Quick Takes Friday (vol. 72)

1. Habit of gratitude

I read an article around Christmas time about gratitude and how different one’s life is, how much lower the stress, how much better the general attitude. “Well of course”, I said smugly to myself, as if I had mastered this. I do feel like I’m generally a grateful person and know how many blessings I’ve been given, but since then, little passages, a verse here or there, a moment of shock at something that pops (wrongly) out of my mouth at my dear husband has shown how far I need to go in this area, how much I need to learn about being grateful…truly grateful…for so so so many things that I complain about. And I do complain. Yesterday I happened “randomly” (ha!) upon this post from Apple Cider Mill, written back in April, and I was moved again, because I could relate to some of what she said. There is so much training my soul needs in this area.

While I continue to praise God for my husband and our marriage (after waiting so so long for him!) …I have not been grateful. For the move. For his job. For this city. For this house he has found. For anything really. It isn’t anything I would have chosen if left up to my own devices and the adjustment has been incredibly difficult. As a result, I have only complained about leaving so many things behind, particularly my job…even though it was replaced with a loving husband and so much. And while I cannot erase that it continues to be difficult in some areas, I CAN practice more gratefulness. A lot more.

I can allow more grace to open my heart to whatever God has in store for us, because He brought us here and I know He knows more than I do. Still, training of one’s soul is must be deliberate. Feeling that I can merely will away this unfortunate pattern I’ve fallen into isn’t going to work. And if I don’t do something, I risk not only my own state of mind, but my poor husband’s as well. So I pray. And God is good, because he takes our efforts at such things and reforms our brokenness. Thankfully. I’ll start by being humbled and grateful for that first.:)

2. And thank you IPhone

This was our sunset yesterday! Isn’t it beautiful! It was one of the most spectacular I’ve seen, so I had to share it. This was taken about a block from our house.

3. Knee, the good and the bad

My ortho’ doc looked at the films from the MRI yesterday afternoon, and confirmed that my kneecap had dislocated and that I additionally had ”moderate sized bone contusion on the subcortical anterior to mid lateral femoral condyle, as well as a subcortical bone contusion…in the medial patellar facet”. Thank you doctor speak. English please?

The great, great, great news first? ACL is still attached, PCL is still intact, I had no meniscus tears, and no other major cartilage damage… so no surgery. The bad news, the “contusion” was a bruise bad enough in two locations that went all the way down to my bone marrow (what the?), plus the muscles and stuff holding my knee together were strained so to therapy twice a week I go (at least it’s not surgery. Huge praise!).  What I wanted to know the most is what exercise I’m cleared for at this point… and sadly he was not too happy about ballet.:( He did say I could try at least the barre portion of class since it would be like therapy, but the minute I had any pain I could not “just push through it” and had to stop. I can also walk and ride a bike (and to the latter, I say negative ghost rider). Overall — better than I thought, so I’m grateful for that. Keep calm and carry on.

4.  Bible Study Update

The new study books came in to the church book store for the Bible Timeline study — great news since we have basically showed up for several weeks with zero preparation, no book, and looking like slackers. Plus, as noted before, we are inevitably late, and all of the dear grey-headed folk always seem to give nonverbal ‘tsk tsks’. (I’m positive of it. Or maybe I just hate to be late and am overly sensitive?)

Anyway, last night we had the book, had actually read the bible chapters, AND were on time (holy smokes! a trifecta!). It was a great study…we  covered the issues between Jacob and Esau, and then Jacob’s life after he received the birthright and blessing, and eventually his son’s Joseph and Judah. Love this part of the bible!

5. Italian Night, kiddo style

We moved our Italian night to Wednesday this week so that we could do it over a meal with the dear G’ family.

(Huge tangent: They have been a breath of fresh air here…a catholic family that is trying its best to live by the Church’s teachings, joyfully, and in the middle of this crazy city. Mr. G’ is a lawyer like M’, and went to Steubenville and then Notre Dame (all good things in my book!), and he and his lovely wife Mrs. G’ are the proud ‘rents of six wonderful kiddos. They are actually only a few years older than we are, but as we were Singletons much longer than preferred I suppose this is about right.;) Mr. G’s brother is a priest assigned to the Vatican Embassy in DC, and started a great church on the other side of town where we do the above noted bible study. I note all of this as background, since I think/hope we will be seeing much more of them.)

So, right…as I was saying…moved our Italian week. I went over and made a lasagna with their eldest, who is 13 and homeschooled (and is utterly delightful, kind, and such a sweet girl!), and then tried to teach the rest some Italian before Mac and Mr. G’ came home from work. It was soooo funny. ALL of them wanted to learn, and be involved, even the youngest who is three! By the end, they could all do their numbers, and answer the question how old are you ( ”Quanto anni hai?”) with their correct ages (for the little bean, it came out ‘ooooh trrrreeeeee honey’ instead of ‘Ho tre anni’, but huge props for him. I like honey as much as the next person. Addddddorable!). All very fun.:)

6. Basque stew

M’s family is French Basque, and his great-aunt passed on some recipes several weeks ago. I tried out the stew, since I had most of the ingredients — I only had to buy some cubed beef — and leftovers have been lunch for several days. While his family’s history is cool in and of itself, I love having recipes passed down. The best thing though was that such simple ingredients (literally beef, squash, carrots, onions, celery, and salt) could end up tasting so comforting.:) I think sometimes its easy for me to get carried away with “fancy” recipes, but that’s not always necessary. Here was the Basque version of “chicken soup”, and I’m sure I’ll break the recipe out in future winters again.

7. The result of 40 years worth of (secular) feminist arguments

I won’t get into a rant right now about some of the issues we have as a society, nor am I going to wax poetical on the catholic understanding of feminism, nor am I going to ask where all the real men have gone (by the way, just because I can’t help myself, the answer is we told them to stop being real men). I DO however want to give you this link for a National Review article, about the sinking of the Concordia. It’s related, promise.:) Let me know what you think.

 

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