Monday Musings--14 January 2013

Right now...It is 8--and I need to get moving and make breakfast for this crew!

This weekend was...disgusting, in part because of the weather.  It rained all week long, to the point where the ground is so saturated, it's like walking on a soaked sponge.  If it doesn't dry up soon, the next generation of cows will have fins.  And then there's the freakish temperatures we had.  Nearly 70 degrees on Saturday, and today the high is supposed to be something like 41.  Not good.  It was our first week back at school and the kids were all sick, but it all seemed to pass by Friday or Saturday; however, Una seems to be fighting another round as of this morning.  More powdered vitamin C and zinc and echinacea.

I made up a batch of liquid peppermint-castille soap to replace the pricey Dr. Bronner's we ran out of.  Grated up a 99-cent bar of coconut castille soap and added 10 cups of hot water to it.  Then I added peppermint essential oil and a few drops of eucalyptus (for Una I added vanilla and coconut).  Voila!  It was that easy. I cooked up beans to put in the freezer, did a lot of laundry (as always), gave Bret a haircut and packed up an Etsy shop order.

Some plans for this week:  little by little, get all the Christmas stuff out of here and back into the attic. Drag the tree outside and maybe make some more birdseed ornaments to hang on it for the feathered friends.  Make dental appointments, which I failed to do last week.  My floor really needs a mopping, but I feel it's rather pointless until things dry out a bit.

If I find time for myself, I would like to...work on the socks I am trying to knit!  Yes, I am finally fulfilling my 2011 New Years Resolution and learning to knit socks.  This first one is no thing of beauty, but with practice, maybe I'll be able to outfit the family with some quality socks.  Maybe.

I am grateful for...the fact that it is not raining at the moment, the fact that my kids don't have to leave the house to go to school, a few recent Etsy shop orders and the food co-op we just joined (it is hard to get organic food in rural Tennessee unless you grow it yourself!)

Some prayer intentions for the week:  for Madeline Therese, who will turn 3 this week!  For the Rachael'sVinyard retreat in KY this weekend (Fr. Ben Cameron, CPM, and my friend Cindy are both on the team); for Una and the rest of us to dodge another cold; for the comfort of a Mennonite acquaintance in our area whose buggy was involved in an accident, and who lost his wife, and for the soul of his wife; for my sister and my nephew.

Something that makes me smile:  No, I have no photos from around here, as the skies have been dark and water-logged, and my camera doesn't do well indoors (not to mention that kids with colds are hardly great subjects for portraits); instead, a photo emailed to me of a young priest for whom I pray daily, our friend Fr. Anthony Stoeppel, who is studying in Rome, in this photo at the Holy Father's Christmas Mass (he's in the front row of priests, second from the right).  Photo courtesy of L'Osservatore Romano.  Isn't it awesome?

 Have a blessed, dry, healthy week!