A Seven Quick Takes for St George's Day

Should I get to posting this today, an astute reader might ask, "But isn't St George's day tomorrow?" To which I would respond, "Great question, astute reader! I'll answer it shortly, but first, I must genuinely ask... who are you?? Because I noticed my blog has received over 3000 views since I've started it - and I know my sisters and mom can't possibly be logging in all that many views. Maybe you'd like to leave a little comment at the bottom? They're always nice." (By the way, hi Mom and sistahs! xo)

But yes, St George's day is tomorrow (or the 23rd, depending on when you read this) and the only reason why we're celebrating today is because we will have a very full day tomorrow that won't allow us to celebrate in our (now) traditional way. Yes, that's right, this is the 2nd year that we have celebrated Georgie's day so I think we can call it a tradition. Here's how it went down:

- 1 -

Woke up this morning and realized, "Nuts. We're supposed to be celebrating St George's day today" and quickly printed off some colouring (coloring) pages:

Maybe next year we'll actually finish one!

This year, the Spitfire was somewhat interested in actually colouring said pages! (And she also wanted to trace some letters of the word 'dragon'! I didn't even tell her that that was what the letters were there for! #proudmom)

- 2 -

We also had my niece over for a little bit this morning since she had no school. This resulted (as it so often does) in an impromptu dance party. Our soundtrack included America's "A Horse with No Name", the Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'" and ABBA's "Dancing Queen" - and lasted right up until Little Dude's morning nap.

(The Astute Reader now asks, "How does this have to do with St George?" Patience, dear reader.)

On finding all these songs on YouTube, it occurred to me that there might also be St George cartoons to watch as well! And there are! First, we watched this one - which is oh, so cute because children. With accents. (God bless you, wee Millie!)

But it wasn't received all that well (especially by the soon-to-be-9-year-old). So we found this one, which was liked *much* better:

However, I think we may have watched it one too many times, because tonight as Paul was putting the wee girl to bed she asked him, "I don't have to dream about the dragon do I?"  "No, honey, you don't have to dream about the dragon."  "I can dream about planes?"  "Yes, sweetie. You can dream about planes instead."  Bless her heart.

- 3 -

And that was that! Til dinner time, when I began to make our (now) traditional Cottage pie (not Shepherd's because we didn't use lamb, we used ground beef). I made a few changes to the recipe this year that I really liked:
1. added 2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables (a tip well-received from Under Thy Roof)
2. swapped out the onion for a leek
3. used gruyere in place of the sharp cheddar
Little Dude (when he finally decided to try it) made an absolute mess of himself gobbling it up - and the Spitfire required some coaxing but eventually choked it down. So... win! (Someone please tell me the feeding children thing gets easier...)

- 4 -

Normally, while cooking, I like to listen to a Pandora station I call "Mambo Italiano" but for some reason, it really didn't seem appropriate for today. (ya think?!)  So instead I quickly typed in the most English thing I could think of... "The Beatles" and that did quite nicely. But I also did a google search on "Music for St George's day" and surprisingly, there were a few hits! I'll have to look at them more closely for next year, methinks.

- 5 -

Table decor is not usually my thing, but this year I remembered I had red gingham cloth napkins (George is the Red Cross knight) - so I pulled those out. And earlier today I had seen on Pope Francis's Instagram that St George's day is his name day (Jorge == George, duh Sara!). So I quickly printed up a page of "Our George's" to hang by our table. Grandad, of course, topped the list. :) We lit our candle and said our prayers for them tonight.

If I really had my game on, I would have gotten a white candle. Oh well. Can't win 'em all.

- 6 -

Gotta love Cost Plus World Market to bring us all the comfort food from home! Blackthorn cider, McVities' digestives, Jelly Tots, PG Tips tea, a nice glass of Zin... (OK that last one was from Costco).

- 7 -

And last, but not least, in another thanks to Instagram - I learned that there is actually a Novena to St George:

St. George's day is next Saturday! This is one of our favorite feast days of the year! Mostly because it usually involves swords of some kind! Maybe I'm a day late, but there no official start day for the St. George Novena. So start it with me today and we'll complete it the day after his feast day. This novena bracelet was created to help us forgetful types, to keep on track through the 9 days! Day 1 “Faithful servant of God and invincible martyr, St George, inflamed with a burning love of Christ, you fought against the dragon of pride, falsehood, and deceit. Neither pain nor torture, nor the sword nor death could part you from the love of Christ. Pray for us, glorious St George, that through your intercession and example, we may work with all our strength for God’s greater glory, and continue unto death in imitation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Our Father…, Hail Mary…, Glory be…)

A photo posted by Shannon (@organicmamasshop) on Apr 16, 2016 at 5:37am PDT

Paul and I have been praying it since the beginning of the week - and I have loved it. It has really tied everything together for me - why we live liturgically, why telling (and re-telling) the stories of the saints matters, what this life is about. While the story of St George and the Dragon is clearly a fiction (the dragon part, at least), his virtues are not. And those are the virtues that I want my family (and myself) to strive for - or as another mama put it: I want my children (and myself) to have the courage to strive for the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. God bless us all as we seek to follow Jesus Christ - our highest good, truth and beauty!

St George, pray for us!

(and all the other goodly folks who write 7QTs over at This Ain't the Lyceum)