Friday Fotos 2024 #5

Friday Fotos is a post where I can dump some photos from the previous week. The goal is to make me more aware of the beauty and fun in my everyday life.  I really am doing a horrible job at keeping up with these posts! It seems I've skipped a couple (or a few) weeks.

My back porch is finished! Now if it would just get warm (and stay warm) so I can enjoy it. On the days when it has been warm, it's been really nice to leave my sliding glass door open and hear the birds.

After Mass on Holy Thursday evening, the Eucharist is placed in the Tabernacle (which is open on the altar) and Adoration takes place until midnight. Compline (night prayer) happens then with the Eucharist removed until the Easter Vigil (Saturday night Mass which begins after the sunset).

My car on the left, its twin on the right

The traditional Easter Bunny cake was made, probably for the last time. It hasn't even been cut into at the time of this writing. 😒

Gurl Dogg (in need of a trip to the beauty parlor)

Monday morning after Daily Mass, the main church was quiet. It was beautiful with the Easter flowers and the sun hitting the crucifix.

MS, his girlfriend, and her parents took me out to dinner for a belated birthday dinner. The wine was excellent, even if it wasn't the one we ordered. We ordered the Italian Pinot Noir but we were given the California version. Lesson learned: make sure you double-check before accepting it! The GF looked at the label but didn't think to make sure it was the right one, but I didn't either. We went to an Italian restaurant in the Rival Town; I was the only one who had not been there. It was excellent food and they gifted us some Italian doughnuts for my birthday.

Until next time...

The Fiver Hodgepodge

 

Joyce asks the questions, and we provide the answers. See how others answered at From This Side of the Pond.

1. According to author Gary Chapman there are five love languages-words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, acts of service, and receiving gifts. Which one is yours? 

Acts of service

2. What are five foods you eat every day? 

Cereal, yogurt, fruit, graham crackers (most days), and some kind of meat.

3. Five places you'd love to visit?

Lake Louise/Banff, Scotland, the Grand Canyon, Italy, Lichtenstein. That last one may seem a little strange but it's a country I've wanted to visit since I was young. I used to have a couple of posters in my room of Lichtenstein. I was close to it when I went to Germany with a group from the Small Town High School. The teacher tried to make it happen but it just wasn't doable. You can find posts from that trip under the Germany/Austria tab (or just click on the link).

I'd also love to go back to Ireland and England; heck, all of Great Britain! Almost anywhere in Europe would be great. I'd love to one day go to Fatima, Portugal since my Parish is named for the "Miracle of the Sun" that happened there. There's just so much to see in this great big world. 

4. Something you've done recently that deserved a 'high five'?

5.  Give us five 5-letter words that describe your July. 

Binge: I binged on Marvel movies. My greatest accomplishment of the summer is that I completed the whole series from beginning to end.

Early: I woke up for early morning walks every weekday.

Habit: That quickly became a habit!

Oasis: A couple of quick camping trips became an oasis for CH & I.

Faith: Except for the days when we were camping, I attended Daily Mass. I loved being able to start my day expressing my faith and maybe that made up for the binging! 

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

As July comes to a close, the school year begins. This is my last school year before I retire. Honestly, I just want to get through this year and continue to do the best job I can to help these little ones. This was the first summer since we've been married (38 years) that CH & I both haven't been working. Last year he was working from home so it was a bit different. There were definitely some ups and downs as we try to get used to so many factors in our life. I would be lying if I said I didn't have some apprehension about what this year will bring. I just have to leave it in God's hands and trust in His plan. 

Hoppin' Into the Hodgepodge

 

Joyce asks the questions, we provide the answers. See how others answered at From this Side of the Pond.

1. Do you celebrate Easter? If so what are your plans this year? Did you have egg hunts as a kid? 

I definitely celebrate Easter. As the boys have grown, it looks a lot different than it used to. Before the big day, I'll attend the Triduum: Holy Thursday Mass, Good Friday Service, then the Easter Vigil. An interesting tidbit: In the Catholic Church, the Mass doesn't end on Holy Thursday; there's not an end to it until the Easter Vigil. There will be Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament until Midnight when Complines will be held and the Blessed Sacrament will be hidden away until the Easter Vigil (the night before Easter Sunday). I went to my first one last year and it was just incredible. I plan on going again on Thursday. Holy Thursday is also the time when 12 people from the church have their feet washed by the priest. I was chosen one year (it just happened to be my birthday), and I can't even begin to tell you how emotional it makes you. Good Friday isn't a Mass because the host used for Communion was consecrated on Thursday. At this service, we have the opportunity to kiss the feet of Jesus on the crucifix. Also, at my church, we have the live Stations of the Cross at 3:00 in the afternoon, but they are done behind a screen so it is in silhouette. Again...very powerful. Easter Vigil (the night before Easter) is when people who want to enter into communion with the Church (i.e., become Catholic) are administered the Sacraments to become Catholic. It's an extremely long Mass (around 2.5 hours) but the time goes by quickly and it doesn't seem that long. It is an amazingly beautiful Mass...in my opinion, the most beautiful of the year.

So, now that you've had a lesson, the Catholic Church doesn't just celebrate Easter 1 day; it's a whole season! :) The Easter Season lasts for 50 days, from Easter Sunday to Pentecost!  For Easter Sunday we will invite YS & his GF over (MS is still living with us and OS lives out of town) for dinner. If YS has to work, GF may come on her own. I'll probably go to Mass again with CH & MS (as long as CH feels up to it) then take the rest of the day to relax.

When I was little, we didn't have egg hunts. We had  AN egg hunt for the Alleluia egg. Since there were 10 of us, we were divided up into older & younger. I don't remember ever finding it.

2. What's your favorite bread to find in a bread basket? 

Having just vacationed in Ireland, I have to say Irish Brown Soda Bread. My SIL sent a recipe that a B&B owner in Northern Ireland gave her & I tried it out. Not exactly the same but pretty close. Delicious!

3. Your favorite chick flick? 

This time of year it has to be Steel Magnolias. It depends on the time of year as to my answer.  I wrote a blog post 11 years ago outlining my favorite movies to watch on different holidays. 

4. Tax day is rapidly approaching in the US of A...what's something you currently find 'taxing'? 

Having to work? Not being able to live in Ireland?

5. Have you ever ridden in a taxi? Do you have a funny-scary-crazy-interesting taxi story to share? Do you use any of the newer taxi-like services such as Uber? 

Yes, I've ridden in taxis. I don't have an interesting taxi story, but I have an incredibly scary Uber story. 2 friends & I took an Uber in Nashville; 1 of the friends lives in Nashville. The driver was taking us through some questionable parts of town so my friend was commenting on the areas so the driver would know she knew where we were. Shortly after getting in, there was an alarm going off; the driver said it was her glucose monitor. I asked if she needed to do something and she said no. Later, she attempted to go up a ramp onto a busy parkway, realized she was getting onto Briley Parkway, and turned around going the wrong way. My Nashville friend reported the driver and recouped the fare. It was just crazy. I think we should have known better to get in the car when we saw tape over what appeared to be bullet holes in the window.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I've started a series of posts about our trip to Ireland, but what I haven't said (yet) is that I'm also doing some posts about camping in Ireland on our Flyin' the Coop blog. This was such an amazing trip; I'm really glad CH suggested a campervan and followed through with the plan. It was the perfect way to see Ireland without getting into "touristy" places.

Getting Over a Grinch-Styled Pity Party

I think I am officially over my Grinch-Styled Pity Party. This was such a special time in my family. Mama (who was the organist at church) would be busy getting the music and choir ready for Midnight Mass while making oodles of candy and cookies for us. And then making sure we all had a few presents under the tree on top of that. I honestly have no idea how in the world she did it, and how she did it for so long.
I've mentioned before that even after most of us were married and had our own families, Mama would make candy & cookies and would spread them out on the table. We'd bring our tins and line up, cafeteria style, to fill them up. Then came the Christmas when she gave us our own copies of her recipes, followed by her announcement that she wasn't going to make anything anymore. The end of an era. It hit me a few weeks ago that I'm surprised she did it as long as she did. I kept up the tradition with my boys, but as they've gotten older I've cut back. Last year I asked them what their favorites were and then I made those. Of course, they said chocolate covered cherries which is the most time consuming and hardest thing to make! This year I may not even do that. OS is across the country (again) and MS said he didn't want anything. YS again said chocolate covered cherries but he added that he knew they were hard to make so he didn't need them. (I think it's time to teach him how to make them and pass the molds on to him!)

When Will it Ease Up?

Right around Thanksgiving, I started feeling a little down. After Mama passed away I made sure I was at Mass with Daddy, especially if none of my siblings were able to be there. I knew the Midnight Mass in 2016 would be my last one with him. I couldn't bring myself to go last year; it was all I could do to make it through an earlier Mass. I keep wondering, "When will it ease up?" We had so many traditions growing up, most of which I passed on to my boys. That is what makes Christmas so special to me.

Snapping Out of It

So, yeah, I was a little down the couple of weeks following Thanksgiving. I finally snapped out of it on December 8th, which is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on the Catholic Liturgical Calendar. (I won't go into exactly what that is here, but if you're interested click here to read a post on my Catholic Blog.) I will say that this is a "Holy Day of Obligation", or a day when we're required to attend Mass. I was sitting there in the pew and I see a dad and his son walk in. This dad lost his wife very suddenly about a year ago (I think it was), and left him with 2 kids (they aren't yet in high school). I sat there thinking, "What is wrong with me? Waa, waa. I'm 56 years old and my parents are gone. I was lucky to have them as long as I did since Mama was 33 when she had me. I have my spouse and my boys. I should be thankful that I have them." Then, after Mass, a lady who lost her husband this past year came up to me and told me she sees my mom every time she looks at my face. This is her first Christmas without her husband, and I'm down because I don't have my parents??? That pretty much snapped me out of it pretty quickly. Then this happened the next day:

If that doesn't get you in the holiday mood, nothing will! It started coming down during Mass, which was a little distracting. Since I play the flute in the choir, I'm facing the back of the church which has a huge glass front. In the reflection (with the heavy snow falling outside), I can see the advent candles and the stained glass in the back of the altar, which represents "The Day the Sun Danced":

NOW I'm ready to put my tree up (and decorate it!) and do a little more decorating for Christmas. Will I bake or make candy? Probably not. CH & I definitely don't need it and the boys haven't expressed an interest. Christmas is going to look different for us this year: MS won't be home until Christmas Day so we won't have the traditional Christmas Eve Dinner; I'll save that until Christmas Day. He said all he wants is a french toast casserole that I make every year for brunch. Like I said, OS is across the country so he obviously won't be home. YS still lives here, so he'll be here.

It's All About the Traditions

I love Christmas; I always have. It's not about the presents (that's one thing I don't like about it) but it's about family and tradition. I still don't think the boys "get it" but hopefully when they start having kids they will. I hope that when CH & I are gone they will remember Christmas with fond memories and won't let the Grinch get a hold of them!

Ireland: Killarney- Part 6

We checked into our hotel and saw this on one of the beds:

We got settled (once again) and walked around the corner to find this:

There is another St. Mary's that we didn't go to (not enough time!), but the other one is a Catholic Cathedral, this one is Church of Ireland. The inside was beautiful.

The door was pretty impressive.

Beautiful stained glass

The organ was also pretty impressive

We took to the streets to check out the town:

Side Street

Alley

Loved the thatched roof

Apparently, this used to be where the milk market was, but I couldn't find any history for it.

Loved the facade on this building

We saw this guy & had no idea

This was outside of a building.

Right as it was getting dark, we came upon the Franciscan Friary. There was a friar who appeared to be locking up but he invited us in. We took a quick look around since we didn't want to hold him up.

The Church is on a hill and is quite impressive

St. Francis

This is what we saw when we walked in.

The Altar

Confessional

Side altar...not a great picture because of the lack of light

As we walked out, the sight was equally as beautiful.

As we walked out, M pointed out the sky:

The next morning we were on a mission to find St. Mary's Well. M had it on her list of things to see, but we had a really hard time finding it. I checked and found that it was "in a parking lot". As it turned out, you have to walk through an alley next to the Town Hall. We thought it was actually in a parking lot, but we couldn't find it there.

 And we finally found it:

When we first saw it, we weren't sure it was it.

We asked a couple of locals who had no idea what we were talking about.

While you can't get to the water in the well, there is a tap where you can.

I found an article that said that there is a brief service and a Rosary recitation every August 15th at the site. It's just so incredibly sad that it's tucked away without any signs on the main road directing people to it.

Having accomplished the finding of the well, we found our way to the tour company to take our day tour to the Dingle Peninsula. Come back on Thursday to see the highlights!