House Hunting

The Bennett's are officially house hunting.  We have decided to get our house ready to sell.  I love my house, I have mixed feelings on leaving it.  We bought this house to live in and raise our family.  I readied two rooms in this house to bring home two babies.  As the years have passed we find ourselves wanting a little more room and a little space.  We will stay in the area but will hopefully move westward.  There is one community that we love where the kids could fish and swim, where mom could workout and take the kids to the community park.  We'll see what happens but for right now we are looking.  It's fun to look and hard to leave at the same time.

The Third Day of Christmas

Today is the third day of the twelve days of Christmas.  Recently I had the pleasure of listening to a local Baylor professor, Michael Foley, lecture on the topic of the Twelve Days of Christmas.  He was invited to speak to my Moms group and the Women's society at our church by a friend of mine.  He was brilliant and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.  I was enlightened and walked away with many new ways to celebrate not only Christ birth but ways to celebrate all the way to Epiphany.

That being said today is the Third day of Christmas and we honor St. John the Evangelist, the Beloved Disciple feast day.  A good way to celebrate today is to make St. John's wine.  Below is the prayer and recipe for St. John's wine from the Catholic Cookbook, by William Kaufman.

St. John's Wine

1 quart red wine
3 whole cloves
1/16 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 two-inch cinnamon sticks
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar

Pour the wine into a large saucepan.  Add the remaining ingredients.  Boil for 5 minutes.  Serve hot. 8-10 servings.

The Prayer

Let us pray. Deign to bless and to consecrate with Thy right hand, O Lord God, this cup of wine and of whatever drink; and grant that all who believe in Thee and who drink from this cup may be blessed and protected through the merits of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist.  And just as blessed John drank poison from a cup and remained completely unharmed, so too may all who on this day in honor of the blessed John drink from this cup be freed by his merits from every malady of poison and from all harmful things whatsoever; and, offering themselves up in body and soul, may they be delivered from every fault.  Through Christ our Lord.

R: Amen

Bless, O Lord, this created drink, that it may be a salutary remedy for all who consume it: and grant through the invocation of Thy Holy Name that whoever tastes of it may, by your leave, receive as much health of the soul as of the body.  Through Christ our Lord.

R: Amen

And may the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, descend upon this created wine and whatever drink, and remain forever.

R: Amen

Later that night, the wine is poured into everyone's glass before dinner.  The father then takes his glass, touches it to the mother's and says, "I drink to you the love of St. John," to which the mother replies, "I thank you for the love of St. John."  Both take a sip before the mother turns to the oldest child and repeats the ritual, at which point the child turns to the next oldest, etc.  The last one to receive St. John's  love gives it back to the father, thus closing the family circle.

Happy Third Day of Christmas everyone!

Veni Jesu

Midnight one night was still,

Heaven was whitening a hill;

Dark floundered in the wave of morn,

Infinite Infancy was born.

Eternal power sank below,

A frail white miracle of snow.

Eternal Wonder left the skies

And dwindled into two soft eyes,

Child limbs that could not reach,

Child lips that knew no speech

Spoken-save the murmurings heard

From breathing beast, wind and bird.

The unbeginning God began

To live the long slow hours of man.

His Mother, bending her fair head,

Straw-gathering--she laid His bed.

A whirling star-world came and halted

Above a blown-roofed, low, thatch-vaulted

Cave-Ah! are we not agreed

'Twas piteous royalty indeed!

-Fr. Leonard Feeney, MICM

Merry Baking

Today I did some merry baking with my little elves.

Michael and Kathryn both love to help in the kitchen but Michel is my baker.  Kathryn would rather help cook a proper meal.

This is Michael's finished creation

Kathryn added toothpicks, the natural choice for most bakers.

These are sickeningly sweet creations!

Merry Christmas everyone.

Merry Christmas

Feeling good because I've got our Christmas cards done early this year.   Well earlier than usual anyway.  What do you think?  Love my pretty babies.

Merry Christmas!

With Love Chartreuse Christmas 5x7 folded card

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Who'd have thought it would have been the socks!

Last week was a very bad, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. It started on Monday when I silently let a certain burden come over me that caused me to check-out emotionally from my life. It didn't help that I was riding a hormonal roller coaster that week also.

I let everything go. The house was a wreck and I hadn't been to the grocery store so we were living on crumbs.

Then, by Wednesday my daughter came down sick. I spent several sleep deprived days watching over her, checking on her in the middle of the night, medicating her so that she would not have a seizure.

Thursday my husband brought it to my attention that my son had missed his soccer game. Now the truth of the matter is I just plain forgot he had a game. For weeks I had been thinking it was on Friday. I felt horrible that I let him down. I was off the hook because Kathryn was sick and there was no way I could get him there but I knew the truth. I JUST FORGOT.

Then the completely RIDICULOUS happened.

Friday, about 6:30 in the morning I was getting ready so I could take my daughter to the doctor when my husband came in.

He said very innocently to his sleep deprived, hormonal, emotionally checked-out wife: "Do I have any socks in the dryer?"

I'm thinking to myself, How would I know I checked-out on Monday. But I said "I don't know why?"

He said "I've been out of socks for four days and I've been wearing yours."

***(disclaimer: my husband never complains, and always helps when I need him to)***

My first response was to burst into wailing sobs. My second response was to say through wailing, grinding and gnashing of teeth. "I da da da don't know wh wh what to tell you. If you're out of socks wa wa wash some!"

There he stood like a deer in headlights, having no idea what is happening. I could see that he was thinking if he stood still enough he might actually become invisible.

Who knew that socks would send me careening over the edge of reason. But I mean really, can't a girl get a shout out on day one! All I can say is it's a good thing he didn't run out of underwear!

Can you imagine?

No rest for the weary

This has been a long hard week. My head aches, my bones are tired, my patience is thin. My heart aches for things longed for and groans for heartaches of others. It is my fervent prayer that this will end soon. My household will be thankful for its end. There are lessons to be learned if I have the ears to hear, the eyes to see and the heart to accept His will. But for now there is no rest for the weary, I must endure and rely on God's grace to get me through.