family chit chat | Revolution of Love

The feast day of St. Ann and St. Joachim is coming up on July 26. If you’d like to make a novena to them, today is the day to start!

Both saints have always been very close to my heart. St. Ann is my patron saint and when I was single I would especially pray to her and St. Joachim to find a good man & holy spouse. (Along with my novena to Bl. Anne Marie Tiagi.) After I was married I especially prayed to them when Brian and I were dealing with infertility and miscarriage.

Yesterday I found an old box of holy cards and prayer pamphlets and inside was the small prayer booklet I had used all those years ago. It is called “Good Saint Anne” by Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik, S.V.D. Here is the particular prayer I said.

Prayer to St. Anne and St. Joachim

Great and glorious patriarch, St Joachim, and good St Anne, what joy is mine when I consider that you were chosen among all God’s holy ones to assist in the fulfillment of the mysteries of God, and to enrich our earth with the great Mother of God, Mary most holy. By this singular privilege, you have become most powerful with both the Mother and her Son, so as to be able to obtain for us the graces that are needful to us.

With great confidence I have recourse to your mighty protection, and I commend to you all my needs, both spiritual and temporal, and those of my family. Especially do I entrust to your keeping the particular favor that I desire and look for from your intercession. (Mention your petition.)

And since you were a perfect pattern of the interior life, obtain for me the grace to pray earnestly, and never to set m heart on the passing goods of this life. Give me a lively and enduring love for Jesus and Mary. Obtain for me also a sincere devotion and obedience to Holy church and the sovereign pontiff who rules over her, in order that I may live an die in faith and hope and perfect charity. Let me ever invoke the holy Names of Jesus and Mary. And may I thus be saved. Amen.

There is also a great Nine Day Novena to St. Anne at EWTN.com.

St. Anne and St. Joachim, pray for us!

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Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.

– 1 –

I’ve got a 15 minute window of free time so let’s see if I can get this done.
It’s weird. This week I woke up on Tuesday thinking it was Friday. I woke up on Wednesday thinking it was Friday. I woke up on Thursday thinking it was Friday. Then this morning I woke up and thought, “Is it Friday already?” I think something is seriously wrong with me.

– 2 –

I’ve still been really concerned about my brother. He is doing better than when he first got to the ER. (We later came to realize he was at death’s door. Scaaaaary.) However, he’s not out of the woods yet. He had a little set back and will be in the hospital for another few days but at least he is out of ICU. Please keep him in your prayers. (And thanks to those who have been praying already. Mwuaah!)

– 3 –

I’m typing this with one hand as Matthew is falling asleep in my arms. I’m looking at his hair and it’s growing in half brown and half blond. I’m looking again…blond? Huh. I always pictured my babies as cute little Hispanic looking kids with darker skin and dark eyes and dark hair and instead I got little cuties with light skin and lighter hair (than mine). But they all have my dark eyes and my chubby cheeks. (Not sure if that last one is a compliment or insult. Oh well.)

– 4 –

Speaking of hair, I’ve entered that lovely postpartum stage when your pregnancy-thick hair starts to fall out. Poor Brian, the other day he was taking a shower and couldn’t figure out why the water was going down the drain so slow. Um, sorry sweetie.

– 5 –

Okay, I need to pause for a break because Matthew is fussing and won’t settle. I think he’s gotten tired of hearing the keyboard clicking away and me ignoring him while he is trying to get cozy with me. Once I stand up and hold him closer and talk quietly to him he’s out in minutes. So let me go take care of that…

– 6 –

Okay, that wasn’t too bad. He is out and sound asleep in his crib. As an added mommy bonus, after getting the baby to sleep there was a toxic toddler diaper to be changed. Once when Brian was blessing the house with holy water I told him he should just stick a couple of the kid’s dirty diapers at the front door. They were surely rank enough to scare away the demons.

– 7 –

Okay, what time is it. Oh man, it’s been half an hour since I first tried to sit down for my “free” time. Well, I should get minutes back on the clock for taking care of duties…um, duties I should have been doing in the first place. Hmm. Okay, enough of this nonsense. I have to at least offer one intelligent take so you don’t shake your fist at me for completely wasting your time – after all you’ve got your own smelly diapers to deal with.
My last take is to remind you that Elizabeth over at In the Heart of My Home blog has started her book study series on The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity. I bought this book after hearing Dr. Meeker speak on EWTN but it got lost in the never ending pile of books I hope to finish. I dusted it off and started reading again. Hopefully reading with online buddies will help me to finish it before I start something else. I’ll try to post more about chapter one next week. (After I get that Catholic baby shower post up.) 😉
(Oh, and Matthew is already crying. What kind of nap was that??)

Oh well, have a great weekend!

I haven’t been motivated to post these past couple of days because my mind has been preoccupied. My younger brother Rob had been sick with what was thought to be a bad flu. However it wasn’t the flu and he took a turn for the worse and was admitted into the ICU on Sunday. He’s doing better now and will have surgery later today. Hopefully he will soon be back into the arms of his wife and newborn baby boy.
It’s so hard not being closer (we’re 400 miles apart) but I can probably do more good for him right here in my house as I pray for him and offer up my little crosses for him. I have to admit that this situation has been a good lesson for me. God’s been reminding me of a few things. First, to never take life (or our health) for granted. Life is fragile and can change in a heartbeat. Forget the petty and focus on the blessings.
Second, life may be fragile but the heart united to God is unbelievably strong and resilient. How many times have we seen people endure unspeakable pain yet they haven’t lost hope because of their faith in God. It’s amazing. And in the end God always seems to reveal good that came out of the tragedy.
Lastly, with my brother on my mind so much I have been constantly turning my heart to God to pray for him or to just talk to God about what happens to be on my mind. It is a reminder of how I should always be – going about my work but aware of God’s presence with me. I noticed that when I had to stop what I was doing to tend to another toddler crisis, instead of complaining or having a fit of impatience, I just sighed and thought, “I do this for love of you, my Lord.”
These lessons aren’t profound or anything I didn’t already know, but it was a good reminder for my short attention span….and as I’m sitting here thinking how to close this little post, a text just came from my brother in the hospital. It’s the first time I’ve been able to “talk” to him in awhile. I’m elated that he’s well enough to text and
I’m touched that he took a moment to tell me that he loved me. Wow. It’s funny that I’m one to tear up easily but I haven’t allowed myself to cry over this situation. I’m afraid I’ll start sobbing uncontrollably and freak out the kids. So right now I’m going to go change some smelly diapers and get the dishes done and keep myself occupied. But I think late tonight my pillow is getting a good, long bathing. Until then, please keep my brother in your prayers. Thanks so much.

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.

– 1 –

I couldn’t sleep last night so I was up at 1:00 AM buying books from Jessica’s Used Book Sale on my iphone. I scored the Christmas Shoes Collection. Good!

– 2 –

But since I stayed up so late I slept in this morn and lost my morning computer time. Not good.

– 3 –

Although, I have been faithful to my morning prayer time. It has helped dramatically with my patience during the day’s chaos. Good!

– 4 –

I wanted to post a 7 Quick Takes: Catholic Baby Shower Edition today but I didn’t get to finish it. Not good.

– 5 –

However, I’m almost done with it and will post it next week. Good!

– 6 –

Matthew just spit up all over my shirt and JP just spilled my jug of water all over the couch. Not good.

– 7 –

But I made it to #7. Good!
Have a great weekend!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Periscope or Katch (past Periscopes), GoodReads, Letterboxd, or Spotify, 😉

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

{pretty}

One of the projects I am working on is sorting through all our photos and getting them organized and I came across this pic of Bella from a couple years back. I love this photo of my pretty, little girl. 🙂

{happy}

Here is a photo of Matthew on a “warm” summer day in Carmel. We actually don’t get our warm weather until fall. Then we can go outside without a jacket. LOL!

{funny}

John-Paul loves that he has graduated from the high chair to a booster chair at the big table. He is also proud of being able to eat his whole container of yogurt by himself and to get most of the yogurt in his mouth.

{real}

I went on a laundry washing spree yesterday. I got everything washed but I thnk it’s time to fold and put it away!

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Category Archives: family chit chat

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{pretty, happy, funny, real} – vol 5