I didn't think I look that bad...

Today at the mall's indoor playground, a small girl admired Jane. In awe at her tiny ears, the girl asked, "Was she born today?"

And I even showered this morning.

Tittering on the Brink

So I know I've been posting quite a bit from Crunchy Con lately, but I have to share this one last link. Dreher's links to a fascinating interview with John Carroll, a secular humanist and author of The Wreck of Western Civilization: Humanism Revisted, which is coming out in the U.S. very soon. It is intriguing to see a secular humanist really coming to grips with the fundamental emptiness of a worldview with no God. Here's a excerpt:

Stephen Crittenden: Isn’t it true though, that you walk down to the beach on a lovely summer day in Sydney or Melbourne and you see people sitting at cafes, and small children wandering around and kids with skateboards, and so forth and so on, and you look around and you think, ‘Well, Australia at this point in time is a wonderful society for ordinary people.’ And sure, we’ve got problems with suicide and depression, and there’s no such thing as a perfect society. And a bit of depression is a pretty small price to pay for having hot and cold running water.

John Carroll: I think at the moral level, we’re still enjoying some of the achievements and triumphs of Humanism, and particularly the rise of the view of Universal Human Rights, which comes out of the Enlightenment, and is one of the triumphs of liberal Humanism, and our society benefits prodigiously for the fact in the last 50 years this sort of ethical or moral order has spread in its cultural influence. On the other hand, the feeling that is this all there is, the feeling that comes in the crisis moments of life, the big moments of life, the moments in life when we’re not just going through the motions, as pleasant as it may be, walking along that beach in Australia, that those times in life which make you think Yes, this is not just passing the time, those times, which are really metaphysical timers, require a framing story, a higher story, an engagement of the human individual with a sense of being part of a grander scheme of things.

Now the humanist culture has left us to go back to Holbein and the painting of ‘The Ambassadors’ which is on the cover of the book, with two men, two men of knowledge, two men of power, the Ambassadors from the Court of France to Henry VIII of England, two men with enormous prestige, power, rank, good-looking young men, also with the power of knowledge. But these men, roughly the age of 30, like Hamlet, suddenly have this image of the skull rising in front of them, and because they have no higher belief of any sort whatsoever, they’ve just got humanist knowledge, they’ve just got the walking along the beach in Sydney, Melbourne or wherever in Australia, the moment the whiff of a corpse enters the nostrils, they’re paralysed. And I think this is why the best of art and literature for the last 150 years has ended up in an extremely bleak, nihilistic view of the human condition.

Stephen Crittenden: In other words, what you’re saying is that Humanism hasn’t been able to overcome death; that’s one of your big themes. But isn’t it an impossible task to conquer death? Because death is a biological given. Why not speak about death as a limit on humanist ambition and achievement, rather than as the negation of humanist ambition and achievement?

John Carroll: Because it is the case, and I think this is just simply constitutive of what it is to be human, that we humans, probably unlike animals, need death to be more than just dying in a Darwinian sense, and like a dead fish, rotting and stinking on the beach. If that’s all death is, biological death in that sense, then life loses its meaning. If death doesn’t have meaning, one doesn’t need to argue this, one just needs to look at the great stories and the great paintings, the great wrestlings with precisely this question, from Tolstoy right back to Shakespeare and then back to the Greeks. It just is the case with us humans. If death has no meaning more than the biological sense, then life loses its meaning, and life becomes absurd, or horrible, to quote Nietzsche. So yes, looking back over 500 years of Humanism, Humanism was doomed from the start, and I think this is precisely Shakespeare and Holbein’s point in the Renaissance.

This man better be careful...he's tittering on the brink. Really, he is just a hop-skip-and jump from all out becoming one of us. There is only one answer to all the questions he is posing..."I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light."

Building Cathedrals

On Crunchy Con, Rod Dreher posted an inspiring snippet from Nicole Johnson's new novella, The Invisible Woman: When Only God Sees:

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself as I looked down at my out-of-style dress; it was the only thing I could find that was clean. My unwashed hair was pulled up in a banana clip and I was afraid I could actually smell peanut butter in it. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, "I brought you this."

It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: "To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees."In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work:

+ No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names.

+ These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished.

+ They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.

+ The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, "Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it."And the workman replied, "Because God sees."

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, "I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.

Johnson captures the feelings of this stay-at-home mom beautifully. This is my path to holiness...and hopefully I will bring my children and husband along the way.

Also, a group of Ivy League educated, Catholic moms have started a new blog celebrating the hidden life of the stay-at-home mom, aptly titled Building Cathedrals.

Worth the Hype

After being the target for poor Jane's projectile vomit yet again this morning, I came downstairs rather dejectedly after changing into my sole remaining clean shirt. Paul's response: "Momma, you look pretty!"

And that is what makes it all worth it. Kids - they are worth the hype.

The Door Marked Exit

Check out this interesting post on Rod Dreher's Crunchy Con regarding the recent Pew study on religion in America. Basically, the study found that though religious affiliation is declining in America as a whole in recent years, the Roman Catholic Church has suffered the worst losses.

The percentage of Catholics in the American population has held steady for decades at about 25 percent. But that masks a precipitous decline in native-born Catholics. The proportion has been bolstered by the large influx of Catholic immigrants, mostly from Latin America, the survey found.

The Catholic Church has lost more adherents than any other group: about one-third of respondents raised Catholic said they no longer identified as such. Based on the data, the survey showed, “this means that roughly 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics.

Dreher asks his readers why they think the Catholic Church has lost more members than other religious groups. The comments range all over the board. Personally, I think it is a combination of factors. More than almost any other religious group in America, membership in the Catholic Church is tied to ethnic and cultural identity. This often leads to many members being baptized into the Faith for familial and cultural reasons, not deeply spiritual ones. When these members "leave" the Church later in life, one has to ask themselves if they ever were really Catholic (I'm talking for statistically purposes, not theologically). Basically, I think the Catholic Church as a whole has a significant number of members that never intentionally choose to be Catholic as compared to other religious groups, so this tends to skew the Church's number of ex-members.

However, I think there are other problems. Catechesis and basic teaching from the pulpit suffered post-Vatican II. Without the Good News, there really is no reason to remain in the Church. And if the people aren't hearing the Good News, then we shouldn't be shocked when they leave. Also, the sexual revolution which has infiltrated every aspect of American society has only really been held at bay at the doors of the Catholic Church. The Church is the only major voice speaking the truth on the issues of birth control, divorce, IVF, premartial sex. The Church's stance on these issues is not popular, to put it lightly, and without good formation and deep devotion, many choose to leave the Church and take the "easy" road on theses issues in their lives.

These are just some random initial thoughts on the issue. What do you think? And how damaging for the Church has this exodus been? Are we just seeing the development of what Pope Benedict alluded to as a smaller, more devout Church that will re-emerge stronger in time or is the beginning of the end for the size and influence of the Church in America?

It made my husband cry.

Now half-way through Lent, this video helped me recharge and refocus my heart for the rest of these forty days.

(HT: Liza Bremberg)

Paul's Plan Backfires

So Paul's appeal to a Higher Authority has backfired on him already. At dinner tonight, he refused to feed himself his applesauce, begging for Mommy's help. Mommy, that old tyrant, ignored his plea for help and insisted that he could do it himself.

Mommy: "Paul, you are a big boy now. You are three. You can eat your applesauce on your own."

Paul, in a rather whiny voice: "Me not a big boy. Me can't. Mommy help."

Mommy, kindly but firmly: "You can do it."

Paul, now angry and in tears: "Me not a big boy! Me not three! Me not three!"

Mommy, finding the situation rather humorous after all of Paul's excitement at turning three: "Paul, I thought you were going to be fourteen next week."

Suddenly, Paul stops crying. Dejectedly, he responds quietly: "Oh, yea."

A Higher Authority

Paul is now three...going on fourteen. Or so he told me on our way to church the other day.

Paul, from the back of the van: "Mommy, I'm going to be
fourteen."

Casually, Mommy replies: "Wow. When?"

Paul: "Next week."

Mommy: "I'm sorry, Paul, but you are not going to be fourteen next week."

Paul: "My daddy told me I was going to be fourteen next week."

Mommy: "Daddy did not tell you that."

Quickly, Paul counters: "The priest told me I was going to be fourteen next week."

I don't know. I'm beginning to feel he may be turning fourteen next week. He is starting the authority game pretty early. I have begun to hear a constant refrain of "My daddy told me to watch Paul shows," or Andrew gets the continually "My mommy told me I need chocolate milk." This was his first appeal to a higher authority, though. No saint stories involving apparitions for awhile. Otherwise, he is soon going to be claiming, "Mommy, God told me..."

Worth the Hype

Following in the footsteps of my friends at Love Life and Good Company, I'm doing a Worth the Hype post. These are posts on products, services, etc. that we have discovered to be "worth the hype." I haven't done one yet, mainly because I haven't come across anything quite worthy of its hype lately.

But that has changed. In my quest for the most helpful baby gear possible (because, boy, do I need it!), I have discovered something I find totally worth its hype - the BabyHawk Mei Tai carrier. Jane has some reflux and really likes the upright position. But sadly, I simply cannot sit around all day holding her upright. Paul and Lucy seem to object strongly. The Baby Bjorn works okay, but I have always had trouble getting in and out of it, and it tends to pull away from the body. I love my New Native sling, but it's not so great for the upright position.

Enter the BabyHawk Mei Tai. It easily ties on. It keeps her snuggily close to my body - in the all-important upright position. It folds up nice and small to fit in the diaper bag. And it is works as a backpack carrier, too. I get a frontpack and a backpack all-in-one. Plus...and this is really important...it looks super-cool.

Jane loves it. She is snoozing away in it right now. And actually, Lucy really loved it, too. (She did a test run with it before I tried it out on Jane. What a great big sister!) So I decided...the BabyHawk Mei Tai is Worth the Hype.

Let's Hear from the Birthday Boy

Paul's 3rd Birthday Meme

(Modeled after Lucy's Birthday Meme.)

1. What's your favorite toy? My plastic hammer. I use it to hammer folks' tails back on - just like Christopher Robin does for Eyore. I always make sure to tell them that "this won't hurt."

2. What's your favorite color? Green. It's what "Little Boy" wears.

3. What's your favorite phrase? "That's a little too much."

4. What's your favorite food? A good ol' peanut butter sandwich...with chocolate milk!

5. Who's your BFF? Mike, my imaginary horse.

6. Do you kiss on the first date? No, but I have been known to hold hands. Just ask Clare.

7. What's your favorite pastime? Watching "Paul shows" (i.e. Winnie-the-Pooh), making videos for Mommy's blog, going on Hair Cut Day with Daddy, teasing my little sisters.

8. What's your biggest fear in life? Being waterboarded by my Daddy, i.e. getting my hair washed.

9. What's your greatest life accomplishment? Learning to spell my name: P-A-U-L. All the Ron Paul signs around lately really helped me out.

10. Who's your hero? Super Why. Just kidding. Mommy, of course. (I think maybe Mommy planted this question.)

Flying Solo

Today's our first day at home without Daddy. We have dentist appointments. Enough said.

What She Said

As the mother of a soon-to-be three year old, 16 month old, and a spanking brand-new two week old, I have been - hold on to your hats - going through a roller coaster of emotions. Shocking, I know. The most overwhelming feeling has been one of...well... feeling overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with emotion. Overwhelmed with fatigue. Overwhelmed with responsiblity. Overwhelmed with joy. Basically, overwhelmed with all that comes with God's tremendous blessings.

I had been trying to gather my thoughts about this jumble of emotions, but today I came across this article by Danielle Bean. So instead of writing my own post, I can simply say, "What she said" and take a nap.

Jane's Big Day

Lately I've been more of a poster instead of a blogger. Just posting pictures, but not actually blogging about much. But what can you do when you have so much great material? Here are some pictures from Jane Frances' beautiful baptism yesterday.

The Family

The Godparents

The Grandmothers

The Boys after the Party

The Girls After the Party