MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

It's been nearly a year (a year!?!) since my last blog post, but I do not want to let this beautiful season go by without wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!

May the Good News of our Lord's birth fill you all with hope and peace, and may God pour forth his blessings upon us all in the new year.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy 40th birthday, that is.

And to all you 39-year-olds who are in the shoes I wore yesterday and nearly every day since my birthday last year, the "I can hardly bear that I have to be 40 on my next birthday" shoes, well,

I'm happy to say that being 40 is absolutely lovely.

In fact, this may have been my best birthday ever. My day was filled with my family, my friends, delicious birthday treats, delightful presents, and the creation of happy, happy memories .

What blessings! What a joyful day!

And what a blessing to be 40, to be old enough to take last year's shoes off and fling them far behind me, to get to see that by turning 40 I have all the happiness I had before plus all of today's happiness too. A longer life with more happiness than before, that's what I have today. It's better. And because I just went through it I don't merely think so, I know so.

What a surprising and wonderful thing to learn! Now that I'm forty I really am old enough to know better.

The Joy of Marriage

I promise that the chocolate raspberry torte tutorial is coming soon! Right now, though, I am elbow deep in paper preparing folders for our church's marriage preparation program. This is a ministry I really like participating in, because the engaged couples bring so much joy and anticipation with them to each session. Also, because the program gives me a chance to reflect on my own marriage and how much joy the vocation of marriage brings to me. I feel so profoundly blessed to have been called to the married state and to motherhood and I love to have the opportunity to share with engaged couples about the wonderful blessing marriage is.

Talking about marriage, looking over our wedding photos, reminiscing about our wedding and dreaming about what the future of our marriage may hold, these are some of the activities of the week for my DH and me. We had a beautiful visit this weekend with the dear priest who performed our wedding ceremony. He is my uncle and very special to us both. He is also gravely ill, so I ask any one reading this blog today to join me in saying a prayer for him.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you all safe trips if you are travelling, delicious feasts when you are feasting, and many many hands to help with the dishes if you are cooking!

Chocolate Raspberry Cake-Part One

Tonight we're having a dessert pot-luck for the parents in my younger son's class. Our contribution is a chocolate raspberry torte from my all-time hands-down favorite cookbook, Cold Weather Cooking by Sarah Leah Chase. Our other contribution is a clean, welcoming house to host the party. Now, the party starts in 2 hours and we still need to dust and clean a few bathrooms, so I'll teach you all how to make the cake tomorrow.

I'd like to say I've been cleaning all day, but that wouldn't be true. I've been grocery shopping and running kids around to lessons and other places. Instead, I'm happy to announce-(all right, I guess I need to use a more honest verb) I'm happy to brag-that my husband has been cleaning all day. Maybe I could take to calling hime Mr. Clean? Our house is pretty sparkly right now. Talk about a blessing!

And (bonus!) I guess since I'm married to him I get to be Mrs. Clean, without so much as lifting a dustpan!

TGIF

Friday night's here! That's what I'm grateful for right now. A loooong week, many night meetings, kids waking up in the middle of the night, an unexpected trip to the doctor for (blessedly) minor injury, glow bowling today with the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades (this involves music, disco balls, black lights, bowling and pizza all amalgamated into in one dizzying tween fiesta), all capped off with a Cub Scout pack meeting tonight. Whew! Just typing it makes me tired.

(And, truth be told, very, very grateful for this young and energetic crowd I run around with) : )

Rainy Day Blessing

Morning started out with the sky blue, the ground wet, the air warm and damp. It kind of tricked me into doubting the weather forecast which predicted wild rain. By the time my Thursday morning mothers' rosary group had gathered though, the clouds rolled in and darkened the sky. Rain began to pour down and it lasted all afternoon.

Normally I only like sunny mild days, but every fall I find myself happy for "November weather" if I have nowhere I have to go and if the weather has been pretty nice for a while. A grey stormy day, a pot of carrot orange soup on the stove for lunch, friends visiting and drinking coffee, what could be nicer? Well, I've got the answer to that one! For me, it was my children home after school, my littlest one napping on the couch next to me and the chance to watch a movie with the 3 older ones that didn't feature princesses, an explorer and her monkey, or a ballerina mouse. Yup, we watched Open Season and it was goofy, boy-pleasing fun all around. The chance to do something so cozy and simple with just my "bigs", something that had us all laughing out loud, has filled my grateful heart right to the brim with joy.