Sunday Ramblings

Today was Christ the King Sunday the end of our liturgical year. Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent and the start of a new liturgical year.

I love Advent the joyous waiting and planning for the birth of our Savior. All those Sundays leading up to Christmas are full of anticipation and thoughts of the birth of a baby, sent to save the world.

The readings today focused on how leadership is to be styled. Even though Christ was the King of the Universe his style of leadership was one of servant leadership. Too often this style of leadership is not carried through to our everyday lives. Much of the leadership today is characterized by arrogance, love of self, hunger for power, and a very real disregard for the common good. I even see this in our Pastoral Council meetings time and time again.

Today I pray that we can all see the difference and practice servant leadership.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

This has been a week of finishing up a few Christmas gifts and a couple of items for me as well. I don't have a picture of one of the items for me as it is in the basket waiting to be washed on Monday. 

This is one of the items I finally finished for myself.

Just a little shift dress to wear next spring or during cooler days in the summer.

Next are Harvey's Christmas presents this year.

Two pairs of flannelette pajama bottoms.

The BBQ apron. Perhaps his clothes will stay a bit cleaner after his episodes of being a Grill Master.

A sweater vest to ward off the chill in the basement.

I cut out lots more patterns over the last two days. I hope to be busy in the sewing/craft room until the sewing mojo disappears once again.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Frugal Friday

Hmm, now what has been happening on the old homestead on the frugal front.

1.  Saved $29.74 on my groceries this week, just buying sale items.

2.  Finished all the Christmas gifts that I had planned on.

3.  Pulled out some sparkly yarn to make a sweater for the holiday season.

4.  Used up some more bits and bobs from the fridge freezer.

5.  Reading books from the library for entertainment and watching Netflix (we share the monthly cost with our youngest son).

6.  Decluttering is continuing every day.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

Wintery Wednesday

We actually had our first real day of winter weather today. I got up this morning and opened the living room drapes to a winter wonderland.

The weather folks said we were going to get at least 5" of the white stuff overnight, and I would say that is what I woke up to.

This is what Harvey's truck looked like first thing this morning.

I cleaned off my car which was in as bad as shape with the snow covering. Made my way to the grocery store in the continuing snow fall, on rather slippery roads (Harvey says that it was wet snow that first started falling). Got what was needed and carefully navigated the roads home.

The snow stopped falling at around noon and when we measured the snow fall we had received 8". Everything looks so nice and clean. That lasted all of what seemed like a minute. Trucks started hauling the dirt from the waterline break and now our street looks like a sea of mud.

Harvey enjoyed getting the snow blower out and cleaning off the driveway and the front steps. The back deck will have to wait until tomorrow as he will need to shovel heavy wet snow and then blow it into the center of the yard.

I spent most of the day sewing and I finally finished the BBQ apron. Tomorrow after my doctor's appointment I will begin working on the nightie for myself. I am no longer going to try and sew one outfit a day, if it takes a bit longer that is quite okay, at least everything will be done correctly.

Pulled out some yarn to knit myself a sparkly sweater for the Christmas holidays. I am using Patons metallic yarn and while it seems to be a little tougher to knit but I think it will drape nicely.

A few days ago Harvey took a drive, and saw a bison herd.

I guess some younger ranchers in the area have decided to expand their herds to include something other than cattle.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thrifty Tuesday

We are going to have our second water shut off in the past week. Rather than buy bottled water for the week after the main is fixed (yet again) I have filled almost every container we have with water from our taps.

Still making good use of all the bits and bobs in the fridge freezer (with a few new meals interspersed between the use it ups).

Working on the Christmas gifts for Harvey. They have helped me use up some more already purchased fabric in my stash.

Went through my yarn stash and started another prayer shawl.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

More changes to the weekly menu than clothing changes this week. Mostly due to the fact that meetings are changing our monthly dinner out night, and there are days I just do not feel like cooking anything at all so quick and easy is the thought for the day.

Monday

Leftover Baked Spaghetti.

Tuesday

This was supposed to be date night, but of course I forgot a meeting (Pastoral Council) so we will go out tomorrow night.
I will be serving leftover Chicken or perhaps turkey.

Wednesday

Date night.

Thursday

Porkchops, rice, and mixed veggies.

Friday

Salmon casserole along with some cut up veggies and dip.

Saturday

Soup and sandwiches. I just might have found a recipe to use up a container of ham broth from the fridge freezer...and I even think there just might be a small package of leftover ham meat I can add to it.

Sunday

Roast Chicken, roasted potatoes, roasted carrots and the remains of the cut up veggies and dip.

Hopefully no more changes for the remainder of the month.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

The rain that fell yesterday was pretty much gone today. The roads were clear and not icy in the least. Made heading to Mass easy this morning.

Mass was very long today as Father talked about funerals (kind of matched the readings) and the things we as a parish were doing right and the things we were doing wrong. I always knew that there really was no place in the funeral rite for a eulogy and that other faiths were slowly sneaking into how funerals were being done in the church. Still it was interesting to see the looks on other parishioners faces as he explained the reasoning behind the churches teachings. He said that he will still allow eulogies but will place a time limit on them, that the real place to do them is the Vigil or at the luncheon after the funeral.

What I did not like about his "special" homily was the blaming of certain generations for the changes. Really that is not the warm, and welcoming aura we want to put forth. Our church has been thought of as cold and unwelcoming for a very long time and I thought that was changing. I suppose it hasn't changed as much as I has hoped.

I did take my name off the lector and communion minister lists for the month of December. I did tell the lady in charge of scheduling that I would be available for subbing. It is something I am going to slowly draw away from over the next few months. It is time after serving in this capacity for 26 years. I just want to go to Mass and not have to do anything but "be".

Harvey was disappointed that our football team lost the final game of the playoffs. The team representing the Western Division  is our biggest rivals. So that means he is cheering for the east when it comes down to the Grey Cup.

Me, well I finished off the prayer shawl I have been working on, did some work on the apron (well the embroidery machine did most of the work) and started another prayer shawl.

Really this has been a quiet day, one of thinking, writing in my journal and just enjoying what life has handed me, both the good and the bad.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.