Easter

Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.

Whew! I don't know how some people manage to blog every day. I intend to, but sometimes other things get priority. 

For the Holy Week Triduum (three days) I had the privilege of being in a small group, including our pastor, chanting Tenebrae at 8 a.m. on the mornings of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The psalms, dirges, etc. take about an hour and a half. They are beautiful, and someday I will try to explain them further.  Before I drove to church I had to feed the barn cat and the dog - I think I mentioned this before, but I've been so tired my brain is stuck in idle - check on the baby chicks and keets and give them fresh water and feed. After I got home those three mornings I had some breakfast, re-checked the babies, which need surveillance every 4-5 hours for a couple of weeks, and did some of the chores around the house. Errands needed to be run, help with cleaning up the rental house my daughter bought, items to purchase for said house, back to the chicks, gather eggs from the adult chickens, have a bite of lunch. I tried to catch up on  my daily prayers, but it wasn't easy. Late in the afternoon, besides checking on chicks again, it was time to give the hens their treat of scratch feed and maybe some greens or flax. Then it was time to fix dinner and get ready for Holy Thursday evening liturgy. I also sing in the choir for High Mass, so I did some practicing at home, and also practiced for the chanting the next morning.

On Good Friday, the same sort of things were done, except that the Solemn Liturgy was in the afternoon, so some of the chores, dinner, etc. were transferred. On Holy Saturday, it was the Easter Vigil Mass, beginning at 8 pm, with all the blessings beforehand, the new fire, etc., renewal of baptismal vows, Litany, then Mass.  My two daughters are unable to attend for the whole of the four hours due to health problems.  So, I didn't attend the whole liturgy, either, but got them there in time for the High Mass and took myself up to the choir loft again.We didn't get home from that until after 11 p.m.  Sunday morning I slept in until 6:30am before going out to do the morning chores. 

I had wanted to give a play by play of the triduum, but there was no time, and I'm still rather tired. This morning two of the chicks escaped their expanded enclosure ( I did take time to do that yesterday, of necessity, since they were getting too big for the small "corral" they had been in). I had to rig something higher around the enclosure that I could easily move to get to the feed and water containers. Anyway, today entailed getting more keet food and "food grade"diatomaceous earth to keep down bugs in the hen house and for a small supplement for the chickens themselves. We had to find a new bathroom cabinet for the rental house as well. My daughter was not feeling well and ended the late afternoon and early evening at the clinic. She was in pain and running a fever with diverticulitis. Chores were still to be done, but dinner was catch as catch can.

Chicks were tucked in and lights out except for their heat lamp about 7 pm. I wound up taking a nap and finally got around to getting a glass of wine.  It's 10:30 pm and I'm ready to get some sleep.  Maybe tomorrow will be more evenly paced and I can get back to a normal routine.  I may actually have a blog with something interesting to say.