Sunday, February 26, 2012

Lenten Thoughts

Today at Mass, Deacon Robinson encouraged us to make time to take inventory of our lives. Look at our temptations. Maybe there are temptations of gossip, worry, pornography, lust, anger, laziness, or over indulgence.  But we also need to be aware of the temptations of complacency and mediocrity. These temptations can be even more dangerous. They are sneaky. How can I root out the complacency in my life? That will be my prayer this week.

Lord, help me to see the areas of my life and my heart where I have grown complacent and set me on fire for you once again.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Some more catching up again! :)

Well, with doing weekly challenges over at Stuff to Scrap, biweekly and monthly ones at Digital Scrapper, and speed scraps and progressive scraps at theStudio, I've been keeping busy!

Here's a sampling of what I've been up to!





This last one is available as a QP again over here. Chris had sent me a couple of scans of pics of my grandparents and this one fit so nicely with the colors of the kit I just had to use it!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Happy Anniversary my Love!

Thirteen years ago, I raced up South Mountain, chasing the sunset to meet my sweetie and tie the knot. We missed the sunset, but by the light of the headlights of a Dale Earnhart key chain we were married by our good friend Jessie.

Then, ten years ago, I could barely contain myself during my RCIA class where we had arranged with Fr. Leo to convalidate our marriage after the session on the Sacrament of Matrimony. The rest of the class didn't know about the 'object lesson' and it was a wonderful surprise and a beautiful ceremony.
Now, in 2012, as we celebrated our 13/10 anniversary, life just keeps getter better and better!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Unconditional Love

With Valentine's day being this week there was a lot of talk about love on the radio. Apparently I missed the Ultimate Issues hour on Dennis Prager's show where he talked about whether unconditional love was a good thing. Bill Bennett had called in to join in the discussion, and replayed it on his show the next day. That's where I came in.

I won't really get in to the discussion of is unconditional love a good thing or not, but what struck me was that in my experience women tend to love unconditionally to a greater degree than men. Granted, there are certainly exceptions, but you here so much more about women who even after leaving their abuser or unfaithful husband still talk about how they still love him. My mom and I talked about it once, that when two people become 'one flesh' in marriage that there's a bond there that never really dies. I wonder now, if my father or my ex felt the same way.

It occurred to me then, that maybe this is why men are commanded to love their wives. St. Paul may have understood that women more naturally love unconditionally, and that men needed to be told that THIS is important and what you are supposed to do. Not that men don't know how to love, but rather that men don't think as naturally in terms of loving as Christ loved, even unto death.

That's my 'Thought for the Day'.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Rex the Wonder Dog

My parent's dear dog Rex died last week. He was nearly 10 and a combination of genetics, trauma, and age contributed to a ruptured disk in his back. Looking back, they could see over the course of a couple weeks how he had been slowing down, but it really came on suddenly last weekend.

If I miss him this much, I can only imagine the heartache my parents are going through.

I made a couple of tribute pages for my dear Rexy, Mr. Rex, Rex the Wonder Dog~

I'll probably do one more, with pictures of him with his people. I'm working on that one in my head right now.

I miss you dear Rex.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Superbowl Speed Scrap!

Superbowl Sunday TheStudio held 5 hours of speed scraps and I took part in all five!  It was so much fun to chat with these ladies and scrap along with them. Here's what I came up with-




This gave me a chance to scrap some of the pics from 2007 I've been wanting to work on. I'm finding it quite different to work on older photos like this. I'm so used to using 8 to 20 photos for a single event, taking up 3 to five pages...or more! Paring it down to a single page, or two page spread is challenging and makes me focus on what I really want to remember!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

On Suffering

The readings from today began so very bleak and depressing.  We started off with Job in the throes of his despair-

Reading 1 Jb 7:1-4, 6-7

Job spoke, saying:
Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights have been allotted to me.
If in bed I say, "When shall I arise?"
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.

The Psalm was a word of hope, the refrain being-

Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.

Then on to the NT and Gospel readings where Paul speaks of the obligation he has to preach the Gospel, and what he must do and become in order to try and save us, and Jesus began his healing ministry.

I was haunted though by Job's words, "I shall never see happiness again". How often do I feel that way? How quick am I to forget that my God is a God of healing. That He heals not only the body (as in the Gospel today), but also He heals the brokenhearted.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Challenges over at Stuff to Scrap

With the way the days fell this month, Stuff to Scrap did Week 5 challenges for both Word of the Week and Challenge of the Week.  Here are my LOs for them-


I'm having so much fun using these challenges to scrap older photos! I'm especially glad that I finally had a chance to use the pic of the lamp that Mom made for me back when I got married. That was such a great lamp. Had the look of wood and wrought iron, but was actually plaster/ceramic. Reminds me of all the times Mom and I went to Ann's Originals and painted together. I should take pictures of some of the other things we've painted over the years. Hmmm...I wish I'd thought to have asked for the bird plate I did for Jeff's Mom way back when. I'm sure it got sold in the estate sale. It's funny the things that you remember when you start down 'memory lane'.