Monkey nuts

Making cookies for 'tiny school' on tour.

St Joseph Helps

I recently found this lovely website in celebration of St Joseph, which is run by Sr Kathryn. I have started praying the novena, which you can read more about here. He seems to be interceding for us lately and please God, he will continue to do so.

Little shoes

Don't you just love baby shoes? Well I do. On the left are Poonch's first pair. And the others belong to his big budda.

"that prayer saved us here"

It's great to hear some good news. Yesterday there was a miracle outside a primary school near Galway. Here's the report and some amazing pictures from today's Irish Independent, and below, some extracts. Interesting that the bit about the prayer wasn't in all newspapers' reports.

In all, 75 infants aged four, five, and six were about to go to the collection area when the accident happened.

Mr Kennelly said it appeared somebody was "looking out for the children" as they were all kept safe. ...

Mr Kennelly said that just a short time earlier, the entire school community had gathered in a classroom and said a simple prayer.

The principal is anxiously waiting for a decision by an Bord Pleanala in respect of an application to build a school hall and the prayer service was led by local parish priest, Fr Des Walshe.

"I'm not overly religious, but I certainly believe that prayer saved us here," Mr Kennelly said.

Poonch and I went swimming yesterday while Roo was at school. It's the first time we've been since he started walking confidently and he was a bit hesitant. Bit dubious about the shower... hmm... frowny little face, bit wobbly in the kiddy's pool: not helped by 'jug', which he insists on bringing everywhere and doesn't help his balance. Just generally not enjoying it. And he usually laughs at the drop of a hat. He's a happy little chap.

He reminded me a bit of Roo, lips going slightly blue, shivering due to lack of movement: he used to move his legs like a frog when you'd hold him up in the water. It didn't help that I'm pregnant and can't carry him all the time like I would have done before he was walking, although the water is brilliant for taking the weight. As I came out of the pool with Poonch, I felt the full force of the weight of both babies and it really struck me what my body manages every day.

I feel guilty about what has happened because it's mostly because I am pregnant that I haven't gone to the pool with the two lads lately and I'm worried Poonch, who was always so comfortable in the water, will have developed a fear of it, just because it's become unfamiliar to him.

an endangered species... we hope.

We are back again from another lovely weekend at the fab Wowee house. Every one of us loves going there. Poonch points out the car window and says 'this, this' when we get there. Roo loves, among other things, its proximity to his 'tuddens' and Lee and I always enjoy the little break it offers.

We recently had some good news about the house, which could mean that in the near future our West Waterford getaways will be no more. Bittersweet for sure. I will write more about it anon, but in the meantime, we are praying everything goes well.

Here are some more photos from our tour of Lismore Castle yesterday.

Carved stone bird from fireplace in the banqueting hall.

Bewildered butterfly

The May blossom is out in profusion. Honey bees making the most of it.

The lovely park in Pery Square. Best playground around too.

Divine Mercy Sunday

Well I couldn't make it to the Divine Mercy celebrations as the boys would never sit through 2-3 hours of it, but today at Mass I noticed these flowers on the altar and I thought they were appropriate for the spirit of the day. They are so exuberant and startling just like the graces that flow today.
Two years ago tonight, a complete miracle happened when Roo ended his gruelling habit of waking in the middle of the night for 2 to 3 hours at a time. I put it down to the fact that my Mum and brother were praying for me/ us at the ceremonies that day. I had made the Divine Mercy Novena but couldn't get to the special mass.
I was at the end of my tether and felt abandoned by God in those cold lonely hours I spent next to Roo's cot praying he would go back to sleep. He would start crying whenever I made a movement away from him in the direction of my warm bed. But from that night on he would go to sleep without one of us bound to his cotside and relied on himself to get himself back to sleep when he woke (as all of us do momentarily several times a night).
A miracle indeed.

Easter

Well, we are approaching Divine Mercy Sunday now, so it's about time I wrote about what we did over Easter. Lee was off so we went down to the Wowee house on Good Friday evening. Roo wondered why Joseph didn't help Jesus when the 'shouldiers' were 'being mean' to him. He's only 3 so we haven't gone into too much detail. He knows that Jesus 'went away and came back again' on Easter Sunday. Friday's was the maiden voyage for us in the new (used) car. It's lovely and comfy and has lots more space in the boot (including 2 extra seats in the back for Roo's friends- that's how we helped him realise it was a good idea to change the car- he's not usually too keen on change is our Roo).

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and I had a lovely chill-out hour getting my hair cut while the lads did ...other stuff. We spent the r

est of the day taking it easy around Clonmel and later tootled around Cappoquin (where we tried the cappoquino coffee - disappointingly too hot and expensive, but ok when it cooled down) as well as Lismore and Melleray where we tried in vain to have Confession.

Easter Sunday was a lovely day, clear and bright. We spent the morning enjoying the weather for a change, and discovering signs of the Easter Bunny around the house and village. (Roo and Poonch got a whole herd of chocolate cows as Mum and Uncle Bee bought one each for them unbeknownst to each other. They were upstairs on the jumper hill next to Jesus' empty tomb.) Ballymacarbry is a lovely village with the Nire river running alongside, but it would be nicer to take a walk through it if there was a decent footpath there. Every so often we'd have to run the gauntlet with the two lads in the buggy on a busy road.

Later on we followed the bunny to Mum's house where we had lamb for dinner, nom nom... thanks Mum. We went to Mass in Holycross Abbey (above) that afternoon. It seemed a bit flat, considering it was Easter Sunday. I miss the Easter Vigil, it's much more atmospheric and exciting, but too late for the babbas. And in our local town there is a dawn Mass at 6am which we would love to go to at some point, probably a better bet for the lads too.

Lismore on a showery day

Staying in the Wowee house (Roo's name for it) so we went to nearby Lismore for a stroll.

Statue of St Carthage with Red House Pub in background

Entrance to Lismore Castle.

St Carthage's Holy Well. With crystal clear water.

Ha wo!

Here's a picture of our little baby. The consultant says all's well, thank God. Thanks for your prayers.

Getting ready to go into the maternity hospital for our 20 week scan. Have been feeling rotten all week with a grumpy tummy bug that has really outstayed its (non-existent) welcome! Please say a prayer that all goes well with the scan if you get a chance, my friends.

daphne bholua jacqueline postill ...phew

Bit of a mouthful, but Toby on Gardener's World recommended it last night and it sounds lovely: a fragrant, semi-evergreen shrub that is in flower now, pricey though. Here's a picture from the BBC website. One of the things I am planting in my imaginary garden-in-my-head, until we have one of our own, please God.

The fabulous Alys was talking about hellebores, which will have to find a little shady well-composted spot there too. One is the beautiful pure white Christmas rose and another the more seasonally -appropriate Lenten Rose, Helleborus orientalis.

Here are some pictures of the delightful little lovelies.

St Joseph's Day

Today is the feast of St Joseph. One of the reasons people ask for his intercession, at least in this country, is to help sell or buy houses. Some people bury a statue in the garden of the house in question, but that strikes me as superstitious. I am praying for his intercession though, that someone will buy our lovely house in Ballymacarbry. Its price is very negotiable: I must get on to the auctioneer to reduce it.

Meanwhile, back in this house, the boys continue to get more grown-up. Poonch has been properly walking for about 2 weeks now. As Lee pointed out, his knees don't bend as he ploughs headlong on his way. He's like the penguin in Wallace & Gromit's The Wrong Trousers, but without the sinister connotations. Roo's language has really expanded lately too and we have great conversations together. He has started getting curious about what things are made of or what they might eat. Hence the title of yesterday's post.

What are Mummies made of?

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Hope you all have a great day. It's a bright hopeful one here in Limerick.

I think we might have to call the baby 'Mary'

... if it's a girl that is. I have been meaning to post for ages about what happened a couple of Sundays ago.

First it was a beautiful clear, sunny day. The best kind of day in my opinion. Then instead of going to Mass in the usual place, we found ourselves at 5 o'clock in the friendly and welcoming Deebert House Hotel in Kilmallock. It was the culmination of a mysterious retreat that a friend of Liam's kindly told us about the night before. I say 'mysterious' because it was all a bit vague. We didn't know what the retreat was for, and then Lee said, 'oh yeah he said something about Padre Pio's mitt.' And I was sure the place would be mobbed with people.

So, off we went to Kilmallock where we were ushered into a warm conference room full of people. In spite of well-meaning offers of seats at the front, we stayed at the back where we felt safer with the two lads, in case they got restless. Mass was said by the newly ordained Fr Paul Cahill along with Fr Paul Maria Sigl and another priest whose name I missed. Mum was there too, although she hadn't mentioned she was going.

It turned out the retreat was about Our Lady of All Nations, who I was slightly familiar with, as I have her prayer (see below) next to the fridge. Not sure where it came from: probably Mum.

After Mass, Fr Sigl, who's Austrian, consecrated everyone to Mary, although it was hard to concentrate on the words while keeping the boys quiet. Mind you, they had been really good for the last hour and a half, longer than we normally spend in church. Frs Sigl and Cahill were really warm and lovely, full of the Holy Spirit. They both blessed my bump and we were all very privileged to be blessed with Padre Pio's mitten: Fr Sigl even gave the little brown woolen relic to me to hold and bless the Babycake with, 'under my heart'.

The whole experience made me realise I have somewhat neglected Mary lately. So I moved my little altar to the windowsill near the sink, where, like all housewives, I spend a lot of time. Now I think of our Lady more often and say the powerful prayer whenever I think of it.

Lord Jesus Christ,

Son of the Father,

send now your Spirit over the earth.

Let the Holy Spirit live in the hearts of all nations,

that they may be preserved

from degeneration, disaster and war.

May the Lady of All Nations,

who once was Mary,

be our Advocate.

Amen

And why am I thinking of calling the baby Mary, (or Maria, or Máire)? Because of all the Marian connections. My due date is the Feast of the Assumption and my 20 week scan is the day after the Annunciation.

Mother's Day

Little hare, early riser

Just opened the curtains to a cold morning with the promise of another sunny day in the sky. Who should I spot only my favourite wild furry, the first one all year. The little hare (actually quite a big one) hopped up this track and stopped for a while until I opened the window to get a closer look. So maybe getting woken so early has some blessings after all.

Blessed William Tirry, Irish Martyr, 1608-1654

I promised I would tell you more about Fr William Tirry. So here is a little more info about his life. Thanks to Lee for most of it.

A martyred priest's message for the present age

The harsh conditions in which William Tirry spent his last days, imprisoned in a squalid gaol cell, were a far cry from the comfortable surroundings he could have enjoyed had he chosen a different path in life.

In 1608, he was born into the privileged home of a well-connected family in Cork City. He grew up here, studious and reserved, with his sister and two brothers. His uncle and namesake would be Bishop of Cork and Cloyne in later years.

Following his secondary education, at the age of 18 as far as we know, he was received as a postulant at the Cork Augustinian 'Red Abbey'. In so doing, he left behind a life where wealth and influence were assured, for one where sacrifice and devotion were assumed.

He continued his studies in Valladolid, Spain where he was ordained as a priest in 1634. Further study brought him to Paris and Brussels, before returning to Cork in 1638. He acted as secretary to his uncle the Bishop for a few months before working as chaplain and tutor for his extended family.

He returned to the community of Holy Trinity Abbey in 1642. The following year he was appointed to the Friary in Fethard and became prior in 1646. Here he would spend the last eleven years of his life and is believed to rest to this day.

This was a time of huge unrest in Ireland with widespread persecution of Roman Catholics. The arrival of Cromwell in Ireland prevented William taking up a new appointment as prior of Skreen, Co. Meath in 1649. The walled town of Fethard was taken by Cromwell in 1650. The Church and Friary were desecrated. In spite of the dangers, William remained to serve the people of Fethard, going into hiding in and around the town with the help of people such as Mrs Amy Everard. A law enacted in 1653 decreed that any priest found on Irish soil was guilty of treason and as a result many priests fled to the continent. William, however, bravely continued to work with secrecy and caution until his betrayal.

On Holy Saturday 1654, while preparing for Mass in Mrs Everard's house, Fr William Tirry was arrested by Cromwellian soldiers. In the room were found some of his writings: including a comprehensive profession of his Catholic faith. He was taken to Clonmel gaol. His mock trial took place 10 days later on May 6th with his execution following on May 12th. In their accounts of his last days, his fellow prisoners, priests and religious amongst them, spoke with huge admiration for his courage and sanctity.

He is quoted as saying, in Irish, on the eve of his execution,

"God Almighty be thanked, who chose me to this happy ending."

His last pulpit was to be the steps of the gallows, where he forgave his betrayers and preached on the importance of the Ten Commandments to the large crowds, Catholic and Protestant alike, who had gathered there. His powerful, moving speech was perhaps a long way from the reserved young man who had entered the Augustinian Abbey as a postulant, 28 years previously.

Permission was granted to the people of Fethard to bring back the body of their martyred priest for burial in the ruined Friary buildings. Blessed William was laid to rest then, somewhere within the century-defying church now known to locals simply as 'The Abbey'.

Fr William Tirry was beatified by Pope John Paul II in St Peter's Square, Rome on September 27th 1992.

Cherry buns for tea

Inspired by Saturday's little beauties, Roo and I made some 'berry buns' of our own yesterday. Here's the last one... Gobble, gobble...

Cherry buns in the park

Here he is: Fr William Tirry. It's from a leaflet Lee made a few years back for Fethard Augustinian Church's jubilee celebrations.

I'll tell you more about him soon, please God.

Small blessings

Did I ever mention how I like hanging washing out? As long as I know the lads are ok, it can actually be almost relaxing. Poonch was asleep in the buggy and Roo was 'helping' me so I was free to get some fresh air into the clothes. Really though the main reason I enjoy putting out the washing is that it means the weather is dry for a change. Hooray for dry days, even perishing ones like today!

Acquaintances, old and new

I've just noticed that there is someone new following my blog. Welcome in Breadgirl! Breadgirl's blog is about a Welsh saint, David Lewis, who was martyred in the 17th Century. He reminds me a lot of Blessed William Tirry, an Augustinian priest who was martyred during the Penal times here in Ireland. Just being a priest was an offence punishable by death. Fr Tirry was arrested wearing his vestments, about to say Mass in Fethard, Co Tipperary (that's a picture of the lovely town- we used to live there). He is probably buried under the Augustinian Church in Fethard. The locals brought back his body after he was martyred in nearby Clonmel.

I must tell you more about him when it isn't quite so late. Like David Lewis he deserves to be better known.

Little steps

Quiet night, me and my sewing machine alone at last. And here's my first big bit of sewing: an inch hem on both sides of the roman blind I'm attempting for the Wowee house. More about that anon.

Just thought I'd post this link to Prayers to St Thérèse, in case, like me today, anyone needs one of her earth-bound roses from heaven. (Though she reminds us there is no need for formal prayers- we should just talk to God as if he was sitting next to us.)

Here's an aerial view of the lads in their new buggy. Usually Poonch would be in the sling, but with my bump getting bigger, it's not the comfiest option anymore. So here they are on our walk today round the Manor on a cold afternoon.

Mouse hotel.

New phone, new skill

Hooray! I finally got a new phone. So now I can send photos to my blog as I take them.
Here is the new herringbone hand-stitch I learned last night at the Curtain n cushion course. It's v handy for hemming trousers and skirts as well as curtains, which is why we learned it. Strong but virtually invisible on the right side. On the food front, last night we had Annabel Karmel's beef in oyster sauce. The reason I'm writing this is because Roo ate it- well some beef anyway. Of course, he did need to be persuaded. But once he tried it, he realised the meat was lovely and tender. And he had some noodles too. The introduction of chopsticks went down well. Hooray again!

12 weeks yesterday

We went to Mass this morning for St Blaise's feast. Roo was a bit dubious about having his throat blessed, but he eventually joined Poonch and me at the altar, when I told him it would help stop him getting sick.

Afterwards we went to the market at the Crescent Shopping centre. Caroline from the happy pig farm was there, so we bought some rashers. She is holding a Beekeeping course at her house on the 27th (re-scheduled from January 9th) which I would love to go to, if Lee can manage to be off duty.

An update on the Babycake: I had a scan last week with my new consultant (very hopeful about him). He estimates my due date to be in August. The 15th, Feast of the Assumption. So that means I was 12 weeks yesterday. It's great to have some idea of when Babs is due!

Pizza, Little Piggies and Paul O'Connell

Today we had a brush with stardom. After a sunny visit to the playground, we went to La Cucina for some yummy pizza (the only way we could persuade Roo to leave). 'Look who it is...' said Lee to me as we went in. And there, sitting alone with a bowl of soup was the great Paul O'Connell, the Munster rugby captain*. We were shown a table, but then Paul left and they put us at his table! You could say Roo took his place, because he sat in the very same seat that Paul had just vacated (it was still a little warm). Roo himself was oblivious of course as he devoured two slices of Margherita pizza. He was disappointed earlier in Little Piggies when he was told he didn't need new shoes yet. I told him he'd have to eat lots so that his feet would get bigger.

*(People say Superman goes to bed in Paul O'Connell pyjamas. To tell you the truth, we think Paul made himself scarce when he saw Poonch coming in;))

Jamie's pancakes

These go down very well with the boys.... just mix together:

1 cup of self-raising flour
1 cup of milk
1 large egg, preferably free-range or organic
A pinch of sea salt
1 pear, grated.

Then fry with a few knobs of butter and eat with gloopy, creamy stuff, Nutella, bananas, or whatever takes your fancy.

Inspiration for toddler meals

Rollercoaster has some of Annabel Karmel's recipes for fussy eaters on their website. They are appetising excerpts from a new book she has written which looks quite tempting. I'm reading her Superfoods book at the moment in an attempt to get Roo to eat more veg. Last night we had pasta in Hidden Vegetable sauce with Mascarpone. Very nice and... Roo even ate some of the sauce as it was smeared onto his pasta. That means he ingested onion, carrot and courgette, as they were cooked and then pureed into the sauce.

But perhaps more remarkably, he quite knowingly gobbled down COURGETTES, yes green vegetables (aka zucchinis) as he helped to make the muffins they were stuffed with. CBeebies I Can Cook is such a fantastic programme. You'll find more toddler-able recipes on the I Can Cook website.

Tootling about on my ownio...

Back to quilting yesterday for the first time since Christmas. A little reluctantly... but after five minutes I was hooked again and couldn't wait to get stuck in. I really value the couple of hours I have to myself while Mum takes care of the lads. I can run about doing errands afterwards too. (Literally run- something I can't do when I'm with Roo and Poonch, 'slow down Mummy,' Roo says when I'm walking with him. I love running/skipping about. It's funny the things you have to stop doing when you have children!)

Anyway, I was just thinking yesterday, how God really does answer your prayers sometimes, even if you haven't actually outright asked him. The day before was a really horrible day. I felt really down for no real reason, was getting much too frustrated with the boys over trivial things, Louis cut his mouth twice, Lee was anxious about a talk he was giving that evening and I hardly noticed him I was feeling so cross... lots of little things, one after the other.

And then yesterday, things just turned around. It was a lovely dry day, Mum was here to help, the lads were in good form, I zoomed around town on my own, then came home and we all took off for a walk down the lane. And I got to confession at last. With a lovely priest, Fr Brendan, in the Augustinians on O'Connell Street (that's the spot in the picture). I had wanted to (and not wanted to, if you know what I mean) go for a while, but I can't bring the lads in obviously! I know a good few Irish Augustinians, but I'd never met this guy before. He must have moved to Limerick after the last Chapter meeting. We had a little chat and he was telling me he was in Australia (every state by the sound of it) for 40 years. I think there's something about Augustinian priests. I just really like the vast majority of the ones that I've ever met.

Thank God for days like yesterday.

On the water front, we had an absolute downpour today and our water came back. Hooray! Not having it really made me think that we actually waste water a lot of the time. It's so easy to take water for granted, isn't it? It's so precious, yet so readily available to us. Say compared to some people in developing countries who can't access clean drinking water.

We were really quite lucky, unlike many people who were without water for days and days, or who experienced burst pipes and even flooding due to the exceptionally heavy rain.

A brrrrrry cold new year

Here's my first post of the new year. We had our now-traditional Christmas: both Grannies and Uncle Bee staying with us, turkey, gingerbread stuffing (which didn't appeal to me this year... hmmm) etc. Roo understood about Santa for really the first time, but because he'd met him at Montessori, he was answering 'is Santy coming?' with a wrinkled nose and 'Noooo!' (because in his head he'd already given him some goodies.) It meant for some shocked faces from shop assistants and the like though.

It has been veeerrrrrry cold here for quite a few weeks. Yesterday it even snowed. I mean proper fluffy, dry, powdery snow that stays in drifts instead of melting on contact with the ground or going brown and sludgy.
Roo and I were outside in it: he in his super duper cosy waterproof boiler suit, me collecting snow to melt for toilet flushing. Yes, the wonderful snow brought with it some less appealing aspects such as frozen water supplies and lack of showers or laundry washing. Now I know how my Mum felt when it used to snow when I was a child. She'd give out about the roads and stuff and I'd think, 'how could you not like the snow?' But even boring Mummy-me was taken aback at how beautiful everything looked in the snow. I walked down our ordinary little lane marvelling at how gorgeous it had become: the branches of every tree and bush swaddled in white.
We have become quite well acquainted with some of the local birds due to the cold spell. The two wagtails we knew already, but there is a pair of robins who, over the last couple of days, have got close to us, literally. One of them came into the utility room a few days ago, and another day he kept flying up to the window to let me know he was hungry. We don't get many birds near our house because there is very little cover/vegetation except around the perimeter, so it's nice to have some contact with them. I love seeing their little footprints around the place.
This year I would like (in no particular order)
1. the boys to get over their interminable colds/ coughs/ runny noses. I am fairly fed up with snot at this stage
2. to get out of this cold, poorly designed house. But that's dependent on no.3 happening.
3. someone to make an offer on our lovely house in Waterford
4. to have a healthy baby

and some other things too, I'm sure, but that's all I can think of just now.