Still Swinging!!

Life has taken me to the mat, and I'm still swinging! This has been the year of no blogging. Or very little to say the least. My beautiful daughter did go to Interlochen, and she learned quite a lot. She is currently a seventeen year old performance arts major at a college down in Westchester County of NY, much too far from her mommy! My other children are all thriving and doing well in their respective school programs. My hubby was laid off in July, so the company could move their operations to Singapore, therefore I am working two jobs to try and keep our heads above water. End result, no time to blog. Homeschool, household management, two jobs.

Admittedly, my spirits have sagged, but then I look at some of my friends and realize I have my health, my children are happy and healthy, I have more blessings than crosses. It is not always so easy to remember that, I'm working on it.

God bless!

Need some prayers!

Well, I'm surprised to realize I haven't been blogging since March. We have had much happening in our lives and it just has not been conducive to blogging.

In one of my last posts I discussed my daughter, the oldest, being accepted at Interlochen for their Summer Performing Arts Camp in ballet. This is a big thrill for us, but also a big, no HUGE expense. We have been running fundraisers to get her there, it is the sort of opportunity that a kid who is accepted just ought not to miss. It could really launch her career because the ballet intensive should vastly improve her technique in a way she just could not improve locally without many more classes. I do not usually put up photos of myself or my children, but in this instance, I will make an exception. This is my oldest child, my daughter, at a dress rehearsal for her pointe solo this year. This picture was taken while she was dancing by a very talented tenth grade photographer from her dance team.

My oldest daughter is technically in eleventh grade this year, homeschooling, so college is on the horizon for her. But, when I asked her what she would like to do for her senior year, she said she would like to go to right into college. Being a homeschool student, she has the opportunity to take the GED exam and go this fall. She has been signed up to take the GED and hopefully we will be packing her off to Sarah Lawrence (her first choice school) this fall. She was late applying because we had not planned to go this route at all. She missed many deadlines, she had a list of schools that was very long. We ended up only being able to apply to three schools, one is the local community college. Please pray for her to do well on the exam, and for her to be able to attend Sarah Lawrence this fall.

In other news, my husband will be laid off from work in June. This was not a surprise, my husband has been seeking other employment for the last year and a half. We've not had any success. There are likely many reasons for this, not the least of which is my husband does not have a bachelor's degree. The good thing is with this layoff being due to his company sending the manufacturing process overseas, he will qualify for job retraining. The bad news is that this will force him into unemployment and us onto benefits and even then, we may struggle financially. This may have me going into the workforce as a full time employee; if he works he will lose all his benefits. We also have an opportunity to open a restaurant here in town, but in this economy that is a bit risky, so we are weighing our options, trying to figure out what is best for our family and our future.

With all of this, and more stress, I've been unable to eat! Food will not stay with me. I'm losing a lot of weight, which I needed to lose, but this is not a good way to go about losing it. If I cannot start keeping food down, I will need to go to the doctor.

All of my trials, though significant this year, are nothing compared to those of my friend and fellow blogger, Mary, who has been diagnosed with stage four cancer. Please pray for all of these intentions, and I will try to get back to some positive posting very soon.

God bless, you are all in my prayers.

The Digital Hairshirt: Family of Abortion Clinic Owner Killed in Montana

The Digital Hairshirt: Family of Abortion Clinic Owner Killed in Montana

H/T to Digi

There is nothing more to add, read the article.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I hope you all have a great day! I know I am supposed to be doing Tuesday's Tome Tracts, but I seem to be running behind lately. I have been sick or had sick children, and then my eldest daughter went to the first dance competition of the season, and I have projects I'm trying to complete. I hope to be back on track with the blog soon.

In other news, my dancer was accepted in the ballet program at Interlochen for the summer, we could not be more pleased and heartily congratulate her.

Enunciation

If you, or your children, need to work on your enunciation, tongue twisters are a fun way to improve! When you start getting good, put a pencil between your front teeth and try again. If you master that, use marbles like Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. Also like Ms. Hepburn, I would caution you to be careful not to swallow. ;-)



Here is a great website...1st International Collection of Tongue Twisters, you have to choose what language, and there are over 400 in English!

I did this with my children, some had lazy speech patterns. This helped immensely. I also have a daughter who performs, and has aced auditions because she does not trip over her words when she speaks. She is a nearly flawless tongue twister, reigning champion in our home...she unseated me in that title!

New on the Blogroll

I have not done this in a while, now that Blogger has the 'Follow This Blog' feature, I follow all sorts of blogs without sharing what I've found. New on the blogroll:

Sonitus Sanctus: Free Catholic MP3 Links

Catholic iPod: Their banner quote is: "We are no longer able to hear God - There are too many frequencies filling our ears." ~Pope Benedict XVI

Both of these blogs offer good Catholic content to download. Enjoy

Not So Proud

TWO PEAS IN A POD:



WASHINGTON — Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, an early Obama ally with a record of working across party lines, is emerging as the president’s top choice for secretary of health and human services, advisers said Wednesday. Read more here.

Now look at what Thomas Peters has to say:

Kathleen "I'm-so-incredibly-pro-abortion-my-own-archbishop-came-out-and-told-me-to-quit-receiving-Communion" Sebelius.

Kathleen "I-took-almost-$40,000-in-political-funding-from-criminally-charged-late-term-abortion-provider-George-Tiller" Sebelius.

I'm not looking forward to the next nickname.

Definitely two peas in the pod. Here we have two influential Catholic women in American government, and look at how they use their influence. Today, I'm not so proud.

Proud to be a Papist!

I am always pleased to be a papist, but I am flushed with pride today as I read about the meeting between our "Catholic" Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and Pope Benedict XVI.

It was gratifying to read how she was denied a photo op and instead received much needed instruction. I pray we will see some changes in her behavior.

One has to wonder what would motivate Nancy Pelosi to request a meeting, did she not realize she would have to answer for a few things?

TWITTER

I am now on Twitter, though I have no idea what I'm doing with it. Let me know if you are there too!

Tuesday's Tome Tracts

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

After reading Comfort Food by the same author, I was interested in reading more of her work. The deal was clinched when I saw that she has two books about a knitting club. Knitting is one of those skills I've not yet mastered, though would love to do so. This knitting club is made up of a diverse group of New Yorkers, and not all of them have a love of knitting, but somehow find themselves involved in this club.

The store owner, Georgia, is a single mother, who started her shop as a way to support her daughter, Dakota, after being left by the baby's father. There is an interesting family dynamic which goes on because the mother is white, the father is black and the child is cafe-au-lait. The father resurfaces when the child is 12. The story of their family, though different, is very beautiful and moving.

There is a point in the book where Georgia is brought into a Catholic church and later where she has a heart-to-heart with a priest. As a Catholic, I'm always intrigued by the portrayal of the Church in novels. It strikes me that when lives come to crisis, often times in books and movies, we will find reference to the Catholic church, whether obvious or subtle, it is often there.

Amongst the club members, we find a feminist grad student who attends the club meetings as research for her thesis, her major is Women's Studies. She ends up learning more through this group than she ever intended. There is a socialite from Georgia's past who joins when she leaves her loveless marriage, a middle aged woman going through a career change, a designer, a single woman who is pregnant because she wanted a baby and not a relationship, an elderly woman who is a mother figure for Georgia, and a host of other characters round out the story.

The language in this story is occasionally more coarse than I prefer to read, but the story is well written, and the events brought me to tears. Interestingly, the only character who is at all similar to the stereotype of a knitter is Anita, the elderly widow, and it is a stretch to label her as such. There is a second book, called Knit Two, which follows up on the group, five years later. I have not read the second book.

UPDATE: My husband informs me, The Secret Life of Bees, previously discussed here, is going to be made into a movie. I cannot wait.