The Catholic Church

Here's the definition taken from Wikipedia.... the largest online encyclopedia.

"The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church, is the world's LARGEST (bold print mine), representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world's population...  The Church defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity.  It operates social programs and institutions throughout the world, including schools, universities, hospitals, missions and shelters, as well as organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, Caritas Internationalis and Catholic Charities that help the poor, families, the elderly and the sick.

Through apostolic succession, the Church believes itself to be the continuation of the Christian community founded by Jesus in his consecration of Saint Peter, a view shared by many historians.  It has defined its doctrines through various ecumenical councils, following the example set by the first Apostles in the Council of Jerusalem.  On the basis of promises made by Jesus to his apostles, described in the Gospels, the Church believes that it is guided by the Holy Spirit and so protected from falling into doctrinal error.

Catholic beliefs are based on the BIBLE and on traditions handed down from the time of the Apostles, which are interpreted by a teaching authority.  Those beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed and formally detailed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Formal Catholic worship, termed the liturgy, is regulated by Church authority.  The Eucharist, one of seven Church sacraments and the key part of every Catholic Mass ... is the center of Catholic worship.

With a history spanning almost two thousand years, the Church is one of the world's oldest institutions, and has played a prominent role in the history of Western civilization since at least the 4th century.  In the 11th century, a major split (the Great Schism) occurred between Eastern and Western Christianity, largely as a result of disagreements over papal primacy.  The Eastern Orthodox churches became a separate entity from the Catholic Church in the resulting schism.  Eastern Churches who remained in or later re-established communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, form the Eastern Catholic churches.  In the 16th century, partly in response to the Protestant schism, the Church engaged in a substantial process of reform and renewal, known as the Counter - Reformation.

Although the Church maintains that is the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church" founded by Jesus Christ, where one can find the fullness of the means of salvation, it acknowledges that the Holy Spirit can make use of other Christian communities to bring people to salvation.  It believes that is called by the Holy Spirit to work for unity among all Christians, a movement known as ecumenism."

Just wanted to make clear the Christianity of the Catholic Church......

Rory's First Birthday Party

LOVE this pic of her!

My friend Lauren made her cake for her!  It was AWESOME!  I ate too much, and I don't even like cake!  It matched the invitations exactly too!

The singing and blowing of the candle freaked her out a little bit!

but she LOVED the cake!

Jace loved it too!

End of party, and Roar's too tired out to smile anymore!

I am taking some time away from the computer at night.  I will try to take plenty of pics of the kids to upload in the mornings!  

Lent

Tomorrow begins the season of Lent.  I have never celebrated Lent myself, probably because every church I have ever attended has been Baptist and I don't think they celebrate Lent.  I honestly don't know much about it, except that it is a season of penance, of grief, to culminate in the glory of Jesus' death and resurrection  at Easter.  The forty days leading up to Easter is a time of prayer, sacrifice, fasting, generosity, striving to become closer to God.  I am not sure yet exactly what we will do.  I do know that I desire to become more steadfast in prayer.  I read on a fave blog of mine about the 40 trash bag challenge... click here  

I am going to strive to do this.  I have really been wanting to de-clutter and simplify my life lately... there is too much "STUFF" in our lives around here.

Life is....... EXCITING..... everyday...... the best thing going on around here in our lives is that Trey and I are closer than ever in our marriage, and we are closer to God than we have ever been...... choices are being considered and decisions are being made......  possibly the best decisions of our lives.......

Bible study

As always.... bible study was a blessing.  Thank you Lord for these women you have graciously brought into my life.

Happy Birthday Roar!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!  (will post pics when camera is up and running!)

Open to life

What does open to life mean?  I have figured out that it means different things to different people.  Before I had children I was very pro-choice... take that how you will.  I never "believed" in abortion for myself.  I would never had made that choice.  But I didn't think it was right to limit the choices of women who felt that decision was best for them for whatever reasons.  Now, of course, I am very pro-life... ever since I saw the first ultrasound of my first baby girl!  I just feel that if every women contemplating abortion could just see/hear their baby's heartbeat we'd have fewer abortions in this country.  This has been a topic of many conversations over the past few months...

I have also had some interesting conversations in the last few months about babies, big families, etc.  There are some families who are more than happy to stop at the two requisite children, and then I know some who are so ecstatic at the prospect of accepting however many souls that the Lord blesses them with.  But here's the kicker... it is the ones open to the multiple blessings of the Lord that seem to be the less judgmental about other family size choices.  Don't get me wrong... I also know plenty of people who are happy with two children in their families that don't judge those who want more.  But it's the ones who criticize other's choices that have really been sticking with me lately.  I have heard more than one person lately criticize those having more than 2 and the more  I think about it the more it bothers me.  Who am I to judge other peoples desires to have more children?  Who are they to do so?  A good friend of mine said something so poignant that I wish I had thought of it, but alas I did not :)  BUT I will use it in the future.... hahahaha!  Here is what it was... "What's so infuriating is that a person is so willing to judge / criticize someone for CHOOSING to have another baby, but if I was to have made the CHOICE to kill my baby (abortion) than that would have been okay?"

The truth is, children love us so completely and without restriction.  They fill our lives with so much joy and LOVE...  and there is no LIFE without LOVE in it.  My brother and I have always been so much to our parents and our Nana.  And my nana's grandkids and now great grandkids are EVERYTHING to her...  isn't that a nice vision?  To have  lived a love-filled life, and then be surrounded by the blessings of grandkids and great grandkids?  That is my dream... TONS of grandkids!  Trey just laughs at me and has since before we got married.  He says we won't be able to afford all the grandkids that I dream about...  but I would love nothing more than a house filled with love...  anyone ever see the movie Dan in Real Life?  I LOVE the scene where the WHOLE family puts on their own talent show!  That's what I want to do with my children and their children, and God willing, their children's children!  That's what open to life means to me.  

Trey and I weren't prepared when we got pregnant with Jace, but it was the plan that God had for us.  I remember distinctly saying the night of our rehearsal dinner that it would be 5 years before we started having kids!  HA!  God showed us... we were pregnant within a month (and yes, we were "careful")!  Well, the Lord had started our family for us before we thought "WE" were ready, but he obviously knew that we were.  He knew it was the right time for Jacelyn Hollis Holmes to be here.  And then 20 months later He knew it was time for Rory Hart Holmes to be here (her we helped plan).  And tomorrow she'll be 1!  Time flies...  People thought and expressed their opinions even then about our forming miracle but I could not imagine my life without either of them.  God has such great, big, wonderful, EXTRAORDINARY plans for these children of ours and His.

I guess I should have specified that I know several people who feel like toddlers shouldn't act this way...  they always start out their sentences with, "When I was that age, I didn't act like that."  or "my kids didn't act like that at that age." etc...  lol

Here's something I read on yahoo today:

"10 Signs Your Children Are Brats:

1.    They resort to crying or yelling when they want something.

2.    They throw themselves on floor and won't get up.

3.    They constantly throw tantrums or even hit you when you punish them.

4.    They ignore you when you ask a question.

5.    They are rude to other adults and even to other children.

6.    They refuse to share toys or treats with other children.

7.    They are show-offs and are constantly trying to one-up their peers to be the center of        attention.

8.    They always want whatever everyone else has.  Once they have it, they want something        new.

9.    They keep a messy room and never help out around the house despite your pleas for them        to do so.

10.)  They refuse to go to bed."

SERIOUSLY!?!  

Does this sound like familiar behavior to anyone else?  I mean, don't get me wrong... Jace certainly DOES NOT act like this always.  BUT she definitely has her moments where she has probably acted like all of the above on occasion.  Would I classify her a brat?  No.  Would others?  I don't think so.  And if they do, then they certainly haven't told me.

So do you these behaviors make a brat?  Or do the parents who LET them continuously act this way make a brat?

Broken camera

Well, the camera is broken...  sorry to disappoint everyone who has been wondering where new pics of the girls are.  Hopefully, this will be remedied soon :)

Jace was so sweet today... I love days like that.  I finally made up my mind that she is going to go to preschool in the fall.  I have been wavering back and forth about it for a while but finally today realized that she would LOVE it.  I know I am perfectly capable of teaching her myself... that isn't what this is about.  This is about Jace, and I think she would thrive on a little time away from me.  It's only tuesdays and thursdays from 8:30 - 11:30.  I think I will survive the 6 hours without her (thought it may take some getting use too :)!!!

Rory LOVES baby dolls... she rocks them and talks to them and hums/sings to them.  I think she is my mothering/nurturing child.  Jace is like a pitt bull in a china shop---- (just like her momma!)  Roar also LOVES the kitchen playset that Jace got for Christmas 2 Christmas' ago...  which Jace has shown very little interest in.  We had moved it to Jace's room out of the play area for a while but we are going to have to move it back because she doesn't want to let Roar in her room to play with it.  Or I may move it to Rory's room... 

I took the girls to see Bic at the office today... they both love to go to "Daddy's office" which is funny because he is actually so rarely there.  Vicki (Bic) had been digging through some of her old pics and found this picture of herself from where she was around Jace's age.... it is ASTONISHING how much Jace looks like her.  I've always thought she looks like Vicki, but seeing this pic of her from her childhood cemented my opinion!  Which is not a bad thing, Bic is very pretty (my brother once called her HOT!)  lol

To me, of course, my girls are BEAUTIFUL!  And they look so different from each other, to me at least... Jace is darker--- darker skin, darker eyes, darker hair.  Roar is fairer--- fair skin (like her daddy and uncle matt and pop), blue/green/gray eyes (yes, ALL those colors), and strawberry blonde/reddish hair.  and neither one looks like me... at least in my opinion.  Isn't it amazing how God can create from the same 2 people such different souls?  They each received the same amounts of mine and Trey's DNA and yet are so utterly unique.  From conception, they have been unique individuals...