Gross, huh? but I have spent the day daydreaming about chowing down on a nice hunk of liver with onions. Pregnancy is weirdness.
As a child I used to relish liver. I was also extremely anemic, so my father used to chop it up and put it in the gravy. I can eat that again.
I look ridiculous. I am like 9 weeks today and can only fit in maternity clothes-which would make me like 5 month looking by the normal standards. I read it is due to poor stomach muscles. Grrr.
A close friend of my Guardian Angel sent me a container of Blessed Salt in the mail to help with some home stuff. My first question was "OK, now what do I do with it?" to which she replied "There is some info on Domestic-Church." I found this interesting tidbit which I thought I would share.
Blessed Saltby Maria Hernandez, used with permission.
This information is taken from a pamphlet written by Father Hampsch. You can obtain the entire pamphlet, tapes, and books by contacting his ministry at Claretian Tape Ministry, P.O. Box 19100, Los Angeles, CA 90019
Blessed salt is an instrument of grace to preserve one from the corruption of evil occurring as sin, sickness, demonic influence, etc.
As in the case of all sacramentals, its power comes not from the sign itself, but by means of the Church's official (liturgical, not private) prayer of blessing -- a power the Church derives from Christ Himself. (see Matt. 16:19 and 18:18).
As the Vatican II document on the Liturgy states, both Sacraments and sacramentals sanctify us, not of themselves, but by power flowing from the redemptive act of Jesus, elicited by the Church's intercession to be directed through those external signs and elements. Hence sacramentals like blessed salt, holy water, medals, etc., are not to be used superstitiously as having self-contained power, but as 'focus points' funneling one's faith toward Jesus, just as a flag is used as a focus point of patriotism, or as handkerchiefs were used to focus faith for healing and deliverance (Acts 19:12).
Thus, used non-superstitiously, modest amounts of blessed salt may be sprinkled in one's bedroom, or across thresholds to prevent burglary, in cars for safety, etc. A few grains of blessed salt in drinking water or used in cooking or as food seasoning often bring astonishing spiritual and physical benefits. As with the use of Sacraments, much depends on the faith and devotion of the person using salt or any sacramental. This faith must be Jesus-centered, as was the faith of the blind man in John 9; he had faith in Jesus, not in the mud and spittle used by Jesus to heal him.
Blessed salt is not a new sacramental, but the Holy Spirit seems to be leading many to a new interest in its remarkable power as an instrument of grace and healing. Any amount of salt may be presented to a priest for his blessing using the following official prayer from the Roman Ritual:
"Almighty God, we ask you to bless this salt, as once you blessed the salt scattered over the water by the prophet Elisha. Wherever this salt (and water) is sprinkled, drive away the power of evil, and protect us always by the presence of your Holy Spirit. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen"
If you are interested in getting blessed salt, print this information out and present the blessing prayer to your parish priest. Ask him to bless the salt for you using the official prayer from the Roman Ritual printed above.
If it's not possible for you to get your priest to do this, you can write me for a 'starter supply' of blessed salt. Please send a stamped self addressed envelope to: M. Hernandez, 15581 W. 141 St, Olathe, KS 66062. Mention that you'd like the blessed salt. I don't include any information about its use, as it's all printed here, so print this information out for yourself if you want the blessed salt.
I can personally attest to the power of this sacramental to keep away evil. When we first moved to this house, a very evil family lived next door. The man and woman were not married, he was a drug dealer, she was ...I don't know what. Their teenaged boys were almost worse, loud, destructive and violent. We had rocks and bricks thrown against our house, the children's bikes were stolen, their basketball net was broken and our lawn was regularily littered with broken bottles. We considered moving to get our children away from this family and the danger they presented. A family friend presented us with a large container of blessed salt, and (feeling very conspicuous) I sprinkled it around the perimeter of our yard.
Within a week, there was a For Sale sign. Next door.
I hope my husband does not notice if the red clam sauce tonight is a bit salty. Just kidding...sort of.
PS The friend of my G.A also sent me some bad a%$ white chocolate peppermint fudge that she made with her own two hands, that I am not sharing. It is one of the few foods that do not make me gag.
Gavin Menzies, the author of the book is a retired British submarine captain who believes the Chinese reached and even colonized America around 1421 before Columbus did. He reaches this conclusion due to evidence such as many pre-Columbian maps he found which chart places like the Caribbean, North and South America, Antarctica, Greenland and Australia. his story is that the Ming Dynasty Emperor, Zhu Di set a huge armada, approx. 800 ships, out around the world to explore and chart. The problem is Mr. Menzies has no academic evidence to support this because supposedly while the fleet was out, the Emperor died, and the people were annoyed because the Emperor did things like wiped out whole forests of teak in Vietnam, and let certain areas go hungry in order to build this fleet. As a result the next Emperor wiped out all records of this expedition and instead of looking to explore the Chinese became xenophobic.
While Mr. Menzies has little in the way of academic evidence. He has a great deal in the way of physical evidence. Wrecked Chinese junks (ships) have been found that carbon date to this time period in many places including Australia, Sacramento the East Coast. Evidence of small Chinese villages in places like Rhode Island. Many Mezo-American, South and North American Indians speak dialects very similar to Chinese, and in many cases can understand Chinese. Their is DNA evidence to show that many of these people have Chinese DNA from the time period. Much of the art that is practiced such as lacquering, which is long. drawn out multi-step process was found to be practiced in only China and in South and Central America. Much of the plant life, such as coconuts, mangoes, bananas, sweet potatoes are not native to the New World, but to Asia.
My Thoughts
First of all the idea that the Chinese reached the Caribbean or North America is not great shock or surprise. Those of us of Caribbean descent know Asian culture has an extremely strong influence in this area of the world, granted it may be more recent than 1421, it is not like any big surprise or big deal. It more or less makes sense. The problem is Mr. Menzies is a one note Charlie, and more than his point that the Chinese were ever there, he wants to make a point that they were there before Columbus and that changes history around. But the fact is, we know the Vikings reached New Founland before Columbus, and maybe even St. Brendan before them. There were Taino (Arawacks) Indians, Caribe Indians and even evidence of Portuguese settlements in Ponce, Puerto Rico before Columbus, so people were there prior to Columbus. What is special about Columbus is it was because of his journey that we are all here today, that I the way it went. History is not changed.
I think in Mr. Menzies mission to discredit Columbus he spends too much focusing on this 1421 mission and the the places Columbus went. There is tons of compelling physical evidence that people such as the Incas (for example) are Chinese immigrants of a sort. This to me personally is fascinating and I personally would find it interesting to see this elaborated on much more.
He also spends way too much time talking about how barbaric the Christian cultures/Europeans are and how enlightened, civilized and educated the Chinese were, and hence the mezo-American Indians. Give me a break. as you know I tire of this type of racism. There are few perfect cultures because there are no perfect people. Granted the Chinese had beautiful art, were technologically advanced, but they certainly had their streak of barbarism. Before the Ming Dynasty China was ruled by the Mongols. The Chinese reclaimed China and for punishment, made eunuchs out of every Mongol male child. He speaks about how enlightened (unhindered) the Chinese were sexually because the ships were populated with Concubines educated in sex. These poor women were slaves. Good grief. Do we need to get into the sophistication of the Indians in Mexico? Yes, they built great structures, made porcelain plates as thin as egg shells, and they also offered human sacrifices. Of course I am not arguing the europeans were perfect, they didn't believe in bathing for crying out loud, but you are going on a wild goose chase looking for the perfect culture, many have there good and there bad, some worse or better than others. America, my home which I love with all our luxuries does not hold the record for being civilized with capital punishment, abortion, racism and let's nt forget this country was built on chattel slavery. But it is my home and the best I got. But I digress. I have to admit, when Columbus first came into the Caribbean, one of the first islands he went to was an island he named Guadeloupe (the significance to this was totally lost on Mr. Menzies which also makes me doubt bits and pieces of his other research) and it was populated by cannibals. I do not think it gets much grosser that that.
He just missed some obvious points as well. there is evidence of a Chinese colony in the Boston area, and he the author said he questioned modern Bostonians for Chinese like traits such as Mongolian blue spots. Mongolian blue spots are a pigment trait, not necessarily an Asian trait. My brothers had them as babies and when my parents asked if it was a genetic marker of their Chinese blood (my great grandfather was from China), the doctor said more likely from the southern Italian blood. the other things is Mr. Menzies mentions a great deal about many Indian groups speaking "Chinese". Chinese is actually 6 distinct languages, some of which are dissimilar (my cousins used to say that knowing Mandarin gave you more fore-knowledge of knowing Cantonese for example), so it is hard to see what he is talking about when he refers to dialects having many cognates to "Chinese", so again, I wish I had a just a little bit more to go one to believe him besides just his word.
All in all I think the book is a fascinating read and I think he really is on to something, but his theory has holes and I think think because his motive is simply anti Christianity. If his motive was simply knowledge for knowledge's sake with more of an open mind, I bet he would uncover a great deal more fascinating info.
WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would make it a separate federal crime to kill or injure a fetus during an attack on a pregnant woman. Democrats on the panel called the legislation a thinly veiled attempt to erode abortion rights.
Oh for crying out loud, why do they whine so much? Even the ones who "chose" to have a child, would they not feel heartbroken if they lost a child in such a heinous manner?
But Democrats and abortion rights groups said the real motive was to establish "fetal personhood" (search) by giving separate federal protection to a fertilized egg, embryo or fetus. "This is part of a larger cultural war that is going on," said Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, top Democrat on the committee.
Am I the only one who thinks they sound silly? They have their "rights", abortion is legal, but they will not stop until we lose every sense of humanity we still may have surrounding the unborn.
Yes, postpartem I want to be a superskinny superhottie. Yes, this is something I am slightly insecure and 'noid about. I think everyone was one totally shallow reason in their arsenal about why, if they were not Catholic and didn't have a clue, they would use artificial means to space babies. Mine is that everytime I get down to a shape I like, I get pregnant again. And it is getting harder and harder to return back. I remember leaving the hospital in my old jeans with my first two. Now, groan. With Gorbulas I was in baggy stuff for what seemed forever. My midwife said to give the belly 9 weeks to go down. Yuck, 9 weeks of walking around looking pregnant? I think I was going back to normal clothes by week 3 or 4 because I know I let myself leave the house around then and fit into normal clothes. I also joined Weight Watchers four weeks postpartem. I was so determined.
Not that I mind looking pregnant when I am pregnant. As a matter of fact it is one of the times I feel lovliest. Quite frankly it is really neat to be able to walk around with a bulging belly and feel absolutely perfect. But you cannot totally blame me for being so shallow. You can blame me some, but I'm and odd person, I am a perfectionist in many areas, my favourite show is Spongebob, I teach the kids how to do the hustle for a homeschooling class and quiz them on KC and the Sunshine bad-I guess maybe I am not reasonably well-adjusted.
See, but part of it you can't totally blame me for my shallowidity. Go shopping ladies, go ahead. Walk into an Old Navy. Why are all the jeans cut just under that postpartem belly? Yes, of course I wear a longer shirt over it-yikes I don't want nobody looking at my stretch marks-but the cuts are just perfect for taking that little pocket of belly and making it stick out under your clothes. Um, ick. Hey, I'm starting to have a revelation! I think that these styles were not intended for the average woman who has had a baby! They are intended to attract someone of the opposite sex. Usually, attracting someone of the opposite sex results in a postpartem belly. Then your clothing becomes almost asexual. These days though I cannot complain like I did ten years ago when I had Rosey Posey.That all nursing and maternity clothes are totally unattractive, they have gotten much better. But what I cannot fathom is why many clothes geared towards women of childbearing age very often try to lean towards "sexy" except at the times in your life when "hello", it is obvious you had sex. And no, I am not looking to be a sexy Mama, just an average looking young adult Mama.
Now here is part two why you cannot blame me. Madonna. Sarah Jessica Parker. Now we have celebrities having babies, which is probably who I have to thank that maternity clothes are not limited to shapless dresses with Peter Pan collars. But now we are more unforgiving to women who do not bounce right back. I have seen it. I have been to baby showers of my cousin's daughter and heard family gossip about how heavy my cousin looks at 6 weeks postpartem. Now here we are what is supposed to be a joyful family event, but you have to train to keep gossip of loved ones away. Good grief. Aha, see another reason you cannot blame me for being so incredibly shallow: crazy family who had maybe one kid and watches way too much TV and has very unrealistic expectations of what a real postpartem woman looks like. It's not like the average person is having 4+ kids anymore and my mother and I concur that it's that third or fourth kid that really devastates your body.
I had a small stint when Fastolph was a baby that I was heavier than I should be-a size 10. My grandmother would call me up to say "Oh Pansy, I am making a novena for you so you lose all that weight. I am so worried about you because you are starting to look matronly and you are too young to look matronly." When I sent her a copy of this picture from Posco's First Holy Communion all she said was "You gained weight again? You look so heavy there." Hmmm. "nice picture", "good job on the suit", "Posco looks cute" would have sufficed.
Why are we so unforgiving to women who chose motherhood? I mean in a real world, you would think the slightly more curvaceous figure would be an added sign of femininity, not ugliness. Why has androgyny become more of a symbol of sexuality? I don't know, I am confused now. Everytime I think about the hypocracies of modern society, my head hurts and I need to eat something.
...When Mary answers the angel, she answers God. She knows that the angel appears as God's messenger and that and that when she delivers her Yes to him, she is in fact giving it to God. Her seeing and hearing the angel at all already depends on an obedient subordination of her senses to the supernatural life, the life of God's grace. She has senses like every person, but she does not use them as other people do, to adorn herself, to win something for herself and make it her own. Instead of closing off her senses for hrself, she opens them up for God; she uses them only to serve a better comprehension of the divine will, to its greater honor and glorification. She surrenders to God the purpose and and end of every act of her senses. so her senses are an open space in which her in which God can manifest himself at any time; they are ready for the angel. She regards her senses as a mere loan from the Father, so that, in what her senses perceive, she always recognises at once the gift of the Father. She sees and hears the angel, but in such a way that at the same time she knows that what enables her to see and receive something which God has placed in her, something which therefore allows her to see God himself in the angel. And just as she knows that in the angel she receives God, so also does she understand that the angel accepts what he recieves from her only in order to carry it to God...
You are Walt Whitman! Champion of the
Transcendentalist American Ideal, Walt Whitman
is one of the first poets to use the "free
verse" form in America. He has been
imitated, but will never be duplicated, just
like you! Except for by everyone else who gets
Walt Whitman ;)
Which famous poet are you? (pictures and many outcomes)
brought to you by Quizilla
I wish I could cut off my nose to cease smelling things. Poor people around me. I went crazy on Thursday cleaning everything because I smell rotten cabbage. I threw out all the green leafy veggies in my pantry/root cellar, including cabbage, which were not rotten just in case. Then I called the propane people to come and see if there was a leak, there was none. But I smell propane. I smell it when ever I turn on the light or the oven. No one else smells it, but I do. Why can't I smell pleasant things?
I am also oh so tired. I would not be complaining so much if I could just go to bed-forever. But I have responsibilities and stuff.
My midwife told she wants me to drink 3-4 quarts of water a day, plus several cups of mothering tea (red raspberry leaf, red clover, oatstraw, nettles, alfalfa), eat small meals every 2.5-3 hours that contain a protein and fruit or vegetable, take naps and walk 1 mile 4x's a week. My midwife takes very good care of me, and I do not take her advice with a grain of salt. But I am failing miserably. I don't wanna drink that much water or eat that many veggies. They all make me ill. I am doing the best I can though.
In the meantime I ran the idea by Hubby that tonight is Free Kid's night at Ponderosa, (after I find the nerve and energy to cook, whatever I make totally grosses me out) and he reminded me we are in for 7-15 inches starting at 11 (about ten minutes).
Now that I got that griping off my chest, I am not unhappy, but quite happy about the new Mossling. I just have never figured out a way to deal with "morning" sickness practically, and it gets harder with each child, because I have more responsibilities. I wish I could even remember what it was like when I was pregnant with Rosey Posey and at this stage. Come to think of it, I do actually. I was 20 and I was too young and stupid to ever appreciate what a "nap" was. I used to go out to Reggae clubs in the Village on weekends, work and go to school during the day. If I was hungry at 10 o'clock at night, I would go to Denny's. That girl was such a different person. She had a lot more energy and terrible eating habits.
We need more saints who did things like drive backhoes and use tools and work in zoos and fire off cannons.
Peony, on a more "mature" level, I see the same problem with my husband. There are no men in the Churches. There are like none in the Novus Ordo Churches in Albany except odd, pasty androgenous men, and in the TLM, many are weird. There are some guys, very few in our age group, but no way in proportion to the amount of women.
Many of the teenage boys at Church are attracted to my husband because I think he looks like a regular guy you would see anywhere. It tells me this is a ministry we could use.
I think if my husband had some more Catholic companions that were just regular guys, that would encourage him in his faith.
HMS Blog addresses families' unhappy reactions to a new addition to a large-ish family.
I would like to kick off this coversation with a reminder that Gaudium et Spes #50 that tells us that parents have the obligation--in the sight of God--to prayerfully decide what is God's plan for the size of their family. While parents are obliged to take into account the interests of the Church, the other children in the family, and other factors, no one else may interfere in that decision. And no one can ordain themselves to do what the Church herself does not ordain herself to do, specifically, to tell parents when and when not to have another child. We rejoice in every life given to us, and we pray that each of us would be open to God's unique plan for our lives. Period.
My brother who read my blog weighs in that what I need is a more creative way to tell people-like they do on TV.
The only problem is that you didn't tell people in a creative way. They didn't have blogs on "Full House." When Rebecca was pregnant, she told Jesse in a game of Pictionary. So, when you play Pictionary like every family does on Friday nights, you need to tell everyone that you're doing a movie title, and when Jesse guesses, he's gonna say "cheese half-ink a baby." The whole audience will laugh, especially when he shows up to the hospital dressed as Fred Flintstone and needs his apendix removed. Or if you have a bigoted father-in-law named Archie, he could show up to the hospital in black face, but I don't think too many people would appreciate that. Or if your name is Elyse Keaton, you could be stuck in a television station during a snow storm while your husband, Steven, is stuck with the plumber.
Anyways, the moral of the story is that if you want a laugh track, Josh needs to change his name to Jesse Katsopolous, or better yet, Uncle Jesse. I guess you can forget the other stuff, because it obviously isn't as important as the Friday-night games of Pictionary that Michelle loves so much.
This and the episodes of "Family Matters" where Steve Urkel turns into his cool alter-ego, "Stefan," just prove my point that sitcoms teach us a lot about the real world. I'm starting to forget what I was talking about originally, so I'll stop.
Just forget Oreos and eat "Cool J" cookies. ;-)
It has actually been something of a trial trying to figure out when to use "scene" instead of "seen" or "hear" instead of "here". I really thought I was losing my mind. Many people in real life will totally think I have. The Upstate NY Moss's are expecting a new Mossling I am thinking in November sometime.
I haven't told anyone in real life. I am afraid to tell my family, (although one of my brothers might pass by the blog) because I am afraid of the comments. Actually my immediate family will be OK, but the extended family-it will be worse than telling them someone died. I was thinking of simply not telling. My grandmother is literally going to say "oh no, you can't afford this,"
I also have had mixed feelings about the whole thing. I do not feel I like I ever really got into the swing of things after having Gorbulas. My house is never as clean as I like, I am tired, I have been nursing for like five years straight and thought by this summer I would be able to wear a normal one piece dress. I was secretly hoping Gorbulas was my last toddler. No parenting book has given me greater depth into understanding these odd little people who always spill things and make lots of noise, but melt your heart with their mispronunciations and giggles. But God has a sense of humour and come 21 months time, there will be another toddler around.
The flip side there is nothing quite as spiritual as carrying a little baby around inside of you. I do not know if men can relate to this at all, but this one of the most special times in a woman's life. I have been wracking my brain for the past couple of days as to why being pregnant seems to have such a specialness all it's own different from any other stage of motherhood. I cannot come up with many answers except it is the shortest and most fleeting. I have to think on this a little more. This actually the first time I have even admitted this because it seems people pay more attention to the expecting part of parenting than they do children (after you get past the fact that it should have been a perfectly planned situation).
In the meantime, I have little blogging time. I am making pierogies to put in the freezer. As "morning" sickness seems to deepen a bit each day, I want to stock the freezer up with meals that take no effort to cook. We usually end up eating frozen food or out too often at this stage because I cannot stand the site or smell of food, and am so exhausted by the end of the day. I hate doing that because of the expense and lack of good nutritious food for the family. So I am trying to prepare as many healthy meals in advance, maybe an extra meal each day.
A State Trooper just left here. Why? Because my four year old, Fastolph was angry at his brother for "ignoring" him and called 911 on him. I made Fastolph come outside and explain why he called 911 and the Police Officer told him "you can only call the police if there is a real emergency there, Buddy."
I think everyone must have that one child, while incredibly cute and charming at times, brings new definition to the term "Handful".
OK, everything I type turns to mush lately. It's like I never took an English or spelling class. I cannot wait until the kids are grown and I have no more munchkins in my bed so I can resume life as a fully functional adult. Anyway, this is why I have been blogging less and less because I have been writing even more like a neanderthal than usual. Please bear with me.
I did it again. I made this recipe of Aloo Gobi last night and added too much hot pepper. I made it with rice and roti, and it smelled so good. I was very excited anticipating our modest feast. We all sat down and took a bite. I literally "mmmm"ed out loud and the rest of my family said "wow, that's spicy," Oh well, I have the leftovers for myself for lunch. Maybe I have no nerve endings in my tongue.
Spring fever has hit here. We are seeing patches of grass here and there, more and more each day. I am having a hard time keeping the kids concentrated on their studies. I am happy, yet come spring there is much work to be done. The barns are a mess.
I am also very sad at the anti-Catholicism that is rearing its ugly head surrounding Mel's movie. I think I have had it with Hollywood If you take the subject matter of The Passion out, the cinematogrophy and the direction in the movie are excellent, and they cannot give him credit for that. I am disgusted everytime I open a newspaper. This is why I stopped getting newspapers.
Pansy and Peony: The Two Sleepy Mommies
