After it rains...

Thunderclouds
And I run outside
While the rain comes down
And makes a rainbow.

Friday Fun

You Are 72% A Child of the 80s

Not only did you experience the 80s... you are practically an expert. You should be totally stoked!

Are You a Child of an 80s?

Now, you wanna have some more fun? OK. Go to Wikipedia and type into the search bar "19__ in music". I chose 1988 since I was a freshman in high school that year. Scroll down to the section called "Top Hits". Then go to YouTube and search for some of those songs to see if you remember them. If you are like me, you might have to wait for the refrain before something clicks. Fun huh? OK, maybe you already knew this trick or maybe you are that kind of person who can remember every song played at all of your 8th grade dances. So let's make it a little more fun. Turn it into a date night!

Husband and I sat finding songs we remembered or songs that had special significance and played them for each other last night. We had so much fun! We are only 3 years apart in age, but we had no idea that our musical experiences had been so different. When you stop and think about it, there can be so many outside factors that determine what music makes up the soundtrack of your past. A younger uncle who can't let go of the 70's classic rock from his youth, what region of the country you lived in, what music your parents listened to, or forbid you to listen to but didn't realize that your older cousin had in huge supply? I'm just sayin'!

It wasn't a planned date night, but a great impromptu one. A little take-out or a special meal and some candles might be in order for tonight. It is a great way to share some faded memories with your special someone and listening to some of these "oldies" can help those of us feeling our age enjoy the diversions of our youth without the acne or the hairspray! Have a great weekend!

Help...

Can you identify this moth for us or point us to an online resource that might help? Shortcake named her Molly. The rest of us are not as emotionally attached, just curious. Thanks!

PSA

If you haven't seen it by now, go check out the Catholic Cuisine blog where you can see my post about food for St. Monica's feast day today. It is a very simple combination of ingredients, but very tasty! And while you are there, poke around at the wonderful resources that many more talented moms offer for celebrating the liturgical year with a festive feel.

Whenever I find that a favorite saint whose feast day was packed up and relocated on the official Calendar, I am curious as to why. There must be a reason. In some cases, it was that their original feast day was not actually the day that they entered into their eternal reward. In St. Monica's case, it had more to do with her son. The date of St. Monica's death is not known, but since the Augustinians celebrated May 5 as the Conversion of St. Augustine, his mother was placed on the calendar the day before (May 4). When the calendar was revised, she was moved to the day before the day that her son died (August 28). I love the way our Church recognizes the special connection between this saintly mother and child. Her tears, his conversion, her love, his salvation.

Here is a coloring page for St. Augustine's feast day tomorrow.

St. Monica's Feast Day

Who doesn't love St. Monica? She is a comfort to every Catholic mother's heart; a model to cling to should we ever find ourselves in her situation. A beacon for us mothers that shines forth should we stumble in our responsibilities or should our children choose a rough and rocky road; St. Monica offers us the hope that with God's mercy we can cry our sweet babes into Heaven. I tried to find pictures of St. Monica to use as a foundation for a coloring page, but honestly, I didn't like any of the ones I saw. She either looked like a really old, wrinkly nun or was kind of sentimental looking. Some people like pictures like that, but they don't really suit me. The picture I kept coming back to was this icon found at Monastery Icons.

I thought since the Church saw fit to move St. Monica's feast day (August 27th) to the day before her son's feast day (August 28th), I thought I would make matching icon coloring pages for this special mother and her son. Here is St. Monica's coloring page. I hope to get St. Augustine's up later but my computer time is coming to an end.

We have a book club meeting tomorrow, but we are going to spend a little time studying St. Monica. We aren't doing any formal geography this year, but a globe, some wall maps and Google Earth are going to help us explore the place she was born (Algeria) and the place she died (Ostia, Italy). And for dinner, we are having a version of this Algerian dish. My recipe calls for zucchini, chicken, tomatoes and couscous (no chickpeas).

Exemplary Mother of the great Augustine, you perseveringly pursued your wayward son not with wild threats but with prayerful cries to heaven. Intercede for all mothers in our day so that they may learn to draw their children to God. Teach them how to remain close to their children, even the prodigal sons and daughters who have sadly gone astray. Amen.

BigBoy's thoughts on the Rite of Monastic Vows

Talking with Husband this morning about the special Mass we attended yesterday:

Husband: Did you see Brother Augustine yesterday?

BigBoy: Yes.

Husband: Did he lie down on the floor?

BigBoy: Yeah...he was doing his bows.

Feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Yesterday, we were able to attend the profession of vows for some young men of the Cistercian Abbey. The professions are always held on the feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the order's founder. It was a last minute decision we made to go, but I am so glad the kids got to see these young men taking this step towards fulfilling their religious vocations. It gives us great hope for the future of this very special order.

I took some pictures, but they were from a very bad angle and done while trying to entertain a 4 year old during the 2 hour Mass. Yeah. Thank goodness for the cookies and fruit at the reception in the courtyard or I don't think he would have made it!

This was a group of four young men. The two on the outside (one of them can't really be seen in this shot) were making their first profession of vows. They also exchanged their white cintures and scapulars for black ones. The two young men in the middle were renewing their vows. The one without the glasses is BigBoy's favorite brother! Br. Augustine can speak Spanish, hates hissing cockroaches, loves cherry pie and can really rock out on the piano!

May God bring to completion the work he has begun in you.

This young man, Br. Joseph, was making his final profession of vows and will be ordained to the deaconate next month.

What do you ask?
The mercy of God and that of the Order.
What do you ask of God's mercy?
I ask for perseverance in God's service in this monastic community all the days of my life.

Father, pray for me.
Dominus custodiat introitum tuum et exitum tuum ex hoc nunc et usque in saeculum.
May the Lord guard your coming and going from this time forth and for evermore.

The newly professed approaches the Abbot, who clothes him with the white cuculla, the ancient symbol of the Order of Citeaux and the purity of its calling.

May the Lord clothe you with the new man, created in the image of God, in the justice and holiness of Truth. May the ministry which is exhibited outwardly by us be accomplished inwardly by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

God bless you Brother Joseph!

Turkey Meatloaf

My kids have never been meatloaf fans but it was a staple growing up in my house and one of those dishes that I consider "comfort food". We use ground turkey instead of beef so the trick is to find away to keep the meatloaf moist. I used Rachel Ray's recipe to start with but made some changes to suit my family's taste. It worked. This was a big hit with my kids. There was barely any left over. I served it with a cucumber tomato salad and baked potatoes. Just thought I'd share!

Turkey Meatloaf
5 large mushrooms
1 medium carrot
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbl. olive oil
1 lb. ground turkey (white meat)
1 lb. ground turkey (dark meat)
1/2 to 1 C. bread crumbs
2 large eggs
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1 Tbl. Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbl. ketchup
8 strips bacon

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Place the mushrooms, carrot, onion and garlic in a food processor and pulse until the mixture is finely chopped. In a medium skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the chopped vegetables and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. 2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the vegetables, turkey, bread crumbs, eggs, salts, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup and mix well. Place the meat mixture in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish and, using your hands, form it into a loaf. Cover the loaf with the bacon strips. Bake the meat loaf, uncovered, until cooked through, about 1 hour.
3. Pour off the melted fat, slice the meat loaf and serve.

St. Helena

This one is a little late, but for some reason, I didn't have St. Helena on my calendar yesterday, just St. Jane. When the big kids were little, we celebrated St. Helena's feast day by making cross shaped cookies decorated white with one red cookie to represent the True Cross. Some friends who had the same tradition, used to hide that red cookie and go hunt for it the way St. Helena searched for Our Lord's cross. I say better late than never, but save yourself some vacuuming and use a cardboard cross instead of some crumbly cookies! Here is a coloring page for St. Helena based on the picture to the left. You can color it now, or save it (and the cookies) for September 14th when the Church will celebrate the Exaltation of The Holy Cross.

St. Jane Frances de Chantal

Here is another coloring page for anyone celebrating St. Jane's feast day. We will be reading this story of her life today and for those of you clicking over to that page, please note the asterisk next to her feast day and scroll down to the bottom of the page. In America, her feast day is celebrated today to allow for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12th. With such a forgiving nature, I don't think St. Jane minds.

Here is the picture I based my drawing on. Let me just say, that I am not a trained artist and my goal in drawing these coloring pages is to make something pretty for my girls to color but also to do them quickly and not let my perfectionist nature rob me of time spent with my kids all for the sake of the project at hand. They are not perfect and I am OK with that, I hope you are too! Also, I can't draw hands. That's all! :)

Saturday Science

These pictures were actually taken yesterday right after a big, beautiful rain shower swept through our neighborhood. Sunshine spotted this Red-Tailed Hawk on top of a neighbor's house. We see these guys all over the place and have heard their cries on many occasion. We like to play "Spot the Hawk" on the way to church since the billboards and street lights seem to be a favorite spot to perch on a Sunday mornings.

Sorry about the blurriness of the second photo! It was taken from inside, behind the window's screen. It kind of added a soft focus to the shot and made him look a little like Cybill Shepherd. I loved the way his wings were fanned out, probably to dry off! Any interesting nature sightings where you are?

Coloring pages

My daughters love to color and especially, a picture of a saint when it is that's saint's feast day. When they were little, coloring pages like these appealed to them, but now that they are older, they want something with a bit more detail although not quite as detailed as the beautiful offerings in Fenestrae Fidei (those are totally for mommy's enjoyment right now!). So, I am trying to create pages suitable for them.

It started last year with St. Max. I couldn't find any suitable coloring pages for him, so I made my own. This year, I gave the girls the option to coloring a new one or the one I made last year. To my surprise, they wanted the one I had made. Too bad I hadn't saved it. So I drew another one, and this time, scanned it, so I wouldn't lose it and that gave me the idea to try to share it with all of you, my friends. So here is St. Max. I apologize for not getting this out yesterday but it was a last minute addition to our feast day celebration and then we darted off to the vigil Mass. I also apologize for having to use a third party .pdf hosting service, but Blogger hasn't yet offered .pdf embedding as an option.

I hope to add more through out the year and I will try to get them out ahead of the feast days, although I make no promises. Life comes before blogging!

Sincerely,
Charlotte (My live signature doesn't seem to be working right now.)

Friday Fun

When I said I was stepping away to work on some projects, I really didn't think changing the look of my blog would be one of them, but then all of these super cute blogs started popping up. That in combination with the women's Olympic Gymnastic AA competition and well... I never had a chance. So there you have it. Nastia just finished her floor competition and I just finished changing font color. What do you think? Would you give it a 16? (16 being the new 10, of course!)

If you look real carefully, you'll see that colors and textures aren't the only new things around here. Have a lovely holy day and a great weekend friends!

Love,
Charlotte

From the archives

Originally posted last year:

We are celebrating with an impromptu and simple Coffee, Tea and Thee as we prepare to celebrate tomorrow's Holy Day with some new friends!

We are reading from A Catholic Child's Illustrated Lives of The Saints which is The Professor's favorite book of saints. Full page stories and beautiful illustrations, this book is a must have! (You can read a little about St. Maximilian here too.) In addition to our nightly decade we are going to say the Chaplet of St. Maximilian. We don't actually own one, so we made our own. Using this description, I made a drawing of St. Max using the picture above which the girls colored along with a picture of The Assumption of Our Lady. We made 15 beads out of paper and strung them together with a crocheted chain.For a special, treat, a friend recommended kiffels. They sound delicious, but every recipe I found required overnight refrigeration (not conducive to impromptu). So, since I am insisting on simple here were are going to make an American version of a Polish candy called Ptasie Mleczko which are basically chocolate covered marshmallows.

Our version:
1 can chocolate frosting
1 bag of large marshmallows
chopped peanuts and/or almonds

Warm the frosting in the microwave (or on the stove top) to make it soft (30 second increments, stirring in between), but not runny like glaze. Dip the marshmallows to coat using toothpicks or skewers. Allow excess to drain off. Dip the bottom of the marshmallow in chopped nuts and set (nut side down) on waxed paper to finish cooling.I'll bet a fondue pot would be perfect for making them if anyone still has one (and if you do, is it harvest gold? My mom's was.) just watch out for little fingers and open flames! Why yes I am a worry wart. I would love to try these someday using homemade marshmallows, but for today, Jet Puffed will have to do!

If you are interested in trying Polish style coffee here is what I found on a website:

The Poles make coffee very strong, like the Greeks. A tall flat bottomed glass has a large spoonful of grounds placed in it. Then boiling water is poured over the coffee and a little or a lot of sugar is added. My grandfather occasionally said that he liked his coffee, "As black as the Devil's Heart and sweet as a stolen kiss." It is definitely not traditional in Poland to add either milk or cream.

We will stick with our kid-friendly cafe au lait since I can't seem to find a tea that all of my kids like. As always, suggestions welcome! Have a Happy Holy Day tomorrow!

And now...

...back to my self imposed hiatus!

Call me Switzerland!

It sure is cold here in the Alps.

There has been a discussion going on that lots of people have referenced, linked to, commented on, refused to comment on, etc….

Here is how I see both sides of this discussion:

1. Women who have been surprised by pregnancy are very sensitive to the phrase “responsible parenthood” (as the Church in all her wisdom understands that phrase, not the worldly definition which seems to beat down on all of us like a steel-driver who just got his rhythm going) because they feel as though someone is pointing the finger at them saying, “OBVIOUSLY you aren’t a responsible parent who cares about those children’s needs, just some kind of baby making factory.” We should be sensitive to their feelings because chances are they have been pointed at, ridiculed, made to feel embarrassed or worse, by friends, family, parishioners, even total strangers, in real life.

2. The women who have prayerfully chosen to use some method of Church approved natural family planning for reasons based on the wisdom of the Church regarding their particular situation be it medical, psychological or financial and have never been surprised by the blessing of an unexpected new soul are very sensitive to the phrase “using NFP with a contraceptive mentality” because they feel as though someone is pointing the finger at them saying, “You must be a selfish parent who either doesn’t trust God enough to take care of your concerns or someone who prefers dollar signs instead of souls.” We should be sensitive to their feelings because chances are they have been accused of deliberately limiting their family size so as to enjoy material luxuries or of simply not trusting God to provide by friends, family, fellow parishioners, even total strangers. (My personal pet peeve are those who talk about abusing NFP instead of using the “contraceptive” phrase. There is no possible way to abuse NFP. People can choose to use it for selfish reasons, but that does not equate NFP to contraception. No one but God can know the true motivations behind a couple's choice to not seek to add to their family but NFP never says “no” to God’s will.)

3. Both groups of women are striving to live the Church’s mandate to be “open to life” and neither should be made to feel as though her situation makes her less “Catholic” than the other or less interested in working towards the sanctity of her soul and those souls entrusted to her.

4. These kinds of discussions are necessary in order to spread the truth of the Church’s teachings to those who might not have any knowledge on the subject, or who might have been misinformed (there is an awful lot of bad theology out there!) but because of these sensitivities, some women are going to get more insulted by perceived judgments and misinterpretations. Emotions should be checked at the click of the combox and if not, certainly before the click to publish. There is nothing wrong in saying to yourself, “This subject is too near and dear to my heart to trust my head to engage.” In this battle that we all struggle with over how much is too much, we have to ask ourselves if this is the right hill to die on.

08/08/08

Popping in to say "hello" and that things are getting off to a slower start than I wanted due to some illness, but they should be ramping up here quite nicely next week. Also wanted to say that we are heading off to Mass to pray for the persecuted people in China and for everyone attending the Olympic Games. We are big Olympic Junkies! It started the year The Professor was born with lots of late night nursing and no cable TV. Hockey can be very interesting... when you are a walking zombie at 3 AM. (Sorry Nutmeg!)

After Mass, the kids will be treated to donuts and cinnamon twists (they kind of look like 8's) and then Chinese food for dinner with fortune cookies for dessert. Have a lovely weekend! Let me hear you chant U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A. Bye!

Project Mode

I just wanted to let all of you dear friends know that I will not be seen/heard much around here for a while. I am not sure how long it will be and I don't know how complete my silence will be. There are a few things I need to work on. Things important enough to me that they deserve the lion's share of my attention and brain space. Things I don't want to do mezzo-presto. Nothing that anyone needs to worry their pretty little head about; just some things that I want and need to do better. And since we can't go outside right now without having an IV fluid bag hanging off our ears, what better time to hunker down and get busy?

Please, don't anyone think that I am making some kind of statement about the blog world being a place of distraction or a waste of good time. My past track record should speak for itself. I am sure you will still find me popping in here and there. Just wanted to let you know!