A Long Time Coming

Yesterday, my daughter and her family went to the Basilica in Baltimore to see our friend Rob and several others ordained as Deacon. Rob was in youth group at St. Jane Frances de Chantal in Pasadena, MD with my daughter many years ago. I have really watched this "work in progress".

The ordination was long time coming and I feel like I personally prayed him through Seminary! LOL  I cannot tell you how elated I was for him and the Church, not to mention that there were others being ordained Deacons on their way to Priesthood as well.

The Mass was perfect, full of the faithful all feeling the way I felt I'm sure. There was a packed house and even though we arrived 30 minutes early there were no seats to be had so we stood in the back. I'm telling you kneeling on cold marble  was grueling and I offered it up for the souls in Purgatory sending many I'm sure up to the pearly gates!

It ended up a blessing in disguise because when everyone sat down we were able to see everything.  I would not have had such a good view in the pews. God is good.

After the Mass there was a lovely reception at the Catholic Center. There were lots of folks there. The Mom's of the future Priests did a nice job. 

Rob was really busy greeting everyone but I managed to get in to congratulate him and have a photo taken.

Today Rob gave his first homily at Mass at St. Jane's church. I was very nervous for him but he did an awesome job and didn't miss a beat. Our Pastor Mgr. Carl was nodding his head and smiling the whole time.  Rob preached on the Trinity, not an easy one as he indicated. But he left me with a wonderful image of

the Holy Spirit as the Fire of Love. I never thought of it that way.

He's going to make a terrific Priest when he's ordained in December.  And if the others who are going to be ordained are even a little like him, we are leaving my 3 year old granddaughter, Evie and the Church in good hands.

Prayer for Vocations:

Father, we're your people, the work of your hands.
So precious are we in your sight that you sent your Son, Jesus.
Jesus calls us to heal the broken-hearted,
to dry the tears of those who mourn, to give hope to those who despair,
and to rejoice in your steadfast love.
We, the baptized, realize our call to serve.
Help us to know how.
Call forth from among us priests, sisters, brothers and lay ministers.
With our hearts you continue to love your people.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God forever and ever.

http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/prayers-and-devotions/prayers/prayers-for-vocations.cfm

The Eyes Have It

So today I had to visit the eye doctor to schedule my cataract surgery. I'm a little more than  nervous about all of this because my eyes are so precious to me as an artist.

I came home from the visit and I have done 2 sketches/studies, one of a girl and one of a guy. It's like I have to get all this stuff done just in case something goes wrong.

The good news is, is that he will correct my astigmatism and I also won't have to wear glasses any more. The bad news is in order to do that he will have to take my close up vision....so I'll have to wear reading glasses.

I asked if it will affect my paintings....he said his wife was an artist and he understands that blues will be more intense and white will have hint of pink or blue. I'm not sure how I feel about that but it might be interesting to compare new and old paintings I guess.

Surgery is August 11, pray for me please....so the "girl study" was done with dilated eyes...maybe I should just keep the cataracts and keep my eyes dilated.

The Benefits of Smiles

I came across this on the Maxine Facebook page.  I shared it last year and it popped up today in my Memory Feed. It still makes me chuckle. It so reminds me of me. My "resting face" makes me look angry so to combat that I try to always smile especially when I make eye contact with someone. Smiling does a couple of things: a) Makes me happy, b) makes other people happy, and most importantly c) it hides my mouth wrinkles.  A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

Image Source:   https://www.facebook.com/maxine/photos/a.167331877944.118063.153850792944/10154330950512945/?type=3&theater

Culinary Lessons of Life

I don't have a great track record in the kitchen. It seems though that every attempt at cooking teaches me something.  With this track record I wonder sometimes how it is that I'm overweight? Wouldn't you think if you mutilate your breakfast/lunch/dinner you'd be skinny? Maybe it's the eating out that I have to do because my food is sometimes inedible. LOL Here's some of my valuable culinary lessons:

Lesson 1: Make sure you don't boil over the gnocchi. Use a bigger pot, more water and for heaven's sake stay off Facebook!

Lesson 2: Bacon will NEVER get crispy in the frying pan. Ask me how I know? You must drain it. Leaving it in the pan just burns it. And don't try to feed it to the dog because even HE won't eat it.

Lesson 3: Use a deeper bowl to make instant oatmeal and use the plastic covers that you spent the money to buy.

Lesson 4: Pay attention to what you're cooking.  Make sure not to walk away from the toaster oven to flip through your phone. And, if you smell something, chances are it's burned.

I Saw The Sign....

and it opened up my eyes, I saw the sign
Life is demanding without understanding
I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes, I saw the sign
No one's gonna drag you up to get into the light where you belong
But where do you belong?🎶

So today I saw the signs....and it made me LOL....This is how you can BMore in Fells Point......

Holy Guacamole

It's been a while since I posted here. I need to get back into the grove. But I say that every year. LOL

Well for now, I can tell you what cool thing I did last week.  My second cousin Lori came to town. We went into Baltimore with a few addresses from my genealogical research on my Mom's family in hand. Then we went to those addresses and photographed some of them.

708 is to the left

We had a great time. The first stop of 708 Bond Street. My great grandparents Anna and Adam Schmidt first lived there when the immigrated from Russia Poland in the 1890s.  It was quite a surprise when we saw it was a bar, One Eyed Mikes. Lori took some photos and then stuck her head in there telling them what we were doing. People seemed interested so we went in and had a drink toasting Adam and Anna because without them immigrating to the US, we would never have been here! The owner told us it had become a bar in the 70's.  Who knew?  Turns out it is  World's First Grand Marnier Club & Liquor Licensed bar and it is the number one seller of Gran Marnier Liquor in the world.

 Looks like other families also rented there from the census records. I looked online and it has 3 apartments in the existing building. I wonder which floor our family lived on. They had 5 kids but the eldest was already married with a child so I'm sure she didn't live there.

Another stop was to 1814 Collington Avenue. That was one of the homes of great uncle Leon Schmidt. It was also the place where he shot a Baltimore City Police officer who later died. There are 2 stories. One is the family story and one is in the newspapers...I'll leave it to that. It looks like they were gutting it and modernizing it. I was kind of disapppointed but I'll go back at a later date when there isn't all that wood out there.

This photo has Lori taking photos while I'm illegally parked...yikes! Thank God it was a slow night in Baltimore or the police were preoccupied with more serious stuff so they didn't worry about the little offenses.

We took another 2 photos that I'm not sure now is the right address so I won't list them. I will when we do this again.

Me outside 224 S Madera St.

What an amazing change!

One of the really cool things was when we went to my grandmother Katherine Siwik Schmidt's little house near Patterson Park, 224 S. Madera Street. She bought it in 1961 after her husband Walter Schmidt passed away. They were living in Pasadena MD so she wanted to move back to the city.  The house as I remember it was flowered very old wall paper on the walls and a wallpapered ceiling, metal kitchen cabinets. Upstairs had 2 bedrooms and one bath but the bedrooms had no wall between them so you went up the steps and either went left to one or right to the other. She had painted screens and a metal monogram on the screen door that had a big S.

While Lori was taking photos the couple who was inside painting, reading it to rent, came out and asked what she was doing. She told them and they invited us in.  It was an amazing change as you can see from the photos. Everything had been gutted I'm sure. There was never exposed brick but I expect that came out when the plaster walls came down.  I walked around with my mouth open. It was beautifully modern. I was thinking I wish my Mom and Busia (grandmother) was alive to see those photos. Being back in that house brought me to tears. I'm so thankful. 

I was always the one in the illegally parked car! LOL

We were illegally parked again (it's an alley basically) but this time the Police found us. He sounded his siren so Lori went outside. She told him what we were doing and he seemed touched and was kind enough to allow her to go around the block and park again illegally.  I guess again we are small fish compared to what goes on in Baltimore these days.

Anyway...I wish you all a Happy New Year. My prayer and hope for you is that it will be a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous one for you.  Thanks for reading this.

A New Kid in Town

There's a new kid in town, Dennis Holcomb of Holcomb Arts on Etsy. Well actually he's not so new and not a kid but he is new to Etsy. He's one of my favorite artists who combines photography and painting with amazing results.


 So go check him out and if you are an Etsian, give his shop a little love with some hearts please. :)

Here's a link to Holcomb Arts on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/ shop/Holcombarts?ref=l2-shopheader-name