Want to Learn a Little about Third Orders?

There's a very well-done article in the Columbus Dispatch on the topic of Third Orders.

I'll admit to having a certain family pride, as it were, about the Secular Franciscan Order, but several others exist as well.

H/T to and also with you for pointing the way to this worthwhile article. I intend to express my thanks to the Columbus Dispatch for such a wonderful piece. It's not often that this happens in a mainstream newspaper, and it's certainly commendable.

Flying High

It's All Airplanes, All The Time at my house right now.

Today I made two trips to a local airport. Big Brother is a member of the Flight Club at his school, and the club was meeting at an airport to take the boys on some short flights. I didn't have the whole day to stay and watch, so I just dropped off and picked up.

Today my kid flew an airplane. He actually took the controls and FLEW THE AIRPLANE. His feet haven't touched the ground since.

This is my cautious child, who 5 years ago would get a stomachache from the prospect of choosing between two fun alternatives. Last night, as Senior Patrol Leader, he conducted his Boy Scout Troop's Court of Honor. Where did all this courage and confidence come from? He is FLYING AIRPLANES.

Little Brother was almost as thrilled as Big Brother. He got to see the traffic helicopter from the local news land. He saw at least 10 small aircraft landing or taking off. He was so close (yet behind the fence) that the pilots were waving at him and he jumped up and down, dressed for the occasion in his "flight commander" sweatshirt and carrying his Hess biplane.

Next Friday we'll be back, because Big Brother won a free 30-minute flying lesson. He can't wait.

Curiosity Will Kill the Mom

Sooner or later my children's eagerness for scientific experimentation is going to be the death of me. Just now, I had to instruct two of them:

"Get that (digital fever) thermometer out of the FREEZER!"

If you're thinking that Little Brother was involved in this escapade, you'd be way wrong.

Accent? What accent?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Northeast Judging by how you talk you are probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island. Chances are, if you are from New York City (and not those other places) people would probably be able to tell if they actually heard you speak.
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The Midland
The South
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Wow, this was accurate! I grew up in North Jersey about 15 miles west of New York City. Now I live near Philadelphia.

H/T to Father Martin Fox, who doesn't think he has an accent either.

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

There's been a lot of talk about various stores that will or will not use the word "Christmas" in what is blatantly Christmas advertising.

I have nothing against "including all holidays." But as I said in the combox at Ian's site where this is being discussed,
I don’t mind so much when the stores say “holidays.” But I think the Dollar Tree commercial I saw yesterday sums up what really burns me. They say “holidays” and they decorate in green and they have red and green elves hamming it up in the ad. I’m fairly sure they’re not talking about EITHER Hannukah or Kwanzaa there. So don’t be so fake as to act like you’re “including” everyone else when it’s obvious that you really mean Christmas. I have other dollar store choices if I need to visit a dollar store.

We all have the power to decide where to spend our money. We vote with our wallets. I intend to vote with mine, AND to take a little time to let the establishments I patronize know that I appreciate their policies. That’s the part that really makes the difference.

What these shortsighted businesses don't realize is that they are profiting from Christmas in a BIG way. Would it kill them to acknowledge it?

Laura has links to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and to the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, both of which are posting a "Grinch List" of businesses, towns and others who refuse to acknowledge Christmas.

I've already thrown some of my business toward Kohl's, which will be using "Christmas" in its ads. And I've sent them an email thanking them for this, encouraging them to continue, and informing them that I'm a happy customer there.

I realize that sooner or later I might have to shop in one of the "Grinches" but I will do my best to make sure that most of my shopping is done in stores that aren't afraid to say the word "Christmas."

UPDATE: I got a nice reply back from Kohl's.

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. We are glad that your recent experience with us at Kohls.com was a pleasant one. You can be assured that Kohl's recognizes Christmas as an important holiday. The spirit of Christmas is warmly embraced by Kohl's through "Merry Christmas" greetings from our associates, welcoming Christmas music that is played throughout our stores, and great seasonal gifts like those you will see in our upcoming advertisements. While we cannot share any specifics of our upcoming promotions with you, we are pleased to announce that the word Christmas will be predominantly featured in at least 6 of our sales flyers between mid-November and New Year’s Day.

DO take the time to let the stores you patronize know why you're there. Let them know that it's worth it to them to acknowledge the Reason for the Season!

Say a Prayer

My husband just got word from one of his work buddies--this guy's son S, who is Middle Sister's age, is in the hospital with meningitis. It's still undetermined which variety of meningitis it is. S has a younger sister as well. Please keep him and his family in your prayers, as well as the medical team. Saint Anthony, pray for them.

UPDATE: S. is home and doing better. Thanks for your prayers!

Because He Can

The burning question around here tonight, from Middle Sister:

"Mom, why is Little Brother playing Legos in the bathroom?"

My Hero

My husband has this amazing ability to detect, from his office 50 miles away from our home, that I'm feeling a little extra fried at the end of some days. So he'll call to say he's on his way (that's my cue to start dinner) and sometimes he offers to just get pizza if I haven't yet started dinner.

And sometimes he goes one better. Today he called to let me know that he'd remembered that we're eating early tonight, because Middle Sister has basketball practice. Middle Sister answered the phone. When she hung up, she said, "Dad said to tell you that he wants to take me to basketball tonight and watch me practice."

This is TOTALLY better than pizza. This is saving me from an hour of sitting on the gym floor (even if I do get to read a really good book while I'm there), and then rushing home to be on time to host the SFO Council meeting. Dinner's easy tonight anyway.

Oh yeah. He's a keeper.

Dream a Little Dream

Little Brother just made his sleepy way down the stairs and climbed into my lap.

"Good morning," I said to him. "Did you have a good sleep? Did you have good dreams?"

"I didn't have ANY dreams!" he answered.

"No dreams?"

"No," he said. "You get dreams when you wake up, and then you go back in your room and go back to sleep because you're still sleepy, and then you get a dream."

If She'd Seen the Movie, This Conversation Would Never Have Happened

Middle Sister just handed Big Brother a Post-It.

Big Brother: "Hey! That's MY Post-It! Stop stealing my Post-Its!"

Me (muttering): "I invented Post-Its."

Middle Sister: "You DID?!"

She's too young for Romy and Michele, though.

They're Gross Around Here, Too

This is for Rachel, who may believe that it's only boys who have the ability to be gross.

Middle Sister, at the dinner table: "Ewwww, there's a booger in my milk!"

Anyone want to do the dishes here tonight? I'm not sure I can stomach it.

From Today's Homily: The Value of a Life

From what I've read around the corner of the blog-world that I frequent, a lot of people heard about whether the gift someone offers is more valuable than the one offered by someone else, simply because the gift is larger. That ultimately leads to the reflection on the worthiness of a gift given "from want" rather than "from excess." And it's a very important point to consider, especially when we think about how we give, how we spend our time, how we give of ourselves.

Our priest had a different take on the matter, however. He asked us to consider, "Is one life more valuable, more special, than another?" We all know where that kind of thinking can lead.

Tag Team Bread Success!

I've been working on this "internet tag team bread project" with The Kitchen Madonna for several days now. We'd both been in search of a good pumpernickel recipe.

My last year of high school, I worked at a bakery which seriously spoiled me and my dad. We both love bread. I got to take home $3 worth of baked goods each workday, and a loaf of rye was only 90 cents! And Dennis The Baker made a wicked raisin pumpernickel. Dad hasn't been able to find anything like it since the bakery closed.

When The Kitchen Madonna mentioned that she was looking for a good onion pumpernickel recipe, I had to get in on the pumpernickel action. Maybe, I figured, if I could get my hands on a good basic pumpernickel recipe, I could add some raisins and let Dad tell me if I got it right.

We decided to work on a Serbian Pumpernickel recipe. It looked pretty easy and the ingredients were easy to find. And it only took me 5 days to get ALL the ingredients into my house.

This made A LOT of bread. I put it in regular loaf pans instead of doing a "free form round" loaf, and wound up with 3 loaves. Won't my neighbors be happy?

Discussing the aftermath of the mixing and kneading with the Kitchen Madonna, I discovered that we'd both made the same mistake in reading the recipe!

I just taste-tested this bread, which smells delicious and tastes even better! No butter needed for mine. This bread is great all on its own. It's a little sweet, thanks to the molasses, and more than a little caraway-tangy.

Future Pumpernickel Tweaks on my end (because I just can't leave a recipe alone):
I want to add some Caramel Color* to the bread. I like my pumpernickel to look darker than this.
I want to reduce the recipe, ultimately to "one loaf at a time." Even two at a time would be better.
Any idea on when I should add in the raisins? And when should The Kitchen Madonna put in the onions? (I'm thinking that raisins can come in after the first rise, but onions should go in right at the start.)

*I purchase Caramel Color at a local Asian supermarket. I can't tell you the brand, or the ingredients, because other than the word "CARAMEL" on the label, nothing's in English.

Prayer: Everyone's Talking About It

In just the past couple of days, both Danielle and Michelle have posted on prayer and the challenges that parents face as they strive to nourish their prayer life while raising busy families. Sarah wrote about it a few weeks ago.

Both Michelle and Sarah focus on the Rosary in their discussions. I am not a regular pray-er of the Rosary, I must admit. I keep my finger Rosary in my pocket, not so much to use as a Rosary, but to call myself to prayer whenever I notice it in there.

As a Secular Franciscan I am expected to use the Liturgy of the Hours (specifically, Morning and Evening Prayer) daily. Did you know that priests are obligated under pain of sin to pray these prayers? The laity are not obligated in this way, but this is a particular form of prayer that Secular Franciscans are encouraged to practice. Certainly it is not the only one that we may use. I've been professed 5 years, and around the SFO longer than that, so I've been using the Liturgy of the Hours more or less faithfully for at least the past 7 years.

Morning Prayer is generally not too much of a problem, though I can find that if I don't get up and get started with prayers, I'll get started doing other things like packing lunches and being the Human Alarm Clock and making sure the kids get on the school bus and defrosting something for dinner and putting laundry into the washer....and before I know it, it's almost lunchtime and I have not yet greeted the Lord in prayer.

It's Evening Prayer that is my personal struggle. I had always done this at night, right before going to bed. Then, just before I was professed, the priest who was the Spiritual Assistant for our SFO fraternity taught us all that "Evening Prayer is not to be prayed at night. That's what Night Prayer is for. Evening Prayer should be prayed around sunset, or the dinner hour." Well, here's where the kind of perfectionism Michelle was talking about has reared its ugly head with me. Try finding a quiet place for 15 minutes in my house anytime between 4 and 8 PM. There's homework, and picking up Big Brother after his cross-country run, and dinner prep, and eating dinner, and cleaning up, and Middle Sister's basketball practice....and before I know it, it's bedtime and I wind up praying Evening Prayer at night.

And then I remember that a priest once mentioned, "If you're too busy to pray, you're too busy."

I know I have the choice here to either: beat myself up over this, find a way to pray Evening Prayer even a little earlier than I do now, or just let it ride and figure that it's better that I am using an opportunity to pray than wasting it. But more and more I'm thinking that it would be best to find a better way to make this happen. I'd like to make the effort to pray Evening Prayer earlier than I do, and maybe stay better awake in the process (for the record, lying in bed with 3 warm blankets and the Liturgy of the Hours is not conducive to alertness in prayer). Maybe after the dinner stuff is done, and everyone is settling in to their evening activities of reading, study, email, or games, I can disappear for 15 minutes. Because frankly, it would do me good to pay the "Magnificat" a bit more attention.

And maybe, if I sit in the nice clean kitchen for my prayer time, someone else in the house might find me there, and want to join in once in a while.

So my mission tonight, after dinner, is to make my kitchen table nice and clear, and dedicate the close of the day to the Lord. There might be background noise, but that's my life. I certainly don't want to wish away my noise-makers.

Lord, Hear Our Prayer

A fellow blogger needs our prayers. She's been battling illness for quite some time. Please pray for Epiphany today. I will be offering my "Pocket Rosary" and also praying to St. Anthony of Padua for her intention.

I'm joining with several other bloggers out there, including UKOK who has linked to a previous post explaining Epiphany's struggles.

The Difference Between Boys and Girls, Again

Cutie-Pie (age 2) is visiting from Over the Back Fence. She came over asking to play "Astronauts" with Little Brother. But soon, I heard Little Brother protesting:

"I'm NOT a baby. I'm an Army Guy."

Really Good Stuff

I've been doing a bit of reading lately that is really challenging me to meditate on my vocation as a wife and mother.

First, there's the Kitchen Madonna's blog and website. At one point, she mentions, "There is value in being a stealth vehicle for the virtues of the Mother of God." Chew on THAT for a while! That sentence sums up the Kitchen Madonna's ministry and challenge.

Then, there is a wonderful writer I discovered through Danielle Bean's blog. Genevieve Kineke has a blog and a new book,
Authentic Catholic Woman

I was reading this book tonight as I waited through Middle Sister's basketball practice. (Almost 2 hours a week of reading time, even if there's noise and only a hard gym floor to sit on, is still a bonus of reading time for me!) Kineke uses incarnational theology (trace that one all the way back to St. Anthony of Padua--hey, this stuff is Franciscan!) I love all the examples from the lives of the saints that she provides, and how we are urged to link our actions with the sacraments of the Church, because we mirror the Church in our own domestic churches.

It's a real feast for the soul. Join me, dig in, and enjoy!

Think. Pray. Vote. Pray Again.

Don't forget to use the resources:
U.S. Catholic Bishops, "Faithful Citizenship"
EWTN's Catechism for Catholic Voters (thanks, Danielle!)
Catholics United for the Common Good (UPDATE: I have my doubts about this one and so do my commenters. Use carefully.)

Don't forget to pray for the candidates, for our nation, and for yourself, that you may be open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit when you are considering your choices.

And don't forget to vote!

H/T to Mark, S.J. at You Duped Me, Lord for the voter resources.
H/T to Dan at Faithmouse for the "Vote for Life" banner.

While We Have Time, Let Us Do Good

I'm going to put this graphic into my template someplace, soon. The phrase at the bottom has become a very familiar phrase around my parish in the past year or so. It was the pastor's favorite way to close his homilies and letters in the bulletin. I think it's a wonderful reminder. Don't wait! Do good things NOW!

For a while I had been thinking that since, as the pastor, Father Dan probably got more than his share of complaints, it was about time someone gave him a pat on the back. I'm glad that I did that, while I had time. I mailed him a card with my thanks in it, just a few weeks ago.

Today I found out that due to health problems, Father has resigned as our pastor and the Spiritual Assistant of our Secular Franciscan fraternity. He will be leaving soon. It's a great loss for our parish, since he had been instrumental in many changes, big and small, that were breathing life into the parish again. Right now we're under diocesan scrutiny as it is decided what parishes will close, or merge, or whatever. And now we are without a leader whose dedication, energy, and obvious faith were really necessary attributes in a time like this.

I appreciate Father Dan's advice and encouragement. I appreciate his candor. I appreciate his willingness to acknowledge that sin and evil exist, that we are always in danger of attack from the Devil, and that we can have the strength to overcome that. I appreciate the institution of weekly Evening Prayer, Benediction and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament; the "Beauty of Our Faith" classes that were just beginning; the efforts to get the parish together for fun events as well as faith events. It was Father Dan who first encouraged me to use my pocket rosary.

While Father Dan was here, he did good. May God bless him with a return to good health. Please pray for him, and for our parish as we have no leader at a crucial time. His absence will be deeply felt.

An Open Letter to the Wal-Mart Corporation

Mr. H. Lee Scott, Jr.
President, Director & CEO
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 SW 8th Street
Bentonville, AR 72716-8611

Mr. Lee:

What has happened to the Wal-Mart I once knew? Your company always advertised itself as a “family store.” Everyone thought of Wal-Mart as a place where families could get what they needed and save some money in the process. My family has been shopping at Wal-Mart for years, for household necessities, medications, baby items, toys, stationery and clothing items.

Lately, though, I’ve heard some reports about Wal-Mart that have caused me enough concern that I have not shopped in a Wal-Mart or SAM’S Club since August. I will not shop in one of these stores again until the concerns have been addressed.

I care about where I spend my money. And I choose not to spend my money in stores that aggressively promote a pro-gay agenda, supporting the NGLCC; I choose not to spend my money in stores whose parent company donates to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. This is not what a “family store” does. This is not the action of a company that used to pull CDs off store shelves if they were deemed inappropriate.

Wal-Mart has sacrificed the good of families in favor of its own bottom line. What you have not considered is the loss of goodwill among people who believe that the pro-gay agenda is wrong, that the pro-abortion agenda is wrong, and are willing to vote with their wallets on such matters.

For the good of my family, I will not shop at Wal-Mart anymore, until these policies are changed.

For the good of my friends’ families, I will spread the word.

And I will continue to pray that the hearts of those who make such decisions about Wal-Mart will be changed, so that your company can once again be regarded as a “family store.” When that happens, please let me know, and I’ll be back.

H/T to Jean at Catholic Fire. This is going out in today's mail.