Be still my heart. My little Gwen Stella is such a ray of sunshine. I have been swooning over her smiles all week. And in the midst of that joy, my heart is so heavy for the sorrows of sweet friends who have lost babies, mothers, and husbands this week. Please say a special prayer for Dwija’s family and for their precious little son, Nicholas who passed away at 21 weeks gestation after 7 weeks without amniotic fluid. I cannot imagine and I just love her so much.
Coming Up in the Liturgical Year: The Feast of St. Anne and St. Joachim on July 26th! I’m planning on sharing the menu and recipes we used to celebrate this feast a couple of years ago if I can get my act together.
On the Homestead: Our sunflowers are finally blooming!
And they’re taller than our house. And what do you think about our neighbor’s paint color? Pretty bold, amirite?!
The Quotable Benjamin (at 4 years old):
“You know how someone would NEVER get a wife? Forget to wipe their mouth all the time!”
“I made you a special play dough sandwich, Mama! Inside is peanut butter, ham, cheese, mayonnaise, and little bits of catfish!”
Let’s play “Can You Tell My Four-Year-Old Dresses Himself?” Can you spot: (A) backwards jeans (B) plaid clip-on bowtie (C) hat at nerdiest angle. I absolutely love that he thinks his accessories are awesome and that he has the best fashion sense in the world. I never want him to lose this confidence.
Baby Girl has to have every dolly and stuffed animal and blankie from her crib when she wakes up in the morning. Precious.
The Quotable Lucy (at 21 months old):
“Stormpooper!” (excited about Benjamin’s stormtrooper clock.)
Links:
Young Evangelicals Are Getting High: The Christian Pundit
(I shared this piece on the Carrots FB page and it rubbed some folks the wrong way, so I want to provide some caveats. First of all, I don’t agree with everything said in this piece (particularly about how people won’t be drawn to sacramentals if they’re brought up in a spiritually substantive home. I was blessed with a family that provided a strong theological basis for our Christian faith and yet found my attraction to the sacraments absolutely irresistible.) However, the article deeply resonated with me because it touched on exactly the experience Daniel and I had in our journey to Catholicism. The author highlights a common phenomenon (of young evangelicals leaving their faith or becoming Catholic or Anglican) and giving an explanation why it is occurring. Not only did we convert in college, but 90% of our friends from the Baptist university we attended either become Anglican, Catholic, or are not actively attending any church. I even had professors ask me, “Can you tell me why this is happening to our students?!” I think the author of this article is noting an obvious problem: if church is trying to attract young people by trying to be “relevant” or “cool” they will never be able to provide them with anything cooler than they already have outside the church. Before we converted we visited a church that played secular music videos before the service started, most of the time was spent in the dark with a worship band that wasn’t as good as the band we’d gone to see the night before, and the pastor gave a talk about recent popular movies. I remember thinking, I could have watched better music videos, seen a better band, and had a more interesting conversation about movies than what I just sat through and I don’t feel like I’ve been to church at all. The focus of our faith needs to be grounded in richer soil. If we’re trying to compete by providing the most fun experience, we will always come in second…or tenth. Rather than a second-rate version of youth culture, what we really long for is the sacraments and the grace that can be found nowhere but at the foot of the Cross. My intent in sharing this article was certainly not to malign the Protestant faith which I grew up in and owe so very much to.)
Fox Books Files for Bankruptcy: The Onion (If you love You’ve Got Mail, you will adore this!)
We Need Each Other: Surviving Our Blessings (Women need community. We just do.)
For All Those Hyperemesis Moms Out There: My Domestic Monastery (Michele does a great job of explaining the intensity of hyperemesis during pregnancy. And as miserable as I was in my last pregnancy, I have to admit that Michele had it even worse.)
21 Tips for Survival Mode: Conversion Diary (Loved this.)
I’m Not the Entire Congregation: Simcha Fisher (Yes. Yes. Yes.)
You Can Also Find Me This Week….:
…At A Mama Collective chatting about NFP for their NFP Awareness Week series.
Awesome Mothering Moment of the Week:
When I gave my kids frozen corn for a snack because I had waited too long to replenish the fridge with actual snacks. It speaks to the “slim-pickens” situation around here that my kids actually finished off half a bag and said they were “soooo yummy.” Yikes.
And I’m taking this little gal to the Allume conference in October. I’m so excited to meet some bloggy friends face to face. Let me know if you’re going to be there!
Love,
Haley
P.S. You can follow me on Bloglovin’, Feedly, or subscribe via email with the buttons on the left sidebar. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter (@haleycarrots), Pinterest (haleyofcarrots), or my personal favorite, Instagram (carrotsformichaelmas). I love connecting with my wonderful readers!
In a fit of surrender, I gave my then-2-year-old a bowl full of frozen mixed veggies and he LOVED them so much that they’ve become one of our go-to snacks! Cooked, the kids don’t care for them, but somehow they’re delicious frozen! Definitely try them on frozen peas and carrots, too 🙂
I gave Lucy frozen peas when she was teething but not since. I think we’ll have to make it a regular rotation for snack time because they went nuts over the frozen corn, haha.
I appreciated the article about young evangelicals because my church body is seeing that effect on both ends. In our branch of the Lutheran church (LCMS) we have some churches and members who are following what the evangelical churches have been doing to stay relevant, and others (me included) are holding on to the liturgy. We’ve seen quite a few people coming in for reasons similar to those addressed here, and I’m frustrated with the arguments others make as to why we need to change to attract the young people. Actually, no. The Word of God does that. And even though most churches haven’t changed what they teach about the sacraments, doctrine gets lost in the midst of the big show.
How interesting, Jen. A wise word I heard once is: “What you attract people WITH is what you attract them TO.”
Gwen is so adorable! Ridiculously cute! And Sam is just awesome. He should never, ever change.
As for Lucy, look at the picture on my friend Colette Moran’s timeline: https://www.facebook.com/colette.moran.16
Also, have I mentioned that I’m Rosie’s mom? That story about the frozen veggies is true and hilarious to watch. Of course, those children are seriously weird . . . 🙂
I didn’t know you were Rosie’s mom, too!
“Rosie’s mom, too”? Do you know another of my children? It must be Meg, and I must have used to know this but it slipped out the holes in my Swiss cheesey brain. I also have two sons, but the chances are good that you don’t know them.
I’m ALL about the clip-on plaid bow tie. Stylin’.
Very thought-provoking links, too!
Oh that bow tie. I think he’s just splendid, haha.
You should see the outfits I used to pick for myself when I was a little one! My mom is awesome for letting me be seen in public in what I thought were my super stylish inspirations… 🙂
I could not have said it any better about leaving a nondenominational/evangelical Christianity for Catholicism in my college years. I wasn’t looking to convert to the church my mom had left around the same age, but I was so blown away by the liturgy and the devotion and love for God the priests and sisters had that I encountered. The masses are not “hip” or ” hyped”, but they are solid, grounded, and meaningful. Being Catholic is a constant where I had begun to feel like I was always trying to catch a new “high”, in the euphoric sense. Thank you for sharing your conversion experience.
I know what you mean about the quest for an emotional high. To my surprise, as I become more familiar with the Mass it is more moving to me than anything I experienced before.
I, too, appreciated the Evangelicals Getting High article – and not just for the pun in the title. As a cradle Catholic having attended Baylor University, I simply find it fascinating. I’ve married an Australian Catholic convert from non-denominational protestantism, too, and in visiting his family’s churches, I see the similarity of wanting to be as cool and attractive as secular culture coming in as next-best. Of course that’s not to say that there aren’t protestant churches around *not* trying to one-up the secular culture, but the ones that are see a large influx of energetic folks for a while … then they walk out the door. We want more! We yearn for a more meaningful relationship than the one you mentioned being offered the day of the music videos and movie talk.
Thanks for sharing!
Baylor represent! I went to BU, too. Have you been to the Our Lady of La Leche shrine in St. Augustine? I saw the prayer on your blog!
My kids (almost 5, 2 1/2, and 15 mos.) LOVE frozen vegetables. They eat a helping of frozen appetizer while I’m heating the rest for our meal. . .and get quite upset with me if I forget to serve up the icy ones. No guilt! 🙂
Haha! That makes me feel better 🙂
I made this journey myself after college. Southern Baptist to Catholocism. I don’t think we ever need to apologize for or soften the
Truth. We spend so much time these days trying to not offend anyone. Jesus offended a lot of people and he didn’t apologize. He spoke the Truth. I am not advocating being mean. That is not
my personality as I am sure it is not yours. But, if we are really going to make a difference we have to take a risk and put ourselves out there.
Wise words, Wanda.
Love this post. Everyone looks radiant! 🙂
Thanks, Steph 🙂
Thanks a million for the shout out!
It was a great post, Michele! I don’t think people understand how debilitating it is. My mom thought I was exaggerating until I called her one day because I got stuck between the freezer and the toaster in my attempt to toast myself a waffle and couldn’t get up off the floor. Benjamin had to bring me my phone to call her and poor Lucy had to stay stuck in her high chair until my mom could arrive and get her out. I was truly too sick to move. She helped me into bed and took the kids for the rest of the day 🙂
Wow, I LOVE the “Evangelicals are Getting High” article! I was church hopping a lot in college, and when I was first married. My husband (who was raised Lutheran) didn’t really care for the spontaneity of some of the Evangelical services we attended, and started to become a little unimpressed with crazy rock-concert-style worship services. We finally settled on a Baptist church with a simple order of worship. Simple and organic worship service (i.e. think a simple acoustic guitar) and genuine sermons (not necessarily Bible-thumping, but thought-provoking nonetheless). Our pastor often lamented the fact that so many people today craved stimulation, to the point that Christians are forgetting the command “Be still and know that I am God”. Then my husband converted to Catholicism, which threw me completely off. It wasn’t until I started working at a Catholic school and attending daily Mass that I started to appreciate the richness of liturgy. Not only was it void of the gimmicky, sensationalist worship that I knew as a kid, but it had so much profundity. I finally realized that the Baptist church service, even though it was genuine and simple, lacked the sacred and mystical components of a Mass. That is, I realized that singing spiritual songs, praying, reading the Bible, and listening to an educated spiritual leader was all things I could do at home. But partaking in the actual Body of Christ and following an order of service that comprised 2000 years of thought, was a whole new level of worship. I have so much more to say on this, thanks for being patient with yet another long comment!