Sharing Spiritual Motherhood

 This blog has evolved much over the last several years.  It has been lain upon my heart to evolve it one more time.  As a Catholic convert growing up in a Protestant family, I struggle with things that most Cradle Catholics would take for granted. At the same time, I could also possibly bring some freshness or newness to something that many Catholic moms think are old hat.  By the same token, the struggles that I face as a Catholic mom are the same struggles that my Protestant mom friends face.  For example, how to get the chores done in the middle of ball season; how to get the kids motivated toward completing all their chores or homework when they would rather play with the miracles of modern technology; or lastly, how to instill the love of Jesus in their children, not just the experience of Him.

This last one, I really need some pointers from my mom friends.  My daughters' father was not a church-going man, nor was my father, nor is my husband. I have never lived in a family where the husband/father was the leader when faith issues were in play.  Now, both my stepfather and my late stepfather are church-going leaders, but I never had the pleasure of living in their households.  I visit with my stepfather now, and what a blessing it is to see him about his faith, but I have never had that in my life first hand, so I'm all about how you all do it in your homes.  I love looking on facebook at so many precious traditions that I don't even think of!

After taking a pamphlet from the church foyer Sunday, I began to feel led to evolve this blog into a little more than just "the story of us".  It is my goal to write with purpose at least once a week and to develop pages and information.  I am working on sharing this as a post on facebook with other moms, and I hope that those moms will comment on the posts on social media and also share things with the group that they come up with on their own.

In "The Catholic Mom: Nurturing Your Household", Kathleen Blease gives some guidance on strengthening your role as a Catholic Mother.   In this blog, I feel led to share "everything from managing chores to praying with our children to cooking with the liturgical calendar".  All of these are things that I deal with on a daily basis.  I feel led to share them with others and hope that others will share as well.

Sunday Deacon Lee said that sometimes we need to be the Jesus that others see...I am loosely paraphrasing.  The lady next to me whispered to her husband later that she couldn't hear the cantor.  It was a song that I loved and new well, so I whipped out my missalette (can you believe spell-check doesn't know this one), and I began to sing.  I was just helping her out, and I was very rusty, but she turned to me later and told me that I had the prettiest voice and should sing in the choir.  I wasn't fishing for her praise, but I feel that my choice to pull out my book and make an attempt to sing with a full voice brought more to the mass for her.  I hoped I was a little ray of Jesus for her that day.

I hope I am a little ray of Jesus for others, and I long for others to speak to me in the small things.  You have no idea.  A lady today helped me with my avocados. She got me a produce bag and held it open while I dropped them in.  The best part was she did it in front of my children.  The little things that they see...amen...they will do for others.

Fly Lady Journal

Other than my faith struggles, I struggle with my household.  My sweet husband asked me this morning just what was all this stuff spread all over the kitchen table.  It was my weekly business meeting.  Why do you have that, he wanted to know.  It takes all these organizational tools for me to run this household.  I am in charge of EVERYTHING except his checking account, so I really have my hands full.  www.flylady.net is my tool to sanity.  I will share many of her tips as I go, but I encourage you to find your own helper, even if it is your mama's notebook for how she did it. Share those tips with me.

Lastly, among all of my duties as mother, wife, teacher, grandmother, full-time employee in a management position, daughter and sister and granddaughter, I struggle with my health.You will see me blog a good bit about finding time to exercise.   I have a whole separate blog devoted to the work I am doing there and the program that I am involved with.  It won't get posted to facebook, so if interested, I can add anyone's email address to get notified when that blog updates.