Missa Cantata slideshow

David trains the altar servers for the Latin Mass at our parish. He also serves as the Master of Ceremonies for the sung Mass, the Missa Cantata, when our pastor offers it a couple times a year. A photographer from our diocesan newspaper captured some great images of the last Missa Cantata, which celebrated the Ascension of the Lord one week ago today. It's currently playing as a sideshow on our diocesan website. I'll post it below as well - hopefully this video will remain after they remove it from the diocesan website main page.

Missa Cantata from David Hains on Vimeo.

The background singing is the schola. Don't you just love seeing the boys serving so reverently together?! And I'm very proud of my husband, who pretty much "runs the show" but deflects any praise that comes his way. He works so hard to put it together (as does the awesome schola) and everyone who enjoys attending and participating in the Missa Cantata is grateful.

Easter Day

Holiday gatherings now offer an additional joy: numerous people to hold Teresa!

After a late night (poor, fussy Teresa kept us up until 2 am! I think it was the caffeine in the 2 glasses of sweet tea I drank that day) Teresa and I slept in while David went to morning Mass and took Communion to a homebound parishioner. After a simple breakfast of Rice Krispies with strawberries and rice milk, I baked the gluten- and dairy-free chocolate chip cookies David had gotten for me. They were fabulous!!

While David tackled a mountain of dishes, I put Teresa in her sweet purple dress and then got her situated in the Snugli David was wearing backpack-style. She is still a little small for it (according to the instruction) but I was supervising her, we only kept her in it for an hour, and she seemed quite content therein (she fell asleep and stayed asleep despite the constant movement and clatter).

Around 2:30 we headed over to David's sister's fiance's parents' house (six degrees of separation?) where we've also celebrated the past 2 Easters. When I wasn't nursing her, Teresa spent most of the time in the arms of her nana, aunts, and friends. I loved being able to admire her cuteness while not holding her constantly.

Teresa's good spirits continued that evening and she "went to bed" at 9:30 and slept over 5 hours. I ate a bit of chocolate (dairy-free but did contain soybean oil) yesterday, so we'll continue to watch her diapers for negative effects.

Hooray for holidays!

Easter Vigil

God's graces were flowing during the Triduum. David and I took Teresa to the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday and she slept through the whole thing.

On Good Friday, while David worked, I watched The Passion of the Christ (as is my custom) while Teresa nursed, slept, and played quietly. Then I took her to the Good Friday service and she slept the entire 1.5 hours. We went home for supper (lentils and rice for me - another tradition) and then returned to church for an absolutely beautiful Tenebrae service. Once again, Teresa slept through it all. I was amazed and delighted. I praised God for the change in Teresa's temperament and the healing of her digestive tract we were witnessing. The sacrifice of the elimination diet was bearing fruit, and I savored it.

Still, I kept up my prayers that Teresa would also sleep through the Easter Vigil, at which I was scheduled to read two of the seven first readings. She had another great day on Saturday, but when it was time to leave for church, she was not sleepy. We dressed her up really cute - perhaps the fabric irritated her? She started crying before the service began, and I stayed in the church to nurse her while the congregation processed in with their candles. Then I left her with David to take my place at the front. My first reading, Genesis 1:1 to 2:2, went off without a hitch. Several readings and psalms later, I thought we just might make it. But, during the fifth reading, Teresa started fussing. David took her out to check/change her diaper and try to calm her, but she cried in the hallway. I felt terrible! I was stuck at the front of the church, unable to help. I love serving as a lector, but can I really balance it with caring for my baby? I wondered.

I read my passage from Baruch, sat through a responsorial psalm, and then, as soon as everyone stood for prayer, I bolted to the back of the church. I ended up missing several readings, the homily, and initiation/sacraments of the catechumen while I nursed, changed, walked, and bounced Teresa in the hallways, bathroom, and cry room. Finally she was quiet and I returned to David's side for the last portion of Mass.

The Easter Vigil is usually my favorite liturgy of the entire year, and I was sad to miss out on experiencing it all with recollection. However, it was our true joy to be able to celebrate Christ's resurrection with our beautiful daughter, whom we hope will come to know, love, and serve Him as we strive to do.

Me: "What do you think of your cute outfit, Teresa?"
Teresa: Sigh.

Wordless (Ash) Wednesday

Chocolate moose?

Here's a picture of me (taken today) with one of my favorite Christmas decorations: a chocolate moose (my dad sometimes called me Moose when I was a kid - who knows why - so I have a very small collection of moose). This stuffed moose's soft, silky fur really smells like chocolate! Every year I pull him out of the decorations box and marvel at his delicious scent and how it remains strong, year after year (I've had him at least three years, probably longer). In the hubbub of the holidays, sometimes I pick him up and sniff him - I find the scent very relaxing! Hmmm, should I pack him in the hospital bag when the Christmas season ends? ;)


In case you're wondering, our tree has no lights or ornaments because we just put it up yesterday and haven't had time to trim it yet. This Advent I've chosen to delay Christmas decorations and music. The simpler and more penitential time of preparation has been meaningful for me. Next year, though, I think we will start decorating on Gaudete Sunday (the third and most celebratory of the Sundays of Advent). It seems a shame not to enjoy the beautiful and symbolic decorations a little bit longer.

Turkey Lessons

A few weeks ago I bought a frozen turkey on an impulse. I love Thanksgiving dinner (my college dining hall served it every month, mmm) and a single turkey can make many meals for David and I (we freeze some of the cooked meat and make broth with the bones). I first attempted to roast a turkey by myself for Thanksgiving 2006, when David and I were engaged. I used a roasting bag and everything came out wonderfully. Here's me preparing the stock pot to boil while we ate:


And here's the spread:


Well, I decided to try again this past weekend. What resulted can be summed up in two words: learning experience.

1. If ice forms in the pickle jar in the back of your fridge, you probably need to turn the fridge's temperature up. If you don't, your turkey will not be thawed all the way through even after almost 5 days in the fridge.

2. When you reach inside the turkey to pull out the giblets, etc, and you find that it is still frozen inside, A) make sure you reach all the way inside and remove EVERYTHING, even though your hand is very cold, and B) run water through or something to try to defrost it, otherwise cooking time will lengthen drastically and the turkey will not cook evenly.

3. When you decide to roast the turkey in your new roasting pan (not in a bag), special considerations are necessary. Do not cover the exposed breast with tinfoil too early or it will not reach the desired temperature before the drumsticks are done (half an hour is too early).

4. Turkey is traditional fare for winter holidays because roasting them in your oven generates a lot of heat for an extended time. If you choose to roast a turkey in 90 degree weather, your air conditioner will run continuously and still not get your home very cool. You might not sleep well that night because of the remaining heat.

But I also learned something else: my husband is very patient, understanding, and dutiful (to the point of slicing and pulling as much not-quite-done meat off of the bones as possible after I was quite frustrated with said turkey). We turned off the oven and vowed to microwave the meat very well later. Needless to say, this is not the most moist and flavorful turkey we've ever eaten. But we're trying not to let it go to waste. At my mom's suggestion, I even put the carcass in the crock pot and made stock.

When we finally sat down to eat and thought through the experience, I declared that I would be roasting all future turkeys in those slightly expensive but oh-so-helpful roasting bags. But my dear husband came back with a very good question: do they leach plastic into the turkey during roasting? We're trying to avoid cooking in plastics, so we need to do a little research into this one.

Happy Birthday, David!

Today we celebrate the anniversary of the day my beloved husband came into the world! Let's pray that God blesses David with many more years of loving and serving.

PS If you're wondering why he's wearing green heart beads, this picture was taken on St. Patrick's Day when we were in New Orleans (2007).

In my Easter bonnet...

I'm not much of a hat person, but if bonnets were still in style (a la Little House on the Prairie) I'd be all over that fashion trend. So no, no Easter bonnet for me this year, but I did get an Easter BAG!

This morning David and I woke up early (despite a late night due to a late Easter vigil and celebratory reception in the parish hall). Among David's first wakeful words were, "I want a Cadbury egg." The man has been waiting for this treat all Lent - maybe even all year. So I retrieved the Easter box my mom sent and opened it in bed.


In addition to four Cadbury creme eggs for David, the box contained:

• a bag of other chocolate treats, including speckly robin's eggs
• a plastic bunny egg containing a wooden beaded bracelet
• three chalk eggs (which we'll take with us this afternoon to draw on the sidewalk with our 3-year-old nephew)
  
• a children's book containing two stories about bunnies (which David and I read to each other in bed)
• a jar of Mom's homemade huckleberry peach jam (my all-time favorite jam, made with huckleberries my dad picks in the hills of NW Washington state)
• a handful of pens and a bag of toiletries from hotels my dad stayed in (he's an airline pilot and gets put up in a lot of nice hotels all over the country)
• and last, but best of all, a handmade fabric bag!!! Can you see the little music notes all over it? I love it!!

My mom has a wonderful mix of practicality and creativity. When my siblings and I were "too old" for Easter egg hunts, she started hiding baskets of goodies for each of us in the house. After a few years of baskets, she started filling all sorts of useful containers with our treats. A tray I got one year is currently holding our office supplies. The plastic box she gave me another year keeps all my hair ties and clips in one place. This cloth bag is a fabulous new idea.

Thank you so much, Mom! Happy Easter, everyone!

Anticipating Good Friday

I have been looking forward to Good Friday for a week. During the Stations of the Cross last Friday I found myself daydreaming (I know, shame on me) about how I would observe Good Friday. One thing was certain: I would watch The Passion of the Christ again, as I have the past three Good Fridays.

I saw it when it came out in theatres; it took me hours to recover, though I don't know if I've ever fully recovered. The vivid depictions took me to a new level of understanding and appreciation of Jesus' suffering and death on the cross. The anguish, the betrayal, the pain, the mockery, the indifference...he endured it all because of me.

How strange - through the brutality, the blood, the dirt, and my own tears, I realize, again and again, how much I sin AND how much God loves me. I am ready for another dose of that!

Bill Donaghy has been posting an awesome series of reflections on scenes from The Passion. I highly recommend them - and his blog.

Happy Feast of St. Joseph!

Saint Joseph, patron of the universal Church, watch over the Church as carefully as you watched over Jesus, help protect it and guide it as you did with your adopted son. Amen

David and I are celebrating the feast of the foster father of Jesus by drinking hot chocolate. Just because we like it and the Lenten fast is lifted for today. Yum!

St. Joseph, pray for us.

Photo credit: David (taken in Holy Trinity Church, Shreveport, LA)