A Messy Priest, Some Tomato Plants, and an Artistic Endeavour

 

1.) Mardi Gras 

I have given up on king cake. It's official. 

This is the second year I bought a cake from HEB, and that's just what I'll be doing from here on out. 

I did make shrimp etoufee and fried okra though (though I was critiqued for my use of okra in the etoufee). 

All the food was well recieved. 

2.) ToMAto, ToMAHto 

I got my tomato plants in! Only one of the sprouts I started survived sharing a space with a visiting cat, so I had to buy a few at the store as well. 

The rest of the garden is coming alive too. The cucumbers and cantaloupe are starting to come up, the squash, corn, and beans are growing, and I've got baby dill and basil. I'm trying not to count my chickens before they're hatched, but I'm optimistic things will do well. 

Speaking of chickens...the chicks we ordered from the feed store apparently got left somewhere cold by the post office and a bunch of the chicks died. We're having to wait until mid March to get any. 

It's a little frustrating. 

3.) Ashen Faced 

I decided to take the kids to mass for Ash Wednesday at 7 in the morning, so Little Boy could go before school.  It went better than expected: kids were wiggly, but we got through it. 

As is custom in our diocese, the ashes came at the end of mass rather than at the end of the homily. The priest evidently decided to try something new. Rather than dipping his thumb in the ashes and smearing them on people's foreheads (like the decon next to him was doing), he popped a shaker top onto the container of ashes he was holding. 

I watched as he sprinkled the ashes on the people in front of us in line. "Ok", I thought, "that's a little weird, but I guess it is the original way ashes were used to show repentance, and it is faster". Then I got to the front and saw the full scope of what he was doing. 

Ashes were EVERYWHERE. The floor of the church was white tile, and you could very clearly see dots and smears of ash all over it. It looked like a toddler had been let loose in an empty fire pit.

 It was too late to change lines. I watched in mild horror as my small son approached, and the priest enthusiastically dumped a hearty amount of ashes on him, then me, then Bitty Baby (Little Girl refused to let him and opted out). 

I noticed a guy with dots of ashes all over his nice white dress shirt as we walked out the door, and that night I washed my hair and the shampoo bubbles turned dark grey. 

Whoever cleaned up the mess in that church definitely got a kick start on their Lenten penance.

4.) Bible Journaling

I've been illustrating the heading on different books in my Bible, and it's been a lot of fun. 

I'm certainly not the best artist in the world, but it's been an interesting process thinking about what images go where. I like drawing, and it's nice to have a somewhat structured area to do it in. 

5.) New Sewing Project

I'm sewing an Easter dress for Little Girl. 

1970s pattern instead of 1950s this time. 

There is a LOT of rick-rack involved, not just on the bodice but also on the sleeves. All of the appropriate rick-rack I have is so tiny that I have to hand stitch it in.  We'll see if my perseverance holds. 

And that's what's fit to print around here.