I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Hutchinson and back with my Dad and all four kiddos. We did Regional 4H days and then had Streit Christmas, which was fun, but is never enough time to visit with everyone-especially with four little ones. Matthew's putting everyone to bed tonight while I tried to hide out in my office for a little snippet of quiet. Katie already found me, but after she showed me the "letter" she wrote for her teacher complete with a picture of the two of them playing dress up, she happily went back upstairs. Having an hour in here feels so foreign, I'm not sure what to do! There's the filing, and all of the baby gifts, and that stack of boxes to go through-so I'm starting here. I miss all of you!
But I spent all of my time catching up on filing. :(
Before I close the computer down, I'm taking five more minutes to share a couple of links. Poor, I know.
***Turn your handwriting into a font for free! Wouldn't this be fun?
***I'm printing out this prayer from St. Thomas Aquinas. I think it's lovely. I want to pick a part to quote here but I can't choose! I'm going to make myself pick out one little bit.
O Lord my God, make me submissive without protest, poor without discouragement, chaste without regret, patient without complaint, humble without posturing, cheerful without frivolity, mature without gloom, and quick-witted without flippancy.
I'm thinking for mornings? So far nothing has been successful for me in that part of the day.
*** I love this list of good art supplies! I put those trays on my wish list. There's so much art to do with children, and so little time. :) I do want to spend (always) more time creatively and less time tidying-but I feel so crazy when it's messy! How do I get over that? It's not even cleaning-the house isn't a bit clean-I just want it to be tidy, and that's madness at this time in my life.
***Oh-this story about the school that sent home a letter because a child was "approached" by a man in a van (gasp!) while walking to school. So it's 9:00 am and a child is walking alone to school. Is it not LIKELY that the man driving a van is a nice man-who maybe has enough children of his own that he needs a van-who sees a child walking alone well after the school day has begun and pulls to the curb to ask him if he needs anything? This society! We lament the state of it-and bemoan the future of fat, lazy, dependent kids-but we allow them no autonomy, no chance to be outside without our rules, without our control, and we teach them to distrust everyone. How is that going to help anyone ever? We teach them all sorts of things about "tolerance" while simultaneously saying "every stranger wants to hurt you".
***And back to something nice. Once again from Pat Gohn, whose podcast I enjoy but never have time to listen to anymore. (Once she spoke to a woman with 8 children and a PhD in something, who had a lovely family and was a professor and writing interesting books and I thought "See, you can do it all! You just have to dive in." Her very existence encourages me) Anyhoo-I've been thinking about humility lately (a year or so?) and I liked this very much.
To be wanting in confidence in God’s mercy, even after a grave fall, is never a sign of true humility but of insidious pride and diabolical temptation. If Judas had been humble he would have asked pardon and wept for his sins like Peter, instead of despairing. Humility is the virtue which keeps us in our place; and our place in God’s sight is that of children who are weak and miserable, yes, but confident children.
Best go upstairs and survey the damage! Hope to "see" you again soon with something more fun. :)
