Some of My Favorites on Etsy.com

Etsy.com has to be one of my favorite Internet sites. The homemade items that the merchants sell on this site are incredible. I was going to do a post about some of my favorite things on the site but I realized there would be way to many favorites to put in one post.

As I was looking through all the goodies on Etsy.com I came across this art work by TummyMountain. I love this art work. It is so cute and just reminds me of my little ones so much. Take a look at some of these prints.

The Thinking Tree.

Walking With Sticks

When Friends Drop In

Are these adorable or what?

How to Raise Good Catholic Kids

I love this painting. This is what I want, to take my children by the hand and lead them straight to God.

Sometimes it's easier said than done. I use the site ehow.com for lots of things, like how to make a skirt, or how to fix the noise my washing machine is making. Who knew the site would have simple tips everyone could do to make a start at raising good Catholic children.

I love the side bar that tells you what you will need. The list includes- perseverance, Bible, and Rosaries.

Take a look at the four steps it takes to get your children on their way to becoming good Catholics HERE.

You can always look at How to Avoid Grizzly Bears While Hiking later.

Trouble In Mind

Trouble in mind, I'm blue,

but I won"t be blue always.

Child that wind's gonna come and blow my blues away!

-Trouble in Mind-Janis Joplin

We all have our troubles and we all get blue, but it is very important not to dwell on all the bad things that come our way. In my experience the best way to fight the blues or troubles is to forgive. It seems all things that hold me back or keep me angry stem from incidents that I have not let forgiveness heal. Whether it is forgiving someone else or the hardest type of forgiveness, forgiving myself.

I have done many things that need to be forgiven, I have asked the Lord for his forgiveness and believing in His Grace I know I have received that gift. But forgiving myself is another story.

Not forgiving myself for shameful and hurtful things I have done or have allowed to happen to me is a drag. Basically I am living day to day with a person who is angry, resentful, and hurt. Imagine living with someone for your whole life who will not forgive you for anything you have done. After a while you will see yourself as those hurtful actions, that is who you will eventually become. If that is who you are you will most likely continue to do more hurtful and shameful things.

Forgiving others is a little tricky for me. I forgive easily but tend to hold a grudge, that is not forgiveness and it hurts the other person and me. It is easy to forgive someone you love, especially if that person tries on a daily basis to be a good person and tries not to do the offence that was forgiven again.

How do you forgive someone who continually does the same offence over and over again? The Lord says we must forgive for the sake of others and ourselves. How do you do this when the person will not stop hurting or offending you?

A wise man told me something about marriage. He said a marriage contains three rings, her ring, his ring, and suffering. The suffering is do to the forgiveness a marriage must have to survive. I am lucky that my husband is a person who strives everyday to be a good person. But what if your spouse will not correct their ways and you must forgive them for the same acts over and over again? What about a friend or a family member who will not correct their offences?

There is suffering in life, that suffering holds many Graces for us, but there are times when you must forgive a person, love and pray for them from far away. Some people are detrimental to our soul, but that does not mean we leave them and hold hatred for them, that is damaging to the soul as well. Some people think that when someone forgives them it means what they did was alright. Those types of people don't know what forgiveness is, or how precious to the soul someones forgiveness can be.

Some people including myself at times, see true forgiveness as a sign of weakness. How can that be when it takes so much strength to do so?

Lent is coming up and I have been thinking about what I can do this year. What I can "give up"

I have given up a lot of physical things already. This year for Lent I am going to give up holding grudges. I am going to feel what it's really like to forgive, the way the Lord wants me too. Even if it means forgiving people in my life, past or present, and loving them from far away.

This year I am going to try not to let grudges, for myself, or anyone else trouble me. I am going to let the wind of forgiveness blow my blues away.

Cha Cha Cha Changes

There are a lot of changes going on with me at the moment. One, and a very big one, is that I quit smoking. I am not over the hump just yet, but I am slowly getting there. Some people don't think of smoking as a drug and that it does nothing to effect your personality. Those who think that are wrong.

I have realized when I smoked I was in constant withdrawal from one cigarette to the next. Aways irritable waiting until I could go outside and have my fix. I am irritable now but it is becoming less and less and my mood stays pretty level whether I am happy, sad, or whatever.

Another change has been in my eating and weight loss. I knew that if I gained a lot of weight by not smoking there was no way I would succeed. I started eating right and exercising and I am actually losing weight! Granted the weight is coming off slower than before, but I am not gaining the dreadful pounds everyone says you will gain when you quit smoking.

There are other changes that will be coming up for me that I don't really know how I feel about them just yet. I am having surgery this Friday to correct a medical problem. By correcting this problem will most likely result in me not being able to have anymore children.

I can hear people screaming WHAT!! already. I know I already have five children and I am not getting any younger. I know that I need to concentrate and be grateful for the children I have, but I can't help to feel selfish and a tad upset that there will be no more children in my future. I tell myself to thank God for what I have, but my heart does break a little bit every time my youngest, Ben, reaches and passes a mile stone. This will be the very last time a child of mine will smile for the first time, roll over, sit etc...

Change can be hard especially when we don't know what the outcome will be. But for me, trusting in the Lord makes the move toward change much more pleasant.

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. ~Anatole France