Month: August 2008

For Our Southern Friends…

kanniduba2 Comments
(A prayer for hurricane season – written by the bishop of Lafayette after Hurricane Audrey in the 1950’s:)

Prayer for Safety in Hurricane Season
O God, Master of this passing world,
hear the humble voices of your children.
The Sea of Galilee obeyed Your order
and returned to its former quietude.
You are still the Master of land and sea.
We live in the shadow of a danger over which we have no control:
the Gulf, like a provoked and angry giant,
can awake from its seeming lethargy,
overstep its conventional boundaries,
invade our land,
and spread chaos and disaster.

During this hurricane season we turn to You, O loving Father.
Spare us from past tragedies whose memories are still so vivid
and whose wounds seem to refuse to heal with passing of time.

O Virgin, Star of the Sea, Our beloved Mother,
we ask you to plead with your Son in our behalf,
so that spared from the calamities common to this area
and animated with a true spirit of gratitude,
we will walk in the footsteps of your Divine Son
to reach the heavenly Jerusalem
where a stormless eternity awaits us.
Amen.

Sniffles

kanniduba2 Comments

Well, the first cold of the season has struck the family.  It is an inevitable fact of life that the beginning of school brings the first cold, however, usually the first cold comes after the first week of school, not before.  I’m hoping it isn’t an ominous sign of things to come.  Little Girl was first, followed over the next twelve hours by her sister, and then her brother.  Time to stock up on those antibacterial hand cleansers, Lysol, and Clorox.    I know I know…I’m helping to create those superbugs, aren’t I?  But from September through March, I become Germ Killer, waging war on influenza, croupe, pneumonia, and viruses of the gastrointestinal tract.  I have lived through way too many 105 fevers, 2:00am hospital visits, administration of breathing treatments, and nights of mopping up vomit to become lax in my War on Germs.  I can’t protect my kids from anything outside my doors, but I can at least attempt to minimize the explosive growth of the little buggers in my home. 

One Toddler

kanniduba8 Comments

 

Cheap.

I think his Daddy has been showing him too much YouTube.

Shopping is not my boy’s forte.  Old ladies (and a few young ones) were giving me dirty looks today.  Apparently I can’t control my child well enough for their sensitivities.  The problem today?  Balls.  F-ing balls.  I’m beginning to hate balls.  I want to write to Target and ask them to remove all balls…or items that can look like balls from a distance…what the heck, how about anything that is round…just take them away please.  Today I would not hand him a giant ball from the bin.  He made me regret it, though I am quite proud of myself for not giving in to his attempt to manipulate me into giving him his way.  I chose to ignore the fit, pushing the stroller through the gaping aisles, stopping to look blindly at items of interest, with my child screaming at the top of his bloody lungs, turning purple in the face, liquid running out of every hole in his face.  He was drenched in sweat, writhing in his seat, and yet, I smiled politely at the judgmental old ladies, pushing on.  I picked him up at one point, hoping to comfort, but when he raked his nails across my face, and kicked me in the legs, I wrestled him back into the stroller, strapping him in.  He didn’t like that very much.  And yet, I *think* I won the battle.  When he started sobbing sadly for, “Mamaaaaaaa,” I knew his anger was spent, and he knew he wouldn’t get his way.  I was able to pick him up at that point, and my sweet boy was back, the demon exorcised once more. 

“Dear God, please let me never forget what shopping with a toddler is like, so that I may look upon harried mothers and their screaming children with compassion, rather than disgust.  Amen.”