Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Busy week


When I opened the blog to write this morning, I realized that I haven't posted in a week. I'm sorry. We've been trying to finish week 5 of the second quarter of school, the Christmas shopping and mailing, calling daily about hotel rooms in Tokyo for the weekend, arranging a shuttle seat for Tommy to get him to Seattle on Friday, and the packing.

After Christmas shopping, the packing is the most fun part because of the anticipation it involves. We are packing summer clothes! While it snows outside! It's a rather surreal feeling, and an exciting one at the same time. This trip to New Zealand has been a dream of John's and mine for most of our married life. And it's really going to happen. The last plane tickets are on their way to us via courier from our travel agent in Tokyo and should be here tomorrow. We'll be stopping at the train station tonight or tomorrow to buy the train tickets. Thanks to St. Anthony and the prayers of my sister, we have hotel rooms in Tokyo for Saturday and Sunday. Not at the fancy Navy hotel we were hoping for, but perfectly serviceable rooms in Roppongi (central Tokyo shopping and dining district) and within walking distance from that hotel so we can still go over and use their stunning swimming pool.

Most importantly, we can meet Tommy's plane on Saturday afternoon. Hooray!! Tommy's coming home. We have missed him so much and can't wait to see him. Matthew is waiting to ask him for a big "Tommy stooshie," which is a loud, smacking kiss that sends people flying around the room in hilarious ways only Tommy could devise.

And packages are arriving for Patrick's birthday and being secreted in the luggage. (Don't you dare peek, Patrick!) He will celebrate his 16th birthday in Rotorua, New Zealand. We have planned a fun sightseeing day with great potential for street luge riding in the afternoon. Even Katie, who experienced her first roller coaster this summer and loved it, is looking forward to that activity.

We will arrive in Christchurch on Christmas Eve and spend part of Christmas Day there before driving on to Dunedin for penguin viewing and Christmas dinner (not penguin!!). We plan to go to Christmas Mass at the cathedral in Christchurch. They have a midnight Mass, but the 7:30 a.m. traditional Latin Mass is very tempting, if only it weren't at 7:30 a.m. on Christmas morning. Either way, we are in for a treat. The music at the cathedral appears to be amazing, and even if the early morning Mass is a low Mass, it will be celebrated reverently and in Latin, something we have been missing very much.

On New Year's Eve, we will be en route to Japan from New Zealand via Hong Kong (only the airport, though. Visiting China will have to be saved for another trip). We should arrive in Tokyo in the late evening and hope to ring in the new year at our airport hotel. We'll return home by train on January 1st.

The suitcases go to the shipping company Thursday. So we're really going. It's hard to believe it's really going to happen.

We'll try to post during our trip if the internet connections allow. If not, you may look forward to photos after the first of the year.

A blessed Christmas and happy new year to all. See you in 2008!

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Yummy

Here's what Matthew thought of tonight's gingerbread:



Happy St. Nicholas Day to all!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Happy St. Nicholas Day!



Our celebration of this day began early in the morning when the children ran downstairs to check their shoes. Today they found a candy cane, mandarin orange, some nuts, some chocolate coins, a few Hershey's kisses and some Werther's originals. There was also a note for each child that gave praise for accomplishments and one suggestion for improvement. It's a fun way to encourage the children in their Advent efforts to be good.

The Werther's, in their gold foil wrapping have served to represent coins in the years we couldn't find any chocolate ones at the right time, and now they are part of the tradition for us. This year, thanks to Elizabeth, I found some St. Nicholas coins. Perfect!



After breakfast, we prayed our morning prayer together. Today, we read the Mass readings and the prayers for the optional memorial of St. Nicholas. To conclude our prayers, we sang Veni, veni, Emmanuel! which we are learning in Latin.

Then it was storytime. We read Demi's The Legend of Saint Nicholas, our favorite St. Nicholas book since we found it at Inklings, our favorite independent bookstore in Yakima.



At the moment, Joseph is working on finishing his St. Nicholas book, which he has been coloring and writing in this week. Today's page includes symbols of St. Nicholas, which he is to add into a picture. I found the symbol information at my favorite online St. Nicholas resource: St. Nicholas Center.

Tonight we will have a (sort of) German dinner of bratwurst, sauerkraut, potatoes, and applesauce. For dessert (yes, a mid-week dessert in honor of our favorite Saint of Advent), we will bake gingerbread this afternoon: the cake kind, served with whipped cream. This might be more southern US than German, but gingerbread seems German to me, and we all enjoy the dessert, so it works for us. It makes the house smell good, too. :-)

Reading the Jesse tree story while we eat dinner has been working much better than the years when we tried to read it before dinner with waiting, hungry children jiggling in chairs. So we will continue this way each night. We are still reading a short meditation when the wreath is lighted before our Grace Before Meals. Thanks to The Magnificat Advent Companion, the meditation relates to the Gospel of the day, which we read in our morning devotions, so the day of prayer comes full circle with the dinnertime meditation.

Hope for Unity

Saw this on Zenit today:

Orthodox Patriarch Says Unity an Obligation

Sends Message to Vatican on Feast of St. Andrew

By Miriam Diez i Bosch

ISTANBUL, Turkey, DEC. 5, 2007 ( Zenit.org).- It is an obligation to reclaim the spiritual, sacramental and doctrinal unity that Europe enjoyed prior to the schism of the East and West, said the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople.

Bartholomew I said this Friday in a letter addressed to a delegation sent by Benedict XVI to Istanbul for the regular exchange of visits between the two Churches for the feasts of St. Andrew, Nov. 30, and Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, led the delegation.

Bartholomew I affirmed the presence of the delegation "both strengthens and seals the bonds of love and trust between our Churches, bonds which have been cultivated in recent decades, and which have been especially established by the visit" of Benedict XVI in November 2006.

The patriarch also emphasized "that the peaceful coexistence of Christians, in a spirit of unity and concord, must constitute the fundamental concern of us all."

Here's a link to the full article.


Let us pray that the Eastern and Western Churches might again be united so the Church may "breathe with both lungs," as the beloved John Paul II once said we must.

Monday, December 3, 2007

A favorite book

I'm very excited to see that The Year and Our Children, by Mary Reed Newland, is back in print! When we first began to try to work toward the goal of making our home truly a domestic church, this book was instrumental in helping John and me to strengthen the Catholic culture we provided. It came to me through our parish bookstore when we lived in Baltimore. At that time, were just beginning our journey toward home education, which really began with my desire to live the liturgical year more fully at home (well that and a lot of divine pushes in this direction, which is too long a story for this post).

So hooray! I love this book's wonderful ideas and the way Mrs. Newland writes about incorporating faith into everyday life.

If you want to take a look, you can find the book here or here.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

First Sunday of Advent


Yesterday the great season of anticipation began. Over the years, we have enjoyed a lot of different Advent activities, and many have become traditions for us.

The tradition that John and I both brought with us from our families when we married is the Advent wreath. From the first year we were married, we have always had some sort of Advent wreath on our table during this season. Yesterday, we fixed up our Advent wreath at a parish workshop just in time for tonight's dinner celebration.

A family tradition that began when Tommy was small is to have an Advent calendar to help mark the time until the Feast of Christmas. We have a surfeit of Advent calendars. They are fun, though. I don't think anyone minds having three doors to open each day. The kids take turns opening the doors. They cycle through the days: from youngest to oldest this year so that Patrick will have his turn on the 20th, his 16th birthday.

Our first permanent Advent calendar was made by my youngest brother's class as a project for a craft auction/fundraiser for his Catholic middle school. I think all the parents made the ornaments. My parents gave it to us when Tommy and Patrick were small. The big boys never let me skip using this one--it's their tradition now--and I hung it in the hall outside their bedroom.


We placed our wood and magnetic Advent calendar (a gift from my parents several years ago, and my favorite) on the altar this year and the wreath in the center of the dining table.



A couple of weeks ago friends who live in Germany sent us this calendar:


It has a piece of chocolate inside each door. Yummy! This one is in the kitchen. So it's Advent all around the house.

On Saturday, Katie, Joseph, and I put away our fall table decorations and put the Advent table together. In each house, we seem to have found a different location for this table. Here, the seasonal table is in our entryway. It's the top of our shoe cabinets, so we see it many times a day as we come and go. I like the idea that it reminds us of the season as soon as we enter the house and again before we leave.


On top of the table are our Jesse tree and two smaller trees. I like to do things in threes as a reminder of the Trinity. During Advent, we usually don't decorate the smaller trees, but last year, Katie made some origami butterflies for the smallest tree, and she put them on right away this year.



We learned about the Jesse tree at our parish in Yakima and found a partial set of ornaments made of brass at the Seattle Catholic homeschool conference a few years ago. Each year, we make a couple new ornaments so that we will eventually have a complete set.



The ornaments symbolize different people in the story of salvation. It begins on the first Sunday of Advent with the tree itself, with the story of the anointing of Jesse's son, David, in the first book of Samuel (16:1-13) and the "a shoot shall grow from the root of Jesse" verses in Isaiah (11:1-10). The next night, we read about creation, with a dove as its symbol. Then the fall, with an apple and a snake. It continues with symbols like an ark for Noah, a trumpet for Gideon, wheat stalks for Ruth. We cover all of Jesus' family tree and a few others, like Moses, before we get to the end, with Bethlehem and the star. John and I hope that by the time the kids grow up, salvation history will be the most familiar of Christmas stories to them.

The ornaments for the Jesse tree are in a basket on our home altar in the dining room. That way, they are handy for carrying to the tree in the front hall after the verses are read at dinner each evening.

We enjoy celebrating the Saints of Advent during this season, too. Next week, December 13th, Katie's doll, Kirsten, will join us dressed in her Scandanavian St. Lucia costume. Katie already has her all ready to go. (Thanks to Grandmom for the beautiful, heirloom-sewn gown.)



Already on the Advent table is a statue of our beloved St. Nicholas, the protector of children, and patron of our miscarried little one, our Nicholas, who is with God. St. Nicholas always appears in the week of his feast day, December 6th.



We hung the St. Nicholas kilim from Turkey near the school table. He is carrying toys and the Christmas tree in this one, but his hat looks a bit like a miter, and surely that's a red soutane and cincture he's wearing. ;-)



In the center of the Advent table is an empty manger awaiting the Christ Child statue on Christmas morning. The children will fill it with a few pieces of hay each time they do a good deed during Advent. Since they are working hard to prepare their hearts for his arrival, Baby Jesus should have a nice, soft bed by Christmas morning.



Sometime this week, we will get the stable and nativity figures out: when John has time to climb up into the loft in the garage and retrieve them. I wasn't brave enough for that one this weekend. They will go in the living room/school room. As Advent progresses, the children usually add a figure each day or so to the nativity scene until the 3 kings arrive on the Feast of Epiphany. Usually, the kings move about the room to various shelves and tabletops throughout the Advent/Christmas season. They did have a long journey, after all. ;-)

The only unusual thing is that this year, the baby Jesus statues will have to appear while we are away on our vacation. I'll have to figure out how to work that one out. I do want the children to find them there when we arrive home. When Christmas morning comes, their first look the past few years has always been for the Baby Jesus in the manger that they have been preparing for him on the seasonal table. I suspect they will look for him when they come back in from our trip, too, even though it will be New Year's Day.

It all looks a bit bare and unfinished at this point, but that is the point. We are waiting. We are preparing our home and our hearts.



P.S. Note the Easter candle still on the altar--we are still working on our Christ candle. Preparation, remember (I have to remind myself, too :-)) It's the candle we're making each day during the novena before the Immaculate Conception. When it's made, we'll put it in the place of the Easter candle and cover it with a special cloth until Christmas, just as Jesus was hidden in Mary's womb until his birth. Then we will move it into the center of the (former) Advent wreath that will have gold bows and white candles instead of purple and pink. There it will burn brightly throughout the Christmas season.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Hope

Have you taken a look at Pope Benedict XVI's new encyclical? It came out yesterday, and WOW! I have read it once and must read it several more times before I can absorb it, but wow, is it good stuff!

Go ye and read Spe Salvi.

Great news

The surgeon called yesterday to tell me that the cyst they removed from my arm was just that: a follicular cyst. Not cancerous at all.

Thanks be to God.

Thank you everyone for your prayers. They have been a great support to all of us.

Up and Down

The posting has been a bit slim lately, and I apologize. It has to do with how I am feeling :-).

Since several of you have asked, now that the first trimester is drawing to a close, I am feeling better. The all-day-low-level nausea is fading and my pregnancy headaches are less frequent and shorter in duration. I have a bit more energy. But because of that, I have been staying off the computer and trying to catch up on all the household chores that I let slide in the past couple of months. As is usual for me, I had to figure out the hard way that I am still not back to my usual energy level. You would think I would have this figured out by now, but no, I fooled myself again.

On Wednesday, I woke up feeling great. I got up at my pre-pregnancy time in the morning, went for a walk, started the laundry, emptied the dishwasher, and took a shower before Matthew was up. I de-cluttered the entryway, taught school, and emailed the travel agent about our Christmas vacation. I did a second load of laundry--some delicates that have been sitting in the basket since before John left for England. A lady from the chapel stopped by to pick up my report on the Thanksgiving pie social expenditures. I phoned another lady to gracefully withdraw from cooking for Lifeteen each Wednesday evening (pregnancy is a great helper in my ability to say "no" to things). I cooked pasta with white sauce, shrimp and peas for dinner. Patrick and I discussed his Theology and Latin assignments. Bedtime was only about 1/2 an hour later than usual.

On Thursday morning, I couldn't get up when the alarm went off: slammed with a headache that kept me in bed well past breakfast time. Thanks be to God for my dear older children, who fed Matthew and got to work on their lessons without me. Thanks be to God for a commitment-free day and leftover sloppy joe filling in the freezer.

Today, I did a lot of driving, but not so much doing. And I'm off to bed early tonight, since Patrick and John are at an OA campout. Patrick is on the Ordeal team and has been working hard to get everything ready the last few days. They are sleeping outside tonight--with extra-warm bags and liners and tarps. It is supposed to rain or snow by morning. For their sakes, I hope it is snow!

Before bed tonight, we will begin a Novena in preparation for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I wanted to make a candle for this, but haven't been able to yet. Maybe we will work on it a little each day during the novena instead. I have to remember to relax and readjust and do what's most important, or what will mean the most to the children. I really do want to enjoy every moment of the coming season.

Tomorrow, it will be time to change our little altar and fall table for the new season: Advent. That (and more laundry) is my only plan for the day.

How are you feeling?

It's a funny thing. Most of the time when I meet someone I know at the store or church or on a field trip, she asks, "How are you?" And, unless she is someone I know well, she expects a reply of "Fine, thanks, how are you?"

But when I am pregnant, the question becomes, "How are you feeling?" And mere acquaintances expect more than the usual answer. They want to know if I'm tired or nauseous or worried or elated. It used to annoy me when the question was asked by someone I didn't know well. I tend to be introverted, and it felt like a violation of privacy somehow. I never felt this way when friends or family asked, just people who really didn't know me or whom I didn't know well.

Now, in my 7th pregnancy, I am finally seeing the light. People want to connect with a pregnant woman. They feel the mystery of the new life growing within her. They want to say something, anything (and later in pregnancy, the anything can be horrifying!!). They want to connect with the mystery.

Who can blame them? It amazes me every time, this cooperation with God in His creation. When my sister wrote to extend her congratulations, she said, "No matter how many times it happens, it's an amazing, incomprehensible miracle every time!"

She put the feelings of my heart into words.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Happy Number Seven!



Happy birthday to Joseph!

It's hard to believe that it has been seven years since you were born. I remember that morning so clearly. You came into the world at 10:03 a.m., just as your big brothers and sister finished their Sunday Mass. They had been praying for us with Jesus and the angels and Saints throughout the last hour of your birth. Your middle name had to be Dominic, which means, "of the Lord," for you were His special gift to us on His day (and every day).

We love you!


Thursday, November 22, 2007

Awww.....I wanted to be pecan

You Are Pumpkin Pie

You're the perfect combo of uniqueness and quality.
You're able to relate to many types of people with many different tastes.
But you're by no means generic or ordinary.
In fact, you're one of the most original people around.

Those who like you are looking for something (someone!) special.
You tend confuse people when they first meet you. You're not as complicated as you seem.
Even though you have a lot of spice and flavor to you, you're never overpowering.
You are a calm and comforting force in people's lives.


Anyone else?

Thankfulness

On our second Thanksgiving in Japan, I am grateful for


okay, yes, pie, I am grateful for pecan pie :-) yum!

-Vonage: phone calls with loved ones far away

-photos of our baby nephews over the internet--one of them is creeping now and we saw him on video--what joy!



-a warm house on a cold and snowy day

-heat in my van..for that matter, for my van, which starts up right away and can be parked in a garage so I no longer have to clear off snow before driving



-the laughter in my living room over a card game called "No Way"

-my sweet toddler's curly head and daily greeting, "Good morning Mommy, will you read me this 'tory?"



-my six-year-old who carefully helps his little brother in and out of his car seat so that they can ride together in the back.

-my ten-year-old daughter for everything she is, but especially for her thoughtfulness and for doing that g irl thing of seeing what needs to be done, and doing it (or reminding me about it)

-my 15-year-old son who stayed up late last night making our cranberry sauce for today, who does his school work diligently without complaining, and who plays games with his younger siblings

-my 18-year-old son who called home today, who is persevering in difficulty, who is growing so much this year, and who takes time to talk with his younger sister and brothers and to email them and keep up their relationships.



-the new life I am carrying within me--yet another miraculous gift from our loving Father

-the Daddy of all these children who lovingly cares for all of us in big and little ways

-the fact that he is not in the military and won't be deployed and can usually be here with us throughout the year

-and for the gifts of peace and time and joy and love


Monday, November 19, 2007

First Snow

We awoke this morning to this:



And this was the view that distracted the children in our living room/school room today:



Joseph was the first one out, quickly volunteering to shovel the walk. He finished the entire walk with his child-sized shovel, even though it was broken. He loves to be out in the snow.

After lunch, Katie, Joseph, and Matthew headed out for recess. Many snowballs were thrown and a snow fort begun.

Thankfully, the roads were fairly clear when I took Patrick out to his first M odel U.N. meeting this afternoon at the high school on base. At the moment I am praying a quick prayer for his safe arrival home from Boy Scouts. He rode in with our neighbor, his friend, who recently turned 18 and is able to drive off base now.

More snow is predicted in a few days so it looks like we may be in for a real Misawa winter this year. The kids are very hopeful, and even I would prefer it to the dud of a winter we had last year, with not even enough snow for snowshoeing or cross country skiing.

Time to stock up on tea and cocoa!

P.S. My arm feels well enough to get back to typing. Hooray! The stitches come out on Wednesday. I only had four, and the surgery was finished in less than an hour. Thanks be to God!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Prayers, please

For me this time. On Thursday at 2:00 p.m. our time (Wednesday at 12 midnight EST, 11 p.m. CST, 9 p.m. PST), I have to have a very minor surgery to remove a cyst (or whatever it is) from my right arm.

They use a local anesthetic and the surgery will be finished in less than an hour, so it really is very minor. I'm not looking forward to it, but it needs to be done. Even though no one thinks this is skin cancer, they will send the tissue they remove to be tested and we'll know for sure in several weeks.

Unfortunately, I will have stitches and won't be able to use my arm fully for about 2 weeks. This is going to limit my daily mom activities pretty much, so John, Patrick and Katie will have a lot of extra chores to do for a little while, including cooking our Thanksgiving dinner next week.

Now that I think about it, we all will need some prayers for patience, perseverance, and my speedy recovery over the next couple of weeks.

Thank you!!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Announcement!

John, the children, and I have some joyous news. We have a new baby on the way!

He or she should make an appearance in early June, if all goes well.

Please keep us in your prayers for good health (and a bit more energy for mom :-))

In the town of Harrogate

Harrogate is another old spa town I visited. The oldest part contains many shops, pubs and restaurants. The 18th and 19th century architecture makes a walk around worthwhile , even if you're not much of a shopper (like me).













The old train station is now a shopping mall, as in so many other places.




Not enough time in Cheltenham...

I only spent 3 work days in Cheltenham, so the only pictures I have are of the room I stayed in! You'll have to take my word for it that it's a lovely old spa town, famous for its Regency architecture and much grander than Harrogate.








Thursday, November 8, 2007

It does my heart good

A couple of days ago, as we were preparing lunch, Katie was humming Kyrie eleison. Now mind you, the humming of chant in the kitchen is not as common at our house as I wish it were. I am also very happy with what happened next.

After a few minutes, she asked, "Mom, is that in Greek?"

"Yes," I answered.

"I thought so," she said, "because Lord in Latin is domine, and I just learned in Greek that kyrios is Lord."

It's all worth it!!

John's home

Back safe home again.

He spent the afternoon at home with us, playing baseball in the yard with the kids. How happy I was to see all of them out there together again.

It's back to work for him tomorrow, but he'll have a three-day weekend for Veteran's Day, so we'll get lots of time to reconnect over the weekend.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Field Trip



It wouldn't seem like fall if we didn't find our way to an apple orchard at some point, and today was the day. A group of families from the base--homeschoolers and others--were invited to an orchard way out in the country. The drive was as lovely as the time spent in the orchard with fall color peeking out and beautiful valley views.



It took quite awhile to get to the orchard by the time we stopped to pick up Japanese friends and to meet with a group of mentally challenged young a dults who came along with us for the day.



After a couple of hours, we finally made it to our destination. It was worth the long drive. The apple orchards here are small and often tucked away in forests and up in the hills. This is very different from the large, valley orchards we were familiar with in Yakima.



We were welcomed by both owners of the orchard, who led us down to the apples and gave a demonstration of how to pick an apple without damaging the tree. In all our years in Yakima, we had never learned this trick of holding the branch just above the apple stem and turning the apple upside-down. Off it comes, "pop".



Finally, we were set loose to pick Fuji and Golden Delicious apples to our hearts' content. With visions of apple crisp and apple pie in our heads, Katie, Joseph, Matthew, and I picked two large bags of beautiful fruit.



The generous orchard owners gave each person three apples as a gift, and we bought the rest. We had all taken gifts of baked goods and other items to give to them. In Japan, the giving of gifts is truly an art: one that I have not mastered. Thankfully, the Japanese people we have met have been very patient with our American blunders.



Before coming home with our treasures, we were served a delicious soup made by one of the orchard owners. Typical of Japanese soups, it contained long noodles and many vegetables, delicious mush rooms, and the squishy breadlike stuff that I can never identify, in a miso broth. During lunch, we learned that the gentleman who made the soup had made or grown every ingredient himself. A special gift for us. And totemo oishi des! The best treats of all were the wild mush rooms served along with the soup and the apple cider we were given to drink. Matthew slurped up his noodles as well as anyone and ate some stewed apples, which one of the Japanese interpreters stuck onto a chopstick for him, sort of like a lollypop. I wish I had taken the camera in when we ate lunch. He had a terrific time eating the apples from the chopstick.



After lunch, we started home, unsure of the way and a bit nervous. With help from Holly, another homeschooling mom who rode with me, who saw the sign at just the right moment, we found our way to the toll road. What had been a 2 hour journey on back roads in the morning, became a 45-minute ride home on the toll road in the afternoon. Thanks be to God. We had a wonderful day, but we were tired and ready to get back home.



How nice it was to get out into the autumn sunshine, breath the fresh country air, and return home safely to savor the scent of baking apples in our crispy dinner dessert!

Monday, November 5, 2007

Wells, England

On the way from Bude to Cheltenham, I stopped in Wells to see the cathedral and the old town. It was good to take a break from the driving as I tended to make at least two wrong turns every time I went somewhere.


Construction on the cathedral was begun in the 12th century and lasted for about 200 hundred years. There are many sarcophagi inside containing the remains of bishops from those early years in the building's history.

Our Anglican brothers and sisters are now caring for the cathedral and associated buildings. They are in the midst of a 6 million pound effort to restore the cloisters and make the buildings more accessible. May their work help to bring about a restoration of the unity in the Church for which we all pray.



A gate leading to the Bishop's Palace and the Cathedral








The moat around the Bishop's Palace







Well's Cathedral







Statues on the front of the cathedral







Inside the cathedral (notice the unusual inverted arch)







Madonna and Child



Stained glass windows








More stained glass








Unusual stained glass window








A street near the cathedral



One of the houses on the "Chimney Street"