Celebrating the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart

Tomorrow, June 12, is the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And I'm actually getting my act together in advance to share our ideas for celebrating!

I'd planned to replicate last year's Sacred Heart Pepper Pizza, but after yesterday's excitement, the homemade pita and falafel I had on the menu were not happening after we got home... We made a quick pizza instead. Oops. Not quite sure what we'll be having for Friday's main supper now, but Catholic Cuisine has a bunch of ideas for Sacred Heart-themed desserts. Little Bear and I just picked up some strawberries at the grocery store, so maybe something I'll do something that takes advantage of the heart/triangle shape strawberries so easily slice into.

A grilled supper could be thematically appropriate too, given the flames in the Sacred Heart image... I'll have to suggest that to Matt. He's usually game for firing up the grill on summer evenings.

And according to Canon 1251, "Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday." (Emphasis mine.) Since the Sacred Heart is not only a solemnity but also the patronal feast of our diocesan cathedral, I'm thinking tomorrow might be a reasonable day to throw some caribou steaks on the grill!

If you have kids who like to color, I've just discovered the beautiful (and free!!) Catholic coloring pages by Aleesa at Life, Love & Sacred Art. She recently posted one of the Sacred Heart, and I love it! It's printed off and ready for Little Bear to color tomorrow morning.

I don't have the energy for much more than coloring pages and a somehow-related supper these days... What are you doing to celebrate?

That was fun

(Spoilers: no baby yet)

This morning, I woke up an hour earlier than usual with contractions. "I know I said I'd drive you to work today," I told Matt, "but I'm not sure that I can drive." He took the car, making me promise to actually time the contractions and keep him updated.

A hot shower didn't change anything; standing, walking, sitting, laying down... nothing made any difference in the contractions: they held pretty steady, about a minute long, two to five minutes apart. After two and a half hours, I gave in to the hope that maybe this wasn't prodromal labor, and called my midwife.

"It wouldn't hurt to come in and be checked," she said. Matt finished up his current project at work while I read five more picture books and herded Little Bear into his breakup boots. Little Bear was thrilled with the unexpected trip to Grandma's house, and Matt and I talked about how nice it would be if the baby really did come today all the way to the birth center. 

We were there for not quite two hours. The contractions kept coming at the same close intervals, showing up on the monitoring strip to prove that I wasn't crazy to think I was feeling them, but... they weren't really doing anything. We were welcome to stay for another hour or two to see if things picked up, my midwife offered, but we opted to go get Little Bear from my mom's house and head back home. And by the time we were home, the contractions had completely disappeared. Again.

Six hours of prodromal labor this morning. How am I going to make myself believe that I'm in real actual having-the-baby-now labor before the baby is actively being born, y'all? This is definitely not doing anything for my confidence that we'll make it there in time, because if the contractions can come in a regular labor pattern for six hours and then stop? I don't want to go back in until it's inescapably obvious that labor won't be stopping until after the baby arrives. And now that I have confirmation that this time around, noticeable contractions do not mean that the baby's arrival is immanent, I'm feeling a lot more comfortable waiting until we reach the "inescapably obvious" point. Which miiiight be too late.

We'll see what happens, I guess! Hopefully soon. It seems like there are a number of saints associated with pregnancy or childbirth, but I don't know that any are directly tapped as intercessors for women who just want to have their babies already...

St Gerard Majella, patron of expectant mothers and unborn children, pray for us!

St Margaret of Antioch, patroness of expectant mothers and childbirth, pray for us!

St Anne, patroness of women in labor, pray for us!

St Erasmus, patron of women in labor, pray for us!

St Brigid of Kildare, patroness of babies and midwives, pray for us!

Any other suggestions for me?

Things that have not yet brought on labor

I know, I know; the baby will come whenever the baby is ready. But I can't quite help hoping that we can encourage her to hurry up... So far, no dice. 

- helping to set up and stack bunk beds 

- spending all morning on my feet in the kitchen making all the things 

- building IKEA-style drawers on my hands and knees with a "helpful" almost-3yo

- driving bumpy dirt roads

- going for a walk

Not all in one day! I would be even less mobile than I am now. Bunk beds were Sunday, and did trigger some contractions, but they went away after an hour or so. Monday I spent hours in the kitchen, making applesauce, sandwich bread, granola bars, snickerdoodles, and sun tea. And then went and walked around the grocery store in the afternoon. No contractions worth paying attention to, but my hands and feet (especially feet!) were pretty swollen by bedtime. This afternoon I assembled a set of drawers, which had many more Phillips-head screws than I'd anticipated and took close to two hours of kneeling and crawling and grumbling. I'm worn out this evening, so maybe I should be grateful not to be having contractions? 

Because I was tired, it was the perfect evening for us to have planned a grilled supper; Matt lit the charcoal as soon as he got home, and when the grill was ready he just had to grab the chicken I already had marinating in the fridge. All I had to do was stick pots of rice and carrots on the stove, and then go put my feet up.

Grilled Lemon-Basil Chicken

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, halved lengthwise

zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

Place halved chicken breasts in a resealable bag. Combine remaining ingredients in a food processor and pulse 30 seconds. Pour into bag with chicken, squish around well, and refrigerate for at least an hour. Grill at about 400 degrees F for four to six minutes per side, or until done.

I have to admit something: before this afternoon, I had never used a real lemon in cooking. A recipe called for lemon zest? Just throw in a little extra bottled lemon juice; there's not really a difference, is there? Little Bear helpfully added a lemon to my grocery cart yesterday, and by the time I noticed it I didn't have the energy to walk back over to the produce section, so I used the real thing today. Oh. my. word. My hands, my kitchen, everything still smells like lemon, the chicken had the most wonderful "brightness" to it, I am now spoiled. It's going to be so disappointing to go back to the bottled stuff!

Totally a grasping-at-straws hope here, but we made a fun/fancy chicken meal the night before Little Bear was born, and now this little one has been up to the most ridiculous gymnastics for the last hour or so... I haven't even had any sugar tonight! Maybe something will happen tonight? Or maybe she just likes the fresh lemon, too.

Sunday rambling

I don't know if I have anything really worth talking about tonight—no photo, so I can't link up with What I Wore Sunday; no cute baby to share photos of yet—but I'm just laying here trying to ignore the contractions again forever as usual, because they're probably not going to lead to anything but I'm a little to uncomfortable to be productive, so look, words on a page!

We actually did have some excitement this weekend, now that I think about it. Last night my sister watched Little Bear so Matt and I could go out one last time before the baby comes. We realized that whenever we've gone out we've only ever dropped him off at my parents' house, and that it would probably be good to see how he did with someone watching him at our apartment in case we wind up going to the birth center in the middle of the night. He was very happy, and did not want her to leave when we got home, so I don't think we have to worry about that! Our dinner was good, but we wound up having to come home early; it was bright and sunny when we got to the restaurant, so we sat on their deck overlooking the river, but not long after our food arrived storm clouds blew over and we had to run for cover from the rain and hail! We decided we'd rather just have our food boxed up to go home, instead of trying to find a table inside.

This morning at the end of Mass, our parish had a procession for Corpus Christi! I was so happy they did, even though I couldn't participate... Too much walking for the very pregnant lady who can't walk very well these days. Everyone else in the church participated, though, and apparently Little Bear was good and cooperative for Matt.

Speaking of Little Bear and cooperation. We did move his mattress-on-the-floor to the opposite corner of his room a week or two ago to try to help limit the amount of fussing the neighbors were hearing through the wall, but moving it created a new problem: He had liked to fall asleep sprawled the length of his pillow, pressed against the wall, and now because of the location of the closet there was no wall at the head of the bed. It was making bedtime very difficult; we realized we needed some kind of headboard for him, and decided that if we were getting one kid bed, it made the most sense to just get a set of bunk beds so that we'd have the choice of bunked or separated beds once Kit is old enough for a bed. Yesterday we found a sturdy bunk bed at Sam's Club, and this morning my brother and his friend helped me pick it up in his truck while Matt was helping to set up for the parish picnic (he's on the parish council).

Since Matt had already spent hours at the park getting ready for the picnic and I didn't really feel up to lots of walking or fielding a hundred variations of "you haven't had that baby yet?", and getting Little Bear's bed equipt with a headboard was high on our priority list, we decided to stay home from the picnic this afternoon and assemble the bunk bed. Matt definitely did most of the work, but I helped with reading instructions, counting out screws and bolts, and holding things steady. It took a lot more time than we expected, but they look really nice. 

And, I just discovered that Kendra of Catholic All Year is temporarily bringing back what is possibly my favorite link-up, Answer Me This, beginning next Sunday! I'm sure looking forward to it.

And now I'm not quite sure whether the contractions have stopped, or I've just gotten better at ignoring them... Time to start paying attention again. Have a good week, y'all!

Seven Quick Takes

I

No baby yet. 

II 

I realize, intellectually, that it's completely illogical of me to complain or be unhappy about not having had this baby yet, given that I'm only 38 weeks. But after all of the concern about pre-term labor, and the past two weeks of prodromal labor, and the fact that "everyone knows" that subsequent babies come earlier/faster... I have been. We were focused for so long—we had to be—on the fact that baby just had to stay put "until 37 weeks," that it hadn't really occurred to me that this baby might not be here by now, let alone that she might stay put longer than Little Bear did. And so now I'm unreasonably frustrated.

III

Can't write off St Erasmus as an intercessor, though; I may not have gone into labor yet, but I was asking his intercession for both myself and a friend, and she had her baby the following day. Maybe my prayers for myself were answered, too, and the answer was "Stop complaining and practice being patient, because you're going to need all the patience you can get." Which is a fact, and I should do that.

IV

Having been focused on a possible early arrival does have one benefit: everything is ready for whenever Kit does decide it's show time. With Little Bear, I kind of haphazardly stuck some things into a bag in the half hour between calling my midwife to explain that I didn't think I was in labor but my husband did, and leaving for the hospital; we wound up having to stay several days, and there were some frustrated phone conversations as I tried to remember and explain to Matt where in my dresser the articles of clothing I'd forgotten were. And I'm pretty sure none of the clothes I'd grabbed for Little Bear actually fit him, because he was tiny, and I didn't know there was a difference between "newborn" clothes and "0-3 mo" clothes.

This time, there's a bag for Little Bear (for Grandma's house) and a bag for Kit & I ready in the car just in case one of these bouts of prodromal labor stretches longer than an hour and a half and the midwives want me to come in. (It does still need a hairbrush and toothbrush, and I can 89% guarantee that I'm going to forget both.) The baby's car seat is in the car, although somehow there's a nerf disc wedged in the base that should really be taken out before the seat gets buckled in... Clothes, blankets, diapers; the ring sling just arrived in the mail, so I'm pretty sure everything is ready.

(So you can come any time now, little one... :-)

V

Okay, I'm sorry; just because the baby is occupying a huge percentage of my thoughts these days, I'm sure not everyone is as interested! Non-baby-related takes... Ah. So, that nerf gun disc: my sister (sophomore in college) was over last week helping me move some heavy things, and she found a nerf gun in the top of Little Bear's closet that we'd completely forgotten about. She showed him how it worked, and it was immediately his favorite toy; it took until Wednesday for him to lose all three discs, but up until then he gleefully spent hours reloading and shooting it at walls, doors, the ceiling, and a target Matt set up for him.

VI

I managed to actually put real food on the table for supper every day this week. I know; I'm shocked too! Sweet'n'sour meatballs with carrots and bell peppers on Sunday, chicken enchiladas and corn on Monday, (celebrated my brother's birthday at my parents' house Tuesday), chicken pot pie on Wednesday, caribou/broccoli stir fry on Thursday, and tuna noodle casserole with peas tonight. Tomorrow the schedule says grilled pork chops, but I don't think we have enough charcoal, so we'll either have to stop at the hardware store or be creative. 

It seems like a reasonable goal for next week to continue that streak; I planned this week's menu last Saturday, instead of on Sunday like I usually do, so maybe I'll try doing next week's menu tomorrow and see if that somehow helps.

VII

We've been trying to be more mindful of "logical/natural consequences" with Little Bear recently, allowing him to see that X thing (which he doesn't like) happens when he does Y thing (which we've told him not to). So far we've had several "puddle of sobbing child" moments when he realizes that yes, I really am going to let him walk across the garage floor in his socks since he chose to take his boots off in the car... He's clearly learning, though, because it isn't happening nearly as often. I like the logical nature of the method; rather than assigning an arbitrary, unrelated punishment to an action we don't want him to persist in, it's teaching him that we make rules for his own good.

Have a good weekend! For more quick takes, head on over to This Ain't The Lyceum.

St Erasmus

This morning, I learned that today is the feast day of St Erasmus of Formia, also known as St Elmo. A martyr from the era of Diocletian's persecutions, St Erasmus is the patron of numerous types of abdominal pains, including... women in labor. 

It doesn't say anything about "women who wish they were in labor," but I figure it's worth asking his intercession today anyway. I don't know that today I'm doing particularly worse than any other day in the last week or so, probably about the same, but oh I'm so sick of feeling like this! I would be so happy to "just" be exhausted from being up all night with an infant.

Today is also my brother's birthday, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind sharing the day with his niece or nephew :-)

37 weeks 4 days... Not too much longer, I hope! And I know what I said about trying to convince myself that I'm just not going to have this baby for a couple of weeks yet, but that's such a terribly discouraging thought... I'm doing a decent job of not trying to track contractions, though. Matt asked this morning whether they were coming in a regular pattern, and I didn't know; I figure that by the time it's important for me to be aware of them, it'll be impossible to ignore them, so I may as well just not think about it too much until we reach that point.

St Erasmus of Formia, pray for us!

Pentecost sundaes and a long weekend

I

Happy octave of Pentecost! It confused Little Bear a bit this week that 12:00 meant "Angelus time" instead of "Regina Caeli time," but Easter has ended; time to switch Marian prayers and antiphons. We talked last Sunday about the Holy Spirit descending on the Apostles and Mary, with the rushing wind and tongues of flame; he kept looking at me skeptically, so we went and found his little statue of St Jude and pointed out the flame above his head, and then it seemed to connect a little better.

II 

He was much more excited about our Pentecost dessert:

Vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, and strawberries cut in triangles to resemble tongues of flame. Yum! It's kind of a silly tradition, but I'm glad we do it every Pentecost; eventually Little Bear and Kit will be old enough to understand about the descent of the Holy Spirit, but even at very-little-kid-level, ice cream sundaes with strawberries is pretty easy to get excited about. Little Bear knows we're celebrating, even if he doesn't get exactly why just yet.

III

We all enjoyed a long, sunny weekend; Matt got two days off work this year over Memorial Day, so we got a lot more done around the house than I ever could have by myself: the garage is all reorganized, the new car seat does fit in the car, I'm actually all caught up on cleaning, and Matt filled my planters so we could plant herbs, salad greens, and nasturtiums. Tuesday morning he went out to the range with my dad and brother, and I enjoyed a quiet morning of putting my feet up and passively making a batch of yogurt while Little Bear played with my two youngest siblings and helped them fold laundry. Matt brought along his grandfather's M1 carbine, which they all enjoyed shooting, and on which Matt discovered he is quite accurate: at one point they put a water-filled milk gallon out at 200 yards to see who could hit it first; my dad and brother were both shooting higher-powered rifles with scopes while Matt only had the iron sights, but he hit it with his first shot!

IV

Matt also taught Little Bear about a very important part of summer this weekend:

Water guns! The two of them came in soaked and grinning from ear to ear.

V

Monday evening we invited my family and our pastor over for a Memorial Day barbecue. I made potato salad and a veggie tray, and Matt grilled asparagus and pork. He spiral-cut two pork loins, stuffed them with a combination of apples, onions and rosemary, tied them up into roulades, and added some applewood chips to his charcoal to give them a nice smoked flavor. It was so good! He's excited to try the technique with other fillings over the summer.

The roulades, each 2 pounds, grilled over indirect heat (coals pushed to the sides) for about an hour until they reached an internal temp of 150 F, but he says next time he'd cook them to 140 F or 145 F instead.

It's been rare for us to host even small events like this one; it does take some work, but we were both really glad that we did! And it's apparent that we need to get into the habit of inviting priests over more often; after Father called to confirm that he was coming, Little Bear exclaimed, "No, but Father has to stay at the church!" We enjoyed having everyone over, and Little Bear did decide that he was happy to see Father (and his puppy!)

VI

The rest of the week/this weekend was full of contractions and other aspects of prodromal labor (real labor that goes for a couple of hours and then just stops), not resulting in a baby but enough to keep me pretty unproductive. I'm trying to actively choose to believe that I'm just not going to go into labor for several weeks yet, to help myself try to ignore everything and keep being a functional mom/cook/housekeeper. Otherwise, if I let myself wonder each time "is this actually it?" and think about how I'm feeling, start timing contractions, etc, I'm just going to wind up spending half my time lying down being miserable.

VII

The one flaw in this plan is that I was only at the hospital for maybe three hours before Little Bear was born, despite going in before I was even completely convinced I was in labor... and while I don't want to go in any earlier than I absolutely have to again this time, a) subsequent babies supposedly come more quickly, and b) I'm GBS-positive again, so I should ideally have completed the course of IV antibiotics before giving birth. Which only takes a half hour, so it shouldn't be a big deal, but if I do as good a job of ignoring/waiting as last time, I'm not certain how close I'll wind up cutting it.

I hope you had a good weekend. Hopefully I'll either manage to be better about posting this week, or else I'll have baby photos next time I post! Don't forget to stop by This Ain't The Lyceum for more SQT posts.