Filed under: Children, Farm Life, Feasting, Green Living, Husband, Motherhood, Saints, Seasons, St. Patrick | Tags: garden, lettuce, spring, swiss chard, toddlers
Here’s what’s been going on outdoors in our neck of the woods:
Lots of park dates and outside play for this little guy. Baby girl is content to just sleep in the baby wrap with Mama while Little Bear gets his wiggles out. Although the terrible threes subsided a little bit in the past couple of weeks (perhaps due to extra time with Daddy during our trip), they were back in full force yesterday. You know the mother you see at the park that is carrying an infant and attempting to wrangle a misbehaving toddler? A toddler that is screaming, I WON’T! I DON’T WANT TO! when she asks him to throw away his trash, then succumbs to sobs when a kind park user cleans it up in his stead and he screams, “BUT I WANTED TO THROW IT AWAY! GET IT OUT OF THE TRASH SO I CAN DO IT! *SOB*”? That mother? The one that makes you say to your friend, “she has HER hands full. A little discipline? I would be mortified if MY child ever behaved like that!” Well, I am that mother. Nice to meet you. I now sympathize with all mothers of children who misbehave in public.
After a full-fledged meltdown in the car and an early nap, Benjamin surprised me by saying, “Hey, Mama. You know what? I love you.” He doesn’t usually say that out of the blue. Made the difficult morning worth it. Thankfully, he’s been good as gold today.
Our vegetable garden is exploding with wonderful things!
Bright Light Swiss Chard has to be one of the prettiest things ever!
Tomato flowers already! I can’t wait to eat tomatoes with every meal. Daniel has grown so many seedlings of different varieties.
We’ve been eating all the lettuce we can handle. Picking lettuce for salad 10 minutes before dinner time is so fun.
Cabbages are looking lovely!
My farmer.
This was our St. Patrick’s Day feast. Guinness Beef Stew made by Daniel, Spring Salads from the garden with Strawberries, and amazing Sweet Potato Fries by our friend Kaitlin.
What are you growing in your garden these days?
Filed under: Feasting, Saints, St. Patrick | Tags: feast, prayer, st. patrick
I hope you all have a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day today! It is spring in North Florida and the outdoors are green in honor of one of my favorite saints. The dogwoods, azaleas, and wisteria are in bloom and the scent of flowers is downright intoxicating.
From St. Patrick’s Breastplate (an ancient prayer attributed to him)
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ in my headway, Christ in my wake,
Christ alow and Christ aloft,
Christ at my right hand, Christ on my left,
Christ with me waking, waking and sleeping.
Christ in every heart thinks of me,
Christ in every tongue speaks to me,
Christ in every eye beholding,
Christ in every listening ear.
What’re your St. Patrick’s Day plans? We’re getting together with some friends to grill out and celebrate!
I didn’t know much about St. Patrick until college. My studies started to focus on medieval French literature influenced by Celtic legend and suddenly St. Patrick was everywhere. My first real introduction to him was The Tales of the Elders of Ireland, a 12th century text about ancient Irish heroes framed by St. Patrick’s return to Ireland to evangelize and being told the old legends as he traveled around the Emerald Isle. In this tale, St. Patrick’s guardian angel tells him to have his scribe record all these ancient pagan tales so that they will not be lost. This story demonstrates St. Patrick’s interest in the Celtic culture already present. What I particularly like about St. Patrick is his ability to reveal truths about Christianity to a people by adding new meaning to their own practices. Druid festivals already being celebrated, such as the spring fires lit at Easter, St Patrick imbued with new meaning—a celebration of Christ as the light of the world.
So I like St. Patrick a lot and I was excited to be celebrating St. Patrick’s feast day with good friends.
As for the feast, I made Irish Soda Bread:
And Nigella’s Guinness Chocolate Cake:
Daniel made Corned Beef and Cabbage and John made Cheese soup.
Irish beverages were consumed.
Fellowship was enjoyed.
Daniel read St. Patrick’s Breastplate, a beautiful prayer attributed to the patron saint of Ireland:
I arise today in power and might.
I call upon the Trinity with faith in the threeness
And trust in the oneness of the great world’s maker.
I arise today in the power and might
Of Christ’s birth and baptism, his crucifixion and burial,
His resurrection and ascension, his coming anew to judge mankind.
I arise today in love of cherubim,
in duty of angels, in fealty of archangels,
in hope of uprising, to gain Christ’s reward
I set my trust
In prayers of patriarchs, in foretelling of prophets,
In preaching of apostles in witness of martyrs,
In faith of confessors, in purity of virgins, in good works of the just.
I arise today with the powers of heaven,
The sun in brightness, the moon in splendour,
The flashing of fire, the swift stroke of lightning,
The rushing of storm-wind, the deepness of ocean,
the firmness of earth, the hardness of bed-rock.
Christ save me today
From bane and from burning,
From drowning, from wounding
That grace abounding may be my portion.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ in my headway, Christ in my wake,
Christ alow and Christ aloft,
Christ at my right hand, Christ on my left,
Christ with me waking, waking and sleeping.
Christ in every heart thinks of me,
Christ in every tongue speaks to me,
Christ in every eye beholding,
Christ in every listening ear.
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