Using MapAList I was able to plot the locations of all those who voted. They will have a Rosary color picked by friends from around the globe!

Here is a close up of the voters from the US.

Now it’s my turn. I need to make the Rosary!

The Wedding Lasso Rosary is an Hispanic tradition. The Rosary will have 2 loops of 5 Decades so the couple can pray the Rosary together. It also will be used in the Wedding Ceremony as Mary ‘places’ her arms around the groom and bride with one loop going on the groom’s shoulders and the other on the bride’s shoulders.

Here is the link to the Google Form. 

Please place your 1 vote by July 10th so I have plenty of time to make the Rosary.

I will be using the site MapAList.com to show where people voted from.

Thanks for helping!

If I’m lucky, I’ll come across a book from a list that I just never would have found on my own. I listen to On Point on NPR and Tom Ashbrook interviewed 3 people who shared their list of Summer reads. Here is the list. I don’t believe I would have found the book The Orchardist on my own. What a unique book!

The Orchardist

I also set a yearly goal for reading on Goodreads. For the past 2 years I have read 50 books each year. I’m not sure I will meet this goal this year. I had to suspend my reading after the Super Shuttle accident in Houston. I lost about 8 weeks of my normal reading time which was used as healing and getting extra sleep time.

But I’m back in the reading groove and it feels good!

Do you have a book to recommend?

Saturday was a day filled with dusting, vacuuming, windexing, and scrubbing. We were preparing for a visit from our future Daughter in Law and my sister, her husband and niece. Here is the fruit of our labor!

A Clean Buffet

What made this day especially sweet was that this would have been my father’s 81st birthday. I can still hear his voice saying, “Let’s get rolling!” When a big project needed to be done, he always made it fun. Getting our house ready for guests was a big project!

So what did we do after we finished cleaning? We went out for ice cream! What a great way to honor my dad. He loved ice cream. I have fond memories of going out for ice cream with my dad. He loved all kinds but Baskin-Robbins and Goodrich were the most frequent stops. As a little girl, I remember agonizing over what flavor to pick. Should I get Bubble Gum, Chocolate Chip or Chocolate? Dad usually stuck with Butter Brickle. Of course, as my ice cream began to drip down the cone, dad would always step right up. He would say, “Let me help you with that!” Then with 2 quick licks, my cone would be drip free. Of course, if it was a flavor my dad enjoyed, he would ‘help’ me a little bit more.

Goodrich Ice Cream

Thanks, Dad, for helping me with cleaning and remembering to celebrate after the job is done…with ice cream!

My husband walks, in our neighborhood, picking up trash. In the summer, it’s daily. In the winter, it’s just on the weekends. He has his special trash picker and several grocery sacks for the trash. We live by a public grade school, a baseball field, tennis courts, a public golf course with the golf course bookended by 2 parks. So, there can be a lot of trash.

He has found many interesting items in the year he has regularly picked up trash. Over this year, he has found $1.95 in change. But yesterday, he found a change purse in the middle of the road. The little purse also contained a driver’s license and a credit card. When he came home, I Googled the address on the driver’s license and found the phone number. I called her and she was thrilled! She just realized she couldn’t find her change purse. The last time she saw it was the night before. She lived close by so she drove over to pick it up. She was very pleasant and thanked us!

Now on to today’s story.

We were leaving our local home improvement center around 11:00 AM. Lying on the ground, by the passenger side of our car, was a credit card. So, my husband decided to take it into the store and have them handle it. As I was waiting for him, a young man came up to my car, and asked for money. He told me that he needed to get his son’s inhaler and was $4 short on the cost of the prescription. What was I to do? Usually, when someone comes up for money, I walk away and say I don’t have anything to give. But, I did have $2 and I handed it to him. He said, “Bless You!”

Today’s mail came with a surprise. The woman who owned the change purse sent us a thank you note. In this note was a gift certificate from a local pizza joint! She wrote a lovely note and was grateful that we returned her items.

That was dinner! Yippee! Now here comes the best part. When I paid for the meal, they accidentally charged me for delivery and I didn’t see that until I had walked back to my car. So when I walked back up to the cashier and showed them that mistake, they refunded my money.

It was two dollars!

After reading about the reason he took the name Francis after St. Francis of Assisi and how he asked that members of his diocese give money to the poor instead of traveling to his installation, I wondered what I could do locally. On the 3rd Sunday of each month, my husband and I contribute to a meal at our local homeless shelter, the Siena/Francis House. I thought that I would add a little extra to our contribution. So while I was at Costco today I picked up 2 packs of socks and some toilet paper. Not the most glamorous gift, but something my family can give in honor of our new pope.

When I got home, I happened to read my friend, Lisa Hendey’s Patheos blog. You can read her blog here. She was thinking along the same lines as I was! So now, it’s official. Everyone is invited to donate to the poor in honor of our new Holy Father.

Of course, with Social Media, we have to have a hashtag. What fun I had last Sunday following the #FakeConclaveTweets with my friend Fr. James Martin S.J. I even got in on some of the fun. Hashtags are the way to go. So the official hashtag for Tuesday, March 19th is #InHonorOf

My husband and I have a long history with our local homeless shelter. It was a few blocks away from the Jesuit university we attended, Creighton. When I first got to know him, he invited me to help him serve a Friday night dinner. That was one of our first dates and many dates after that! After he graduated from Creighton, he became a staff member for about a year. We were married after that. We have always kept contact with them by helping to make a meal. We started on the turkey crew and for 20 years we cooked and deboned a turkey for the 1st Sunday. More recently, we moved to making cole slaw on the 3rd Sunday.

How are you honoring our new pope this Tuesday?

My family loves to give food, or homemade items as Christmas gifts. Does your family do this? I’d love to hear your ideas for Christmas 2013. But after eating tonight’s cheese, we may send it again to the family.