Friday the 7th: Psalm 51

 

A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
 

Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.

For I acknowledge my offense,
and my sin is before me always:
"Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight."

For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

 (Franklin Fong on Pinterest)

 

Thursday the 6th: Psalm 1 for Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

 
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.

He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers. 

 
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.

(from USCCB calendar of readings)

Wednesday the 5th: Ash Wednesday

 The Psalm for today is Psalm 51, when David had sinned and repented. Found on USCCB website.

 

Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.

For I acknowledge my offense,
and my sin is before me always:
"Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight."

A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.

Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Tuesday the 4th: More food

 I do take pictures of other things, but I'm generally pretty proud of my Sunday meals. This is French Onion Gnocchi, with caramelized onions in small amount of broth, crisped up gnocchi, and Parmesan cheese. They were addictive.

 

 

Monday the 3rd: Saint of the Day

  *St. Katharine Drexel lived in the United States from 1858 to 1955. Born and died in Pennsylvania, she founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to support Christ and the Church among African Americans and the Native Americans. She spent her Drexel inheritance, $20 million, supporting the missionaries throughout the United States.

 

Friday the 28th: Mini meatloaves

Somehow meatloaf in a muffin tin is way way better than meatloaf as a loaf.

 With the muffin size, there's more crunchiness (appropriate to the dish of course) on the outside, and it's already portioned out for desserts. 

The original recipe came from a Kraft magazine that we received early in our marriage for some reason. I kept this recipe and one for marinated cream cheese all these years, and they're still delicious.

 

 

Thursday the 27th: Music of the Week

 This week we are polishing pieces for the April 1 concert. It's our first full week for almost a month (snow days and scheduled days off  have really taken a toll). My choir boss is gone to a convention for the next two days, so I'm filling in and trying to move our choirs along.

Wednesday the 26th: Food of the Week

 *Yesterday I made a peanut chicken stew out of Southern Living, a recipe based on this cookbook. I made the broth the day before, so putting the stew together took less than 10 minutes with some leftover pulled chicken from the freezer. I placed cashews and chow mein noodles on top for crunch and really enjoyed my bowl.

Tuesday the 25th: Stuffed Squash

 *This is an "after the fact" photo, but I made stuffed acorn squash, it was delicious, and then we cleaned out the leftover halves and combined everything together. The apple cider vinegar at the end, plus the goat cheese, add a nice tanginess to offset the sweetness of the squash. It's a good dose of veggies for someone (aka me) who doesn't eat enough fruits and veggies.

 

 

Monday the 24th: Saint of the Week

 *St. Gregory of Narek is the only saint this week. He is an optional memorial on Thursday. Gregory was born in Armenia (modern day Turkey) and died there in 1005. He is a recent Doctor of the Church (2015), honored for his teaching, his hymns, and his prayers that are included in the Armenian literature

(Picture from Pinterest traced back to https://anastpaul.com/2018/02/27/saint-of-day-27-february-st-gregory-of-narek-950-1003-doctor-of-the-church/st-gregory-of-narek-at-prayer/)

Friday the 21st: First Puzzle of the Year

 We've done two puzzles so far for 2025, this is the first: All the pokemon in one puzzle! Because they're arranged roughly by color, it wasn't too hard to figure out what went where.

 

 

Thursday the 20th: Music of the Day

 Our Concert Choir (freshmen and a few sophomores) is singing "Fly Away Home" by pinkzebra. It's a lovely little piece, not too hard, but challenging enough that we are still fitting it together. Hopefully it will be ready for our April concert and regional festival.

(Picture found at https://pinkzebramusic.com/fly-away-home-accompaniment-tracks/)

Wednesday the 19th: Food of the day

 Tonight I'm making Chicken and Biscuits based on the Gourmet magazine February 2007 recipe with two changes: I was able to find already pulled chicken breast for the same price as a whole rotisserie chicken; I bought a tin of biscuits to make because I'm tired. With the windchill firmly below zero degrees, this should be a yummy dish.

Tuesday the 18th: Pork with cherry sauce

 From January 5, our Sunday meals are usually pretty good. This one was pork tenderloin with a cherry-onion sauce, mashed potatoes, and green peas. I'm pretty sure the main dish was from Cook's Illustrated; they are the most reliable for a good Sunday main dish in my experience, and their sauces are stellar. I did use a red wine for the port and blackberry preserves for the orange marmalade--still excellent.

 

 

Monday the 17th: Saint of the Day

 Today is the optional memorial of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servites. These seven men, in the thirteenth century in Florence, decided to dedicate themselves to the Virgin Mary and to service. Today there are more than 800 Servite brothers and priests serving in 27 countries (see https://servite.org/about/).

 

Friday the 14th: Cats

 I was taking my daily walk and froze at the sight of this cat working their way up into a tree. The cat froze as well and waited for me to take a picture.

 

 

Thursday the 13th: Music of the Week

 *On Monday  we held a Barbershop Blitz practice for all of our groups going to Harmony Explosion in a few weeks. The groups that were there made great practice in their harmonies and finding the right keys for their pieces. 

*Right after that I filled in at a choir practice for a fellow accompanist that went out of town. It was my first time playing for the new choir director so it's always a little bit of figuring each other out, but I think it went well.

Wednesday the 12th: Food of the Day

 *The Husband is gone until Friday, and then the Son and Mom are joining him for a weekend here. No cooking until Friday! So I'm planning to make Korean Chicken Tacos for everyone. I might make some bread today, but we'll see how I'm feeling.

 

Tuesday the 11th: Anniversary food

 Every year that we can, we get Thai food for our anniversary. We ate it the day before we got married when we went on a "last unmarried date" to Thai food (randomly chosen) and watched the first Lord of the Rings movie in the theatre. So this year for year 23 we got Thai food, not from our favorite place (Thai Orchid) since it was closed for Sunday, but still Thai food and still delicious.

 

 

Monday the 10th: Saint of the Day

 Today is the memorial of St. Scholastica, twin of St. Benedict and foundress of the Benedictine Sisters. As a Benedictine Oblate, it's a feast day for me! Her name means "she who has leisure to devote to study." 

Scholastica, the sister of Saint Benedict, had been consecrated to God from her earliest years. She was accustomed to visiting her brother once a year. He would come down to meet her at a place on the monastery property, not far outside the gate.

One day she came as usual and her saintly brother went with some of his disciples; they spent the whole day praising God and talking of sacred things. As night fell they had supper together.

Their spiritual conversation went on and the hour grew late. The holy nun said to her brother, "Please do not leave me tonight; let us go on until morning talking about the delights of the spiritual life."

"Sister," he replied, "What are you saying? I simply cannot stay outside my cell."

When she heard her brother refuse her request, the holy woman joined her hands on the table, laid her head on them and began to pray. As she raised her head from the table, there were such brilliant flashes of lightning, such great peals of thunder and such a heavy downpour of rain that neither Benedict nor his brethren could stir across the threshold of the place where they had been seated. Sadly, he began to complain.

"May God forgive you, sister. What have you done?"

"Well, she answered, "I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen. So now go off, if you can, leave me and return to your monastery."

So it came about that they stayed awake the whole night, engrossed in their conversation about the spiritual life.

Three days later, Benedict was in his cell. Looking up to the sky, he saw his sister's soul leave her body in the form of a dove, and fly up to the secret places of heaven. Rejoicing in her great glory, he thanked almighty God with hymns and words of praise. He then sent his brethren to bring her body to the monastery and lay it in the tomb he had prepared for himself.--from Dialogues by Pope Saint Gregory the Great

 (On Pinterest from http://www.clydemonastery.org/StoneStories/?p=1273)