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  • Thinking Blogger Award

    Dawn tagged me for the Thinking Blogger Award.  It’s such an honor because, well, she’s one of my favorite bloggers and I admire her greatly.  Thinkingbloggerpf8_2_2

    Apparently, I first need to do this:

    1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
    2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
    3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

    I’ve been ruminating on this since Dawn’s post.  It’s so hard to narrow it down.  You would think I would have had a running list by now since this has been going around for a couple of weeks, but I didn’t think anyone would’ve tagged me.  I’m not being overly humble or anything, I just didn’t think my writing affected anyone except my husband.  Just bear with me, it’s part of who I am.  I can be really hard on myself (and others–it’s a fault I’ve been working very hard on).  Moving on before I get long winded about this.  Here are my five:

    1. Dawn is one of the first blogs I read daily.  She always makes me think about the ways I can incorporate the liturgical year into our lives.  Her ideas are so doable and fairly easy.  She brings simple elegance and beauty to her life and I try to find ways to do that in my house and life.
    2. I feel like I’m copying Dawn, but I have to say that Melissa Wiley has made me pause and ponder about many things on all of her blogs.  I love her outlook on life.  I’m sure she has been tagged a million times because she puts out some great stuff.
    3. I found Left of the Dail through Melissa Wiley when she linked to him on one of her posts.  While her husband, Scott, is a liberal, I enjoy reading his blogs.  He is very insightful and helps me get a clearer picture of the political picture.  And, he posts the list of the military men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan each week.  He helps to bring home to me the names of these brave people.
    4. Alice, at Cottage Blessings not only gives me many craft and tea ideas, but she has helped to invigorate my prayer life.  She has helped me to really focus on prayer. 
    5. Last, but not least and (not really last because there are so many wonderful blogs out there that make me think), Minnesota Mom, aka Margaret always makes me stop and think (or laugh).  I love her writing and fell in love with it from the first time I read her blog.

    Okay, now, that was harder to do than I thought.  Thank you again, Dawn.  You really made my day!!

  • Laying Low

    Military wives (yes, there are military husbands, but I don’t know many and they’re usually both in the military) usually complain that things break down the minute the husbands are in the field, TDY (temporary duty which is equivalent to a business trip) or deployed.  I guess since I take care of all that anyway that doesn’t happen to us.  Instead, my kids get sick almost the minute Ben’s gone. 

    He left for Hawaii on Saturday morning.  Honey and Pumpkin have been sick since said Saturday morning.  I have a to do list a mile long (many blog posts pending too). 

    We will be laying low for a few days.  Hope you all are faring better.

  • Happy Birthday, Cabbage Patch

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    The Cabbage Patch is a year old!!!  I can’t believe that this time last year our family was preparing for Ben’s deployment to Iraq.  A lot has happened since then.  I hope you all have enjoyed this peek into our lives and will continue to do so.

  • Carnival of Joy Week 2

    Angela has the Carnival of Joy Week 2 up at her blog.  It’s chock full of links to people who are finding joy in various places.  It’s quite a fun and joyous read.

  • Catholic Mothers Online

    I first saw this on Meredith’s blog, Sweetness and Light.  She has such wonderful ideas.  You should peruse her blog.  I really love her posts on Montessori and her Mondays with Mary.  I knew with an endorsement from her, I couldn’t go wrong. So I joined.

  • Finding the Joy in Autism

    Living with a child with autism has it’s challenges.  As his primary teacher and his mother, I tend to see what needs to be worked on as opposed to all he has accomplished.  Angela, started me thinking about the things of autism–especially the things about my son with autism–that bring me joy.

    • Some people with autism are known for making up neologisms.  My son does it all the time.  He came up with water dust to explain the mist that rises up from the base of a waterfall.  Another one he coined was "dust bubbles"–the dust motes that fly in the air.  You can see them well in the sunlight. 
    • Brother has an amazing capacity to remember details.  He can remember dates very well especially birthdays.  Having him with me is like having a walking calendar. 
    • His love of various subjects and his need to know every tiny little bit of information about that subject.  For instance, dinosaurs are one of his favorite topics.  He knows so many dinosaurs and so do I now.  And, he knows more than what most people would remember–he knows how big each dinosaur is.  His latest obsession subject of love is the states in our country.  He likes to sit down and write the name of each state on a piece of paper.  We compromised and cut each sheet in half so that he wouldn’t waste.  He gave his first set to a girl he thinks is very sweet.
    • There are many things, but I’ll end with this one.  He likes to make things with letters and leave them lying around.  See the pictures below.  It’s very funny to come across these things. 

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    Despite the frustrations, tantrums, tears (mine and his), and difficulties of living with a child with autism, he brings me a lot of joy.  I need to focus each day on what that is.  Thank you, Angela for making me look closely. 

    Join Angela for her Carnival of Joy. 

  • Autism Awareness

    April is Autism Awareness Month.  The group Five for Fighting will donate $0.49 each time this video gets viewed.  Please click and view. 

  • Loveliness of Spring

    Spring always seems to arrive early in central Texas.  The trees start to bud late February, early March.  Then Spring decides to take a rest and leaves us with a cold snap.  This year was no exception.  However, Spring decided she really needed to get a much longer rest and let Winter come back and drop a few inches of snow for Easter Sunday.  We might not have white Christmases around here, but now we can say we have white Easters.

    From my neck of the woods (the Great State of Texas), Matilda sends along pictures of wildflowers.  She’s even named most of them.  I love wildflowers most especially bluebonnets. 

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    My friends in the northeastern part of the country are no strangers to snow on Easter.  Their spring starts much, much later than ours.  There are sure signs of spring though.  Angela shows us how Finally! spring is here.  Her pictures show the contrast of the final vestiges of winter and the budding spring season.  Cheryl takes us through a spring Saturday spent outdoors.  I can’t wait to see what the "spring set" looks like when it’s finished.  Dawn gives us a list of great activities to celebrate spring.  She draws such a great mental picture of what her spring morning was like. 

    Spring means many things to many people.  Sarah writes about what spring means to her.  It is a lovely collage of thoughts and each brings lovely images to mind.  For others it’s a way to begin something new–a habit, garden, anything.  Elena has great suggestions on new things to try to rejuvenate oneself.

    The warmer weather brings people out of their houses into nature.  Donna took her family on a nature walk and discovered so many wonderful things.  Divina, meanwhile, took her family to the seashore.  It looks like a fun time was had by all.

    I’ve been working on getting my garden done but it’s taken more time than I thought it would.  The choices have been overwhelming and the cacophony of color at the garden center has made it difficult to narrow down the choices.  Ruth has a lovely garden and I really like her Mary garden.

    I love Mary’s post about what spring means to her family:  BASEBALL!!  I love baseball and the start of baseball signifies the start of spring.  Why else would they have spring training.  I’ve rooted for the LA Dodgers almost my entire life but recently, the Red Sox have been creeping into our lives more (my inlaws live in the Boston area and I attended college there).

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    I hope you have enjoyed this tour into the loveliness of spring.  I hope you are enjoying the warm breezes of spring wherever you are.

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    Editing to add a couple of entries that are late but that’s okay as spring can be late too.  Suzanne writes about her spring chore which involves some pretty napkins.  Maria has pictures a plenty of her beautiful flowers in her garden.

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    Another late entry–a nature walk by Cay and her girls that is just lovely.   

  • Close but No Cigar

    My brother asked Brother:  Brother, what’s happening to Mommy today? (yesterday)

    Brother:  She’s getting crucified.

    My brother laughing:  No, she’s getting confirmed.

  • Confirmation

    From the Cathecism of the Catholic Church (1831):

    The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David Isa 11:1-2.  They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations.

    Tonight, I was confirmed and received these lovely gifts from the Holy Spirit.