Time for new friends?

What does it mean when you see a Colt 45 Tall Boy...

in the gutter...

on the way to church...

and it reminds you of a friend?

Remember me?

Prayer works, don't 'cha know!

Dear friends, family and HP,

This is to inform you that my recovery period was officially over at 8:30 a.m. CST this morning.  What began as the worst birthday week ever is officially over!  No more doctors, hospitals, techs, nurses, things, etc!

I'd like to thank the academy all of my friends who have been so very supportive through prayer and meals in my time of need.  Now that I'm feeling better you will receive thank-you notes. Soon. Really soon. Like anytime. Really.

~Mother Crab~

It is time to drink this, now.  And, maybe at my birthday party that has been postponed for 2 months?

ICKSP Ordinations

Congratulations to Rev. Canons Federico Pozza, Bertrand Bergerot, Matthieu Thermed and Brieuc de la Brosse of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest!

They were ordained by our own Cardinal Burke on July 7th and photos can be found here!  

Now we are 3

I had a bad feeling this morning.  It is HOT here and my chickens aren't enjoying it.  At dinner time I looked over at the coop and saw a chicken just sitting there.  "Odd," I thought.  After dinner I looked again and the chicken was in the same position.  "Well, that must be a dead chicken," I thought again.  Indeed, I was right.  I'm not sure if it was Houdini or Sarge, but she was as dead as dead could be. HP came over and helped me to give her a proper burial.

 

I thought I would post a little story I wrote for another friend's blog last January as a tribute to my poor heat-stroked chicken:

 

My chickens, the loveable bird-brains. 

 

We live in the city and we always have things happening in our neighborhood.  Some good.  Some bad.  We thought we would spice our lives up a little by getting 4 Buff Orpington chickens and building an A-frame coop.  Our backyard is literally the size of a postage stamp so we thought, "Well, the chickens need more room.  Let's give them this whole corner." Spoiled rotten, they are.  

 

 

But, they gave us 4 eggs a day.  And we would eat all sorts of delectible things.  They were the best pets because they literally gave us gifts every day.  Have you ever panned for gold in Colorado?  I have and got nothing.  But here I would reach into the nesting box and would discover one, two, three, four eggs!  My little golden nuggets.

 

Bertha is the head chicken.  She is m-e-a-n to the others and I don't like her.  However, she's the boss. When she doesn't lay the others don't lay.

 

Then there is Houdini.  She is so named because she is the one who always escapes over the fence.

 

The end of the pecking order is Rose.  She is a pretty golden brown and is so very dumb, but sweet.

 

Then, there is the hen who has earned her keep.  That would be Sarge.  

 

 

My husband and I went out for dinner to a fancy restaurant this past October to celebrate our anniversary.  We got home around 11:00 and could hear the chickens squawking up a storm!  They normally go to bed when the sun goes down so we knew something was amiss!  Sarge was sounding an alert!  My husband was in his suit and ran to the back corner (which took .0 seconds because our backyard is so small it's our frontyard) to find a possum leave the coop and climb up on the chicken fence!  Well, my husband did what every suited man would do and round-house kicked that possum!  The nasty animal fell to the ground and, I kid you not, my husband said, "I think he's dead." "He's not dead!" I exclaimed, "he's playing possum!!"  I was right.  I will now spare you the gory details which involve sticks and shovels but that possum ended up in the alley and disappeared overnight.  He had not hurt the chickens but had gotten into and cracked their eggs.  No more leaving the coop door open past sleepy time!  Sarge had saved the day!  I almost hugged her, but I was in heels.

 

Well, those spoiled chickens (ingrates I tell you!) started molting in late October and decided not to lay any longer.  When a chicken molts it looks like there has been a pillow fight in the yard and the pillow lost.  We have now been without farm fresh eggs for over 2 months.  I told the girls they would be made into stew.  Nothing.  I placed an order for 4 new chicks.  Not a thing.

 

Yesterday, we discovered this in the nesting area: 

 

Oh, alright.  I'll let them stay a little bit longer.

Life with Boys - A Laboratory

I have a son who has an engineer's mind.

One day he came up to me and said, "Mom, is there a room in the house that we aren't using?"  I looked at him and thought, "We have 5 kids sleeping in one room. Does he not see this?"  I responded, "No, not that I have noticed.  Why?" He then said to me, "I just need a room where I can do my projects and inventions."

"Son, we call that a laboratory and I don't think we have an extra room for that right now."

Just another day with the boys.

Life with Girls

I was sitting in my living room, minding my own business (I might have been ignoring my children), when I spotted THIS on the floor!

Elvis is in the house!

Can you identify these men?

Some men in black were spotted enjoying St. Louis' famous Ted Drewes frozen custard.  It was difficult to spot them as it was dark outside, but the bright yellow containers could be seen a mile away, blowing their cover. 

Drat! Our cover's blown!

For extra points, try to guess what flavor custard they got!  I'll see if I can find that out!

Life with Boys. Olé.

Yesterday my son had something he really needed to tell me:

Son:  Mom, you know that girl who was really mean to me that one time at tennis?  The one who called me an idiot?

Mother Crab: Of course, I remember, my darling little boy. How could I ever forget the wrongs that you have encountered?  I AM Italian, don't you forget.

Son: Well, she was much nicer at the last class.

Mother Crab: Oh? How did you become friends?

Son: We talked about tacos.

Photo credit Piccolaitaliana

Congratulations, Abbé Alex!

Today Abbé Alex received the minor orders of and Porter and  Lector at the seminary in Gricigliano!  Make sure you ask him to bless your food (fresh fruit and nuts) when he returns.

I was hoping he would be able to bless bread so he could bless my beer - it is liquid bread, is it not?  I may have to turn to others for this...
____________________________________________________________

I did a little research into minor orders and found a most informative website: http://supremacyandsurvival.blogspot.com/ where she explains a little about minor orders here:

"Some notes about minor orders: The minor orders, suppressed by Pope Paul VI in 1972 after the Second Vatican Council, were Acolyte, Exorcist, Lector and Ostiarus/Porter. They were called minor orders because they were not part of the Sacrament of Ordination and the seminarians who filled their ceremonial roles were not required to be celibate, yet. The Porter was the lowest office; the Acolyte the highest. Note that the Exorcist assisted only with the Rite of Exorcism that is part of the Sacrament of Baptism. Two minor orders survived the suppression as ministries, open to the laity: acolyte and reader, although I have never seen those ministries practiced as outlined in Pope Paul's decree. Note also that in the orders now dedicated to the celebration of the usus antiquior (for example the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest) these minor orders and the sub-diaconate are permitted for their seminarians."

...and for their Abbés!

Adieu!

St. Francis de Sales Oratory (besides being the largest church dedicated solely to the traditional mass in the entire universe) also serves as a place of discernment for young men who are contemplating joining the priesthood, specifically The Institute of Christ the King.  I have been fortunate enough to get to know all 5 who have been there this year and I can say they are all outstanding! 

Three of them are leaving today to visit home and then they leave for Europe for a bit of travel and then to the seminary in Gricigliano, Italy - just outside Florence.

Arrivederci, my friends!  May God bless you!

Meeting Cardinal Burke last January!