Eucharistic Miracles

I am ashamed to say that I didn't totally believe that the bread at mass could be Christ's body nor could the wine be his blood. But was humbled by our Lord. He silently came into my heart when I trembled to recieve the holy Eucharist. My heart was beating rapidly and I felt unworthy to recieve him almost to the point my knees were weak and I felt like dropping to the floor. As soon as I accepted the Eucharist I felt an overwhelming flood of peace, love for Christ and comfort. I don't have any scientific proof to disproof this. But I know in my heart it was the Lord. Also my husband was on his way back from the Eucharist when he turned to me and told me his mouth was filling with the taste of blood. He knew that he didn't bite his cheek or have any open wounds in his mouth.

After I went to confession, I enrolled to be a Eucharistic Minister. Never again will I doubt that the mass contains the true sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ with the Eurcharist.

Shortly after this discovery I learned about the Eucharistic miracle in Lanciano, Italy,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkg4rMvzwnY I like this video. It does an excellent job of presenting facts.

Divine Intervention

Do you believe in divine interventions? When something is so blatantly obvious, believing is the only option. Our trip to Lourdes France brought so many blessings and graces. But more than a visit to France, I do believe it was the incredible storming of prayers we were surrounded in that brought such special blessings and grace. I have not forgotten all of those who prayed for us and send return prayers for you and your families. When we went to France we spent three days in Lourdes. The crowds were so thick at times it was difficult to maneuver let alone take note of faces in the crowds. There were some that stood out, but mostly it was a blur. After Lourdes France we journeyed to Never to see St. Bernadette, to the beaches of Normandy to pay tribute to the soldiers of WWII, we journeyed to visit St. Therese of Lisieux, and finally to Paris to see the miraculous chapel and St. Vincent de Paul. Finishing up our trip we landed in a convent in Paris. We were eating breakfast before our journey back home and we ran into someone who had seen us in Lourdes France. She was an 18 year old postulate nun attending with her mother and father. She stopped us and said asked us if we were in Lourdes France? When we confirmed she was overjoyed. She knew it was us. She had seen us in line at the immaculate waters of the piscine. She asked us what was wrong with Julie and we explained that her lungs were failing and causing her heart to fail. She explained that she was looking for a person to pray for the duration of her nun vocation. She asked if she could take a picture with our family. We agreed and felt super special that she chose us. She handed us a medal with Zelie and Louis Martin on it and a a crucifix. They are the parents of St. Therese Lisieux. We didn't have any further time to talk as our bus was leaving for the airport.

I didn't know much about the parents of St. Therese and curiosity was raised in the bus on the way to the airport. Fran, a counselor on our pilgrimage, explained the details of Zelie and Louis Martin. Their first documented miracle was of a baby who was born without lungs. The parents prayed to Zelie and Louis for intercession with Jesus. The very next day the baby's lungs had been completely healed. Ex rays prooved that the child's bad lungs had grown into two healthy lungs overnight. Perhaps this is why she gave you their medal, so we could pray to them for intercession with Julie. She told us that they were in close range of beatification. And they needed two more proven and documented miracles to complete the process of beautification.

When we returned home I prayed silently in my heart to Zelie and Louis Martin. I told them that I didn't know them well. I had searched the internet and book stores for information about them. I could find a multitude of books on St. Therese but not the parents. I asked the parents if they could send me a sign as to when they would be beatified and in the meantime I would pray for their beatification.

Then strangely at 10:30 p.m. on the evening of Oct. 18, 2008, I received a call from a priest I didn't know very well at all. Father Mc Donald was his name. I am sure he had heard of Julie's story and wanted to reach out to us. In his phone call he invited us up to church in the morning for the children’s mass. The French nuns had come to our church and would be singing for us. He thought I would cherish this moment. I thanked him but confided that my daycare children might not arrive on time and my attendance would greatly depend on this. It was so late at night that calling my parents wouldn't seem fitting. But I would try my best to be there. Well everything lined up beautifully. My daycare babies all arrived and we barely made it to mass in to sit down before Father McDonald announced the nuns from France would be attending and singing in the choir for the kids. He also proceeded to announce that today was a special day marking the beautification of the Saints Zelie and Louis Martin and I kid you not when those nuns in the choir loft opened their lungs to sing it was as if the holy doors of heaven opened up as well. Their beautiful voices sent goose bumps through my entire body and the children I brought with me had sat so patiently and perfect. It was a God sent divine intervention. I knew at that moment they had heard my intention. They are watching over us.

A quick google search brought this information up about the holy couple. I hope they can be of motivation and inpiration to many families and others. http://www.michaeljournal.org/martins.htm

As far as an update on my daughter we are now 5 years later. Immediately upon our return from France the doctors noted that Julie's heart still showed damage but that she had a normal heart function. Now this week we have been informed from the doctors that Julie' doesn't medically need her oxygen and they would be sending a notice to stop Oxygen supply to the Cherub medical supply. I truly hope we are closely approaching the long awaited miracle we have hoped for. If not I believe Julie serves a special purpose in this world. And she is serving God's will. We all have a special purpose. And through our greatest sufferings we will learn our richest lessons.

Buttermilk Crumb Muffins ~ 4 out of 4 family members love this recipe.

This recipe is a HUGE hit in our house. I would have taken a picture to post but they were devoured before I could do so.

Buttermilk Crumb Muffins


½ C all purpose flour (make sure it is sifted and the hard balls remaining in sifter are thrown out. This is a tip I learned this year. Sifted flour makes everything better.
2 c brown sugar
½ t salt
Mix these ingredients with your fingers. You can use your spoon; however Julia Child suggests using your fingers.
2/3 C Shortening ~ add shortening into mix. I had to use my pie cutter for this. I don’t like getting my fingers greasy.
You want lumps in the mixture. The lumps make it gooey and not dry.
Take half cup of this mixture out for the muffin tops. (I took closer to 1 cup because the muffin top is our favorite part.)
Next add 2 teaspoons of baking powder / ½ t. cinnamon again I added more like 1 t. We really dig the cinnamon Mon.
½ t. nutmeg Bleh! I will pass on the nutmeg, this ruins everything for me. Ha-ha
Mix well to the big batch of dry ingredients
Finally add 2 large eggs at room temperature to 1 cup of butter milk. Mix these two ingredients together, and then add to dry ingredients.
Spoon the gooey mixture into muffin tins, sprinkle muffin crumbles on top and cook at 320 degrees for 20 min. I had to add extra time. You want the tops of the muffins to look dry; another way to test for doneness is a toothpick. Plunk that baby in the middle of a muffin and pull it out. If it comes out clean it is done, but it will need more cooking if the toothpick comes out wet. Yes this is not an Italian dish but as they say you cook it a cook it a cook it a!!
Let them cool and add butter or a slice of cheese and divine. They are best if you share with someone. These muffins are to DIE for. I am not sure how healthy they are for you, however everything in moderation. And everynow and then we need a little piece of heaven here on Earth.

6-3-2012

Well that was a long week and I am glad that it is Saturday.  My daughter had a week of weak spells, dizziness, nausaus, shortness of breath and chest pains.  And we hooked her up to the o2 saturation machine at home, her oxygen levels were bouncing from 98 to 95 to 96 to 94 to 97..... they are normally at a solid 100.  We took her into the ER room to get her checked out.  You get vip treatment if you're a ph patient.  I wouldn't recommend getting a disease for this pass.  We were in the room waiting to be seen in record time.  We should time our visits to see just how quickly they get us in, just for fun.  ;)
They hooked her up to the o2 saturation machine at the hospital, and listened to her heart.  They called her the oncall doctor and decided that she should have a BNP test done to see if she was having congenital heart failure.  They had to take blood for this test.  They said if the test comes back abnormal she will be hooked up to an iv and admitted into the hospital.  If they are normal she will go home and be on her merry way.  They looked at her arm to prep herHer numbers came back above normal. 

Chickens? Have we come to this? SMH Chickens!

What in the world is this crazy lady getting so rawled up about chickens? Seriously! It seems like backyard chickens is a step backwards instead of a step ahead. The pioneers had chickens. Today chickens should come from the store. I don't have time for chickens. Rant rant rant!!!

For me chickens is almost a passion of mine these days. It all began when our life took a serious change. My daughter becames sick and I let go of my job to provide for her and my son's new needs. Her health and their homeschooling. I chose to homeschool for several reasons. One of those reasons was because my daughter felt so tired at the end of her school day that all she wanted to do was sleep when she came home. I felt there must be a better way for her to be able to learn and use the energy she has left to expell as she chose. I also felt this was a call from God to homeschool and I quickly learned why. But that is a topic completely different than chickens.

My daughter donated her make a wish to the food pantry. Through this golden opportunity we were able to witness first hand why so many are needy. When we donated her wish to the food pantry we were actually critizied for doing so. There were a few individuals who felt it was shameful for us to help out the druggies and the drunkards. How could you donate your cookies to a dirty old man on the streets? I found that incredibly insulting. For in God's eyes, every person is precious. And perhaps there are some homeless individuals who have taken the wrong path in life, Jesus wasn't afraid to seek out and help the sinners. It was actually through his mercy and love that they changed their ways. They found hope. Hunger and hard times can fall on anyone though. It doesn't isolate or choose a color or type of person. It can effect anyone at any given moment. And we were able to see through feeding the hungry how many levels of individuals there are that have a need. It was through her wish that our eyes were opened to the diverse faces of hunger.

Giving up my childcare wasn't an easy choice for me. I loved the children that I watched and felt as if they were my own even though I knew inside I had to hand them back over to their real parents at the end of the day. But through a string of life changing events and that occured with in in a short period of time, I truley felt as though God was saying it is time to start something new. Be still and take care of you children.

Our income almost overnight was drastically cut in half. My mind wondered and it was hard giving my worries up to God but at every corner he has provided. It was actually through our weaknesses that I felt God's presence. I feel a calling to be a voice for those in need as our government prepares to throw us over the financial cliff. And what a great way to do so by brining backyard chickens into our community.

Melting My Heart

It could be the worst day and my husband knows how to make my heart melt.  We were watching The help.  I openly expressed that the blonde was cursed with beauty.  No one wanted to be her friend. 
My husband says hey that's you!  Awee!!  Float float float.  Yeah it probably sounds lame to most, but to me it was what I needed to hear.

And on some days I feel like the help.  I do most of the cooking, cleaning, errand runs, yard work, gardening, home schooling, first aide, doctor visits, kiddy cab ing and I don't get paid for it.  It isn't easy, but when my son scores 100% on his history tests, and when my husband shows his gratitude for all that I do.  It makes it all worth it and I would do it all over again.  As a husband should he workds double sometimes triple shifts to make ends meet.  Often I feel guilty that I am helping the kids, but not helping him as far as paying the bills, but then he brings to light all the money I am saving him, and how he feels it is all worth while and it is one thing that he believes any old school man would dream about doing for his family and having his wife do for him.  It puts my head back in the clouds for him. 

Quick Take on Plant Combinations

Aquaponics and chickens!!  That is what is next on the agenda.  Oh and combination planting.  So far with combination planting I have discovered, carrots are best when planted with leeks or radishes.   Corn is best when planted with beans or peas and vegetables from the squash family.  The peas and beans put nitrogen into the soil and the corn acts as a post for the beans and peas.  The cucumbers, melons, or squash keep the racoons out since they don't like getting intangled into the vine.   Onions and garlic are great to throw throughout the garden.  They aide in keeping bugs away. 
Basil and tomatoes are perfect companions.  Basil keeps flies and mosquito's away and produces an excellent flavor in the tomatoes.