Randomness, but that's not surprising :o)

My little girl will be 7 in just under 5 weeks. She is big as can be, smart as ever and growing ever so fast. She has lost her top two teeth on top, which can be rather amusing at times because it is harder for her to speak, but a cute reminder to me of how much older she really is. She is still into Irish Stepdancing and has 'graduated' into the longer class for kids 7 and up. She is doing quite well and I love to watch her dance. She has recently shown an interest in playing the violin, so we shall see if it turns into more than a fancy, but we are looking into what it would take to get her started to see how she likes it.

September will be a big month, between Kat's birthday, first confession, the Russian Firebird Festival and our 8th wedding anniversary and it all starts with Labor day weekend! We still aren't exactly sure when to have her birthday party because the first weekend is Labor day, the following weekend we have loads of church and we are making the lunch for after church on sunday in celebration of Kat's b-day and confession, the weekend following that it is the festival and then we are at the last weekend of the month and September is nearly over! We can always choose something during the week, since most of her friends are homeschoolers and could make it as it is, but there are a couple obstacles there too, with Jay being in school. We will figure it out, I suppose.

Katherine is so excited for everything to happen. Some time this month she will meet with Fr. Boris to discuss her upcoming first confession, which she has been waiting, literally, years to be able to do. Not because she was necessarily ready, but because she has watched Jay and I go for all this time and now she gets to have her turn, she is big enough. Private confession is of dispute to lots of people who do not practice this in their faiths and, apparently, so is having confession at a certain age. The Church, not to mention science, hold that a person, by the age of 7, is conscious of their actions and know right from wrong in one way or other. This is a good case for having confession, at the very least, around the age of 7, if at all. I know why frequent confession in some churches is not practiced, but in some respects, it seems it does a disservice to many, but mainly the children who would be preparing for this particular Mystery, or Sacrament. If the Mystery of confession stands up there with communion, ordination, marriage and so on, I am wondering why we partake so rarely of it and why it should not be cared for better, as well as, encouraged to have a child become watchful of their actions and words. In any case, it is a big deal in our house, as it was when I was small, it is a part of our church life, that is so important to us and we are, with God's help, trying to prepare Katherine for her life in the Church and a good relationship with her Spiritual Father. In some ways, we are now stepping aside for a huge milestone to come and watch while she begins her next stage in her journey as a Christian and I feel blessed to be able to do so. I will leave it at this, it has been said that obedience is more than prayer and fasting (both of which seem to be questionable in today's world as well), so long as a person is under the care of their spiritual father, whose sole purpose is guidance toward the attainment of salvation, then it is as it ought to be.

Well, that was longer than intended, and there certainly could have been more, but that will have to do... In other news, I am noticing that I feel the changing in the seasons, with the cooler nights and muggy days that smell more like fall than summer, but public schools in our neighborhood already went back yesterday, leaving the streets so quiet that Jay put the two together by lunchtime. This year will, hopefully, prove to be less of a bear than spring semester...for Jay, for me and for Katherine. Things were SO hectic and insane that I don't know how we ever made it through, but for the grace of God, thankfully. I do love fall, no matter how I enjoy the changing of cooler weather into the warmth of spring and summer, fall will always be my oldest and dearest reverie. I was thinking the other day about how, although fall is the time that is leading us into the death and cold of winter, it is also the time of the harvest, when we gather the crop which has been sown in spring and summer to prepare for the road ahead. We reap the fruits of the trees and the plants of the ground as we settle in for the chilly quiet of winter. I suppose, in my mind and heart, fall is the excitable and intentional arrangements made before the rest of winters solitude, which seems to escape me all to often.

Well, if I think of anything, I will pop on here, but that is it for now. We had better get the day going before it hops along without us in tow. Until then...Glory to God for all things!