February First Giving

The Eve of Saint Brigid was all about it being a Tuesday. Phew! How many times have we missed out on corned beef and cabbage because Saint Patrick’s Day lands during Lent? Well, we solved that problem. Our yearly dose of the Irish came on January 31st, and what fun! Irish ale, and eating corned beef and cabbage, weaving crosses, reading and telling stories, and celebrating with Irish (-ish) friends. Very fun. Truly fun. I think my husband even stirred up a batch of Irish coffees while I built a marble track with the munchkins.

But on the actual feast day, on this Wednesday, February 1st, we tossed all the festivities aside and made it a day of giving.

Well, first we had prayers, and a bit of school.

Then, while the little one did some chores, some cleaning, some getting dressed and all, I got to mixing. Look at this be-uuuuu-tiful dough.

And from the risen dough came the shaped loaves

and while the dough slowly rose

I wove two more small crosses. Just little ones, for little hands.

We baked the bread, pulled the five packages of gummy bears from the drawer (we bought them the other day at Vices and Spices), and took to the streets.

Two loaves of bread, five bags of gummy bears and two crosses–all for giving.

Here’s the rundown.

• My husband gave a cross and gummy bears to our goddaughter at church this evening
• Andrew gave a loaf of bread to RJ
• Mad gave gummy bears to Ashley
• I gave gummy bears to Austin on our ride home
• John Ronan and I gave gummy bears and a cross to the Keller boys while in the school parking lot
• And John Ronan gave one loaf of bread to a homeless woman and her baby at the library. That was the hardest. That one.

And that’s probably where Saint Brigid would have stayed. There, at the library, in the corner where the woman and her baby were ensconced. We didn’t stay, we couldn’t–we had gads of kids to pack into our car for the drive home–but I’m hoping that our prayer for her, that the bread with the prayers kneaded in, added something better to her day.

May holy Brigid pray for us.

Blessed feast, Everyone!

 

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2012–Preparing for the Feast of Saint Brigid

My husband and I are planning a menu for our favorite Irish feast of the year. Thankfully, the eve of Saint Brigid’s feast day, when we do all our cross weaving, falls on a Tuesday! Corned beef and cabbage, (and Irish soda bread) here we come…

Here’s the order of events:

Today! Order the wheat for weaving. For the last several years I’ve been so pleased with the wheat from Dale Scott. I order the starter kits (just $22 including shipping) and that’s all I need to make several crosses. You can also order one of her handmade Saint Brigid crosses. They are lovely…

Soon. Clean the house–especially take down the Christmas cards that line the back wall. (And, put away all the ornaments that are all over the coffee table in the living room. And… finish writing the last of the Christmas cards!) Oh, my.

January 31st. Have a party! Wheat weaving, Irish soda bread, corned beef and cabbage and a wee bit of Irish ale. There are great instructions on how to weave a Saint Brigid cross on this old post of mine.

February 1st. Bake bread and take it out into the community, Saint Brigid style. I’m looking forward to that day…

Note: If you’d like a signed copy of The Life of Saint Brigid to read to your munchkins or to send to some other child, just leave a comment or email me at jane@janegmeyer.com and I can sign and send you one. They are $15 including shipping if you contact me by the 20th of January. Otherwise, you can buy one from:

Amazon

Conciliar Press

Or order it from your local bookstore…

Or… you can simply listen to the book on my website–here’s the link to my page. There’s an audio file in the little swirly thing, read by my super favorite British accent friend, and fellow author, Chrissi Hart.

Happy upcoming feast!