Spring Flowers Everywhere

Most mornings the little ones and I go for a leisurely stroll around the block while Angelboy does his school work (poor kid).  Today was just beautiful. And now along with the daffodils (which have been out for at least two weeks and are just now starting to fade), tulips (which have been out for at least a week), and dandelions and small violets (which I have just started to see in the last couple of days) the trees which produce flowers have been producing them in full.  Spring flowers don't last very long so we're trying to enjoy them while we can.  Soon we will be seeing Lilacs too as I am just starting to see them bud.

I didn't see any dandelions until a few days ago and then they just seemed to appear over night.  They are plentiful and still pretty.

Along with the dandelions I started seeing violets spread throughout the lawns.

A note on daffodils

This spring I have been taking note of the timing of the appearnce of various flowers.  The daffodils seem to be the earliest bloomers and are noticeably plentiful this year.  I have never seen as many daffodils as I have seen in this neighborhood this year.  I didn't think it was possible, but I am almost sick of them just because there are so many.  They must be somewhat fashionable these days.

Fasting to Feasting

The idea that God alone suffices is what kept going through my mind this Lent.  Many times I look to food for comfort so this Lent I worked to moderate my food intake by such things as: no snacking on popcorn, eating cereal instead of baked goods or bread with jam for breakfast, eating only one serving per meal, limiting snacks of all kinds, and mostly no sweets and junk food.  These were only general guidelines and not  hard and fast rules.  Nevertheless,  I generally stuck pretty close to this plan.Whenever I had a longing to eat something for comfort I told myself that, "Jesus is enough for me"  keeping in mind that the things of this world will pass away and provide us with only temporary pleasure and that lasting happiness can only come from God. 

So now that Easter is here (alleiluia) what attitude am I to take?  It's a time for feasting right?  In past years as soon as Easter rolled around I went back to my same old habits and of course overindulged on all the Easter candy.  I heard someone on Catholic Radio say that if you gave up chocolate for Lent then you should eat chocolate every day for Easter meaning that Easter is a time of feasting and a time to enjoy the gifts of God (being temperate was implied). So this is the approach I am trying to take.  I have been finding Easter candy at deep discounts at the stores and I have been buying it with the idea that I will eat only a little every day and not the whole bag at once.  So how have I been doing?  Well...  Better than I have done in past years.  Yesterday I had only one ice cream cone and 4 small marshmallow eggs and only the ears off of a small Hershey's bunny.  That kind of sounds like a lot; and maybe it is not ideal; but considering how I am, that's not bad, and after all we are supposed to be feasting, right?  Does anyone have any ideas about this?  I would love some input.

I love it when a plan comes together! or Another Mundane Post

I took a not entirely intentional break from blogging over Lent.  This turned out to be very beneficial as I learned that there are a few things that I have been ignoring due to my time on the computer (not that I really spend that much time on the computer).  Partially due to my blogging break, we have fallen into a routine that has ended up giving us way more productive school time.  Pumpkingirl, who is two, takes a "nap" in the morning around 10:00 the same time as Smileyboy's (who is 9 mos.)nap.  She doesn't really nap but she likes the fact that she gets to lie down in her bed with her binky.  This is the only time she gets her binky other than her afternoon nap.  I try not to leave her there for more than 45 minutes though it doesn't work out this way all the time.  This gives Angelboy and me time to read religion and history outloud together as I think these are important topics to be able to discuss while reading.

Somehow I find it reassuring to get into a routine and then be able to writie it down.  So here is our morning routine:

8:00 Breakfast for "littles" and me
9:00 Spend time reading and go for walk with "littles"
10:00-10:30 put "littles" down for nap/Angelboy and I read history and religion
11:30 Get lunch ready

Thoughts for the Final Weeks of Lent

When I was listening to EWTN Radio on Saturday I happend to catch the homily from the mass that day.  He gave a list of things to do for the less than two weeks of Lent that we have left.  This is the gist of what he said:

1.  Fix your eyes on Jesus.
-repeat his name during the day

2.  Praise the Lord especially at mass.  Go to mass as often as you can.

3.  Repent with humble and contrite heart/go to confession.

4.  Weild the sword of the spirit-Read the Word of God.  Do this every day even for just a few minutes.

5.  Attack the evil one through prayer and expecially fasting in accordance with church teaching.  Do not make your fast too strict or you will become discouraged.  The church teaches two small meals and a larger meal.  The two small meals should together be less than the larger meal.  (Of course we are only required to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday but I think he was suggesting more than this but still using the guidelines that are used for those days.)

6.  Surround yourself with Christian community so you are not isolated in spirital warfare. Don't try to do it alone.  This includes receiving the sacraments, surrounding yourself with holy friends, praying with your husband and family.

7.  Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say it -Rejoice! Let your Christian joy be seen by others.

Why Bart? Why?

 Why did Bart Stupak cave so easily for an executive order after standing so strong for so long?  I'm really disappointed.  I had been thinking how admirable Bart Stupak was for standing his ground under such immense pressure from his own party and then this...  It seems to me that he and the other pro-life Democrats that were standing with him could have really done a lot better than an executive order.

It appears to me that Obama had been snubbing Stupak up until the last minute when he saw that Bart and his followers could be a real threat to the passage of this legislation, indicating that Stupak and his followers had a lot of power, more than anyone was expecting them to have, I think.  Had they held their ground the bill may not have passed but just think how much could have been gained if they had used this power for the betterment of the Democratic party and the country with their pro-life views.  Unfortunately they threw away any real influence they could have had in this reagard. 

And to top it all off Stupak accused the pro-life Republicans Chris Smith, Joseph Pitts and another whose name I don't know of trying to kill the bill by speaking out against the fact there are no provisions actually written into the bill itself to prevent federal funding for abortion or for conscious protection.  He should know that Chris Smith and the others are sincerely pro-life and protection for the unborn is their first concern. Did he just want to regain the approval of his fellow Democrats?  Democrat first, pro-life second.  I guess now we know.  Heartbreaking.

A St. Joseph's Day Meal

With St. Patrick's Day and St. Joseph's Day both in the same week, this week of Lent has been filled with lots of feasting rather than fasting.  Today is St. Joseph's day and it looks like I will be making a few goodies.  Once again I have truned to Catholic Cuisine for some feast day food ideas so today we will be having these rasberry cream cupcakes and this minestrone soup along with some frozen dinner rolls.  Apparently cream puffs are a traditional St. Joseph's Day food though I haven't taken the time to research the background of this.  Italian food is also traditional St. Joseph Day fare as St. Joseph's Day started in Sicily when upon praying to St. Joseph the people were rewarded with rain after a long drought.

St. Joseph pray for us!

Today is St. Patrick's Day.  I am going to make Irish Beef and Guiness Stew as found on Catholic Cuisine along with Shamrock Pretels also found on CC.  I have been making menu plans for the past four weeks.  I plan two weeks at a time as I go grocery shopping every two weeks.  The actual planning takes a long time to do.  I am thinking about planning for just one week at a time as this may be less stressful or maybe I just need more practice. 

"Winging it" isn't really descriptive of the meal planning I had been doing before.  Although I hadn't  really written out an official menu for each week, I had certain groceries I got on a regular basis for the meals that I made at least once during the week making sure I made a list of the groceries I would need for a few new dishes for the week as well. 

It is nice knowing what I am going to fix for supper on any given day though I think I make more labor intensive dishes than I would if I had a looser plan.  This means that I have been expending more energy on cooking and perhaps have less time for other things like blogging or reading blogs.  This may be one reason why I haven't posted in a while.

Anyway, it is a work in progress.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!