Mama-luia

We've had forty days of preparation. It has amounted to forty days of meager penances taken on, abandoned, feebly reattempted. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is oh so weak. We stared down our weaknesses and sin. The apostles fell asleep while Christ suffered immeasurable torments.  We, too, 'sleep through' the time given to us.  The apostles abandoned Jesus during His Passion and death. We, too, back away from even the smallest sufferings we can offer Him. Lent, though, is not a contest. Despite click-bait-y titles from bloggers, you can not "win" at Lent. We forge a relationship with Christ in Lent. How can you "win" doing that? But equally, you can not "lose" at Lent.  I console myself of that when I recall just how pathetic my attempts to unite my small sufferings to Him were and are.  We can still take up our crosses, our tiny toothpick crosses, and follow Him. In doing so, we deepen our love for Him. ...

Some years, simply being a family takes priority over being extra liturgically-minded. There are babies and young children who need to go to bed at predictable, early hours. The long church services are simply too much for them. Dying eggs on Holy Thursday morning But isn't our faith learned first and foremost in the domestic church anyway? Lamb chops and grape juice for Holy Thursday dinner Around the kitchen table, where food is prepared lovingly and conversations take place? Especially at so young an age, Making paschal candles the faith must be "caught", not taught. So we spruce up our homes, as best as we can Our new "little oratory" in the living room And don our most handsome attire for the one Mass we can all attend together. (Although this almost-six-year-old made it to the 2.5 hour long Vigil {which he slept through in its entirety}. He was so proud to go out just with Daddy.) The...

Christ is risen from the dead! The most beautiful feast of the year is here. Time for celebrating -- consuming much chocolate and gouda and crackers, singing Alleluia to our hearts' content, and enjoying a few days off with Daddy. Hall-le-lu-jah for that ! On Saturday we brought our baskets to be blessed in our lovely parish. Our children were so excited that the eggs they had dyed and the Alleluia banner (tied up like a scroll) that they had painted were right there being blessed by the priest at the foot of the altar. I realized I had no decorations in the house at all for Easter, so I got out the watercolours while Patrick and Noah were at the Easter Vigil. This is what I came up with. While watching "Sister Wives" on Netflix. (Things I shouldn't admit online?) The boys wore suits I found through a local buy-and-sell and on consignment. I'm wearing a Reitman's dress bought before I was married, a cardigan I bought at Fairweath...

Happy, happy, happy Easter  to the wonderful handful of people who read Mamaluia! I am delighted it is Easter, finally, as the Lent that just passed felt like the longest one I can remember. But somehow griping doesn't suit the joy that we're experiencing during this holy Feast. So today I just want to share a few snippets of joy from the last 40 days in the life of my little family. Before Lent began, Patrick and I were discussing what we were giving up for Lent over dinner with the boys, and Noah chimed in and said "I want to give up my little table." His little table is where he plays with toys, does colouring books, and occasionally he eats his snack there with his brother. (In reality it's simply a coffee table we bought at a church flea market for $15, but with a few kid-sized chairs, it does the preschooler/toddler trick.) So on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, we had one last 'fancy' snack there, and then we placed it in Daddy's office...

Well hello happy readers. Long time no see! I hope you are having a wonderful Easter. We sure are. I hope you didn't miss me too much over Lent. Here's a brief overview of what happened for us these past 40+ days: We ordered an 8th of cow, and it arrived the first Friday of Lent. Patrick and I thought that was so funny that we took a picture of all the delicious grass-fed beefy goodness. And tucked it away in our deep-freeze 'til the Solemnity of St. Joseph. Sigh. Speaking of which: We did the St. Joseph altar for the first time. There are three tiers representing the Holy Family, and of course the Blessed Trinity. Various feasting foods including fava bean salad (it's a tradition with the Sicilians in honour of St. Joseph blessing their fava crop after a time of serious drought), rolls in the shape of carpenter's tools, wine and of course the long-awaited steak from Getaway Farms. Yum. Oh yes, and cream puffs. So good. (In the interest of you r...

Mommy: Noah, what happens after Jesus dies on the cross? Noah: Up, up, up! Christ is risen, everyone! Rejoice!