Seven quick disjointed takes

1. Oh politics. So very tired of you. Really would like to divorce you. But since I have to live in the same country with you and I care about the future of said country, and especially the future of my children and grandchild, I must soldier on. But you really have changed completely and are not the government I remember or the one I voted for. At all. You have really let yourself go. You are content that my fellow countrymen and I work like dogs to just stay afloat, while you run up the credit cards, take elaborate vacations, play golf, and have the nerve to look down at us and even mock us.

Here is a blogger who said it better than I.


If it weren't for the children, I would run away with Ireland.

2. Here are some of those children and young adults having a nice day together on the 14th birthday of the youngest.

We had just gone horseback riding, and then to this super ice cream place called owowcow.

mmmm.

3.   One of the perks of Bob working at the Academy of Music is that sometimes I get to go for free. This past week, I saw Diana Krall, who has such a singular voice and mastery of the genre she does -- not sure what I would call it, jazzy ballads, jazzy standards, jazzy standards and older folk-y ballads, standardly ballad-y jazz tunes...anyway, she's good.

I was seated before anyone else, so here is the stage before the show. They did not want picture taking during the show.  I think I may have been the only person to take that to heart.
Diana Krall, a Canadian, is married to Elvis Costello; they have twin boys somewhere around five. She made references and jokes to those facts during the show, and I, of course, did not get them, until I got home and looked her up. Many of the people in the audience were HUGE fans, I could hear them talking about how many times they had seen her. When the lights went down, a group of middle aged men sitting off to my left pretty much swooned and said (with tremulous voices), "here she comes!" So, yeah, she has a pretty devoted fan base. Not for no reason.





This one shows off her piano playing.


This is more characteristic of her voice:






4. I finally got around to putting my hydrangeas in my planter out back, along with my tomato plant. Most of my other plants are still going strong. It is a nice little sheltered spot. If only the squirrels and other critters would leave it alone! You would think it was the only soil in the city. Sheesh.

-the tall one is my basil, flanked by ivy and my transplanted-from-Meghann's fern and a few begonias.

This is the other side. I will bring most of the potted ones in when it gets really cold.

My parsley from the Kalamazoo Farmers Market.

Thrilling, right? Seriously, this little bit of gardening is closely tied to my thin grip on sanity.


5. Here is the wall sconce Meghann gave me right off her kitchen wall. She would be happy to see we lit it. In fact.........drumroll.........they will be here for Thanksgiving again this year! So she can see it in person!

Wait till I take all nine million pictures and compare them to the nine million I took last time they were here, and see how much Kaden has grown up! Never saw that one coming...

6. Here are the hydrangeas mentioned in number 4. You dont see them in the bed because I cut them back and am drying the blooms. Hydrangeas dry well.

                                                                I think so anyway.

 7. This guy 

 

is now 6!

I heart him.

Seven introspective takes

                     
                      jk!

                  








1. Still asking for prayer! Several intentions. Family related. One I can share is that my son-in-law has an application in to Kellogg's. And Meghann had an interview for a new job -just today! It would be such a relief if they got these jobs! Another is that Corrie, who was almost a whole year seizure free, had one at work last week. There are more --just please remember my family--thanks.


  2. I was talking with a friend the other night, also a mom, about letting go of our kids. It is a lifelong process that, at least for me, does not get any easier with time! If something happens to them, I feel it! But we have to learn how to love by letting them live and learn, even the rough stuff. Ow.

                                                                                    

  3. In thinking about detachment, I see that it goes hand in hand with trust. How can I detach from a situation or person, unless I am trusting God? I have to be releasing them TO someone's care other than my own, not just to the "universe," or to karma, or even to their own devices. So my trust in-God meter needs to be up in the "total" zone.

as you can see, this one is not quite there.

4. Are you hard on yourself? I know I am. So many shoulds and oughts. Do you think this is how God wants us to think about ourselves? That He would hold out a carrot promising peace only when you live up to gargantuan standards that always seem to move?  During the same conversation in #2, we talked about loving ourselves, and what that meant. I find that when I improve in one area, I beat myself up because I didn't improve in ALL the areas. I know I need to take care of my health, that of my family, physically and spiritually. And work, do laundry, go to mass and confession, and if I am very lucky, adoration,  clean, give the cat a manicure,

you know, the basics. If everything is not operating at the MAXIMUM level of efficiency at all times, do I think God is disappointed or peevish? Of course not. So why am I?

5. I am loving the fall-ish weather. No A/C or heat needed, windows open, blanket at night.  Downside -- living in the city means that open windows=hearing everything that is said or happens outside. And the man who walks his dog at the butt-crack of dawn and always manages to find somebody with which to have a nice boisterous chat.

 6. Fall means --people back on a schedule, school, work, practices, band-gigs, crossfit, (that's what Ben and Melissa are doing in the pictures),  AND that I get two whole days a week in which I (shhh, don't let this get around) have the house all to myself. I don't know where to start! I have multiple projects I either want to start or already underway. I always laugh when I remember a coworker at an old job saying to me that she always wanted to work, that she could never "just sit home."  I didn't even know being home involved sitting...

7.  Even with all the inner chaos, yes, I do trust God and am thankful like crazy for all the blessings and comfort He does provide. When I think about the world and oh Lord, our country (+JMJ+), I must always remember we are in the palm of His hand and our Blessed mother is interceding for us always. She has the mom-thing and while she may not worry exactly, as her trust is you know, perfect; she does grieve over us and rejoice over us. Both. At the same time.

Have a great weekend everyone! Despite the headlines.

+JMJ+

Kelly

my new favorite band

A music post for a Sunday night

Recently, I found an old Sonic Session CD my kids had from when there used to be a station called Y100 in the Philadelphia area. It has this song on it, and I played it enough so that they were getting a little irritated with me. What can I say, it sounded really good in the car. Also, it was making me think of something, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Besides the evocative lyrics and that I just like acoustic versions of things, there was something else.

Then I got it. Many love songs can be translated to the love God has for us and vice versa. This one goes back and forth, with God sometimes the speaker, sometimes us. When we forget Him, He is the one looking and waiting for us to come back and remember Him. He is the one saying, "If you want it, come and get it, for cryin' out loud. The love that I was givin' you was never in doubt."  And it is He that opened Himself up to jealously, bitterness and ridicule on our behalf.

Anyway. Can't you just see God saying, "for crying out loud!" 




Friday night I'm going nowhere
All the lights are changing green to red
Turning over tv stations
Situations running through my head

Looking back through time
You know it's clear that I've been blind
I've been a fool
To open up my heart
To all that jealousy that bitterness that ridicule


Saturday I'm running wild
And all the lights are changing red to green
Moving through the crowd
I'm pushing chemicals all rushing in my bloodstream

Only wish that you were here
You know I've seen it so clear
I've been afraid
To show you how I really feel
Admit to some of those bad mistakes I've made


And If you want it come and get it
(For) Crying out loud
The love that I was giving you was
Never in doubt

Let go your heart let go your head
And feel it now

Let go your heart let go your head
And feel it no...w

Babylon
Babylon
Babylon


Sunday all the lights in London
Shining sky is fading red to blue
When I'm kicking through the Autumn leaves
Am wondering where it is you might be going to

And am turning twirling back for home
You know I'm feeling so alone
I can't believe
Climbing on the stair I turn around
To see you smiling there in front of me

A corporal work of mercy on Labor Day.

Even though I am aware I don't have a gigantic following, I am humbly asking my readers to share this and/or donate what you are able to this sister in Christ who is indeed, fighting the good fight. Everything she does for her eleven children.

I am posting the direct link here. It has been promoted by Father Z and Mark Shea, the latter's comments having been hijacked by her ex, sadly.

Prayers to all involved. May we never forget that we all exist by His grace alone.

Father Corapi may have surfaced

My recent life, in seven semi-quick takes

Hopefully, for once, I can take to heart the "quick"in my seven quick takes. Laundromat awaits, as it has been either too rainy or too muggy to put stuff out on the clothesline. I have only had one other laundromat run all summer -- not too shabby!

1. So I think I mentioned we have been working on redoing two of the bedrooms. We switched Ben and Malaika's rooms, Ben got a new bed, and Malaika is awaiting one.

Here is the before pic when this room was still Ben's. It actually is a mid-move pic, as he was sorting and shuffling things around.Behind that blanket mounded up in the corner of the bed is a sizable hole in the wall. Old home=plaster walls=if you bump into them they crumble.

This room is now Malaika's -- here are the afters. It is basically a hang out, do homework (soon!) and dressing room until we get that bed for her. Ikea has a very cool chair/bed I have my eye on to work with the room's smallness.

Melissa painted the main design on the dresser and Malaika added a few finishing touches. Some of the artwork is courtesy of Rachael, but Malaika is a burgeoning artist as well. The sideways headboard from Malaika's old bed serves as something to hang necklaces, headphones, or whatever she fancies.

 Desk, from my friends Marie and Bill, who generously let us go shopping for free through their possessions before they moved to South Carolina. The front drops open and has all sorts of cubbies inside. (*note--Bill just had major surgery, I would ask your prayers for him and their whole family -- miss them so much!)

The blue dressers are from our neighbors across the street who were THROWING THEM AWAY. They are in perfect condition, and I love the idea of trash picking saving good things from the landfill. (how we also acquired our kitchen chairs). Ahem.

Curtain material--Rachael purchased and didn't use. I craftily ruched it up with twine because sewing and I are not on speaking terms. The sheer is to cover some of the crumbling plaster wall. Also the placement of the dressers, (though if I must say so myself, I did a mighty miraculous job with the spackle to close up and paint over the holes). I just wanted to prevent the worst one from opening back up if she bumped it, or say, a fly landed on it.

Here is the bed I hope to get for her.













2. Here is how Ben's room looks now. I don't have a before picture, but the walls alone are a sight for sore eyes.  Melissa did a lot of the painting in this room, and put the bed together. I painted too but spackled cracks mostly. So. many. cracks. You can see a huge one running down the wall next to the bookshelf. And that's the repaired version.

Ben is enjoying having a good bed and a room he wants to spend time in, My next hope is to get him a bigger desk. He is starting college next week, and Melissa is starting her final two semesters. Rachael was promoted at her job, and Corrie is doing well at hers. Praise God! Malaika starts her eighth grade year, with all it's perks. Formal dance, trip, and probably more.

3.  My daughter Meghann and a friend,  ran the Color Run in Grand Rapids. They had a blast! She pulled Kaden in a wagon most of the way.

4. One day while I was taking a walk and praying the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary, I got to thinking. Usually when I get to the fourth mystery, the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple, I also present my own children to Jesus. And at the fifth mystery, the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple, I pray they all ultimately will be found in His temple.

As I was pondering how Mary and Joseph might have felt during the three days Jesus was missing (no prophetic numbers are ever wasted!),  certainly they must have been worried. As I also worry about my own, even as I present them to Him all the time. In my mind, I see Jesus in His temple, doing what?...His Father's business, and I imagine them there also. What is His Father's business, I wondered? I could think of many things, but what came to mind is that He is going looking for those lost sheep.  Seeking to save those who are lost. Finding those lost coins that don't even know they are lost. Binding up the brokenhearted.

So, even as Mary and Joseph found Jesus safe and sound, I rest in the knowledge that His mission is to find all my children safe and sound, which I will never stop asking of Him, and trusting in His goodness that it will be so.

And of course we know that to pray the Rosary is to pray the Gospels, and that it was the weapon of choice for so many saints, including Padre Pio, against the wickedness and snares of the devil.


5.  Looking forward to the routine that the kids going back to school brings. Even though it can be hectic, at least there is that feeling of progress, which I love. A good saying I heard recently --- Progress, not Perfection. And that doing some small thing, even sloppily, for a little bit, on a regular basis, can bring about change; whereas, waiting for the perfect time or circumstance only halts progress. Another good way to put it:

Ordinary things, consistently done, lead to extraordinary results.

Not a new concept, but worthy of reiterating.

6.  The cat.

and Malaika.

Good thing her allergies don't extend to animal dander.



7. Thankful and grateful for this day. For the ability to go and do what I need to, and even occasionally, what I want. I am thankful for my life: the blessings, the tough stuff, lessons learned, ongoing struggles, the wonderful husband and children, good friends, the grace to always be able to try again, the beauty that is a part of life as well as the pain. Even for the laundromat.

~God Bless and Keep you~

Kelly