• Travel

    La Purisima Mission

    Visiting a mission is like taking a tiny trip back in time. The dirt floors. The red, adobe walls. The clay tiled roofs and tiny chapels, decorated in gold leaf. Something about the past seems to linger there … drifting, perhaps, like dust caught in motes of sunlight. According to the Mission website, La Purisima Mission was founded in 1787 by Father Presidente Fermin de Lasuén. In those first few years, several thousand Chumash Indians were baptized into the Catholic faith and lived as a community on the 470 square miles of Mission land. Today, La Purisima is the “most extensively restored mission in the state [of California],” and hosts over 200,000…

  • Books + Tea,  Elevenses

    The Great Hunt + Montana Skies

    The crisp fall air is filtering through my window right now, and it makes me feel ready to curl up in a cozy sweater, with a blanket, a book, and a cup of something hot. Today, we will be reviewing Robert Jordan’s second installment of the Wheel of Time series, The Great Hunt, over a cup of herbal tea. Tea Review This week’s tea is called “Montana Skies.” It is a black and herbal tea blend with some distinct licorice notes. I’m not a fan of Anise in my tea, but the lightly floral flavor of this mix was surprisingly pleasant. Anise is a mild laxative, has anti inflammatory properties,…

  • Fashion,  Outfits

    Picking Pumpkins

    Last weekend, Brian and I took Clark to the pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins for Halloween. Every year we mean to get pumpkins for carving, and somehow it always ends up getting put off. Last year, we got our pumpkins on Halloween, and never ended up carving them! This year, we promised ourselves we would be a little more on top of things, so we made a day of it and took a family outing at the Schmitt Brothers Farms in Pasco. The farm has a whole slew of activities to offer, including a corn maze (which is haunted at night!), a petting zoo, and tractor rides. This year we…

  • Travel

    Jalama Beach

    Drive 20 minutes or so down a narrow, winding highway, and you will find yourself at Jalama Beach. It is not your typical California beach—laden with sun bathers and umbrellas. Instead, it offers a small respite, relatively isolated and steeped in rugged solitude. The skies were grey when we arrived, but the weather was not altogether unpleasant. Clark was napping in the car, so my aunt opted to stay behind and watch him while the rest of us headed out to dip our toes in the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean. The beach itself is long and quiet—soundless almost—except for the rush of waves and the cry of gulls.…

  • Books + Tea,  Elevenses

    Eye of the World + Lavender Tea

    The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan is hands-down one of my favorite book series ever. Which is ironic, considering I haven’t finished it. I think I’ve gotten about as far as book six or seven, but this series is such a commitment to read that I’ve never had the time to sit down and finish it off. Recently, I borrowed book one, Eye of the World, from a friend who insisted that if I was going to reattempt the series, I needed to start from the beginning rather than where I left off. Eye of the World is probably my favorite book in the series (I’ve read it at least 3 times),…

  • Catholicism Unwrapped,  Faith

    Prayer Positions in the Mass (Catholic Calisthenics)

    One of the things I hear people either complain about or be confused by during the catholic Mass is the variety of stances we as catholics through during prayer. If you are catholic—or have ever been to a Mass—you know what I’m talking about. Stand, sit, kneel … stand some more, kneel again, repeat. Like everything in catholicism, the different postures—often somewhat fittingly dubbed “catholic calisthenics”—that we take during Mass are not arbitrary. The fact of the matter is that we humans are physical as well as spiritual creatures. We pray with our bodies and the different postures during Mass are designed to help with this prayer. Knowing the reasons behind…

  • Crucifix
    Catholicism Unwrapped,  Faith

    July Devotion: The Most Precious Blood

    Our beautiful Church has a myriad of ways to remind us of Christ throughout the year. One of these is through the tradition of monthly devotions. The month of July is especially close to my heart. This month’s devotion is to the Most Precious Blood. To non-Catholics — and perhaps to some Catholics as well — this devotion is slightly grisly sounding. I mean, isn’t focusing on Christ’s blood a little too macabre? And why would we call something so…well, bloody…precious? To start, let’s define what exactly Catholics mean when they talk about “devotions.” What is a Devotion? A devotion in the Catholic Church is, at its core, an aid for…