blessings and peace during Irene

Just taking a little break from a few more preparations around the house, to say let's all pray for safety and peace during Irene. Do what you can, and then pray and ask for His peace. He still holds us all in the palm of His hand.

the team roster

I had a request yesterday! To list the "kids" (I say it that way because some are preparing to pass me) and their ages. So I thought I would do a bit more and give a little bio on each. I will try to respect their privacy and only tell you things that would totally embarrass them if you ever met. Oops, did I type that out loud?

Well, as you know my first was aborted. He would have been born somewhere around November of 1980. Later, I named him John, and asked his forgiveness, as well as the Lord's, of course.In the last few years I have begun to talk about this, in the hopes of being able to help others who are struggling with a past abortion, or considering one.


Meghann was born in 1982, she is now 28 and married to Jeff.  They have a son, Kaden, 2, who is pictured here_ frequently _. Meghann is a convert to Catholicism, one year this Easter! She is an amazing girl in every way. Her life and mine are very interconnected, even though they live in Michigan and I in Philadelphia. We sort of have parallel experiences. Maybe I will expound on that sometime. But she was the child of my youth, her dad and I married at 19 and 20. She and I kind of grew up together; she weathered a whole lot of stuff!  Some of it was my inexperience and immaturity, but not all, and some things we survived together. She is such a strong person, she had to do some real battle, and she surely came out on top. God is blessing her for her perseverance and faith. He literally saved her life shortly after she had her son. ~Jeff, now, is really the best son in law anyone could have. I trust him with his wife and son completely, his love and commitment to them is so solid. He also is a fantastical guitar player and is in a great band.

I could go on about Kaden for well, a really long time, in true Nonnie fashion. If you have read, or continue to follow me on here, you will hear lots about him. He is precious, loving, intelligent and an extreme individualist! Please remember his mother in your prayers. But he is so adorable and sweet, she is often as tickled as she is disconcerted with him.


I should add here that Meghann's father and I divorced when she was two, my own mother was in the last stages of lung, brain and liver cancer then also--AND I was 22 years old. It was kind of a rough time.




I married again in 1986, we separated in 1998, divorced in 2000. We had five children.

Daniel is next. He was born in 1987, and is now 22. He lives with his dad, and I often am almost overcome with sadness that I have missed a great deal of his life, and have to honestly say that I don't know him well. The last time he lived with me was 1998, when he was 11. I homeschooled him up until a year before that, and he had a memory that astounded me. He memorized a poem by Ogden Nash, called, The Tale of Custard the Dragon. He was about nine, and it is quite a long poem. He did it with great panache, too.

                                                                                                      

He is a great drummer, and extreme biker, a hard worker; he is still sweet to me, and I love and miss him.

I had a miscarriage next, in 1989. It was difficult and physically painful, and scary. My eldest brother, Jerry, was nearing the end of his life at that time, so it all is kind of a blur to me now. I never did get to name that child, who lived to 7 weeks in utero, but I didn't lose her till 14 weeks.

  .

Corrie came along in 1990. She was the elf baby, born very close to, but not on, St. Patricks day, and boy, did she look it. Crystal blue eyes and a way about her that made every single thing she did be cute. Hmm, maybe that's the same gene Kaden got....anyways, she was and is very intelligent, (really all of them are), but this one was able to outsmart me before age 2. Still beautiful and still cute today, she is 20. I am blessed to have her living with me for the past year, and getting to know her again. She is working through some tough stuff, and we are all just loving her and praying her whole. Her boyfriend, Justin, is pictured in our slideshow. He is an accomplished musician, singing with, among many other things, the Opera Company of Philadelphia.                                                                                       
                                                                                                          

                    He also is a magician. Here he is entertaining Corrie.

                                                                                                                                                                    Now, Melissa,born in 1991,  who has been known as "the little mother", "the bee"(taken from the meaning of her name), and more recently Mimi, Mooshka, and Moose (shortened from Mooshka --even a nickname gets cut?) those obtained at the Mexican/Japanese cafe that she has worked at for three years. She is so capable and hard working-she has been left to run the place while the owner is out of the country, at age 18. Now she is nineteen.

She is closing in on an associates degree at Community College,where she has been at the top of her class with regularity,  and then it's off to another college next fall. She plans to become a psychiatrist. She is an excellent writer (see the post called cleaning house for a little more about her), an avid runner, yogi, and outdoors lover. She kayaked this summer. She can cook and bake; she cleans in maniacal bursts. Her boyfriend, Adam, is in our slideshow as well as the previous post. He plans to enter the police academy this fall. Both Melissa and Adam are converts, Melissa when she was 13, and Adam this past Easter!  She loves marshmallows and gummy candy. She also often hears strange versions of what we say, for instance of someone says "pass the mustard", she hears, "whose *ss ruptured?!" and things of that nature.

In July of 1993, I brought Rachael home on my birthday. She is now 17, a senior in high school. Both she AND Melissa will be off to some college next fall. Yikes. Rachael is our singer, though I love to sing and often do, I still consider her The Singer. I love when she joins Bob and I when we play for masses, (which she almost always graciously does). She is also an excellent student, well loved by her friends and teachers. She is affectionate and fun to be with. She can be moody, but we wait her out, knowing she will be back. Art is her first love, and she plans to apply to some good art schools. She is in the midst of choosing which ones and will be applying very soon.We will hopefully be off to visit some of them later this fall!

Ben was born on my mother's birthday in July, in 1995. He was my roughest pregnancy/delivery, for one reason because it was a very hot summer, and for another, he was almost as big as I was. He weighed in at ten pounds, four ounces, and was no butterball. Think angles, like a Tonka truck. I rightly predicted he would grow up and pass everybody, and he obliged me. He is fifteen and 6'2". He is a thoughtful, quiet, intelligent person. But he also has a riotous sense of humor. He had everyone laughing so hard in the van on our way home from North Carolina that I thought I was going to have to pull over. He is also a drummer. Our basement vibrates for an hour or two each day. I think the neighbors appreciate the fact that he is good. No one has called the police yet.



Malaika is our youngest. She is ten (almost eleven!-she would not want me to leave that out). She is lively and energetic--except when she is angry or upset--then she adopts a Frankenstein walk with stiff arms and develops a hunchback. I can see it now; when she has kids of her own, they will say, "oh oh, Mom's doing her walk again, we better run for it". She is being schooled in many things by a houseful of teenagers and young adults, which translates to; 1.having a large vocabulary and knowing how to use it, and related to but not the same; 2.Being able to verbally spar with Extreme sarcasm. Once we were talking about using a less crass word rather than fart, and I said that when the kids were little, we used to say "bunny". Her response? "Well, that just besmirched the name of Bunny". Besmirched? Who says that?  She does have some very lovely qualities; she is generous with her possessions and her love, her favorite saint is Saint Francis, and rightly so, because she loves animals and all creatures.
 
Here she is with Rusty, my brother's dog, at his home in North Carolina. Malaika left Rusty her little travel pillow. She placed it on his bed, didn't say a word to anybody, and we came home. My brother called  to tell us she had done this, and asked if we wanted it sent back. I said no, Malaika wants him to have it. Gary said Rusty likes it, he misses her and it has her scent on it.                                                                                                                 



Well, this is the lineup! We hope to soon have everyone together, something we have not been able to accomplish, as Meghann, Jeff and Kaden plan to come for Thanksgiving. If we can snag Daniel for that day, as last year, maybe we can pull it off. And if I don't harm the camera by then, we will take loads of pictures!

Well, this page contains the pieces of my heart. Thanks to the friend that requested it, it was a very worthwhile exercise in love and remembrance.



 I gave each one a green scapular--I say the prayer each day,along with my other prayers for them--






Here is a bit about what it is used for--it is not everything--it's main focus is on conversion. Who of us doesn't need continual conversion?



Favors obtained by invoking Our Lady under this title have been truly remarkable. The Society of the Green Scapular was formed specifically because of the incredible miracles obtained from Our Heavenly Mother during a brief six-month period. There were miracles of health, peace and conversion. At a major national medical center in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., two people were cured of fatal diseases, just a few days from death! Others were on the verge of suicide. Through the Green Scapular devotion they were given the wisdom to understand why they were so miserable, and the strength to make the changes necessary to bring happiness and hope into their lives. Most importantly, there were truly wonderful graces bringing people in various circumstances to reconcile themselves to Jesus in the fullness of His Truth and grace. Family and friends, who had fallen away from the Catholic Faith, and even those who never had faith, came to embrace the Sacraments (sometimes after being away a lifetime). People involved in dangerous relationships saw their bad companions change for the better or leave the relationship. Work environments witnessed an increase of purity in speech, modesty in dress and charity in behavior.



God Bless you!
Peace,
Kelly

trust

"Fear is useless; what is needed is trust." Luke 8:50, Mark 5:36

Easy to say, right?


 I have heard and read lots of good teaching about this subject. But the best teacher has been life itself.

 I've found that trust comes a bit easier for the long term issues for which I pray--especially eternal salvation for my family and other loved ones. Also for people of whom I am not personally acquainted, the Pope for example. I pray for his intentions at the conclusion of each Rosary, and sincerely ask God for his protection and guidance; but I do not suffer the same pangs as when I am praying, for instance, for my two hospitalized  daughters, one here, one in Michigan. (that was quite a time!) In that state of  prayer, I awake all throughout the night. Every waking moment I have the intention in the foreground of my thoughts, often accompanied by  the physical  feelings associated with grief. If you are alive and reading this, you know that twisting of the gut that I speak of.

 Aren't the here and now situations, the ones with the hard edge of reality gouging you in the ribcage, really the places of life that are so difficult to hand over to God? Finances, for example. Nothing is harder edged, more coldly factual and without emotion, than money. Yet, people's emotions are often very linked to it. Look at the stock market, driven by the feeling of the day. I guess it is the necessary stuff of life, and we have to deal with it--I have been affected at various times by a pretty grim monetary poverty, and know the daily stress it can impose.

On the flip side, I also have experienced in that real, more real than real, way, the hand of God coming to me in desperate situations; bringing His love, assurance of His presence, sometimes physical relief. But always, a freedom from the prison of fear.

Several years back, our dear Father Terry (pictured  in the slideshow with us at our wedding ), in a session of spiritual direction,told me to look back at my life, and document my own salvation history. Meaning, the times I could see the hand of God, noting through whom or what He came, and what was the effect? So very often  the pattern was - me surrendering something I was holding tightly to for comfort--whether it be a relationship, a mindset (fear, pride, insecurity, for a few of the big ones) or even control of certain outcomes, say, concerning my children. The results? Grace. Overflowing, abundant, overwhelming at times.

Our Lord is so available, so immediately present, so attuned to our every thought, struggle and prayer,---

(O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. Psalm 139 1-4)

--that, if we were aware, I think we would continually be falling on our faces in awe and gratitude. Not to mention all we ask to help and guide us--our Blessed Mother, all the saints and angels, our dear guardian angels, to whom we give almost no thanks or recognition. I have often joked that I keep my favorite saints quite busy praying for my family--Saint Monica (today is her feast day!), Saint Augustine (tomorrow is his!), and I love some of our more contemporary saints, who walked the earth on our lifetime and saw the direction our modern times were taking- Padre Pio, Blessed Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II (not yet!), Solanus Casey--these are just a few. And since his passing, I ask Father Terry for his prayers. I often joke that I didn't even give him a chance to get there and put his feet up before I put him to work. But he had a real love and interest for my family, so who better to ask?

The point of doing that was to see in my own salvation history--that God is worthy of my trust. That even in situations I never would have thought I could make it through at all, (poverty of heart and of pocketbook, abortion, abusive relationships), He has brought me through each and every one, to emerge stronger, more at peace, and immensely thankful and blessed.

May His peace reign in you today and always-

Kelly


St. Monica, pray for us!

Feastday: August 27
Patron of Wives and Abuse Victims
387

St. Monica was married by arrangement to a pagan official in North Africa, who was much older than she, and although generous, was also violent tempered. His mother Lived with them and was equally difficult, which proved a constant challenge to St. Monica. She had three children; Augustine, Navigius, and Perpetua. Through her patience and prayers, she was able to convert her husband and his mother to the Catholic faith in 370· He died a year later. Perpetua and Navigius entered the religious Life. St. Augustine was much more difficult, as she had to pray for him for 17 years, begging the prayers of priests who, for a while, tried to avoid her because of her persistence at this seemingly hopeless endeavor. One priest did console her by saying, "it is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish." This thought, coupled with a vision that she had received strengthened her. St. Augustine was baptized by St. Ambrose in 387. St. Monica died later that same year, on the way back to Africa from Rome in the Italian town of Ostia.

                                                                                             *note- whenever I see this image(we belong to St.Monica parish, so I see it all the time--it is a statue in our church) I cannot help but think of Father Kelley remarking that they look like they are watching the eleven o'clock news--thanks for that, Father! lol