Moose sightings, lighthouse visits & cake frosting debacles: Adventures in Maine...

Hello all, and I'm so happy to be back with you! Before I get into trip fodder, I have a few housekeeping announcements. First, today is Day 1 of the St. John Paul II novena! If you'd like to join in, now is the perfect time to get started. :)

Also, this is my week of being featured on Catholic Mom, and my new piece is a favorite of mine, that I updated and reworked. It's in my favored, humorous style of writing, and involves knitting (perfect seasonal topic!) so go check it out if you haven't already! And if you want to leave me a comment over at Catholic Mom, you know, I'd love that. ;-)

OK, so THE TRIP! I had a great time, it went real well. My flights were good, I did a little praying and no panicking, you would have been really proud of me. Of course, the complimentary drink coupons helped with that, I'll be the first to admit it, but you know, whatever works. ;-)

It was quite foggy and rainy when we landed in Portland, but we had a happy reunion with my sister Shauna'h, her husband, and my adorable twin nephews. Pizza and merrymaking abounded.

Saturday dawned an absolutely gorgeous fall day in New England:

The red and orange are my very favorite

Like us, their foliage is behind this year due to the weather, but they still have far more color than we do in WNY right now. I did LOTS of cuddling with both my human nephews, and my dog and cat nephews:

Cat on lap, dog at feet, a common occurrence this past weekend...

I get along well with Molson, the cat pictured here, and I like cats, I do. I have to say though that I do prefer dogs, and here is why:

So much love...

Dogs love you unconditionally. They are not cagey about it, or in any way withholding of their affections. Cats may be affectionate with you one moment, but the next stalk away as if you have offended them in some way, and likely, you have. Dogs? Here was the scene Saturday morning as I woke up:

*Tiffany puts away her bedding*

*nails click up the staircase*

*black and tan head peeks around the corner*

Tiffany: "Oh, hi Roscoe! How are you, muffin?"

Roscoe's thought bubble: "Oh! You're here! I was SO HOPING that you were awake! Can I, I mean, CAN I COME OVER?! If you want me to, I WILL TOTALLY COME OVER!!"

Tiffany: "Do you want to..."

*big black body gallops over*

So precious. I miss having a dog.

Later that day, we all made a pilgrimage to Portland Head Light, which I've been wanting to do for years, and finally got my opportunity:

I absolutely love lighthouses, and was so excited to see one up close. I went through the whole museum, and lurked long enough in the gift shop to pick up a lighthouse magnet (I've developed a tradition of bringing home a Maine-themed magnet each year) and a book on the history of all Maine lighthouses, complete with photographs and author signature. The librarian was in heaven.

We lunched at a brewery, and then retired home for some rest. After the twins went to bed, we leapt into party prep mode. And see? Anytime there is baking, and *I* am involved, the results turn out rather unseemly. Shauna'h and I took on the task of baking the cakes, and I took the liberty of live tweeting:

I'll give you a spoiler: the cake actually turned out well. But the frosting? Well, we ran low on powdered sugar, and it was already late, and we were drinking wine, and so...let's just say that the chocolate fudge frosting turned into ACTUAL FUDGE. Rather...gritty, actual fudge. It went from liquidy, non-frosting consistency, to a full stop SOLID. An interesting chemistry experiment, but frosting it was *not*. My brother-in-law had to make an emergency frosting run to the grocery store in the morning, but the cakes did turn out well:

Twin cakes with a camping theme...

...and they coordinated perfectly with the outdoorsy theme of the party. We were at a wildlife park:

Henry and I posing at the entrance

...and a great time was had by all, especially the kids.

Henry suddenly becomes alarmed by the duck flying overhead...

We took the twins around to see some of the animals, all native to Maine, including my first ever moose sighting!

He was very large

And wait for it, wait for it! This is the daddy moose, and his significant other was also present, although being shyer in the back. Thus, yes, THERE WAS A BABY MOOSE!! Or, at least a child-like moose, likely born last season. He or she was tucked away in a corner, so no good photo opportunity, but rest assured that much squealing occurred.

After that we ate and opened presents, and brought two very exhausted 3-year olds home for a nap. The rest of us drank beer and watched football. :) Later in the evening, we made it to Sunday Mass, and a beautiful day was complete.

I packed up yesterday, a forlorn Henry and Roscoe by my side. Roscoe saw our bags and looked like someone had just shot his best friend, poor pumpkin. We sadly said goodbye to everyone and headed out for our flight. Anne and Mike were there to greet us when we landed, and Anne was SO HAPPY to see me:

"Mommy, I carried a picture of you and Henry with me for when I missed you. And I missed you. A LOT."

No guilt imposed there, yes? ;-) And so, although sad, I'm happy to be home. Work is a little overwhelming right now, but I'm trying not to dwell on that too much. I'm just making to-do lists for each day and working my way through them. That's all one can really do, right?

And so, how was YOUR weekend, dear reader? How has your autumn been so far? Have you participated in any fun fall activities? Do write in to tell me all about it. :)

"Mommy, Henry LOOKED AT ME FUNNY!!" Good times on sick days. Oh, and a new novena is brewing. :)

Happy Wednesday everyone! :) I'm back at work following a day at home nurturing my offspring. Henry has been coughing, and given that we have a trip coming up this weekend, I didn't want him to be miserable and sick for it. Plus, I knew that Henry and I would be sharing a room, and I really didn't want his cough keeping ME awake. :0

So, this entailed a decision Tuesday morning to keep him home from school to rest, and then me ferrying Anne to and from Pre-K so that Mike could get some grading and lesson planning done. Henry laid around a bit, but quickly perked up and I could tell that his cough was now productive and breaking up. This meant that he was on the mend *just* in time to start fighting with Anne when she got home from Pre-K. My afternoon was filled with:

"MOOOOOOOMMM! Anne just (fill in the blank with various and sundry nefarious and dramatic deeds)!"

"Mommy! Henry just (fill in the blank with any number of annoying behaviors that he knows Anne hates)!"

SO much whining and bickering. No fun for anybody. And then Anne pitched a fit about something that I cannot recall and stomped upstairs. Next thing I knew, it was quiet, which is a bad sign 99.9% of the time. I went upstairs to check on her, and found her face down on the hallway floor, sound asleep. Well. See, that's the .1% of the time when the quiet is GOOD. ;-) She slept for over an hour, and then was considerably less saucy when she woke up, thank the good Lord.

This morning, both were back to normal and at school, thankfully. Mommy needed a break from that "respite" at home. ;-)

In other news, I'm plotting a new novena. Details are now up on the official St. John Paul II novena tab! The novena starts next Tuesday, October 13th, and goes through October 21st. I have links to a few different versions of the prayers, and I created an audio file of the novena prayer that I chose plus his chaplet prayers. The chaplet (pictured above) is super short, only about three and a half minutes, so download and pray along in your car if you like! I have a short video explaining the chaplet a bit more and the prayer configuration down at the bottom of the Chaplets page. The link to the audio is there as well. I hope that you'll join in!

All right, I'd better go. *feels beleaguered* I have a lot going on at work lately, October is always a busy month here. I have a video for you tomorrow discussing my trip and my anxiety about traveling by air generally, so if that resonates with you, come on back in the morning! In the mean time, are you going to pray the St. John Paul II novena? Write in and let me know. :)

The Church Triumphant: Spotlight on Pope St. John Paul II

Happy Saint Spotlight Thursday, everyone. :) Today, I simply couldn't resist featuring my favorite Catholic of all time, Pope St. John Paul II, and with his new feast day being just yesterday, it seemed a perfect fit. Let's settle in with our hot beverages to kvetch a bit about JPII...

I've thought a lot about what I wanted to discuss with you in this post. The thing is, I don't even know where to begin to talk about his life, since there is so much ground to cover. And a simple Google search can do a better job of this than I could, really, since his story is well-known and appears in so many good places already. So I thought that I would focus on what St. John Paul II means to me. Because he means so very much.

I have written about him before, in a post I remember quite vividly from the days after the election of Pope Francis entitled "I'm a John Paul II Generation Catholic: the papacy in the life of your Catholic Librarian," and a lot of my thoughts are captured there, so make sure to check that out. :) It's chock full of emotion from a very emotional time, to be sure. I went back and re-read that post myself, so that I won't duplicate information, and so that I could really get a feel for what I felt compelled to convey at that particular point in time. What I'll do here is focus entirely on St. John Paul II's personal impact on my spiritual journey.

He was the pope of my childhood and young adulthood. When I came back to my Catholic faith in law school, I read about him and the Theology of the Body. I hadn't really paid him much mind until then, which would have been the late 90's. I was in my early to mid-20's, and suddenly I couldn't read enough about him. I remember visiting the bookstore of the Daughters of St. Paul in Manhattan one day after classes, and one of the sisters happily remarked to me that I must really love our Holy Father as she surveyed the items I had chosen: a book of his papal documents, and a rosary commemorating the upcoming Jubilee with a John Paul II centerpiece. I *did* love the Holy Father, I realized at that moment. I respected what he stood for, how he had maintained his faith throughout such painful times in his life, and remained such an inspiration to others.

By this point, John Paul II's health had deteriorated quite a bit. He walked in a very stooped stature and was showing the effects of Parkinson's Disease. And I thought to myself what a wonderful example he set. Aging and death await all of us. It's not a happy thought, but it's reality. And I know that the temptation is to want to avoid showing the effects of the aging process, and to avoid any form of physical suffering in the time leading up to our death. This is a very human and natural desire, to be sure. God doesn't ask us to *seek out* suffering. But to the extent that this is a natural part of the evolution of our lives, He asks us to bear it and to offer it up for the good of our soul and others. And John Paul II was certainly doing that with all of his heart.

Although my suffering was nothing in comparison to his, I related to John Paul II in this way. I had made a major life choice (to attend law school), and it wasn't working out the way I had hoped AT ALL. I was miserable. The environment was stressful and at times downright mean-spirited, and to say that I wasn't enjoying my coursework was the understatement of the decade. But I felt trapped. I had already invested so much money and time into this endeavor; how could I abandon it without at least obtaining a degree? It was a difficult time.

And during that difficult time, John Paul II inspired me. He bore what God was asking of him with serenity, goodness and love. I needed to be able to do the same thing with my much smaller cross. So I did. And in the end, going to law school was the reason that I met one of my best friends, Irena (who was baptized and entered the Church in 2011 as my Godchild *beams*), and it's the reason I found solace in my Catholic faith again. And THAT has changed the course of my entire life, for all eternity. :)

I continued to adore him well into my 20's, as I finished law school, moved back home and met some lifelong, wonderful Catholic friends, and began a legal career that I did not enjoy. I needed my faith more than ever during that stretch. By this point, I was in my late 20's, and getting the "what, no boyfriend?!" questions from well-meaning family. Please, don't ever say that to a single person. :) They either really enjoy being single, and there's nothing wrong with that, it *is* in itself a vocation, either temporary or permanent depending on the person's state in life and timing, OR they would like to be married but haven't met the right person yet. Either way, they really don't need that comment, which can sting. Been there, done that, sister. ;-) It felt like this strange time in my life, wherein I knew things would change, hopefully for the better, but I didn't know how or when. Disconcerting, to say the least.

Then I met Mike, and we got married. *heart* We requested a papal blessing for our wedding from Rome, and it is in fact from John Paul II. This was mere months before he passed away. We married in January 2005, and he died that following April. It still hangs, framed, in our dining room, and every time I see it I am reminded of how much John Paul II meant to my faith and life during such a crucial and formative period.

When he entered his final illness and we all knew that the end was near, I was newly pregnant with Henry. I remember being so grateful to have a new life in my womb as our beloved John Paul II's soul was leaving this earth. That felt significant to me, a sign from God, perhaps. He knew how much John Paul meant to me, and this was a goodbye present of sorts. :)

I very much love the two popes that have followed John Paul II, but none compare to the impact he had on my spiritual life. I have followed his canonization process avidly, and was thrilled when he was both beatified and canonized. A last fun fact: when John Paul II was beatified in 2011, I was heavily pregnant with Anne (delivered her later that same month), and Anne's birthday, May 18th is, da da DAH!!!!!!! The same birthday as Karol Wojtyla. :0 Coincidence? I think not.

Does anyone else have a strong devotion to Pope St. John Paul II? Leave a comment!