7 Quick Takes Friday

1)   Hanging in there. Trying to hang in there. Slipping off pretty regularly, but trying.

2)  I took some stones with words on them to the cemetery yesterday to place on my husband's grave. One said "Beloved", and one said "Watch Over Us". As I stood there crying and begging him to intercede with our Lord Jesus, I wanted to hear his voice so bad, I dialed my home phone line just to hear him on the voicemail. It broke my heart to hear him say "Bye!" at the end. 
Goodbye, my true love, goodbye. 

3)The incredible kindness of friends and those who loved him and our family has been the most radical, amazing example of true Christian love I have ever seen. Every time I turn around, another hand is reaching out, with prayer blankets, Irish soda bread, pumpkin bread, money, help for my son,  flowers, or some other much needed and gratefully appreciated item. I thank them all from the bottom of my heart. 

4) This weekend the cemetery is having a day for families, with lunch, nature walks through their wooded property and trails, and a chance to fellowship with other Catholics who have lost loved ones. It is SUCH a lovely place, I wish you all could see it.  

Beautiful spring day

Garden of Precious Love, where Mary watches over miscarried babies

St Francis path

5)I think often of how Mary must have felt when she lost her husband, St. Joseph, who had always protected her and Jesus, and provided for their earthly needs. I wonder sometimes if she asked Jesus to heal him?   Losing a wonderful protector and provider like my Robert--a man who worked for us to the very end--leaves such a large and frightening hole. Only in God can that hole be filled.  But I will always miss his earthly presence. 

The death of St Joseph

6) I am praying today for Jen Fulweiller of Conversion Diary as she undergoes a difficult medical procedure to protect her heart and lungs from clots during her delivery monday, and for Hallie Lord of Moxie Wife who is delivering today, I believe. I wish them both blessings, successful deliveries and that Jen's medical procedure goes well.  Please join me in praying for them. 

7) What does one do with one's wedding rings when your spouse dies?  How do you go about going through their personal items, clothes, etc, and when? 

7 Quick Takes Friday

Inspired by Jen over at Conversion Diary, I have decided to try this "7 quick takes friday" thing I see on so many blogs. How hard can it  be, right? Right?..........

1) Autoimmune disorders are frisky, pesky little critters! They have been struggling to diagnose mine for three years now, and so far all they can come up with is that it's one symptom short of being Lupus, and I have a weird, reoccurring rash that biopsies as "consistent with" Lichen et Sclerosa, which I am told is common in peeps with autoimmune disorders, and I have consistently high ESR (sed rate) levels and a high ANA (anti nuclear antibody) count, discovered during a pregnancy 13 years ago. But they can't seem to pin it down any further. SO, what on earth is it that causes all these aches and pains, rashes, etc? My sister in law Susie is going through something similar, and she and I both had eczema as children that went away when we began puberty, then these autoimmune disorder started plaguing us both big time when we hit peri-menopause. Perhaps it is hormonally related? Anyone know?

image of typical autoimmune weird rash

2) How is it that a whole generation of parents are now dependent on their children's help to operate their electronic devices or repair them when they go kablooey? When you get those annoying "Google Chrome has left the building and taken your Farmville with it, and will be holding it hostage until you remit a ransom fee to Geek Squad" messages, do you immediately cry out for little Brandon and Paisley to please come figure this crazy thing out for you, thereby giving them the chance to think back on all wrongs real and imaginary you have ever done to them? Or do you fork over the cash to the tech guys?

random child happily computing because he knows how by golly!

3) Do you have a favorite image of the Blessed Mother? Mine is the one at the top of my blog, entitles "Kissing the Face of God". I think it just invokes such a real sense of who Mary must have been at that time--a young Jewish girl in simple, modest clothing, cuddling her darling baby boy, overjoyed at both being a mother, and being the mother of the DIVINE SON--the mother of God.  I can just see her dancing around her simple home with him, her face wreathed in smiles. What is your favorite image of Mary?

4)  Our pastor is from Uganda, and is on a committee there to run and enlarge a catholic school. Right now they have a boy's dorm but not one for the girls, so they must stay in local villages if they do not live close by, with people they barely know, and it's just not safe for the young ladies.  So, Fr. Isidore is trying to raise money for a girl's dorm.  He showed us a beautiful video about the project just before Christmas, and the countryside there is just lovely. I would love to visit Africa one day. 

Our Dear Father Izzy speaking at an event

5)  Presenting.......our puppy dogs, Sukey and Max! Sukey is mine, but is occasionally a benedict arnold if someone offers her an extra walk. She's about 2 years old, a german shepherd-cattle dog mix.  Max is my middle son's dog, an australian cattle dog mix, and is the very soul of humility and deference--and is a major couch potato.  We lost our dear doggie Zenith about 18 months ago and I still grieve for her--she was a catahoula leopard dog, the smartest, most loyal dog ever.

Sukey-dog

6) I have always been fascinated by the story of the Donner party, that ill-fated group of emigrants who set out for California from the east back in 1845, just before the gold rush, in a wagon train of some 80+ people and got stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the winter of 1845-46 at what is now Donner Lake during the worst winter the area has ever known.  Their food stores were already gone when they were trapped just three days ride from the Sacramento valley and civilization, and rescuers could not get through. By the time they were finally rescued in the late winter/early spring, cannibalism had occurred and the survivors were only 40 or so people. Only two families, the Reeds and the Breens, survived intact.  It's a fascinating story, best told (in my opinion) by George Stewart in "Ordeal by Hunger", written back in the thirties and still in print. If you haven't read it, you should give it a try--the man knows how to tell a story!

The fateful trail

Donner Pass in winter

7)  I think one of the best shows airing on tv today for the kiddos is "My Catholic Family" on EWTN.  I have learned so much from that show myself--each episode features a saint or blessed, with a modern catholic family of mom, dad, sis, brother and baby learning about them. It's quite well done for what it is, and they are still making new shows, unlike most of the other cartoons on the channel. They had a new one just last week on St. Clare!