Some quotes to share.

I was really touched by some things I read last night in my Magnificat and though I would share with you.

Isaiah 58

If you hold back your foot on the sabbath/ from following your own pursuits on my holy day;/ If you call the sabbath a delight,/ and the Lord's holy day honorable;/ If you honor it by not following your ways,/ seeking your own interests, or speaking malice-/ Then you shall delight in the Lord,/ and I will make you ride on heights of the earth;/ I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father,/ for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

And then from a quote by Father Bede Jarrett, OP

Then with regard to the work we may be called upon to do, and each one of us has some special work to do for God. God made his plans for us before we came into the world at all - for the work is of primary importance, it comes first in God's thoughts, and we follow as instruments. When an architect is commissioned to build a house, he has to know first its destined use, its locality, and the weather conditions, etc. Every detail must be taken into consideration. Only then can he collect his materials and begin to work. The foundations are very slowly made, with pain and trouble and much work if the building is to endure...

God is the architect. He has made our souls a cerain size and shape, to fit certain holes, so to speak. It is not for us to say that we are incapable, or unfitted for the work given to us. That is not only to criticize ourselves, which wouldn't matter at all, but it is to criticize God. If meant, it is blasphemy. He has placed us in a certain postition, and if he wants us to do a certain work, we shall do it. If he doesn't, we shan't. In any case, it is not for us to jusdge, but to obey his will. The doing of his will is not only the reason for all our Lord's life, but of our life, of all life. In its accomplishment lies the fullness of life. "Now this is eternal life- that we may know thee." The will of God is made known to us through the interplay of our own interior impulses and desires, and our exterior circumstances... Nothin is ever quite what we anticipated. There is the interplay of circumstances on our desires. It makes known to us what is God's will for us; and so we give up in our desires what does not fit in with God's plan for us, content to do as he wishes.

That quote reminds me a lot of St. Therese of Lisieux, her simple life and her simple way of explaining things.

~~~

On other subjects, our count down to moving is 13 days. So as you can imagine, I'm in a bit of a jumbly mess. The house is a mess, (why is it that when you are trying to pack and clean things only look ten times worse), my brain is a mess, (with about 2 million things running around reminding me that they need to be done), but thankfully the kids seem fine. Kevin is off riding his bike this evening which is good. He needed to go enjoy the weather and his bike while he can. Which reminds me, we need to get the tow hitch put on the car to tow his bike. I feel a bit overwhelmed right now, especially when Annie goes behind me (literally) and unpacks everything I might have just been packing into a box. She's very helpful. In a very unhelpful sort of way. I've made it my mission to lighten up a bit and communicate with the kids with less yelling. Let me just say, it's really really hard when I am stressed out and have a ton of things to do, and no one to help me but my little unhelpful helper. I've been trying to get Anthony involved in helping around the house more, but it seems he can't do anything without asking why, or saying he can't do it because his legs hurt, or he has a headache, or or or or or or or....think of a thousand other or's or but's. He knows them all. I hate resorting to bribery, but sometimes I just have to to save my own sanity. I think it's funny that he agrees begrudginly to help when I offer him more coins for the Alms Jar.

I keep reminding myself to go in another room and just stop freaking out. Once again (for the thousandth time) I remind myself that everyone reacts to me differently when I react to them in a kinder gentler manner. I