Rosary Group

Once a month we meet with a group of Catholic families to pray the Rosary and eat a potluck meal together. It is always a fun night with lots of kids, good conversation, and laughter. Below are photos from the April meeting.

Lots of kids makes for lots of noise and they have so much fun. It's the best kind of noise!
Of these six guys, Matt will be the only one left after mid-June. Three will be deployed (please pray for Charles, Mike, Phil,and their families), one moved back to his home state, and one tranferred to DC. We will lose 9 kids, and some great friends. We look forward to Rosary night with much anticipation every month; it is awesome to pray with so many like-minded people.

Checking in

Wanted to post some new photos tonight but they aren't on the computer yet. This after i lost the camera, yet again. it turned up in the van, thank heavens. I don't know how to upload on this camera, so I'll have to wait until Matt returns later this week.

We planted part of our garden yesterday. It was truly wonderful to be in the dirt again and planning some canning in the future. I am down to 4 half pints of pizza sauce, so I guess we aren't going to make it until the next harvest and will have to eat (AACKK!!) store bought sauce. A tragedy, for sure. I try to can at least 26 half pints in the fall to use on Friday pizza nights, but this year I didn't have enough tomatoes, even though I had to buy them at a roadside stand. Not this year, I hope!

Matt built (he's getting pretty skilled with the saw) 6 raised beds and we purchased--yes, purchased--dirt for them. Our yard is sand. The kids have dug at least a foot deep in places and there is no dirt to be found. But this dirt is beautiful. I find it insane that we paid good money for dirt. The truck driver no doubt thought the kids and I were whackos when he saw us each pick up a handful, bring it to our noses, and breath deeply. It was so sweet! Surely this will be the most expensive garden we have ever had, even topping those $90 peaches we had one summer when I bought the canner and a peck of peaches, only to get 2 jars canned. We savored those peaches.

It has been hot here, the last week or so, but cooled down nicely tonight so I sat out on the side walk for a while and I SAW FIREFLIES! The first ones I've seen here; we had assumed they didn't live here since we hadn't seen any the last 2 summers. Crazy happy, I was.

Gosh, all that and I ate DQ twice this weekend. Life isn't so bad. Hope yours is going well, too.

DC, part 3

We went to the Basilica of the Shrine to the Immaculate Conception on Sunday for Divine Mercy Sunday Mass. Matt and i always went there when we went ot DC for the rural water lobbying trips, and we love it every time. The kids thought it was awesome. Which, of course, it is. The one photo is one of the girls lighting a candle at the Shrine of the Miraculous Medal for Mindi and Baby Bailey.
A fun weekend in all. I had a great time at my workshop too, and came home ready to sew up a storm.

DC, part 2

More photos. Sorry for the 4---it wouldn't be fair to leave anyone out, you know.

Trip to DC; part 1

Here are some vaious photos of our trip to DC, in no particular order. Blogger won't let me see them when I'm composing the post, and I don't have time to figure it out, so enjoy them as they are!

Easter at our house

We had a wonderful Easter! After a very nice mass, we went home to get ready for our 30 guests. Good food and company made for a great day. Even the table leg that broke and sent deviled eggs flying couldn't ruin the happy atmosphere. We set up tables in the garage and the kids ran in and out all day, playing in the yard and at the pond. Finally, we let the men stuff, hide and execute the egg hunt, with great success. Hope everyone we love had a great day, too!Don't we have (four)great reasons to be proud?
The "polka-dot girls" Amy and Sarah with Maggie, a friend of ours.
We were all color coordinated, thanks to Amy and Sarah.
My three favorite men.
The egg hunt at our house, just prior to beginning.

Theo's big day

Ready to go. Isn't he handsome?
With his proud Papa and mama.
A great family photo (Amy is in blue, Sarah, green).
Nathan, Hannah, and Theo. I was honored to be asked to sew Hannah's dress for her and her little sister(s) to follow.
Theo with his cake at the reception.
Baby Eoin in his gown (see previous post).

Some updates from around here

Amy and Sarah had their first, open-ended assignment in March. I gave them an outline and let them go to do whatever they chose with the project. Sarah chose ladybugs and Amy chose dalmatians. Below is a picture of them after their presentation to the rest of the family last week.


I just finished up a very satisfying project of my own yesterday. I offered to make a christening gown for the little guy who will be baptised tomorrow at Mass when Theo and two others receive First Holy Communion. When I was thinking about how to customize the gown for this family, I asked them if they had a family bible verse and their anniversary date. Since they plan to use this gown again for the rest of their babies it needed to be gender neutral, and D asked that it not be fru-fru, but rather simple and classic. the fabric is a cotton shirting with a bit of a texture, and washed up beautifully; crisp but not stiff, and soft, but not limp.

I chose their verse from their wedding vows, Song of Songs 2:16 and used it in the body of the gown instead of embroidering it on in words. A tuck requires two threads to make one tuck---man and woman joined as one in marriage, and man and woman joined to make a new life. Across the bottom of the skirt there are two large horizontal tucks (Song of Songs, chapter 2) and on the bodice there are eight tuck son either side of the center (verse 16). I added a tiny bit of blue ribbon to the boy's cap and after Easter will make a girl's bonnet with pink ribbon and a bit of lace so they can use the gown for either. Below is a photo of the set.



When the girls and I were shopping at the Catholic bookstore on Saturday I found this lovely baby pin with a four-way medal for the center of the bodice. I think it turned out to be just the perfect finishing touch!