An eye opening octave of Easter, and spring crafting as we journey towards Pentecost...

Hello all, and I hope you are well on this Easter Friday! I've been enjoying the season so, so much, and I've been continuing on with my journey in the Liturgy of the Hours. In fact, this was also the subject of my Catholic Mom piece for April. 

And here's something I didn't know! I guess I've never praying the Hours during an octave before, but...for Morning Prayer, you're literally using the same Psalms again and again from that particular celebration (Easter or Christmas) and praying them over and over for 8 days. Because the octave is a continuation of the celebration of that solemnity. That makes perfect sense, but I had not realized that that was how it worked before in the Liturgy of the Hours. One learns something new every day! It's one of the things that I love the most about our faith, the richness of the traditions and devotions. 

And my supplements came!

I am IN LOVE. 😍 The Dominican supplement, in particular, is fascinating in it's depth of coverage for all of the Dominican saints and blesseds. And for major Dominican saints, even where they're covered in the main breviary, the supplement has additional stuff for them (for example, the feast of St. Dominic is a solemnity in the Dominican order). Now that we're past the octave, I'll be excited to dive in when saints in the supplement come up in the calendar!

This has all been such a lovely addition to my daily routine. Now I can't imagine my days without the cadence of Morning and Evening Prayer. I've also been doing some crafting, and enjoying that as well. I'm working on a series of hats themed after the National Parks, one each month for all of 2021, and it is so delightful. I'm signed up to receive the kit each month with the yarn the designer chose specifically for that month's pattern. I am currently working on March, called Crater Lake:

I just love the rich blue shades in here! I am a huge fan of hats, I wear them all the time. Now that it's spring, the weather is all over the place here in WNY. Sometimes it's mild, but sometimes it's freezing (hat AND coat), or it's chilly, so I'll just wear a sweater and pop a hat on instead of bundling up with a coat. Works out well!

I'm also working on a cotton project (cotton is a favorite of mine in the spring and summer!) and making a bag to carry my yoga mat in:

The tube shape is underway! It's pretty simple, and works up very fast since it's crocheted. Ultimately, it'll have a drawstring tie and a strap to carry it on your back. I've needed one of these for years, so I'm glad that I'm finally getting to it! I'm trying to use up some of the yarn stash that I have acquired over the quarantine period 😬 and this lovely orange sherbet cotton is one of those additions. We're getting there!

How has your Easter been going? Any spring projects that you've started? Let's hear about them in the comments. :-)

Morning routines and LOTS of teaching...

*waves*

Short post today, friends, as I am in my annual fall teaching frenzy, which lasts through next week. Doesn't afford a lot of time for other things during the day, unfortunately! BUT, I mentioned my my Catholic Mom piece for October last week, and it is in fact up and on the site! This month, I chose to write about my attempts to construct a morning routine for myself despite having lost all of my normal pathways due to the pandemic, which has been instrumental to turning my emotional malaise around. 

In other news, my teaching is...going. :-0 It's actually going pretty well, but I'm about to embark on class #18 of the week, if that's any indication of my level of punchy exhaustion. They're all on Zoom, which isn't exactly the funnest thing, but it's what it is. Next week I think I have...11 or 12? It's a bit less bad, but still fairly intense towards the end of the week. I'm planning some fun stuff for after these two weeks are fully over, which I'm excited to write about when I have brain cells back again. I do miss those dear brain cells! They involve dancing, the Nutcracker, and seasonal coffee blends. I bet you're intrigued. 😁

How are you doing, dear reader? Any new books to recommend or fun weekend plans?

A perpetual novena? And misadventures with Zoom...

Hello all, and I hope that your week is wrapping up nicely. 🤗 I feel stressed, no big surprise, but hanging in. Things at both schools are still going well, and I guess (?) I've adjusted to working from home. It helps not having the kids here to entertain at the same time, to be sure. But the other side of the coin is that I'm lonely. I like going to my office, and seeing my colleagues. I miss them, and I miss the students. But we've been told to be prepared to not be back on campus for another year. I have to admit that I didn't take that news so well. I've felt down all week. This is all just so unnatural. I'm doing the best I can.

To top it all off, I started my teaching this week, and this year it's all on Zoom. Nothing like demoralizing bouts of screenshare fails and non-responsive audio to make a girl feel special. :-0 I did not enjoy it, to be sure. I will say that the second class went much better than the first. I got the sound issue fixed, and I experimented more with the screensharing ahead of time to troubleshoot the problems I was having and became much more adept with it. It still feels weird to only communicate with people through a screen, but it was a bit less bad. For now, I think that's as good as it's going to get.

To cheer me, I've been novena'ing up a storm. My piece over at Catholic Mom this month is about potential novenas for fall/winter 2020 (feast days that don't fall on Sundays being my criteria), and I'm pretty much planning to start a new one anytime I finish one up. I'm currently praying the St. Jerome novena, and I ended up adding in the archangels. I have the Pray novena app on my phone, and it sent me a notification about that one, so I figured, what the heck? It pushes the prayers to me every day, so it makes that one incredibly easy. If you do not already have that app, I highly recommend it! After we wrap up St. Jerome/archangels, I will be wanting to start a new one. I'll let you know which one I decide on! If you have a recommendation for early October, please let me know!

 I wanted to pray the St. Therese novena, and maybe *start* on her feast day rather than conclude on it. Thoughts? Or maybe we could select another from the list. Let me know what you think, along with how you're doing, in the comments!

Happy bursts of creativity, and summer reading mode...

Happy Friday everyone! Last week, I just...forgot to blog. :-0 That is very unusual for me! But my mind was actually pre-occupied by the creative projects I've been working on, and combined with the daily parts of our lockdown life that we've finally gotten used to (homeschooling, working from home, dance and fitness classes in our guest room, hee!) it just slipped my mind until Friday evening. But I'm happy to say that I have settled into this situation a bit better and my mind is often now in a serene and creative place, and so things slipping my mind lately are a result of that, and no longer related to anxiety and depression, which I see as a very good thing!

I've been crafting up a storm owing to the Knit-along and Crochet-along that I'm participating in, both shawls. They are both arranged in blocks, and as you finish each block, you post a photo in the Ravelry group and are thus eligible to win a prize. It's very fun! The Knit-along shawl is particularly spectacular, and is called The Journey:

Pattern is "The Journey" via Expression Fiber Arts

So far, I've knit the segments called Cabin of Complacency (see the little cabins in the green section?), and Forest of Fear (leaves are my favorite!), and am about halfway through the River of Doubt:

This is a very rewarding project to make your way through. The yarn is an alpaca and silk blend and is quite warm and heavy, so sometimes I have to put the project down depending on the weather. :-0 But I'm loving it!

The crochet shawl moves along very quickly, as crochet is wont to do. I have 4 of 5 blocks done. This one is called the Renata shawl:

"Renata" shawl via Expression Fiber Arts

I'm calling mine the Spring Blooms shawl based on the colors I chose:

I just have the light green final segment left to go, and I'm aiming to complete that this weekend! The details in each section are really delicate and lovely:

I've also been a busy bee with writing, and my Catholic Mom piece this month on summer reading list themes. Yes, themes. :-0 This summer, I'm reading lots of cozy fiction, and there is also an intriguing biography in there about a prominent Catholic author. Check Catholic Mom next week for all the deets! If you have summer reading plans, I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

We all need our friends right now, even if we can't see them in person...

Hi all! This will be a quick check-in for the week, as if I'm being honest, things aren't so great right now. I'm worried sick about the kids, who are struggling mightily with being cooped up in the house all the time, and with zero routine or social interaction with anybody but us. We're all struggling with it, and there are no easy answers. This isn't to complain, just to say that my time is pressed quite a bit right now giving them the attention that they need. 

What I'd like to do is come up with a posting plan/theme for Easter season, and that'll take a week or so. In the meantime, my monthly post is up at Catholic Mom, and it really speaks to what is on my heart right now:

Even though I haven't seen my local friends in over a month, their presence in my life has been joy-giving to the utmost. Checking in with differnet groups of them each day has kept me sane and given me little smiles to look forward to throughout each day. It means the world to me.

I'm performing in an online dance show this weekend, that should be...interesting, and perhaps fodder for next week. :-) I'm not used to dancing for an "audience" in the middle of my living room, to be sure. But that's been a welcome distraction. In the meantime, hang in there, everyone. Each week perhaps I'll spotlight some small joy that we can revel in while we are at home? My wheels are turning, for sure. :-) Do you have any ideas for the blog community this Easter season? Drop them into the comments!

Reflecting on reflecting... ;-)

This week, I had a slight break in my busy teaching schedule (2 of the next 3 weeks are going to be quite unpleasant), and so I disciplined myself to work on my 2020 Gospel Reflections for CatholicMom.com. I've been a monthly contributor for Catholic Mom since 2015, when I met Lisa Hendey at the Catholic New Media Conference in Atlanta. I have such happy memories of that event, and everything associated with it, so that whenever I settle in to write one of my contributions, I think back on that time with a smile on my face. Some months, it's a rush to come up with an idea for a piece, but I've never missed a deadline.

I've also been a member of the Gospel Reflection team for the past several years. That involves taking on 3-4 short reflections that will appear on specific dates throughout the following year. I really enjoy those, because preparing for them means that I need to settle my mind a bit, read some scripture, and reflect on what that specific set of verses mean for my life at that particular point in time.

Each time I sit down to write a piece for Catholic Mom, I think about how lucky I am to have not only my faith, but the community that surrounds it. We are blessed to have a large, readymade group of friends to share our lives with. And each time I start typing up my contributions, I think about you all as I write them: What are we all going through right now, and/or what would you like to read about? I do tend to theme my pieces by the current season, liturgical and otherwise. Writing these really helps me to prepare and settle into the different milestones on the liturgical calendar, as well as the changing weather and seasons in my life: my kids getting older, changes in my job, etc. It seems like such a small writing gig, but it has been monumental for me personally as the years have gone by. You can check out all of the pieces I've written for them, including the Gospel Reflections, via my author page. :-)

This month, my piece isn't up quite yet (next week!) but it deals with birds. Yes, I know that must sound like a strange topic choice for Catholic Mom. :-0 But they give give us a lot of leeway on what to write about, because they want the pieces to be personal, and relatable. I wrote about birds because Anne and I love to birdwatch, and it's something that she and I share right now. Anne has been resistant to praying with me for a little while now, and I talk about that in the article. We share together when we watch birds, and it's an important bonding and emotional connection for us. I've also been finding it difficult to pray myself lately, as I've been experiencing a spell of spiritual dryness. This is cyclical thoughout my life, as I think it is for pretty much everyone. And it's lovely that I can express what I'm going through spiritually, even when it's not particularly exciting.

So be on the lookout for a piece on CatholicMom.com next week with an American robin as the featured photo. ;-) I love writing for them, and I can't wait to see what next year holds in terms of my writing inspiration! *beams*

Is writing a way for you to reflect on your own spirituality as well? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

More holiday plans, Catholic Vitamins, and Preparing for Advent!

Happy mid-November to all of you! How are those holiday plans coming?!

😬

We're getting there, I promise. Let's do a quick round robin of the past week, and then talk Advent planning!

Last week we talked a bit about The Nutcracker in it's film adaptation, and although that doesn't replace a live performance, I was thinking about skipping that this year in the interest of time. However, Anne and I agree that it just wouldn't be the same without dressing up for our annual pilgrimage to the Center for the Arts here on campus to see a local production of The Nutcracker. So I'm procuring tickets for us later this week. These are special memories that I hope Anne treasures as much as I do!

Every Thanksgiving season, I look forward to the feast of St. Cecilia, and I talk about that for my November offering over at CatholicMom.com. I'd love for you to check it out and comment over there if you also have an interest in, or devotion to, this lovely saint! I think of her so fondly at this time of year.

In other Catholic news, I was on the Catholic Vitamins podcast this past week, along with Allison, talking with the positively delightful Deacon Tom Fox about the Stay Connected series of journals. Allison and I each also talk a bit about of faith journeys and some amusing anecdotes along the way. We'd love for you to give it a listen as we approach Advent!

OK, so Advent, the big news around here right now. ;-)  I received positive feedback on using my journal, Exploring the Catholic Classics, for our Advent Book Club, and I'm so excited about this! I'm thinking we'll work it like this:

Everybody procure their books in the next 1-2 weeks, and we'll start our posts the weeks after Thanksgiving. You can order on Amazon for $14.95 (eligible for Amazon Prime 2-day shipping), or via GraceWatch Media for $11.90 and free shipping with coupon code GRACE15.

Posts will be one per week, starting Thursday November 29. There are more chapters than there are weeks we'll be meeting, so what we can do is tackle 2 chapters per week, but let's keep it light. You can work through the journal at your own pace (which is what it's designed for!) but each week I'll post one of the excerpts from each of the 2 chapters, along with one of the reflection questions that speaks to each passage. We can all discuss our answers to the questions. :) Then you can go back to the rest of the content during the week, or another time altogether, your choice. Here's the schedule!

• November 29th - Chapters 1 and 2
• December 6th - Chapters 3 and 4
• December 13th - Chapters 5 and 6
• December 20th - Chapter 7

I think that this will keep us nice and grounded during Advent for a contemplative and serene experience. 😇 Are you planning other devotional activities for your Advent this year? I'd love to hear about it!

ooo, P.S. I'm sort of feeling a fiction book club after Christmas, maybe a Winter Book Club installment? Lent doesn't start until March this year, so perhaps we could do something in January or February for this, inspirational or secular fiction is what I'm thinking. Thoughts? :)

Fall teaching begins, and book club news!

Well, well, well, here we are at the start of my teaching for the fall semester, we're nearly done with the week, and I'm still alive, hooray!

🎉

So far, so good. Our lesson on identifying and evaluating source types has gone over exceedingly well (I know it sounds dull, but trust me, we've spruced it up to be fun :0), my students have been angels, and I've felt meaningful poignancy after each class. There is no way that this will last for the entire semester. 😂 But hey. I'll take it!

In other news, the fall CatholicMom.com book club has officially started, and I am SO honored to be a part of it all!

You all know that I am a huge proponent of a good book club. We're not having one here on the blog until Advent, so if you have a hankering for one before then, why not jump in on this one? The author interview is up, and there's definitely still time to download the book and wade in! It's very friendly and accessible reading for a non-fiction selection, so you'll be caught up in no time! If you'd like to participate, take a peek over at the main book club page, where you can find all the posts linked as they go up, and a there's also spot to sign up for email reminders on all book club posts! My post on chapters 1-5 goes up this Saturday.

*halo*

I really think you'll like this book. The author provides personal anecdotes that are incredibly relatable as she addresses 15 lessons she's learned in her relationship with God. For example:

"It's Going to be OK" - On the Power of Prayer, and
"No One Said it Would be Fair" - On Accepting our Crosses

I really enjoyed how she arranged the book. And this is my favorite style of non-fiction, with a personal narrative woven into larger spiritual wisdom. I enjoy taking on and trying out new things with the changing of the seasons, so maybe this will catch your fancy this fall!

Next week, I'll have a dance post for you as I'm headed to Toronto to take a workshop with a very well-known dancer, and perform in the gala show! My nerves are all atwitter!

Books and Back-to-School on the feast of the Assumption...

Books still available for pre-order!

Well, happy feast of the Assumption, everybody! I'm going to be honest and admit that I was dragging a bit to get myself to Mass today. I had planned to go to the 8 am at my parish, and well...

😳

Let's just say that didn't happen. 😂 Plus, I had a meeting at 9 am (that I had forgotten about, OOPS!) and so I would not have made it back for that on time. I was all rushy rushy, juggling my lunch, various morning beverages, and gigantic bag (Mike: "has this gotten bigger?! Me: "Well, yes. Didn't you see the big package that came yesterday with my new bag in it?" 😇) to get into the library and throw aforementioned stuff down before heading to the meeting. The meeting wrapped up at 11, and luckily there is a parish near campus with an 11:30 am Mass. Honesty time again: I did not feel like driving over there, but I did it anyway, because I knew that it was the right thing to do, and sure enough: BAM. Outstanding experience. I mean, the Eucharist is there, what more do we need, right? But the priest also had a beautiful homily about a statue that he had seen recently of Our Lady being assumed into heaven, and how it was different from other common images we see of Mary, wherein she is clasping her hands, or holding them extended downward. In this particular statue, she was holding her arms up, her gazed fixed upward towards heaven. He spoke of this posture reminding him of faith, hope and trust, and it really touched my heart. What an excellent feast day blessing.

In other news, I see from my Facebook feed that mid-August is officially back-to-school time. My kids don't go back until after Labor Day, but still, there is a definite back-to-school feeling in the air, yes? My piece for Catholic Mom this month reflects that this important change is very much on my mind this year (it's a focus on St. Vincent de Paul as a patron for our little back-to-schoolers!). My babies are going into 8th and 2nd grade, respectively. I mean:

😭

I can't believe that this is really happening. Henry has just one more year in the same school as Anne, and then he will be off to high school. This does not seem possible. I mean, just yesterday, he was toddling into our bedroom in the morning in his footed sleeper, to curl up with me and watch that creepy show with the hands until he had to get dressed for daycare.

😭

I guess I'm at that point in life that I just never foresaw. I saw myself getting married and having kids, by which I mean LITTLE KIDS. They are NOT SUPPOSED to get to be 13 years old and go to high school!

*blink blink*

I'll make it. Sometimes real life just seems a bit surreal.

Also this August, pre-orders for the Stay Connected journal series that I am a part of are open for only a few more days! I wanted to post about this again because the publisher decided on a final retail price for these initial 3 books, and they will be $14.95 each. The pre-order price of $9 per book, or $25 for the initial set of 3, is an INCREDIBLE bargain! You can also get my book in bulk quantities (3, 5 or 10 copies) for up to 50% off right now for a Bible study group, and now is the absolute best time to pull the trigger on that due to the price break. 10 copies for $60! My book focuses on spiritual reading, and pulls out excerpts from some classic works of Catholic literature for us to study together. Quick promo video for your leisure time! 😃

It's been such a pleasure to work with Allison Gingras on this series, and I am SO EXCITED about the full launch on October 1st (feast of St. Therese, she's featured in my book!) and doing some traveling to promote the book. Details to follow when I have them!

*streamers*

In the meantime, how is your back-to-school season going? Any fun plans for fall? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

Because we all need more saints in our lives :0

I don't know about you, but I need a LOT of them. Like an entire army helping out my guardian angel in the background. I forgot to link over to my Catholic Mom piece for September which talks about our own personal list of saints. Baptismal saints, confirmation saints, saints who lift you up, saints who have your back. ;-) If you have your own list of saints, I'd love to see it!

Because seriously. This is my life right now:

"Please log in and check your group assignment. It is listed on the left navigation menu, in the blue section, as 'My Groups.' Select that link, and then you'll see the name."

*distracted silence*

"Wait, what? Where do we go?"

"Log in. Open up your English course. Look at the left navigation menu for 'My Groups.'"

*more distracted silence*

"Where? I don't see it."

*re-pointing occurs*

"Oh. It says My Groups."

"Precisely."

"OK, but how do I find my actual group?"

*prayer for eternal patience*

"You must *click* on it."

"ooohhhhhh!"

My week. My entire week. 8 times already, with 168 students. 3 more incarnatiions to go.

😠

Because the thing is, it's not that these students lack intelligence. They're just perpetually not paying attention, and/or using creative curiosity. Sometimes to figure things out and find things, you need to look around and try things. There is an unwillingness to exert any effort in that direction that myself and my colleagues find most frustrating.

Frustrating. Have I mentioned how frustrating this week has been?

I recorded a Tea Time, horray! Lots of news coming. It should be out on Friday!

June novena nerds, report in!

My latest piece over at Catholic Mom is up, and it got me to thinking!

Novenas. I like to pray one per month, and I was slacking on June. ;-) It's always a humbling experience when you see Lisa Hendey tweet something out about a new article over at Catholic Mom, you admire the embedded featured photo, then think to yourself: "That sounds like something I would like to read." And only then do you remember that YOU wrote the article.

Middle age, peeps. It's the pits. 😄

So that's what happened again this month, and along with my hyper organized, early submission of aforementioned article, I also forgot to set things up to pray the Sacred Heart novena along with my group of friends like we had been planning.

Oopsies!

We're back on track now. And the novena starts TODAY! Pray More Novenas is hosting this novena, so you can sign up to receive the daily emails with all of the prayers included, happily. I also tweet a link out to the prayers each day, so if you follow me on Twitter you can follow along that way as well. I put the Twitter widget back on the right sidebar of the non-mobile site for the blog, so you can link to it right on there if you'd like. I remember someone asking me about that widget a while back after I removed it (Cindy?) and I've been toying with putting it back, so now here it is, back. :0 I know not everyone uses Twitter, so this way you can still see what I'm up to on there even if you don't have a Twitter account.

The feast of the Sacred Heart is next Friday, June 23rd. I talk all about it over at Catholic Mom, if you'd like to go take a peek. We love comments over there!

Winter inspiration and planning mode...

Happy Wednesday everyone! This morning, I was thinking about how pleased I am (and unexpectedly so! :0) with how much response I got to my January piece for Catholic Mom:

I guess I wasn't prepared for how many people have a devotion to St. Francis de Sales! He's a very quiet guy in my mind, that St. Francis. He's not the OTHER St. Francis that everyone always talks about. This Francis's feast day is in January, when everyone is bemoaning how much they loathe this post-Christmas winter time of year, and I think he gets overlooked a lot. I found him because he is the patron saint of writers, and for the past few years I've prayed his novena in mid to late January. When I write for Catholic Mom, I tend to write pieces that are very tied to the seasons and/or liturgical calendar. Last year I wrote about the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, so this year I switched over to St. Francis de Sales, whose feast is January 26th.

A few things resulted from all of this. First, I did set up the page for the St. Francis de Sales novena, which starts this Sunday January 15th, so if you'd like to join in, please do! There is a link on the page to the daily prayer, and we can be praying in community! I have a group of friends set up to pray it, and it will be all warm and fuzzy. The other thing is that in the comment discussion, I found out about a book based upon St. Francis's writings and philosophy towards holiness. The book is this one:

...and I have to say, I got rather intrigued after reading the sample. I think this would be a very useful book for me during the semester crunch that proved so crippling to me in the fall. I'm thinking that this may provide excellent journaling fodder for us during this stretch of Ordinary Time before Lent. Indeed, we still have some time before Lent, as Ash Wednesday isn't until March 1st this year.

Thoughts? St. Francis de Sales had a very understandable, relatable vision of holiness for laypeople. I like his everyday occurrences view of how we can become happy and holy. Let's just say that after Barb alerted me to this book in the comments over at Catholic Mom, I innocently added it to my cart over at Amazon, and then by the end of the day, had checked out. :0 It's now winging its way to me, and will be here tomorrow.

😇

Do you want to read along?! There is also a Kindle version available, so an instant download possibility. Right now, the book is $11.99 in print, or $9.99 for Kindle, over at Amazon. Take a look at the preview, and let me know your thoughts!

*Fun side note! If you would like a St. Francis de Sales rosary like mine, Allison currently has it listed in her Etsy shop, and use coupon code CATHOLICMOM for 10% off!

Anticipating Advent anew...

Happy Monday all! Just a quick pop in to let you know that my Catholic Mom piece on Advent traditions is up over at Catholic Mom:

Now that Thanksgiving is next week, I'm *really* starting to think about Advent. And indeed, there is a lot on my mind of late, which I'm sure is also the case for you. The weekend was jam packed between the party and my dance performance, I can talk about that more tomorrow. But until then, let's let our minds drift to the coming liturgical season, which I look forward to each and every year. If you'd like to chime in on your Advent traditions, come join me over at Catholic Mom and leave a comment!

"Wait, what day is it?!" Publicly losing one's mind, but hey, 54 day rosary novena to look forward to!

Hi all! I meant to blog yesterday. I really did. But the day just...got away from me. I had two classes (the first of which was incredibly awkward owing to the fact that the majority of the class appeared half dead. I had to *physically wake up* 2 of them before the lecture even started, that's what we were working with here :0), plus Pilates at lunchtime, plus a bunch of student emails to answer and send out, and before I knew it, I was home frantically pouring a glass of wine to unwind and I realized that I hadn't blogged. Though I had meant to. D'oh.

Want to know what else that I forgot? That I had a piece come out with Catholic Mom yesterday. :0 I'm telling you, things are a BLUR for me right now, it's quite epic. That's not necessarily a good thing, but it is what it is. I'm taking one day at a time, and it's been going much better.

In the meantime, click on the graphic below to follow me over to Catholic Mom to discuss...54 day rosary novenas!

*streamers*

 

After a long day of teaching yesterday, I was super pleased to see that someone tweeted about my Catholic Mom piece. That's what reminded me that it existed. ;-) Then I had someone write to me that they were thinking of praying a 54 day rosary novena, and that my article pushed her over the prayer edge to do it. This made my whole evening.

SOOOOO, if you'd like to pray along, we're starting November 1st, the feast of All Saints! This means that we'll finish up on  Christmas. I mean, how PERFECT, right?!

I'll bookmark a page at the top of the blog with all of the details when I get a chance, but let's do this thing!! Who's in for a 54 day rosary novena?!

Divine Mercy for Moms Book Club, over at CatholicMom.com!

Hello all! Just a quick note today about something I mentioned previously, and what has now come to fruition:

*drum roll*

The Catholic Mom fall book club!

If you're a book club fan, this might be the perfect fall opportunity for you! Catholic Mom does a really great job with their book clubs. They start off with an author interview, then go chapter by chapter, throughout the season. You can sign up for emails letting you know each Saturday when the new post is up. And yours truly is participating!

The author interview and chapter 1 posts are already up. I authored the chapter 2 post, and it's going up this Saturday, September 24th.

*beams*

These chapters are quick reads, and you could easily get caught up in a quick-as-a-bunny manner. Then next week you can comment on my chapter 2 post and I'll write back to you. ;-) The book is available in both paperback and ebook form, eligible for Amazon Prime!

If you think you'll participate, let me know in the comments. I've joined in their book clubs in the past as a reader, and loved my experience!

Finding peace in the chaos...

Good morning my friends, and I'm happy to report that I had a restful and refreshing weekend. Shortly after I recorded Tea Time on Thursday (special edition with Typhoid Tiffany :0) it became abundantly clear that I was not suffering from mere seasonal allergies. I had something much more virulent, and I was feeling pretty collapse-y as a result. But no rest for the weary, as with all 6 of us teaching in the exact same time slot on Friday mornings, calling in sick is really not an option this semester. So there I was Friday morning, teaching with a voice that could barely be heard above the rasp factor, terrible congestion, and a fever rash covering my neck, chest and upper arms that drew any number of alarmed stares. Let's just say that RESENTMENT was an emotion that I was struggling with as the week ended. By the evening, I could barely talk, let alone dance, and so going to rehearsal was out of the question. I was pretty surly as a result.

I took the weekend as a time of serious reexamination and reflection. I have a lot going on right now, it is true, but so does everyone else. I need to be able to deal with things better. Happiness isn't all external; it is a state of mind, and I need to adjust mine.

I came up with some ideas, which I will go into tomorrow. And my task is to carry them forward with me each and every day. I'm off from in-person teaching this week and next, but I still have many more teaching weeks ahead of me. I also have the grading monster to slay during these online weeks, plus lots of writing to do. I needed to find a way to balance all of the things I'd like to get done in a day (teaching/other work tasks, family time, writing, blogging, exercising, prayer) and so far, what I was doing wasn't working. I was getting things done, but I was miserably unhappy. I want a way of life that will allow me to treasure the small moments, and carry that happy place with me into the chaos of the teaching weeks. I also need some semblance of a prayer life to sustain my soul ALWAYS.

I have some ideas. Check back tomorrow and we'll chat. ;-) In the meantime, today is my September Catholic Mom day, and today we chat about holy reminders and prayer cards. I would LOVE for you to leave me a comment over at Catholic Mom!

Until tomorrow my friends. I'm blowing a kiss to you all!

A world dance showcase, & God in the small things...

Happy new week to you all! I hope that you had as fantastic a weekend as I did. I still had dance stuff going on, but it wasn't *quite* so crazy as it's been. And our last official summer performance is this coming Saturday, with a much-needed break after that, so things are feeling pretty good right now!

This past Saturday night we performed at a world dance showcase. I was all relieved that it was inside rather outside in the summer heat, but come to find out that indoor venues can be just as grossness-inducing as the outdoor ones. No air conditioning + stage lighting = HELLO STIFLING SWEAT, I HADN'T MISSED YOU, BUT THERE YOU ARE!! Alas. It was fun though, and I saw a ton of interesting dancing. Irish, Salsa, West African, Burmese, Bollywood, American Tribal Style and tribal fusion belly dance, Lindy Hop...and those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head! It was awesome. Given that there were so many other dancers there, we were NERVOUS performing as a troupe for the first time in a long time. And the stage was slippery. I didn't exactly want our set to end with me sliding off the stage and out into the audience, so I was being extra careful.

#klutz

No sliding, thankfully, and it was a lovely evening, to be sure.

On Sunday we were back at our regular 11 am Mass after having to move around for the past few weeks due to dance events. Excitingly, I can feel the coming fall parish activity schedule beginning to come to life. Henry inquired about altar serving (!) and that training will take place in the fall, as well as a bunch of other parish events.OOhh la la!

Speaking of the busy changes that this upcoming fall/back-to-school season usually brings, my piece for August for Catholic Mom highlights this very issue:

If you listened to Tea Time last week, you may remember that I mentioned the eclectic mix of Catholic Mom and scented wax that I wove together this month. One wouldn't think those two things related to each other very much, but your Catholic Librarian found a way! As the busy fall season ramps up, if you have anecdotes for how you see God in the small joys throughout your day, I would LOVE for you to leave a comment over at Catholic Mom! I just feel pleased as punch when I get commenters over there. ;-)

Tomorrow I have a book review for you! A dystopian YA series that I have  been obsessed with for YEARS, and the final book just came out. I mean...:0 Tune back in then for the recommendation!

How was your weekend, dear reader?

Mother's Day Redemption

Isn't it lovely when hope is fulfilled? :-) I know I've mentioned that in the past, Mother's Day has been a bit lackluster for me (to put it mildly). And this year, Mother's Day was GRAND. It really was. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was quietly enjoyable and wonderful. And isn't that what life is all about?

The four of us went to Mass together, which is always a treat. The kids made me handcrafted gifts at school. I had a girls brunch with my mom and my grandmother, during which time Anne and I wore matching dresses. :0 I tried to get a good photo of us wearing them, but this is what happened:

Looks as if we're being attacked by marauding Emperor penguins

 

 

This is better, though you can't see the dresses so well. I think we need a selfie stick. ;-)

Mike took Henry to his soccer game during brunch, so that I didn't have to worry about that. Later, he made dinner and we had my in-laws over to eat with us. I sat around and drank wine, just as I had dreamed of. ;-)

It was smashing, truly. I also did a lot of knitting, I'll post about that coming up here. I ordered yarn for a summer knit-along, OOHHHHHHH! I'm super excited. In fact, I may officially make tomorrow's post a crafty Wednesday, so tune in if you enjoy such frivolity and want to join me!

In other news, my new piece for Catholic Mom went live:



If this is a topic near and dear to your heart, I would love for you to chime in over there. I'm pleased to report in that things are going better for me in that regard. I'm very much enjoying the Pentecost novena, it's feeling quite fruitful in quiet ways. Are you praying that as well? How is that going for you?

And how was YOUR Mother's Day, dear reader? I would love to hear all about it!

Catholic Book Club: Divine Mercy for Moms

Well, hello to you all, and welcome to the brand new edition of the Catholic Book Club! I'll talk about our first foray into voting for upcoming books and the next selected title at the bottom of this post. We'll need to figure out how we want to structure the posts, since I'm thinking it will be a multi-part endeavor.

This month we're featuring a Catholic non-fiction title, indeed one of the special Catholic Mom imprint selections from Ave Maria Press, Divine Mercy for Moms by Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet. For spiritual non-fiction, this was a quick read for me, which for someone who usually gets bogged down in spiritual reading and doesn't finish, is a really good thing!

 Here is our description:

Originating in the early twentieth century, the Divine Mercy devotion of St. Faustina Kowalska is one of the most celebrated of all Catholic devotions. In this, their first book, Catholic bloggers and speakers Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet break open the history, practices, and prayers associated with the devotion, guiding busy moms to receive God's message of Divine Mercy and pass it on to others through their words, deeds, and prayers.

In her famous Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul, St. Faustina Kowalska recorded a series of visions of Jesus where he revealed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and promised that anything can be obtained with the prayer if it is compatible with his will. St. John Paul II formally established the Divine Mercy devotion and canonized Faustina in 2000. The Marians of the Immaculate Conception are dedicated to spreading the Divine Mercy devotion; the foreword for this book was written by Fr. Michael E. Gaitley, MIC, author of Divine Mercy Explained and 33 Days to Morning Glory.

In Divine Mercy for Moms, Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet, chairwomen of the Columbus Catholic Women's Conference--one of the largest annual Catholic women's conferences in the country--draw upon their own experiences to introduce you to St. Faustina and her five essential elements of the Divine Mercy message:

• The image of the Merciful Jesus


• The Feast of Divine Mercy


• The Chaplet of Divine Mercy


• The House of Mercy


• Spreading the honor of Divine Mercy

With heartwarming stories and practical advice, this book reveals that mercy is not just a gift to be received in the confessional but a spiritual resource that strengthens those who extend themselves in word, deed, and prayer. Designed for personal or group study, Divine Mercy for Moms celebrates the infinite mercy of God and the role of Mary, the Mother of Mercy, in the lives of all believers.

The book also includes group study questions, prayers of mercy, and thirty reflections from the authors' website, DivineMercyforMoms.

I absolutely LOVED the concept and structure of this book. From the appealing cover art to the practical suggestions and personal examples for acting out the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in our own lives, this book pushed all of my buttons in a very good way.

I really enjoyed the beginning chapters which discussed the history of the Divine Mercy image and some background on St. Faustina. The authors' personal stories woven throughout is my favorite approach to non-fiction. Shamefully, I didn't know the corporal and spiritual works of mercy prior to reading this, so I appreciated having everything listed in one spot, with all of the ideas and prayers included for each one.  I thought the "30 Days of Mercy" exercises included in the appendix was an excellent addition. A wonderful exercise for Lent or Advent, either with a study group or individually.

The only part of the book I found awkward was the fact that there are two authors and it was written in the first person. Specifically, each would identify herself at the beginning of the chapter in parentheses as she began her discussion, and I found that that disrupted the flow of the narrative a bit. That's my only criticism. I'm not certain I can put my finger on a better way to handle the situation, however.

The book read quickly for me, I finished well within a week. What did you all think? Please detail in the comments!

And now...

*drumroll*

...it is time for the big reveal! Our next Catholic Book Club title will be:

Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler, by Mark Riebling:

The Vatican's silence in the face of Nazi atrocities remains one of the great controversies of our time. History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him "Hitler's Pope." But a key part of the story has remained untold.

Pius ran the world's largest church, smallest state, and oldest spy service. Saintly but secretive, he skimmed from church charities to pay covert couriers, and surreptitiously tape-recorded his meetings with top Nazis. When he learned of the Holocaust, Pius played his cards close to his chest. He sent birthday cards to Hitler--while plotting to overthrow him.

Church of Spies documents this cross-and-dagger intrigue in shocking detail. Gun-toting Jesuits stole blueprints to Hitler's homes. A Catholic book publisher flew a sports plane over the Alps with secrets filched from the head of Hitler's bodyguard. The keeper of the Vatican crypt ran a spy ring that betrayed German war plans and wounded Hitler in a briefcase bombing.

The plotters made history in ways they hardly expected. They inspired European unification, forged a U.S.-Vatican alliance that spanned the Cold War, and challenged Church teachings on Jews. Yet Pius' secret war muted his public response to Nazi crimes. Fearing that overt protest would impede his covert actions, he never spoke the "fiery words" he wanted.

Told with heart-pounding suspense, based on secret transcripts and unsealed files, Church of Spies throws open the Vatican's doors to reveal some of the most astonishing events in the history of the papacy. The result is an unprecedented book that will change perceptions of how the world's greatest moral institution met the greatest moral crisis in history.

If you're a fan of fiction over non-fiction, do not despair! I have some news on that front, so hang tight. ;-)

But for this one, I just took a peek. We have 26 chapters, about 240 pages worth of material. How would you all like to handle this? Should we read it over the course of the entire summer? Maybe a post per month for May, June, July, possibly August? Somewhere between 5 and 8 chapters at a time? Or do you have another suggestion? Please do chime in! If you're getting this from the library, you won't be able to check it out for that long, so perhaps you'd prefer a different method? I'm all ears!

If you love to read, you'll love this!

Well, hi there! After my cathartic rant yesterday, I'm feeling MUCH BETTER and I hope you are too. ;-) I have another crazy day today (let's all groan together, shall we?) but I wanted to pop in here to thank all of you who left me sweet and amusing comments yesterday. I appreciate your presence in my life and your support more than you can know.

I also wanted to point you to the VERY FUN Catholic Mom Hangout podcast that I recorded yesterday with a terrific duo of other Catholic Mom contributors:

We each brought a selection of our all-time favorite fiction and non-fiction titles, so tune in if you'd like to find some new titles to read! There is a video of the hangout, as well as a downloadable audio option.

A quick mention that the poll is open for another week to vote on the next Catholic Book Club title! So far, the historical non-fiction title is winning. If you are interested in a different title, make sure to vote! We'll see the official winner next Wednesday, when we will also be discussing Divine Mercy for Moms.

All right, I have to sign off. My "break" today is to attend PiYo during my lunch hour, because apparently I like pain and suffering. I'll be with you tomorrow for another edition of Tea Time with Tiffany. I don't know what I will talk about yet, but that's what makes it so fun, yes? See you then!