What a day. Just a aside before I start venting; I am so going to use wallpaper somewhere in my house once we buy. I feel daring. Oh, that reminds me. The lake house is OUT. Apparently the ma who owns it actually wants more than his list price and isn't willing to share that information until after you begin to negotiate with him. Crazy? Yes. Surprising? No. People are crazy everywhere. SO, we're going to hang up our spurs for the time being and enjoy all the baby hullaballoo, and then come at it again in July when I'm healed up and our visitors have slowed down a little. I think sweet Alison and Mama Cooke will be here around then and I think that by joining forces with my awesome mother-in-law, Andrew will be defenseless and will buy me my dream house. One can dream, you know.
So I went to my mom's group meeting this morning and ended up making an a** of myself yet again. Usually it's the things I say, but today it was actually something I said that was totally not heard correctly. So we're sitting there listening to a somewhat odd talk on a lay apostolate group called Schoenstatt. I had never heard of them, and we in the Catholic Church need to be careful about renewal groups and apostolates, as they can sometimes take the focus off of the center of the Church and the mission of Roman Catholicism. After Regnum Christi had their incredibly difficult stumble with Father Maciel, it's important to really research the groups you join and to make sure that any group is truly accountable to Rome.
My question was as follows: "I grew up in the Regnum Christi movement and I'm a little wary of renewal movements within the Church. How does Schoenstatt avoid looking like a cult of personality as far as following Father Kentenich and work to remain transparent and accountable to the Vatican, the Diocese and individual parishes?" It seemed like a straightforward question. At the time. I just didn't realize that all everyone would hear was the word "cult." Ah me...
Her reaction wasn't so great and the word "cult" bounced off the walls for the remainder of the meeting. One of her last remarks was, "And like Laura asked about us being a cult..." Ahhhhhhhh....as it turns out, I think my question was worth asking, as it turned out I still feel like I know nothing about the group and that their focus may be too far from the Sacrifice of the Mass and true nature of the Church.
So, yeah. Anyway.
The ladies and I grabbed lunch from KFC on the way home and popped by Andrew's office for a picnic outside with Daddy. The wind down here is always a lot to deal with, so we took advantage of the eerily still and sunny day to lay out our chicken and potato wedges and fill Daddy in on the events of the morning. When we got home, the girls played outside for awhile and I looked for Andrew's missing cell phone. (Found. Laura 1, Blackberry 0)
As the girls sat in the sandbox and chattered, I heard Lucy talking to Molly about sticking her hand in a bucket of sand. Molly really didn't want to stick her hand in it and Lucy was so insistent. She said to Molly, "Mo, you've gotta try new things. If you don't try things, you'll never know what's fun." Molly look at her warily and said, "Oh, I know fun."
How proud am I to have a little girl who knows the importance of trying new things? Andrew and I are big on new things and big adventure, and we constantly tell Lucy that she needs to try things to see what she likes. We're more of a "try new things" family than a "make good choices" family. I think that both Andrew and myself would agree that it's better to repair mistakes than to never put yourself out there. How awesome that Lucy, who is smaller than most of the things she tries, is bold enough to tell the people around her to keep trying things. She is truly her Daddy's daughter. As soon as she finished telling Mo to stick her hand in the sand, she asked me, "Mama, how far away is China?" I said, "Well, it's a longer plane ride than Maryland, because you have to go over the sea." She replied, "Well, can we go there soon? I think I'd like seven friends from China."
Sounds like a trip to China is in order - seven friends is far too many to miss out on.
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Laura Cooke
"We can do no great things, only small things with great love." ~ Mother Teresa
Planted & Blooming (blog)
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