What I'm loving now

Spring is wonderful, isn't it? The sunshine, the warmer temps, the flowers, the thunderstorms and wind (if not, exactly, the pollen or the mud). It's a time of improved mood around here. There is so much to love...

1. Kumquats

I'm sure it was part of the kids of steel program, I'm not sure, but I am totally hooked. These little God-created-sweet-tarts are fantastic...they wake me up in the morning with their tangy goodness.

They are also nutritionally packed with good stuff like vitamin C, fiber, anti-oxidants and essential oils.

2. Sushi

I totally blame Lent for this one. I was looking for something, anything, that wasn't a fish fry for my lunch one day and there it was. Yum. The pickled ginger and wasabi add to the health benefits (omega 3s, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals). Yes, there is a mercury concern so don't eat it every day (moderation, people) I would suggest once a week, on Wednesday, when a large California roll is only $5 at Giant Eagle. :0)

God has the best colors!

3. Little boy

He turns 4 in two weeks so I try not to call him the baby (it's also ridiculous since he's almost the same size as the next older two). Still, he is my last and with that, my favorite (sorry, it's a baby-loving-mom's-prerogative). I love that he's growing up a little bit (I haven't changed a poop diaper in over 6 weeks! Hooray!) but is still a little boy at heart. 

He sat like that for a full 20 minutes (it's a duck that does the chicken dance)

4. My yearly spiritual direction

No, I'm not so holy that I only need it once a year! I just seem to have no luck in finding an actual director so I take advantage when I can. I always count on my yearly ob/gyn exam and this year, the dear doctor did not disappoint. We talked about homeschool and being Catholic and raising kids (he has 6) that have the grounding of faith on which to build a life. Isn't God spectacular? I dreaded the thought of these exams after the babies were done (because I'm depressed that the babies are done) and He has revealed a true servant just when I needed a good diversion. Go God! When I left the appointment, He gave me another sign that we should be joyful...He is Risen, Indeed.

God's majesty...for us...everyday!

5. Easter

Of course, the best part of Spring is Easter! One of the best aspects of Easter is going to the Cathedral and chatting with and receiving blessings from three bishops! I love being in a room full of people who are all celebrating the Resurrection. I told one of the bishops that I appreciate his joy that always shines through in his smile...he replied, "How could we not be filled with joy, knowing what we know?" Amen, Father.

Wishing you the joy of Spring and the lasting joy of Our Creator's love...all-day, every-day

We are blessed.   

He's Back!

He Is Risen!

We are blessed.

Holy Saturday

The Eastern Europeans (and probably others of whom I am unaware) have a tradition of blessing the food for the Easter meal (the Slovaks, like Christmas, eat the main meal on the eve). We are blessed to live in a place that has a rich tradition of ethnic diversity and, as such, we have our pick of many parishes throughout the city who hold basket blessings on Holy Saturday.

Today, like last year, we went to our home parish. There is a preciousness to having the priests who guide your parish family bless the food you will share with your home family.

Last night on EWTN (or this morning, I guess, we were up late), I heard a lovely discussion about Holy Saturday. The priest remarked that it was a day to concentrate on Our Lady and her sorrows. How blessed I was to have a beautiful day for a run followed by time for a rosary and reflection with the Blessed Mother.

I have no idea what the flower chain is for

She walked with me when I lost my child so I figured it was the least I could do. As always, the grace flowed and it was such a blessed few minutes alone with the woman who knows best the trials and blessings of motherhood.

Not to be forgotten, Bishop Barron had a wonderful ancient homily on his post today about Jesus descending to hell and speaking to Adam...

See the scourging of my back, which I accepted in order to disperse the load of your sins which was laid upon your back. See my hands nailed to the tree for a good purpose, for you, who stretched out your hand to the tree for an evil one.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side, for you, who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side healed the pain of your side; my sleep will release you from your sleep in Hades; my sword has checked the sword which was turned against you.

But arise, let us go hence. The enemy brought you out of the land of paradise; I will reinstate you, no longer in paradise, but on the throne of heaven. I denied you the tree of life, which was a figure, but now I myself am united to you, I who am life. I posted the cherubim to guard you as they would slaves; now I make the cherubim worship you as they would God.

Dinner tonight with my family, mom and aunt. It's hard to believe tomorrow could be any better but, as we know, it will be so glorious. Wishing you all a most blessed Easter, filled with the glory of the resurrected Jesus, Our Savior.

We are blessed.

I'm better...

I can't stay in a snit when we're spending the afternoon knee-deep in Easter prep and learning all about our favorite ethnic heritage ;0)

Sunday was Slovak Easter day...hooray! Fun with friends, making lots of pretty, yummy things and learning all about the joy-filled day we would spend one week later. A perfect end to Palm Sunday (totally made up for the rocky start).

nutrolls

single-serving

lamb cakes

our flock ;)

beautiful banner for our front window

much to practice!

palm folding

I made him a different kind of crown...it works

wax painted eggs...my favorite

May you have a prayerful, quiet Holy Week as we prepare for the joy that comes very, very soon.

We are blessed.

The Easter season bunny

Come on. That is the cutest thing ever!

Whew...

Well, we're almost there. Today is Holy Saturday, the last day before Resurrection Sunday (when did that start? I thought it was Easter Sunday?)...unless you're Vigil people but since we aren't, let's get back to today.

I have very fond memories of going with my bub then my aunt to church mid-day every Holy Saturday. We packed the baskets full of yummy things...ham, kielbasa, eggs, cheese, paska....then we let it peek out of it's wrappers so the priest might bless it to then take home for our Easter eve meal.

My husband is a very good sport. Despite their small percentage of Slovak ancestry, our kids will be most exposed to these traditions, as I was while being raised. I think it's so important to have some roots...some practices that are passed down. I think it helps ground you as you move around your life.

So, we packed up our basket and took the walk to church. The day is cool and sunny, perfect for a walk, and the church was full of people also there for the blessing. We are getting to know some of the "regulars" so it's a good time to chat and catch up before the big day. Little man enjoyed walking up and down the aisle before it began, to check out all the good things...beautifully colored eggs, paska adorned with crosses, homemade cheese. Yum.

Here are some pictures from the day. Wishing you a blessed Saturday...He's almost here!

 We are blessed.

life is beautiful

I'm not sure if it comes through in my blog but sometimes society bugs me ;0) The emphasis on the secular pushes me toward despair and I don't really require any more assistance in that area. So, when there is an event hosted by a Catholic church that doesn't involve Santa or The Bunny, we're there...even if we have to drive 30 minutes (sigh...we need more on this side of the tunnels!)

It was held here...the first clue it might be right up our alley!

It was an amazing morning. A pro-life egg hunt to raise money for Genesis of Pittsburgh. I am so grateful that so many people showed up and they were able to raise so much money for such a good cause. It was our official first egg hunt! It won't be our last :0) (Yes, it is "legal" and even preferable to have egg hunts after Easter Sunday since Easter is a whole season, not just a day...I had to explain this to another mother at dance practice on Tuesday - yes, she's Catholic)

We went through registration and picked up these spiffy bags to hold all the eggs we could carry. The pro-abortion people call this "propaganda" but it's such a beautiful thing to see little people walking around carrying these.

Then, the rules were explained (after the hunt, you have to open the eggs to dump your loot in the bag so that they can reuse the eggs next year). Interspersed in the rules was a beautiful presentation (about 3 minutes long - perfect) about how God made us each in His image and how that makes us special and important and how we are called to use our special gifts. Oh, did I mention that this is put on by high school students? Wow.

 

Then...the hunt was on! They broke up the kids (aged 2-12) into age groups, the higher ages having a more difficult area in which to hunt. It was genius. I hear our tiny two did well but they were with non-photo-taking dad so we have no actual evidence (other than two heaping bags of treats). I went with the middle group. They had a blast!

DH said "Egg hunts are one of the few places where a kid who hates crowds ends up with more stuff!)

#3 wisely enlisted the help of one of the teen aids. He is sly, that one.

Two friends, hauling in their loot.

 

Such a blessed time with family and friends.

Waiting for the raffle winners (we didn't win but we did get 7 free pretzels and lemonades in celebration of "free pretzel day" at Philly pretzel on the way home!)

 

What a blessed day. The weather, the message, the time with friends.

God is so good!

 

(before the hunt - even the Little Flower was hiding an egg ;) )

Lent...kid stuff

This is the first year I feel like a lot of my kids "got" Lent. The two littlest, of course, were not that clued in but the older three did well. In addition to the work-to-donate exercise, we tried to be more hands-on with some of the big lessons. Here are a few. Most (if not all) are thanks to Lacy at catholicicing.com She's just awesome!

Crown of Thorns Pretzel

You're supposed to use a bread recipe and you're supposed to do this on Good Friday. Well, our Good Friday was too filled with "homemade fish fry" (read deep battered fish and shrimp) so I didn't really think adding the extra carbs on a fasting day was a great idea. Since Kellie's pretzels are easier and better than bread, we use that recipe a lot these days. We had our crown with dinner on Thursday. It worked out well and got our minds in the mood for the Passion.

before we bake...

put in the pretzel sticks at the end and voila!

 

Good Friday Scripture Lunch

 



Lacy again...what would we do without her? This was an amazing teaching tool. We took our time and worked through each symbol while DH read the appropriate scripture verse. We had some lovely discussions about Judas and Peter (one asked forgiveness and was saved, the other succumbed to despair) and the kids were still talking about it the next day. Yes, there were a lot of "sweets" for Good Friday but since everyone is under 9, we let it slide. Oh, I added licorice whips because someone asked about what "stripes" meant.

 

Dyeing Eggs

This is, by far, one of my favorite past times. We did it as kids (and well into our later youth and adulthood) and I look forward to our kids passing it on if they have little people. It's lovely to have pretty eggs to place in the basket for the food blessing on Saturday and if you need a "religious" reason (even if it's probably only legend, yes, Lacy again!). I also found this article which gives significance to specific colors. No wonder this top one was our favorite!

Faith and Trust! Great reminder that Divine Mercy Sunday (and a pretty special canonization ceremony) are next Sunday...hope you're all having a big celebration like we're going to attempt! Stay tuned...I'm not that talented with puff pastry and I'm trying and failing to mesh Polish and Italian into one happy brunch ;0)

We are blessed. Happy Easter Monday!

Fantastic Friday

So, this was me (except he's cuter) at 8:45 this morning when the kids were supposed to be arriving at Celebration Saturday (CCD) by 9. Yay. Luckily I've mastered the art of being ready to head out the door in five minutes (thank you early-morning Adoration shift!) and by some miracle my two older children were also on the fast track this morning so we were actually only about 2 minutes late (it also helps to be 3 minutes from church). Why, do you ask, were we so sleepy?

Well, first things first.

Friday morning I shipped the little peep above out for his first-ever birthday outing with our sitter. She took him to the Children's Museum and he loved it. I am so thankful because, since our membership ended, I've been feeling a bit guilty that he's never been there. Problem solved.

It was also helpful because we happened to be having a play date that morning. We invited a few friends over and had an excellent morning singing, playing and making pretzels. This is an excellent home school opportunity. Food science, math, nutrition...and music all wrapped up into one!

The music came when we all joined in a rousing chorus of "Fruit Salad" by the Wiggles :0)

Our friends left, luckily lunch was taken care of (sort of), we cleaned up and took some short naps so that we could head out to meet with our new friends at Pittsburgh Area Slovaks. I've been feeling out of sync with the Tamburitzans for a few months now...it's mainly Croatian and there are other issues as well. Enter the PAS. There is still dancing and will eventually be singing, along with cello playing, so that's all good. The best part, though, is the strong desire by the older members to preserve the Slovak heritage and pass it down to the younger generation. Yesterday was the Slovak Easter Village. What an amazing opportunity for our family to join in making some of the things that go along with a traditional Slovak Easter.

The kids did batik dyed eggs

made Easter bread with a cross on the top (the ends were supposed to be split and curl to represent flowers for Our Lady but the kids' looked a bit more like crossbones ;p)

They made chocolate sheep molds

and what Easter dinner is complete without the Easter butter lamb?

Plenty of time in between to play with friends!

Each kid got this much loot to take home. They were beyond excited (they must have been, I think we finally got home at 11:15 and no one but G even looked tired)

 

We are so blessed to have found this group. More of what I have been searching for - people who love our common ancestral history and our faith...a place where we can openly talk about the joy of Easter and concentrate on the "Lamb" even if an occasional bunny did show up ;0)

 

Have a blessed Sunday!