Oh my goodness....

New Martyr Maria, commemorated on January 26th

"Depression is a spiritual cross," she stated. "It is sent to help the penitent who does not know how to repent, that is, who after repentance falls again into the earlier sins….And therefore, only two medicines can treat this sometimes extremely difficult suffering of the soul. One must either learn to repent and offer the fruits of repentance; or else bear this spiritual cross, one’s depression, with humility, meekness, patience, and great multitude to the Lord, remembering that the bearing of this cross is accounted by the Lord as the fruit of repentance….And after all, what a great consolation it is to realize that your discouragement is the unacknowledged fruit of repentance, an unconscious self-chastisement for the absence of the fruits that are demanded….From this thought one should come to contrition, and then the depression gradually melts and the true fruits of repentance will be conceived…"
--New Martyr Maria
http://www.antiochian.org/martyr_maria


O our blessed Mother Maria, who didst bear the cross of illness so meekly and humbly, with such sobriety and prayer that God granted thee the gift of the consolation. Pray for us sinners who know not how to repent, that God may grant us His great mercy. (Troparion to New Martyr Maria, Tone 4)


Incredible. I'm....speechless.

(no subject)

Tomoorrow I think I'm taking Maria to a "TRY-it OUT" for the swim team at the gym. It is kind of like a try out, but actually is more an evaluation for the coaches and to see if the kids take to the idea of a swim team. The actual try outs are next week. I asked the coach what they have to be able to do and he said all four competitive strokes and a length of the pool. Then he said..."Well, sort of". He explained that if they seem close to being able to do all four strokes (freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly) then they will probably keep them on the team. I'm nervous for her for some reason. I don't think she can do the butterfly at all, but he said that was a tough stroke and they don't really expect the little guys to be able to do it. She wanted to try it out, so we'll see.

Zoe's swim teacher tonight called her a "torpedo". She is super fast. I really can't wait for her to learn all the strokes because I have a feeling this might be right up her alley. I thought Maria was built more like a swimmer, and she is and she does really well, but Zoe is just super fast for some reason. It is kind of amazing.

I'm exhausted from my workout tonight. I tried a new machine, a Procore? I don't know if that is what it was called or not, but it looks right. Anyway, it is kind of a cross between an elliptical and a stairclimber. Wicked thing. My gluteous maximus is going to seriously punish me tomorrow. And my hamstrings are aching already. Did I blog about my fitness evaluation? It was free at the gym so I thought, why not? That was fun. Not. I found out I'm in terrible shape and need to lose tons of weight. Wow, that was a shocker. :P But I also found out that I'm bizarrely strong. I knew that I was but it was still weird to score so high on stength when I'm in such bad shape. I imagine I could be quite frightening if I was in shape and did some actual body building. Heck, maybe I'm frightening now and I just don't know it.

Enough blabbing. Must get my kiddos settled down. Bedtime is close.