The Events of the Week

It's always lively in a large family. Merry was in need of a bath and in walks Pippin. Since he was in no need of a bath I just let him play with the water from the spout. Apparently that wasn't enough....

*Plop* over he goes, clothes and all.

Undaunted by the surprise he thoroughly enjoyed himself. It was Galadriel who ran for the camera.

"I Doo Weet"

Merry is very proud of his dressing (in)capabilities. Perhaps boys should only have blue, red and green reversible clothing then something always matches!

Aragorn was installing some lights in the dining area and Pippin (of course) was in sheer awe of such an immense climbing thing... the ladder. In our house ladders are not jungle gyms for 11 month olds, much to Pip's disappointment.

"I wonder if Daddy will notice?"

Yup, Daddy said "no". Pippin seems to understand that word very well. Who'd have known an 11 month old would be so attached to a ladder?! Very hurt feelings for Pip that day.

There was talk of a big snowstorm so we decided to take a few pre-snow pictures. We had about 8 inches til we got a lovely spring-like tease.

Front Yard

Back Yard

We got about 7-1/2+" of nice fluffly snow on Friday night. Then Saturday night we got another 10-12" of heavy wet snow.

It took 2 hours of plowing and shoveling to clear the driveway. Our roads still haven't been plowed so we were unable to get out of the driveway for Mass, which was a sore disappointment for all.

But there is always a light at the end of the tunnel!

As soon as the plowing was done, prayers and readings from Mass were said and we sat down for breakfast and it started to... snow!

Saint of the Day

I have moved the Saint of the Day to my new website. The calendar of saints can be found here. The site is still in the works. But figure I can just add gradually. The Site is Trinity Acres USA.

Lenten Blogging

For Lent I was invited to do the saint editing on These Forty Days. I am also posting these little writings on our family website Trinity Acres USA. Sunday's during Lent I will be posting our week's family events of which this week have been plenty when you have a Pippin in the house.

In addition to the saint of the day (time permitting!) I will add some interesting quick quotes. I like a good read but what I really like are little quotes that have great meaning.

Here are a few I really liked this week from Divine Intimacy (which I highly recommend!):

"Dust, the ashes which the priest puts on our foreheads today, has no substance; the lightest breath will disperse it. It is a good representation of man's nothingness" (since afterall during the distribution of ashes we are reminded "Remember man that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return.")

"Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die.... then there will be many things about which you care nothing"

"Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die" (well, that should wake us up a bit) followed by "lest being suddenly suprised by the day of death, we should seek time for penance and not find it".

St. Therese "I shall always sing, even should my flowers be gathered from the midst of thorns."

"The amount of suffering must be wisely proprotioned, and limited to teh physicalstrength of each one; but what must never be limited is the love, the spirit of geerosity with which we perform each act of sacrifice. From this point of view, a slight mortification done with all the love of which a soul is capable has greater value than a painful penance performed in a material way, with no interior spirit."

St. John of the Cross, "Have great love for suffereing and consider it very little to attain the favor of the Spouse, who hesitated not to die for thee."

The last few days readings can be summarized up in God's proof of His love for us consists in the Incarnation and his Death on the Cross. Our proof of our love for God is in our little crosses, mortifications and sufferings both physical and spiritual. These readings are making me very eager for Easter! In the meantime during Lent we are reminded that we are on this earth to suffer for the love of God.

Ash Wednesday

Raphael's Crucifixion

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Great Lenten Fast. Since this is a time of prayer and penance for the remission of sin we begin by remembering who we really are with the Biblical verse Genesis 3:19 when God spoke to Adam after the Fall “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou was taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.” It is with great humility that we should remember these words and wander into the dessert where we should leave our pride so that we may kneel at the foot of the Cross with Mary Magdalen with true sorrow for our sins for it is our sins that crucified Our Lord.
Michelangelo's Jonah in the Sistine Chapel
On Ash Wednesday we think back to the days of the Prophet Jonas (Jonah). When God told him to go to Ninive Jonah fled in weakness and fear from His Face. As a result God had Jonah swallowed up by a great fish. “And Jonas prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the fish. And he said: I cried out of my affliction to the Lord and he heard me: I cried out of the belly of hell and thou hast heard my voice” (Jonas 2:2-3). Henceforth the great fish spewed the Prophet upon the banks of Ninive, where the voice of God again spoke and told him to go forth into Ninive and preach. This time Jonas obeyed and he cried out “Yet forty days, and Ninive shall be destroyed. And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least. And the word came to the king of Ninive; and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him and was clothed in sackcloth and sat in ashes.” (Jonas 3:4-6)

In the early days of the Church those Christians who were guilty of grave faults had to go through public penance for the remission of their sins. They would wear blessed sackcloth and have the sign of ashes upon their foreheads. The ashes were (and still are) made from the palms used on the previous Palm Sunday. “Then while the Faithful were singing the Seven Penitential Psalms [Psalms 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129 and 142], the penitents were expelled from the holy place on account of their sins, just as Adam was driven out of paradise because of his disobedience.” (St. Andrew Missal) In 1091, the Holy Father extended the use of ashes to the Faithful as well.

The Church today uses ashes to remind us that one day each and every one of us will end up where mankind began: “Remember man that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return” with the sign of the cross imprinted on our forehead as a visible sign that we are sinners and are in need of both repentance and redemption.

“Thus saith the Lord: Be converted to Me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning. And rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, and ready to repent of the evil.” Joel 2:12-13

Illuminated Ink Coloring Contest for Lent

Illuminated Ink is having another Coloring Contest (the above is only a copy and not to be used for the coloring contest). Children *and* Adults are welcome to participate so if any of you are like me and like to do these things too, then this is your chance! Be sure to visit their website too! They have alot of great gifts for Easter Baskets!

Fra Angelico

These pictures were from my dear friend Cecilia in Italy in honor of Fra Angelico. The above is Fra Angelicos' self portrait. He was beatified in 1984 but has been considered since his lifetime to be saintly. Today has been considered his feast day though not found on the calendars.

Fra Angelico's rendition of The Holy Face.

Fun But Busy Weekend

It was a very fun yet very busy weekend. Eleanor turned 4 on the 17th, our Dog, Guiseppi (sorry Cecilia-in-Italy I will never spell it correctly :) turned 11 on the 18th and my MIL/FIL's anniversary is the 19th.

Eleanor turns 4

The fun began at Grandma and Grandpa's after piano lessons. We celebrated Eleanor's 4th birthday with Grandma's lovely daffodil cake. Being that I'm a very unskilled frosting maker, I have to mention that I am not a frosting person but the frosting on this cakes was really good. It is called 7 minute frosting. It reminded me of a frosting I tried to make when I was a child, probably middle school aged. It was called "White Mountain Frosting" and was from the old Betty Crocker cookbook (or one of then anyway!) well, my white mountain frosting turn brown and hard as a rock. But Grandma's frosting was what I had *dreamed* mine was suppose to look like way back then.

Eleanor with the addition to the girls' Calico Critters Collection. This is the wedding set, the girls really wanted a church... they aren't too interested in weddings... thank goodness! Isn't that car adorable?

Matthew's Heart Attack pound cake from the St. Mary's Oratory Cookbook was the choice this time with Bunny Tracks ice cream.

Blowing out the 4 candles.

Eleanor's birthday food picks were pancakes and sausage for breakfast, pigs in blankets (actually they are cows in blankets as they are beef nitrate free hotdogs) for lunch and barbecue sandwiches (which in other parts of the country is called Sloppy Joes) for supper.

Sunday the 18th started out with Mass as usual followed by the Quinquagesima (did I spell that right?!) celebration at our church. This year was a pancake breakfast by one of our young men, Matthew (pastry chef... actually same said chef of the above mentioned Pound Cake) It was huge too... pancakes, eggs, hash brown potatoes, sausage, bacon, fruit with the most delicious whipped cream on top. I really thought a loud applause was in-line but I'm not the type to stand up and do such things! There were gifties for the children as well as a raffle.

Galadriel won one of the raffle prizes... $10 in cash! She was tickled! And so was I as we don't tend to be on the winning side of anything!

Frodo

Eowyn

Rosie and Eleanor

And good friends. Aren't they just scrumptious children? Being that I got chatting with a couple families I forgot to continue taking some pictures.

The 19th is my MIL/FIL's Anniversary, so we had them over for supper.

Oddly it somewhat resembles our Valentine's Day Fare. We had chicken parmesan, tortellini, salad and garlic bread. For being about as far from Italian as we can get we love Italian foods, though I suppose my dear friend Cecilia in Italy would say this is American food! :D