Coffee COFFEE!!!!!!

Coffee COFFEE!!!!    If you want GREAT coffee by a GREAT bunch of guys, MYSTIC MONK Coffee totally rocks!!!


Personally, my knight and I have been enjoying Mystic Monk coffee for a couple of years now and there is no going back to our old ways now.    Please try some today and if you buy it through my blog, I get a kickback...slight, but it will help with the upcoming college years for our daughters!!

Thanks and blessings!

It's not just for me!

This morning I went to our daughters' Catholic high school for Mass.  It's usually pretty brief, 20 - 30 minutes tops (except a few weeks ago we had a visiting Priest, who usually celebrates the Latin Mass, it went for the traditional 60 minutes with a LOVELY homily)  Everyone, except for a few of us were upset and it did mess up the morning class schedule.

Anyway, I offered up my Mass this morning for the 3 women help captive in Ohio for 10 years with the six year old daughter from the house of horror.  God bless them!!

Driving home to get ready to met a friend to go strawberry picking, I got aggrevated at a couple of drivers and the traffic was pretty unreal for a Friday.  I realized something and it stopped me in my tracks, Christ is still physically in my body....my stomach!!  Not only did I realize that, but I realized that I wasn't acting very grateful towards others in my head.

When I receive the Holy Eucharist, Jesus' body and blood, His saving self, eternal food, it is not JUST for me and my salvation, but for others too!  Not only have I received the gift of His passion and resurrection in the Eucharist, I also received a mission:  to go In PEACE!...to Love and Serve the Lord!!

Social Media in the Marriage and the Family

"I’m not that interested in 'mass' communications. I’m much more interested in what happens between this person and the one person watching. The space between the television set and that person who’s watching is very holy ground."


The traditional family unit has been negatively hit from so many directions in our world in recent times.  Now state and federal courts are, at a few homosexuals' constant and indignant urgings, adding to the destruction of the traditional and healthy institution of marriage by passing legislation redefining marriage to allow same-sex couples to enter this institution.  It completely shocks and amazes me how these educated and elected individuals can be party to the destruction of the central and so necessary human structure.  But, alas, the members of traditional marriage have sadly and selfishly been part of the destruction of marriage, too with spousal abuse, divorce, and infidelity. How can we possibly protect marriage when many of our own members do not seem to respect it.

Now, enter social media, the SmartPhone and all the other electronic hand-held gadgets that are supposedly making our lives more organized. Calendars, memo pads, apps out the ying-yang, games, exercise videos, the list goes on at the touch of a button in your hand.  You can look up information in a split second, order books, tickets, reservations, check the weather, find your way through town, and play games online with people you don't know all at the press of a button or a call out to Siri.  Convenient and simple, eh?  Distracting?  Maybe, depending on who you ask.  Some say that modern technology has made our lives more complicated rather than organized and less stressed.  How much information from the information highway does one need in a 24-hour period?   

In all the talks and articles I've read, mainly they involve controlling or monitoring the children and young people in the family.  Important as that is, however, the marriage has been affected by online activities as well.  Now we have new friends, old acquaintances, school chums from way back, and even co-workers included in our lives at a more familiar level.  Anyone of these "friends" can be contacted quickly and frequently without too much effort.  So now, not only the children, but married couples are involved in separate and, very often unknown to each other, online communities and friendships. According to an article I read on Psych Central.com, many attorneys search Facebook primarily for infidelity evidence and inappropriate behavior meriting the onset of a divorce. 

Physical affairs are one thing, but what might catch us off guard is the emotional affairs that take place online....innocent, right??  NO!  We are learning more and more about emotional affairs having an impact on today's marriages and relationships on a very negative level.  At neck-breaking speed, we can be "with" someone emotionally online and not think badly of it.....it's just talking, right?  No, it's investing time away from the spouse, being more intimate emotionally with another and that will take it's toll on the relationship, by becoming physical eventually.  I, personally, have seen this happen to a few friends, it is devastating!

So, how do we combat this new invader?  By setting up online rules that both spouses will agree to.

- Trust is essential for good and healthy relationships, but once broken, it's extremely difficult to regain.  By having all passwords available to each other, this can really help keep things up and up with each other.

-Use best judgment in "friend" selections.  People you probably shouldn't be friends with online are unmarried friends and co-workers, really though, why do you want coworkers as friends anyway, you work with them....give it a rest off hours!  

- Have a "off-line" time with family....turn the phone and computer off at night.....enjoy the people you are with!   Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI talked about online evangelization, but that our online activities should not REPLACE our face to face relationships!

- and of course, be considerate of your spouse; if there is someone they are not comfortable with you being friends with online, by all means, respect their wishes don't friend them.  No explanation is necessary, but if there is, you are married or in a relationship!

On a positive and personal note, my knight and I live far from family and Facebook has been great for us to catch up with those we love.  Now we're connected with family members we don't get to see but once a year, even from his cousin in Germany, how fun is that??  We both have iPhones and have learned to text via the teens in the house, so we use our phones to check in and text throughout the day, "Hope your day is going well, love you!"  He's silly and sends me pictures of his lunch so I know what NOT to make for dinner.....and I usually get a heart and "hows your day going?   It's a good feeling that we can use online and smartphones to our advantage in a good way.

The most important thing in the world is your family, without them, life isn't quite fulfilling, and we need to protect the traditional institution of marriage for our family, our society, and our future.  Our online activity should reflect our priorities.  There's a great deal of great stuff online, but there is also a great deal of evil.  Keep your shields up and profiles low.

Catholic Mom's Cafe: A blog book tour

 Prayer life getting a bit dry?  Maybe you would like something new to read and get ideas to ponder about faith.  I know that there have times when I've searched for a new resource to help me along a dry and just plain boring time in my prayer life.

 Five years ago, I was invited to participate in my first blog Book tour and it was one of  Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle's books, a few years later I got to meet her in person at a Catholic Media Network/Catholic Writer's Guild conference in Philly, what a very genuine and kind spirit she is!  Reading her other books were a joy, so this time when Donna-Marie asked me to participate for her newest book, how could I refuse!

Each book Mrs. O'Boyle writes is a true spiritual journey into a mother's heart.  She, as a mother, knows just what we go through and need to sustain us through thick and thin times in the raising and nurturing of a family.  In her new book, Catholic Mom's Cafe, Donna-Marie provides moms with a daily 5-minute retreat, and in just 5 minutes she packs in words of wisdom, a prayer, and something to think about.

When I received "Catholic Mom's Cafe" I began my preliminary scan; the table of contents, acknowledgements, and I usually flip through the contents of the book to get the feel and guesstimate how long it should take me to read the book for my review.  What I discovered at the first scan is that this book is one I will take with me during the day and read it during violin lessons and piano lessons, during a 15 minute break at work and possibly during a boring school meeting, shhhh!!

The book is a retreat book for the entire year with each month a concentration of one of the three theological virtues, Faith, Hope, and Love.  Each day is divided up into four sections: Ponder is a scripture verse or a quote, Offer is Donna-Marie's thoughts on the Ponder, then we Pray prayers that are provided in the front of the book, such as: Act of Faith, or Act of Love, and other prayers that she lists for easy reference and then a final thought to Savor throughout the day.

 This book is a real treat and I know that I am going to enjoy taking a daily break and be inspired, pray, and ponder my motherhood and my life in light of Holy Scripture and our Holy Mother....and I know you will too!

Please look for autographed copies of the book are to  purchase at Donna Marie's website: www.donnacooperoboyle.com. Also, you can purchase Mom's Cafe through the publisher: Our Sunday Visitor, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and their local Catholic bookstore.

Homosexual Activist Admits True Purpose of Battle is to Destroy Marriage | Illinois Family Institute

Homosexual Activist Admits True Purpose of Battle is to Destroy Marriage | Illinois Family Institute

Jesus is the Reason

A discussion at the pillar household with our youngest daughter, the other night, was about a fellow classmate who asks to borrow pens and pencils and never returns them and our daughter getting more and more bitter as she continues to loan to this one student.  I say, then it's time to stop "loaning" to this particular student. She says she doesn't want to lie to her classmate and say she doesn't have one to loan.  My answer is to just say No, my knight says, "I always like to give a reason, just say since you never return my pens/pencils, I don't want to loan to you anymore."  I say, that's too confrontational, the simple answer is 'No.  That way you aren't lying, you are just standing your ground.

What's the right answer?  What is the right way to handle a small situation like this?  It is a hard call, since this student probably has no problem losing pens and pencils and asking for more.  The parents aren't aware that this student doesn't have enough pens and pencils to get through the school day, much less the week.  They are completely unaware that this is happening all the while, I am having to purchase more and more pens and pencils for my student on a weekly basis.  Should I call the parents and explain to them what is happening?  What would happen if I did call them?  Would they be ashamed or would they shame me for calling and disrupting their evening with a petty complaint about their daughter?  I remember a neighbor walking his dog and allowing this huge black dog to proceed to pee on my freshly planted mailbox garden.  I simply said, "Please don't!!, please don't...my son just planted there!"  It was MY yard, My mailbox, and MY garden, and his response was, "It's an animal, lady."  I said, "It's YOUR animal, keep him away from my flowers!  I have two dogs that never pee or poop on any one's yard but our own!  Do the same for me!"  He calmly said something like, "Get over it."

Silly me, I was right and in the right, and this neighbor was wrong and in the wrong, but I was made out to be the bad guy.

How far have we gone from the reality of right and wrong?  Definitively and concrete right and wrong, black and white, fair and unfair, true and false, real and pretend?

What has happened?  I'll tell you and it's a very simple answer that will cause you to react very critical at first, but maybe you'll see after you think about it for a time.

We have forgotten to give credit to the source of this teaching of right and wrong:   Jesus.   Jesus taught us to be kind, loving and forgiving to each other.  Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches,without me you can do nothing."  "Love one another, as I have loved you."  "Forgive, seven  times seventy times"

Our family watched a movie the other night called, "Time Changer" about a  Bible professor from 1890 going forward in time to the present via a time machine and the things that he sees!  He wrote a manuscript where he stated, "Science and scientific finding do not make the statements in the Bible true. Scripture is always true and never needs verification. Scientific support of the Scripture only means the science is true. Because we know the the Scripture already is."  But the argument from the other professor is:

"Without the authority of Christ, mankind is merely left to compare ideas. A morality becomes a matter of opinion. One person says it is wrong to steal, the next person says it is not. No standard is set."

 This scientist travels into the future 100 years to see the damage his manuscript does in the way people think, even in churches.  Without giving credit to Jesus, who taught the "golden rule" we have no real and concrete reason to believe and respect the truth.

When we do not think about Jesus as being real and His teachings real, we lose sight of what is truly right and wrong.  When we forget that sin is real and that evil is real, we forget and lose sight of what is true reality.  As the saying goes, "Jesus is the reason for the season" but He is also the reason to believe in the natural law of behavior, of right and wrong; the reality of sin and the damage sin causes mankind.  All through the New Testament, Jesus is forgiving, talking about, and saving us from our own sins.  Sin is bad, damaging, and real.

Today, with so much violence, immorality, divorce, sex, and redefining things of natural law, look around and see the damage that it does to so many and realize that sin was never discussed in this matter; the right and wrong of the situation never defined and Jesus never mentioned.

Full Potential?

Have you ever wondered if you were functioning at your full potential?  Yes, I'm a wife and mom with kids still at home.  The parish has me teaching RCIA, (which I am really enjoying), but all the while, there just seems to be something gnawing at me to do more.