I have been thinking a lot lately about the way that I express myself on social media. I am an introvert, so while I do have social interaction in person, I probably do more socializing on the internet on a daily basis than face to face. The thing is, I pretty much am the same way no matter which situation I am in. I haven't yet decided if that is a good thing or a bad thing. In personal situations, there are things like body language to read, and tone which can be more easily understood when you are standing a couple of feet from someone, and there is also the fact that if I say something completely off the wall, the person may actually forget it.
Obviously, social media is different. Words last and they are there forever. Unless you delete them, which I am not a fan of. I am a believer of standing by my words, even if that means I have to go back and explain relentlessly if something is misunderstood. I think it's a good thing though. People here on earth may forget my words, or misunderstand my words, or even use my words in a negative way towards me, but there is One who exists who knows not just all my words (spoken and typed out on the internet), but the true intentions of my heart that go along with those words. I can choose to delete anything I post, but God still knows what I said, and there is some major accountability going on there that will last long past the age of the internet.
All that being said, I just basically have a pretty transparent personality. I've been through too much in my life and know that life is just way too short and too precious for me to be concerned with appearances. I don't get the draw of appearances at all. Are people concerned with appearances because they want others to like them? I figure if you don't like me, that's fine, I'd rather know up front and honestly, and be done with the pretenses. One of the things I have discovered as I have aged is that not everyone is going to like everyone else and that is a-okay. Some people just have personality clashes. I have met people that I really want to like, but I just don't. That isn't to say I am rude to them or have no use for them, it's not like that at all, it just means that I am never going to be bff's with them. I really do try to value everyone, and I do believe that in most cases, everyone has something valuable that we can learn from and that can enrich our lives, even if it just an opportunity to pray for someone else that really rubs us the wrong way. I have also met people I really didn't want to like, and I ended up really liking them a lot and being surprised at how different they were from my first impression.
I seem to lack an ability to temper myself depending on which category of person I am interacting with. I am just as open with a total stranger as I am with someone I've known for most of my life. I am pretty much an open book. If you ask me, I will tell you, and I will probably share way more than you really wanted to know to begin with. It doesn't matter to me if you are a friend of a friend on facebook, or a relative, or someone I have regular phone coffee dates with. I tell it like it is, at least as it relates to myself.
Some people see this as a negative. I know there is such a thing as over-sharing, and I know that I tend to get long-winded, but I just think, what if one thing I say makes one person feel better today? Is it worth it then? I'd like to think so, but maybe that's not true. Some important people in my life don't understand why I am so open and why I share so much and they are the complete opposite of me when it comes to what they feel is an appropriate level of sharing.
Me? I love sharing but I also LOVE being shared with. I love hearing peoples stories from all walks of life. I know it sounds incredibly naive, but I truly do believe we can learn something from absolutely every single person we come into contact with. Other people fascinate me. The human condition fascinates me. I love hearing about how people function in their situations and how they come to decisions they've made and their opinions on all things and really, I am just fascinated with knowing people's stories. We all have a story. I want to know yours and I sit enthralled when I meet people like me who share without any preconceived purpose other than to share. To me, it's almost like trading tips. You never know what someone else knows that might help you out. I have learned some pretty random things through various social media interactions that have really changed my life and the way I live. I think it helps me to be a kinder person as well. You really never know what someone is going through, and I try to always keep that in mind when I see someone else. It makes me look like an absolute cheeseball, I know, when I see a grumpy looking person at the grocery store and I smile at them and tell them hello, or when I strike up a conversation in line at the pharmacy with someone who looks lonely. I am an introvert, and these things are typically usually against my nature, but there are times when I feel compelled to because, what if, what if it brightens their day? What if they've been in a cranky mood all day and haven't been able to have a decent conversation? What if they are feeling incredibly and utterly alone in the world and me commenting on their purse makes them feel better? There have been plenty of times when a strangers comment or smile has really changed my entire outlook.
I sometimes wonder if my sharing is too much though. Maybe I am one of those annoyingly talky people who you wish would just shut up. I know I tend to talk like a fire hose, expelling a steady stream that can be overwhelming. I try to be aware of that and make an effort to be a better listener. Maybe I am one of those people that others see and think "loooooony!" in their heads. There are several times in the last few weeks I have caught myself getting ready to share something and then have backspaced and deleted thinking, oh, that's probably over-sharing. And then I wonder when I started being concerned with over-sharing. I think it depends on what is currently going on in my life.
Right now I feel like I am finally exiting the end of a long dark tunnel. In the darkest of the tunnel, I was afraid to share because I felt very fragile and vulnerable and too thin-skinned to take much criticism. Coming out the other end, I have felt almost euphoric about sharing, maybe because I forgot how beautiful it is to be in the light and I want everyone to know. I really can't seem to find a rhyme or reason that is exact, just a possible loose pattern.
I don't think I will ever stop being so transparent. Whether it is refreshing or getting old, I don't think I know how to not be this way, so for good or for bad, it is what it is.
I'd love to know your thoughts. Transparency, a good thing, a bad thing, or just a thing?
Monday, April 13, 2015
Bits and Bobs - Week of April 5
I decided I am going to make a weekly post of random things that captured my attention in one way or another throughout each week. This will be a true random mishmash of stuff, things I find humorous, poignant, touching, mind-numbing, religious, mundane, all sorts of things, and in no particular order.
- We are doing the Divine Mercy Novena this week. Something we read tonight just really struck me. Tonight's prayer was for heretics and schismatics. There was a part that said something along the lines of when they tore apart my heart, my church. Yes, we the Church, we are the heart of Christ. I guess I knew that, but it just really hit me for some reason. Also the part about not looking at their wrongs, but looking at them and realizing they also belong in the compassionate heart of Christ. Food for thought.
- This week, Easter Mass was just amazing. I've been grumpy and out of sorts more often than not lately. I am typically a pretty positive person and usually can easily find the good in almost any situation or person. I am a bit of a Pollyanna and always try to see something positive in everything. I have been more like the Grinch as of late. Lent has been extremely challenging and I really have felt chewed up, dried up and spit out. I have been parched and I had no idea how much the joy of Easter would be so profound as it has been for me this year. We typically attend Latin Mass, but the girls were singing in the children's choir at the 10:30 NO Mass (English for those who don't know). In Latin Mass, we do not talk (except for prayers at the end) and we don't respond verbally and there is a lot of quiet and it is very contemplative. I am an easily distracted person, so this is good for me. It helps me keep focus. In a louder, busy (especially for a major Holy Day) Mass, it is easy for me to get side tracked by any number of things, and as horrible as it is, I have to really fight sometimes to not get annoyed (not so much with others, as with myself). This year, there was a Vietnamese gentleman sitting behind me. When we started singing the first hymn, he started singing, super loud and slightly off key. And you know what? It was AWESOME! I was so blessed to be standing in front of him and I thanked God right then and there. I needed that. It was dry, there was no Alleluia in Lent and now, finally we could
saysing Alleluia and he was doing it so loudly and joyfully. It just struck me over and over again during Mass, the beauty of all of us coming together to celebrate on that blessed Holy Day of Easter.
- We came out to van after being out and about one evening this week and there was a paper stuck under the rear windshield wiper. It was starting to sprinkle and we were hurrying to van and we both got grumbly about someone sticking some trash under there for us to have to take care of. I walked up and grabbed it. It was this:
I wish I had been able to find who left it so I could give him or her a great hug. This really brought a smile to each of our faces and it really touched me. - Great food! The week was full of tasty dishes. Granted, I am currently on round two of steroids, so I have an unhealthy obsession with food right now. My favorites were an Italian tuna sandwich with capers and lemon along side of some of my mom's recipe cucumber salad. The second meal is a tasty new york strip steak, fresh sliced tomatoes and roasted cabbage. Yumm-O!
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Re-cap of the past year!
Obviously, I haven't blogged in a long long time. The last time was last year in March. Things were going okay, then we had a no good very bad day. Juliette had a seizure at morning Mass. The world just sort of tilted off axis at that point and it really hasn't slowed down much since. Blogging just became non-existent. I actually had started a post last year after it was over, but I never was able to finish it. I just read it a minute ago, the part I had written out. Wow. I honestly don't even want to finish it. It is very intensive since I wrote it shortly after it happened, so it was all very real and very fresh. It was just too much re-living to write it and so I just stopped and it sits unfinished. So much has happened the last year. I will try to do a quick run down (possibly out of order because after a while things kind of run into each other) just to catch up, but not a lot in the way of details.
Mostly, we have had one medical drama after another after another since the seizure. It has been super crazy. We have hit our catastrophic cap two years in a row now. Oy. It has felt like once we recover from one crazy thing, another happens. We have lived so much in recovery mode, that it sometimes feels like actual living has been pushed to the side. This year has pretty much kept up pace. God has done some crazy amazing things in my way of life and living and He is still doing some crazy things. As always, I am a HUGE work in progress, and I am learning to live with a bit of a different reality than the one I had. It is definitely a learning process. Anyway, here's a basic rundown of the past year and that will bring me current so hopefully I can get back to writing again.
March 2014 near the end of the month - we decide to start attending daily Mass again as a family. Jules passes out and has a seizure in the middle of Mass, losing bladder control. Definitely ranks up there with my most terrifying parenting moments. She spent 3 days in All Children's Hospital and they never could figure out what set her off. Just a crazy syncope episode and her body decided to turn itself off and on again.
May 2014 - Evy starts having oral allergic reactions to a crap ton of foods. Take her to allergist and get epi-pen and test and lo and behold, my little pumpkin tested positive to 50 freaking different things! She is basically allergic to Florida. No open windows for us, it's A/C all the time (to keep down on moisture and prevent the mold that she is also allergic to). All the abundance of fresh fruit? Yep, cut down on that drastically since she can't eat half of it. Most notable are her allergies to apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, avocados and her beloved beloved bananas. If it can be cooked, she can usually eat it cooked, but not raw. We have found banana bread okay, but still haven't found a good banana pudding she can tolerate. She can actually eat the banana flavored smooshed-up-baby-food-fruit-in-a pouch-nasty-things-made-for-toddlers-not-big-girls that I hate buying (along with canned fruit) but for fresh fruits it's pretty much berries and grapes. And citrus, but she's not a big fan of that. We already knew about the peanuts but confirmed that she hasn't outgrown it. This year we have added crab and shrimp and........fresh parsley.........to the mix. Seriously, who is allergic to parsley? That delicious homemade chimichurri sauce? No go for her.
June 2014 - Hannah went to Italy. Awesome pilgrimage trip for her. Life changing. While she was there she had an almost passy outy episode a couple of times. They were hiking, she was probably dehydrated, blah blah blah. It happened again when she got home, so I took her in. I figured it was blood sugar problems. Then she had a concerning EKG.
July 2014 -Now she has her very own cardiologist. She has a heart problem that really isn't a heart problem. It's a vagal nerve problem. Look up POTS. She basically has POTS but they aren't calling it POTS because it isn't as severe. It's really a milder form of POTS. Basically, she can (and will) pass out at any given moment if her body decides whatever is going on is too much. It can be walking, laughing too hard, standing up too quickly, being startled, exercising, whatever. She has had days where she can't even get out of bed to do her school work because just sitting up gives her such bad chest pains and palpitations. She can't get her license yet because driving when you can pass out at any time without warning isn't such a great idea. She wears out super easily and if she has a busy day planned, she needs to cushion it with non-busy days. It has cut into her teen life quite a bit, but she is an awesome and amazing trooper and she is so strong and such a great witness to God's strength and love and has such perseverance and fortitude. Love that girl! She is now on beta blockers like an old person. Some of the older Knights of Columbus in my husband's council got a kick out of her being on the same medication as they are! The pills make her seriously tired and basically she can't function awake on them, so when she has bad days or episodes, she has to take an extra pill and basically is a puddle for the day.
August 2014 - Jules has emergency appendectomy! My tough girl with a super high pain tolerance told me one evening that her side had been hurting her all day but she didn't want to be a bother, but it had gotten so bad she couldn't stand up straight so decided to tell me. This is my aspergers girl, so if you know aspergers, you can probably picture this perfectly in your brain. I suspected appendix and we take her to the ER and yep! The thing is, no one here will do surgery on a pediatric patient. So, after her first ambulance ride with the seizure, she got to have another one going from the local hospital back to All Children's where she got to have her rotting body part removed and stay an extra night due to infection.
September 2014 - Sophia starts having hip and knee pain. She has GHD and with her treatment and rapid growth that can happen, one of the things to watch out for is slipped growth plates. We were worried so we took her to see her doctor and they did an X-ray and an MRI. The MRI showed a cyst/tumor in/on her hip. She named it Bob. It looked benign and after a shot of tordol and spending a week off of it, the pain subsided. *** it has currently been causing her pain again more frequently, and she has another MRI tomorrow and an ortho appointment next week ***
November 2014 - My one remaining ovary decided to be unkind and pop out a cyst. The cyst was growing and causing me a lot of pain. I tried to wait it out.
December 2014 - I did my first 5K! (sorry, had to throw that in there, but it was a huge accomplishment for me especially since I did it with the ovarian cyst and a recurring kidney infection)
January 2015 - I had surgery to remove the ovarian cyst, since waiting it out didn't improve it. Silly dopey ovary was hiding out behind my intestines, so it had to be put back in its place. Adhesions were also removed, along with the remaining fallopean tube. Thankfully this was all done via laparoscope, which was a relief after having had a long icky recovery from my hysterectomy which was not able to be done via laparoscope.
February 2015 - I had emergency gallbladder surgery. Just a couple of weeks after the cyst removal surgery. My body was not happy with back to back surgeries, and my health basically took a huge dump after this.
That brings us to now. My health still isn't back full force. I am in the middle of a nasty autoimmune flare up and my TSH is pretty high which is keeping me feeling very foggy headed. I just finished a round of steroids that did wonders for me and I didn't realize the quality of life I was lacking until I wasn't lacking it anymore. The mystery rash that faded along with the steroids is now coming back. No clue what is up with that. My new reality is that I am dealing with a chronic autoimmune issue (I have Hashimoto's for starters) and I am not as healthy as I once was. I am navigating these waters and trying to learn to swim with the currents rather than fight against them, which is what I have been doing up until now and which has been backfiring madly on me. So if I seem off, or scatter brained or whatever, there is likely a legitimate reason for it. I fear that I come across as a huge flake, but I truly cannot help it. This is my life.
Now that you are caught up on all the life-changing events of the past year, I hope to move on and be able to write more exciting things!
Mostly, we have had one medical drama after another after another since the seizure. It has been super crazy. We have hit our catastrophic cap two years in a row now. Oy. It has felt like once we recover from one crazy thing, another happens. We have lived so much in recovery mode, that it sometimes feels like actual living has been pushed to the side. This year has pretty much kept up pace. God has done some crazy amazing things in my way of life and living and He is still doing some crazy things. As always, I am a HUGE work in progress, and I am learning to live with a bit of a different reality than the one I had. It is definitely a learning process. Anyway, here's a basic rundown of the past year and that will bring me current so hopefully I can get back to writing again.
March 2014 near the end of the month - we decide to start attending daily Mass again as a family. Jules passes out and has a seizure in the middle of Mass, losing bladder control. Definitely ranks up there with my most terrifying parenting moments. She spent 3 days in All Children's Hospital and they never could figure out what set her off. Just a crazy syncope episode and her body decided to turn itself off and on again.
May 2014 - Evy starts having oral allergic reactions to a crap ton of foods. Take her to allergist and get epi-pen and test and lo and behold, my little pumpkin tested positive to 50 freaking different things! She is basically allergic to Florida. No open windows for us, it's A/C all the time (to keep down on moisture and prevent the mold that she is also allergic to). All the abundance of fresh fruit? Yep, cut down on that drastically since she can't eat half of it. Most notable are her allergies to apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, avocados and her beloved beloved bananas. If it can be cooked, she can usually eat it cooked, but not raw. We have found banana bread okay, but still haven't found a good banana pudding she can tolerate. She can actually eat the banana flavored smooshed-up-baby-food-fruit-in-a pouch-nasty-things-made-for-toddlers-not-big-girls that I hate buying (along with canned fruit) but for fresh fruits it's pretty much berries and grapes. And citrus, but she's not a big fan of that. We already knew about the peanuts but confirmed that she hasn't outgrown it. This year we have added crab and shrimp and........fresh parsley.........to the mix. Seriously, who is allergic to parsley? That delicious homemade chimichurri sauce? No go for her.
June 2014 - Hannah went to Italy. Awesome pilgrimage trip for her. Life changing. While she was there she had an almost passy outy episode a couple of times. They were hiking, she was probably dehydrated, blah blah blah. It happened again when she got home, so I took her in. I figured it was blood sugar problems. Then she had a concerning EKG.
July 2014 -Now she has her very own cardiologist. She has a heart problem that really isn't a heart problem. It's a vagal nerve problem. Look up POTS. She basically has POTS but they aren't calling it POTS because it isn't as severe. It's really a milder form of POTS. Basically, she can (and will) pass out at any given moment if her body decides whatever is going on is too much. It can be walking, laughing too hard, standing up too quickly, being startled, exercising, whatever. She has had days where she can't even get out of bed to do her school work because just sitting up gives her such bad chest pains and palpitations. She can't get her license yet because driving when you can pass out at any time without warning isn't such a great idea. She wears out super easily and if she has a busy day planned, she needs to cushion it with non-busy days. It has cut into her teen life quite a bit, but she is an awesome and amazing trooper and she is so strong and such a great witness to God's strength and love and has such perseverance and fortitude. Love that girl! She is now on beta blockers like an old person. Some of the older Knights of Columbus in my husband's council got a kick out of her being on the same medication as they are! The pills make her seriously tired and basically she can't function awake on them, so when she has bad days or episodes, she has to take an extra pill and basically is a puddle for the day.
August 2014 - Jules has emergency appendectomy! My tough girl with a super high pain tolerance told me one evening that her side had been hurting her all day but she didn't want to be a bother, but it had gotten so bad she couldn't stand up straight so decided to tell me. This is my aspergers girl, so if you know aspergers, you can probably picture this perfectly in your brain. I suspected appendix and we take her to the ER and yep! The thing is, no one here will do surgery on a pediatric patient. So, after her first ambulance ride with the seizure, she got to have another one going from the local hospital back to All Children's where she got to have her rotting body part removed and stay an extra night due to infection.
September 2014 - Sophia starts having hip and knee pain. She has GHD and with her treatment and rapid growth that can happen, one of the things to watch out for is slipped growth plates. We were worried so we took her to see her doctor and they did an X-ray and an MRI. The MRI showed a cyst/tumor in/on her hip. She named it Bob. It looked benign and after a shot of tordol and spending a week off of it, the pain subsided. *** it has currently been causing her pain again more frequently, and she has another MRI tomorrow and an ortho appointment next week ***
November 2014 - My one remaining ovary decided to be unkind and pop out a cyst. The cyst was growing and causing me a lot of pain. I tried to wait it out.
December 2014 - I did my first 5K! (sorry, had to throw that in there, but it was a huge accomplishment for me especially since I did it with the ovarian cyst and a recurring kidney infection)
January 2015 - I had surgery to remove the ovarian cyst, since waiting it out didn't improve it. Silly dopey ovary was hiding out behind my intestines, so it had to be put back in its place. Adhesions were also removed, along with the remaining fallopean tube. Thankfully this was all done via laparoscope, which was a relief after having had a long icky recovery from my hysterectomy which was not able to be done via laparoscope.
February 2015 - I had emergency gallbladder surgery. Just a couple of weeks after the cyst removal surgery. My body was not happy with back to back surgeries, and my health basically took a huge dump after this.
That brings us to now. My health still isn't back full force. I am in the middle of a nasty autoimmune flare up and my TSH is pretty high which is keeping me feeling very foggy headed. I just finished a round of steroids that did wonders for me and I didn't realize the quality of life I was lacking until I wasn't lacking it anymore. The mystery rash that faded along with the steroids is now coming back. No clue what is up with that. My new reality is that I am dealing with a chronic autoimmune issue (I have Hashimoto's for starters) and I am not as healthy as I once was. I am navigating these waters and trying to learn to swim with the currents rather than fight against them, which is what I have been doing up until now and which has been backfiring madly on me. So if I seem off, or scatter brained or whatever, there is likely a legitimate reason for it. I fear that I come across as a huge flake, but I truly cannot help it. This is my life.
Now that you are caught up on all the life-changing events of the past year, I hope to move on and be able to write more exciting things!
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Part Reveal and What I've Been Up To
I hinted at some big news for my oldest daughter a few posts back. I am still not releasing major details in such a public place, but she is going on a big trip this summer. It is out of the country and she has the opportunity to go on an amazing faith-filled pilgrimage. This is a huge blessing for her, and I am beyond excited for her.
Part of her job is to fund raise for some of her expenses, mainly her food costs, and anything she raises beyond that will go to help another young person join on this pilgrimage. She has been baking up a storm this past week, and she is selling home made bread after Mass. She is going to be making some cookies as well, to sell at a later date. We are hoping her baked goods will sell well. She makes these amazing better-than-otis-spunkmeyer chocolate chip cookies, big ones, that she will probably sell. (FYI, these can be shipped if you are interested, lol!) She really is a great baker.
To help her along, I decided to try my hand at some embroidery. I have done dish towels before and they've come out well, so I decided to embroider some Catholic Saint dolls. I saw a design I liked for the first one online, and I ended up drawing it out myself. After that first one, I drew out all the rest by looking at various pictures of the Saint. I think they came out really cute. We are selling them for $20 each. Every cent goes to help Mini Me on her trip. If you are interested, please let me know. Below are pictures of the ones I have already made up. I have a drawing already made for Saint Kateri, and I have plans for other Saints as well. If you are interested and you don't see a Saint you like, let me know! I am confident I can work one up. If you know someone who may be interested, please share this with them. Our goal is to get her food cost raised by Easter. (I think these would make adorable Easter basket fillers!) Without being on Facebook right now, my audience is rather limited. I am counting on my friends and family to help spread the word along for this amazing experience for Mini Me, and other youth as well! Please share as much as you can. Thank you!
Part of her job is to fund raise for some of her expenses, mainly her food costs, and anything she raises beyond that will go to help another young person join on this pilgrimage. She has been baking up a storm this past week, and she is selling home made bread after Mass. She is going to be making some cookies as well, to sell at a later date. We are hoping her baked goods will sell well. She makes these amazing better-than-otis-spunkmeyer chocolate chip cookies, big ones, that she will probably sell. (FYI, these can be shipped if you are interested, lol!) She really is a great baker.
To help her along, I decided to try my hand at some embroidery. I have done dish towels before and they've come out well, so I decided to embroider some Catholic Saint dolls. I saw a design I liked for the first one online, and I ended up drawing it out myself. After that first one, I drew out all the rest by looking at various pictures of the Saint. I think they came out really cute. We are selling them for $20 each. Every cent goes to help Mini Me on her trip. If you are interested, please let me know. Below are pictures of the ones I have already made up. I have a drawing already made for Saint Kateri, and I have plans for other Saints as well. If you are interested and you don't see a Saint you like, let me know! I am confident I can work one up. If you know someone who may be interested, please share this with them. Our goal is to get her food cost raised by Easter. (I think these would make adorable Easter basket fillers!) Without being on Facebook right now, my audience is rather limited. I am counting on my friends and family to help spread the word along for this amazing experience for Mini Me, and other youth as well! Please share as much as you can. Thank you!
Saint Anthony
St. Bernadette
St. Clare
St. Francis
St. Therese
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Being the Mom This Time
My childhood growing up was so different from the childhood of my daughters. I grew up and lived in the same house until I got married. My girls have grown up mostly in an Army family, moving every few years. I went to school with the same kids pretty much from elementary school up through high school. My girls, well, they are home schooled, but they have lived in several different places, and have never had the experience of growing up around the same people. I grew up around lots of family and spent lots of time with cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. We haven't lived near family since Mini Me was a baby, and have lived pretty far from most family. I have always felt connected to my mom and have delighted in passing on family traditions to my girls, but I haven't really had any one experience that has struck me until this weekend.
This Saturday, my older three girls had their first choir festival. Since we home school, this is something that they haven't had through public schooling the way I did. We are blessed that our parish has a wonderful and amazing children's choir director, and my girls have really enjoyed being a part of it this year. On Saturday, we dropped them off, and it brought to mind all the choir festivals that I attended in my middle and high school years. They were to rehearse all day, songs they had learned on their own, with several other choirs from all around Florida. In the afternoon, they would have a choral prelude singing alone and with the other choirs, and then sing during Mass as well.
I sat there in the church listening to the choir with my daughters singing, and it just suddenly struck me. I thought of all those times I had been the girl in the choir, singing and having my mom sitting in the audience listening to me, and later telling me how beautiful we sounded, and how proud of me she was. This time, I was the mom sitting in the audience listening to my daughters. It was such an amazing and touching experience. I am so proud of them, and it made my heart ache to not be able to share the experience with my mom. I got misty-eyed sitting there and I just closed my eyes and listened and said a thank you prayer to God for giving me the honor and privilege of being the mom this time.
This Saturday, my older three girls had their first choir festival. Since we home school, this is something that they haven't had through public schooling the way I did. We are blessed that our parish has a wonderful and amazing children's choir director, and my girls have really enjoyed being a part of it this year. On Saturday, we dropped them off, and it brought to mind all the choir festivals that I attended in my middle and high school years. They were to rehearse all day, songs they had learned on their own, with several other choirs from all around Florida. In the afternoon, they would have a choral prelude singing alone and with the other choirs, and then sing during Mass as well.
I sat there in the church listening to the choir with my daughters singing, and it just suddenly struck me. I thought of all those times I had been the girl in the choir, singing and having my mom sitting in the audience listening to me, and later telling me how beautiful we sounded, and how proud of me she was. This time, I was the mom sitting in the audience listening to my daughters. It was such an amazing and touching experience. I am so proud of them, and it made my heart ache to not be able to share the experience with my mom. I got misty-eyed sitting there and I just closed my eyes and listened and said a thank you prayer to God for giving me the honor and privilege of being the mom this time.
Monday, March 24, 2014
My Bashful Birthday Girl
My littlest girly, my Gift, turned 8 yesterday. Unless you know her well, or have spent a lot of time with her, she is pretty quiet. It takes a while for her to open up and talk to people these days, especially grown ups. She is going through a bashful phase. I see it with some of her little friends, who also tend to be on the bashful side, and it is amusing to see them being bashful to each other. The moms say, "Did you tell your friend hello?" And the girls say quietly, almost in a whisper, "I did." And the girls smile at each other and want to talk, but they are bashful. It's quite cute.
The youth leader in our church passed out boxes for the kids to collect money for the poor in Haiti. This leader has traveled there before, and has collected items for the kids and women there. Gift has added money to the box from her piggy bank, and all the members of the family have also chipped in here and there. Last weekend, she had this bright idea: "I know!! I know what I can do!! I can stand outside of church, after Mass, and ring a bell, you know, like they do at Christmas with the red buckets, and I can say, "Help for Haiti!" and ring my bell, and people can put money in my box. And next Sunday will be the perfect day, because it is my birthday!" I told her she would have to talk to the youth leader to get permission, and she was very excited about doing so.
This kind of surprised me, because, as a bashful girl, she doesn't like to be up front and center on anything. It took me a long while to even get her to talk to the youth leader, and getting her to talk to other grown ups has been difficult. I encouraged her, and then honestly, I forgot all about it. After Mass last Sunday, she ran out the door to find the youth leader and share her idea. The leader took Gift right away to talk to our priest to ask permission. She asked Father and after a silly joke, which had to be cleared up because she was utterly confused, he said she could do it.
Flash forward to this past Sunday, on her 8th birthday, my little gift couldn't wait to go to Mass, so she could ring her bell after and collect money for the children in Haiti. She stood there quite stiffly, rang her bell whenever anyone came up to the church, and smiled her bashful smile, and even answered other adults when they asked what she was raising money for. I am so utterly proud of her. She looked so uncomfortable, but she stuck it out, and my mama heart is proud of her for doing something even though it was hard to help someone else.
She raised enough money to get clean drinking water for a school, but most importantly, she lifted her mommy's heart.
The youth leader in our church passed out boxes for the kids to collect money for the poor in Haiti. This leader has traveled there before, and has collected items for the kids and women there. Gift has added money to the box from her piggy bank, and all the members of the family have also chipped in here and there. Last weekend, she had this bright idea: "I know!! I know what I can do!! I can stand outside of church, after Mass, and ring a bell, you know, like they do at Christmas with the red buckets, and I can say, "Help for Haiti!" and ring my bell, and people can put money in my box. And next Sunday will be the perfect day, because it is my birthday!" I told her she would have to talk to the youth leader to get permission, and she was very excited about doing so.
This kind of surprised me, because, as a bashful girl, she doesn't like to be up front and center on anything. It took me a long while to even get her to talk to the youth leader, and getting her to talk to other grown ups has been difficult. I encouraged her, and then honestly, I forgot all about it. After Mass last Sunday, she ran out the door to find the youth leader and share her idea. The leader took Gift right away to talk to our priest to ask permission. She asked Father and after a silly joke, which had to be cleared up because she was utterly confused, he said she could do it.
Flash forward to this past Sunday, on her 8th birthday, my little gift couldn't wait to go to Mass, so she could ring her bell after and collect money for the children in Haiti. She stood there quite stiffly, rang her bell whenever anyone came up to the church, and smiled her bashful smile, and even answered other adults when they asked what she was raising money for. I am so utterly proud of her. She looked so uncomfortable, but she stuck it out, and my mama heart is proud of her for doing something even though it was hard to help someone else.
She raised enough money to get clean drinking water for a school, but most importantly, she lifted her mommy's heart.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Spring Break
This week, Mr. Cat is on spring break from college. He is a dedicated student with a full course load, plus tutoring, plus president of a political science group, plus he is a Knight of Columbus. Along with all of that, he is a wonderful and amazing father and husband. I am very proud of him and honored to be his wife. Since he has a week of freedom from the grind, we are spending the week together doing fun family things. I will be back sometime next week.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Meat Free Fridays - Pi Day!
Since today is Pi day (3-14) we are going to have celebrate it with dinner "pies" (because we are nerdy like that). I actually had something else planned on the menu that was not pie-like, but last night, Mr. Cat came home from his Knights of Columbus meeting with a dozen fresh eggs from a friend. I want to make sure to use them up in a tasty way, so we are having a crust-less broccoli and cheese quiche. I think it fits along nicely with the theme.
I will sauté the broccoli in a pan with some onion, and then put that on the bottom of a pie dish. I will beat up the eggs (not sure exactly how many we will use, since the eggs are of varying sizes) along with some herbs and some cheese and pour over the broccoli. Then it just bakes at 350 until the eggs have set, usually between 30-45 minutes. Breakfast for dinner is something we love here, and quiche is always a yummy dish!
Mini me is making an apple crumb pie for Pi day dessert. (No one in our family gave up sweets for Lent.) I told her she should cut the pie into 3.14 oz. slices. She kind of glared at me after that. I kind of wonder if we are the only geeky family who does something fun for Pi day. I probably don't want to know the answer.
*And as the nerds we all are, we are more excited for next year when the date will be 3-14-15. Told you we were nerdy!*
I will sauté the broccoli in a pan with some onion, and then put that on the bottom of a pie dish. I will beat up the eggs (not sure exactly how many we will use, since the eggs are of varying sizes) along with some herbs and some cheese and pour over the broccoli. Then it just bakes at 350 until the eggs have set, usually between 30-45 minutes. Breakfast for dinner is something we love here, and quiche is always a yummy dish!
Mini me is making an apple crumb pie for Pi day dessert. (No one in our family gave up sweets for Lent.) I told her she should cut the pie into 3.14 oz. slices. She kind of glared at me after that. I kind of wonder if we are the only geeky family who does something fun for Pi day. I probably don't want to know the answer.
*And as the nerds we all are, we are more excited for next year when the date will be 3-14-15. Told you we were nerdy!*
Thursday, March 13, 2014
The Little Things Thursday - this week's smiles
I am pretty easy to please. I like simplicity. I am not particularly a frou-frou or bells and whistles kind of person. For the most part, I am all about function. There are of course exceptions to this, but it doesn't take much to make me smile. It is the little things. I think sometimes as busy people, we (generally speaking) forget to stop and smile at the little things, and reflect on them. I have decided to start a weekly "Little Things Thursday" to have a place to document my week's little things.
For some reason today, I am full of smiles at little things. I thought I'd share a few.
Seeing Gift come out of her room this morning dressed in a pair of pants my mom made, that really made me smile. I miss her so very very much, and I am so thankful to have little reminders of her.
On that note, praying on the rosary that my mom gave me for my birthday two years ago, the last birthday I had with her alive. It is so special to me, and I use it daily, and I think of her each time I pray it.
We have a lot of crazy and silly little conversations that always keep me joyful. The girls are very entertaining. This morning we were having a conversation about compliments and how to receive them. One child who shall not be named has a habit of, when complimented on her appearance, especially by her family, say things like, "Oh, that's not true." or "You are so wrong." (It's a phase, I am sure, since I went through the same thing.) Another child who shall not be named has a habit of pushing peoples buttons and saying things that she knows annoys her siblings. Anyway, we were talking about what to say when someone compliments you, even if you don't believe them, so as to be polite. Joyful (who is prone to not "getting" most social niceties) said, "If a girl tells me I look pretty, I say, thank you, so do you. If a boy tells me I look pretty I say <insert smirky smile here> thannnnnnnnks!" We were all cracking up.
Gift made me smile when she asked a sister to sharpen a crayon for her and she told her, "It's okay if you have to take the skin off."
I love being able to open the windows today and air out the apartment. Those days are going to quickly come to an end here in FL.
I love that each week, Mr. Cat takes the little one to her story group and the older girls to choir and I have a blessed hour and a half to myself. Last night I smiled because he was able to stop at the farmers stand on his way home and we had a huge local fresh salad with dinner.
So, those are some things that made me smile this week, things that weren't exponential in the big sense, but they were to my heart. These are mostly from the last couple of days, because I have a rotten memory, but in the future, I will try to keep track of things through the whole week, and post them each Thursday.
I'd love to hear from some of you. What are your "little things" this week?
For some reason today, I am full of smiles at little things. I thought I'd share a few.
Seeing Gift come out of her room this morning dressed in a pair of pants my mom made, that really made me smile. I miss her so very very much, and I am so thankful to have little reminders of her.
On that note, praying on the rosary that my mom gave me for my birthday two years ago, the last birthday I had with her alive. It is so special to me, and I use it daily, and I think of her each time I pray it.
We have a lot of crazy and silly little conversations that always keep me joyful. The girls are very entertaining. This morning we were having a conversation about compliments and how to receive them. One child who shall not be named has a habit of, when complimented on her appearance, especially by her family, say things like, "Oh, that's not true." or "You are so wrong." (It's a phase, I am sure, since I went through the same thing.) Another child who shall not be named has a habit of pushing peoples buttons and saying things that she knows annoys her siblings. Anyway, we were talking about what to say when someone compliments you, even if you don't believe them, so as to be polite. Joyful (who is prone to not "getting" most social niceties) said, "If a girl tells me I look pretty, I say, thank you, so do you. If a boy tells me I look pretty I say <insert smirky smile here> thannnnnnnnks!" We were all cracking up.
Gift made me smile when she asked a sister to sharpen a crayon for her and she told her, "It's okay if you have to take the skin off."
I love being able to open the windows today and air out the apartment. Those days are going to quickly come to an end here in FL.
I love that each week, Mr. Cat takes the little one to her story group and the older girls to choir and I have a blessed hour and a half to myself. Last night I smiled because he was able to stop at the farmers stand on his way home and we had a huge local fresh salad with dinner.
So, those are some things that made me smile this week, things that weren't exponential in the big sense, but they were to my heart. These are mostly from the last couple of days, because I have a rotten memory, but in the future, I will try to keep track of things through the whole week, and post them each Thursday.
I'd love to hear from some of you. What are your "little things" this week?
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Big News for Mini Me
I am not ready to share the details in a public forum at this time, but mini me received some wonderful and amazing news today about an upcoming opportunity. I am so incredibly excited for her, and so greatly blessed by this even being a possibility for her. We are truly where we are by God's providence right now and He has done some very amazing things for our family. Please keep the oldest girly in your prayers for things to work out smoothly and for her to be prepared on all levels. Thanks!
We've got the "Time Change Blues"
This daylight savings time kind of snuck up on us. I didn't even realize it until one of the kids told me it was on their calendar. Whoops! For some reason, losing an hour has really thrown us off our routine.
We didn't get home from St. Augustine until late Saturday night, and by the time we got everyone in bed, it was past midnight with the time change. We still got up at our usual time on Sunday for Mass, but we were all dragging. Every single one of us was tired all day Sunday. The girls worked extra hard last week on school work, so were ahead for this week, so we took Monday off to ease back into routine. It was nice to have a relaxing day around the house. Everything got picked up and prepared for Tuesday morning.
Except for us. We were not ready. Everyone over-slept from our usual time and we got started way later than we normally do. Not a problem with home schooling, since we are on our own schedule, but I was still surprised by how thrown off we are by a measly hour change. I am noticing that we aren't even hungry at the new times we would have meals, but rather an hour later. Last night's dinner was way late because even though it was made, no one was hungry.
I have got to get back on track. After school work was done and we had some afternoon quiet time (something I have instituted partly because living in such close quarters, we really need a designated time where people have some time to themselves and have a break from each other), the girls went outside for some fresh air, roller skating, and jogging. I made dinner, they came in and we ate. Chores were finished up and baths taken and we were actually ready for evening prayers at a reasonable time. They had enough time for some reading before bed, and I now have some down time as well. My goal is to get to bed myself at a reasonable hour so I can wake myself up on time and make sure everyone else is as well.
I'd love to hear how the time change affects others, and what you do to help. We don't normally have any big difference (other than mom and dad being tired from missing an hour of sleep) but this time is different for some reason. I am pondering why. The only thing different is that we had a late Saturday and a busy weekend with our trip.
We didn't get home from St. Augustine until late Saturday night, and by the time we got everyone in bed, it was past midnight with the time change. We still got up at our usual time on Sunday for Mass, but we were all dragging. Every single one of us was tired all day Sunday. The girls worked extra hard last week on school work, so were ahead for this week, so we took Monday off to ease back into routine. It was nice to have a relaxing day around the house. Everything got picked up and prepared for Tuesday morning.
Except for us. We were not ready. Everyone over-slept from our usual time and we got started way later than we normally do. Not a problem with home schooling, since we are on our own schedule, but I was still surprised by how thrown off we are by a measly hour change. I am noticing that we aren't even hungry at the new times we would have meals, but rather an hour later. Last night's dinner was way late because even though it was made, no one was hungry.
I have got to get back on track. After school work was done and we had some afternoon quiet time (something I have instituted partly because living in such close quarters, we really need a designated time where people have some time to themselves and have a break from each other), the girls went outside for some fresh air, roller skating, and jogging. I made dinner, they came in and we ate. Chores were finished up and baths taken and we were actually ready for evening prayers at a reasonable time. They had enough time for some reading before bed, and I now have some down time as well. My goal is to get to bed myself at a reasonable hour so I can wake myself up on time and make sure everyone else is as well.
I'd love to hear how the time change affects others, and what you do to help. We don't normally have any big difference (other than mom and dad being tired from missing an hour of sleep) but this time is different for some reason. I am pondering why. The only thing different is that we had a late Saturday and a busy weekend with our trip.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Mission Nombre de Dios - Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche
This is by and far my favorite part of our trip. If a friend hadn't told us about, we wouldn't have known. I am so glad that we knew because it was such a special and beautiful place. There is a lot of history and information about it here. It really is beautiful and there were many parts that were just breathtaking. They also have a great gift shop with a large variety of gifts, statues, and books.
Our Lady of La Leche is Our Lady of the milk. The statue is the Blessed Virgin Mary nursing the infant Christ. I am a mother, and I nursed all four of my daughters. Nursing them was a natural thing, and I have always been an advocate of breastfeeding and natural parenting. Knowing that there was a shrine with a depiction of Our Lady nursing Jesus was exciting to me. I know how much I love my children. I know the special bond between infant and mother, especially through the breastfeeding relationship. I already know that the Virgin Mary and Jesus had a special and unique bond but seeing this depiction, it just....I don't even know the words really.....it just struck me. I am well past the infant and breastfeeding years with my girls, but that bond is still there, just as that bond between Mary and Jesus is still there, and that bond between Jesus and us, and the bond between Our Lady and us. It is truly a beautiful thing.
I am not going to post much more about our visit here, the pictures speak for themselves, but I do want to say how beautiful the chapel was. I was able to purchase a candle in the gift shop, and light a candle for my mother, who I lost this past July. Anything that reminds me of the bond between mother and child is especially near and dear to my heart after losing my own mom. Even as an adult, I still need my mom, and as Catholics and Christians, we still need our Blessed Mother. This was a great reminder, and also a reminder of how Mary can also give me comfort from the sorrows I have from the loss of my own mother.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from the Shrine:
This is the chapel:
Blue candle in the center for my Mother
The many candles showing the many intentions lifted up in prayer
The rustic altar
This large cross on the water is just beautiful
A moment of sisterly love captured on camera:
This is a side view of the chapel:
The family:
Our Lady of La Leche is Our Lady of the milk. The statue is the Blessed Virgin Mary nursing the infant Christ. I am a mother, and I nursed all four of my daughters. Nursing them was a natural thing, and I have always been an advocate of breastfeeding and natural parenting. Knowing that there was a shrine with a depiction of Our Lady nursing Jesus was exciting to me. I know how much I love my children. I know the special bond between infant and mother, especially through the breastfeeding relationship. I already know that the Virgin Mary and Jesus had a special and unique bond but seeing this depiction, it just....I don't even know the words really.....it just struck me. I am well past the infant and breastfeeding years with my girls, but that bond is still there, just as that bond between Mary and Jesus is still there, and that bond between Jesus and us, and the bond between Our Lady and us. It is truly a beautiful thing.
I am not going to post much more about our visit here, the pictures speak for themselves, but I do want to say how beautiful the chapel was. I was able to purchase a candle in the gift shop, and light a candle for my mother, who I lost this past July. Anything that reminds me of the bond between mother and child is especially near and dear to my heart after losing my own mom. Even as an adult, I still need my mom, and as Catholics and Christians, we still need our Blessed Mother. This was a great reminder, and also a reminder of how Mary can also give me comfort from the sorrows I have from the loss of my own mother.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from the Shrine:
St. Augustine Trip - Part 2
On Saturday morning, we woke up earlier than I would like to on a vacation, but we had a schedule to keep. Free all you can eat Pirate Pancakes started at 7:30 (we were advised to get there at the beginning of breakfast time since the kitchen is incredibly small and our family would fill it) and Mr. Cat also had to get ready to present his paper. We headed to the kitchen, where an old pirate made us all designed pancakes. The girls all got pirate pancakes, complete with eye patches. Mr. Cat and I got ones with our names on them (though mine was plural for some reason, lol). I didn't get a picture of the pancakes because they were eaten too quickly. There was milk and coffee to drink, lots of syrup, and even fresh strawberries. The pirate had some great stories to tell, and there was a fellow hostel patron who also had tales to tell of his cycling trip. It was a really fun atmosphere and the kids all remarked that they felt like they were eating breakfast with family. It really was great. Part of the hostel experience was stripping the beds and rolling up the sheets, and the kids said it reminded them of sheet washing day at our house, lol. It was a very comfortable place to stay, and we were sad to leave.
Mr. Cat decided to drive the van to the college (which it turned out was only a couple of blocks away) because he was wearing his "monkey suit" and the girls and I decided to just walk around. We decided we would call ourselves the accidental tourists for the day, and we would go wherever our feet and our whims decided to take us. We had seen some shops the day before that I knew they were interested in looking around at, so we headed in that direction. It was only around 9:30, and most of the places were closed. I was rather thirsty, so we went into the bunnery and I ended up just getting water. Everything smelled so good, and when I had seen it, I had fully intended on going there to eat something, but I was still stuffed from the pancake I had eaten. We sat on a bench while drinking our water. It was so far pretty quiet where we were because people were lining up on other streets in preparation for the St. Patrick's Day parade. We enjoyed hearing an accordion player as we walked on. We stopped in one shop where I got a pretty cloth headband, and some cheese flavored larva worms for Old Soul who is somewhat of a daredevil and has been wanting to try some kind of insect for a while. Don't ask. LOL.
We walked over by the St. Augustine Cathedral, but Mass was going on at the time. If we had planned better, we would have gone to Mass there in the morning, but we didn't, so we walked on and decided to come back later. We caught the tail end of the parade but not a lot of pictures. We saw storm troopers in kilts, and period soldiers who were firing off rifles that were scaring the wits out of Joyful. We sat down at a table by a café and I was able to grab out the camera and take a few pics, but none of them very good. I caught some kilt wearers, the Ghostbuster car, a bit of stay puff marshmallow man, and a lady in green on a horse.
We walked some more and ended up heading back towards the shopping area. I was starting to feel shaky at this point and knew I needed to grab a snack. I have been having some issues with my blood sugar regulation off and on, and sometimes it does something wonky. I am usually at home, and although I have tried various things to eat to fix it, I still don't have a good solution yet. Anyway, I usually don't eat breakfast and have a smoothie with some protein powder, greek yogurt, and some spinach instead, certainly not pancakes with syrup. I wasn't sure what I was going to eat, but then we walked by a place called French Fry Heaven. I glanced at the menu, which was full of many many different ways to have French fries with various toppings. Lo and behold, they had a "Canadian" version, which was probably as similar to poutine as you will ever find in America. The girls and I decided to split two orders between us. If you aren't sure what poutine is, click here. It is cheesy, gravy covered goodness. They came in paper cones and outside they had tables with little holes in them perfect for sitting the cone. They also came with little wooden forks, but they were quickly tossed aside. I was amazed at how quickly they disappeared. Gift has a sensory issue with her hands and feet. With her hands, she absolutely does not like to be sticky or dirty. She cannot stand anything to be on her hands. At meal times, she uses a ridiculous amount of paper napkins if that is what we are using at the time. She is a major hand washer, and has even declined sweet or sticky items when out away from a sink because she'd rather forego a treat than get sticky hands. This girl of mine, she reached all the way down into the paper cone to get the last dregs of poutine out. Her hand was covered in gravy and she still dug for more. It was so odd to see her standing there with a brown gravy hand. The novelty wore off as soon as the poutine was gone however and I had to do a big clean up job on her. Here is our tasty treat. Mr. Cat was not amused that he missed this part of our day.
We had seen a Greek Orthodox Shrine, the Shrine of St. Photios the night before. We walked by it again and decided to go in and take a peek. Beautiful iconography can be seen in Greek Orthodoxy and we were not disappointed in what we saw. There was a woman who was a member there who gave us a brief history lesson and explained the purpose for the domes, which she said are to bring Jesus closer to us. She encouraged us to take photos, and so we did. It was just gorgeous.
After that, we walked back towards the Cathedral since Mass was over and we had an opening to go in. We spent some time in prayer, and then walked around. I refrained from taking pictures until I found out that the Tabernacle was in a separate side area. I love how it was easy to know just where Jesus was by the red Sanctuary Lamp. Gift's face lit up as soon as she saw it. After some time for adoration, we continued our tour. I always feel bad taking pictures inside a church, like I am doing something very wrong. I will not take a picture where the Blessed Sacrament is present within camera shot. It is not something I feel comfortable doing for personal reasons. Many other tourists were taking pictures, and I was torn on whether or not to pull out the camera. I wasn't going to, until I saw that the altar rails are still up. All around the altar, there were marble railings, and a padded kneeling area. It was a beautiful sight. I don't think I have been in a church with altar railings since we converted to Catholicism. I don't believe they are common. I know that in our home parish, the bishop was petitioned to let us put altar rails back up, but it was denied. Seeing them made my heart smile. Latin Mass goers will understand.
After we left the Cathedral, it was about time for Mr. Cat to be calling us. I stood there for a minute and contemplated what to do. I had just decided to walk to Flagler College (after realizing that the huge beautiful building I had been seeing the whole time was the school, when he called. We met him over by the van and dropped off a couple of things and headed back out. I took a lot of pictures while we were walking. Rather than go back to the area the girls and I had already traversed, we headed a different direction. Here are some of the sights along the way:
We found a little out of the way Cuban Café that just happened to have a table for six right inside the door. We stopped for lunch. Everyone ordered Cuban sandwiches, which if you haven't had them before, you are missing out. They have ham, roasted pork, swiss cheese, garlicky mustard, and pickle. They are on Cuban bread, and then pressed. The girls all had sweet plantains with theirs, while Mr. Cat and I had Cuban black beans and rice. It was just so delicious. The owner was super friendly as well. With lunch, I had a glass of fresh fruit sangria, which is the best I've ever tasted. It was a wonderful meal. When we were done there, we headed to our last and only planned destination (other than the hostel and the school), Mission Nombre de Dios, to see the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche.
My post will end here since I want to dedicate a whole post to the Shrine.
Mr. Cat decided to drive the van to the college (which it turned out was only a couple of blocks away) because he was wearing his "monkey suit" and the girls and I decided to just walk around. We decided we would call ourselves the accidental tourists for the day, and we would go wherever our feet and our whims decided to take us. We had seen some shops the day before that I knew they were interested in looking around at, so we headed in that direction. It was only around 9:30, and most of the places were closed. I was rather thirsty, so we went into the bunnery and I ended up just getting water. Everything smelled so good, and when I had seen it, I had fully intended on going there to eat something, but I was still stuffed from the pancake I had eaten. We sat on a bench while drinking our water. It was so far pretty quiet where we were because people were lining up on other streets in preparation for the St. Patrick's Day parade. We enjoyed hearing an accordion player as we walked on. We stopped in one shop where I got a pretty cloth headband, and some cheese flavored larva worms for Old Soul who is somewhat of a daredevil and has been wanting to try some kind of insect for a while. Don't ask. LOL.
We walked over by the St. Augustine Cathedral, but Mass was going on at the time. If we had planned better, we would have gone to Mass there in the morning, but we didn't, so we walked on and decided to come back later. We caught the tail end of the parade but not a lot of pictures. We saw storm troopers in kilts, and period soldiers who were firing off rifles that were scaring the wits out of Joyful. We sat down at a table by a café and I was able to grab out the camera and take a few pics, but none of them very good. I caught some kilt wearers, the Ghostbuster car, a bit of stay puff marshmallow man, and a lady in green on a horse.
We walked some more and ended up heading back towards the shopping area. I was starting to feel shaky at this point and knew I needed to grab a snack. I have been having some issues with my blood sugar regulation off and on, and sometimes it does something wonky. I am usually at home, and although I have tried various things to eat to fix it, I still don't have a good solution yet. Anyway, I usually don't eat breakfast and have a smoothie with some protein powder, greek yogurt, and some spinach instead, certainly not pancakes with syrup. I wasn't sure what I was going to eat, but then we walked by a place called French Fry Heaven. I glanced at the menu, which was full of many many different ways to have French fries with various toppings. Lo and behold, they had a "Canadian" version, which was probably as similar to poutine as you will ever find in America. The girls and I decided to split two orders between us. If you aren't sure what poutine is, click here. It is cheesy, gravy covered goodness. They came in paper cones and outside they had tables with little holes in them perfect for sitting the cone. They also came with little wooden forks, but they were quickly tossed aside. I was amazed at how quickly they disappeared. Gift has a sensory issue with her hands and feet. With her hands, she absolutely does not like to be sticky or dirty. She cannot stand anything to be on her hands. At meal times, she uses a ridiculous amount of paper napkins if that is what we are using at the time. She is a major hand washer, and has even declined sweet or sticky items when out away from a sink because she'd rather forego a treat than get sticky hands. This girl of mine, she reached all the way down into the paper cone to get the last dregs of poutine out. Her hand was covered in gravy and she still dug for more. It was so odd to see her standing there with a brown gravy hand. The novelty wore off as soon as the poutine was gone however and I had to do a big clean up job on her. Here is our tasty treat. Mr. Cat was not amused that he missed this part of our day.
We had seen a Greek Orthodox Shrine, the Shrine of St. Photios the night before. We walked by it again and decided to go in and take a peek. Beautiful iconography can be seen in Greek Orthodoxy and we were not disappointed in what we saw. There was a woman who was a member there who gave us a brief history lesson and explained the purpose for the domes, which she said are to bring Jesus closer to us. She encouraged us to take photos, and so we did. It was just gorgeous.
After that, we walked back towards the Cathedral since Mass was over and we had an opening to go in. We spent some time in prayer, and then walked around. I refrained from taking pictures until I found out that the Tabernacle was in a separate side area. I love how it was easy to know just where Jesus was by the red Sanctuary Lamp. Gift's face lit up as soon as she saw it. After some time for adoration, we continued our tour. I always feel bad taking pictures inside a church, like I am doing something very wrong. I will not take a picture where the Blessed Sacrament is present within camera shot. It is not something I feel comfortable doing for personal reasons. Many other tourists were taking pictures, and I was torn on whether or not to pull out the camera. I wasn't going to, until I saw that the altar rails are still up. All around the altar, there were marble railings, and a padded kneeling area. It was a beautiful sight. I don't think I have been in a church with altar railings since we converted to Catholicism. I don't believe they are common. I know that in our home parish, the bishop was petitioned to let us put altar rails back up, but it was denied. Seeing them made my heart smile. Latin Mass goers will understand.
After we left the Cathedral, it was about time for Mr. Cat to be calling us. I stood there for a minute and contemplated what to do. I had just decided to walk to Flagler College (after realizing that the huge beautiful building I had been seeing the whole time was the school, when he called. We met him over by the van and dropped off a couple of things and headed back out. I took a lot of pictures while we were walking. Rather than go back to the area the girls and I had already traversed, we headed a different direction. Here are some of the sights along the way:
We found a little out of the way Cuban Café that just happened to have a table for six right inside the door. We stopped for lunch. Everyone ordered Cuban sandwiches, which if you haven't had them before, you are missing out. They have ham, roasted pork, swiss cheese, garlicky mustard, and pickle. They are on Cuban bread, and then pressed. The girls all had sweet plantains with theirs, while Mr. Cat and I had Cuban black beans and rice. It was just so delicious. The owner was super friendly as well. With lunch, I had a glass of fresh fruit sangria, which is the best I've ever tasted. It was a wonderful meal. When we were done there, we headed to our last and only planned destination (other than the hostel and the school), Mission Nombre de Dios, to see the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche.
My post will end here since I want to dedicate a whole post to the Shrine.
St. Augustine Trip - Part 1
I wanted to go a little more in depth about our trip to St. Augustine, including pictures, so here goes. I am thinking it will be broken up into at least two parts, maybe more, so I can include the pictures that I want to include and write a little more in depth. If you don't have the time or desire to read, you can always check out my summary here.
We left on Friday afternoon, as soon as Mr. Cat was done with his classes. The girls were super duper excited, and some had already packed two days prior. We were all ready for a break, and couldn't wait to leave. The route we took was pretty interesting. It was a short stint on I-75, but as soon as we got to Ocala, we switched to back county roads. When people think of FL, they probably don't think farm country. It really is beautiful though, and we enjoyed the drive. I think we kept the radio off for the majority of it and just chatted and enjoyed some of the things we saw out of the windows. We saw all sorts of sights on our drive. This billboard had some of us cracking up.
Yes, we realize the buy 1 get one bit was for the tour, not the seniors, but it still made us giggle.
We arrived just in the time frame we thought, which is a rarity for us. The drive was only around 3 hours which isn't too bad at all. It was one of those amazing rare times when no one had to make a bathroom stop. We found the place we were staying pretty easily. After a tip from a friend, we ended up booking a family room at Pirate Haus Inn. It is actually a hostel, and while they do have dormitory style rooms that are more hostel style, they also have private family rooms, which contain a queen bed and varying numbers of sets of bunk beds, depending on the room. Now, the second I said "hostel," Mr. Cat was concerned. The word didn't draw to mind anything that was family friendly. And if you've had the misfortune of seeing the horror movie of the same name, you will understand. We looked all around the website, and watched the youtube video, and Mr. Cat said, go for it. I wanted to tell the girls right away, but booking it so close to the day we were to arrive, we had to wait for a response to see if it was available. Luckily we got the last family room.
The entire place is pirate themed. It was cheesy, but really fun, and the girls were super excited about it. I didn't get as many pictures there as I had hoped, but when you walk up the stairs (it is on the second floor of an historical building) the sides of the steps are painted with the "Yo ho yo ho, a Pirate's life for me" song. There are lots of pirate memorabilia and signs all around. The rooms are painted in whimsical colors. In the family rooms, there are pirate themed murals on the walls. The kids bunks each came with "pirate sleep sacks" to use which just added to the novelty for them. Now, it wasn't hotel out of a box quality, but as they say, if that is what you want, you are in the wrong place. It was very homey though, and I felt like I was staying at a friend's house. The staff members are friendly and fun to talk to. They are very helpful at telling about the various places around, and very friendly to the kids.
We decided to walk around a bit on our quest to find dinner. We saw a seafood place right off the bat, which looked good, but we decided to see what our other options were before making a decision. Hindsight being 20/20, we should have eaten then, as the later it got, the more difficult it became, but I digress.
One of the first things Old Soul noticed was the architecture. She commented on how the scene was something you'd see at Disney's Hollywood Studios, except this was real. I had to stop and think and yeah, it's really been a while since we've gone someplace with remarkably different architecture. We walked around just enjoying everything. It was a full sensory experience. There were the sounds of many different instruments and singing that was coming from all directions, street corners, alleys, lounges, etc. There are many places I would have enjoyed stopping in to see, except that they were not places that children were allowed (nor where I would want to bring my kids). I am seeing a trip in the future sometime for just us grown ups. There were so many smells from all the different foods being prepared. We smelled BBQ, char-broiled somethings, candy, fudge, fresh breads, fish, you name it. We live in a pretty small town, and we are used a small variety of choices, and most food places are chain type places. I think we were all just in awe and enjoying walking seeing so many different varieties to choose from.
We just kept walking, lots of walking, and as it got later, it also got cooler. It was a pretty chilly day to begin with (for us Floridians) and the high in St. Augustine was only in the upper 50's anyway. Of course it gets cooler at night. We had brought our jackets, but after being outside for so long, we were starting to get a little cold. We decided it was time to find some food. The area where we were walking (because we didn't want to have to deal with driving anywhere) has a ton of places, as I mentioned. We ran into a bit of a problem though. Many of them were not family friendly. Many of them were on the small side, which makes finding a table for 6 sometimes nearly impossible. Many of them served only meat items, which we don't eat on Fridays. After lots more walking, we finally decided to go back to the seafood place we started at. So we made our way back to Harry's Seafood which, I just now realized after looking up the website, is a chain restaurant. Oh well.
By the time we got back to it, it was crowded. We went to put our name on the list, and the wait was 45 minutes. Inside the entry, there was no seating available to wait, so we stood. Kids were cold and hungry, my feet were killing me, and it was loud and a little bit over-stimulating in there. I was looking at a patio full of empty tables, and with propane heaters all over the place. We asked how long it was to sit on the patio, and we were put on the first available for there. It was still a bit of a wait, but we waited outside where we could sit on benches and get a little warmth from the heaters and listen to the live entertainment, which was a guy, a guitar and a harmonica. He played music that all of us knew. Finally we were seated.
The younger two girls ordered fish and chips from the kids menu, and the older two girls and I ordered shrimp po'boys. I wish we had known in advance how huge they would be, because we would have shared. Mr. Cat ordered shrimp and fries. It was really a lovely setting.
I was warm enough to take off my jacket (and give it to a child). The kids had never eaten at a place with live entertainment, and they really enjoyed it. It reminded Nick and I of a pub, except outside. We told the girls that, and some of them said they couldn't wait until they were old enough to go to a pub. LOL. There were a group of people who had probably enjoyed their drinks a little too much, and they were singing loudly and bantering with the musician. Even though there were times where they behaved a little obnoxiously, it was all clean at least and it didn't stop us from having fun. I was even able to get the kids to cooperate and let me take a picture of them enjoying their time.
We rarely go out to eat, so going out of town, and then out to eat, and then outside with a musician, it was a special night. We really enjoyed the family time. We made our way back to the hotel with tired feet and sleepy children. Figuring out bathroom use with all 6 of us in one bathroom was a bit tricky, but we managed and soon everyone was ready for bed. Here is a little bit of our room. First, the mural on one of the walls:
The bunk beds:
Looking towards the door with the bathroom to the left and the closet to the right:
And the mural above the queen bed:
We got all tucked in and after one episode of "I have to go to the bathroom again" from the littlest who was having trouble getting down from the bunk bed, and a case of the wiggles, which were compounded by a creaky bunk, we all got to sleep. Well, everyone mostly, except for me. I slept, but not soundly. I tend to be a light sleeper anyway, and being in a new environment amplified it. Once I got used to the creak of the bed (note to self, test out all beds in the future for the tosser and turner), I thought it would be better. It was too bright, since Gift is used to a night light and I had my phone being used as a night light and alarm clock. Then the drunks came out. We were warned that it can get loud, but really, I live in an apartment complex full of college kids, and I really didn't think it would be worse than that. I was wrong. People get loud when they get drunk. Really loud. And they laugh a lot. And woohoo. And sing. And cuss. And just when I got used to that, there was music. I had already heard car radio music, but this was different. It was like a piano, but only playing certain chords over and over. It was like.......it was like a steel drum. But surely it wasn't a steel drum. It was 1:30 by this time, and our hostel was not by a bar or even on a particularly crowded street. Below the hostel were shops, which were all closed up. Whatever it was, it finally stopped at around 2:30, and by 3 AM, the drunks were gone too, and I finally fell into a more restful sleep.
Part 2 to come later.
We left on Friday afternoon, as soon as Mr. Cat was done with his classes. The girls were super duper excited, and some had already packed two days prior. We were all ready for a break, and couldn't wait to leave. The route we took was pretty interesting. It was a short stint on I-75, but as soon as we got to Ocala, we switched to back county roads. When people think of FL, they probably don't think farm country. It really is beautiful though, and we enjoyed the drive. I think we kept the radio off for the majority of it and just chatted and enjoyed some of the things we saw out of the windows. We saw all sorts of sights on our drive. This billboard had some of us cracking up.
Yes, we realize the buy 1 get one bit was for the tour, not the seniors, but it still made us giggle.
We arrived just in the time frame we thought, which is a rarity for us. The drive was only around 3 hours which isn't too bad at all. It was one of those amazing rare times when no one had to make a bathroom stop. We found the place we were staying pretty easily. After a tip from a friend, we ended up booking a family room at Pirate Haus Inn. It is actually a hostel, and while they do have dormitory style rooms that are more hostel style, they also have private family rooms, which contain a queen bed and varying numbers of sets of bunk beds, depending on the room. Now, the second I said "hostel," Mr. Cat was concerned. The word didn't draw to mind anything that was family friendly. And if you've had the misfortune of seeing the horror movie of the same name, you will understand. We looked all around the website, and watched the youtube video, and Mr. Cat said, go for it. I wanted to tell the girls right away, but booking it so close to the day we were to arrive, we had to wait for a response to see if it was available. Luckily we got the last family room.
The entire place is pirate themed. It was cheesy, but really fun, and the girls were super excited about it. I didn't get as many pictures there as I had hoped, but when you walk up the stairs (it is on the second floor of an historical building) the sides of the steps are painted with the "Yo ho yo ho, a Pirate's life for me" song. There are lots of pirate memorabilia and signs all around. The rooms are painted in whimsical colors. In the family rooms, there are pirate themed murals on the walls. The kids bunks each came with "pirate sleep sacks" to use which just added to the novelty for them. Now, it wasn't hotel out of a box quality, but as they say, if that is what you want, you are in the wrong place. It was very homey though, and I felt like I was staying at a friend's house. The staff members are friendly and fun to talk to. They are very helpful at telling about the various places around, and very friendly to the kids.
We decided to walk around a bit on our quest to find dinner. We saw a seafood place right off the bat, which looked good, but we decided to see what our other options were before making a decision. Hindsight being 20/20, we should have eaten then, as the later it got, the more difficult it became, but I digress.
One of the first things Old Soul noticed was the architecture. She commented on how the scene was something you'd see at Disney's Hollywood Studios, except this was real. I had to stop and think and yeah, it's really been a while since we've gone someplace with remarkably different architecture. We walked around just enjoying everything. It was a full sensory experience. There were the sounds of many different instruments and singing that was coming from all directions, street corners, alleys, lounges, etc. There are many places I would have enjoyed stopping in to see, except that they were not places that children were allowed (nor where I would want to bring my kids). I am seeing a trip in the future sometime for just us grown ups. There were so many smells from all the different foods being prepared. We smelled BBQ, char-broiled somethings, candy, fudge, fresh breads, fish, you name it. We live in a pretty small town, and we are used a small variety of choices, and most food places are chain type places. I think we were all just in awe and enjoying walking seeing so many different varieties to choose from.
We just kept walking, lots of walking, and as it got later, it also got cooler. It was a pretty chilly day to begin with (for us Floridians) and the high in St. Augustine was only in the upper 50's anyway. Of course it gets cooler at night. We had brought our jackets, but after being outside for so long, we were starting to get a little cold. We decided it was time to find some food. The area where we were walking (because we didn't want to have to deal with driving anywhere) has a ton of places, as I mentioned. We ran into a bit of a problem though. Many of them were not family friendly. Many of them were on the small side, which makes finding a table for 6 sometimes nearly impossible. Many of them served only meat items, which we don't eat on Fridays. After lots more walking, we finally decided to go back to the seafood place we started at. So we made our way back to Harry's Seafood which, I just now realized after looking up the website, is a chain restaurant. Oh well.
By the time we got back to it, it was crowded. We went to put our name on the list, and the wait was 45 minutes. Inside the entry, there was no seating available to wait, so we stood. Kids were cold and hungry, my feet were killing me, and it was loud and a little bit over-stimulating in there. I was looking at a patio full of empty tables, and with propane heaters all over the place. We asked how long it was to sit on the patio, and we were put on the first available for there. It was still a bit of a wait, but we waited outside where we could sit on benches and get a little warmth from the heaters and listen to the live entertainment, which was a guy, a guitar and a harmonica. He played music that all of us knew. Finally we were seated.
The younger two girls ordered fish and chips from the kids menu, and the older two girls and I ordered shrimp po'boys. I wish we had known in advance how huge they would be, because we would have shared. Mr. Cat ordered shrimp and fries. It was really a lovely setting.
I was warm enough to take off my jacket (and give it to a child). The kids had never eaten at a place with live entertainment, and they really enjoyed it. It reminded Nick and I of a pub, except outside. We told the girls that, and some of them said they couldn't wait until they were old enough to go to a pub. LOL. There were a group of people who had probably enjoyed their drinks a little too much, and they were singing loudly and bantering with the musician. Even though there were times where they behaved a little obnoxiously, it was all clean at least and it didn't stop us from having fun. I was even able to get the kids to cooperate and let me take a picture of them enjoying their time.
We rarely go out to eat, so going out of town, and then out to eat, and then outside with a musician, it was a special night. We really enjoyed the family time. We made our way back to the hotel with tired feet and sleepy children. Figuring out bathroom use with all 6 of us in one bathroom was a bit tricky, but we managed and soon everyone was ready for bed. Here is a little bit of our room. First, the mural on one of the walls:
And the mural above the queen bed:
We got all tucked in and after one episode of "I have to go to the bathroom again" from the littlest who was having trouble getting down from the bunk bed, and a case of the wiggles, which were compounded by a creaky bunk, we all got to sleep. Well, everyone mostly, except for me. I slept, but not soundly. I tend to be a light sleeper anyway, and being in a new environment amplified it. Once I got used to the creak of the bed (note to self, test out all beds in the future for the tosser and turner), I thought it would be better. It was too bright, since Gift is used to a night light and I had my phone being used as a night light and alarm clock. Then the drunks came out. We were warned that it can get loud, but really, I live in an apartment complex full of college kids, and I really didn't think it would be worse than that. I was wrong. People get loud when they get drunk. Really loud. And they laugh a lot. And woohoo. And sing. And cuss. And just when I got used to that, there was music. I had already heard car radio music, but this was different. It was like a piano, but only playing certain chords over and over. It was like.......it was like a steel drum. But surely it wasn't a steel drum. It was 1:30 by this time, and our hostel was not by a bar or even on a particularly crowded street. Below the hostel were shops, which were all closed up. Whatever it was, it finally stopped at around 2:30, and by 3 AM, the drunks were gone too, and I finally fell into a more restful sleep.
Part 2 to come later.
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