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Daily Lenten Meditations

«  March 2010  »

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
  • Pray Light a candle. Every time you pass that candle today, offer a prayer of thanks. Don’t ask for anything. Just thank him.
  • Fast Don’t cut corners. Even if no one will know, complete today’s work thoroughly.
  • Give Touch is a powerful thing. Make an effort today to touch your children: a hug, a shoulder rub, a tousled head -- especially the bigger ones
1
  • Pray Make five minutes in the morning, at midday and in the evening to be still, silent, and alone, only asking God to infuse your soul with his will.
  • Fast No noise today. Turn off the TV, the radio, the iPod. Find God in the silence.
  • Give Pay particular unsolicited attention to your least demanding child today.
2
  • Pray Begin a gratitude journal. At the end of the day, jot down five things for which you are grateful. Think upon these things.
  • Fast Remember the first time you had a moment alone with your first child. What did you promise him? Do that. Be that.
  • Give We can only expect what we inspect. For every task you assign today, follow through and before it’s truly finished ensure that there is praise from you.
3
  • Pray “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me." -- John 10:27
  • Fast Every time a child interrupts you today, stop what you are doing and look into his eyes as he talks.
  • Give “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” -- Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Speak kindly all day long.
4
  • Pray Ask God to show you how weak and small you are. Open your heart to see it.
  • Fast Don’t argue today. As much as possible give up, give in, give way.
  • Give When you are tempted to put on the TV for kids today, pull out a stack of favorite picture books instead. Invite the kids to join you on the couch.
5
  • Pray Take a walk, even if it’s cold or raining. Leave your iPod at home.
  • Fast Think of someone whose life you are tempted to envy and then choke out these words: Thank you, God, for the blessings you have given to X. Help me to see my own.
  • Give Think about the kind of person your husband married. Be that person for him today.
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  • Pray "Love consumes us only in the measure of our self-surrender." -- St. Therese of Lisieux
  • Fast As you go about your daily routine today, remember that you are expecting someone very important for dinner tonight. Together with your children, work towards your husband’s homecoming as if you were expecting to welcome a king back to his castle.
  • Give “You can do nothing with children unless you win their confidence and love by bringing them into touch with oneself, by breaking through all the hindrances that keep them at a distance. We must accommodate ourselves to their tastes, we must make ourselves like them.” -- St. John Bosco
8
  • Pray Take this quote to prayer today and listen to God’s answer: “Real love is demanding. I would fail in my mission if I did not tell you so. Love demands a personal commitment to the will of God.” -- John Paul II
  • Fast Stop looking for encouragement and approval. Genuinely encourage and affirm someone else instead.
  • Give Let your child choose a huge stack of picture books (use that word “huge” when you ask her to gather them). Read them all to her today.
9
  • Pray Persevere. “He who does not give up prayer cannot possibly continue to offend God habitually. Either he will give up prayer, or he will give up sinning.” -- St. Alphonsus Liguori
  • Fast Don’t forget that the only pedestal you need ever stand on, is the one your husband and children build for you.
  • Give Focus on your home today. The world can find another volunteer, but your husband and children have only you.
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Danielle Bean

Danielle Bean
Danielle Bean, a mother of eight, is Editorial Director of Faith & Family. She is author of My Cup of Tea: Musings of a Catholic Mom (Pauline 2005) and Mom to Mom, Day to Day: Advice and Support for Catholic Living (Pauline 2007). Though she once struggled to separate her life …
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Rachel Balducci

Rachel Balducci
Rachel Balducci is married to Paul and together they are the parents of five lively boys. Besides being a mom, she is also a writer and a newspaper columnist for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia. For the past four years, she has maintained her personal blog at Testosterhome.net where she …
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Lisa Hendey

Lisa Hendey
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Arwen Mosher

Arwen Mosher
Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their young children Camilla and Blaise. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site is ABC Family. …
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Rebecca Teti

Rebecca Teti
Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
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Robyn Lee

Robyn Lee
Robyn Lee is the managing editor of Faith & Family magazine. She is (yikes!) an almost 30 year-old, single lady, living in Connecticut with her two cousins in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law …
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Hallie Lord

Hallie Lord
Hallie Lord married her dashing husband, Dan, in the fall of 2001 (the same year, coincidentally, that she joyfully converted to the Catholic faith). They now happily reside in the deep South with their two energetic boys and two very sassy girls. In her *ample* spare time, Hallie enjoys cheap wine, …
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Fr. John Bartunek, LC

Fr. John Bartunek, LC

Fr John Bartunek, LC, STL, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. After college he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and …
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Melissa Wiley

Melissa Wiley
Melissa Wiley is a homeschooling mother of six and the author of The Martha Years and The Charlotte Years, two series of books about the ancestors of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She blogs about children’s books, family, and home education at Here in the Bonny Glen.
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Eating Out Again

A first-year milestone

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Wednesday, December 30, 2009 10:06 PM

On January 3, 2009, my husband and I went out for a fancy dinner. I was eight months pregnant, and as we ate delicious fondue he mentioned that it would be a while before we’d get another chance to have a really nice meal out together. I’m an optimist, so I thought it might not be so long. He’s a realist, and he predicted that it would be one year.

Although we’ve had a few short meals at nearby chain restaurants since my sister came to live with us this fall, tonight was the first time since January that we’ve had the trifecta of perfect circumstances - time, funds, and childcare - so that we could have dinner at a gourmet restaurant in town.

My husband was right: January 3rd to December 30th is almost exactly one year.

While we enjoyed salmon and scallops this evening, we remembered last year’s meal and how far away January 2010 felt then. We talked about it that night, looking forward to when our as-yet-unborn baby would be at least ten months old, crawling around and interacting. He would be so much different from the tiny newborn we were anticipating meeting soon after that.

For me, the end of the first year feels like a finish line of sorts. I love babies, but I struggle with parenting them. Toddlers, on the other hand, are great. I really enjoyed Camilla’s toddler years, and I can’t wait for Blaise to become a toddler himself.

A year ago we went out for a fancy dinner and our baby was seven pounds, floating in amniotic fluid. Tonight we went out for a fancy dinner and came home to a little guy who launched himself into my arms and waved happily at the rest of the family as I carried him off to bed. I’m grateful for the past year with Blaise, for the privilege of watching him grow through his first eleven months, but I’m even more excited for the chance to watch him grow through the next year.

Now that our little guy will be a toddler, we’ll probably have more chances for dinners out, too. Which is not an inconsiderable benefit.


image credit

Comments
7
Filed under babies, dinner, experience, love, marriage, memories, parenting, toddlers

Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 
Posted by Ginny on Thursday, Dec 31, 2009 2:03 AM (EDT):

I love this, Arwen—I can so relate. 

There is something so rare and wonderful about a real, adult restaurant dinner at a place where they don’t give you crayons and balloons.  My husband and I rarely get to those places anymore, and when we do, it feels like a massive treat.  It is hard to believe that once upon a time, we used to frequent those restaurants all the time.

I don’t know about other moms out there, but I find that anytime I manage to slip away with the hubby for a real adult dinner I always end up ordering some fancy cocktail ... a blood orange cosmopolitan or something equally chichi.  I never drink them at home, so I guess it’s something about that rare confluence of restaurant/date/no kids that makes me want to live it up!

 
Posted by Claire on Thursday, Dec 31, 2009 8:15 AM (EDT):

I love the toddler years, but I also love infancy.  I would love to go back and re-live some of the infant moments again.  It was hard, but I would never want to rush or wish away something that goes by way too fast as it is.

 
Posted by Tina on Thursday, Dec 31, 2009 9:33 PM (EDT):

I’m so with you, Arwen! And, especially with my first one, I really “hated” those first few months, too. Funny, though, that it seemed to have gotten better with each one (I now have 3 great kids!)—that is, I didn’t mind everything so much. I think it’s because after the first one, and maybe even into the second one, you gain perspective and know that the hard stuff won’t last forever. Then, as you say, a year later you look back and can’t believe you made it through it or how quickly it now seems to have gone by. I never would have believed anyone after I had my first if they told me I would one day get to spend a quiet evening in a nice restaurant with my husband! But, alas, I have and I still get to! God bless you and happy 2010!

 
Posted by Claire on Thursday, Dec 31, 2009 9:41 PM (EDT):

Actually, I think having only one child (without much hope for more) has made me appreciate and want to savor every minute of my son’s infancy rather than wanting to rush through it.  (That and the fact that I had many years of child-free dinners out, so I got it out of my system enough that I can live without them during the infant phase.)  But I can see how having a second child would have that effect also, because of having learned how quickly it goes by.  Bring on the sweet, cuddly little newborns!

 
Posted by Heather on Thursday, Dec 31, 2009 11:55 PM (EDT):

My husband and I just shared a similar dinner.  We live far from both families and I don’t think we have had a real dinner out with just the two of us since my son was born (he is 16 months old!).  It was great visiting my parents and being able to have a ‘date night!’

 
Posted by A'Dell on Monday, Jan 4, 2010 1:09 AM (EDT):

Did you guys go to The Melting Pot last year?  For fondue?  I have wanted to go there for AGES but Chris refuses to recognize fondue as a legit meal.

I can’t wait for the chore years.  When do we get to the part where you ask them to vacuum and THEY ACTUALLY DO IT?

 
Posted by Claire on Monday, Jan 4, 2010 1:11 AM (EDT):

Probably around the time that they start preferring their friends to their parents.  Then you’ll be pining away for the early years, which REALLY SHOULDN’T BE RUSHED or WISHED AWAY!


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