Saturday. I didn't put any makeup on today. How lazy can one get. Chelsea got her bath today and looks just as pretty as can be. Of course, she is rather resentful. Then to top it off, Jim got up late and didn't eat breakfast so she didn't get her bits of cereal which she really expected. This has not been a particularly good Doggie Day.

I cooked up a corned beef brisket for dinner. I roasted it this time - something new. I found this recipe on Allrecipe.com. You rub about a cup of brown sugar over a 4 lb corned beef brisket and pour a bottle of Guiness gently over and around it. Then roast at 300 degrees for 2.5 hours. I is delicious. We had colcannon with it.

Hope your Saturday was a relaxing as mine.

Have a good Sunday.

Love

Mary

It was a beautiful day today. Very seasonable with temperatures in the upper 40s and no wind. So we were able to go out with light jackets and breath in the spring air. Tonight daylight savings time begins and we must remember to turn the clocks forward one hour. We lose an hour which will delight Chelsea no end - at least for the first day or two until we settle in to it.

We had a recall on the Santa Fe. Apparently they had to adjust the computer on the brake system so it would work properly at speeds under 5 MPH. Doesn't sound like a big thing but it would be bad if you were trying to stop in a garage or something at any speed.

Bart and Barb came to visit this afternoon with Bart's friend Scott Vacenovsky, who was a classmate when we lived in Huntington Beach 20 years ago. They have kept in touch all these years off and on. He was the sweetest little boy and has turned into a wonderful man. Dick and I took them to Riverdale for a traditional Sheboygan Perch Dinner. They still do a great dinner even if they have about tripled the price. When Dick and I were dating, he took me for a fish dinner almost every Friday. Once we got married, this stopped. As Dick said, he didn"t have to be courting me any more after that. Besides, he married a cook and didn't need to.

Love

Mary

April Fools Day. We are pretty quiet about it and don't tease each other. We shopped today. We went to Woodlake because we needed Glass Magic. All stores don't stock Glass Magic and with our hard water we NEED it. Even with that we get icky stuff on our glasses with hard water film.

Tonight I went to a poetry workshop led by Susan Firer, an excellent poet. She read one of hers about Pagan Babies. Pagan Babies keep popping up in my life. They resurfaced when the Sheboygan Theatre did "Do Patent Leather Shoes Reflect Up" and show up every so often. I remember asking Kay Hefling Altmeyer one St. Patrick's Day at 52 Stafford if SHE remembered them and she did of course. Susan Firer also wrote a wonderful poem about Plenary Indulgences that we "earned" for the Poor Souls in purgatory on All Saint's Day.

We wrote a collaborative list poem which I can share with you because I wrote the first line

I call it

COLLABORATIVE SHEBOYGAN

Broderick Crawford came from Sheboygan Falls, You Know.
Sheboygan is such a heavy name.
The days going down by Prange's - Once Hey
She - Boy - Again
That's what the Squaw said.
Lots of water - smelly fish
Fryouts on weekends - Brats
Hard Rolls from City Bakery
Confirmation Class to fry brats on Sunday
Kevin Costner came here.
Kaleidoscope driving through the Kettles.


Hope you like it.

Mary

Mother, Dick and I went to dinner at Richards this evening and followed that with Sheboygan Theatre Company's production of Charlie's Aunt. It was well done and very funny. A pleasant way to spend the evening. It is always a pleasure to spend an evening with Mother.

I am keeping this short because it is WAY past my bedtime, so I will leave you with today's reading from Cadfael's Book of Days.

"Never go looking for disaster. Expect the best, and walk discreetly as to invite it, and then leave all to God."

Love and stuff

Mary

So far this week has been great. And it is ABOUT time.

I went to see The Passion of the Christ last evening with my friend Debby Dobrzynski, from Blessed Trinity. It was moving. It was violent. There were a couple of messages that I didn't get. There were more that I did. I sensed the compassion of Pilot, his wife and the Centurian. I was shocked at the violence of the temple guard and the Roman soldiers. It is not a movie one enjoys, one experiences it and it is painful.

When I got home, I had a message from my cousin, Fr. Mike Shea. I am sure I have mentioned him before. He is a Redemptorist priest and a missionary in Thailand. I will attach the biography I wrote about him as it has been months since I mentioned him and it has most of the information about him and his AIDS kids. Anyway, I contacted the Elizabeth Taylor Foundation because I knew she is interested in AIDS causes and the foundation, after due consideration, is sending $10,000 to Sarnelli House. I knew she was a good woman and loves children too, so figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. And it didn't.

I wish you could see those beautiful children that Fr. Mike's mission takes care of. Perhaps I can get Jim to scan a picture in for me to send to you.

Here is the biography. Say a prayer of thanks for goodness and generosity in this world of ours. And a special prayer for Elizabeth Taylor.


Fr. Michael Shea

Fr. Michael Shea was born in Armstrong, Wisconsin July 30, 1938, the eldest child of John W. Shea and Eileen O’Conner Shea.

He was ordained a Redemptorist priest on July 2, 1964. Two years later, on January 31, 1966, he began his ministry in Thailand. His first challenge was learning the language. Then, for nine years, he cared for 12 villages strung along the Mekong River and inland.

His next assignment was in the Loei province, tending some mountain villages and also Hmong refugees in the Vinai refugee camp for six years.

In the early eighties, he built and staffed the Prince of Peace minor seminary, completing the building in 1982 and staying until 1984 when he returned to the Mekong River, staying until 1996 when he became rector and director of novices in Nongkhai in northeast Thailand.

Currently, Mike pastors four parishes. He has also established a hostel for Aids infected children called Sarnelli House in Don Wai. There are 36 Aids infected children in the hostel. Along with the Aids hostel he has a boys home called St. Patrick’s with 17 boys and a girls hospice called Viengkhuk Girl’s Hospice with 36 girls. These 53 healthy children have been orphaned and abandoned, usually because their mothers, dying of Aids were forced out of their homes because of fear of the disease.


The following is a paragraph from Fr. Mike’s Christmas 2002 letter to his friends and family.

“After 3 years with our kids, I have come to the conclusion that God made Christmas especially for children. Each year, after Midnight Masses at our four churches, kids in our hostels perform Christmas skits at the parties. This morning the Vienkhuk hostel girls told me excitedly that they are already having play practice. In their plays, the baby Jesus gets separated from His parents and never sees them again. He wanders from home to home, and the people refuse to invite Him to eat or stay with them. This achingly mirrors their lives before being taken in by us.”


Mike brings photograph albums of the children whenever he comes home, pictures of the children all dressed up for plays or playing or in school. They are all scrubbed and wide-eyed and beautiful. Someone asked him why he doesn’t show pictures of the sick children or as they arrive to invoke sympathy like some ministries do. He said that he lets the kids put the albums together and they want to put pictures of themselves and their friends looking good. Wouldn’t your children?



Last count, Mike said there are close to 100 children under his care now. The government is starting to send them now.

Have a good Wednesday. I'll be thinking of you.

Mary

It is raining. We even had a bit of thunder. Not as much as I was expecting, but enough to make Chelsea a bit nervous. She has not scooted to hide her head under the bed yet this year. I expect that will come. It seems to me that it was in July or August, the year I came to my high school reunion while I was still living in California.

As a matter of fact, the boys were still pretty young. Bret was maybe 10 and Bart 5. Anyway, a big thunder storm came up that was banging thunder and flashing lightening with unbridled fury. It was also hotter than the hinges of Hades. We were watching TV downstairs when Mother and I discussed whether we should turn it off the TV because sometimes TVs can be conduits for the lightening and dangerous. Suddenly, both boys thought it might be a good idea to just go to bed. What a night. Mother had put them in a bed together, but that night they both came in with me. One on each side in that awful humid heat. They commented on how close the thunder and lightening were with every clap and flash. We finally fell into a sticky restless sleep and by morning the storm was passed. I don't suppose they even remember it.

Hope you have a good week. Mine is shaping up to be very busy.

Love

Mary