Mojo’s Confirmation

We did not intend to have two Sacraments in one year, much less a week apart! But Mojo received the Sacrament of Confirmation on Sunday, June 14, a week after her sister received her First Holy Communion.

Mojo chose for her sponsor someone whom we’ve known for many years now, and whom she looks up to—one of our Sensei. He attends the Cathedral, and we often see him there when we visit.

He even wore a suit.

Mojo was thrilled to have some of her non-Catholic friends, from our dojo and from our homeschooling group, to come be a part of her special day. In addition, one of her oldest and dearest friends received the Sacrament of Confirmation with her. (I was impressed that her friend made her own dress!)

The veil that Mojo wore had been worn by her Aunts Karen and Becky at each of their First Holy Communion.

The Confirmandi

Besides her friends, this day was also shared by her grandparents and her Aunt Becky, who is her Godmother.

We were able to sit and visit with the bishop for awhile at the reception. It was an all-around beautiful, blessed day.
I will share my thoughts on receiving our Sacraments in the Latin Mass community in a separate blog post. For now I will say that although it was out of our way and at times seemed like a hardship (especially with two a week apart), we all agreed afterward that we were glad we did it this way. Not only was the children’s faith strengthened by receiving the Sacraments, but Greg’s and mine were, too.

Gem’s First Holy Communion

Our Little Gem made her First Holy Communion on June 7, the Feast of Corpus Christi, at St. John the Baptist Latin Mass community. This was the first Sacrament we received at the Latin Mass, so it was a new experience for all of us.

An altar server escorted the Communicants, one by one, to behind the altar, where they kneeled on the steps leading to the tabernacle to receive Our Lord for the first time.



Immediately after the Mass, we began our Corpus Christi procession around the block.



Then we took pictures and had a lovely reception.



After we took a family picture, we realized Mojo was missing. So we had to get another “sister” picture.



During the reception, the First Communicants were enrolled in the Brown Scapular. I was reminded of my own enrollment, by Fr. Bonaventure at the Marylake Carmelite monastery, and I have been wearing mine again ever since.



A few days before, Gemma’s grandma had sent the veil that her Aunts Karen and Becky had each worn to their First Holy Communion. We intended for her to wear it, but in the chaos of getting ready, when she grabbed her dress, she grabbed the veil that came with it. But when we got home, we got a picture of her in it.

I am uploading this now so that we can show pictures to our friends and family, but I will be coming back later to add our thoughts on the Latin Tridentine Mass and why we chose to receive our Sacraments there this year.

This Year’s Accomplishments

I’m behind on blogging. Again. This year has been a busy year for us. We are doing a lot more with homeschool this year and are involved in two new homeschool co-ops. I’m also doing more studying for professional growth at work. But I did want to take a minute to share some of our accomplishments.

MJ made the All-Region band this year--first band, sixth chair. I was proud to see that she was the only 7th grade trombonist who made All-Region.  And her All-Region band director was my high school band director’s son!

Two of my cubs were promoted in January. MJ received her purple belt, making her eligible to attend instructors’ clinics. CG received his green belt.
And I’m another step closer to a long-time dream of mine. I have completed 90 hours of lactation-specific education and 1000 hours of assisting breastfeeding mothers, and I have scraped together enough pennies to register for the IBCLC exam this July!

Family Fun

What we do without a television...


And while we practice archery, we make apple crisp in a Dutch oven. :-)

We Love Big Band

We took the family to listen to some live big band music and practice our dance moves. That silly boy of mine insisted on wearing a suit in 90-degree weather.

    
An elderly gentleman tried to photobomb our selfie; too bad we didn't capture him in the picture.

But the star of the show today was Ro. He impressed the ladies with his smooth moves. And I accidentally deleted the video of him dancing with me. Bah.