CLASS OF 2010

Last night we went to the graduation for the class of 2010 - it was a nice ceremony, and we were very proud of our own graduate Benjamin! Afterwards we came home and celebrated with family, we enjoyed pizza and cake, Ben had requested his favorite cake, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, covered in m&m's, it was a pleasant evening.

It was eight years ago that our oldest child, Matt, graduated from highschool, I remember saying, "one down, three to go!", well last night made it three down, one to go, daughter Emily will graduate in 2012.

How time flies, it seems not so very long ago that we had four youngster running around the house keeeping us busy, and now they are all grown up.

Are you a JOYFUL Christian?

View 1
Do you see the wonder of creation in everything?
Do you seek to see Christ in everyone?
Do you offer praise and thanksgiving to God?

View 2
Do you complain about your lot in life and wallow in self-pity?
Do you only see faults in others?
Do you continually bring your "wish list" to God in the form of prayer?

The other morning I heard a brief meditation on the radio, in summary, it was a story aboutf a woman who stood before Jesus and asked, "I want my life to make a difference", Jesus replied, "I don't give fruit, only seeds". The message is that each of us are given all that we need from God, but it is up to us how we choose to use those gifts. We can do nothing, and bear no fruit, or we can use our gifts and bear much fruit. As the Gospel tells us, we reap what we sow.

As Christians we should be JOYFUL, not a fake happiness, but a JOY infused in our soul because we know the Love and Mercy of God and we see God working in all aspects of our life. We are JOYFUL because we know God is with us!

We all know people who have faced tought situations in life, some remain joyful throughout, and others wallow in self-pity. When my mother-in-law was dying of cancer, she never talked about her pain, she never complained, she always had a smile on her face, and she spent a lot of time in prayer - when the end was near she said she was ready to go. My father-in-law lovingly took care of Sharon, went with her to all of her treatments, sat with her when she needed him, and never complained and lovingly took care of everything. My in-laws were truly an inspiration and an example of coping with a difficult situation with grace and dignity.
On the flip side are those who always take a "woe is me" attitude to everything that happens to them in life, these people tend to use absolutes in the way they talk about their life - such as, I never, I always. A lot of time is wasted comparing what they perceive that they don't have compared to others, such as, "I never get to go on vacation, everyone else does", when you hear a person speak like this it sounds childish. This "woe is me" attitude is really a way for a person to avoid responsiblity for their situation - they choose to see only what they can't do and choose to never see what they can do. We must use the talents God has blessed us with and bloom where we are planted.


How are you going to use the gifts you are blessed with today?

Blessed Franciscan Morning!

Our diocese received a new bishop last fall, one of the first things Bishop Rhoades did was to move a group of Franciscan Brothers to Fort Wayne. The brothers moved to a closed parish and are in the process of repairing the church building, they live in the old rectory. The brothers all wear homemade, traditional franciscan robes - a long brown robe made of rough fabric - they do not wear shoes and go barefoot most of the time. The church building is in rough shape, it is usable so the brothers are "rebuilding the church"; how Franciscan is that ??? The building is old, when the parish closed the pews were removed and taken to another parish, the stained glass windows are beautiful and appear to be in good shape, the floors are solid but rough and the paint is peeling everywhere. The brothers do NOT accept money, but will take food donations, using what they need and re-donating elsewhere if they do not need the items. Pretty COOL!!

Today the brothers started the first of First Saturday Devotions - it was attended by about thirty people. This simple, prayerful time, started with Mass, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, some quite time for personal prayer and adoration, recitation of the rosary, followed by a reflection on the mysteries of the rosary, then benediction and dismissal.

When I arrived the brothers were waiting in front of the church and in the parking lot to greet visitiors and direct us inside. How very joyful and excited the brothers were to welcome us to this first, of hopefully many, devotions.

When I walked into the church there were no pews, just a hodge podge of benches and folding chairs, I quickly spotted my franciscan brothers and sisters from Holy Family Fraternity, and sat with them. I was impressed by the brothers, some young, some old, all seated together, all dressed in brown robes, most with long beards, all with bare feet.
Afterwards the brothers gathered outside to visit with us. I spoke with Brother Lawrence Mary Guadalupe, he has been with the brothers for eight months, prior to joining he was a carpenter and handyman. A pleasant young man originally from rural NY. Based upon the amount of repair/carpentry work to be done Brother Lawrence will be busy for a long time! Some brothers are college/university educated, some are not, all are joyful and happy to part of the community.
As an SFO (secular Franciscan order) I am a very excited that we have this group of Franciscan brothers living in our midst - I will definitely be attending the First Saturday Devotion on July 3!

Around the house

Garden Update
We are still planting! We have had so much rain that it has been a challenge to get things planted in a timely manner, we hope to finish this weekend. We have about a hundred potato plants up, rows of onions, peas, beets, and greenbeans are growing rapidly. The lettuce I planted has not come up yet. Forty-eight tomato plants are in, and we will finish putting out the pepper plants and the cucumbers. I picked the first of our strawberries yesterday, we will not have nearly as many berries as we had last year, I think partly due to a couple of very late frosts. A cherry tree we planted five years ago bore fruit this spring, there were not many cherries, but the few we ate were very nice! The peach tree has about 100 little peaches on it, hopefully some of them will make it to maturity.
I spent some time yesterday afternoon weeding, a horse shoe hoe makes clearing weeds a cinch. Grandson Henry ran around the gardens with his plastic hoe and rake and had a good time playing in the dirt and eating strawberries while his Mommy and baby brother Patrick watched.

Sewing Update
I finished a quilt for new Grandson Patrick. I am currently working on a quilt to donate to a silent auction fundraiser, the proceeds will go to assist with medical bills for a man with cancer. A local Walmart is getting rid of it's fabric department, initially the fabric was marked down 25%, then 50%, and now 75%, although the reduced prices are nice I am disappointed that they will no longer be selling fabric. I have stocked up on fabric for several projects, Henry and Patrick have new matching shirts, and will have a few more over the next weeks, Dave has one new shirt, and one to be made.

Family Update
Son, Benjamin, will graduate from high school next Friday, he plans to attend a local college in the fall. Ben doesn't want an open house for graduation, he would prefer to have a bonfire with friends a little later in the summer. We want to celebrate his graduation with friends and family, but are fine with skipping the whole "open house" thing - instead we have invited close family and friends to enjoy some pizza and refreshments with us following the commencement excercise.
Daughter Emily left yesterday, with her friend Katie, for a four week visit to Europe, the girls will be travelling from Venice to Amsterdam with my parents, staying in campsites all along the way - it sounds like a wonderful trip - and one that they will both always remember. I am being an anxious Mom this morning, they are due to land in Venice any minute, I was up at four this morning to check the United website to make sure that they landed safely in Munich, they did, and I just checked the website again and they have landed in Venice, I should be getting a phone call shortly! Phew!!! The girls will be exhausted, they left at three-thirty yesterday afternoon, and arrived at their final destination at six-thirty this morning, which is twelve-thirty in the afternoon Venice time. Ahhh, life in a tent for four weeks!!

NEW GRANDSON HAS ARRIVED!!!

Our second grandson was born this morning at 1:32 am April 3rd, 2010!! Patrick James weighed in at 10lbs even, and measured 22 inches long! Patrick has a lot of coal black hair and, of course, is absolutely adorable. Amber and son-in-law Brad are doing fine, big brother Henry is a bit bewildered by it all!!!

Spolied Baby!!

Yesterday evening we watched our grandson Henry, when his mother arrived to pick him up she declared, "Henry you look like a spoiled brat!" :) King Henry was reclined on the sofa with Grandma and Grandpa, he had a rice cake in hand and was being spoonfed applesauce! All was right with little Henry's world that is for sure!

Laundry Shenanigans

Yea!! High in the mid forties today and abundant sunshine. I am washing bedding today and it is so nice to be able to hang it outside to dry. We rarely use our dryer spring, summer, and fall, we hang everything outside to dry. About a month ago our dryer broke, we have had it for years and years, it lasted so long because it wasn't constantly in use. Anyway we had a pile of laundry to do and we were going to take it to the laundromat to dry it. We really didn't want to spend our afternoon hanging out at the laundromat, so decided to hang wash line in our basement and hang the laundry to dry. Well long story short the clothes dried quickly and it has worked well for us, and we still haven't made it over to the parts store to get a new heating element for the dryer. I am anxious to recieve our gas and electric bills this month to see what kind of impact not using the dryer has had. We have been very pleased with our gas bill this winter season, the highest bill we received was just over $90, gas has been cheaper/therm than prior years, but we have also used less by keeping our thermostat set at 62 overnight and when we are away, and at 64 during the day/evening when we are home.

I googled clothes drying rack today and found this website :

www.clothes-drying-rack.com/index.html

I thought the videos were fun, and judging by the second video it appears that
people who hang their laundry to dry have a lot more fun!!