7 Spring Takes

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It's Friday afternoon, and it's a beautiful day; that means that the boys in our neighborhood have converged on my house to ride their bikes around the driveway, play capture-the-flag, play swordfight with sticks, and whatever else boys do. If it were raining or cold, they'd all be sitting around playing video games. I've only had to shoo them all outside once, when suddenly five or six of them all ran screaming and hollering up the basement stairs. I did have to clean a glob of dog poop of of someone's shoe; I guess it's time to go on turd patrol. Didn't I already do that this week? Next Friday I'll try to be more prepared with some cookies and lemonade ready when the all come home from school.

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It's spring, and the pollen assault is in full swing. Larry has been snorting and sniffling for two weeks. They say it's worse than ever this year because of all the snow we had, and I believe it.

These clumps are all over our driveway and our deck, and driving around town you can see them lining the sides of the road.

I cleaned the top of our patio table already today; this was what accumulated in just a few hours' time.

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Despite all the pollen, spring is my favorite time of year. Can you see why?

I took these a couple of days ago on one of our evening walks by the lake.

We are blessed to have beautiful trees all over our church property, and every spring they produce wonderful pink blossoms.


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It's the sixteenth of April, the third anniversary of the awful massacre on the campus of Virginia Tech in 2007. I dug one of Larry's orange and maroon T-shirts out of a laundry basket this morning. Virginia's governor, Bob McDonnell, asked for state flags to be flown at half-mast today, but I was disappointed to only see one Virginia flag at half staff. How easily we forget. Last April I wrote this blog post about visiting the Virginia Tech campus on the eve of the second anniversary of the shootings.

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April 16 is also the birthday of Pope Benedict XVI!! Happy Birthday, Papa!

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This spring our church has begun major renovation work. Right after Easter, a temporary wall was erected at the front of the church, where a brand-new altar will be installed, and all of the pews were removed and auctioned off. For now the (temporary) altar is at the back of the church; at Mass, we're actually facing the opposite direction from what we're used to, and the cry room is right behind the altar. I wish I had pictures of what the inside of the church looked like before the work started, but I will post pictures of the "new" church once it's finished.
At least now if you bring your kids to the cry room, you're quite close to the action!

That's one gi-normous Easter candle!

I don't think I ever really looked at the stained glass windows in the back of the church. I'm usually facing the other direction.

Temporary seating

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Last night and this morning, our school drama club performed their production of "Alice in Wonderland." It was originally scheduled for March, but we had so much snow that we missed several practices and had to move the dates back. All three of our boys participated: Moe dressed up as a knight and got to be part of the Jury during the trial of the Knave of Hearts who stole the Queen's tarts. Curly was Tweedle-Dee, and he and a friend put on propellor beanies and waged a battle over Tweedle-Dum's new rattle. Larry played the Mad Hatter, and everyone was raving about what a wonderful job he did. While we were all piling into the car to come home, our pastor stopped by to tell us what a great job the boys did, especially Larry's Mad Hatter. Larry was grinning from ear to ear. He told me that he was feeling overwhelmed with all the attention he was getting. The kids have been rehearsing this play for months, and although I'm glad it's over, it makes me a little sad, too. I can't wait to see which play our director chooses next year!

*Update: I walked outside and found three boys and one girl sitting on the ground playing hand-held video games. Ah, well, I can't win them all.



Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!

I could never do what this guy does...

"Baghdad comes alive for a few minutes just before dawn when a chorus of muezzins summon the faithful with their hauntingly beautiful fajr calls to prayer. Their voices bounce off the cememt buildings and seem to roll through the city. But sometimes, when the melodic songs go quiet, I am assaulted by memories of Baghdad's new music, the whooshing of outgoing mortars, the rat-a-tat of assault rifles, the crashes of car bombs, and the buzzing of low-flying Black Hawks. I can pick them out like instruments in a terrible orchestra."

This excerpt from Richard Engel's second book, War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq (published in 2008) is printed on the back cover. I'm not sure exactly when the dashing young reporter from NBC first caught my attention, but I will tell you that when I recently learned that he had written two books about his experiences covering the war in Iraq, I knew I wanted to read them. (His first book, A Fist In the Hornet's Nest: On the Ground in Baghdad Before, During, and After the War was published in 2005, and it's only a matter of days before the secondhand copy that I ordered arrives in the mail.)

War Journal begins at an important turning point in the war: just after Saddam Hussein is captured. Engel describes the day when he and other journalists were given a tour of the area where Saddam was hiding until he was found in a hole in late 2003; he was almost giddy with excitement when he got to actually explore the tiny "spider hole" that the dictator was pulled out of. I remember the news coverage of Saddam's capture--the pictures of the old, tired, and haggard-looking man with the look of total defeat on his face--and at the time I think most of us in the US were optimistic that soon the war would be over, the troops would come home, and the Iraqi people would live happily ever after.

Obviously, this did not happen. The violence began to increase and things seemed to be getting more and more unstable. I am almost embarrassed to admit that I didn't always pay close attention to the news reports out of Iraq, and according to Engel, not too many people did. Most of us are clueless. For one thing, the politics involved in trying to form a new parliamentary government in Iraq was, and is, much more complicated than most people realize, and the deep-seated tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims have existed for so long that it's extremely difficult to expect their leaders to just shake hands and agree to work together peacefully. Engel devotes much of the book explaining the history of the Sunnis and Shiites and the reasons for the ongoing rivalry between the two groups; he explains the complexities of the different political groups in Iraq, all vying for power. I'm still struggling to understand it all. (Before the recent elections in March, he wrote this blog post describing how it all works. Check it out, it's fascinating.) As the war progressed and the violence continued to escalate, he persevered in his comprehensive and objective coverage of the war, even if it meant risking his life. In his book he recalls many close calls when he'd been shot at, almost blown up by IEDs and truck bombs, and once someone even tried to kidnap him.

I think I've always found Richard Engel intriguing because he doesn't seem
afraid of putting himself right on the front lines. (Okay. He's also quite comely. There, I said it.) He'll embed for days with troops and report right from the scene of battle. He's interviewed the bad guys as well as the good guys, from children in an orphanage to Geroge W. Bush. In the book he describes the bizarre trial of Saddam Hussein, and the excitement of covering the elections in 2005. The news reports we see on TV, though, however thorough and informative they are, only give us a tiny glimpse of what is really happening. I have a renewed respect for war journalists like Richard; the unspeakable horrors that they must see in order to bring their viewers and readers some sense of what our troops are doing to try and bring peace to a people halfway around the world is something that, honestly, I don't think I'd be able to endure. Much of this book is difficult to read; he describes scenes of carnage and cruelty that are almost too horrible to imagine. As the book progresses and Iraq seems to become more and more unstable, the insurgents and terrorists find increasingly horrific ways to kill people.

Engel also shares a little bit of his own personal heartache, too. His marriage dissolved while he was in Baghdad. Later he fell in love with a humanitarian worker who "was the opposite of all that was ugly and brutal about Baghdad...the closest thing to an angel I have ever met, the kindest person I knew." Just a few weeks into their relationship, she was killed by a suicide bomber.

This is the kind of book that sticks with you. It makes you realize that we don't really know nearly as much about the situation in the Middle East as we think we do. (Personally, I've never purported to know much at all.) It's fascinating and brutal, amazing and tragic and eye-opening, all at the same time. I found that when I wasn't actually reading the book, I was thinking about it. I might wait a while before I read his other one.

"Standing in dust up to my ankles, a powder so fine it penetrates every pore in your shoes and then mixes with sweat and turns to clay, I watched the chopper blades hit the sand in the air and turn it into yellow sparks. The sparks made a glowing halo over the dark green bird in the star-filled night. War and its machines can be so beautiful and seductive, until you remember what they do." --War Journal, p. 122

Easter Praise!

Hallelujah! Christ is risen! It's high time for a blog post from me, and today I praise God for His MANY wonderful blessings!

1. My family has just grown a little larger! Last weekend, my brother and his fiancee became husband and wife. They were married in a wonderfully moving ceremony in the beautiful Baptist church where they attend, surrounded by many friends and family members. At their reception, I remarked to several people that there were SO MANY people there that I had never seen before, and I realized how blessed the bride and groom are, that so many wonderful people love and support them. My sister-in-law's parents are fabulous people, and I had the pleasure of meeting a number of her aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. God is definitely good! Praise Him!

2. A wedding is a wonderful time for families to be reunited! Between the wedding shower that my mother's friend hosted a few weeks ago and the wedding last week, I was able to reconnect with many relatives (and friends!) who I hadn't seen in years. We all made renewed commitments to get together more often. I hope we're able to keep that promise. I miss them. Facebook is great, but being together in person is so much better.

3. Praise God for the wonderful Easter weekend we shared with my parents in my hometown! The weather was perfect, and we spent a lot of time sitting on their back deck watching the kids playing in the little spring behind their house. Moe caught three frogs and a salamander. Spring is here! This morning we attended Easter Sunday Mass in the (beautiful!) newly-built church near their home, and God brought us home safely today.

4. Praise God for Spring, and warm Easter weather! I've spent many Easter weekends mostly indoors because it's either a). raining or b). cold. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent shivering outside hoping the kids would hurry up and find all those eggs already so we could all go in and get warm. This weekend, the weather is perfect, and it's wonderful to see the trees blooming and budding!

5. I'm looking forward to the kids being off from school this week. Praise God for the opportunity to sleep in! (Okay, the dog won't let me do that, but I can dream, can't I?) We're planning to spend some time shopping for clothes (esspecially for Larry, who at 13, is already taller than me--I'm 5'8"--and quickly catching up with my husband. I'm thinking of nicknaming Hubby Shemp; what do you think?) It's time for sandals, too, and I *hope* if the weather is nice, I can talk the kids into doing some geocaching with me, something we haven't done in almost a year. Hopefully we'll finally wash the car and catch up on some housecleaning as well.

6. Praise God, I'm finally out of my reading funk, and I've been devouring books like crazy. (I'll admit, though, that my relationship with my new friend The Fly Lady has suffered somewhat. I still want to blog about her sometime.) Since my post on March 11, I have finished three books (Culture of Corruption by Michelle Malkin; Open by Andre Agassi; and War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq by NBC correspondent Richard Engel) and I'm halfway through a fourth (Danielle Bean's My Cup of Tea: Musings of a Catholic Mom. I swear I'd never heard of Danielle or her book before I named this blog.) Richard Engel's book was particularly moving, and I'm hoping to share my thoughts about it here this week. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one.

7. Praise God, Christ is Risen! (and I'm also thankful that I can start putting cream in my coffee again. But first I think I'll pop open a cold one --gave that up for Lent too-- and drink in the spring sunshine.)

Happy Easter!

Monsters by nature or nurture?

I'm having trouble posting videos to my blog from YouTube, so forgive me for making you click on this link.

When the Archbolds saw this video of Nancy Pelosi, they had one word to say: "Monster." I agree. I also have a few more thoughts about it I'd like to share.

It leaves me stunned that our esteemed Speaker of the House would invoke Glorious St. Joseph to sing the praises of what she calls the "life-affirming legislation" of health care reform. Frankly, it's insulting. She has apparently been meeting with target groups to "talk about what it means to them." (Read: Going around lecturing people to guilt them into supporting--as 11-year-old Curly would call it--the Bill of Death. "This Is What You Need Because I Say So.") If you listen carefully, you might find one reason why Nancy Pelosi is the way she is: Bad catechesis. She mentions the Sisters of Notre Dame, who, along with 60 religious orders, just this past week spit in the face of Catholic teaching and publicly announced their support for what will essentially be FOCA in disguise. She admits that two of the sisters had "taught me in my life," presumably to form her in their version of the Catholic faith.

The other day Glenn Beck remarked that Congress and the Obama administration is full of hippies and Sixties radicals (his loaded language makes me laugh sometimes, but it's kinda scary because he's right), and it made a light bulb go off in my head. If during the '60s and '70s some Catholic leaders decided to pervert the teachings of Holy Mother Church (and the purpose of Vatican II), there must be at least a generation or two of Catholics who reflect those attitudes. They've been brainwashed by rogue Catholic teachers purporting to proclaim the faith. If the people leading our nation have been taught that it's perfectly fine to ignore the Christian principles they supposedly grew up with, what's to stop them from ignoring the Constitution, too?

Let's work all the more to make sure the future leaders of this great nation will stand up for the values America was founded on, and put God's law above Man's evil whims. It's more important than ever to make sure our children learn the teachings of Christ and His Church. Meanwhile, it's time to cast the monsters out.

St. Joseph and St. Michael, pray for us.

Decisions, Decisions...What to read?

I've been in a bit of a reading funk lately. For the last couple of weeks, every book I have picked up and started to read has for some reason lost my interest pretty quickly. The last book I finished was My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult, one that's been on my to-read list for a long time. The book is very good, and raises some important moral questions. (Don't bother watching the movie. It stinks.) Before that it was Stones into Schools by one of my heroes, Greg Mortenson. The follow-up to Three Cups of Tea, it's written in first person and you can get a sense of Greg's own thoughts and struggles as he works to provide education for children in some of the poorest and most isolated parts of the world. He also discusses some of the history and geography of the parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan where his organization, Central Asia Institute, is building schools.

Since then it's been a struggle for me to choose a book and stick with it. I'm not sure why. First, I started reading The Accused, the third in Craig Parshall's "Chambers of Justice" series. I enjoy Craig Parshall's books, but for some reason I just wasn't getting into this one. Next I picked up If Your Mind Wanders at Mass by Thomas Howard (you can see my blog post about him here). I'm disappointed in myself for giving up on that one--only temporarily!--because as a convert to Catholicism I'm fascinated by the history and the richness of the Mass. (When I read The Lamb's Supper by Scott Hahn about a year ago, I could hardly put it down.) I decided to try something a little lighter, and started Nicholas Sparks' latest novel, The Last Song. After reading about a chapter and a half I realized I just wasn't in a Sparks frame of mind. (This has NEVER happened before. I thought I was ALWAYS in the mood for Nicholas Sparks.) Meanwhile, one day at Costco I ran across A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. I suddenly remembered--and confirmed with my handy-dandy Droid smart phone--that my online book club (which I haven't participated in for many months, I'm sorry to say) had chosen that book to read in March. I don't know if I'm going to be able to take part in the discussion, because the month is almost half over and I still haven't started the book.

What am I reading now? The Culture of Corruption by Michelle Malkin. I'm borrowing this one from the library, and I know when it comes due I won't be able to renew it because there are likely a couple of hundred people waiting behind me for the book. Yesterday I got another library notice for a book I reserved, Andre Agassi's autobiograpy Open. I've been itching to get my hands on that one. My goal is to do quite a bit of reading this weekend, and to decide already whether or not to finish Michelle Malkin's book. If not, it's a mad dash to the library for Open before they pass it on to the next person. I will make this promise, though (and I don't often make promises on this blog); whatever book I finally read from start to finish, I'll be sure to tell you about it here.

On a side note, I have read very few blogs since the beginning of Lent (trying to limit my time on the computer, don't ya know), and guess what? I'm getting a lot done. My house is looking less and less like a disaster every day! Well, I also have a new best friend to help me--The Fly Lady. But that's a subject for a future post.

What are YOU reading now? Any books you've recently finished and want to recommend?

Seven Fat Takes Tuesday

OK, so I'm WAY out of synch for the "Seven Quick Takes Friday" meme. I hope Jennifer from Conversion Diary won't mind too much if I post one today. I have several small items I want to share, and I will link this back to Jennifer; although I'm not sure whether to link to last Friday's post or wait until she posts a new one!

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Baby Gianna The Archbolds over at Creative Minority Report have started a week-long series telling the true story of Baby Gianna. They've posted the first two parts already; please click on the links below and read this beautiful and moving story. It will bring tears to your eyes.

Baby Gianna, Part One
Baby Gianna, Part Two

I will try to post the links to the rest of the story in the coming days. I am looking forward to seeing how this one unfolds, even though it's heartbreaking.

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From Baptist to Catholic I've finally started working on my conversion story. So far it takes up two pages of a Word document (single-spaced, font size 11), and that's only the Baptist part. I'm afraid I'm going to have to do some editing, and I'll most likely post it in two parts here (hopefully no more than that) once I finish. It's taken me almost fourteen years, but I'm glad to be finally getting around to putting my personal spiritual journey in writing.

Why, you may ask, did you finally decide to do this? I needed a little push from a fellow Catholic. The other day on Twitter, I received a "tweet" from Mr. Happy Catholic, asking me if I had ever posted my conversion story. When I said no, he reminded me that folks are inspired by other people's stories of faith. Happy, aka Sieu-Hoa Thoi, has a web site full of helpful links for Cahtolics, as well as his own story of faith. Check it out here.

(If you want to follow moi on Twitter, click here! I think my next blog challenge will be to figure out how to put a Twitter link on my sidebar...)

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40 bags in 40 days? With Lent only one day away, I've been trying to come up with unique ways to observe Lent, and really take advantage of these days of fasting to grow closer to God. About halfway through Lent last year, I came across a post much like this one, encouraging Cahtolics to shed themselves of extra "stuff" by getting rid of one trash bag of items every day for the 40 days of Lent. When Danielle Bean invited others to take up the challenge this year, I decided to give it a whirl.

You might also want to check out this post from Erin at And Sometimes Tea; she has some great ideas on how the 40 Bags Challenge can help us in our spiritual journey.

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Lent Besides getting rid of stuff I have some other things I'm planning to do during Lent. I want to go to Mass every day, unless I'm substituting or have other obligations. Often I use the "too much to do" excuse, so I'm looking forward to pausing for those extra 30 minutes to spend time with Jesus in the Eucharist. I also plan to stay off the computer for most of the day--I can't seem to bring myself to completely give up Facebook, Twitter, or Blogger, so I'm going to allow myself computer time BEFORE 6:30 am and AFTER 8:30 pm, but no later than 10:30. (Maybe that's lame, but last year Lino Rulli from the Catholic Guy Radio show gave up eating lunch at Chipotle, but ONLY on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I rest my case.) If I need to order something online, send emails, etc. hopefully I will have the self discipline to do so during those times. That will leave less time for reading and writing blogs and playing on Facebook; I have my phone for Twitter, so for the time being I'll give myself that little pleasure during the day since I usually only "tweet" when I'm having down time anyway. Besides, my "peeps" are mostly Catholic bloggers and journalists, with a few politicians and MSM reporters thrown in (mostly from Fox News...) Lastly, I am giving up alcoholic beverages, ...EXCEPT... If beer and wine is served at my brother's wedding and/or rehersal dinner in March, I will allow myself to imbibe just a litte bit. Like one or two drinks at most; that's about all I usually have anyway.

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40 Days for Life If you have never participated in the 40 Days for Life campaign, check it out! It's 40 days of prayer and fasting for the unborn. The few hours I have spent praying in front of abortion clinics have been extremely rewarding. It changes hearts and minds. Women decide to give life to their babies, Planned Parenthood employees quit their jobs and join the pro-life movement, and abortion mills close their doors for good. God is doing great work through this grass-roots movement, and founder David Bereit and his wife Margaret are two of my personal heroes. I am proud to know them.

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Snow, snow, and more snow! What else can I say? It's beautiful, and a big hassle at the same time. Our kids have been to school only four days in the last 2 1/2 weeks. This morning we woke up to another two inches on the ground--another snow day. Below are some of the pictures I've taken in the last few weeks:

Someone told me that it looks like the tree is bending over to pick up the branch that fell down.
"Winky" has found shelter from all the snow underneath our shed.

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Father Leo and Fajitas The other day I pulled a hunk of local grass-fed London Broil steak out of my freezer. Since London Broil happens to be on sale at the grocery store this week, I decided to go pick up a few more and cook them up (on our indoor grill--too much snow on our deck for outside grilling); and to try to make Father Leo Patalinghug's semi-famous Fusion Fajitas. Months and months ago I posted a video of Father Leo whipping up those babies, but I never could find a recipe in writing. One person left a comment on that post listing the ingredients for a marinade for the steaks, but I never did try it. So yesterday I went over to Google and typed in "father leo," and several search options popped up, the second one being "father leo fajita recipe." I clicked on that, and guess what the first listing was? Go on, guess. That's right; my own post! Pretty cool. You can try it for yourself, or check out that blog post here.

I still haven't found a written recipe for those fajitas. I decided to print out the ingredients left by Leann in my comment box, but when I began gathering up my ingredients I realized I didn't have any soy sauce! Grrr... I still haven't made them. I cooked the steaks, though, and they were delicious! (Fajitas on Thursday with the leftover steak and chicken from tonight. Not fusion, but hopefully good.)

HAPPY MARDI GRAS EVERYONE!!!

The Presentation of...Phil?

I love the movie "Groundhog Day." Every year I wake my kids up in the morning with, "Wake up! iiiiIIITT'SSS----- GROUNDHOG DAY!!!!" (The boys don't know what the heck has gotten into me, but I'm happy to say that we finally put the movie on our Netflix queue to watch for our weekly Family Movie Night. With luck, they'll be quoting the movie before this month is out.) The other day I was pondering the film's message (actually, for years I didn't realize it even had one), and realized that many of us live our lives much like Phil Connors: we wake up and face each day with a sense of dread knowing that it will be very much like the day before--and tomorrow will be just like today. It isn't until we begin to open our eyes to the small joys in our lives that we begin to look forward to another day of work, school, chores, messes to clean up, and the frustrations and challenges we're bound to face. Phil wakes up every day, and it's always Groundhog day, and he always finds himself stuck in the little town of Punxatawney with the same people he can't stand, doing the same things day after day, and having the same conversations; and to make matters worse, the woman he loves blows him off over and over and over. Pretty soon he's so depressed he kills himself--only to wake up the next morning to live the same day all over again. After several suicide attempts he finally decides to make the best of his situation. He learns to play the piano. He begins to treat the people around him with kindness. He decides that his beautiful collegue who won't give him the time of day will someday love him back, and it's that hope that keeps him going. Every day he gets to know her a little bit more, until finally, one Groundhog Day, she falls in love with him. He realizes that the mundane things in life are often the things that give us the most joy. (Just like in the movie, "UP;" when the little boy says, "It's the boring stuff I remember the most.")

I've always thought Groundhog Day was a silly holiday. When the guy in the top hat pulls Phil the Groundhog out of the little box, there are TV lights shining in his face; of course he's going to see his shadow! Why does everyone make a big deal of Groundhog Day? I suppose it marks the halfway point between fall and spring; we've lived through winter for six weeks, so we can make it for six more. Sure, it's fun, but you've gotta admit, kinda pointless.

It was only this morning that I realized that Groundhog Day falls on the same day as the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Forty days after Jesus' birth, Mary and Joseph brought the infant to the temple to dedicate Him to God. (Click here to see today's readings.) I love the mental images of Mary and Joseph bringing their little baby into the temple, with their two turtledoves in a cage to offer for sacrifice. Here's an old man praying; when he notices the Holy Family, he humbly asks the teenage mother if he can hold the child. When he looks upon the face of Jesus, he recognizes the Messiah and offers prayers of thanksgiving to God. I wonder what Mary was thinking at this moment? She knew her child was the Son of God, but did she have any inkling of the suffering he would endure in order to save mankind from their sins?

Years ago this was apparently quite an important feast day in the Church but for whatever reason, it seems to have lost its significance. Now on February 2, we wait in joyful hope that Punxatawney Phil won't see his shadow predict an early spring. Is Grounhog Day the Pagan version of the Presentation? Hmmm...I wonder....

Today on The Catholics Next Door radio show, Greg Willits remarked that even though Groundhog Day is a fun holiday, the Presentation of Christ is much more interesting. I certainly agree! Maybe next February 2, I'll rouse the boys with "WAKE UP! iiiiIIIITTT'SS....PRESENTATION DAY!!!" Somehow that doesn't seem as funny, but it's definitely a better reason to celebrate.