  At the time, we thought he looked like such a Gorley!  And we seriously considered adopting him but pretty quickly discerned that that wasn't God's will.  Both of us felt the same way and felt sad but at peace.  We kept praying for Vlad & donated some money ourselves and then the boys' Conquest Club did the same.  We lost a baby to miscarriage and knew that what we wanted, what it seemed God wanted for our family was for us to have another of our own biological children.  Then we conceived Mary.  And Vlad's family found him & committed to adopting him the month she was born.  And again, here he is now: http://bigvandlittlesy.blogspot.com/. 

Praise God.  Thank you for Vlad.  Thank you for Mary.

A Slice of Red-State-American-Pie

Last Saturday was Opening Day for Little League here.  The weather was beautiful.  This is Texas, one of the last towns before Oklahoma, and people are serious about the national past time.  All the teams from t-ball to the "majors" were gathered in uniform to be introduced.  There is a highly-desired-to-be-on Texas Rangers team (they were in last year's World Series) at every level.  The organizers had fun music playing over the loud speakers, like what you expect to hear at a MLB game: "Put me in Coach, I'm ready to play..." 

After all the teams were out on the field, a local Baptist youth pastor prayed a very Christian prayer; then, his wife sang the National Anthem.  Everyone stood, most with their hand over their heart facing the flags.  American and Texas, of course. 

*Edited to remind you, dear readers, that I was not expressing any political opinions in this post, just relaying a slice of life in Texas.  It still strikes me sometimes, after growing up in Maryland.  I am neither red, nor blue, but... purple.

A Lenten Daybook (& Your Flowers, J!)

Outside my window...it has been so windy.  Hot & windy (almost 100 already one day) and cold & windy (in the 50s the next day).  Texas spring.  And the bluebonnets have blossomed here!

I am thankful for...so many things. I'm still counting them since I posted the first 1-100...now I'm on #275: surprise flowers & chocolate from Jesse yesterday:

How did Penelope, Abigail Adams, WWII wives survive without the internet, not hearing from their husbands for months and years?  I am spoiled.  And, no, I did not give up chocolate (or coffee) this year.  God already had my Lent mapped out for me.  :)

I am hoping...to see my mom & sister soon!  It is so nice to have another adult around in the morning & at night.  Most of all, we will get to see my new nephew again finally!!!

On my mind...and in my prayers...dear neighbors who lost a mother last week, Felicity & family, an auntie also in need of prayer.

Noticing that...I'm drinking less coffee & walking more.  Who'd have guessed?  I'm getting the walks in during baseball practice w/ the younger pair in the jogging stroller.  It makes for several nice evenings a week b/c there is a pretty park w/ a pond & ducks across from the baseball complex.  It does take an Act of Congress to get us out the door.  I committee w/ Mark about what he wants to do after my walk.  It takes me 45 min to pack up snacks, diapers, change of clothes, more snacks for big pair afterwards, water bottles.  I've started bringing Mark's big dump truck & scooter and he played happily w/ those last night after my walk in a quiet spot we found on the church property where they practice.  I even got to do some more exercises after my walk b/c Mary had fallen asleep.

A few plans for the week...baseball and more baseball.  Schoolwork as always.  The visit w/ my mom & sister.  Taxes.  Yuk.  :(  Sayeth the lawyer.

From the bookshelves...Jesse just sent the boys/Mark a new picture book & DVD w/ him reading: Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed.  Pretty cute.  And the book is too.  :)  The big ones are re-reading some favorites: Swiss Family Robinson and The Indian in the Cupboard. 

In the kitchen...a store-bought cinnamon bread we ate during some tea & reading on ants today.  We set up an ant farm for some insect observation.  Not in the kitchen.

On the Church calendar...Laetare Sunday or the 4th Sunday of Lent just passed. I did not know until Mass this past Sunday that the 4th Sun of Lent has this name and is a liturgically joyful one, like the pink-candled 3rd Sun of Advent, marking the half way point in our time of preparation for Easter. We have had a good one this year. I've tried harder this year to make it a special time to prepare for the most important feast of the year. From Catholic Icing, I got the idea to make a Crown of Thorns and remove the thorns by Holy Sat with our sacrifices, to be replaced w/ jewels for Easter. Here's ours:

We made the crown and the desert scene below for our dining room table on Ash Weds.  

I also put out the purple cloths for our family altar and the kids' prayer table.  I love changing out the pieces in our prayer spaces- I find it very filling for some reason, to mark the seasons of the Church...Montessori for moms...  like being a sacristan of our home church.  I loved being a sacristan of our Regnum Christi chapel in San Antonio.  And Jesse just trained to be one at his Camp in Kuwait.

Those are icons of Jesse's patron, St. Luke, and mine, St. Catherine of Siena.

We also "Buried the Alleluia," which I think is supposed to be done Shrove Tues b/f Ash Weds.

I'll end with a pic of Mary, who has started trying to pull herself up on Mark's train table.

Life with 3 Older Brothers...

Mary got her thumb stuck in a wiffleball the other night. I could not get it out just by pulling on it- I had to run it under cold water to get it to shrink up a bit after being stuck...ahem..so long...during a warm part of the day. It was that way through dinner & a diaper change, during which I thought to myself  "Wow, she sure is having fun w/ that [developmentally appropriate] toy her brothers provided."  It was only when we sat down to nurse that I processed "Oh, it's stuck..."




Mary also loves paper. She started military crawling last week. Her motivation was to get to a catalog on our bedroom carpet. These are her other favorite paper products to chew on:

That same night she started babbling. Her first syllables are "Ba, ba, ba...". I really think it is her attempt to say...baseball.

What else we've been up to...

Catching up on some pics for you, Jesse.  This was the boys all watching their first DVD.  (The USO at Jesse's Camp has a program where deployed parents can make DVDs of themselves reading to send to their kiddos & the parent at home can take photos or make a DVD of the kids enjoying it to complete the circle.)

The coveted Daddy Doll.

Fort & accompanying map of the Back Acre.

Wichita Mountains over Spring Break.

Mark loves to entertain Mary with his instruments.  It's so sweet of him & she thinks he's hilarious.