Laundry room clean out time

This weekend, I will spend time cleaning out our laundry room. On Monday, the room will undergo a make over to make the space more usable.

The existing small closet will be removed and replaced with two lower cabinets with a counter top that I can use for folding clothes, treating spots and what ever else needs to be done. The outside door will be removed and that wall will become the back of a new, much larger closet with upper cabinets for more storage. Above the washer and dryer, cabinets will be installed to store odds and ends including some kitchen items that I use only occasionally and currently have stored in the basement.

The new, larger closet will allow us to use the closet in the hallway near the front door for guest coats and maybe one or two of our own coats. Right now, we wind up putting guest coats on one of the beds upstairs since the closets only hold a few coats without squashing them together. Not my preferred way of hanging my own coats, let alone those of our guests.

We won't miss the out side door from the laundry room, since right on the other side of the laundry room is the garage which has a door to the backyard that is currently right next to the door from the laundry room. Plus, I originally used the laundry room door to take the wash outside to hang it up, but we now have a pool in the yard that necessitated the removal of the clothes line.

We'll live with dust and dirt for a few days, but the end result will be really worth it!

I'm it

Fr. Daren at Servant and Steward has tagged me for a Book Meme.

I wish I could multi-read like Fr. Daren, but I only have time to read one book at a time. Right now I am reading Wish You Well by David Baldacci. I just started the book, so I don't have an opinion yet, but I'll let you know how it was after I complete it.



I will tag Barb at SFO Mom for this meme.

CCD Coordinator - again!

Recently, I was asked to resume responsibility of overseeing the Religious Education program at my parish - again.

I was involved in the RE program for about 11 years. During that time I was a catechist for 5th grade for a year, 1st grade for 8 years and the coordinator for three years (one of which I was also teaching - not something I would recommend to anyone). Because my son was in high school and was involved in after school activities, and burn out from being involved, I decided that I needed a break from CCD and be available to shuttle my son around and watch his games. Fortunately, a new member of our parish volunteered to run the program and I was grateful to have a break. Unfortunately, he has many health problems and had to resign his position effective the end of this CCD year.

Our diocese is in the process of reviewing parishes and priestly needs and at the end of the process, many parishes may be consolidated with others, with my parish most probably being affected. Because the status of our parish is unknown, my pastor approached me and asked me to return to my previous role as coordinator for the next school year until our fate is known. After much thought and prayer, I agreed to accept the position and I am actually looking forward to it. Much has changed in the three years since I was involved, most for the better. Added to that the fact that my son will be going away to college in the fall, I think it will be good to be involved.

So, as I prepare to pack up my son for college this summer, I will also be preparing to pack up my briefcase to return to CCD.

How does my garden grow?

The cool weather crops that I planted are peeking through the soil. The sugar snap peas are about a half an inch high and the lettuce has two tiny little leaves. I am looking forward for the middle of May to plant green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and some dill and basil.

Ah, yes, tennis weather is finally here

The weather is warming up and that means tennis!

I was fortunate to be able to play both yesterday and today in beautiful 80 degree weather and it felt wonderful. In fact, it was really hot in the sun today.

I started playing tennis about 40 years ago when the town I grew up in offered free lessons at the high school courts. And I lived only one block from the school. The first year it was a recreation department provided racquet - wood of course, there was no titanium then. And I was hooked. I played for the next 15 years as much as I could. In school, I played varsity doubles for three years and even went out for the team in college. But in college, I was not interested in missing classes for matches, so I withdrew from try outs, but continued to play recreationally.

After college, I played occasionally, but when I met my husband, I pretty much gave it up since he didn't play. Four summers ago, I met a new friend who was a player and he agreed to play a little. I was still playing with a "red Head" which was "the" racquet in the late 1970's, but was miserably out dated and heavy. I purchased a new titanium racquet and I am back to playing as much as possible. I didn't realize how much I missed playing.

My husband still doesn't play, but as long as I can find an someone to hit the ball with, I will continue to play.

I've been tagged

Thanks to Fr. Daren Zehnle at Servant and Steward for tagging me on my favorite saints. It made me stop and think about which saints have had the greatest influence on my life.



First I have to choose St. John Neumann. Since I live near Philadelphia, I have the privilege of living near his shrine and have visited it several times. One visit was when I was pregnant with my son. During my visit, I had an overwhelming sense of peace come over me and I knew that I would have a healthy child. Later, I took my son there and he was so awestruck that he chose John as his Confirmation name after St. John Neumann.



Second would be St. Dymphna. I have several relatives with emotional and mental health problems and praying to her has been a source of strength and comfort.



Next would be St. Gerard the patron of expectant mothers and pregnancy. My mother gave me a prayer to him to say when I when I was pregnant.



And finally, St. Francis of Assisi. I am fond of animals (except those darn rabbits that eat my plants) and have a dog who is an important "member" of our family. She has had many health issues (two knee surgeries, seasonal allergies that rival most humans with allergies), but none of them life threatening, and I think St. Francis is watching over her and made sure she found a home with us because we take care of her when many would have been quick to get rid of her or put her down because of her health.



Blessed Damien of Molokai is my favorite Blessed person in the church. I admire his courage to minister to people who were not only so ill, but were so disfigured. I want to go back to visit Hawaii specifically because when I was there six years ago, my son was too young to go to Molokai to visit the leper colony so it was the one thing in Hawaii that I really wanted to see and didn't get the chance to see.



And finally, the person I want to see as a saint Pope John Paul II. For me this is a no brainer. I was in my first year of college when he was elected Pope and, being of Polish descent, I was excited to see a non-Italian be elected. The fact that he was from a then communist country, I was so proud that his faith was so strong so as to not give up on his calling to be priest when it was not an easy thing to do in a communist country.

So now I must tag four people, which is not an easy task since my blog is new and I don't think I have many readers. But I will give this a try:

Barb at SFO Mom lives near me , although we have never met and has a son at the same high school as my son.

Michelle at The Family Centered Life who I admire for having such a large family. I am stressed with one!


Father Joe who always gives me a chuckle and a smile.

Fr. Eric Richsteig at Orthometer who sees humor in the craziest of things (South Park, Hillary Clinton and the list goes on...)

Thank you Fr. Daren for tagging me. It forced me to learn how to do many things with my blog including adding picture and links. Wow, no matter what you think you already know, you can always find something you don't and learn from it.

Tragedy reminds us...

My heart and prayers go out to all the families who lost a son or daughter, sister or brother, aunt or uncle, grandson or granddaughter or friend in the tragedy at Virginia Tech. I pray for the victims and their families and for the disturbed young man who felt he had no other option than to kill innocent people. How sad it is that someone could get so desperate that killing others is the only thing that makes sense to them.

This story disturbs me even more since my son will be going away to college in the fall. I am finally understanding how my parents felt when my brothers and I left home to go to school. You raise your children to be the best people they can be, you teach them right from wrong, how to make good decisions and in the end, their life is in God's hands as you send them off into the big world. Why does it take a terrible tragedy to remind us that life is precious and we need to live each day to the fullest since any day could be our last on earth?

Hi ho, hi ho it's off to college he'll go...

he'll learn some junk and hopefully won't flunk, hi ho, hi ho!!!!

After months of thought and prayer (at least on his mother's part), our son has made his college choice and will attend Fairfield University this fall. We are very happy with his choice and know he will do well there. And our friends who live near the college are thrilled that he will be close by to spend some time with their son who idolizes our son.

Although he was disappointed at only getting wait-listed at his first choice, he had decided that it may not be the best choice as he hopes to attend law school there and thought that it might better to attend different colleges for undergraduate and gtaduate work.

So now, we begin the preparation work to get our little boy ready for school. Of course, I will enjoy the shopping to out fit his dorm room. I already have a few things put away, like sheets and blankets, and look forward to finding the rest. The good thing about having a son is that he really doesn't care much about those things, so I will be able to have the fun shopping with virtually no disagreements!

Oh my aching muscles!

I hurt! My muscles hurt. Today my husband, son and I began our spring clean up in the yard. Despite the muscle aches and pains, I love to work outdoors and prefer it to basically all indoor household chores, especially cleaning bathrooms. So I ran the mower with the thatching blade attached, raked the grass that didn't make it into the bag on the mower. My son helped with the raking and my husband did some weed whacking and picked up piles of raked grass. The next step will be fertilizing, but with heavy rain predicted, my husband will wait so the fertilizer will not be washed away.

Last year we had extensive landscaping done on our property. Since we had a pool installed two years ago, the back yard was first with lots of shrubbery and stone instead of grass - actually there is just one small patch of grass to break up the stone and give the pooch a place to "go." Then we moved on to the front yard where we had a retaining wall installed along with new flower beds and lots of new trees and shrubs. Unfortunately, some of the vegetation did not survive and will be replaced by the landscaper. While the crew is here, they will re-mulch the beds, trim up the shrubs and install some more plants. The only thing left for me will be to plant some annuals to give color to the mostly shrub filled beds.

I have already begun to plant the vegetable garden, planting peas and lettuce which like cooler weather. In mid-May, I will add beans, tomatoes, cucumbers along with some dill and basil. A few years ago, my husband built four raised planting beds for the vegetable garden which he affectionately calls "the over boxes." The are great for me who has already had two knee surgeries and kneeling to garden is not real comfortable. They are easy to plant and weed and with a roll of hardware cloth around the top, they are almost rabbit and ground hog proof. I am also planning to plant some sweet peas along a decorative fence in front of the shed, some sun flowers - mostly the smaller varieties and a few other flowers.

The rest of Triduum

Wow, the rest of the Triduum flew by. Our parish's Good Friday service was really great and the homily was inspirational. I spent most of the day Saturday at church helping to complete the decorating for Easter. Then home to work on getting some food made for Sunday, a quick shower and back to church for the Easter vigil. It was a wonderful experience. The church was packed as 14 students received Confirmation.

Sunday morning found us packing up the car and heading to spend Easter with my parents. My mother had surgery about five weeks ago - her third hip replacement (third hip replacement, two hips, you do the math) so I was in charge of cooking our Easter dinner. It was a quiet day as it was just my parents, my husband, my son and I.

Both my husband and son are off this week, so we are attempting to do some projects around the house, but the weather, while not rainy, is not very warm so we are doing what we can and will hold off the rest until the temperature rises.

Time to fold more laundry - when do I get a vacation?

Holy Thursday

This evening we will commorate the institution of the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Holy Orders as we celebrate the Lord's Supper and the beginning of the Triduum.

I don't really remember attending this celebration as a child. Maybe it was too late for me to be out, or maybe the washing of the feet was not done and therefore it did not stick in my mind. But for the last 8 years, my family has attended this moving service.

The first year we attended Holy Thursday was when my son was in fourth grade. As a new altar boy (before my parish fully accepted Vatican II we had only altar boys and not altar servers), he would be one of the twelve altar boys to have his feet washed. My parents attended with us and were proud that their grandson would be part of this ceremony. He has participated in this two more times since then.

Tonight, my husband will be among the twelve. This will be his second time . Last year, I was asked to participate and not only did I have my feet washed, I also washed the feet of some of the others. This was done so that we could appreciate that all should serve, not just our priest. Any way, this is one of my favorite parts of the Easter Triduum and I look forward to attending.

The Quest for Spamalot

Last night we enjoyed a family night out. We are all big fans of Monty Python and went to see the musical "Spamalot."

We began our evening with a wonderful dinner at a steak house and then off to the theater to see the show. My husband purchased the tickets months ago and was able to get some terrific seats. The show is a definite must for all Python fans and is based on their movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

Where were you?

As a child growing up, the question was often asked, "Where were you when President Kennedy was shot?" I was very young when this happened and I don't remember where I was. And now the question that is frequently asked is "Where where you when Pope John Paul II died?" and I very vividly remember where I was.

My family and a good friend were vacationing in North Carolina when it became evident that the Pope was nearing his return to the Father. Like many people, we kept the TV tuned to one of the news channels for updates and prayed that he would have a peaceful death. But, as we prepared to return home, we knew that we would have to find radio stations that broadcast the news, or at least, were following his journey home. After listening to the same news stories over and over again, we opted to take a break and listen to some music and lo and behold, when we returned to the news, we heard that he had died. There was silence in the car as we all said a prayer of thanksgiving for the man who was Pontiff for most of our lives (and in the case of my son, his whole life) and did so much not only for the Church, but for the world.

Preparing for the Triduum

How did you spend your Monday? I spent a pleasant day helping to decorate my church for our Easter celebration.

I belong to parish that was started as a mission parish for people of Eastern European ancestry. Even today, we have several parishioners who are recent immigrants. Traditionally, our church has had some very elaborate decorating schemes for the Easter and Christmas seasons. In the past few years, the decorating has been toned down to what I think is classic and elegant decor.

The Art and Environment committee started yesterday with bringing up the supplies from the basement of the church, made flower arrangements for the deep window sills and prepared the tomb. I was not able to be there yesterday, but today I was able to join the group and we created the tabernacle area for the Blessed sacrament away from the main tabernacle, made some additional flower arrangements and made a rock well area for the water that will be blessed. It is quite beautiful. Saturday morning, we will finish the decorating for the Vigil Mass Saturday night. I hope to post some pictures at a later date.