tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65249219717920270792026-03-31T03:10:02.675-04:00CHOCOLATE FOR YOUR BRAIN!Sometimes serious, sometimes funny, always trying to be warmth and light, focuses on parenting, and the unique struggles of raising a large Catholic family in the modern age. Updates on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday...and sometimes more!Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.comBlogger2289125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-43159521545327137272021-03-20T13:13:00.001-04:002021-03-20T13:13:14.430-04:00Moving Day...Posts for Chocolate For Your Brain will continue over on the Catholic Channel of Patheos at Chocolate For Your Brain! I started this week and am still learning the ropes of adding photos and proper posting. It's going to be a learning process. So it's a renewal of my blog but with some new bells and whistles. Welcome to the Renaissance of my writing...I hope.&Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-54529116856662545082021-03-14T23:44:00.002-04:002021-03-14T23:44:32.105-04:00What if God Measures Us By How We Measure? It is a terrifying thought, and my brain plays little games, like when we die, God shows us all the ways in which we were harmed by sin, by others sins, that we are given one more opportunity to be merciful and forgiving as He is, and that allotment we allow, we use towards those who hurt us, is then used as a weight against the ways in which we've hurt others. That puts it in stark Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-41906984055380108242021-03-11T23:41:00.004-05:002021-03-11T23:41:47.704-05:00Small Success ThursdayWe're half way through Lent. I realized, I haven't quite managed to find a rthymn to my devotions or my prayer life. It has remained organic and impulsive and not entirely focused. This is not a confession of a bad Lent, only a reality of how this Lent has thus far progressed. 1) So today, I recommitted to my Lent. Things were hard, but less so, because that's how grace Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-54328294740983406162021-03-08T22:10:00.004-05:002021-03-08T22:20:33.552-05:00Cookie Cutter Parenting When I first started out as a mother, my journals bear out my worries, that having a second or a third, would lead to not paying attention to the individual needs of these new people, that numbers would preclude treating each child's interests and taste and talents and gifts as unique. Now, that I have ten children, four dietary menus, six different musical instruments being played or Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-17222391404974483452021-03-07T17:53:00.003-05:002021-03-07T17:53:36.367-05:00A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to IKEA So this week, as we continue the theme of everything deciding after a year of only living with us, the machines are all quitting, the furniture followed suit. Out one bed and a few drawers, we opted to do as the Swedes do...and went to that store known for three things...making Americans follow a maze without having a ride at the end, selling furniture Mjollnir like in temperment, Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-75714048811520212362021-03-06T07:04:00.001-05:002021-03-06T07:04:24.768-05:00Over at Catholic Mom.com today and other things...1) I've been writing, and my first piece in a while is at Catholicmom.com and called Go Deeper In. 2) I'm editing. Slowly. Grudgingly. 3) I'm exercising. Slowly. Grudingly. 4) A brief shout out to all of you who hear when others don't, that someone is hurting more than they wish to admit, thank you. This morningSherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-55051099022734407042021-03-04T22:37:00.003-05:002021-03-04T22:37:40.097-05:00My Small Success Thursday Years ago, I ran Small Success Thursday every Thursday for Catholicmom.com. It's now on Instagram and I'm not, so I'm going to just restart posting Small Success Thursday each Thursday to force me to hold to my 500 words a day, no outs, no excuses mantra until I run out of words. Small Success Thursday is about taking stock of the prior week to see the little victories Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-55028177083099110582021-03-03T21:16:00.000-05:002021-03-03T21:17:21.050-05:00 Potential Side Effects from Getting Vaccinated...I mean besides being able to possibly avoid a very contagious potentially deadly disease...There are as many crazy therories as there are theorists, but I'll try to outdo them all. When news broke that vaccines were approved, I wanted to sign up right away, but the state is deciding who gets the shots and in what order. I get it. I'll get to get it. I've received half of it, and in two weeks Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-84496845081708390182021-03-02T22:26:00.002-05:002021-03-02T22:26:42.678-05:00Hold Please... Today, we learned, we're not alone. Oh, we know that Covid keeps all of us six feet apart, but there is one universal thing that knits all hearts together, a thing universally loathed...telemarketers. They've managed to evade the do not call lists, such that the home phone rings almost exclusively with apologies from a non existent electric company, notifications about our car Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-42008292215911897402021-03-01T23:40:00.002-05:002021-03-01T23:40:27.189-05:00Things that Will HoldThese days, as the world starts to open up, and all of us feel the jitters, the stress of returning to the more that life demands, we need to be careful with ourselves and each other. We need to practice kindness, with our words, our deeds, and even our non actions. We need to have gentle words, gentle acts, and gentle arts, gentle responses to the hardest of things and the ordinary Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-86784224875041700242021-02-27T21:25:00.004-05:002021-02-27T21:25:49.168-05:00What We Should Do We've almost made it a year. Some of us received covid shots, others remain at home, but this year of cloistered living, it's changed us in ways we do not yet know. It's visible in the grocery stores. People don't go in there relaxed, they go into the stores in a rush, they do not make eye contact and they do not stop. It's visible when you visit a college campus, andSherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-56639202241775378912021-02-21T14:42:00.003-05:002021-02-21T14:42:38.564-05:00Move! Yesterday, I mentioned moving day. Today, I'm thinking about moving but in a different way. So I started Lent, I've already messed up every day, and yet, that's the purpose of Lent, to be reminded every day of how much we pretend we don't need saving, how much we deny, we need saving. The best Lents aren't when we adhere to whatever our Lenten promise is perfectly, but when we Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-15991124955094028762021-02-20T22:54:00.001-05:002021-02-20T22:54:14.780-05:00Moving Day is Coming It's been in the works for a while now, but Chocolate For Your Brain! is moving to Patheos. I'll let you know when exactly, but all of these posts will migrate there once it's up and running. Back in September, I'd been considered. Now, after a few months of trying to figure out what to do, or how to do it, the hour approaches. Why am I doing this? &Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-27608884106702994472021-02-15T11:25:00.002-05:002021-02-15T11:38:24.931-05:00What I Love About the Season to Come Confession is good for the soul. I stink at fasting. Really. I forget. I overpromise God and I fail...a lot. If we measure Lent by adhering to one's promise to God, I am a faithless human being most of the time...and Lent, being bigger than my grandest ambitions is a great teacher of humility, because my flesh is weak weak weak. Success at Lent Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-45523755142824175882021-02-14T12:09:00.000-05:002021-02-14T12:09:02.263-05:00What Do We Do Now?A Good DiscourseSo I'm doing a workshop "Called and Gifted," and one of the things they want us to do, is the opposite of what we tend to, what we have over the course of our lifetime, programed ourselves to respond. I've mostly learned in the past three weeks, that I'm responding to life with a sense of anxiety I've never known before. Intellecually, I understand it. For Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-75916042110729480922021-02-09T12:50:00.004-05:002021-02-09T13:26:47.912-05:00On My Soapbox! Brace yourself. I'm angry. Back on March 13th, of 2020, we closed the buildings of schools but kept teaching. We taught virtually, but we did everything we could to attempt to give them as much as we could in the time we were given. We taught summer school virtually. We taught first semester virtually. We're still doing it. Teachers are tryingSherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-26641159015481091722021-02-01T21:18:00.001-05:002021-02-01T21:18:43.461-05:00A Memory that Keeps Hearts GoingHoly Thursday, 2000 At 5 AM, my dad is in a bed with an IV, being prepped for surgery. My brother and I are in Maryland preparing to fly down. My brother and sister who live in Texas are by my mom and dad's side. They pray with him, laugh with him, hold his hand and sing "Dona Nobis Pachem," and then, maybe because Dad is doped up, maybe because he sees how worried they are, maybe becase Dad Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-71295429887424796432021-01-28T22:05:00.007-05:002021-01-29T08:32:50.021-05:00In Memory of a CousinThe seeds of memory are planted in the next generation when we share our stories. This past week, my cousin died. Over an evening Zoom wake thirty-one cousins and many aunts and uncles plus fourty or so friends feasted on memories and the faces of cousins we’d not seen in years, and the years fell away. I don't have a particular story, but I remember my cousin, and my wedding Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-84786462538311601092021-01-24T23:49:00.003-05:002021-01-24T23:49:34.154-05:00Here's what I KnowNone of us know what the next day holds, a child in the hospital, a bad diagnosis, a job loss, a death, all of these were in the petitions of today. My own sorrows too, I put at the foot of the cross because that's where all of them belong. So Christ can bleed on them, weep on them, and make them something other than merely misery, He can make them sacred. My sister called and Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-61298638421607295482021-01-24T10:26:00.004-05:002021-01-24T12:31:05.616-05:00Ever Ongoing Conversion I read my friend Jen Fitz's story of being invited into deeper relationship with God, and it's perfect for today, when the Gospel is about Christ calling the apostles to something more than they are doing. Here's the rub for all of us, whether we have a story we can share on the spot or not, God is always calling us deeper in, that's what all of life is, an invitation Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-7525017758181589172021-01-22T17:36:00.003-05:002021-01-22T17:36:53.746-05:00Want to know what A Good Discourse is about? The first rule of growing a Good Discourse, recognizing we're part of the problem. Here's the registration, and you can join even if it's already started. I'll be there taking notes. Sign up and we'll see you there. Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-71790256430687458802021-01-13T23:27:00.001-05:002021-01-13T23:27:19.808-05:00Sometimes, The Best Things in Life Cost Money So today, I took my son to Best Buy because his computer and his good tracking sports watch died. Coupled with the new shoes he needed for track, I needed to check the calendar. The Bank of Mom is taking it on the chin these days, but I've also decided to take a page from the banks. I'm now charging interest. "Hey Mom, can we go to Target?" "Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-63092946623301307272021-01-11T22:57:00.003-05:002021-01-12T11:58:45.438-05:00A Good Discourse This post requires homework. First, watch this talk given by Fr. Steve Grunow of Word on Fire. Fr.'s words strike me as hitting at the core of what we're trying to do with this conference, trying to remember we need to be active rather than reactive in ministering to the world by our words. I've seen it in the demand that we condemn everyone who ever voted for Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-36469911208716835912021-01-09T06:00:00.001-05:002021-01-09T06:00:07.292-05:00A Good Discourse in the Nation, How we Begin Again The first requirement in healing our nation, is to stop labeling ourselves as us and them, because we are one people, even if divided by politics, by religion, by income, by education, by race, by values, by experience and by background. We are still, a people, and the first thing we must see, is that what we want from this country, is for everyone to hear and for everyone to feel Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524921971792027079.post-54813686897723308742021-01-06T17:02:00.004-05:002021-01-06T17:20:54.010-05:00A Tale of Two AmericasToday, I attended a funeral for a family member who served three presidents during his life as a physician. It's hard not to get a lump in the throat looking at the rows after rows after rows of tombstones honoring those who gave the fullest member of devotion. It's hard not to feel a surge of gratittude to the selected servants who marched silently in unison to hoist the coffin from the Sherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02220512226096382610noreply@blogger.com0