The Simple Woman's Daybook (May 2009 edition)

Outside my window... a beautiful May morning - sunny, mid-60's, and the birds are chirping.

I am thinking... about what I want to try my hand at in the kitchen today: a new kind of bread? pasta? muffins? Or maybe I'll just work in the garden today. :)

I am thankful for... the fact that this week is over. The move of the clinic seemed like a long time in coming and, eventually, just like a wedding, it got to the point where everyone would just be glad when it was over! It's not completely over yet, but the majority is done and I'm glad!

From the kitchen... a tall glass of fresh-brewed peach iced sun-tea.

I am wearing... a jean skirt and a bright, turquoise-type polo shirt with some multi-colored stripes as an accent. It feels very summery!

I am reading... my favorite blogs.

I am hoping... that Dad and Joey have a lot of fun (but stay safe) while sky-diving this morning!

I am hearing... the birds chirping and Charlie Rich on my iTunes. :)

Around the house... laundry to do, tons of stuff (from the move) to find places for, tidying, organizing, and cleaning to be done.

One of my favorite things... snail mail letters!

And here's a picture for the day... sweet corn straight from the grill. Doesn't that just scream "summertime"? :) Yummmm!

Have a happy Memorial Day weekend, everybody!

It's Kind of Sad

We boxed everything up at the clinic today. All the cabinets are empty. All the shelves are clear. And after seven years in this building (which, because it was built to taste, suited us all so well), it's a little hard to say goodbye and see it go.

Today was the last day we'll all work together, since some of us will be parting ways after this. Today was the last day that my dad was the boss to whom we looked and to whom we answered. *sniff*

over 50 boxes were necessary to hold the charts that are going over in the move

We saw 39 patients (two providers) yesterday and 22 patients (one provider) today... while trying to get packed up and start moving. The results were sometimes rather comical: Julia and I made a trip over to the SM Clinic with all of our treatment room supplies. When we returned, we found out that while we were delivering those things (which included suture materials), a boy with a chin laceration had walked in! Without the things needed to stitch it up (and it being small enough), my dad steri-stripped it... after having to search for a couple of minutes to find the scissors...!
Just a short while later, we learned that someone was coming in to get a cast removed. This called for a quick trip back over to the other clinic to retrieve the necessary implements which had also been transferred earlier this morning!

After that, we laid off on the actual moving and tried to confine our efforts to organizing what we could in order to box it up and move it out after our last patient of the day left a little before 5. We were pretty efficient, thankfully, with a lot of help from all sides, and managed to box and mark and sort just about everything in about 2 1/2 hours.

the "baby boards" removed from the walls of the lobby

I've worked over 33 hours in the past three days... and I'm very thankful that tomorrow is the feast of the Ascension and a holy day of obligation! ;)

Hope you all have a very happy feast day!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Outside my window... Rain, rain, and more rain!! (But with it, comes such luscious greenery!!)

I am thinking... that I must be getting old, because this weather makes my bones achey. :-/ And I'm thinking about the swine flu, thinking that there's way too much hype about it, but also wondering how bad it truly will get.

I am thankful for... last week's trip to Minnesota and for all the benefits and good things in my life. (And I'm trying to be grateful even for the crosses and unpleasant things. :))

From the kitchen... grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.

I am wearing... a black skirt and a colorful, plaid top that has kind of big fuschia buttons. :)

I am reading... In Praise of Stay-at-Home Moms... so far, it's really good!

I am hoping... that the things pertaining to the pending merger and move will fall into place and go smoothly.

I am hearing... the sound of the clock and of Mom setting the table and of the gas burner on the stove.

Around the house... ironing to do, pictures to be uploaded to the internet :), errands to run, cookies to make. :)

One of my favorite things... summer evenings.

Getting Our Garden Underway

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.
~May Sarton


A week ago yesterday, Mom planted marigold seeds and I planted tomato seeds. Yesterday, I planted bell pepper seeds. Yesterday or the day before, some of Mom's marigolds sprouted... and this morning, a couple of my tomatoes are pushing their way through the soil!! Our geranium is getting on the act with a couple blooms of its own. The container herbs have withstood the winter months. Even the "worm farm" we started in the late fall is going great guns. :)

It was 17 degrees yesterday morning, but now it is 41 and sunny (and Thursday is forecast to be 75!)... and with all these lovely green things coming to life, it does feel like Spring is just around the corner!

I'm not sure what we'll plant next - maybe onions - but it's very exciting to get this underway! ...Hopefully I'll still be thrilled about it even when "mosquito season" has arrived and the heat and humidity have settled like a blanket around us. ;)

God is good.


There is no gardening without humility. Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder.
~Alfred Austin

Taking of the Cassock

A week ago today, on the Feast of the Purification, my brother took the cassock in Winona, MN. It was a splendid day (thankfully mild for the area - it made it up to 28 degrees that afternoon) and a beautiful ceremony. I just wanted to share a few... *ahem* ... a lot of pictures.





















Please keep my bubba in your prayers!! Thank you!

Little Miracles of Grace

They were calling it a miracle before a mere 24 hours had elapsed. The plane crash/landing in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009, that is... When Captain Sullenberger skilfully and adeptly guided his failing aircraft into an emergency landing without losing a single life. This may have been a miracle, at best; it must have required great skill and presence of mind, at least.

This evening, I came across a beautiful article (hat tip to Joe) that relates one passenger's account - and the unmistakable role of Providence in the events of that day and his life. It is remarkable...

The Divine Mercy and the Hudson River Landing

While it may never be proven that the safe landing of flight 1549 was miraculous in the strict sense of the word, I have no doubt that this is just one of many little, unseen instances in which God works a miracle of grace.

The Excommunications Have Been Remitted

Statement from the Congregation for Bishops

By way of a letter of December 15, 2008 addressed to His Eminence Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos, President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Mons. Bernard Fellay, also in the name of the other three Bishops consecrated on June 30, 1988, requested anew the removal of the latae sententiae excommunication formally declared with the Decree of the Prefect of this Congregation on July 1, 1988. In the aforementioned letter, Mons. Fellay affirms, among other things: "We are always firmly determined in our will to remain Catholic and to place all our efforts at the service of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the Roman Catholic Church. We accept its teachings with filial disposition. We believe firmly in the Primacy of Peter and in its prerogatives, and for this the current situation makes us suffer so much."

His Holiness Benedict XVI - paternally sensitive to the spiritual unease manifested by the interested party due to the sanction of excommunication and trusting in the effort expressed by them in the aforementioned letter of not sparing any effort to deepen the necessary discussions with the Authority of the Holy See in the still open matters, so as to achieve shortly a full and satisfactory solution of the problem posed in the origin - decided to reconsider the canonical situation of Bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson, and Alfonso de Galarreta, arisen with their episcopal consecration.

With this act, it is desired to consolidate the reciprocal relations of confidence and to intensify and grant stability to the relationship of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X with this Apostolic See. This gift of peace, at the end of the Christmas celebrations, is also intended to be a sign to promote unity in the charity of the universal Church and to try to vanquish the scandal of division.

It is hoped that this step be followed by the prompt accomplishment of full communion with the Church of the entire Fraternity of Saint Pius X, thus testifying true fidelity and true recognition of the Magisterium and of the authority of the Pope with the proof of visible unity.

Based in the faculty expressly granted to me by the Holy Father Benedict XVI, in virtue of the present Decree, I remit of Bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson, and Alfonso de Galarreta the censure of latae sententiae excommunication declared by this Congregation on July 1, 1988, while I declare deprived of any juridical effect, from the present date, the Decree emanated at that time.

Rome, from the Congregation for Bishops, January 21, 2009.

Card. Giovanni Battista Re
Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops


Press Release from the Superior General of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X

The excommunication of the bishops consecrated by His Grace Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, on June 30, 1988, which had been declared by the Congregation for Bishops in a decree dated July 1, 1988, and which we had always contested, has been withdrawn by another decree mandated by Benedict XVI and issued by the same Congregation on January 21, 2009.

We express our filial gratitude to the Holy Father for this gesture which, beyond the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, will benefit the whole Church. Our Society wishes to be always more able to help the pope to remedy the unprecedented crisis which presently shakes the Catholic world, and which Pope John Paul II had designated as a state of "silent apostasy."

Besides our gratitude towards the Holy Father and towards all those who helped him to make this courageous act, we are pleased that the decree of January 21 considers as necessary "talks" with the Holy See, talks which will enable the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X to explain the fundamental doctrinal reasons which it believes to be at the origin of the present difficulties of the Church.

In this new atmosphere, we have the firm hope to obtain soon the recognition of the rights of Catholic Tradition

Menzingen, January 24, 2009

+Bernard Fellay

Lifting of the So-Called "Excommunication"?!

Breaking news!! The Vatican apparently has plans to make an official announcement tomorrow that they are lifting the decree of excommunication that they had placed on the SSPX bishops, consecrated by His Excellency Archbishop Lefebrve in 1988.

The SSPX faithful completed 1.7 million 5-decade Rosaries for this intention. As opposed to this very thing as the Vatican has been lately, this can only be by virtue of divine intervention! Thanks be to God and His holy Mother. I have to run to work, but wanted to mention this elating news! Stay tuned!

You can read more here.

Beauty... and Gratitude

Goodness, truth, and beauty... three facets of philosophy, three of God's myriad of attributes. Intimately linked, yet distinct: goodness is true and beautiful; truth is good and beautiful; beauty is true and good.

Beauty is not solely in the eye of the beholder, as the idiom would have you believe. In that which is beautiful to the eye, there are objective realities and guidelines that would have it defined as beautiful. Symmetry is beautiful, for example. It may be trendy to favor the asymmetrical, but symmetry has an undeniable and classic beauty.

Beauty, however, is not limited to that which is visible in the created physical world. There is beautiful music, fascinating in its elusive harmony. There are enchanting sentiments, capturing our attention with their nobility and idealism. There is beauty in self-discipline and self-sacrifice.


...Yours truly has a certain inclination toward cynicism and sarcasm, both by nature and by nurture. In my early teenage years, almost nothing gave me greater satisfaction than that derived from a "clever" sarcastic remark. I have been blessed or cursed (depending on how you look at it) with a quick wit and a tongue that has difficulty repressing some of the "perfect!" comebacks. I soon discovered, though, that while some sarcasm, under the right circumstances, was humorous indeed, an overindulgence in such a "pastime" quickly led to a too-bitter outlook on life. The same thing was true of cynicism. At first, it is great fun to see things through a cynic's eyes, but after awhile, it begins to detract from the vibrant beauty of life. Pointing out life's little ironies is one thing, but to become utterly unable to see anything for which to be grateful is quite another. I think that one element of child-likeness is to be able to keep one's eye on the silver lining and to be grateful for all the little things. We mustn't take the beautiful things in life for granted. There are so many beautiful things to see, if we will just open our eyes... And oftentimes, they are the littlest things.

The other day, I was thinking about how much I have for which to be grateful. The Faith, for one thing. That's huge. My family. Also a very big thing! And silly though it may sound, it also occurred to me to be grateful for the nice big deck that we have and enjoy so much... for a relatively spacious yard, for a house/roof over our heads, for our health, for the community in which we live (there's no place on earth I'd rather be in times like these!)... for the grace to see these things and the opportunity to be grateful for them!

Life is beautiful. And it's worth living. Sometimes we need an attitude adjustment; but there will always be something beautiful to see and to be grateful for, as long as we try to know and do God's Will!

God IS goodness, truth, and beauty. Wherever we see these, we see also a dim reflection of Him.