Welcome

Thank you for visiting my blog(s). There is no major theme to Grandma's Musings, but you'll find that I view life from the Roman Catholic perspective, and all events are observed through that lens.

It's definitely a blog by an elderly Great Grandmother, but written with the young in mind, wanting to give you a snapshot view of life in the slow lane, what motherhood was like in my day, and prove that you can teach an old dog new tricks. We elders are 'out there' blogging. We are a motley group - some of us are somewhat up-beat, while others are more negative . It is my desire to bring you a glimmer of hope in these uncertain times.

I am reasonably healthy and fully functional, while my husband's health is in decline along with his cognitive abilities. I'll tell what it's like to be a caretaker, write stories about our family, and offer my musings as well. (p.s. added 3-29-08) I was in denial when I wrote this. I'm not fully functional, and it's questionable about who is the caretaker. I have Anxiety Neurosis. When I go into 'meltdown', my husband is the one who picks up the pieces until I get my head on straight again. Also, I need to point out that, although his cognition is in decline, the Dr. says he does not have Dementia.

There are links in the sidebar to other blogs of mine, including one of email humor, a blog of photos of our family of eight (the 6 children as infants & youngsters, plus Mom and Dad).

My Conversion story is in the sidebar.

If you have an interest in these subjects, I hope you will browse back to the beginning post and get acquainted. Join me for a cup of coffee, and come to visit often.

80th Birthday Photo Story

Son, Jim and his wife, Barb hosted the family party to help us celebrate my milestone Birthday. I took my camera, but forgot to take photos, so I downloaded these from Barb's album. She is a photographer, and she took the awesome photo of 32 family members at the 60th Wedding Anniversary party.
I got very special treatment from daughters. Kathy & Peggy. They made sure there was plenty of gluten-free foods for me to eat. It was great. I was a little disturbed that I
couldn't even taste the marvelous cake Andrea brought, but there were oohhs and aahhs over it. I have to be very careful of food choices when away from home.
There is more information on gluten intolerance on a very old post of mine, HERE

Here is the photo story of a day filled with love, laughter and great joy.

Jim & Barb~~Andrea's Raspberry-Chocolate cake

2nd Cousins___Trent and Jason are sons of Jim & Barb Jones, our hosts. They are our grandchildren. Madalynn is our greatgrandchild and the youngest guest.

my special gluten-free cake~~~~~~Husband Clinton

Grandson, Garrett with his Bride Andrea.
She makes the most luscious desserts.

captive audience of children, in-laws, grandchildren and
Madalynn, great grandaughter
All eyes on the birthday girl opening presents.

Is this what I think it is?----- Yeah! my ipod!! I love it!!!
There were other gifts, too and 13 guests. proving that
thirteen is actually a lucky number.

Son, Jim explains how to use the ipod in the speaker/dock.
I think the children want one, too.

frustration

I have to give up for tonight on posting photos of the party. I've just spent 2 and a half hours on the project. I admit to frustration and wondering if I'm not supposed to post them because of all the problems I ran into.

Maybe somebody can help me with this. I've posted photos before, but not a page full. It seems you have to start with the last photo of the series (if it's chronological) because each photo added goes on top of the one before. When I added text in the composer it was right next to the photo, but when I looked at the Preview, the text didn't line up with the photos and nothing I could figure out could make it right.

So, I admit defeat for the time being, and tomorrow is full, but I'll be back to meet the challenge another day.

Have a blessed and Holy week-end.

Thanks to all.

I must say, I was very surprised at the response to my 80th birthday announcement. My family delighted me with presence, presents, and a happy party day.

I haven't posted much since Lent, and was seriously thinking that blogging might not be in God's Will for my life right now. It's a tough decision to make because I'm so attached to my blogging friends. I have over 30 Catholic blogs in my Bloglines RSS feed, plus 3 apologetics, 5 vowed religious. I have more RSS feeds in Yahoo. It's all way more than I can keep up with. So I'm going to try and develop a systemized priority set up.

I will arrange my time to post once every week or two, & visit my RSS feeds on some kind of priority basis.

Also, I have some photos to post very soon, but first I must say a big thank you to Esther, Ukok(Deb) teresa-anawim, Lisa, Jessica, Tracy, Alexandra, suem48 (my fan daughter Susie), Easter, Cathy, and Corin (my grandaughter-in-law), for your friendship, along with the many others who visit me from time to time.
Love
Maryellen

Happy Birthday to Me

It's the Big EIGHT-O!

When I was in my 50's I knew for sure I didn't want to live that long, but an elderly friend said "just wait, you'll change your mind about that".

She was right and I take joy in announcing to the world that I'm now 80 years old. (and feeling every year of it.

A Glorious Easter to all

May your lenten prayers and sacrifices be rewarded with holy insights and spiritual growth that will bring you to a Victorious Easter.

This has been my best Lent ever. I'm grateful to God for His many lessons and life renewing conversions in areas that were sorely in need of his illuminating Light.

May all my blogging friends and Christians across the World rise on Easter morning with a renewed and deeper Love for Christ, our Savior.

Lent - Week Three

This Lenten mealtime prayer comes from our Church Bulletin. I just noticed today that this "Mealtime Prayer through the Lenten Gospels" has this copyright _ ©J.S. Paluch Co., Inc.

The Woman at the Well

Every thirsting soul is quenched by your Living Water,
Lord Jesus.
Call you Church, born of water and Spirit
to a renewed life in You alone

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Oh Lord, continue to give us your Living Water.

Lent - Week Two

This mealtime prayer for Week Two of Lent, comes from our Church Bulletin.

The Transfiguration

Transform your Church, Lord
of everlasting glory.
Lead us from the mountaintop
so others may see You in our lives.

They'll know we are Christians by our love.
Have a blessed Lent.

Trust God in All Things

Even in Obedience Jesus trusted in HIM and HE was comforted.
Trust the past to divine mercy,
the present to divine love
and
the future to divine providence

St. Augustine

To view and use a beautiful collection of holy cards, visit Holy Cards For Your Inspiration. There is a link to it in my sidebar also.

Today's post on Micki's blog struck a chord in me as it is a lesson God is trying to show me. It's a teaching everyone needs to learn. The deeper God leads me into this discipline, the more I am comforted by it but even more important is the realization that God the Father is comforted when we trust in HIM.
Read the quotation again, and really ponder it's deepest meaning.
Have a blessed Lent.

Lent: week one

The source for these Mealtime Lenten prayers is the Sunday bulletin from my Parish, St. Catherine of Sienna:

Ash Wednesday 2/6 to 2/9/08

The rules about fasting
Make your people mindful, Lord, of those who go hungry.
Give your Church a new heart, humble and strong for your service.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Week One (2/10 to 2/16)

The temptation in the Desert
You knew our human hungers, Lord, yet you prevailed over them.
Let your Church be fed by your word, nourished for the life of the world.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A Lenten Exercise

A Priest-friend sent an email today in which he says:
"Check out this Lenten program of readings from the church fathers.
There is the regular and a lite version. Takes about
10 minutes a day and you get a good smattering of the
Fathers. "

http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html

I have read very little of the Church Fathers. I simply haven't the patience to wade through them, but this program in the Lite version looks do-able. I'm posting it in case this might appeal to some of you. For the Lite version, you have to use New Advent and use search for the Epistle or document you want to read.

Have a happy and holy Lent.

black and white memories

I just found out this evening that I could post my slideshow to Blogger , so I chose photos from a 10 year period from 1952 when the firstborn was age one to 1962, when the youngest was born. They aren't in chronilogical order, but if you hover your mouse over a photo, you'll see a title and year.

I've been blessed

I've been honored by Lisa at Unexpected Journey who nominated my blog for the Excellent Award. This really surprised me because I think this is a very special award. Thank you Lisa for this great gift. I hope I can deserve it, but I really don't feel worthy. The rules:

By accepting this Excellent Blog Award, you have to award it to 10 more people whose blogs you find Excellent Award worthy. You can give it to as many people as you want-even those that have received it already, but please award at least 10 people.

There are many more than 10 people whose blogs I find worthy of the Award, and I have no idea who has already received it, but here's my nominations:

4 and Counting
Catholic Mom from Hawaii
Adrienne's Catholic Corner
Catholic Family Vignettes
Historical Christian
David and Corin
si fractus fortis
Wheelie Catholic
Code Name Nora
Mind Trips
All of these are interesting blogs, not all Catholic, but I found them excellent.

Spread the Love Award

Lisa, over at Unexpected Journey, has spread God's love to me. (Thank you, Lisa)

In the Spirit of Love I find in my friends in this blogging community, I pass this award on to:

Teresa_anawin2 at To Love and Pray
Rosemary at A Catholic Mother's Thoughts
Eleanor at Inner Elder
Adrienne at Adrienne's Catholic Corner
Heide at Seward's Folly

These ladies love Jesus and their blogs reflect obedience to Christ's commandment to Love One Another

Secular and Contemplative

I found a wonderful blog quite recently. I recommend you give her a visit. She has a beautiful spirit of prayer and love for our Lord. It's called "To Love and to Pray..."

This link will send you to her 3 posts from 2007. After reading those, click on 'home' and read the recent posts. You won't be disappointed

Interesting bit of History

I found this question and answer on the Apologetics site http://www.askacatholic.com/
This site has been reviewed by Catholic Culture, and given the green rating for orthodoxy.

I found the answer fascinating from the standpoint of Church History. I'll copy and paste it here but the actual question is HERE.
(The links aren't alive in the copy/paste, but are live on the actual page)

Anonymous wrote:
I was born on August 13th. Is this the feast of any Saint in the Church?
	{ On August 13th }

Fr. Fred replied:

Yes, St Pontian and Hippolytus. Today marks the memorial of two relatively unknown saints, one a pope and one a priest (of Rome) who although unknown have made a mark in the history of the Church as well as have a great lesson for us today. The early 200's for the Church was a time of tremendous expansion (in numbers and in geography) of the Church as well as persecution. It was also a time of great cultural change in and around Rome. In the Western part of the Empire, believe it or not, up until this period of time the common language was Greek, but the culture was changing drastically and the language was changing to Latin (in the West). Pope Zephyrin was the first pope to celebrate a Mass in Latin but his successor Pope St Callistus instituted it, promulgated it and all hell broke loose in the Church. Some thought the end of the Church was upon them. They stated Callistus had gone too far. They felt Callistus had "liberalized" the Church too far and the world was taking the Church away. Around this time these forces of opposition elected for themselves their own "pope" an anti-pope, the priest Hippolytus (the y is a short "i"). He set himself up to rule the faction that wanted to preserve Greek in Rome in the Liturgy. He wrote many commentaries on Scripture but perhaps the best known work of his is the Apostolic Constitution in which he set down for posterity the form of the Liturgy including what we know as the Eucharistic Prayer (Anaphora) all in Greek ( We now know of it as Eucharistic Prayer II ). Not long after, Pope St Callistus was martyred. Thanks for writing, Fr. Fred

Voice of the Martyrs

A must-read in the news today at WorldNetDaily.
The attack on Christians by Hindu extremists began on Christmas Eve and still continues.

Let's remember the persecuted Christians in our daily prayers. Those of us who live in Free Countries, can be thankful every day for the freedom to worship when and where we choose.

There are many enemies of the cross living in your Country and mine, and the persecution of Christians is alive everywhere. Here in the U.S. they whittle away at our freedoms while giving license to doing evil.

On Forgiveness

For a long time, I didn't understand the connection between Love and Forgiveness. As a child I was taught that God is Love and that He forgives our sins when we confess and repent, but I only knew those things as facts. They were not a reality to me until much later in life.

I'll never forget the flood of feelings that rushed through me when I first realized that God really loved me as an separate individual, precious in His sight; not just one among many of millions of souls He created. It seemed incredible that He wanted to have fellowship with me. It was a surprise to me that He would have anything to do with me since I was sure He must be angry over all my transgressions. I had never been able to give Him the Obedience He commanded.

I came to know that He was never angry with me, but rather that He was offended by my lack of Love. He was infinitely patient in his disappointment, willing to wait for a change of heart, because He knew I would eventually come to my senses. And when I did, He was faithful to His promise to forgive. And oh what freedom came with that.

Later, I learned that there is freedom when I am the one who forgives. When Jesus teaches us to fogive, He's not trying to make things hard for us. He wants us to know the freedom that comes from letting go of anger, resentment and all negativity. He gave us the best example of this when He forgave his persecutors from the Cross. And we have His promise that if we forgive others their trespasses, our heavenly Father will likewise forgive us. (Mt.6:14) In the next verse, he cautions that if we don't forgive others, our heavenly Father likewise will not forgive us. That seems to correlate with His counsel that we reap what we sow, and similar concepts.

To forgive is to Love.

What is Love

I woke up this morning with a feeling of well-being, after a couple of funky months. Immediately I began thanking God for that and telling Him how much I loved Him. They were the same words I had spoken when I was feeling lethargic, but today I spoke them with enthusiasm and fervor.

That began a whole new train of thought. I questioned: 'Do I love God more when I'm feeling well than when I'm not feeling well? Is love a feeling? Is love a noun or a verb?' My college edition of Webster's shows it as both a noun and a verb. The Dictionary definition states as n. it's a strong affection or liking of someone or something. (also a tennis score of zero). The vt. is to feel love (for).

When Christians speak of Love, they are probably referring to 'Agape Love.' Agape is a Greek word that translates into English as Love. I checked it out on Wikipedia.org. In part it states: "..........The term agape is rarely used in ancient manuscripts, but was used by the early Christians to refer to the self-sacrificing love of God for humanity, which they were committed to reciprocating and practicing towards God and among one another." In the Catholic Catechism, this attitude and practice is called the Virtue of Charity.

So, I came to the conclusion that I actually love God more when I'm feeling ill than when I'm feeling well. It's easier to be loving when a person feels good; it's harder when afflicted and requires more effort. According to what I've read, there is more merit to the deed done sacrificially, and when I'm uncomfortable in mind and body, it is indeed a sacrifice to give thanks and praise to God.

Loving often requires us to be kind to unappreciative persons. Frequently, loving acts are inconvenient. They interrupt our routines and cost us precious time we would much prefer to spend on other activities. If done without complaining, they benefit the Soul because they can be offered to God in union with the merits of Jesus. Joined with His Sacred Heart, our light afflictions gain value. I'm so grateful He accepts our little sacrifices.

This relates ultimately to Forgiveness, which I'll write about in my next post.

I'm Back

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
Today is World Peace Day. Let us storm the Throne of Mercy and ask that each and every heart will be moved toward Peace, and that each of us may do our part in bringing that about - starting in our own family, our Community and our Nation.

Let's continue to pray for our National Leaders and World leaders. I don't know what the answer is, but I know the One who does. May God's Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

May your 2008 be full of God's Blessings.

Breaking silence

I'm breaking my self-imposed December blog silence to tell exciting news. Sometime in August 2008, we will have another great-grandchild! We learned this by phone earlier, but I'd rather you'd read the story HERE . The pregnant Mamma tells the story with full emotional impact on her blog.

This will be the 2nd child for our Grandson Davey and Corin. We just met their daughter, Dakota, for the first time in October at our Wedding Anniversary Party

Taking a Break

I'm experiencing a lot of anxiety these days. Hubby and I have both been sick since the 1st week of November - nothing serious - not to worry. We just are excessively tired day after day, and our brains are not working very well. At the end of the day, nothing much has been accomplished except the basic necessities, with little time for anything else. I'm facing the yearly task of sending Christmas cards. It's very important and is often the only time I'm in touch with friends and relatives from afar. I need to carve out large blocks of time for that.

So, I decided to follow my own advice -" Give yourself a break". So I'm taking December off from blogging, and I'll be back in January. Promise you'll miss me and visit me again when I return. (of course I'll be visiting all of you because I'll need my "fix". lol)

Henry Hyde on Abortion

I signed up at God Tube this evening, and while browsing, found this interview of Henry Hyde from 1999. The video was posted just today - on the day of his passing. I was never a fan of Henry Hyde, but after watching the video, I see I should have been cheering him on.

I wasn't able to download the Video, but here is the link.
I think you'll enjoy it.

Weekly Prayer for Peace

I found this Patriotic Holy Card at Holy Cards for Your Inspiration and decided it would make a great Prayer for Peace.

"Indeed,
I tremble for my country
when I reflect that God is just."

Thomas Jefferson

Let us never stop praying for peace. But more importantly, let us never stop thanking God for what we have.

Christmas Spirit award

I have been honored by Esther for the Spirit of Christmas award. What is that, you ask?

Quite simply it is those that have a generous and giving nature. Those who care about others. Those who have a kind word to say or a broad shoulder to lean on in the times that others need that. Those who display the "Spirit of Christmas". You can read more about it here

This is my very first blog award of any kind. When I started my blog, I didn't know there was such a thing as giving awards. It's a great encouragement, and I'm grateful for the recognition.

It's difficult to chose among the many caring bloggers. I will honor the following blogs.

1. Unexpected Journey
2. Crazy Acres
3. 4 and Counting
4. Growing Up
5. Muddy Bathwater

I have chosen these because of their spirit of generosity, as they share their stories and support other bloggers with encouragement through their combox.