Mele Kalikimaka!

Goodness me!  It's Christmas once again.  Where did the year go?

I'll be a "greeter" at the five o'clock Mass tonight.  It's be me, Dan, and the eldest.  I'm not sure if the younger two will be able to join us as they have come down with that bleedin' virus Connor had two weeks ago.  I don't think they caught it from him, but perhaps from a friend the youngest has been hanging about with who had been suffering from it (unbeknownst to me).  Huh. 

I might get my backside out of bed for Christmas morning Mass as well.  I think, when I've been as low as I've been lately, it would do my spirit some good.  The proper perspective of Christmas is CHRIST.  I've always known that to be true, but . . . anyway, I need Jesus more than I need all the worldly trappings.  (Get it? Trappings????)

Go with what you know to be true.  God is with us.  His Name is Christ.  He's here.  Always. 

Wishing you all a Happy and Blessed Christmas!

Editing

My project this coming week is that I am going to spend time deciding on which posts I'll keep or delete off this blog.  It should be easy enough, but I need to trim it down.  I don't think this blogging thing is actually working out for me, but I don't really want to stop altogether either.  So, rather than put the whole blog on the chopping block, it will be individual posts on the chopping block.  In the end, when I finally print this blog into a book, I'll have a much neater and concise book.  The other blog I printed into two books?  Too much blah blah blah-ing to the extent it drags.

I don't want to be a drag (to myself).

Which is also why I think I'm going to stop posting "day books" and may delete all of the ones I find boring.  I need some serious re-vamping of this blog so it's a better reflection of me and my life.

Thank you for your patience (all of you who do come by, commenting or not).  Mahalo!

Oh, Dear

I've fallen off the Daybook wagon, haven't I?  I've fallen from so many wagons this last week, I'm not at all surprised.  But, alas! I did make time to go to Confession this week.  I do find time to take care of the "forever" important business.  I don't share that to make anyone feel in any particular way, I share because it is a formula for Peace.  I believe that statement to be true no matter who you are.

Make it right with God.  Ask Mary to help you.  Get the Saints on your case.  Reach out to your friends.  Give back to your spouse, children, and extended family and friends.

I'm only human so I love the applause for a job well done, a deed gone well.  However.  (However)  I am beginning to believe what was written in the Bible:  that then, that fleeting feeling of happiness, is my reward. And, really, that feeling is fleeting!  I need to humble myself so much more, and, like John the Baptist, become smaller and smaller.  My words and deeds may be important, but God's Work much more so!  I am only a conduit.  Mind you, glad to be a conduit of good at all!  That, that is where Joy is:  knowing that I am working for and with the Kingdom.

I rely heavily upon Mary, Our Lady of Good Counsel.  I constantly fail to ask Her help, trust me, but I'm trying.  And, that is one of the reasons I love the Catholic Faith.  Forgiveness is real!  I can begin again.  And, again, if needs be.  It's a comforting thing to have that knowledge.  I've found I have to want to change.  I mean really really want it.  That has been my downfall, really.  Not wanting to change.  Thinking:  I'm weak, and we (God and I) both know this.  So, based on that, it's okay if I keep failing over this one thing or that one thing.  God gets it.  I'm weak.  He'll forgive me over and over again.  So, I cease trying to change, really.  I get complacent and lazy.  I find my spiritual life with God moving about as slow as molasses inside an ice-cube.  Many times I am my own worst enemy.  I give in too easily to the temptation to do nothing, to change and resolve nothing.  I cease to grow and thrive.

I'm so sorry for that, Lord.

I will get back to the basics and trust:  JOY is:  Jesus, Others, You.  There's no party if it's just YOU.  But, do be kind to yourself.  God does forgive me over and over again. He will do the same for you.   But, this time . . . I trust it is going to be wildly different.  I've asked Mary to seriously help me amend my ways - and She will never let me down!

This Advent has been, to say the least, weird.  Not sad, not happy, not "anything" really.  Maybe it's been a "to do" list more than anything else.  But, you know what?  It will pass - the feeling I mean.  This funky weird darkness - because .  .  . because Mary is bringing Her Son.  The periphery stuff (candles, incense, music, all the trappings of the holiday season - all of that) cannot change, add, or take away from the Truth:  Jesus Christ is Born!

Amen.

Jesus Christ is Born!

Shower Stall Thoughts

I know you all missed reading these. 

• I'm trying to come to grips that I'm an exceptionally flawed person and to not take it complacently.  What I mean is, I acknowledge this sobering fact and try to change it (if I can) or accept the Grace of God (this is most of the time, because I am flawed), but not beat myself up or wrongly believe that my flaws are unforgivable (not for a moment do I believe so, but sometimes the El Horned One likes to whisper terrible nothings into my ears).
• I better embrace the fact that I can't do everything I set out to do today, because I am sick.  I have an intestinal virus (and I get these easily, I think).  I'm slightly feverish, so I know I'm ill.  However, I sure found time to procrastinate the other day and NOT do anything but read and the bare-minimum.  Folks, if you sew procrastination, you'll reap it 100 fold.  I kid you not.  (Mary, Un-doer of Knots, please un-knot my knots!  I mean, my 'nots'.  Amen.)
•  So, sick or no, I am slowly doing my to-do list, because . . . my mind won't shut off no matter how much I tell it to take a day off.  It will say to me in reply, "But you HAD several days off and you didn't do a bloody thing, you clod!" 
•  I won't be going to the bank today, friends, because it is payday . . . and I wanted to go to the grocery store to get some items (top of the list:  Hershey's syrup - for Dan), but that place will also be a terrible horrible no good horror to enter into.  I'll keep ringing Dan up at work and ask him to go! (evil cackles)
• We can't go to Fr. Jon's b-day thing tonight, and I'm supposed to bring a dish.  How many folks do you think would care if I brought a dish (and made it while sick?).  It doesn't matter how many, because I care.  I would be very cross if I ate food a sick person made. 

That's pretty much the stuff that was going through my brain as I showered.  I'm going to switch the loads out of the machines and keep plugging along.  I hope that I have the kids bathroom cleaned before dinner . . .  and I wonder what that will be?  Tuna sandwiches, I think.