Seven Scattered Quick Takes

Jennifer Fulwiler hosts this carnival of "takes."  Go visit the rest.

1. By Friday last week the cough hadn't gone away.  The foot hurt and I hadn't been cast for the brace.  So, overall, I was a mess.  I worked Saturday morning to clean things and do laundry.  I am trying to do at least one Fly Lady thing and clean the sinks.  It seems hopeless.

On Saturday I gave my very last PSudafed to my hubby and went out to buy some more.  Unfortunately, the way law enforcement is handling the meth crisis is by limiting how much pseudo ephedrine is out there.  I didn't pick the correct day to look for it.  I felt like a drug user as I went from drug store to drugstore and asked for Sudafed.  No luck at all.  Since I use maybe 20 tablets a year, it seems as though I ought to be able to get it when I need it, but that is not the case.

But, later we found some at Walmart. Today the cough is almost gone.

2. Saturday evening was the Pentecost eve Mass.  It is a very moving service.  At the end we surprised the bishop by honoring his 50th ordination with a blessing from the Pope.  And that's not all, we honored 2 nuns with blessings as well.  It began at 7:30 and concluded at 10pm.  I didn't stay for the cake. My foot hurt. (I was fitted for the brace on Wednesday.)

3. My son was supposed to run a half marathon on Saturday in Q.  He ended up only running 10 K because he took a wrong turn on the race route.  So, he ran a half half marathon.  He was disappointed, but he learned to study the map next time.

4. Our mower chose this particular time when I am not able to mow to throw the self propelled cable.  I feel terrible for my hubby, who usually only uses the weed trimmer. But, it turned out in the midst of a busy Wednesday afternoon we were able to drop off the mower.

5.  As predicted last week, we are empty nesters once again.  The little robins have flown the coop.  They grew up so fast.

6.  I did a last one day only book fair on Tuesday.  It about killed me.  But, I am not given to exaggeration, am I?  No pens and junk, only books. I sold a little over $1000 worth of buy one get one free stuff, or $2000 worth of stuff. It was picked up by the time I got to school after the brace fitting on Wednesday.

7. On Wednesday we made the sad decision to have the old cat put to sleep.  He was in obvious pain and barely ate.  It was still really tough.  The vet told us we made the right decision. That cat was over 19 and we had him since he was 6 months old.  It is tough.  A sad week.

Old Dodger had lived in 3 different houses with us and had been with us since our son was a teenager.  He had been a part of a large section of our lives.

Thanks!

Dear Lord,

Thanks for all the good gifts I can't even think of at the moment.  Thanks for the holes in my life that give me the humility to let You in to work and to bless others.

Thanks for the pain of difficult relationships and the joy when little things go right.  For all these good gifts, Thanks!

Your beloved daughter,

Mary

First Communion Weekend

My bro and his daughter on her First Holy Communion weekend.

The tulips were blooming up north.

The family.

Dressed for communion.

Such a sweet face.

All of these kids were strangers. The kids she had gone to school with and prepared for Communion with would receive in Quincy the next day.  This was a last minute switch.

But, such a pretty girl.

I pray for her everyday.  There are so many challenges to this little one growing in faith.  But, in the end, all I can do is pray.

To Everything, Turn, Turn, Turn....

And so we are empty nesters once again.

The robins flocked in our yard, but not in the front where they nested the past years.

They picked the inconvenient location of the stairs to our deck.

There were 3 blue eggs.

But only 2 chicks when they hatched.

The chicks grew fast.

 

When they were young, they had a face that only a mama bird could love.

 

Then they suddenly had feathers.

And the next day they flew away.

 

 

My sisters the birds you are greatly beholden to God your creator, in that He hath given you blessings 2 and even 3 fold....

Receive the Holy Spirit

Those of us who are Baptized, who believe and call ourselves Christian, who attempt to follow our Lord, Jesus Christ, have received the Holy Spirit in full measure at our Baptisms.  Nothing was held back at our Baptisms.  Whether we were 5 minutes, 5 months, 5, 10, or 25 years old at Baptism we received the exact same Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit came with gifts.  Another word for those gifts are charisms, because those gifts we received weren't chocolate cake or a US Savings Bond.  They are interior gifts.  We received all of them at Baptism.

At this point what runs through my mind is--why then do a bunch of Baptized people run through this life like a pack of God Forsaken Hooligans?  The answer would be, I think, that they never opened the gifts, they never unwrapped the packages.  Just as a blender, still wrapped in Christmas paper can't make milkshakes, so the gifts of the Holy Spirit can be waiting.  The giver of the blender would urge the recipient to open it, so the Holy Spirit urges us to open up the gifts.

In the Catholic Church we have the sacraments, instituted by Christ to give grace that stir up the gifts.  We receive Christ in the Eucharist, we meet Him in Penance, and at Confirmation we are anointed and armed with these gifts.  At Confirmation we are supposed to awakened the gifts of the Holy Spirit and ready to defend and live out our faith.

Sadly, many people go through these grace filled events as though they were sheep following the herd.  Their soul is not engaged in their life with Christ and the gifts lie fallow.  The charisms are there, but undeveloped.  As we look around the world today, even within our own church, the gifts of the Holy Spirit lie fallow.

As Paul says--stir up those gifts that have been given to you....

And ask yourself--which of the gifts of the Holy Spirit do I use--wisdom, understanding, prophesy, teaching, administration, tongues.....

Because if you are employing the gifts of the Holy Spirit then the fruits of the Holy Spirit should be manifest in your life--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness,....

Pentecost Sunday Prayers

Come, Holy Spirit, come.  You are the source of all knowledge.  Come, Holy Spirit, come.  Enkindle in me the fire of Your love. Amen

The Foot Report

After all of the feet pictures earlier in the week, perhaps you are waiting to hear what the doctor said?  My blog, I can party the way I want to, so let's pretend that you want to know.

I have tears on tendons on the front and back of the ankle.  I have a notch out of the Achilles tendon.  I have arthritis, lots of arthritis on my foot.  The beginning step is a brace, a custom brace.  I cooled my heels around the office while they called my insurance about the brace.  I waited and waited.  I wasn't clear on the results of that.  But, they ended up sending me off, telling me they would call later when they heard from insurance.  I was very frustrated.  If I need the brace, make the brace.

So, I am getting practice being patient, being a patient.  But someday, I will have a brace. (And you can believe that I will probably make a blog post out of it.)

7 Quick Takes

Jennifer Fulwiler hosts this carnival.  Go around and visit the rest.

1. I felt terrible on Saturday.  I didn't leave the house.  I ran a fever, but the battery was dead in the thermometer, so I have no idea how high.  Chilling and shaking were my clues.  My husband wanted to know what I had--a cold, some random flu.  These things don't come with labels.  It involved coughing until my muscles ached, a fever and snot.  My ears hurt and my head hurt.  It was a little like allergies with bonus prizes.

All of this wouldn't have been so bad if my foot hadn't still really really been sore.

2. Ascension Sunday was Mother's Day.  When did Ascension Thursday give up as a Holy Day?  It has been a long time ago.  But, once upon a time, we had to go to Mass on that day.  I began the Pentecost Novena on Ascension Thursday since I plan to attend Mass on Pentecost eve.  I want those Holy Spirit gifts.

3. I got a redbud tree for Mother's Day.  Hubby suggested it and carried it and planted it in the back yard. It looks just right.

We planted it in the back yard, not by the front door where it sits in this photo. (It was half price.)

4.  The robins are growing.  It is hard to believe that they are halfway grown up in just a week.

5. My book club didn't win any prizes this year.  They had a good time, for the most part. It was an exhausting day for me. I had the team party on Thursday.  Pizza. Lots of pizza.  I always order too much.  I love these kids but they are so noisy. 

Probably the most touching thing all year happened at the pizza party.  One of the girls said--we should pray before we eat.  Is everybody here Christian?  They all agreed that they were, they held hands and I held my breath wondering what they would pray, a bunch of kids from different denominations.  They began--Our Father, who art in Heaven....  It did my heart good.

6. Overdues, inventory and celebrations for the end of the year are weighing me down.  Too much to do in too short a time. And I have a lingering cough and persistent foot/ ankle pain. Not that I am one to complain.....And inventory for 18,000 books and a little bit of budget yet to spend and magazines to order for next year and state reports and that ding dong book fair next week.....Not that I am one to complain....

7. My son is headed up to Q to stay with my mom and run in a half marathon on Saturday.  Should be fun to drive more than 2 hours the day before to run 13 something miles and then drive home. Lots of fun.  But, not for me, I am glad it is him.  I hope he has fun.

Thank You, Lord

Lord,

You know where I am today and these hurting feet I have to walk on.  You know about the coughing.  You know all the things I need to get done.  And somewhere in all of this is the path to salvation.  When I reflect upon it, the path to salvation involved the road to Calvary.

Let me walk that road with You.  For You said that Your burden was easy and Your load was light.  I give it to You.  Just shepherd me along that road.  Keep me on the road to heaven.

Your beloved daughter,

Mary

A Long and Boring Post (with too many feet photos)

A week ago today I went to my trusty foot doctor.  He was the one who stuck a shot in between the 3rd and 4th toe joints of my right foot last summer and fixed a painful problem.

 

So this year, when suddenly I could hardly walk on my left foot, I returned to him to work his magic.  First off he assessed the problem, told me to stand on my tip toes which I could with my right foot but not with my left.  He named some tendon besides the Achilles that he suspected as the problem and ordered an MRI.  I got an appointment that very day, after work.

 

The nurse placed this brace thing around my foot which helped me walk and relieved the pain some.  But the trick was--they showed me twice how to put it on.  I would have to take it off in a hurry at the MRI place with no time to carefully study how to do it so that I could ever hope to get it on again.

I came up with a brilliant plan--when I went back to work from the doctor's office, I went into the library workroom, took it apart, step by step while taking pictures and I would use the pictures to help me figure out how to put it back on.

So, I photographed different angles.

It looked so neat and orderly.

Then I began to take it apart.  There is a lot of very strong Velcro holding everything together.  The "bioskin" label part that holds it all together has to come off first.

Then the long black strap pieces come off.  I call them criss cross applesauce because they cross on top of my foot.

But pulling the Velcro loose on a hurting foot wasn't easy.

One criss cross done.

Even though the ankle straps should come off last, I found I had to loosen them because it felt as though my foot were in the grips of a boa constrictor.

Now to figure out the second criss cross

Aha!

Black cross straps loose.

Now how to loosen the white strap?

And once again, sitting and crying in pain for a few minutes gave me the strength and courage to continue.

Sweet freedom! The white strap wraps around tight.

And that was where I stopped. I left the rest on until I went for the MRI.

 

But later when I tried to put it all back together it looked like this-- (That was after I did everything I could remember.)

Then I found a YouTube video showing neatly how to do the whole thing.  So, I didn't need all these carefully taken pictures and they didn't help me anyway.  The best laid plans.... Still since I took all those photos I thought I should share them.  People love my tutorials and pictures of feet?  (Maybe not so much.) I am pretty much of an expert with the thing after a week.

 

But, the foot brace has helped a lot. (Except that my foot feels like it has been squeezed by a boa constrictor when I wear it too long.) And today, this morning, I am back at the foot doctor to find out the results of the MRI.

 

(St. Peter, patron of foot problems, pray for me!)