Making a lovely milestone out of pandemic challenges...

Happy August, everyone! I was going to chat about crafty things today, after updating everyone about Anne's First Communion, but I decided to save crafts for next week, and devote this whole post to the big day last Sunday, and to assorted other Catholic, uplifty things. 

*heart*

As I mentioned last week, I was grateful that Anne's school parish was able to reschedule First Communion this summer, and that we wouldn't have to wait any longer. But let's just be honest, the current coronavirus restrictions are a bit of a bummer. We understand why they are there, but any type of milestone this year has had a depressing cloud hung over it's head, and it's not always easy to deal with. BUT, Anne was able to be with 7 of her classmates at the mass, and also have her grandparents there, which was absolutely awesome. Dianne noted last week in the comments that focusing on the positives really helps, and she's right! There were a lot of positives about the experience. 

Anne in her dress and veil before mass!

The day was very humid (and we don't have air conditioning! :-0) but we managed to yank on our dress clothes fairly successfully and made it to the church on time. There were 8 first communicants, plus other members of the parish attending the noon mass. The mass itself was lovely, we were so glad to have our parents there, and there was a professional photographer present to capture a few moments with each young communicant, which made me very happy. The children were all able to receive the Eucharist for the first time in a beautiful and reverent fashion.

Social distancing photo op with Father

Afterwards, we were able to have our parents back with us to our house for pizza and cake, and it all went very well. Even though it wasn't the completely traditional experience I was looking forward to, I'm grateful that Anne has reached this milestone and that it went without a hitch. I think her preparation suffered a bit because of the pandemic, and I'm looking forward to working with her this fall and Advent to grow deeper in her faith. 

In other Catholic news, the Our Lady Undoer of Knots novena started yesterday, and I'm praying it with regards to discernment for the fall and the kids' schooling. I'm linking it here if you would like to join in! It'll wrap up on the feast of St. Maximillian Kolbe. 😍 If you have intentions for the novena, feel free to leave them below and we can all pray for each other!

Some musings as Anne makes her First Communion...

Hello all, and happy end of July!

*virtual hug*

July is my least favorite month of the year in terms of the heat, so I'm rather looking forward to August. What I'm *not* looking forward to in August is the school re-opening plan nightmare that is already unfolding and that is making me super anxious. But that is a worry for another day. :-0

I'll have another crafty post next week (with some exciting updates; 2nd completed doily and thread size comparison! Completed Steelers socks!) but this week I have 1st Communion on the brain, and thought I would wax reflective a bit. :)

Anne is my baby, and it's hard to believe that this will be my last child with whom to share this sacrament. I can't help but feel chagrined that it's happening during this terrible year that is 2020. There was no mommy and me retreat, no May Crowning at the school afterwards, no rehearsal at the church with the banner displayed that we made together, not even a completion to her preparation alongside her classmates. Even though I know that these things are not more important than receiving Jesus in the Eucharist, I can't help but mourn them. I won't have another opportunity to share any of those things with my own child. This has been a year of emotional losses such as these, and while there are other losses that are much, much worse, these still do incite a sense of sadness.

But I'm grateful that the school found a way, within the current public health mandates, to still offer the mass and sacrament, and to do so relatively quickly. I was fearful that the kids would have to wait until the fall, or perhaps into the next calendar year, before they would be able to receive. And we will have the opportunity for beautiful photographs, and to have Anne's grandparents all there. She'll be attired in her spectacular lace dress and veil, and she picked out sparkly rose gold sandals (there's a definite St. Therese vibe to the get up ;-)). We'll be able to celebrate with our small family group back at our home afterwards, and that is bringing me a lot of comfort. So I'm focusing on those things.

Anne is at an age where "church is boring," and I'm hopeful that receiving the Eucharist will begin to turn her heart towards a more mature (relatively speaking) form of faith. I'm praying about this non-stop, and her recent feast day makes me feel that God will answer this prayer. If you would all pray for her too, especially at noon EDT this Sunday, I would be so obliged!

I'll let you know how it goes next week! Until then, let's move forward into August with hopeful spirits. I'm also going to be penning a Catholic Mom article next week. You have any topics you'd like to see me write about? Chime in in the comments!

Strangest Triduum ever coming up, and just trying to hang in there...

A very blessed Holy Thursday to all of you. *hugging* I'm going to be honest and admit that this entire Holy Week has not felt like Holy Week to me at all. Being cut off from the liturgies is making me feel so disconnected, and well, depressed. I've been struggling. As have we all, I know. So I'm not expecting much tonight, as I know my kids won't exactly be all excited about watching all of these liturgies on TV (Sunday mass is hard enough), so I'm not sure what I'll be able to experience tonight. As the title of this post indicates, I'm just trying to hang in there. I did make two curbside pickups yesterday for Easter chocolate and handmade seasonal soaps and lip balms for the kids' baskets, which perked me up a bit.

I've also been working away on my Our Lady Star of the Sea shawl:

I'm now into the blue lace section as you can see, and will soon begin melting that color in with a blush pink! I also experimented with a new local farm share box this week, and I have to say, I'm quite pleased!

There are mushrooms in the paper bag, and potatoes underneath the bananas! They ran out of micro greens, so substituted in non-local bananas, but my family loves bananas, so this worked out well. We're very basic produce consumers, if that makes any sense, so this box is perfect for us. Lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, potatoes, eggs, bell peppers, seasonal fruit...these are things that we eat in abundance. Lesser known vegetables are a harder sell. ;-)

Henry was busy with his online school work this week (which he is much more independent with, being in 9th grade), but Anne still requires quite a bit of guidance and intervention from Mike and I. Given that it's Holy Week, I chose to have her work on the banner for her First Communion, although our date for that has been pushed off, and we have no idea yet when it will be rescheduled. *sob*

My cutie pie

Finished product!

Besides knitting and crocheting, I am decidedly *not* crafty, and so these pre-cut out kits are a life saver for us! I also meal planned for the week:

Takeout this week is pizza from a local Italian restaurant, and you can see that our Lenten Friday meal is potato soup in the crockpot.

This isn't the exact recipe that we use, but it's very close. Instead of mashing the potatoes after they cook (???) I recomment using an immersion blender if you have one! Substitute vegetable broth for chicken broth and eliminate the bacon for the full-on vegetarian/Lenten Friday version!

How is your Triduum starting out, friends? What are you planning to do over the course of the next 4 days to keep our traditions alive at home? I'd love to hear from you!

Of First Communions & belly dancing at weddings...

It was a quirky weekend, to be sure. You don't often see the two things I mention in the title of this post paired together, do you now? That's why you come HERE, right?! Never boring my friends, at least I hope not. And it fits with the overall theme of my life, I think, such as what we have here:

This is what happens when you have no idea that there is a spring picture session. Your let your child wear a baseball style tee shirt with a scissors print on it, and pineapple leggings.

Who came up with those background choices anyway?! At any rate, daily life in my house, right there. Things get forgotten, things get paired up in strange and interesting ways, odd handprints and random bursts of light show up everywhere. The struggle is real.

At any rate, I had wedding #2 of 2 this weekend, the one my troupe was slated to perform at, and we also had a soccer game for Henry, plus the usual weekend stuff like Mass and housework.

Saturday was the wedding. For the ceremony, I was the official "dress fluffer" for the bride, smoothing out her dress and veil before she walked down the aisle, and I felt very important. ;-) Hey, I take such responsibilities very seriously! That was in the early afternoon, and then Mike and I attended the reception in the evening.

So here was the quandary: I had to dance about an hour and a half to two hours hence. Wine with dinner or no? I really wanted to abstain, because drinking and dancing is never really a good idea, but to be honest, I was a bit nervous. :0 So I had wine with dinner. OK, *and* a few sips of a second glass right before we danced, because like I said, I WAS NERVOUS!

The issue was that most of the people there had no idea that belly dancing was going to be imposed upon them. I was hoping they were going to take it well, but one never knows.

So, the DJ clears the dance floor for us, and introduces us, and our entire troupe processes out in our formal dresses and heels, including the bride, to dance our long-standing Middle Eastern pop number.

When I took my place after our entrance, I looked anxiously out into the crowd. This was their face:

Shocked, But Not Unpleasantly Surprised, Face

Everybody was very curious and wanted to watch, to be sure. Which is good. And to be fair, that is usually the reaction we get. But just to give you a little insight into my belly dancing world, here are the other options:

Ambivalent, Perhaps Even Bored, Face (aka Why Are You Making Me Look Up From My Phone Face), of which I am very familiar from restaurant dancing.

And:

Concerned, And Just Looking To Be Offended, Face, which I sometimes see at festivals and other public events.

It's a dancing road of many reactions, let me tell you. But back to the wedding. It went great! Different from any dancing experience I've had thus far, and that's part of the charm of Middle Eastern dancing to me. Always something new! Mike was our spy out in the crowd, on his way back from the bar, who reported in that the word on the street was very positive and complimentary. ;-)

I loved it. A great time was had by all. A beautiful couple whose marriage we celebrated, I couldn't be more pleased for both of them.

Sunday, I was a little late in getting out of bed ;-) and we had Mass and a soccer game to navigate. And let me tell you, the addition of First Communion to our regular 11 am Mass nearly made us late for soccer, but so it goes. It also made us park what felt like a mile away, but who's counting?

The Communicants processed down the aisle with Fr. Joe, and Anne was very interested to see all of their outfits and what each was carrying. At Henry's school parish, the First Communion Mass is on a late Saturday morning, removed from the regular Sunday liturgies. So to have it be a part of our regular Mass was an unusual thing for my kids. It definitely made an impression. I explained to Anne what was happening, and she seemed quite interested. It seemed early to me for First Communion, since it was only May 1st, but then I realized that Mother's Day is next Sunday (doesn't that seem early too?!) so that must be why they placed it so.

When is First Communion at your parish? What are your plans for Mother's Day?

Henry's 1st Communion - Sublime, but if only the child could smile for a photograph...

This is what we're dealing with here, people:

One would think his next stop was a hard labor camp where he would be forced to scrub toilets and eat nothing but green vegetables for the next decade. He was truly happy about receiving the Eucharist, but the photos? Oy. Smiling is not his strong point.

But at any rate, Henry was genuinely excited about the Mass, and I have been waiting for this moment since he was born. SO exciting!

Anne was a bit challenging Saturday morning, so I was praying she wasn't going to have to be dragged out of the church in disgrace:

"Anne, want to wear a pretty dress for church?"

"NO!"

"All right, you can wear pants and a shirt."

"NO!"

"Well you can't go naked."

*sobbing!*

That was a little dicey. But we all readied and got to the church in time for the group photo, the children placing their hands in the prayer position like little cherubs. When Mass started, they all processed in like that, and you could die from the preciousness. Henry was nervous about reading his part in the Prayers of the Faithful, but he did a great job.

The priest called the children up to the altar for the Liturgy of the Eucharist, which I'm not necessarily a big fan of, but I appreciate that their intentions (meaning the pastor and the coordinator of religious ed.) are that the children get to see exactly what is happening to tie into what they have learned about the Eucharist being the actual Body and Blood of Christ. I did love that that was the emphasis.

When it was time to receive communion, each child was called up individually and parents could go up to receive with him or her. Mike and I went up with Henry. I received while Mike was there to lend support, and it was a cute family moment. Henry looked confused by the consistency of the Host, but he seemed to enjoy the process nonetheless. :)

After Mass, we forced him into a few photographs:

...while we had a fabulous time having our guests back at our house for some food and drinks. Our parents, my grandmother, and Henry's Godfather and his family were able to come, and it was lovely.

The next day, Henry was excited to go to Mass and receive again. This time, under my tutelage he received both the Host and the Precious Blood, which was a huge novelty to him. He also did much better using his missal, more easily flipping between the day's readings and prayers and the Order of Mass, now that he learned so much more about the liturgy via his First Communion preparation. Super cute.

So, that was Henry's big day. Did anyone else attend a First Communion last Saturday or have one coming up this Saturday? Leave me a comment!

First Communion fesitivities preparation, and I can never resist Easter chocolate...

Morning all! Happy Tuesday of Holy Week. *beams* I've been very into my special Holy Week issue of Magnificat and it's lending a prayerful and serene feeling to my week.

My thoughts have been turning quite a bit this Holy Week to Henry's First Communion, scheduled for May 3rd. I have been excited for this for YEARS and it's hard to believe that the day is nearly upon us. You know how I am about planning events, which is to say fairly manic, and we have so much else going on that same day, with my hafla that evening as well as one of Mike's play performances. It's going to be a big day, for certain. And so how do I handle such things?

Well, poorly, to be sure. But more importantly, with lists! What do I need to do? I need to:

(1) Take Henry to adoration and have discussion about the Eucharist. A heavy hitter, to start off the list. I know that he's receiving religious instruction at his school, but it's my responsibility to assure that he fully understands his faith. This endeavor will have to be on one of the 2 weekends remaining before the big day.

(2) Invite guests to the post-Communion shindig at our house. Checked off yesterday. *halo*

(3) Plan menu for post-Communion shindig at our house. Partially done.

(4) Order cake.

(5) Buy Henry special occasion wear. He won't like this, but it has to be done.

(6) Procure glue to finish First Communion banner. Just haven't made it to the craft store yet, and I don't know when I will. :-\

(7) Order gift. Checked off yesterday. *angels sing!*

I was scratching my head over that one since I got him a very nice rosary for his First Reconciliation, he already has a missal, and I wasn't sure that he would regularly wear a scapular or necklace of any kind for a pertinent saint medal or crucifix. I did a little online shopping yesterday, and picked out a very nice St. Benedict style wall crucifix for his room, from The Catholic Company:

I'm quite thrilled and can't wait for it to get here. He's been asking lately about St. Benedict when we read our saint stories in the evenings, so this one struck me as soon as I saw it. The St. Benedict medal is rife with symbolism, and it seemed to me this would be a good thing to have in your room or on your person. We could all use to battle less evil, no? :)

So, I'm getting there. We're planning to take Henry out to the department stores this weekend in an attempt to outfit him for this thing, and we'll firm up the menu. It'll be lunchtime, so I'd like to do some tasty dips, finger foods, and cake. We're planning a peach salsa and some shrimp cocktail. We need to fill in the other gaps. :)

Yesterday while Mike was teaching, I took the kids to a local and quite beloved chocolate and gift store to admire the Easter selections. I can never resist this sort of thing, despite having already ordered a good amount of chocolate from Henry's school for their spring fundraiser. Since the kids already saw that chocolate, and they've been nibbling it for desserts, it wouldn't be a surprise for their baskets, kwim? So they wandered around while I managed to spend nearly $50 in jelly beans and chocolate bunnies. I mean, how does this happen?! This place has the *best* chocolate though, with more variety than just milk and dark, although I do so love milk chocolate. They offer peanut butter, orange (this is a regional thing I believe, and while most people wrinkle eyebrows in confusion at this one, I LOVE orange chocolate), cherry cheesecake and white chocolate. They even make a *dark orange* chocolate. *swoons* We had a good time.

During our escapades at the chocolate store, I made the unfortunate discovery, however, that Anne is entering that stage (seems to be the later 2's) wherein children develop fears of things, and previously established happy routines are shot all to abysmal pieces. Like, you know, sleeping in their own bed without freaking out, or going pee pee in the toilet. Suddenly, she is terrified of the sound of the toilet flushing, and is afraid that something is going to rise up out of the bowl and attack her while she pees. I'm sure you can picture the scene:

*Anne crosses legs*

"Anne, do you have to go potty, Honey?"

"Yes." *looks miserable*

"Ok Honey, here is the bathroom. We'll just..."

*Anne peeks inside*

"NO! No, I don't have to go, Mommy."

*Anne crosses legs*

Repeat from the top until you think you may lose your mind.

I will say, it *is* a very sweet stage, filled with lots of need for hugs and snuggles to reassure nervous toddlers. Precious.

All right, everyone. Wednesday of Holy Week tomorrow! I will report in then. How is your Holy Week going? Leave me a comment!

Adventures with First Communion preparation...

My little Henry is 8 now, can you believe it?! Seems like just yesterday that he was born and I nearly became comatose from all of the sleep deprivation. Come to think, thank God he's 8 now. :0 And he's in *third* grade, and about to make his First Holy Communion May 3rd. My precious pumpkin!

Since he is enrolled in a Catholic school, Henry gets religious instruction every day. I have quizzed him on his understanding of the Eucharist, can't take these things for granted. :) He's excited about finally being able to come forward and receive, after so many years of waiting. Henry is very tall for his age, and a few times Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion have tried to give him communion, since he looks old enough to receive. I started encouraging him to wait for me back in the pew while I go forward to smooth out this problem. :) After all this time, he's very happy to move to the next step.

We read saint stories every night before he goes to bed, and many of them were devoted to the Eucharist. I always try to drive that point home when I read, especially if the featured saint was a child when they died. I'd like to take him to Adoration with me one day before the First Communion Mass, I think it would really solidify for him exactly what we believe about this sacrament.

And so, as the day draws closer, I knew there was one thing left to tackle: The First Communion banner.

*long suffering sigh*

I am not crafty. I can knit and crochet, but glue and felt are not my friends. And one of the things that the coordinator of religious education at Henry's school asks the children to do is create one of these banners, an artistic rendering by the child of their faith and the sacrament.

All I can say is thank God I have this blog and whine on it regularly, prompting a miraculous comment that there are kits out there that will come to my rescue. KITS. The religious education lady did not mention kits, gentle reader. She simply gave us a raggedy piece of burlap with photocopied sheets of letters and faith symbols that we could use to sketch and cut out our own shapes. I was petrified. I mean, can you *imagine* the mangled chalices and grape vines that would have resulted from this endeavor? And that would be from MY efforts, let alone Henry's, who has every POSSIBLE genetic scheme working against him with regard to artistic ability.

And so I ordered one of these aforementioned and blessed kits. The felt shapes are all cut out for you, you can just pick which ones you want to use and arrange them however you like.

Glory.

And so Henry and I got to work Sunday afternoon. He got really into it, excitedly going through the symbols and choosing which ones to use. He arranged them all by himself, and even added some embellishments in the form of glitter glue, which did make things interesting at the kitchen table for a time:

"Why is there gold glitter in your hair? Oh. You guys are working on the banner."

"Yes! Doesn't it look good?" *angelic beam*

"It looks great. What's that...on the host?"

"A cross. Doesn't it look like a cross?!"

*amused eyebrow arch*

And so, da da DAH!!! This is the result of our efforts:

We just need to glue down the other side of those top pieces so that it can be hung. But I'm real proud of him, I think he did a great job.

We still need to get him a special outfit to wear for the big day, and I need to plan a little party for him. And a gift. He already has a rosary, that I gave him for his First Reconciliation. Other ideas?

All right everyone, I'm off from blogging tomorrow due to part 2 of my dental surgery. :( I will report in sometime on Thursday. But in the mean time, I'm sure I'll be on Twitter, acting all pathetic. Talk to you all then. Yay?

:)

A First Communion meeting of below zero wind chill and super glue...

Friday evening found me freezing my saint medals off at Henry's school for a parent's meeting regarding the upcoming big First Communion celebration. And so, how did it go?

:)

I left the house around 6:45 for the 7 pm meeting feeling a bit punchy, since I was not happy to be missing my dance class. Certainly, Henry's receiving the Eucharist is more important than my dance class, I just object to the scheduling of these meetings. Friday evenings, really? Mike has fielded the last two (also on Friday evenings), and they're crowded, somewhat chaotic gatherings since the school kids are pooled together with the larger religious education program. I suppose I wish they simply organized things differently. If I were in charge, that's what I would do, and I feel very self righteous about the whole thing. *gentle snort*

But that's neither here nor there. I arrived, and the 30 second walk from my car to the building was downright excruciating. It was *so cold*. This has been some kind of winter, to be sure. I simply couldn't warm up the entire time I was there, and thus was a dork and left my scarf on. Anyway, I signed in, picked up a packet of paperwork, and was directed to fetch a burlap canvas. Uh oh. This must mean A CRAFT.

Now see, people think that because I knit and crochet, that means I'm *crafty.* My friends, I am here to tell you that I am not. Sit me down with construction paper, glitter, dried macaroni, felt and high intensity glue, and when you come back you'll find me trying to herd a pile of glitter onto a specific spot in my clumsy drawing amid a confusing arrangement of felt shapes with my right index finger and thumb glued together. Art was just never my talent.

But just as in school, I have to do it anyway. :) Henry and I need to create a "First Communion banner" with his name and Eucharistic imagery on it. Despite my utter lack of talent with such implements, I *am* looking forward to this. This is going to involve a trip to the craft store, and I'm angling for the scrapbooking aisle where I'm thinking appropriate felt shapes and images will be pre-cut out for us, just waiting to be stickied onto our banner with their own self-adhesive tape. This sounds Non-Crafty Person Proof, no?

So, there is that. We also have to bake a small loaf of bread, and you see, this is another one of my distinct lack of talents. Baking = Dangerous in the Catholic Librarian household. I really wish we didn't have to do this, but this is apparently how it has always been done at this parish (the one affiliated with Henry's school, which is not our home parish). And the Lady In Charge *clearly* does not like to do things that Have Not Always Been Done. The meeting lasted an hour, and it was clear that she reigns as Queen of Religious Education for this parish's program, no doubt about that, and has for approximately the past 20 years. She's perfectly lovely, but it was apparent that there was a Way Things Are Done, and nobody is going to mess with that, no sir.

Anyway, back to small loaves of bread. This seems rather pointless to me, but it's a part of the Offertory, so we either have to bake one or buy one. I'm seeing myself in an explosive cloud of flour sometime in early May, I'll keep you posted on that.

There was lots of talk about what the children should wear. It all seemed like common sense to me, but I realize that there are people out there who do not use common sense when it comes to clothing. I do like that each child is called up by name to receive, along with his or her parents, and so I'll be able to receive the Eucharist right after Henry does. We had to put in for a first and second choice for date, since there are 2 First Communion Masses, and I'm hoping we get May 3rd. May 10th is so close to Anne's birthday, and that's a lot of parties in 2 weeks time for your easily harried hostess. :)

So we'll see. I came home armed with good information, albeit freezing and bearing burlap. Anybody else have a First Communion coming up this spring? It's a lovely thought, is it not? Leave me a comment!