(3/19)...streaming (and a St. Joseph rosary giveaway)

It's the Solemnity of St. Joseph....such a great day. Following on the heels of the raucous St.Patrick's Day, St. Joseph's Day always comes sort of quietly and unassumingly...much like I image the saint himself. Though we call the Lord's mother Our Mother, and I do truly feel as though she is my mother, I feel like St. Joseph is more like a sweet, heavenly grandpa. I never feel that he corrects me or scolds me, more like gently guiding, the way a good grandpa does.

If all goes well today, we'll have Cream Puffs for dessert (no fasting on solemnities!) -- a traditional St. Joseph treat. I would love to have a big St. Joseph altar, but wasting food wouldn't be good, and I can't imagine who would eat it all. So Cream Puffs it is.

I do hope you celebrated big on St. Patrick's Day -- any feast in a storm, I say (or any reason to party during Lent -- just kidding...sort of). I will be sharing some yummy treats we enjoyed over on my food blog later today.

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I feel like I've been away for so long, we need a whole pot of coffee to catch up. Make that low-acid coffee, or better yet, herbal tea. I have been away because I had a little IC flare, and when I say little I mean big. For those of you who don't know what that means (like all of you) it means I was in pain and whenever possible curled up in a tight little ball in a large stuff chair in the living room. Some day soon I'll talk about my IC, not because it's all so very interesting, but it is sometimes helpful for others out there who may also be suffering. And if there is anyone out there who has had success with flares, you can help me.

Anyway, I've been away and I had so much to say, none of which I can remember right now. Which just figures.

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Faith and I have been working hard at creating a Calvary hill. You have probably seen it at many blogs and on Pinterest. We decided to wait until Holy Week to add the crosses when we have a have hill full of grass -- bluegrass mind you...only the best.

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We had bad storms yesterday evening right around dinner time. They blew in furiously and before they were even officially here the tornado sirens were going off. There was not a drop of rain outside nor any wind so we took a second before dashing to the basement to check the radar and see where exactly the storms are. It seems just wrong to set the alarms off all over the county when the storms might be 30 miles away. I think there is no better way to get people to ignore the sirens than to set them off every few days with no chance of a storm hitting.

I had chicken drumsticks frying on the stove and really didn't want to turn them off half fried (do you remember those Crisco commercials 30-some years ago?). As it turned out the storm did blow in just a few minutes after we checked the radar and with some fury so we went to the basement. I was able to leave the chicken frying on medium-low and run back up stairs every five minutes just to turn it. It was no worse for the wear. Yum.

Faith drew this picture and wanted me to be sure and share it on my blog. So here ya go:

you can just imagine the witch on her broom (a la the Wizard of Oz) in the middle of that big funnel cloud.

Besides big thunderstorms rolling in every day, the weather has been quite unseasonably nice. I am a little wary of it, however, because I think it will either get really cold again (three snows after the forsythia bloom, ya know) or it's going to be an unbearable summer. You know me, always ready for the other shoe to drop. ::wink::

My little flower fairy was dancing amongst the creek stones there, always fashionably dressed ya know, and of course, wearing white, which goes so well with mud.

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Well, if you have stuck with me this long, God bless you. And your reward is a rosary give-away for the good prayin' man in your life.

It's a simple black knotted rosary with a St. Joseph medal attached to the center knot. Just leave a comment or send an email (scmom@columbus.rr.com) with a way to get in touch with you by 11 p.m. Wednesday and I'll pick a name on Thursday.

PS Jenny requested the recipe for my homemade lotion a week ago, and I promise to come back later and deliver.

PSS Comment moderation is on so don't get wigged out if your comment doesn't show up.