Shortcut to Mushrooms

No baby yet, but my mom is coming Sunday and I can't wait to see her.

I had this strange dream that Matthew Gelise read my blog and sent me pugliese bread. Isn't that strange? What can it mean?

I don't know but my mom told me she would bring me a panetone, salami, and smooth smooth beautiful lavazza coffee when she comes from California bearing all the wonderful italian foods. I wanted to ask her to bring me an almond torta from the Victoria bakery in San Francisco (www.victoriapastry.com--warning--do not visist site if hungry) which is absolutley divine. It has a layer of rasberry jam at the bottom. But I didn't have the guts after asking her to bring out all the other stuff. Besides you can ORDER it from their website and they will ship it to you! SWEET! This is the same bakery that made my parents wedding cake too.

I spent the morning doing all kinds of fun crafts with the girls. We made a little gnome and a pretty angel out of wool batting and yarn for the new baby. My midwife had to cancel the pre-natal this week because she had a birth which was great because i didn't have to drive all the way down to Rockville for the check-up.

In other news I finally watched "Into great Silence" the documentary on the lives of the Carthusian monks at the Chartreuse monastary in the French Alps. All it takes is to watch this film, in all its silence, and quietude (no narrarator-no talking) to give you the best argument in the world for that absolute validity and necessity of the cloistered life for the greater Church. Probably the only reason modern Catholics question the value of this vocation in a time when the church is in such need of active vocations is the same reason the church has a lack of active vocations. In the austerity of the cloistered life, particularly that of the Carthusians there is a beauty so profoud that it gives us a glimpse of the peace and intense joy of the world that is so come.

Our culture bombards us with the message that this world is all there is, and when it gets right down to it you can live your life every day as if this world IS it or if it is NOT. The holy brothers of the Chartreuse definitley live their lives by that latter thesis and wow. . . . it is truly amazing.

Meanwhile i await the new baby who will soon end his or her great silence as soon as he gets some air in his lungs. What a starting feeling that must be.

Full moon is the 23rd. . . . .