Friday, May 25

EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE

"Forgiven" by Thomas Blackshear

I love this picture, even though it makes me feel sad to think that I have ever hurt my beloved Jesus.  Our Lord is so merciful.....He died for our sins!  "He paid a debt He did not owe, a debt, I owed but could not pay!"
  It is really hard sometimes to look at my soul and evaluate where I am spiritually.  How am I offending Him?  In what ways can I grow in virtue, allowing myself to grow closer to Him?  Sometimes either I do not want to look at my shortcomings, or I am not really sure what my shortcoming even are. 
 It is good to do a daily examination of soul (conscience) to see what is going on.  Without this knowledge, I stand the chance of falling deeper and deeper into sin, thus falling away from my Lord......my Delight!!  He will NEVER leave me or love me less.  He loves me so much that He blessed me with free will, which gives me, in turn the opportunity to either love Him back or turn away from Him.

Here is a beautiful Examination from my Prayer Book

1.  Does the awareness that I am a child of God and bear the seal of this reality on my soul, permeate my day? Do I behave like His good, faithful son or daughter?  Is there anything in particular that satisfies or displeases God, my Father?  Have I tried to do God's will in my various activities today? Have I performed them with this intention?

2.  Have I tried hard, sincerely, and fervently, to fulfill my spiritual commitments well (i.e prayer time, reading scripture)

3.  Have I fulfilled the duties in my state in life (as a son, daughter, parent, spouse, etc...) honestly and responsibly in the spirit of service? Have I sought God's glory and the good of others more than my own personal interests?

4.  Have I lived out Christian charity in thoughts, words, attitudes, and actions? In other words, have I done good to others by helping to make them happy, especially those closest to me- being patient, not talking badly of them or holding grudges, forgiving, and helping out as much as I could whenever I had the opportunity?

5.  How well have I carried out my mission as an apostle? Did I take the necessary steps and seize opportunities to win souls for Christ? Do I have clear apostolic goals and have I striven to meet them? Was I generous in giving my time and resources to further Christ's interests?

6.  What omissions was I guilty of today? (the failure to do something I know that I should and ought to do)
 7.  Have I taken care to form a sensitive conscience (we cannot always trust our conscience if it is not well formed- we see plenty of people doing things that they feel are perfectly fine but we know,  are not. In our humanness, we can justify many actions)
8.  Do I know what my root defect is? (i.e Lack of devotion, pride, self-love, vanity, laziness, faultfinding, envy, gluttony, lack of charity,  frivolity and superficiality, sensuality, neglectfulness,  irresponsibility in my work, individualism, indifference to the common good....)
What have I done today to improve?

9.  What was the most positive thing in my day?

10.  What was the most negative thing in my day?

Jesus, you are my delight and I truly pray that You, my loving Father, will delight in me, Your little girl!  You are my life and my everything!  I want to please You always and use the great blessing of my faith to bring other souls to You, my Precious Jesus!



Friday, May 18

CUBSCOUT GRADUATION

My little man graduated from Tiger Cub today and became a Wolf!  He is so excited!  He and Daddy worked hard to reach all of the goals in order to be awarded this honor!  Cub scouts has been such a blessing for both Nicholas and Jeremy.  It is an opportunity to work together as father and son......such an important relationship in the life of that sweet little soul!  Here are some pics from this event.
 We always start our cub scout events with the American flag ceremony "One Nation Under God"
 Here is my little Tiger Cub.....about to become a Wolf
 Daddy had to take off his Tiger neckerchief in order to put on the new one
 Here is mu sweet Nick crossing over the bridge into Wolf
It's official.....he crossed the bridge and received his new Cub Scout Wolf handbook
Here is his den leader, Mr. Scott putting on his new neckerchief
 
Is he not the cutest little thing?!?!?!
 As you can see the dimple is out and he is so smiley and happy!!
Did I mention how cute he is!!! I am just in love with my little Nick!
Thank you Jesus for little boys.....and little boy things that make them so happy!

Sunday, May 13

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

I am the luckiest girl in the world!  Jesus has blessed me with such a special family!  I love my kids!!!  I love my husband!!!  Thank you, Lord Jesus for motherhood and for the sweet children that made me a mother!  I never knew myself until I was a mother.  I never really gave of myself until I was a mother.  I never really knew how to truly love unconditionally until I was a mother.  Jeremy and I are blessed, enriched, sanctified, made virtuous, and so very joyful being a mommy and a daddy!  Our three little ones are our true delight!
(A silly pic of my 3 little blessings.....look at Nick "fake biting" Savannah's arm.....we laughed SO HARD about that)


Thank you to MY MOM, for giving me life and raising me in an authentic Christian home.  Thank you for teaching me about Christ and for teaching me what it means to love unconditionally!  I love you, Mom!
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Saturday, May 12

REMEMBER THE CATERPILLARS?

Remember the caterpillar post from April 28th?  Well, we left on our trip and came home to find BUTTERFLIES!! How awesome God is that my children got to see this amazing process of change in the glorious nature that He created for us, His children!


 My little ones were so pleased when they found their surprised from their Heavenly Father
 The butterflies were very tame and sat on their little sweet fingers.....BUT we were very careful not to touch the wings (the powder on their fragile wings cannot be touched by humans)

 What joy they felt!
Thank you, Father for giving them this special homecoming gift!  They felt so close to You being able to "help" by creating a habitat to house this miraculous change


HAWAII TRIP

HONOLULU OAHU

Our family were blessed to be able to go on a wonderful vacation to Hawaii.  Jeremy had a convention there and of course we came along!!  What a beautiful state!  So lush and colorful.  Our Gracious Creator had a great time with Hawaii!

4:30AM!!!
We are up not used to the time difference yet, so we went to breakfast at 5:00am in the morning!  Crazy start to a "relaxing" vacation, but the weather was beautiful
 My family waiting on our REALLY EARLY pancakes!!
This was the view from our breakfast table........what a beautiful place!
Looking out the window from our hotel room in Oaho (Honolulu).  Our first Hawaiian rainbow.
 First day on the beach.  SERIOUSLY BEAUTIFUL!!  See my feet?!?! I couldn't even get up out of my chaise lounge to get this pic....I was so super relaxed!
 Savannah heading out to brave the waves!
Nicholas coming in for a goggles tightening from Mommy!
My Madison-Bear!
Savannah Banana starting a sand castle
 Noodles bringing water to make the sand stick for the castle
A lot of our friends from residency were in Hawaii with us for the convention.  It was so fun to see everyone while enjoying this beautiful place
(Nicholas, Savannah, Athens, Mikayla, Madison)

THE LUAU
So colorful and beautiful!
Very exciting....what a beautiful culture there is here in Hawaii
 Dinner is served
 Here is a close up of our dinner
The beautiful Hawaiian girls hula-ing with their fresh flower lays
DINNER AT BENIHANA
 My little Bird of Paradise, Madison
 Nicholas Noodles and Savannah Banana at Benihana
All three kids
Me and my Hawaiian love, Jeremy

MORE BEACH PICS
 

VERY INTERESTING LOCAL BREAKFAST!

Jeremy and I were headed to the North Shore with some friends and looking for a place to eat breakfast.  Here is the place that we found with our iphone GPS.....a little questionable, but RIGHT up Jeremy's alley.....he loves the "hole in the wall" restaurants....luckily so did our friends

 Doug and Becky (our friends from residency that now live in Georgia)

Here is our food served next to the bathroom key......yes it was outside and locked!
A TOTAL MOM AND POP PLACE!!

THE NORTH SHORE

 (boy was it cold on the North Shore)


GIOVANNI'S SHRIMP TRUCK
(known all over the islands)
On our trip to the north shore, we stopped at the famous Giovanni's shrimp truck for lunch
 It was an actual truck with a LONG line of people
 Here is my handsome man in front of the truck before we ate.....we were so full after!  The food was so good.....I wish that we would have thought to take a pic of our food.  We enjoyed Shrimp Scapi, and Hot and Spicy Shrimp!

MASS AT THE HONOLULU CATHEDRAL
We never miss our Holy Mass, even when on vacation....It is always a special treat to visit other Catholic churches around the US and the world!  We are all one holy catholic and apostolic....I feel so much unity knowing that the same readings are being read at Mass in my church at home and in every Roman Catholic church in the world!

Our Lord, Father is our Home and so even being away from Texas, we feel so comforted in His Holy House, worshiping and praising Christ with our Roman Catholic family.

We were blessed to be able to spend a Sunday in Honolulu which gave us a chance to attend High Mass at  Our Lady of Peace Cathedral in Downtown


It's this beautiful church in the middle of skyscrapers!
They started Mass with an "Aloha" and asked all of the visitors to stand and be recognized with a lay made of shells

The Cathedral is set up like no other Catholic church that I have been to.......the altar and the lectern (Where the scriptural readings are read) are across from each other, so when the priest read the Gospel and gave his blessed homily, we were right next to him!
(Here is a picture from online that shows what it looks like during Mass)

What a beautiful church with so much faith....the priest gave a beautiful homily
What a blessing it was to spend our Sunday


PEARL HARBOR
Pearl Harbor touched me greatly!! What brave men and women they were and what a great loss they all felt...I felt that loss as I heard the stories, saw the giant ships, and read all of the names on the wall.

These were not people that I personally knew and I could not imagine how the people felt who lost their friends and loved ones on this horrible day.






At the end of the tour, the kids got to take an oath and received badges that said that they were official Pearl Harbor Park Rangers. They were very excited!

MAUI

SUBMARINE TRIP





NOW WE ARE GOING TO DECEND UNDER THE WATER...



NOW WE ARE UNDER THE WATER 130FT BELOW!!







WHAT A COOL EXPERIENCE!!

LUNCH AFTER THE SUBMARINE RIDE......EVERYONE LOVED NICK'S SPAGHETTI!

Here is a video of the kids dancing to the music at the restaurant while eating Nick's spaghetti.....look at how Nicholas "fake eats" the spaghetti to the music.....it just laugh every time I see it!  Our kids are so funny!  They bring us so much joy!

MAUI'S FAMOUS SHAVE ICE

We met the nicest man that owned a shave ice stand and surf shop.... He was a total surfer who ran the shop when he wasn't surfing or giving surfing lessons.....Jeremy took one from him too!  The shop was really only there to finance the surfing!
We went EVERY night for a shave ice from "Maui Mike's" stand.  In fact the first night after he closed and we were still there eating, he offered Jeremy a beer and just sat outside and talked with us! He was so interesting to talk to and listen to.  I was very inspired by his outlook on life.
Look how crazy big the shave ice's were!!  They were SO YUMMY!!!
Savannah ordered a root beer, bubble gum, banana flavored together and Maui Mike told her (in his awesome surfer accent) that he wouldn't even make that for her....those flavors mixed together was just too horrible sounding...so funny!! So she got bubble gum, banana, and tiger's blood
 
I got a grape, tiger's blood, and banana
 Jeremy would try something new each night.....not sure what this one is.....looks like tigers blood, banana and maybe lemon lime?
Madison would switch hers up each night just like her Daddy.  They were so good!

We met this other surfer named Drew that when he wasn't surfing, would make balloon animals professionally.  He lives in a boat parked in the parking lot at the shave ice stand and surf shop.
( Here is Drew's house...everything that he owned was in his car)
He was an absolutely amazing person.  He is a missionary that travels around the world, surfing, and making balloon animals for kids.  He will go travel 3rd world countries and make balloon animals for kids (who have never seen a balloon before).  He doesn't even consider himself a missionary.  When we asked him if he was a missionary he said....."No, I just like to travel around the world, have fun surfing and make kids happy"  He was so peaceful and kind!  The kids loved him.  What wonderful people we met in Hawaii.....there is a sense of really living life.   People are slower paced and peaceful.  Our Lord is truly delighted with Drew and Maui Mike, who bring so much happiness to everyone that they encounter.
 
Here are the kids with their balloon animals that Drew made them.  He told them to come back the next night so that he could show them some card tricks!
 Here we are with Maui Mike on our last day in Hawaii.  What a cool connection we made with him. He was a blessing to us all!
 
PARK IN MAUI








SUNSET CRUISE ON THE GEMINI








NEW PETS IN HAWAII

The kids all found these tiny hermit crabs on the beach....so we kept them in little homemade terrariums made out of dishes from the condo kitchen

 We found little snails also to keep the hermit crabs company in their new homes
 This one is named "Bob"
This one was named "Blue Eyes"   He really had blue eyes!

LAUGHING WHILE EATING PRETZELS
One  night in the condo, we were eating pretzels and just started acting crazy and laughing a lot!  They were so excited that I bought the "rod" shaped ones!!



Nicholas was doing this Humphrey Bogart impression with his pretzel......it makes me laugh every time!

ROAD TO HANA (SWIMMING IN THE WATERFALLS AND HIKING THROUGH THE BAMBOO FOREST)

We hiked to the waterfalls.  They were breathtaking!  We just had to jump in and swim.......very cold!


Jeremy and the kids at the waterfall

BAMBOO RAINFOREST

Then we hiked through the Bamboo Forest.  So pretty but VERY muddy!  I guess that's what you get when you are in a rainforest!




BLACK BEACH IN HANA


Even with such a beautiful and relaxing time with the family, it is always nice to be home.....
Until next trip, goodbye Hawaii!


What a great time we had with our children and with each other.

Thank you, Jesus for the blessing of this trip.....all we learned about You through Your great world and about each other.  I love you, Father.