Dear diary...

When I was younger, I kept a diary. I wrote stuff in it. Depending on what age I was, I wrote things that were true and things that were not true. It's silly to think back on all that. In a way, I thought I was creating this persona for future readers of my diary. Weird to me now that I was dishonest in my own diaries. Was I that unhappy with my life? I wasn't all that introspective until later... I don't know. So diaries, or now electronic diaries in the form of blogs, are fascinating to me. It's an intimate form of communication open to the whole world. Why?

My personal reason for writing, and for trying to keep up with this blog, is to keep our families in the loop even though we live on different continents. And to share, directly and indirectly, what my family tries to live daily: our Catholic Faith. And to record the moments in our childrens' lives that are flying by so fast that I can't keep up. Truly, I forget even the things that I most want to remember sometimes. When I started this blog, I had five children. Now I have six children, a daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren. How does it all happen so fast?

Even though clearly the blog is not nearly as active as it used to be, and honestly, not as active as I would like it to be, those still my primary goals. Many days, I think of blog posts I'd like to write, but actually having the time to sit down and write, well.... I'm here now because one of the children finished school and I have a little hole in my day now in which to muse.

Sometimes I wonder about the way other people seem to be bugged by postings on blogs. I guess I don't expect people to share their bad days or messy rooms online. I know that I prefer to write about the happy things: the things that make my day; the holidays when I really love how the decorating or the meal turned out or who was able to make it home to be at the table. The other ones, the ones that feel rushed, or frantic, or unsettled somehow, I don't like to write about so much, and I find that often, I don't. Partly because they don't feel like things I want to remember sometimes. And at least partly because if the holiday was rushed, life is rushed at that moment, and I'm not likely to be sitting down at the computer to write something about it. Am I creating an honest picture of life in our family? I hope I am. Is it a bad thing not to care to dwell on or record many messy days? I don't think so. I do try to post honestly. But the blog is not a complete picture.

And I don't expect anyone else's blog to be a complete picture either. So I don't completely get it when people are intimidated or discouraged by what looks like the perfect life of another writer. I have heard people who say they dislike one blog or another because it is "too perfect". Hmm. I guess I recognize that the posts that are present are usually, if the blogger is a good-intentioned person, and I don't think I read (m?)any blogs where that is not the case, they are usually meant to be of help to the reader in some way. To present positive ideas, to share joy and wonder about the world, to impart little bits of wisdom that have been gained along the way. So they are good, happy, funny posts about real life. And sometimes they are thoughtful posts about the challenges of life that the writer is grappling with, or is processing, or has had an epiphany about. Those things help others. They express real life.

With pretty photos on the side.

Who doesn't need more beauty in this world?

Home, but... (an explanation/apology of sorts)

After we got home last weekend, everyone promptly fell ill.

Okay, maybe it isn't that drastic, but Meghan came home with a cold, which she shared with Matthew and Daddy. And it is a doozy: a feverish, achingly-painful migrane-like headach-y, ending-with-a-horrible-cough type cold. Even Mommy got the horrible headache. And the only two left standing are so tired that I suspect they are fighting it, too. Poor Meghan was better Friday and all weekend, and now she is sick again tonight with a new wrinkle--higher fever and upset tummy. Thanks be to God for children's Ibuprofin.

Then, we had three birthday parties to attend this weekend, which those who were well enough did attend. (not complaining--they were fun, but they did make for an unusually busy first week home from vacation)

And Patrick's financial aid paperwork is due. And a friend asked for help with a last-minute Flat Stanley project (which I love, but it took a little time to put together).

And thanks be to God for the team concept of teaching Confirmation. One of the other team members stepped in and planned the whole of today's class. For which John and I will be forever grateful.

And Katie had two home soccer games!! Yay!! The first ones of the season, which has to start in Tokyo because we always have too much snow here at the beginning of the season. But, you must realize that this means....

THE SNOW IS GONE!!!

Except for the gigantic piles that make hills of empty lots and fields where it was dumped by dump trucks that had been filled by shovel trucks that were clearing out parking lots and city streets all winter. But the soccer field off-base where the Eagles play is clear.

And so is the "train park" across from the city offices. They have installed a new play structure, and if we ever get well, and if the weather warms up just a little bit more, we plan to go there and check it out. They even set up the cherry blossom festival lanterns this week. No blossoms yet, but the lanterns give us hope.

So please understand that this is why we have not even finished taking the photos from Thailand and Korea off our cameras yet, let alone shared any here. We're sorry (especially to our parents, who are waiting to see all the fun). And we will post pictures as soon as we can. Maybe later this week.

SO excited...

to be starting this faith study with my women's group after Easter.

Encouragement for moms

 

First this. Because we all have our days (weeks...):

http://catholicexchange.com/what-a-holy-woman-of-a-large-family-doesnt-look-like/

 

Then this (also linked in the first post) about active love:

https://momheart.sqsp.com/blog/8xxpul9dqbnes188tfgi3ytmey5958

 

And finally, this, because no one is perfect and it helps to remember that:

https://momheart.sqsp.com/blog/ltq98u1y71k5ny00yjq6l2jnghfldq

 

This second and third posts are from a new blog with multiple contributors called MomHeart. If you haven't heard of Sally Clarkson, she is a Christian woman who has written many books about Christian motherhood (and--full disclosure ;-)--homeschooling). Elizabeth Foss, who wrote the piece about active love, is a Catholic mom of 8 who lives in Northern Virginia. And if her last name sounds familiar (it will if you have spent any time watching Monday Night Football) it's because her husband is Mike Foss of ESPN sportscaster fame. She also writes a column for the Arlington Catholic Herald (diocesan newspaper).

 

MomHeart is here:

https://momheart.sqsp.com/

 

I am loving you all this Holy Week, my dear sisters in Christ!

 

 

Palm Sunday

Six days before the Passover,

when the Lord came into the city of Jerusalem,

the children ran to meet him;

in their hands they carried palm branches

and with a loud voice cried out:

Hosanna in the highest!

Blessed are you, who have come in your abundant mercy!

O gates, lift high your heads;

grow higher, ancient doors,

Let him enter, the king of glory!

Who is this king of glory?

He, the lord of hosts, he is the king of glory.

Hosanna in the highest!

Blessed are you, who have come in your abundant mercy!

-Entrance Antiphon (Cf. John 12:1, 12-13; Psalm 24 (23):9-10)

 

April fool!

I wish. It has been snowing lightly since about 2:00 this afternoon. I'm not sure you can tell in the photo, but now the flakes are getting larger and it is falling faster and sticking to the trees and fence posts. Unbelievable.

In the yard, April 1, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.

One of these days, I'm going to stop blogging about our incredibly long winter. But this is not that day.

:-P

40 bags in 40 days

Honestly, I wasn't sure I would ever get around to writing this post. I have been carrying the tally around in my head for 6 weeks now, though, and I need to get it down on paper. We haven't filled the equivalent of 40 bags yet, but I'm curious to see where we are. (A bag, I decided, is one tall, kitchen trash bag.)

• Clothing: 1 bag
• Hat box, hat, old purses and wallets: 1 bag
• Cassette tapes and computer game disks: 1 grocery bag
• Set of tires: 4 tires = 4 bags, I think
• Filing cabinets: 4 bags (although I'm not sure this counts, since we replaced the two, mismatched, two-drawer filing cabinets with one lovely, Korean-made 4-drawer one--a net of zero really...hmmm...I'm still counting it because it looks prettier now. ;-D)
• Bunk bed frame and padded boards - calling this 10 bags
• twin-size mattress and waterproof cover - 5 bags
• Sets of sheets: 6 twin-sized (calling this 2 bags)
• Random sheets that were not in sets: 3 queen-sized, plus a pillow case (calling this 1 bag)
• Twin-sized comforters: 2 (these went to people who are still in post-tsunami temporary housing)
• Small briefcase - 1/2 bag
• baby toys - 1 grocery bag

Okay, so we're at about 31.  Could be worse, but with only Holy Week to go, it could be better. When Katie and I go through the bins of hand-me-downs in the garage, I expect to easily hit 40. But it might not be until after Lent. :(


Other items slated for sale/disposal before we PCS:

• patio table
• 4 patio chairs
• gas grill
• Meghan's tiny, plastic slide
• Little Tykes car--I can't believe how long this little car has lasted--it was a hand-me-down to Tommy and Patrick when we lived in Turkey, so it has lived on two continents, just like us: )
• 2-3 kids' bikes, although one is going to be a fight. Matthew is too big for the bike he learned to ride (and named "Lance") last summer, and we'd like to hand Joseph's bike down to him. Joseph is going to be riding Tommy's old bike when we get it fixed up.
• refrigerator
• two satellite dishes (We mostly only use our TV to watch movies on DVD so it's crazy that we even have these. We took them off the house last fall and put them in the garage, but I haven't been able to sell them yet.)
• living room couch
• crib mattress
• vacuum cleaner--it's as if someone accidentally hit the self-destruct button on this thing; the motor still works great, but the rest of it is literally falling apart. We are relying on duct tape to keep it together for the next four months
• grass trimmer
• depending on where we move, possibly the
• lawn mower
• dishwasher
• outdoor play house
• hopefully, at least 1/3 of the baby and children's clothing that I have saved--there is much more than one child could ever wear in those bins now
• all the duplicates of the old photos that are out in the garage
• one set of matching Turkish grain-sack pillows ( I should probably get rid of more of these, but I'm not quite ready to do that yet)
•  board books (I'm ready to cull through these and only keep the ones I'd like to have around for the grandchildren to read when they visit)

I just pray that when all of this is gone, we will be under our weight limit. We have lived in this house for six years, and we've had a baby since then. Even though Tommy cleaned out his room pretty well last summer, it still feels like we have way too much stuff. We need to sell the refrigerator and couch, but we hope to give most everything else away.  There are so many people in need here, and my hope is imitate (in a very small way) the detachment of my Confirmation Saint.

"As for her charities, they will bring upon us a divine blessing. We shall not want, so long as we let her relieve the poor as she does."    
--Louis of Hungary, about his wife, St. Elizabeth 

Welcome

To Lawrence Thomas Patrick Riordon

Born 17 March 2012

11:40 a.m.

7 lbs. 2 ozs.           20 inches

What a precious gift you are to our family, Laurie. We cannot wait to meet you in person, watch you grow, and see God's good plan for you.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you;" 

--Jeremiah 1:5

Lent: a happier post

So instead of wallowing in failure, I thought I would make a list of the things that are blessing us in the way I hoped they would this Lent--or at least the ones we feel successful at. ;-)

1. Friday Stations of the Cross. I love this devotion, and our parish has a wonderful tradition of offering a soup and bread supper (and many yummy meatless casseroles) afterwards. My favorite thing about this is the chance to visit with fellow Catholics during dinner. We don't get much time to chat on Sunday mornings as we all run off to Religious Ed.with the kids.

2. Daily Mass. Well, three days a week, which is when it is offered at our parish. We have gotten there almost every day of Lent, and only  missed when one of the kids was sick. Sometimes the pastor is sick, and this week when that happened, the regulars read the readings together in the chapel. A nice sense of community is building between us, which I love.

3. Lenten Adventure. A friend (from women's Bible study and daily Mass--see how these things work?) just told me about this website (thanks to my mom, we have many of their Glory Stories CDs and a few coloring books, but I never knew about the website). We are playing catch-up with Lenten Adventure, but it seems well-designed, and the kids are having fun with it. Since we are joining so late and our mail takes so long (weeks and weeks sometimes) to get here, I didn't think I could order now and hope to receive their pre-printed calendars before the end of Lent, so I made some for the kids to fill in. 

My version of the calendar is not pretty, but serviceable.

Next year, we will know about this before Lent is half over and can buy the professional-looking one that they sell in 10-packs. Maybe I can even order in time to share with cousins or friends, since we might be back in the USA and have normal mail service. :D

 

Their free stuff (daily videos online and printable coloring and activity pages) is entertaining and gently catechetical. The Sunday "Mass Quiz" reinforces some of the things we talk about at the brunch table: "What were the readings about today? What did Father say about them in his homily? How do they relate to us?" So for kids who like workbook-y things, as mine do, this is fun stuff.

4. First Communion preparation. Thankfully. Because it has been lovely to work with Catholic Heritage Curricula's program again. Goodness. Beauty. Truth.  Deo Gratias!

5. Confession. Once a month. This is working for us. Yay!

6. Nota bene: John is doing much better than I am. He has a beautiful daily prayer routine that is a great example for me. Not that you were thinking this, but I wanted you know that my failures aren't due to a lack of spiritual leadership in our home. It's my sloth. And overscheduling. ;-)

Lent

This has been a challenging Lent for me. Last year, I was totally prepared, to the point of having done two weeks of preparatory work to set up my spiritual reading and action before Lent started. On Ash Wednesday, I was good to go, and I started directly into a new prayer routine as well as the usual sacrifices. Then, on the first Friday of Lent, we had a 9.0 earthquake. The kids and I ended up taking one of the Voluntary Departure flights home to my parents' house and driving up to South Bend, IN, where Patrick is at school and my sister and her family live. We stayed at their house and shared in their beautiful Lenten practices of nightly family rosary, abstaining from meat for the whole season, Sunday Mass at their cathedral. We continued our school work in their home.

In Holy week, we learned that it was safe for us to return to Misawa. Just in time for Easter. :D We were supposed to arrive home on Holy Thursday, but flight delays brought us here on Good Friday. Grateful as I was for our safety, for the joyful, peaceful, restorative time with my family, and to return to John in time for Easter, I missed the Lent I had planned for myself.

So this year, I decided that I would go back to last year's plans and complete them this year. Easy to do, I thought. For hadn't I already gotten all set up last year? I could just fall right in where I had left off.

Ha.

Unlike last year, when Meghan had not started preschool and Katie was not yet in high school, my daily schedule has been a bit out of my control. Katie played indoor soccer, then joined the Edgren HS soccer club, and now their girls' soccer team. Joseph joined Boy Scouts and is playing basketball. John and I are teaching Confirmation along with leading the mens' and women's groups at church. Okay, I was leading the women's group last year, too, but you get the picture.

How can I have gotten too busy for God? Well, I haven't, really. I just don't have the same spaces in my day as I had last year. My worship time is more tied to my time at daily Mass and in the quiet moments afterwards, while my morning prayer takes place in whatever tiny space falls between making John's lunch and wishing him a good day and Meghan calling down the stairs to ask about breakfast. Usually, that means I have time to do my women's Bible study homework, but not much else, and sometimes it is at the breakfast table. At lunchtime, the children and I go to Mass and pray the Angelus together. After school, I drive Katie and a friend to soccer practice and try to get in a Divine Mercy chaplet on the drive home. We have lamely attempted nightly family rosary. I am determined to make that happen every evening between now and Easter, and hopefully beyond. We used to be so good at that one, but schedule changes pushed it right out. I miss it too much to let it be gone anymore.

But no Mother's Rule of Life for me this year. :[ One of these years, probably when I don't have any children left at home, I'm going to get through that book and bring "order to my home and peace to my soul." It isn't too late to start, I guess, but ugh! I wanted to do it during Lent to be finished before we start gearing up for our PCS pack-outs, which we hope will be in June. Serious de-cluttering will be needed before then.

Which brings me to 40 bags in 40 days. Another thing I am doing for Lent. Sort of. I haven't been keeping very good track. Just trying to get rid of as much stuff as possible. Again, no order to this. Just stabs here and there at various closets and bedrooms as they get annoying enough to make me want to attack and clean them out.

I think I need to pray to St. Josemaria Escriva, who said, "If you don't have a plan of life, you'll never have order." He's right. But I need time in my day to make the plan.

This weekend

 The Navy is predicting 18-24 inches of snow Friday night into Saturday.

ahhhh, springtime in Misawa...

:P

Happy first-day-of-spring!

We awoke to six inches of new snow this morning.  But, in all fairness, it has melted down quite a bit since last week's big snowstorm.

Cherry blossoms are predicted to peak April 29-May 7. We shall see.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

After I was outvoted 5-1 against corned beef, it was lamb stew and Irish brown (soda) bread for dinner:

And, for those who partake during Lent, we served the traditional (in this family) mint ice cream pie for dessert.

 The lamb stew took longer than I anticipated, so the younger ones ended up in pj's for dinner. Oh, well. It was still fun, and they loved the opportunity to watch the CCC video, Patrick: Brave Shepherd of the Emerald Isle, while they waited. I think their favorite part of dinner was the green (food coloring) milk.

We finished the meal by praying the Lorica (Breastplate) of St. Patrick.

 We miss you, Patrick. Happy Name Day!!

Disappointing

I recently Shared this bit of wisdom on FaceBook:

"America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts -- a child -- as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters"
"And, in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexual partners. Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign." - Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Source: uCatholic.com

A "Friend" had these comments about it:

"I respect your opinion but I think most folks like us use FB to keep in touch with those we care about and not express political and religious views..."

and

"Regarding the whole Roe v. Wade thing all I can say is that I don't think abortion should be a form of birth control. That said, I will never get pregnant so I can't tell people who can what they should or should not do. As I age I see very little is binary and life's issues deal with shades of grey. I have had a hard enough time figuring out what is right for me that I can't, in good conscience, tell those I don't know what is right for them."

The first comment strikes me as typical for two reasons. First, the truth always hurts whether one agrees or not. Better not to throw it around--it might hit someone! Don't express your controversial views so that I won't have to think to hard about the consequences of my actions (or in-actions). Secondly, it's a reflection of the larger message of our culture that only "politically correct" opinions should be voiced. No crucifixes, no Ten Commandments, no God in the public forum! Who in the world would want to say something like that?

The second comment is also typical in that it's a variation of the Cuomo theme--personally opposed, but... There are so many problems with the argument (if it even is one), it's hard to know where to start.

There's the implication that we each get to decide what's right and wrong. What about God? I thought that was His job!

Next, exactly which "shade of grey" allows a person to kill another person? If you're saying it's okay to kill someone during the first nine months of their existence, what's to stop Mom from "off"-ing her two or three year old. They can be pretty trying, you know, and very inconvenient! Never mind teenagers...

Doesn't this "exception" to "Thou shalt not commit murder" call into question our entire legal system? Why do we agree to have any laws at all? Every single one of them is telling each of us what is right and what's not.

I'm sure there are many other points that could be extracted from these lame attempts to "be nice." Please comment to let me know what I missed.

Morning after

Sunshine. :D  

Note the near-disappearance of Meghan's slide.

It's up to the windowsill of the playhouse.

What we call the backyard, which is really our side yard, 

looking toward the parking area and neighboring American-style houses.

What?! It's March 12th

We woke up this morning to a snowstorm. I don't just mean a softly falling almost-spring snow, I mean a wind-whipping, covering the road again, thundering off the roof, 6 to 8 inches by 6 a.m., snowstorm. A true Misawa moment. Here's what our yard looks like at 9:30 a.m.

                     

At breakfast, Katie remarked sardonically, "My birthday [tomorrow] is supposed to be in spring, not winter." Ah, 14-year-olds.

Update:
When the snow did not let up and the piano teacher called to cancel our lesson today, we called a snow day. Joseph went out to clear the walk at about 10:30. At 10:32, he came back in for snow pants, goggles, and a neck gaiter. We must have gotten a foot of snow by then. The front yard was one big drift.

Boy Scouts was canceled at 1:30. By 2:30, soccer practice was also canceled. At 3:00, I gave in and canceled my women's Bible study for tonight. I didn't want others to drive, even though it was the last meeting of one of our most faithful members. :(

The snow continued to fall and the wind continued to blow. 

I started to make a pot of split pea soup with ham, set some rolls out to rise, and made Mexican hot chocolate for the kids, who had gone out to tunnel in the 4-foot pile of snow that had fallen from the roof. Goodness, the snow was up to Meghan's waist in places. It was blowing so hard, they came back in for ski goggles and neck gaiters, but they didn't give up on playing out there. It felt like we were back in January!

Snowy memories, lots of shoveling, and time for Mom to post something to the blog. All in all, a pretty good day.
:)

Season ender

Joseph's last basketball game for the season was today. The team has done fairly well, winning 4 of 7 games. Matthew and Meghan helped me out with photos. :)

Photo credit: Meghan

Photo credit: Matthew

Photo credit: Matthew

Sledding Day

Our parish organized a sledding day at the "ski lodge" on base. Joseph and John helped setup and the rest of the family came later. Great fun was had by all. About 15 families enjoyed a day of sledding, hot chocolate and lunch. Most of the dads were out on the hill with the kids and--I am not making this up--the moms were in the lodge chatting and ensuring the food was up to the usual high standards.

Here are some pictures...

Joseph

Meghan and her friend Lilly

Matthew

Katie

The Hill

The lake beyond the hill with ice fishermen on it

Where credit is due

Photo credit: Notre Dame Right to Life

 Patrick called home yesterday. It was our first chance to talk after his return from Monday's March for Life in Washington, D.C.  He had a great trip.

So much so that he wasn't even all that disappointed to hear that our next home will likely be in the D.C. area. This  is not definite by any stretch of the imagination; we are just running out of time on other options, and John hasn't heard from anyplace-yet. But as much as that is always on my mind, it isn't the subject of this post, so...

Notre Dame, Patrick reported, took seven busloads of students and faculty to the march.  Seven!  He had a chance to see an old Misawa friend one day there. He visited museums, prayed at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, and stopped by to see my brother and his wife, who are "dorm parents" in the honors dorm on the Catholic University of America campus. He spent most of the weekend with a couple of guys from his architecture program, and the three of them also dropped by the arkie studio while they were on the CUA campus to meet their competition compatriots.

Photo credit: Notre Dame Right to Life

The next day they and more than 300 others from Notre Dame joined the March for Life.

Photo credit: Notre Dame Right to Life

This article gives more details. If their information is correct, Notre Dame had more people there than any other college or university. To be fair, we're not talking about percentages. Christendom College, of Front Royal, VA, would win that contest. They cancel classes and bring their entire student body every year. But when you consider that the Notre Dame trip involves getting excused from classes, taking two overnight bus rides and sleeping in a parish hall,

Photo credit: Notre Dame Right to Life

it's pretty impressive to see such a large number from ND.  I'm grateful to the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture Fund to Protect Human Life for making this possible for Patrick and so many other ND students.

The administration gets a lot wrong with regard to being a Catholic beacon in our dark culture, but the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture is making sure that on the issue of life, they are getting things very right.

Deo gratias.

Departure

Patrick is out for the evening: his last night in Japan. He won't be coming back before we move this summer. A few minutes ago, I went out to put away mittens and snowpants that had been hung up in the front hall after today's romp in the ever-falling Misawa powder. I glanced out the window at the front walk and saw the footprints from Patrick's earlier departure. They are half-filled with snow now. By morning, they will be gone.