Another friend departs

Brethren, Peace be with you.

Last week our family said good bye to another of our faithful pet-friends, Big Lily Two-Socks.

We rescued her three years ago and she adopted us more than us her. We were inseparable. She slept by my side of the bed and always asked for a belly rub.

Big Lily developed a large tumor around her spleen. Since she was 11 there was no guarantee for her survival or for improvement of her quality of life. Therefore, we let her go and we're left behind feeling her absence deeply.

Thank you, Father, for the friendship your creatures give us. They too reflect your perfections. Thank you, Father, for Big Lily, and all the blessings you gave us through her. Grant, we ask, that we may see her again. Amen.

branard street: part three

i am closing out the week with a preview of my favorite room at branard street: the kitchen.  maybe it is because i have lived with tiny galley kitchens in dc for the past four years, but this kitchen feels incredibly spacious to me.  it is bright and airy, and everything is so open.  i love the windows over the sink where we are growing rosemary & a baby olive tree, and i really love the open shelves.

and, there is so much storage. i mean, did you see the size of this pantry?  it could seriously be a bedroom.  in fact, we are using it as storage but also as an extra room where we make our coffee & toast.

i was happy to have a gas stove again as well, and aren't those spice cabinets so adorable and convenient?

i foresee lots of happy times ahead in this old kitchen that is so full of character....

have a wonderful weekend!

We must vote as Catholic Christians

Brothers and sisters, Peace be with you.

We are approaching another general election in which we will decide questions of great import to our Nation, and elect the leaders that will carry them out. As Catholic Christians we’re expected, indeed obligated, to vote for politicians who are willing and able to protect the life and dignity of every man and woman, resident or alien, from the moment of conception to natural death. As we do so, I wish to remind you that the following items are non-negotiable if you are to exercise a truly Catholic conscience. Voting for policies or politicians that support the following moral evils are not permitted to us, on pain of grave sin:

• Abortion
• Euthanasia
• Embryonic Stem Cell Research
• Human Cloning
• Homosexual “marriage”

Brethren, if someone were to come to you and say: “we have to vote to protect the poor, the elder, the weak, and the alien and resign ourselves to either one or all of the above to at least achieve something” you are to tell that person that your formed and informed Catholic conscience does not allow you to choose either/or, but both/and.Issues crucial to respect the worth of every single human life have priority over important issues regarding sustaining their lives. Life is the principal right from which all the others derive.

I cry for this Nation that I have sworn to defend, as Jeremiah saw Jerusalem’s impending doom or as St. Augustine cried over Hippo as the Vandals approached. We as a Nation have shed so much innocent blood and are proud in our pretense to calling “good” what is intrinsically evil, that I don’t know how long the Lord will restrain his hand in punishment for our numerous sins.

We can still draw a line on the sand; we can still stand on the bridge and tell the Destroyer “Here, and no further! We have not lost our taste; we can still be the salt of the earth.

Brothers and sisters, when you stand alone in the voting booth next month, make your vote one to protect all human life. Demand from your representatives and judges that they do so; let the ballot you cast be one of prophecy and judgment and forgiveness and reconciliation with God and one another.

Please download and read the Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics for more information and formation.

The Sabbath of God According to St. Augustine of Hippo

St. Augustine of Hippo, Doctor
and Father of the Church

There shall be the great Sabbath which has no evening, which God celebrated among His first works, as it is written, And God rested on the seventh day from all His works which He had made. And God blessedthe seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God began to make. Genesis 2:2-3 For we shall ourselves be the seventh day, when we shall be filled and replenished with God's blessing and sanctification. There shall we be still, and know that He is God; that He is that which we ourselves aspired to be when we fell away from Him, and listened to the voice of the seducer, You shall be as gods, Genesis 3:5 and so abandoned God, who would have made us as gods, not by deserting Him, but by participating in Him. For without Him what have we accomplished, save to perish in His anger? But when we are restored by Him, and perfected with greater grace, we shall have eternal leisure to see that He is God, for we shall be full of Him when He shall be all in all. For even our good works, when they are understood to be rather His than ours, are imputed to us that we may enjoy this Sabbath rest. For if we attribute them to ourselves, they shall be servile; for it is said of the Sabbath, You shall do no servile work in it. Deuteronomy 5:14 Wherefore also it is said by Ezekiel the prophet, And I gave them mySabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctify them. Ezekiel 20:12 This knowledge shall be perfected when we shall be perfectly at rest, and shall perfectly know that He is God.

This Sabbath shall appear still more clearly if we count the ages as days, in accordance with the periods of time defined in Scripture, for that period will be found to be the seventh. The first age, as the first day, extends from Adam to the deluge; the second from the deluge to Abraham, equalling the first, not in length of time, but in the number of generations, there being ten in each. From Abraham to the advent of Christ there are, as the evangelist Matthew calculates, three periods, in each of which are fourteen generations—one period from Abraham to David, a second from David to the captivity, a third from the captivity to the birth of Christ in the flesh. There are thus five ages in all. The sixth is now passing, and cannot be measured by any number of generations, as it has been said, It is not for you to know the times, which the Father has put in His own power. Acts 1:7 After this period God shall rest as on the seventh day, when He shall give us (who shall be the seventh day) rest in Himself. But there is not now space to treat of these ages; suffice it to say that the seventh shall be our Sabbath, which shall be brought to a close, not by an evening, but by the Lord's day, as an eighth and eternal day, consecrated by the resurrection of Christ, and prefiguring theeternal repose not only of the spirit, but also of the body. There we shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise. This is what shall be in the end without end. For what other end do we propose to ourselves than to attain to the kingdom of which there is no end?

~ St. Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, Book 22, Chapter 30

spanish-inspired dinner party

last weekend we invited my brothers & sister-in-law over for dinner to thank them for tirelessly looking at house after house for us while we were in dc.  (searching for a home remotely is not easy, and we were lucky to have some serious real estate help.)  it was exciting to use the dining room for the first time, and we had fun on saturday visiting the local urban harvest farmers market & beautiful new neighborhood h-e-b. cooking together, and all the shopping and prepping that comes with it, is one of our favorite things to do together. and it's much more fun now that we aren't bumping into and falling over each other in an isty-bisty kitchen.

MENU: 

starters:

-spanish tomato toast

-roasted olives a la 2 amys 

-aged manchego with prosciutto & dry coppa

main course:

-shrimp & chorizo paella

-arugula & tomato salad

dessert: 

-arroz con leche 

beverages:

-homemade red wine sangria

-spanish tempranillo wine

i decided to go with a spanish theme mainly because i have always wanted to make paella.  we have a cast-iron dutch oven that ww got for christmas a few years ago.  there was never any room to store it in our tiny kitchens in dc, so it never got used.  now, with an abundance of kitchen storage space, it was the perfect time to pull it out.  the barefoot contessa (my go-to lady) has a great recipe for lobster paella made in the dutch oven. i tweaked it just a bit, substituting fresh gulf shrimp for the lobster, and spicy chorizo for the kielbasa.

this recipe is delicious.  the saffron and pernod give it so much flavor, and it makes your whole house smell amazing.  it is a definite crowd pleaser, and you can put whatever meat/seafood combination you want in it.

the first thing we did was make the sangria, from a bobby flay recipe, on friday night so that it could sit and absorb in the fridge over night.  (and also so we could sneak sips here and there throughout the day.)

on saturday, we peeled the shrimps & ww cooked them in garlic and butter, and then cooked the chorizo right after.  we used the leftover juices from the chorizo to cook in the rice.

next, i arranged a bunch of mixed green and black spanish olives (from the central market olive bar) in an 8-inch pie pan with sliced garlic pieces, slices of lemon, and fennel seeds.  i drizzled it all in olive oil, and sprinkled crushed red pepper on the top.  then put it in the oven for 45 minutes, stirring them around about every 10 minutes.  and viola, we had roasted olives just like my favorite appetizer at 2 amys!

to make the spanish tomato toast, we toasted sliced country bread in the oven until it was crisp, and then rubbed sliced garlic onto the toast while still warm. next, we pressed sliced tomatoes into the bread so that it would absorb the juices.  then, drizzled all the toasts with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper.  we put them back in the oven for a few minutes, and then they were ready to be served with our sliced manchego & cured meats.

we cooked the paella while our guests were here, and it was very simple and easy to make. i would definitely reccomend it for feeding a group of people!  for dessert, we made spanish rice pudding, or arroz con leche, from this recipe - which was also delicious! 

this was so much fun, and we had a great time entertaining in the new house and utilizing the new kitchen & dining room.  a very special thanks to brian & samantha for helping us to find this adorable house and with all their help in moving in.  we couldn't have done it without you.

a few recipes that we worked from: 

spanish tomato toast

roasted olives with fennel

red wine sangria

barefoot contessa lobster paella 

arroz con leche 

branard street part two

the next room in the house, through the darling archway in the living room, is the dining room, which we think is the most adult room in the house. i love its neutral brown, white & green color scheme, and that it has taken on a south-carolina-theme, thanks to ww's two massive maps on the wall.  it is also a complete melting pot of different furniture that came together so nicely.  the awesome kitchen table & bench came from ww's house growing up, while the two kitchen chairs and bar/hutch came from the house that i grew up in! (you could say our parents were happy to empty out a few storage units on us.)

the rug was inherited from an old roommate of ww's and fit perfectly in the room.  the corner table and lamp were in my apartment in dc. and the two maps on the wall are very special to ww. on the left of the table is a south carolina state map he had in his college dorm room, and on the right is a coastal marine map of the charleston harbor, which is the first christmas present i ever gave to him.

and the place settings... well, they were a gift to myself.

having a real bar is so much fun, too. 

this weekend we used the dining room table for the first time & hosted a spanish-themed dinner party. next up, i will give you all the deets on that.

branard street: part one

happy monday! here are the first set of pictures of the new house on branard street if you'd like to see.  i've started off with the living room, of which you will recognize many touches of this apartment in.  while a lot of the furniture is the same (minus my beloved turquoise octagonal table... the down-side of compromising with a boy), i think it is very different too. it seems a bit more grown-up & gender-neutral than my old apartment.  it still has plentiful windows & the same flood of natural light, however, which i am in love with.

it was a blast to pull together a few of my pieces and put them with some of ww's pieces from his home growing up, and then to top it off with some touches of things that we had bought together.  (most notably our sunflower lady, which we got back here and a few small things that remind us of dc.)  we inevitably will spend the most time in the living room, so i wanted to be sure it felt cozy, comfortable and fresh.  it also didn't hurt that we had this amazing fireplace with built-ins to work around.  i love how unique this old house is, and how much character it brings.

next up i'll tell you about the grown-up dining room where we had our first grown-up dinner party this weekend.  hope you had a wonderful weekend!

George Weigel: Catholics and Campaign 2012

Brethren: Peace and Good to all of you.

George Weigel

My favorite Catholic non-fiction writer does it again! I want to share this extract from his latest piece published in National Review:

The Sisters of Life were founded in 1991 by Cardinal John O’Connor and Mother Agnes Mary Donovan (a former Columbia psychology professor and clinician) as a new religious community of women dedicated to the defense of life at all stages and in all conditions. The Sisters of Life are wholly orthodox and wear the kind of modernized (and in their case, quite beautiful) religious habit envisioned by the Second Vatican Council. And unlike the religious orders represented by this summer’s “Nuns on the Bus” road show, which culminated in Sister Simone Campbell’s attempt to excommunicate Representative Paul Ryan at the Democratic National Convention (an effort that was, as President Obama might say, above Sister Simone’s pay grade), the Sisters of Life are growing, often attracting new recruits among highly educated and accomplished professional women.

  

A few weeks ago, two Sisters of Life were stopped on a New York street by a man who, seeing their habits and imagining that all nuns think (and dress) alike, rushed up and asked the sisters if they, too, weren’t proud of Sister Simone. The two sisters politely explained why they were emphatically not proud of Sister Simone and took the opportunity to explain the Church’s pro-life teaching, which Sister Simone had declined to endorse in Charlotte when pressed by a reporter.

  

A small vignette, you might say. But Sister Simone’s 15 minutes of fame, which were the culmination of a series of distortions and plain mistruths advanced by “progressive” Catholics for months, seem now to have been something of a clarifying moment...

Read it all here.

Commentary. The Obama Administration is using its Catholic "Amen Choir" (as Weigel terms them) to cover up its most glaring violations on the Right to Life and Religious Conscience our history has witnessed. Don't let the house Catholics deceive you: they are distorting the Church's Social Teaching in many important respects. Read the whole article and reflect on it. Share it with others!

More words of wisdom from Sirach / Ecclesiasticus

²² Do not be too severe on yourself, do not let shame lead you to ruin. ²³ Do not refrain from speaking when it will do good, and do not hide your wisdom;  ²⁴ for your wisdom is made known by what you say, your erudition by the words you utter. ²⁵ Do not contradict the truth, rather blush for your own ignorance. ²⁶ Do not be ashamed to confess your sins, do not struggle against the current of the river. ²⁷ Do not grovel to the foolish, do not show partiality to the influential.  ²⁸ Fight to the death for truth, and the Lord God will war on your side. (Sirach 4: 22-28)

wednesday in the new 'hood

after three weeks here we have finally unpacked and settled in enough to actually start exploring our new neighborhood.  one thing we loved the most about living in DC was that we were able to walk to so many places.  when we were looking around at neighborhoods in houston, ww's first criteria was that he wanted his house to be "walkable to lots of things".  i cringed a bit when he said this, thinking it would be a tough awakening when he sees that people in houston don't walk anywhere.  truly, i can't remember going anywhere growing up in houston that did not involve a large SUV.  we like our energy & gas down here, and we like to use it.  plus it's generally hot year-round.

however, since moving in, we have been pleasantly surprised that the new house is within a few block radius of lots of good bars, restaurants, shops, coffee houses, and grocery stores.  (including a brand-spanking-new trader joe's!)  it is pretty awesome, and makes exploring a new area so much more fun.

last night, after a long day for the both of us and taking advantage of a rare cool evening in september, we walked three blocks to la tapatia for some margaritas & tex mex.  la tapatia has happy hour every day until 7 pm, but on wednesdays it has happy hour all night long.  i realized we were not in dc anymore when i walked in & immediately asked the host if happy hour was only at the bar.  he looked at me like i was nuts & shook his head - "nope, the whole restaurant, all night."  "even out on the patio?!"  "even out on the patio."  bless you, houston.

amzing patio

and so we enjoyed $4 margaritas and $2 beers on the patio with a beautiful breeze, and some delicious shrimp quesadillas and queso with chorizo.  we sat there for hours, talking about how awesome this all was.  and our bill was less than $40.

and how cute is my date??

and then, we walked back home.  i think we have a new wednesday night tradition developing.  and i feel good about it.

(this is us walking home, to prove it can be done.)