Easter

This Easter was Felicity's first, and we were so excited to celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord as a family! I had so much fun putting together a little Easter basket for her!  She received play silks (which I dyed) for her enjoyment, hair bows for her ever growing mane, and socks for her feet (also ever growing)!

Play silks! (Excuse the wrinkles...)

 

Easter basket...Butterfly (a symbol of the Resurrection) & Anchor (Christian symbol of hope) socks!

A happy girl on Easter morn!

We went to the Vigil Mass in order to wake up bright and early for our annual Easter morning picnic.  We did, however, break into the picnic basket a little early, for a post Vigil snack of scones and mimosas!

This Easter picnic was especially exciting because it was on a boat! We went to Chalco Lake and feasted upon white chocolate raspberry scones, cherries, and breakfast sandwiches.  The morning was very still and calm, and altogether quite lovely. Felicity, who already has an affinity for the outdoors, seemed to enjoy herself immensely!

We were very cautious and stayed close to the shore.

Later we got together with the entire Lowman clan for another picnic at a different lake, complete with an Easter egg hunt, Easter baskets galore from Grandma, and of course good food and company!

With Grandma!

Cousin fun!

The feistiest girl!

Happy Easter from the Lowmans!!!!

Gifts of Guinness

In college, Carter practiced a friendly "prank" (as he so calls it) on the eve of St. Patrick's day.  This little tradition of leaving a Guinness on strangers' front steps has seeped its way into our marriage, and I'm so glad it did!

This year we made a whole fun night of it!

After reading St. Patrick's Confessions, (a very beautiful work and a quick read) we chose this quote to accompany the beer:

This is how we can repay such blessings, when our lives change and we come to know God, to praise and bear witness to His great wonders before every nation under Heaven.  ~ St. Patrick

Husband's hands. 

Finished product!

Before embarking on our mission we prayed the Office of Readings for St. Patrick's Feast and blessed the beer (!!!) with this blessing!  Our favorite line was "Bless..this creature beer"! 

Carter and I dressed in all black with green sashes and Felicity, the reverse! 

We got all ten beers delivered without getting caught...hopefully it was a nice surprise for those who received them!

Wee little lass. 

St. Patrick, pray for us!

Felicity's First Feast Day

As parents, our greatest hope for our children is that they become great saints!  We named Felicity after the early Church martyr, St. Felicity of Carthage. We pray that she might look up to and stay close to her namesake her whole life.  March 7th was the feast of Saints Felicity and Perpetua, so naturally, we had to celebrate.

In the weeks prior to this special day, I had thought it'd be nice to give Felicity a holy card of her patron.  Little did I know how hard this task would be. I searched Catholic bookstores, scoured the internet, but alas, my efforts fell short! So Carter and I undertook the task of making our own (and now it is family tradition, and no matter how "common" our other children's names are, we must do this on every first feast day!).  Carter was to write the prayer, and I was to find the image and assemble the card.

Carter based the prayer off of the Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, a fascinating primary text, in which Perpetua gives a first hand account of their martyrdom. (I actually had to read this in college for a women in classical studies class -- see, public education isn't all that bad!)  Since I am challenged when it comes to computers, it took me longer than I'm willing to admit to assemble the holy card. But it turned out pretty nice, if I do say so myself!

The prayer is more than lovely! We can't wait to teach it to our little girl.  As for now, we will just pray it on her behalf: 

St. Felicity –O happy martyr! 

Twice blessed with baptismal grace, 

Offer praises with heavenly psalter 

To the Holy Spirit, Son, and Father, 

And kisses of perpetual peace.

And in the garden of humility

Pray God grants thy spiritual daughter, 

If I suffer for His divinity, 

The fortitude in femininity 

To meet thee at the sacred altar. 

Some small gifts, including animal crackers since St. Felicity was killed by a wild beast!

#catholichumor

Roles reversed, as a Felicity devours the wild beast!

St. Felicity, pray for us!!!

The Muse of the West

Lately, I've been reading some Willa Cather novels.  I finished My Antonia in January and just recently finished Death Comes for the Archbishop. Here are some random, unorganized raw musings I have regarding both books.

Death Comes for the Archbishop

I'll admit that in reading Death Comes for the Archbishop, I was unsure of the whole point of the book.  I was enjoying the story immensely but I was not grasping it and realizing the greater truth it upholds, that is, until the very last two paragraphs of the book.  And that's when I realized again how lovely Cather is an an author.  She can sum up the meaning of a 300 page book in two simple paragraphs.  I was left with chills, wanting more, but so very satisfied (perhaps even mystified) with the beauty of it all.  And upon reading that ending, I found myself wanting to reread the entire book in light of what was shed in those last few words.

******************

One thing that struck me about this book in particular is how Cather describes the Catholic devotion to our Blessed Mother.  This paragraph in particular had me running to Carter to share it with him:

[They] were not the first to pour out their love in this simple fashion.  Raphael and Titian had made costumes for Her in their time, and the great masters had made music for Her, and the great architects had built cathedrals for Her.  Long before Her years on earth, in the long twilight between the Fall and the Redemption, the pagan sculptors were always trying to achieve the image of a goddess who should yet be a woman.

My Antonia

I first read My Antonia as a freshman in high school.  I remember my favorite teacher, Mr. Sullivan, telling us that every time a person experiences a significant change in his life, he should read it.  His words resonated with me as I found myself as a new wife and mother in a new place.  It is no coincidence that I chose to read this book, I chose it precisely for its Nebraskan plains setting, the same setting I now look out my window and see.

One part of this book really spoke to me, as the main character is studying Virgil in Latin.  He recalls a line from the Georgics that he and his teacher had discussed: "For I shall be the first, if I live, to bring the Muse into my country".  And Cather through the voice of the narrator explains how Virgil was the first to bring the Muse into his country...he brought the Aeneid, the quintessential foundation story of Rome, a pillar of Western civilization.  And that's when it hit me -- that is exactly what Willa Cather is doing with My Antonia.  She is giving Western America its foundation story; she is bringing the Muse into the West.  I'm sure I could develop this idea more, and I'm sure it has been done before, but that is precisely why I am not in school...I am done writing papers!

Auf Widersehen!

Beast + Bottle

Sometimes in life one stumbles upon a little gem, and Beast + Bottle was just that.

We drove our second car back from Phoenix to Omaha in early January, and spent the night in Denver.  Before the day long journey we knew we must have one thing -- brunch! Carter somehow found the most charming and delicious place tucked away in downtown Denver.  And it's lucky for me that it's in Denver and not Omaha, otherwise I'd go there every single day and be quite fat and broke!

We loved the insignia.

Oh so lovely!

Brown + white sugars cubes, yes please.

Christmas Decor.

Gingerbread Waffle with Mascarpone Icing, Pomegranate, + Kumquat.

Feast!

A Very Merry Saint Valentine's

Our St. Valentine's Day was absolutely perfect this year!  Now, I love feast days and I love sending mail so in late January I began making homemade Valentines for Felicity to send out.  They were quite fun to make and mail to Felicity's grandmas and aunts, and even a couple great great great aunts!  This is what I came up with:

After searching and searching for the perfect Valentine's Day breakfast to make for Carter I found the perfect one.  And my, oh my, was this Raspberry Amaretto Croissant French Toast both festive and scrumptious! Everyone needs to make this incredible breakfast!  I also gave Carter some dark chocolate covered espresso beans and the Shakespeare Love Mug (We have the Shakespearean Insult Mug and are huge fans).  He was quite pleased with his gifts! :)  And we then read about the saint for whom the day is celebrated.

While eating breakfast, Carter surprised me and told me he was taking me to V. Mertz for dinner -- the fanciest, most delicious restaurant located in an old alleyway, dubbed the Passageway, in downtown Omaha.  We had been only once before -- on the night of our engagement day.  

Since it was a Saturday, we went about our day as usual and I was in deep anticipation for the lovely evening ahead of us.  Carter later came home from the library with a carnation for Felicity and a beautiful letter for her to read when she is older. I melted. He also bought a flower for each of his sisters, and a pink rose for me, which he presented along with a poem. The man knows how to woo his wife.

V. Mertz was so elegant and lovely...the way they took our coats, the way they combed off our table after each course, the red rose they gave each lady at the end of the evening. The food was unsurpassable.  I can't even tell you all what we ate, it was that lavish. Each course perfectly crafted, perfectly textured, perfectly presented. We feasted on cocktails, a cheese platter, entrees, and dessert. It was utterly perfect.  Valentine's Day 2015 will be hard to top!

I told Carter that if I wasn't already married to him I'd marry this cheese. Yes, it was that good.

And so I leave you with this quote from the Love Mug: Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

{Kudos to Shakespeare}

Saint Valentine, pray for us!

A Charmed Life

Every once in a while it seems as though we live a "charmed" life.  The weekend after Thanksgiving was no exception.

On Friday, Carter took Felicity on a morning walk.  To my surprise, it was very short...because sitting next to our dumpster (a little Black Friday shopping, anyone?), he found these:

We have been married a little over a year, and somehow managed without a dresser.  I have been wanting one for a while, scouring Goodwills and Craig's List, but never willing to break down and actually buy.  And out of nowhere TWO dressers appear -- completely free, in great condition, AND something we likely would have picked out ourselves! Charmed life, you ask, I dare say yes! 

Saturday, we went to go chop down our Christmas tree, a tradition we started last year and plan to uphold each year.  It is the perfect opportunity for Carter to use his axe!  We awoke early Saturday morning and drove to Bennington Pines (about a 10 to 15 minute drive), and it exceeded all of our expectations!  We found ourselves on a hayrack ride, accompanied by a few other young families.  The hayrack ride took us to fields and fields of different sorts of Christmas trees, and then we set out to find our perfect tree.  We settled on a perfect Scotch Pine, and Carter looked mighty good and manly chopping it down! Our tree, now also transported by the hayrack, was taken back to the entrance, where they evened out the stump, bundled the tree in a net, and attached it to the roof of our car! The service was excellent and they even provided free hot chocolate and candy canes!  This early dawn morning was nothing short of a fairytale!

Enjoying the hayrack ride

Fields and fields of Christmas trees

Quite possibly my favorite picture ever <3

And our charming tree, lit and decorated!