An Erratic Few Days

Wow. It seems like whatever could go wrong has gone wrong over the last few days. Sunday morning I was to go up to Birmingham to welcome my cousin into the Catholic church. I had some nausea and was unable to go. She ended up bringing all of my stuff from Birmingham yesterday, spending the night, and heading back up today. Very sweet!

:THEN after my Dad, the steadiest fellow in the world, made arrangements to buy some property, he decided it wasn't a good idea after all. See earlier post about said, GIDDY property. The property will not be purchased. Oh well, I'm disappointed, but easy come easy go. My dad is getting older and can't quite manage business transactions the way he used to.

My plan to change a lot of my ads over to fair trade and "green" ads has not panned out. I've been turned down by quite a few. Mostly because my traffic is too slow - I guess.

The last straw was during my first night of training tonight with Cloud10. I'm going along great for the first 3 hours. Everything was working great. Computer and headset were giving me no troubles whatsoever. After the break, my computer starts running slowly, and I can hear not one thing. Thankfully one of the other students transcribed everything that was going on through the chat feature. The first few days are for getting kinks worked out, so I didn't miss any content. But, dang, it's been an up and down few days.

Oh well. Life spins this way sometimes. An old, old country gospel song comes to mind: "Praaaayyeeeeze Gaaawwwdd Ennyhowwwwww"! I am an annoying Pollyanna. My sister Cheryl would probably not agree. Just call me Crankella Deville. GRRRRRR!

Pic is of sis Cheryl's dog Gracie. My sentiments exactly...

Choctawhatchee River

New Interest: boating and birding on the Choctawhatchee River and Holmes Creek - outside of New Hope, FL.

I'm fortunate to have outstanding parents. I didn't always think so, but now in my 40's I have enough real world knowledge to KNOW that I do.

My dad called this morning to inform the 4 of us kids that he bought each of us a lot close to one of the aforementioned rivers. It is a financial move, but all can be used for camping, boating, fishing, birding and the like. Mine has running water and a septic tank.

Picture is from photobucket of a Hooded Merganser. I've seen these during the spring of the year often in my parent's pond outside of Chipley, FL. They're diving ducks. I love water birds!

Easter - Alleluia

Sorry for the font color Rog T. I was trying to add some effect. It was supposed to look red.

Here's the first part of Pope Benedict's Easter Vigil Homily. I haven't read it all yet. I worked my backbreaking cleaning job today and went to St Sylvester's (Navarre) Easter Vigil. It makes me tear up during baptisms, confirmation, and folks coming into full communion with the Church.

You can find Pope Benedict's Easter Vigil homily at this link:
http://www.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=279700


Here's the first part:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Saint Mark tells us in his Gospel that as the disciples came down from the Mount of the Transfiguration, they were discussing among themselves what “rising from the dead” could mean (cf. Mk 9:10). A little earlier, the Lord had foretold his passion and his resurrection after three days. Peter had protested against this prediction of death. But now, they were wondering what could be meant by the word “resurrection”. Could it be that we find ourselves in a similar situation? Christmas, the birth of the divine Infant, we can somehow immediately comprehend. We can love the child, we can imagine that night in Bethlehem, Mary’s joy, the joy of Saint Joseph and the shepherds, the exultation of the angels. But what is resurrection? It does not form part of our experience, and so the message often remains to some degree beyond our understanding, a thing of the past. The Church tries to help us understand it, by expressing this mysterious event in the language of symbols in which we can somehow contemplate this astonishing event. During the Easter Vigil, the Church points out the significance of this day principally through three symbols: light, water, and the new song – the Alleluia.

Picture is from photobucket.



I'm off to Birminham, AL tomorrow to celebrate my cousin Joan coming into full communion with the Church!

Good Friday

This is taken from the following link: http://www.catholic.org/clife/lent/friday.php

On Good Friday, the entire Church fixes her gaze on the Cross at Calvary. Each member of the Church tries to understand at what cost Christ has won our redemption. In the solemn ceremonies of Good Friday, in the Adoration of the Cross, in the chanting of the 'Reproaches', in the reading of the Passion, and in receiving the pre-consecrated Host, we unite ourselves to our Savior, and we contemplate our own death to sin in the Death of our Lord.

The Church - stripped of its ornaments, the altar bare, and with the door of the empty tabernacle standing open - is as if in mourning. In the fourth century the Apostolic Constitutions described this day as a 'day of mourning, not a day of festive joy,' and this day was called the 'Pasch (passage) of the Crucifixion.'

The liturgical observance of this day of Christ's suffering, crucifixion and death evidently has been in existence from the earliest days of the Church. No Mass is celebrated on this day, but the service of Good Friday is called the Mass of the Presanctified because Communion (in the species of bread) which had already been consecrated on Holy Thursday is given to the people .

Traditionally, the organ is silent from Holy Thursday until the Alleluia at the Easter Vigil , as are all bells or other instruments, the only music during this period being unaccompanied chant.

The omission of the prayer of consecration deepens our sense of loss because Mass throughout the year reminds us of the Lord's triumph over death, the source of our joy and blessing. The desolate quality of the rites of this day reminds us of Christ's humiliation and suffering during his Passion.

The picture is from photobucket.com



If interested, http://nwflcatholicgal.blogspot.com/ has daily faith posts.

Check Out Today's Daily Reflection from the USCCB Website

Wow! Today's daily reflection is really powerful. Check it out on the USCCB Website: http://www.usccb.org/video/reflections.shtml

Just click on today's date in the calendar. Also you can listen to the daily readings, for those of us who are auditory learners.


Photo Credit: Tate Gallery, London/Art Resource, NY

Busy Day Ahead

The grass IS getting mowed today! Me thinks me blogging has caused a delay in me household chores - oops.

Yesterday my "getting operational" session went down. The lady was nifty who guided 8-10 of us through the process at cloud10. Props to Portia, the tech multi-tasking guru. In this age of the Jetsons it's pretty stellar that you can do so much over the internet and phone airwaves. Man, we are all sitting in our home offices and getting work done. So neato.

There ARE some crummy things being said about cloud10 on the internet due to a DTV project issue. I chose to stick with cloud10 because so many people in the WAH forums stood by their side. So far, and I realize it's just been a short while, I've seen very patient, professional folks.

I'm slowly changing over some of my ads, and thinking toward having several blogs: Florida Catholic Gal, Florida Online Mall Gal, Florida Cracker Cooking Gal, Florida Living In a Dream World Gal, Florida I Need to Get Off My A*% and Mow the Grass Gal...Har Har Harrrr...

Happy Holy Thursday. If there happen to be any local folks viewing, the Easter Triduum services at St Sylvester's in Navarre, FL are at the following times:

Holy Thursday Mass: 7pm
Good Friday Liturgy: 7pm
Easter Vigil Mass: 7pm
Easter Sunday: 9am & 11am
Easter Spanish Mass: 5pm

Father Kelly has an amazing gift of preaching, so be there or be square :) . Our Lord has done so much for us, can't we be there for Him?

Here's the link to St Sylvester's:

http://www.parishesonline.com/scripts/HostedSites/Org.asp?ID=14435