Life

Note: the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys!

Sent from my iPad

Recollection In Life's Station

Things are starting to get exciting around here, what with the hustle and bustle of getting ready for our summer trip and my sister's wedding.

There are a million things to remember, a million more to find, and another that I'm sure to forget. It is all so ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. People still need to be fed, clothed, bathed, prayed with, tucked in bed, and tended same as always. In another several days we'll be doing the self-same things but in another house, another state.

I keep thinking that there is something "else" I need to be doing, something more momentous. But my station in life is right where I am: I work to make a living, I lead my family spiritually, pray, study, I support my wife, help raise the kids, provide both love and discipline, and keep up the property. This and a thousand mundane things are what makes up the day to day; this is where I'm supposed to find my sanctity.

Scripture says that people will be buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage right up until the Judgment Day, so this is nothing very alarming.

There is a story about a Saint whose name I can't remember. It was the hour for recreation, and one monk asked the Saint what he would do if Jesus appeared to them at that moment. "I would continue playing my game.", was the answer. The Saint knew that he was doing precisely what was required of him at that time, having already prayed, studied, and worked. He was recollected.

So if we have done what was asked of us according to our station in life, we also have nothing to fear.

Dona Nobis Pacem: Give Us A Break

I must really love my sister.

Not only are we going out of town for her "destination" wedding (she lives locally), incurring the expense of transporting 7 people, blah, blah, blah, but also now I'm singing at the wedding?! I haven't sung in front of people for more than ten years now, except in church.

Fortunately, I'm not alone. My father and one of my brothers are also roped into this shin-dig. All I have to do is sing this simple little round of Dona Nobis Pacem. It's - what - two minutes of my life? How can something so simple take up such a large part of my time and energy? It's nervous energy to be sure.


We're practicing, going to a vocal coach for a few crash course lessons, and working on "blending". Right now, I'll settle for hitting all the notes right. We're doing it a capella, so it's just us and a sheet of music. We're making progress - we went from awful to halfway decent. There's still a week or so to improve a bit more.

I warned her that it might not sound all that good. She says she just wants us to sing as a gift of thoughtfulness rather than ability. OK, Sis, hope you really, really appreciate this, 'cause that's what you're getting. I must be awesome in the thoughtfulness department.

Sigh. Family.

Family Tech Time

You know the old adage: the family that iPads together stays together - or something like that.
The Nodlings are just as excited about my new purchase as I am. Of course, part of that is simple novelty. However, it has borne some interesting fruit. Because it is so portable, yet large enough for more than one person to look at, the kids are clustering about like fruit flies.

We have done morning prayer via Universalis a couple of times with the Nodlings each taking turns reading one of the psalms aloud.

We tested out our chosen GPS application, MotionX GPS Drive HD, v4.1, by navigating to Grandma's house for brunch today and then "detouring" for gas in order to simulate our upcoming trip to my sister's out of state wedding. It gives directions just fine, but the voice directions only seems to know about major road names. Figuring out how to detour in the middle of a navigation was also tricky. Should work out fine.

Of course the Nodlings want to play the games on the iPad, so I downloaded some free apps: checkers, touch hockey, BrainPOP, tic-tac-toe, Let's Do Math, and Animal Fun. My littlest, Nib, loves the animal one. It just shows real pictures of animals and plays the sound that animal makes, says its name, and spells it. Nib squeals with delight for each and every animal and pushes the button to go to the next one. The interface is so simple a two year old can use it (most of the time). She ran around the house yelling "Ice pack! Ice Pack!". I had to laugh, "No baby, it's called iPad."

Tonight the Nodlings and I curled up on the couch and watched an educational clip on BrainPOP about Hellen Keller, took the quiz at the end, and finished up with a couple of levels of the Isaac Newton's Gravity game, where we had to figure out various puzzles based on gravity.
Even Grandma, who is not into tech toys, saw it and got excited. She can read books, look up recipes, flip through pictures of the kids, and get her email on one little simple device.

Anything that draws us together has to be a good thing, right?

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival #63

This week on Sunday Snippets, WBN presents: Simple and Sophisticated. This is a study in contrasts, but both ended up being prayerful in their own ways.

• Simple Pleasures
• Drinking the Kool-Aid
  

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival is a weekly opportunity to share your best posts with the wider Catholic blogging community. To participate, create a post highlighting posts that would be of interest to Catholics and link to the host blog at http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com. Go to the host blog and leave a comment giving a link to your post.