I don't usually address the "featured question" or even think much about them.  My opinion being that those who pose them are mainly trying to get attention.  Like the kids in my second grade class who bring up topics that have nothing to do with what is going on in class just to distract me from my plans for the day.  But I have read several posts about the Duggar family and at least two answering a featured question concerning the number of children that they have and it is really starting to annoy even me.

I do not have 18 children, although if God had blessed me that way I would have been more than pleased.  But having given birth to seven and fostering 40 over the years, I have come under attack in my little community by the small minded who wonder if I am not being excessive in the number of offspring that I brought into the world and then when it is discovered that I am fostering also, more outrage that I am assisting others to bring more "unwanteds" into the world.  (yes that is a real word that was used.)  What possible business is it of others how many children any given couple is having?  Who gave anyone else the right to make a judgement about the couple who decides to actually give birth to their children? 

One question that is being batted around is "is it right to have so many children?"  Who is the judge and jury that decides this?  What makes a certain number right and another number wrong?  Why does this even enter into things?  These people are obviously not suffering because of the number of children that they have brought into the world.  They actually seem to be made better by the presence of these little people in their lives. 

I would like to suggest that those who are so terribly concerned about the number of children that this, or any other large family (large being any number over 2) has could have something to do with feelings of either guilt or inadequacy?  Or maybe it is merely an inability to come up with something constructive and kind to say. 

I would like to close this with the advice that my Grandmother used to use, timeless but appropriate:  If you cannot say something nice, say nothing at all, except perhaps a prayer.

The picture I posted this morning was taken at 7:28 AM.  There was quite a lot of snow on the ground, maybe 12 inches and we had already gotten about 3 inches overnight. 

It is now 2:16 PM and the snow has not stopped falling all day.  It has snowed harder at some times than others, granted, but it has snowed all day.  Now the wind is blowing along with the snow falling.  We now have about 6 inches of new snow on the ground and it is now falling hardest of all.

Usually when I look out our front window I can see the tower of the casino 7 miles away.  I not only cannot see the casino but I cannot see the buildings on route 5 a mile across the field.

My prayers are going out to the road crews that are battling this.  They have to not only deal with the snow, fatigue, cold, and hunger.  But they have to put up with phone calls from citizens who have no clue what they are going through, but harass them none the less about not getting to their road fast enough or worse yet wonder why they spend so much money on sand and salt during a winter like this one. (it has snowed more days than not)  Please Lord give them strength and patience.

reminds me of a poem that I had Matthew memorize several years ago.  But that one was about rain.  Still, it seems to fit.  The snow is snowing all around, it falls on fields and trees.  It snows on the umbrellas here, and on the ships at sea.  I don't see any people around with umbrellas but you know how poets are.

It has been snowing all night long and is supposed to snow all day too.  After this storm goes through we are supposed to get lake effect.  Then they are talking about more snow on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  Matthew is a little miffed that I won't pick up Brett for classes today.  I usually pick him up and his mom comes and takes him home.  Their car isn't a four wheel drive and I don't even think that it is all that great right now anyway so I don't think it is wise to ask her to come out in all this snow.  Schools all across the central part of the state are closed and municipalities are asking people to stay off the streets so that plows can do their jobs.  It just seems wise to stay in.  We will go to Mass and then come home and stay here.  Matthew has to push snow in our driveway and the neighbors and bank the house with some more snow so he has a full plate anyway.  Besides, he'll get over it.  Maybe I'll go out and make a snowman.  I kind of miss the ones that my kids used to line up outside my kitchen window for me to see.

Yesterday morning for the first time, Matthew served the traditional Latin Mass.  He has been practicing and training for several months now to be able to do this.  Congratulations Matthew for achieving a commendable goal.  Your father and I are proud of you. 

Just give the word.  I thought snowmen would be fun since the little nipper wouldn't see them in real life anytime soon.

Outside my window....... it is COLD! and the sun is shining.  Our high is supposed to be 21 but the wind is blowing too so I think that it will be very deceptive.  Good day to stay inside.

I am thinking....... I should get this done and go get Brett for Spanish and Biology.

I am thankful for.......... a husband who doesn't mind when I over sleep.  He knows that I need to sleep when I can.  We had to take both MK and Jason back to school in opposite directions yesterday because Jason's car is broken down again.

From the schoolroom....... nothing yet.  Matthew is helping Ian unload a boar for my sows and Brett isn't here yet.

From the kitchen.......... no cooking this week.  Matthew will be gone Wed. thru Friday and I don't cook for my self and Doug said only leftovers for him since he will be working late every night. What will I do with all that free time?

I am wearing........ blue jeans, brown tank top with a brown sweater over it and slippers

I am creating........... outfits for two Infant of Prague statues.

I am going......... to get Brett and to the bank.

I am reading........... One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic (I can't remember the author) It's a good read.

I am hoping........ Matthew has a good time in Baltimore this week.

I am hearing....... the sound of Ian's truck.

Around the house.......... all is neat and clean thanks to Mary-Kate's efforts this past weekend.

One of my favorite things........ is waking up to a nice warm fire.

A few plans for the rest of the week.... the usual, my classes and holy hours, I have to pick MK and Jason both up on Friday, again in opposite directions.  Maybe get a little sewing done in my time all by myself.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you............

Matthew picked up this wig at a garage sale that we had a church.  Mary-Kate is having the time of her life "styling" Matthew's hair.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of the two of them fooling around. 

I was thinking this morning about someone that I went to school with and a conversation that he and I had shortly after I was married.  He used to come to the house to see me after I was married and we used to have talks about all kinds of things.  This guy is a very sick man but at the time I was not aware of his illness.  I was shocked when I had heard that he had been admitted to a mental institution for treatments.  I used to enjoy our times together because it was good conversation that made both of us think about things.  (and my husband didn't mind him coming over at all, perhaps he sensed that there was something wrong and that this fellow needed the company.)

One of the talks we had started with a comment that he made to me about how he couldn't be a wife and mother because he would go crazy doing all the thankless tasks that women do over and over again.  (I happened to be folding laundry at the time)  I didn't take offense at what he said but countered with the fact that a lot of what men do is also "thankless" if you define it as doing the same job over and over again and it never seems to be done and stay done. 

Since that day that conversation has often come back to me.  The conclusion that we came to eludes me but the feeling I have about the term thankless tasks has stayed with me all this time.  Are we here on this earth to be given thanks for the tasks that we perform?  We teach our children to thank those who do things for them, especially when what is done is something that is not compelled.  But a line from the liturgy of the Church comes to mind,  "the very fact that we want to thank you is a gift from you......."  Our thanks to God is what matters not the thanks that we give to or get from each other, not that we should stop thanking each other for favors done or gifts given.

I remember the first time that one of my children thanked me for something that I did and I knew they were really aware of what had gone into what I had done for them.  It was when I made my daughter's First Communion Dress.

I worked for months on that dress.  I had saved for a long time to buy imported fabric for it.  I planned what I would do and carefully cut and traced beautiful and intricate embroidery patterns on pieces of the fabric.  In the evenings for months I worked at embroidering the designs that would encircle the skirt and the design that is on the bodice. 

Then came the day that I was going to put it all together.  One week before the big day.  I had plenty of time.  The worst was over and all that needed to be done was to sew the pieces together.  I started to set in all of the lace diamonds that would surround the embroidery that I had painstakingly done.  I took the completed skirt to the sink to wash out the marking pen (a kind that I had used hundreds of times on other lesser projects) and it wouldn't come out.  I washed and washed and it not only wouldn't come out but the lace that I had so lovingly put in and shaped into the diamonds that would encircle the skirt all dissolved.  I stood there and cried as 10 little embroidered panels floated in the bathroom sink and the shreds of lace went down the drain.  What was I to do?  First Communion was only a week away and I had no more imported fabric left and no time to order more and get it here.  The bodice and sleeves were done but there was no skirt.

I put the whole thing away and deliberately forgot about it until the day before.  I prayed and prayed and finally I swallowed my pride, for that is what it was.  Pride in my workmanship and my ability as a seamstress.  I had let my pride get in the way of what I was making the dress for.  I went to the local fabric store and bought enough fabric to make a new skirt.  I bought some wide pink ribbon to make a sash so that no one could tell that there were two different fabrics in that dress.  I borrowed a friends sewing machine that does embroidery and did a decorative stitch outlining the scallops on the bottom and sewed the lace along the scallops that I had originally intended to use on the other skirt.  I sewed fine pink ribbon at the points of each scallop and tied them in bows to make it look a little fancier and presented the finished dress to my daughter. 

She looked at it and she burst into tears and declared it more beautiful than the original.  She said that Jesus would love her in it and that was all that mattered.  I will never forget how she looked as she went forward to receive Our Lord the first time.  No thankless task this.  The thanks I got was forgiveness from Our Lord for letting my pride get away from me and from my daughter for helping her look beautiful to meet Jesus for the first time.

Outside my window....... It is cold and dark out yet and the snow is falling gently.  From the looks of things it has been falling all night.  I'm going to need to use the broom to sweep off my car before we leave for Mass this morning.  I knew it would snow since I have to take MK back to school this morning. 

I am thinking.......... that her vacation went by far too fast.  Why do our children have to go away from home?  I have so enjoyed having her home.  It is nice to have another woman in the house.  When she was young people would say that we needed more girls now I am enjoying having another woman her at home with me.

I am thankful for........... the lovely day that we enjoyed yesterday.  In spite of ending with a migraine (that's why I didn't call you back last night big guy) we had a beautiful day together yesterday.

From the schoolroom........... nothing.  I haven't gotten Matthew up yet.  But he and Brett will be doing their spanish and biology without me this morning so I can take MK to get her groceries and then back to school.

From the kitchen.......... all is in readiness for whatever.  I think pork chops for supper tonight. 

I am wearing............ dark blue long johns, blue night shirt and slippers.  Too early to get my shower and get dressed.  I don't want to disturb the natives quite yet.

I am creating......... completed scrapbooks.  I have Ian's done and I think I can get Adam's done today.  Not being able to do anything heavy has it's advantages.

I am going........... to Mass then to take MK to get her groceries and then take her back to Moo'ville.  I have to keep reminding myself that I will see her on Friday.

I am reading.......... Bulletproof by Chuck Holton

I am hoping.......... that the snow doesn't get any worse while I am out and that the roads over the hills are clear.

I am hearing........... silence and the sound of the bubbler in the fish tank.

Around the house.......... all is dark and still.  The only light is the screen on my laptop and the only sounds are the fish tank and my fingers on the keys.

One of my favorite things.............. is waking up beside my husband and not having to jump right out of bed and get going.  Something that we got to enjoy yesterday morning.  Not easy to do when you are married to a farmer who gets up before 4:00 AM.

A few plans for the rest of the week........... my second graders tomorrow and holy hour, my fifth graders on Thursday, pick up MK and holy hour on Friday.  Maybe I can get the fleece I am making done and shipped to the big guy this week.  I'd like to do some other sewing also.  We have to start emptying the big room upstairs (my sewing room) so that Ian can move back in.  That will be a major chore.

Here is a picture thought that I am sharing with you..............

We moved the daybed back upstairs so Lupus has to find somewhere else to sleep.  She has been spoiled since it was downstairs.  She loves to sleep with her humans.

Nights have been below zero.  Days haven't risen much higher than 8 degrees.  It is snug and warm inside thanks to the efforts of my men.  Matthew has banked the house with copious amounts of snow pushed up with the Kubota.  We used to tease him that the tractor was permantly attached to his bottom he likes running it so much.  Now I am thankful for his skill gained from so many hours in the seat of that tractor.  He braves the cold to take round bales to the animals and to break the ice on the creek to make sure that they have plenty of water.  There is wood piled up in the basement and the garage aplenty to get us through until it warms up again.  Again, Matthew braves the cold to bring wagon loads of wood inside to fill the woodbox next to the stove in the diningroom.  Mary-Kate dutifully goes down into the basement and puts wood into the furnace and fills the stove when it is in need.  It seems as though this cold makes their hunger even greater. 

It all reminds me of a song that we sang a few years ago with the Chorale,  In the Bleak Mid-Winter.  But somehow this midwinter doesn't seem bleak but more comforting.  I look around me at the cooperation of my older children.  They work together to keep our home running in the face of my inability and their father's being away so much.  There is no complaint, no comment.  They merely shoulder the responsibility as the adults that they have become should.  And there is a certain comfort in that.  Their father knows that after a 14 hour day of work he will come home to a well run home, warm and cozy and welcoming.  A tribute to his example and his raising of them.  A tribute to his faith in the God that guides his life and work.

After reading so many lists, this is a very difficult list to put together.  But fun in a way, to examine what, in my life I have done that may be of interest to others.  So here goes and have fun reading this.

1.  I have lived in the same area for all of my soon to be, on Saturday, 47 years.

2.  I spent a very brief time on stage with Billy Joel, before being ejected from the concert hall by security.

3. I spent a whole number on stage with John Denver.

4.  I have toured the Saranac Brewery when it was the Utica Club Brewery, FX Matt Brewery and the Saranac Brewery.

5.  I can shoot skeet with my .20 guage, from the hip and hit the target.

6.  I can turn a ceramic insulator to powder with a .22 rifle from 40 ft. without missing the target once.

7.  I have raised pigs, cows, chickens, rabbits all for food for my family.

8.  I have cooked deer, wild turkey, and squirrels that have been killed on our farm for my family to eat.

9.  I have been on TV.

10.  I stowed away with Pure Prairie League on their bus before being discovered in Binghamton NY and brought back to my college campus.

11.  I have been thrown from a horse.

12.  I have lost a bet with my son and had to ride a horse which I am deathly afraid of.

13.  I have been on a nuclear submarine.

14.  I have given birth by C-section seven times.

15.  I have had abdominal surgery 11 times.

16.  I have had orthopedic surgery 5 times.

17.  I once lost 1/2 my body weight.

18.  I once weighed over 320 pounds. (see 17)

19.  I once canned a whole cow in one day.

20.  I am teaching myself to read music and play the piano after providing piano and violin lessons for all of my children.

21.  I have six brothers and one sister and I am the shortest member of my family.

22.  I have five sons and two daughters.

23.  I have one daughter who is a saint in heaven

24.  I have fostered 40 children, among them two sets of twins.

25.  I have homeschooled all six of my living children.  Five of them all the way to graduation.

26.  I have three sons in the army and one in the navy

27.  I have broken every finger on both hands at least once.

28.  I have climbed Bald Mountain in the Adirondaks every year of my married life, even pregnant with my children.

29.  I bake bread that is famous in two counties.

30.  I can knit, crochet, embroider, quilt, and do all kinds of crafts.

31.  I can make my own clothes and just about anyone else's

32.  I have pieced and sold hundreds of quilts of various sizes

33.  I have made most of my daughters clothing since she was born

34.  I have taught dozens of children how to sew.

35.  I can make a fire without an eccelerant.

36.  I can bank the stove so that there are enough coals to start the fire with in the morning.

37.  I have cooked on wood stoves, electric stoves, gas stoves, fires, and propane stoves.

38.  I have slept under the stars and in the back of several different cars.

39.  I have nearly lost my life by eating a strawberry.

40.  I have won an award for my spaghetti sauce.

41.  I met and interviewed Isaac Asimov

42.  I once owned 22 working sewing machines

43.  I've seen the aurora borealis

44.  I was a student nurse in the OR when Son of Sam had an emergency appendectomy

45.  I did six weeks in a locked psychiatric ward and lived to tell about it.

46.  I quit college 3 weeks before graduations and don't regret it one bit.

47.  I have my LPN nursing license and haven't used it in over 20 years.

48.  I have worked in food service, retail, on a farm, child care, and education.

49.  I can run a backhoe as well as anyone on this farm can.

50.  The first time I ever drove a tractor I managed to bury, literally, the disc that was on the back of it.

51.  I can do drywall

52.  I can hang wallpaper like a professional.

53.  I can unload hay fast enough to keep my husband busy in the hay mow.

54.  I have been shoulder deep in the hind of a pig more times than I care to count.

55.  I have delivered more piglets than our local vet has and have been told by same vet that I know more about pigs than she does.

56.  I have assisted at two cow C-sections

57.  I have helped sew closed two cows who have cast their whithers (neither of them lived to tell about it.)

58.  I have assisted at the gelding of one horse (not something that I ever want to do again) I don't like horses!!!

59.  I have milked a goat by hand more times than I care to admit to

60.  I have given shots to more ornery sows than I ever want to again

61.  I have ridden a pig once (involuntarily) after having given her a shot

62.  I have been bitten by a sow (see above) she ended up in the freezer

63.  I have been pulled over by the police for not looking old enough to have a drivers license

64.  I have been pulled over for swerving when there was a bee in the car.  The trooper helped me eject the bee and warned me not to do that again.

65.  I have been pulled over after my daughter stood in her carseat and waved to the police officer following me (no ticket was issued only a warning)

66.  I have driven a ford escort with six children, two of whom were in carseats and myself in it, gone through a road block and not been ticketed because four of the six were screaming because they needed naps.  The cop just wanted me out of there.

67.  I have been to the top of the Sears Tower, the observation tower in the Thousand Islands, the Empire State Building, and Radio City Music Hall even though I am afraid of heights.

68.  I have driven across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, and both bridges in Thousand Islands New York, even though I don't like bridges and am terribly afraid of bridges too.

69.  I have ridden a train to Kentucky to see my oldest son graduate from basic training.

70.  I have ridden a train to Great Lakes to see my sailor graduate from basic training

71.  I drove with two of my children (with no other driver to help) to Kentucky to see my son Jason graduate from basic training.  This is significant because I have a bad back and cannot sit for great lenghths of time.

72.  I have been to Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusets, Rhode Island, Conneticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia, W. Virginia, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Canada.

73.  I know the lyrics to all the songs that Billy Joel has ever written

74.  I have a photographic memory for numbers.  Every account number and phone number that I have ever written or dialed I can remember and repeat.

75.  I also have a photographic memory for songs.  If I hear them once the tune and lyrics are in my head forever. 

76.  I have taught children besides my own science, english, reading, composition, religion, history, and english literature.

77.  I have been in Union Station in Chicago, New York City, Utica New York, Washington DC, and Poughkeepsie New York. 

78.  I have had a beer in every state that I have listed in #72

79.  I can split and stack wood and keep up with my husband and sons.  But I won't use a chainsaw.

80.  I have fed wild bears in the Adirondaks

81.  I have attended the same little country church since 1970.

82.  I have absolutely no decorating sense but I am a genius when it comes to fabrics and trims.  Go figure?

83.  I have been married to the same man for over 25 years and he fathered all of my seven children.

84.  I have witnessed my children's first steps, words, reading their first pages, graduations, and receiving their first sacraments.

85.  I make my own wine and cordials

86.  One day I would like to not have to got to the store for anything that is eatable, I would like to produce all of our food right here on this farm.  I already have a good start.

87.  My biggest dream is to open a shop where I can sell fabrics and trims and teach sewing and quilting and give lessons in these types of arts to young girls. 

88.  My favorite kind of car is a Dodge.  I drive a Dodge Durango

89.  I have eaten brunch at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America)

90.  I have toured Hyde Park

91.  I have been to a concert at the Met but it didn't hold a candle to the solo that my son sang with the OACC

92.  I have been to Washington and heard Ronald Reagan speak to the marchers at the National March for Life

93.  I can recite all the states in the union in alphabetical order

94.  I know the Gettysburg Address by heart and the Preamble to the Constitution

95.  I still remember the first three rows of the periodic table by heart

96.  I cannot do more math than add, subtract, multiply, and divide.  My husband who has a bachelors in Physics taught higher math to our kids. 

97.  I can drive a standard on the floor as well as on the column

98.  I can hotwire an engine (pre-computerized that is)

99.  I have done brakes, transmission, clutch, carburator, and I have helped rebuild a whole engine once

100.  I hate getting roses for a gift.  I'd much rather get chrysanthemums, they last longer.