I know it’s already day 2 of Advent, but I’m still planning out how I will spend this time. I came across a good idea on a website, so starting today, I will be praying for the intentions of any person who sends me a Christmas card. Because we can all use prayer, right? 🙂 Join me in sending greetings to friends and loved ones and keeping them in prayer!
Zuppa Toscana
A friend posted a recipe for Zuppa Toscana on Facebook, so I’m reposting it here, lest I forget. Zuppa Toscana is my favorite soup at Olive Garden and I order it nearly every time I dine there. Yum!
Zuppa Toscana
1 lb. Italian sausages (use spicy to get that signature Olive Garden flavor)
4-6 russet potatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/4 c. REAL bacon pieces (optional)
2 Tbsp minced garlic (about 3-4 cloves)
32 oz. chicken broth
1 c. kale or Swiss chard, chopped
1 c. heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp flour
1. Brown sausage links in a sauté pan.
2. Cut links in half lengthwise, then cut slices.
3. Place sausage, chicken broth, garlic, potatoes and onion in slow cooker. Add just enough water to cover the vegetables and meat.
4. Cook on high 3-4 hours (low 5-6 hours) until potatoes are soft.
30 minutes before serving:
5. Mix flour into cream removing lumps.
6. Add cream, kale, and bacon to the crock pot, stir.
7. Cook on high 30 minutes or until broth thickens slightly.
8. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste.
Catholic Connection at Sea
I usually don’t listen to “talk radio,” much preferring to jam out to my favorite songs during my commute, listen to an audiobook, or play back my favorite podcasts. (It’s a long commute!) But over the past couple weeks, I’ve tuned into Teresa Tomeo’s “Catholic Connection” show on EWTN, and have found it to be surprisingly entertaining and enjoyable. Which means that I’m much more informed about world events than I usually am. 😉
Anyways… This week, T is on a marriage retreat cruise and is broadcasting from the boat. Yesterday, they were talking about marriage as a sacrament and what they said really struck me as being profound and important, so I’d like to pass that on to you who may be married.
God is love. Think about that for a moment. If God is love and if he is the source of all love… If this is true… Then, how do you strengthen the love between spouses? You strengthen your relationship with God.
I’ve been doing a lot of algebra with my cousin Marissa lately, so I know that if X = Y, then if you increase X, you increase Y.
This is why it’s so important in a marriage for a couple to remain grounded in and fed by the sacraments. The more they grow in their relationship with God, the more capacity they will have to love, both in general, but in a particular way to love their spouse, by means of the sacrament of matrimony, which is far more than just a statement that you will spend your life with another. The sacrament gives you a special grace to be able to be as Christ for your spouse. Just as Christ, crucified, poured out His life for the good of all of us, spouses are called to pour out their lives for the good of their spouse.
Which means that it’s going to be painful at times. And difficult. And they may not reciprocate the love you give them. But you are called to it anyway. Christ endured a lot, and didn’t deserve any of the rough treatment He received, but He kept loving. And look at the fruit of His sacrifice.
While it’s important for each individual to seek out opportunities to grow in their relationship with God, it may be particularly important for spouses to spend time doing this as a couple. Pray together. Go to Adoration together. Pray a family Rosary. Attend retreats together. Read Scripture together and discuss it as a family. Go to Mass together.
And one final suggestion. If you are struggling with your faith or upset at God for whatever reason, try to do it for your spouse. You don’t have to talk to God. You can be angry and upset and sad and every other emotion. But try to be present. It will mean more to your spouse and your marriage than you can imagine.
Much love to you all!
Jennie Giraffe!
Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone is feeling well today!
Does anyone remember those giraffe toys? Where you push up on the bottom and they collapse?
Well, I’ve taken them to represent me when I’m sick.
Jennie-Giraffe!
In looking for stickers and such for my EC planner, I found these adorable giraffe stickers, and figured that I can use them to mark when I’m feeling particularly bad. That way, when I look at my planner, I don’t see a bunch of depressing pages, but a whole herd of cuteness!
You Know How Weak I Am!
I was reading in St. Faustina’s Diary last night and was struck by this passage:
O inexhaustible treasure of purity of intention which makes all our actions perfect and so pleasing to God! O Jesus, You know how weak I am; be then ever with me; guide my actions and my whole being, You who are my very best Teacher! Truly, Jesus, I become frightened when I look at my own misery, but at the same time I am reassured by Your unfathomable mercy, which exceeds my misery by the measure of all eternity. This disposition of soul clothes me in Your power. O joy that flows from the knowledge of one’s self! O unchanging Truth, Your constancy is everlasting! — St. Faustina, Pp. 66
I have been asking Jesus to help me transform my heart into something which more closely resembles His. I am aware of and saddened by my failings, but I truly believe Him when praying the Centurion’s prayer during Mass — if He but say the words, my soul shall be healed.
I am weak in so many ways and am working on my self-discipline. I got a planner (I know, totally old school!) and wrote this passage in it for me to reflect upon during the month of October:
We seldom succeed in overcoming as much as a single fault, and we are not wholly on fire with the desire to make daily spiritual progress. The result is that we remain negligent and tepid.
Lord Jesus, please help me to be on fire for You and ever cognizant of Your love and mercy. Amen!
Hiatus
I think a lot of things have been put on hold this summer. I’m ready to get back into the swing of things though, and plan on blogging here more consistently again.
I am also working on self-discipline and have joined a formal Bible study for the fall, so I’m really looking forward to see how this semester shapes up.
How have you been? And what things are you doing this fall in the way of self-improvement or just getting your life organized? I know I could certainly use the motivation of hearing what you are planning!
See you again soon!
7 Quick Takes: Pictures and Words
The Miracle Marathon started this week! This is where we run, walk, crawl, bike, etc. one mile every day for 27 days to support the Children’s Miracle Network. I have been following Andi’s blog for a while and her daughter is doing this marathon and is serving as a team captain. I joined her team and have been participating as best I can. For those of you who may not know me well, I have a mitochondrial myopathy, so doing anything physical is difficult and I get tired easily, have lots of pain and develop cardiac and breathing issues almost right away. I am doing this for charity, so any support you would be willing to give, whether financial or by praying for me, would be greatly appreciated! You can find my donation page here. Thanks! And keep cheering me on! 🙂
Speaking of my Mitochondrial Myopathy… This week is Mitochondrial Awareness week. My particular disease is a neuromuscular disorder, most consistent with MELAS. It is progressive and terminal. But this doesn’t stop me from trying to do everything that I love, sometimes to the dismay of my friends. However, I recently came across a quote that I just love:
Will I someday be standing with scars to give account before Him that I wasn’t about my own comfort but Christ’s call, that I didn’t make my life about safe living but about dangerous dying, that I didn’t escape into a neat, saved American dream but into a messy, mission-driven God-sized demand, H/T
I think this sums me up pretty nicely.
Glow Golf! It has been just over a month since April and Jack-Jack wed and we are all excited about getting together with her tonight for some post-honeymoon Girl Time fun! 🙂 The celebration begins with glow-in-the-dark mini-golf and continues from there! Partying starts TONIGHT! I’m excited already!
I have gone low tech! I know, the last thing you would have expected from me, right? Well, due to a bunch of different factors, I am trying out a paper planner in an effort to stay organized and not miss events. I picked the Erin Condren Life Planner, because… well, because it seemed to be the cutest, and if I like looking at it, I might actually pick it up more and use it. You can choose from a plethora of covers and customize the colors on them, or do as I did and upload a bunch of your favorite pictures to make your cover. Covers this year are interchangeable, so you can buy several, if you like, but I think I will stick with mine, as it’s covered with the people I love.
I visited a friend who is inpatient at Beaumont Grosse Pointe on Wednesday. As I was walking in from the parking lot, I saw this statue. I’m not sure if it’s fun, or odd and creepy. And why a fish?
Office supplies make me happy. I know, it’s kind of an odd thing to like, but I do. I heard of someone getting an amazing deal on a treasure chest full of Post-its and ordered some for myself. All of these Post-Its normally sell for $220 through Staples. Office Depot was having a sale, so due to that and the magic of Staples 110% price match policy, I got these for $33! A total steal! There’s about 10,000 Post-Its here, so I don’t imagine that I will be running out any time soon. 🙂
And I will leave you with… A gratuitous picture of one of my priests in a tree in my front yard, cutting it down. 🙂
God Bless!
For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at Conversion Diary!
Days 1 and 2: A Good Start
Confession Time: I was still feeling exhausted when I got home from work yesterday (the official start day for the Miracle Marathon), so I didn’t go out and do my mile. Instead, I went to bed right after dinner.
BUT! I did get up early this morning and did TWO miles! One for yesterday and one for today! My average pace was about a 22 minute mile, so you know that I’m really, really slow. On the other hand, I have a neuromuscular disorder and I FINISHED two miles! So, I’m happy with that.
My jam for today is “Hall of Fame” by The Script.
Getting Ready!
Hi! The Miracle Marathon starts tomorrow! I am really looking forward to it and hope that my participation will help out!
Unfortunately, I think I’m coming down with something. I’m not “allowed” to get sick, as it puts a strain on my already small reserves, so I’m hoping that I will feel better soon and that it won’t impact my “running”.
Please send me prayers, smiles and encouragement to keep me motivated throughout the marathon!
This is for a charity, to support the Children’s Miracle Network. If you would like to help out, please consider donating on my Fundraiser page.
Happy Running!
Waiting is Agony!
So. I am a person in dire need of a personal assistant. (And probably also a maid and a gardener, but that’s another story.) I am constantly forgetting to add things to my Google calendar, or am running around the house seeking out an invitation to some event to try and remember exactly what time and what location I’m supposed to be at (usually I am about to head out the door and I don’t know where I’m going!). The problem is that I get my mail and things at home, and my home desktop is currently dead and my home laptop is S.L.O.W. like you wouldn’t believe. And then I forget to bring the mail or whatever with me to work and never get it entered. I suppose that I could enter it into my calendar via my phone, but that takes forever and just wouldn’t happen.
Rationale, Part Two: I love photography and am intrigued by scrapbooking. Intrigued does not equal talented, sadly. Because of my lack of talent, it takes me forever to complete a layout. Given the fact that I take about a billion pictures when I’m at an event (and want to see them all), this means that my scrapbooking endeavor is about 10 years behind. FAIL.
What I’ve been doing in the meantime is carrying around this composition book that I use for work and personal items. It’s only organization is chronological, and I have sticky notes hanging out of it to mark “important” pages. Lots of stuff in there like to-do lists, but not very searchable.
I also have a year-at-a-glance wall calendar on my cube wall at work. I can make highlighter squares around people’s birthdays and write in major events in multicolored pens and markers. I’ve even added a couple stickers and taped appointment tickets (to my dentist) and prayer cards to the relevant dates. But the squares are too small to contain everything that I need, and it’s not portable. Plus, every time I try to get into my overhead storage cabinet, it knocks into the calendar, nearly taking it off the cube wall.
Less than ideal.
Periodically, I’ll hear something about these Erin Condren Life Planners and Google/YouTube them up. They look so fun! And everyone is so creative about using them! So after perusing Erin’s site for a while, I bought a planner! Since I am all narcissistic and stuff, I got a collage cover, so I can see all the pretty pictures that I’ve taken. 😉
Unfortunately, as soon as my order was complete, I started Googling it in earnest, trying to see every possible example of how people used their planners. And I found out that if you order your planner from a referral from someone else (and these links were ALL OVER Google), you could get $10 off your order. So, I paid more than everyone else. Because I was impulsive. And didn’t research it first. Ugh! Oh well.
Now I’m excited to receive my planner and start putting — well, everything — into it! I ordered it about a week ago and it’s not supposed to ship until two-and-a-half more weeks from now! That’s like nearly a month. This is a super-long time to wait. Super, super long. I don’t know how you pregnant women can do it. 9 months is beyond long. But I digress.
In my waiting agony, I will be checking out all of the posts and YouTube videos and Pinterest boards, looking for great ideas. If you have any suggestions, please let me know or post the link in the comments.
Planner… I’m waiting for you! Come home soon!
I could do something like this, right?
Paroxysm of Giggles / Critical Mass 