7 Quick Takes

1.

Our cat had four kittens on April 11, which makes them 6 weeks old now.  They are SO CUTE!  Mama cat is starting to wean them now, I think, as she seems totally annoyed with them when they want to nurse, and gets up and walks away.  They have begun eating canned cat food, so it's OK.  Well, all of the kittens except one.  The one who, at birth, we dubbed, "Trouble."  He has definitely lived up to his name.  If anyone of them is going to climb up the drapes, it is Trouble.  If any of them is going to escape from their "nest" and climb up over the barrier, it is Trouble.  (Actually  they all can do this now, but Trouble was the first!)  If any of them is going to suffer malnutrition because he is too thick-headed to eat cat food, it will most likely be Trouble.   This morning, I was downstairs after seeing my hubby off to work, and I turned around to see Trouble and his brother, Mittens, playing under the dining room table!   I never heard any tumbling, and they were not acting like they had head injuries, so I assume they figured out how to climb down the stairs, safely.  We will miss them when they go to their new families in a couple of weeks, but we will be keeping one kitten (my kids would disintegrate if we gave them all away).  We will keep the "left over" kitten -- the one that doesn't get chosen by other families--the last kid picked.  I have a sneaky suspicion I know which cat that will be...

2.

I am still inordinately proud of my sap buckets.  They look amazing!

3.

I need to find some inspiration to plow through to the end of the school year...Our homeschooling has been abyssmal lately...I am just hoping to finish the math books and read some good literature at this point.  Only a couple more weeks to go...I think I can, I think I can...

4.

I use the ellipsis way too much....and improperly, most likely....

5.

Sometimes I find that the people who enter my life are not necessarily friends I would have chosen if I had seen their "friend resume" on paper.  I know people who live in vibrant Catholic communities, with like-minded Catholic friends who are raising well-mannered Catholic children who get along with their own children, and are of the same ages/sexes, to boot!  I have prayed long and hard for a vibrant Catholic community, and I have surely been blessed with some great Catholic friends, but the fact remains that Catholicism is so very NOT vibrant in my neck of the woods.  This makes homeschooling a very lonely way of life for this extroverted mama.  I have recently become acquainted with and then befriended two women whom I respect very much.  They are amazingly generous people and devoted mothers (rabidly so, even).  One is a Catholic who disagrees with the Church's teachings on several topics.  The other is a former Catholic who, I think, hates seriously dislikes the Church and all it stands for.  Had I known this about them at the outset, I probably wouldn't have pursued friendship with them.  But, there were qualities about them that I respected immensely and which drew me to them.  And I am so glad that now I can call them friends.

6.

The funny thing is that my sister-in-law, after attending a seminar that helps you to discern your own charisms, told me that she thought I had the charism of Evangelization.  Now, after I took the survey on my own, Evangelism, ended up way down the list.  When I read the description of this charism, it really did sound like me, so why didn't it show up on the test when I took it????  Well, that is because the questions were all about evangelizing non-Catholic people. Now, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE teaching the faith--to Catholics!  I even told my sister-in-law that I have little patience for Protestants or fallen away Catholics, and don't want to evangelize them!  Uh-oh.  Apparently, God heard my prideful, uncharitable, selfish statement and has set about changing my sinful, hardened heart.  He is so good that way.

7.

The best part of all of this is that one of my new friends recently wrote me an email describing the way she was praying to God. I had advised her previously that it was probably not appropriate to DEMAND that God do things the way SHE wanted them done, which was her preferred method of praying. This advise she then called my "cockamamie way of praying" -- she's a hoot!  Anyway, she remembered my cockamamie advice and prayed for His will in a certain situation and asked for His blessing.  A few days later, she asked me how to pray for her husband's boss, who is unpleasant to work for (to say the least).  Actually, first she had to come to grips with the fact that she SHOULD pray for him.  This seemed incomprehensible to her at first, as someone who pulls no punches about what she thinks and how she feels.  She doesn't like this man, and here I am telling her to pray for him --ridiculous!  To her immense credit, and by God's grace, she decided to pray a Hail Mary for him daily.  Her amazing qualities initially drew me to her in friendship, and I see more and more to respect in her all the time.  God in his mercy to me, brought this friend into my life; a friend I might have once overlooked.  And, now he humbles me by using this broken, hard-hearted, uncharitable vessel as a means of drawing this beautiful daughter to His heart.  God is good.  All the time.

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