March 7, 2010

Verse of the Day
"You made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You" (Saint Augustine)

Song of the Day
Oh Father by Eric Genuis
http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=8e8a63a0a247eac98ede
There is an advertisement at the bottom of the video that you can close out.

I am completely amazed that I found a video for this song online. But as soon as I read the quote above, this song from years past (1993 to be exact) popped into my head. I have learned to just trust the direction that the Lord wants to lead me with this blog.

Food
I was a little sad this morning as Artsy seemed so fixed on trying to figure out something sweet to have, or something sweet she would have on her birthday this summer. I really think sugar affects her more than the others. Joke-A-Lot and Curly had the sugared drinks (Pedialyte, 7-up, etc.) when they were recovering from their illness and it didn't phase them when they went back to no sugar, but Artsy seems to be having a hard time. I will be curious to see how she is in a few days after being off of the sugar again. Will her talk revolve so much around sugared stuff that she wants to have in the future?

I am also reading a book my childhood allergist authored. It talks about how food allergies can affect us. I have read the sections on acidic foods, MSG, aspartame, and now just began reading about refined sugar. I'll keep you updated on what I learn. Thus far from other resources, I think I finally get the answer to the age old question "Why is fruit okay, but fructose is not okay? They both are fructose." The short and sweet answer after listening to an hour and a half deal on why high fructose corn syrup and basically other sugars are bad is because when you eat fruit, nature gives the anecdote with the fructose and that is fiber. There is something about your the way your body absorbs the fructose when it has the fiber with it versus straight fructose. So, that is why sugared soda and fruit juice are basically the same in regards to sugar. Okay, not sure anyone really cared to hear all that, but that is my two cents and is always subject to begin wrong.

"Stuff" Detachment

Grabbed two necklaces from forever ago that I will never wear again and a bottle of post pregnancy baby oil. Sorry, my baby is two years old. There is nothing that oil can help me with now.

Spiritual Growth
I am hoping to get back to daily Mass this week. We have all really come to love going. God always brings me encouragement after I go. The last time I went before we all got sick, two people I didn't even know found me after Mass to tell me how much they enjoy hearing Curly make his little sounds. Yes, they said "enjoy". The one who was a guy said he thinks of it as Curly's prayers to God. I stood there looking at this guy like "Are you for real?" Although, he did reiterate, that screaming and crying would be a different story. So, that was comforting because either Joke-A-Lot or I usually bail out the back door at the first sign of toddler talking.

In "Searching for and Maintaining Peace" by Fr. Jacques Philippe, he discusses that this peace is not available to everyone independent of their attitude toward God. "When individuals are close to God, love and desire to serve the Lord, the usual strategy of the devil is to cause them to lose their peace of heart, whereas God, on the contrary, comes to their aid to give them peace. But this rule is reversed for those who hearts are far from God, who live in indifference and evil. The devil seeks to tranquilize such individuals, to keep them in a false sense of quietude, whereas the Lord, Who desires their salvation and conversion, will trouble and disquiet their consciences in an effort to get them to repent." So, that is why I chose that specific Verse of the Day. We are made for the Lord, there will be no rest until we rest in him. So, the necessary condition for this interior peace that transcends is goodwill or purity of heart. Basically, it is a person determined more than anything to love God and to seek to do His will above their own. It is not perfection because it can coexist with imperfections and faults and hesitations.

Tomorrow - The Troubles of Life and the Fear of Being Without

Today's Menu
Breakfast: Nature's Pride 100% Whole Wheat Double Fiber bread with natural peanut butter, blueberries, Triscuits and cheese

Lunch: 1 piece of leftover pizza, mac and cheese, fresh cucumbers and brocolli, strawberries

Dinner: Grass-fed ground beef hamburgers from http://www.pasturesaplenty.com/ on Arnold Sandwhich Thins Multi-Grain, Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Golden Crinkles, steamed brocolli, baked apples with cinnamon