"Mama will make it better..."

Faith in God can really relieve pain

London (PTI): "Religion is the opiate of the people" -- Karl Marx had famously said. But can one's faith in God really ease pain? 'Yes', say scientists.

A team at Oxford University has based its findings on an experiment, in which 12 Roman Catholics and 12 atheists were "tortured" with electric shocks as they studied two paintings -- Virgin Mary and Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine.

The subjects spent half-an-hour inside an MRI scanner, receiving a series of 20 electric shocks in four sessions and each time they had to rate how much it hurt on a scale of 0 to 100 as they looked at the paintings. The scientists found that the Catholics seemed to be able to block out much of the pain.

And, using the latest brain-scanning techniques, they also discovered that the Catholics were able to activate part of the brain associated with conditioning experience of pain, the Daily Mail reported.

However, there was no such brain activity among the atheists whose pain and anxiety levels stayed roughly the same throughout the experiment.

This doesn't surprise me a bit. I've had four home-births, and the best, the one where I felt most "on top" of the pain was with Dominic. When I had a contraction I would focus on a picture of the Vladimir Mother of God on the bedroom wall.

Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Televangelists

Hats off to the Ironic Catholic

Good thing mom came over with presents...

...because frankly, it was a pretty depressing day up until then. My peach jam came out too runny and I will have to either remake it or use it all for flavoring yogurt. My cheese of this weekend was crumbling in the fridge so I fed it to the pig, and the chickens destroyed the bed I so carefully prepared and planted this weekend. Apparently God feels that my growth in humility is more important than my success as a provider for my family. Thank you, Lord. I think.

Souvenirs from Bavaria

A few things my mother brought back from Germany for us. She says she's putting a few items aside for Christmas, but today felt a bit like Christmas with her visit! Clockwise from top left: a candle from the Bavarian shrine at Altoetting with an image of the "black Madonna", Melissengeist, which is an herbal tonic, the main ingredient of which is Lemon balm. It is great for stomach problems, nervousness, insomnia and also improves circulation. The little box is Baldrian Perlen, little valarian tablets, also for nerves and stress (real mommy products here--or maybe just products for the time in which we live!). Next is a cloth tea strainer...have trouble finding such things here, and mine has been in use for nearly 20 years, but it is about time to retire it. Four kerchiefs, all very Bavarian, and a "platter" of marzipan cleverly disguised as a Bavarian lunch: two Weisswurst, two radishes, a pretzel and a blob of mustard.
For Una and Sebastian, a German-made porcelain doll in Bavarian garb and a little Bierstein with a pewter lid.
Adrian got a little backpack with a German cartoon or storybook character on it.
Gabriel got a little lock and key money box with five dollars in it.
And Dominic got this adorable little metal case with his very own set of silverware.

Our own Charlotte

She is a "writing spider" and she has lived outside our dining room window for about three months now, and has doubled in size. We have watched her grow, spin and repair many a web (fixing one just this morning after yesterday's screen-cleaning all but obliterated her home), catch and eat many an insect, from fly, to moth, to locust; watched her devour her mate, and witnessed the creation of an egg-sac in the upper corner of the window.

Sky on Sunday afternoon

Dominic, with a friend

Even more Toddlerese

Una and Adrian were talking about what he would do if he found a spider in his bed.

Adrian: "I would just hit it with a fly flotter."
Una: "A what?"
Adrian: "A fly flotter. You flot flies with it."

Saturday: productive and exhausting

I awoke on Saturday morning determined to get a lot done. I had a few things I wanted Bret to tackle, too. After my morning prayers and reading I made a long list on my fridge dry-erase board and went to work.

I started a batch of cheese,
fed my sourdough starter,
made beds,
tidied-up the shelf above the changing table,
made breakfast,
put away laundry,
cut up some old apples for Nuala,
picked some tomatoes and brought in eggs,
started ribs for dinner,
planted a bed of salad greens,
showered,
began ironing,
bathed two of the boys,
stuck the cheese in the press,
served dinner,
prayed the rosary with my family,
finished ironing,
took two acetaminophen and collapsed into bed at 8:30.

Bret was busy, too.
He milked the cow,
pulled out all the window screens,
washed all the window screens with Una,
washed the windows,
replaced the window screens,
cleaned the ceiling fans,
repaired fencing around the pasture,
fixed the waterer in the chicken coop,
showered himself and two boys,
prayed rosary with the family,
and collapsed into bed not too long after his wife.

Junior Archaeologists

We checked out a couple of books on archaeology last week, and Una got the idea to set up a site for her brothers to dig in. She filled a container with dirt, buried various "treasures", set up a grid across the "site" and made a chart for them to record their finds. I was impressed!

Don't you love it when the kids school themselves and leave you out of it?

And, yes, I am aware of just how bad my daughter's hair looks by the end of a day...

St. Pio of Pietrelcina

A Prayer to Jesus by St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Oh my Jesus, give me Your strength when my weak nature rebels against the distress and suffering of this life of exile, and enable me to accept everything with serenity and peace. With my whole strength I cling to Your merits, Your sufferings, Your expiation, and Your tears, so that I may be able to cooperate with You in the work of salvation. Give me strength to fly from sin, the only cause of Your agony, Your sweat of blood, and Your death. Destroy in me all that displeases You and fill my heart with the fire of Your holy love and all Your sufferings. Clasp me tenderly, firmly, close to You that I may never leave You alone in Your cruel Passion. I ask only for a place of rest in Your Heart. My desire is to share in Your agony and be beside You in the Garden. May my soul be inebriated by Your love and fed with the bread of Your sorrow. Amen.

Eeek! Get rid of that nasty cell phone!

And don't you dare let your kids have one! You may just as well hand them a pack of cigarettes...

Prayers like you've never heard...

My kids have a knack for mispronunciation. Take the Guardian Angel prayer for instance. I'll bet you didn't know that it ended,

Be at my side,
To light and guard,
To drool and guide.

This is how Gabriel recited it today.

Then the there was the St. Michael the Archangel prayer. In this case Sebastian insists that it was I who heard him incorrectly, but I am quite certain I heard him say,

Be our protection against the fiery snails of the Devil.

He says that he said "wiles and snares", but I don't believe my hearing is that far gone. And maybe we actually do need protection from fiery snails.

Could be worse...

Saturday morning Una and Dominic both felt lousy. By early afternoon it was evident they both had temperatures. They napped on and off, and I went with my mother to the vigil Mass so that Bret could go in the morning and I could care for my sick ones. By the time I got home from Mass and a bit of grocery shopping, Adrian and Sebastian were feverish, too. Gabriel alone was fine.

Well, it hasn't been too bad. Yesterday Dominic and Adrian had no sign of illness, and Una and Sebastian were much better. The latter two have only sore throats today, so it's extra vitamin C and colloidal silver for them until that passes. I am ever so grateful.

"Danke" means "Thank You"

The friend with whom my mother stayed in Germany sent some chocolates for my children home with her. Here's the accordion-folded "Thank You" card I made for her. I was pleased with how it turned out.
You can click on the picture for a larger version of the kids' chocolaty smiles.

Goodbye, dear Cole...

The little boy so many people have been praying so hard for is breathing his last. He has had increasing difficulty with his breathing over the last couple of days, and I think he is finally ready to let go of his tiny, cancer-riddled body and fly into the arms of Jesus. God knows, his suffering these last two months or so has been enough to send him, or just about anyone, straight to Heaven. The children and I gathered at the news of his decline for a Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

Be at peace, little Cole. Go to God.

"May the angels lead you into paradise; may the Martyrs welcome you on your arrival and bring you into the holy city, Jerusalem."

Read his story, or send a consoling note to his young parents here.

My mom is back...

...from Munich, the jewel of Bavaria, the "most northern Italian city", the home of our Holy Father, and of my mom. I lived there from age eight until age twenty one, and it will always seem like "home" to me.

Mother came by for a bit to tell me about what has changed and what has not since we left. The EUC has been good for Germany apparently: my mother says that quality goods are to be had at very reasonable prices. No wonder Wal-Mart went bust there and had to close.

I look forward to sitting with her to look at the 500-odd photos she returned with on her camera.

Are you Post-Challenged?

Here is some assistance for lazy bloggers...or those who just can't think of anything to post (H/T to The Ironic Catholic).

Nice weekend, pleasant Monday

We had a really nice Missa Cantata on Sunday. The Solemn Mass couldn't be done because one of the priests who would have acted as subdeacon was needed elsewhere. It was still a lovely Mass, and the potluck was fantastic, despite the weather making it necessary for us to pack a little too tightly into a smallish room for the meal.

We had the best Monday since school began. What made it so? A number of factors. I didn't turn on the computer until afternoon, so we had breakfast earlier than usual and began school a little earlier, but not much. Una had a math test, so she didn't have an hour's worth of math to do. The weather was cool enough that I decided we would go on a nature walk for science today, and most importantly, I shrugged off all my housework for the day. That was hard, but not as hard as I thought it would be! I could have cleaned bathrooms or vacuumed or ironed, but I decided to let it all wait another day. Very unlike me: Monday is usually the busiest day of the week because I do nothing on Sunday, and I am racing to catch up. Anyway, I can't avoid housework all the time, but I am thinking about avoiding the Monday rush in order to set a better tone for the week if I can.

Here's what we did before lunch:

Praying hard...

...for milehimama and everyone else affected by Hurricane Ike. She and her family intended to "ride it out" as of her last post at 7:00 last night. I sure do hope they had a last-minute change of plans...

Recipe: Bavarian Apple Cake

Or how to turn this:into this:Ingredients (for one 8"x8" cake):
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 scant cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
For the apple topping:
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
4 large apples, cored, peeled and sliced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8" square pan.
Beat the sugar and butter together until light. Add the eggs and beat in.
Sift together the flour and baking powder and mix well into the sugar/butter/egg mixture. Mix in the vanilla and spread the batter into the prepared pan.
Mix the cinnamon with the sugar for the topping and stir it into the apples until well coated. Arrange the apple slices on top of the batter.
Bake for one hour or until it tests done with a toothpick. Cool completely, then cover with foil overnight. This step is important for a moist, delicious cake.
Serve as is, or with lots and lots of whipped cream.

A tale of traffic cones and toe shoes...

My two older boys can actually dance around with these things on their feet. Why they would want to, I don't know.

A Mass in the Extraordinary Rite

To be celebrated this Sunday, Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, at Our Lady of the Caves Catholic Church in Horse Cave, KY at noon. The Mass is to be one of thanksgiving on the occasion of the anniversary of our Holy Father's Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum. It will be followed by a potluck picnic.

This is the only Traditional Mass for miles around, and so if you happen to be anywhere near, join us and show your support!

For more information you can contact Fr. Joel Rogers, CPM or Fr. Shannon Collins, CPM at St. Helen's Catholic Church in Glasgow, KY, (270) 651-5263.

Can you vote for a life-negating liar?

Watch the video, get the word out.

Here's a place to get more information on getting the word out.

Not one big cross...

...but a thousand little ones. That is what my life feels like right now. I am grateful for the fact that I am not burdened by a crushing weight, but nevertheless I feel like I am about to suffocate beneath an avalanche of minutiae. I am managing to teach and feed the kids and keep up with the laundry, but everything else is piling up, and every day there appears a new something to add to the list of things that are driving me over the edge.

But I won't go over the edge. I will hang on if only by my fingernails. I know that God is with me and it is all for the good of my soul.

Still, it feels like hell...

An odd threesome

Seems that our English game hen prefers the company of Jake and Lizzy, the barn cats, to that of the other poultry...

More Toddlerese

Adrian: "May I have some aminal fackers?"
Translation: "May I have some animal crackers?"

Unfortunately, I can't tell you how he pronounces "dump truck". Let us just say that it could be interpreted as highly insulting and this is a family-oriented blog.

I highly recommend:

AmericanPapist for recent commentary on the political scene. Politics as a topic of conversation is usually a bore for me, but recent events have me chuckling with delight. Love watching Obama's camp squirming as it is and looking more foolish and inept than ever. Politics is fun again!

For every beautiful shot of my kids I take...

...I get dozens of these:

Happy Birthday, Mother!

Help me, Blessed Mother, to love your Son with your own Immaculate Heart, and to love you with the heart of your Divine Son.

Una's drawing of the Chapel of Divine Mercy

Una has made a gift of her drawing to the Fathers of Mercy. Fr. Wade Menezes, CPM told her that he would have it matted and framed, and that it would grace a wall somewhere.

What a weekend...

I had to rouse the kids at 5:30 on Saturday so that we could leave the house at 7:45 in order to make it to Mass at the Chapel of Divine Mercy at 8:00. We had a beautiful Mass from Fr. David Wilton and afterward gathered for breakfast in Rauzan Hall.

The first talk was by Fr. Peter Austin, PP, of the Diocese of Sandhurst in Australia. He spoke on the vocational crisis in Australia, the apathy of the Catholic faithful there, the missions of the Fathers of Mercy in Australia and about some of the fruits of World Youth Day. He was a pleasant and engaging speaker, and I enjoyed the talk immensely.

There was a lunch break afterward, and the weather was mostly cloudy and about 85 degrees--just about perfect. Afterward, Marie Bellet gave a concert in the Chapel. I wasn't thrilled with the choice of locale, but at least they removed the Blessed Sacrament from the tabernacle. Sitting in the back of the chapel with Dominic, I handed him his beloved Winnie the Pooh pillow, and he lay down on it, put his thumb in his mouth and took a nice nap.

After Dominic's nap and the concert, Bret took him out and I stayed to go to confession and for the Holy Hour. I really needed both. The Holy Hour ended with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy chanted by Marie Bellet, and the acoustics in the chapel were superb. Although outfitted with a marvelous pipe organ, I really must say that the hymns sung a capella sounded so much nicer to my ear, in my humble opinion.

Fr. Bill Casey, CPM (my son Gabriel's "favorite Father", due to the fact that Fr. Bill is a mean shot with a water pistol) then had a talk geared toward married couples ("What Do You Know About Marriage?") which was excellent, and at the end of it he hd the married couples come forward for a special blessing. After this was the dinner break, again outdoors, and the food was quite nice--Salisbury Steak, baked potato and salad, with carrot cake or pecan pie.

The last conference of the day was Fr. Tom Sullivan was "Padre Pio: No Greater Love". He spoke about the spirituality of Padre Pio and on his sufferings and great gifts, and concluded the talk with a blessing of the St. Padre Pio statue in the chapel (a wonderful life-sized representation) and asked those who wished to do so to come forward to be blessed with St. Padre Pio oils.

The evening concluded with a concert by Tatiana, who also happens to be the sister-in-law of one of the Fathers of Mercy. We did not stay for the concert--it was getting late and we had an hour's drive home--but Una befriended one of Tatiana's sons, Dante, and she hopes they will stay in touch until he visits again.

It was really hard getting up on Sunday for Mass, but at least it was a later Mass. The Chapel was quite packed, and the Mass, with the Bishop David Choby of the Nashville diocese as celebrant, was very nice. The picnic after was delightful, and I was especially happy to see so many old aquaintences from out of state. We were among the last families to leave, and I was so wiped out I went to bed at 8:30.

Total knucklehead that I am, I didn't bring my camera. Sorry!

Your prayers, please...

..for this little one and for his family. I can see my own three year-old in his place, and it is gut-wrenching to think of it.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

I will always have a special place in my heart for Blessed Mother Teresa, and not just because she is a saint who walked the earth in my own lifetime, but because I have such fond memories of working with her Sisters in Charlotte, NC before my first child's birth. I helped tutor the Vietnamese children after school with the Missionaries of Charity and one year did crafts for the summer camp they put together for the kids. There were only four in their community, and all four came to my daughter's baptism. Bret was on his knees at their convent (a little house in the Cherry neighborhood of Charlotte) installing shoe molding when the word came to the Sisters via telephone that Mother Teresa had died.

As I type this, I have on the wall before me, the front page headline from the Charlotte Observer, encased in a clear plastic sleeve, Mother Teresa dies: Frail giant of charity suffers heart attack at 87.

Blessed Mother Teresa, pray for us!

Thank you, Archbishop Chaput!

Here is a very good article on Zenit detailing the courage of Denver's Archbishop. At the end there is a link to sign a letter of thanks to the good, outspoken Archbishop. Or just access the letter directly here.

What, did he think God wasn't listening?

A man in China swears to God and is struck by lightening.

I love having milk again!!

Yesterday I made three quarts of yogurt. Today I made mozzarella for the first time, and it was actually a lot of fun. I want to experiment with a few different methods I've come across and see what gives me the best results. What I hope to achieve is those beautiful white balls of mozzarella that are marinated in herb-infused olive oil...but I may need to milk a buffalo to reach my ideal, and I am not sure that Patch O' Dirt is ready for that.

If only life was so effortless

I have been feeling quite dull the past few days and consequently this blog seems about to atrophy. I keep hoping the kids will do something cute or funny or insane, but so far this week they've been stuck on irritating. So I've been looking for inspiration in Blogland. And AmericanPapist had the antidote to my lethargy. This commercial got me to open my eyes and say "Wow". By the way, there was no trickery involved. Only practice, practice, practice and endless takes.