If my son, "The bat boy" ends up in the principals office again tomorrow, I will be livid. The little mutant needs to comply with authorities and do his school work with respect and courtesy for others. My son is a mini version of my father... The perils of the genetic lotto.

My blog administrator/activity director said that my mini van is on it's last leg and we need to upgrade. (Backwards, 12 years.) He called me from the kitchen (Which by the way he's unfamiliar with - it's down the hall to his right.) and he asked me what I thought of this car pictured below. He said,..."It's a great car because it only has 63,000 miles and the guy only wants $1,500 for it. He said that a little old lady drove it (To mass everyday to pray for souls and then to work in a soup kitchen - I'm sure). He asked me, "Do you like it?" I said, "What, did Huggy bear die?! I can't drive a pimp car! It'll looks like Huggy bear bequeathed it to me after some sort of drug deal gone bad. (You don't actually believe he died of an age related illness do you?) I just can't drive a car like that. I know God likes humility and all but please Dear God don't make me drive around looking like a drug trafficker and I know Dear God that you enjoy a good laugh and often at my expense so please don't make me drive a hearse either. Please?.....

Love, Belinda

Obama has taken away some of my religious freedom and caused distress to our Catholic bishops, professional medical personnel and hospitals. These faithful Catholics are not only my brethren in Christ but people who I have great love and affection for. I understand that most people use and enjoy the benefits of birth control and I don't bother you but consider me, the minority who doesn't and if it's okay to coerce and manipulate a minority of people because a majority agrees with Obama consider the implications for other groups of people. I believe birth control to be a sin and though I don't expect anyone else to agree with me, the issue now becomes my religious rights and if today it's okay and even popular to stamp out my rights, tomorrow it may be yours.

During our Christmas break the weather in Kansas has been wonderful for difficult work. The soil and rocks that I collected could be handled in the afternoons after the soil had warmed up and the rocks were no longer frozen together.

I built the fire pit first  then I made a wheel chair accessible sidewalk. The next thing I plan on making is a rock patio around the pit and when spring arrives  I'll cement it all together and fill in all of the potential snake holes. I would also like to make a small rock wall as some sort of a table to put our things on while we cook over the fire. I will have my kids help repaint the benches and chairs then put some sort of plants out. I'm also going to spruce up their tree house (In the background) for safety sake.

I don't know what kind of plants to buy, I'm a terrible gardener -as you can plainly see.

 In the process, I hope this will be a good family project as I teach my youngest children how to cook over an open fire using a dutch oven and little else while my activity director tells his usual fibs about the gypsies who once roamed our forest.

Cafeteria Catholics who pick and choose church teaching and scriptures which they find comfortable while dismissing what's unpleasant are missing the things which make us grow in Christ.

Hypocrites and miscellany

While at the mall, our daughter Kate asked to look around Victoria's Secret as Grace and I followed closely behind her. An employee said to Kate,"Hi, I see you go to St. Anthony's, do you know my friends Kelly and Shawn and do you know the White's, they all go to St. Anthony's?! Meanwhile I'm standing there wondering how this woman could identify my daughter- Sister Mary Grace and her twin sister Kate from St.Anthony's and then to my horror I realized, THEY'RE WEARING THEIR SCHOOL UNIFORMS in this upscale trashy store!

As I laughed at my own hypocrisy, I recalled the time when a friend of mine was nursing her baby on Victoria's plush red couch under a huge poster trimmed with a gold frame of  partially covered lacy breasts while the employees and patrons sneered at her and made sure she felt uncomfortable. 

As I reflected on these things, I said to my daughters, "Get those skirts outta this store." Then Sister Mary Grace, who's skirt is worn below her knees said, "I didn't want to go in there anyway but before leaving, I said to my sweet daughter, "Well Grace, I found an item that I thought was pretty AND it was sparkly but it was marked $98.00! Do you know how many items I could buy for that same amount of money at K-Mart in the returned lingerie department after Valentines day!?

Then Grace sneered at me and said, "Your not very funny mom."

*Disclaimer- We don't wear pre-worn underwear. It was a joke, however I do believe that many individuals are more concerned about the quality of their underwear than the quality of those whom they sleep with.

Bob Woodward has complained that being seated next to Al Gore during a dinner party was a "Taxing" Experience. I think Bob is being a bit too hard on Mr. Gore, after all, Al's been under a dark acid rain cloud for many years now.  Consider Al's brain as a ticking time bomb as he contemplates and calculates how many pounds of chlorofluorocarbons his freezer, refrigerator, ice machine, wine cooler, air conditioner, and ice cream maker produce every day! Those figures don't even include his propane grill or dryer, nor his hot tub, heated water bed , or the space heaters strewn about his various homes. (He has three)  Al's brain can barely keep up with the strain.  I haven't even mentioned his incalculable carbon footprint for his numerous public appearances. News articles have said that Al is becoming more difficult to be around but that's because in Al's world, the sky is falling and it's falling in big invisible chunks. One of two things will have to happen, either Al will go crazy from the stress and anxiety of trying to save the planet alone with 6 billion uncooperative people or he will have to let go and let God be in charge.  The lesson here? At this point, only God can still enjoy the company of Al Gore.

“I the LORD search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
according to what their deeds deserve.”

Jeremiah 17:10

 -When our Lord gazes upon your heart it's his own reflection he should see.

I don't know what Satan looks like to other people but when I've see him he looks like a regular person except that there's always something about him that isn't quite  right. His eyes and hair look a little bit like Neil Diamond but I'm pretty sure that Mr.Diamond isn't the devil - though I am speculating. The times when I've seen the devil I've had a feeling of dread followed by high anxiety and unlike Neil, most often he appears disheveled in one way or another as I once saw him mocking a  woman by pretending to be pregnant and Holy with  strange messed up hair and with a wicked look on his face. Eh, that's probably his standard look though. The the hate which came from him was palpable and terrifying. It was something I couldn't understand because after all what did I ever do to deserve such hate? I just can't comprehend it.

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Late last night I dreamt that Satan threw a Hostess chocolate zinger cake on the ground in front of me and said in a monotone voice, as if he were commanding a dog, "Go get it."  And as I stood there and stared at him,  I understood that he was making fun of me. He was saying that it takes so very little to distract me from Christ. This act made me feel weak and stupid. He was telling me with out saying anything else that whenever he feels as though I'm bothering him or when I'm some sort of  minor threat, there's never really a battle between us, he simply gets me to stop annoying him by  throwing food my way and because I feel  that processed chocolate zingers are at the very bottom of the food chain, he was insinuating that it doesn't take much to distract me, or lure me away from Christ. So this little visit was a triple insult. Naturally he hurt my feelings but of course that WAS the point.

I suppose it only hurt my feelings because it's true. I AM weak, small and not so bright but the thought of my behavior causing Christ to be disappointed in me brings me to tears.  When I remember my weaknesses I also remember that it's Christ who strengthens me and in my humility and smallness Christ fills me with himself. Being stupid is only temporary and I'm okay with that but I can't live with the thought of Christ being saddened or disappointed in me.

I will continue to offer myself and my work to Christ as a living sacrifice and even if my work and I are completely worthless. I'm going to try to not dwell on these things and even though they make me sad, I get how this stuff works.

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What does Satan send into your life to detain, distract, or delay you from either Christ or from the work which Christ has given to you?  I pray, you are all better Christians than I am, my dear blogger buddies.

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My penance after confession was to contemplate how much Christ loves me for five minutes. This was the most difficult penance I think I've ever done and poorly at that.

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Lastly, I'm so very sorry for not blogging more but I'm our Catholic schools PTO president and I'm practically living at school now. I sincerely miss all of you.

I was in the check out line of my favorite thrift shop watching a little boy as he pestered his mother into buying him a toy chainsaw. He jumped up and down, with excitement, thrilled that his mother said yes to the toy with endless creative possibilities. As he bounced off the floor and register tables waiting for his mother to pay for their things, he said, " When I get home, I'm going to saw Dad, aunt Keisha, uncle Wayne, my sister, and Sparkles. (His sisters pet)

I was worried that he meant it in a Texas chainsaw kind of way until I considered the possibility that maybe I misunderstood and he meant in a magical "David Copperfield" kind of way. Whew!

So many people to pray for and so little time.

Somebody better call ahead and warn Sparkles.

Elizabeth has applied for a job at one of the  Disney studios and they have  responded favorably to her portfolio. They said that she's one of the finalists

 - but then there are probably a lot of finalists.

We've started a nine day novena on Elizabeth's behalf. Our son  has been participating with us, praying as he's never prayed before. He threw his whole heart into it, praying solemnly, slowly and with as much  devotion and passion as his little heart could muster, unlike his usual method of praying like an auctioneer - late for a pig roast. Joseph believes if his sister is hired, she will then mail him a couple of tickets to Disney World or Disney land so if this prayer is answered God would be in essence killing two birds with one stone.

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 Elizabeth was sitting in her office overlooking Paramount studios next door and watching people come and go in their Bentley's, and Mercedes, then as she  turned to gaze at the "Hollywood" sign, she told me she thought to herself, "Is this all there is?" This place is such a joke. How did  it become so iconic. Hollywood has sold us all a bunch of lies.

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Here's another movie, Elizabeth has made.

Please consider praying for our daughter. We need people like her in Hollywood.

My bad

It was my brother in laws birthday and he decided to take his wife, my activity director and myself, to Knuckleheads, a night club in Kansas City Missouri.

My brother in law seated me directly behind an older man who was sitting next to a pole nearly the width of the mans head. The three people in my party could see just fine, I on the other hand could not and as we watched the musicians portraying Buddy Holly and the crickets revving up the crowd, the old man decided to get up and get himself another beer but not before he wisely left his jacket on the back of the chair to save his spot. I spontaneously decided to move his chair three little inches to the right and when the old man returned with his tall boy beer, he noticed nothing. I said to my activity director, "When he drinks himself under the table, I will be able to see."

 After about 15 minutes the old man got up to get another beer and so again I moved his chair three inches to the right and after doing this for the forth or fifth time, the old man found himself squarely seated behind the pole and straining to see around it.  He struggled to move his chair but the floor was uneven and one of the legs kept snagging on the uneven concrete cracks in the floor and because he appeared too drunk to figure out this simple equation, he simply sat behind the pole staring at it for a few minutes, then he picked up his coat and stammered away.

I  moved up to the seat next to the mans chair as my activity director sat directly in the newly vacated chair and  I looked at my activity director and laughed as I said to him , "Good thing the  man wasn't incontinent," "You checked first right?"

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My bad,  as defined by the Urban dictionary;

 Moronic phrase used by pretentious, clueless twats to acknowledge they have made an error.
Example; I forgot to remove the safety catch before putting the gun against my own dumb head and pulling the trigger. My bad

I cannot love a soul which is stained with sin; but when it repents, there is no limit to My generosity toward it.  My mercy embraces and justifies it.  With My Mercy, I pursue sinners along all their paths, and My Heart rejoices when they return to Me.  I forget the bitterness with which they fed My Heart and rejoice at their return…”

Jesus to Sr.Faustina