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It Is Only a Tiny Rosebud

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of God’s design;
But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.

The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
GOD opens this flower so sweetly,
When in my hands they fade and die.

If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
This flower of God’s design,
Then how can I think I have wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?

So I’ll trust in Him for His leading
Each moment of every day.
I will look to him for His guidance
Each step of the pilgrim way.

The pathway that lies before me,
Only my Heavenly Father knows.
I’ll trust Him to unfold the moments,
Just as He unfolds the rose.

-Bryan T. Burgess

Posted in Catholicism, Reading | 1 Response »

St. Clare Hymn (unknown author)

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

Sung to the tune of “Joyful, Joyful”

With the saints and lights of heaven

Lady Clare beams radiantly;

joined in marriage with her chosen,

welcomed to eternity.

Clare is noble, source of riches,

brilliant works her legacy.

Ever imitating Francis,

earthly power, she deny.

in a cloister, poor and humble,

Clare, espoused to Christ alone,

was to all a perfect model,

mirror to her God enthroned.

Fruitful, founder to her daughters,

she was teacher, gentle, kind.

Clare led many to the Savior

by her holy strength of mind.

Christ was central in the heart and

daily life of Lady Clare,

She embraced the cross of Christ in

order to its glory share.

How she clothed herself in virtue!

Every sister she impressed.

Those outside San Damiano

recognized her holiness.

Heavenly vision on her deathbed:

Virgins in procession came;

to the realms of light ascended

Clare, now blest among the same.

“Luce claret vocitate!”

Lady Clare in heav’n is crowned.

And the Churhc on earth has gained a

flower brilliant and renowned.

Posted in Catholicism | No Responses »

Homemade Baby Food: The Project Begins

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Dave and I decided to make as much of John’s food here at home as we can.  So I started with bananas.  I waited until they were well ripened with more than just a couple of black specks.  I kind of just broke them in pieces before putting them in the food processor, added a bit of formula to make processor easier and just zapped them until they were totally liquefied.  As John becomes better with texture in his mouth I’ll decrease the amount I process foods.  I transferred the bananas to ice cube trays, froze them and then placed them in dated freezer bags,

I’ll post additional “recipes” for things as I make them ( and as I can).

Posted in Baby Related Stuff, Catholicism, Homemaking & Recipes, Maple Syrup | No Responses »

Chair for the Nursery

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

Dave and I have been looking for a nice chair for the baby’s room.  One that would be comfortable enough to use for nursing and just generally sitting in.  We decided upon getting a “club chair” style chair, but the ones at the furniture stores were anywhere from $200-$1000+ for anything we even remotely liked.  So our minds turned to finding a used chair, somewhere.  Every yard sale we’ve past lately we’ve slowed to look for a chair.

This morning Dave had plans at his parent’s house so I went “garage sale-ing”.  After passing probably 15+ garage sales with mostly junk for sale, I found myself in a tangled subdivision neighborhood with several sales.  Finally, it dawned on me to ask God for a little assist.  So I said a little pray real quick that I find something, hopefully a chair, that would be useful furniture in the baby’s room at one of the sales I saw coming up in front of me.  No joke the very next sale I came across had a cream colored chair sitting in the drive-way gleaming in the sunlight.  I thought the price was surely going to be $80+ or it would be stained and gross, but I’d check.  I should trust God more…  The price said, “make an offer”, the stains were very, very limited, it looked sturdy and when I sat in it…perfection.  So I asked the owner what she was hoping to get for the chair, all the while thinking to myself that $25 would be a superb amount.  And what did she say…yup, $25!

So there you have it.  God’s chair for our baby’s room.  I might or might not try finding a slip cover for it or asking my mom to make covers for the arms and maybe the seat, but it really is ready to use even if I don’t cover it in anyway.  And it also fit perfectly into the back of the SUV!

Posted in Baby Related Stuff, Catholicism | No Responses »

A Maybe Visitor!!

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Well, my mom MIGHT be visiting us here March 30th!!!  Yeah!  She’s not been here yet and it will be wonderful to finally show her where I live now.  There are a couple things happening back in IL that might still make it so she can’t come, but we’ll see.  Dad sounded hopeful when I spoke to him Sunday afternoon.

So this week I’m going to proceed like she’s coming for sure.  Her visit should offer me some really good incentive to finish spring cleaning too!  This is kind of a busy week for me, so I’m going to have to eek out time wherever I can to accomplish my cleaning chores.

This is how this week is shaping up:

Monday:  grocery shopping & CVS (there are special sales I’m hitting at both places today in order to stock-up on things), spring clean kitchen & pantry (and possibly finish spring clean in living room), 2 loads of laundry (start to finish), pack 7 gallons of syrup into pint containers for sale at the church on 29th.  Evening:  attend third lecture in series on life & times of St. Paul and help Dave collect sap from at least one location.

Tuesday:  Deliver 10-15 gallons of syrup to a restaurant in MASS (1.5 hours drive time each way), regular cleaning in bathroom and spring clean our bedroom.

Wednesday:  Home Only Day!!  Spring clean upstairs & downstairs hallways, stairwell and organize some stuff in attic,  if time permits clean office/guest room.  And get laundry completely caught up.  (Our hallways & stairwell have killer amounts of woodwork so those projects could take me several hours…)

Thursday:  Finish any leftover cleaning projects, Bible Study at 1PM.

Friday:  Spend morning with Dave helping with maple syrup production (this could be our last weekend because some trees are starting to bud.)  Spend afternoon with sister-in-law between picking up niece & nephew from school then taking nephew to choir.  Home by 5PM.

Saturday:  Maple syrup production.

Sunday: Mass, sell maple syrup for church fundraiser at pancake breakfast between masses.  (Dave tapped all the giant maples on the church property making 7 gallons of syrup to use as a fundraiser for a missions trip some folks at church at taking to Jamaica.  We’ll be selling “church syrup” in pint containers so hopefully lots of parishioners will take advantage of buying syrup. )  And then finish maple syrup production potentially for the season.

Kind of roughly, that is the plan for the week.  I’ll have finished spring cleaning the house on top of having the house “mom ready” if she’s able to come out.

Over the weekend, I made four dinner’s worth of meatballs and froze them in individual dinner packets.  I need to update my 21 Freezer Meals post because I’m further along with that project than I previously thought.

Posted in Homemaking & Recipes, Lent, Maple Syrup, News | No Responses »

Another Great Bible Study

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

When 1PM rolls around every Thursday, I frequently dread having a commitment of my time.  But every single time I make the decision to go to bible study it is ALWAYS a blessing.  The woman that teaches is so wonderful. Everything about her exudes God’s graces.  I am not sure if I will continue to be able to attend after the baby arrives since the baby might be too distracting.  Until I have to sop going though, I hope I remember every Thursday afternoon how blessed I feel after attending.

Comically, we’ve been working our way through Romans every since I started attending.  We get maybe 2 chapters in per session and get sidetracked with additional conversation.  But it’s all good stuff.

Posted in Catholicism | No Responses »

On My Mind

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the passing of a dear friend’s sister.  So all day yesterday and today I’ve been thinking about and praying for my friend and her family.

God, please bless all those who knew and loved Jennifer with your peace this week as they look back on her life and memory.

Posted in Catholicism, News, Uncategorized | 1 Response »

Going to Try Making Soft Pretzels

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

Later this week, Wednesday specifically, I am going to make my first batch of homemade soft pretzels.  The Food Netwrok’s Alton Brown made soft pretzels on one of his shows so I found that recipe and plan to give it a try.  One difficulty I have during winter is making bread because you have to have a warm area to let bread dough rise.  Well, Dave & I keep our home pretty chilly during the winter and finding a warm location for rising bread dough can be hard.  But I’m going to give pretzels a try!

Posted in Homemaking & Recipes, Lent | 3 Responses »

First Anniversary of My Grandmother’s Passing

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Yesterday was the first anniversary of my mother’s mom’s death.  It is hard to believe she is gone sometimes.  And I will very much miss introducing our baby to that wonderful woman.  This morning Dave & I had a mass said for her so we got up early and went to church.  Attending a daily mass is a wonderful way to start the day, I’m just too lazy to get myself to church at 7:30AM every morning.  Grandma went to daily mass for a huge chunk of her life, I should really try to honor her memory and start that habit someday as well.

Posted in Catholicism, News | No Responses »

Oh, No! No More US Hand-Made Toys??

Monday, January 5th, 2009

I was just reading about this online…never heard about it until today.

On February 10th, 2009 The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act will go into effect which will put strict safety measures on product made for children and requires that toys and product (even books!) made for children under 12 be tested for safety (specifically lead) content by independent labs and labeled with their material contents.

Okay, this sounds great on the surface.  It means those horrid toys made in China and other developing nations for our US headquartered, outsourcing, mega-toy companies will now finally be tested for stuff harmful to children.  That is great!  Awesome & wonderful! BUT what this law failed to do is protect all those US, Europe & Canada based toy makers that already were making a quality product.

Any product made for use for a child under the age of 12 will have to be tested.  That means the industrious homemaker in Iowa that makes cloth diapers for sale via the internet will now have to have each of her products tested at a cost of $4000/item.  And the garage carpenter that makes wooden trains in Maine also will have to have each of his products tested.

This law effectively will put out of business hundreds of cottage industry toy and clothing makers.  All because some corporate guys got greedy and had their silly toys made for dirt cheap in some country without a conscience.

Dave & I have just started creating our little stash of US, Europe & Canada made quality toys for our future tots and we’re no where ready for these companies to go out of business.  It looks like the fix to this dilemma is for the law to be amended to exclude US, Europe & Canadian companies which already adhere to pretty strict safety regulations.

So today I’m going to find some more facts about this issue and write emails to our local Congressman & Senators.  I’m so bummed.  We literally just found out about all these little toy makers located here in New England and elsewhere that we were hoping to one day soon buy from, but now who knows if they will still exist.

http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/

http://nationalbankruptcyday.com/

Posted in Catholicism, News | No Responses »

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