Journal

Photogenic Baby

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I’ve always known my little brother Dominic was the most adorable baby ever, and now the fact has been verified by the largest newspaper in the city. Not every baby has his picture in the paper for Ash Wednesday two years in a row!

I was standing in the back of the church before mass, holding Dominic in my arms. We had to be there a half hour before mass began since Johnathan and Landon were altar servers. So, Mom sent me to the back to entertain the baby till mass began. While I was back there, I became aware of a woman pointing a very large camera in my direction and clicking away. I shot her a sideways glance, then I took a few steps forward, bouncing Dominic up and down in my arms. The camera followed me. I took a few steps forward. The camera moved with me. Shortly, the photographer approached me and asked for both of our names.

Here’s the picture that appeared in the paper this morning, taken just after Dominic and I received our ashes:

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Now for the funny part: the caption under the picture reads: “Sarah carries son Dominic, 22 months, back to their seat Wednesday during the Lent Mass at St. Joseph’s Cathedral.”

Ha-ha-ha-haha!

The same newspaper published this picture last year:

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Chicken Combs

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The first flush of red is showing in Marigold’s comb, a sign she is maturing. Chickens are supposed to lay their eggs when they are around 5 months old, which will be at the end of February for our hens.

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Beatrix’s comb is still pretty pale:

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I absolutely love to watch them wander around the yard, scratching around in the grass. All together, their colors are stunning!IMG_2687

 

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I’ve been tagged!

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Lily, a fifteen year old homeschooled girl who likes to knit, just tagged me. I’ve seen these things before, but this is the very first time I’ve been tagged by someone.

 

 

Her questions:

1) Do you have pinterest?             No.
2) Have you seen Doctor Who?    No.
3) Do you prefer chocolate or vanilla?  Vanilla
4) Coffee or tea? Both!
5) If you could be anywhere in the world where would you be?    Ireland, where it is always green
6) If you were trapped on a deserted island and you only 1 material possession with you from the boat crash, what would it be?   Hopefully a water bottle.
7) Do you like reading? Yes
8) Have you ever seen a movie in theaters more then once? No
9) You are trapped in a room tied to a chair. You can only listen to one music artist. Would you rather listen to Niki Manaj or The Jonas brothers? I don’t even know who either of them are.
10) Do you like Micheal Buble? Yes, a lot
11) What is your favorite book? Lord of the Rings

Paperwhite Update

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These bulbs grew over night! When I went away to Kansas, they had only grown about two inches, and when I came home, they looked like this:

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I found out that paperwhites really like cool temperatures. I took two bulbs downstairs to my room where it is very cool, and two weeks later they both had a nice root system. The three bulbs I left upstairs had no roots.  So I brought them downstairs and they spouted roots right away, but they’ll be flowering about two weeks later than the others. I can’t wait to see them in bloom!

 

Kansas City

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Last weekend, Dad took Landon and I down to Kansas.  I participated in a college competition on Saturday, then traveled to Kansas City for the night.

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In Kansas City, we went to an amazing museum that featured the cargo of a pre-civil war ship, the Arabia, that sank on the Missouri River in 1859. The river shifted its position and left the boat buried 45 feet underground. About twenty years ago, five ambitious treasure hunters decided to try to dig up the ship. Though it turned out to be a much bigger task than they expected, they succeeded, and what they found is displayed in the Steamboat Arabia Museum.

The museum guide referred to the ship as a nineteenth century Walmart, as it carried enormous quantities of everything used in 1859, both necessities for daily living:

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… and non-necessities:

 

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  These beautiful buttons are all that is left of hundreds and hundreds of fine ladies’ dresses. Animal fibers like wool and silk were able to survive 130 years submerged in wet earth. Plant fibers, such as the cotton used in dressmaking, could not. Now we can only imagine how beautiful the dresses must have been.

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Archeologists have been working on preserving the cargo of Arabia for twenty years, and they still have fifteen years until the entire collection is finished. Every artifact has to be stored in a freezer until it can be cleaned and preserved, or else it will deteriorate beyond recognition. This is the lab, where you can watch the restoration taking place right in front of you!

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This is a full scale replica of the wheel of the Arabia:

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Landon and I in front of the real anchor:
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Front of the ship:
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Landon obliged me fifty-one cents so I could add to my collection of penny souvenirs. I’ve been collecting these ever since I was little, and I now have thirteen coins from six states!

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My Cardinal Mug

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This week has been the winter’s coldest. Driving home from teaching ballet yesterday the thermometer on the car said it was only 1 degree F. So, I’m wearing my coziest sweaters and brewing lots of cups of hot tea in my favorite winter mug:
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Counting down the days till spring! Only 55 to go!

Baby Beluga

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Dominic begs for books day in and day out, signing ‘book’ with his little hands repetitively. I am so thankful for this song-made-board-book. The pictures are very nice, with lots of arctic animals to talk about on every page. Fortunately the melody that goes with the lyrics is not annoying, so I can sing it all day long. Dominic sings the first line every time he sees me, “GAA-ga ga GAAA-ga.” baby-beluga-1024x794

Paperwhites

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It’s only the first week of January, and I’m already finding my thoughts wandering to the garden. Though I’m trying not to think about it too much, my mind is continuously being drawn that way. The first seed catalog arrived in the mail a few days ago. I allowed myself to peruse it’s tempting pages once, then I put it away in my closet till the end of February, when I’ll get ready to order seeds. I also found myself in the garden section of the library last week and I rather guiltily paged through a few colorful flower books, even though I knew it would make me feel like it was closer to March than Christmas.

So, I stopped by the nursery today for something to appease my gardening cabin fever. I picked up a several paperwhite bulbs to grow inside. They are really easy, and I did one several years ago, and the tiny white blooms are lovely and fragrant. They need only a vase, pebbles and some water, and they’ll bloom about 4-6 weeks from now.

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Three in a vase:

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Winter Weather

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The last two days have been pretty balmy (for January, that is,) coming in at a whopping 34 degrees with no wind and the sun shining. It was wonderful after the single digit temps we started out with this year.  I went outside to feed some cornbread scraps to the chickens without a coat on. Then I rolled up my sleeves to the elbows, held out my arms, and stood there soaking up the sun’s warm rays. It felt delightful. I knew, however, that it wouldn’t last long. Sure enough, the weather forecast predicts only a few more days of relief before the temperature plummets again:

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A trip ice staking is in the plans for the weekend!

Jewelry Making

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For Christmas, Maria and I both were given kits that taught us how to make jewelry. We have both really enjoyed stringing  wire with beads and using needle nosed pliers to attach all the necessary metal to make it into real, wearable jewelry. We enjoyed it so much, in fact, that it didn’t take us long to go to Hobby Lobby and stock up on beads. We spent several afternoons designing and putting together an array of bracelets, earrings, and necklaces. This one was made from the kit:

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And this one I designed myself:

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Welcome All New Visitors!

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I’ve been so excited to see all of the new traffic to my blog showing up on the sidebar map since the Catholic Young Woman Christmas link-up! Please, leave a comment and introduce yourself! I would love to meet you.

Hoarfrost and Etymology

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    Hoarfrost is probably the most beautiful feature of winter. As it sparkles in the sun, it seems to have sprinkled the tree branches with diamonds. Yet, for such a pretty phenomenon, hoarfrost has sort of a weird name.    Hoarfrost.    Not very pretty sounding.  So, I looked up the word in the dictionary and found that the word ‘hoar’ has a pretty interesting origin. It comes from the Old English ‘har’ meaning ‘old’ and ‘aged’. Cool!  Hoarfrost is named for the way it makes the trees grow old and white!

 

New Year’s Eve

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Our family celebrated the end of 2012 with a parade of tasty treats. Shrimp was my favorite:New Year's Eve1

These pickles wrapped in cream cheese and corned beef were picture perfect:
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Daniel’s favorite food was fruit pizza, which disappeared too fast for a photo. : )New Year's Eve4