joy of nine9

• I am childless for the first time in 33 1/2 years as my ninth child starts university!

                         I was always sad when summer was over and school began. I enjoyed the relaxed, hot days of summer with my kids, the farm animals and gardens, I could never really understand those mothers who threw champagne brunch celebrations on the first day of school.  For me school meant  10 lunches, homework,  laying out clothes the night before and finding matching socks for 22 feet.

• Just two weeks ago, tears sprang to my eyes as I watched my fifth child commit her life in marriage as a strong, adult woman,

• So, I was not certain what my reaction would be when we dropped my youngest off at one of her oldest sister’s who is finishing her under graduate degree and preparing an honours thesis to qualify for a Masters in Religious Studies.

It was only two days before our 35th wedding anniversary and I am proud to admit that I turned to my husband and smiled!

• My youngest is more than ready for the challenges of the journalism program. 950 people applied to this program which is ranked as the best in Canada, 194 students were accepted, they cull 100 after the first year and Rebecca was accepted way last November on a scholarship. ( just a touch of Mummy Drivel, I promise)

Now I have even more time to write and  I am thrilled.

• “Yes, I do have the ability to change. After all my great grand-mother lived till 95, my grandmother 86 and my mother is a young 82-year-old. Heck, my husband/s grandmother is 100 and still smiling. Thus begins the next 40 year period of my life. It will be …. interesting.”

God has a wonderful sense of timing, actually perfect timing because I feel that He has protected me from the ” Empty Nest syndrome by hiding me in His heart.

Similarly, I was asked to link a First Friday post on the Sacred Heart to with a new group dedicated to the Sacred Heart. We can post prayers, reflections, teaching or images. My first will be images, of course because a picture is worth a thousand words to me.

• Modern Art Work depicting the Sacred Heart