Peonyiana: November 2003 Archives

Just got back from Pennsylvania. Traffic was horrific, so we peeled off at Breezewood (half an hour's wait just to get into the toll plaza leading to that graceful metropolis, so like Paris with its profusion of lights and fine cafes) and took the back roads through PA and Maryland, a route that took us through Emmitsburg (alas, no time for a pilgrimage, so we just said a rosary in the car.) I'm still not sure what flight from sanity led us to try the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

I may pop in for an occasional visit on a Sunday, but otherwise I'll see you after Christmas. Do drop me an email, if you feel like it. Have a blessed and fruitful Advent.

And, if I may....

Tomorrow, November 30, is a good day to start a novena for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

A suggested intention: over at his blog, dylan's mom says December 10 is going to be a key day for him.

Just a few off the top of my head....

Thank You, Lord for...

my husband and our dear little boy
for our daily bread
for the roof over our head
for my husband's new job
for the little luxuries in our lives, including our computer
for the Sacraments
for our Holy Father, our bishops, and pastors
for the Saints and our Guardian Angels
for our family and friends
and for our St Blog's friends ('specially Pansy :) )
for a fun day today
for the opportunity to live near Washington DC and all its opportunities
for the ability to travel freely
for the expedient solution of Safeway's boxed Thanksgiving dinners

Today I have a really big day planned, including getting ready for our Thanksgiving trek to my mil's, so I may not get a chance to post again today. We're leaving first thing in the morning tomorrow and we'll probably be back on Saturday (avoiding the unbearable traffic on Sunday.)

I will be putting blogging (posting, reading, commenting) aside for the duration of Advent (though I may pop in on a Sunday.) Four weeks too long to endure the deprivation? I will be checking email. :)

So anyway, if I don't get a chance to post later, have a blessed Advent and a joyous Christmas.

1. List five things you'd like to accomplish by the end of the year. Establish a better daily routine. Establish a daily exercise program. Write and send Christmas cards. Finish potty-training Hambet. Get pregnant.

2. List five people you've lost contact with that you'd like to hear from again. Only one: I'd like to talk again with my high school English teacher, Ms. Priscilla Rooth. Mostly to fall at her feet in homage.

3. List five things you'd like to learn how to do. Knit. Play the piano with more skill. Sew better. Write clever rhyming poetry. Dress better.

4. List five things you'd do if you won the lottery (no limit). Send big checks to my favorite charities, including anonymous gifts and donations to individuals and families I know who could use a little good news. Fix up and sell the Prussian Green Money Pit, get a nice old house, fix it up, and decorate it. Visit my mom more often and buy her new furniture.

5. List five things you do that help you relax. Surf the net. Make something. Read. Rent movies. Go someplace beautiful (basilica, garden, historic house, even a store with pretty things to look at.)

Flannery O'Connor wrote your book. Not much escapesyour notice.


Which Author's Fiction are You?

brought to you by Quizilla

I'll be ordering some peacocks terreckly. Thanks to Michelle for this quiz.

November is when autumn gets down to business. No more of those sunny days, ablaze with brilliant scarlet and gold leaves. No more of that mists and mellow fruitfulness stuff. Now it's time to get to work: raking the leaves, getting the garden ready for winter, getting the last of the deer-chow and squirrel candy bulbs planted. The sky is a dull gray. The rain is a cold, miserable drizzle. (Thank you, Lord, for your servant Thomas Edison and his invention of the electric lightbulb.)

I so want a cup of coffee today. I so want one. It's the perfect day for a hot cuppa joe. But I am having some kind of test on Friday, and I can't drink coffee until the test is over, not even decaf.

Maybe we'll bake something this afternoon.

Thanks to a kind benefactor, I was able to get a digital picture of the costume!

addendum: The white stripes across the front of the jacket are red reflective tape, reflecting the flash.

No, there is no little boy in the picture. This is mostly because, per my husband's request, pictures of the Maryland Mosses do not go on the internet. But the little boy is still refusing to wear the costume.

On Halloween night we bribed him with a piece of candy, stuffed him into the costume, and took a few pictures for the grandmas. Then, before he had time to protest, I whisked him out the door so he could show his costume to the neighbors. We kept going and trick-or-treated at a few houses. Hambet liked carrying the flashlight and checking out the jack o'lanterns. The candy seemed to please him, too (and he said "thank you" like a little gentleman.) But when we got home, he had the coat peeled off before I'd closed the door behind us.

Halloween was successful in other ways, too. Over the last two years, we had exactly two trick-or-treaters, but last night we had almost twenty little ninjas, singers, angels, and Piglets at the door! I finally got to meet our new neighbors across the street. It was nice to see people coming out around the neighborhood.