Anyway, on Monday night, my parish hosted A Virtual Pilgrimage of Lourdes, France. It was a presentation about the Blessed Mother appearing to St. Bernadette in 1858. Mary told Bernadette to kiss the ground and miraculous waters sprang forth...and they continue to flow to this day! Countless miracles have occurred when people come in contact with this water. We heard about several of them at the presentation. We also got to touch rock from the grotto of Lourdes.
I could only stay for an hour (I had to get home to put the baby to bed), but it was a very holy and grace-filled experience. I could strongly feel the presence of Our Lady of Lourdes in the church with us! Even though I had to sneak out early, I made sure that I found an usher to give me my very own bottle of miraculous Lourdes water (that is currently in my kitchen....!).
We have other holy water in the house (maybe I should write a post about holy water sometime because it's really cool stuff!). I will (not every night because most nights I'm just too tired...I confirm that they're breathing and I leave their rooms...ha!) bless my children with it when they are sleeping. I will keep the Lourdes water for very special occasions or (God forbid) emergencies! Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!
The second part of this post (gee, I gave up Facebook for Lent and I'm writing more...great! But, I'm not necessarily using the extra time to pray...not great!) is about Gianna again!
In first grade, she has homework every night. It only takes around 20 minutes or so to complete, but the afternoons are absolutely nutty at our house, so it is a long 20 minutes! I try to complete it (with at least 3 or 4 "helpers") shortly after she gets off the bus. The first thing I make her do is take off her uniform (they are expensive, and I don't want anything to happen to it!) and then she gets a snack. Depending on her mood, this is not a big deal (but some days it is a huge deal...ha!).
Anyway, this week's spelling words have something that her teacher is calling the "Bossy R" (basically you can't hear the vowel sound, only the 'r' sound). One of her words is SHIRT.
She writes her words on a white board and then I check them. Well, this time, she wrote the word SHIRT, except for whatever reason (after all, we are talking about bossy r!), she left out the letter 'r'. So, you know what word was written on the white board!
And, of course, I should have just had her sound it out and try again.
But, I'm not that mature. Or, more likely, I was trying to stay sane and get her homework done with a very grumpy preschooler (who had not napped) flipping out about something, a toddler clinging to my leg, and an infant attached to me (I've finally learned to nurse while walking around...nothing like multi-tasking!). Not to mention that my husband was coming home early for dinner because he had to teach a class...and, what was dinner anyway!?!
So, I glanced at the white board and I burst out laughing. Wrong choice!!! Of course, the kids wanted to know the funny joke. Another wrong choice...I told Gianna that this was a naughty word. So, she sounded it out out of curiosity. This led to a chorus of my children chanting S***. What a fabulous mother...I just taught my children a swear word!
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| Homework "Helpers" |
I was 7-years-old and jumping rope in the driveway. I was making up a song by rhyming lots of words. I apparently used that word in my rhyme. If my mother hadn't pointed it out (she was probably just shocked to hear it just like I was shocked to see it written on a white board!), I never would've known (that day at least!).
But, my mother told me that I had said a bad word. Of course I was SO curious so I started signing the song again until my mother identified the word! :)
It's almost 2 p.m. and pretty soon it'll be homework time again. Oh goody :). Never a dull moment, for sure!
Thanks for reading! I'm going to try to sneak in a few prayers before nap time is over!
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