Pro-life Students

I had the joy of talking with two groups of students at the St. Patrick's Catholic School today!  I dropped my budding nature artists off for their class and headed that direction with Brendan and Zaira.  Brendan was terribly upset because he wanted to play at he playground and Zaira had not nursed in the last hour.  I was not sure how this first talk was going to turn out.  However, God is gracious and managed to calm Brendan down and he was a great helper during my talk.  Zaira had no desire to nurse during this time either.

So, I never know exactly what I am going to say when I do these kind of talks.  I like the Spirit to move me in the right direction.  The first group was the young ones 1st-3rd grade and they were so sweet.  They just wanted to coo over Zaira for the most part.  I started with a Bible verse from Job that I read from my breviary for morning prayer.  I though it was quite fitting for the day!

"Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I shall return. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken back. Blessed be the name of the Lord! If we take happiness from God’s hand, must we not take sorrow too?" (Job 1:21, 2:10)

I read/sang from a book I have had since childhood.  The book once had a record in it and I am sure I listened to it many times; however, I have long since lost the record.  However, I can still hear the song in my mind.  "I am a Promise...I am a possibility...I am a Promise...with a capital P" This has become our Pro-life motto.  As I told the children, God sees the promise in all of us and we are all precious in His sight.  God gives the potential for all of to have life.

Then I had time to read one of my favorite books, Angels in the Waters.  This book is about the development of a baby in the womb but also shows the importance of our guardian angel from the moment of conception.  I was so blessed to be able to share side stories about my children as I read the story.  Brendan and Zaira were on my lap at different times as I read as well.  It was a very special moment that I will cherish.  And it taught the children how life is special.  We ended with all of us praying the Angel of God prayer together.  

I then went back to pick up the others from their class and headed back to speak to the older group of 6th-8th graders.  I had prayed about what I was to tell this group and really did not know what to tell them, as I have spent many years with this group talking about Prolife information.  God blessed me with an idea as I made the trip around the loop.  All I needed was a deck of cards!

Thankfully, I got back to the classroom in time to ask for the cards and set up the plan before the students came into the class.  When they arrived, each was given a card.  I had several number cards, 4 queens and a Jack.  Then I opened up the talk with the reading from Job again.  This time I focused more on the second half of the verse...we are to praise God in times of happiness and sorrow.

Then I spoke about choices in life.  I asked the four girls with queens to come forward along with our lone Jack.  I explained how 1 in 4 women will have had an abortion by the time she is 40 years old.  I asked the girl holding the Queen of Hearts to step forward and said that she represented the baby who was affected by the decision.  She was not allowed to speak and we were to ignore her as much as possible.  The other girls were told that they were the friends who did not give their friend good advice or none at all.  And that lone Jack?  He was the boyfriend who did not try to stop the abortion!

I then had their attention to show how abortion affected my life.  I spoke about the multiple times I was asked why I did not abort each of my children.  Going through each reason any one of them might be aborted in the eyes of a pro-abortion society.  However, explaining how each one of my children are so dear to me and how God wanted them to be in my life.  I cannot imagine life without them.  I even included our sweet blessing in heaven who I remember each year in September on the anniversary of the miscarriage.  I explained how even though no one asked me to abort that child, I was told many times after the miscarriage that the loss of that child should not be painful since I already had so many.  The theme throughout this talk was how life is precious...no matter what the circumstances.

The class ended my talk by praying for me to be blessed.  Such a wonderful way to end my time at the school!  And, I really do feel blessed!

After these talks, the children and I went home for lunch and then off to speech and making spaghetti dinner.   Another blessed Wednesday!  Praise God!

Also, an update on my friend, Margie, who was run over at the Life Chain this previous weekend. From Fr. Mark:

"Margie and I had a great conversation. Gordon (her husband) was also there. Margie has been sitting up, talking up a storm and had sat on the edge of the bed earlier in the day.  She is so very grateful for all the prayers that are being offered for her after this terrible accident. She asks you to please continue them.  Gordon said she will be going to rehab later this week."  

Praise God for her recovery!

Typical Monday

Not a lot of news today...it really was a typical Monday for us.  We had school in the morning (and for some in the afternoon).  We did manage to do an interesting science experiment to show the polarity of molecules.  The boys created a cup that would drain through the bottom and held a comb under the steady stream of liquid that was poured into the cup.  The idea was to try this with water and oil.  he comb was rubbed on their hair to create a charge.  To their surprise, when the water was poured beside the comb, the water looked bent! They later tried this with oil to no effect.  The reason being, the water charge was attracted to the charge on the comb.  It was a neat effect that did not occur with the oil.  A great way to show polarity of molecules!

I then took Sean to speech (arriving just in time!).  While he worked with his therapist, the other boys and I sorted through my growing (no pun intended!) plant specimen collection.  I am trying so hard to gather all of the plants in our 4H contest so I can really understand them.  So today I sorted them into a large sketch pad for pressing.  I still have a few that just do not seem to grow around our wooded areas, so I will need to ask around to find some.

Then we were racing to spend the afternoon in a pumpkin patch for 4H photography group.  This was a lot of fun and the boys helped teach me about our camera features.  I never thought it would be possible to have a camera take a picture if it detected a smile...but our camera can do that...and it worked!

Pray for me to be able to make it to get a new battery soon...the car needed to be jump started again today after the photography meeting.  Other than that, it was a good day.  And for those who read my post yesterday, please continue to pray for Margie...her recovery will be long and we continue to wait for understanding of the full extent of her injuries.

Life Chain

Just got back from our 2012 Life Chain...we had about 100 people praying for the end of abortion in our nation.  Praise God!  We had people on each side of the main street going through town...from the stop sign to the stop light...about a quarter of a mile span.  A lot of people chose to huddle closer together this year because it was below 60 degrees and windy, but they stayed the entire time so it was a great turn out and witness of united prayer!

I told a friend last night to pray for all to go well...I had no idea if we would have anyone there! I worry every year that I am going to be the only one praying on the side of the road.  I guess I need to put my trust fully in God and know that all will work out.

One of our prayer warriors who is wheelchair bound offered to hold Zaira in her lap, as she was bundled up in a warm blanket and sleeping.  This was very helpful as I passed out signs to the participants.  This also allowed me the opportunity to greet new participants.

One of the new families I met already knew me by name.  They had just moved here from West Texas and had asked if there was a Pro-life group.  They were given my name but no contact information.  I am so glad we were able to connect.

I was also given the disappointing news that one of our faithful pastors would soon be retiring.  He did send out the message for his congregation to support Life Chain, but his leadership will be sadly missed in the Pro-life community as well as the community in general.  I am sure he will find a new way to lead away from this pastoral role.  I pray for God's guidance in this new phase of his life.

In all, we had the presence of at least three Catholic parishes and four Protestant congregations.  I was also pleased to see so many youth and families praying today.  I cannot help but think about the importance of this next generation as we continue to pray for the end of abortion.  I pray that this generation will be the ones who will see an end to this tragedy that our society faces.

And with the battle, we cannot forget that our enemy is not each other but Satan as he weaves his evil into our lives.  That might seem like strong words, but over the years I have found that with success there comes distress.  I try to prepare myself for what will come when we give ourselves to the cause and open ourselves to the world.  Today was one of those days when I could feel the joy of the moment as God's people were united in prayer in such strong numbers.  I felt a peace knowing that God heard our prayers and we will one day see the end to this struggle.  However, I also prayed that the burden of Satan's retaliation should be placed on my shoulders and not those who joined with me today (not just locally but across the nation).

So, when you ask for something in prayer, be sure to have yourself ready for that prayer to be answered.  I gathered up signs as the prayer vigil ended and actually got the boys in the car quickly.  However, when I tried to start the car...click click click!...the battery was dead!  I had left the back door of the car open for the last two hours to have easy access to the signs and it must have drained my battery.  I have had this happen in the past from time to time so it was not a big surprise.  One of the men (Thank you, Ed!) looked at my battery and said it was not a good battery and it had sprayed chemicals all over my engine...upon inspection it really was a mess which had not happened in the past.  We were able to jump start my car (Thank you, Deacon Billy!) but I was going to need a new battery.

Then we got home and planned a warm dinner to beat the chill we had out at the vigil.  Edward went out to the garage where our big freezer is kept and found the door wide open!  The funny thing about it was that I know the freezer was closed tight yesterday so it should not have been a problem.  I am not sure what happened but we were able to save half the food because it was packed tight after our monthly shopping last week.  Of course, that means we lost half our food supply for this month.  And, we also had to cook two of my back up casseroles for dinner tonight or these meals would have been lost.  I guess we know what we are eating for the next few days!

These little troubles are frustrating but I was determined to let it go and offer it up for God's glory.  These sufferings were not going to ruin our success of the day.  I would not get upset and chose to praise God the more!

Then I got the phone call from a friend.  A dear Pro-life friend (Margie), who has given many years to the Project Gabriel ministry, was at a Life Chain event in another town north of us.  She was struck by a vehicle that jumped the curve where she was praying.  She had been taken to the hospital in critical condition.  The driver had tried to flee the scene but was in police custody.  I would later learn that Margie was in stable condition.  Also, it was not clear but the driver might have fallen asleep at the wheel.

I just could not believe what I was hearing.  As a coordinator of this event, I try to keep everyone safe but this was unbelievable.  How do you stop a vehicle?  In fact, this accident happened within 15 feet of the coordinator.  He could never have predicted or been able to stop this from happening!

I sent a message out to friends to pray for Margie and the driver.  I know that Margie is a strong woman and will fight to recover.  I pray for the driver...that this was not intentional and that there will be forgiveness...as well as mercy in case this was intentional.  I cannot get this out of my mind as I pray continuously in the back of my mind.

I know that the efforts of those praying will far out weigh the hardships...I know that God has the victory over evil.  I can only pray that we will stay strong in these hardships.  May God bless us in our faithfulness.

A Little Culture

We spent the first part of the day relaxing.  We thought it would be good to just be at home.  This lasted until about 2pm and we began to get a little stir crazy..LOL!

We had already done a little planning for the next day's Life Chain event.  We will be out along one of the main roads in town praying for the end of abortion.  The boys helped me sort the signs into different stacks.  We also threw away the signs that were not usable after many years of use.

So, past the point of twiddling our thumbs and wanting to get out of the house for a little while we began to think about what to do with our afternoon.  Thankfully, we remembered a new exhibit was opening at the Forest Museum, so we headed out for a short outing.

We arrived just in time to see the exhibit open.  There was a nice crowd meandering through the side room where the art work had been artfully presented around the room.  This artwork was created from items from the Bastrop wild fire.

It was last year on September 4th that a 33,000 acre wildfire swept through the Bastrop area.  This had a big impact on our family because my mother was working in the area and heading to work that morning.  We were also heading that direction to visit her for the weekend.  Imagine my surprise when I sat down at my computer to look at the news and found this on my screen:



I was worried that my mother had tried to go to work that morning and was so thankful that my mother had the sense to see this same scene and decide to turn back!  Actually she was told by a state trooper that she could not continue along the road she was driving...but she had already decided to turn back when she got to him.  Can you believe...when she called into work, they told her to try to find a different route!?!

Needless to say, we did not make the trip to my mother's house that weekend.  It would be another  month before the fire was completely contained and the clean up could begin.  We had collected essential items for the victims of the fires to drop off at the Bastrop 4H building for distribution.  As we drove through the worst of the damaged area, we were shocked to see that there was still smoke coming from the burned up piles.  We also saw the once beautiful forest blackened and could not help but cry knowing that this fire could have been prevented.

Now a year later, we entered the art exhibit remembering those images in our minds as we walked through the artwork.  The program that sponsors these exhibits are trying to raise money to assist in the recovery of wildlife in the destroyed area.  They ask local artists to the area to create artwork out of the debris found at the sites.

I met with the woman who organized this group, Art From the Ashes.  She is from southern California and has seen many devastating fires over the years.  Her love for art and the desire to help those who were hurting led to the creation of this organization.  The idea was to create artwork that could be displayed and sold to benefit the effected area.  It was so successful that she now goes through the nation to help local residents do the same.  This particular wildfire in Bastrop was so widespread with so much damage to homes that there have been several exhibits organized to raise funds.  Our local museum graciously sponsored this exhibit to help in this effort.  The art is displayed for the next two months in hopes that the artwork will be purchased by the end of the exhibition.

The boys and I viewed the art in silence (other than my reading of the information to the non-readers).  This was a rare moment for our family to be quiet for so long, I assure you!  However, I think the boys understood the significance of this art.

Henry took many pictures of the art (view others on my Fb page) because he knew Michael would want to see these pieces.  I think he will make a good art photographer because he thinks outside of the box and takes photos from different angles.

By attending this opening of the exhibit we had the opportunity to an art lecture about the use of fire in art throughout the ages.  I found this talk fascinating, but the boys were thrilled to go to another part of the museum for their own art craft.  So while I was listening about how to make horsehair pottery and other forms of fire art, the boys were making puppets and creating a puppet show to tell about wildfires.

They were so cute as they made their puppets, I had to take Zaira out of the lecture for a few minutes to feed her, and I overheard them telling the director of the art class they wanted to share with everyone how important fire is for the environment.  They wanted to focus on the good of fire instead of the negative.  They also decided that the best way to do that quickly was to have the puppets in a classroom talking to their teacher about wildfires.  As others were leaving the art exhibit, they would pass by their show and watch.  A great job for five little rambunctious boys (one extra from another family)!

This deemed worthy of an outing that would appease our wanderlust for the day.  We returned home to make a big pot of Stone Soup.  The evening proved to be cooler than expected so our plans to make BLT's just did not seem to fit.  We love to follow the story of the soldiers and create our own version with what we have a round the house.  We have never failed in making a delicious soup just like the soldiers created for the townspeople in the story.  It was a fun way to end the day and then we were able to go to sleep satisfied with nourishment for our bodies and minds.

Crazy Thursday

Once a month we have our crazy Thursday.  I am not sure how it happens exactly but on the day of our monthly 4H club meeting we always end up having a lot of things to do.  That was how it ended up today.

We began our day with a simple breakfast of biscuits and gravy.  This turned out to be a big mess that ended with only biscuits!  So, what I thought was going to be a calm and easy going start to the day turned into a big mess to clean up and a race to get out the door!

We were off for another round at the dentist.  I know...eventually we must be able to get out of that dental chair!  Today was Sean's return visit.  I was told he had one cavity that needed to be fixed.  Sean told me that he was told their were no cavities.  Since I did not take him to the dentist I just assumed Michael knew what was wrong, but I guess I should have asked more questions.

You see, Sean has had a lot of trouble keeping his top front teeth.  He fell and busted these teeth soon after his adult teeth emerged (around 8 years old).  He has since had them replaced several times.  So, after several falls and many dollars later, I told Sean that I would not have his teeth fixed again until he was older (and hopefully more stable in his walking).

Imagine my surprise when he came out of the dental chair with his teeth straight and beautiful without any chips!  I do not know who was more proud...the dentist or Sean!  I was glad that he had it done but also concerned because the fall is bound to happen...please let him not hurt these teeth again!

The dentist also pointed out that he would need a root canal done on one of these teeth.  We have known this for some time but we were told to wait until he matured.  This time it looks like we will need to do something to avoid an infection.  Yet another trip to the dentist, but I am going to at least wait until Michael gets home.  I still have Brendan's big dental trip to come later this month.

By the way, Brendan was so cute!  He was fine at the dentist office in the waiting room.  I guess he thought he would eventually be able to go back to see the dentist.  He was very surprised when he was not called to the back.  He told me that he needed his "dentist moment!"  So silly!  I just hop he feels this way AFTER these root canals happen.

We rushed back home only long enough to grab a bite to eat for lunch before heading out again.  We got back into town just in time for our hour of pray at the Planned Parenthood vigil site.  These 40 days will be over before I know it so I do not want to miss an opportunity to go out and pray.  I am so pleased to hear that there have already been over 80 babies saved in the first week!  Praise God!  We had our singing books again today.  The boys did a great job, and we even had a solo from Edward.  I wish we had a video of his sweet voice!

We then began the afternoon and evening 4H events.  All of this went well and is detailed in the other blog.  We had an egg workshop and our monthly meeting.  We then left the meeting early to attend a hamburger supper at the zoo.

This supper is an annual event for members.  The boys always enjoy eating dinner with the wild animals....hmmmm...maybe they feel more at home there!  LOL...just joking!

Zaira had never been to the zoo so the strange noises was very fun for her.  She was a little confused but she was smiling the entire time.  She even got her picture taken with the parrots, peacocks and an alligator (named Charlie).

The boys got to go around the zoo trying to solve a treasure map that was set up with different bats.  Fun was had by all, but it was time to go home after the long day.  I am so glad we did not have a messy house to come home.  I was able to get all the boys into bed soon after we got home. A nice way to end another day!

Praise God Wednesday!

I think I am going to start calling Wednesday our "Midweek Praise God Day."  I have come to enjoy this day as a time of refreshment and renewal.  I think I have always enjoyed Wednesdays as a time reflection.  You know...a day to think about how the week has been going and look to the rest of the week in hope.

However, now I see it as our day to go to skip our book work and go to the park.  We have time to learn more about nature with our outdoor art classes with Bruce.  Then leisurely have lunch (next week I hope to take a picnic lunch to reduce the stress and rush even more!) and head to Sean's speech class.  While he is doing this, we can have a little time do a little school work or read stories.  No rush or fuss there.  Then we head to the Catholic Student Center to prepare spaghetti dinner.  We get home in time to get ready for bed (no mess because we have not been home all day!).

That is what today was like for the most part.  The art group learned about persimmon and winged elm trees, as well as trumpet creeper.  Even Brendan tried to draw the leaves and twigs in his sketch book.  Why is it that the things we love to do tend to make the time go by faster?!  The time flew by ans we hated to leave, which is why we hope to take a picnic lunch.

Sean had his speech class and he did very well as he continues to learn about enunciation his words and sounding out spelling words.  He was so proud of the fact that he was able to read a passage without any errors!

We then made it back to the student center to make salad, spaghetti, Alfredo and bread.  We did this in just enough time to go to Mass.  It was nice having the help of Anitra with the prep work.  Don and Dennis were glad to have her help as well.

We went to Mass and Brendan got a little feisty and loud, and we had to leave before the end of Mass (not too bad).  Tonight Edward also served on the altar for the first time!  He did a great job but he and Sean did struggle with not arguing at the altar.  We are going to need to do something.

We ended by taking Zaira to the native plant center for her 2 month picture!  I can hardly believe that she is that old...time goes by too quickly!  She was asleep when I took her out of the car and I assumed that would be our picture.  However, she woke up and we got a great picture of her smiling.

We did, in fact, come home to a some what clean house and got the boys to bed after a little chaos.  They even fell asleep soon after prayers!  I think I will follow this example.  Good night to all who might read this blog!

The Gates are Open

After a productive morning of school, we had a quick bite to eat and gathered what we needed to head out the door early.  We were going to the local Planned Parenthood where the 40 Days for Life campaign gathers in prayer before we went about our normal Tuesday routine.  As we were almost packed up, I thought it would be a good idea for each of the boys to grab a prayer book of their choice.  Then out the door we flew!

When we arrived at the clinic, and Brendan immediately said the gates are open.  He knew that it meant there would be women going and coming from the clinic.

We placed a blanket on the ground for us to sit.  I looked around at all of their prayer books and realized that they all had song books!  It was a wonderful gift (I am sure a grace from God) to be able to enjoy the boys singing our prayers of hope today!  We sang for most of hour and then ended in a Rosary.

We went with the remainder of our day...Wildlife and Robotics...but this was the highlight of the day!  Such a blessing to spend this time in prayer and be a faithful witness for God's glory!