July always needs some St. Kateri...

http://catholicmom.com/2019/07/08/a-special-devotion-for-july/

Hey everyone, and welcome to a humid and uncomfortable early-July edition with the Catholic Librarian. :-0 Thank you so much to everyone who reached out and wished me well following my post last week about my upcoming adventures as a finalist in my very first (and let's be real, probably only) dance competition!  I'm super nervous about it. 😬 But I'm grateful for the opportunity. I'll definitely devote a whole post to my preparation process sometime this summer! Finals are in late September.

😬😬😬

But onward and upwards! This is a summer of many changes, as I've talked about several times in recent weeks. The kids are growing and changing soooo quickly. Anne is at Girl Scout camp this week, and she had a rough first day. 😢 My kids are both introverts, just like Mike and I, and so new situations, especially those that:

(a) involve lots of unknown people,
(b) are loud, and
(c) involve games and singing

...are very hard on them. I completely relate to this, and I'm a soft touch, so tears of not wanting to go back make me want to crumble. But of course, perseverance is also important (she wanted to go to this camp, I wouldn't have signed up up otherwise) and so I told her that she needed to give it at least 1 more day. If after the second day it was clear that it was a bad fit and was actively making her miserable, I would not have pushed her. But the first day is never a perfect indicator of how things will be going forward, you need to give it just a wee bit more time. So I took her on the second day feeling uber guilty, and she came home exhausted and hangry again. However, she also chirped on about the woodsy things that they had done, the other girls, and the homemade beef and macaroni dish they had for lunch. She had a good time. And wanted to go back the next day.

HUGE sigh of relief. But the week has been emotionally draining as a result. Therefore my July piece over at CatholicMom comes at a perfect time and on an ideal topic. St. Kateri is a huge source of consolation for me, as I mention in this article (and there is a link back to the original piece fully detailing St. Kateri's place in my and my family's faith journey in there), and right now, I need her more than ever. So, if you need a dose of St. Kateri too, I'd love it if you would check out my piece over there. Comments on the CatholicMom website are always super welcome!

Who are you favorite summer saints? My kids' feast days are also in July: St. Henry on July 13th, and Sts. Anne and Joachim on July 26th. July is a great saint month. 😀

A cute saint story podcast...

Yes, I really wish I had come up with this idea myself. :-0 You all know how much I enjoy podcasts, and how much my kids and I also enjoy stories of the saints. This would have been a marketing goldmine, let me tell you you. ;-) At any rate, Shining Light Saint Dolls thought of it first, and I listened the newest episode as well as one of the earlier ones this morning while I was getting ready for work. Let me tell you: SO CUTE. These are not just for kids!

This is a weekly podcast featuring a saint whose feast is celebrated that week. They are short episodes, 4 to 5 minutes each, and begin with a quick description of the saint, followed by a narrated story highlighting something this saint is particularly known for. The stories have sound effects and everything, it's so endearing. :) At the end, the narrator draws a lesson that we can all learn from this saint. The newest episode features St. Scholastica!

I really enjoyed these, and officially subscribed to the feed so that I'll receive new episodes automatically in my podcast app. If you go to the Shining Light Dolls website, scroll down just a tad and you'll see "Saint Stories for Kids", followed by the option to listen to the latest episode, or subscribe via a number of different feed options. They would be perfect to play for your kids, but I have to admit that I'm looking forward to listening to the new episodes as well. They are a breath of fresh air for my morning commute!

In other faith news, I have some ideas for Lent, including a read-along/book club idea that I'm *really* excited about. Look for a post on that next week! 😀

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!

Spiritual setbacks during Easter season, & Holy Spirit moments...

All! I've missed you.

*hug*

I'm all emotional today, so expect lots of sappy lapses like that one. As is so often the case with situations such as this, I'm fine one minute, and struggling the next. What am I talking about? Spiritual darkness with a just a touch of depression mixed in with it. Picture me walking about, looking anxious, with a small rain cloud following me directly overhead. That sums it up really well.

This tends to happen when I'm praying 54 day rosary novenas, interestingly. And we're just past the halfway point, which seems significant, somehow. And it just...happens, you know? There isn't just one reason, it's not that I'm a weak person, it just happens sometimes. All of a sudden, ordinary things seem to be more of a struggle, and it gets me down. I always climb up out of it, but for a day or two, all I want to do is sit around and feel sorry for myself while eating Cookies 'n Cream ice cream. It happens.

So this weekend I was feeling a bit fragile. On Saturday I forgot not only to pray my rosary but to pray the St. Gianna Beretta Molla novena.

#epicfail

Then I felt guilty as well as a bit down, and oh so forgetful, and it was just a whole snowball situation. ;-)

But here's the interesting thing. Grab your tea. We're going to go on a full circle journey together.

So, Thursday I recorded Tea Time. And I was fine. I felt a bit scattered, but I was fine. That's not exactly an unusual situation for yours truly.

*halo*

Between Thursday and Friday I started to feel not so fine. I began to worry about a whole assortment of things, and my heart felt heavier. By Friday, I was definitely not fully myself, and that lasted the entire weekend.

But it's what ELSE happened this weekend, in the midst of all of this, that I find interesting. On Friday afternoon, I received a package containing the gift I'd ordered for a First Communion gift. It's a St. Gabriel the archangel saint doll:

He looks very stoic, yes?

As you might expect, I was very pleased to see him. :) I pulled him out of his wrappings for a little photo shoot, and Anne wanders in. She becomes entranced with him:

"Mommy, he has WINGS!"

Wings ;-)

"Yes Honey, he's an angel."

"I want wings too, Mommy. Can I keep him?"

"No darling, he's a gift."

This was most disappointing to her, so she retreated to her room to pull out her own saint doll collection, which had been languishing for a time having fallen under her bed. She does not yet have any wooden dolls, but she has a plethora of felt dolls. All of a sudden, Anne's tiny body disappears beneath her bed, and out comes St. Therese, St. Kateri, St. Blaise, Our Lady Star of the Sea, and Our Lady of Lourdes. I could see her examining each carefully, becoming re-acquainted with them. She begins toting them around the house with her.

On Saturday, I find this on the dining room table:

Apparently St. Therese and St. Kateri are down with the sledding

She had become so enamored with her new saint friends that it was like a whole new relationship blossoming with them:

"Mommy. Can you...make me a saint? Like, can I dress like them?"

I mean...

*heart!*

So this is what we came up with:

Future saint ;-)

Yes, those are butterfly wings, inspired by our archangel friends. But she picked out a head covering, and carried that crucifix and a pair of plastic rosary beads around with her for the entire weekend. I even heard her in her bed praying a Hail Mary Saturday night.

*collapses from the cuteness*

So Anne is on this saint kick, and Sunday morning the kids and I head to Mass with me still not feeling myself. We get out to the car in the garage, and what do you suppose happens?

The car won't start.

I was about to go into the house to fetch Mike's kind assistance, but I gave myself a few tries and gave the car a little gas. It started.

My car is ancient, so this isn't exactly a shock for it to act this way, and in the past it's always been fine afterward, so we press onward. We are now running late, but away we go. When we arrive at our parish, our usual spot on the far right side of the sanctuary was full, due to us getting there later than usual. I tell Henry to choose a new spot, and he picks an area in the middle of the church, just past center.

On we proceed, and Anne goes up for Children's Liturgy of the Word. During the homily, Father devoted part of the time to a nun who came to speak about an appeal for her missionary order of sisters. Part of her discussion was about vocations, and she indicated that some of the children in the parish could be future priests, bishops, nuns and/or saints. She brought the young altar servers in as examples. :)

"And that young boy over there!" *points* "He could be the pope someday!"

I turn to see that she is pointing directly at Henry, and that he is weakly raising his hand to acknowledge her. If we hadn't sat where we did, she never would have seen him. And we wouldn't have sat where we did if we weren't running late due to the car not starting and me being in a general funk. It just seemed terribly fortuitous.

This is not to say that I'm taking this as a sign that Henry will be pope. ;-) It just warmed my heart to see my children engaged in their faith, and at a time when I really needed the boost. The Holy Spirit is always alive and well, even when things seem a bit more difficult than usual.

After Mass, I felt a little better. We took the kids on an afternoon hike after lunch, and Anne tripped, fell and skinned her knee about 2 and a half minutes into the walk. *long suffering sigh* We had to take turns carrying her for a spell. But I felt a little better still. I've been improving ever since. I'm going to try and get to confession this week.

Does this happen to you all as well? Spiritual dryness or darkness or however you want to term it? How do you handle it? I would love to discuss it with you in the comments.

Tomorrow is book club day! If you read Divine Mercy for Moms or are otherwise interested to learn more about it, stop in to chat with us then. :)

How many novenas is it possible to pray simultaneously? Join me in the St. Monica novena! :0

Photo courtesy of Allison Kinyon, Rosaries by Allison

Happy Monday to you all, I hope you are well.:) For my part, my mind is very occupied right now, I'll talk about that more during our Tea Time this week. LOTS going on right now. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be overwhelming, you know? I know that you do, and I so appreciate having you all in my life and heart.

Today, one of the happy things that is on my mind is obsessing over awaiting new rosaries and chaplets. :0 One of aforementioned chaplets is St. Monica, pictured at left here (and if you'd like your own, Rosaries by Allison is the place to go! She doesn't have a St. Monica chaplet currently listed, but message her about a custom :)) and her novena begins tomorrow. Your Resident Chaplet Aficionado is planning an audio recording and video tomorrow morning, so if you'd like to pray along, have at it! Oh wait. I have to take Henry to the allergist in the morning. OK, so I am planning an audio recording and video tomorrow *afternoon*. ;-) If you don't have chaplet beads, you can still pray along with me this way! You can also sign up with Pray More Novenas to receive the novena prayers in your email inbox each morning. I'm doing that as well. I'm just also adding in the chaplet, because I am a Chaplet Nerd.

My St. Monica chaplet is currently at the post office, and I have signed up for text alerts of when it makes any movement at all, because I am a stalker like that when it comes to things I am very excitedly expecting. I wish I could just go there and demand my rosary-containing envelopes, but I restrain myself, lest they think me odd. ;-) But I CANNOT WAIT to retrieve the mail when I get home later!

Who else is planning to pray the St. Monica novena?! I would love to hear from you!

Celebrate the feast of St. Dominic with me over at Catholic Mom! And more chaplet updates...

Happy Monday everybody! That sounds so much perkier than I actually feel, but hey; you win some, you lose some. ;-) I've just brewed afternoon tea, and feel ready to look alive!

And I always enjoy the Mondays on which my monthly posts at Catholic Mom go live, because I just love the community over there! This month, my theme is an exploration of Third Orders, and our guide is St. Dominic! This is a reworked piece that I originally wrote for this blog, but I've updated it quite a bit. Whether you've read it before, or for the first time today, I would LOVE IT if you would head over and leave me a comment over on Catholic Mom! I promise a personal reply. :)

In other news, my updates to the Chaplets page are daily at this point, though that will taper off to monthly shortly. Right now, there are 8 videos/recordings on there, with the newest being the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Tomorrow, St. Cecilia will be added, and by the end of the week, the 7 Sorrows of Mary. After that, things will stay constant until early September, when I have a few new chaplets set to arrive. ;-) So do keep checking! I'm looking forward to praying with you.

This is a short post for me today (shocker! :0) but I've been a busy bee with work-related writing today, and I'm trying to keep that groove going. :) I have been remembering you all in the intentions of my 54 Day Rosary Novena, and I have some fun family posts planned for later in the week: Epic fails in gardening, potty training, and the arrival of the first of the Christmas saint dolls, you could call it an eclectic mix. ;-) I will talk to you all then!

In the mean time...wait! Although I love it when you write to me here, write to me at Catholic Mom today! That would mean a lot. But I love you guys regardless, so if you want to write in about your own lack of gardening talents or about how your kid may never stay dry through the night just like mine, and you'd rather not advertise that over at Catholic Mom, sure, please write to me here. ;-)

Lots about St. Anne! And in your charity, please pray for me to not knock myself unconscious this weekend :0

Hi all! I have a SUPER busy day, so no time for 7 Quick Takes unfortunately (ironic that those posts usually take me longer than others to write. ;-)) But I wanted to briefly remind everyone who wants to pray the St. Anne novena that it begins TODAY.

Horray!

AND, in exciting news, when I arrived home yesterday, my St. Anne chaplet was waiting for me!

*angels sing*

So I brought it with me, and created this short video this morning, if you'd like to pray along:


I'm going to put this video on the St. Anne novena page too, for easy reference. Yay for novenas!

I have to rush off, I have a leviathan of a meeting later *insert super unhappy emoticon here* and so time is tight. BUT, I have lots of fun posts slated for next week. Remember, I'm dancing this weekend, and I already feel sick to my stomach thinking about the fact that I have a solo in the set. Public event, July heat, windy conditions, a shaky, sweaty-palmed, nervous belly dancer wielding a sword...what could go wrong?! I'll tell you all about it next week. ;-) Plus, I have more amusing knitting project tales, and my sister is potty training her twins and I thought maybe I'd write a "best of" potty training compilation post to boost her spirits. Want to join in? Come back next week!!

But don't leave before telling me all about your weekend plans. Go ahead. Tell me. In the comments.*bossy* :0

My first ever piece at Catholic Mom commemorates the feast of St. Kateri, & the St. Anne novena approaches!

Happy Tuesday to all of you, and happy feast of St. Kateri! She's certainly a favorite of mine, and quite integral to my own Catholic identity. I wrote a post about this several years ago, and recently I pulled that post up, updated it a bit, tidied up the writing, and submitted it to Catholic Mom. And *happy dance* it was published yesterday, on the vigil of her feast day!

You should have heard me squeal when I saw it. Well, OK, maybe you wouldn't have liked that. ;-) But I was *excited* and the timing is perfect. I've even gotten a few comments over there, which made me all giddy anew. Of course, I responded to every single one personally. Don't you want to go read and leave a comment now? Hummmmmm? :0 I'm waiting for you over there, with much excited anticipation. If you enjoy conversion stories, you'll enjoy reading this one, I think. I hope! Come visit me over there. :)

In other saint news, the novena to St. Anne start date is rapidly approaching, and I created a page with all the details. We'll start praying along on Friday, leading to her feast day of July 26th. I have a St. Anne chaplet on it's happy way to me, so that I can pray that in tandem with the novena prayers:

Photo courtesy of Allison Kinyon, Rosaries by Allison

Allison, the dear soul that she is, whipped this up for me over the weekend at my request, and mailed it out on Monday. She's on the other side of the country from me, but it should be here tomorrow or Thursday. If I have time, I'll record a short video of me praying the chaplet and post it on that novena page so that we can pray together if you like. I don't have audio file capabilities just yet, that's coming, just not ready for prime time this week. Since you can't download it, I know it's not as helpful, but for anyone who wants to, it would be there. I'll let you know if that comes to pass!

But if you're a fan of St. Anne, definitely join the rest of the community in prayer! Who's planning to pray the novena? Do you have a devotion to St. Anne? Please leave a comment and let me know all the sainty details. And you can also leave me prayer intentions in the comments, as well!

The Catholic Nook: A patron saint for crafty, artistic folks?

There's been a bit of an arts and crafts theme here the past few weeks, yes? My past two video posts (here and here) have focused on getting involved in the arts, specifically dance, and I've been knitting a lot, so I've been writing crafty posts. This all got me to thinking...I am a person who quite enjoys patron saints. Whenever I embark on a project of any kind, of discover something new, I think to myself:

"I wonder who the patron saint of...(fill in the blank) (let's say Zumba!) is?"

Obviously, we sometimes have to adapt a patronage, since there isn't *specifically* a saint for people who enjoy Zumba. ;-) So, when I Googled "patron saint knitters," I found a couple of interesting people, one of whom is St. Catherine of Bologna. Want to know why I was drawn to her? She's the patron saint of the arts. Visual and performing arts, to be exact. Hello, kooky Catholic belly dancer over here! St. Catherine certainly seems like a patron that I can adapt (along with St. Cecilia, patron saint of music) for dancing. But it seems to be that a patron for artists can be a patron for all crafters, including knitters and crocheters. We're creating art too! So, what do we know about St. Catherine of Bologna?

Well, we know that she was born in Italy in 1413, to an important family in the area. She was the daughter of a diplomatic agent to the Marquis of Ferrara, and her early education included many of the arts that were prevalent in the city at that time: music, literature, painting and dancing.

Early in her life, Catherine expressed the desire to dedicate herself to Jesus. As a teenager, she entered the Franciscans as a Tertiary (a Third Order, lay member). Ultimately, she became a Poor Claire, and was appointed the superior of a convent in Bologna. During her time there, she continued to engage in her loves among the arts: painting, playing the viola, and writing poetry. She also composed a treatise detailing mystical visions of Jesus, and torturous visions of Satan.

In 1463, she became ill during Lent, and passed away on March 9th (also her feast day) of that year. Her body, later exhumed after people noticed a sweet smell emanating from her grave, was found to be incorrupt. She was canonized in 1712.

Well, well, well. A patron saint of the arts! I think that she is perfect for us, yes? Do any of you have a devotion to St. Catherine of Bologna? Do write in with your thoughts!

*information gleaned from Loyola Press

The Church Triumphant: Spotlight on St. Gianna Beretta Molla

Happy Thursday all! Today is another installment in The Church Triumphant saint series, and just a few days ago, April 28th, we celebrated the memorial of a favorite of mine, St. Gianna Beretta Molla! Let's talk about her a little bit, shall we? And then I'll tell you why she's so special to me.

St. Gianna is a contemporary saint, she lived from 1922 to 1962. My parents were alive for the last ten-ish years of her life. She was born into a large and devout Italian family, the tenth of thirteen children. Several of her siblings joined the religious life, and Gianna considered that as well, but ultimately decided to pursue medicine as a career, and later married Pietro Molla. She specialized in pediatrics, and was involved in faith-based social groups such as Catholic Action. Her faith was an important part of her life that she brought into her work as a physician, and then as a mother. She and Pietro had three children, when in 1961, she conceived their fourth child. Early on in her pregnancy, she was advised by her doctor that she had a fibrous cyst on her uterus. Eschewing the advice to have an abortion (which would make removal of the cyst less risky) or a hysterectomy, Gianna chose to have the cyst removed and to carry her daughter to term. Following the delivery via cesarean section, Gianna soon developed septic peritonitis and died. This daughter, Gianna Emanuela, also went on to become a physician, inspired by her mother's example. In May 2004, when Gianna was canonized by Pope John Paul II, her husband and two of her daughters were at the ceremony, marking the first time that a husband was present for the canonization of his wife. There is a book memorializing letters between husband and wife, called The Journey of Our Love: The Letters of Saint Gianna Beretta and Pietro Molla. How sweet is that?! (and only $6.99 for Kindle!)

St. Gianna's story touched me as a young woman for several reasons (in fact, my Dominican religious name is Maria Gianna!) She was a lay woman, and let's face it, the majority of saints were religious. I can relate to her very much as a lay Catholic woman working outside of the home, and as a wife and mother. And even before I myself was married and had children, I was so inspired by her example of putting the life of her unborn child ahead of her own. Originally I was under the impression that the mass on her uterus was cancerous, but it was not. However, her being pregnant certainly complicated the situation with removing it, particularly given the medical technology of that time. For her, there was only one option, and that was to ensure that her baby survived. All of her actions were ordered toward this goal. I really admire St. Gianna, and with her countenance so relatable to me, I feel like she's a friend of mine, interceding for me and rooting for me up in heaven. *heart*

Does anyone else have a devotion to St. Gianna Beretta Molla? Do let me know in the comments!

Adventures with butter on the Feast of St. Joseph...

Good day to you all, and happy feast of St. Joseph! This feast day is very popular here in WNY, likely because of the strong Italian ancestry in this area. I always see advertisements for traditional St. Joseph's Tables beginning in early March, and this year was no exception. In fact, Henry's class (well, the 4th and 5th grade classes combined) are hosting a St. Joseph's Table and we received a note last week about sending items in for it if we would like.

I like!

So, a St. Joseph's Table involves a buffet of food that tradition holds we offer to the less fortunate. There are traditional dishes and decorations, but the way that we honor this feast today is simply to have a large buffet of food in celebration of St. Joseph's feast. Henry's class was in need of fruit, cheese, crackers, desserts, paper plates, napkins, and statuary for the altar. I noted that I would send in chocolate chip cookies, and Henry excitedly gathered his statues of St. Michael, St. Patrick, and St. George to bring in.

Now, chocolate chip cookies. I should bake them, right? But you all know what my baking skills are like. Unfortunately, my half Italian heritage has not translated to anything remotely resembling otherworldly baking skills. Every time my very Italian grandmother brings her infamous chocolate ball cookies to Christmas Eve dinner I eye them enviously before consuming a half dozen of them. But at any rate, I'm a decent cook, but baker? Not so much. I'm not too proud to buy store-bought baked goods (and everyone in my family breathes a collective sigh of relief) but I refuse to do that before I even TRY. See, I *wait* for the smoking cupcakes to come out of the oven before heading to Wegman's. So here we have Baking Attempt #367:

"Does this butter look '*just* colder than room temperature'? Maybe I should try putting my thumb print on it to test it like Betty Crocker says."

*Mike eyes me uneasily*

"I don't think we need to touch the butter. It's been sitting out for a short bit, I think it looks fine."

"Ok. Would you cream it while I mix up the dry ingredients?"

"What does it mean to cream it?"

"I have no idea, I was hoping you knew."

:0

This is what we're dealing with here, people. Our Italian mothers would disown us if they overhead this conversation.

I will say that the cookies turned out pretty well. I mixed and creamed everything per instructions, and even chilled the batter before putting it on the cookie sheets per a tip in the recipe. I made the cookies small since I wanted the batter to go as far as possible given the number of kids, and I took them out of the oven a hair *before* my instinct, meaning they didn't burn.

#winning

The kids (and Mike ;-))were bummed that I didn't let them eat any of them last night, since I wanted to send as many in to school as possible. But I had them all tucked into a Ziploc container and ready to go this morning, all perfect-like. I'm looking forward to hearing how everything goes. I received an email from Henry's teacher thanking those that sent in food and noting how excited the kids were. I'm excited too. :)

Also, the NCAA Tournament begins today! I studiously have my bracket completed, though I'm sure I'll lose, like usual. :0 Regardless, I will say that it is very fun to have a bracket and root for specific teams. Go Bulls!

How are you all spending the feast of St. Joseph?

Of really bad evenings and needed Lenten plans, come cheer me up!

I'm going to be honest - I woke up in kind of a surly mood. :0 I have St. Agatha right here with us because it's her feast day and I need a pick-me-up. Hi St. Agatha, pray for us please!

Ok, so my porky mood. Que pasa? I didn't have the best of evenings yesterday. It was just one of those times when nothing seemed to go right (aside from my potato soup in the crock pot, that stuff is *fantastic*) and the kids were bent on irritating each other, and Mike had play practice, so I was refereeing the two ruffians by myself. And then Anne didn't want to go to bed. AGAIN. And then once I got her in bed and started working on my Downton Abbey shawl I did something wrong and suddenly my 321 stitch shawl was 322 stitches. Lesson to all of us: when you are tired and cranky and your small child is howling upstairs because she doesn't want to sleep, that is the WRONG time to try and tackle a lace chart. You're welcome. ;-)

AND THEN my son comes to me and admits that, for no discernible reason, when taking his before-bedtime asthma medication, he took three times the recommended dose rather than the single chewable he has taken every night for years and years. Well, this may have been right around the time of the lace chart mishap, for understandable reasons, now that I think about it. But at any rate,  I feel myself pale and fire off a litany of questions to him, which makes him get this confused look on his face, like "what's the big deal?"

OH.SIGH.

Mike got home right around the time Henry was in tears as I made the necessary phone calls. He's fine, we just had to keep an eye on him, and needless to say we had a stern talk with him about prescription medication. Not a good evening.

So I woke up with all of that still weighing on me, you know? Henry was still fine this morning, all is OK there. But I just felt... blah. And my throat has been feeling "off" since yesterday afternoon, I'm worried that some nefarious illness is lurking there waiting to strike. Plus, it's February 5th, which this year means that Lent begins in...

13 days.

!

I have barely thought about Lent. I have no plan formulated or goals set or anything like that. I've been enjoying my Ordinary Time, it is true, but I do have to begin thinking of ideas since Ash Wednesday will be here before we know it. What are you all doing for Lent this year? If you have ideas, please do let me know. I love getting comments, it always makes my day, and I could use some cheer right now, yes? :)

I'm off to order some yarn to make myself feel better...

Saint themes for kids! St. Francis de Sales novena, and adventures in not-so-perpetual Adoration chapels...

Happy beginning to the St. Francis de Sales novena, everyone! :) This novena starts today, and runs through January 23rd. It is perfect for anyone with an intention regarding teaching or writing. Do pray along with us! If you have an intention that you'd like me to include in my own prayers during this novena, just leave a comment on the novena page linked above. :)

Before I get into the saint theme business, I wanted to mention my winter Ordinary Time goals in general, since the novenas are a part of that. I have a weekly Adoration goal, and so far things are going great, but I tell you, the perpetual Adoration chapel I go to isn't making it easy for me. :0 I mentioned that it was closed over the holidays, which is totally understandable. I stopped last week, no problems whatsoever, so I was lulled into a sense of confidence.

*ominous music plays*

Tuesday I hustled out to my car early so that I would have time for a holy 15 minutes prior to heading home. I zoom to the chapel. I park. I walk briskly to the back door of the church near the Adoration chapel. It is locked. I peek inside the window kind of creepily. Right! There is another door along the side. I've been outside for a whole 30 seconds by this point and am getting cold, so I start to hightail it to the side door. As this was ongoing, another car had zipped into the parking lot and made a big sweeping motion to back into the parking spot that I was currently transversing. I was already in the middle of the spot, so it's not like I could go anywhere except to hurry to the other side. Which is what I did, making a "sorry!" face as I did so, but they still nearly mowed me down. :0 But I made it to the side door unscathed, and...it too was locked.

!

This time I wasn't at all subtle about peering in the windows, and I saw a large sign hung on the chapel door saying that it was closed "for construction in the church hallway," whatever that means. So that was a huge bummer, but it did open back up yesterday, so I stopped then. No zoomy cars in the parking lot, so all was well. I love Adoration. It's not like I ever see visions or hear voices when I'm in there or anything, but I feel like the rest of the week following that is just smoother and it's more clear to me what decisions I should make along the way. So, that's going well. :)

For the kids, I mentioned this "saint theme" idea I had. Henry mentioned that he'd like a St. Stephen wooden peg doll to add to his collection, so I've made St. Stephen his theme for the year. :) What I plan to do is read his story with Henry throughout the year in all of the various saint books that he has, and then gift him with some St. Stephen sacramentals as a way of remembering his example. I'm going to ask my favorite Etsy saint doll artist, Gary of St. Luke's Brush, to paint him a St. Stephen doll. He doesn't have a current listing for St. Stephen, but he'll custom make whatever saint you ask, and it would be similar in style to this handsome St. Francis de Sales:

I also have a St. Stephen rosary for him, created by Allison of Rosaries by Allison:

Anne's theme is Our Lady of Lourdes. She's a huge fan of Our Lady (Our Lady Star of the Sea is a real favorite of hers), so I thought this would be a nice one for her. We'll read her story, and she'll receive a felt Our Lady of Lourdes in her Easter basket (shop is Saintly Silver on Etsy):

And an Our Lady of Lourdes rosary:

I'm planning to emphasize these feast days this year, so December 26th for St. Stephen, and upcoming February 11th for Our Lady of Lourdes. In fact, I'm planning on praying the Our Lady of Lourdes novena and trying to include Anne in that as much as I can, I will report in on how that goes. :)

I have some other saint ideas for the kids this year, the first of which involves the feast of St. Blaise, February 3rd. I will devote a whole post to St. Blaise in about two weeks, just after his novena starts on January 25th!

What are your saint traditions with your kids, or that you grew up with? Do report in the comments. :)

St. Lucy's feast day approaches - should we have Anne wear a crown of lit candles?! #CouldBeDangerous...

Happy Thursday everyone, and I hope that you are well. :) I absolutely love the feast days during Advent, and a fairly new one to my radar screen is coming up on Saturday December, 13th: the feast of St. Lucy. I thought we could talk about St. Lucy a bit and plot about how to work her feast day into a fun family activity/ domestic monastery thing. :)

Henry is the one who really drew my attention to St. Lucy. He and I read a saint story of some sort each night before bed (we have an entire library of books to pull from). And during the course of these readings last year, St. Lucy made an appearance. What with all of the dramatic eye gougings and blazing fires, the story captured Henry's imagination.

"Wow. Did that really happen to her, Mommy? How was she able to do that?"

*very big eyes*

Since then, he's always been fond of St. Lucy. Last year, I bought the book that you see above, Lucia: Saint of Light to read to the kids on her feast day. Henry read it, but Anne wasn't too interested in longer stories just yet. Plus, it really is written for slightly older children, I would say the 7-8 year range. But the pictures are intriguing, so we'll see how it goes this year.

I'd like to make St. Lucy's feast an annual celebration in our house. Thus, I decided to do some additional research this year. Who exactly was St. Lucy, you ask? Lucy was an early virgin martyr (there's that word again! :0 I always substitute "unmarried" when reading these stories to the kids ;-)) who actually appears in the canon of the Mass in Eucharistic Prayer I. Hence, the Church obviously finds her a pretty important example of courage in faith. Part of her story involves Lucy convincing her mother to seek the intercession of St. Agatha for the cure to a bleeding problem she was experiencing. The two women traveled to St. Agatha's tomb, and while there, Lucy had a vision of Agatha and her mother was cured. Subsequently, Lucy took a vow of virginity and gave her money and belongings away to the poor. When she rebuffed a smarmy suitor wanting to marry her, she was targeted as being a Christian, tried, convicted, and martyred. Unfortunately, we have the torture sequence referenced above. :-\

Traditional activities on the feast of St. Lucy involve the youngest daughter in the family wearing a crown (symbolizing martyrdom, and Lucy's status as a bride of Christ, I'm thinking) of lit candles. Her name means "light," so that's part of it, but it may also have to do with her feast falling during Advent, when we expectantly await the light of Christ. This is all very lovely, but obviously a trifle dangerous.  Especially considering our contender for the crown:

I'm not thinking this is a good idea. :0 I may try to find some crafty materials around the house to make a ribbony crown for her, we'll see. But no candles, please. The other thing that is popular on the feast of St. Lucy is serving coffee and sweet rolls that morning. I have no idea what this has to do with young Lucy herself, but this is the custom. I found a recipe here for an appropriate sweet bread for those brave souls wanting to bake. I absolutely love the idea of placing lit candles on the bread, perfect and symbolic compromise! I was all gung ho, but then I saw "active, dry yeast" on the list of ingredients. I have no notion of how one acquires yeast at all, let alone yeast that is all active :0 so I'm not sure if we'll be doing this or not. Maybe I could stop at the grocery store on my way home for some pre-baked "St. Lucy bread." Or at least, that's what I'll call it. ;-)

But I'd like to make the day notable for the kids. There are some other great St. Lucy day ideas over at this blog, if you feel ambitious.

How about you, dear reader? Doing anything special for the feast of St. Lucy?

The Church Triumphant: Spotlight on St. Cecilia

Hello all! Rather than from my normal perch during quiet spells on the reference desk, I'm blogging from my home office today. :) In a shocking development, the library that I work at is *closed* today, and that happens very rarely. Classes are cancelled at the university (another fairly uncommon occurrence) and so library administration felt it prudent to just shut down for the day. But again, here's the thing: there is *no snow* here. :0 We have a few inches on the ground, that's it. But so many faculty, staff and students live in the affected areas and are trapped in their homes that it seemed foolish to carry on as if nothing was happening with such glaring absences in personnel. And so I'm home today, with both children since Henry's school is also closed. Soooo...I don't have too much time to blog until my attention is demanded by a shrill voice elsewhere ;-) and thus let's get underway with November's edition of The Church Triumphant!

St. Cecilia is an ancient and important saint on the calendar, being one of the few mentioned in the official Canon of the Mass during Eucharistic Prayer I. She lived in the third century and wished to remain unmarried in the service of her faith. She was betrothed against her will to a non-Christian man named Valerian. Cecilia prayed that this man be converted, and that she might remain a virgin. According to tradition, Valerian saw a vision of an angel praying beside Cecilia. Subsequently, Valerian indeed was converted and baptized, along with his brother. Both men were later killed after being discovered giving proper burial to martyred Christians. When Cecilia saw to their burial on her own property, she was arrested. She was ordered to sacrifice to false gods and refused. For this, she too was martyred.  Yucky detail alert, which often seems to be the case in these early martyr stories :0 - when attempts to suffocate her failed, she was beheaded. Her tomb was exhumed in 1599, and her body found to be incorrupt.

Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians, and this is because a passage invoking "a hymn of love for Jesus, her true spouse" is attributed to her. In iconography,  she is always shown carrying an instrument of varying types.

St. Cecilia has a lot of personal significance to me, as she is my confirmation patron. I'm a cradle Catholic, confirmed in 10th grade, so I'm going to be honest: I wasn't at the most mature point in my faith at that time, and I chose Cecilia because I liked her name. I mean, my name is *Tiffany*. I don't hate my name, but I've never loved it. Admit it, you've read books in which a character named Tiffany was an airhead or otherwise stole the heroine's boyfriend, right? If it were up to me, my name would be Jane. Or Mary. Teresa would be lovely. Something Catholic and classic. :) Instead, I'm left defending the way Tiffany is allegedly derived from Epiphana and my feast day is the Epiphany. I mean...you understand, right? :0

I thought the name Cecilia was so feminine and pretty, and that's why I chose it. Years later, when my faith meant more to me, I researched Cecilia and found her story so intriguing. I loved reading about how brave she was, how dedicated to her faith. And I think that she had a hand in my adult faith formation, as I wrote about previously. Her late November/just prior to Advent feast day always seems to be significant in terms of faith developments for me. Coincidence? I don't think so. :)

I'm looking forward to her feast day on Saturday! Do any of you have a devotion to St. Cecilia? Detail in the comments. :)

Favorite saints: baptismal & confirmation namesakes, whimsical patronages? :)

Morning all! *weak smile* I'm soldiering on through my week. Due to the lost keys catastrophe of yesterday, I popped a keyring from my car keys onto my temporary office keys featuring two of our recent popes. I figure a pope keyring *has* to provide the good mojo such that I won't lose them again.

As I browsed Catholic keyrings yesterday, I got to thinking about how much devotion to the intercession of the saints means to me, and how I have worked to instill that in my children. The kids really seem to gravitate toward stories of the saints and the wacky things they encountered in their lifetime. :) St. George battling a dragon, anyone?

So I thought I'd make a list of the saints that are important in my life, and find out which are important in yours. :) It's always good to learn about new saints, in my opinion, or learn more about someone you never paid much attention to. I'm a big fan of lists, so let's get all organized here, I'll break out my librarian ways.

*adjusts bun*

Baptismal saint: None, really. :( My mom used to iron her hair straight on an ironing board and wear bell bottoms, so this gives you a sense of when my parents grew up, and the cultural influence. :0 I read in a Catholic baby naming book that Tiffany is derived from Epiphana, and so I take St. Epiphana (an early martyr) as my patron and celebrate my feast day on the Epiphany. *halo*

Confirmation saint: St. Cecilia. I'll be honest: I picked her because I thought the name was pretty, and I never really loved my given name. :0 In fact, I was a bit annoyed when another girl in my confirmation class who was directly before me in the line to present ourselves to the bishop also chose Cecilia, and so I finally had my moment to choose a name for myself, and it was the exact same as the person I followed. *snort* Pretty superficial, but I was rather nostril-flarey about the whole thing. ;-) However, in time, St. Cecilia came to play a significant part in my adult reversion back to the faith, and I feel very close to her now, especially in November each year near her feast day. I feel like she looks out for me, and I'm very grateful to her and her witness.

Dominican name: Our Blessed Mother, which all Dominicans take as part of their name due to the order's devotion to her and the rosary, and St. Gianna Beretta Molla. She's not a Dominican, but her witness to the sanctity of human life is so inspiring to me, and fits with Dominican spirituality so well, that I wanted to honor her in this way.

Saints I have grown close to in my adult reversion years: This is quite a lengthy list, so I'll subdivide. #TypeA

St. Therese. Her "Little Way" really appeals to me as something easily applied to the everyday life of ordinary Catholics, whether they be religious or laypeople. She also comes into play again below, with regard to Anne. :)

Pope St. John Paul II. I adore this man. I've written about him in the past, and how his pontificate shaped my life and young adulthood. He was the only pope I knew for most of my life. *sniffles*

St. Kateri Tekakwitha. She is very key in my family's faith story. I've been to her shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, NY, and I hope to go back and bring the kids with me.

Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. This is a recent one, due to the rosary that captured my imagination of late. I've been praying with that rosary for a week, and thinking about the fact that we have power in prayer over spiritual dryness and darkness.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. I found her in my late 20's via some philosophers in my Catechism study group. This is the type of feminism I can really get behind. :)

St. Faustina Kowalska. I adore the Divine Mercy devotion and chaplet. It doesn't take very long to recite, and boy does it pack a punch.

St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher. Mike and I watched "The Tudors" several years back, and ever since then these two guys, and their courage in faith, have a firm place in my heart.

St. Monica. Have a fallen away Catholic in your life? St. Monica is your gal. :)

Mike's namesakes: St. Michael the Archangel and St. Patrick. It seems to me that these are two strong saints to have on your side. :) St. Michael is also Mike's confirmation patron.

Henry's namesakes: St. Henry II, and the Biblical figure David (also my dad's name). Technically, Henry wasn't named specifically for St. Henry II, but I still count him as his patron. Mike had always wanted to name a son Henry, and so long as it was a saint name, I was cool with it. That's my rule: any child of mine *must* have a saint name. :0 This comes from the trauma of my own lack thereof, see above. ;-)

Anne's namesakes: St. Anne, mother of Our Lady, and also my mom's middle name. And St. Therese. Mike and I love the simplicity of Anne's name, and what a wonderful patron. I wanted her middle name to be Kateri, but Mike loved Therese, and how could I argue with that? :) I recently ordered her a St. Therese Saint Softie for her St. Nicholas feast day gift:

Saints I have come to know via my children:

St. Maximillian Kolbe. I think he is Henry's absolute favorite. We acquired yet another children's biography of St. Maximilian for our nighttime reading pile, and Henry just never tires of the bravery in his story.

St. Isidore the Farmer. I think it's the part about the angels plowing the field in his stead while he attended Mass that draws Henry to him so much. :) And he is Henry's gift for the feast of St. Nicholas this year:

St. Dominic Savio. This is a perfect role model saint for young boys. Henry loves reading about a saint close in age to his own.

St. Nicholas of Myra. Last year we started celebrating the feast of St. Nicholas, leaving the kids' shoes by the hearth, and we all loved it. I like emphasizing to them that *this* is really what Santa Claus is all about.

St. Lucy. Eyes being gouged out makes the story pretty fascinating. :) And the feast day thing with the crown of candles. This appeals to my belly dancer fire balancing sensibilities. :0

So, that's my list. Who is on your list? Expound to your heart's desire in the comments. :)

Dear St. Anthony, please come around...

Well, well, well. I'm coming off of a difficult stretch here, and although I feel a lot better than I did yesterday, when it rains, it pours, you know? :)

I walked from my car into the library this morning finishing up an episode of Catholic Vitamins. They were playing a clip from an Audrey Assad song, and it was just heavenly. I love her music. My step felt a bit lighter.

Then I got off the staff elevator and reached for my keys to let myself into the break room and stash my lunch in the refrigerator. They weren't there.

:0

At first, I didn't panic. At first. ;-) I emptied my purse and looked through all the hidey holes they could have slipped into from their usual spot in the designated key pocket with my car keys. Nothing. I searched them all again in the hopes that I had simply missed them the first go round. That didn't seem very likely, but I wasn't exactly in the mood to be rational. No keys.

I heave a big sigh and call Mike from my cell, who is still at home. Were the keys on the counter near where my purse rests when I'm not using it? He checks, and nope. He also helpfully walks out to the garage to see if I dropped them in there, no dice.

At this point, I was starting to worry a bit, but was hoping that when I left my office on Friday, I simply locked them inside. I do this REGULARLY. I try so, so hard, dear reader, but despite my best thinking cap efforts, I still leave them behind in my office a few times a year before shutting the door. Which automatically locks behind me. This is a nuisance, but there is in fact a solution. One of our facilities staff has a set of keys to everything in the library. I pray that he's in, and head down to his office.

Thankfully, I espy him. Unfortunately, someone else has borrowed one of his key rings, on which lies the key box key where the key to my office is. This is getting complicated, isn't it? He directs me to where he thinks the key borrower is, and I have to hunt for her in a God forsaken corner of the basement that is being cleared out. But I find her, and she assures me that she'll meet me up in front of my office with the keys in just a few minutes. Glory Be.

There was a minor snafu wherein we thought she had the key to my office, but she actually didn't, and had to make another trip down to the key box. But finally, we harken my office. I scurry to my desk. No keys.

*long suffering sigh*

I really thought they'd be in there. We hunt around on the floor a bit, nothing. She tries to help me come up with some ideas for action items. Call Lost and Found for one. I think of my car, where my purse could have tipped over, spilling out the keys and maybe sliding them under a seat. I resolve to check both places, and she secures a temporary key for my office. My key ring also included keys for the break room and the reference office (which is where the tea water lives), and there are no temporaries available for those, sob!

I head out to my car cautiously optimistic. Someone begins stalking me and I have to tell them that I'm not leaving, so they can't have my parking space, :0 I open the passenger side door in hopeful expectation...and I'm sure you're not surprised by this point to learn that the keys weren't there. I had said a St. Anthony prayer and everything, but the man can't work miracles, we have to help him out a bit and I'm just hopeless. I hunted really good, and then headed back in to the library. I also called Lost and Found, who had no keys turned in. I was officially out of options.

I called our assistant to ask her to order a new set of keys for me, but things move at the speed of glacial melt over here, so I'm not optimistic that this will be anytime soon. In the mean time, I do have the temporary key to my individual office, but I'm at the mercy of others to get into the break room with the refrigerator and microwave, and the reference office with our mailboxes and bottled water supply. I'm feeling very sorry for myself over this fact. :-\

While I await the new keys, I started browsing Etsy for a new key ring since I *clearly* need help keeping track of my keys. A few months back, I bought a St. Kateri key ring from Mary's Prayers for my house key and I love it. I'm thinking a St. Anthony key ring might be in order. :0 But I had to laugh when I saw this:

Appropriate, yes? Apparently this can be made into a key ring as well. :0 My Guardian Angel must be so exhausted, poor thing.

All right, I'm heading down to heat my tomato soup and get hot water for tea and pray that the reference office is open. *pitiful sniffle* How are you today, dear reader? Any good St. Anthony stories to share?

The Church Triumphant: Spotlight on St. Vincent de Paul

Morning everybody! I'm delighted that it's once again Saint Spotlight Thursday. :) This month I chose to highlight a saint with a feast day coming up within the week, a nice way to stay in touch with our liturgical calendar. #CatholicNerds

I'm going to be discussing St. Vincent de Paul, whose feast is Saturday, Sept. 27th. Let's get started!

St. Vincent was born in the late sixteenth century into a humble peasant family in France. His family was able to secure part of his education with local Franciscan friars because they wanted to encourage his intellectual pursuits. As a teenager, he began studies for the priesthood, and was ordained at age 20.

He devoted his priesthood to ministries for the poor and the sick. He founded the lay Confraternity of Charity, the Daughters of Charity, and the Congregation of the Mission, all of which ministered to the poor, nursed the sick, and aided the unemployed. St. Vincent desired to help those who felt they had no one to turn to: outcasts, prisoners, prostitutes, slaves, homeless men and women.

From Magnificat for his feast day, we read:

"He instructed his followers, 'If a needy persons requires medicine or other help during prayer time, do whatever has to be done with peace of mind. Offer the deed to God as your prayer.'"

St. Vincent died in 1660 and is the patron saint of all works of charity.

My personal tie-in to St. Vincent de Paul is that after many years of attending public city schools, I enrolled in a Vincentian college. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, my Catholic college has a service mission that all students were required to partake in as part of their education there. I remember volunteering at a local hospital as part of the way that I accrued my service hours, and our curriculum included courses in both religion and ethics. It was a breath of fresh air after my prior educational experiences. Which is not a dig at public education at all, because that in and of itself is a valuable service, but I came from a fairly rough middle and high school experience.

While I was a student there, my faith was not yet "my own" in an adult sense (especially if you look at some of the decisions I made during that time period, yikes!), but God was very much working in my life. Although I still found Sunday Mass a bit trying and I lacked a full understanding of what occurs during the liturgy and of the Eucharist, I discovered daily Mass while I was there. The college has an absolutely stunning chapel on campus (and it is a registered parish within the diocese, Mike and I were married there! *heart*) and I happened upon daily Mass one day. That truly changed my life. I started going somewhat consistently throughout my time there. I loved the spiritual pick-me-up of the 20 minute service, it packed quite a punch. Even in my young and naive state, I recognized that something powerful happened at Mass and I was more easily able to identify it in the shorter format since my attention wasn't wandering. An important seed was planted. Around my senior year, I stopped going, and then my faith languished a bit until my second year of law school when I had a major spiritual "reversion" of sorts that led to me becoming rooted in my faith as an adult. And what was the event that tipped the balance towards making that happen? Daily Mass. :) Different college campus, but it all comes back to the Eucharist. Thus, it seems to me that St. Vincent de Paul had a hand in me coming back to my faith, and now cherishing it.

Does anybody else have a devotion to St. Vincent de Paul? Tell me all about it in the comments. Talk to you all tomorrow!

On a difficult morning, gifts to help us remember the importance of intercessory prayer...

Morning everyone. This is always a difficult day each year, and as I was plotting out a prayer plan of attack yesterday :) the mail arrived, and I received some beautiful reminders of our faith and the great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us. Remembering that we can call upon their prayers brought me great comfort, and I thought I'd share what I received with you all, to perk us up a bit on a very somber morning.

I mentioned previously that I adore saint peg dolls, and I collect them and buy them for my children. Henry, in particular, likes to display his along with the small saint statutes we seem to acquire any time we're at a Catholic gift shop. Henry is a huge fan of the saints, and I had a proud Catholic mother moment when his teacher commented to me how well he does in their religion curriculum and always contributes interesting saint tidbits at impressive intervals.

#beams

I adore instilling a love for the saints into my children, and I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to share this with them. A few weeks back, I placed an order with St. Luke's Brush on Etsy for a few new saint dolls. These are the friends that arrived yesterday :) and they and I had a little photo shoot in my office this morning so that I could show them to all of you.

For Henry's Christmas stocking, I chose one of his very favorite saints, St. Isidore the Farmer:

Isn't he amazing?! Here's a side view:

He is depicted carrying a scythe and a sheaf of grain. The detail is just spectacular. I'm so excited to give him to Henry.

For the family generally, to adorn the fireplace mantle, I requested a custom doll since the shop didn't include a listing for her: Our Lady Star of the Sea. The owner/artist (his name is Gary) is *extremely* kind and attentive, and got in touch with me to talk about the imagery to use in the doll. He messaged me a few days ago to let me know that Our Lady was completed, and that he thinks it's one of the best dolls he's ever painted. Given that I had already seen his gorgeous work, I couldn't imagine how this could possibly be even better :0 but I was pretty antsy with excited anticipation. Here she is:

She is *beautiful*! She has a gold star in the center of her nautical wheel, and is holding an anchor. On the sides, you can see the the edges of the anchor:

...and the lovely waves of water:

I am so, so pleased with the dolls. I have Our Lady Star of the Sea on my desk now, and just looking at her makes me feel soothed. Especially on a day like today, it's a wonderful reminder every time I see her to pray a Hail Mary and ask for Our Lady's intercession for peace in our world.

There is now a listing up for Our Lady Star of the Sea, if you or anyone you know has a devotion to her, like I do. :)

Let us all remain in prayer today as much as possible, and ask for the intercession of our family in heaven.

A finished sweater & (unsurprisingly) still coughing! on the feast of Pope St. Gregory the Great

I'm pretty sure I am now afflicted with a power punch of seasonal allergies and a SUPER EVIL cold. The cold had clearly descended from my head into my chest, where it is still residing and making me hack in a most unladylike fashion. I was so loud yesterday in my office, the man from *3 doors down* came to see if I was ok. :0 I was horrified. I mean, the walls are thin here, I know this based on some of the phone conversations I have unwittingly been privy to. But from 3 walls away? Yikes. 

But I just lost my train of thought, which happens so often these days. *long suffering sigh* Getting back on track... I'm coughing from a chest cold, however now my sinuses are a disaster again, which is where the seasonal allergies come back into play. This is a most displeasing development.

Anyway, let's move on to more pleasant topics. I have been keeping hydrated with lots of tea and cold water, and cough drops have been helping quite a bit. I've been sitting happily on the couch in the evenings knitting, and last night I finished Anne's sweater:

I had to be a bit creative in blocking, since the dark green edging cinched up the stripes a bit, but I pinned the heck out of it and it obeyed my command to loosen up a bit. That's the beauty of a fiber like wool, which becomes similar to clay when wet and will mold to your specifications. The not-so-beauteous thing about wool is that the texture can feel a bit scratchy on your bare skin, which resulted in Anne throwing this tantrum when I tried to get a photo of her wearing her new sweater:

Very unfortunate, no? :) Especially after I spent weeks knitting it. I think it's because she's wearing a short sleeved shirt underneath and had exposed arms. Next time I'll make sure the weather is cooler and she can wear long sleeves. This wool really is fairly soft, I chose it for that reason, but there isn't exactly any reasoning with a strong-willed three year old. Onto hats for the twins tonight!

In Catholic news, today is the feast of Pope St. Gregory the Great, which is perfect timing for all of the kids going back to school this week given that he's the patron of teachers and students. In the grand tradition of odd combinations of patronages, he's also the patron against gout and the plague. *gentle snort*

Certainly a wonderful intercessor for those in school, and I asked for his intercession this morning for Henry, since today is his first full day back. He had a half day yesterday, but met his teacher and got acclimated to his new room. He said that his teacher is very nice and he seemed pretty content. So far so good. :)

How is everyone else faring? Leave a comment if you'd like to share. :)