tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-305429032024-03-13T15:56:54.608-04:00A Catholic Mother's ThoughtsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1413125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-42529561838007447562024-02-27T14:18:00.000-05:002024-02-27T14:18:12.863-05:00Longing for the GardenIt's the end of February. Lent! Lent snuck up so quickly I barely had the Christmas decorations away. And, well, that's not so unusual for me anyway. I love Christmas decorations and see no need to scurry around putting them away, even after the Epiphany. After all, the liturgical season of Christmas lasts longer than that. But I did get them away before Ash Wednesday. So that's good.Now we are Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-60163468337102020742023-09-25T11:23:00.001-04:002023-09-25T11:23:13.233-04:00Baptismal Day--O Happy Day! My sixth grandchild was baptized yesterday. Such a wonderful, joyful day. The grace of God was all over it. Such peace. Such a sense of gratitude for all that God has done and continues to do.All but one of my grandchildren were there. (The missing one was sick.)Just looking at my children and grandchildren fills me with joy. I know I'm extremely biased but they are adorable. There was a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-83945550843894190952023-08-28T09:57:00.000-04:002023-08-28T09:57:57.036-04:00Grandchildren-- the Best!!! Just returned from a delightful three day visit with my son and his family. Grandchildren. They are the best. So cute. So engaging. So wonderfully devoted to their grandparents and the feeling is mutual.When we arrived they came running out of the house yelling, "Nana! Grandpa!!" Their faces were filled with delight, as were ours. I took a walk later with my three-year-old grandson Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-39423469318192160322023-06-28T14:51:00.001-04:002023-06-28T14:51:39.418-04:00Weeding- Avoiding Procrastination As Well as Perfectionism. All right. It's been a while. Time to write here again.I spent several hours weeding my gardens this morning. It was not too hot and I knew I'd get more done in the morning than later in the day. Just as in life, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the presence of weeds in the garden. We finally had several days of good rain and the weeds clearly loved it.The challenge for me in weeding isUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-64629442166112674902022-11-16T11:48:00.002-05:002022-11-16T11:51:25.886-05:00Weight Loss Wednesday Good News: I'm down 1.1 pound since last week. Very happy about this. I am trying to eat more mindfully, paying attention to whether or not I am actually hungry, and only eating when I genuinely am. (and only eating what is necessary, not as much I as I want!!)Overall Loss: Down 4.1 pounds. That's cool.All kinds of reasons to lose weight: I want to stay healthy. I want to keep up with my Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-8915537231696553702022-11-09T17:59:00.002-05:002022-11-09T17:59:44.825-05:00Weight Loss Wednesday Good news! I'm down 3.4 pounds! That's over two weeks since I didn't post last week.Why didn't I post last week? Because I was very sick with a gastrointestinal bug. Yeah, very sick. Yes, yes, that does account for some of the loss. But a loss is a loss, right? I didn't gain it back after my recovery.Note to self: Keep eating mindfully. Do NOT eat when you are not hungry and DO stop when Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-36540475085441234832022-10-27T12:46:00.004-04:002022-10-27T12:46:48.334-04:00Weight Loss Wednesday OK! Good news. I am down. I am down two pounds from last week and 2.8 overall. (Because I had a gain one week.)Note to self: Good job eating mindfully. I have to continue not just eating for fun, but only if I'm hungry. Also need to stop when I'm full. Keep reminding myself that this is not a matter of eating as much as I can get away with. It's a matter of eating healthfully and only as Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-8544705785174297852022-10-19T19:17:00.001-04:002022-10-19T19:17:20.855-04:00Weight Loss Wednesday Well, it's another Weight Loss Wednesday. I've lost a measly .8 pounds from last week. Pretty pathetic.Overall, I am still a pound up from when I started two weeks ago. This is not good. Time to wake up and remind myself, maybe many times a day, that I will not lose weight unless I eat less food. I must eat only when I'm hungry and stop when I am full. That's it.Hopefully this week Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-3474345307787525312022-10-12T14:51:00.001-04:002022-10-12T14:51:15.410-04:00Weight Loss Wednesday! All right. I have to confess. I am UP 1.8 pounds. I write this having just finished a small bowl of sweet potato chips that I did not need.Notes to Self: Eating when I am not really hungry is not in my best interests. If I want to lose weight I must stop eating for fun. God does not want me to waste food by putting in my mouth food that I do not really need.Time to get serious. My Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-87161520965679075032022-10-05T09:44:00.000-04:002022-10-05T09:44:49.214-04:00Weight Loss Wednesday My daughter has pointed out to me that years ago I had a blog post thread called Weight Loss Wednesday. She read me some of the posts. Hehe. Could hardly remember writing those.Anyway, I've decided to start it again. I will not tell you my weight. But I weighed myself today and next week on Wednesday I will confess to either a loss or gain or no change.Feel free to join in in the comments. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-32318648249490161962022-08-16T09:00:00.002-04:002022-08-16T11:55:35.224-04:00Heirlooms RevisitedThis is my grandson. As he made little lines by pulling his fingers against the nap of the fabric on this chair my thoughts went back some sixty years.I used to do the very same thing when I was a little girl. It was fun. And all you had to do was brush your hand over the fabric again and the lines would disappear.My brother and sister and I had all done it. Then I realized not only did I do thatUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-72574220319428233082022-08-04T12:24:00.001-04:002022-08-04T12:26:28.450-04:00The Weeds and the Flowers...such is lifeSometimes I like weeding in my garden. It gives me the joy of absorbing the glory of God all over every flower. &Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-74766047893122284062022-08-01T07:59:00.001-04:002022-08-01T08:00:56.147-04:00 For the first time, I attended last week the Catholic Writers Guild in-person conference. It was a delightful experience. I met many other catholicMom contributors, including some I have "spoken" with extensively online but have never met in person.What a treat it was to be in the company of so many like-minded people. There was an Adoration chapel! There was an exhibit hall full of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-4527247738177609482022-01-21T06:00:00.001-05:002022-01-21T06:00:00.210-05:00Annual March for Life Is TodaySixty-two million persons have lost their lives to abortion since 1973. Yes, I am using the word person intentionally because living things only belong to one species. They don't change species. When a human being is conceived they are a member of the human species. Thus each one is a person. This is science. This is basic biology.In 1972 the people of Michigan, my home state, defeated a ballot Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-65104487386125080412021-04-19T07:00:00.041-04:002021-04-19T07:00:00.260-04:00A Fantastic New Movie-- "Resurrection" by Roma Downey What a wonderful new movie Roma Downey has produced! Resurrection is beautiful, artfully filmed, with great acting and fully developed characters. Its available on Discovery Plus and I think your whole family will love it!The multiracial, multinational cast perfectly echoes the universality of the Church.Powerful, jaw-dropping images will leave you newly inspired by the most incredible Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-57926451658381524752021-03-15T09:02:00.001-04:002021-03-15T09:19:55.418-04:00Forest Bathing-- It's a Thing! Forest Bathing. Does not the very name make you smile a little? You might ask what it is but I think we all get an immediate sense. A hot bath makes us relax. The warm water surrounds us and dissolves muscle soreness and tension. Now imagine what a beautiful walk in the woods can do. Forest bathing is a legitimate therapy in Japan and has been since the 1980s. The Japanese term is Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-14432520110220679562021-01-24T19:19:00.000-05:002021-01-24T19:19:39.323-05:00Word of God Sunday!!On September 30, 2019 Pope Francis instituted the Sunday of the Word of God.It was the liturgical memorial of Saint Jerome, 1600 years after his entry into eternal life. How appropriate! It was Saint Jerome, Father and Doctor of the Church, who famously said, "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.The Third Sunday of Ordinary Time was to be "dedicated to the celebration, study and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-20252705365752802412021-01-21T06:00:00.015-05:002021-01-21T06:00:00.647-05:00Defending the Unborn-- We Go OnMarch for Life in a previous year. Copyright Rosemary Bogdan. All rights reserved.It is with sadness that I reflect today on the pro-life policies that our new president, President Joe Biden, will be undoing.March for Life in a previous year. Copyright Rosemary Bogdan. All rights reserved.March for Life in a previous year. Copyright Rosemary Bogdan. All rights reserved.President Biden is expectedUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-73761479357679524222020-11-16T20:18:00.000-05:002020-11-16T20:18:38.400-05:00Covid, Connectedness, and the Body of Christ It’s been several months now since we were told to stay home, to maintain six feet from people and to have no contact with others outside our household. It’s been hard on everyone. I remember when the first two weeks were extended to four. I remember thinking we can’t do this. It’s too hard. It’s painful. Yet we all realized it was necessary, that this was a serious pathogen spreading like Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-7238887378478835832020-06-16T16:56:00.000-04:002020-06-16T16:56:36.042-04:00It's Not Good For Man To Be Alone...
My sister wearing one of the tens of masks she sewed for health care workers. She's so cool.
I am so tired of the pandemic that I have started calling it by a term my friend Mary used, "the dampenic." It's not really swearing, right? Just a juxtaposition of letters. She saw this expression on a lovely site by Susan Branch. And it relieves me of a little of the antagonism I feel toward the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-81621231503992518312020-04-27T13:54:00.001-04:002020-04-27T13:59:07.068-04:00Strange Times...
What strange times these are. If someone had told us seven months ago that a virus previously unknown would infect the entire world and we would all have to stay indoors for weeks or months to keep from getting sick, would we not all have said, "Come on! That's not going to happen!" And yet here we are. In some sort of bizarre fantasy...except that it's real.
The isolation is driving us Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-1978185662510831372020-04-17T14:29:00.001-04:002020-04-27T13:15:57.850-04:00Covid and StuffMary was evacuated from Senegal by the Peace Corps. After several harrowing days of not knowing if/when she would come home, we learned that the Peace Corps had chartered a plane to bring home hundreds of their volunteers. Impressive work by the Peace Corps. She was quarantined for 14 days upon her arrival home. She spent it with her brother at his apartment.The photo below was taken through the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-57314334279876498592020-03-05T17:18:00.002-05:002020-03-05T17:18:47.332-05:00The Going Away Party...
Mary has been gone almost two weeks now. At the moment she is in Community Based Training for intensive instruction in an obscure language and living with a family who will only speak to her in that language.
Am I still missing her terribly. Yes. Yes, I am.
We did have a going away party for Mary. The picture below was taken at Costco where my two daughters and I had gone to shop for Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-74916545420664773692020-02-26T17:52:00.000-05:002020-02-27T12:43:53.674-05:00Trip to Key Largo...Just With Mary
Before Mary's departure Mike and I went on a trip to Key Largo, with just her. I don't think we had ever done that before. It seemed appropriate though. We would not see her in a long time and we wanted to spend time with just her.
None of us had been to Key Largo before. It was quite lovely. We rented an AirBnb, a condo, on the water with the above view from its dock. Gorgeous water views.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30542903.post-20723804012628965772020-02-24T19:15:00.000-05:002020-02-25T11:48:51.900-05:00Missing Mary....
One of my daughters has joined the Peace Corps and will be serving in an undeveloped country.
I'm very proud of her. She has more courage than I have ever had and I have no doubt she will serve her fellow human beings well.
I see now that her plane has landed and she is in her country. I'm glad she's on the ground.
But I miss her so much, as does our whole family.
I taught my four-year-oldUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0