Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

While dinner conversation with Paul & Co. is never dull (as seen here and here), it is always a little flat when Daddy doesn't join us for dinner. The past week has found our dinner table desolate. No Daddy to tell about our day's exciting adventures, to force Paul to finish his veggies, to bring the sustenance of adult thought and the day's news from the outside world.

And why has Daddy been so absent, you may ask? Well, someone decided to leak a draft of a proposed federal regulation on the conscience rights of health care providers to The New York Times last week. The regulations would reaffirm and synthesize existing laws protecting the conscience rights of health care providers and require that any recipients of federal monies provide written certification that they will not discriminate in hiring practices against doctors, nurses, pharmacists, or other health care workers who object to abortion and contraceptives that can cause abortions. It just so happens Daddy has been working very hard on these regulations and, well, the whole situation has become a bit of a hot mess since the July 15th Times article.

Not surprising, the pro-abortion lobby has immediately denounced the proposed regulations. It seems they are only "pro-choice" when it suits them to be. The choice of a woman to kill her unborn child is sacrosanct, but I guess the choice of a doctor, nurse, or pharmacists to be faithful to their oath to "do no harm" is not worthy of protection.

Please consider contacting the White House comment line (202-456-1414) and sharing your support the new regulations protecting conscience rights. If you have a little extra time, contact your Member of Congress and your Senators as well. Do your part to help make our society a little bit more respectful of life... and help fill the empty seat at Paul, Lucy, and Jane's dinner table.

I wonder where he gets it.

As we leave the house this morning, Paul calls urgently from the back of the van:

"Momma, do you have your diaper bag?"

"Yes."

"Do you have a pacifier for Baby Jane?"

"Yes."

"Do you have sippy cups for Lucy and me?"

"Yes."

"Okay, let's go."

My organized little man making his momma proud.

In Which Hell Freezes Over

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be recommending a Maureen Down(!!!) column for its marriage advice, but here you are. Not surprisingly, all the good advice comes from a kindly, old Catholic priest. The surprise is that Maureen actually put it in her column. She must be getting desperate for love.

(HT: Danielle Bean)

Prediction Poll

With the end of the agonizing Democratic Party primary and with under four months until Election Day, it's time for some predictions. I know the political blogging has all but disappeared here at Ordinary Time, but I simply have not been able to get excited about this election - despite the fact that my husband's employment opportunities are largely dependent on its outcome. I felt the stirrings of some semblance of my dormant political passion when our neighbor put up an Obama sign. Still, it didn't make me want to put up a McCain sign - just a "NObama: Keep the Change" sign. Sorta sad.

There's nothing like the lure of political predictions, though. We all - at least in my family - seem to have the secret desire to be political commentators. So four months from now, who do you think will be the president-elect? Bonus Question: Who will the vice-presidential candidates?

My prediction: Obama squeaks out a victory with the help of Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, his running mate, against McCain, and his running mate Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin.

'Good Enough' Blogger

I know my blogging has fallen off lately, but as the always wise Danielle Bean puts it in her latest article at Inside Catholic, 'Good Enough' Mom:

No matter what Cosmopolitan magazine might try to sell you, none of us can "do it all." Besides, as every mother knows, even if we did find a way to do it all, it surely wouldn't stay done. We must pick and choose the good things we will do. It's a continual balance. Today, for example, I am choosing: I will serve lunch on paper plates, but read Curious George Gets a Medal. I will catch up on the laundry, but let that sticky spot on the kitchen tiles sit for just one more day. I will make muffins for an afternoon snack, but won't answer emails. I will chat on the phone with a friend for 30 minutes, but forget to make my kids' dental appointments.

Being promoted to a mother of three has found me doing more choosing. Mop the the floor with its lovely "spilled juice covered by sand" crust... or sleep. Tackle the mountain of food and poop stained laundry...or sleep. Write a witty, insightful, and spiritually moving blog post...or sleep. You've probably guessed the choices I've made.

It's been a struggle. Giving up my 'House Beautiful,' actually, just contemplating giving it up, gives me ulcers. Dirty, sticky floors? The horror. Toys littered about for more than a few hours? Never in my house. A disorganized desk with disorganized piles of paperwork gathering dust? Only in my worst nightmare. And now the nightmare has come true.

And to top it off, I am realizing the nightmare is not just going to come to an end when Jane sleeps through the night...that far-off glittering dream. There will be more babies...and toddlers...and preschoolers...and eventually even teenagers. Instead of just toughing it through a few months more of this nightmare, I am realizing I need to turn this scary way of life into my life. For the next 25 years or so.

So I am working on changing the only thing I can - myself. As I wrote a few months ago, I still want to create a home filled with Beauty. I just need to refine my conception of Beauty in the home. Beauty need not be perfection. A home that always has the beds made, the laundry folded neatly, the floors gleaming is not necessarily a home filled with Beauty, especially if Mom turned into a crazed, sleep-deprived, short-tempered drill seargent to make those things happen. For Beauty to reside in a place, Goodness must also be present. If I am constantly frustrated and impatient with my children as I clean up the hundredth juice spill of the day, then even if my floors are gleaming, they are not beautiful.

I am striving for the balance of a 'good enough' mom and learning when to clean up and when to let go. I am striving to find joy in a clean home and in a not-so-clean home. I am trying to work at creating a beautiful soul and not only a beautiful home. Finding the right balance is really hard...probably the most difficult challenge I have faced as a mom thus far. Thank goodness I have 25 years to get it right.