Film Summer

38/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2017."

"Christ embodies the ideal of human perfection: in Him all bias and defects are removed, and the masculine and feminine virtues are united and their weaknesses redeemed; therefore, His true followers will be progressively exalted over their natural limitations. That is why we see in holy men a tenderness and a truly maternal solicitude for the souls entrusted to them while in holy women there is manly boldness, proficiency, and determination." - Edith Stein

Pied Beauty

Pied Beauty
by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

37/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2017."

Afon: waiting patiently for his eggs at our diner.

Roan: glued to the spot, for some reason.  Eating his Jammy Dodger.

Afon has come a long incredibly in only two weeks at his new school.  He is asking for things outright instead of grunting or expecting us to intuit, which makes cooperation between us all so much smoother.  I've been able to sit down with him and sing and play hand games and tickle him, while keeping his attention!

Roan starts playgroup tomorrow, but it is not his first time on the playground.  Roan has started spitting on his cuts and booboos.  The instinct to treat wounds with saliva must be a primal one.

Something for Mary

September is here at last (probably my favorite month--but ask me again in October--and then November!) and it's time to crack down on reestablishing rhythm.  I've got the major feast days and memorials of the month pasted onto my Facebook page.  Because let's be honest, that's the surest place I'll never lose them.  We have a little bit more time to gather ourselves now that Afon is back at school; stepping outside is a like a brisk shower.  It's just bright enough, just windy enough, just chill enough to wake-you-up!  And that gave me the little spritz I needed to do something for the Nativity of Mary.

All short cuts here.  I bought ready-made frosting and an easy mix for the sponge cake.  Roan readily helped me smoosh stir the batter and add the food coloring.  We baked our cake, added globs of icing, and I prettily penned a birthday message with store-bought writing icing.  All we needed then were a few candles...



He nod-spasmed along to "Happy Birthday," we said a Hail Mary, and dug in!  Roan gave a kiss to Our Lady of Walsingham (with some prompting).  He fed her her cake as well (that was all him).

36/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2017."

Roan:  running.  Somewhere, nowhere, anywhere.

It was Afon's first week at his new school, and I wanted to get a picture of him in his new uniform on his way, but it didn't happen.  It's tough getting pictures of elusive imps and mischievous changelings, didn't you know?