Friday Quick Takes

Joining Jen at Conversion Diary for Quick Takes Friday!

~ 1 ~

Last Sunday, when rushing out with WWD and MRD, I (stupidly) backed the van--hard--into the garage door. The car was unscathed, but the garage door was really mangled. As in, could-not-close mangled.

I expected the worst. But the garage door fixer man was able to bend it back into shape, put the broken wheel back on the runner, and get it back (almost) good as new inside of 20 minutes and inside of $100. Well inside of $100.

What a happy ending to a very unhappy situation. Must drive more carefully!

~ 2 ~

For some reason, this week has been more peaceful than usual around here. And I think I know the reason: my Lenten resolution to get up (at least) 30 minutes early. Once the day gets off to a good start, I am much less stressed, I accomplish more, so I'm calmer at the end of the day when they are home. We've been on time for everything, calm bedtimes, I've cut down on caffeine...it's all good. Amazing!

~ 3 ~

This week JPD's teacher sent me an email expressing her amazement at my son's brilliance. No, really. :) They're working on geometry, and she says she was "blown away" by some of the shapes he created.

Perhaps we have an engineer in the family (channeling his Grandpa Lee, possibly?), if we can only keep him from getting kicked out of preschool for throwing snowballs at the recess teacher! I love you JPD!

~ 4 ~

Have you been following the Pioneer Woman this week? She's everywhere! I occasionally like to go check out her blog, which is full of great food, inspiring photography, a touch of homeschooling, and funny, funny writing.

She's been on a book tour of late, promoting her new cookbook which is comprised of a bunch of her recipe blog posts, with cool step-by-step pictures of each recipe. And this week she was on Good Morning America and Fox and Friends in the morning (no, of course I don't watch those shows; I watched the segments from the links on her blog!).

If you're not familiar with her blog, check it out; I'd love to know what you think. I think a lot of things about it, mostly that it's incredible that she has the time for all that recipe/photography stuff along with (alleged) homeschooling! What am I doing wrong here?! :)

Also, after reading her blog for a while and based on her writing style, I was shocked by how she seemed in person on TV. Not what I expected AT ALL. (Especially shocking was her Ethel Merman impersonation!!!) Read the blog first, then watch the links of the shows, and let me know what you think. SO different! Weird, no?

Actually, now that I think about it, perhaps this isn't so weird. Maybe people who have the gift of the written word rarely have the simultaneous gift of volubility. What do you think? Know anyone who's a great writer and a great extemporaneous speaker? Do you think they're kind of mutually exclusive--you know, different Myers-Briggs types and all that? Hmmmm...must think about this idea.

~ 5 ~

I should really begin potty-training MPD, who is so ready. In theory at least, I do believe the Montessori thinking that earlier (within reason of course) is better, and that the sensitive period for this is 18 - 24 months. In theory. But I've never gotten it to go smoothly in practice, and 33 months seems to be the best timing around here. But MPD really, really seems ready, no doubt due to being surrounded by big kids and wanting to be like them in all things. MPD's mom, however, is not so ready. Sigh...

~ 6 ~

Bill is making great progress on painting the basement. It started out to be just painting the two walls that will be behind anchored-to-the-wall-for-safety bookcases, so that we wouldn't have to *ever* move those bookcases. Now the project has grown, as projects do, to include the entire basement, even all the baseboards and woodwork. Once it's done, which should be pretty soon--I'm hoping before Easter?--we can finish unpacking the last of the boxes, and see all our books and toys again. Funny that we can live without those toys for months and not even miss them, isn't it?

~ 7 ~

Here's what's going on around here this morning...mixing Transformers and Playdoh. Don't you wish you were here?!



And now, February, BEGONE!

Retro Thursday

Speaking of regular Thursday posts, I've been remiss on my Retro Thursday photos-from-bygone-years posts.
For today, here's ME, about to have MPD two years ago! Wow!

Small Success Thursday

I haven't had a Small Success post in a while, but today was so great I just couldn't resist. Without further ado...

1) Finally, I made some serious progress unpacking our filing and paperwork. Four boxes worth, and lots of badly-needed filing organization. I feel so much better!

2) Our broken-washine-machine ordeal is over, as of today. I made it through the whole washer-less week without getting behind on laundry--loving that laundromat! I have the whole routine down so well now that I'm almost sad that I won't be doing the laundromat thing anymore for now. It's peaceful there, know what I'm sayin'?

3) Our 35-year-old dining room chairs have been getting wobbly and close-to-broken. Also, the edges of the table were all banged up and chipped. Tuesday this week I finally got a furniture repair guy over to fix all of that. Hooray! Good as new (well, almost). Funny how the new dining room makes the old furniture ever so much more worth keeping.

4) ROCKING Lent! Daily Mass and Rosary every day this week. Waking up earlier is *awesome*; I'm so, so thankful!

Check out Faith and Family Live! for more Small Successes!

Another Good One for Lent

"Wisdom enters through love, silence, and mortification. It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others."

~ St. John of the Cross

Lenten Disciplines

"I have jotted down in my notebook my lenten resolutions, but I want to confirm them here. I must truly renew my life, and it is God whom I ask in all simplicity to transform me. I want to live interiorly more spiritually, exteriorly more gently and lovingly so as to make God better loved, who is the beginning and end of my spiritual life. More than ever I want to hide in the heart of Jesus my good works, my prayers, my self-denial, to preach only through example, to speak not at all of myself and little of God, since in this sad world one only gives scandal or annoys others by showing one's love for God. But whenever someone approaches me, or whenever it seems to be God's will that I should approach another, I will do so simply, very prudently, and disappear as soon as the task is done, mixing no thought of self with God's action. and should I be misunderstood, criticized, and judged unfavorably, I will try to rejoice in remembering our divine exemplar, and I will seek to be of no consequence in the esteem of others, I who am in fact so poor and little in the eyes of God."

~ Elisabeth Leseur (1914), a French married laywoman whose cause for canonization is underway.

Arrow of Light

Last week at the Blue and Gold Dinner, we celebrated WWD's graduation from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. And Bill's graduation from being the Pack Committee Chair--hooray for Bill! :)

WWD is planning to continue on to Boy Scouts. We are lucky to have great packs in our town for both levels of Scouting, and I love that the boys get a chance to do so many fun things that they wouldn't otherwise do.

Also, of course, we're now going to be gunning for that Eagle!! :)
WWD with his best friend JH:

An Empty Cradle

"What is Holy Communion but Christ given to us, and we given to Christ, his words given to us to utter, his deeds to do, his beauty to reveal, his love to rejoice in, our littleness given to him?

"There are thousands of people with whom we come into contact who do not know Christ, who do not guess that he wants to be a brother, a lover, a child, a friend to them, who do not know that the gap, the emptiness they feel in their lives is there because God leaves it there on purpose, that they may hunger for his intimate presence, may accept the gift of himself!

"There is in every human heart, be it the heart of a man or a woman, an empty cradle, waiting for the birth of Christ to fill it. those who have him, those in whom he is born again day after day, have just this one work to do: to show the others that what they want, what they long for, is Christ."

~ Caryll Houselander

Friday Quick Takes

Lots going on around here this week, so I'm joining Jen for Quick Takes Friday:




~ 1 ~
Mayday! Mayday! BIG problems at school! I've had to let the angry mama bear out of her (deep, dark) cage, and she's not going back in any time soon. And my ever-hopeful homeschool-mama heart is going pitter-pat in a big way. That's all I'm saying, for now.

~ 2 ~
KLD decided to give up tantrums for Lent. God bless that child, and I will give her chocolate cupcakes every day until Easter in exchange for her blessed sacrifice. Go, KLD, go!

~ 3 ~
My Lenten observances, along with giving up Diet Coke OF COURSE, include getting up at least a half hour early each day. So far, so good. Why, oh why, can't I do this without Lent to motivate me? It hardly even feels like a sacrifice, because it's so nice to avoid all that morning panic. I'm hoping to inch up to an hour early a day, to get in more prayer time and maybe even some other paperwork, or exercise, or meal prep, or...
We'll see how that goes. Good thing I'm NOT giving up caffeine any time soon.

~ 4 ~
When we bought this new house, one of my very most favorite features was its spacious, light-filled, fully-decked out laundry room (with a mini-fridge, no less!). Well, this week the awesome Kenmore Elite front-loading washer just self-destructed. The repair man, who fortunately is sent over by the home warranty company, diagnosed it as a complete FAIL of the main bearing assembly that spins the washer's drum--something like a new transmission, as best I can understand it. $700, to be blunt about it. And a parts order, and a week or so.

It's a good thing I have lots of time to run around shopping for possible new washers, and measuring the matching dryer and pedestals to figure out whether we'd really have to replace everything in order to rebuild the glorious temple o' laundry that I have come to feel is my right. And it's a good thing I have even more time to hang out at the laundromat until almost midnight last night, washing all our clothes and towels and everything I could find that might need washing before next week.

And good thing I'm not giving up caffeine any time soon.

~ 5 ~
My baby is going to turn 2 in a few weeks, so naturally my thoughts are turning to...myself. (Yikes!) Now what? More babies? (Now there's a blog post in the making, I promise!) Some homeschooling? (See #1 above) :) Inch back into some sort of career, or at least some sort of something? Some of you have mentioned lately that perhaps that "something" should involve writing, which makes my heart go pitter-pat almost as much as homeschooling! So I've been writing some stuff...you know, that I haven't put on this blog yet. And I might try to learn a bit more html and so forth. You never know what I'm going to come up with next, right?

Bill, if you're reading this, I promise I'll get to cleaning out those closets and organizing our finances any minute now, really I will!

~ 6 ~
MPD has really been saying lots of little words lately and it is so darn cute. He can really get in on our conversations these days, and make his wishes quite clear! Here are some words I can think of just off the top of my head: milk, ball, truck, "right there," yes, no, me, Mary, Jack (sounds like "ssssshhack!"), boots, coat, play, all gone/done, more, cup, spoon, basketball, car, open/close door, bath, hot, dark, moon...and he understands just about everything. I love telling him to put his clothes in the laundry, or put back the bowl and get a plate, or to throw something in the garbage and seeing him perfectly understand me! What a sweetie! These first years are just so cool I never get tired of watching all the cute stuff they do. Well, maybe a bit tired--not of the cute stuff, just tired in general...good thing I'm not giving up caffeine any time soon.

~ 7 ~
Four weeks to spring break! I can't wait! (See #1 above!) Not sure what our plans are yet but I have a bit of winter cabin fever and I feel like a little family fun of some sort. We shall see; four weeks out is much farther than I typically plan things these days! One thing for certain is that I am very much looking forward to the SPRING part of the break! We're in the home stretch of winter--hooray!
(And we can't wait to see our beloved JAMIE the week before our spring break!)

Party Weekend!

JPD's party wasn't the only one we celebrated last weekend! My amazing, wonderful 10-year-old MRD had her party on Saturday morning. We took a few of her BFFs to the movies to see The Lightning Thief, which we all loved. What an easy and fun party it was!
Now she can truly be 10, because according to JPD, you turn your new age the minute that you actually blow out your candles. :)

The Baby Gianna Story, Part 4

We hope that you have been following the Baby Gianna Story (see Part I, Part II, and Part III) this week. Among the many things that we take away from this heartbreaking yet life affirming story is the critical need to keep Catholic hospitals Catholic.

Continue Reading Here.

The Baby Gianna Story Part 3

On January 9, the world changed forever because of a baby girl. I know that many of you do not know the whole story of Miracle Gianna. Many of you have been praying for her fervently- praying for her to heal, praying for her to be OK, praying for her to live.

We have all had a piece of this story, which on the outside, looks like a tragic, sad, devastating defeat. But this is not a story of defeat. This is a story of triumph- the triumph of Baptism.
Continue reading here.

Kicking off Lent with...

The Litany of Humility

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved...
From the desire of being extolled ...
From the desire of being honored ...
From the desire of being praised ...
From the desire of being preferred to others...
From the desire of being consulted ...
From the desire of being approved ...
From the fear of being humiliated ...
From the fear of being despised...
From the fear of suffering rebukes ...
From the fear of being calumniated ...
From the fear of being forgotten ...
From the fear of being ridiculed ...
From the fear of being wronged ...
From the fear of being suspected ...

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I ...
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease ...
That others may be chosen and I set aside ...
That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...
That others may be preferred to me in everything...
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…

The Baby Gianna Story, Part 2

Rebecca had been on the fence for months over whether to abort her child as her boyfriend wanted her to. But through Jessica Chominski’s efforts and prayers, along with volunteers at the crisis pregnancy center, Rebecca made the brave decision to keep her baby. Unfortunately, Rebecca’s boyfriend upon learning that she’d chosen to keep the baby kicked her savagely and repeatedly in the stomach.

While treating her, doctors discovered fetal abnormalities in the 18-week-old fetus, including diseased kidneys and underdeveloped lungs resulting from a dearth of amniotic fluid. Despite being in a Catholic hospital, the doctor stunned them by saying that since the baby had no chance of living he recommended an abortion.

Continue reading here.

The Tale of Mr. Jackson

"Mrs Tittlemouse is “a most terribly tidy particular little mouse”, forever cleaning her house and shooing away intruders. But one day Mr Jackson, a “fat-voiced” toad, arrives and makes himself at home, lounging in the rocking chair and putting his feet on the fender. He not only refuses to leave, he scours the house for tasty morsels, spreading chaos as he goes. It takes Mrs Tittlemouse a day to clear up after him when he finally leaves."

I love EVERYTHING about this awesome article in a recent Economist about management consulting, as it affects the workings of government in the U.K. Of course, many of the accusations and insights in the article apply to both the New World and the private sector as well.

"This counterblast against consultants is largely to the good. They have frequently left devastation in their wake and have treated the public sector as dumping grounds for airy-fairy ideas such as “transformation” that have been rejected by the private sector. They have built overly elaborate management structures that make it harder for people to do their jobs. And they have demotivated people who like to feel that they are working for the public good. The government has wasted huge amounts of money on botched IT projects designed by consultants."

This article is spot on. I must, however, add the caveat that as management consulting applies to me personally, I have no complaints whatsoever. As far as my own career, that is--a lifetime ago. I can't say anything but good stuff about my 10 years at Andersen Consulting. I may not have always been happy, but that was certainly not their fault! I must say that some of my husband's cynicism and bad experience, mostly as a client of the evil Accenture, has rubbed off on me. That's all I'm sayin'.

But I LOVE the Beatrix Potter analogy. Bill and I are loving his Christmas-present subscription to the Economist--way too much reading to keep up with, but lots of great food for thought!! (Like I needed more...just fold the laundry, Kim!)

The Baby Gianna Story, Part 1

Sharing this amazing story from CMR.

Jessica Chominski fights for the lives of others. Little lives. The ones many don’t think are worth fighting for. She is the sole full time employee of the Bucks County Community Women’s Center, a crisis pregnancy center in Pennsylvania.

About once a week a woman calls or walks into the center asking about abortion and Jessica asks them why they feel the need to abort their child, she tells them about other options, explains what abortion is, and tells them about the dignity of every human life. “Hopefully they leave thinking twice,” she says.

It’s nerve-wracking work. At 24 years old, Jessica works daily under the weight that lives depend on her. Every phone call. Every conversation. And she knows that she can’t control what a woman does when she walks out of the center so she just does all she can. And when there's no more she can do she prays. But to her it’s all worth it because in the end Jessica knows, “there are babies crawling around right now because of the work we do. And that is miraculous.”

Last June Jessica's phone rang. It was the call that would change her life.

Continue reading here.

Happy 5th Birthday JPD !!!

JPD's 5th birthday has been HUGE! We celebrated yesterday with a big party and lots (way too many!) of presents.
Check out his awesome solar-system cake--all his idea and design!!







We love you so much, sweet JPD!!

Headed for Carnegie Hall?

In our house, we're lucky to have lots of music.

Getting Ready for the Winter Olympics

Loving our Wisconsin winter again today!

It was SO beautiful today--bright blue sky, fresh white snow, birds chirping ("Happy Day, Happy Day," they said, according to JPD), about 20 degrees--so we went for a stroller walk/bike ride to go skating at the park. JPD found bike riding on the icy sidewalks to be a bit slippery, but at least the wipeouts into snowbanks are fun.

And then this:





Note: No JPDs were injured during the making of this blog post!

There could be a hockey guy in my future!
And how I'm going to miss him when he goes off to kindergarten...

MPD, however, was a bit less enthusiastic, as you can see here:

He mostly wanted to stay in my arms:

And he fell asleep face-down in his stroller on the way home.
Sweet dreams, MPD!

Being Small

"Come to me, all you who toil and are overburdened, and I will refesh you. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart."
~ Matthew 11:28-29

There is what you have got to get hold of, brothers and sisters, and it's certainly little enough. We are striving for great things; let us lay hold of little things, and we shall be great. Do you wish to lay hold of the loftiness of God? First catch hold of God's lowliness. Deign to be lowly and humble on the same account, yours, not his own. So catch hold of Christ's humility, learn to be humble, don't be proud.

~ St. Augustine of Hippo, approx. A.D. 430

Move over, Betty Crocker!

Look who baked her first all-by-herself cookies!! Go KLD!

Here's her recipe:

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1-1/4 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Cream peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg. Add oats and baking soda; mix well.
Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto greased baking sheets; flatten slightly. bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.

All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned While Homeschooling, Part 375

Yesterday I learned that my gorgeous, talented cousin-in-law hates doing laundry. She just hates it, apparently. And I found that startling--not because the "chore" of providing clean clothes for my family is so inherently enjoyable to me, but because I realized that up until a couple of years ago, I was quite a laundry-hater myself. Nowadays, though, I don't mind it a bit. What happened?

It turns out that "laundry maintenance" is just one of the astonishing things that God taught me during my past two years of homeschooling my sweeties. Three years ago, I pretty much figured that it was impossible to homeschool the kids while simultaneously managing the clean-to-dirty-to-folded-and-clean-again cycle that clothing must undergo. "Impossible," I thought. Way too much for me. Surely we'd have to find some domestic help of some kind--a college student, perhaps--upon whom to unload this overwhelming task. Right?

Problem was, no one else in my vast and wonderful homeschooling group seemed to need such domestic help. What did they know that I didn't? Was there a super-secret big-family laundry trick that I had yet to learn? Had they really taught some or all of their children to do this job? Could it be, perhaps, that laundry wasn't such a big deal after all?

Well, yes and no, to all of the above. Laundry for a family of seven, especially in the Wisconsin wintertime, could certainly be considered a pretty big deal. Once I acknowledged it as such, it helped me to approach this part of my domestic vocation with an appropriately structured mindset. Was it reasonable--valuable, even--to expect the kids to take time away from academics to participate? Oh, yes.

Laundry, in fact, was a great way to teach my kids organizational skills, teamwork, and responsibility. Once I looked at it that way, laundry became neither good nor bad--just an opportunity to figure out a workable system that maximized everyone's ability to contribute.

Homeschooling helped me look at many aspects of family life that way. I'm finding that plenty of daily domestic tasks--unloading the dishwasher, keeping the house reasonably tidy, planning meals--are now transforming from fearsome fire-breathing dragon chores into simple everyday parts of life.

No doubt this has all been part of the divine homeschool curriculum at our house--for the teacher.

Faithfulness to the Truth

"In a social milieu that encourages the expression of a variety of opinions on every question that arises, it is important to recognize dissent for what it is, and not to mistake it for a mature contribution to a balanced and wide-ranging debate."

~ Pope Benedict XVI, addressing the Bishops of England and Wales, 2010

Seating Chart

We have six chairs at our kitchen table. And we are, of course, a party of seven.

The high chair got us through for a while, but it went its merry way at the last garage sale, which is also the time that I picked up this beauty for MPD from my BFF Susan:
Perfect, right? I love it--just the right height, not too hard to clean, and, since MPD is certainly not a baby, this is certainly not a high chair. Right?

Wrong.

Lately MPD has decided he's having nothing to do with that chair. Or his bib. Or, often, a cup with a lid--unless he's really thirsty and wants his milk really, really, badly, and it's not mealtime. But if he's at the table, he's decided that he must be identical to every other child in every way.

Sigh...so here's MPD, having his way (except he did at least compromise on the milk at this lunch):

And I guess I'll be chair-shopping soon. Or maybe it's just a phase and he'll be back in that sweet little chair before too long. I can always hope, right?

Eulogy.

If there could ever be such a thing as a happy funeral, I would propose that—perhaps—this would be it. I can’t imagine a richer, fuller, more beautiful life than Grandmother’s, or a more peaceful death. I know that you share my thankfulness that the end of her life was so perfectly fitting for a life so well lived, and the sweet sadness that we all share today is only that we wish she could be here to enjoy her magnificent clan all together in one place.
During these past months, it has been especially hard, for me, to live so far away, as it has been harder than ever to stay in touch with Grandmother. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to write her a letter to explain how often I think of her and how, in some mystery of genetics, lifeblood, karma, or just plain old cooking-for-a-big-family, I can feel her sweet presence inside me and alongside me as I go about my daily work of taking care of a few of her great-grandchildren.
I didn’t write that letter yet. And now I can no longer mail it to her from Wisconsin, which is why I asked Uncle Benno if he’d be willing to let me share some of my love for her here today. I know that we’ve all been reflecting during the past week about our own cherished memories of “Grandmother Anderson,” as I always knew her, or “Great-grandma,” or “Bertha,” or “Mrs. Anderson,” or even “Mom.” I am thankful for today because it gives us a chance to take a time-out from the busyness of life and just to savor our memories of her. Her love of sewing, cooking, gardening, church-going, and, of course, crossword-puzzling and bridge-playing all come to mind.
And it doesn’t take long for those memories to involve my taste buds. Tangerines from the tree out in front of the house on Estate Lane, when I was a little, little girl. At that same house, sitting up on a stool in her vast and wonderful kitchen, making cookies. Peeling shrimp, cracking oysters, gumbo, German food, feasts of unimaginable creativity, variety--and, of course, volume--for every holiday you can imagine. Snickerdoodles, of course—her special treat for Keith each time we visited. A special stew that she made when I brought my then-newlywed husband by for a visit. The proud, loving look in her eyes when my then-toddler son William enthusiastically downed about four filets of fried flounder—“Oh, he eats just like an Anderson,” she said, of course.
There’s something to that “Anderson” thing, and it goes way beyond good-food-and-lots-of-it. It’s also the Longhorns, and the Texas Gulf Coast, and fiery, high-achieving independence, and good hard work, and the Longhorns, and strong integrity, and community service, and other football, too (if the Longhorns aren’t playing), and goofy, oddball humor, and tough competition, and taking care of our own—and good food and lots of it. (While watching the Longhorns.) And I must say that being an Anderson wouldn’t mean much without Grandmother having been in the middle of it all, throughout her incredible near-century of life. She and Grandpa Doc raised up what always seemed to me to be a miraculously large—and larger-than-life—family of men who are all now Grandpas themselves, with so much to be proud about.
In the end, what I want most in life is to end my life surrounded by glorious generations of family and the warmth of long-loved friends, having explored and exhausted every possible talent and interest that God gave me along the way, and leaving the only legacy that truly is eternal—US.
That’s why this must be the happiest funeral ever. We’re sad to miss dear Grandmother, but I suspect that she’s happier than ever—reunited in heaven with those beloved souls who belong with her, and with us, but who aren’t here today.

In closing, I want to share a secret with you. I hope Grandmother won’t mind my sharing this, but some years ago when I was working on a baby book, I needed to know her middle name to fill out my little William’s family tree. Her real, maiden middle name, because I’d always known her as “Bertha Du Menil Anderson” which was, of course, her married name. At first she wouldn’t tell. She said she very much disliked her middle name, and never told it to anyone. Then she seemed to reconsider, and shared that her original middle name was “Thekla,” t-h-e-k-l-a. I assumed it was an old-fashioned German name, and didn’t quite understand her dislike of it, but that was about it.
Until recently when, while working on some research about Catholic Saints, I came across a little-known ‘Saint Thekla,’ who was probably the original, way-back, pre-Reformation-Germany source of that middle name. And it turns out that Saint Thekla, born in A.D. 61, was quite remarkable—one of the very first Christians to face the Romans’ lions, in fact, and a contemporary and a disciple of St. Paul himself. As tradition has it, miraculous intervention saved Thekla from the lions, however, and her passion for the Truth and her long life of devotion to the Gospel concluded, as I read in one account, when she “peacefully fell asleep at the age of 90.”

No doubt that Bertha Thekla Du Menil Anderson--our beloved Grandmother, Aunt, Sister, In-Law, Friend, and Mom—had her vibrant namesake St. Thekla cheering for her from heaven throughout her own 98 years of life.
And, no doubt, Bertha herself is cheering for all of us, right now.

Bertha Thekla Du Menil Anderson 3/5/1912 – 1/29/2010

Maybe Cafeteria Catholicism Isn't So Twentieth Century, After All...

"Heretics are heretics and bear the name, because out of the articles of faith they choose at their taste and pleasure those which it seems good to them to believe, rejecting and denying the others. And Catholics are Catholics, because without any choice or election they embrace, with an equal assurance and without exception, all the faith of the Church."
~ St. Francis de Sales 1567-1622 (!)