Hey, Mama, Was Your Mother's Day Less Than Best?

Hey, Mama,

Was your Mother's Day less than best?

Trust me. You are not alone.

Although mine had some distinct blessings - such as my sweet girl waking early to surprise me with homemade bread, a handwritten Mother's Day greeting, and a plant that she had gone out into the rain to find, pot up and give me - there were also some pretty powerful hurts.

Hurts that had me crying silent tears all through Mass this morning. Hurts which - although they made me more sorrowful than angry - had the words of this song hitting me hard:

"I don’t want to be an angry woman

With a brillo pad for a heart

All tangled up and rusted

Just waiting to fall apart...

I don’t want to talk about it

Nobody really needs to know...

And I’ve just got to let it go...

Everything I give to You...

I had in mind a brighter Eden

But You I’ll find in Gethsemane...

if You will, You can make me clean..."

Yes, Mama, if you were hurt today, too - hurt, empty, sad... know you were not alone. Other Mamas were hurting, too.

But, God is so much bigger than any of our hurts, and He can make us clean.

In fact, He does make us clean. 

And He calls us, no matter how "tired... and forgotten" we may feel at times, to "finally learn to be happy and have patience with the constant changing rhythm" of our lives.

Lives which we may expect to be filled with HAPPY Mother's Days, but, which may be filled with just many ordinary days - some better than others, all calling us to keep on keeping on, doing our best as wives and mothers no matter what happens on a given day.

Yes, Mama, even when we feel weak, He is calling after us, asking “Who will feed my sheep? Who will heed their cry?” and, it is up to us to hear His call, to set aside our challenges, and to just try.

To give our meager loaves and fish and trust Him to multiply them, making miracles happen.

Miracles.

Yes, miracles.

Every day, He does make miracles.

Mama, even if today was a hard, hard day, I bet if you look back at it, you can find a miracle in it.

Something that was precious.

For, certainly, there is  good in this day and it would be a shame to let it be overshadowed.

So, Mama, please, just pause right now.  SLOW DOWN. Take a big, deep breath and invite Him in.  Invite Him to show you the extraordinary in this ordinary day. 

Invite Him to let you see yourself and your life through His eyes.

Invite Him to let you see your spouse and your children as He does.

Let hope override hurt.

Allow hope to help you see the special - to soak it in.

Let our Lord point you to the precious in the present even amidst the pain and challenge.

And, then, Mama, if you're still struggling, just give it all over to Him - every last little bit of sorrow, hurt, and pain. Hand it right over and rest, knowing this day is done.

It doesn't ever have to be lived again.

Tomorrow is a new day, and - God-willing - it will be the one that has you singing and dancing in celebration.

For, yes, Mama, today may not have seemed a day worth singing about, but He is with us and THAT is worth celebrating!

No matter how your day was, Mama.  No matter how tomorrow may be, know this one thing: You are loved and love always prevails.

Make Time for Our Mother - 5 Ideas for Honoring Our Lady This Month

Happy Mother's Day to all who are moms, grandmothers, godmummies, step-moms, and just-like-mom's.

Happy Mother's Day as well to all who miss their mothers or babies.

No matter what kind of mom you may you may be or what kind of mom you may know, may your day today be especially blessed as you remember our Mother in Heaven.

The month of May is dedicated to Our Lady. As such, our family has been making some extra time to learn about, celebrate, and of course, pray for the intercession of Our Mother in Heaven.

1.  Make a Pilgrimage

On the first day of the month, we were blessed to be able to visit the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima at a beautiful church not too far from us, Saint Anthony of Padua.  During our visit, we witnessed the farewell procession of the statue's visit to the church and were also able to spend extra time in prayer.

If you, too, would like to see the Statue of Our Lady of Fatima, check to see if the Fatima Centennial U.S. Tour will be coming your way.

Or, perhaps you could make a pilgrimage to a holy place that is strongly connected with Our Lady this month. 


2.  Pray the Rosary
 
I "caught" Nina praying extra decades in our minivan the other day after visiting the St. Anthony's church.  While her brothers jibber-jabbered away, she intently prayed, pausing only to ask if anyone had special intentions they would like her to pray for.

On another day, Luke asked if we could pray more than one decade during our first car ride of the day, during which we always pray at least one decade.  He had just heard that morning of the fire that destroyed the home of a fellow Catholic homeschool blogger, Lisa, and wanted to offer extra prayers for her and her family.  Since then, we have continued to pray for Lisa and her family, for, although they all made it out of their home safely on the day of the fire, they lost everything.  If you could join us in praying for Lisa and her family, that would be fabulous!

If you feel moved to offer practical help to Lisa and her family as well as prayer power for them, you could join the Facebook community page that has been put together to support Lisa and her family, donate to the GoFundMe account that has been set up to help them (which is legit), or do any and all Amazon shopping you have to do this week through the affiliate link on Lisa's blog, Home to 4 Kiddos.  As I hear, Lisa is ever-grateful this Mother's Day to have all her children safely with her and, through the devastation of losing their family home and pet, is still counting the blessings of faith and family.  I am sure she would welcome any other blessings that come her way as she and her family recover from their losses.

Now, back to the specific topic of the rosary:

If the rosary is a struggle for your children to pray, perhaps one of the strategies I used with my crew will help you.

You might also be interested in how we enjoyed a successful rosary celebration with friends before.  Or, perhaps you'd like to layer some literal sweetness into praying the rosary through a simple idea like a cookie rosary.

If you are feeling ambitious, you might consider initiating a Children's Rosary group at your parish or homeschool co-op.  We have been participating in a small chapter for a while now and always find it a blessing to be able to pray in unison with others.
 

3.  Plant a Mini-Mary Garden.

 

Later this month, we'll enjoy making mini-Mary gardens with friends again.  In the past, we've also made Mary spoon puppets to go along with Mother's Day Mary baskets. Of course, before making either of these gardens, we pray.  Then, we also chat about the symbolism of the plants we use.

4.  Play and Study Marian Art

The children and I have enjoyed both the Life of Mary cards and the 7 Sorrows of Mary cards that I made before.  We use them for art study, faith study, and more.

You can, too, can enjoy them if you wish. Simply click through the links to download your own free copies.

5. Sing-Look-Pray
With young children, you might also consider simply singing, looking, and praying.  I used these simple strategies with my children with success.  Actually, I still do.  Maybe you can, too.

However you choose to make extra time for Our Mother this month, may your efforts be blessed. 

Our Mother in Heaven loves us tremendously.  For that, I am grateful. 

I am also ever-thankful for the gift of motherhood that I have been given through the blessing of my three children.  I know I will never be a perfect mother, but I pray that every day I get closer and closer to being the mother I am called to be and that my children never, ever have cause to question just how much I love them!

How will you honor the earthly mothers in your life today and how might you spend extra time with Our Mother in Heaven?

Happy Mother's Day to All (Or Is It?)

Mother's Day. 

This day used to be such a tough one for me. For years, I wanted so badly to be married and to be a mother. So, although I appreciated Mother's Day as an opportunity to celebrate my own mother and grandmothers, each year, as I looked around at all the moms with young children, I felt sad. Why not me? I cried, letting despair take over my day.

To think, I almost gave up dreaming that moments like this would ever unfold?

I have known others who have had a tough time with Mother's Day, too -- children whose mothers have passed, moms who have lost children to miscarriages, children and moms who have been separated for one reason or another, moms whose children have died, boys and men whose mothers have passed...  On a day that is meant for honor and celebration, all too often, I have seen sadness and despair creep in.

Today, then, I want to re-share and add to some thoughts that I posted in A Song for Jack, A Hope for Life a few years ago.

As I already mentioned, I often fell into despair throughout my twenties and early thirties about not being married or having children.  I wondered, Why me? and questioned God's timing.  Then, oddly, even after being incredibly blessed to meet and marry Mike and to be given the gifts of Luke and Nina, I persisted with tearful questions.  When Mike and I discovered we were going to have a third children, I fretted Why now?  Mike and I were not sure how we were ready for a third child to come along just yet and I did not know how I would possibly be able to handle life with the challenges we were facing at the time and another baby, too.

Luckily, the Spirit broke through to Mike and me and our questioning turned into welcoming, which, in turn, unfolded into years of blessing after blessing (to go along, of course, with challenge after challenge, which, despite my fretting, have all been more than manageable!)

This little face has continued to grow and to, daily, give testimony to the blessings that unfold from trust and faith!

As I wrote several years ago:

"Faith encouraged trust and trust brought blessings.  God proved to us what He so often does:  His timing is perfect even when it does not coincide exactly with ours...
From the timing of Jack’s conception, to that of his birth, to so many things since, surprises keep on unfolding.  More often than not, these surprises are joy-filled ones.  Always, they reinforce that God’s timing is magnificent, even when it is not in line with our own...(Now) I sing with praise, gratitude and hope.  The hope being that my children will always embrace life as the gift that it is.  The hope that all people will."

Now, I know some have challenges that are far greater than Mike or I have ever faced, ones that make this day so hard due to the ramifications of illness, death, separation under sad circumstances, etc.   However, I believe the message to us from our Lord and our Mother in Heaven is still the same: 
 

In all things, trust.  Focus on what you can be grateful for.  Hang on.  Embrace life here and never give up hope for the life that awaits in the hereafter.  Instead of questioning God's timing (and the effects of people's choices) with an air of despair, wrap yourself in the comforts of grace.  Say yes and be blessed.

No matter if your Mother's Day feels happy or not today, just say "yes" to the life you are experiencing right now and know there are blessings have and will unfold because of your yes.  Just like Our Mother in Heaven said "yes" to God and, thus, blessings unfolded exponentially, with each faith-filled "yes" we offer, His love magnifies.

So, today, if you're sad and all you can do is to manage a half-spoken, "Yes, I will let myself rest in You," please do that.  And know my prayer for you is that as you do your mourning may eventually turn into gladness.  And if you are happy, by all means, please shout out praises of "Yes!  Thank you, Lord!"  Make a joyful noise!

Whether your Mother's Day feels happy or not, please trust and say "yes".  

So blessed by His timing!

How can you say "yes" and be blessed this Mother's Day?

Works for Me Wednesday: Mother's Day Mary Garden Baskets

With Mother's Day fast approaching, I have been talking to the kids about who the special Mommies in their lives are and how we might want to honor them this weekend.  Likewise, we have started talking about May being the Month of Mary and what we might do to celebrate.

Yesterday, we had a great brainstorm session about what they want to give their grandmothers, great-grandmother and godmothers as Mother's Day gifts this year.  (I so want to share their fantastic ideas here, but cannot yet - no spoilers for our special moms!)  As a part of our discussion, we looked back at what we did last year -- real Mary Garden baskets for those close by and coloring ones and photo booklets for those afar.  Both were fun, economical, interactive projects for the kids and I as givers that provided smiles on the receiving end, too.  So, I thought I would share some pics and files from what we did in case anyone wants to borrow ideas for the moms in their lives this year.  Mary Garden Baskets are a meaningful, kid-and-receiver friendly way of showing love not only to our moms here on earth, but to Mother Mary.  They really work for us and I hope they might work for you, too. Enjoy!

For our nearby moms, first, we set about using some tracing, coloring, cutting and creativity skills to make our own wooden spoon Mary's.  basically, the kids colored wooden spoons orange and drew faces on them.  Then, they traced a small bowl and a larger bowl on cloth and cut out the circles to make the dresses and veils, which they threaded onto the spoons before using blue tape to hold the pieces in place
.

 

Then, after some after puppet play, reciting the Hail Mary, which they were learning as part of last year's Month of Mary celebration, Luke and Nina picked out baskets from our stash that they wanted to use as gift baskets -- a larger one for Grammy and a smaller one for G.G., who has limited space near her nursing home bed, but loves flowers.  Once we knew the size of the baskets we had to fill, and after I had gathered together a list of traditional Mary Garden flowers from here and here, we were off to buy flowers.  The kids helped pick out types and colors, with my guidance that G.G's had to be a bit of a shade-lover.  And, then, they excitedly helped me plant them in the baskets when we returned home.

 

We added the Mary spoons the kids made (and a homemade card that explained the significance of Mary baskets, and the gifts were ready to give.

(If you click on the thumbnails above, I believe larger-size versions of the Mary Garden explanation card front, middle and back will appear for you.) 

After making our real-life Mary Garden Basket, the kids and I talked about how sending homemade baskets of flowers to Nana, Godmummy Kathy and Godmummy Gina might be difficult.  The flowers might wilt and die.  So, I asked them what we should do instead?  Luke said we could make them paper ones, so that is 

exactly what we did.

  

I printed out some Mary Garden flower coloring pictures that I found online and using these, markers, brown paper shopping bags, some recycled card-front images of Mother Mary, scissors and glue, we made the Paper Mary Baskets.

 

Then, the kids decided that since our far-away moms could not see them on Mother's Day, we should send photographs. So, I made some Mary Garden Basket booklets of the kids to go along with the Paper Mary Baskets. These Paper Baskets and booklets were also fun to make and well-received.We hope to enjoy this year's projects just as much!

If you'd like to learn more about Mary Gardens, please see the following sites:

- Mary Gardens
- Fish Eaters
- Catholic Mom

And for some wonderful Mont of Mary Ideas, see Catholic Icing.

Plus, if you know of other Mary Garden sites, please add a comment and/or link to let us know about them, too.  And, of course, share your frugal, fun Mother's Day and Month of Mary ideas with us!  Finally, to see what works for other folks this Wednesday, simply clock on the links at We Are THAT Family.

Have a blessed Mother's Day and Month of Mary!