Saturday, January 30, 2010

Saturday recap

Today we will begin taping and mudding the back room, which has been under construction for 2.5 years. We had a guy install the drywall on Monday. Probably we should have paid him to do this too, but my dad knows how to do this and he's coming up today to show me and Scott what to do. I hope we can get this done this week and paint next weekend. Then it's just trim and flooring and we're done.

I see the light....



We went to Primo's basketball game this morning. scott is coaching his team this year and Primo is doing well. Mom is just having a hard time watching and not yelling her head off: Hands up, D! Get Ahead!Getahead!getahead!!!!!!!!


Gotta go, Dad's here!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!

Today is the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. I have always loved this saint, even before I knew he was a Dominican.

One of the things I like about him is that when he was in seminary, everybody called him "The Dumb Ox" because he was fat and didn't talk a lot. Their teacher, St. Albert the Great (even better in Latin: Albertus Magnus!), said about him: "We call this young man a dumb ox, but his bellowing in doctrine will one day resound throughout the world."

His parents were wealthy, influential Italians who wanted him to become a Benedictine, thinking that they could probably arrange for him to become the abbot of Monte Cassino, the original monastery that St. Benedict founded. But when Thomas heard about St. Dominic's upstart Order of Preachers, he wanted to join them.

But Thomas really wanted to join the Dominicans. He tried to run away from home, but his mom and dad sent his brothers after him and locked him in one of their palaces. Mom and Dad sent one of their daughters to talk some sense into him, but he talked her into becoming a nun. They tried to send a woman of ill repute to tempt him, but he chased her out of the room with the poker from the fireplace! After 2 years, his parents gave in and let him join the Dominicans.

He was really smart. How smart was he? They say he could dictate 5 books on 5 different subjects at once! He wrote songs that we still sing in church (mostly at Adoration: Pane Lingua). His philosophy is still studied by Catholic and non-Catholic scholars alike!

This is his deathbed prayer (from the Catholic Encyclopedia):

The end was near; extreme unction was administered. When the Sacred Viaticum was brought into the room he pronounced the following act of faith:

If in this world there be any knowledge of this sacrament stronger than that of faith, I wish now to use it in affirming that I firmly believe and know as certain that Jesus Christ, True God and True Man, Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary, is in this Sacrament . . . I receive Thee, the price of my redemption, for Whose love I have watched, studied, and laboured. Thee have I preached; Thee have I taught. Never have I said anything against Thee: if anything was not well said, that is to be attributed to my ignorance. Neither do I wish to be obstinate in my opinions, but if I have written anything erroneous concerning this sacrament or other matters, I submit all to the judgment and correction of the Holy Roman Church, in whose obedience I now pass from this life.

A Prayer for Guidance by St. Thomas Aquinas:

O creator past all telling,
you have appointed from the treasures of your wisdom
the hierarchies of angels,
disposing them in wondrous order
above the bright heavens,
and have so beautifully set out all parts of the universe.

You we call the true fount of wisdom
and the noble origin of all things.
Be pleased to shed
on the darkness of mind in which I was born,
The twofold beam of your light
and warmth to dispel my ignorance and sin.

You make eloquent the tongues of children.
Then instruct my speech
and touch my lips with graciousness.
Make me keen to understand, quick to learn,
able to remember;
make me delicate to interpret and ready to speak.

Guide my going in and going forward,
lead home my going forth.
You are true God and true man,
and live for ever and ever.

--St Thomas Aquinas, 1225-74







Monday, January 18, 2010

It's true...

Ten years ago in March, Scott and I were married. We bought our house in Linden, NJ, even as I gave my husband 5 years to find a job in PA so I could move closer to my friends and family. I worked at a major university here in NJ as an admissions counselor and I traveled a little bit. We had a cat.

I had all kinds of plans for us. We would travel some. Maybe Italy, maybe drive across the country. We were young (24) and we had all kinds of time ahead of us to get around to the kids we wanted to have (2 or 3-it was up in the air).

On Mothers' Day, 2000, I found out I was pregnant. The baby would be born before our first anniversary.

I did not feel equipped for motherhood in any way. I was excited, but I was really scared. And I was not entirely comfortable with my plan changing. We wouldn't be jetting off to Europe anytime soon. We had decided before we got married that once we had kids I'd stay home and take care of them. I wasn't making really GREAT money in my job and by the time you factored in day care and both of our crazy schedules, well, it wasn't worth it.

Nine years ago today, I gave birth to a wonderful baby boy. The blog world knows him as Primo. We took a little while figuring each other out, but every year has gotten better and better.

So, what they say is really true. God's plan for you is really so much better than the plan you have in mind.

Happy 9th birthday to my firstborn, my smartypants, my right hand man. I love you so much. I cannot imagine my world-- THE world-- without you in it. You are my joy. The Lord has big plans for you, my friend. I am so blessed and so grateful that he gave you to us.

Monday, January 04, 2010

Merry New Year!

So, how was your Christmas break?

Mine was VERY busy. But there is progress on the back room which has been in various phases of construction for 2.5 years now. I can almost smell the sheetrock...

Got to see Aimee and VK this past Saturday. Aimee is gestating beautifully (is that even correct? Does that make it sound like she is the one in utero? I hope not. Because, clearly, if she were in utero, it would have been impossible to see her and it would be 197*. asterisk in case she wouldn't want me to publish the year of her birth). And the 4 kids who were running around were fantastic. And so was her wonderful Rob.

VK and her hubby Sean look great! I haven't seen them since we all graduated college back in the late '90's. VK went to Denmark in the summer to record an album with a super producer. what I have heard from the record sounds GREAT!!!! buy it!

So, today was back to the grind with school and work. I wish we had gotten one day at home where we could just loaf, but that was not to be for us this year. Maybe we'll get to do that over Easter...

What were you up to?