Upon a Quick Stop in to Search for an Old Post. . .

I was inspired to write bad poetry. . .

* * *

Poor beautiful, poor neglected,
Poor unfortunate blog.

You look really nice,
but you’re such a time hog.

If I wasn’t penning a novel,
I’d keep you up to date.

Blog sweet, blog impatient,
You’ll just have to wait!

 

Lent

Hello, Friends!

Hope you are having a beautiful Lenten season so far.  Mine has been a busy one, with my husband out of town for a few days last week; some illness in the family (colds, flu, the usual winter stuff); working on my novel; keeping up with the daily Mass readings.

I got word this past week that one of the deacons at my parish is leaving.  I don’t know the details, but I believe he must have gotten a new job.  He was the primary teacher of my RCIA class, and he’s also the one who worked with my husband and me to get our marriage validated in the Church so I could receive the sacraments.  Through all this, he became a friend of sorts to me, and I am very sad to see him go.   I wish him well.

I know this isn’t much, but I just wanted to drop in and let you know I’m still alive.  Very happy, very busy, very much alive!

God’s blessings on each of you.

~ Kimberly

 

Guilt Post

What a bad blogger I’ve been.

I’ve been completely busy writing my novel—the one I started plotting about 17 years ago—and have had no desire to blog at all. I haven’t even been READING, and if you know me, you know that’s totally bizarre, because normally I have my nose stuck in a book practically 24/7.

I’m sorry to be such a disappointment to my very few blog “fans.” (Bless your hearts!, as my friend Jenny would say!) I don’t know when I’ll get back in the swing of this. Maybe something will come to mind and I’ll just *have* to blog about it. Or maybe I will not be in the mood again until after I finish my novel’s first draft.

In the meantime, please accept my apologies. I do feel guilty, but I’m having too much fun writing my book to really do anything about it just now.

I hope you are all well. If you’re on my blog roll, I will try to visit you soon.

~ Kim

 

Blast from the Past

Hey, remember ROLLER SKATING????

Today we went to Skate World to attend a birthday party for one of Urban’s friends.  The last time I was in a roller rink was when some friends and I went to our high school Christmas formal in 10th or 11th grade—how sad that I can’t even remember which, but in any case, no skating was actually involved.  The last time I wore a pair of roller skates, I was probably in 6th or 7th grade!  (I was a decent skater, though I always felt more comfortable in ice skates.  It’s only been 12 years since I last ice-skated.)

I didn’t actually skate today.  Most of the parents didn’t.  Our poor babies needed us to be stable on our feet.  None of my boys had been skating before, so they needed lots and lots of help.  (Urban was so bad at it at first that one of the rink refs came over and offered him a ticket for a free skating lesson!)  My helpfulness, I’m sorry to report, was dubious.  At one point, Urb lost his balance and grabbed for me, started to fall, and then took me down with him.  Ouch!  But we laughed.  He has a good-sized bruise on his right knee as a result, though.

I have to say that the roller skating rink in my hometown was, at least when I knew it, quite a bit nicer than the one we were at today.  But then, the 70s and 80s were kind of the “heyday” of roller skating.  Places like Smart Skate could afford coat hooks above the carpeted benches and a real d.j. to play the tunes (and even take requests!).

But some things never change.  Today, they even did the “Hokey Pokey.”

Oh, the memories….

 

Dear Friends,

Happy Holidays! 

I hope you are all ready for Christmas—or at least feeling at peace about your current level of “readiness.”  We here at Echowood are ready and very excited (the kids especially, of course).  This is actually something of an oddity for us—to feel and be ready for Christmas when it comes.  Ever since moving to the South, it’s been hard to register the reality of holiday time.  How can one sing, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” when it’s 80° out?  Because of this, time seems to get away from us, and too much gets done last-minute.

Not this year, though.  We were fortunate enough to have a Parents’ Day Out through church, so we could drop the boys off and get almost all our shopping done.  Another day, they all went to a friends’ home for the afternoon so we could finish up—we even had a chance to have lunch out together (just the two of us, imagine that!) and get groceries, too.  We put our tree up over Thanksgiving weekend.  How on the ball was that?  Last night we went to see all the beautiful lights at a local park, and today we decorated cookies.  I’ve been doing the daily Advent Scripture readings, which really helps keep my mind focused on the reason for the season, as they say.  Brian and the boys have been doing an Advent calendar—a really beautiful one that he got for them, with little doors to open and magnetic figures to add to the scene each day.  Tomorrow little Levi will get to put up the Baby Jesus.  It always gives me pause during Holy Communion at Christmas to remember that our Savior began as we all did, as a tiny little baby; yet he was born to give His Body and Blood for us. 

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  We’re trying to get the boys to clean up their playroom now, rather than putting it off ’til tomorrow, as we’d like that day to be busy with fun things and attending services at church.

Anyway, I just wanted to drop a note to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!  May you have a beautiful and blessed holiday.

~ Kimberly

 

Recipe: Cranberry Coffee Cake

My mom shared this recipe with me years ago.  It’s perfect to make around the holidays, when cranberries are so readily available at all the grocery stores.  I like to stock up and freeze them, so I can make this wonderful coffee cake year-round.  It’s a special treat for breakfast—or anytime!—and definitely goes great with coffee.

Cranberry Coffee Cake

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 cup butter, softened

1-1/2 cups sugar

1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 eggs

2-1/4 cups flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups cranberries (fresh; if frozen, thaw before using)

1/2 cup chopped nuts

In mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla.  Add eggs and mix well.  Add flour, baking powder, and salt; mix well.  Stir in cranberries and nuts.

Pour into well-greased bundt ban.  Bake at 350° for 65-70 minutes, or until wooden toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 5-10 minutes.   Remove from pan.  (You will probably need to run a knife around the edges in order to get it to come out.  I did a poor job of this last time and the cake stuck pretty badly, which is why I have no photo of it to share with you!)

When completely cooled, glaze with the following recipe.

Glaze:

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Powdered sugar (1-2 cups)

Milk to thin, as needed (2-3 tablespoons)

Put all ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl.  Mix thoroughly, then drizzle over the top of the coffee cake.  It makes a lot, so you can really load it on if you’re a big fan of glaze/frosting.  The cake itself has a fair amount of sweetness, but it’s still pretty tart without the glaze, so don’t be stingy!

 

On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Dear Friends,

I greet you with nerves in knots.  It’s been so long since I posted anything here, you’ve all likely given up on me.

I confess I’ve been enjoying my time away from the ‘net.  I’ve even considered never coming back to Epistles from Echowood.

But today in the Catholic Church we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and it’s been on my mind to share something about this ever since last spring.  I must write!

First, let me remind you what “Immaculate Conception” is not.  It is not the fact that the Lord Jesus was born of a virgin.  Rather, it is the fact/belief/teaching/dogma (whatever you want to call it) that the Virgin Mary was preserved from sin from the moment of her conception.  Not, obviously, that this was anything she did on her own, by her own power or even that of her parents, but rather that it was a gift from God—a spectacular demonstration of his supernatural superabundance and love.  And this gift not just for Mary herself, but for us the Church as well.

The first time I heard of this, I was a Protestant.  My gut reaction was this:  Well, that’s just wrong.  The Bible doesn’t say that.  Mary was just an ordinary person like the rest of us. (And of course, Boy, those Catholics sure believe some weird stuff!)

Looking back, I have to laugh at my arrogance in thinking I could possibly know anything at all about Jesus’ mother.  I’d drifted away from church for nearly 10 years and had only been attending worship again for a few months.  I’d never done any reading or study about Mary.  Who was I to think I knew more about it than the pope in Rome, who spends some 5 hours a day in prayer?  (But I digress!)

During the years I spent studying and learning about Catholicism, I found many interesting and beautiful ways that the Church teaches about Mary and her identity as Immaculate Conception.  Thinking of her as The New Eve and as The Ark of the New Covenant were very helpful in getting me to understand and accept this dogma—one that is often difficult for converts to wrap their minds around.

Last spring, during Lent, I discovered yet another way of understanding Mary as Immaculate Conception.  This is not something I read in a book or heard on Catholic radio or TV.  These are my own thoughts, which, I believe, the Lord brought to my mind one night in order to help me better understand and embrace the role of  His mother in salvation history.  I humbly share these thoughts with you now.

* * * * *

It was that final week of Lent.  You know how we always read those awful scenes from the Bible where Jesus is put on trial, where Pilate says, “What should I do with him?” and the crowd shouts, “Crucify him!   Crucify him!”?  At my church, this Scripture is read almost like a play, with the priest reading the part of Jesus, one of the deacons reading Pilate, and the rest of us, the assembly, reading the part of the crowd.  It is always very, very difficult to get those words out:  “Crucify him!  Crucify him!”

It’s so hard to say those words aloud because….well, we like to think that if we’d been there, we would not have joined in that hue and cry.  We don’t like to think of our Lord enduring the horrors of the Cross, and especially not because of anything we’ve done.

In the same week, I watched “The Passion, by Radix,” on EWTN.  I wrote about this on my blog:  a one-man show, where the one man (who goes by the name Radix) plays all the parts.  He pours sweat.  He shouts and cries and lunges around the stage.  It’s riveting.  And when he gets to the part when Jesus is being nailed to the cross, he asks the horrible question:  Which pound of the nail was yours?

I was lying in bed one night, thinking about these things, struggling with the unavoidable fact that it was my sin—all of our sin—that sent Jesus to the cross.  Could He have saved us some other way?  Yes, but he didn’t.  He accepted death by crucifixion because of our sin, to atone for it.

Every time we sin, we are standing with the crowds, shouting “Crucify him!”  Every time we sin, we are pounding in one of those hideously big nails.  Retroactively, as it were.  God is outside of time and space; He died for us who hadn’t even been born yet as well as for those who already were and already had been.

I found myself thinking about Mary.  How would it be to watch one’s own son suffer such a death?  Even knowing He was the Savior of the World.  To see him in such incredibly agony.  Nearly unbearable, it would be.  (I have three sons.  I can’t even imagine….)

And then I realized:  If Mary had ever sinned—even once in her entire life, like, say, when she was a small child—she would be as guilty as the rest of us of sending Him to the cross.  Any sin of hers would be like her participation in the crowds’ shouting, “Crucify him!”  Her sin, like ours, would help to pound the nails.

Mary.  His own mother.

Would God ask this of anyone?  Would God ask the woman He’d chosen to be mother to His beloved son to participate in that son’s death?  She’d already given her fiat; she’d already said, “I am the handmaid of the Lord.”  She’d carried Him within her womb and birthed Him and raised Him.  Would God really have asked her to not only watch Him suffer, but to add her own participation to it as well by the fact of her own sin?  After all, it was sin and sin alone that put Him up on that cross.

Where was the precedent for this?  Where in Scripture did God ever ask a parent to sacrifice his own child?

Immediately, I was reminded of Abraham and Isaac.  Remember that story?  God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac.  Abraham said “yes, Lord.”  He brought Isaac up the hill and got everything prepared and had his knife poised at Isaac’s throat, ready to do this terrible thing.  (Don’t we all shudder every time we read that story?  I sure do.)

But what happened?  God spoke.  “Abraham!  Do not harm the boy!”  Abraham had proven his faithfulness.  God had other plans for that day’s sacrifice.

God stayed Abraham’s hand.

Mary’s Immaculate Conception—her being so full of grace as to be saved from sinfulness from the moment of her conception—was God’s staying of her hand.  In this way, she was prevented from ever doing anything that would cause her to inadvertently participate in her own son’s death.  In this way, she became the first Christian to walk in victory over sin.

* * * * *

Prior to the recent Presidential election, I had the opportunity to participate in praying a novena (nine days of prayer) to Our Lady of Victory, who is, of course, the Virgin Mary.

On one of these days, as I was reciting down the list of all the many ways Mary was/is victorious, I had one of those “light-bulb moments.”

We Christians often hear and talk about “walking in victory” over sin, over the devil, over our addictions, etc.  We talk about having “victory in Christ” and “living victoriously through Christ.”

It occurred to me just then that Mary’s life is exactly what is meant by that.  She is our perfect example of what it means to walk in victory through Christ!   Because of God’s supernatural superabundance in blessing her, we have heaps and heaps of hope for our own lives.  Everything she was able to accomplish because of her own absolute openness to receiving God’s will, we, too, can strive to attain (holiness!  heaven!).  She, filled with grace, cooperated with God her whole life and walked in continuous victory, even during the bleakest of times.  We, too, can accept Him and cooperate with His grace and be filled and empowered to walk with Him in victory, too.

What a beautiful hope we have in Christ!  Hope is what this season of Advent is all about.  Hope, that is waiting expectantly.  Hope, which means we already have something of the anticipated thing or person or event, even before it is made present to us.

Everything we believe about Mary is meant to sustain us in this hope.  Praise God!

~ Kimberly

 

I’m on Sick Leave!

Hi.

Remember the other day, when I said I thought I was catching a cold?

Consider it caught.

I feel like crap and not the least little bit like blogging.  But still, I know I had said I was going to write about beauty and recommend a fabulous novel.  Those things are just going to have to wait until I can breathe again.  Right now, I’m too miserable to do much more than sit on the sofa wrapped in a blanket.  Of course, being a mom, that’s not how I spend all of my time when ill.  The little buddies need to be taken care of, so I’m doing my best with that.

Anyway, I’ll be back when I’m feeling better—hopefully sooner rather than later!  Y’all take care.

~ K.

 

Just a Few (Mostly) Non-Political Ramblings on Election Day

Hi Everyone!

Would you believe that 38% of registered Florida voters had already voted prior to Election Day?  Crazy.  Brian and I had originally planned to vote early—to avoid long lines—but discovered the “long lines” were at the early polling places.  Thanks to all those who did vote early, we were able to walk in to our precinct and go straight to casting our ballots with no wait at all!

I wanted to let you know that, in spite of the uncomfortable conversation I had with my friend Miss Blue (which I wrote about in this controversial post), it has turned out that both Blue and her husband are voting against the pro-abortion contingency.  I don’t think it had one single thing to do with me or my comments to her at all, but I am still very relieved!

In other news….here we are, finished with daylight savings time.  Is anyone else even more tired than they were last week?  I’m exhausted.  And to make matters worse, my kids are still on DST—goofing off at bedtime (staying up too late) and then up at the crack of dawn, which is now a whole hour earlier.  I don’t have any time in the mornings after I take my 7-year-old out to his bus stop.  I used to be able to check e-mail, write a blog post, read, pray, or even just go back to bed for a bit.  Brian and I talked about the possibility of putting them all to bed at 7, instead of 8; but as Brian said, if we just stick to the usual routine, they’ll eventually adjust, and then the little ones will sleep a bit later in the mornings.

The other night, I saw that the movie Mean Girls was going to be on TV.  I remember all the hype a few years ago, when it first came out.  I seem to recall Oprah doing a whole show about it.  I’d never seen it, so I decided to watch.  It was nothing like I thought it would be.  I imagined something very dramatic and serious.  But instead, it was funny.  I guess it would be considered a “black comedy,” but it really wasn’t all that dark, in my opinion.  Mind you, I was watching the edited-for-television version, which dubbed over any swear words and cut the worst stuff out (presumably).

Maybe I just had my head in the sand, but I don’t remember there being girls like “the plastics” in my high school.  Even middle school, which was the worst as far as cliques and “popularity” went, was not like that.  Have things gotten really bad these days, or was that movie just totally unrealistic?  Oprah seemed to take it all pretty seriously, and the girls she had on her show could really relate to the events in the movie.

I just don’t get it.  Does anyone remember Heathers?  It was kind of like that—similar, but not very funny and rather morbid.  I was much younger when that movie came out, and I couldn’t really relate to the mean girls in that movie, either.  I must have been really lucky to go to a high school without so much nastiness and melodrama and superficiality.

I think I am getting a cold.

This is all for today, but I will write again soon.  I have some thoughts to share on the subject of beauty, as well as a terrific book to recommend, so be sure to check back when you get a chance.

Take care.  Hope the rest of your day goes swimmingly!

~ Kimberly

 

How Was Your Halloween?

Hope it was a fun one!

We had a good time here. Brian and the boys carved a jack-o-lantern. We took a family vote to decide whether to give our pumpkin a happy face or a scary one. I was the big loser—totally outnumbered! But look at that expression. Wouldn’t you call it more “goofy” than scary? Somehow, it reminds me of Charlie Brown (maybe it’s that ultra-round, hairless shape?) and my husband, who makes a similar face when he’s annoyed. (No smiley-face icon here, because I’m not kidding!)

I had the joy of separating the pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin guts, rinsing them, and laying them out to dry on paper towels. (We roasted them this morning, with kosher salt and olive oil, and they are soooo good!)

We met up with some neighbor friends, at their place, for trick-or-treating. We live in a huge neighborhood, so we really didn’t have to go too far for the kids to get their buckets so full they could barely carry them. Lots o’ candy, let me tell ya!

(Oh, and I should mention it was a perfect night for walking around outside. Right around 60 degrees. Last year, it was outrageously hot, and we were all miserable.)

Here are the boys in their costumes. Urban was Annikin Skywalker, Charlie was Luke Skywalker, and Levi was a pirate. Originally, I’d put a blue bandanna (with paisleys on it) on his head, but that made him look like a cleaning lady. The black one was a *bit* better, but we all joked that he was the poor pirate stuck with the job of swabbing the deck, because he still, somehow, looked like a washer-woman!

Some of the neighbors really went all-out with their Halloween decor. One house, especially, was downright scary! But all the kids were such good sports about it.

Afterward, we went back to our friends’ house and had hot chocolate and talked until around 10:30. By the time we got home, the kids were so, so tired, and so were we.

But I think that is the most fun I have had on Halloween since I was a kid. Hope your night was a good one, too!