Our Lady of Fatima has a hold on my heart...

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As May approaches, my thoughts automatically turn towards the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, which we celebrate on the Church calendar May 13th. There are lots of other exciting things going on in May: May Crowning at the kids' school, Anne's birthday, Sam's birthday, confirmation season, Pentecost, my dance family returns from Egypt, the long Memorial Day weekend...all fantastic stuff that I cannot wait for. Always though, my mind turns to our Blessed Mother, and the role she is known for amongst three young Portuguese children in the early twentieth century.There is something about her that has become special to me in my adulthood, and in my role as wife and mother. That image of her is so appealing to me, so filled with tender understanding.

The week before Holy Week, I stopped in at our parish for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I had been dealing with (and continue to deal with) the aftermath of a few difficult emotional situations. It's all part of life, you know? But for someone with a personality like mine: very gentle-natured, always wanting to please others, experiencing a great deal of empathy for others at all times - it's hard to climb out of a dark abyss like that. It's hard to feel like myself again, because my mind always wants to take me back to things that have hurt me and that I cannot control. It's something I've dealt with my whole life, but as an adult it has helped a bit to do some research (*pins on librarian super cape*) and realize that these qualities about myself are not only God-given (and thus, I cannot change them even if I wanted to) but they are in fact positive characteristics that I should not see as weaknesses. I should revel in being compassionate, loving and trusting, and in the resulting beautiful and lasting relationships I have in my life. It has given me a lot of peace and healing to focus on those things.

And so, as I was leaving the confessional that recent week late in Lent, I was struck by inspiration - Our Lady of Fatima. Her feast day is in the spring, and I just felt compelled to carry her with me on a day-to-day basis. So I texted Allison to see if she would accept a custom order for a one decade, springy rosary with an Our Lady of Fatima center, and she did. It is, of course, the rosary you see featured in this post. Isn't it lovely?!

I love one decade rosaries for the ease of being able to tuck them into your pocket. If you need a little extra courage or strength on a given day, you can easily reach for the rosary and feel the solace that it offers. I'm so thrilled with this particular rosary and the association I have with it for Our Lady in a particularly sweet, motherly role. Granted, I don't think we ever see Mary in a non-motherly role :) but this one strikes a special chord with me. I am relying heavily on Our Lady of Fatima this spring.

Maybe we could pray her novena this year? It would start next week, on May 4th, I believe. I can dig up the prayers if anyone would like to join me!

Our Lady of Fatima and lots of Harry Potter movie watching - it's a nerdy weekend meetup edition!

When you get to be a certain age, you recognize that you are a nerd. I recognized this very early on in my life, right around mid-grade school, I'd estimate. ;-) At that time, nerdom was not seen in very high regard, it is true. I tried to hide aforementioned nerdom, and saw it as yet another thing that was wrong with me. Then one traverses the difficult teenage years and move into young adulthood. Sometime around there, I recognized that I was still a nerd. However, by that point you realize that maybe it's not so bad after all. Suddenly, you meet lots of other nerds and they are COOL. You want to be just like them. Oh, and you also realize that in terms of what other non-nerdy people think about nerds?

You don't care. And THAT is such a glorious thing.

This weekend, I had all kinds of nerdy things planned for my exciting meetup with Samantha, and I couldn't have been more happy and content. We affectionately called it the Great Weekend of Catholic Geekdom.

*heart*

Sam and I met nearly 2 years ago via various channels of new and social media. We met in person for the first time back in May, but only for a brief lunch. This was our first opportunity to hang out in person for any length of time, 

Sam arrived on Friday afternoon, and everyone was all excited to greet her.

Immediate photo op :0

The kids were shy at first, but everyone came out of their shells pretty quickly:

Mike, to me privately: "Do you think I'm talking enough? Am I making good conversation? I want Sam to feel comfortable. I'm so bad at socializing!"

Me: "You're doing fine, sweetheart. I like the teaching conversation you initiated!"

I married another nerdy introvert. I love him. :-)

Our nerdy weekend started out with the entire family watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince over a large pizza, and the lot of us couldn't have been happier. Saturday, we journeyed about a half hour north to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima:

Our Lady, looking lovely at the top of the church

The kids absolutely love climbing up to the top of the church and hanging out with Our lady for a spell, so I attempted a photo:

Henry always looks like he's in a hostage photo

And the view of the grounds and the rosary pond is sublime:

Rosary pond

We spent some time exploring the grounds (after procuring various Catholic tchotkes in the gift shop, of course) and found a little spring that the kids waded in. I'm not certain they were SUPPOSED to do that, but there you have it:

They don't look guilty at all

And we enjoyed looking at all of the saint statuary that covers the grounds:

They bonded with Moses and the Ten Commandments

After heading home, Sam and I had a girls night dinner, which was an absolute *delight*, and we later watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, because you know, NERDS.

Sunday was a lovely quiet morning of puzzles and cards, followed by Mass and the Farmers Market. There were a lot of long faces when Sam had to pack up and leave us. Anne actually woke up crying that night, saying she missed Sam. :-\

I so treasure opportunities like this to meet up with friends I have met online! God is so good to us, no? What did YOU do this weekend, dear reader?!