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May 22, 2009
> 3:10 PM
let's blog > life update  Yes, I'm still drinking coffee - approximately one cup every morning, sometimes two. This is probably more symbolic of "life goes on" than anything I suppose. There are certainly times when, generally speaking lately, life sucks - but it still goes on. We still manage to get up and do whatever it is we do during the day. All our kids are still at home, although a couple of them are hardly "kids" any more. I think I like that. I know you're supposed to be a good, tough parent who wants their kids to move out on their own and be independent young women and men, taking on the world, but give me a freakin' break! No, I can't say that I'm happy about that idea. Do I want them to be good and healthy, spiritually sound, Christian adult people? Sure I do. I just like having them close. The "letting go" thing is very difficult for me. It's baseball season again and that means family schedule chaos around here. My 15 year old son, Conor, has played some form of baseball since he was probably 4. He's in his last year of city league ball this year - Babe Ruth League - and we're in the swing. Practice and ballgames very week - some of the normal drama that goes along with baseball teams and leagues at this level: parents, coaches, players all hollerin' at each other, agendas, blah, blah, blah. All these things are reasons I'd never be an umpire or a baseball coach at this level. Sitting on the sidelines is better than going to jail for bustin' somebody in the mouth. Sad, but that's how it can be. Conor, though - this is a boy who is not too affected by all that. He likes playing and has fun even when others are bent out of shape. Good for him. He's playing first base this year and has done well. So, we're half-way through the season - fold out camp chairs, sunflower seeds, gatorade - moving right along. That's a beet there - well, the leaves of a beet plant, the beet is growing in the dirt (which is what they taste like if you ask me). I don't like beets, but Liz does, so we grow them. It's garden time. That's a good thing. It's Liz's passion, and has become a good thing for me as well. I tend to concentrate on the tomatoes for some reason. Now, I don't like to eat raw tomatoes either, just cooked in various forms, so go figure. It's very monastic work for me to putter around the garden - watering, tending, making sure the weeds don't take over, etc. We garden organically, so things are a bit messier. No weed killers, pesticides, fertilizers - none of that. There are good, healthy, natural ways to do all that. But you do have more bug holes in your leaves, more weeds or grass growing randomly and you might not have giant, mutant-sized fruits and veggies. It's fine, though. We still have several jars of canned tomatoes from last year, and it looks like we'll have even more this year. The rest is as follows: beets, red onions, potatoes, green bell peppers, jalepeno chilis, cucumbers, corn, and 3-4 different kinds of tomatoes (mostly Roma). I'm still making rosaries and selling them from time to time, so listen, go buy you one or two, or get some for presents. They're cool rosaries - seriously. :^) The sales seem to come in spurts. Advent and Lent were big times, and another time when Michael Spencer got his Baptist head handed to him for promoting the horrid practice of praying with prayer beads - aagghhh!!! Kind of hilarious if it wasn't so sad, but such is the screwed up Body of Christ on earth I reckon. So, I thank those of you who have supported my rosary-making habit by purchasing or encouraging your friends to buy my hellish prayer beads. Please don't stop now - there are so many pockets not holding one of these fine pieces yet in the world. :) Church - yep, still a part of it. I haven't jumped ship yet. I certainly have that urge sometimes, but I'm sure I'm not alone. I've picked back up the mantle of (now let me be canonically correct here) Extraordinary Minister of the Holy Eucharist - aka, Eucharistic Minister - Lordeee. I like doing that. It's just a small, simple thing, but something I like. I've been helping on the formation committee for small groups, or small faith communities in the parish. I've got the experience to be able to help in some way, so I'm doing that. I'm a bit idealistic, I find, when it comes to these things, so I get a little frustrated, but that's fine. It's not all about what I think it should be for sure. The most "exciting" thing I've been doing is helping initiate the practice of praying the Liturgy of the Hours in our parish - to teach people what it is, how to do it, how formational it can be. So, we're starting by praying Vespers together with an intro session on June 7th - nice. My Deacon friend, Tim, and I have been working on this thing and it's coming to fruition - good stuff. And of course, off in the distance, in my heart and in my head, is a bell ringing on a foggy morning, friends walking together to pray the Morning Office, their lives being formed together into His Image...Labels: church, gardening, kids, liturgical prayer, rosaries 0 Comments:| permalink | e-mail me | 
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