Yarn-along: March 30th ... new design and new book ....

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a single photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~ Ginny at small things

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 This week's yarn-along finds us with a new design on the needles and a new book on my table.  The new design (close-up below) is a spring-shawl in a fun lacy pattern.  The yarn is fingering weight cashmere/bamboo from Spring Gate Farms (whose yarn is gorgeous -- she'll be at the Olde Liberty Fibre Faire -- as will I -- on April 16th if you want to head down for some fun and a good cause ... all proceeds from the Faire will go to area hospice!).  The idea from the shawl came from a question from Ginny ... so it's quite appropriate that it's presented here on her Yarn-Along!  

BTW, to get the nice airy look and wonderful drape, I'm using a size 8 on this yarn.  The bamboo gives the cashmere enough body to really show the stitch definition.

On the book table -- we're continuing to read-aloud the Another Whole Nother Story ... which my kids have deemed even better than the first book, A Whole Nother Story (which ranks right up there as a fabulous read-aloud).  Another one we're delving into that is great fun is M.B. Synge's A Book of Discovery -- wonderful short readings for history/geography!

In yesterday's mail, I received my newest reading book ... one for review for Thomas Nelson's Book Sneeze program.  Titled, No He Can't: How Barack Obama is dismantling hope and change, this book is written by Kevin McCullogh and details not just how Mr. Obama's administration is taking away our hope and changing what is good, but also gives suggestions on how to stop the hemorrhaging in economics, national security, human rights and accountability.  I went to bed at 8:30 last night so I could get reading this one!  It is really good.

Won't you join the yarn-along.  Check out Ginny's post and add your own link.  And let me know what you think about the burgeoning design by adding a comment at the bottom of this post!

Off to read and knit before the squidges get up!

 

Lenten Retreat on a DVD ....

If you're like me, Lent kind of sneaks up on you.  I'm never as prepared as I should be ... with offerings/sacrifices, spiritual reading, and/or Lenten retreats scheduled.  Or, if I am prepared, I realize that Lent is longer than I thought, and I need something more to read, listen to, or sacrifice (and, yes, I know that Lent is always 40 days ... but some years it just seems longer!).

If you are like me, have I got a great suggestion for you:  Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Lively Virtues is a retreat in a box, all ready for you to watch and listen and meditate upon.  Fr. Robert Barron (whose Conversion cd/study guide set I reviewed recently) takes the seven capital sins of pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony and lust and explains why they are present in our lives and how to eradicate them.  He gives great practical advice on how to turn these sins into the seven virtues of humility, admiration, forgiveness, zeal, generosity, asceticism and chastity.  A recurring theme is that sin is caused by our own fear (thus, pride is the root of all sin) that can only be conquered by true love, the love that God shows us all round (see the meaning of faith) and that Christ showed us when he died on the Cross.

This DVD is great!  In just under two hours, the viewer understands how Dante's Purgatorio is peopled with sinners and why he assigns them the punishments he assigns (for instance, those who are in purgatory because they were gluttons in life are shown as repeating ad infinitum Psalm 51:17: Lord, open my lips and I will sing your praises).  Barron does a wonderful job of giving practical advice on how to begin to counteract these sins in our own lives.  It's interesting to hear him mention such folks as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. when giving examples of how to be a better person!

I recommend Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Lively Virtues to all Catholics, particularly middle-school and above.    In the video, Fr. Barron is speaking to adults, but there is no reason why tweens and teens shouldn't hear Barron's advice, especially if you need some Lenten retreat material!

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This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Lively Virtues CD Bundle . They are also a great source for serenity prayer and baptism gifts.

 

Lenten Thoughts ... the meaning of faith

Here's a link to this amazing book:  Abandonment to Divine Providence ... a very worthwhile read!

Family: please pray for BamBam this week ...

... as he'll make his First Holy Communion on Saturday, April 2nd at 9:00 a.m.

April 2nd is the anniversary of Venerable John Paul the Great's death ... and since we named the little guy for him, it's a very auspicious day for him!

Here is an excerpt from what Pope JohnPaul II wrote in 1994 in a letter to children, during the Year of the Family:


Dear friends, There is no doubt that an unforgettable meeting with Jesus is First Holy Communion, a day to be remembered as one of life's most beautiful.  


The Eucharist, instituted by Christ at the Last Supper on the night before His passion, is a sacrament of the New Covenant -- the greatest of the sacraments. In this sacrament, the Lord becomes food for the soul under the appearances of bread and wine.  Children receive this sacrament solemnly a first time -- in First Holy Communion -- and are encouraged to receive it afterward as often as possible in order to remain in close friendship with Jesus.
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This event is usually commemorated in a family photo, so that it will not be forgotten. Photos like these generally remain with a person all through his or her life. As time goes by, people take out these pictures and experience once more the emotions of those moments; they return to the purity and joy experienced in that meeting with Jesus, the one who out of love became the Redeemer of Man.


For how many children in the history of the Church has the Eucharist been a source of spiritual strength, sometimes even heroic strength! How can we fail to be reminded, for example, of holy boys and girls who lived in the first centuries and are still known and venerated throughout the Church? Saint Agnes, who lived in Rome; Saint Agatha, who was martyred in Sicily; Saint Tarcisius, a boy who is rightly called the "martyr of the Eucharist" because he preferred to die rather than give up Jesus, whom he was carrying under the appearance of bread.

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For Catholics, FHC is a big deal and a wondrous gift, a major milestone along the child's path to Heaven!

He is very excited ... and a bit nervous ... so if you could please keep him in your prayers.  Please pray for our BamBam, especially to his patron, Venerable John Paul the Great (soon to be beatified in Rome).

THANKS!
 

We have the best kids ever ...

... this was on the laptop this morning to greet Rick & I:

BTW, that would be a "pen flower" that our favorite mail-lady gave him one day -- a loved present indeed!

... and this just came from Kotch and the "littles":

Gorgeous flowers for this gorgeous (but COLD!) day ... the florist even put real lemon slices in the vase

 

Lenten Thoughts ...

... from Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre de Caussade:

Holiness is produced in us by the will of God and our acceptance of it.  It is not produced by intellectual speculation about it.  If we are thirsty we must have a drink and not worry about books which explain what thirst is.  If we waste time seeking an explanation about thirst, all that will happen is that we shall get thirstier.  It is the same when we thirst after holiness.  The desire to know more about it will only drive it further away.  We must put all speculation aside and, with childlike willingness, accept all that God presents to us.  What God arranges for us to experience at each moment is the best and holiest thing that could happen to us.                                Chap 1: 4

Hmmm ... "speculation aside" ... "childlike
willingness"  .. I'm not so good at that.  What would you suggest?

March 25th: Annunciation and an Anniversary!

Icon received on our First Anniversary --
 note that Mary is holding yarn and knitting needles!

Today is a great feast in the Church -- the Feast of the Annunciation.  It is such a feast that most all Catholics will not abstain from meat today (unless they want to).  The Feast of the Annunciation is very near and dear to my heart as it is also my wedding anniversary.

Here's the story, in case you haven't heard it before:

On May 26, 1992, my husband Mike died of cancer.  He died four days after his 31st birthday, leaving me with a just-about three-year-old boy and an 11-month-old baby girl.  I was devastated, but I had the love and care of family and friends who helped me through the time.  I was climbing the corporate ladder at Delta Air Lines and they couldn't have been kinder.

But more importantly, I had the Blessed Mother to wrap her mantle around me ... to pray for grace to see me through the ordeal ... the loneliness ... the uncertainties.  God was always near.

Fast-forward five years later and I decide to we need to jump-start our lives again.  It is time.  I prayed to God and through Our Lady's intercessions, we ended up in Raleigh, NC just when the principal of a parochial school needed a computer teacher (which I could do) and had space for my two parochial school children!

How good is God!

At this parochial school, there was a certain middle-school science teacher with whom I became instantly attracted.  Something pulled us together -- we credit our prayers to the Blessed Mother.  He was a conservative Catholic and so was I.  He had been married (and annulled) and had older children who didn't live with him and so accepted mine with open arms.

On March 25, 1998, we married in the parish church of the school where we taught ... with some of our family-member and many students, faculty and staff in attendance.  Friends came from near and far to wish us well and witness to this near-miraculous event.

And so, as our 14th year together begins today: we renew our "I Do's", our fiat to live together in the state of Holy Matrimony, to assent to our Lord's will and abandoning ourselves to Divine Providence.

Thank you, dear Lord, for the past 13 years ... for being with us on this journey together.  

Thank you, Blessed Mother, for your intercessory prayers and always wrapping us in your mantle of love.

Thank you, dear Rick, for loving me even when I am not at my most lovable and thank you, too, for the three "littles" we have together and the blended family we continue to love and pray for daily.