Lent, and the spring semester, reaching the halfway point...

...and how is YOUR Lent going, dear reader? :-) Mine is going just fine. Accountability: I have not been good with my morning devotional reading. Waking up and getting out of bed has gotten to be a struggle again, for whatever reason. But since last week I HAVE been reading along with 33 Days to Merciful Love, and I am IN LOVE with this book. I love it, just love it. Additionally, the St. Joseph novena starts Thursday, and I'm planning on praying that. Join in! As well, I've kept up with the Lenten Mercy Challenge on Fridays. So, all in all, I'd say my Lent is going pretty well. I'm going to a Worship Committee meeting at my parish tonight to discuss Holy Week, and the preparatory reading for that has gotten me into a Lenten mood as well. My goal for the week is to start another spiritual reading book as well. We're getting there! How have your resolutions been going?

Relatedly, my daughter can *always* be counted on to offer opportunities for Lenten-inspired sacrificial offering up. :0

Monday morning, 2:50 am:

"MOM?!" *hysterical sobs*

I rush into her bedroom. "What's wrong, sweetie?"

"I...I...I MISS MY FRIENDS!!" *big tears!*

"Oh. Well, you're going to be going to school in a few hours, sweetie. You'll see your friends then."

"I will?" *sniffle*

"Yes, Honey."

This is just the conversation I want to be having at 3 am. :0

"Mommy, would you lay with me for awhile?"

"Sure Honey."

*I settle in*

"Mommy, can I sleep in your bed?"

"No, darling. But I'll stay here with you for a spell." There is only so much penance a mother can offer. #wildsleeper

"Mommy, Aria...MOVED AWAY, and I thought she was coming back, BUT SHE DIDN'T!" *fresh tears!*

Ah. The crux of the issue.

"Aw, I'm sorry sweetie. You probably miss Aria and are sad."

"Yes." *pathetic sniffle*

It took a bit of soothing to get her settled down and back to sleep. Hence, I was absolutely exhausted all day Monday. I offered it up for your intentions. ;-)

Meanwhile though, this weekend was absolutely stunning, and a clear harkening of spring being on the way. And a busy spring it will be! I had a bridal shower to attend on Saturday, and indeed we have two weddings coming up in April! I also have a bunch of dance events and trips coming up this spring and summer, and details about all of that fun stuff will be forthcoming. I can't wait!

And speaking of dance, look what I scored during a family trip to the public library on Sunday:

Glorious!

I've had this on my Amazon wish list for the past year, and was thrilled to see it on the new non-fiction rack. I'm currently immersed hip-deep in a discussion of the different styles of Middle Eastern dance and couldn't be more content. I'm thinking about solo options for the upcoming summer performance season, so it's perfect timing. :-)

After our trip to the library, we stopped off at our local outdoor ice rink for a later winter walk around:

The kids posing with Shark Girl. It looks like Henry at least *thought* about smiling :0

It was one of those glorious winter days with cold temperatures, but a glowing sun in the sky the entire time. It seemed fitting, given that it was Laetare Sunday with the rose vestments reminding us that Lent is half over and Easter is soon to come. This has been an absolutely inspiring winter for me this year, and I am very much looking forward to what is to come as the seasons change.

How was your 4th Sunday of Lent, dear reader? How is your Lent going? Do write in and tell me all about it. :-)

Of frantic dance prep, upcoming Mass time changes, and voyages to Swiss Chalet...

Morning all! It wasn't an easy weekend in the world news, to be sure. Oftentimes, when I think about heartbreaking situations such as this one, I feel fear, as I'm sure is fairly common. But then I remember the words of our beloved John Paul II, and try not to feel afraid: for my kids, for my friends and family, for our world, for myself. I try. But it's not easy, yes? Let's all stick together and pray for each other and for peace in our world. I know that it brings me some measure of solace to think of us all together in community, and I hope it does you as well.

Around my small part of the world, it's looking very fallen leafy and windswept here in WNY these days, very reminiscent of this photo:

It was a busy weekend for us, as we gear up for the holidays and for Advent. At our parish, the Mass times are changing, which I'm a tad chagrined about, but I'll adjust. I love our 10 am Mass, and it's switching to 11 am, which will at times not be nearly as convenient for us. Right away, early in Advent, we're going to see The Nutcracker for a Sunday matinee show, and the 11 am Mass will get us out too late to make it without rushing quite a bit. I think what will most likely happen is that on weekends like that, we will be attending the vigil Mass. We'll develop a new routine and get used to it, but as we anticipate this I'm mourning our beloved 10 am slot a bit. :)

In cute Catholic kid stuff, Anne relayed a precious story to me on Saturday:

"Mommy, we say the Pledge of Allegiance in school."

"Yes! We always said that in school, too. Have you memorized it?"

"Yes, want to hear?"

Of course I did. :) And she took the duty very seriously.

"That's excellent, sweetheart."

"Mommy, did you know that when you say the Pledge of Allegiance, you only need to put your hand like this, over your heart? And not make the sign of the cross after? My teacher told me."

Oh snort. I can only imagine how this went over in Anne's public pre-K. She must have thought it was like when we say grace at meals. I liked how she automatically wove in the tie between a physical gesture and saying aloud something important, a ritual. She's a natural as a Catholic child. ;-)

In other news, my dance troupe is in heavy rehearsal mode for the hafla this upcoming weekend.We have a bunch of group pieces that we'll be performing, and at this point it's always a hodge podge of old and new numbers, combined in new and exciting ways. ;-) So, we have a new veil piece paired with a new baladi number, but also an old pop piece paired with a new drum, and then our newish Saidi piece as a standalone. 

Solos are going to be in the second set, and mine is in there, towards the end. Lots of time to sweat leading up to that. Although I'm hoping that my little birthday party adventure last month will make me appreciate the easier-to-manage hafla atmosphere this time around, and consequently be less nervous about performing in such venues. I have my music all edited and ready to go, and general idea of how I'd like to structure things in my usual improvisational way. 

Running through my music reminded me that I needed to decide what costume to wear, and so a lot of sewing ensued this weekend. I sew about as well as I bake, so you can only imagine how well these little sessions typically unfold. Mike comes out of his office from grading student papers and finds me casually passing him in the hallway garbed in jeans and a costume top with only half a strap, trailing behind me a super long length of black satin. Anne is adorning the walls with random pieces of adhesive Velcro that I gave her to prevent her from causing too much damage in the notions bag.  

"You're probably wondering what is going on out here, aren't you?"

This is a common occurrence in our house whenever I have a dance gig. ;-) Dance costumes ALWAYS require a lot of sewing. If they're new, they never fit perfectly, and so need a lot of work to make them presentable. If they're old, they're losing beads or need new hooks, or have stretched out a bit and could use some tucking. I did not get a separate costume for when I was pregnant with Anne, I just wore my skirt under my belly throughout the second trimester, if that is any indication of what we're working with here. :0 Our costumes are generally stretchy, but don't maintain the same level of stretchiness over time, for sure and for certain.

So I now have black satin straps on my new black and bronze costume, which I'd like to wear for the solo, but the skirt is extremely heavy and needs some more tucking for it to stay put on my hips. Working on that tonight. We're getting there!

To complete our weekend, Mike asked on Sunday if I'd like to go to dinner at Swiss Chalet. Um, YES. You all know about my love affair with Canadian rotisserie chicken. I *love* it there, and given that we now have to cross an international border to get there, I don't get there as often as I'd like. However, this experience has shown me that it really doesn't take all that long to get to the Niagara Falls, Ontario location, and thus we really need to be doing this much more frequently. ;-) At any rate, we packed up the kids and headed north. Yes, for chicken. 

But it's all about the chalet sauce, remember? And we had a delightful time:

"And I think that that way, we can...wait. What happened to all of your sauce?"

"I ate it. Are you going to use all of yours?"

*I eye his cup like a vulture circling it's prey*

"No, I guess not. But...what else do you dip in there besides the chicken?"

The man is so cutely naive of the ways of the Chalet. If he's going to go all HEALTHY and choose the vegetables over the french fries dipped in sauce, well then I just can't help him. :0

And the waitress who gave me an extra cup of fresh sauce for my takeout container? Let's just say she got a very nice tip. And very nearly a round of applause.

#ChaletSauceRules

What did you do this weekend, dear reader? Write in and tell me all about it. :)

Bright & sparkly things - because louder is *always* better in my world...

...aside from actual noise, THAT I don't enjoy so much. :) And unfortunately, Anne's volume seems permanently set to "Deafening" by some nefarious hand these days. I took her shopping with me last night to get some linens for her new bed and her high-pitched little voice just positively RANG throughout the store. Of course, it didn't help that I took her to Mrs. Fields prior to this, hence she was on a total sugar high, so I suppose this was all my fault on this particular occasion. Alas. She's cute, I love to spoil her. We even thoughtfully packaged up one of the sugar bombs to go and bring home to Henry so that he could experience the joy later on, right before bed. Mother of the Year, right over here.

But I digress. :) After we got home and got Anne settled, I popped open my knitting basket to grab something to work on while Mike, Henry and I finished watching an episode of "Columbo." There's a station here that airs them every Sunday night, and it's become quite a lovely tradition. If we watch them with Henry, we often DVR them and watch in two parts so that he doesn't have to stay up too late. Plus, Henry asks a LOT of questions when you watch things with him, so this slows down the process quite a bit:

"Why is he doing that, Mommy? Is he the murderer? But what about that other guy? Does Columbo know it's him? I mean, he doesn't seem to really know anything. But I like his dog. Is that a clue? What's that he said?"

:0

So, "Columbo." Knitting basket. Right! These days, my knitting basket has started to also include some sewing. The dancing thing seems to be the reason for this mostly, although I also now knit more cardigans and thus have to sew buttons onto them.  Apparently, my new button sewing abilities have given me a drunken sense of power, because all of a sudden I'm shearing fabric off of dance costumes and looking to sew new things in. Sounds very dangerous, no? ;-)

I have one gold costume that was not made correctly, and the results have made me nervous ever since. The darn thing was so *heavy*, and when you dance, you know...you don't want gravity choosing to creep into your life and teach you a lesson right at that exact moment, know what I'm sayin'? And it just never fit me correctly. So I cut the heavy fabric off of the belt, which I never liked anyway. Let me tell you, taking scissors to fabric that you truly despise is the most freeing feeling in the world. I ordered a new skirt, which is guaranteed to actually fit me in hip and length measurements since it's custom cut. So once that arrives I can wear the newly freed belt over top of the new skirt. Shazzam! But the belt was also problematic. It had gold beaded fringe hanging from it, very pretty, but the fringe was missing in spots. Ugh. I made it my mission to patch in new fringe.

Heretofore began an obsessive Etsy search for gold beaded fringe, my very favorite type of reference work. I found a lovely beaded fringe vendor on Etsy, Odyssey Cache, who was wonderfully responsive when I wrote to her to ask if in her opinion the beading could withstand "a LOT of fast and swishy movement." She responded quickly with:

"Are you a belly dancer?"

I had to snort at that one. :0 Apparently a number a belly dancers contact her about her beaded fringe. She was wonderful, but in the end, I decided to just order some metallic fabric fringe, so that I didn't have to worry about losing beads, which I found at Mary Not Martha on Etsy:

It's not as long as the other fringe on my belt, but it'll do just fine. At least now there aren't bald spots in the fringe. I sewed it in last night, and I'm feeling mighty proud of myself and my new amateur sewing ways. I meant to take a photo of the belt, but as we are all so painfully aware these days, I *forgot*. I promise to include a photo in 7 Quick Takes this Friday.

That finished, I pulled out another in-progress item in my basket, which is a colorful pair of socks for Henry that he requested for Christmas. Henry, always a soul dear to my heart, likes very bright and bold colors. And, precious child that he is, he always wears the socks that I knit for him and proclaims them his very favorites.

*gold star!*

Thus, he is knitworthy. I went right out and bought the loudest sock yarn available by law:

This is Frolicking Feet sock yarn (divine) in a colorway called "Confetti." I think that he will love it. :0 Working on the cuff of sock #1, we're getting there!

Hope that you are all having a wonderful Tuesday. :) What's new with you?! Leave me a comment!