St Monica/As a nursing mother cares for her children/Caring for my mother/Psalm 139!!!

2 1/2 year old Evangeline Mary in the mailbox on base in Washington... telling grandpa/Bumpa that he had better get his fake plans to come to Washington lined up or she might send herself in the mail to see us.  Love her beautiful face and scapular showing her love of Jesus and His Bride, The Church.  Sharing that as a family is my greatest JOY!

 As I was leaving for my parents last evening this was the sight that bid me farewell.  Pat with Ruth and Paul and the grandkids have been vaccinating the calves in prep for them to be weaned in a week- Labor Day weekend.

Leaves make good food too!

The thunder heads off in the distance as we had a rainy start to our day.... I did eventually drive into rain close to the Cities, but I was grateful that it let up on the super highways.  Thank you, Lord!

How I loved praying with my dad this morning - the morning prayer of the office of The Church.  Dad always includes safety in travel and for my little chapel on wheels coming and going weekly now... I rely on those prayers and felt the effect yesterday when the storm abated and the traffic was smooth with no stops and goes!  Thank you, Lord for hearing my dad's prayers each day for us!  How we need them and rely on them!

Mom was not able to join in, and I find that sad and hard.  Today is the Feast of the wonderful mother of St Augustine, St Monica.  Our Lady, ,Mary mother of Jesus/God and Queen of heaven and earth is #1 Mother, but St Monica is #2 in her quiet and faithful praying her wayward son into The Church!  St Augustine, whose feast is tomorrow,  is known as the doctor of Grace and is highly regarded as such an amazing man of Truth and Wisdom!

"Nothing is far from God." - St Monica

As recounted by Augustine... before his mother died she told him:

"There was indeed one thing for which I wished to tarry a little

in this life, and that was that I might see you a Catholic before I died.

My God hath answered this more than abundantly, so that I see you

are now made His servant and spurning all earthly happiness.

What more am I to do here?"

 Mom's prayer book and rosary and rose from her garden brought in by my brother, who was here with them ahead of me.  I am so grateful that some of my siblings are able to have this percous time with both of my parents.  I asked Jim on his way out last evening if he is enjoying his time with them.  "Yes."

Mom gazing upon the relic of Blessed Solanus Casey.  He has been very important in prayers for healing then and now.  It started with my parents rushing the relic to pray over John when his brain cancer came rushing back!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/johns-cancer-stories.html

We should get that back in use praying for mom along with the Lourdes water that is here.  Mom is having more of a hard time than dad at this point.  My dad has bounced back, but mother is if anything getting a bit worse.

It took major encouragement to get mom to come to breakfast this morning.  Realizing with her lack of eating much and walking around, that she is getting very weak.  Dad would like to take her out for an anniversary celebration in Friday - -70 years!!!!  So we are trying to eat better and walk more and have that as a goal.  But we are up against her just not feeling well and the cycle goes round and round.

So much about mothers today and mine was the world to me and continues to be.  The roles have changed, especially lately.  I find that my serving her is still a joy and I have more patience than I would with one of my grandchildren or children.  There is definitely that part of how she cared for me all those years and has shared her faith and wisdom with me throughout my life.  I would have the gift of wonderful conversations on the phone where we would share the deepest and most important part of LIFE - The Truth that they brought our family into in The Church 48 years ago!  The Holy Spirit leading them so often in these 70 years of marriage and family!  I being the oldest of their 12 children have benefitted the most!
https://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html

This morning while I was encouraging my mother to walk the length of the house with me... we walked past this comforter that Ruth crocheted for my parents years ago.  "Do you remember that Ruth made that for you?"  "Yes, I do.  It looks like the waves on the big lake."

On the wall is one of my mom's paintings of my brothers and sister, Mary, on the beach in Michigan where we would spend the summer on the beach in Grand Traverse Bay.  When my parents built their cabin in the Big Lake in the upper peninsula, and I would have my 2 weeks there....that is where I would water color, too!

Ruth's family 6 years ago on Beautiful Beach at sunset - Rose is the baby - Luke and Joy were yet to come!

A year later with baby Luke about ready to eat a handful of sand!

Today St Paul to the Thessalonians - 1 Thessalonians 2
"Rather, we were gentle among you,
as a nursing mother cares for her children.
With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you
not only the Gospel of God, but our very selves as well,
so dearly beloved had you become to us."

My mother did this for me!  Now I can in return do this for her with patience and love and appreciation for the gift of time with her and dad!

Ice cream cones out on the deck - Rose was very sad to realize that the cabin would not be possible for us to visit again as we sold it a couple years back.  How we miss it!

It was so special to also see the glorious Psalm 139 today in mass!
R.(1) You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
O LORD, you have probed me and you know me;
you know when I sit and when I stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,
with all my ways you are familiar.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know the whole of it.
Behind me and before, you hem me in
and rest your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
too lofty for me to attain.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.

Yes, Lord, you know me totally and completely and you have a plan just for me!  Lately it is to be here with my parents weekly and watch out for their health and their needs!  How we love to share our Faith with each other in prayer and sacraments!  Jesus, your Word is always before us giving us Truth and wisdom.  Thank you for your amazing Mother of heaven and earth, St Monica, who is there to pray and help us with our families, and my mother, who shared The Church with me and my father, and family!  "as a nursing mother cares for her children", so I am lovingly nurtured and cared for!  Currently I have 3 grandsons, who are cared and loved by their "nursing mothers" each is healthy and happy and is it such a marvelous blessing!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

 My mother's blue willow dishes at the lake...  Bless-bless, a very nostalgic Barb

 Rose crossing the bridge on her way to the beach 3 years ago..

 On the beach... this makes me miss it so much! Rose and I have fake plans to get there next year somehow!

 My granddaughter, Mary, with my sister, Mary, who died of lymphoma at age 28 in the Grotto to Mary the Mother of God in Manistique, MI!

Watcoloring on the beach!  LOVE the sand that came back the last few years we were there!

Prayer for St Monica's intercession

Exemplary mother of the great Augustine, you perseveringly pursued your wayward son not with wild threats but with prayerful cries to heaven. Intercede for all mothers in our day so that they may learn to draw their children to God. Teach them how to remain close to their children, even the prodigal sons and daughters who have sadly gone astray. Amen.

St Monica, pray for us!

Happy Feast Day
Saint Monica
Died: 387
Feast Day: August 27
Patronage: Those who have difficult marriages, disappointing children, victims of adultery or unfaithfulness, victims of (verbal) abuse, and conversion of relatives
Born in the early 300s, St. Monica is known for her perseveration in prayer. After enduring an unfaithful husband and immoral son, St. Monica's prayers prevailed! Her husband was baptized one year before his death, and her son is the great St. Augustine of Hippo.

Prayers to The Immaculate Heart of Mary for Mary!

David talks about Michigan too!  He will have to join us next summer, right Dave?

Danielle Rose - A mother's song/Crucifixion

Danielle Rose - Hail Holy Queen
Dad pointed out today the words - "the Lord is with you."  So true for all of us!  We are not alone!

John's journey of finding Faith through brain cancer!

Rainy day with Jude/Bale picking with Joy/The Lord loves his people, do we?/Back to my parents

Joy my bale picking assistant took some naps on our long journey to the place 10 miles away where we had bales.

My rosary is my companion in our quiet hours of driving, getting loaded and slowly getting back to the farm to add them to the mountain of bales.  Joy brought her blanket along for the naps and comfort on a cool drippy day.

Jude at mass yesterday took a nap after playing for a while with grandma's rosary bracelet.  Bobbi shared that he hadn't eaten for quite a while, but just quietly went to sleep on her shoulder and dad's arms.  So good in church!

Rose again asking if she can go to breakfast with John and Bobbi at the farm.  She is wearing the "school uniform" that Ruth got for her to wear to mass each week at school.  Father Mark had a guideline for the boys and girls to wear modest and somewhat matching clothes to mass each week.  How we have longed for uniforms, but it is always voted down.  Maybe someday soon, by time Jude gets into Holy Redeemer?

The room that Ruth and Paul are adding as an additional bedroom for their 2 younger boys, Luke and David.

A door into a mud room as you enter the house... the doorway into the house will be straight ahead.

Pat was pointing out to me today how I complained about things about picking up bales yesterday while everyone else thought that it all went well.  I realized that my attitude was poor and selfish, and reflecting on the words from the amazing Hallel Psalm today in Psalm 149... I realized that I should be taking more delight in my people and loving towards them and not complaining as we tend to do with those the closest to us!

Big changes on the homestead, the farmhouse that Ruth grew up in from when she was 7 years old to her graduating college.  Ruth and Paul have a vision and no fear in accomplishing that vision.

Psalm 149 is truly one of great Praise and Worship!!  Hallelujah!!!
Let them praise his name in the festive dance,
let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp.
For the LORD loves his people,
and he adorns the lowly with victory.
R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy upon their couches;
Let the high praises of God be in their throats.
This is the glory of all his faithful. Alleluia.
R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Yes, I am truly feeling lowly and aware of how I need to be more loving and positive with those the closest to me in my domestic Church/family.  It seems so wrong that with those we love the most we so easily complain to and about!

 Ruth's pretty flowers adorn her garden's center - I picked some beets to take to my parents' tonight.  How we all adored them last week!

From the beautiful garden Ruth cares for with the addition taking shape.  The inside work will happen in the winter months - they are also remodeling the upstairs with a new bathroom and walls after all the new windows up there it is in need of a facelift too!

 Quiet and cheerful and sings from time to time about mommy and daddy.  Likes to talk into the walkie talkies and say "Hi" to Papa, mom and dad.

A bale behind us and a rack with 5 bales behind us.. Grandma and Joy after mass and breakfast.  We ate inside due to the coolness on the porch.

 Joy with the beets that went to my folks last week.. how we loved them!  Now more going with me tonight for more days with my parents!

 Our first tomato canning on Saturday - 45 quarts of spaghetti sauce! About half the job we did 4 years ago when we did 93 quarts of tomato soup.  It is a late year for us too, and so many prayers for the farmers and the uncertainty of our crop this year.  These cool days are not allowing the corn to mature - we need heat units!

 The addition is equal to the porch on the other side , and the flat roof is gone!  Nice looking changes thanks to Ruth and Paul's vision of making this their home!

 4 years ago John helped Ruth and I can 93 quarts of tomato soup!  Wow!

Today John is heading for his first day of school to become a radiology technician in Luverne.  So many prayers for his future path.

 A rainy day today... it looks like about an inch of rain, and nice and gentle wonderful rain according to Pat this morning.  He is so glad that all the hay is picked up and back home on the farm in the growing mountain of hay!

 Simon and David helping cover the hay mountain!

 This was a few weeks ago... it has grown since!

 6 1/2 month old Jude when Nancy was home to do sweet corn a few weeks back.  Jude joining in too!

Baby Domo about 4 years ago in one of the tires we use to hold down the tarp over the hay mountain and keep the hay nice and dry for the cows to eat through the winter.

Jude taking his morning nap for grandma on this dark rainy day in late August.

Lord, we are in need of the Love you pour upon us in your delight in your people.  May we take that love you so generously give us with your unconditional forgiveness and Mercy.. may we then return it to those around us.  Give without counting the cost.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

Oh so precious to see my son now a loving father and husband to Bobbi and Jude!  Dad's little Dude, is Jude!  So many prayers today for John as he starts a new journey trusting and asking for the Lord to reveal His plan for John!  Bless-bless, Barb and Jude for the day

 Jude in the Bumpo...

The little family so happy and trusting!

Prayer to St. Jude for my Family: St. Jude, please shine your light upon my family. Give us strength to overcome all of the difficulties that we are dealing with now and protect us against any and all problems we may encounter in the future. Amen.

Finding Faith through brain cancer!

Dead man walking - Jeremy Camp

Danielle Rose - Small things with great love

First tomato canning with my Ruth and 4 kids/45 qts/Let all your works give you praise! Pslam 145/Hallel

 Pipi Joy posing with some of our spaghetti sauce... Ruth and I and her 4 youngest quickly turned 3 pails of tomatoes into 45 quarts of spaghetti sauce.  We used my kitchen today as Ruth had stove issues.

Grandma keeps her hair up by doing braids and with this little red head it truly is a Pipi Longstockings look!

Ruth and I are in our happy efficient place when we can together.  How I love to see the happiness Ruth has in now having the life she grew up with as her own.  She was pondering if her little Joy Jean will follow in her mom's footsteps and be the farmer and farm wife Ruth is now.  "Joy loves to be outside and looks like she could have this life too!"

Exciting times at the old homestead farm!!!

Another reason we canned here today... Ruth's addition is in the process and while they were replacing the windows many flies got into the house.  Ruth shut it up and sprayed while we canned today.  A quick way to get rid of the flies.

 The kids went out and found some mulberries for a sundae.  Rose found this bowl in the pasture and so it is her special bowl when she comes over to grandma's house!

 3 spoons to share with Luke and Joy a mulberry sundae!

 Our first canning of the year.  About a month late as is everything else this year.

Using the blender we save so much elbow grease in putting things through.  Not much goes to the cows this way!

 Praying for Fr Todd yesterday there were some new additions on the altar... a sweet adoring angel on each side of the tabernacle.

 The glowing tabernacle filled with my Lord!   LOVE to spend time with Him each week and pray for Fr Todd!  Except for the lady that fills the holy water fonts and the altar... it was total peace and amazing prayer time yesterday.

A new angel on each side.  Last week the lady that takes care of the altar spent half an hour polishing the crucifix in the sacristy.  It was much brighter and clean when she returned it over the tabernacle - truly a labor of love and devotion!

I think grandma could not have a better trained and cuter model to show off our hard work of putting up food for 7 families!  Ruth is very possessive of her spaghetti sauce as they use at least a quart a week in her home!

 Helping hands make our job a family project with great results!

It is the feast today of one of the 12 but a silent one - St Bartholomew!  I recall seeing him in Rome holding his own skin as a vivid reminder of how he was martyred.  He decreased so that His Savior could increase!
 
From the office of readings today - St John Crysostom on I Corinthians and the work of the Apostles.
The weakness of God is stronger than men

It was clear through unlearned men that the cross was persuasive, in fact, it persuaded the whole world. Their discourse was not of unimportant matters but of God and true religion, of the Gospel way of life and future judgment, yet it turned plain, uneducated men into philosophers. How the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and his weakness stronger than men!

In what way is it stronger? It made its way throughout the world and overcame all men; countless men sought to eradicate the very name of the Crucified, but that name flourished and grew ever mightier. Its enemies lost out and perished; the living who waged a war on a dead man proved helpless. Therefore, when a Greek tells me I am dead, he shows only that he is foolish indeed, for I, whom he thinks a fool, turn out to be wiser than those reputed wise. So too, in calling me weak, he but shows that he is weaker still. For the good deeds which tax-collectors and fishermen were able to accomplish by God’s grace, the philosophers, the rulers, the countless multitudes cannot even imagine.

Paul had this in mind when he said: The weakness of God is stronger than men. That the preaching of these men was indeed divine is brought home to us in the same way. For how otherwise could twelve uneducated men, who lived on lakes and rivers and wastelands, get the idea for such an immense enterprise? How could men who perhaps had never been in a city or a public square think of setting out to do battle with the whole world? That they were fearful, timid men, the evangelist makes clear; he did not reject the fact or try to hide their weaknesses. Indeed he turned these into a proof of the truth. What did he say of them? That when Christ was arrested, the others fled, despite all the miracles they had seen, while he who was leader of the others denied him!

How then account for the fact that these men, who in Christ’s lifetime did not stand up to the attacks by the Jews, set forth to do battle with the whole world once Christ was dead—if, as you claim, Christ did not rise and speak to them and rouse their courage? Did they perhaps say to themselves: “What is this? He could not save himself but he will protect us? He did not help himself when he was alive, but now that he is dead he will extend a helping hand to us? In his lifetime he brought no nation under his banner, but by uttering his name we will win over the whole world?” Would it not be wholly irrational even to think such thoughts, much less to act upon them?

It is evident, then, that if they had not seen him risen and had proof of his power, they would not have risked so much.

 David came with grandpa and dad for some lunch and got to help out.  He is a good farm helper, but also is loves to help in the kitchen.  He baked a cake and got reserve champion in 4H this year!

 Close to the top is our motto!

 The kitchen was full so lunch was on the porch on this wonderful day!  How we love this porch that Ruth and Paul made so nice for us.

 No room to spare is how we end up canning each time.  This 40 qt pan is from a action they had at Holy Redeemer School about 20 years ago.  We fill it to the rim time and time again!  We are amazed at how we seem to do this without even trying.

Yummy spaghetti sauce!

I just took off my last canner.  There will be many more canning days ahead.  With a week at my parents possibly coming up... Ruth said that now she can call Nancy to come and help out.  "She needs to help can to get some spaghetti sauce.  I am not really ready to part with it yet."

It was fun to see a Hallel Psalm today - Psalm 145, and with this big family project today that is one that we enjoy and have lots of time to catch up on our lives with visiting and working together in our quick efficient way...  These words just fit well!
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.

 Let all your works give you praise!  JOY!!!

Jesus, how we are filled with happiness when we can share family jobs of making food from your plenty for our families!  As hard as spring was this year with wet and cold and late planting little by little but late.  We are happy to be getting food for feeding our family with the goodness of the earth!  We love and adore you and thank you for this sharing from one generation to the next with our family.  May we also carry forth your Truth from generation to generation as we share faith as a domestic Church/family.  St Bartholomew pray for us and thank you for sacrificing for The Church.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Hallelujah

I can see the spaghetti sauce on her face and hands when she eats and enjoys totally our wonderful canned food over this next year.  Canning days are not dreaded by me, but a high light in my summer with my family!  Bless-bless, Barb and our happy healthy farm family!


Prayer to St. Jude for my Family: St. Jude, please shine your light upon my family. Give us strength to overcome all of the difficulties that we are dealing with now and protect us against any and all problems we may encounter in the future. Amen.

Tractor stuck - Peterson Brothers

Peterson Brothers