Swamped

When I was a child growing up in Norfolk, Virginia, we took a trip at least once a year to my grandparents' house near New Bern, North Carolina.  It was usually in the spring of the year, sometime around Easter, when the world was exploding with color there in the southeast. I was a strange child (as you might have guessed) and didn't mind the long drive at all.  Then as now I loved to check out the scenery -- especially in the springtime when the azaleas and dogwood were blooming.  The southeastern United States is some of the prettiest country anywhere and it was a treat to watch it unroll outside my car window.   I loved the flowers, loved the old houses, loved the historic markers all along the roads...

But the best thing about that trip was that the route we took passed right along the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp. How I loved going by that swamp!  I don't remember passing any flowers and there were very few houses or historic markers on that stretch, but through the trees that hugged the roadside you could catch glimpses of an incredibly heavily shaded world, thick with lush, gorgeously tangled greenery.  Trees, trees, trees everywhere trees -- and vines that swung down from the canopies and wrapped down and around the trees, practically tripping them up on the forest floor. We never could see much of the water that goes with "swamp" from the road, but what we could spy between the green was deep and dark and mysterious and full of life.  It was just about sickening how much life was going on in that swamp. The stories you could just imagine taking place in such a deep and dark and mysterious world!

But, daggonit, with the speed of our car gliding down US 17 and the fact that the foliage was so thick, I couldn't ever get a really good look inside the swamp.  I knew there had to be some spooky old  cabins leaning crookedly on stilts back there somewhere.  Possibly with zombies in them.   And, dangit! I wanted to see a possum! Hanging upside down in a gnarly old tree.   I knew there were snakes coiled up in all that Spanish moss, and I wanted to catch sight of them!  And birds!  There had to be millions of birds! And alligators.  Not to mention bobcats and bears!  The Dismal Swamp was a metropolis of wildlife -- flora and fauna -- right there ouside the car window, and I was missing it!  Seriously. You can't peer into the mysterious deep darkness of a swamp traveling by it at 55 mph -- with your baby brother crying in the front seat and your sisters singing the wrong words to "Hear the Wind Blow" in the middle seat and  your-nine-year-old seat-mate acting like he's going to be sick next to you in the station wagon third-seat rumble.

=sigh= 

So frustrating.  It frustrates me now thinking about it.  Stop the car, I want to get out!!

Anyway...

You can see that, though most people's description of a swamp might include words like: lonely... and serene... and still...  my mind's eye conjures up a rolicking car full of children speeding along outside a wilderness teeming with  activity and life. 

And you might also understand a little bit what I mean now when I apologize for not being able to find time to get on the computer and enjoy some  blogging and visiting.  Because, as the saying goes...

gracious sakes

I've just been swamped!



Slave Hunt, Dismal Swamp Virgina, 1862  -- painting by Thomas Moran


PS:  I do hope to get a chance to download some pictures here soon and run around to some back porches to do some visiting, though... I'm gonna try. We'll see.  Stay tuned.

PPS:  OH, but  I actually did get over to Praying While You Work and add a couple more chapters today for anyone who's reading along in Dom Zeller's book...  :)

A Birthday Gallery

Kevin Christoper
Twenty-two years old today!
(Our Annunciation Baby)

With hair.
(At six years old, the most he may ever have)



Without hair.
(And camera; a preteen self-portrait)




With hair.
(And a plate full of Thanksgiving)



Without hair.
(With scary makeup -- for Halloween a couple years ago)



With hair.
(And beautiful girfriend, sweet Emily)

Without hair.
(With pipe -- a 21st birthday gift from big bro, Paul last year)



A fridge decoration from Kevvy's graduation days...



With or without hair, he's a great guy to have around...

Our Kevvy,

A man of humor,

A man of honor,

A man of Faith...

And, incidentally, the son that can most be counted on to call and text his motha.

(Sorry, sibs...  Sha, sha, ya know it's true.  You can get the brownie points yourselves, too,  if you like...)

Happy, Happy Birthday, Kevvy! 

We love you!!

(* For anyone who might be interested and hasn't seen it, here's a link to Kevvy's education blog, The Rockie Road.)

Feast of the Annunciation

And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth,  To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.  And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought within herself what manner of salutation this should be.  And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.

 (Luke 1: 26-34)

Here we are in the middle of Lent, being reminded in the beautiful tradition of the Church that, even though we are now preparing ourselves to suffer with Our Lord through His crucifixion, and so rejoice in His Resurrection -- and our minds are as far away from images of Bethlehem as they can possibly be -- the liturgical wheel keeps revolving.  In other words, in the practical reality of time, while we're moving very close to Easter, we are also moving back around toward Christmas.  On the Feast of the Annunciation, we are exactly nine months from celebrating Jesus' birthday!  Nine months from the Incarnation to the Nativity. Nine months Our Lord spent in the womb of His Mother, Mary.

On the 24th, then, the Church remembers the messenger, the Archangel Gabriel; on the 25th, it's his message we remember.  And the Blessed Virgin's answer: Be it done unto me according to thy word.  At which time the Word was made flesh. And dwelt among us.

The Angelus

V. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.

R. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.


All ~ Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death.


V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord.


R. Be it done unto me according to thy word.


All ~ Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death.


V. And the Word was made Flesh.


R. And dwelt among us.


All ~ Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death.


V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.


R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

V. Let us pray. Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that, we to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an Angel, may by His Passion and Cross, be brought to the glory of His Resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord.

History and practice of praying the Angelus  here.
St. Gabriel coloring page by Charlotte  here. 

And St. Gabriel, by the way,  is the patron of:

•broadcasters
•clergy
•communications workers
•diplomats
•messengers
•philatelists
•Portugal
•post offices
•postal services
•postal workers
•radio
•radio workers
•Seattle, Washington, archdiocese of
•secular clergy
•stamp collectors
•telecommunications workers
•telegraphs
•telephones
•television
•television workers

(I looked it up.  A "philatelist" is a stamp collector.)

HAPPY FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION!

Snowing on the Feast of St. Isidore the Farmer

Dear St. Isidore,

We beg you for your intercession in this season of the year when we wish to plant
our spinach
and our lettuce
and our radishes
and our onions
and our carrots...

And in this season of the year, when we wish to put away
our coats
and our boots
and our gloves
and our scarves

And hang our clothes out on the line
And send our children out to
to yell
and warble
and run
and jump
and swing
and play
and generally get 'the stink blown off of them.'

Please ask for God's mercy on us --
 that the snow might cease --
 that the weather will be henceforth warm and pleasant
and that the moisture might fall down in soft gentle rains --
 that it might really be spring.

 As God wills it.  In the holy name of Jesus.  Amen.

Fun Things To Do With Snow

#234

Honeybee Bread on the Feast of St. Benedict

 While we decided we needed to play with this idea a little more before the next time we try it, we weren't dissatisfied with our honeybee bread this afternoon.  Anything eaten drizzled with honey is well worth making, no matter what -- and it really was a fun baking and construction project!

We followed this recipe for sweet bread (ignore the braid and the Easter egg bit included...), rolled it out into a long cylindrical "snake" shape,  then twirled it up up into a spiral, starting with a big circle approximately  ten inches across the bottom, and decreasing in size to a somewhat pointed peak.  Then, we let it rise until doubled (roughly the diameter of a paper plate) and baked it.  It browned a little more than we should have let it, as you can see -- and Cathy and I both wished we'd put an egg glaze on it, plus it kinda tilted to one side when it baked -- but the children were pleased...

Especially with the little goofy-faced bees.

These we imagineered out of just a few things we had on hand already.  The bodies are made out of left-over sugar cookie dough from St. Patrick's Day, the wings are pecan halves, the stripes (which you can't see very well in the pictures, I'm afraid) are made out of thin slices of a tootsie roll, the faces have bits of raisin for the eyes and a bit of craisin for the noses -- and the stingers are made out of  half toothpicks.

Far from perfect, but the kiddos got a big kick out of our little bees -- especially when they lit in the honey we drizzled on a slice of St. Benedict's bread after supper -- and then buzzed (sans stingers!) into their "open hangar" mouths.

Yum!

Happy Feast of St. Benedict, Indeed!

If This Doesn't Make You Laugh...

There's Something Wrong With You!



H/T:  Terrie C.  :)

Happy Feast of St. Joseph!

Wednesdays are always set aside for St Joseph, but today is the official feast day of our dear St. Joseph.  How could we possibly honor him too much?  The sweet spouse of Our Lady, foster father of our Saviour.

Ways to celebrate the feast day:

* St. Joseph Altars  and other special celebrations of the day can be found at Fish Eaters.

* We made these cool little faux St. Joseph Altars in art class yesterday with all the school children.  You can find the pdf download here -- and lots more great stuff at Evann's site  -- including coloring pages --dedicated to our great saint!

* Catholic Cuisine, of course, has scads of recipes and ideas for celebrating the feast -- epicurean style.  I love the lily lolipop idea, for instance -- and am definitely ordering the mold for next year!

* Oh!  And make sure and check out St. Joseph's Moon tonight.  For scientific reasons I wouldn't even try to relate here (you can find it at the link, though, if you're interested), the full moon will appear larger than usual during this phase. How cool is that, it's reaching fullness on the feast of St. Joseph?  (No accidents in the universe, ya know!) Anyway,  here's praying to St. Joseph that the skies will be clear so we can all have a look.

 The moon has long been associated with the Blessed Mother -- as the sun represents God and she reflects His light.  Knowing that St. Joseph would love nothing better than for us to honor Mary as we honor him, we plan to take the children out tonight and tell them this about the moon and the holy Virgin whom St. Joseph guarded and protected through his life.

H/T for the moon factoid: Awesome Dawn at By Sun and Candlelight

Prayer to St. Joseph

To thee, O Blessed Joseph, we have recourse in our tribulations, and while imploring the aid of thy most holy Spouse, we confidently invoke thy patronage also. By that love which united thee to the Immaculate Virgin, Mother of God, and by the fatherly affection with which thou didst embrace the Infant Jesus, we humbly beseech thee graciously to regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased with His Blood and to help us in our necessities, by thy powerful intercession.

Protect, O most provident Guardian of the Holy Family, the chosen children of Jesus Christ; ward off from us, O most loving Father, all taint of error and corruption; graciously assist us from Heaven, O most power protector, in our struggle with the powers of darkness; and as thou didst once rescue the Child Jesus from imminent peril to His life, so now defend the Holy Church of God from the snares of her enemies and from all adversity.

Shield each one of us with thy unceasing patronage that, imitating thy example and sported by thy aid, we may be enabled to live a good life, die a holy death, and secure everlasting happiness in Heaven. Amen.

** This prayer was written by Leo XIII and attached to his encyclical, Quamquam Pluries. It is to be included at the end of the Rosary, especially during the month of October.

Good St. Joseph, pray for us!

Top O' the Mornin' All Day Long!

BFFs, William the Leprecaun (5)  Irish Lass, Alycia (4)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Praying While You Work: Devotions for the Use of Martha Rather Than Mary

Anything can be prayed -- even a novel.  If you can pray while you are reading, you can pray while you are writing. If you can pray while you are writing, you can pray while you are doing pretty well anything.

~ Dom Hubert Van Zeller

I've been able to type out the introduction and the first four short chapters of Dom Zeller's book.  As I enter new chapters, they'll scroll away, leaving the most recent on top.  It's kind of a pain in the neck, I'm afraid, to reverse-order in the blogging format so that the book posts first page to last. I hope it won't be confusing to allow the links in the table of contents on the top of the sidebar to provide a chronologically correct reading experience. Let me know if you have any problems.  I'll try to type in more as I'm able, hopefully one every two days or so.

 You can find the blog here -- where the most recently transcribed chapter will appear first.  Or click on the title (above) to link to the Introduction. 

 Sidenote:  As you read the introduction, you'll see a long embedded quote that describes  first-hand the life of a housewife in the early fifties.  Goodness sakes!  See what you think.  Do you think they had it harder than we do now, or easier?  Feel free to comment in the combox over there if you like. I'll tell you what I think in the comments.

Outside My Window

7:15 a.m.

As-Quick-as-I-Can-Make-'em Takes

So, well...  I thought I'd have a little more time to be on the computer than I have the last couple of days.    I hadn't planned to have a Lenten computer silence this year, but Life may decide it for me anyway.  At least sometimes.  I may be scarce, but know that I'm trying to get on and post and visit, regardless...  Without any other real media -- or coffee -- for the next 37 days, if I don't have the internet, there is no doubt -- I'll go stark staring! 

Anyway, here's what we have in the works right at the moment for the Lenten season, in seven Quick-as-I-Can-Make-'em Takes

1) We have recently been granted a heavenly blessing in that the little chapel across the meadow resonates almost every day now with the offering of two Masses, one at the rooster's crow and another at 8 a.m. for those of us who don't care for the company of the rooster.  Dan takes first shift, I take second shift with the children (when it's a school Mass day).  This has been a wonderful timely addition to our schedule and one that we hope not to take for granted!

2) We are doing one of these:

Instructions here.

3) Along with the traditional and other miscellaneous voluntary sacrifices we're making for Lent, Paul and Nicole have inspired Dan and me to do the Love Dare.  The "challenge" takes forty days, which is convenient, and Easter precedes our 24th wedding anniversary by about a week, so we thought it might be a beautifully pro-active thing to add to the Lenten mix.  If you've never heard of the Love Dare (or seen the movie Fireproof), it's worth checking out -- We've heard good things about it -- and it can be applied easily to our Catholic understanding and tweaked for our sensibilities. 

Not that ours isn't the perfect marriage!  Mind you, except for Dan's snoring and his lack of molars (poor guy just had to have one pulled yesterday!), he's the perfect husband.  (No, I'm not laughing, that was my chair squeaking.  Really.  ;)  And, heaven knows I'm the perfect wife.  (Snort!)  But there's not  a marriage out there that doesn't need a good heavenward refocusing every once in a while. We're looking forward to this as a "refresher course."

4)  Cathy and I have resolved to give up wearing jeans or slacks (or shorts or culottes, etc.) for Lent, which is not a real biggie for us, because we wear skirts most of the time anyway.  Frankly, we just like them.  I have a multitude of thoughts on the issue of wearing slacks vs. wearing dresses that I posted about some time ago, but suffice it to say, I don't feel a particular conviction toward swearing off the two-legged garment for the rest of my life.  For Lent, however I'm pleased to make the sacrifice.  (Which might be a better sacrifice, I guess, if it bothered me more, huh?) 

Anyway, in that vain, Cathy and I want to show, once and for all that, for all the objections you might hear about the traditional feminine attire, one of them is just not so: plain and simple, there is nothing worth doing that can't be done in a skirt.  Ask our grandmothers.  Ask the Sisters.  While a windy day can throw up some challenges, and while a girl ought to be very careful who's around while climbing a tree, skirts and dresses really aren't as much a hindrance as some think.  Proof of this we hope to share in occasional photo studies we'll just call: Skirts.  Stay tuned.

5) We're just beginning to beef up (har-har) our early Lenten have-on-hand meatless meal stock.  On our list:  hummus and pimiento cheese, which are soooo much better homemade it's not funny.  We like Paula Dean's pimiento cheese recipe and are going to try our favorite Italian blogger, Bia's, hummus recipe, but beause we have been getting requests for it, we'll be making granola first.  Here's the recipe we like, from Hillbilly Housewife -- simple, good, versatile. 

6)  As a Lenten exercise I'm setting up a blog in which to type out a wonderful book I got on loan from Sister K. called Praying While you Work: Devotions for the use of Martha rather than Mary, by Dom Hubert Van Zeller.  I'm half-way through reading it and have found it very helpful and inspiring, and since it's not a terribly long book, I hoped I could share it with other interested mothers.  The counsels are wonderful, but just for the awesome prayers in the back, this is a book well worth having.  As it's out of print, I copied Sister's on my copy machine so I could keep it for myself -- and so I could share it with you.  I'll let you know when the blog is up and running.

7) Last week I got to take another ride on the California Zephyr from Denver home over the beautiul Colorado Rockies.  I've done this several times now, but it's a ride I will never get tired of taking.  So long as I haven't got any pressing engagements within about 48 hours of my trip, that is. 

Get this.  My train was delayed leaving Denver because the conductor, making his early morning rounds somewhere in Nebraska, found a dead guy in one of the cars.  No kidding.  It was the gossip of the train -- and let me tell you, because you wouldn't know unless you'd spent some time with Amtrak -- one of the chief differences between airline and train travel lies in the communication between, amongst, and about travelers.  Ohmyword, is there talktalktalktalktalk on a train!  I'll  download some more "Pictures From the Train Window" -- and fill you in on some of the scoop as soon as I can -- hopefully this weekend.

TTFN, though...

Make sure and run over to Conversion Diaries for lots more (probably quicker)Quick Takes!

Cheater Paczkis

Certainly not as good as the real thing, but super quick and super easy!

1.  Get a bag of frozen dinner rolls and follow the directions for baking, letting them rise once.

2. Heat your deep fryer to 360 degrees and fry the raised roll dough until golden brown.

3.  For the quickest, easiest, cheatingest version, in lieu of "piping" preserves or custard with a piping bag,

use the tip of the whip cream can to poke a hole in the side of the fried "paczki" and carefully squirt in some spray whipped cream.  (Caution: it can squirt out if it's not centered well, and, well, someone is going to have

 to lick whipped cream off their fingers... or the floor. ;0)

4.  Dust with powdered sugar and eat right away!

  If you wait too long, the whipped cream will deflate!

But, don't worry, this is highly unlikely.

These disappear purty fast!

* My cheaters turned out kinda small because I got busy and let them rise too long -- so they lost their "puff."  They still tasted yummy, though!

* Because there is neither eggs nor milk in the frozen dough recipe and we used light spray whip, this recipe was comparatively lower in fat and calories.  Not diet food, but better than it might have been.  Just sayin....

Happy Pancake Shrove Tuesday!

Seventeen Days to Figure This Out:

PDF print out  instructions for this three-leaf clover made with a $1 bill here.
Video instructions on how to make a four-leaf clover with three $1 bills here.
Or we can make three hearts out of $1 bills as shown here, and put them together to make a shamrock.

Can we do it?
I don't know.
I'm not sure I have any dollar bills.
(But I do have Guinness in the fridge...  Just sayin')