I got my wish yesterday with all the kids in the sled and a ride up and down the driveway with Maria the sled puller... It was a bit crowded and all the kids had their moments of being uncomfortable with legs in awkward angles... Baby David on top of the pile probably was the most content... he had a lot of soft padding under him.
I am working afternoons at the nursing home for someone and the day started with mass and adoration with my husband and daughter and two grandkids... then a morning of errands with my husband... starting with going to the local sporting goods store to see if we could find a sleeping bag that can squish up into a small bag for Hallel to put in her backpack for missions... Her dad wants to get her a warm one and wasn't impressed with the football sized one that could be good for 20 degrees or above... it will probably not be much colder than that in France...
I am thankfully in the midst of reading a book that was a part of my early joyful discovery of my Catholic Faith! I found up in Susan/Hallel's room not only her spiritual journal, but a book with the name Barbara Luke Cross in the front cover... New Seeds of Contemplation... by one of my favorite writers in the early days.... Thomas Merton! I had put it in my purse this morning before I left the house in the dark for 7a mass... The time I sat in the car and waited for Pat... after we had shared morning prayer... I would read my book and the power of his sharing would once again wash over me after probably almost 40 years! 
It is such a gift to step back into the romantic days of when as a new Catholic.... I was so filled with awe and joy at everything that I was learning and experiencing... my study of religious life and living behind the enclosure with the sisters for a month.. having mass every day with the old retired priest in their sunfilled chapel for the month of January... the Mass took on a deep and personal beauty for me as a new Catholic and one that felt she could have a call to be a bride of Christ! 
I see this love for Christ in the Eucharist now carried over to Maria'a life as a wife and mother...after her discernment of living behind the enclosure with the Poor Clares for 5 months! She continues to feel the need to be with her LOVE- Jesus Christ at the Feast of Life and takes along her two kids with her... and I don't think that will change as her family gets larger! I was very touched by a mother of 7, in Upper Michigan where my parents were living, would bring her stairstep children to mass every morning. It was very obvious that they knew they were there to receive Christ and showed tremendous reverence!
I have read so many things that I wanted to share this morning, but we have company for lunch and I need to leave soon for work... it is not the time or the place to share deeply some of the wisdom of Thomas Merton, but be perpared because I am sure that the floodgates will be open and the wonderful wisdom of one of my early mentors will come covering us with an ocean of LOVE! 
The Gospel for today is Matt 18: 12-14... the sheep that strays...There will be huge rejoicing in heaven over the ones that have gone astray... we must never give up our prayers for them!
Life has become too complicated now... I must end this and sigh and realize there is probably huge relief that this is much shorter than usual...The apples are feeding the birds... they are grateful that I didn't make more apple pie filliing this year...
There must have been a heavy fog overnight as we woke to a beautiful frosty wonderland... Jesus, thank you for calling us to you... may we hear your loving call and joy deep within. Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb
"A tree gives glory to God by being a treee. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying Him. It "consents,' so to speak, to His creative love. It is expressing an idea which is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree." Thomas Merton
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