Quick Takes on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart

1:: Today is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It our family feast day since we consecrated our home to the Sacred and the Immaculate Hearts about ten years ago. Tomorrow is the Blessed Mother's feast day.  I got roses for both of them.

2:: I'm making extremely slow progress on our Little Oratory. Here is what it has looked like for a while where we pray our nightly decade, or rosary, and consecration prayer.

3::  I'm gathering other things from the room and around the house to add to it. The corner is very plain with that large blank space on the wall. The table used to be under the large painting but I scootched everything around so we would have a better view of the Two Hearts instead of the spring---though that can inspire thoughts of living water!

4:: Here's our picture of the Two Hearts that we should be focusing on when we renew our consecration at night.

Love those dried palms from a couple of years ago? I always forget to burn them on Ash Wednesday!

5:: This is our icon wall to the right of the window. I have a couple more to add.

6:: Our home altar as it has been for a few years. The basket holds rosaries, and we have the set of rosary images that we change for each mystery. We never light the candle, but we are going to start!

The cloth reverses to white. I remove it for Holy Week, but I've never gotten around to making a purple/rose one for Advent and Lent. Maybe this year! 

7:: Lastly, the table rotates to reveal a selection of our religious and prayer books.

God willing, someday soon I'll show you the updates! Subscribe to posts so you can see it! 

::Linking up with Jen at ConversionDiary.com

Pentecost Dessert

This year we celebrated Pentecost with a coconut cake topped with raspberries and whipped cream. 

I used Bob's Red Mill Coconut flour, since that's what they carry at my grocery store, and it's much more yellow than the brand I usually use. The recipe called for maple syrup as a sweetener, but I used honey this time, so we had a lovely yellow, instead of white, cake that was reminiscent of a honey-soaked baklava! Yellow-ness aside, I thought it was wonderful.

I also sweetened the whipped cream with Stevia liquid instead of sugar. My kids sometimes complain about unsweetened whipped cream, so I compromised. I didn't hear any complaints----probably because they know it's futile, not because they were content. ;-)

Happy birthday to the Church!

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.
V. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created.
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Happy Easter (Tuesday)

It was such a busy Easter weekend! It was so wonderful, though! Even though school was back in session yesterday, Meg, Pip, and I managed to play games and have fun to stretch out this glorious holiday a little longer.

Meg baked her marble lemon cake on Saturday, and then she decorated it all by herself on Sunday morning while I was at Mass.

Katie made Pavlovas for dessert, too. I wish I had a picture! Ours were filled with lemon curd and topped with blueberry syrup, and I could eat them for.ev.er.

We dyed Easter eggs on Saturday using a dozen white eggs and a dozen brown eggs from the farm. They're all beautiful and we totally forgot to put them out for dinner on Sunday!

Most of us went to the Easter Vigil on Saturday after working on a puzzle and watching Jesus of Nazareth on TV. Singing the Gloria with the bells ringing, watching the elect get baptized and confirmed, and receiving the body and blood of our risen Lord was a joyous occasion. Words can't even do it justice.

Since I have to leave early for choir warm-ups, we never get photos of everyone in their Easter finery. These pics are from the day after---after I got home at 12:30 from singing at the morning Mass. And after Pete got home to join us!

I am counting all my blessings on this gorgeous Easter Tuesday!  It was all pretty amazing.

What was your favorite part of your Easter celebration? 

PHFR - Triduum Edition

{pretty} My sweet girl with half of her Phase 2 braces. She didn't smile much the rest of the day since her teeth are sore. :-(  On the plus side, that might make fasting tomorrow just a little bit easier! {happy}

Oh my! Those sweet faces from Easter 9 (NINE!) years ago! And would you look at the two stinkers in the front row? Pippo cracks me up. {funny}

Did I tell you about getting to meet the Property Brothers, or did I just put that on FB? I went with a couple of friends, and the guys answered a few questions and then took pictures with everyone. They shoved us between them, snapped, and pulled us away, shoving an autographed card in our hands. It was a little adventure. They were funny. And tall. (I'm 5'9", y'all!) And I have no idea what I did with their autographs, because that's the kind of fan I am.

(And no, this has nothing to do with the Triduum, but I needed a funny!)

{real}

See where we are on the Lenten calendar? All the way down there on Holy Thursday! ^ It's almost Easter! I'm frittering away my time this morning, when what I really want to do is explain why our family attends all the services of the Triduum if we possibly can.

One of our traditional Palm Sundaes. ;-)

So, tonight starts a marathon of Church-going. We begin with the Mass of the Last Supper which commemorates the time when Jesus instituted the priesthood and gave us the Eucharist. It's a beautiful Mass. If you're lucky (and I don't believe we will be this year), you'll hear at least the Latin Mass parts sung, and the beautiful Gloria will be intoned for the first time since before Ash Wednesday, and the bells will be rung throughout the Gloria. That's my favorite part. The other highlight of this Mass is the footwashing, and we end in silence as the Blessed Sacrament is taken to a special Altar of Repose where we can stand in for the apostles who slept in the garden. 

Tomorrow, there is Stations of the Cross at 3:00 p.m. We try to go to Stations, or at least do them at home or have quiet time from noon-3:00. In the evening is the Commemoration of the Passion of Christ and Veneration of the Cross. It's kind of a grueling service (not a Mass; it's the one day of the year when the bread and wine are not turned into the body and blood of Christ) with lots of standing and kneeling during the Prayers of the Faithful. 

And finally, there is the Great Easter Vigil on Saturday night. Ever since I came into the Church 18 years ago, we have gone to the Easter vigil nearly every year. Thinking back, I can't believe we've done it so many times. If I'm wrong, someone can correct me. ;-) The Church (and the organist) pulls out all the stops on this night. The music is the most beautiful, the flowers are gorgeous, the beautiful ritual of lighting the Easter fire and sharing the Light of Christ with everyone in the church is exquisite, and so is the singing of the Exsultet. That and the singing of the Litany of Saints bring me to tears on this night. (I remember Tom's godfather holding him as a 3 month-old and dancing with him to keep him calm during the Litany.) And you know the big bonus of the Easter Vigil? Unless there are a huge number of candidates and confirmands with their families, the church is not full and there is plenty of room to spread out!

Don't get me wrong....these beautiful 3 days are never easy! The kids get tired of going back to church all the time, and they're usually hungry because we plan dinner for after Mass. So the kids are hungry and tired; the parents may be, too, but we're grownups and we want to be there; and the services are long. It's always hard. Exhausting, even. But we do it because it makes Easter so much more special when we've been immersed in the fasting of Lent followed by these very special liturgies. 

I often feel as if I've "failed" Lent because of my lack of sacrifices, but I believe that fully immersing oneself in the Triduum and the Passion during these 3 days makes up for it! By the time we sing the Alleluia (hey kids! NOW it's Easter!), I'm ready for it. I've been run through the mill and I'm ready to celebrate the Resurrection.  

Oh, and aside from being tired and sometimes grumpy, the kids often fall asleep until they're about 10. They're always very proud of themselves if they can stay awake for the whole Easter Vigil! The boys like altar serving---partly because it helps keep them awake. And finally, it has to be said, another great advantage to the Easter Vigil (and the midnight Mass at Christmas) is the lack of crowds! There's nothing like a mob scene in the parking lot and being unable to find a seat to take people right out of the spirit of the holy day. Dontcha think?

What does your family do? Have you ever been to the Triduum services?

I probably won't be back here until Monday, so I will wish you a blessed Triduum and all the joy of the resurrection.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I think it's a swan, not a turkey, but we'll just use him to wish you a 

Happy Thanksgiving, anyway!

Apple carving courtesy of Pippo and YouTube.

O Gracious God, we give you thanks for your overflowing generosity to us. 

Thank you for the blessings of the food we eat and especially for this feast today. Thank you for our home and family and friends, especially for the presence of those gathered here. 

Thank you for our health, our work and our play. 

Please send help to those who are hungry, alone, sick and suffering war and violence. Open our hearts to your love. 

We ask your blessing through Christ your son. Amen.

 From Celebrating Faith: Year-round Activities For Catholic Families, by Mary Cronk Farrell

What's in the Kitchen?

Doing a lot of cooking in advance of the Big Day, mostly because I wanted to deliver a Thanksgiving dinner to my grown boy who won't be able to be with us for Thanksgiving for the first time, ever.  #sadface

I made a turkey that we've been eating for the past couple of days, rehearsing for Thursday.  I also included his favorite sausage/mushroom dressing, green beans, sweet potatoes, and cinnamon rolls.  Dangit, I forgot the cranberry sauce!  I left it on the kitchen counter!

The true highlight, of course, will be Pioneer Woman's Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls, which are pretty heavenly!  When they came out of the oven and needed to be frosted, I realized I had already used all the milk, so we were forced to improvise and use egg nog.  That icing is pretty. amazing.  Let me tell you!

Unstructured Days

{pretty} {happy} {funny} {real} I'm going to let YOU decide what goes where!  Frankly, I think I have a whole lot of REAL going on---without photos.

There is no structure to my days, and so there is no structure to this post!  Are your summer days like that?  More importantly, how do you feel about it?

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For a few days in June I was recovering from the stress of May, and beginning to get a little bored.  But that has all ended now, and I'm busy with all kinds of miscellany.

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First, let me show you my cakes for the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart (from last Friday and Saturday!):

The Sacred Heart cake was just chocolate with my famous frosting which I made thin enough to drizzle on.  Do you like how I drizzled on the crown of thorns as it cooled and got thicker?  I thought it was fun.  It was also s.i.m.p.l.e!

The next day Our Blessed Mother got a white cake, with the addition of blueberries. I split the cake in half and filled with lemon curd.  Then we frosted it with another simple lemon glaze.  It was delish!

No, it was not greeny-yellow.  It was white, but that's what you get with an iphone camera, at night, under a fluorescent light.  And it tasted even better the next day when the lemon curd had soaked in a bit!  OMG.  Yum.

This adorable, little guy lives in a new burrow/den/warren/whateveryoucallit in the garden outside our library window.  I don't know how many there are, but when we were admiring this little cutie, his sibling poked it's head out.  Tom is holding him because he escaped into the garage, which is a very dangerous place for small creatures of any kind, and we had to hunt him down to get him out.  They can crawl into some tiny crevices, you know?  Using the cloth was the only way we could pick him up because he was very jumpy if anyone touched him!

We're going to have to be very diligent about keeping the garage closed now!  I don't want any bunny mishaps in there.  Plus, I already have enough critters in my attic. 

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It is HOT outside.  Yesterday was one of those days where you just feel like you're roasting if you're outside in the sunshine for more than a minute.  We are expecting major thunderstorms this afternoon.  Yay.  Swim meet day.  Double Yay!  We had a storm last Friday that lasted all of about 10 minutes.  It was intense!  One neighbor said he couldn't see the house across the street.  And that brief storm brought down nearly a dozen large trees in the neighborhood!  It was crazy.

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One (ha!) of the things keeping me busy is buying and selling schoolbooks.  This room, the first room you see when you walk in our house, is full of boxes, piles of books, and piles of papers.  I hope I can get them all out of here by Saturday!  It's making me crazy.  And if I'm drowning in books, I'm also drowning in emails related to all this business.  Yikes.

Oh, and there is all the paperwork and medical forms for summer camps; necessities for TMax who is going to the Boy Scout Jamboree; beach trip planning.

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And now, instead of clearing it all away, I have to go do swim team stuff and run some necessary errands before I can work on it.  I'm really hoping the meet is rained out before it ever starts tonight!

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Tell me your summertime is a little crazy, too!  The bright spot in my day is when I'm too tired to face the computer or the mess any longer and I get to crochet while I watch Lark Rise to Candleford.  And I'm beyond thrilled that Meg will watch it with me!

Christ the Lord is Risen Today!

We walked from Katie's apartment to and from the Cathedral last night, in the rain.  It was a stunning Mass celebrated by the Archbishop, and I was so excited to see the 30 or so new members of the Church.

This morning, the kids are sleeping in because we were up way too late.  When they get up, they have to answer a couple of Catholic doctrine questions (from the Catholic Doctrine Playing Cards, of course!) to get clues to the location of their Easter baskets.

I think we're going to eat sugar, drink coffee, eat more sugar, and then eat ham and fall asleep, resting in the knowledge that our Lord is risen indeed.

Happy Easter!

Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
Who did once, upon the cross, Alleluia!
Suffer to redeem our loss, Alleluia!

Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!
Unto Christ, our heavenly King, Alleluia!
Who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia!
Sinners to redeem and save, Alleluia!

But the pain which He endured, Alleluia!
Our salvation hath procured, Alleluia!
Now above the sky He's king, Alleluia!
Where the angels ever sing, Alleluia!

Sing we to our God above, Alleluia!
Praise eternal as His love, Alleluia!
Praise Him, all you heavenly host, Alleluia!
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Alleluia!

Corpus Christi---The Body of Christ

It's late in the day, but while my grown up girl makes gyros for dinners, I'll blog a little and enjoy the help which will be gone all too soon.

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Happy Feast of Corpus Christi---the Body and Blood of Christ---when the Church celebrates the fact that Jesus gave us his body in the Holy Eucharist.  As Catholics, we get to experience Jesus in a very special way every Sunday.  Daily, if we choose!  

I love Jesus in the Eucharist.  I can remember before my conversion when my husband and I discussed John chapter 6 and the Last Supper.  I was shocked when he simply explained that if Jesus himself said, "This is my body" then shouldn't we believe him?  If I couldn't trust Jesus to speak clearly and truthfully, whom could I trust?

So, you know how that turned out! Here I am, firmly, happily ensconced in the Catholic Church, despite the fact that sometimes the music at Mass is amazingly awful and inappropriate.  (Not badly done, mind you, just poorly written and chosen.)  I can't believe that today, of all days, while celebrating Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, His gift to us was diminished by our  (well, not my) singing that We are the body and blood of Christ, broken and poured out for the salvation of the world.  Not that we don't have anything to do with the salvation of souls through our prayers and sacrifices, but to compare ourselves to the Blessed Sacrament is a bit much, especially today.

Enough griping....let me tell you an embarrassing story about myself...just promise you won't tell anyone else!  

When I came into the Church in 1996, I was very excited for the Easter Vigil, but also a bit nervous because there was so much to remember and do.  The RCIA director explained that the Candidates for Confirmation and First Communion would be the first to receive Communion.  But we were sitting with our families (and mine took up most of a pew!) and sponsors, so I didn't see how we could receive first.  I asked for clarification, but she insisted that we were to go first.  

Fast forward to the Liturgy of the Eucharist...when it came time to go up, I was sitting in something like the 6th row, far, far from the center aisle.  In fact, I might have been on the outside of the pew so I could get up if my 3 month old (who was baptized that night!) got fussy.   But I dutifully got up and climbed over everyone else in the row to go up to receive Jesus for the first time.  As you might imagine, I was the only one who did that!  Everyone else followed the traditional method of going row by row.  Talk about embarrassing! 

 When we met with the RCIA team later, my very kind sponsor insisted that it was my hunger for the Eucharist that made me do it, not stupidity, which was my choice.  She said that several times over the next couple of weeks---and I was all, like, can't we just drop the subject?  With the hindsight of 16 years, I can say, unequivocally, that maybe, just maybe, she was right.

I do have a hunger for the Eucharist, and I'm profoundly grateful for that gift at every Mass.  

But I just might be a little dense, too.

Happy New Year!

I really wonder if the retailers have convinced us that we need to get organized in January, or if they're capitalizing on what we were feeling, anyway.  What do you think?

Even though I try not to get caught up in the hype, I can feel the strong pull to start cleaning up and decluttering my home.  However, in an effort to thwart the retailers, I won't be buying storage containers and keeping all our junk squirreled away, but will actually Get Rid of It!

It's also getting to be time to put the kids back to work and turn off the television!

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Yesterday was a very good start to the year.  We went to Mass as a family since I didn't have to sing, and it was very nice to be together.

I started cooking when I got home so we could have a proper feast when K & B returned from their New Year's celebrations.  We had to eat at 3:00 so Pip and I could get to the church where we had our homeschool drama production last night.  The kids performed A Christmas Carol as a gift for Our Blessed Mother.  I was a little concerned about how it would go since dress rehearsal was 2 weeks ago, before Christmas, but it was really beautiful and a lot of fun.

After all the cleanup at the church, we came back to snack on leftovers and have ice cream for dessert before bed.  Enjoying having the kids here for a few days longer!

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It seems that despite my best intentions, I'm making some plans for the new year.  ;-)  I do think that it should be an ongoing thing, not just a yearly plan, though.  I like Jen Fulwiler's (of Conversion Diary) method of using the major feasts of the Church as an opportunity for reflection and renewal.

In terms of spiritual growth, I'll be working harder at daily spiritual reading and the rosary.  My house is full of excellent resources that I've never gotten to!   Maybe going back to the Daily Office on my iphone.

Personal growth means talking less about myself, being a better listener, and offering to help others more.

The house is an ongoing challenge, but the big project for the year seems to be redecorating the library.  It's the first room you see when you walk in the house and the computer armoire, which won't close, is a constant, cluttered mess.   My Katie is excited to help me re-do it.  I found a desk that I love at Goodwill, and I'm looking forward to painting it and moving it in here!

I should probably take the Before picture today since we'll probably dive right in with some easy stuff today!

Happy Christmas!

It's a happy Christmas here, and I hope it is at your home, as well!

We went to Midnight Mass last night which began with a choral concert at 11:15.  The pastor was brief, so Mass was not overlong and we were able to go home and open our presents at a decent hour of the morning.  Ha!  Most of us were ready to go to bed by 3:00, but I stayed up a little longer to help My Daughter, The Great Procrastinator, finish sewing a stuffed robot for a friend.

Another beautiful Mass for me this morning.  I sang while most of the family continued to slumber, or at least lie around sluggishly eating scones.

It has been a lovely, though rainy, relaxing day here, just spending time together.  I'm drinking eggnog (with actual bourbon!) while finishing up details for our late Christmas dinner.  (As soon as I finish blogging!)

I hope your family has a blessed Christmas Season!

St. Nicholas Day!

 St. Nick arrived early and brought Barbara's doughnuts!  I love these doughnuts---they're so easy to make.  I whipped up the dough last night (no yeast!  no rising!) and fried them this morning.  

Has your oil ever foamed up on you?  Something tells me that the children on kitchen duty need a lesson in rinsing dishes!

 6 a.m. is too early for an almost 16 year-old to be excited about his stocking.

 Also sleepy.

 Wide awake and bolted out of bed when I turned on the light.

 The Schoolteacher---not quite photo ready!

 Our Jesse/Christmas tree.  It has a few purple ornaments to dress it up as we add the Jesse Tree ornaments, plus the new ones that St. Nick just brought for the kids.

Sadly, we're missing our big boys---Can't wait for them to come home next week!

Have a blessed feast day!

Whew!

Halloween and All Saints, all done!  The party last night was fun.  I was very, very stressed by the time I got there, but we managed to fill in the last few gaps with games and prizes.  I relaxed as I realized that most of the pressure was coming from myself and not others' expectations of me!  The kids had a lot of fun, as usual, with the games.  There were long lines to play!

These are just a few of the games---mainly the ones I was responsible for providing!

St. Cecelia's Musical Mystery/Cake Walk

My St. Agnes---next year I may need to make her a new costume!

Bl. JP II running the bingo game.

Pinning the halo on our favorite new saint.

St. Nicholas's Coin Toss

I got to visit with some of my friends as I made the rounds, making sure the teens were staffing the games and not just taking over playing them.  One very popular new attraction was the St. Nicholas Coin Toss that I got from Charlotte---the boys just loooved slamming those bags of gold up against the wall and watching them drop into the chimney!

We said our family prayers when we got home, and I took the advice of a grocery-store cashier:  I took an hour-long hot bath with a large glass of wine and a book!  It was awesome!

Obligatory Halloween Post

Our Sunday dessert were Candy Corn Cupcakes which we whipped up out of the box of coconut cake.  The lighting is terrible and somone pointed out on FB that they look radioactive!  They were yummy, though.  Everyone thought the orange-flavored buttercream was genius!

I post this bad picture, of cupcake and Katie, because I want you to see it and her black fingernails with spiderwebs.   She's so creative!

Pip went out as Mojo Jojo from the Powerpuff Girls.  He made his hat out of posterboard and duck tape (white and silver).  The cape is an old, purple, crushed velvet maternity top that I turned into a cape.  I don't know why it came out royal blue in the photo!

The pumpkin: They did a great job on the creative aspect, not to mention the execution.  Katie thinks the little pumpkin being eaten looks bored, not scared.  

Meg went as Bubbles from the Powerpuff Girls.  Her BFF went as the one in green, whose name slips my mind.  I made both of their costumes, and I wanted to make a mask of the big eyeballs, but they weren't into it.  So they were very simple.  Fine by me!

Pip and his cohort went to every house in the neighborhood, as usual.  He even dropped off his first pillowcase halfway through and pick up another!  Meg had about half as much, most of which she put in the "Do Not Like" pile.  :-)

We made up a few "movie theater bags" for special events, and I'll let them eat it at certain times for a couple of days, and then we'll get rid of the rest.  Thank God the days of 4-5 kids trick-or-treating are over!  I remember one year with a laundry basket full of candy!

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Now, it's on to the real feast:  All Saints Day!  I was running around, printing, laminating, and generally planning party games yesterday.  Let's pray that we have all we need!  I'm very thankful for all those wonderful bloggers that post their pics and their ideas every year!