It's Time for Lent!

Botticelli, The Man of Sorrows

In case you were unaware, Lent starts on Wednesday. Yes, this coming Wednesday, March 2!

So, let’s talk about Lent, shall we?

First a few things…

• My friend Jen Fitz has written a retreat ebook, called Lord, You Know That I Love You, that is currently free on Amazon. That’s right, free! I highly encourage you to go check it out! The sale runs through the end of the month. (as in, through Monday, Feb. 28, 2022)

• Not sure what Lent is? Or what we do during it? You can check out this post, which has a link to a weeklong series I did on Lenten practices!

• Do you want to know more about the basics of Catholicism? Then you’re in luck! I wrote a whole ebook about them, called Catholic 101! It covers the church year, the sacraments, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, and lots more! You can read it on any e-reader, as well as on your desktop/laptop/phone, and you can even print it out if you want to read it on paper. It’s $5!

• And, of course, Living Memento Mori is, dare I say, perfect for Lent. If you’d like a signed copy, email me.

My Lent is usually focused on a few things. I can’t fast, but I can abstain from meat, so I do that on the days required (Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all the Fridays of Lent). I also don’t use food for a penance. Instead, I give up book and yarn buying, and with the money I save from that, I use it for charitable donations (ie, almsgiving in Church parlance). Two of my favorite charities are Mary’s Meals and our local diaper bank.

I am single. I know you probably know that, but when I talk about things like penances and living Lent, I want to remind you that since I don’t have a family, I have a lot of flexibility that you might not have. Take what’s good here, and leave the rest. :) So when I say I want to try a monastic horarium for Lent (which I do, generally, try to do during Lent, in order to deepen my prayer life), that’s something that a lot of people can’t do, because they work outside the home, or they have children that wouldn't exactly allow them to pray all seven offices of the Liturgy of the Hours or have a holy hour every week!

I have a few books: Restore and Just Rest (a study of the book of Exodus). I will try to incorporate more offices from the Liturgy of the Hours —right now I say lauds (morning prayer) and vespers (evening prayer) every day, and I’d like to add in compline, night prayer. I can find time for more prayer because I’m going to limit my time on certain social media platforms, mostly Twitter right now, because I know I’m spending too much time there and Lent is a good time to try to restore correct balance in how I spend my time.

Is there anything that you would like to see me do during Lent? Living Memento Mori book club? Stations of the Cross on Facebook Live? Anything else? Please let me know!

What does your Lent look like? How are you preparing for this season?

2022 Columbus Catholic Women's Conference--In Person!

It was so nice to be back at the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference! Last year we didn’t have one, and the 2020 conference took place before all of the COVID shut downs. It was so wonderful to gather again in person!

The conference day begins with Mass and then there are four speakers scattered through the day, which ends with a holy hour. Breakfast and lunch are also provided, and during the lunch break, I had a book signing!

It’s still surreal to sign copies of my book. I mean to have my book out there in the world and people can read it and buy it and I can sign real copies! It’s insane!

I was also so happy to see my friend Elizabeth Tomlin, author of Joyful Momentum, who also did a signing at the conference!

The day is always a long day (I got up at 5:30 and was in bed at 11!) but it’s so worth it to see friends and to be spiritually nourished. I really loved all the speakers this year, especially Sr. Tracey Dugas:

And Lisa Brenninkmeyer, the founder of Walking with Purpose:

If you’d like to hear the conference talks, you can listen to them here.

And if you’d like a signed copy of Living Memento Mori for yourself, you can use the contact form, or email me!

Kitchen Chronicles: Buttermilk Chicken

One of my goals this month is to cook more, especially to try new recipes. This is the Buttermilk Chicken from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, which I’ve had marked for years, but have never made. Until now!

When I tweeted about this, many people said they were interested in learning more. So I’m sharing the recipe and how the process went over here, because people want to know.

Here’s the recipe (although I also highly recommend getting the book because it’s just so useful it explains so many things about food and cooking!)

So the first thing you need to know is that this is a two day affair. You will salt the chicken, then place it in the buttermilk brine (because that’s what it is) the first day. On the second day, you will roast in a very specific manner, but it’s one that makes sense.

Also please, if you do not have one, get a plastic cutting board exclusively for raw chicken prep before you make this. It will make your life much easier. (I am a fan of one like this, which has color so it’s easy to distinguish; I haven’t used that one, but I do have this one.) I do have to be more careful about salmonella etc. than most people, but by using this system and by keeping antibacterial cleaner around to mop up spills that might happen, I have never had an issue (knock wood.) So, there’s your basic chicken safety lesson. :) I also toss the cutting board RIGHT in the dishwasher when I’m done with it, as well as anything else that touched the chicken.

Last note before we start the specifics: Samin (the author) is very specific about salt. She uses Diamond Kosher salt, and that’s what the measurements are for when she says “kosher salt” here.

DAY ONE: So, you get the chicken, you salt it—heavily—and let it sit for 30 minutes. Then you come to the buttermilk brine. This is where I think I made my mistake.

The stores are all out of buttermilk. So I did “clabbered milk”, which is milk+ vinegar or milk+lemon juice. I don’t think it sat long enough, so there wasn’t as much acid as the recipe should’ve had, which affected the final taste. (It still tasted fine, but I think it was missing the tang.) You will see, in the recipe, that you add salt to the buttermilk, hence, brine.

After the chicken has sat and the buttermilk is ready, you place the chicken in gallon size plastic bag (DO NOT get a big chicken for this it won’t work! It has to fit in the bag! Or make sure you have an appropriate sized bag for a larger chicken!), add the buttermilk and then seal. Squish it all around, put the bag on a rimmed plate or the pan you’ll use to cook it (I did the latter), and let it sit in the fridge up to 24 hours.

DAY TWO: I rotated the bag as my coffee was brewing, so that the other side could have a chance to really sit in the mixture. I turned it one more time before I took it out, but you can not turn it at all!

ONE HOUR before you want to put the chicken in, take it out (still in bag) and let it come to room temp. This affects the final color and juiciness and done-ness!

Now, the instructions are sort of weirdly specific about how to position the chicken in the oven. Follow the instructions. Just do it. Because that’s how you get that gorgeous skin that is so good, my friends.

This is a great company chicken. If you like to make gravy, this has a ton of pan drippings for you to use. I would serve it with Samin’s Bright Cabbage Slaw (another revelation I have discovered from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat this month). That slaw is amazing and also perfect for company. On the show (which is on Netflix), she serves it with rice which also looks really good. And of course a green salad with any vinaigrette would be perfect as well.

The great thing about this recipe is that everything is perfectly cooked. The breasts aren’t dry, the dark meat isn’t over done, it’s perfect in every way. Next time I might still stuff a lemon up it for more citrus, because I just love making chicken that way. But we’ll see!

Plated!

Give it a try! It’s yummy!

Living Memento Mori--AMA!

As Lent approaches—which is the perfect time for my book!—I thought I’d do an AMA post!

AMA=Ask Me Anything.

So if you have questions or comments about Living Memento Mori, drop them in the comment section below and I will answer them!

Madeleine is one month old!

Madeleine, my niece, is ONE MONTH OLD! I can’t believe it. I’ve been an aunt for a month! My sister and my BIL have been parents for a month!

Melanie (my sister) and Jason (her husband) are doing such a good job. They are just loving the pants off this little sweetheart and are such good parents. It makes me so happy to see them with their daughter. It really is strange to see my little sister as a mother. It makes me proud, but it’s also like, you were just this age! And now you have a daughter! (Cue “Sunrise, Sunset”)

Currently, Maddie likes her pacifier with her little Longhorn Buddy (Jason went to the University of Texas), being snuggled, EATING, and naps. She is also crazy alert and when she’s awake she wants to know everything that is going on! She loves her swing as well, which is funny because her mommy did too. And she likes music and loves when Mel and Jason sing to her.

She very much dislikes her baths, which I’m hoping she’ll grow out of, because baths are fun! She also does not like being burped because she just wants to eaaaaat.

So, that’s the Madeleine at one month dossier. She is just the cutest little person and I love watching her grow!

February Yarn Along: Colorwork and a sweater! (And Candlemas poetry!)

Welcome to a pre-snow/icepocalypse Yarn Along!

(Right now the weather forecast is basically doom. 2-4” of snow isn’t bad in an of itself, but we’re talking about accumulating ice, too, and that….is the danger. Lots of ice can take out the power. So let’s hope that doesn’t happen!)

Up first: My first piece of stranded colorwork, and I love it! (photo above)

This is Jennifer Berg’s “The Peaceful People” cowl. (Ravelry notes at that link) I used Malabrigo Caprino yarn, which is a wool/cashmere blend and is so perfect for something that’s going around your neck! I used Pearl and Pines.

I think this is a great first time stranded colorwork project. The pattern is very well-written and really, you’re just working with two colors in each row, so it’s not overtly complicated. And it’s so pretty.

Second: Emily Knits A Sweater!

This is the Ursina Sweater, which you can make in a cropped or full-length size (I’m going for the latter). My Ravelry notes are here. The yarn is Quince and Co Lark in Blue Balloon (a limited edition color way).

This project has a bunch of make one right and make one left (M1R and M1L, respectively) notations in this, plus a half brioche stitch (hbs) detailing. To keep that all straight, I’ve gone through the pattern and color coded each. M1R is blue, M1L is pink, and the hbs detail is underlined in pencil. This really helps me keep things straight.

I also write in the number of repeats for my size above the instructions and then cross them off, so I always know where I am in the pattern.

I will also be making another baby blanket for Alice (my friend Tiffany’s daughter), but I have to order the yarn first!

As for books: I’m about to start reading Dante’s Inferno * (the Anthony Esolen translation), and probably The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is an Anne Bronte book I’ve never read but I bought a copy over Christmas.

ALSO, here’s a poem by Robert Herrick about Candlemas—well, Candlemas Eve, which was yesterday, since today is Candlemas, but hey, I’m going to share poetry!

CEREMONIES FOR CANDLEMAS EVE
by Robert Herrick


DOWN with the rosemary and bays,
Down with the misletoe ;
Instead of holly, now up-raise
The greener box (for show).

The holly hitherto did sway ;
Let box now domineer
Until the dancing Easter day,
Or Easter's eve appear.

Then youthful box which now hath grace
Your houses to renew ;
Grown old, surrender must his place
Unto the crisped yew.

When yew is out, then birch comes in,
And many flowers beside ;
Both of a fresh and fragrant kin
To honour Whitsuntide.

Green rushes, then, and sweetest bents,
With cooler oaken boughs,
Come in for comely ornaments
To re-adorn the house.
Thus times do shift ; each thing his turn does hold ;
New things succeed, as former things grow old.

Are you working on anything crafty?

2022 Goals: January Wrap Up and February Tending List

February bullet journal spread

Every year I set goals and every year I say I’m going to blog about them and then I….don’t! So this year, I’m going to do it! I really am!

I set goals using Lara Casey’s Powersheets (You can still get them in teal and coral!) , and here’s the first post from Blogmas, outlining the big goals for the year (And yes, it says 2021….whoops!)

So the way this will work is I will first go over the January list and then talk about February goals. As a reminder, here’s the January tending list.

Yes, I blur some things out :)

Monthly goals

Create healthy snack list: done!

January Cure (aka , apartment therapy January program): Done. It was sort of helpful sort of not. Big takeaway was “calming” the living room—as in, taking out all the decorative things and then adding what I want back in. Good tip! I also had quite a bit of stuff to donate (clothes, books, other miscellaneous things) when it was done.

Wellness challenge: Done, but this was meh. It was Protestant-based, which, OK, but there was a lot of stuff that just didn’t sit right with me. I did print out the recipe ideas and have made some of them, which is good, and they have been good, so a win there.

February budget review: done

Retreat day: also done!

Confession: Sigh. Not done. On the list for February.

Weekly Goals:

Meal plan: Done! Yes! Now, did that translate into cooking every day? Um….no. But I did make some new recipes, and when I say “cooking every day”, I mean cooking what I had planned. I tend to go a little off-piste in my menu planning, in that it’s fairly flexible. So I can do better here, but I got back in the habit of actually writing things down and having the ingredients on hand.

Weigh: Yup. Every week.

Barre 2x/week: Nope. Some weeks I did it once. It’s been so cold that my joints haven’t been really happy, but also this is just…not making it a priority.

Daily goals/Habits:

Bible In A Year: More often than not! It’s getting better!

January cure items: done, unless they didn’t apply to me.

budget check in: check!

I added daily journaling after I took the January photo, because I’d let that slack off, and I hit it about 80% of the time. So, success!

February Tending List

Monthly Goals

Declutter coat closet and Living Room Shelves: This stems from the January Cure—the “quieting” bit—for the shelves. Now that they’re clear, I want to really dust and polish them and also go through my books to see if I need to donate any. If I don’t, no biggie. If I do, that’s fine.

Coat closet just needs some general love.

Related to this is the next goal….list of monthly zones in bullet journal. If you’re familiar with the FlyLady cleaning system, you know that she breaks your house into “zones” for deep cleaning every month. I’m not going to start deep cleaning this month, but I want the list handy for when that eventually happens.

Bullet Journal Class is something I’m having a lot of fun with, so this is clearly a fun goal, but I’ve set aside three times a week to work on class assignments/journal items in general, to make sure that things get done.

Article Submission List: I want to write for periodicals (both on dead tree and virtually) so I’m going to make a list o places I’d like to submit to and see what their guidelines are.

Confession: Gonna do it!

Stream Romeo et Juliette: Pacific Northwest Ballet is still offering streaming ballets, for which I am very grateful, and their presentation of Romeo and Juliette is a stunner. I can’t wait to see it again!

Weekly Goals

Meal plan: same as last month

Weekly home blessing: This is part of FlyLady’s cleaning plan that I like and that got off track last year. Essential you spend an hour “blessing” (read: Cleaning) your home. I’ve stripped it down to general dusting, vacuuming, mopping, and collecting trash in the office and bedroom.

One barre: An adjustment from last month! :)

Book promotion on Instagram every Friday: Lent, which is coming up, is prime time for promoting my book, and I want to make sure I have a plan for that. This is part of that plan.

Daily Goals/Habits:

Water, at least 6 cups a day: I’m pretty bad about this and I want to change it, hence this goal!

close move ring daily

Bible In A Year: I’m at the halfway point! Go me!

Five Minute Tidy After Dinner: part of the general housekeeping scheme. :) This will mostly be stuff like loading the dishwasher and prepping coffee for the next day.

budget check in

journal entry

That’s the January Summary and the February Plan! How are you doing on your yearly goals/resolutions?