Other stuff I have to pass on

Basically, Patrick Madrid has some cool stuff on his blog.

Patrick talks about population

He also links to the Carmelite Monk site so I will too!

http://www.carmelitemonks.org/

BIG Van LOVE

I got my birthday present today! I don't know how odd it is for a lady to feel so excited over a monster size van but maybe it's not so uncommon in my circle ;)
I think we have enough room now =) To my darling husband: thank you thank you thank you!!! I love it!!!

Molly

I bribed Molly so I could take some pictures.. I really liked the traditional look I got with that last client and I want some of Molly. Maybe I can get a canvas or something =)

Lauda Sion Salvatorem

Sion, lift up thy voice and sing:
Praise thy Savior and thy King,
Praise with hymns thy shepherd true.

All thou canst, do thou endeavour:
Yet thy praise can equal never
Such as merits thy great King.

See today before us laid
The living and life-giving Bread,
Theme for praise and joy profound.

The same which at the sacred board
Was, by our incarnate Lord,
Giv'n to His Apostles round.

Let the praise be loud and high:
Sweet and tranquil be the joy
Felt today in every breast.

On this festival divine
Which records the origin
Of the glorious Eucharist.

On this table of the King,
Our new Paschal offering
Brings to end the olden rite.

Here, for empty shadows fled,
Is reality instead,
Here, instead of darkness, light.

His own act, at supper seated
Christ ordain'd to be repeated
In His memory divine;

Wherefore now, with adoration,
We, the host of our salvation,
Consecrate from bread and wine.

Hear, what holy Church maintaineth,
That the bread its substance changeth
Into Flesh, the wine to Blood.

Doth it pass thy comprehending?
Faith, the law of sight transcending
Leaps to things not understood.

Here beneath these signs are hidden
Priceless things, to sense forbidden,
Signs, not things, are all we see.

Flesh from bread, and Blood from wine,
Yet is Christ in either sign,
All entire, confessed to be.

They, who of Him here partake,
Sever not, nor rend, nor break:
But, entire, their Lord receive.

Whether one or thousands eat:
All receive the self-same meat:
Nor the less for others leave.

Both the wicked and the good
Eat of this celestial Food:
But with ends how opposite!

Here 't is life: and there 't is death:
The same, yet issuing to each
In a difference infinite.

Nor a single doubt retain,
When they break the Host in twain,
But that in each part remains
What was in the whole before.

Since the simple sign alone
Suffers change in state or form:
The signified remaining one
And the same for evermore.

Lo! bread of the Angels broken,
For us pilgrims food, and token
Of the promise by Christ spoken,
Children’s meat, to dogs denied.

Shewn in Isaac's dedication,
In the manna's preparation:
In the Paschal immolation,
In old types pre-signified.

Jesu, shepherd of the sheep:
Thou thy flock in safety keep,
Living bread, thy life supply:
Strengthen us, or else we die,
Fill us with celestial grace.

Thou, who feedest us below:
Source of all we have or know:
Grant that with Thy Saints above,
Sitting at the feast of love,
We may see Thee face to face.
Amen. Alleluia.

Ecce Panis Angelorum

Homily from Pope Benedict dealing with these things from 2007

..."the Church makes the faith of Peter and the other Apostles her own and proclaims with them, and we proclaim: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (Jn 6: 68). Let us too renew this evening our profession of faith in Christ, alive and present in the Eucharist. Yes, "this [is] the truth each Christian learns, / bread into his flesh he turns, / to his precious blood the wine".

At its culminating point, in the Sequence we sing: "Ecce panis angelorum, / factus cibus viatorum: / vere panis filiorum" - "Lo! The angel's food is given / to the pilgrim who has striven; / see the children's bread from heaven". And by God's grace we are the children.

The Eucharist is the food reserved for those who in Baptism were delivered from slavery and have become sons; it is the food that sustained them on the long journey of the exodus through the desert of human existence. "



rendition of the Hymn from the above on you tube




The whole stanza that is quoted in the illustration is:

Behold the Bread of the angels, made food for the wayfarers; it is truly the Bread of the children; it should not be heady to the dogs.

Birthday and Snow Day

So, yesterday was my birthday! A lot of fun. I love sledding with the kids. A lot of fun and this year "the baby" is at a good age to also enjoy it for a considerable amount of time. Last year when it snowed I could not participate in sledding as much as I wanted because I was caring for the baby!! This is where having a nanny would be handy.. think of how much faster I could get them all in their snowsuits and mittens if I had help!











oh and the videos I've posted

Love

Tooth Fixed

So as I am flossing last night my crown came off of my tooth. Huge bummer and I was really pretty panicked about when I would be able to get this fixed. It just happens that Dan will be LATE getting home today so I couldn't depend on just waiting until he got back from work. How was I going to survive a day with this tooth problem!?
I had to get out of bed and send an email out and I am soooo thankful for Eva for watching the kids!!!
Because of this drama we also missed pray and play. I was really tempted to just head over when we got home but by the time I arrived I would probably be interrupting the Rosary and you kow how lovely it is to have your mouth all numbed up.... so we did some school instead and now I am listening to some Glen Beck online and thinking about what to make the kids for lunch....

Today

I had to go costco today and it was so nice! Hardly any cars on 95 at all and the mall was a ghost town! I should have made plans to shop all day =)

sloppy video

I'd love to find some software for video editing but I just don't have to the time to sort it out. I tried to DL adobe premiere but it was awfully difficult for me to navigate and now the free trial is up. So.. I have windows movie maker and that's it folks. Sorry I can't be more fancy and professional =) Maybe one day soon....

Here is a clip of the crazy mess the baby made. I've never really had one that wanted to color and draw like this before....

RIP Texas in F'burg

There were many tears tonight.
Molly and Max were pretty inconsolable.
You see, our kids love Texas Steakhouse and tonight upon driving down there to get some yummy Texas food we found the place stripped down, boarded up and vacant.
I don't know when this happened. It has been a few months since we were there last.
It may have been October I am thinking.. We had horrible food but I wasn't sure if it was a blip or if it was a symptom of something greater. They had replaced the butter for your rolls with some "spread" that tasted as if it were about 98% Crisco.
The salad I had was just strange. A huge gob of chicken and a tiny amount of lettuce. It was just weird. We told the waitress and I expressed my concerns for the place. If I couldn't image what a non-regular would think after dining here. Would you come back? Did you love the Crisco with a side of bread? The hunk o chicken with lettuce garnish masquerading as a salad? I just didn't think so. So, now our children cannot ride a pony and eat. If you know where we can ride a pony and eat yummy food please email me.



This is us on our anniversary at Texas a couple of years ago =)
http://www.steakology.com/

Special Delivery via Airplane

I got to be present when my friends were officially united with their adopted children last night at the airport! I'm so happy and excited for them =) It seemed like they just fit in perfectly and I hope the 'transition' goes as smoothly!

Book review: The Reader

This is a book review of the book "The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink.
It's coming soon to theatre near you as a movie of the same name staring Kate Winslet.
I have no idea what made her want to do this movie. It's sort of like the Nichole Kidman movie "Birth" in that they both follow love affairs dealing with boy child and grown woman. I know some people really went off the deep about "Birth" but I enjoyed it. It's a tragedy that I thought was really successful. Kidman is the loyal devoted wife even after death and the boy is the one who is chasing Kidman after being so moved by reading her love letters. Being so devoted Kidman has to investigate the kid's claims to being her reincarnated husband but eventually it's revealed that the kid just read some letters. It's what Kidman doesn't discover about her husband that moves the viewer. Maybe watch that instead of "The Reader".

Ok back to "The Reader"... This book is all about weird boy having simply lustful and abusive relationship with some german lady. Seriously, he doesn't know her name and there's a remark from the woman about why should he care what her name is?
I think it's supposed to make you question the idea of people who participated with the Nazi party being thoroughly evil or immoral. I'm not sure. It's possible that the author was attempting to make the woman (who you find out was a Nazi who is sent to trial for some of her actions) sympathetic to the audience. As if maybe her actions were just logical conclusions and her intent wasn't evil. I think she remarks in the book "Well what else could I have done?".
Maybe the point is supposed to be that everyone involved was trapped in their role and evil "just happened".
Maybe that's the point of the underage love affair too? "It just happened. Oops"
I could not really relate to a lot of this because the relationships are so unlike what my own relationships are and it just seemed like the characters were living in a vacuum of immorality. So yeah, I guess it's no wonder that these things "just happened" since the people had no sense of morality to begin with. Maybe that is the point. You need to have religious convictions and a solid foundation of what is moral to succeed in life, otherwise you can expect a lot of things to "just happen" to you and in the end you can expect end up just as happy and well adjusted as these main characters.

News

I'm pretty fascinated by this story. When I first started following this the plane had crashed and the pilot was missing.... then it turned into this hysterical situation where some cops had seen this pilot in a store and he was wet from the chest down. They were a little suspicious because of the flight goggles he was wearing but I think he tried to pass them off as canoeing goggles (haha). The cops just took him to a hotel and then when the realized he was the missing pilot they went back and of course he was gone.

Back to the Ordinary

Ordinary time sounds soo ..ordinary. I guess it's good to stress when we are not in full on party mode ;)
I'm looking forward to Lent this year and I've already RSVP'd to Ash Wednesday on FB
Now we just need to take down the tree and get the house back in order...
This past week has been a bit crazy because I've been helping out my friend who has been sans husband while he is collecting adoptive children in Liberia.
My husband says I am just all giddy about going over there because I just want a baby. LOL. What's wrong with that? =)
Seriously- I have really enjoyed getting to see you all more Ginny and family!

Christmas

We had a very busy and extremely fun Christmas!
I have far too many pictures.
We had great visits with family and Mr.Fawkes had a looooong vacation with us! It was really fabulous!
Molly's DS is already broken of course so that is on my to-do list to take care of.
Nate and Max were so happy with their trains.
Xander loves his microscope.
We also got surprisingly yummy biscotti from my grandmother. I have never had biscotti but these were some crazy double chocolate and Mr. F and I ate them all!
We also got a wii and we are having all kinds of fun with that! I can't believe we waited so long to get one!