What do you do...

...when to your wondering eyes should appear a beautiful, somewhat large, wild brown bird with sharp eyes and an equally sharp beak. And it is on the mirror of your dresser. And in front of the dresser is.... one of your cats. The one who is particularly good at hunting mice.

However, this bird is clearly out of your cat's league as the devastation that slowly meets your eye professes. The dresser is all but cleared of its decor, and the prayer basket filled with bible and notes is upturned beside the bed. Milo sits there in the midst of the pillage, tail switching not willing to accept defeat.

To add to the stress of the moment, the 22 month old wanders in. Clearly it is time for decisive action. So what did I do?

Scooped up cat and baby and unceremoniously dumped both outside the bedroom door and slammed door closed before they had time to react and leaned against it, and eyeballed this 10 inch sized brown bird. Sensing a foe more to its equal, said bird panicked and dive bombed me before landing on the door frame. I hastily retreated to the middle of the room and had a light bulb moment.

Quickly I pulled up the venitian blinds and opened the top window where there was no screen. My lovely guest felt, rather than saw the opening as fresh cool air flowed into the room. He swooped about searching the source of the temperature change and suddenly he was gone, free as a ... bird.

Guessing that nobody would believe this adventure I had the wits to capture a picture of my guest on his favourite perch. My mirror. And if you don't believe me, see for yourself below! Read more!

Read more!

A Lenten Project...

We have a grapevine wreath that we have filled with round tooth picks that replicate the thorns that Jesus' head was pieced with. Within the crown of thorns are flowers.

Throughout Lent when someone in our family does a kind deed (act of charity) or does says some extra prayers, they may remove a thorn from this crown and place it on the cross which will be next to our crown of thorns.

This cross will help us to focus during Lent on how Jesus died for us and took our sins upon himself. Slowly throughout the fourty days of fasting and prayer that our Church will be engaged in, it is hoped that we will completely remove all these thorns from the crown and by Easter perhaps the Cross will be filled with them, and Jesus will have a beautiful crown of flowers. Each thorn that we remove is replaced by a flower that represents the act of charity or perhaps an act of penance that we have completed.

To help inspire us as to what kind of things we might do as acts of charity or penance we have two decorated jars on the same table. One is labeled with Corporal Acts of Mercy and the other Spiritual Acts of Mercy. Within the jar of Corporal acts will be chores that not done on a regular basis such as wash the white wood work on the stairs. Wash the two door frames in the dining room. Within our jar of spiritual works of mercy will be various prayers that people can pray as well as suggestions of people to pray for; perhaps a friend who is ill, someone we know who is looking for work as well as the many priests we know.

Once it is completly set up, I will update this photo or post a second photo, so drop by again soon.

I pray you will all have a Holy lent.

Read more!