Catching Up

It really wasn't my intention to back off on computer usage during Lent, but somehow that is what has been happening.

Life has been speeding along at 100 mph faster than normal.  This shouldn't be a surprise to me since that is how it usually goes when we are in the midst of preparing for a big performance.  It does, however, make Lent seem to zoom by.  Is that a good thing??

Here, in pictures, are some of the things that I have been up to the past two weeks and that I had intended on writing about but just haven't gotten the time.  I'm in between driving and other chores for today, so I thought I might try to tackle them.

I had the awesome opportunity to visit my parents in Arizona for a much needed mental break.  It was in the low 80s, need I say more?  I think Arizona has been in some kind of weather bubble so far this year; as the rest of the country gets walloped with horrible weather, AZ is having warmer than usual temps.  Oh well, I was certainly glad to be there for some of it.  

I've never been out west, so we took a road trip one day to Sedona.  I loved it - well all except for the New Age portal section.

We continued on through Flagstaff - the only place we saw very minimal snow.
 

And on to the Grand Canyon.  Oh how a camera does not do it justice.  It was awesome to stand there and see how incredible God is in His creation.
 

It was even warm enough to swim.  I spent two afternoons in that water and could have stayed for more!
 

I also got to photograph the interesting vegetation of the area.  This is my favorite kind of succulent!
 

 Then a few days after I came home, we had this again.  Fortunately it is all gone right now.  Will it be back??  Who knows, but it is possible!

One of the places we went to in AZ was In-N-Out burgers.  All I can say is that I should have listened to my dad when he said to order the double burger.  Had I done that, I think I would have enjoyed it more.  What I tasted was good, just wish I had done the double.

I did get some hats to bring home and now Mr 13 yo wears his whenever he cooks or sweeps the floor.  Here he is making us green pancakes for St. Patrick's Day!
 

I made my first corned beef ever.  Ms 21 yo made the Irish Soda bread.  All-in-all it tasted great and we were happy to share it as a family - everyone home eating at the same time doesn't happen too often anymore.
 

What's not to like about a little Green River to go along with the Irish mood?  Actually, I thought the stuff tasted horrible, but the kids seemed to like it.
 

And finally, on Monday mornings, I teach a photography class at a co-op and I thought this looked cool.  How neat to see a bunch of people striving to learn the in's and out's of photography.  They're doing a great job, too!
 

So now I am relatively caught up.  A lot less pictures and a lot less words than I had originally intended, but that's life, I guess.  We'll see what happens this next week!

God Bless!

Theme Thursday - Answer

Joining in with the Clan for this week's Theme Thursday which is the word Answer.  This was a tough one.  I had first thought of someone answering a phone but then I remembered that Cari's also connecting to a lenten themed photo shoot so I was inspired to shoot this:

Prayer - my answer to all of life's ups and downs.  These items are meant to represent all types of prayer.  Have a pressing question?  Take it to prayer and you'll get an answer.  It might not be right away, and it might not be the answer you want, but you'll get one!

God Bless!

 

A Blessed Ash Wednesday To You

I pray that your Lent may be fruitful for you.  We had our paczki's last night (can I just tell you that Ms 18 yo and I ordered a fudge ones and when we got them home and got all set to eat them, we realized they gave us PRUNE ones!  The horror of it all!!) and then the kids remembered that they still had to color their ALL*L*I* pictures (it's Lent now, so I can't type the whole word out) and hide them.  Then I remembered I hadn't printed out our favorite Lenten calendar from over at Catholic Icing so I did that.  I think that now we are all ready to begin.   Well, except for the fact that I'm still missing two meals for our meal plan.  Oh well, it will come in time.

Have a blessed day and I'll be around here this Lent for those of you who haven't sworn off the internet for 40 days.

God Bless!

Happy Fat Tuesday!

Here we are on the eve of Lent.  Even though it is coming later this year, I still can't believe it is already here.  We've been plotting and planning these past few days about what our Lent will look like.  Thankfully the retreat helped me to clarify some things, so planning won't be as difficult as I thought.

We usually do a meal thing where we eat the same meals for all of Lent.  We're still working on the details, but so far we have quiche on Monday, baked chicken on Tuesday and soup/salad/bread on Wednesday.  We're still looking for a good  meal for Fridays; Pintrest should come in handy for that.  It is very difficult to plan good, wholesome, meals that don't cost a fortune, that you want to eat 6 times in a row.  I guess some people do this all the time, but we tend to like variety in our food, so this is definitely penance for us.

Before Lent begins, however, we will be fulfilling our Fat Tuesday requirement of eating our paczkis!  Mine this year is fudge filled!  There is a touch of sadness in our paczki eating this year, however, because dh's dad is the one who would get them for us and this year dh had to pick them up without him.  Here's to you Dad D., hope you're enjoying heavenly paczkis this year!

May each and everyone of you have a good start to your Lent this year.

God Bless!

This is for You, Jesus

Well, my yearly weekend of silence is over and I've been thrust head-long back into the real world.  The retreat was wonderful, as usual, and chock-full of great things to ponder for quite some time.

I've been thinking for awhile about how busy I am doing things that take up time but which do not seem very productive to me, thus making it hard for me to accomplish things that I think are productive.  This has been happening for quite some time now and it gets very frustrating day after day to not get done all those things on "my list".

During the retreat I had a chance to speak to Father about this and he said that he could relate to me; that even though we have different vocations, he has this same problem in his life.  He suggested that the key is just to do whatever we can during the day, but to do it with love and not worry about the stuff that we just couldn't get to.  "Every time you do something," he said, "tell Jesus that what you are doing you are doing for Him so that when you meet Him at your particular judgement and He asks you what you did for Him, you can say, 'Well, I drove you everywhere, I fed you, I cleaned your clothing...'"  I like that.  I just have to remember to do it!

In just the day that I've been home I've run across this same strain of thought a number of times in different things I've read.  I'll take that as a sign that I'm on the right track.  What peace it brings to remind myself that I'm not just doing things because they need to be done, I'm doing them all for Jesus.  I guess deep down I always knew that, but making a statement about it throughout the day really does help.

Thank you, Lord, for a fruitful weekend and the wonderful priests who made it possible!

God Bless!

7 in 7 Day 7 and a Happy Birthday

Well, I did it!  I made it for all 7 days of the challenge.  It is a challenge, right?  Is there a prize?  How many of y'all made it all 7 days?  When you've not been blogging on a very regular basis, hitting this mark is a great achievement! 

Today is also the day that I now have two - two mind you - children who have reached the "end of the 2nd decade of their life" milestone.  Wow, it is hard to believe that I am now the mother of two twenty-somethings.  That must mean that I am getting old.

Happy Birthday to my dd - Ms 20 yo!

 
God Bless!

A Little Silence

Since this is day 6 of 7 of participating in the 7 in 7 posts, and I'm going to be immersed in silence as you read this, I'm writing this ahead of time.

Yes, as we speak (or should I say, as you read) I am in the midst of whatever it is God is going to be showing me during my yearly silent retreat.  I am blessed to be able to attend this yearly women's retreat done by the incredible priests of Miles Christi and held at the breathtaking Marytown Shrine.  I do believe that this is my 7th year, and each year has been quite a blessing.

So as you read this very brief post, I just ask that you say a prayer for those of us who are on this retreat.  Some will be for the very first time, others will be faces I see on a yearly basis.  Please pray that we can all be open to what God wants to reveal to us and that we can have the grace to implement His will into our daily lives!

Thanks.