I’m Batman Foevaaaa….

Our second youngest child was born with a zest for living. This was obvious with even a quick glance at my baby’s face. With his eyebrows raised in surprise, eyes wide open to see everything around him and lips smiling with glee. Anthony was a delightful infant, toddler and young child. Actually his temperament at twenty has not changed much at all!

Anthony was a delightful infant, toddler and young child. Actually his temperament at twenty has not changed much at all!

Anthony had a marvellous imagination, creating dramatic play scenarios like intense sword fights with invisible villains. By the time he was two and a half, he insisted on wearing one of two batman sweatshirts every morning. Anthony needed to wear his batman sweatshirt, so I just acquiesced and washed one of the sweatshirts every night.

By four-years-old he had added a black cape, felt fedora hat and black  barn boots to his daily uniform. His outfit was my little guy’s salute to his three heroes Batman,Zorro and the Canadian Mounted Police.

He tried to imitate Batman’s ability to fly. I caught  Anthony just in time when he was three, as he slung a leg over the banister, so he could sweep down and save a hapless victim of crime. After that incident, I convinced him to jump off the fourth step of the front hall staircase. Honestly that little boy jumped countless times every day, black cape billowing behind him. One afternoon, a doctor passed us in a hospital and smiled at Anthony’s outfit,

 He tried to imitate Batman’s ability to fly. I caught  Anthony just in time when he was three, as he slung a leg over the banister, so he could sweep down and save a hapless victim of crime. After that incident, I convinced him to jump off the fourth step of the front hall staircase. Honestly that little boy jumped countless times every day, black cape billowing behind him. One afternoon, a doctor passed us in a hospital and smiled at Anthony’s outfit,

“Oh my, what do we have here, Batman?”

Anthony took a flying leap, cape billowing behind him again and answered,

“Oh no, I’m Batman Foevaaaa….”

Another time, as we sat in a doctor’s waiting room, four-year old Anthony backed up and then crouched low like a runner’s preparing to sprint towards the plate-glass window. Shocked, I called out,

“ANTHONY, what are you doing?”

My four-year old son adjusted his tense stance and said,

“I am going to run and leap and smash that glass with my feet! Then I’ll fly through the air.”

However, Anthony did get a few chances to really fly when his older brother’s friends came out to the farm.  Matthew’s friends would play catch throwing Anthony instead of a ball. With his little legs tucked, arms clutched tightly around his bent legs, the strong teenagers would toss my son between each other!!

It was teenage sleepovers that provided Anthony with his most memorable flying feats. On early Saturday mornings, he would run from our big farm kitchen, down the hall and then launched himself into the air to land on all the teenage bodies strewn about the family room. A series of groans and moans joined Anthony’s gales of laughter as he yelled,

“Come on guys, it’s time to get up!”

Coming Soon- Love Rebel: Reclaiming Motherhood

I am part of an upcoming anthology of five other Catholic mums due to come out in about a month. All the women are great writers, each writing from a completely different perspective. Roberta Cottam is the creator and editor for this project. It started out as a project for a class but with her mother's illness and the death of one of the contributor's full term baby, the book was put on hold. Now Roberta is working on this book because she is passionate about it. strictly pro bono along with designer  Laura Wrubleski  Here is Roberta's initial vision in her own words

I feel deeply inspired to create a book specifically featuring five writers, with the focus being Catholic writers/bloggers. I find there is a current theme around the courage to parent as your faith supports you to do versus what is the current trend in our culture, and I find this very inspiring.

I envision a beautiful print book and eye-catching eBook. As a designer and author, I am really passionate about creating a stellar print book. I believe that having a physical incarnation sampling each of your work honours what you have to share as mothers, and is a celebration of your talents.

We will be self-publishing under my new publishing logo, Village Acres, which Roberta has designed for me  to use individually as well as for this book. It will be available through Amazon both as an ebook and a paperback.

Praise for the Authors of Love Rebel

“Full of earnest and joyful contributions that inspire and affirm, this exuberant anthology resonates with love and authenticity. It serves as an earthy and affectionate antidote to a world that suggests that motherhood should be considered an afterthought instead of a priority.” — Dymphny Dronyk, Q. Med., Senior Consultant & Manager atCommunica Public Affairs, President of the League of Canadian Poets Council, and Editor/Publisher at blueskiespoetry.ca

“Pope Francis challenges moms and dads to dream about their children...and this little book is a great beginning. I’m a big believer in affirming what is good and in this short work, five spiritually alive mothers make the case brilliantly.” — Father Julio Lagos

“Motherhood shared — whether the ups or the downs — is pure joy, as Melanie Jean Juneau proves again and again in her delightful and insightful writing — Allison Gingras, host of A Seeking Heart on Real Life Radio

“There are no cultural boundaries when it comes to love, faith and motherhood. Echoed with laughs and tears, I got inspired by each love rebel’s own experiences, honest reflections and ordinary yet spirit-lifting deeds!” — Odilia Lee, monthly columnist of S.U.C.C.E.S.S. Evergreen News

“Love Rebel: Reclaiming Motherhood gives comfort and encouragement to ts readers by reaffirming the value of their roles within their families, and as a child of God in their own rite.”— Lisa Whelton, Made Just for You By Lisa Designs

"Bonnie Way has a way with words in which you can’t help but feel like you are actually there. This book took me back to when my child was small and made me miss all of those things that makes raising a small child so memorable.” — Kristy-Lea Tritz, Personal Coach atgettotheheartofthematter.ca

Grammar Humour

gram·mar ˈɡramər/noun

the whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general,usually taken as consisting of syntax

and morphology (including inflections) and sometimes also phonology and semantics.

synonyms: syntax, sentence structure, rules of language, morphology; linguistics
“the editors of this newspaper need a refresher course in grammar”

a particular analysis of the system and structure of language or of a specific language.

a book on grammar.
plural noun: grammars
“my old Latin grammar”

Wonder What Melanie's Voice Sounds Like, Eh?

A Seeking Heart w/ Allison Gingras Feat Melanie Juneau of Joy of Nine9

May 5, 2015

As we continue Catholic Blogger Week, Allison chats with Melanie Juneau, JoyofNine9 !

http://realjoy.podbean.com/e/a-seeking-heart-w-allison-gingras-feat-melanie-juneau-joyofnine9/

Letting Go and Watching Growth

Spring has finally come this week,

Without any help from me.

Flowers are blooming

pushing through dead leaves and untilled soil

Even more surprising,

all sorts of breakthroughs are happening

in my adult kid’s lives

simply because I let go of control

prayed, trusted in God and

allowed natural growth and development to progress

without my meddling

…too much! Let’s say I facilitated, then stepped back.

No More Mental Kung-Fu

Posted on my fridge right at my eye level (I'm 5'1") are quotes that are key to my sanity. When I feel at my wit's end, this quote makes me laugh and cuts through stress.

One in four people are mentally unbalanced.

Think of three friends.

If they seem fine,

You're the one.

 

I never fail to smile, even after reading these lines hundreds of times. This reaction pushes worry to the side. When I don't take myself too seriously by entertaining the thought that I might be slightly unbalanced, I immediately stop over reacting. My worries are now put into perspective.

 

Laughter is the best way to snap out of melodrama.

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Cognitive therapists love to tell us not to 'make a mountain out of a mole hill', however there are times

when everything actually is even worse than it seems, times when our world really does shatter. What then? I love to control but when my safe little world has shattered, sometime it was the only way I could step out of my comfort zone.

 

Many times devastating circumstances have ended one way of life for our family but something new always rose out of the ashes. I had to learn to relax and patiently let the process unfold naturally.

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Again melodrama really did not help. I always say that I finally can laugh in the face of tragedy.  Christian Cognitive therapy came to my rescue.

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That old proverb, "Don't make a mountain out of a mole hill", has saved my sanity many times. Laughter puts every thing into perspective. Although stuck in retched circumstances, I still can change how I feel and how I think. Cognitive therapy is a powerful tool. I can often change my thoughts and focus on all the blessing is my life, instead if everything that is going wrong and my emotions change as well.

 

For example, I still can see, hear, use all my limbs and I don't have a chronic illness.

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But what about the times when you simply cannot change your thoughts?, when you can't snap out of anxiety or panic? My family coined a phrase for crazy thinking that leads to stress. Repeat this phrase and it is once again laughter what will put a stop to your running brain, guaranteed.No more Mental-Fu Can't you just see your thoughts sparring with each other in a match that neither of them can ever win, especially in the middle of the night? Really, humans are so illogical, we are comical. So this is my wise advice.

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To quote the Reader's Digest, "Laughter is the best medicine.

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Laugh and Let God take charge.

Oopsy Daisy: Free Ebook

new cover on Smashwords

Life at the Juneau's farmhouse was often overwhelming with eleven personalities living, working and playing together. Luckily, Melanie had a wicked sense of humour and just enough grace to remain serene in the eye of the hurricane, the CEO of a chaotic domain. She has written hundreds of short stories, insights and articles which only could happen when you put nine kids together on a farm. Oopsy Daisy is a selection of short stories, an introduction to her upcoming book, One Breath at a Time.

“Melanie Juneau—motherofnine9—knows that a woman’s ground of creativity lies as close as her child’s heart. In her delightful stories and memories of mothering nine children, she shows how a Christian mother bathed in love brings all the power and light embodied in her faith to that most important sphere of hope, the family.”—Isabel Anders, author of Blessings and Prayers for Married Couples

Melanie Jean Juneau captures the Holy Spirit's message in her writing, unlike anyone I've read. Her writings are practical, direct, and faith-filled. Living a contemplative life as a Hermit Monk for me, Ms. Juneau provides a vineyard of spiritual fruit of which to meditate and pray for. All I have to do is reach out and pick. Her heartwarming writings in time will transform you. -Abba Justin Anthony, Hermit Monk

Found on Amazon

and for free on Smashwords

I wish I could find an image 1400 pixels wide to use on Smashwords like I used on Amazon...will keep trying

Amazon's cover

old cover on Smashwords

Joyful Chaos: Dining With Eleven

Listen as I struggled to gather my crew every night for a family meal.

“Oh good, you’re done barn chores. Perfect timing; dinner is almost ready.”

“Two more minutes, everybody!”

“Joseph I’ll help after we eat, okay?”

“Mary, please run up and open Jean’s door and shut off the music.”

‘Dinner is ready!”

“Grace, I know you love that book sweetheart but, remember, no reading at the dinner table.”

“Where’s Mark?”

“Honey would you lift up Daniel into the high chair?”

“Are we all here? Anyone missing?”

Ah, dinner time in a large family.

Dinner was the highlight of the day with everyone clambering to share their news or simply squeeze in comments into the cacophony of voices. It was a humorous symphony which sounded perfectly in tune to my ears. High pitched baby squeals combined with loud, boisterous little boys.and the quavering of a male teen voice balanced teenage girl’s chatter. Dad’s reassuring bass tones soothed my shrill calls for everyone to listen to the toddler’s newest word. The highlight of this often unruly symphony was the spontaneous laughter punctuating the entire meal.

Life around the dinner table was relaxed and happy because I allowed my children to behave in age appropriate ways. I did not demand adult perfection. The consequences of this decision were messy but well worth the time it took to mop up after meal time. It meant I did not shovel neat, tidy mouthfuls of food into a toddler because we let little people feed themselves as soon as they reached for the spoon. It meant including three-year olds in meal prep, sending five and six-year olds running out to the garden for vegetables and allowing a ten-year old to make the dessert. In other words we valued participation over a neat and tidy kitchen and orderly meal times.

Now I am reaping the rewards of decisions which sent some visitors into sputtering, spirals of incredulity as they eyed my kitchen and the messy faces of my little people after a meal. I feel vindicated when I look at my grown-up kids; they all love to cook and entertain, especially for each other. Just drop by for a quick hello and inevitably they will cajole you to stay for a delicious meal.

It is a simple fact- there is no better way to form deep relationships than conversation over a home-cooked meal. In fact there is no better way to encourage the development of a warm supportive family than with great food and relaxed conversation around the dinner table.

God delights more in joyful chaos than in miserable, tight perfection.

The Dangers of Techno Pacifers

My contribution to TENDER TIDINGS Spring 2015  is The Danger of Techno Pacifiers. ALL the articles are excellent in this free parenting resource for gentle, intentional, and attachment-minded parents:

In This Issue:

• Spring cleaning:  heart and home.  How is decluttering a Christian activity?  Abby Sasscer, author of Simplifying Your Domestic Church, answers that question.
• Nature journaling for the whole family
• Saint Patrick’s Day Celebration
• Cleaning up your family’s favorite JUNK FOOD
• MORE!

LIVE JOYFULLY

The Dangers of Techno Pacifiers by Melanie Jean Juneau

Children, Technology, Nature, and GOD.

For children to mature as God intended, parents must ensure their kids have the opportunity to experience nature.

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For most modern families living in apartments, townhouses, or even the suburbs, it takes a conscious effort to ensure little ones connect with nature and animals and, as a result, connect with God. Nature is suffused with the Presence of the Creator because God sustains and controls nature.

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It seems to me children need to go outside where they can delight in the smallest details because their hearts sense the Spirit of God and His joy when they are in nature. Even adults are growing increasingly discontent with the hectic pace of the 21st century because it is an existence more plugged into technology than to people.

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Many are more comfortable texting each other than speaking face to face or even talking on the phone. This disconnect has devastating repercussions, also affecting our relationship to nature, but most especially our relationship with God. Man is losing the ability to even engage in authentic prayer because prayer is all about communion, the ability to relate.

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Children are especially vulnerable to the toxic influence of technology. It is so easy to switch on the television or hand a tiny child an iPhone when they are distraught and parents are busy. One of the creators of the television show Sesame Street once said that any activity is better than watching television, even an educational show like Sesame Street. In our home, we went a year without any television when we had seven children. After this, we limited their time in front of the television as well as the computer — not too difficult when kids of all ages are clamoring for their thirty minutes of allotted time.

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The Canadian scientist David Suzuki also believes children must be given the opportunity to connect with animals. The inner drive to bond with animals is so strong that, if they haven’t the chance to connect with real animals, children will turn their attention to stuffed or cartoon animals. Suzuki calls these substitutes for real animals a “grotesque” substitution.

While watching my own kids interact with our pets and farm animals, I discovered children do have a deep -seated need to relate to animals. I was as fascinated as my kids with the arrival of tiny balls of fluff called chicks, cute piglets and tiny kittens. The whole family gathered around in the barn when the chicks and piglets first arrived, not wanting to miss anything.

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In the coming weeks, the smaller children clambered for one of the older ones to take them to see the chicks. Sitting among the little birds with the warming lamp, holding or simply watching them was an almost magical time filled with quiet joy.

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Mary was and still is my most fervent animal lover. Before she could even walk, she exhibited an obsession to find, crawl after, grab and squeeze any and all animals. This was a passionate love for animals, I would say. She could barely talk, so to communicate her wish to hold the hamster, her hands would frantically open and close and she would utter soft little grunts as she pleaded, with big chocolate-brown eyes, for someone to open the cage. When Mary realized that she would finally get to hold the hamster, her hand would literally shake with excitement and anticipation.

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Needless to say, either one of the older siblings or I had to supervise Mary, because she would tend to squeeze Hammy till his eyes started to bulge out. Then the cry would arise . . . “Mary’s squeezing Hammy again. Come quickly!” Once she could walk, Mary would haul the disgruntled cat around, but she was happy with her eyes shining with joy. Mary was in heaven, so I couldn’t bear to deny her access to her beloved pets.

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At least the rabbits in the hutch on the covered porch were more placid than Kitty and tougher than the hamster, and she was content to simply stare at the goldfish. Though she did tend to over feed them. I’d scoop out food from the top of the water to use for the next few feedings. Spring provides the perfect time to build memories like these.

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It really takes minimal effort to encourage little ones to connect with nature and animals, and, as a result, with the God who sustains them.

It is -38C: All We Can Do Is Laugh

Meanwhile in Canada…

Go to Canada, they said. You'll have fun, they said.

The Joy and Pain of Self-Publishing

 Echoes of the Divine is  my first e-book and it is free.  You can help me if you download this mini e-book and gave it a rating because if it is successful,  a publisher might consider my upcoming book. How about checking it out and giving me some honest feedback so I can learn. The book has received premium status already and will be listed on Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Nobles within days.

Echoes of the Divine

And don't forget, I will be happy to answer any questions. Trust me, no question will sound dumb. . https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/521798

It took me a year to read the more than 100 pages of Smashwords Style Guide. However, the guide explains every step with diagrams and in ordinary terms ...but I am a technological idiot. After days of fumbling, forcing myself to work as if I was technologically intelligent, I finally self-published a short, free e-book on Smashwords.

Supposedly, this process only takes a couple of hours but I inadvertently downloaded Microsoft doc.x instead of a simple doc. file. Then,  I typed the meta tag for my name without capitals which prevented the entire thing from working. That little mistake took hours to uncover.

Link to Echoes of the Divine

Finally, my cover was one I designed on Word and took a couple of days to decide upon which version to use but I could not convert it into a jpg image. It was difficult to find an image with enough pixels on the internet.  In the end, I simply found a huge old master painting by Mary Cassatt, used Pic Monkey photo editing and slapped on a title but it looks okay.  Figuring out how to get a free ISBN  from the Canadian site called Ciss ( kiss) wasted more hours.

The Effects of a Miscarriage on the Next Baby

Did you know that a child conceived after a miscarriage can be affected negatively? I had no clue until recently.

It really is such a simple and obvious emotional and spiritual dynamic but one that most of us are oblivious to.

For some pragmatic types, this concept might seem ridiculous but as I watched, listened and prayed with a daughter conceived after my miscarriage, it became crystal clear. A Catholic psychiatrist helped us discover that this truth was at the root of her sadness and heaviness. The death of my unborn infant during my seventh pregnancy changed the atmosphere of my womb. In a sense, because I was ignorant, my womb was still a dark place filled with the lingering shadows of death. A dramatic symbol would be that my womb was like a tomb for my next pregnancy which was Grace.

However, what made the situation even worse, was that we both almost died during this 8th pregnancy. My placenta tore, leaving a huge clot from the top of my womb to the bottom.

 The doctor ordered  bed rest for 6 months. When I complained that I felt perfectly fine, my losing her child and almost dying herself. The doctor had to call in the Archbishop to convince the mother that her other children needed her and to let her unborn baby die.

doctor explained that a similar situation had not occurred  two years earlier, with a mother of five

The words which rang in my ears and lodged in my baby's heart as well were," There is a cocked gun pointed at your head, ready to go off if you move. Stay in bed, laying down. Do not move.

Grace and I froze, only Grace stayed frozen, filled with fear of moving and  guilt - feeling guilty that she had almost killed me.  Typically, like all children she felt she was to blame. This weighed on her deep in her subconscious for twenty years till it popped up unexpectedly during family counselling and spiritual direction. Jesus set that baby free with a snap of His fingers. The changes in this young adult are unfolding slowly but miraculously because once the root is healed, emotional and spiritual growth takes on a life of its own, with God in charge behind the scenes.

God started to set that baby free with a snap of His fingers. The changes in this young adult are unfolding slowly but miraculously because once the root is healed, emotional and spiritual growth takes on a life of its own.

Laughing the Chills Away

It was so cold last night, our car battery froze for the first time in years. The weather is forecasting -35C by mid-February. It reminded me of my years on the Canadian prairies where even supermarkets provide plugins for car motors because in an hour or so a car can freeze up when it is -40C. So here are a few funny memes, mainly from our pets perspective to warm your heart with laughter.