Godfather's Day

Sounds like some sort of strange marathon movie fest or a little known Hallmark holiday that you should rush right out and buy a gift for or at least a card which... come to think of it... Hallmark happens to carry plenty of! No. This is a day I am pretty sure only gets celebrated in our house. Today is the birthday of Sunshine and Shortcake's godfather. Um... godfathers that is. They have two separate godfathers who both happen to be born on October 13th. It's not like it's a prerequisite or anything for choosing godfathers around here, it just happened that way so... Happy Birthday Uncle Burke and Tio Eddie. May God bless you both on your special day. Our prayers are for you today.
And that's an offer you just can't refuse!

Love,
Sunshine, Shortcake, the rest of the bunch and...

Knight Rider

Guilty Pleasures

I am "Waltzing Matilda" not because I have any particular fondness for The Land Down Under, although, I have had the chance to get to know a lovely lady who lives there and think it must be a beautiful place to behold.

No. As you can tell from the banner up above, I like dancing. Ballroom dancing to be specific. Fox Trot, Tango, Swing or Samba! So when a friend of mine introduced me to Dancing With The Stars, I was hooked. Now, before anyone starts hurling BUTs at me let me just say that I know... most of the costumes are incredibly immodest, covering no more than a couple of tissues would cover and I agree... some of the choreography should be kept behind closed doors and no... I never did that kind of dancing (more Arthur Murray, less Lambada), BUT (hey... it's my blog and I'll hurl some buts if I want to) ... I really like this show!

I enjoy seeing these "celebrities" (mostly unknowns to me; I think I could identify 4 of the contestants from this season and that was only because you can't live in Dallas and not know who Mark Cuban is) from all different backgrounds find out that it. is. hard! It is so much fun to see who will become a performer and which performers can't dance. I like seeing if I can guess how the judges will score the dances...did I see what they saw? Not like I am an expert, but I had enough training to tell good from bad. (Wayne Newton was baaaaddd!)

So there. My guilty pleasure. Just so you know. I won't turn it on while the kids are around because of the tissue trouble. I watch it online and enjoy it alone. I don't even inflict it on Husband. Wouldn't want him to feel any pressure to put on some boogie shoes although he does look mighty fine in a tux!

Now I know Danielle Bean was hooked on Lost and Elizabeth watches Monday Night Football though she claims its just to see her hubby. (Sure it is!: )

Are you brave enough to admit your guilty pleasure?

Phoning it in

Confession time... my heart's just not in it right now. It might have something to do with the fact that we have a little virus working its way through our house. Nothing terrible, just annoying. My anxiety level has been at an increased level and I'm not sure why. Do I have stress in my life? Who doesn't? But this came from out of the blue and hit hard.

About the only thing I have to offer right now is that due to a glitch in my Blockbuster online Q management (and not my fascination, promise!), I can say with absolute certainty that Zelah Clarke is my favorite Jane Eyre. My apologies to Samantha Morton and Charlotte Gainsbourg but they just can't compare! While Gainsbourg came closest to rivaling Clarke, William Hurt lived up to his name in the role of Mr. Rochester (painful!). And as much as I loved Ciaran Hinds in Persuasion where he makes a perfect Captain Wentworth and matches Amanda Root glance for glance and restrained emotion for emotion, his Rochester was more crazed than tortured. So there you go.

Maybe I should try a few other versions before declaring Clarke & Dalton my favorites. Orson Welles deserves a glance just on reputation alone and this Masterpiece Theater version intrigues me too.

Homemade Biscotti

The best part about homemade biscotti...

...licking the pan!

Beanie Saints

Theresa asked...

Ooooh! I love the little St Francis doll! Where ever did you get that!?!

Little Francis, as he is called on his tag, has been a beloved member of our family since The Professor was a toddler. If you look at him closely, you will see how "well loved" he is. He came to us from the Franciscan Missionaries along with his sister in Christ, Little Clare. They were accepting donations in exchange for these "Beanie Saints" as someone in my husband's family dubbed them. I looked on the Franciscans' website and while there were many "Little Francis" items in their store there were no dolls. So I called the number on their contact page and the woman I spoke with said that the dolls are still available. For a $20 donation, they will be happy to send you a Little Francis or a Little Clare doll. I assume they are the same kind we have but don't know for sure since I couldn't see one online.

Before I called and found out they were still available, I thought maybe I might try to make one of my own using the one we have as a guide. I don't know if I would call it a tutorial since I'm going to be figuring it out as I go. How about a chronicle of the steps I take in trying to make my own version of Little Francis? If you want to come along for the ride, hop in. First I am going to start with a list of supplies I think I might need:

brown felt for the habit/body and hood
black felt for the bottom of the feet/sandals and straps
skin colored felt for the head, hands and top of the feet
1 white round shoelace for the belt
scraps of fabric for the patches
black embroidery floss for the face
scrap of black low pile faux fur for the tonsure
stuffing (I have some wool stuffing left over from the Magic Cabin doll I made for Sunshine)

Now, I will probably use my machine for the sewing, but I don't see why you can't hand sew them. They aren't very big. Maybe 6 or 7 inches when sitting up. So give me some time to gather up the supplies and I will keep you posted on my progress. : )

Shameless Bragging

(just to make Husband blush!)

I forgot to mention earlier that the best thing about going away for a visit was coming home to my sweetie and the beautiful chocolate chip cookies he made...... I freely admit... he has all the cookie making talent I lack. I think it is from all the experience he gained eating homemade cookies as a child!

Also... (as I did mention) freshly painted bathroom doors with new handles that actually lock and catch when they close! Yeah!!! Aren't they lovely?AND... freshly laundered deep purple bathmats plus the added bonus of some dingy, old, white kitchen towels now in a new, lovely shade of violet! Thank you sweetie! You bring so much color to my life!

The Flying Scotsman

This movie was intense. Tears flowed freely many times throughout. Not a chick flick, not a sports flick, there is no category for this movie. "Biopic" might be a statement of fact, but not good enough. I had never heard of it until I was in the rental store and the television in the corner, which I usually try to avoid, was playing the trailer. So I picked it up on a whim.

SO not a whimsical movie! It's just... so very... seriously at a loss for words here... it will captivate you. It will move you. Some parts will confuse you. A true Scottish brogue is lovely, but at times, sounds nothing even akin to Standard English. There is enough sports in it to keep any grumpy husbands happy but enough romance to keep the girls from tuning out. It's a story about a man and the people in his life who help him battle his demons.

My only caveat. As I said above, it was intense. It is not for children and I would preview it before showing it to any teenagers. I don't want to give away too many spoilers, but if you are the kind of person who wants to know exactly what a movie has in it before watching, I kept a running list of "possible offenses". Let me just say that I have very picky tastes when it comes to movies and while there were a few times I wanted to turn it off because of the raw emotion and drama on the screen, there was nothing so offensive to my sensibilities to make me hit the off button.

Email me if you want specifics, but I do recommend this movie especially for anyone interested in understanding the mental health issues that can drive a person to succeed and can send them crashing to the depths of despair even when they do.

Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

We probably should have named her Francis or Francine. Shortcake is the Animal Whisperer in our house and she loves this feast day! Since St. Francis is the patron saint of animals (which always makes me smile when I see him standing in someone's garden as most gardeners seem to want to keep the critters out. Just ask Mr. McGregor!) we usually find his feast day to be a good day to have fun with our furry friends. Today we made masks!

Sunshine's is a masquerade type cat mask that she colored with her own special flair.

BigBoy's was found on this website and printed on card stock. I think this lion's shaggy mane needs a haircut!

Shortcake's puppy was inspired by the one we found here only made with her favorite colors, brown and purple, and tied on instead of held. We thought about trying to make it to the zoo today but aren't sure if the weather will cooperate. We might have to stay in and watch a movie instead. I hope your weather is cooperating with any plans you might have today!

Lord, hear our prayer!

Send forth O Lord, laborers into Thy harvest. Lord, grant unto Thy church saintly priests and fervent religious. St. Michael...(Everyone else:... strengthen our bishops.)

BigBoy: ... straighten our bishops!

After saying our usual "Bless us, O Lord", we have always added a few short intercessory prayers. Some of them change, depending on the feast day being celebrated or devotion being observed (St. Joseph is being thanked daily for his help in finding Husband a new job.) but the ones that always stay the same are the prayers above. Thanks for the chuckle, BigBoy!

Perhaps St. Michael could straighten them out a little while strengthening them too!