Five Favorites {vol. 3} My yarn and book collection overflows edition...

I'm sure you'll all be relieved to know that I'm feeling a lot better than when I posted my Five Favorites last week, when it appeared that a giant black cloud with an angry face on it had just taken up residence atop my head. Time and prayer always put things into a better perspective. And so I'm feeling mostly back to my perky self, and I thought I'd get in another Five Favorites before our Thanksgiving hiatus comes up. So. What is making me happy this week?

-1- "Hey Hon, I think one of your yarn containers burst open again!"

I love yarn. It's just full of such...possibilities. I see it and I think about all of the things I could make with it, and it just makes me so happy. And this time of year is one of the best, my budding yarn lover minions, because every November we get an event that knitters await with a trembling countenance:

The Knit Picks Cyber Monday sale.

Nice quality, natural fiber yarn that is on.sale. Be still my heart. This year, because Thanksgiving is so late, they are starting the sale prior to Cyber Monday, on Monday November 25th. I am scheduled on the reference for the moment the sale begins, which caused me no end of angst and eyebrow scrunching, but has spurred on my passion for creating an itemized project shopping list. I AM SO EXCITED. And this leads nicely into...

-2- "Steeking? (aka: slicing open your handknit sweater with scissors to create a cardigan. aka: The Thing That Terrifies Tiffany Most In This Entire World...) No problem!!"

Every year, this "project shopping list" for the big yarn sale lends itself to being a bit of a conundrum. Because I tend to, you know, get a hair too optimistic about my actual knitting *abilities*. I get so dazzled by all of the sale yarn that I convince myself I absolutely need this gorgeous silk/alpaca blend in lace weight to knit an intricate shawl, despite having had disastrous results in the past with lace weight yarn, because *this time* everything will turn out fantastic. Because this yarn is on sale. Yes, that makes so much sense, right?!

So, the list. Sweaters and socks abound, maybe I'll try out some of the pretty new needles, perhaps a new blanket for the couch... Sounds fine, but I know on the day itself I will decide spontaneously that I should knit a cabled Norwegian colorwork ski sweater with matching patterned mittens and an optional fur-lined hood. Then, 6 months later, when I finally have time to knit with the sale yarn I will wonder what on earth I was thinking.

BUT I'M STILL SO EXCITED.

-3- And you thought the *yarn* storage situation was bad...

All right, moving on from yarn to books. I'm a librarian, I love books. Over the years, I've forced myself to weed through my collection so that it won't take over the house. If I don't think I'll reread it, I donate it to the public library for their book sale. The Kindle is helping with this problem immensely. Now, of course, I'm making the whole process infinitely more difficult again...

I have started reviewing books as part of the Image Books blogger review program. This means that I receive free books as part of my official reviewer duties. *sniffs happily* This also means that I'm collecting more books, so you can see the problem here. I may do a giveaway at some point to relieve the situation a bit. But at any rate, I'm really enjoying the process so far.

I posted my first review yesterday. At the bottom of the post, you can rank the review, and this helps me out over at the Image site in terms of the selection of books that I can choose from to review, so if you are so inclined, please have at it. *angelic smile*

Once you post your review, you are eligible to select another book. I galloped over there with as much dignity as I could muster after I finished posting because I was so excited. My reviewer profile indicates that I want to see Catholic books, but I couldn't resist also checking another box when I spied it with my little eye on the form: Fiction - Amish.

*Hallelujah Chorus*

I LOVE Amish fiction. It's very wholesome and sweet and consistent with the values we espouse as Catholics. And so, next month you will see a review of Christmas in Apple Ridge, by Cindy Woodsmall.

*beams*

-4- To drum or not to drum?

I've started listening to my selection of Middle Eastern music (which is considerable) in preparation for a solo at our upcoming studio hafla. I'm feeling somewhat inspired again about dance, which is good. It must be the looming deadline. But at any rate, I have it narrowed down to a drum solo (which is a style that I love and am very comfortable with), or an instrumental piece that has 3 distinct sections: upbeat, taquism (short slow section), and a little drum finale. I need to pick, so cast a vote in the comments. :)

-5- "What drink goes best with this film, Sweetie? A what?! Let me consult my cocktail preparation reference handbook..."

Only a librarian, yes? In fact, we do own a reference book on mixing a multitude of different cocktails, but that's not actually the point of this favorite. Thanksgiving is coming up, which means that Mike and I will begin our annual viewing of classic holiday films, And we often mix that with appropriate cocktails. As you can imagine, this is super fun, and evidence that I indeed picked the right husband.

This year, we're definitely going to be watching the original Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, The Bishop's Wife, The Bells of St. Mary's, and Christmas in Connecticut.

Other recommendations? What are you favorite classic holiday films?

All right, everyone, head over to Hallie's at MoxieWife for more Five Favorites!

Five Favorites {vol. 2} Bad day edition...

I almost didn't blog today, because I'm not having a very good day. And you know how bad days are. It's not just one challenging thing that came up. It's one difficult thing that comes up, and then while your back is turned something sneaky happens over there, and *then* you're so distracted by all of this you lock yourself out of your office, and *then* you spill your tea on yourself so catastrophically that you have to actually go home, change your pants, and apply burn salve to your legs, and *then* on the way back to work your muffler falls off the car...

I will grant, all of these things did not happen *today* but they *have* happened to your Catholic Librarian. Multiple times. But in other words, lots of "stuff" happens on a bad day, it's not just any one thing. And when you're having a day like that, it's difficult to see the good in anything. But I'm going to try. Without further ado, here are my 5 favorite parts of having a bad day:

-1- You find out who your friends really are

Those that rush to soothe and support you, that offer to single-handedly beat up anybody who hurts you...they rule.

-2- You realize that you don't care so much what people think of you anymore and you say what you really want

Being a shy person means filtering what I say a lot. I'm just very reserved. I don't often say what I really think because I avoid confrontation and controversy like they were deadly flesh-eating diseases. Putting yourself "out there," on social media, on your blog, in your public service-related job, in all those things, it opens you up to comments. To criticism, sometimes mean spirited. It's not fun. And one certainly should not be mean spirited right back, but it makes a person realize that perhaps they can articulate their opinion after all.

-3- You focus more on the things that are truly important

Mike. The kids. My sisters. My good friends. Even my patrons. Someone comes up with a question somewhat laced with attitude? Suddenly, I see that as an opportunity to spread charity to that person rather than feel impatience build against them. Maybe they're having a bad day too. Let me be an incident of good cheer in that person's bad day, rather than more negativity.

-4- You give yourself a break

I'm hard on myself, always have been. But on a really, really bad day I realize that I don't need to be. There are other people out there that are going to do that, whether I want them to or not, and whether I deserve it or not. I should be kind to myself.

-5- You have a glass of wine and know that things will feel better in the morning

Yes, that is what I will be doing tonight. Do you think the muffler shop will have a chilled bottle of Chardonnay at the ready? Because that is where my car and I will be in a few hours. I wasn't exaggerating about that particular factoid.

We'll get there. Check other Five Favorites over at MoxieWife.com :)

Five Favorites {vol. 1} Of baking and book ordering...

Trying out a new linkup this week, hosted by Hallie over at MoxieWife! So, what are 5 of my favorite things this week...

-1-Non-Repulsive Baked Goods

This, of course, would be things that *I* have baked, Little Miss Twitchy Fingers when it comes to anything involving butter and the oven. I mentioned this in my post yesterday, but I'm not the world's best baker. *clears throat delicately*

I suppose that's an understatement.

Yesterday, however, I needed to bake something to send to school with Henry for his birthday, and I picked up two boxes of Betty Crocker cookie/brownie bar mix. Good old, Betty. She gave me directions for doubling the recipe and hence baking everything in a 9x13 pan, and so I trusted her. If you follow me on Twitter, you chronicled my experience right along with me under the hashtag #DisastersInBaking. Sounds like so much fun, right?!

We had a couple of missteps involving not-so-softened butter and "evenly" dropping the cookie batter onto the brownie mix, but in the end, they turned out edible. I wouldn't say that they turned out particularly *attractive*, but we cannot have everything, can we, dear reader?

-2- Big Boy Birthday Dinners With My Little Guy

Last night, Mike and I took Henry out for dinner at a restaurant of his choosing for his 8th birthday. He chose a local steak restaurant, and off we trekked. I don't know that Henry had ever *tasted* steak before, but inexperience has never stopped him from wanting to do anything. :0

He was all excited about the included salad bar, and came away with a plate full of what he was coveting: croutons and buttered bread. He bravely ordered a small steak off the children's menu, and a wonderful time was had by all. Our other precious little one, Anne (aka "The Sassinator") was home with her grandmother. I think Henry liked having our attention solely on him.

-3- Advent Music

 I know it's not Advent yet (*sheepish*) but I couldn't help it, I listened to the samples of Advent at Ephesus again and again this morning . It was extremely soothing as I went through the fairly monotonous process of ordering books for the collection this morning. I just down that I'll be hitting the "1 click download!" button any day now.

-4- Odd but Gargantuan Monograph Funds

I work at a state university, so we usually have quite the opposite problem. Think: decades of people joking that our "storage facility" was the trunk of our director's car. But there is this one fund that I am now in charge of, and it's an endowment, so it's devoted to this one specific collection, and has lots of conditions set upon what you can buy. And it's large. It's actually *hard* to spend all the money since it's such a specialized collection. It is, however, seriously cool. Byzantine Studies. I mean, did you ever?! I'm in charge of ordering thousands of dollars worth of books on the early Church?

*eyes widen*

Let's just say that I'm enjoying this new task immensely.

-5- Vocation Stories

Next week I'm going to debut a new series about vocations on this blog, starting with a few priests that I met at the CNMC. They were kind enough to answer a series of nosy questions that I sent them about how they discerned their vocations and their daily lives as priests. Vocational Monday? Priesthood Tuesday?! I don't know, but I'm terribly excited about this. I may try and find some nuns to play along as well, we'll have to see. But I absolutely love personal faith stories, and these are going to be awesome, so stay tuned!

Have a great evening, everyone!