Saturday Morning Musings

I have a good news/bad news scenario for you. Which do you want first?

I’m waiting….

Okay, fine. I’ll tell you the bad news first. That’s the way my kids always want it—get the painful stuff out the way first and then end on a good note.

Or so they hope.

The bad news is: I intended to do a give-away yesterday in honor of the beautiful feast. Our Lady of the Rosary is one of my favorites—and, okay, I have like fifty favorites—but then the busy-ness of the day got away with me.

We’re talking (2) book clubs, (1) science class, and (1) candlelit rosary procession in the evening. Phew! We were home for maybe 5 seconds max.

If even.

The good news is…I’ll be hosting the giveaway next week instead! After all, the whole of October is dedicated to the rosary, right? And a giveaway’s a giveaway and I’m this blog’s host and therefore whatever I say goes! Though I mean that in the most gracious of blog host ways.

The procession itself was beautiful, even if it is was too windy to be “candle-lit.” I’m pretty sure my kids were thinking, “What are we holding these votives for?” and I had to fight the temptation to track down a light. (There was one lone nun who’d lit her candle and how I longed to go and bother her!)

We marched from the state capitol to the cathedral—a march made all the more meaningful on account the decades we said and the families we knew—and then, once we arrived at the cathedral, we dumped our sadly-unlit luminaries into a bin and filtered in for an hour-long benediction.

“You said there’d just be a couple of hymns afterwards!” This from a certain teenager, who up until then had been a pretty good sport about the whole event.

“Well, there was,” I replied to this accusation, “And a few prayers and a blessing and a sermon by the Bishop!”

(Tell me you never fudge a bit when describing religious outings. Tell me you don’t!)

And besides, the sermon was given by Bishop Lee Piché, whom we love—just love. Did you know that he is Jem’s god-uncle? Of course you didn’t, but that’s kind of cool, isn’t it? I tell Jem that he’ll give him pointers someday, when Jem’s starting out as a young priest and all.

Not to, um, be a pushy mom or anything.

In other news, I received the fall issue of Faith & Family and it’s gorgeous, just gorgeous. That seems appropriate, doesn’t it? A magazine should be gorgeous in the fall. It’s also chock full of helpful hints and great, faith-filled stories…and that college guide is not-to-be-missed.

My only disappointment is that my Scouting article got bumped due to space issues. Darn! Such is the biz, though, and I forgive you, Danielle…

…but only because those 9 Autumn Recipes look great!

Off to go bake an apple pie now…or, at least, to think about it. : )

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Updated to Add: Monster cookies, it is!

And gosh, you guys are quiet today. You must all be busy…raking or something.