Why I like St. Nicholas over Santa

It is amazing what people can do with animation these days, not one to watch with the kids around for some slight rough language and animated violence.

An Apperance in the Catacombs

Blogging has been slow for the past 13 days as Advent, work and family have kept me busy. I have taken lots of great pictures that I will have to upload sometime after Christmas with tales of everything we ran into along the way the past several days. I am working on Part Two of TIRM and just finished relocating the computer in the house.

I was suprised while I was standing in the middle of the grocery store listening to the Catholic Underground on my Sharp Zaurus (that's right a Linux based mini computer) when they mentioned one of my earlier posts on Rubrics for Toddlers. Check them out, Episode 62 mentions me, they are also now affiliates of SQPN.

Under the Mercy,

Matthew S

Have a blessed and Happy Christmas.

Lucia, Happy Feast of St. Lucia (Lucy)

Happy feast day baby girl. Find out more about this saint here.

Random thing Meme

I don't do these a lot but here goes.



I have been tagged by Lilder at Ummm, where am I?

Here’s what you do:

~ Each person starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves and post these guidelines.

~ At the end of the post, choose 8 people to be tagged and list their names.

~ Don’t forget to leave a comment telling them that they are tagged and to read your blog.

Have fun!



1. I tell cops what to do without fear, and they do it.

2. I am a ham (amateur radio operator).

3. I love to take pictures.

4. I work for the government (it sounds kinda mysterious when I put it like that).

5. I like to rock climb.

6. I was introduced to the joy of coffee drinking by an Irish born, Russian orthodox monk living in Oregon. They do have it for sale!!!

7. I love listening to podcasts!!! SQPN.com is the main source, but I have a feed in my sidebar that shows what is in right now.

8. Now to make sure its random, the most painful bruise I have ever had was inflicted by shotgun.



Now, I tag:

Dawn, the Zookeeper.

Jamie, aka Momma Lady

Jeff, the Curt Jester (though he has probably done this before)

Dawn Eden

Dan or Janet (maybe I should count them as 2)

The Simple Mamma


Under Her Starry Mantle

and lastly Domenico

Under the Mercy,
Matthew S

Latest Edition of the Catholic Carnival

Can be found here . . . take a look.


Under the Mercy,

Matthew S

Celebrating the Feast of Saint Nicholas

We are very blessed in our celebration of the Feast of Saint Nicholas this year. I was able to take my 2 holiday vacation days for the 5th and the 6th of Devember.

On the 5th I took the oldest two girls to the local Orthodox Cathedral for Great Vespers, Crafts and a visit from two people (it was the first time they were seen in the same place at the same time) to discuss the difference between them.

When we got home everyone went to bed, but not before setting out their shoes in the front room.




To our suprise we had a very special visitor to the house that night.




All throughout the day on the 6th, crafts we made.







Until finally we sat for a feast of Stuffed Pork Shoulder Roast, Roasted Potatoes, Peas and Dinner rolls. On the side was a special beverage of Bishop's Wyn.






At the end of the meal the dessert was prepared and brought to the table as a treat to end a wonderful meal.

A great time was had by all, hopefully you can join in the celebration next year!!!

At times I forget how blessed I am . . .

My oldest daughter is really treasure to behold. She has taught me many things over the past nine years. She is really turning into a wonderful and beautiful young lady.



At times I forget and take for granted how much she loves me. Her love language is some type of combination of acts of service and quality time. One of the things she told me the other day is that she turns on the two lights in the garage when she know someone is going to be coming home. I being a second shifter have long noticed the "two lights" being on in the garage. The garage door opener light comes on when I hit the button in my car but the "two lights" are also on. I have noticed that these lights are on when I come home for several weeks now. They have to be turned on by a switch inside the house by someone. That someone is my oldest daughter.

Even though she is in bed asleep (usually) by the time I get to bed she takes the time to turn those lights on for me. I had assumed it was someone turning on or off the lights in the dining room and accidentally flipping that extra switch but all along it turns out it was my beautiful daughter who loves me dearly and I love her too!!! Daddy loves his precious daugthers. I can't put one before the other but each of them have their own way of showing it. I love you and thank you Mary!!

Under the Mercy,
Matthew S

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas

IMG_4349
Originally uploaded by kc0lex@sbcglobal.net

We went to the local Orthodox Cathedral (one in every neighborhood, right?) for Great Vespers, crafts and a visit from you know who. The older two loved it. I will post more later, trying to put something together to show a good chunk of the season of advent.

Under the Mercy,
Matthew S

Six degrees from Mother Teresa to Darth Vader

So, one of my friends tied Yoda to G.K. Chesterron, really an amazing feat shown as follows:

1. Yoda was friends with Ben "Obi-Wan" Kenobi.
2. Kenobi was played by Alec Guinness.
3. In 1954 Alec Guinness played Father Brown in a movie that is either titled Father Brown or The Detective. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046970/)
4. G.K. Chesterton wrote the original Fr. Brown stories.

And to think, I never would have figured this out if I'd actually been sleeping.


Well, in the comments to this it was noted that this was an impressive accomplishement, a challenge was laid down:

That's fine... now connect Darth Vader to Mother Teresa. MWAH HA HA HA!

Well, my friend only felt it could be easily done using the Mystical Body of Christ.

Well, here it is in three degrees:

1. Mother Teresa was in the 1986 documentary about her narrated by Richard Attenborough.
2. Richard Attenborough was in Jurrasic Park with Samuel L Jackson
3. Samuel L Jackson played Mace Windu in Episode's 1, 2 and 3 with Darth Vader.

Well, that wasn't really hard but its funny.....with Yoda back to Chesterton we could do all kinds of interesting things.

Ok, done with the time wasting fun for now.

Under the Mercy,

Matthew S

Listen to Spe Salvi (mp3 format)

Thanks to the Curt Jester for this, I haven't listened to it so I can't vouch for it but it should work well knowing the quality of Jeff's blog.