An Invitation

It's Holy Thursday.  After Mass tonight will be a time of adoration.  The Blessed Sacrament is moved to the side altar as the main altar has been stripped at the end of Mass.  We are asked to come back and sit in adoration.  The way I understand it, this is the time that we are the disciples who sit with Jesus as he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Since becoming Catholic, for me, this has been a poignant time in the Church year.

You go back to the church in the dark.  There are only a handful of people there.
The church is dim except for the lights on the side altar.

It's so quiet.  So quiet that every movement on the pew makes a noise that sounds amplified.  If you cough or clear your throat, you are sure it echoes out into the street.

It makes you aware of yourself. Not in a vainglory kind of way.  And not in a self conscious oh everyone is looking at me kind of way.  Just an awareness of yourself. 
And --- in your role as a disciple of Jesus.

Tonight we sit with Him.

It makes me relive the times I've waited. 

During this wait I get tired, as it's bedtime.  It's quiet and dark around me, it's bedtime, and I get tired.  Sometimes I've dozed off just a bit.

Just like the disciples who couldn't stay awake while He was praying in the garden.  just. like. them.

When my time is done there, I get up and drive home in the dark finding that my time waiting with Him has deepened, just a little, a place of stillness in my heart allowing me to just be.

So....That Month Slipped Away!

It's been a full month with family things and such.  I've still been making videos, but they are too long to share here.  I still need to explore all the options for online sharing.  I made one for my daughter's graduation party and one from clips I took back in 2012 for my husband's family.  Now that we have all our old films in a digital format, I was able to combine video with photos for Claire's graduation.  THAT was so fun to make!  The other one that I was happy, but sad to do, was my father in law's last Christmas with us in 2012.  

I've also been busy "catching up" in our basement.  Hoping to make some better semblance of what I decide to keep while also hauling a lot out of here.  I'm getting there! Spring cleaning at it's best!

I ordered a Shutterfly book for my daughter with her pictures and I have invitations ready to go too.  I asked my son to come and look at the book before I ordered it to see if he would have any suggestions to tweak it...three hours later, we ordered it.  Tweak we did!  It's so nice to have a second set of eyes look at something some days.

I posted one Senior picture back in September, and never got back to posting more so here are a few.

She loves to read.  

Actually, she lives to read.

You may have guessed we went to the farm to take pictures also.

There are quite a few more in this series too.  ♥ silhouettes!

This captures her pretty perfectly. 

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These last ones were taken back at our place.

I just love a moody photo.  And she does too.

Our pond as a backdrop.

She drives our old pick up which was Jim's which we bought in 1997.  ♥ So we took a few pictures with it too.

Now, with only a little over a week until Easter I'm trying not to let the busyness take over the beautiful reflective time of Lent that we can enjoy.

~have a great week~