I thought I better update this site since I have been absent.  Since finishing grad school, plus adding a lot of outside stresses, health concerns, and other drama, I have begun evaluating certain aspects of my life.  In fact, I have begun to resent the amount of time I actually spend online, sitting in front of this computer.  As a result, I have severely reduced my internet time to see how I feel.  I have found myself sleeping better and getting much more done around the house!  I was on the computer so much for school that I have had to teach myself how to NOT be online.  All of this has made me think and reassess things.  I have decided to take a hiatus from updating this site.  In all honesty, I need to see if this is the ministry the Lord is calling me to.  Sometimes, I believe it is.  Other times, I feel that He wants my efforts elsewhere.  Since it is Spring, I am busy planting and gardening, visiting with family, getting my house clean, and spending time outside.  I intend to approach all these things with a prayerful heart because I truly desire to know WHAT the Lord has in store for us.  We have been experiencing really rough times for a while, including what can only be called spiritual warfare.  If the Lord wills for me to continue this website, I pray that He shows me what direction He wants me to to take it in.  If He doesn't desire that I continue this work, I pray that He shows me where my talents are best needed. 

I will probably stop back by every once in a while and update the blog.  But all articles and pages in development are presently on hold until I figure some things out.  I thank all of you who have been friends and readers.  I ask that you lift us up in prayer as I will continue to lift you all up in prayer.

Well, the wildness of the weekend (see previous post) gave way to a quiet and peaceful week in the neighborhood.  All the ruckus faded and it has been wonderfully silent the entire week.  I love to sit on the porch in my rocking chair and just be....  Often, we don't take the time to just be.  We have to run here, run there, email that person, text that other person, make that phone call, pay those bills, fix that dinner, and clean up that mess.  We never just......be.  I have found that it is so easy to be on the front porch.  I sit and rock while praying the rosary, saying silent prayer, or simply just staring up at the trees and the sky with hardly a thought in my head.  With all that is going on in our lives right now, it's a relief to go where I can just relax and be me.

I haven't posted again in a while.  I find myself busier but I'm not sure WHAT I'm busy doing...I just seem to be NOT in the blogging mood. 

In the past week, we have discovered a drawback to our porch swing.  It faces our neighbor's house and we now get to watch the kids fight and cuss each other out all day.  Plus the two women that live there (they share 10 kids between them) swear like sailors at the children....and we even suspect that there is some drug activity going on.  So we try to enjoy our porch swing in the early morning and in the evening after the children have gone inside.  Otherwise, it's like a circus.  We, at one time, wanted to buy this house.  Now, I think, we are both in agreement that we want something a little more remote with more land.  We want to live IN the country....not in a small town in the country.  So our search for the perfect home will continue, although we're not going anywhere for quite a while!

Our baby bunnies flew...err...hopped the coop today.  They were so big that they no longer fit in the burrow!  They finally got brave enough to take off.  They were quite cute.  Below is a picture of one that we took earlier this week.  I will miss those adorable faces but I WON'T miss trying not to kill them with the lawnmower! 

Yesterday morning, Tim and I went to see "Star Trek." That was a fabulous movie!  I have never really been a fan of the whole Star Trek thing but I enjoyed it immensely.  It was very well done - and only PG-13!  It got glowing reviews and every one of them was dead-on correct.  Go see it!  Even non-Star Trek fans will enjoy it because it's a great human/alien adventure story!


Onto a gross update: I discovered that the flowers in my herb garden were overtaken with aphids.  They had even gotten onto my Basil and Sage plants.  I yanked out all the flowers and doused the herb garden with water.  They seem to be dead but its getting another dousing tomorrow.  They're plant lice......ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!

I am going to go work around the house for a bit.  We've got a busy agenda tomorrow for Mother's Day.Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there.....I hope to join you in the ranks someday.......

This weekend, we planted tons of plants here at the homestead.  My mother, the master gardener, came up and brought many different types of flowers with her.  We will have lillies and daisies and black-eyed susans and russian sage and butterfly bushes and a bunch of other flowering plants as well.  Below is the main flowerbed that is at the front below our deck while we were still working on it:

Also, Kyle (our dog) has been going to this particular spot in our yard for days and just staring.  I went and couldn't see anything until yesterday.  There, scattered in the yard, were five perfectly tiny but beautiful baby bunnies.  They are approximately 3 inches long and have tiny ears.  They are already covered in fur and their eyes are open.  Momma Bunny put a burrow right below our window!  I gathered the babies up and put them back in their burrow, where they slept all day.  I watched last night and saw Momma come back.  As a result, Kyle is banned from the backyard until the babies leave the burrow.  They are almost ready because they are getting too big for that tiny burrow!  They are sooo cute!

Today, I harvested some of my herbs from my window herb garden.  The plants are getting out of control so its time to start drying them.  Here is my make-do drying line....going from a craft cabinet to my rocking chair in this office.  Here, we have sage, rosemary, basil, curry, and thyme all drying.  Yum!  And now my office smells fabulous!

I better get moving...time for Mass soon!

Like many women I've met/read about in blogland, I love the idea of a Home Management Binder.  Having different sections for chores, pantry lists, prayers, devotionals, etc. is an awesome way to keep the home organized.  I started a HMB and it kept me organized for about a week.  I'm left-handed and for binders to be helpful, I have to turn them backwards.  So then I moved to a Home Management System via notecards and a notecard box (see below.) 

This was helpful for a little while but was also a huge hassle because I was constantly having to fill out notecards, move things around, create and change topics, etc.  So I just stopped and reverted to making "To Do" lists on pieces of paper, which I would then lose.

Then I decided to embrace technology.  At work, I use Outlook to completely organize all my tasks.  At home, I have both a Mac and a Dell netbook and use them both off and on, so I couldn't use the same type of program at home.  I opted, instead, to embrace smartphones.  Now, all my tasks, ideas, chore lists, etc. can be found on my Palm Centro (see below).  It is quite handy!  I'm finally getting organized!
 

I keep my rosaries hanging on nails in my office so that I have them for easy use.  I was hanging up two new ones today (I love rosaries and buy them every once in a while) and decided to take a photo.

The first rosary is from Medjugorje.  I bought it at the Marian Center in Louisville.  It is made from rocks from Podbrdo Hill, where the apparitions first occurred.  In the center is a bit of dirt from that hill as well.  The second rosary I just bought yesterday because it's green, which is my favorite color.  This one will be coming off the nail and will be the one I carry with me (as I ALWAYS have one with me.)  The third one - pink and white plastic - I received at the Indiana Catholic Women's Conference and it was blessed by Fr. Crotty.  The 4th one is a peachy pink color and I bought it at the hospital during my grandmother's surgery.  The 5th one (and the only one with a gold chain and crucifix) came with my "How to Pray the Rosary" book and was the one I carried with me until I bought the green one.  It was also blessed at the conference.  And the last one is a replacement that I bought after my very first ever rosary broke WHILE I was praying the rosary.

I find rosaries to be physically beautiful and spiritually important.  These hang next to my "family altar" which I will post pictures of once it is complete!

I dream of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park.  I long to go there more than anywhere else.  Below is a video that shows the beauty that I am yearning for - and will hopefully be able to see soon.  Despite everything going on, we're planning a trip for September.

So my hours were cut today....down to 32 hours a week.  It's company-wide now.  It is not something we can afford but we have no choice.  I have to just put my trust in the Lord and move on.  I nearly had a panic attack when my boss told me today but I got control of myself.  I had to immediately place it in the hands of the Lord because I can't bear all of these burdens on my own anymore.  Life has been so stressful for so very long.   On the positive side, tomorrow is the last day I have to get up at 4:30am to be at work at 6.  I HATE early mornings!

My diploma came today!  I finally officially have my Masters degree.  All that work for a piece of paper was a bit anti-climactic but oh well...I'm done!!  I'm hoping to utilize it by getting a teaching job in the evening to supplement my income.  Say prayers!

I'm also getting a new cell phone.  I have a Palm Centro that has a million things wrong with it....and it's still under warranty.  Verizon sent me out a new one today!  Hopefully by Friday, I'll be Centro-happy again!

I sat on our porch swing and prayed the Rosary again tonight.  I'm also doing the Liturgy of the Hours through the book Shorter Christian Prayer.  That is one confusing book....you need a Ph.D. just to navigate all the sections!  I'm hoping to figure it out because reading and praying the daily prayers and readings of the church is a wonderful habit to get in to.

Better get offa here.....gotta turn in soon.....  Hubby isn't feeling well - hope he isn't getting swine flu!!!

So I have a multi-faceted praise report to discuss.   

My grandmother's surgery was yesterday.  The doctors stated that they removed all of the mass on her kidney and she doesn't need chemotherapy or radiation.  She is still in ICU to regulate her breathing but should move out of there today.  I'm going to go see her after work today.  

 I have felt like I was fighting a spiritual battle for the past several weeks.  Since I went to the Indiana Catholic Women's Conference, I have seriously felt like I was battling darkness and despair.  It was making me not want to go to church, not pray, and was making me feel negatively towards the faith – I was even tempted to completely close down this website.  The feelings were dark and negative and I was powerless to fight them it seemed.  Yesterday, though, while we were at the hospital, my grandparents' pastor sparked me into action.  He is a Nazarene minister and was telling one of my family members that “Catholics believe that they can buy their way into heaven.”  Being the only Catholic in the family, I walked up to him and said, “No, we don't believe that.”  He looked at me and said, “Yeah, I think they do teach that.”  I reiterated, “No, WE don't believe that.  If a Catholic believes that he can buy his way into Heaven, he was poorly catechized.  The Roman Catholic Church does NOT teach that entrance into Heaven can be “bought”.”  At that point, I think he realized that I wasn't backing down so he changed the topic.   After I did that, I felt so empowered.  I felt strong and wanted to passionately defend my faith at all costs.  It was like the negative clouds and dark feelings that have been pressing on me for two weeks immediately lifted.  I felt lighter, stronger – and blessed!  When I got home last night, I was able to pray the rosary and was much more focused.  I even bought a new rosary at the hospital gift shop yesterday (I love rosaries!)  I am thankful that God saw me through this dark period and brought me through to the other side.  I felt so much better last night.  The sky seemed brighter and the air was cleaner.  Spiritual warfare is a very real topic.  There are always dark forces wanting to pull us away from the light of Christ.  I don't know what sparked this particular episode.  It coincided with the Catholic Women's Conference, though.  While I was there, I was prayed upon by Father Christopher Crotty, a Charismatic Catholic who leads healing services.  He prayed upon me with a cross containing the relics of three saints and spoke of the spiritual warfare he has been under while doing his work.  Perhaps the evil one did not like how 500 Catholic women gathered together to pray, sing, and glorify God?  All I know is that I left that conference feeling depressed and it lasted for over a week.  I feel that I need to work more daily prayer time into my life.  We must arm ourselves!

It has been quite a while since I posted an entry.  I am finding that I would much rather be outside right now than sitting in front of the computer.  Now that I have free time, we're working on cleaning out closets and throwing away stuff that we keep moving with us but never take out of the box.  I'm also going to try to sell some stuff on eBay.  You see, we are planning a fall vacation to Yosemite National Park.  My biggest dream, and one I had to give up, was to be a park ranger at Yosemite.  Then I met Tim and life took a different course but I still grieve for the loss of that dream every once in a while.  BUT we have decided that we're going to take a trip.....so I'm planning for it now!  I hope everything works out so we can go!

We're having company today....my sister and one of my brothers and my niece and nephew are coming up.  So I have to clean!  Toodles all!  I'll work on this site more later.....when it's not beautiful, warm, and sunny outside!