Happy 40th to Frankie!

When I asked Frankie what he wanted to do for his 40th birthday, he said he wanted to make a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle National Shrine. So we packed our bags and headed to the Texas valley. We toured the Basilica, said a few prayers, and attended a Mariachi Mass. It was really beautiful! His birthday gift was something we all got to enjoy!

Heavenly Father, As we celebrate Frankie’s birthday, permit us, Lord, to celebrate it with you, opening our hearts to you. If he has reached this year it is because of you, who were never absent from his life. May your presence give him the will to fight against what is selfish and evil. Accompany him, Lord, with the power of your kindness all along the journey of his life; preserve in him a strong and happy disposition to do your will. Keep lit for many years, O Lord, the spark of his life, so that we may thank you daily for the light of your blessing. Amen.

I just had to throw this picture in. Since Grandpa Mike is originally from the valley... This was the candle room where they light candles for all who send in prayer requests.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Today is our wedding anniversary – time has flown! I love having known Frankie since we were 12 years old, living and learning and enjoying every minute of it.

I love our family trips to Costco, night-time drives for ice-cream, Sunday drives for sweets after Mass, taking time to pray together, reading books to each other during long drives, and late-night movie watching. I cherish the uncontrollable laughter when we’re being silly, the ache during difficult times and being able to look at each other and thank God we have the strength to endure anything together, the breathtaking beauty of our children and the awesome responsibility we have of raising them, the hours spent together cleaning up after sick children, even when we were sick ourselves, and, in the midst of it all, thanking God for yet another beautiful day that He has given us.

O God, we thank you that you have given us another year of life together. We thank you for the love which grows more precious and for the bonds which grow more close each day. We thank you for the happiness we have known together; for the sorrows we have faced together; for all the experiences of sunshine and of shadow through which we have come, up to today.

We ask for forgiveness for any failure on our part for any times when we became difficult to live with; for any lack of sympathy and understanding; for anything which spoiled even for a moment the perfect relationship which marriage should be. Spare us to each other to go on walking the way of life together and grant that for us it may be true that the best is yet to be: Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

To the biggest love of my life - Happy Anniversary!! And to quote Winnie the Pooh, "If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you." :o)

The Joker

Poor Frankie. I have a lot of fun on April Fools Day (at his expense). So this morning, I told him I was making some fresh coffee. He heard me grind the beans and he heard the machine begin to brew. I even put out a cup for him so he could be ready to pour that first delicious cup of Joe. But that picture you see above is what he saw instead...and I got it on video too!!!

Fat Tuesday

Today we celebrated Fat Tuesday. In addition to the regular events of the day, we took time later to enjoy some indulgences before Lent begins tomorrow. As we had dinner (I made steaks, 'taters and tres leches cake), we reflected on Fat Tuesday, Lent and the following prayer:

Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation,
for it is from your goodness that we have this day
to celebrate on the threshold of the Season of Lent.
Tomorrow we will fast and abstain from meat.
Today we feast.
We thank you for the abundance of gifts you shower upon us.
We thank you especially for one another.
As we give you thanks,
we are mindful of those who have so much less than we do.
As we share these wonderful gifts together,
we commit ourselves to greater generosity toward those
who need our support.

Prepare us for tomorrow.
Tasting the fullness of what we have today,
let us experience some hunger tomorrow.
May our fasting make us more alert
and may it heighten our consciousness
so that we might be ready to hear your Word
and respond to your call.

As our feasting fills us with gratitude
so may our fasting and abstinence hollow out in us
a place for deeper desires
and an attentiveness to hear the cry of the poor.
May our self-denial turn our hearts to you
and give us a new freedom for
generous service to others.

We ask you these graces
with our hearts full of delight
and stirring with readiness for the journey ahead.
We ask them with confidence
in the name of Jesus the Lord.

Amen.

As I sit here writing this post - I really realize what a busy day it was. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the kids - just of what we did. Here's a piece of our cake. Dee-licious. The kids were asking for cake the minute they heard me turn on the mixer.

I decided to do a few Lent themed projects with the kids so they can learn about it and so we can, even in a small way, all participate as a family. We made a "crown of thorns" to anticipate sacrifices we hope to make during Lent. When any one of us makes a sacrifice for Lent, we pull out a thorn from the crown to remind us of Christ's suffering and how our good works can comfort and show our love for Him. Hopefully, when Easter arrives, we'll have pulled all the thorns and then we'll decorate the crown with flowers.

Geneva putting together the crown, and then the finished product after it's baked.

Since tomorrow is a day of fasting, I made Fasting Bread. It smells pretty delicious and I am told that just two slices makes a satisfying meal and sustains strength.

The ingredients combines pure, wholesome ingredients with symbolic references found in Sacred Scripture. I thought I would share them with you in my incredibly long post.

Stone Ground Wheat and Oats – Symbol of the pain of being crushed by the wheels of God’s Justice – which “grind slowly but exceedingly fine.” “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.” Jn 12: 24

White Flour – a reminder of the manna given by God to the Hebrews during their forty years in the desert as Moses led them to the promised land. Manna foreshadowed the Holy Eucharist, also the called “Bread from Heaven”. Exodus 16:35 Jn 6:41

Yeast– unifying many parts into one; a symbol of the the kingdom of heaven and of the Church. Mt 13:33

Salt – Christ said to his Apostles: “You are the salt of the earth.” Mt 5:13

Water – Giving life to all things; a symbol of baptism; cleansing. Lenten penances aid the washing away our sins. “He who drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst.” Jn 4: 14

Olive Oil – Acclaimed throughout history as a source of strength, olive oil was used by the athletes of ancient Greece to prepare for them for the contests. Mixed with wine it was found useful in healing the wounds of those injured on the battlefields of medieval Europe. Olive oil is used by the Church in the Holy Oils applied in sacramental anointing.

Pure Maple Syrup – Collected in pure form flowing from a tree; symbolic of the cross and of the sweetness of the Blood of Christ which flowed freely from the tree of his cross, the tree of life; shed so that “sins may be forgiven.” A symbol of God’s love by making this sweet nutrient a gift to be discovered.

Holy Water – A sacramental used in blessings and bringing new life in Baptism. Holy water carries a blessing just by its use and when introduced with the sign of the cross how could this not be a must an key ingredient of fasting bread for lent?

Pecans – These pleasant gifts found in abundance from prolific trees are reminders of Christ’s command to go forth and “produce good fruit;” They are reminders of our own call to perform works of charity, prayer, fasting and almsgiving; the fruit of good works to be undertaken during Lent. Jn 15:16

Raisins – Made from pure grapes, raisins are the fruit of the vine; a reminder of the miracle of water changed into wine at the wedding feast in Cana; of the wine changed into the Blood of Christ at the Last Supper and at the Consecration during Mass. These serve as reminders of that mystery where wine is described as the “fruit of the vine and work of human hands, it will become our Spiritual Drink.”

I'll let you know how it tastes tomorrow...

March Madness

Geneva has had a busy couple of weeks! A couple of the highlights: Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day at UT. It was cool with lots of events and exhibits - in fact, too many to name! It was really fun.

Here, she and other girls are getting pelted by water balloons being thrown from a catapult. They loved this.

She learned how to make LED lights function with batteries, electrical wires

and a little circuit board and then soldered the thing together!

I'm really thinking we need a soldering iron.

This was a traffic control simulator.

It was harder than it looked...

The Cathedral School had their 10th Annual Fun Run at the Capital!
Super Fun. We got cool T-Shirts and ate some dee-licious Chick-Fil-A.
Geneva had a lot of fun running, and the rest of the crew had a lot

of fun hanging around and playing! We even had a police

escort that controlled traffic as we marched

from the school to the Capital.

Cheering Geneva on as she ran her laps.
As Geneva ran by me, she said, "You're funny, mom."

Micaela giving a big cheer!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It was a beautiful day for Valentine's here in Austin. Geneva had a party at school, so I stayed up last night making cookies (chocolate chip & white chocolate macadamia nut - yum!). The little ones asked to go to the park - so we did. There were lots of things to swing on and lots of things to spin on! They had fun.

Double trouble!!

The Micster loves the swings.

Gabriela went on this slide once... She said she

"almost got scared" but wouldn't go on it again.

Rafa, on the other hand...

The height of this slide was pretty cool and you

(um, I mean, the kids) can really get some speed!

These things just swung around like crazy!

Gabriela liked it better with her eyes closed!

Snow in Austin

Considering that many parts of the country were blanketed in heavy snow recently, snow in Austin might not be terribly interesting...unless you're Rafa & Gabriela that is. So yesterday morning when we woke up to hear them screaming "it snowed" - we knew we were in for a treat. I have to admit that I woke up a few times during the night to look out the window to see if there had been any snow... But here's a little look at their fun.