43 House Plants

We've been anticipating the first frost of the season for almost a month now. It FINALLY came last night (and with it, the death of many a fly... see the archive "Fly Smashing" for a macabre narrative).

To prepare for this, all our lovely plants that adorned our porches throughout the summer reclaimed their spots on countertops, in bedrooms, on top of china cabinets, and of course in our makeshift arboretum.

I brought in one of this year's newer additions, pictured here. It's a water iris, one of the many we grew in our pond this summer, thanks to the generous donation from my aunt and godmother. Just plunk these floatables in water, and watch their roots sprout a fine, purplish hair just before another tube shoots out of one of those green bouyant bulbs. Every 3 weeks or so, a bouquet of delicate purple flowers show up on a spike from the center of the plump foliage. Most delightful!

Bringing it inside and floating it in a glass vase on the kitchen windowsill has helped me observe the prolific generation and interesting 'behavior' of this gem of creation.

It's just one among our 43....
Our 43 are just a few among the billions that God, in His infinite creativity, holds in existence.

Miserere nobis

A family friend who has been optimistically battling cancer for the past 6 months was just told that he has little less than 2 weeks to live.

In his 20's, newly married to a beautiful young woman, a 6 month old son....

Please join me in praying for him and for his wife and son in these last days:

O most merciful Jesus, lover of souls, I beseech Thee, by the agony of Thy Most Sacred Heart and by the sorrows of Thine Immaculate Mother, wash clean in Thy Blood the sinners of the whole world who are now in their agony and who are to die this day. Amen.
V./ Heart of Jesus, who didst suffer death's agony,
R./ Have mercy on the dying.

What We're doing for Halloween

Fledgling family that we are, there are a lot of holiday traditions that have yet to be established at our home. Every year, new opportunities arise to reflect deeper upon how we celebrate holidays – be they national or faith-based.

With October drawing to a close, the mind of the becoming-ever-more-pagan-world is coming to dwell much upon the 31st, which, contrary to popular belief, is not the celebration of blood, guts, and goblins, but is rather the eve of the feast of all hallowed souls.

Quite the reason to celebrate! And that’s just what we’re going to be doing.

Here at Providence Cottage, the children will be:

1.) studying the lives of the saints for the 9 days preceding November 1st (the Solemn Feast of All Saints). We do this regularly anyway, as the saints are models of virtue and character, and many have led adventuresome lives – a fact which appeals to the limitless imagination of an almost 3year old! But starting tomorrow, special pomp and circumstance will surround our ‘study’ to further emphasize the feast we’re approaching.

2.) Baking goodies and making candies on Halloween that will be wildly consumed on the following day (though mostly by mommy). (Did I really type that?) The menu includes red waldorf cake… to honor our beloved martyrs, of course!

3.) Attending Mass and making a pilgrimage of sorts on November 1. Hopefully, we’ll have the opportunity to venerate some relics that day.

4.) And of course, visiting a cemetery to pray for the souls who are being prepared to behold the glorious face of Almighty God.

If your family is doing anything extraordinary to celebrate this great feast, please disclose your plans in the comments section!

Because i feel pressed for time....

...i am going to take the easy way out and post a picture. I hope you dont mind. No time for depth today.

Featured here are my very own Rosemarie and Sister Mary Rose. They met eachother for the first time on the campus of Franciscan University at my household's Lord's Day Celebration. Instead of reflecting on the Gospel reading, my baby was distracted by Sr. MR's cord and - you guessed it - covered it in drool.

Two of a kind

I figured an updated picture was over-due...
And yes, the dribble coming from RPS's mouth is always there.

Joe the Raccoon Slayer

Just as we’d all settled into be late last night, our sentinel dog, Lucy, sounded her alarm.

My husband is always quick to become annoyed by her incessant bark-slash-yelp, but I (most of the time) get curious. Since the babes were fast asleep and I was yet wide awake, I was looking forward to slinging a few rocks at, most likely, one from the legion of cats that continually trespass on our acreage and taunt our puppy just outside the range of her chain.

I got the flashlight and shined it out of our bedroom window toward the doghouse to get an idea as to where Lucy’s target might be lurching. She kept looking up into one of the trees. Hm? I followed her lead and guided the weak beam of light up the trunk, trying to catch sight of light-reflecting animal eyes.

I wear glasses, and my night vision is poor besides, so when I spotted the animal in the tree, I second guessed myself when I observed that it moved in a most un-catlike manner. I asked for my glasses to be fetched from the dresser for me. Cue the increasingly annoyed husband. (Oddly enough, my detailed narration of all of these events while they were unfolding did not pique his curiosity! Not my fault that he let himself fall half asleep while all this excitement was going on. Didn’t he know I was going to involve him eventually?!)

Spectacles in place, I discovered that Lucy had chased a RACCOON (!) up the tree and was harassing it from below.

If you know anything about our history involving the combination of raccoons and our flock of chickens, you can now add a newer, happier ending to a normally very predictable story. And incase you’re not a Schmies-o historian, suffice it to say that we always end up with a slaughtered flock and the raccoon runs away with a full belly and messy paws. The makings for a stomach-turning discovery for unsuspecting housewives. This time, it would not be so. All it took was a little encouragement from me to get the previously sleepy-eyed man-o-the-house out of bed and armed with a high-powered spotlight and weaponry of various kinds.

To make a very exciting and adrenaline-pumping story very short, I’ll keep it simple and share that our trusty 22 helped us reduce the risk of future raccoon terror on our property.

Parallel University

The fam and i were blessed with the opportunity to return to our alma mater this weekend.

My main reflection:
Time has passed, people have come and gone, and yet everything remains beautifully the same.
Much like Christendom.
Much like the Universal Church.

Autumn Setting In

In beautiful Ohio, the trees are just starting to turn,

the pumpkins are oranging-up,

and all those late-blooming wildflowers like asters and golden rod are starting to show their enchanting hues.