I received this absolutely beautiful Irish Blessing today from my irish father-in-law. I wanted to post it on my site, to stay here but don't know how to work flash with blogger yet.
SO, until I do please click on Traditional Irish Blessing and then click start!
What a great way to start the year with the beautiful pictures and music on this card...brought back some memories for Papa Swan and Mama Swan:-)
Showing posts with label Ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ireland. Show all posts
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Star Spangled Banner, Ireland and Kindergarten catching up with him
This morning went a little better than yesterday. It always helps when I get up at least a half hour before Matthew.
For some reason this morning, I decided to broadcast from my kitchen, radio live from Ireland. I get in these moods sometimes, and music is in my soul and keeps me moving, more than coffee.
Sometimes I broadcast from PA and it feels like I'm in my town driving by the river, through the mountains, with my brothers or father around me. It's funny. One time I heard from my kitchen in MA, someone related to my cousin (other side of the family) won $100. I emailed her to let her know. She didn't know, she wasn't listening. hehe
Every once in awhile though I like to listen to Irish radio, because it makes me feel like we are back in our rental car, driving through the western side of the country listening to the radio as we drove, watching the horse and buggy and the beautiful lush green countryside, listening to the brogue of the people as they talk really fast.
The people in Ireland are the most warmest people you ever want to meet. And Dad if you are reading this, since I haven't been to Italy yet...I can only talk about my experiences. I'm sure when I get to Italy, they will give me warm hugs and spaghetti and I'll never want to leave.
Matthew wasn't impressed though with the music, and still demanded I shut it off so he could watch Curious George while he ate his cereal.
But as he was getting dressed, he out of the blue said to me "Mommy, Remember that girl that sang at my baseball ceremony?" I said "Yes." He said "Why don't you sing that song?" I said "The Star Spangled Banner?" He said, "Yes." So I sang The Star Spangled Banner to him right there really loud in the bathroom.
My first singing request from my son, and he picks The Star Spangled Banner. hehe
Although he does ask me to play my Linda Ronstadt and Pat Benatar music, saying they sound like Mommy, so I guess he is definitely expanding his music choices.
On another note, yesterday after running a few errands, Matthew passed out in the car. Lately when he falls asleep during the day, I can not wake him up!!! I know it is from him still adjusting to his new long week. I know only five mornings, but still an adjustment from only three mornings last year and a summer of no mornings.
I carried him in the house from the car, all 50 lbs of him. I yelled to him, kissed his cheek, tickled him, put on Zaboomafoo really loud.
For some reason this morning, I decided to broadcast from my kitchen, radio live from Ireland. I get in these moods sometimes, and music is in my soul and keeps me moving, more than coffee.
Sometimes I broadcast from PA and it feels like I'm in my town driving by the river, through the mountains, with my brothers or father around me. It's funny. One time I heard from my kitchen in MA, someone related to my cousin (other side of the family) won $100. I emailed her to let her know. She didn't know, she wasn't listening. hehe
Every once in awhile though I like to listen to Irish radio, because it makes me feel like we are back in our rental car, driving through the western side of the country listening to the radio as we drove, watching the horse and buggy and the beautiful lush green countryside, listening to the brogue of the people as they talk really fast.
The people in Ireland are the most warmest people you ever want to meet. And Dad if you are reading this, since I haven't been to Italy yet...I can only talk about my experiences. I'm sure when I get to Italy, they will give me warm hugs and spaghetti and I'll never want to leave.
Matthew wasn't impressed though with the music, and still demanded I shut it off so he could watch Curious George while he ate his cereal.
But as he was getting dressed, he out of the blue said to me "Mommy, Remember that girl that sang at my baseball ceremony?" I said "Yes." He said "Why don't you sing that song?" I said "The Star Spangled Banner?" He said, "Yes." So I sang The Star Spangled Banner to him right there really loud in the bathroom.
My first singing request from my son, and he picks The Star Spangled Banner. hehe
Although he does ask me to play my Linda Ronstadt and Pat Benatar music, saying they sound like Mommy, so I guess he is definitely expanding his music choices.
On another note, yesterday after running a few errands, Matthew passed out in the car. Lately when he falls asleep during the day, I can not wake him up!!! I know it is from him still adjusting to his new long week. I know only five mornings, but still an adjustment from only three mornings last year and a summer of no mornings.
I carried him in the house from the car, all 50 lbs of him. I yelled to him, kissed his cheek, tickled him, put on Zaboomafoo really loud.
He got off the couch, fell to his knees at the couch and put his head down, and was OUT!!
He got a kick out of the pictures when he woke up! hehe
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Best Of Two Heritages - ITALIAN AND IRISH
Well, Mommy got her night out!!! Yeah!! Thanks to my good friend "TwinsMom".
We had a good time at the show. Cheryl Wheeler is so funny and her voice and guitar sound is so similar to Mary Chapin Carpenter who I love.
Before we went out, I visited with my friends mother in law for awhile and it was funny because on St. Patrick's Day, I found out she grew up in the North End of Boston. Little Italy. We talked about canoli's, ricotta pies and the just the wonderfulness of the Italian culture. I let her know I'm half Italian, half Irish, my maiden name means friend in Italian. This morning I emailed her my Grandmother P's recipe handed down to me from my cousin for what my grandmother called Easter Pizza.
The recipe was for 5 pies because she had 8 children and when the whole family got together during the holidays 5 pies was nothing. The recipe filling calls for 10 eggs, 3 lbs muenster cheese and 1 1/2 lb of ricotta:-) Talk about high cholesterol. The crust called for 8 more eggs!! LOL
It was so nice to meet someone who knew what that recipe meant to me. Someone who appreciates her heritage and the good food that comes with it!
One of the blogs that I love to read, that I just found the other night is about a nice Sicilian girl who moved from NJ to CA. She has a wonderful way of expressing her true self and her sense of humor is something too! We have alot of similarities in that she misses her hometown and appreciates little thing like the food in the area she is from. I miss my hot dogs with chili, fries with gravy and my mountains, not to mention my familia and also lost my mom in the last year. Visit her at http://www.acharmedlife.typepad.com/
Well, I told myself I was going to get us out today now that it is sunny, still only 25 degrees though! ugh!
I just wanted to mention though that the first thing Matthew said to me when he woke up this morning was, Mommy (smiling) I missed you!! Did you have fun with your band? LOL I reminded him that Mommy went to see another girl sing and that I wish it was Mommy and her band. It was so cute because he thinks when my father goes out when we are visiting him in PA, that he is playing with his band. (He can just be going out for coffee) And now he is thinking that with Mommy, yeah!!!!
I also wanted to mention that now that St. Patty's Day is over, I can also be proud to be ITALIAN!!!! OK....DAD!!! I know how my proud Italian father must have felt yesterday reading about Ireland, he wants us to go to Italy before we go back to Ireland.
We had a good time at the show. Cheryl Wheeler is so funny and her voice and guitar sound is so similar to Mary Chapin Carpenter who I love.
Before we went out, I visited with my friends mother in law for awhile and it was funny because on St. Patrick's Day, I found out she grew up in the North End of Boston. Little Italy. We talked about canoli's, ricotta pies and the just the wonderfulness of the Italian culture. I let her know I'm half Italian, half Irish, my maiden name means friend in Italian. This morning I emailed her my Grandmother P's recipe handed down to me from my cousin for what my grandmother called Easter Pizza.
The recipe was for 5 pies because she had 8 children and when the whole family got together during the holidays 5 pies was nothing. The recipe filling calls for 10 eggs, 3 lbs muenster cheese and 1 1/2 lb of ricotta:-) Talk about high cholesterol. The crust called for 8 more eggs!! LOL
It was so nice to meet someone who knew what that recipe meant to me. Someone who appreciates her heritage and the good food that comes with it!
One of the blogs that I love to read, that I just found the other night is about a nice Sicilian girl who moved from NJ to CA. She has a wonderful way of expressing her true self and her sense of humor is something too! We have alot of similarities in that she misses her hometown and appreciates little thing like the food in the area she is from. I miss my hot dogs with chili, fries with gravy and my mountains, not to mention my familia and also lost my mom in the last year. Visit her at http://www.acharmedlife.typepad.com/
Well, I told myself I was going to get us out today now that it is sunny, still only 25 degrees though! ugh!
I just wanted to mention though that the first thing Matthew said to me when he woke up this morning was, Mommy (smiling) I missed you!! Did you have fun with your band? LOL I reminded him that Mommy went to see another girl sing and that I wish it was Mommy and her band. It was so cute because he thinks when my father goes out when we are visiting him in PA, that he is playing with his band. (He can just be going out for coffee) And now he is thinking that with Mommy, yeah!!!!
I also wanted to mention that now that St. Patty's Day is over, I can also be proud to be ITALIAN!!!! OK....DAD!!! I know how my proud Italian father must have felt yesterday reading about Ireland, he wants us to go to Italy before we go back to Ireland.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Happy St. Patricks Day Everyone!
Well, we had between 6-9 inches of snow and then rain...so it is yucky out there. Eric and Matthew are going to go out ( I will go out in a little while) to try and dig us out. I'm hoping I can still make my concert tonight.
My friend called me at 8:30 this morning, and I told her just in case to have a back up plan. She said she will take her hubby if she has too, but still hoping I get dug out.
It wouldn't be so bad if my husband hadn't taken my SUV to work yesterday and then pulled down our steep and un-shovable driveway when he got home. This driveway is so steep that it is so hard to use a snow blower on it, because you could wind up with the snow blower on top of you from the weight of it.
For as many years as we have lived here, the plans for our addition have co-incited with plans for a new garage. The garage is so unsafe and is next to the steep driveway. Every year we say this is going to be the year that the garage comes down and a new one, and then a new driveway will also be done.
And I thought that having my new SUV 4 wheel drive would solve all my winter problems, but the last ice storm for Valentine's Day I couldn't make it up the drive-way. Pretty scary when you have a lake behind you when your sliding backward.
Anyway, I am going to make this short so I can also start on my Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner so at least we will have some sort of celebration today. We are very proud to be Irish. We would love to go back to Ireland someday with our son. Eric and I can't believe that it was 9 years ago that we were there and that his little cousin who was 3 then, named Shane would now be 12! Eric's family is from Moycullen, County Galway and we stayed for 2 days with them. They lived on the same land that his Grandmother was from. They had 4 children when we were there and made us the most delicious traditional Irish breakfast. They raised cattle for beef and even a bull was born while we were there that they name Hurlic. Shane couldn't say Eric, he said Hurlic so that is what they named the bull. They also mentioned that after we left they named a female calf after me as well.
We loved visiting with them and Ireland in general. We rented a car and stayed in B & B's and toured pretty much the whole western side from Connemara County Mayo down to Conner's Pass and the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula. I have been blessed to go to Alaska, Cancun, California in my life, but Ireland was literally God's country. We had just bought a few days before our trip a new camcorder and made the horrible mistake of not reading the instructions before using it. We have 24 hours of video without the landscaping mode on, meaning my beautiful green Ireland was gray!!! And it was gray when we were there, with rain, but 10 minutes later there would be sun, and green hills and daylight until 10 at night so if you didn't get nice weather during the day, you still had alot of time left at night to still enjoy it. It was so scenic, picturesque, and full of our heritage. The people were the nicest of anywhere I've ever been.
I will have to continue this another day. I have to get out and help Eric before he holds it against me:-)
I just wanted to say Happy St. Patrick's Day Mom...I hope you are having a pint with Uncle M and Grandma & Grandpa and maybe even on a cloud over Ireland watching the parade in Dublin.
My friend called me at 8:30 this morning, and I told her just in case to have a back up plan. She said she will take her hubby if she has too, but still hoping I get dug out.
It wouldn't be so bad if my husband hadn't taken my SUV to work yesterday and then pulled down our steep and un-shovable driveway when he got home. This driveway is so steep that it is so hard to use a snow blower on it, because you could wind up with the snow blower on top of you from the weight of it.
For as many years as we have lived here, the plans for our addition have co-incited with plans for a new garage. The garage is so unsafe and is next to the steep driveway. Every year we say this is going to be the year that the garage comes down and a new one, and then a new driveway will also be done.
And I thought that having my new SUV 4 wheel drive would solve all my winter problems, but the last ice storm for Valentine's Day I couldn't make it up the drive-way. Pretty scary when you have a lake behind you when your sliding backward.
Anyway, I am going to make this short so I can also start on my Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner so at least we will have some sort of celebration today. We are very proud to be Irish. We would love to go back to Ireland someday with our son. Eric and I can't believe that it was 9 years ago that we were there and that his little cousin who was 3 then, named Shane would now be 12! Eric's family is from Moycullen, County Galway and we stayed for 2 days with them. They lived on the same land that his Grandmother was from. They had 4 children when we were there and made us the most delicious traditional Irish breakfast. They raised cattle for beef and even a bull was born while we were there that they name Hurlic. Shane couldn't say Eric, he said Hurlic so that is what they named the bull. They also mentioned that after we left they named a female calf after me as well.
We loved visiting with them and Ireland in general. We rented a car and stayed in B & B's and toured pretty much the whole western side from Connemara County Mayo down to Conner's Pass and the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula. I have been blessed to go to Alaska, Cancun, California in my life, but Ireland was literally God's country. We had just bought a few days before our trip a new camcorder and made the horrible mistake of not reading the instructions before using it. We have 24 hours of video without the landscaping mode on, meaning my beautiful green Ireland was gray!!! And it was gray when we were there, with rain, but 10 minutes later there would be sun, and green hills and daylight until 10 at night so if you didn't get nice weather during the day, you still had alot of time left at night to still enjoy it. It was so scenic, picturesque, and full of our heritage. The people were the nicest of anywhere I've ever been.
I will have to continue this another day. I have to get out and help Eric before he holds it against me:-)
I just wanted to say Happy St. Patrick's Day Mom...I hope you are having a pint with Uncle M and Grandma & Grandpa and maybe even on a cloud over Ireland watching the parade in Dublin.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Prayers for Grandma in Heaven
I wasn't going to blog tonight since I am visiting with my father, but again Matthew's antics leaving me wanting to share them with the world.
This morning at 7 am while I was getting ready to leave for my long drive, he was so helpful and sweet. He made sure he found me by baseball hat so no one would have to see Mommy's real hair (which was so overdue for a cut and hideous). He held the door open for me on my many trips to the car and then gave me one final tight hug around the legs that could have just made me drop everything and just stay there in that moment all day. I had only talked to him twice today and each time he was so loving and wonderful, making my already hard trip so much easier on me.
Tonight while talking to my husband, he mentioned that Matthew was so tired tonight that he said "Daddy, I got good news, and bad news"...Eric almost dying from this announcement said "Well lets start with the bad news?" He said, I can't go to sleep without Mommy tonight (but he wasn't crying about it-just stating a fact). Eric assured him that Daddy would help him sleep...they got distracted and never got what the good news was.
When Eric took him up to bed, Matthew had his hands in prayer (which is something we might -regretablly shown him twice in his life). We usually just pray while lying in bed together. Matthew said, we have to say a prayer for Ringo. (our german shorthair dog that passed away when Matthew was 18 months old). Daddy, said...ok...how about a prayer too for Grandma (my mom)....Matthew said, ok....he put his hands together and said...Grandma playing with Ringo..some kind of prayer for both of them.
I am just so proud of my little man, adjusting to being without me and being so understanding right now and being so thoughtful and insightful at the same time. He really always has me in awe...
Tomorrow is our mass for my Mom and we will be going to her grave in the afternoon to put flowers on it and also spread our soil from Ireland. We had brought back soil in 1998 when my husband and I took a trip there. The soil was from my great-greatgrandmother's land in County Mayo. We will then go to mass before I head back to MA on Monday. I probably won't be on again for a few more days...
Good night.
This morning at 7 am while I was getting ready to leave for my long drive, he was so helpful and sweet. He made sure he found me by baseball hat so no one would have to see Mommy's real hair (which was so overdue for a cut and hideous). He held the door open for me on my many trips to the car and then gave me one final tight hug around the legs that could have just made me drop everything and just stay there in that moment all day. I had only talked to him twice today and each time he was so loving and wonderful, making my already hard trip so much easier on me.
Tonight while talking to my husband, he mentioned that Matthew was so tired tonight that he said "Daddy, I got good news, and bad news"...Eric almost dying from this announcement said "Well lets start with the bad news?" He said, I can't go to sleep without Mommy tonight (but he wasn't crying about it-just stating a fact). Eric assured him that Daddy would help him sleep...they got distracted and never got what the good news was.
When Eric took him up to bed, Matthew had his hands in prayer (which is something we might -regretablly shown him twice in his life). We usually just pray while lying in bed together. Matthew said, we have to say a prayer for Ringo. (our german shorthair dog that passed away when Matthew was 18 months old). Daddy, said...ok...how about a prayer too for Grandma (my mom)....Matthew said, ok....he put his hands together and said...Grandma playing with Ringo..some kind of prayer for both of them.
I am just so proud of my little man, adjusting to being without me and being so understanding right now and being so thoughtful and insightful at the same time. He really always has me in awe...
Tomorrow is our mass for my Mom and we will be going to her grave in the afternoon to put flowers on it and also spread our soil from Ireland. We had brought back soil in 1998 when my husband and I took a trip there. The soil was from my great-greatgrandmother's land in County Mayo. We will then go to mass before I head back to MA on Monday. I probably won't be on again for a few more days...
Good night.
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