Planet Selfish

Mothering Sunday, Mothering Sunday,

Oh, what gratitude --Till Monday!

Have a bit o' bliss

Each one day

Reserved as your

Intended fun day.

Nor should a normal

Got-to-run day

Silence love

Until some someday;

Nor word not light a

Desperate glum day

As we await

Your Mothering Sunday.

Is it wrong for me not to want to get together with anyone but my husband and kids on Mothers Day?

See, I am in the middle of the busiest time of the year for my job. I was thinking yesterday I'd just have everyone here (house is still clean from First Communion Party), but then Scott's mom (half an hour away) decided that she wasn't feeling very "mothers day-y" this year and that she was going to head up to her cabin in the woods that weekend (first chance she's getting all year). My mom and stepmom are in Philly and I just don't feel like spending half the day in the car. I would have them up, but my mom doesn't drive, so that means she come in Saturday on the train, stays over, then goes back on the train that afternoon (or we drive her back home because she doesn't want to hop a ride with my dad and stepmom who live 20 min. away from her).

My MIL not feeling the whole Mothers Day thing is just mind boggling. She said when Scott and I were getting married that she really wanted to see us sometime on Mothers Day weekend every year. It's just THAT important to her. At least until this year.

I have to tell you that I am so not offened that she wants to retreat this year. Because I have wanted that for a couple of years now. Last Mothers Day, I asked Scott when we would get to the point where we got to do what I want to do on Mothers' Day. And what I want to do is sit around and do big fat nothing with Scott and the kids. Or go to the beach with them after Mass. Or maybe plant the phlox I bought. Or paint my front door. But I really don't want to drive to Philly. And I'm not so sure I even want anyone else to come up here either. I just want to hole up and be with my little family.

But I want to do it guilt-free. And if I don't have my mom up (since one brother is in CA and the other brother lives on Planet Selfish), no one will visit her. I would definitely call her, and I'm sure even my brothers will, too (even Selfish brother will at least text her), but I have very complicated feelings when it comes to my mom. It's a long story that I won't go into here.

And I can't go there on Saturday because we have the boys' baseball games until 1:30 or so. Well, I probably could go there on Saturday. I just don't feel like doing that either.

So, if I don't ask anyone up, am I living on Planet Selfish, too? If I decline an invite to come down, does that make me a denizen of that terrible orb? Can I take that day off? Should I just get to Philly on Saturday and suck it up? Is it wrong for me not to want to see my family?

I am looking to be let off the hook, but I will take a swift kick in the pants, too.

I have been away for a while and not as good as I ought to have been about posting the final Divine Mercy Novena post, and for that I am sorry. But this has been my distraction:
He made his First Holy Communion yesterday.

Divine Mercy Novena starts today

The Divine Mercy Novena begins today, Good Friday. From EWTN: Jesus asked that the Feast of the Divine Mercy be preceded by a Novena to the Divine Mercy which would begin on Good Friday. He gave St. Faustina Kowalska an intention to pray for on each day of the Novena.... In her diary, St. Faustina wrote that Jesus told her:

"On each day of the novena you will bring to My heart a different group of souls and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy ... On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My passion, for the graces for these souls." For the next nine days, you can find the novena here. If you're in the neighborhood during the novena, and you want to stop by my parish to pray the chaplet, click here for the schedule. Mass on Mercy Sunday is awesome. 3:00, the hour of mercy. Please be aware it is a Charismatic Mass and it gets packed by 2:00. Click here for information on the Mercy Sunday Indulgence.

Prayer for Novena Day One (Good Friday):

"Today bring to Me all mankind, especially all sinners, and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. In this way you will console Me in the bitter grief into which the loss of souls plunges Me."

Most Merciful Jesus, whose very nature it is to have compassion on us and to forgive us, do not look upon our sins but upon our trust which we place in Your infinite goodness. Receive us all into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart, and never let us escape from It. We beg this of You by Your love which unites You to the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon all mankind and especially upon poor sinners, all enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion show us Your mercy, that we may praise the omnipotence of Your mercy for ever and ever. Amen.

Then, pray the Chaplet:

1. Begin with 1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary and The Apostles Creed.
2. Then on the Our Father Beads say the following:Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.
3. On the 10 Hail Mary Beads say the following:For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
(Repeat step 2 and 3 for all five decades).
4. Conclude with (three times):Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

I am here to help

I promise to get more of the New Orleans trip stuff up soon, but I want to wait until Scott's article gets published in case I wind up saying things he wants to say or use pictures he wants to use.

So, you know how the president is in Europe right now attending the G20 meeting? You know that he met the Queen yesterday? You know what he gave her? An i-pod. Now that is a fun gift, and certainly cool, but really, is it presidential? Then again, she gave him a framed photo of herself and Prince Phillip (the article says that all visiting dignitaries get one. I hope it's a nice frame.), so maybe it's not so weird.

BUT, a few weeks ago, when Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official visit to our newly-elected president, Brown brought Mr. Obama really cool gifts from our nation's history:

The Prime Minister gave Mr Obama an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet.

The unique present delighted Mr Obama because oak from the Gannet's sister ship, HMS Resolute, was carved to make a desk that has sat in the Oval Office in the White House since 1880.

Mr Brown also handed over a framed commission for HMS Resolute and a first edition of the seven-volume biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.

Do you know what our president gave to Mr. Brown? 25 DVDs. DVDs that won't even play on a DVD player in the UK because DVDs and players are formatted differently for international markets. You really must read the whole article from the Daily Mail, which is quoted above.

I am getting a little frustrated with the gifts Obama's giving to international dignitaries. He's making us look a little amateurish. Scott suggested checking out the warehouse where they took the Ark of the Covenant at the end of "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark," but I'm not sure they tell even the President where that is.

So, even though I didn't vote for Mr. Obama, I am willing to help out by being the official shopper for our country. I love finding gifts that make people happy and I would love to be paid to do that.

Here are some things that I think would have been great to give to our friends from the UK:

Gordon Brown wears lots of nice suits, but the recession is hitting us all hard. It's probably not as easy for him to get the same clothes as he could afford last year. Why not a $150 gift card to Harrod's? That way, he can pick what he wants.

But the exchange rate isn't that good. Our $150 would probably only be like 100 pounds. Maybe he could get a tie.

I know. British people like their afternoon tea. Why not some yummy cookies? Like Mrs. Fields or Famous Amos? Oh, but the Mrs. Fields' company is declaring bankruptcy and Wally Amos had some financial problems, too. Probably not the best idea in these troubled times.

Oh, I know! How about Martha Washington's cookbook? It has recipes prepared by the first First Lady herself for all of her family and her hired (and purchased) help. Mrs. Brown and the Queen might have to start preparing meals for hungry Brits who will start filling the bread lines if the global economy goes all the way into the crapper, so these recipes for rib-sticking "olde tyme" farm food might be a good idea. Come to think of it, let's make sure we give Mrs. O. a copy, too.

Boy, this is harder than I thought. None of these gifts are really historical enough or important enough. And a lot of people have them. I need to come up with something that just screams, "SPECIAL!!!!"

Think, think, think...

This is it! I would totally give the Queen the alien spaceship that crashed into Area 51. Let's face it, we already picked it apart and we know how it works now (plus, I bet we bred a whole bunch of aliens who are busy building new spaceships for us). We could get some of those little gray guys to fix up the original, make it remote controlled, and then we can just put it in the cargo hold of Air Force One and drop it off. I'll bet the Queen has a ton of fun freaking out her subjects by flying a saucer around London. And maybe Gordon Brown could take it out to where they have the crop circles. That would really get people talking. Let's get their minds off the recession and get them thinking about alien invasion!

So, Mr. Obama I will be waiting by the phone. I am ready to start any time.