We recently traveled back North, first stopping in Indiana then heading to Michigan to visit with my family for Thanksgiving. It was a great trip, with lots of laughter and visiting, some snow, and many many visits to Our Lord.

We left in the early hours of the morning on the 19th and managed to make it to South Union, Kentucky for Mass at the Chapel of Divine Mercy and some visiting with priest friends there. Next up was Lafayette, Indiana where we stayed with our good friends and had a great time visiting with them and their kids. The next few days were a whirlwind of visiting with friends and family and a snowstorm thrown in for good measure.

 

The main reason for our trip back to Lafayette was to attend Mass and Vespers for The Feast of the King. I’m glad that we have made this a tradition for our family, it is a wonderful way to end the Liturgical Year celebrating in a visible way, show-able way, smell-able way, our faith and love for our King.

In addition to the worshiping of our King, we  were able to see that we are not alone in our striving to live our Faith, something I often feel here in South Georgia. We talked with friends, our kids ran around playing with new friends they made and we fit right back in with the community there.

 

The next leg of our trip took us up to Michigan, where we had plans to have dinner with my cousin and his family. They ended up inviting my aunt and uncle and his brother and wife as well, so it was a big family reunion and a great time. We stayed with my parents and for a good chunk of the Michigan trip, relaxed. The kids played with cousins, I visited with my sister.  I actually fell asleep at 830 while watching tv, it was great.

We woke up early on Wednesday and started pie making, which was all done by noon, so that Joshua and I could head out to have a day in the City, and when I say City, I mean Detroit. We started by meeting up with Detroit Seminarian, Adam, for coffee, had dinner in Greektown, walked (!) to The Joe Louis Arena for a Wings game, then headed home. I was super impressed with how much the Downtown area has changed (for the better!)

Thanksgiving was great. We started with Mass at the Parish near my parents, which now offers an Extraordinary Form on Thursdays, so the Mass on Thanksgiving Day was in the EF. We headed home and just hung out for the day. Oh, I did get that nap in too, it was great. My dad’s sister came out for dinner as did my sister and her boyfriend. We sat around the table for two, maybe three hours visiting and catching up, it was everything I had wanted for Thanksgiving.

(The kids did get into a cranberry fight at the kids table, which my mom and husband discreetly cleaned up, then made them wash the dishes!)

Friday we celebrated my dad’s birthday and then began our trip home. We spend the night in Lexington (at a super awesome hotel where our room had a “living room” and two bedrooms. It was amazing and cheap! It also just so happened that our friends from Lafayette were visiting family in Lexington, so we met up for coffee before heading on the road again, that was a fun time.

We stopped in Chattanooga for the Vigil Mass at the Basilica on the way home and was the Mass ever beautiful there. Chanted propers, St Micheal Hymnal, St Isaac Jouges Missal, Father celebrated ad orientem and we did not sing “Soon and Very Soon”!

We got home late on Saturday evening/Sunday morning and while I’m not thrilled with the idea of being back in Georgia, I’m hoping our next trip home won’t be too long in coming and will be more permanent.

It took me many days and many tries to get her to not ham it up for the camera or to not get shy, but I finally did it:

https://instagram.com/p/5e09dOuWQp/

Okay, maybe she was a bit hammy, but she didn’t try to look at herself in the camera while singing.

Pray for Rev. Mr. John Wright and for holy vocations for the Diocese of Savannah:

 

Last night we went to Mass and stayed for adoration and I can happily say that our kids did fairly well. The two youngest wiggled and the books we brought for them were looked at in about two minutes, but we lasted the whole hour. I even got some spiritual reading in as well.

I’m so thankful for this beautiful gift.

 

I have always had an interest in genealogy, well maybe not always, but definitely since the early age of 9 when my mother’s family published a book on the family history. It mostly chronicled the journey of the Kress family from a small town near Fulda, Germany to Medford, Wisconsin in the 1880s. The book also contained stories of the descendants of  Conrad and Eva Kress up to the (then) present time. As a child I was fascinated by the book.

Years later, after some research, I reached out to a gentleman who was the cousin of my Grandma Martin. Through him, I found out that some of my father’s side of the family had come to the United States prior to the American Revolution.

Then last summer, I sat down and looked up a few things and stumbled upon the Iowa GenWeb Project. Volunteers in the state of Iowa are taking time to upload information about families who had settled in Iowa in the 1800 and 1900s, and it is a great treasure. I knew my grandmother on my father’s side was from Iowa and that my mother’s mother was also born in Iowa, but I didn’t know that her family had been in Iowa for a very long time.

Taking information I learned on the IA GenWeb Project page and doing a bit of google searching, I discovered a site called Find A Grave.  (Disclaimer, I knew about it for a few years, but I thought it was only for people who were famous.)  Through Find A Grave, I was able to find the cemeteries where my ancestors on my mother’s mother’s side were buried.  The site has a pretty neat feature where, if available, a bit of a family tree is posted as well as an obituary.

One of the things I found most interesting is that some of my ancestors were not Catholic. Since all of my grandparents on both sides were Catholic, when did the conversion happen? I’m hoping to be able to piece a bit more of our history together, on both sides of the family in the future and maybe do a tour of the areas they lived in.

 

 

 

Cards and cheesecake for papa. Someone also gave him a nickel. He love it all.

Joshua designed a yearly planner book for me for this coming school year. It’s also available for sale to those who are looking for a planner. Click here to find out more information.

 

From the Monks of Norcia website comes this beautiful reflection on a Eucharistic procession and God being in our streets.

In a day and age when Christianity is mocked and many Catholics don’t understand their faith, what better way to show God to the world and share the teachings of our Faith than to follow our Eucharistic Lord through the streets.

I’ll admit I probably spend more time watching cooking shows on youtube than I should each week. However, I look at them as more of a research project than just a time waster, after all I’m looking for recipe ideas for my family.

Ones that I’ve really come to enjoy actually are from England. Now, it could just be my impression, but I get the idea that portions are smaller in the UK and desserts are far less common (and less sweet) than here. While the smaller portions part doesn’t leave much for leftovers, it does help with making sure we aren’t stuffing ourselves just because there is food in front of us.

Here are a few Youtube channels I’ve found inspiration from for cooking:

 

Sorted Food – Four guys from London, three of whom have no idea how to cook and one who went to culinary school. They’ve been around for four years now, so there are lots of videos to watch. The nice part about them is that they keep things simple. They use fresh ingredients but a fair mix of pantry items.

Titli – Not only does Titli have a busy kitchen channel, but she also has a bread kitchen channel and a garden channel.  She’s funny and her recipes are simple to follow. She also uses a good mix of fresh and pantry items. (Let’s be realistic, we can’t always get fresh ingredients for cooking.)

Laura in the Kitchen – I don’t remember when I stumbled upon her channel, but I subscribed as soon as I watched the first video. Her foods are simple and quite delicious. Laura is from Italy but lives in the US. Her recipes are also simple and quick to prepare.

Gordon Ramsay – Most people know him as the guy who stands around and yells a lot on television. These videos don’t have any of that and he’s actually quite charming. His recipes are a bit more fancy than the sites above, for when you want to have a bit more of a fancy meal.

All of these channels have a good mix of savory and sweet recipes.

I know sometimes when I fall into a doldrum about cooking, I am usually able to find a recipe from these channels to inspire me. I hope they inspire you too!