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Kids’ Thankful Tree

November 30, 2009 By Laura 4 Comments

Like many of you, this past Thanksgiving, we counted our blessings.
And the kids created a little ‘Thankful Tree’.
We are blessed. So very blessed.

We don’t have a lot. Many are surprised at the things we simply do without.

Some is by choice. Much is by necessity.

But we know we are rich, by the simple things.

Because in all of the simple things….

is all of which we need to survive.

All of the things which we would hardly be able to bare to live without….

literally, or by the heart,

are the simple things, indeed.

So the simple things, are all we really need.

And it’s the simple things, that we couldn’t be more thankful for.

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Hallowtide: Part II – All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day

November 22, 2009 By Laura 4 Comments

In wrapping up our Hallowtide series, in this Part II, we want to share with you a little bit about our All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day, which we always try to acknowledge in some way in keeping with our Catholic faith. If you missed Part I, with a fun-filled peek into our Halloween/(All Hallow’s Eve or All Saints’ Eve), you’ll want to visit that HERE. We think you’ll enjoy it.

We really kept All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day simple this year. But sometimes, for us, simple is the most enjoyable kind.

On All Saints’ Day we honor all the saints and martyrs, both known and unknown. We especially honor the blessed who have not been canonized, and who have no special feast day. This day (Nov. 1) is also a holy day of obligation for us, so we attend Mass, and often try to visit a cemetery.

The last day of Hallowtide, referred to as All Souls’ Day, is a day in which we commemorate the souls of all faithful Christians. We especially remember those we have loved and lost, and pray for their souls. We tend to enjoy making Soul Cakes on this day, in accordance with tradition.

So this year, we took a drive one of the late afternoons, to a large cemetery in town. During the drive on the way there, we reviewed again the history of these days, and what we are to reflect on during them. When we got there, we filed out of the van to venture around for awhile. I enjoyed taking photos, of the details surrounding us, and the somewhat-mysterious but obvious significance of it all.

One thing we all noticed right away, was the evidence everywhere, that there were many people laid to rest there, who had loved ones who have not forgotten about them. We could tell that many of the grave stones had even been visited quite recently. This is likely due to the 3 days which we were in the midst of, when many loved ones who have passed, are remembered by those they left behind.

Such as the resting place of this deceased one. Notice the fresh flowers, and the Happy Halloween pumpkin. I loved the bench at this site, that really spoke volumes to me. Someone really planned on visiting their loved one’s grave site, often. It made me feel sad, that I am not nearby my mother’s grave site. I know I would spend time there now and then.
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This girl was so young. Just look at the flowers! Look at the multitude of stone sculptures and decorative paraphernalia. She was certainly very loved, still is, and in no way is forgotten.
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Everywhere we looked, there were such personal items. And all the while, these tokens of love said so very much to us. They told us all, about how much these people were loved, and how much their death was such a loss to someone. Maybe to many. To those who knew and loved them.

I personally was moved too, to think how much these tokens must mean, to be brought there, and placed like they were. Each and every item left, must have such a story behind them. I was really quite amazed to think how, the amount of love that brought them to leave such things with the loved ones that they lost, was greater than their fear of these things being taken. It restored some of my hope in the human spirit, to see so many items, some obviously having been there a long time, left so undisturbed.

Some of the little things just plain broke my heart, like the baseball on top of the gravestone of this little boy’s site.
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This one made me chuckle a little. I guess this man’s job meant a whole lot to him. Or, maybe it’s significant as a piece that connects someone left behind, to the one who has passed. Perhaps a long time co-worker.
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The kids were really so interested and intrigued. This particular stone had a feature I had never seen before.

A case within the stone to display meaningful momentos. It had a door on the back, that locked. We found that so interesting. On a humorous note, we knew one thing for sure about the the life of the person that rested here. They loved gambling!! I didn’t take a photo, but the scene etched below this keepsake case on this stone, was actually Foxwoods Casino! lol. Do you see those circles at the top of the stone? Believe it or not, those are casino tokens, embedded into the stone. lol.
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The artwork on so many stones, that told us something about that person, was often so beautifully done.
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Like this one. What a beautiful scene. How symbolic, to see the empty chair there on the shore, facing the source of light.
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We really walked around for a very long time. It was fascinating, really. The pieces of stories everywhere. Like always, when I reflect on the lost earthly life of anyone, I wondered about each one of these. Did they have faith? Did they have a relationship with God? Did they embrace a realization that Jesus Christ was sent into this world, to die on a cross for them, and to give them eternal Salvation?

Where were their souls? We prayed for them all. One by one, and collectively.

We walked around until near dark, because no one really wanted to leave. We wandered until it really got too cold, and our hands were frozen. It was a simple thing to do, but the emotions it stirred was surprising. So many lives. So many questions.
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Our seasonal Liturgical table holds the prayer cards of some of our own loved and lost ones.
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We added the names of those who we have known that passed away in the last year, and who’s souls we must remember, and pray for.

“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls, and all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace. Amen.”
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On the Sunday nearest All Soul’s Day, our church is filled with lit candles….one representing the life of each person in our parish who passed away that year. Our old dear friend, (Mr.) Bill, did not have any family living near by, except for his daughter who lives in New York, but comes down often. His daughter was not at this Mass however, so we took his candle home with us, and let his daughter know we have it for her.
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Also on that Sunday, our pastor gave such a profound sermon. Honestly, he is so gifted with giving sermons, that you get lost in the depths of what he is telling you. You tend to forget where you even are, physically, until his sermon comes full circle, with such a powerful point, as it always does. I wish I could have taped this particular sermon, for you all to hear. My explanation will never do it justice. But on the one hand, he was saying how many religions talk about how us Catholics shouldn’t pray to the saints, asking them to pray for us, or for special circumstances. That we should only pray to God. He went on to say how, we often ask ‘each other’ to pray for us or our loved one, so why would we not ask for the help of those who are right there, in Christ’s presence? Those who are closest to Him?

He also talked about the saints, and how one would ‘think’ saints were so near-perfect….dedicating their lives to God and rarely doing wrong. But he whipped out a laundry list of saint’s names, and made points about each of them off the top of his head, that were indeed startling facts to some of us. Saint Monica, for instance, had a significant drinking problem. St. Paul used to persecute Christians. Thomas Aquinas was obese. St. Francis of Assisi, was believed to be completely off his rocker. So much so, that he was almost thrown out of his own order! Fr. Ken went on and on with the imperfections of well-known saints. In the end, I think many of us sitting there realized, that WE actually have a fighting chance at becoming saints ourselves! lol It helped us realize that we are all sinners indeed, just as the saints were. We were all made in Christ’s image, but certainly human, and all called to never stop pursuing a life which walks with Christ. With each day of our life, we must find ways to grow a closer, more intimate and meaningful relationship with Him.

As we reflect on and pray for the souls of the saints in Heaven, the souls awaiting Salvation in Purgatory, as well as the ones still living here on earth, let us not forget our own!! May we nurture our own souls, sustaining them with that which gives us life, so that one day we too will be in Christ’s presence for all of eternity. I think that’s what we all really want, in the end.
Because whether we think we’re called to be a saint or not, we all are.

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Hallowtide: Part 1 – Halloween (All Hallows Eve or All Saints’ Eve)

November 14, 2009 By Laura 7 Comments

This is Part I of a 2-Part series of posts about the triduum of Hallowtide, and how we celebrate it:
1. Halloween (All Saints’ Eve), 2. All Saints’ Day and 3. All Souls’ Day.

Essentially, over the course of these 3 days, we, the Catholic/Western Christians, remember our dead. We say prayers for the souls in Purgatory, we celebrate the lives of the saints, and we remember that Christ conquered death, with His own death on the cross, ultimately offering us life thereafter. In that light, death is not something to be so afraid of. But rather a point in time in which we cross over, to hopeful and glorious new life, with Christ. And during this time of specific opportunity known as Hallowtide, we remember and pray for the souls currently at that crossover.

Hallowtide is always a festive 3 day event in our family. We love this time of year, and very much enjoy our traditions, which I suppose differs a little bit from the vast majority. I think we have a nice balance though. We have fun with ‘Halloween’ and the silliness/just-for-fun that comes with that, while also giving attention to the historic Catholic roots of ‘Halloween’, and how it all began. Thus, our more extended focus on the 3 days of Hallowtide.

Just to note: One Halloween tradition we do not participate in is Trick-or-Treating. We don’t feel there is anything wrong with anybody doing that traditional activity on Halloween of course, but we personally don’t for a few reasons: The most important being {S}’s severe peanut allergy. There is just no way to make it 100% safe, and it’s sure not worth the risk to his life for us, one bit. Secondly, we hardly eat candy. And lastly, we don’t have a great neighborhood for that anyway> Not only do we not have sidewalks, but we only know our immediate neighbors, who do not have kids, and they don’t get any trick-or-treaters (nor do we) because we live on a dead-end with 1 street light. (That’s scary, alright. LOL.) So years ago, we began the tradition of our own little party, which the kids enjoy planning and participating in more than I could ever tell you. (I think the photos over the years speak volumes!). Needless to say, we haven’t bothered with costumes in recent years either. But we do have a tradition of designing fun Halloween shirts that Daddy makes! (It’s just vinyl cut out and applied, and we peel off later. )

This year however, started out our festivities with a break from our own tradition, by accepting the thoughtful invitation to some friends for a pre-party, party! These friends REALLY love Halloween, and the hostess is uber-creative!! We enjoyed a few hours with our good and long-time friends (3 generations 0f them), as well as some new friends. We all had a blast, and then we came home and partied some more!

Here are the kids showing off their Halloween shirt this year, and ready for a long night of partying!

Sorry about the glare on {O}’s shirt there. And yes, {J} does still have a right hand. lol (I just noticed that. lol)
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{A} got extra -creative with her shirt idea-front and back!
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The kids and some of their friends on the very popular trampoline. (No one was hurt in this jumping jamboree, despite the number of kids. They were pretty careful of each other. Perhaps because of my 93 reminders.)
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Our little wild-man, {S}, taking advantage of no other kids in the trampoline.
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We brought this cake we made to the party too, with the spider inspired from {A}’s shirt design. Our hosts were overly-impressed, but we loved them for it. lol. It’s chocolate cake, with butter cream frosting. (I know some of you cake-lovers were seriously wondering! ; )
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When we got home, we kicked off our own party. We started with some more eating.
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Just some simple picking food, with a little creepy thrown in!
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Earlier in the day, {A} had made these ‘Cleopatra Centipedes”, out of breadstick dough, red licorice and black piping. Reason being, we come across the occasional ‘Cleopatra’ downstairs in our house, and they are indeed creepy and scary! They freak us all out. Yes, even Michael. Don’t let him tell you otherwise.
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These look rather harmless though, don’t they? lol
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The small feast in progress. After this photo, I had a little too. But really, I picked a lot at the pre-party party. I was pretty all set.
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After dinner, the kids played ‘Donuts on a String‘. Michael had originally thought of bobbing for apples, but I said to him, “Umm…the kids hardly have any front teeth right now!” He was like “Oh yeah.” (That would be a long game, huh? lol). My friend suggested Donuts on a String instead, and it was a hit! Of course, those are our home-made donuts we pulled out of the freezer and defrosted.

(Now here comes something rare….photos of ME in a post….I set up camera for {A}.)

Now I was doing ok at first, but I can tell you….I’m not the partier my kids are!! I was fading FAST!
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I tried to fake it and put on my best-having fun face for awhile, but really….

Is it bedtime, yet? I’m a lousy faker at anything. I was so giddy and T I R E D, and thinking mostly about my bed relatively soon into our own party.
But I hung on for my kiddos, who had an absolute blast, until we went to bed very late!

Hope your Halloween was ‘all that and a bag of…..candy?’ : ) Want to see more of our Hallowtide?
You can check out Part II, All Saint’s Day and All Souls Day, HERE.

BOO! to you….and yours.

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Our Church Sign Restoration, With a Surprise Underneath

October 27, 2009 By Michael 7 Comments

Hey Friends! This is Michael here. Recently my own parish, St. Bonaventure in Plymouth, MA, commissioned me to restore our Church sign out front. The original had been done so many years ago, and it was looking worn and weathered. It definitely needed to be refinished.

The original sign’s background was painted with a heavy coat of burgandy. The Church asked for it to be all stripped, sanded and repainted, with the trim as white, the gold reguilded, and the background the blue as you see above. This blue matches the doors of our church, which is symbolic.

So anyway…..I got it home and stripped all of the paint off. What I found underneath that old paint was the most beautiful mahogany wood! As I was sanding, I was thinking what a shame it would be to paint over that gorgeous wood. I decided to take a photo of the wood, and bring it to my pastor, to try and convince him to just varnish over the wood, with the carved letters re-guilded and the white trim. He agreed, saying he loves the look of natural wood anyway, and that he trusted my judgement. I think his decision about the sign was wise, as well as trusting my judgement. ; )

I really wish I had BEFORE and AFTER photos for you all. You would appreciate the beauty that was revealed, all the more. But with the original intention of just refinishing the sign in the exact same style, repainting it burgundy, there didn’t seem to be a purpose to taking a photo before I started stripping it.

Anyway, it’s nice to have your work respected enough to be asked to provide such an important feature of the Church. It would have been a shame to paint over such beautiful wood, again. I enjoying restoring it to it’s intended beauty, and it feels good to see it there in front of the Church, as I drive by every day, and pull in every Sunday. I’m really happy with how it came out, and we hope you enjoyed seeing it, too. Thanks for letting us share it with you.

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{O}’s Eye Injury Update

October 23, 2009 By Laura 5 Comments

So here’s the update and story on {O}’s eye, which turned out to be an injury: When we got home from our field trip on that Thursday, I took yet another look at her eye, which was never easy, because she was having a very hard time letting it be open at all. The light really bothered it, and she had been saying it hurt some too. But I finally caught a quick glimpse of a problem on the surface of her eye. It was not smooth and glossy as an eyeball should be! Like, something was not right with her eyeball. What I thought was a sty under her eyelid was still there as well, as tiny as it was. But I was realizing, in light of the days events, that any sty was not the problem.

(After seeing pedi and eye specialist.)

Off to the Doctors to Have Here Eye Checked

It was too late to get her to the doctors, and anyway, she buzzed right from the bathroom to her bedroom to put on her pajamas the second she could….she wanted to go to sleep a.s.a.p. Just as she had done all the way home (it was a longish ride)—it was exhausting trying to hold her good eye open, and she just wanted to rest her eyes and go to sleep. So I let her do that, but first thing the next morning, on Friday, she was off to the doctors .

I am always the one to take the kids to the doctors myself (I just prefer to, so I don’t miss a thing where the kids are concerned), but ‘walk-in clinic’ at my pediatrician’s is early in the morning, and I knew Michael could be ready much faster, so he took her. Anyway, by now I was expecting the diagnosis to be a small scratch in her eye, and come home with some ointment. I told him to keep that cell phone on.

The Diagnosis

So he took her, and I called him as soon as I thought they ‘might possibly’ be out of the appt. Michael answered his cell and said “We just walked out of the door, and we are actually now heading to a specialist!” Me > “WHAT? You are kidding me!”. He explained that the pediatrician on call that morning did a routine test to check for an eye abrasion: They put some dye in the eye, and put a special light on it, and it shows where the scratch is. What he saw, was a large circle right over the front of her eye, a bit larger than the inside size of a pea, split in half.

WOW! Man was I feeling like a terrible mother right about then.

It was confirmed at the eye specialist. There was a large circle abrasion on her eye, right over the cornea! Both the pedi and the specialist were shocked that she had injured her eye so severely, in light of how she said it happened. Which….by now I am sure you are really wondering too. So let’s go back to Wednesday night…..the night before the field trip.

The Backstory: How She Hurt Her Eye

On Wednesday night the kids were very excited about their field trip next day, and were talking back and forth in their bedroom (which is not unusual anyway.) We heard them. But next thing we know, {O} is out of the bedroom saying she has something in her eye. This happens to {J} ALL of the time, because he always manages to rub his eye with his hand, and fold over his long eye lashes into the corners of his eye. Michael was right there, so he took her in the bathroom and looked around in there….looking for anything: a fuzzy, an eyelash…something in her eye. Nothing. So he told her to go back to bed, close her eyes, and go to sleep. And that’s just what she did.

Of course…..as I told you in the field trip post, the next morning she was laughing and gabbing, but was keeping that eye closed. So I asked her about it, she told me again that it felt like something was in it. That’s when I took another look, and only found what looked like that little sty. But I asked her again then, why it started bothering her in bed the night before, and she said, “I don’t know. I was laying on my belly, propped up on my elbows, with my hands under my pillow, and the boys were talking and they made me laugh. When I laughed, I put my face down into my pillow, but I forgot to close my eyes first. (lol). As soon as I lifted up my head, it felt like there was something in my eye. “

As crazy as it sounds, to you, to me, to 2 doctors…..yes, she scratched her eye that badly, taking off a layer, with the top of her pillow! I am sure she turned her face too….but still. Who would think it? I have advised her to close her eyes first next time….but you know….too-little-too-late-never-thought-to-give-her-that-advice-on-laughing, until now.

So…..the specialist put medicine in it, bandaged it up pretty good, and we were instructed to keep her still and quiet all day, and bring her back the next morning. So on Saturday morning, I brought her back, after a sleepless night filled with guilt and fear my little girl would go blind from that sunny day at the orchards. <sigh>. By Saturday morning, the doctor said it had healed a little bit, and to spend another day doing the same (still, quiet and rest), take the patch off for Sunday, put ointment in it 3x a day, and bring her back on Monday afternoon.

Love and Care

So here she is on that first Friday, she was really just wiped out. It was just hard keeping one eye open, it was still hurting (if I asked her) and I think she was still recovering from all of the effort the day before at the orchards and out to lunch. But what did do my heart so good, was to see how her siblings reacted to her being hurt. They took such good care of her the whole weekend. They laid with her, they got her a drink or a tissue when she needed it, they checked on her and kept quiet-ish for her.

They took turns helping to feed her, so she didn’t have to try and see where this or that was on her plate.

{S} worked so hard at the table for a good part of the day, making her seasonal flags to have around her to cheer her up. (If she opened her eyes, I guess.) Above is the autumn one. But yes, there was a spring, summer and winter one around her as well. (It bugs me that seasons are not supposed to be capitalized! I was shocked when I learned that. It still looks wrong to me. Why are days of the week, and months of the year capitalized, but not seasons of the year? But I digress.) How sweet is that flag?

Oh…my sweet Girl. When she was tired of lying down, she would sit up for awhile like this.

Sometimes, the kids would read her some of her favorite stories.

On Saturday, I let her get up and walk around a little. Stretch her legs and get some air outside. As long as she walked slowly and carefully, and remained quiet-ish. She wasn’t as tired as she had been, so she was looking better to me.

Over the weekend, I had been conversing with a photographer/optometrist friend of mine online. She told me ‘I have seen this kind of eye injury bring grown men to their knees, time and time again! With an abrasion that big, I give them a prescription of strong pain medications (she named a kind….which I wouldn’t remember), and it’s not unwarranted in cases like these.‘ I was shocked. And I felt even worse.

But that’s the thing about {O}. She has always been a really tough cookie. I recalled one of many examples, at a time when she was 2 or 3 years old….she had gotten that ‘nurse’s elbow’. You know…where the elbow gets out of the socket somehow? It needed to be re-set. The doctor told her, “This is going to hurt, but it’s going to be fast.” {O} said “O.K”…..and in that moment, I saw her go to another place. Her eyes glazed over, and she like….mentally blocked out the pain. Or something. The doctor popped it, and she didn’t even as much as flinch. The doctor said “WOW! <laugh> She is one-tough-kid! I have never done that in all of these years, without the child not crying after. It really hurts!” She’s something else. To think she took on that big field trip and really made the best of her day too…..she’s something else.

Sunday we did indeed take the patch off, and kept ointment in it. By Monday, it had really healed nicely. Which really just amazed me once again, about God’s amazing design of the human body, and it’s ability to heal as it often does. Her eye is at some risk of re-injuring in the future, but usually that is the case with more of a deep abrasion. She’s looking pretty much good as new, and I thank God for it! Being a photographer, I do see a small inconsistency in the reflection on the surface of her eyes when the light hits it just so, but no one else would likely ever notice that. She did fail her recent vision test in that eye at her 7 year old check up, but she has a real eye doctor appointment coming up in early December, and I expect there will be a big improvement.

Thanks you so much, for reading this whole post, if you did. It was seriously like therapy for me to type that out! <sigh> We have been pretty crisis-free, considering we have 4 kids, so this was a BIGGIE in our family. Especially for the head-worrier (as opposed to warrior, lol) of the family….ME! But we got through it…….she’s ok……..and we thank God for His healing.

On a HUMOROUS NOTE: Several days after she had gotten her patch off, she came to my bed in the morning, asking to have ‘a little cuddle”. So I let her crawl into my bed, and we started talking. She started telling me again how it happened that she hurt her eye, and in the process of literally showing me, she hit me square in the eye with her elbow. I didn’t want her to know how much it hurt, so I acted like it didn’t. But awhile later I had a black eye. lol. A few minutes later she came walking towards me talking…“Mama, do you think maybe later on I could….<sees me>……Oh SSHHOOT!” She was so cute…I just hugged and kissed her. After what she had been through the past several days, I wasn’t about to complain about a black eye.

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BOO! to you….and yours.

Off to the Doctors to Have Here Eye Checked

The Diagnosis

The Backstory: How She Hurt Her Eye

Love and Care

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