Birthday celebrating, a new little child of God, favorite Catholic movies, and more (7 Quick Takes)

~1~

Today is my birthday! I just love birthdays. I enjoy everyone’s birthday, of course, but especially mine. I have no expectations for how we will celebrate, except that I am spending the day with my children and the evening with my husband, sons, and parents—and I don’t plan to cook dinner.

If that doesn’t describe a perfect day, I don’t know what does.

I suppose I could lament that I am getting older. But I’m grateful for every day I have with the people I love. I’m grateful for each of you for being part of this little community here. And I’m grateful to be 43—prime and insignificant and awkward number though it may be.

Yay for birthdays!

~2~

After almost 15 years of marriage, my husband knows me well enough to realize it doesn’t hurt to kick off the festivities a little early. So, we went to Valley View Farms last night and picked out a crepe myrtle for the yard.

Then we stopped by Rita’s Italian Ice for a treat. I’ll always be grateful to Rita’s Italian Ice for sharing my name. Before the chain opened, people didn’t always know how to spell “Rita.” Now it’s rarely a problem.

~3~

Our little niece was baptized last weekend! Our sons wanted to wear their tuxedos. I mentioned that it was going to be one of the hottest days ever and that maybe they would rather wear short-sleeved shirts. If you can’t wear a tuxedo to a baptism, though, when can you wear a tuxedo?

We arrived at the church to find it securely locked with all the guests and the new baby girl and her family waiting outside. Everyone was very, very happy to see the priest arrive with the key.

When the priest poured water over the baby girl’s head, she didn’t cry—which was no surprise. We would have all been happy to be misted with water at that point. The priest talked about how each of us should strive to be like this little baby, just happily soaking up God’s love.

That beautiful thought has stayed with me this week.

~4~

When I offered to bring something to the baptism party, my sister said, “Why don’t you bring some fruit?”

Nothing makes me happier than when someone gives me an assignment—and fruit and veggie trays are among my favorite requests.

I knew I wanted to do something related to Mary.

“Do you think I could make it in the shape of the Blessed Mother?” I asked our 9-year-old. “I could use blueberries for her veil and watermelons for roses at her feet and pineapple for her halo and….”

I saw my son’s face, and I knew his answer was no.

“You are pretty good,” he said, “but I don’t think you can do that.”

So, I settled for making a rosary.

~5~

As we were driving to the house we rented for our Long Island trip, we noticed signs for a shrine. It turned out that the Shrine to Our Lady of the Island was not far from where we were staying.

I always like visiting a new church when we are traveling, but we had another reason to go. We needed a baptism gift—and the shrine had a large gift shop.

So, one morning our older son and I decided to go to the shrine. It was a sweet place, full of greenery and outdoor beauty. We stopped in the chapel and found a few little gifts for our niece and cousin—a crib medal, a Mary statue, and a book of female saints.

When we went to Mass back in our own parish that weekend, we asked the priest to bless the crib medal for us. My husband, sons, and I held it while our friend blessed it especially for this precious little girl.

~6~

My godson called to interview me the other day about my Catholic faith. He asked me my favorite saint (St. Rita), my favorite Catholic movie (Song of Bernadette, followed by Miracle of Marcelino), my favorite Bible story (Mary and Martha, which turned out to be the Gospel last weekend), and a few other more difficult questions.

My brother has his children working on this interviewing project during their summer vacation, and I’m curious to see how it will come together.

Apparently so far everyone has named Song of Bernadette as a favorite movie. That makes me think I really need to show it to our children.

~7~

When we went to lunch with the cousins visiting from out of town on Sunday, I took a picture of my food before I started eating it.

“Why did you take a picture?” my 12-year-old niece Elise asked.

“Just in case,” I said.

“In case what?” she said.

“In case I want to include it in 7 Quick Takes,” I said.

And here it is.

Happy feast of St. Joachim and Anne! Read more quick takes on Kelly’s blog, This Ain’t the Lyceum, and have a wonderful weekend.

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