alicia: March 2007 Archives
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thanks to
The Wine-Dark Sea
when we moved to oregon in 1997, we left behind a non-functioning washer and dryer. i did laundry for 6 at the laundromat for a while - we were not well off as we were making payments on our house in Los Angeles and my job had fallen through (long story, I'll tell it some day). One day when I was really depressed about the whole thing, John came home from choir rehearsal to tell me that a fellow parishioner was giving us their washer and dryer - free, gratis, for nothing. That washer /dryer set lasted us almost 9 more years.....
1. Where/How did you meet?
Through a friend, on March 23, 2973
2. How long have you known each other?
34 years
3. How long after you met did you start dating?
two months
4. How long did you date before you were engaged?
three months
5. How long was your engagement?
six months
6. How long have you been married?
33 years
7. What is your anniversary?
Feb 23, 1974
8. How many people came to your wedding reception?
somewhere between 200 and 300 - we lost track
9. What kind of cake did you serve?
lemon cake, buttercream frosting
10. Where was your wedding?
Sacred Heart Chapel at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles CA
11. What did you serve for your meal?
no meal. just snacks. my mom's friends got together and made tons of finger sandwiches which were frozen and then thawed the day of the wedding
12. How many people were in your wedding party?
lots. maid of honor/best man, 5 each bridesmaids/groomsmen, a ring bearer and a flower girl
13. Are you still friends with them all?
I'm related to most of them!
14.Did your spouse cry during the ceremony?
ask him
15. Most special moment of your wedding day?
Getting to the hotel and shaking out all the rice
16.Any funny moments?
I had a piece of antique lace that was draped over my veil, and it kept falling off
17. Any big disasters?
not really - we ran out of food but there was a convenience store just down the road so my mom sent one of the kids out to get some more snacks
my little brother got into the champagne and got a little soused
18. Where did you go on your honeymoon?
night one - Huntington Hotel
night two - fold out coach in my folks house
night three - camped out near San Luis Obispo, sleeping in the camper that was hauling our household goods to our new home
night three - our new place
19. How long were you gone?
see above
20. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change?
not much
21. What side of the bed do you sleep on?:
facing the headboard, it would be the right
22. What size is your bed?
king
23. Greatest strength as a couple?
forgiveness
24. Greatest challenge as a couple?
forgiveness
25. Who literally pays the bills?
we do it together
26. What is your song?
don't really have one
27. What did you dance your first dance to?
at the wedding, it was Color My World
28. Describe your wedding dress:
antique lace picture is here
29. What kind of flowers did you have at your wedding?
roses, daisies, and baby's breath
30. Are your wedding bands engraved?
yes
31. How old were you when you got married?
19
If you haven't done this one yet, consider yourself tagged!
This is a 4 minute video produced by a student, who followed a midwife around for a while.
Like Heaven Into My Hands
Pediatricians Voice Anger Over Costs of Vaccines - New York Times
Vaccination is expensive - why? Well, the drug companies fought and won federal protection against suits, for one....
Power of Prayer: Amelia White
Thank God for the Catholic hospital who followed the rules.
Mahony accounts of abuse case tape differ - Los Angeles Times
I left Los Angeles 10 some years ago. As much as I miss LaLa land, the fact is that it isn't what it was when I was growing up.
A push to stop midwives | Inquirer | 02/05/2007
I could only wish that the writer had investigated her terminology a bit more.....
Anamchara is a blog updated but rarely yet well worth the visit.
It is from Monsignor Barr of the Rockford IL diocese.
This morning, as John was reading the office of Lauds from the four volume set of The Liturgy of the Hours, I was taken aback. The opening hymn was "Praise my soul the King of Heaven" - a fine bit of hymnody, to be sure, but not one I would use during Lent. We don't do 'alleluia' during Lent. It just isn't done! I even get a bit queasy typing it in here, and during choir rehearsals I am also restless and uneasy rehearsing the Easter hymns and responses.....
Did something change while I wasn't looking, such that the old customs were no longer in force? Or was it that today is St Patrick's day, and maybe an exception?
Sometimes, while John is reading from the book, I will follow along on my Palm using the Universalis program. (I actually prefer the British translations!). Universalis does not prescribe the hymns, saying only that "a suitable hymn may be inserted at this point." So I still don't know. IS there an exception to the 'no alleluia during Lent" rule?
It did get me to thinking about lenten customs. And of course, I went surfing the Internet for more information. Lenten Customs, from an Anglican source describes much of what I practiced as an Anglican child. We didn't actually physically practice Burying the Alleluia, but we did many of the others. I am fairly sure that we practiced our Easter hymns well before Ash Wednesday, and we focused on the Holy Week liturgies after Lent began. It did help, a lot, that our hymnbook was hardbound and well-established, and so there were not a lot of 'new' things to learn. Year to year, we chose from among the same group of hymns and songs. Mayhap there would be some new music for the acclamations, or perhaps a choir anthem, but the majority of what we did was pretty much the same year to year. And this helped the congregation to participate, and hence be a congregation not an audience.
Digging deeper, I found that there were other traditions that I was only dimly aware of.
The fourth Sunday of Lent (tomorrow from when I am typing this) is traditionally 'mothering sunday' and is marked (as are so many other days) by a special food. Simnel cake, a baked and boiled cross between Christmas pudding and steak and kidney pie!
What I think I remember most from childhood are the foods of Lent. We began with pancakes on Shrove Tuesday to Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday, to all the sweets on Easter Sunday itself. Strange, isn't it? For what is generally a fasting and penitential season?
I think that it may be that we are most tempted by various items when we have voluntarily given them up. For example, my family has for years given up meat for Lent, with exceptions for Sundays and St. Patrick's day. Much of the year, I don't think about meat. I'm not particularly bothered by the smell of the local steakhouses venting their animal sacrifices into the air as I drive past. Even on Fridays during the rest of the year, I don't particularly pay attention. But starting on Ash Wednesday, I am taunted and tempted even driving past McDonald's. "Meat", it calls to me. "Come and eat", it whispers in my ears.
Now, the temptation to eat meat may not seem to be a very large or important one as compared to, say, the temptations to the seven capitol sins - vainglory (pride), avarice, gluttony, lust, sloth, envy, anger. (It could be considered a variation on gluttony, I suppose). No, rather I think that the enemy of us all grabs us wherever he can find a weak point, and food is one of mine. (Now where is that quote on the difference between fasting and eating????) I mean, God gave us food, and lots of choices in eating, and He gave us taste buds to appreciate it. No less a personage than G.K.Chesterton was reputed to say "the Catholic Church is like a thick steak, a glass of red wine, and a good cigar". And even if he didn't actually say that, it is still true that God gave us things to enjoy but not to abuse.
Fasting and abstinence are ways of giving up the good that God has given us, so that we can appreciate it all the more. And so too the alleluia in Lent. After the weeks of restraining ourselves from this beautiful word, this heavenly sentiment, we can burst out in song and praise on Easter, celebrating the resurrection with the glorious hymnody that repeats that word over and over and over again.
Lots of good recipes, too.
Congratulations! You are more knowlegeable than most modern theologians! You have achieved mastery over the most important doctrines of the Catholic Faith! You should share your incredible understanding with others!
Do You Know Your Baltimore Catechism?
Make Your Own Quiz
Stating the obvious
"I grew up the child of a mixed-gender marriage that lasted until death parted them, and I could tell you about how good that is for children,"
And then, there is also his Young Lutheran's Guide to the Orchestra
A Place to Turn When a Newborn Is Fated to Die - New York Times
would that this were universally available
My biggest complaint about the article is the phrase "A Roman Catholic couple who support abortion rights". Please! can't you talk about an important movement/support for parents in difficult circumstances without making it political!
13 Ways Queening is Better than Modern Childbirth
1. No one tries to induce a cat.
2. No one ever schedules a c-section for a cat.
3. Cats don't need IVs.
4. Cats are allowed to choose their own positions for labor and birth.
5. Cats are allowed to use the litter box during labor and are not catheterized or forced to go on a bedpan.
6. Cats squat for delivery. (I didn't even have to tell her it was an evidence-based pratice!)
7. No one would ever think of separathing the kittens from the queen to "give them a bath and shots" within the first hour. That would just be cruel.
8. Cats aren't asked whether they want to breast or bottle-feed.
9. Cats don't accept anyone removing their kittens from them even if they insist it's "policy." (Trust me on this one. I tried to pick up one of the kittens and was sternly warned not to do this!)
10. Cats believer in skin-to-skin (or fur-to-fur) contact and practice this.
11. No one tries to do an amniotomy on a cat.
12. We don't have continuous kitten monitoring during labor.
13. Cats don't sue you if something goes wrong
Stil recovering from the weekend - 4 babies in 18 hours!
Melanie Bettinelli has uterine cancer
I will be praying to St. Gianna on this one.
Melanie writes here
The Dawn Patrol will be in my neighborhood next week - but not near enough. I am on call when she is here, and I can't be that far away. wahhhh
If you choose to comment at the magazine's site, please focus on the positives not the negatives!
Drugs, Knives, and Midwives
the American birth industry is in a crisis because we have turned a natural event into a medical condition. As a result, we've allowed obstetricians -- and not the midwives who safely deliver the majority of the world's babies -- to control maternity care. The ironic result is that in our efforts to make birth as safe as possible, we have saddled American women and babies with a system that, despite being the most expensive on earth, puts us in the bottom tier of care for wealthy countries.
Midwifery's Renaissance
Because the midwives feared God, they did not do as commanded by the king.
-Exodus 1:17
A midwife is lectured at by committees, scolded by matrons, sworn at by surgeons, bullied by surgical dressers, talked flippantly to if middle aged and good humored, seduced if young.
-London Times, 1857
Saint Colette
Her birthday is the day after mine!
She was the patron saint of my dear departed mother in law, and her name is part of both my daughter's name and of course, my unborn granddaughter.
As she is a saint in the Western church, I doubt that there is an icon of her, but if any of you know of one, please let me know. I did find a picture.
My daughter was not given Saint Colette as a patron saint, I gave her to St. Catherine of Siena.
If you have a chance, say a prayer or light a candle for her!
Full text from the NEJM
The co-author of this report is one of the main movers behind cesarean on demand and no-VBAC policies. BTW.
