Quick Takes: Heavy and Light

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I just didn't have the heart to talk about the election the other day.  I had always expected President Obama to be re-elected, or at least for quite some time now.  I had a good talk with a friend the day after about what it all means.

President Obama has declared war on the Catholic Church with his HHS Mandate.  I know that lots and lots of people, and even a majority of Catholics, just don't see this.  We voted for this state of affairs, and the gloves-off attack on religious freedom that's sure to come is entirely the consequence of our lukewarmness.  The President is trying to force division:  Do we choose the unborn and let Catholic service in the public square disappear, or to serve the poor and the sick at the expense of the lives of our smallest brothers and sisters?  It's an impossible choice.  We can't abandon any of our brothers and sisters and still be Christians.  Do we choose to follow the laws of God, or the unjust laws of Caesar?  There is only one choice. 

But it's going to require even more heroic grace than ever.  We are a weak people.  And there will be many souls lost in the battle.  Lord have mercy.

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So new political strategy:  Be a saint.

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While I try to figure out #2, I still have the everyday domestic things to attend to.  (Actually, those are my means to sanctity, as I've talked about a little bit here.)  Oh, yes, happy belated Feast of All Saints!

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The garden is finished for the year, except for five lonely heads of lettuce in the cold frame.  I'm going to miss our little (?) friend, the praying mantis who lived in our green bean plants and kept away all the bad bugs.  I can't count how many times I've thought, "How did I miss that big one?" only to find I was trying to harvest the praying mantis!  Anthony always had to look for him each time we went out to pick some green beans.  He called him his "pet" and would in fact pet him.  Katie Rose thinks he's funny too.

 

 

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We pulled out all of our carrots, even though we're a ways from a hard freeze.  Most of them would have been respectable radishes, but they probably weren't going to get much bigger at this point.  Some of them were getting eaten by clusters of little grey bugs, so I thought it's probably better to take away their food source.  We'd been pulling them up periodically, so this final haul is probably about 1/4 of the total carrot yield.  I'll definitely grow them again next year, but I'll try harder to space them properly to begin with.  Thinning carrots is a sad job, and I mostly left them too close together to really get to be a decent size.

 



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14 pounds of green tomatoes.  Most of them went to make green tomato relish.  That project took up half of the day on Tuesday, so I wasn't just fretting about the election.  It's quite good!  This might not make sense, but it tastes old-fashioned.  Green tomato relish is the embodiment of the old-time idea of never letting anything go to waste. It looks really Christmasy, green with bits of red.  The recipe yielded over a GALLON of relish, so I think some of these jars are destined to be Christmas gifts.

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There's a runaway train of clean but unfolded laundry behind me as I'm typing this.  I should get Anthony down for his nap and deal with that.

 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Quick Takes!

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My parents and younger sister were here visiting all last week.  It was super super hot, so we did a lot of indoor things and splashed in the big fountain at Sawyer Point.  But we didn't take many pictures.  Or at least Teresa hasn't e-mailed them to me yet. By far the most exciting event of their stay happened on the Fourth of July.  A power line burst and was shooting sparks all over the sidewalk directly in front of our house.  Our guardian angels were taking care of us, and our neighbor's bushes, which miraculously did not go up in flames in the heat and dry weather.  But that wasn't the most exciting part.  The exciting part was that there were fire trucks, police cars, and power company trucks all RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE!!!  Then the line burst again and they all came back!

This photo is after a solid hour of truck watching.  We couldn't tear Anthony away.

Aunt Teresa.  Anthony calls her "Essa."  Now so do I.



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I took Anthony to see even MORE TRUCKS this week.  A nearby township hosted "Touch a Truck."  Kids can climb onto garbage trucks, construction vehicles, a city bus, a Medivac helicopter, a fire truck, etc.  There were probably about 20 vehicles.  And 200 charged up preschool boys.

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2 1/2 months old!

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I've noticed that I'm in much better shape now than I ever was before children, even though I used to conscientiously work out then and never now.  I'll spare you the photographic evidence, but certain areas of flab I thought were just facts of life are gone!  It could have something to do with the daily walks/trots around the neignborhood wearing the baby and either chasing Anthony or pulling him in the wagon.  Or bringing the dirty laundry down two flights, a clean load up two flights, back down one then right back up again because I forgot something, then back down, then up again because the baby's awake.  Or scrubbing the dried-up jelly off the chairs.  I could do a whole post about how motherhood IS exercise.

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Eight cucumbers today! And lots lots more coming very soon.  I need to learn how to make pickles, and fast.

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We had a great summer menu last night:  Grilled porkchops and peaches, corn on the cob, cole slaw, and watermelon salad.  The watermelon salad is a recipe from my mother-in-law.  All it is is watermelon chunks, a handful of chopped parsley, feta cheese, toasted pine nuts, and a splash of lemon juice.  Fabulous.  Tonight will be chilled cucumber soup.

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Here's another quote from Abandonment to Divine Providence.  This one hit me hard yesterday:

"Faith is the mother of sweetness, confidence, and joy.  It cannot help feeling tenderness and compassion for its enemies by whose means it is so immeasurably enriched.  The greater the harshness and severity of the creature, the greater by the operation of God, is the advantage to the soul.  While the human instrument strives to do harm, the divine Workman in whose hands it is, makes use of its very malice to remove from the soul all that might be prejudicial to it."

Jean-Pierre De Caussade is a genius.  The first line is a good litmus test to see if I am really trusting in God:  Where am I on the "sweetness, confidence, and joy" scale?



For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Happy Easter and Happy Birthday

Yesterday was doubly special for us.  It was Easter Sunday and Anthony's 2nd birthday!  We had a little party with his godparents and their eight children.  It was a gorgeous Easter Day.  I had another special treat that day:  Going to Easter Mass all by myself!  I do think it's important to go to Mass as a family, but Anthony was awake pretty much all night as his two year molars decided to come in exactly on schedule.  He was just too tired to be expected to behave himself, and Ryan had gone to the vigil the night before.  I must admit it was quite nice to listen to the entire homily, to pray through the consecration without any need to keep an exuberant, "Jezzzzzzus!  There!" somewhat subdued, and to know that none of the screaming in the back of the church was being caused by my child.

See?  Completely zonked out.  This was taken at about 11 a.m.  Naptime's not usually til 2 or 3.  But it worked out well because he was able to have fun at his little party.  Once again, I didn't take very good pictures, so for the family here's what I have:

Helping to make his birthday cake.

Head dishwasher.

He was very excited about his truck cake!

Two of Anthony's god-siblings, Paul and Josephine. 

And lastly, for Easter, I always make this braided loaf.  Recipe here.  It's surprisingly easy to do the braiding because the fatty dough is nice and stretchy.

Yard Sale Finds

These photos are from a few weeks ago. I uploaded them and began a post, which I never finished in favor of the one for Katie's wedding and Sr. Victoria Marie's profession. So here they are now. $5 wooden highchair! I'm going to refinish it for Anthony to use. His current highchair is a nightmare to keep clean. Food gets in the little cracks and crevices of the padding, and UNDER and INSIDE the pad, which of course takes about ten minutes to take apart and another ten to put back together. Using it without the pad is not possible. It's probably technically an antique, as it came with a guide to carseat safety with this photo in it:


But that does not mean that I will be afraid of spray painting it.


I also got a huge bag of random fabric for a dollar. Here are some of my favorite prints:

And my very very favorite, is a crib skirt of this adorable bunny toile! It was crammed in the very bottom of the bag! I can make either four placemats or six napkins for Easter, as sadly part of it is badly stained. But look how cute!!!!!

"Hi Daddy!"

Ryan’s gone to Switzerland for ten whole days for work. I got to talk to him on the phone for a long time this evening, even though it was 2:30 AM there! It brought me back to our engagement days, when he was in Cincinnati for the summer and he’d call me every night. He’s having a wonderful time it seems, checking out medieval villages and churches, taking in breathtaking views of the Alps and whatnot. You know, European stuff. ;-) I’ll see if I can persuade him to do a guest post of his travels after he comes back next Saturday.

Anthony and I are missing him a lot for sure. This is his third trip already this summer, and the longest. Ryan called tonight right before Anthony’s bedtime. I always turn on the speaker phone so he can talk to Anthony. Anthony will “talk” back and be all excited; it’s really cute. But today, he said, “Hi Daddy!” !!!!! Ryan and I both heard it distinctly, so I know it wasn’t my imagination. Very often he will sound like he’s saying certain words, but really it’s just the inflection of his voice is very good, if you know what I’m trying to say. For example, he’ll say, “I did it!” when he succeeds in stacking up his blocks or something like that, but it’s really more like, “Ah didi!” He’s very consistent with it and I’m positive he really means, “I did it.” This was the first time he spoke two words together clearly.

Our little boy’s getting so big! This picture is from today when we were playing with the camera:

I think he understands the concept of the camera taking his picture, but doesn’t understand the idea of smiling for the camera yet.

This is from a year ago:

Catching up: Anthony's birthday

On his actual birthday, at the playground.

His Hungry Caterpillar cake! If you click on the picture to zoom in, you can see the individually placed sprinkles to make the rainbow fuzz along his back (It actually didn't take that long, since my sister helped.), the chocolate chip feet, and semi-Eric Carle-esque icing tinting technique.) This was really the only Caterpillar thing at the party, besides the invitations. They were a mock-up of the book entitled The Very Happy Birthday with a picture of the Caterpillar wearing an MS Paint-made birthday hat.


All the artistry involved in the above was lost on the birthday boy, but he sure thought it tasted good!


Friends and family came to celebrate. It was really great having Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop (my parents) and Aunt Teresa here.

He had a great day!

Weekend Photos

Happy Monday. We had a gorgeous weekend; lovely sunshine and warmth all day on Saturday and a bit on Sunday afternoon. Spring is definitely on its way! (Click the pictures to see them larger.)



We have deer in our yard all the time! The same three are often seen around suppertime and in the early morning hours; two does and a baby. This is the baby, not really a baby now. Saturday morning Ryan took apart the raised bed he built last year, and we moved the dirt to cover the area for our new expanded vegetable bed (about 16x18 feet). It was a workout, since our soil is very clayey (a word?) and it was very wet from all the rain we had.

Which brings us to Sawyer Point on Sunday. There were so many people out taking pictures of the high water!



Anthony wasn't impressed by the river, but he had a great time with all the dogs that were there! He absolutely loves dogs; he's going to be asking Daddy for one for sure! He's not afraid of them AT ALL, even this Great Dane that lives in our neighborhood. They'll sniff and lick his face and he just laughs and gets so excited!


Finally, here's a sneak peek at a quilt I started! This one's going to a silent auction to support an alternative Catholic school that a lot of our friends' children attend.