"The Mode" at Lake Powell by Leah

Lake Powell is a lake inside of Glen Canyon located in Utah. It was decided that they were going to make a dam which would cause the Colorado river to flood into the canyon. As a result, three million people visit Lake Powell a year. We now have a beautiful lake for an amazing vacation and I know because I have been there. It was the place I first learned about "the mode."

My great aunt and uncle invited my family to come with them on a houseboat for about a week. Another of my aunts was going to be there too. When we got there, we loaded our things onto the speedboat which my aunt and uncle own. We rode the speedboat inside the slip where the houseboats stay when they are not being used. That evening we were told by our Aunt Polly how we will work together on this trip, meaning we were told what jobs we had, such as who cooks and who cleans.

Afterward my aunt took us to the marina where they had rest rooms a gift shop and food/ice cream. 

After supper we set up the beds. The beds stay piled up during the day, and we spread them out at night so we can sleep up on the top deck. The stars were beautiful but I couldn't see all of them because we were half covered by the roof of the slip, which just made me more excited for the next day when I would see all of the stars, out on the lake by ourselves.

The next morning after the beds were put away and my dad and Aunt Polly and Uncle Tom had scouted for a spot for our house boat, our captain (my uncle Tom) decided that it was time to cast off. While the adults untied the boat we slowly started to float away from the dock. Soon we riding along faster to the spot where we were going to stay. 

When we arrived at our spot, the adults went to shore while us kids stayed on top and watched. They took 4 ropes attached to the boat and tied them around large heavy rocks to keep our boat from floating away. These were our anchors.

When they were done we got out to explore and swim in our surroundings. We made use of the water slide and played on paddle boards until suppertime.

After supper, we setup the beds and stared in awe at the sky I have never seen as many stars as I did there. I went to sleep knowing that tomorrow would be a whole entire day of swimming and other water sports.

The next morning was amazing starting with the view I saw the moment I opened my eyes: the sun shining on the walls and the reflection of it on the water. We put away our beds and those of us who needed to started on breakfast. 

This was the day that we all would get into what my aunt Polly called "the mode" which basically meant the routine of how the days would go.

We would eat our breakfast served by two different people every morning. Then it was time to jump in the water playing games and water sports such as water slide contests paddle boards and snorkeling. Then while the water was still smooth my uncle tom and my dad would take out the speedboat and hook up a long rope with a handle on its end and the people who wanted to water-ski that day would get into the speedboat except for the person who was going first. That person would get in the water and put on two long skis as tight as she can. Once that is done she would grab the end while the driver would drag them along faster until the skier was standing up. Everyone else waited until his or her turn to jump off the side and put the skis on.

Soon it would be time for lunch and clean up, which was always followed by quiet time. This was an hour long. my aunt Polly, uncle Tom, my sister Lucy and my brother David settled in bed and read books, others slept, while sometimes some of us were allowed to use the paddle boards and the kayak. My great aunt Sue and I only flunked quiet time once. :)

In the afternoon sometimes we made crafts, or we played in the water some more and added tubing in as well, which was a great opportunity to look around the lake. There are a lot of side canyons which you could easily get lost in. 

Once everyone had a turn to go tubing we headed back to the houseboat trying to get there in time for happy hour, as sometimes one of the tubers was in charge of happy hour and we had to go back early for them to setup. Once we finished our snacks we hurried to jump back in the water and put shampoo and conditioner in our hair while the people on setup for supper would work in the kitchen. Each night we would put our nice dresses and necklaces (party beads) on and helped carry the food to the top deck. We always ate there. By this time the water was usually still like glass because the speedboats stopped coming by so it was quiet and peaceful.

Supper always ended with a desert of cookies and then the dishes were taken downstairs and washed and put away. We got ready for bed and aunt Polly always joined us to listen to my dad who read a few chapters of our favorite book, At the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, and usually by the time he was finished most of us were already asleep. One night we got out our telescope and saw Saturn's rings!

The next few days all had the same schedule until the last night out on the lake when they said that the next day we would go back to the slip, stay the night and leave the next morning after cleaning up. On the last night in the slip, we had what Aunt Polly called a "award ceremony", which was when she gave each of us little gifts from the trip some of which just made us laugh. We went to bed happy. And as for "the mode"? I'll never forget it.

Worth the Wait by Madeleine

This year my family and I were invited to go to Lake Powell with my great aunts and uncle for a week. Lake Powell, which is a huge, man-made lake located in the middle of the desert in Utah, is barren, beautiful, and breathtaking. 3,000,000 people visit Lake Powell every year, but unfortunately, other tiny, unwelcome visitors have taken up residence there. We (and my great aunts and uncle) started planning many months ahead of time for this trip. In September of this year we found out that it was worth waiting for!

Lake Powell was created by building a dam that took 10 years to construct on the Colorado River in the Glen canyon, causing the canyon to fill up. The Glen Canyon dam was finished in 1963, and in 1980 Lake Powell filled up to be 560 feet deep! Named for John Wesley Powell, a veteran from the Civil War,  Lake Powell is the second biggest man-made lake in America.  This gigantic lake is 186 miles long and has 2000 miles of shore line. 

In addition to the 3,000,000 human visitors each year, Lake Powell has recently started facing a problem with quagga mussels. When Lake Powell started out it had no mussels, but in 2012 after routine water monitoring test, mussel DNA was in the water samples taken from the lake. In March of 2013, four adult mussels were discovered. More adult mussels were continuing to be found on boats and marina structures. Some mussels were found submerged on the walls of the canyon. By the time we visited in September 2018, mussels lined the walls everywhere. This can cause big problems and frustration when mussels attach themselves to the motors of boats in the lake.

Mussel problems aside, we had an amazing time. When we arrived at the lake, we grabbed all our belongings, packed them on the speed boat and sped off to the marina where our houseboat was. The first night we stayed in the boat that was parked in the slip, then left the next morning to go to the spot where we anchored (not a chain anchor, but tied in several places to rocks on the shore!) and stayed the entire week. Everyone was in the water at least once a day. We could water-ski, kayak, S.U.P(stand-up-paddle-board, swim, or go tubing. It was like having a humongous swimming pool that was 90 feet deep in our backyard for a week. I collected many rocks while we hiked around the canyon, too!

This year my family and I swam, slept, and ate an Lake Powell with my great aunts and uncle for a week. This beautiful lake, man-made though it is, is a gift from God. It may have taken many years to fill up this huge lake, but it was, in my opinion, worth the wait.

https://www.arizona-leisure.com/lake-powell-facts.html
http://lakepowellrealty.net/11-cool-lake-powell-facts/
https://www.lakepowell.com/discover/park-history/
https://www.nps.gov/glca/learn/nature/mussel-update.htm

When I Grow Big

So my little David will be 3 next week and he's been incredibly adorable lately. He spends most of his days shooting webs at people (because he IS Spiderman), playing in the sand/water, as well as making lego creations (in my hair mostly). 

A few weeks ago, at the behest of little Miss Lucy, we held "Church Camp" at our house. On the second day, due to an illness, fewer children came, so David got to join in. He LOVED it. Part of the day was "playing Mass" and he insisted that he concelebrate. 😀 Later that night, he was sitting on my lap during supper when he announced to the family his future vocation. I was trying to get him to make his way to his own chair, when he picked up his fork with a piece of broccoli on it. He said: "I'm gonna eat this, then I'm gonna grow big, then I'm gonna go to church and be the Father!" When I told my mom the story on the phone the next day, he heard me and started running around the circle in our house yelling, "I'm gonna be a priest!" He's stuck with his decision (so far), and when I asked last week if he wanted to come to daily Mass with me, he responded, "Yes, and I will ask Father Adam if I can be the Father with him, and he will say, 'SURE!'" 

"I Don't Want YOU!"

I've been out of the swing of blogging for a little while. It used to be weekly, and then I sort of fell out of it. I knew I'd probably start up again eventually, but recently I experienced an insight that gave me goosebumps on my goosebumps and I thought: It's Time. So while you may not see me posting every week on Family Fiat (my old, OLD blog), I will do my best to give voice to some of the insights that amaze me in my life, in hopes that they give you some joy, and maybe even goosebumps, too.

So here goes.

Last weekend, I attended one of my monthly sessions for my Masters in Theology at St. Meinrad in Indiana. Flat tire notwithstanding, the weekend was good for my soul. In my "Creed in History and Theology" course, we happened to be talking about Tradition. Tradition comes from the Latin word tradere which means to hand over, or to trade. It isn't so much a noun as it is a verb, an action.

My mind flashed to Luke 15 and my hand shot up.

"What is the Greek word for inheritance?" I wondered to my professor. "Like in the story of the Forgiving Father/Prodigal Son. When he asks for his inheritance, what is that word?"

"That's interesting," he replied. "It's ousia, and it is the only place that that word is in the Bible. It's interesting because it translates funny. It translates substance in Latin. Like he's asking his father for a share of his substance."

After I got over the amazing fact that my prof immediately knew that answer without even blinking once, I was dumbfounded. "Ousia? Really?"

My professor didn't seem to catch my amazement and continued with his lecture. As quickly and clandestinely as I could, I looked online to see what I could find out about this word and to see if my hunch meant anything.

It turns out ousia does mean substance, it's true. It also means being and essence. I couldn't help myself, and googled the only other word I knew that had the root "ousia" in it.

Parousia.

In Catechesis of the Good Shepherd we live into the History of the Kingdom of God as fully as possible, and so our study of Salvation history introduces this Greek word (and one or two important others) to the children while they are very young. At six years old the child discovers that the Parousia is the time in which "God will be All in All..." (1 Cor 15:28). If you ask a Good Shepherd child, he or she will tell you that Parousia is the time when the lame will leap, the dumb will speak, and there will be no more tears or mourning. One 11 year old child told her catechist she was not afraid of death, and the catechist asked her why. "The Parousia!" she proclaimed. Children make up songs about it, and they draw pictures with the huge golden cross covering the whole world on the covers of their folders. It's a big deal, and we all share a sense of expectant wonder for the word and the reality it stands for.

https://www.cgsusa.org/products/the-history-of-the-kingdom-of-god-part-1-from-creation-to-parousia/

It turns out that the word Parousia has an interesting etymology. Where ousia means essence, parousia means "presence" or "being present." Presence? We know that Jesus uses this parable, which is also very familiar to a CGS catechist, to teach us about His Father's forgiveness. But what exactly is being wasted by this prodigal son? I quickly grabbed my bible out of my bag and read the story of that prodigal again with a new lens. It turns out what the son is really saying is:

"I want your essence, Father, your ousia, but I don't want your presence. I. Don't. Want. YOU."

Immediately my mind recalled another familiar story. Who was the first to act in this manner toward our loving God? Who were the first to grasp at being "like gods", seeking to steal the essence of God, at the expense of His presence?

In the garden after the Fall, God says, "Where are you?" Their union with Him is broken. They are separate by their own choosing.

My mind was racing. I wondered: then what about the older brother?

He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. 
He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ (Luke 15:29-30 NABRE).

Is it possible that the prodigal could refer to Adam and Eve? Who then is this older one who complains about the younger son's reconciliation? All in a moment I wondered: is this familiar parable the whole of Salvation History in just a single chapter of St. Luke's Gospel? Who was there first, before Adam, if not the angels? The father says to the older son:

'My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.  But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found’ (Luke 15:29-32).

In other words: You have parousia! I can only imagine the pain with which Jesus tells this parable of the Father's presence being rejected, by the younger son, then the older. I always wondered why we don't hear what decision the older son made. Perhaps his decision to "stay outside" was already made.

I am sure there is much more to unpack, and I will leave you to your own discovery. (Perhaps you can share your thoughts in the comments?!) It will be another couple of weeks before I head back to Indiana for another weekend, but I am really looking forward to it. I never know what new insights and ideas this kind of study will springboard me off to (further study of the Greek language, perhaps?), but I am happy to share my inheritance with you! God Bless!

Secret Room

We took our whole family to the Christ Our Life conference last weekend.  I think the kids got a lot out of it, and I think my husband and I probably got a little time shaved off of purgatory for bringing them all home alive. Win-win.

It was really something to celebrate Mass with over 7000 people, and to listen to the phenomenal speakers. But the highlight for my girls were all the nuns!  They were everywhere! There were sisters dressed in blue, white, black, and our favorite that we met was a beautiful sister named Sister Joachima from Poland!  Leah, our 7 year old, was smitten immediately and begged to be allowed to enter her Dominican order (which is in Justice, Illinois).

Sister Jo did say she wanted to scoop her up and take her back with her, but instead she gave Leah work to do: "Pray for your vocation," she said. "Pray everyday and God will reveal it to you."  Our impetuous redhead was not all that keen on waiting 11 years, but she promised to pray.

The next morning, she was frustrated. "Mom! I want to pray, but I can't!"  She was so earnest, but it also made me laugh a bit.  I invited her to my lap to come and tell me about her troubles.

"I want to pray, but Jesus said you have to go to your secret room. Mom! My sisters are always in my room!  How can I close the door and pray in secret if they're always with me?!"

I could understand her exasperation, but I tried to help her see a little deeper. "Leah, do you think that maybe Jesus means a different kind of secret room?  Maybe not the same thing as the bedroom?"

"Oh," she said knowingly. "You mean, like the bathroom?"

We spent a few minutes looking up pictures of Saint John Paul II praying, silently, leaning on his crozier or on a prie dieu (kneeler) in his chapel.

"He was always surrounded by people, but somehow he found his secret room and was able to gain the strength he needed from his prayer. I wouldn't put it past him that he would have prayed in the bathroom. But I think his "secret room" was with him wherever he went.  What do you think?"

She smiled, "I think it was in his heart."

"Ah.  And do you have a secret room like that?"

She smiled and jumped off my lap. I didn't see where she went in the house, but I'm pretty sure she found the room she was looking for.

The Growing Time

Like a blooming plant that lives all year-
We won't always have beautiful red flowers.

Sometimes we will just be green.
Drinking in dew- soaking up sunshine in preparation

For another time of magnificent bloom.

Murphy Awesome Points

Several months ago, our eldest was bemoaning the fact that she is no longer "cute." An astute observation for a seven year old, she realized that she was growing up and out of the adorable stage. With her little sisters almost all solidly cute, she wasn't sure how life was going to work out without cuteness on her side. With a little prayer, I related to her about my cousin, Murphy. Now, she's not really "cute" per se (though she sure was!)--now she has grown past that. Now she is AWESOME. She is constantly looking for how to make other people more comfortable, how to make sure everybody (including each little kiddo) is having a good time, and she'll sacrifice super-fun grown-up hang out time to take kids to the park. She is awesome...

Well, my dear husband came recently came up with a system to monetize this special quality. Murphy Awesome Points. The MAP system. When our children do something particularly helpful or sweet or awesome, they are awarded "Murphy Awesome Points." The girls will be happy to get us all napkins, or take the laundry out of the dryer, or help a little sister get her carseat buckled--grinning from ear to ear when we say: "20 Murphy Awesome Points for you!"

Well, I knew I had to write about it this morning, because my 3 year old, Leah, was asking me to put her new lip gloss back in her bucket (which was out of her reach). I said, "Sure!" and went and put it away. "20 Murphy Awesome Points, Mommy!" I have to admit, it made me smile, too.