Ball Family Chronicles #2: Little Voices at Mass

It's been entirely too long since I published something (and in the process of writing this post, I realized how few pictures I've taken over the last three months.... shame on me!). The newborn and infant phases of parenting have really been taking everything out of me.

Daniel has left to go to work, and so in these smallish hours before the littles wake up, I have a little joy to share with you.

As you can imagine, having a baby makes going to the same Mass each week a bit arduous, so we do the sensible thing.

We don't worry about it. We get up when the baby makes us, and we go to the first Mass that's after she finishes nursing.

Essential Virtues for Potty Training... (and How I Don't Have Any of Them)

For the record, I have no idea how anyone manages to potty train a child. None.

For the kid... diapers aren't inconvenient. You do your business wherever you happen to be and tell mom you need a new diaper whenever you get around to it. You don't ever have to stop what you're doing.

So far, I have attempted potty training with Pitter Patter twice... and I don't think that's Pitter Patter's fault - it's mine.

{7 QT 25} - While I Was Out

So... I just realized that it has been five MONTHS since I last participated in 7 Quick Takes, and I don't know about you... but that's entirely too long.

I'm pretty sure most people probably thought that my blog just kind of passed out after I had kid #2 and hadn't woken up yet. Here's 7 quick takes of what's been going on in my life since the new year.

When Church Strife Makes You Worry About Your Witness

Original Images from Pixabay. (There are two.)

In the last couple of months, we have had some significant conflict among our church-going friends and their families. I don't want to go into detail here, but these events have been a big deal. They have been a big deal in my life, in my husband's life, in the lives of all of our family... but we've been very careful about sharing them with friends.

Why is that?

In a word: scandal.

Time For a Change

Original image from Pixabay. Edited by Shannon Ball 2016.

I've been doing some soul searching, blogwise. Thinking, in detail, about how I intended this blog to be, when I started it two years ago.

Don't Be Afraid

Divine Mercy Sunday 

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19. The linked text includes the intervening verses. Be sure to read the other readings for added context.

Last Easter season, in the second reading, we read through a series on love (which I didn’t see for what it was until we were almost done). This year the second reading offers a similar catechetical series. This year we address what is heaven like.

The first thing we need to know about the kingdom to come is that it is nothing to be afraid of.

Bad Blogger, Good Mommy

You may have noticed that I have not posted for a few weeks. For that, I apologize.

My water broke unexpectedly (and inconveniently) one evening in January, and I had to go to the hospital and have a baby! It was a wonderful birth experience that I am looking forward to typing up and sharing sometime in the not-too-distant future. (Don't worry - baby was plenty old enough to be born. We just.. .weren't expecting it to be that night and we had company over...)

Baby and I have both been doing very well, but I forgot exactly how much time being a new mommy consumed. - Especially the time that is consumed with napping.

With all of the new baby stuff that I had to do, and being exhausted from being pregnant... I was ready to be a new mommy again, but this blog definitely wasn't. I think I'm okay with that, and I hope you don't mind. Priorities, you know? God first, then family... I'll get back to looking after my blog when I get my parenting sea legs under me again.

Ain't she cute.

Yep. Being a new mommy (again) has definitely been consuming all of my attention, and I still feel like I'm not ready! It seems like I've only just now gotten everything in order for one day... and then the baby clothes - which were sorted at one time - have been conveniently been unsorted. Not to mention any names, but I'm pretty sure that this is the responsible party. ------------------------------------->

Christ Joyfully to the Nations

The Feast of the Epiphany

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Ephesians 3: 2-3a, 5-6. The link includes the intervening verses. Be sure to read the other readings for context.

I suspect that the vast, vast majority of the current Christian population is gentile in its origins.

Early in the Church’s history, it experienced growth at an incredible rate - on the order of thousands of people being baptized in a single day. I don’t think any of us are likely to witness conversion on such a drastic scale in our lifetimes.

{7 QT 24} - Resolutions!

Happy New Year!

I'm one of those unfortunate people who loves making New Year's Resolutions, and usually gets carried away in the process.

Inevitably, I make resolutions that are unrealistic - being either too big, or requiring too many little pieces and parts. And I may have done this again this year, but at least I'm trying to make an improvement in how I make resolutions.

These are designed to encompass only those things that are the most important for me to do, and everything else... I'm willing to not worry about.

I don't know if you're familiar with Leigh Ann Dutton @ Intentional By Grace, but she has a lot of right ideas about life. The biggest ones being that being a good mother, a good wife, a good friend, a good daughter, a good employee... a good whatever... those things aren't going to happen by accident. They're going to happen because you are intentional about them, and by the grace of God.

So... resolutions this year boil down to being intentional about the things that are most important. This year, I've made twelve and managed to number them 1-7! (I'm a nerd, remember?)

Mercy in the Christian Family

Feast of the Holy Family

The Feast of the Holy Family is one of the feast days for which we use the same readings every year. This year, I will look at Colossians 3:12-17.

Last year, I looked at the expanded version of these verses, which make a little more clear that Paul is not just outlining for us how Christians are supposed to act toward each other, that it is most particularly important (and most particularly difficult at times) within the contexts of our own families.