The Sacraficial Love of a Mother

Hello! Sorry for the "blog-vacation", but sometimes I have to step away from the computer and live a little :)


Last night, I was sharing about my cousin, who found out when she was two month pregnant that she has breast cancer, to a friend and I thought about St. Gianna.



I have been to Magenta Italy and visited the tomb of St. Gianna. I even have a niece who is named after this wonderful woman. A simple woman who was a wife, mother and doctor. I'm sure that she would have never imagined the inspiration her life would be to the world. She did the most natural thing that mothers do- she sacraficed herself for her child. Gianna sacraficed everything for her child. She gave her own life so that her daughter would live.

My cousin, Bre, has fought this cancer that has been attacking her body and she has given birth to a beautiful baby girl. I admire both these women so much! The week I lost my own little angel, Paul Joshua, was when my cousin found out about the cancer. We prayed to both my P.J. and St. Gianna for her healing and the protection for both mama and baby. Now we are continuing to pray for Bre's healing. I ask that you join us in praying for her.

I love these picture of Bre and her miracle baby. Please check out the website that was created for them. There are great pictures at the bottom of the page. http://www.brestrong.giving.officelive.com/

Also, if you do not know much about St. Gianna, look her up. There are beautiful books and dvds about her. I loved reading the book of love letters that she wrote to her husband before they were married.

While engaged to Pietro Molla, Gianna wrote to him while reflecting on their vocation to marriage: “With God’s help and blessing, we will do all we can to make our new family a little cenacle where Jesus will reign over all our affections, desires and actions. … We will be working with God in His creation; in this way we can give Him children who will love Him and serve Him”.

Love it!!!!!

PRAYER COMPOSED BY SAINT GIANNA

Jesus, I promised You to submit myself to all that You permit to befall me, make me only know Your will. My most sweet Jesus, infinitely merciful God, most tender Father of souls, and in a particular way of the most weak, most miserable, most infirm which You carry with special tenderness between Your divine arms, I come to You to ask You, through the love and merits of Your Sacred Heart, the grace to comprehend and to do always Your holy will, the grace to confide in You, the grace to rest securely through time and eternity in Your loving divine arms."

SOURCE: Una Santa Della Quotidianita

St. Gianna, pray for us!

You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but...

Here is my random 2:30am thought to share: I am obsessed with preparing for children God has yet to give me!!!

Paul is on the road this week and I am home cleaning and still unpacking boxes! I keep finding tons of supplies from when I was teaching and I am becoming so anxious to be able to homeschool my own little ones- talk about putting the cart before the horse! Anyway, I have also found some great books and supplies recently that I had to buy. This is mainly a "teaser" to let my dear friends who actually have children know that I will be posting info soon on some great resources (Precious Life Books newest book is hot off the presses!). This obviously isn't the new book, but it is one of my favorites!

Please pray for my sanity, dear friends, and for my wonderful husband to be patient with me. I am trying very hard not to "covet my neighbor's baby", but it is NOT easy! Especially when Paul isn't home to keep me balanced.

Lord, be our strength and comfort in all things and at all times!

Getting our kicks on Rte. 66!

Last Sunday Paul pulled off the old Rte. 66 some where in IL at an antique mall. He didn't say a word, he just pulled off and found a place to park our 18 wheeler. Hand in hand we walked down the road to the mall. It was a perfect Sunday afternoon- blue skies and breezy!




I took a few fun pictures. They had the most wonderful little ice cream shop. Paul bought me a waffle cone of cake batter ice cream and they played fun classic music. Even Paul enjoyed the shop. He enjoyed it much more quickly than I did (I have to wander around and look at everything!), but we did find some fun stuff.



They had a lot of elephants! I love Sunday drives and antique malls!

The Heart of a Home is the Kitchen

Hubby in our Cucina Amore!

Our Nest has been under construction since we moved in during the last week of July '08. We are usually on the road for five to six weeks at a time and the 5 days we have home at the end of that time is spent running errands, catching up on rest, visiting with family and friends and working on the house and yard.

Last fall we planted cherry trees and this spring we put in a row of blueberry bushes and vegetables. I was able to plant two azalea bushes by the house during one of our weekends home. There is always so much to do and so little time to do it.

When it comes to fixing up the interior of the house, I have to take things one step at a time. I want to do everything "Now", but I know that it will get done eventually. Besides, as anxious as I am to have everything "look perfect" (there's a laugh for you!), it is fun being able to put a little more thought and planning into each room. I rushed to get the first few rooms livable but now I'm able to take a little more time to plan out the rest of the house. None of the rooms in our house are "Finished" exactly (with the exception of the main bathroom- after all it is the most frequented room!), but some are at least painted. Picking out the exact colors for each room is the biggest step for me.

I've had a few rooms that the colors turned out a bit different than I'd planned, but I am happy with all the rooms. The kitchen, for example. was supposed to be a sage green. The color I went for had more of a blue undertone than yellow, which was great by me, but when I began painting I realized it was more bluish than green. I was still happy, but a month after I painted the downstairs, we switched out our light bulbs to the energy efficient kind which cast a totally different hue on the walls. Half the room now looks blue and the other half (because of the different type lighting that can't fit the same type of energy efficient bulbs) looks more green! Oh, well, it will look the same when we fix the lighting.

The entire kitchen was white on white when we moved in and it was desperately in need of fresh paint. We painted it in a color called "Jasper." It really made the cabinets pop. My dad put up a chair rail around the room for us. It looks great. I don't have any pictures with me of the eat in side of the kitchen. I'll have to post some later.

Anyway, here are a few shots of our kitchen. During the short time we've actually been home we have held not one but TWO family reunions at our house. They have been amazing, joyful events. Most of our time is spent gathered around in the kitchen. It's the perfect space to visit. All you need is a pot of tea and you're set!