Hubby and I are on a new diet. We are currently on Transitions, which is a meal plan that follows the glycemic index, while providing an exercise regime, and utilizing behavior modifications. I had joined another diet group last November (and lost 24 lbs), but with the move and other factors, I realized it was too far of a commute. I've switched to this diet in the hopes the momentum will continue.
I started a weigh loss group in my home. We call ourselves "The Big Losers", and we have a friendly competition going. Whoever loses the most weight at the end of 10 weeks will win $100. The pressure is on! Not everyone in the group is on Transitions, but a majority of us are. We had so much fun at our first meeting (yes, I just used weight loss and fun in the same context!) We're surrounding ourselves with support and affirmation to go out into an otherwise hostile environment when it comes to health.
This first week of Transitions, hubby and I are on detox. We're on an all vegetable/fruit diet. No processed foods, no protein, no caffeine, no alcohol, no grains or starches, no sugars. When we get hungry we eat, drink, and breathe vegetables. The first day was really hard on me, as I was detoxing from addictions not only to caffeine but to sugar and carbs as well. It was a rough day! Tomorrow is day three. If we feel we must re-introduce protein, we can.
Isn't it funny how Americans must deprive themselves of food so readily available and taken for granted? How almost shameful it is that we must pay to understand how to do with less? How to take our bloated forms and make them healthy and viable again. Jesus forgive me, and may I continue this fast for the entire week in small reparation for my many sinful acts of gluttony.
Please keep me in your prayers as this week will end next Tuesday evening, with our first weigh in. I've been doing fine, but after all, tomorrow is St. Patrick's day. And has been told in the story of St. Patrick, I'm beginning to feel like those sailors did when they turned to God in desperate hunger for any food. No, I'm not that bad, but I'm beginning to relate!
Friday, March 16, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
If I had all the money in the world...
...I would help people. I know that sounds so like a "Miss America" answer and all, but I mean it. I love helping people. Providing people with the things they need to live better lives. Today I found an amazing deal for a dear friend of mine who recently started a home business selling cosmetics. She's been doing an amazing job, scheduling appointments, doing makeovers, meeting with salon business owners, going to trainings, all the while homeschooling and keeping house. Amazing! I found her a "director's chair" and some lights, a makeup apron, and a makeup bag. Nothing brand new, but all in decent shape and with "a lot of miles left". I felt so good dropping my gifts to her house today.
You have to wonder if everyone has these best of intentions. I mean, if you look at it, I'm sure Obamacare started with the best of intentions, just as Romneycare did and No Child Left Behind. Just as the New Deal did. Helping people. But you know, that''s not the point of our government. And the very organizations that exist in our country solely for the purpose of helping people are being hurt by our government's over-reach. I think Obama, with his background in community organizing would have made an excellent philanthropist. But he's not. He's our President. And the ways in which I see him disregard the Constitutional structure that our Founding Documents put into place is disheartening to say the least. He is systematically dismantling the same Constitution he was sworn to protect.
But its Lent. It's a time in the Church when we're supposed to be looking more at the sacrifices we can make to make lives more blessed around us. Rice bowls, sacrificial giving, tithing and alms giving. All of this is increased, or asked to be increased, in this rich time of dryness in the Church. How can the Church promote a spirit of giving and goodness, and then reject the government's following suit? Is it a double standard. I really have to look deep within myself and wonder if, as a Catholic, I'm not developing a Messiah complex and insisting that I have to be a Catholic control freak. Salvation can only be found in the Catholic Church. But what about health care? Faith and actions, they meet at the Cross.
Contraception is not birth control. I appreciate the few cases of women that "need" birth control to hide their symptoms for their reproductive ailments. Yes, I use my words carefully, for really that's what birth control does. Taking birth control to help regulate the pain associated with endomitriosis is like taking aspirin to regulate the headaches that come with a brain tumor. Artificial birth control does nothing to confront the real issue, to attack the disease. There are treatments, holistic medical treatments that can help a woman in the long run. Sadly, most women are on artificial birth control for so long that by the time they recognize these other treatments exist it is too late for these same treatments to be effective. Women get duped and buy into the birth control lie, and they pay the price of years of pain when they might have had healing. Even when its not intended to regulate births, the lie of birth control is being sold to desperate women nonetheless.
Politics has gotten brutal. The name calling, the lack of respect to both men and women out there is terrible. Friends have turned against friends, family members attack one another in the name of "being politically opposed". Where is Christ in all of this mess? Where is the love of Christ shown in the way we treat one another in the political arena? Where are the ways in which we build one another up, where we leave one another in 'the peace of Christ'? I can't believe the dishonesty and the brutal attacks on people from both sides. It's shameful:(
If I had all the money in the world, I would help people. But if I had all the money in the world, I know I couldn't help those people who just don't want to be helped. I think often, when dealing with a liberal minded person, of those dwarves in the last battle, the epic end of the Chronicles of Narnia series. They made it into Aslan's country, and yet they could not see the splendor of the truth that is around them. All they could do was look in on the circle they had created during the battle, and continue to comment and be negative about their situation. I sympathize with the Left in this regard. How often have I been here in my Faith journey? Seeing only the bleak points of life instead of the majesty that is this world that God created for us. How do I reach these people? Even through my own scrim of pain and intolerance. How do I show them that life is beautiful and should be loved and accepted as a gift from our Creator? Does my attitude make them want to live more or less in the light of Truth, in the light of God?
Lord, thank you for making me have no money that is solely my own. Thank you for my poverty and my inability to control anything financial. I see so much now within myself that I need to fix. That I need to heal before I can become responsible for the many gifts you have waiting for me. Lord, if I had all the money in the world, it would still be as nothing compared to the help, and the life, that you could lead all people too. May I stop and wonder more often what I might do to help your kingdom here on earth. Here in my own little way.
My son and I finished our first Fr. Lovasik book "My Day with Jesus" today with this prayer:
make me His obedient child.
You have to wonder if everyone has these best of intentions. I mean, if you look at it, I'm sure Obamacare started with the best of intentions, just as Romneycare did and No Child Left Behind. Just as the New Deal did. Helping people. But you know, that''s not the point of our government. And the very organizations that exist in our country solely for the purpose of helping people are being hurt by our government's over-reach. I think Obama, with his background in community organizing would have made an excellent philanthropist. But he's not. He's our President. And the ways in which I see him disregard the Constitutional structure that our Founding Documents put into place is disheartening to say the least. He is systematically dismantling the same Constitution he was sworn to protect.
But its Lent. It's a time in the Church when we're supposed to be looking more at the sacrifices we can make to make lives more blessed around us. Rice bowls, sacrificial giving, tithing and alms giving. All of this is increased, or asked to be increased, in this rich time of dryness in the Church. How can the Church promote a spirit of giving and goodness, and then reject the government's following suit? Is it a double standard. I really have to look deep within myself and wonder if, as a Catholic, I'm not developing a Messiah complex and insisting that I have to be a Catholic control freak. Salvation can only be found in the Catholic Church. But what about health care? Faith and actions, they meet at the Cross.
Contraception is not birth control. I appreciate the few cases of women that "need" birth control to hide their symptoms for their reproductive ailments. Yes, I use my words carefully, for really that's what birth control does. Taking birth control to help regulate the pain associated with endomitriosis is like taking aspirin to regulate the headaches that come with a brain tumor. Artificial birth control does nothing to confront the real issue, to attack the disease. There are treatments, holistic medical treatments that can help a woman in the long run. Sadly, most women are on artificial birth control for so long that by the time they recognize these other treatments exist it is too late for these same treatments to be effective. Women get duped and buy into the birth control lie, and they pay the price of years of pain when they might have had healing. Even when its not intended to regulate births, the lie of birth control is being sold to desperate women nonetheless.
Politics has gotten brutal. The name calling, the lack of respect to both men and women out there is terrible. Friends have turned against friends, family members attack one another in the name of "being politically opposed". Where is Christ in all of this mess? Where is the love of Christ shown in the way we treat one another in the political arena? Where are the ways in which we build one another up, where we leave one another in 'the peace of Christ'? I can't believe the dishonesty and the brutal attacks on people from both sides. It's shameful:(
If I had all the money in the world, I would help people. But if I had all the money in the world, I know I couldn't help those people who just don't want to be helped. I think often, when dealing with a liberal minded person, of those dwarves in the last battle, the epic end of the Chronicles of Narnia series. They made it into Aslan's country, and yet they could not see the splendor of the truth that is around them. All they could do was look in on the circle they had created during the battle, and continue to comment and be negative about their situation. I sympathize with the Left in this regard. How often have I been here in my Faith journey? Seeing only the bleak points of life instead of the majesty that is this world that God created for us. How do I reach these people? Even through my own scrim of pain and intolerance. How do I show them that life is beautiful and should be loved and accepted as a gift from our Creator? Does my attitude make them want to live more or less in the light of Truth, in the light of God?
Lord, thank you for making me have no money that is solely my own. Thank you for my poverty and my inability to control anything financial. I see so much now within myself that I need to fix. That I need to heal before I can become responsible for the many gifts you have waiting for me. Lord, if I had all the money in the world, it would still be as nothing compared to the help, and the life, that you could lead all people too. May I stop and wonder more often what I might do to help your kingdom here on earth. Here in my own little way.
My son and I finished our first Fr. Lovasik book "My Day with Jesus" today with this prayer:
Jesus is my God
Jesus, my Friend,
Son of the Eternal Father,
make me His obedient child.Son of Mary,
make me love her as my Mother.
My Master, teach me.
Prince of Peace, give me peace.
My Shepherd, guide and care for me.
My Bread of Life, feed my soul.
The true Way, lead me.
Eternal Truth, I believe in You.
Life of the saints, live in me.
My Judge pardon me.
My King, rule me.
My Hope, strengthen me.
My Redeemer, save me.
My Helper, protect me.
My Model, make me like You.
My only Joy, take me to You.
St. Frances of Rome, pray for us!
Monday, March 5, 2012
Ebb and Flow of Life
Lent is here. I'm really feeling it this year. No, we didn't commit to super huge prayers or sacrifices. But the Lord in His goodness has seen to it that every day this Lent has been just a little more difficult for me. Nothing catastrophic, just little humiliations and tests of my patience to remind exactly where I need to focus my virtual attentions:) It's like that small headache that reminds you to get your eyes checked. Or that bone itching ache that reminds your fractures to rest and heal.
How to navigate the ups and downs of life. If we continue to clean and cook and feed and dress and kiss and discipline and teach and sew and bathe and bandage, you would think a routine would develop. But it seems to be the routine of the unroutine in this house. I start everyday with the best of intentions and end every day with the firmest of resolutions. At least when a family life is centered around public school you have the routine of a bus route to keep you up on time every morning and home at the same time every afternoon. We don't have that so we slip into school and we slip out of school and it seems very amorphous between meals. I would love to have a definite start time and a definite end time. I wonder if I'm alone in look up nonplussed that all of a sudden its lunchtime and I'm not even done with my Kindergartener's first subject? And how do we fit in the music lessons and the sports and the personal hygiene and the personal time and fitness for mom...And the laundry and the dishes and the floors? And I want to start a garden this year and maybe some chickens next year...How do I keep it all straight? At this rate I can hardly keep a straight face!
Prayers are yours my dear readers. And I'm hoping as we reach into the desert journey together that we offer some small Lenten sacrifices and prayers for one another. I'd love to hear of your family Lenten traditions too!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Miscarriage Prayer
A friend of mine is struggling through this right now. Please keep the family in your prayers. Here is a beautiful prayer that someone posted for her on FB. I thought I'd share in case any of you are in need of comfort or in need to comfort.
Monday, February 20, 2012
HHS Mandate is not a "women's rights" issue.
If you've been on Facebook this past week, I know you saw this photo:
Every pro-"women's rights" guru, including some Catholic women that I know, were asking "What is wrong with this photo?" Fueled by the vitriol that is Planned Parenthood, everyone wondered aloud where the women were at.
All I can say is, get real! The testimonies of these religious leaders were for a specific purpose: religious liberty. They didn't want to hear from pro-contraceptive women why birth control was "necessary". They didn't want to hear from good Catholic women why contraception was bad. The heart of the HHS mandate has really little to do with women. It has everything to do with religious liberty, particularly for Catholic religious liberty, in the good old U.S. of A.
The bitter cynical side of me (most days my better half) would simply posit the question: can any of you who take issue with the above photo know of at least ONE woman who is a Catholic AND on birth control? Do you know at least ONE Catholic couple who contracepts? Do you know of at least ONE Catholic woman who has had an abortion? If you can answer yes to even one of these questions, then you are totally off base with the tired "women's rights" argument here. I am an ordinary American Catholic. Not good. Not bad. Just trying. And I know for a fact that I attend Church every weekend with just as many contracepting women as I would encounter at my local mall. I could argue the moral implications here, but if you go to Church, you should know these teachings anyway, so I'll save my breath. The point is, morality aside, these women have ready access to the contraception they're on. There are multiple resources in our nation for any woman who wants access to contraception. There are governmental agencies and funds available for any woman who supposedly "needs" contraception and also "needs" financial help to secure said contraception. Even while its immoral, women have access to birth control, Catholic or not.
The fight doesn't end here. 40 years ago, the fight to secure contraception was meant to be between a woman and her physician. "Keep your Rosaries off my ovaries" was a mantra chanted by those who "wanted to be liberated" from the confines of society and traditional marriage. Well now, this same woman and her physician are turning on the collar. Women and physicians who see the "moral good" in contraception are turning on the Church and attempting to force Catholics everywhere to pay for contraception. Women like Kathleen Sibelius and Sr. Carol Keehan, both Catholic, are insisting that the Catholic Church go against its moral code and pay for contraception, sterilizations, and abortifacients. "My body my choice" means there's no other option for the Body of Christ.
I would just like to point out the irony here. The birth control movement was lead by feminists who believed that birth control was the only way to empower women. To make women free of the confines of motherhood and pregnancy. To make women strong independent contributors to society like their male counterpoints. And now the birth control movement is insisting that women need to be dependent on the government for their...Birth control???
No! This is not about access to birth control for women. This is about taking birth control and making it as morally acceptable as homosexual marriage has become. As morally acceptable as cohabitation has become. It is saying that sexual freedom trumps religious freedom. We have to accept that women are going to contracept. We can no longer accept that contraception is a moral wrong and that it is a detriment to civil society. That is why this HHS mandate is so dangerous, and so very wrong. That same little pill has been the elephant in the Catholic Church since Humane Vitae was written. It has kept the Catholic Church out of a majority of Catholic bedrooms. And it is now the Trojan horse (no pun intended) with which the government of the United States is riding in to conquer the Catholic Church in America.
Every pro-"women's rights" guru, including some Catholic women that I know, were asking "What is wrong with this photo?" Fueled by the vitriol that is Planned Parenthood, everyone wondered aloud where the women were at.
All I can say is, get real! The testimonies of these religious leaders were for a specific purpose: religious liberty. They didn't want to hear from pro-contraceptive women why birth control was "necessary". They didn't want to hear from good Catholic women why contraception was bad. The heart of the HHS mandate has really little to do with women. It has everything to do with religious liberty, particularly for Catholic religious liberty, in the good old U.S. of A.
The bitter cynical side of me (most days my better half) would simply posit the question: can any of you who take issue with the above photo know of at least ONE woman who is a Catholic AND on birth control? Do you know at least ONE Catholic couple who contracepts? Do you know of at least ONE Catholic woman who has had an abortion? If you can answer yes to even one of these questions, then you are totally off base with the tired "women's rights" argument here. I am an ordinary American Catholic. Not good. Not bad. Just trying. And I know for a fact that I attend Church every weekend with just as many contracepting women as I would encounter at my local mall. I could argue the moral implications here, but if you go to Church, you should know these teachings anyway, so I'll save my breath. The point is, morality aside, these women have ready access to the contraception they're on. There are multiple resources in our nation for any woman who wants access to contraception. There are governmental agencies and funds available for any woman who supposedly "needs" contraception and also "needs" financial help to secure said contraception. Even while its immoral, women have access to birth control, Catholic or not.
The fight doesn't end here. 40 years ago, the fight to secure contraception was meant to be between a woman and her physician. "Keep your Rosaries off my ovaries" was a mantra chanted by those who "wanted to be liberated" from the confines of society and traditional marriage. Well now, this same woman and her physician are turning on the collar. Women and physicians who see the "moral good" in contraception are turning on the Church and attempting to force Catholics everywhere to pay for contraception. Women like Kathleen Sibelius and Sr. Carol Keehan, both Catholic, are insisting that the Catholic Church go against its moral code and pay for contraception, sterilizations, and abortifacients. "My body my choice" means there's no other option for the Body of Christ.
I would just like to point out the irony here. The birth control movement was lead by feminists who believed that birth control was the only way to empower women. To make women free of the confines of motherhood and pregnancy. To make women strong independent contributors to society like their male counterpoints. And now the birth control movement is insisting that women need to be dependent on the government for their...Birth control???
No! This is not about access to birth control for women. This is about taking birth control and making it as morally acceptable as homosexual marriage has become. As morally acceptable as cohabitation has become. It is saying that sexual freedom trumps religious freedom. We have to accept that women are going to contracept. We can no longer accept that contraception is a moral wrong and that it is a detriment to civil society. That is why this HHS mandate is so dangerous, and so very wrong. That same little pill has been the elephant in the Catholic Church since Humane Vitae was written. It has kept the Catholic Church out of a majority of Catholic bedrooms. And it is now the Trojan horse (no pun intended) with which the government of the United States is riding in to conquer the Catholic Church in America.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
A new Blogger on the Block!
Hey All!
I just wanted to give a warm Blogospheric welcome to Father Nagle! An incredible man and an incredible Priest, he's decided to put some of his profound thoughts down on...nope not paper...nope not the pulpit...For all of us, dear Readers on the web! Woo hoo!!!
Check him out here.
I just wanted to give a warm Blogospheric welcome to Father Nagle! An incredible man and an incredible Priest, he's decided to put some of his profound thoughts down on...nope not paper...nope not the pulpit...For all of us, dear Readers on the web! Woo hoo!!!
Check him out here.
Monday, January 30, 2012
The Great Scandal
So I was sitting in Mass on Saturday night when the Priest where I work got up and told us to fast and pray that a relgious exemption will be upheld and that the Catholic Church will not have to provide access to sterilizations, abortions, and contraception as part of their federally mandated employee insurance package. Wow. Look how far it has come. And how fast.
I am fasting and praying on this. I can't believe how blatant the Obama administration is in pressing 1/4 of the American population into compliance to a federal mandate, and against their Catholic conscience. This is brutal totalitarianism that we sought to avoid when our forefathers made their way to America in the first place. It was religious liberty that was the reason why this country began in the first place. Escape from a nasty monarchy that was limiting the religious lives of every man, woman, and child who sought out and paid with their lives the very soil we stand upon today. If Obama realizes what a crime against the Constitution he is making, he is showing that he simply doesn't care.
But you know, there's another layer to this too. If I were sitting in any pew this past weekend as my Bishop's letter were read, and I were an average American Catholic, I would be beyond confused at what I was hearing. I'd be downright dismayed. It would sound to me like the Catholic Church is fine with any procedure that will, by worldly standards, enhance your marital life by artificially limiting the size of your family, but as a whole the Church will not be responsible for the bill. I wonder if any of the liberal priests or the bishop himself got yelled at by the 98% of contracepting couples in our national diocese? The same priests who either remained silent or spoke in support of every couple who struggled with the idea of being open to life and choosing to contracept, sterlize, or abort, rather than follow God's law or the Church's teaching. The same Bishops seem chagrined to speak out against the President, I would be too if I were in their shoes, as it has been estimated that 80% of the Bishops voted that man into office in the first place. And where was the Bishop, or at the very least, the Pastor of Kathleen Sibelius, she who claims to be Catholic on the teachings of the Church long before she penned a law blatantly against same said teaching? Where are the men of the Church? And if they are here now, where in the Hell were they UP TO NOW?!?
I'm looking back at those statistics. 98% of all Catholic women have at one time contracepted. One in 4 Catholic women have had an abortion. One in 2 Catholic men are sterilized. Those numbers alone are scandalizing. And yes, I choose my words carefully. You bet I do. The "great scandal" was not nearly of this proportion. Less than 4% of Priests are accused of pedophilia, and that great plague has traumatized the Catholic Church across this nation. It has single-handedly shut down Churches, ruined Dioceses, ruptured the relationship between a Bishop and his Priests, while withholding and manipulation the organic relationship between a pastor and his people. Everyone is guilty until proven innocent. Volunteers in the Church are no more, unless they want to give ALL of their personal information to some bureaucrat behind a desk. 4% of men ruined the Church by hurting children. 98% of laypeople contracept children out of existence and no one bats an eye. That is a great scandal my friend. And now, we must either turn into the biggest hypocrites of our time, and admit that we are no less than money changers in the Temple, or we must change. We must regard human life as precious and relegated only in the Sacrament of Marriage, or we must admit that we no longer hold the Truths of Catholic Church, and stop hiding in the shadows. Why proclaim in the light what we do not practice in the dark? President Obama, and more directly Kathleen Sibelius, are only trying to get the Catholic Church to make a choice. Either live the Faith that we profess or abandon it and embrace this law.
I fast and pray that we make the right decision. Our religious freedom is now in danger. And yet, what was being preached outside the field of view of the tabernacle has endangered the souls of almost every Catholic in America up until this point.
I am fasting and praying on this. I can't believe how blatant the Obama administration is in pressing 1/4 of the American population into compliance to a federal mandate, and against their Catholic conscience. This is brutal totalitarianism that we sought to avoid when our forefathers made their way to America in the first place. It was religious liberty that was the reason why this country began in the first place. Escape from a nasty monarchy that was limiting the religious lives of every man, woman, and child who sought out and paid with their lives the very soil we stand upon today. If Obama realizes what a crime against the Constitution he is making, he is showing that he simply doesn't care.
But you know, there's another layer to this too. If I were sitting in any pew this past weekend as my Bishop's letter were read, and I were an average American Catholic, I would be beyond confused at what I was hearing. I'd be downright dismayed. It would sound to me like the Catholic Church is fine with any procedure that will, by worldly standards, enhance your marital life by artificially limiting the size of your family, but as a whole the Church will not be responsible for the bill. I wonder if any of the liberal priests or the bishop himself got yelled at by the 98% of contracepting couples in our national diocese? The same priests who either remained silent or spoke in support of every couple who struggled with the idea of being open to life and choosing to contracept, sterlize, or abort, rather than follow God's law or the Church's teaching. The same Bishops seem chagrined to speak out against the President, I would be too if I were in their shoes, as it has been estimated that 80% of the Bishops voted that man into office in the first place. And where was the Bishop, or at the very least, the Pastor of Kathleen Sibelius, she who claims to be Catholic on the teachings of the Church long before she penned a law blatantly against same said teaching? Where are the men of the Church? And if they are here now, where in the Hell were they UP TO NOW?!?
I'm looking back at those statistics. 98% of all Catholic women have at one time contracepted. One in 4 Catholic women have had an abortion. One in 2 Catholic men are sterilized. Those numbers alone are scandalizing. And yes, I choose my words carefully. You bet I do. The "great scandal" was not nearly of this proportion. Less than 4% of Priests are accused of pedophilia, and that great plague has traumatized the Catholic Church across this nation. It has single-handedly shut down Churches, ruined Dioceses, ruptured the relationship between a Bishop and his Priests, while withholding and manipulation the organic relationship between a pastor and his people. Everyone is guilty until proven innocent. Volunteers in the Church are no more, unless they want to give ALL of their personal information to some bureaucrat behind a desk. 4% of men ruined the Church by hurting children. 98% of laypeople contracept children out of existence and no one bats an eye. That is a great scandal my friend. And now, we must either turn into the biggest hypocrites of our time, and admit that we are no less than money changers in the Temple, or we must change. We must regard human life as precious and relegated only in the Sacrament of Marriage, or we must admit that we no longer hold the Truths of Catholic Church, and stop hiding in the shadows. Why proclaim in the light what we do not practice in the dark? President Obama, and more directly Kathleen Sibelius, are only trying to get the Catholic Church to make a choice. Either live the Faith that we profess or abandon it and embrace this law.
I fast and pray that we make the right decision. Our religious freedom is now in danger. And yet, what was being preached outside the field of view of the tabernacle has endangered the souls of almost every Catholic in America up until this point.
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