Eating Cold Spaghetti

Lent is in it's final stretches. Just two weeks and we will be celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. We will be singing our Easter songs and raising our hallelujahs.  But first, we must walk these final steps. The end is nearing, and the light is in sight; but we have not yet reached Golgotha.  Around this time during Lent has always been my time to stop and reflect, and question just how "well" I've done in my attempts to sacrifice, unite myself with Christ and ultimately grow closer to Him.  Some years I sigh, realizing how much of Lent I've allowed to pass me by and then vow to finish out the last leg actually doing something..anything.. to actively seek Him.  This year, as I sat in the pew listening to the homily on the  pillars of lent (prayer, fasting, alms-giving) I was smiling to myself, patting myself on the back and feeling rather smug for just how good I've been doing. I was running through my list of things and checking off all my good works. T...

 I mentioned in my about me how I like to keep things simple, and with this list of things I included ecological breastfeeding.  Just to clarify, this is not the same as exclusive breastfeeding. With ecological breastfeeding, you do exclusively breastfeed, but you also follow nature rather than culture in regards to wh en and how we soothe baby( no paci, co-sleeping, nap nursing etc).  It comes from the  Seven Standards by Sheila Kippley, and is quoted as " ...  that type of baby   care which follows the natural mother-baby relationship. It avoids the use of artifacts and mother substitutes; it follows the baby-initiated patterns"  so in a nutshell it's more than just breastfeeding for nutrition. I didn't actually know this is what I was doing, per se, until many months into our breastfeeding journey when I discovered the book.  And though simple and true to nature in concept, it can be challenging in today's world for many mothers to even att...

 When I was pregnant with my son, I wanted a devotional that followed the pregnancy and helped me prep myself spiritually for the new life within me. I found one titled "waiting in wonder" and was not disappointed in it. It was precisely what I'd been looking for. I found myself Journaling and reading from it again during  my pregnancy with my daughter.  And now, in this advent journey I have rediscovered it.. Advent is  a time of waiting. It too is a pregnancy of sorts. As we remember Mary's "yes" to letting Christ reside within her, we too are invited to carry Christ in us.  We are pregnant with the anticipation of Christ's coming and we cannot help but rejoice. Especially on this 3rd Sunday of advent, literally "rejoice" Sunday where when lighting the rose candle we are looking forward to Christmas and all its glory, and the joy bubbles out. Not anxiety of all that needs to be done before Christmas, but joy because we can see what is coming ...