Feast of the Holy Family

This weekend celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family. Today I will skip too much of my own writing to instead share what our priest put in the bulletin about this feast.

"This feast is a wonderful celebration of the family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and a challenge to all of us to live more like the Holy Family. In a special way this week, let us pray for the gift of family. Often times the world does not support the family as it should. Let us as Christians unite on our love and support of Christian family life, especially in the sacrament of marriage."

Our priest also shared with us that we should feel really more like the Holy Family is like the family of 2006, since, after all, Joseph was more of a foster father to Jesus. The family had to move around several times, and faced many challenges. Perhaps they were more like the family of 2006 than like a family typical of their times.

I was really moved by the homily and found that that really resonated with me. We can't feel like the Holy Family is so separated from us. We can still strive to be a holy family, and to raise our children to love and honor God.

I was also very moved by the writings of my husband on this topic. Here is the link to his blog today. I found it to be very thought provoking. Eric has gotten to be quite the deep religious thinker as we continue on our journey to Catholicism.

Another year older (aka I'm not 1,000 years old yet)

Yesterday was my birthday, and so I was mostly away from the computer. It was a really nice day (apart from not so nice stuff in the morning that was work related). Speaking of work, my one session for the day ended up being rescheduled to this afternoon, so other than a couple of phone calls in the morning, I didn't have to work at all. That was a nice birthday gift!

So...it's was a biggie of a birthday. I am now officially out of my twenties. Today at the gym, I actually got to punch in 30 as my age on one of the machines. Weird! But, I'm pleased, and excited to be here on the second day of being in my thirties. I'm hoping for an excellent decade! (Although, it is a bit shocking to think that when I am entering my forties, it will mean that I will be the Mom of children ages 17, 15, and 12. Wow!)

My parents were sweet enough to watch our kids for the afternoon so that Eric and I could have a little alone time. We had a nice lunch at Panera Bread, and then we did something I had wanted to do for quite a while -- we went walking in the downtown area and went into all the little shops that I had always wanted to go into. We picked up some homemade chocolates (just enough for us to each have two pieces right then) and then some Robeez shoes for Molly. Too cute! (Although, we have decided we need to start being better consumers, and so possibly $26 slipper shoes are not so practical.) We also picked up flowers (some greenery and pink Gerbera daisies) in a cool clear glass rectangular vase for my Mom. She thanked me for the flowers, and I thanked her for the birthday.

One funny exchange on that afternoon was with Noah. I asked him how old I was (since it had already come up numerous times), and he said, "I don't know."

I told him, "You know how old I am. We talked about it before."

"24?"

"No,"with a bit of laughing. "More than that."

"25?"

"No, still higher than that."

"Oh, I don't know, Mom. A thousand?!?"

"Seriously, Noah? Do I really look 1,000 years old? Do you really think I'm 1,000?"

"Okay, Mom -- 29?"

"That's so close, Noah! Just a little more!"

"30!"

Whew -- finally! Although, Eric did comment today that if I was really 1,000 -- then I would be looking pretty good for my age. So true.

Sometimes it's in the presentation

My kids just excitedly finished up lunch at a restaurant. The restaurant was "Mommy's Restaurant," as I announced to them when I set the plates in front of them. Each child was a sir or ma'am, and they were served up their lunch on what I would secretly call the "leftover platter." Each child had a half of a double cheeseburger that was left over from McDonalds last night, a bowl of macaroni (from the night before that -- each served in a small bowl that sat on their plate), and then a small dip sized bowl of sugar free chocolate pudding (all three servings came from the same pudding cup). I seated each child and took their drink orders while they started on the lunch special.

Now, I can't say that they all ate everything up, but they WERE excited about it, and played along that they were a family coming to eat for dinner at my restaurant.

Sometimes, it's in the presentation. And, sometimes, it would seem that, it's all about our own perceptions. Sometimes the leftover platter can be a special feast, if we want it to be.

From the heart of a child (aka "huggie Mary!")

*Please forgive the second blog entry for today, but watching Molly tonight inspired me to write this entry*
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Molly loves Jesus. I don't know what she understands, but I do know that she loves to hug a statue of the Holy Family that is in our church social hall (temporarily). The statue features a standing Holy Family, with Jesus, as a child, about the same height as two year old Molly. She loves Him. She hugs the statue and kisses it. One night, as she ran to the social hall, she apparently was yelling (as reported by Eric), "I'm coming, Jesus!"

Molly also loves Mary. Every time we pass an outdoor Nativity scene, she points out Mary. She kisses Mary on the Holy Family statue as well. (And, Joseph [also known as "JoJo" to Molly] gets the ocassional hug as well.) And, pretty much every time we see a statue or picture of Mary, she wants to "huggie" (hug) it or kiss it. I think that maybe it could be that this mama's girl sees another Mom to love, perhaps.

When we went to Mass on Christmas morning, Molly insisted that we walk up to a large stone statue of Mary in the courtyard area at church (with everyone leaving Mass watching, it seemed) to "HUGGIE MARY!" This is not unusual, and so I humored her. Imagine my surprise on this Christmas morning when she hugged the statue of Mary and gave it a kiss, and then for the first time ever while doing that said, "Thank You, Mary." (I will admit that it actually sounded more like, "Tank Ewww, Mary.") It seemed so appropriate that I have to admit that it took my breath away. Of course, we have to thank God for giving us Jesus, but it could not have been easy for Mary to deal with the implications of the events that lead up to the birth of Christ.

Sometimes, it would seem that we have a lot to learn from even the littlest of children.