Unbelievable

You know, there are some people who are intellectualized far beyond their intellect and way beyond the use of Reason and their mental capability. If you can believe it, there is a National Secular Society. Well, that is believable. And there is the impossible "De-Baptism." That is unbelievable.....

After due deliberation, I ________ having been subjected to the Rite of Christian Baptism in infancy (before reaching an age of consent), hereby publicly revoke any implications of that Rite and renounce the Church that carried it out. In the name of human reason, I reject all its Creeds and all other such superstition in particular, the perfidious belief that any baby needs to be cleansed by Baptism of alleged ORIGINAL SIN, and the evil power of supposed demons. I wish to be excluded henceforth from enhanced claims of church membership numbers based on past baptismal statistics used, for example, for the purpose of securing legislative privilege.

Absolutely unbelievable. However, the beauty and infinite wisdom of God, pervails... and the Gates of Hell shall not. Baptism leaves an indelible seal upon the soul, so there is always hope for these people. One cannot simply wipe Baptism away with a certificate. "All gone and I have my certificate to prove it!" Wipe away Sanctifying Grace by sin, yes, wipe away the indelible seal of Baptism.... no! (Praise God! Did He know how weak we would be or what?)

Faith is the most beautiful thing, it is what we cling to when there is nothing else. We can rely on Faith when things seem most hopeless and we feel most abandoned. I wonder what these people do now that they have their brilliant certificate.... frame it.... and then what? Well, and I say this with a chuckle, there are saints who had totally rejected Our Lord, Jesus Christ before............ and in His Infinite Love and Mercy He... oh.... say.... knocked them off their high horse. Perhaps we could each make a sacrifice for one of these people and one day, perhaps meet him in Heaven. I don't think I could stress enough the importance of making every attempt to grow in Faith by prayer, study and spiritual reading. May God have mercy on their souls.

I searched to look for an image to put with this and what I found was sickening, as in tear-stingingly-so..... so I opted for the most beautiful thing, the Crucifix.

Nature Center

We went to a local nature center for a class on bugs.

This is an Indian Mound

The nature center is like a mini-cabellas.

They even had a stuffed Poppy...

Just a unique pen.

Now, how often will you see a sign like that in a public place! Beautiful!!

Our crowd.

She was a great teacher... well, not quite a good as mother of course!

They handed out dental mirrors to get a better view on the underside of the leaves.... no fear, I didn't take one. As a friend of mine on Long Island would say similarly, there simply are some things we do for the sake of our children. Studying bugs is one of them.

Kids seem to like this bug thing. I was glad I got to stand/sit around at baby central.

Why do children insist on sharing everything with their mother? Ugh. And the best part seemed to be the excitement that some of the bugs were eating each other. Incidentally these bugs were for feeding to the toads. I wasn't sorry I missed that.

I did however greatly enjoy the little birds that were playing in the trees. I should know what these are but the name escapes me.... anyone? Thank you Anonymous, chickadee was going to be my guess but I figured it was better to show my ignorance than double ignorance... just in case :)

Afterwards there were crafts making dragonflies.

Afterwards we went to a park for lunch. "Sweetie pie, honey, dear, please bring the ice pack." Frozen fish doubles as an ice pack. But it's a forgiveable offense since he puts his ketchup on before the mustard........!

Intellectual Conversation

I am eavesdropping on a conversation between Galadriel and Eowyn who are talking about their pen pals. "You know, it really shouldn't be a pen pal, but a pencil pal."

Incidentally the above pencil is made by Faber Castell and is the best one on the market, they don't break off like no man's business. They come in a regular grip and a jumbo grip.

Bye-Bye Pumpkins

For Christmas someone gave us a really nice set of dishes. Since we got married 15 years ago we have used Pfaltzgraff. We probably have gone through 200 plates. We like breaking things. We hadn't opened these new plate sets (Corelle) because I was merely waiting for us to break all our current Pfaltzgraff. Now it's time to try something new. So out these came. I really couldn't help laughing when I read on the bottom of the plates "chip and break resistant" hahaha.

Someone or other came today to buy 3 or 4 of our giant pumpkins for a somewhat local giant pumpkin race. So you ask what is a giant pumpkin race? I will direct you HERE and be sure to watch the youtube, it was so funny all the children and I were just howling laughing. Ok, just a warning, we are easily amused. We plan to go to the race this weekend (the link is not to the one we are going to, just one I googled) so watch for more pictures.

And so you ask, how did we get these things loaded since they are well over 500 pounds? Well, I wasn't there though I did specifically ask for pictures the answer was "How was I to take pictures? I was loading them!" Obviously that came from the non-blogger of the family!!! But they just used a tractor of some kind with a loader of some kind or another on it. Not very exciting.

Bye-bye Pumpkins!

Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows

The Seven Sorrows
The Prophecy of Simeon over the Infant Jesus. (Lk 2:34)
The Flight into Egypt of the Holy Family. (Mt 2:13)
The Loss of the Child Jesus for three days. (Lk2:43)
The Meeting of Jesus and Mary along the way of the cross. (Lk 23:26)
The Crucifixion, where Mary stands at the foot of the cross. (Jn 19:25)
The Descent from the cross, where Mary receives the dead body of Jesus in her arms. (Mt 27:57)
The Burial of Jesus. (Jn 19:40)
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Happy Birthday, Dad!
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Either Laugh or Cry

I think I have just read the funniest blogpost that I have in quite a while. This one comes from Fr. Z's blog:

Australia’s Catholic church bans pop songs at funerals

(pop songs at funerals? I mean I "understand" a good ol' sentimental song............ note: by "understand" I mean, I can see people being sentimental but don't sing it at my funeral, give me a good ol' Dies Irae)

The last part particularly struck my funny-cry bone:

The list of top 10 most popular unusual funeral songs included listed as Queen’s "Another One Bites the Dust," AC/DC’s "Highway to Hell, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" by Monty Python, and "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" from "The Wizard of Oz."

Happy Birthday Eowyn

Happy Birthday, Eowyn! I know, a glazer donut "cake"? I have heard from semi-reliable sources that some people eat these with ice cream and m&m's...... seems to me that violates the pristine purity of a glazer donut!

The little climber makes herself at home at the piano.

I think she is sings, too.

A nicely frosted and decorated Trinity Acres special.... that is this time the cake makers put on chocolate chips on top of glops of frosting.

Now that I'm done with all this blowing out of candles business I can get back to real life... reading.

We have a great farmer's market. I can't say enough for the Kettle Corn. (tettle torn as Bilbo says) One week they also had hand pressed, homemade lemonade made on sight. It was sooo good.

Friends of ours with their pumpkins and melons.

This is my first stop, great little lady who said she didn't want to be in the picture but it was alright to take one of anyone else.

This isn't just a nice picture of tomatoes, can you see what I was actually taking a picture of?

A red dragon fly. I never saw one before. Dragon flies are about the only insect I like.

Each week the farmer's market committee has a special event. This week was a cider press.

This is the tomato lady.

The crocheting ladies. Each week I bring 2 of the children, this week was Eowyn & Rosie.

This is our favorite apple man (he is standing by his truck back there).

Neat-o liscense plate! (no, our Bilbo isn't driving)