Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul

O glorious solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul! 

It Doesn't Happen This Way in the Movies

So, we were just sitting down to dinner when Merry slipped and fell and was crying really hard.  It was obvious he had either dislocated or broke his ring finger since it was at a very funny angle.  Aragorn took him to the ER.  A fracture at the base of his finger.  Our first broken bone.  To which Galadriel said, "Is this because we've been drinking milk from the store?" hahaha  (we're waiting for our cow to hatch so no fresh raw milk)

 Pippin came to me a couple hours later to tell me the whole story in great detail.  Pippin decided that he could spin like the "rockstar" in the Johnny Depp's Willie Wonka movie (after Mike Teavee gets shrunken and the Oompa Loompa's are singing their Ode to Mike Teavee, go ahead, look it up we did as I just had to see this, the little zebra stripey one).  Proper to the movie, Pippin gets on the floor and starts spinning with his  imaginary 'violin' (actually it was an electric guitar).  So Merry says, "I can do that!"  and starts spinning in circles in an upright fashion only to slip and land on his finger (how he landed on just 1 finger will be left as one of the mysteries of life we'll never know). 

Only in my house. 

He was given vicodin (ACK!) and they re-broke the bone... (shudder) then splint the fingers together and wrapped it an ace bandage and gave him a sling. 

And his right hand to boot. Galadriel, our leftie, will have to teach him how to use his left hand.
Friday he will go to the Orthopedist to see what next. And just days before his 8th birthday.

Rain

I know that I know some pretty good prayer warriors out there.  We need some rain.  A whole lot if the truth be told. About 4 inches of rain.... but... not all at once. :D 

And since today is the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, she would be a good one to pray to!  Incidentally I was reading about her today, she is also known as Our Lady of Perpetual Succor.  The 2 Angels are Michael and Gabriel and they are holding the items to implement the Passion of Our Lord.  The Greek Letters are the abbreviations for the words "Mother of God", "Jesus Christ", "Archangel Michael" and "Archangel Gabriel".  Our Lord is clinging to His Mother (a fear of the Crucifixion as indicated by the instruments of the Passion).   The part of the picture that intrigues me the most is the dangling shoe of the Christ Child so I had to read about that. In the Old Testament, the symbol of removing one's shoes was one of being ready to be treated as a slave or servant. (I could not help thinking about St. John the Baptsit and his statement that he is not fit to loose the sandal strap of He Who is to come... not fit to loose the sandal of The Slave. Something to think about there)  But Our Lord gave his "Fiat" inspite of the natural human fears, "Not my will but Thine be done."  When times are hardest, cling to your Mother and give your "Fiat".  Yes... be it done unto me as You Will.  Be His slave by accepting the stripes.  Plus... what are you going to do about it anyway?  Might as well accept all that comes...  you know it's coming! :D

Welcome to My World

 Squirt gun tubes with an endless supply of ammo.

 Galadriel and I battled it out.

 Meanwhile Poppy stole Marigold's potty and Marigold gave her a piece of her mind.

That's MINE!

 Pippin

 We were blessed to be invited to the blessing of a memorial garden.  If you remember the lovely family who had little wee Rosalia who passed away within a few hours of birth.  This is her memorial garden in which the family is growing roses to make rosaries out of. How beautiful is that?

 I think this couple is so sweet.

 Isn't it lovely?

 Bilbo - fashion prep.

 This was just before Poppy partially fell into the pond.  That is the one glitch about having a large family, if something happens the odds are that one of our children is likely involved.

 We have this open area in our living room that I don't know quite what to do with. I envision a nice chess table with some old fashioned wooden chairs and instead it's a workshop for building catapults and things like that. 

 This is what I heard was a scale model to see if it would work.  And you ask, "Work for what?" and I say "What do you think?  To launch giant pumpkins... duh."  The "real thing" I hear is going to be about 10 times this size.  Some kind of Trojan Horse Catapult. Stay tuned.

 My first thought was "that's not very pretty", but perhaps catapults generally aren't.

 See the rock up there in the upper left corner? Very impressive but it actually landed probably 50 feet away haha.

 We have had the best raspberries off our little bush.  YUM!  I love fruit, so long as it is not a banana.

 I was on retreat this past weekend, a very glorious retreat, much needed and very refreshing and I came home to find out not only had a palm tree "grown" up in our pumpkin patch but....

 ...that dinosaurs had moved in.  In thanksgiving for this amazing  thing, we gave some dinosaur eggs to a certain neighbor of great humor!  I nearly went off the road laughing my head off when I saw this sight.  What next?  (I didn't just ask that!)

 The other thing that happened is that some bees were moved to our house in an old whisky barrel.  (I am guessing I know a few people who might read this who might say, "What a perfectly good waste of a whiskey barrel" haha  Our place may become some kind of public oddity, if we sell tickets we might be able to pay off the mortgage pretty quick-like.

While I was away (and mind you I was only away 2 nights), Frodo built us a very interesting burn barrel-that-isn't-a-barrel.  Very quaint I must say.

Happy Anniversary to Us

Our Blessed Mother with the Infants

Jesus and St. John the Baptist

by Morales

updated
Today we celebrated 17 years of marriage.  As I was talking with some friends after Mass I had to think about how many years it has been but then remembered "Samwise is 16, so we have been married 17 years" (incidentally they were able to do the same math)  That's the good part about being open to life from the get-go, you can usually remember how many years you were married by adding  1.  We share our Anniversay with St. John the Baptist's birth.  One of 3 births celebrated in the Church.  I remember thinking at our wedding that it was interesting that the priest, Fr. Kunz, didn't say the regular readings for a wedding but the ones for the Feast of St. John the Baptist.  Interesting.  And curious me can't ask him why...
We were blessed by our priest, Fr. John, this morning after the Mass, which was said for us.  Great way to start out another year.  The intention was to get a nice family picture taken afterwards.  It was a nice thought.  1.  You need a camera to take a picture.... or remember that the phone has a camera on it...  2.  You need to find 11 children at a precise moment while there is still someone around to take a picture.....

My off-the-cuff advice (that I don't always follow) to married couples or to-be-married couples:

Put God first
Pray
Put your spouse second
Pray
Have children according to God's Plan, put them third and see how funny they are
Pray
Put others and everything else fourth.....
Pray
Smile and laugh alot a lot
Pray
Keep a regular schedule (ora et labora) for making saints of yourselves so you can make saints of your children
Pray
Talk together
Pray
Forgive
Pray
Have a date every night, not just on "date-night" that means.... talk, smile and laugh together. (read:  little acts of love go a long ways)
Pray
Say, "I love you"... often.
Pray
Eat, drink and be merry.
Pray
Never grow weary of one another, if you do, correct it right away.
Pray
Do stuff together
Pray
Never let the sun set upon your anger (I know, we 'luv' to pout, to what end?)
Pray
And one I learned this weekend on a retreat, you know your spouses virtues and vices, encourage the virtues and don't provoke the vices.
Pray
Be patient .....this is soooo me :P
Pray
Go to confession frequently, forgive 70x7xs and say sorry
Pray
Give 100% always (not 50/50)
Did I mention Pray?

Life is never perfect, it is full of crosses whether you are single or married.  And to add to that, we are people of Faith, God will try that Faith.  Accept and embrace His Will and your crosses because they are His Will... accept them with great love as no cross comes without God's approval.  Make your crosses work for the edification of yourself and others.  (and believe me, I know this is very hard sometimes seems impossible)  But Our Lord fell under the weight of His Cross, and what did He do.... He got up.  (don't ask how many times I've had to get up....)  You will know you are on the right path when you are full of Joy.... I didn't say feel joy... I said full of Joy.   Full of Christ. Full of Love.  (I didn't say huggy-kissy-touchy-feely, I said full of Love... as in the Divine Virtue, as in God Himself)  And remember, He is a jealous God... if He isn't first, you will never be full of Happiness.  (but you might find yourself perfectly miserable)

Here I am Lord, I come to do Your Will.... or at least that is what I want to do and if you don't give me the Grace to do it, then I'm going to tell your Mother on You.

Duct Tape

You know it's a pretty pathetic world when you have to make the sacrifice not to buy the pretty duct tape to control your materialistic tendencies.  Paisley Duct Tape.  It was the most beautiful duct tape I've ever seen.  No wonder people make clothing out of it.

Feast of St. Aloysius

Thou hast made him a little less than the Angels

Introit - Ps 8:6