Yesterday, our family had a celebration for Our Lady of Guadalupe. We have had a party for her almost every every year since Ben was a toddler. Usually we have enchiladas, spanish rice and punch, sometimes carry out tacos if time is short or there is a new baby. Often we play pin the tail on the donkey, do the mexican hat dance. One year we had a pinata. This year, we used the lovely ideas by Alice Gunther who so generously shares her creative Liturgical Teas at her blog Cottage Blessings. Last winter some ladies from our homeschooling group got together and used Alice's plans in a group setting. I vowed this year I would do them at home with my entire family. My mother came over and helped prepare the food. I wish I had photos of the food to share with you but I was so caught up in the festivities that I did not take any. Every thing on the menu was delicious, lovely and meaningful.
I placed a small potted rose plant next to Our Lady's picture on the table alongside our perpetual candle lit in her honor. The children behaved well and were attentive, the food was done on time and everyone had a wonderful evening. That doesn't all happen very often, where everything just seems to fall into place. In fact, earlier in the day everyone was upset and grumpy. It did not seem that our party was going to get off the ground. Children were irritable and our family was sad. Our dear friend has had some setbacks in his health, on the eve of the day we had hoped for a miracle. He had to postpone his trip to Mexico City. So we continue to pray on his behalf and are grateful to those of you who are praying along with us.
When the table was spread and the story of Our Lady was being read, everyone forgot their grumpiness and became quite grateful. Grateful for a home in which to live, for a plot of land on which to romp, for a family who loves them, for the friendship of those who truly care about our family. All of these things we recognize as having come from God, through the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of our family.
Waking to a winter wonderland
Homemade donuts
Achieving the rank of First Class
Two vanloads of clutter hauled away to charity
A call from a friend whose ultrsound was PINK!
So happy for you, Anne and Nick!
Do you see this beautiful couple? The woman is holding a little, dark curly haired baby girl...their godchild. That baby is my little Mary Kathryn (who is no longer dark or curly)!
How have a kept a blog for all these months and not introduced you to my dear friends Barbara and Blair? I am most horrified that I have not done so until now.
Barbara and I met ten years ago when my oldest son was only a few weeks old. She was a La Leche League leader at one of the meetings I attended as a new mother. I did not know much about being a mother except the very little I had read in a few mainstream books (that I will not link). I had never changed a diaper before I changed my son's on the day I brought him home from the hospital. I was an only child who had never babysat an infant. In fact, I had only held one baby in my life (and only for ten minutes) before holding my firstborn son.
I had many questions about the ins and outs of motherhood, both from a practical standpoint as well as an emotional one. I began to see much in Barbara that I wanted to emulate as a mother. She was soft spoken, patient to a fault and always had something good to say about people. I was impulsive, rambled incessantly about anything and everything and was very impatient with myself and others. I watched her and began to imitate the things that I loved about her.
I spent a couple of months attending those La Leche League meetings, learning how to mother my baby and not just provide nourishment for him. Barbara invited me to her home one day for tea. I met her children and was taken aback. Here were kind, smart and friendly children! Seven of them! They were homeschooled, which I had never heard of before. Yes, she taught them herself. She also, horror of horrors :), did not own a television...hadn't had one in many years. What did they do for fun? Why they played and acted out stories they had read in books. They drew and sang and played instruments. They did what children will do when given large amounts of time with which to work.
There was something else about that family that was special. I could not put my finger on what it was until Benjamin was almost a year old and Barb and I both volunteered to worked at an organic cooperative farm each Thursday. It was almost an hour away. Once Barb learned that I was planning to buy a farmshare and work on the same day that she was, she offered to drive the baby and I in her van. Benjamin and I rode in her big van with all those children. When they would drive down the highway, they would sing or read aloud to one another. But before anything else, they would pray some prayers for safe travel...Hail Marys and Our Fathers and other prayers that (somewhere in the recesses of my Evangelical Protestant mind) I remembered from my childhood as a Catholic. I prayed along, happy to remember the words I had uttered as a child with my mother by my bedside.
We spent the summer picking spinach, green beans and sweet basil. My baby rode in his backpack and munched on blueberries from the bushes on the farm. Week after week, I said those prayers and rode in that van of happy children and fresh produce. Finally, Barbara asked me one day whether I was a Catholic. I explained that I used to be but was now a Christian. She smiled and asked if I'd like to come over for another cup of tea...
After much tea and many visits to her home, I returned to the Church I had forsaken years earlier. The reason I returned was primarily because of the prayers and steadfast example of love offered to me from Barbara. She and Blair answered my questions and patiently undid the false ideas I had about Catholicism. My son was baptized just before his second birthday.
She introduced me to beautiful literature and beautiful illustrations, lent me books like Honey for a Child's Heart and For the Children's Sake. I researched Charlotte Mason, mainly due to that last book. I learned the importance of surrounding my children with beauty and goodness. Also, my desire grew to provide a new and exciting learning environment for them.
So many areas of my life are richer having met Barbara. Had I not met her, I would not parent the way that I do. I would not feel comfortable bringing that baby into bed to snuggle with me. I would never have dreamt of homeschooling. Do you know that the first time I saw an Advent log was over Blair and Barb's house? Hers was the inspiration for mine.
I thank God, for so many reasons, that our paths crossed when they did.
I love you, Barb.
