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Sr. M Johanna

I went to Steubenville this week. I learned five important things. Number one, time really does fly. I cannot believe it has been 10 years since I graduated from college. Number two, teachers who have a significant impact on your life, can still make you smile and want to do good many years later. Sr. M Johanna was happy to see me. It made me feel special. She looks exactly.the.same. Number three, smells really are powerful. The JC Williams Center smells the exact same. Number four, God has a plan all along. I sat with my babies, at Mass, in front of the cross in Christ the King Chapel. I thought of how many times I had sat in that chapel praying, crying, hoping for a future that would bring happiness and holiness. I felt God say very clearly, ‘You see, silly girl, I had you all along’. Number five, bringing two babies, to FUS, when I am going there to stay at a house of a family I had not yet met(Bob Rice’s they were, um, awesome) and speak to a class is a VERY VERY bad idea. However, I would have done it the exact same way if I had to do it over again.

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Cousin time rocks. The husband and I went to Kentucky for the weekend to surprise my sister with a shower and to attend the Baptism of our family’s newest saint Keegan (Aaron is the godfather). The weekend was great, but by far the coolest thing was watching lil’ A and Joseph play with their cousins. They are all such good/sweet/fantastic kids. As our nutballs ran around laughing, my heart soared with that special mix of joy and sadness. Joy, because were watching lifelong bonds begin to form. Sadness, because we don’t get this reality every day. But, alas, we had it for the weekend, and it was awesome. Plus, the husband and I totally survived a road trip with two babies! We rock. A lot.

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CONTROVERSIAL WARNING…PLEASE SKIP AHEAD IF YOU WOULD LIKE ONLY LOVELY THOUGHTS!

THESE are the type of signs we should be holding 

 I have said this before, I will say it again, and I am starting to care less and less who I offend with this FACT. Prolife people SUCK at being good at talking about prolife issues. Again, I have been convicted through experiences that the pro-choice argument is extremely easy to point out flaws in. It is a shallow argument based on so little. Unfortunately, we pro-lifers get so darn worked up, that we forget to explain our position in a loving/rational way. This week, I challenged my students to find me one prochoice person who can LOGICALLY defend their position. I did this, because I am desperately seeking one prochoice person who can LOGICALLY defend their position and I have yet to find them. Anyway, a few teens stayed after that are ‘very prochoice’ and we kind of publicly discussed the issue. The pro-life students that were listening said, ‘Mary, we have never heard anyone explain it this way’. ‘Mary, why don’t more people talk about this issue the way you do’, etc…etc… The thing is, we HAVE to start learning how to talk to people in rational, loving and logical ways in order to change hearts and point out errors in thinking. I am becoming more and more convinced that pro-choicers are prochoice because they don’t’ want to be associated with the ‘cold hearted hateful prolife people’. Can we PLEASE start to work on that? Also, if you haven’t yet, go watch this movie. This is the movie that radically shifted the way I talk to people about this issue. We need to start to talk more like this and less like we are currently talking. Whew. Thanks!

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Thanksgiving is shaping up to be EPIC. I mean TRULY Epic. It appears some of my besties are going to be in town and others are going to be very free for socializing. The only thing we have locked down for five days is a meal, actually two. We have really been going hard this month and are in desperate need of a little bit of a slow down. That slow down is right around the corner. Two word. Bring.it

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Restaurant is at the very tip top of this building! 

Speaking of bringing.it. This weekend, the husband and I have a fancy date, three months in the making. In the city of Detroit there is this really tall building. On the top of that building is a restaurant. It used to rotate (it doesn’t any longer) and it has been a goal of mine to eat there for YEARS. Probably ever since I was a child and my parents told me it rotated (do you know how magical that is to a child?!?!?). Three months ago, the husband and I found a GROUPON for it and so, tomorrow, we will dine at the Coach Insignia at the top of the RenCen. I.am.dying. You cannot imagine how much I have been looking forward to this. I mean, this is the kind of stuff that bucket list dreams are made of. And, because we are fancy, we are making a whole fancy day/night of it. Breaking Dawn, followed by dinner, followed by night in fancy hotel. Here is the thing, we live on a pretty crazy budget, we have paid off over 50,000 of debt in the past two years, but when we do it up, we do it up BIG. This weekend, we will be doing it up BIG.

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Are.You.Kidding.Me? with that face. sigh...

Last night, Joseph Michael woke up around 2:30 am and simply talked to himself in bed for one hour until I got up to feed him.  Here is the thing about this kid, he is FREAKING incredible.  Like, take my breath away incredible.  I have never been around such a mellow, delightful baby.  Almost every.single.time he falls asleep he does so with literally a smile on his face.  He loves to stare at people and explore what the look like. He so rarely cries, that when he does, I am certain something is wrong.  He loves to be interacted with, smiled at, and held, but it is totally content chillin' on the floor for hours. My heart is his.  There is no other way to say it.

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'Tis the season of digital media talks :)  I am kicking off a set of 6 different talks in the next couple of months on Sunday with Our Lady of the Wood 8th grade students. I look forward to spending time with these young people and encouraging them to heed the call of Pope Benedict XVI to use social media to evangelize the digital world.  What a blessing it is to see young people start to consider how to responsibly use these avenues in their their daily lives.  What a blessing it is to be able to spend time discussing these things with fabulous young people!  YAY JEsus.

Have a super weekend!

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