We remember, we celebrate, we believe!

***About that new header picture....I took that photo during our last ice storm. The ravine is close to my office complex and the trees were so beautiful covered in ice. As the winds would blow, sections of the wheat colored grass would just collapse under the ice weight. The moment was both peaceful and eerie.***

Jazz has been assisting me with a huge project for our church.  We are making about 40 poncho style robes for the coming Lent and Easter seasons.   Jazz used the alphabet stitch feature on my machine to create size labels for all of the robes.  I cut the robes and ran the edges through my serger.  The necklines were finished with bias tape for a more sturdy product.  All the white robes are now complete and the purple robes are in the serging phase of the process.  I've offered to let Jazz serge, but I think she's afraid of the machine speed :)

Each year, those choosing to study the faith and enter fully into the Catholic Church participate in the initiation programs such as RCIA or Catholics Come Home.  Our church also has a wonderful program for younger children entering the Church that is geared toward their level of understanding and attentiveness.  These programs culminate at the Easter Vigil Mass when those studying, known as Catechumens, are brought fully into the Church family.  Depending on the size of the Catechumen class, this Mass can be very lengthy - think 4 hours.  The Mass begins very solemnly and transitions into almost a party atmosphere as we celebrate.

During Holy Week (the week leading up to Easter), the Catechumens wear the purple robes to visually remind the entire parish of the importance of the Lenten Season.  They will attend the Vigil Mass wearing these robes and, following the Baptism celebration, will be robed in the white of rebirth and renewal.  Those having been baptized leave the sanctuary to change into dry clothing and return to the worship center donned in white.  As this occurs, our parish family is standing to greet them and usually singing Festival Canticle, a song about the victory of our Lord.  I love the line, we remember, we celebrate, we believe, because the whole Mass calls us to remember the journey of our newest members.  We celebrate with them and we are reminded of the enormity of our belief and our faith.

I am always reminded of a very special Easter Vigil Mass in 1995, when Mr. Neoclassic joined our faith in full communion.  Having already been baptized into a Christian religion, he celebrated the Sacraments of Eucharist and Confirmation.  And the proof is in this one Polaroid of the event!

I love his baby face.  And my closed eyes.

(And my early 90's hot pink.)

What will you celebrate this Easter season??

Post title from Festival Canticle by Richard Hillert

Joy to the World

So this post is a bit late...on Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of Joy, we hosted the annual Gingerbread House Decorating event. We opted to "spice" things up a bit this year by having each participate choose a decorating theme. Possibilities included Harry Potter, Star Wars, Frozen, Legos, and the like. Here are the happy house builders...

Hagrid's Hut: complete with pumpkin patch and flobberworms.

Santa's Workshop!

The start of Sponge Bob: that's Patrick the starfish...

Supposedly a Princess Castle. 

She did the whole thing herself this year, so I just Let It Go!!! 

Scooby Doo: complete with Scooby snacks.

: 

Frozen: complete with an Olaf snowman.

Burning off the sugar high playing in the leaves!

Pick up football.  And trash talk, of course.  I love boys!

Math, Science, History, Unraveling the Mystery

Happy National Pi Day!!!

Classic Rock decided he needed to make a pie for National Pi Day and bring it school to share with his favorite math teachers and good friends.  After some discussion concerning the mess of cutting into fruit pies (his first choice was cherry) and the inability to keep them chilled (lemon pie), he settled on a straightforward chess pie.

Be a geek today!  Our Domestic Church is, sadly, full of geeks.  Some are cooler and higher up on the geek scale, but truly geeks nonetheless.  I remind myself that this means my children will rule the world and support me in my old age - when I will eat lots of pie.


Today's post title from The Big Bang Theory's theme song...

I want candy!

Gaudete Sunday started off innocently enough...

Twelve houses awaited creative minds:

Then, the candy carnage began...

Zydeco and his friends teamed up against their house.  They proceeded to load the roof with

as much candy as possible, attempting to ascertain the structural fail point

of gingerbread.  All in the name of science, of course.

Irish Jig grabbed her bag of icing and hits the ground running, so to say.  No help or

assistance needed - and when offered was vehemently denied.  Katie took

advantage of the Jig's independence and claimed a house to decorate her way.

The tongue of concentration is awesome!

Jazz incorporated gymnastics equipment into her design this year.

She focused on decorating this house for at least an hour and a half.

Not too shabby for 4 years old.

Classic Rock and his good friend adapted the "more is better" approach to creating.

There was much candy ingesting at that station and not much attention to detail.

They did create a Twizzler football field, however...

Our favorite college student (Katie's brother) displayed his knack for 

accounting by aligning his candy columns.

These two had constantly puffy cheeks because they kept

squirreling away candy...

As always, this one conned her favorite people into

showering her with attention when the decorating fun ended.

As I milled around the kitchen, watching the candy fray and soaking up the laughter, I was reminded that Gaudete means "rejoice".  It's the Sunday we celebrate passing the halfway point of Advent as we prepare our hearts for the birth of Jesus.  It's also become the official Gingerbread House Sunday, when we rejoice with our friends, thankful always for their continued support, love, humor, and grace. 

The line to one of my favorite psalms cycled through my mind all day:

This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice!

I hope you continue to rejoice with your family and friends as this wonderful Season unfolds!

Today's blog post title from Bow Wow Wow's I Want Candy. 

Be prepared for the day God will - Come, Come, Emmanuel

With the beginning of Advent following so closely on the heels of Thanksgiving, we really tried to separate the two and make each celebration distinct. We started Thanksgiving morning at our YMCA, helping to prepare the site for the many meals it would serve homeless or unsettled members of our community. Classic Rock and Zydeco, along with Irish Jig, oversaw the games and play time in the gym for any young children that visited. Mr. Neoclassic was assigned to turkey and ham carving, and Jazz and I manned the bread slicing station. We also helped to box and prepare about 160 meals to be delivered to all the first responders on duty around the City. There was much laughter and sharing as we worked along with other families, a group of young enlisted from Langley AFB, and many Y staff members.

Later in the day, after baking loaves of bread (me) and creating cranberry sauce and bread pudding (Mr. Neo), we joined our good friends for a feast at their home. Their four children almost match in age with ours, making the day joyful for everyone involved. The youngest chased, gamed, and giggled themselves into naps, while the oldest joined the adults for hilarious conversation. Also joining us were Padre Michael and Francisco who were visiting from their home in the mountains of Guatemala. Beginning several years ago, our church parish has been "twinned" with their church parish. We provide support and aid, when needed, as well as pray with and for their congregation. Classic Rock, well into his third year of Spanish, was able to converse very well with our friends. Our hostess speaks fluent Spanish and teaches the language at both the middle school and university levels. She was wonderful at translating back and forth during the day. Padre Michael was quite amused that my three years of Catholic high school Spanish yielded only the ability to ask for a cold beer, locate a bathroom, and recite the Daily Offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. A prayer that I noted I didn't even know in English. His amusement was that it wasn't a prayer he was familiar with, either :)

Amazingly, they weren't hungry at dinnertime, but were famished for dessert!

The Friday after Thanksgiving marks our family's official start to Christmas with the appearance of our elf, Sweeney.  We don't use him to threaten good behavior, but to heighten the excitement of the season.  He started the year with a soothing bubble bath:

photo by Jazz as part of her Girl Scout badge homework

We made our cookies and gathered for cocoa, laughter and wish lists.  Our children came to understand many years ago that asking and receiving were in no way related.  They can wish for the moon - or in Jazz's case this year a real horse - but will receive what is most appropriate.  Sorry, babe, no horse this year!

We celebrated the first day of Advent a bit early since I had been scheduled to sing at our parish's 5 PM Mass Saturday evening.  Our gathering hymn is the one I've chosen for this blog post, the Advent Gathering Song.  Eastern Mennonite University has put together a beautiful version of it here.  I find myself humming it all day now.

As Mass proceeded and we shared in the blessing and lighting of the Advent wreath, Irish Jig started to melt down.  A series of long days and too much sugar did not combine well with sitting on the first pew while Mama sang.  I started to hear a bit of whining while I stood at the microphone waiting to sing various responses during the consecration.  The whining got louder and I quickly peeked behind me to see Classic Rock holding a fiesty Irish Jig.  Just as I was preparing to signal Mr. Neo with the "take her out NOW" distress code, I heard that little tinny voice announce:

"It's a boogie!  A boogie on my finger!  Take it off!  Take it off!"

As the pew behind them erupted in laughter, I grabbed a tissue (thankfully nearby) and cleaned up the offending finger.  The musicians proceeded to shake with laughter as we not so gracefully slipped into the Lamb of God....

I hope the start to your family's Advent was just as memorable, if not a tad more prayerful.

I just want to celebrate....

another day of livin'

Following a week of Classic Rock's after school practices and tournaments (he's a debater and forensics geek), we realized we'd hardly seen him. That same week saw the completion of successful school projects by Zydeco and Jazz. By the way, successful in our home is defined less by grade earned and more by ability of the child to independently achieve project goals. I'm always willing to review work or help glue, but truly believe the bulk of the work should be theirs. Some might call that lazy parenting. I've decided to be okay with that description :)

One evening last week, we declared it a "home night". No practices, meetings, swim lessons, or projects were on the horizon, and we decided to tackle a more involved dinner - homemade pizza. While the pizza making isn't hard, the timeline is longer than a usual week night meal.  As a surprise, I also concocted pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting because special, slow family dinners deserve special desserts to savor.

The afternoon started when Classic Rock arrived home at normal time and a small blond fuzzy head couldn't contain her excitement. He's usually left for school when she awakens and her bedtime is long before his tournaments end. He spent a wonderful chunk of time focused on her:

He constructed a boat, with resplendent sail, for her amusement.

(And mine, but that was completely unintentional)

Laughter, a little family friendly trash talk, and wonderful stories were shared.

Zydeco's diligent science project work and attention to his responsibilities

earned him the honor of the celebratory cupcake mat.

I purchased the kit for this little cupcake mat at the quilt show earlier this year.  It's intended purpose, as indicated by the candles, was for a birthday mat.  The suggested wording to embroider was "happy birthday to you".  As I stitched the candle pieces down, I kept thinking that birthday wording really limited the use of this mat.  At the last minute, I decided to embroider HAPPY, LOVE, JOY, and YOU around the mat.  Now, I keep it close at hand and ready to celebrate all the little, everyday milestones our Domestic Church encounters.

In the midst of the dinner laughter and conversation, I was reminded of the verses to one of my favorite psalms  - Psalm 128 [given here in verse form from the musical setting we proclaim at Mass]:

Blest are those who love you
Happy those who follow you
Blest are those who seek you, O God.

Your spouse shall be like a fruitful vine in the midst of your home.
Your children flourish like olive plants, rejoicing at your table.

This is the psalm most often used at the Mass celebrating the Feast of the Holy Family.  A fantastic explanation and reflection of this awesome day is presented here by Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio. Showing a true understanding of God's humor and love, our music minister would always schedule me to proclaim this psalm while hugely pregnant!  "Your spouse shall be like a fruitful vine...."  Indeed!

As we barrel into Thanksgiving and crash head first into Advent, I will keep the sweet memories of a family dinner, chaotic and messy, and of a doting big brother encased in my heart.  For, as Dr. D'Ambrosio suggests, this Domestic Church is truly becoming holy in the trenches of busy family life.

>May your own family's Thanksgiving be the continuation of something truly holy.

Today's blog post title from Rare Earth's I Just Want to Celebrate.

But just look at us holding on

20

I arrived home for a weekend visit in March of 1993, lugging baskets of laundry and an empty gas tank.  After hugging my parents and retelling great stories about college and senior level design classes, I dropped a bombshell....

"Oh, by the way, [Mr. Neo] and I were thinking that getting married at Thanksgiving this year would be our best option.  He'll be nearing the end of SWOS and being assigned to a ship after the New Year, so knowing where and when to plan for a wedding after that would be hard..."

Yeah, that didn't go over so well with my parents.  They were concerned that we were too young (22) and that I had at least one more semester after the proposed wedding date.  Additionally, I was asking to plan a wedding in about six months - in New Orleans.  This is a city that prides itself on parties and usually requires a year or more advanced notice for weddings.

But, somehow, I sold the parental units on the idea and my mother - who really should be sainted for this - headed the planning, calling, errand running, and dress beading while I returned to my studies at Louisiana Tech.  My father offered the buy-out option several times.  A flat sum of money to disappear and elope.  Oh, he was just joking - I think.

And, 20 years ago on this date, we celebrated the Sacrament of Marriage.  I can say without a doubt that we were young, really stupid and very naive.  I can also say that we understand so much more about this Sacrament now than we even imagined those many years ago.  There are days we're still really stupid and very naive, though :)

I loved his dress uniform!

My grandmother was convinced we'd picked our church just because she'd been married there.  I never revealed the truth...that I'd opened the phone book that weekend in March and started calling Catholic churches in the city.  I started with St. Ann's and finally found an opening when I reached St. John the Baptist!  I'm going with "it was God's plan all along."

During our first six months of marriage, I had to learn five new phone numbers and lived in three different states.  We were married five years, I think, before we ever spent an anniversary in the same zip code.  I have other military friends who laugh with me about that, understanding the crazy that is military life.  Shortly before our fifth anniversary, Mr. Neoclassic left the military to design ships for the military.  He loved the work, but not the being away from home part.  Not long after that, we welcomed Classic Rock.

Thanks to our church, we have a record of our family's growth over the last fifteen years!  About every four or five years, they create a pictorial directory for the parish.  So here's the timeline....

 1999, Classic Rock in his jammies.

2003, Zydeco's present and we learn to continually laugh - or we'd just cry!

2007, Jazz is present and we lose the man-on-man defense approach!

2012, Irish Jig rocks our whole world, but we still laugh continually and together!

Thanks J for twenty awesome, always interesting, sometimes really hard, always wacky, enlightening years.  Oh, and for the four hilarious peeps.  Let's hold out for another twenty, okay???

Today's blog post title from Shania Twain's You're Still The One.

Explanation of SWOS here

Give the gift of love this year

I know Irish Jig's birthday is well behind us, but I can't resist one more blog post with birthday content. This one's about some of her sweet gifts. I am mentioning these simply because they touched my heart.

About four days prior to her birthday, Mr. Neoclassic and I realized we really didn't have a specific gift just for her. Those of you with multiple children will understand when I say that there was really nothing left appropriate for her age that our family didn't already have. Memory Card game - check! Mr. Potato Heads - check! Puzzles - check, check! Books - check, infinity!  Little People - check! Etc...

I decided to sew a simple pillow case, with fun birthday cupcakes and her favorite purple accent. I found the perfect flannels at JoAnn's and used this tutorial, along with french seams. Easy, fun, and completed in less time than it took to wash and dry the fabric.

When Jazz saw the extra fabric, she asked to make something for her sister. While my heart sang with joy that she was choosing to be generous with her time and talent, my brain screamed something akin to, "WHAT! It's the afternoon of her birthday!!! When do you think I have time to help you??"

Then I remembered the ace up my sleeve - Nana was in town! I backed the cupcake flannel with a remnant of white fleece, drew a stitch line along the edges, and pinned the pieces together. I turned Jazz over to Nana's calm tutoring and raced away to decorate a spider cake. Under Nana's careful, encouraging eye, Jazz followed her stitching lines with perfection and created a simple blanket to match the pillowcase. My only regret is not catching that moment in time on film.

Lastly, you'll notice a Raggedy Ann doll in that picture.  My dad decided Irish Jig needed a Raggedy Ann doll and couldn't believe I'd never had one.  He found a sweet, perfectly sized version -the giant ones creep me out - and it even has "Happy Birthday" embroidered on her apron.

But WAIT!  There's MORE!

Each year, my dad creates a Christmas ornament for each of his grandchildren.  In the early years, he stuck to traditional symbols - angels, elves, reindeer, snowmen, gifts, etc.  The past few years, he's been matching the ornament to the child.  This year was a stellar representation of their interests, proving he takes the time to know them well.

Irish Jig's Raggedy Ann

Jazz's Girl Scouts Emblem 

Classic Rock's Sail Boat (to commemorate his summer cruise)

Zydeco's Toad 

Each one has the child's name painted onto the front.  I've retouched the photos to remove that part.  I do try to respect their privacy.

I promise the next post will be about sewing or baking or faith formation - not birthdays.

Today's post title from Gift of Love by Ashes Remain