Family in Feast and Feria

I'm turning in early...it's been an exhausting Lent! It always seems God sends a few extra penances right smack during the Lenten season, and this one is turning out no differently. Thursday ds came down with some stomach bug that lasted through Friday. Saturday was continued recuperation day.

Today we awoke to snow which was wonderful. But poor dh was coming down with a stomach bug and he couldn't enjoy it with us. His symptoms were worse than our son's! He'll be out of commission tomorrow, too.

My ward isn't overflowing with patients, as there are only three in this house, but it's still an extra hat to wear playing the role of Florence Nightingale. And when a family member is sick it affects the whole family. Our family is the Mystical Body in miniature, and when one is sick we're all affected.

I'm praying I'll be spared.....and if you read this, please say a prayer for my dh's comfort. He's quite miserable.

I love bookplates, and I enjoyed this WSJ Opinion Piece Still Stuck: After all these years, some of us still appreciate bookplates by Joanne Kaufman. She mentions Bookplate Ink in her article, although I had to search for the website. The prices are reasonable. Now how to personalize? "The Miller Family"?

I still have a few bookplates leftover from my childhood. These were the kind that had that famous Girl Reading by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and I would write my name in the blank spot provided. It would be nice to have some preprinted with our name. Maybe someday.

I did some Googling. Read all about Bookplates and see an exceptional gallery of historical ones. I didn't realize there was a whole collector's world of bookplates!

Bookplates.com has a "deal" of 250 for $90. I don't think so! I have over a thousand books, so the cost would add up quickly. And I could buy more books with that kind of money! I think I'll stick with Bookplate Ink.

Here you can print out some blank plates for free. Have to love that price!

Do you use bookplates? Did you make your own? What kind of glue did you use? Any recommendations? I'd love to hear if there are fellow bookplate lovers...

I've gone back to knitting and crocheting. I always have a project going, but I haven't been working on them as much. I'm not great, but it is just a wonderful experience to work with my hands. Since we have more silent times during the Lenten season (no TV), it's a prayerful time, too.

What spurred me was Nissa's Crochet Along. I bought the pattern of these scrumptious mittens. I haven't finished my first batch, but my son was thrilled. I was making royal blue ones, out of my yarn stash.

One thing led to another. My son loved the mittens, but wondered if he could have WHITE mittens, like in one of his favorite books The Mitten by Jan Brett. I agreed, but as I had no white yarn, we made a trip to our Needlecraft store.

AND, after telling one sister that I bought some yarn, she gave me her stash of beautiful, fuzzy, multi-colored yarn. She had intended to learn to knit and make a scarf for herself. That was a year ago, it was just sitting in the bag. AND...it just so happened to be near this sister's birthday, so I put down the crocheting and knitted the scarf for her.



It was a total labor of love. I had to redo it 5 times, and the fifth time when I dropped some stitches I had to get expertise help from my shop owner. I was NOT going to do it again. I was feeling like a failed and incompetent knitter, but with the fuzzy yarn she said it's like "knitting blind" -- you can't see the stitches. That made me feel a bit better. I finished the project, my sister loves it and we're all happy!

This week our diocesan paper had this wonderful article Rhythm of Knitting Invites Reflection, Prayer which echoed my reflections on knitting (and crocheting).

I'm not coming up with original thoughts, though. Have you seen Mary G.'s wonderful knitting blog? I'll never reach her skill level, but I love to sit at her feet and learn.

And read Rita Munn's reflection on Knitting. Just wonderful!

St. Rafqa, unofficial patroness of knitters, pray for us!

It's nice to see that I'm consistent and stick to my main themes of my blog. Now, if I lived more of my faith instead of just wrote about it, that would be even better.

HT to all that had this on their blog...too many to mention!

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Today is the second day of Lent, and the Church celebrates the Feast of the Chair of Peter. This is the feast that we remember Christ giving the keys to St. Peter, handing him the papal authority, which has been passed down in unbroken succession to this day to our beloved Pope Benedict XVI.

I was discussing with a dear friend about how Lent and Easter are now inextricably tied with the Holy Father, but especially the memories of both John Paul the Great and our beloved Pope Benedict. April 2nd will mark the second anniversary of John Paul II's passing, and April 19 marks the 2nd anniversary of Benedict as pope.

4RealLearning forums had some wonderful threads during this time, with the fabulous idea of JPII Memorial Notebooks:
What Do We Do? on Pope John Paul's Passing, April 2, 2005.
Pope John Paul II Memorial Notebooks
John Paul the Great Unit Study.

I had my first miscarriage a few days after John Paul died. As soon as we found out we were pregnant we planned on naming the child after this pope...we just didn't think it would be so soon. But at 8 weeks along our baby stopped growing, and we said farewell to our "Karol Mary".

But not only is this time of year a reminder of the historical events of the Chair of Peter, but we are spiritually guided by our Holy Father, particularly with his Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI For Lent 2007: They Shall Look on Him Whom They Have Pierced . Every year the Pope provides a Message for Lent that is a kind of map or theme we can follow. How wonderful to think that as the Universal Church we are all united in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving for this Lenten season and perhaps also concentrating on the lesson that our Pope provides.

This isn't a time to take lightly. Lent a time to "decontaminate" souls, Pope says...more exhortations for Lent.

My main Lenten reading is Hidden Power of Kindness by Father Lovasik. This is an area on which I really need to work. I'd say this was almost a marriage and parents' manual: I need to learn to treat the closest people in my life with Kindness. But I also find it ties with the Holy Father's discussion of God's love, and I'm also going to read Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict's first encyclical.

A blessed Lenten season to you, and happy feast of Holy Mother Church!

Ash Wednesday is in two days...the Season of Lent will begin. As usual, I'm not ready! I haven't made too many concrete plans. I have some spiritual reading in mind, definite fasting from sugar and TV, more prayer. Besides a meatless Friday, I hope to have one more day of meatless meals, incorporating beans, which we don't do at this time. I will be making a retreat during Lent, also.

There are other things I need to focus my attention -- working more with my son, organizing his play and learning environment, introduce some atrium and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd presentations, work on my house, work on my sinful habits, exercise more regularly. I'm exhausted just thinking of all this, but my life definitely needs some revamping and kickstarting! I'm nervous even writing these things down, because I get discouraged so easily. I set my sights high and find I end up doing nothing well!

Preparing the environment to reflect spiritual changes of the Lenten season has been the focus of this thread from the 4Real Learning Forums. It's wonderful to have visual images to remind me and help me to persevere in this season.

Here's one of my visual reminders: finished my ceramic trivet for Lent. I have been trying to make one for each season. The NOW Cross is from a small pamphlet my mother used titled Holy Lent by Eileen O'Callaghan. The NOW Cross is a reminder of the passage from St. Paul, 2 Cor 5:20-6:2, "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!"

Since one of my biggest faults is procrastination, this is an extremely appropriate reminder.

Happy St. Valentine's Day! We woke up to a winter wonderland, although I am a bit disappointed that we only got sleet and ice. So we're still praying for a big snow this winter!

I'm not sure how many inches fell, but we did have a large mound of sleet on our back porch. We won't be able to use that door for a while.



And have a closer look at the bouquet my Valentine sent to me....



Blessings to you all on this St. Valentine's Day!

My son has hooks in the mudroom to use to hang up his coat, and the organizer for his broom, dust pan and brush. Underneath is a basket for his boots and shoes, mittens and hat.

But his enthusiasm for hanging his things has no bounds. I never know what I'll find hanging on the rack.

Since Alice's great Spoon Saint craft I've had these wooden spoons lying around in our craft bins. We had fun making our little St. Valentine cards for special family members and thought we'd work in the spoons somehow. Okay, so they aren't saints...but thanks again to Alice for the inspiration point.

So, what kind of inside project does one do on a Friday in cold February?

Make a gingerbread house, of course! We bought a gingerbread house kit before Christmas but didn't have the time or energy to pursue it. This was my VERY FIRST TIME to ever build a house. It was messy, fell over, but we had fun. I even invited some cousins to come over and help. The boys all enjoyed licking and decorating and tasting.



The best part for Mommy? My son had no allergic reactions. The icing and the candies were all safe for him to eat, and handling the gingerbread (which had wheat) gave no reactions.

So it was a milestone experience in more ways than one.

And it was a perfect project for this time of year...I'm thinking of buying two next year and saving one for cabin fever time!