Habemus Papam!!!!

Yesterday the Cardinals in the Conclave finally reached an agreement and the white smoke rose high and mighty from the smoke stack in Rome... The world has been Blessed with a Pope for 2013. 

The white smoke signifies that a new Pontiff has been chosen..

Since the world didn't end back in December 2012, this new year has to be about change and progression and a renewed hope and faith in God and his servants and society.

Here are some pictures of the new Pontiff, His Holiness Pope Francis I

 

Such an adorable countenance and very true to the image of Peter..

My absolute favourite picture of the new Pope!! Adorable

Personally, I think this man simply looks Pontiff-like, don't you? His visage and personage seem to exude humility and reverence, holiness and fullness of the Spirit.  The Lord definitely knew where he to send the HS when His Holiness Benedict XVI sent up his prayer of resignation... 

Funny thing about faith... You just don't know where God will send the Holy Spirit... Another one of the wondrous mysterious ways of the Lord.

Prayers of Thanksgiving must continue to be sent up in these days as the Christian world rejoices that the Chair of Peter is no longer vacant...

 Habemus Papam Fransciscum!!

We Have... His Holiness Pope Francis I

The usefulness of a degree in English Lit..

       When I got home tonight my parents were watching EWTN (the Global Catholic Television Network) and was immediately called into the television room.  They were broadcasting one of their half hour weekly segments of the program called "Catholicism On Campus" which is hosted by Msgr. Stuart Swetland who explores the teachings of the Catholic Church with the students of Mount St. Mary's University, Maryland USA. Tonight the theme of the discussion was "Catholic Liberal Arts: Why They Still Matter" and he had Robert Prescott, PhD with him to talk about his book Why to major in English if You're Not Going to Teach.  

       No wonder my mother was so anxious for me to hear the discussion- Many people in my family, mom included, feel that my degree in English is "useless towards my future". So I sat down with mom and dad and lo and behold, Dr. Prescott dispelled all the doubt surrounding my "worthless" degree choice... 

       In his book, Prescott discusses the importance of English Lit with regards to one's own secular vocation (i.e career choice) and in tonight's discussion he was asked to describe the skills that are garnered through the study of English by one of the students present. He provided the following answer,

(bear with me here, I was typing it out onto my rapidly dying cell phone's notepad app):

-Empathy; excellence in writing is that your message is tailored to the needs of your audience, rather than the correctness of your grammar. Your writing should be a gift to others.

-Analytical skills: when you study and analyse the written word you are then able to look at even the most complex issues from all points of view and see all sides to the story.

-Humble attitude: You learn that "I am NOT the last word" and to welcome the back and forth that thorough discussion allows.  When you write or discuss what you are reading, you open yourself up to criticism and learn to welcome it, saying "please tell me where i am wrong, and take me forward".

-Interpersonal communication skills: While you can be trained and taught proper writing structure, grammar skills etc, no one can truly train you to write. No more than they can train you how to Think. Studying English Literature, in any and all forms, can and will help you gain the skill sets necessary to be a functioning, thinking member of all areas of society.

       Another question posed to Prof. Prescott during the segment was the following: How do you see your work sanctifying the world?" His answer definitely helped me feel better about my current situation- searching for my secular vocation (a.k.a finding a job/career). Prescott answered that in English, its not the vocational training but the skills to immediate and peace-make in the world that you gain.  You gain the skills to lead a fractious people to consensus- i.e High Leadership Skills. You can put yourself into the shoes of those around you, and incline yourself to seek the truth with these others; It is communal- Communication...English cannot be done alone. Respect and affection with and for others and their thoughts and views is greatly needed. 

       Prescott was further asked How important is the study of poetry? and he gave his admittedly biased opinion that Poetry is rather necessary when one wants to understand the world and those around themselves who are in it.  He  proposed that there is not one person walking on earth who does not have in their heart and mind a favourite lyric, or hymn or song- the words in lyric touch everyone deeply. Poetry is words in lyric that touch each person everywhere in life, speaking to the deepest recesses of our person, connecting us as loving human beings.  Poetry is dense but provides the reader/listener with the "trues" of heart, mind and spirit and help us better engage with one another.  

       Dr. Robert Prescott, along with Msgr. Swetland, further urged their student audience to think of the psalms that are written in "the word" (a.k.a the Bible) and to consider that even poetry was at the center of Jesus' life while he walked on earth. The psalms are the words in lyric that teach us the greatest messages about -not only- God's love for us, but how we should love one another.  Therefore, words-literature-English, also have their place of importance within spiritual life and religious vocation.

The segment concluded with Monseigneur and the Professor reiterating to the students (and those of us watching at home) that English Lit will definitely help you in your secular vocations because while you can be taught to "do", you cannot be trained to think.

I'm so happy I caught this 30 minute program and I urge any one interested in  learning more about this subject to check out both Robert Prescott's book “Why to Major in English If You’re Not Going to Teach” Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 2010. and Msgr. Stuart Swetland's series on the Global Catholic Television Network's site at:

http://www.ewtn.com/series/2006/fall2006/Campus.htm

Tonight's episode was: 

CATHOLICISM ON CAMPUS: CATHOLIC LIBERAL ARTS: WHY THEY STILL MATTER

You can find out more about Dr. Robert Prescott and his book at:
http://www.bradley.edu/academic/departments/english/news/story.dot?id=175433

I know i'm certainly going to be finding a copy of Prescott's book as soon as possible to help me further understand the worth of my English degree towards the ever-on-going search for my secular vocation.

If you wanna talk about this some more or would like more info on anything from this post, drop a comment or throw an email my way :)

XOXO
C

Another Snowy Day Here in Canada

 It's a winter wonder-land!!!

       The weather network has been calling for this 25 cm snow storm since Wednesday and at around 4 this morning we finally got it! As it stands we have about 2 feet of snow, the cars and windows and doors and sidewalks and roads are absolutely buried. All the schools were closed for a "snow day" and I didn't have to go into the church office today. Which means we have a full house here; mom, dad, my sister, myself and the birds. We woke up late, had a toast and eggy breakfast of sorts and have been chatting with my sister and niece in Winnipeg ever since- they have been living in this perpetual winter wonderland since before Christmas. SO if you're planning of visiting Canada right now, don't bother!

       I've spent the last few hours sitting at my kitchen table blogging, with my copy of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray to my left and my fancy blue-willow china loose-leaf steeping mug to my right:

The loose-leaf basket is sitting on the steeping lid.. neat right?
Isn't it soo cute?

All Time Favourite 18th Cent. Novel <3

   Here are some shots on my front and back yards to show you the result of our current weather situation here: 

Snow up the North side of the house

Close up of the same window.. Covered in snow.

Backyard

Outside one of the backyard facing windows:
my moms handing basket is covered!

You might not be able to tell, but there are two Muskoka lounge chairs
to the right of the shed.. pretty much covered.

The bush and tree that separate our front yard
with our neighbour's yard.

The evergreen bush that grows in front of our house
- shot from the living room window-

The tree's that surround our backyard are
covered in beautiful fluffy snow.

There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very
hollows in snow.  It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every
blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance.

-William Sharp-

       I feel that Winter is a time for us to sit on our rarely used living-room furniture and gaze out at the beauty of a world covered in light; I feel a renewed sense of Hope. 

I hope you're reading this from somewhere nice and warm... as for me, I'm going to steep some more Jade Dragon Mao Feng and try to get through at least 100 pages of TPDG.

Drop me a comment or an e-mail and we can "talk about the weather" if you like ;) 

XOXO

C

A Little Taste of the Old Country...

Last night my mom pulled out one of her Italian recipe books, Italy al Dente by Biba Caggiano and we decided to go through it and look up how to make pasta for manicotti from scratch- which is one of our favourite things to do :) 

So we flipped through it and came across Biba's recipe for Tortelloni with Swiss Chard, spinach, ham and ricotta- or to us Italians- Tortelloni con Biete, Spinaci, Prosciutto e Ricotta. And we decided to try it out!

So my sister and I set to work making the pasta dough and the impasto (filling) and ended up with very tasty tortelloni for dinner.  From start to finish, it took us about 4 hours but it was soo worth it because there is just nothing better than fresh home made pasta. 

Here are some pictures of our delicious masterpiece.. Enjoy!

This is how it all begins.. 

Pretty Dough Ball :D

This is the way we kneed the Dough...

Make sure you wrap your dough in cling wrap (plastic wrap)
and let it rest for at least 20 mins before rolling

All the little Tortelloni in a row

Remember to graciously flour your plate or the pasta will stick and you'll  have wasted time and effort to end up with nothing but a giant gooey gluey mess.

A simple sugo finto (light fresh tomato sauce)
suits any pasta wonderfully

Keep an eye on your pasta when cooking, because if you don't stir occasionally, it'll stick together in a big clump or to the bottom of your pot.

Biba suggests that a large wide rimmed shallow pot is best when cooking this kind of pasta (along with gnocci, tortellini, capelletti, ravioli etc)

ooooo soooo shiny....

Its best to pull one tortellone out to test if its cooked enough.. 

Strain them a few at a time and dump them directly
into the sauce as its still simmering... yum!

This book was published in 1998

This is the recipe we went off of... FYI we Italians do not appreciate or endorse the replacement of prosciutto for "ham"... ugh!

Thanks Biba!!!!

If you're interested in knowing how to make sugo finto, here are some simple steps to help you out.  P.s you'll never go back to Ragu again! 

You'll need:

-Canned whole Italian tomato's (aka plum tomatos)- 2 cans with serve 4-6 people

-fresh garlic

-olive oil

-salt and pepper

-fresh basil 

Instructions:

-Crush your whole canned tomato's in a bowl with your hands, or put them through a manual tomato sieve or crusher. 

-Add a 1 inch wide circle of olive oil into a large skillet/frying pan and warm, add crushed and chopped garlic (minced or slivered) and brown- FYI if you burn your garlic, you CANNOT use the oil, it's disgusting! so pay attention to your garlic and don't have the heat on too high. If you don't like to eat garlic you can take it out after its browned, or replace the garlic with chopped onions (pay attention when browning onions too.. same grossness issue if they burn).

-Add your now squished tomato's and bring them to a simmer. 

-Carefully drop 3-4 medium or large size fresh basil leaves in the center of the pan and drop a tiny bit of olive oil onto each leaf (this helps infuse the basil further). --

once the basil leaves have turned dark, your sauce is pretty much done (you can also pull out the basil if you don't like to see green things lol) 

-Add your salt and pepper to taste and let it simmer on medium to low heat for about 10 minutes. 

-Stir and add your pasta

-The longer you leave the sauce on low heat, the thicker it'll become.  

-Keep in mind, the joy of sugo finto is having a thinner, lighter sauce with tomato chunks.

-Pull your pasta out of the boiling water and put it right into the sauce and toss it.  When you drain your pasta completely and it dries, it won't absorb the sauce as well. 

-The sauce will be ready to use by the time the pasta is cooked (although keep in mind that certain pasta's take a little longer than others i.e spaghetti versus tortelloni).

Anyway, thats my sauce- Hope you enjoyed my post... 

XOXO

C

p.s Drop me a comment, if you want the full recipe or just wanna say HI.. always look forward to getting an e-mail as well. So don't be a stranger! <3

ugh.. Sick again!!

I may or may not have mentioned previously that in December I caught a bad cold (see my post about Halls encouragement packaging), and that it dwindled out with a lame cough and then disappeared completely.  Well, last week this cold reappeared in my system and my cough has returned with a vengeance.  I had also been fighting cold sores previously to this cold and then once my cold came out, I had three big cold sores take up residence on the left side of my mouth. You might ask yourself, Is there anything worse than a cold sore?? I'm here to tell you that yes, yes there is something worse than a cold sore... three cold sores and the flu!!!

Apparently the cold/flu that's going around this season can last up to 100 days in your house if you let the germs circulate... As a result, none of your family members and probably not even your pets or house plants are safe from it. And 9 times out of 10, it's viral, which means that the doctor's can't even do anything for you.  That's right, you've just got to rely on your immune system to fight it off. Interestingly enough, I believe that I caught this cold again because my immune system went down while I was at home over the Christmas holiday... and right now I feel like I'm still waiting for it to reboot. Ugh!

All 4 members of my household- myself included in the 4- have had a run in with this annoying flu and we've been actively cleaning and sterilizing and airing out the house in order to rid our bodies and our surfaces of the germs. I don't know how effective it was but we all did feel better after getting rid of the stale sick air. The biggest issue that this cold brings is a suppressed cough that resurfaces weeks later and sticks around to keep you up at night and annoy you and everyone around you.

Sound like Fun?? I hope and pray that YOU dear faithful reader- where ever you may be- do not ever experience this cold.  Right now as I type, I am wheezing and coughing and hacking up a lung -figuratively- but I'm hoping that with expectorating, I'll be breathing easily soon enough.

If only I didn't hate cough syrup so much... Buckley's is disgusting although many of my family members swear by it and drink it straight from the bottle when they're sick.  I'll stick to my Advil Cold and Sinus Plus and Buckley's daytime/night-time cold and flu Pills.

Random question: if you've used the Buckley's pills before, have you noticed that during the first fever and chills part of a cold, taking the daytime ones (the yellow ones) makes you feel even colder and more fevered and shaky and gross?? My sisters and I have all had this experience with them... You're nose stops running but you feel even worse... Weird right?

By the way, it's January 16th and there is NO Snow here in the Southern part of Canada.. It's a lovely  blue sky day and 3 degrees Celsius... The grass is green and the ground is dry. It's absurd for winter!! The other day is was 13 degrees above zero, which was record-breaking for us.

Anyway, I've got to get back to reading but aim to post again soon

Ta Ta for Now!

XOXO
C

2013.. A New Year For Change.

       My cousin google'd "Ways to be a Better Person" and found a list of about 50 things... She chose the best 20 that suited her needs and I think that these ways might benefit all of us to be a better person for 2013 so I thought I'd share it with you:

1- Forgive those who have offended you, even if they are not sorry.

2- Thank those who have helped you, even if they never thank you.

3- Be kind to those you need nothing from. 

4- Care how stranger feel, even though they dont care how you feel.

5- Watch what you say and do and how it affects others. 

6- Never use lousy emotions to justify lousy behaviour.

7- Be the change you want to see.

8- Do good without anyone doing, when no ones looking and don't do it for the praise.

9- Let go of anger and don't use it as an excuse to act poorly.

10- Let go of selfishness by loving others as much as you love yourself.

11- Let go of self abuse and love yourself enough to love others.

12- Learn to love the loveless.

13- Accept that others have the right to disagree with you.

14- Accept your choices and actions and life's circumstances.

15- Tell the truth even if it hurts you.

16- Don't gossip. 

17- Give up something you love to help someone in need.

18- Care more about learning what's right than being right.

19- Great things take time. 

20. Let it Be.

          If everyone tries to make this change, we will all be better people and then society will be a lot better in general. My cousin suggests that you keep this list somewhere visible to you- on your fridge, on a wall in your bedroom, on your cell phone- and read it daily.  We can change the way we act and ract, if we work at these 20 changes even a little at a time.  If you recognize that you need to make these changes, you're one step ahead of the game and already have your feet pointing in the right direction. 

It isn't easy to make these changes but if you can, you will be greatly fulfilled and each small change will not only benefit you but everyone around you. 

So put your best foot forward and have a great new year!!!!!

XOXO

C

Dec 26-27 2012

Yesterday our crazy hammer-town received its post christmas gift... 3 feet of snow!
It snowed all day, and snowed all night and didn't stop til this morning. All the houses and cars and plants and Christmas lawn ornaments were covered!
Since my family is so busy for the christmas holiday, we usually post-pone our gift exchange/christmas morning until the week after the christmas festivities have ended. So yesterday my siblings and I went to the mall- because we're insane!- and shopped for one another.. we always like to take advantage of the boxing-week deals... I managed to pick up a few things for pretty cheap- dresses that would normally cost $150 reduced to $30, electronics all $100 off or more.. the savings were beautiful! But the chaos of the mall was the ugliest thing ever! My sisters and I observed that not only did we all look like little capitalist aunts feeding the machine of greed etc, but furthermore, if someone pulled the fire alarm we would be unable to locate or get near an exit. My brother was probably thinking that we'd be sitting ducks if there ever a zombie apocalypse was to break out. Gah!
Anywho we made it back home from the mall, over the treacherous fast blowing snowy drifts and through the un-ploughed streets after about 5 hours of boxing day madness... but our anger was yet to be quelled. After going out to Kelsey's for dinner, we wrapped up our preciously sought out bundles and put them under the tree.. then at around 12:30am, my sister and new bro-in-law left for their own home. They drove up a street to the next intersection, and got stuck trying to turn the corner. My bro-in-laws front tires had no tread left and he didnt have a chance to change them before the snow came... So at about 1am, we get a chilly phone call and a summons to shovel. So my brother and I dressed warmly and set off with the shovels to see about getting them out. My other sister came shortly after with boots for our married sister - she was in pointy toe pumps naturally and freezing in 3 feet of snow...
By 2am we were back home- we had pushed the car safely back into a parking space on the left side of the road and left it there. Then my sisters, brothers and father went out in my dads new car to the other house because my sister needed her meds and we figured they might as well sleep over so we could have our pseudo "Christmas morning" with them. Then I set to work changing bed linens and finding enough pillows to accommodate everyone and by 3am we were all nicely tucked away in bed.
Luckily, no one was hurt last night- besides my sister getting a little cut when we were wrapping gifts- and no frost-bite to be accounted for. We woke up this morning to find a tree full of gifts and the world full of fluffy white stuff.
Christmas miracle of the year I suppose :)
Xoxo
C