A Woman

I just started reading the life of Anna-Maria Taigi which mentioned (on only the second page) that she was like another Catherine of Siena, supporting the the pope with her prayers against Emperor Napoleon. It made me stop and think of that phrase one hears once in awhile in history class that behind every great man is a great woman and that behind every evil man is an evil woman.

But then I thought of Catherine and Anna-Maria and then Our Lady and I thought, "In the way of every evil man, God has always placed as his foe a holy woman to protect the Church" and "In every century, there is a holy woman sacrificing her life for the world...in every century, there is a strong woman saint who has saved the world, even if she's gone mostly unseen..."

In all the really frightening and evil times, in every century, I'm sure we can find that there is a great woman that rose to the challenge to sacrifice her life and by prayer and suffering softens God to help the Church, a Pope, a nation, a king to do God's will.

Think about it, the devil (we all think of Satan as a man right :-P ) challenged God, fell from heaven, temped Adam and Eve to sin , God said that his head would be crushed by a woman, Our Lady. When there was a threat to France and the Church, God rose up St Joan of Arc to fight the English (hey, the English had a male ruler! :-D, besides, the English pretty much gave birth to some "great" protestant sects and killed the Church in England it could have taken over half of Europe in error had not Joan rose up and fought back the English helping to end English hold in parts of France, who knows. Not much of a historian, but I did hear that theory brought up once, sounded interesting.

Anyhow, you get my point, we can look back in history and often find a great woman when there was a time of great crisis for the Church who had a hand in saving the Church by some means or influence.

...and even thought it just came upon me all this randomness, I have often thought of how God does seem to make use of a saintly woman when the world seems to be floundering... and then I stop in awe and wonder, "I wonder who/where this great woman saint of today is? There have been saints all along, where are they? are they in convents or just some housewife somewhere giving up her life to God for the world, for our leaders? ..."

There have got to be saint somewhere in this world, right? ...and then something I read that Padre Pio said to a woman once, I think I read it in the Angelus or something, a woman confessed an abortion to him or he just knew, and he said to her "You aborted the bishop who would have saved the Church...." Perhaps that woman then devoted her life to God begging Him to save the Church another way? We may never know...

But it's an interesting thought, God raises up great saints in all centuries, why not ours? Where are ours? Maybe it's a housewife in Brazil, maybe it's some nun tucked away in one of the convents of the world, maybe it's someone we know. Whoever she is, wherever she is, I am in awe of her, I applaud her, I will pray for her.

I Heart My Cabinet Shop

Get this! I hardly ever get personal emails, then this morning I got one from Mom AND one from Dad! :)

Mom sent me this email about Agape love today, was really good, thinkin bout posting it just because it was cool.

And Pop's was tellin me about needing a template for a cross to put on a casket he was building yesterday, then he found the template for a celtic cross I had made when I was making liquor cabs for my bro and me last year :) *sigh* I really do miss working in the cabinet shop... It's so...it's just amazing. It's so relaxing on a Saturday to be out there working on my own project, no one else there to make lots of noise. Granted, sometimes I'd coax my sis out there just because :-P

But really, it's awesome being out there in the shop alone,when I'm the only one making noise out there. The radio is set to the music of the day, the big garage door is open in the earlier morning when there's a cool breeze...when the door is opened, the sound of the air compressor that comes on at least every 30mins is muffled.... Still, there is a certain comfortable easy embalming silence that reigns when I'm there. I can hear my thoughts and the sound of a screw going into the wood....

I miss being able to just go out to the shop and grab the drills, the batter powered mini skill saw (so awesome, the one's by Makita!) or whatever else I needed to build a box for a present, make a backboard for a poster, make a shelf to go above my washer and dryer because, frankly, the builders of my rental place were pathetically cheap and completely inefficient or, my absolute favorite thing I've ever built and am most proud of, make a wine/liquor cabinet because I felt like it!

Those cabinets...just...wow! They are GORGEOUS! and I only have two crumby little pics from my phone of them! When I moved here to KS, I only brought what would fit in my car, thus, my cabinet is sitting royal estate in what my family likes to refer to as "the princess room" .... yes...that would be my old room! lol.

Anyhow, I started makin the wine cab for my bro, then only partway done I was getting jealous and I'd already told him I was makin it for him.... So I just put his on hold for a few days and started on another for me, brought it up to speed with the first.

Of all things I've built or made, I am most proud of those two cabinets that I made. And the brother I made one of them for (the one pictured, actually) is one of the most amazing men I know. He is the kindest husband and father that I've seen. Love you bro!

Flamin'..er...Bloomin' Onion Anyone?!

Okay, so I got a Green Tea Latte/frappe fix today, ordered some mix off of Amazon, good stuff by the way! Lol, let me know if you want some, I'll point ya in the right direction! Oh yeah, back to my story.... 

So after my Green Tea Latte and workin out in the yard for a little bit, I came back in and suddenly decided that I wanted to make a Bloomin' Onion, ya know, like at Outback Steakhouse. I have no bloody clue why on earth I suddenly decided such a thing.... Haven't had one for a long time since when I was back home in the Idaho...nor have I seen anything to suggest the Outback, so anyhow, I took it as very odd, but Googled "how to make a bloomin onion". ...I went through their steps, though I added more ketchup to the dipping sauce and I didn't cut the onion quite like they said to, but it turned out way better than how they were sayin I should do it.

Anyhow, I cut it almost to the root end, and then turned the knife vertical and sliced to the roots that way as well to make the onion bloom without havin to put it in boiling water then cold water like the recipes said. So after I was done cutting, it looked like this: 

Which was pretty cool. Then came the interesting part....

I had a medium sauce pan for the oil, and had it half full, enough to just cover most of the onion I figured... So I put it on the stove (which is a flat glass top), had it on for awhile, so I think it was a little on the too hot side

when I went to put my battered onion in...well...let me tell you...one should have a bigger pot/taller pot when ya'll put a bloomin onion into hot hot oil....

I dipped the onion into the pan, and it started boiling...OUT of the pot! Lol! My face had to have been a Kodak moment! LOL! I stepped back in shock for a moment, didn't want to have exploding oil on me or anything, then I realized it was just going to boil, much like hot water..but it was pouring out all over the stove top...so I picked up the pot to move it off the burner, stop the boiling over. Then as I stood there holding the pan over the stove wondering how on earth I was going to clean up the mess I made in my shear brilliance, it started to smoke! I breathed a quick thanks that the evil smoke detector wasn't in the kitchen anymore. Well, I shouldna been saying a thanks so quickly, I was suddenly standing in shocked horror as the oil burst into flames!

So I'm standing there for a split moment in shock watching as the flames floated over the oil, grabbed the pot off so I wouldn't have a flamin' onion, then grabbed the bottle of oil since the flames started to spread all over the bloody top! So I'm standing there with a pot in one hand and wondering how I'm going to put it out as I have no extinguisher or anything! I thought, "Maybe a towel to smother it? No, bad idea, could start on fire then what would I do?!" Stood there a moment longer and the flames got higher and wider and black smoke was everywhere! So I thought, "Okay, I've got nothin left, I'll try blowing on it..." Thank goodness it worked! I took two breaths and blew it out! Lol. So yeah, that was pretty interesting! :-P lol. 

So after the flames were out, I noted that my onion was still cookin even off the burner.... Didn't look half bad either! 

Yum Yum :-) It tasted just like from Outback :-) Most enjoyable.

Update: Watches gone Wonkey!

PS: After I wrote "Little Ray of Sunbeam", my wristwatch apparently got jealous that I didn't take notice of his time as I did my Sunbeam on the wall...so he went all wonkey, yes, much like Harold's wristwatch in Stranger Than Fiction... apparently my wristwatch has a role model there.... Anyhow, my wristwatch, who's face is a brilliant array of sunny colors, went and slowed down by a few minutes! The bratchild! So it made me late to work! 

And now that it's daylight savings time kicking in, everything is kinda wonkey, except my Sunbeam somehow made it through the Spring Jump just fine.... As for the bratchild, he has finally realized (once I threatened to get out the other Lorus with a more sedate outlook on life...in purple tones) that his co-operation is paramount to retaining his position on my wrist!

Little Ray of Sunbeam

The clock on my wall is pretty much my closest friend here in my house lately. He's the only one who has stuck around for some time. He knows, I really do rely on him to keep me on track.

He's pretty diligent in his duties as a friend and guardian (self-appointed you understand) and keeps me ahead of the times running a little faster than all the rest. Every evening when I get home from work, he watches down as I get dinner ready and then log onto my computer and sit typing away madly, sometimes late into the night, and not at all perturbed that I'm not paying as much attention to the time he's trying to show me, but he is rather persistent. I'm sure he's smiling at the oddness of me laughing hysterically sometimes too as I type at my computer, but if he does, he keeps his laughter to himself, never judging me--at least not that I'm aware of! He even tries to get me to go to bed at a decent hour sometimes, the sounds of "tick tock, tick tock" growing louder as the silence of the night settles in. He even tries to rush me off to work every morning warning, "Rebecca, it's 7:45am! Time to start the car!" When really I have a few minutes to spare :-)

Yes, my clock on my living room wall has been a faithful friend, breaking the silence and providing a constant reminder, waving his hands around at me, letting me know time is passing, the world is changing, and I am a part of it.

Say tonight, fight the break of day...

I don't want to fall asleep...I want to keep this day from ending.... Sometimes ya take something for granted, then one day it gets up and walks away whether you like it or not, whether you're ready or not...so prepare yourself, today may be the last day.... tomorrow it will be my last to spend an evening with my sister...and I have hardly told her how much I really appreciated having her here with me...and now there's only one day...only a few hours of which.... *Sigh* Goodbye, Sister....