Bits and Pieces: February/March '18

Hi there!  Remember me??

I haven't a valid excuse, so I shan't invent one...

Instead, I thought I'd give a pictorial account of my adventures/excursions/mischief that has evidently kept me so thoroughly occupied as of late. (Or something like that).

New chapel veils I hope to review soon...

Bacon and puff pancake for Shrove Tuesday....

One of my latest projects I did in February (more on that to come.)

~

At the end February, my brother and I went up to NY for a week to help our sister and brother-in-law move into their new place!  It was a lot of hard work, but also fun to be doing it together.  And seeing my niece was a nice bonus, too :)  Here are some pictures from the trip...

A little sleepy...

Now these, I will have you know, are the best swings ever!!!

Trying for an artistic angle...how'd I do? ;)

 Being silly with her Uncle Matthew!

Part of the view heading home again after a busy week...

Woohoo!

A warm welcome home from the greeting committee!

Homemade Lenten pretzels...mmm

When will I learn to read one book at a time???

Hopefully the last snow of the season!

It is awfully pretty, though...

Benjamin caught being nice for a change!

 

 St. Patrick's Day! Only a few days late...

Okay, so I pinky promise you I'll have a "real" post up very soon!  This has been an especially busy time for me and, as you can tell, life kind of pushed blogging to the back burner.  That doesn't mean I haven't thought of you, though, because I have!  That's partly the reason for the excessive flood of pictures, so I'd have something to share of my adventures!  I hope you enjoyed :)

 Happy Feast of Saint Joseph! 

Always,

~Emma

 p.s. Please let me know if you have trouble viewing any of the pictures, either on the blog or email version, as I was having a difficult time uploading them.

Love Saves Lives.

     I can't remember exactly how old I was when I first learned what the word abortion meant, it just seems like something I've always been conscious of.  That's not to say my mother told her young daughter every horrible, frightening detail of what that word stood for, of course not.  But I knew from a young age that it meant killing little babies who were still growing inside their mommy's bellies, just like my baby brother.  I didn't understand the reason for it, but I didn't need to.  I knew it was wrong not just because my mum told me it was, but because I knew it was a sin to kill a person.  

And that's exactly what an unborn fetus is: a person.

      When I was about ten I remember watching EWTN one afternoon and during a break between programs a little girl around my age came on screen and said a prayer I'd never heard before.  This was the prayer:

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I love you very much. I beg you to spare the life of the unborn baby whom I have spiritually adopted who is in danger of abortion. Amen."

     The girl went on to share a website* where you could spiritually adopt an unborn baby by pledging to say the above prayer everyday for nine consecutive months.  Your baby had a birth date and there was even a place where you could give a name to the baby (or babies, twins) you were praying for to make it seem more personal.  That year each of my siblings and I, along with our mum, adopted a baby to pray for.  And coincidentally (although nothing is a coincidence for God) a close friend of ours found out she was expecting around that time and delivered her healthy little girl around the close of our nine month novena!

      Saying that little prayer really left an impression upon me and I continued praying it continuously for years, understanding exactly the purpose in mind: saving babies!  Why shouldn't children, who's prayers to Our Lord are the most innocently uttered, be told of this great tragedy taking place daily so that their prayers might help to end it?

    

     Unfortunately, as people, we all make mistakes in life, but we should be the one's who pay the consequences for our own mistakes.  It is terribly, terribly wrong to make other's take that blame, especially an innocent child who didn't ask to exist, but was given existence just like the rest of us.  The solution is never to kill the child, regardless of how they came to be, because abortion kills not once, but twice.  First the baby, then the mother.

 

     Have you ever stopped and thought about the fact that you might never have been given the chance to live?  It's kind of a strange feeling, isn't it?  What about if someone you love had been aborted, never existed to you in your life at all?

      One of my dearest friends was adopted when she was just a new born, adopted, not aborted.

      One of my cousins found herself in an unplanned pregnancy and was informed her baby had a serious birth defect.  When faced with a decision she chose to keep her little girl and although she lived only a couple months, brought much joy while she was here on earth.

     Whenever I see an unmarried expectant mother I always admire her for her courage.  She could easily have disposed of the "problem", but instead chose life for her and her baby.

     Now as I've gotten older I have gradually learned just how evil the horror of abortion is, how tragic and despicable the act of murdering a baby in the womb.  Why would a woman murder her own child?  How could people claim that the developing infant in the womb wasn't even human?  Did people really believe that lie to be the truth?

     As a direct result of our depraved world that has shunned God, yes, tragically many people do believe it.  Both men as well as women believe that human lives are worthless and disposable simply because they cannot do for themselves, speak for themselves, defend themselves.

 

     That is why it is up to us to speak for the innocent victims.  We must not be afraid to speak out boldly in defense of the unborn, in our governments and to those in power, in our cities and towns, our work places, even in our own families.  We must defend the defenseless so that they too may live!  We are the pro-life generation, and we know that...

Love

Saves

Lives. 

 

Always,

~Emma 

*This is not the original website I found the prayer for unborn babies on years ago, I don't believe that one exists any longer, but here is the link to a similar website:  http://spiritualadoption.org/index.html   

Please feel free to share your own thoughts and incites on this topic in the comments below, just make sure you keep them charitable towards others :)

On the sixth day of Christmas...

Greetings!  Happy sixth day of Christmas to you all!

 

(Here, I brought you "six geese a'laying", aren't they cute?)

I very much like that song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas", but I especially like the hidden messages it carries in its lyrics about our Catholic Faith.   Do you know the message I'm referring to?

 

 For the benefit of this post, I'll just assume that you don't ;)  

I first learned the story of this old carol many years ago in one of my English workbooks, maybe in 5th Grade?  The story goes like this: 

During the time of the Protestant Revolt in England under Queen Elizabeth I when Catholics were forced to practice there religion in secret, the hunted Jesuit priests who bravely remained would teach the little children to sing this seemingly nonsense song as a way of instructing them in their Catechism.  You see, each phrase of the song acted as a mnemonic for a particular Truth of the Faith, one for each of the twelve days of the Christmas Season, lasting from December 26th to the Feast of Epiphany on January 6th.

 

 (Faithful Irish Catholics attending a "house Mass" despite persecution at the cost of their lives.)

The "secret messages" contained in the song look something like this:

"My True Love sent to me" = God the Father, Who sent His Son Jesus into the world to die for our sins.

"A partridge in a pear tree" = Jesus Christ is the "partridge" and the "tree" is the Cross on which He was crucified.

"Two turtle doves" = The Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

"Three French hens" = The virtues of faith, hope and charity or the gifts of the Three Wisemen to the Christ Child.

"Four calling birds" = Represents the four gospels, "calling" all people to Christ.

"Five golden rings" = The Pentateuch, or first five books of the Bible.

"Six geese a-laying" = God created the world in six days.

"Seven swans a-swimming" = The seven sacraments or seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost.

"Eight maids a-milking" = The eight beatitudes revealed to us by Jesus.

"Nine ladies dancing" = Referring to the nine choirs of angels: Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Powers, Principalities, Dominions, Virtues, Seraphim, and Cherubim.

"Ten lords a-leaping" = God's Ten Commandments given to us through Moses.

"Eleven pipers piping" = The number of apostles who remained faithful to Our Lord.

And my favorite!

"Twelve drummers drumming" = There are twelve points of doctrine contained in the Apostles' Creed, which is what this final line refers to.  

Isn't this cool!?!  So next time you hear this song playing, you can think about all of the meaning behind some of those words we sing.  It is far more than a nonsense song for children!

Can you believe that it's already the end of 2017?  I certainly can't believe it.  Isn't it strange how time passes us by the way it does, sometimes feeling fast and breathless, sometimes slow and lingering on endlessly?  It's fascinating and weird and perhaps a bit unsettling at times, but that's what I think makes it so valuable!

This has been an amazing year!  I think after four years of blogging here I have finally felt comfortable, like I can just have fun and write from my heart without holding back or being self-conscious. 

 And you know what?  I have all of you to thank for that.  No, I'm serious!  Knowing that there's even one person reading my insignificant little scribblings I create here is a great feeling, but I know that there's more than just one person tuning in here to every post, and that's kind of amazing to me!  Know that I appreciate your reading and commenting, your encouragement always makes me smile, dear. So thank you, and I hope you are given every blessing in the coming year ahead!

Here's to 2018!

Always,

~Emma

"Traditionnnnn! Tra-di-tion!"

First and foremost, to whomever got the reference, mozel tov! ;)

This post is kind of a hodge-podge of a bunch of different things my family and I do during the season of Advent leading up to Christmas.  

It's also that special time of year when Emma isn't quite sure if she sure should be baking lot's of yummy things, crocheting all of the Christmas gifts she hasn't started finished yet, or getting her room straightened out for Christmas guests to stay in. Soo, yeah...

Since Advent started a bit later this year (Dec. 3), it feels like we're even closer to Christmas than usual at this point in the month. *Eek! Just over two weeks?!?*  Like, Christmas is literally 15 days away.  How??

But if I'm going to tell you about traditions, I'm already getting ahead of myself!  (Does that surprise anyone?)  Let's go back and discuss November, shall we?

Being the month dedicated to the Holy Souls in Purgatory and also the month in which All Saints Day (Nov.1) falls, my mum has almost every year decorated the door in our dining room with pretty much every saint holy card we have a copy of.

Of course, it isn't the work of a day and some years takes well into the month to fill, but it's always
fun adding new and interesting saints to the collection every year.

(Bonus points! Can anyone name the saints in this picture?)

Our altar, too, is decorated with saints all through November.

 (Christmas wreath in pre-stages: Hemlock, White Pine, Mountain Laurel, and Some Kind Of Brown Weed)

 Courtesy of NaNoWriMo, November was a bit of a blur.  A really fun, super exhilarating, inspirational blur, but a blur all the same.  I wouldn't hesitate to do it again next year, in fact I plan to providing life doesn't get in the way, but now I have a better understanding of how much more preparation I need to have in advance.

So anyway!  For me, the first official commencement to this most joyous of seasons is a little something known in my family as Wreath Making.  (Yes, the caps are entirely necessary ;) )

Wreath Making occurs every year, rain or shine, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  My whole family-aunts, uncles, cousins, and a special friend or two-all gather at my grandparents house to make wreathes with the fresh greens we pick from around the property.

(One of the wreaths I made this year for my best friend and his family)

This is one of my absolute favorite things to do every year!  Drinking warm apple cider, tramping around outside in the cold, trimming tree branches and getting thoroughly covered in more pine pitch than you might think humanly possible.  It's the best!

Plus, that is also the day when it becomes officially acceptable to blast Christmas music pretty much whenever you want, beginning with while you make your wreath.  And no one even minds if you sing along loudly with Bing and Frank! Win win, am I right?

(My chickens got their very own swag this year....

 ...much to Amber and Elsbeth's approval) 

 Now onto December!

 We set our tree up rather early this year, the first Sunday on Advent, I'm not quite sure why.  Usually we wait until more like the second week, but I think the reason partly has to do with the fact that my sister, brother-in-law, and niece are going to be able to come down and celebrate Christmas with us this year!

This is going to be little Anastasia's first Christmas, so maybe that has something to do with it.  For me it kind of feels even more exciting than usual, almost like I'm seeing firsthand what it's like to experience all the wonder for the very first time.

 (Our December altar.  No more saints, just the Infant of Prague and our Advent Wreath)

(St Nicholas found way into our Advent Wreath on his feastday, Dec. 6)

 

(I made these just the other day, Beehive Buns for St Ambrose, Dec. 7)

Why a beehive?  There is a legend that when Saint Ambrose, whose name in Latin means "sweet as honey", was a baby a swarm or bees came one day and clustered about his lips without stinging him.  By this sign his mother understand that he was destined to be a great writer and orator one day and he is still revered as one of the greatest theologians of the 4th century.  You can read more about St. Ambrose here  and get the recipe for Beehive Buns over here.

Thus concludes this lengthy post!  I hope you enjoyed :)  

And for those of you who didn't understand this post's opening line, here is the solution for you.

Happy Advent, everyone!  Do you have any pre-Christmas traditions?

Talk soon, my dears!

Always,

~Emma

Happy Anniversary!

Wishing my Favorite Sister and Wonderful Brother-in-law a happy 1st wedding anniversary!

 

May God continue to bless your marriage in the years to come as fully as in the preceding one!

~♥~

Always,
~Emma

In Honor of St. Catherine

    
     Being one of my favorite saints, I wanted to make sure I got in a quick little post about Saint Catherine of Siena before too much time had gone by her feast day.  Only two days, I don't think I did too bad :)

 

St. Catherine of Siena, 14th cen. philosopher and Doctor of the Church

     I apologize in advance because this post is less of me writing about this amazing saint and more my overwhelming you with a gazillion beautiful pictures and quotes.  Sorry about that ;) But I'll let her speak for herself, her writings are simply incredible and her life even more so!

  

 ~~~

 

How important to remember, yet so easy to forget! 

 

~~~

 

Growth through temptation and trial... 

 

When St. Catherine was 14, her mother arranged a betrothal between herself and the son of local merchant.  Catherine, however, had no wish to be married as she had already promised herself to Our Lord as His bride, so she cut off her beautiful long hair with her mother's sewing scissors to make herself undesirable to her suitor.

 

~~~

 

~~~ 

Fear is understandable and silence is easy but it is only through truth and bravery that one will succeed.

I'm sure we've all heard this one... 

     I hope you survived my wordy ramble!  If you still want to know more on the life St. Catherine of Siena, I recommend you take a look here, here, and here.  Enjoy!

 Always,

~Emma