Serenity Prayer

Below is the text of the Serenity Prayer as found here with my comments in the colored text.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
Dirty dishes, Repairs and Chores will always be and their is never enough time to do them all today, work, take care of yourself and spend time with your family.
courage to change the things I can;
I can change how I treat others, my family especially. The first thing I have to do is to take the time every day work on myself and my relationships. Those are the things that matter.
and wisdom to know the difference.
This is the hard part, as a father I can be stubborn. This is where I need to work harder and check my dislike of humility at the door. No, I cannot always be the superhero (accept what I cannot change).
Living one day at a time;
No guarantee that I will make it to tommorow, I need to remember to spend today as if it is my last here.
Enjoying one moment at a time;
The small things, from something small my child did to the most important thing in the world that she needs to tell me at that moment.
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Pain and suffering are a teacher. I cannot fight them or I will never find peace. Can you imagine how much our Blessed Lord found peace in the ressurection? That peace came through the pan and suffering of the cross.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
My children will grow up and make mistakes. I look at myself and I know I have made mistakes. I can only work to change myself and accept what is around me for what it is. I am not the hero saving all. I can only accept the graces given to me. That is probably the best lesson that I can teach my children and it goes back to humility.
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
Again, this is humility and trust. The only way that my children can really learn this is by me living it. I remember the prayer of St. Francis, not the first part but the second part. I need to repeat the second part of that prayer every morning.
That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
That is the goal, to get to heaven, in working towards that goal we can find our true happiness. This is also the best training for my kids so that they can get to heaven.
Amen.
I believe, may my body and my actions follow.

My wife found this

A very cool blog that is, Confessions of a CF Husband. Very touching and moving story of a man married to a woman with Cystic Fibrosis. I cried when I saw this posted video he has put up. You can tell he was crying. This post here gives me hope for me. Basically he had to come out and say, "Hey, I ain't perfect" because he was feeling self concious due to feedback. I really admire this man, now to work on dishes and on me so that I can be a better dad and husband. I think this post might be a good place to start.

Under the Mercy,

Matthew S

Snow Induced Creativity

So it snowed today:


I shoveled out front and Mary watched me from the window for a bit. When I was done I came inside and saw something out the back door.





Very creative and homemade. All snow induced.

2008 Presidential Race

Well, it is getting to be something that I have to start making decisions on. Who am I going to vote for? Now that the field of choices I am going to choose from is becoming clear it is time to start researching issues, statements and history. If anyone has any good ideas or good places to look, let me know.

Under the Mercy,
Matthew S

Don't drop the Soap?

dropsoap
Originally uploaded by kc0lex (Matthew)

Don't admit you are from Kansas!!! I can't believe that they are peddling this stuff out of the Governor's residence!

Click the picture to read the story, sigh.

Getting to see this:

Clara Smiling
Originally uploaded by kc0lex (Matthew)

is one of the joys of FatherHood.

Rock Climbing

IMG_4755
Originally uploaded by kc0lex (Matthew)

This has really been helping me get back into shape and feel healthier.

Reason to Homeschool #4,568,323

I don't ever want my daughters to think its cool to be like her and I don't want my kids around guys like him. I may now officially be an old fogey, but I know wrong when I see it. Follow link for story of older man walking younger fiance on a leash, photo included (slightly immodest dress alert) or here without photo.

Trains at night

IMG_4715
Originally uploaded by kc0lex (Matthew)

I am delving deeper into learning about photography and taking better pictures. Found out it takes a 1/4 second long exposure to get both lights lit on film.

Blogging is slow

We are through the holidays and starting up school and training at work and working on me going to school. Needless to say, its a busy day, every day. I am working on blog posts in a notebook (pen and paper) and will hopefully start to get them out semi-regularly in a few weeks, until then I am going to try to keep throwing a few short notes about life or get some pictures uploaded and comment about them. I am working on another installment of the TIRM as well.



Fatherhood before blogging, thats my motto.



Under the Mercy,



Matthew S