The Catholic Wife

I just got a text message from my husband....who is texting me from the bathroom......four feet from the office I'm sitting in!

I have been neglecting this site again.  It's not intentional, of course.  I get home from work and I'm very tired and I just want to go to bed.  Housework gets neglected,  homework gets neglected - everything gets neglected!  And then I beat myself up over it.  I know what my problem is - I do not sleep well.  Despite our expensive Sleep Number Bed, which I love, I wake up many times each night.  I cannot fall asleep and stay asleep.  It's so frustrating as my husband closes his eyes and starts snoring 3 minutes after turn out the lights and then he'll snore alllll night.  I get insanely jealous as I toss and turn.  If any of you have any tips for how you go to sleep and stay asleep, I'd love to hear them.  I'm at my wits end from exhaustion!

And oh yeah - my birthday was yesterday.   I entered a new decade........  I feel so old!

Since we moved from Kentucky to Indiana three months ago, I have felt disconnected from my faith.  I have found myself straying, struggling, and no longer feeling "on fire" for Christ.  And a few days, I finally figured out what my problem is - I am no longer going to Eucharistic Adoration several times a week.  In Kentucky, I was blessed to find a perpetual adoration chapel right down the street from my workplace.  Once I discovered it, nothing could keep me away.  Regardless of how my day was going, time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament made me feel better.  My heart yearned for time with Jesus in this way.  THAT is what I've been missing since the move!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with or have never participated in Eucharistic Adoration, it is truly a profound experience.  Receiving the Holy Eucharist and being able to openly spend prayerful time with Him through Eucharistic Adoration is the greatest gift given to me by the Lord through His church.  Being in the true presence of the Lord is the most wonderful, powerful feeling.  I must put Eucharistic Adoration back into my life! Not having it regularly has left me longing.  Luckily, I discovered a perpetual adoration chapel just 6.5 miles from my new job!  I will be visiting there tomorrow!  Through the Holy Eucharist, I have THE most personal relationship with God that there is.  I am saddened for Catholics who are unaware of its power and for Protestants that deny it!

Since becoming Catholic, I have stopped listening to most Protestant Christian music due to theological errors in the lyrics and a general preference of sacred music now.  The one singer that I have not and cannot ever give up, though, is Michael W. Smith.  I have every one of his albums and have loved him since I was 12 years old.  His new album, "A New Hallelujah" came out today.  I'm listening to it now - so far it's awesome!  He's certainly not a Catholic artist but he's amazing!

It just occurred to me that Halloween was this Friday.  It completely slipped my mind because we don't "do" Halloween.  I went trick-or-treating exactly once in my life.  When I was 4, my mom painted my face green, put me in a witch's costume, and took me trick-or-treating next door to my grandparents' house.  I think I got about 5 pieces of Double Bubble, came home, and took everything off.  Halloween is just something my family didn't participate in - partly because my parents both work in world of law enforcement and Halloween is often full of idiots doing stupid things.  That tends to leave a bad taste in their mouths and meant that we kids never got to do what all our friends did that day.  As a result, I'm missing the Halloween gene.  I just don't care!  I don't believe that the majority of people "worship" the day or use it for dark purposes - although I do admit that there are people out there who definitely do those things.  But I guess I've just never understood the concept of pretending to be someone else while begging for sugary treats.  Makes no sense to me!

We bought a 1974 New Paris Traveler 16" travel trailer/camper tonight!  I'm so excited!  We're going to totally redo the inside (paint the cabinets, walls, and ceiling, put up new curtains, put down new flooring, and redo the plumbing.)  It's going to take some TLC but will be awesome when it's done!  We'll be camping in style next year!

YAY!  The Christmas 2008 Leaflet Missal catalog arrived here today!  If you don't get this magazine, look it up.  It is POSITIVELY WONDERFUL!  TONS of great things for the home!

So my dreams of a camper have turned into an obsession.  I'm constantly researching them, looking at pictures, comparing stuff, etc.....  I cannot wait to get one! 

I am dreaming of a travel camper....I want a little 13" camper so that DH, the dog, and I can head out and have a few adventures after we graduate from school next year.  I either want a new Scamp camper or a vintage Shasta......  Anybody have one?  If you do, tell me how you like it!

When I was seven years old, we moved from a small town to the country.  Suddenly, I had a long driveway in which to ride my bike and five acres of grass on which to play.    The nights were dark and virtually silent except for the crowing or bleating of farm animals, the stars were brilliant, and the change of the seasons was always extremely evident.  Growing up there, I became accustomed to the smell of woodsmoke in the mornings and evenings during the fall and winter months.  The smell was a comforting one to me and became the epitomic scent of country living in my mind.  Growing up in the country, though, left me longing for the convenience, busyness, and rush of city life.  As a teenager, my room was decorated with posters of New York City, the place I hoped to one day call home.  When I became of age, I didn't move to New York but I did move to Louisville, KY.  No, it's not New York but it still certainly offered city life.  From there, I moved to Indianapolis, IN for an even larger city experience.  Life was very circuitous for me and I bounced back home to the country for a while, although I didn’t appreciate it at all.  Instead, it was a burden as I drove an hour each way into the city to work and to see my boyfriend.  I was soon out of the country and back to Louisville again, where I was married and joined my life with a former-country-turned-city boy.  We returned to the country to visit my family and the smell of woodsmoke became a signal to me of the arrival of the fall and winter holidays.  Two months ago, we made the journey as a couple up to central Indiana.  Life is very different here.  Instead of living in an apartment, of which I have lived in seven different ones over the years, we are now in a tiny old house on the edge of a miniscule little town on the outskirts of Indianapolis.  The nights are very dark, the stars are brilliantly bright, and the crowing of roosters greets us in the morning.  Now that it is fall here and the mornings and evenings are very cool, the smell of woodsmoke wafts our way.  That epitomic smell of country life again greets me as it did when I was a child, signaling to me that the holidays – my favorite time of year – are approaching.  Again, that warm, earthy smell wraps me in blanket of comfort.  Only this time, memories of country life come rushing back and I breathe deeply, thanking God for allowing me to once again smell Fall as it arrives.  How great it is to be back in the country.  I never realized how much I missed it until I came back.