#TBT What was I doing last year at this time? Read on if you care... :0

I don't even like Throwback Thursday (#TBT) so I feel a bit hypocritical taking advantage of it's wares for my own selfish needs, but there you have it. :0 Well, I suppose I usually dislike Throwback Thursday because I have zero intention of ever posting a photo of myself on here (or Facebook or Twitter) with the #TBT appended to it, of me with my horrendous 80's styled big hair, and high-waisted jeans with sock layers overlying the cuffs. Dear God, what were we thinking?! I like to pretend that I never looked like that and I'd appreciate it if you helped me along in my delusion, dear reader. ;-) So let's not speak of the 80's ever again.

*shudder*

Instead, let's re-read a fun post from early August of 2013, since I have a packed day today of meetings and a speech evaluation appointment to take Henry to, so no time to really blog. I'll be back tomorrow for 7 Quick Takes! There's dance updates to discuss (another performance this weekend!), big girl beds, books, sewing and knitting, oh joy! Be sure to check back tomorrow afternoon. Talk to you then!
_________________________________________

This is what it looks like when your evening doesn't go as planned...

...me, in my pajamas, with wet hair held in a messy bun by a hair fork and glasses perched on my nose, sitting despondently on the floor amongst a pile of yarn balls and half-finished socks in the living room, wishing that I had more wine, while Jane Austen's Persuasion plays in the background and I have no idea what is happening in the story.

How did this happen?

I had children. ;-)

Nah, seriously. The day started out well, with Henry and Anne both turning in good performances at Mass. I'd give Anne an A, Henry a B - (grade reduced by repeated instances of deliberately annoying touching of toddler and then *blowing on her hair*, "that's not touching!"). As long as I bring animal crackers for Anne all is well aside from all of the pew climbing, but really, I don't think we can reasonably expect that to be any different any time soon.

We got back to the house, had lunch, napped Anne, relaxed, did some chores around the house. All was well.

Then came the evening. Mike and Henry left for a baseball game they had tickets to. Anne and I settled in for some Dora watching and playing, and then mommy was planning for a Jane Austen night with wine and knitting post-bedtime. Sounds like a rock solid plan. I very rarely get the house and tv to myself, and I wanted to make the most of it.

As I was blowing Anne a kiss in her crib and closing her door for the night, the phone rings. It's Mike.

"Hank is sick. We're coming home."

Oh sigh.

By the time I grabbed my shower, they were pulling in the driveway. Hank comes limping in with a stomachache, and I fussed over him for a bit. We got him settled, and I went downstairs still determined to get my Jane Austen night started. Mike was down there, looking sour. :) It hadn't exactly been a fun start to the evening for him, either.

He poured me a glass of wine and put my movie in for me (he's such a thoughtful hubby) but retired to bed to recuperate and read. I happily settled in with my knitting and my wine.

I was finishing up a sock for Henry as I watched. I haven't read Persuasion, but I was confident that I'd be able to follow the story anyway. And I probably would have, had I actually been able to concentrate. We had a couple of interruptions, all very sweet, by Mike letting me know how Henry was faring upstairs. That was fine, of course, but at the same time I was having a yarn crisis: Sock #1 was finished, and it was perfect. but it's a sock, and so you know, you do need TWO of them, and my yarn supply was *clearly* over halfway extinguished. Hope does spring eternal, so I weighed it. Yep. Well under 25 grams left from a 50 gram supply.

*long suffering sigh*

Therein started an internal debate as to whether I should place another yarn order for more of this specific yarn when I just placed an order on Friday (that did not include more of this sock yarn). To get free shipping, you have to spend $50, and they still have some of that nice worsted weight wool on sale...

Ten minutes later I realize that the movie plot is getting away from me. I refill my wine glass and resolve to do better. I still don't have a solution for sock #2 in Henry's pair, but the first sock is perfect, and that's a victory. For the rest of the movie, I figure that I can work on the argyle sock for myself that I've been slaving over for at least 2 months. I procure said sock.

When is a good time to try on a complicated sock-in-progress? Good and gentle reader, I assure you that that time is decidedly NOT when you:

(a) are watching a movie that you are already having a difficult time following,

(b) are on your second glass of Sauvignon Blanc, and

(c)  are already feeling quite vulnerable from misjudging size and tension in a project that is still in plain view.

Do any of these things occur to your Catholic Librarian in the heat of the moment? No they do NOT, dear reader. I'm past the heel on a cuff-down sock and am working on the foot, so I push the sock to the cable of my long circular needle and slide my (allegedly dainty) foot through.

Well, I should say that I TRIED to slide my foot through. Argyle means that you are stranding multiple colors, and stranding means that you wind up with one heck of an inflexible fabric. I knew this, of course, but I am a loose knitter so I didn't think I would have any problems.

I was wrong.

It's not even *close*. My heel cannot in any way get near the heel of the sock. And by this, I mean that I took my foot out, took a deep breath, and then violently shoved it back in in while at the same time yanking on the back of the sock determined that it would fit in properly, sort of like Cinderella's stepsister if she had on cat pajamas, a librarian up-do and wire-rimmed glasses.

That turned out pretty much like you'd expect.

I resisted performing an act of terror against the hapless sock, but I did moan and groan about it enough that I completely lost my place in the movie. This is why you should never drink and knit.

I pissily got out the scraps of wool that I wanted to use to make Anne's fall cardigan and was determining which colors to use when Mike came down to check on me. This is when he found me in the state mentioned at the start of this post.

And so ends a sad sock saga. It happens in the life of all knitters, and it never gets easier, but you have to learn to accept it and deal with it.

R.I.P. Argyle Sock. I am not ripping you back because the thought of unraveling 3/4 of a sock worth of tightly stranded yarn makes me want to gouge my own eyeballs out. I am not finishing you, and then (even worse!) KNITTING A SECOND ONE OF YOU so that I can find another purpose for you other than being my sock, because well...I'm sorry to have to tell you this Argyle Sock, but I just don't love you enough. You only cost about $6 in yarn, and I'd rather have my sanity and waste your yarn than deal with the alternative. I have moved on to Anne's 2013 Fall Cardigan and I'm a lot happier. I hope that you can forgive me and stop hating me from your perch inside the bag stuffed in my closet. I know that it hurts right now, but I'm confident that we're both going to move past this. I may even try argyle again in the future.

DON'T GLARE AT ME LIKE THAT.

Catholic tchotchkes for everyone!

Happy Wednesday everybody! I've been writing book reviews on Wednesdays for the past 3-4 weeks, but sadly this Wednesday I didn't quite complete my current read, so that will debut a week from today instead. In case anybody wants to read along, my current review selection is Finding Grace by Laura Pearl:

This is a lovely coming-of-age story for Catholic young adults, TONS of interesting moral fodder in here plus interwoven inspiration from the saints - excellent! Look for all the details next Wednesday.

This Wednesday I have shopping on my mind, of the online variety, because is there any better way to shop when you're an introvert? I think not, dear reader. Since I am a person of the crafty persuasion (although if you ever saw me wielding glue in any form along with felt and uncooked macaroni or some other such three dimensional object you would doubt the veracity of that statement) I have quite a fascination with Etsy. I absolutely love handmade items, whether they are made by me or someone else. Every year I like to carefully choose some handmade gifts for my kids in crafts that I stink at am not particularly gifted. ;-) I like to tuck these things into their Christmas stockings, and as you know, I am a bit nuts about starting Christmas shopping right around the vernal equinox.

I've been doing lots of browsing and favoriting of new shops and items, and so thought it would be fun to share my ideas with all of you. I'm certain I'll do another one of these posts prior to the holidays, since this is certainly not an exhaustive list of Etsy shops that I find intriguing. But below are a handful that I've either purchased from recently or am plotting a purchase from soon. Perhaps it'll give you some ideas, and you can leave me your own ideas in the comments!

I've written about saint dolls before, because I sort of love them. Henry has a small collection of wooden ones that he displays, and Anne also has a few. I think this is a lovely way of helping children to keep their favorite saints in mind to intercede for them when something is bothering them. The store that I have previously purchased these from is no longer open, so I was looking around for alternatives. Thus began my obsession with St. Luke's Brush:

St. Kateri Tekakwitha

I mean, did you ever? The detail is *exquisite*. And the selection is second to none. Every saint that immediately came to my mind could be found there, including my confirmation patron St. Cecelia, and my favorite guy ever, St. John Paul II. Here is Henry's favorite saint:

St. Dominic Savio

And she has a custom listing for any saint you want. She will paint it. A-mazing. I found several that I want for my desk at work. :0 Including that St. Kateri featured above, she's beautiful!

This store also carries hand painted rosary cases:

...and I fixated on this First Communion one right away for Henry. I haven't ordered yet, and hand painted items can certainly add up in price because of the sheer amount of work and talent that goes into them, but I plan to carefully select a few saints to purchase in the fall, and will report back in. :)

I also found a few store selling soft saint dolls, and I'm interested in these for Anne. My friend Sarah on Twitter brought Saintly Silver to my attention:

Lovely St. Therese of Lisieux

These are made from felt and are very reasonably priced. She has an excellent selection, and will also custom create any doll you like that she doesn't have listed.  These would make wonderful squeezeable additions to a child's bedtime collection. :)

I also found Sanctus Stitches and while a bit more expensive, check out the detail:

We can tell she is one of my favorites: once again, St. Kateri :)

Gorgeous! Anne could create all sorts of adventures for this St. Kateri, just as she would any of her other dolls. I am positively *itching* to order this.

For rosaries, I have recently purchased from the lovely Rosaries by Allison:

Our Lady Star of the Sea

...and she is just the sweetest and does a beautiful job. She has some gorgeous designs which you should zoom right over to go look at :) and she will custom design anything you like. I have a few Christmas gifts tucked away from this store. *shhhhhh...*

Finally, a secular addition that is absolutely adorable. Anne loves the apron that I wear when I bake, so this immediately spurred me into looking for a child's apron for her, because seriously? PRECIOUS! I ended up ordering her one from  Designs by Dragon Lily:

!!!

I mean, SO CUTE. She was having a Christmas in July sale when I ordered, so I picked out an angels and 3 Wise Men design for Anne that I know she'll love. But so many cute patterns and extremely reasonable prices. She also sells makeup bags, which I'm thinking of getting for myself.

So, now it's your turn. Do you have a favorite Etsy shop? Do detail in the comments. :)

Bright & sparkly things - because louder is *always* better in my world...

...aside from actual noise, THAT I don't enjoy so much. :) And unfortunately, Anne's volume seems permanently set to "Deafening" by some nefarious hand these days. I took her shopping with me last night to get some linens for her new bed and her high-pitched little voice just positively RANG throughout the store. Of course, it didn't help that I took her to Mrs. Fields prior to this, hence she was on a total sugar high, so I suppose this was all my fault on this particular occasion. Alas. She's cute, I love to spoil her. We even thoughtfully packaged up one of the sugar bombs to go and bring home to Henry so that he could experience the joy later on, right before bed. Mother of the Year, right over here.

But I digress. :) After we got home and got Anne settled, I popped open my knitting basket to grab something to work on while Mike, Henry and I finished watching an episode of "Columbo." There's a station here that airs them every Sunday night, and it's become quite a lovely tradition. If we watch them with Henry, we often DVR them and watch in two parts so that he doesn't have to stay up too late. Plus, Henry asks a LOT of questions when you watch things with him, so this slows down the process quite a bit:

"Why is he doing that, Mommy? Is he the murderer? But what about that other guy? Does Columbo know it's him? I mean, he doesn't seem to really know anything. But I like his dog. Is that a clue? What's that he said?"

:0

So, "Columbo." Knitting basket. Right! These days, my knitting basket has started to also include some sewing. The dancing thing seems to be the reason for this mostly, although I also now knit more cardigans and thus have to sew buttons onto them.  Apparently, my new button sewing abilities have given me a drunken sense of power, because all of a sudden I'm shearing fabric off of dance costumes and looking to sew new things in. Sounds very dangerous, no? ;-)

I have one gold costume that was not made correctly, and the results have made me nervous ever since. The darn thing was so *heavy*, and when you dance, you know...you don't want gravity choosing to creep into your life and teach you a lesson right at that exact moment, know what I'm sayin'? And it just never fit me correctly. So I cut the heavy fabric off of the belt, which I never liked anyway. Let me tell you, taking scissors to fabric that you truly despise is the most freeing feeling in the world. I ordered a new skirt, which is guaranteed to actually fit me in hip and length measurements since it's custom cut. So once that arrives I can wear the newly freed belt over top of the new skirt. Shazzam! But the belt was also problematic. It had gold beaded fringe hanging from it, very pretty, but the fringe was missing in spots. Ugh. I made it my mission to patch in new fringe.

Heretofore began an obsessive Etsy search for gold beaded fringe, my very favorite type of reference work. I found a lovely beaded fringe vendor on Etsy, Odyssey Cache, who was wonderfully responsive when I wrote to her to ask if in her opinion the beading could withstand "a LOT of fast and swishy movement." She responded quickly with:

"Are you a belly dancer?"

I had to snort at that one. :0 Apparently a number a belly dancers contact her about her beaded fringe. She was wonderful, but in the end, I decided to just order some metallic fabric fringe, so that I didn't have to worry about losing beads, which I found at Mary Not Martha on Etsy:

It's not as long as the other fringe on my belt, but it'll do just fine. At least now there aren't bald spots in the fringe. I sewed it in last night, and I'm feeling mighty proud of myself and my new amateur sewing ways. I meant to take a photo of the belt, but as we are all so painfully aware these days, I *forgot*. I promise to include a photo in 7 Quick Takes this Friday.

That finished, I pulled out another in-progress item in my basket, which is a colorful pair of socks for Henry that he requested for Christmas. Henry, always a soul dear to my heart, likes very bright and bold colors. And, precious child that he is, he always wears the socks that I knit for him and proclaims them his very favorites.

*gold star!*

Thus, he is knitworthy. I went right out and bought the loudest sock yarn available by law:

This is Frolicking Feet sock yarn (divine) in a colorway called "Confetti." I think that he will love it. :0 Working on the cuff of sock #1, we're getting there!

Hope that you are all having a wonderful Tuesday. :) What's new with you?! Leave me a comment!

Of crafting & running wildly through mattress stores - The Catholic Librarian's weekend...

Afternoon everyone! I hope that you all had a lovely and enjoyable August weekend. I did. Mostly. Well, my kids did a lot of whining this weekend which cut into the enjoyment a bit :) but other than that it was productive and good. We had crafts. We had mattress shopping. We had injuries. Oh. I guess that wasn't so good, but it did have a happy ending. Let's start with Friday...

(1) Anne's encounter with the coffee table - Our coffee table is a bit on the evil side. It seems to reach out and grab ones leg at regular intervals producing angry-looking bruises. When Anne first became mobile, I dutifully bought these foam triangles to stick onto the corners, and Mike looked *extremely* amused by this:

"Do you really think one of the kids isn't going to RIP these things off the first opportunity they get?" #Reasonable #Realistic #Intelligent

"Well, they're stuck on pretty good. I'll tell them not to touch them. I'm going to hope for the best." #HopeSpringsEternal #Optimist #Naive

Yeeeaaaaahhhh. This is another instance in which my husband, always very level-headed and logical, was right. You'll see another instance of this in a moment. :0

Well, the inevitable happened, which is that each kid bumped their leg on the corner, didn't like it, and steered clear of the coffee table. Problem solved.

But on Friday, the kids decided to roughhouse near the coffee table. Mike and I were cleaning up after dinner when we hear a loud bang, followed by hysterical crying. I turn to see Anne running into the kitchen, half of her face covered in blood. My first reaction is to:

(a) Panic
(b) Start crying too. #TotallyNotHelpful

Mike grabs a napkin, clears the blood away, and ascertains that Anne has a cut above her eye. He assures me that it's small, but it's an area that will bleed a lot, making it look a lot worse than it actually is. He firmly held a new napkin to the wound to get it to stop bleeding while I comforted Anne. Oh man. I am SO bad at dealing with stuff like that. I'm a soother and a nurturer, but the blood stuff? Thank God for Mike.

(2) Let's all oooh and aahh at Tiffany's amateur efforts at being crafty

After our harrowing Friday evening, I was happy to move onto crafts on Saturday, believe me. :) I finished up a pair of green earrings to match one of my dance costumes, and I have to say, these may be my favorite pair that I have made, I kind of love them:

So sparkly

I also knitted a baby hat to match a cardigan that is currently blocking for a soon-to-be-born babe:

Just imagine the precious little head that will squeeze into this :)

I also had my mother-in-law aid me with some alterations to a new costume (chocolate brown, orange and green!) which I'm super excited about. I will include photos in some future installment of Belly Dance Monday. :0

(3) Apparently, laying on every single bed in the store and racing down the aisles is necessary for proper mattress selection

We attended the vigil Mass on Saturday evening, so our Sunday morning was freed up a bit. Thus, we bit the bullet and went mattress shopping for the kids. Henry really needs a new one and Anne is ready for a change in her sleeping quarters.

I've been dreading this because it means that my baby is ready to move out of her crib :( which she IS, regardless of my feelings on the matter. We did some price browsing previously, and had a place in mind we thought would fall into the ideal range. We headed out.

The instant the children got through the door it's like some Mattress Store Force overtook them. They made a beeline to the far corner and proceeded to lay on everything in sight, and why walk between lie-ins when you can run instead?! Several interventions were necessary on the running front, but I will say that they behaved themselves well.

They had precisely what we were looking for, so we ended up buying a small twin set for Anne, and Henry picked out a lovely twin for himself with a pillowtop mattress. So we're all set and the beds will be delivered next week. I have until then to prepare myself for Anne's transition. *sniffle*

That was my weekend. How was yours? Leave me a comment. :)

7 Quick Takes {Take 48} How is it August already?! edition...

-1- Record low July temperatures = A very happy Catholic Librarian #freak

This has been an absolutely *beautiful* summer here, and your Catholic Librarian is basking in it. :) We have had zero 90 degree days, and only 3-4 humid days in the 80's making sleeping uncomfortable without air conditioning all summer. It has been *spectacular*. As many of you know, I don't enjoy really hot weather. Luckily, I live in an area of the country that often sees record snowfall in the wintertime :0 so I'm golden. We have a lovely climate up here, but sometimes the summer can get humid. Not this year, my friends! Just watch. Now that I've said that, a heatwave will roll through that will singe my hair off, but hope springs eternal, no?

:)

-2- Copper metalskin? Is that name of a heavy metal band?!

Speaking of warm weather, although I had an absolutely fantastic time dancing at the arts festival last weekend, I'm rather glad to not be forcing a heavily beaded costume onto my body in a stuffy dressing room while sweating tomorrow and Sunday. Fun danciness still abounds, however, and we have a show coming up August 10th to rehearse for. In the spirit of summer festival season, I ordered a shiny new skirt to coordinate with some of my other costume pieces. I like to mix and match and maximize the investment I've already made into dance costumes and conserve money as best I can. I absolutely *love* L Rose Designs custom skirts and gauntlets, so I ordered a set in a color called "copper metalskin." Sounds like it will be very LOUD and sparkly and may hurt your eyes to look at it, right? PERFECT. I can't wait for it to arrive. :0

-3- Big girl beds for everyone!

Anne is outgrowing her crib, and so we've made the painful choice to buy her a bed. I always hate this transition. :-\ Suddenly, the child is *loose* in their room when they're supposed to be falling asleep. This seems very dangerous, indeed. But it's time, and she's excited about it. So, we've been doing lots of comparison shopping. I'll keep you posted on how this goes.

*sniffle*

-4- Are babies ever really this small?!

In celebration of the birth of Baby Gift Universe coming up later this month, we have...da da DAAAA! The Baby Surprise Jacket. It goes from this:

A knitted blob

to this:

An adorable baby cardigan

...with just 2 small seams! All it needs is some adorable buttons (and I am a total button FREAK, so trust me, spectacular handmade buttons are on their way. :0) and it'll be a go. Oh, and a matching hat, because all newborn babies NEED a hand knit hat. If you have a newborn head that is in need of one, just let me know. :)

-5- Just in case you missed it...

My review of I Am Margaret by Corinna Turner has gotten quite a nice bit of traffic and positive feedback. If you haven't read the two free chapters that are available (check out my post for the link!) definitely do that to see if you'd like to read this book. Intense. Exciting. Excellent weekend reading. :)

When I wrote to Corinna to let her know that the post is up, she thanked me and let me know that she was working on editing book 2. I told her unceremoniously to EDIT.FASTER.GIRLFRIEND. :0 Can't wait to keep reading this series!

-6- Currently on my Kindle...

I have moved onto the third of three Catholic YA novels that I was asked to review, which is Laura Pearl's Finding Grace.

This is another bargain on Kindle ($4.99) so if you'd like to download and read along with me, have at it! I'm hoping to post my review this coming Wednesday or the week following, depending on how much reading I get in this weekend.

-7- *sniffs* Is that a cool nip I feel in the air?

August, to me, means that cooler evenings are on the way, and this is always exciting for me. Because it means that FALL is coming, and you all know how utterly *insane* I am about the fall. It is my absolute favorite season, and I look forward to it each and every year. I plan leaf-filled outings. I knit orange sweaters. I take my children to visit alpaca farms. We drink spiced cider. I buy anything labelled "pumpkin" that I can get my hands on, from food to yarn. I bake things with apples. I LOVE FALL. And it's coming. :0 Very excited over here.

All right everyone, I have to get back to work. Have a wonderful weekend! I'll check back with you on Monday. Don't forget to head to Conversion Diary for more 7 Quick Takes!

The Catholic Nook: Chaplet of St. Dominic Savio

Morning all! Via the fabulousness that is My Treasury of Chaplets, I am able to explore making special chaplets as gifts, and being the bead fan that I am, I am always on the prowl for an excuse to buy and mold more into wonderful prayer configurations. As I was flipping through the book a few months ago, I saw that it had an Appendix. Huh. Never noticed that before. The entries usually all have full descriptions and photos of each chaplet, making it easy to create them on your own. The Appendix lacked pictures, but the descriptions were still sufficient. A chaplet to St. Dominic Savio was listed in there.

Score. Henry *loves* St. Dominic Savio. Since St. Dominic is a child saint, Henry really relates to his story, and I think that it's an excellent example for young boys. I thought that if I made him this chaplet, we could pray it together at night before he went to bed.

It was tougher with no photograph, but I managed and some image searches online seem to indicate that I did it correctly. For this chaplet, what we have is a crucifix and center, 3 white beads and 14 blue beads. The white beads represent the Trinity, while the blue beads represent the 14 years of St. Dominic's life and his devotion to Our Lady.

To begin the chaplet, you pray a Glory Be at the crucifix to thank God for the graces St. Dominic Savio received during his lifetime. On each of the 3 white beads, you pray:

"St. Dominic Savio, intercede for me. As Our Lady to obtain for me a great increase in...":

First Bead: Faith. Pray a Hail Mary.
Second Bead: Hope. Pray a Hail Mary.
Third Bead: Charity. Pray a Hail Mary.

You will now move into a series of 3 invocations that begin and end at the centerpiece. You pray the invocation at the center, then move around to each of the 14 blue beads, reciting St. Dominic's personal motto on each: "Death before sin." (a little heavy for young children, but I think with a good explanation all will be well. :)) Repeat for each invocation.

First Invocation: St. Dominic, you know how hard it is to fight temptation in this life. Consider me as your friend in need. Obtain for me the grace of purity in thought, word, and deed. Help me to improve my self control.

Second Invocation: St. Dominic, you loved Our Lady and went to her with your needs. Go to her and ask the grace to help me remember to ask for her help especially when I am most sorely tempted. Obtain for me an increase in love for her, our most tender and loving Mother.

Third Invocation: St. Dominic, you prayed for your family and friends. Please go to Our Lady and intercede for my family and friends, and also for my personal intentions.

Concluding Prayer: Thank you, St. Dominic, for your intercessions on my behalf. Please pray for me every day of my life. St. Dominic, you struggled in this life with the same temptations to sin as I have, but you never gave up trying. Obtain for me great confidence in Our Lady and the grace of final perseverance, that some day in heaven we may enjoy the delights of her company and sing the praises of the Most Holy Trinity. Through the intercession of Our Lady Mediatrix of all Graces. Amen.

For Henry's chaplet, I chose a First Communion centerpiece, since that is appropriate for his current state in life, plus St. Dominic Savio was devoted to the Eucharist. And for whatever reason, centerpieces with the majority of saint images on them are very rare and hard to find. St. Joseph? You're golden. St. Anthony, St. Francis, also no problem. But St. Cecelia? Not so much. St. Kateri, for whatever reason, a snap. St. Maximillian Kolbe or St. Dominic Savio? Move along, sister! Unless you want to pay nearly $40 for a sterling silver variety, impossible to come by. Saint *medals* abound, but the rosary centerpieces are much more limited. So I procured one with the First Communion image and affixed a St. Dominic Savio medal, voila! I used large white pearls from a necklace of mine that had broken, and cobalt blue beads for the main section. I love how it turned out and can't wait to tuck it into Henry's Christmas stocking.

Any other St. Dominic Savio devotees out there? :) Leave me a comment!

Catholic Book Club: I Am Margaret

Happy Wednesday everyone! This week I am pleased to have another book review, the second of three Catholic Young Adult fiction titles I have been asked to review. Wednesday is really becoming our book review day, no? :) I may be ready for the third one by next Wednesday, we'll have to see. The kids really cut into my reading time. ;-) But I digress. Today I will be discussing I Am Margaret, by Corinna Turner, and you're going to want to settle in for this one, dear reader.

*procures tea*

This book is written in the dystopian style that I'm certain we've all become familiar with lately via titles such as The Hunger Games trilogy, and Veronica Roth's Divergent series. This is a very exciting style and setting for fiction, and I Am Margaret is absolutely no exception to that. Plus, this is a *Catholic* book. There are Catholic characters. Exciting dystopian fiction with Catholics characters = not very common, my friends! I was so thrilled to start reading this book.

And so I did. Wham! Right from the outset, we are transported to another world, and I read this book very quickly, because I didn't want to put it down! I actually TOOK IT WITH ME TO READ AT LUNCH. People, I *never* do that. Why use up brain cells to remember to bring my Kindle to work when I could just waste time on Twitter while I eat instead? But this book grabbed me so much I simply HAD to find out what happened next.

This story is set in a futuristic part of the world controlled by an evil and anti-religion government that has convinced the majority of the population that only certain people should be permitted to survive into adulthood. Such people would be without physical ailments of any kind and can pass various academic examinations. The process to determine whether or not you are one of the lucky ones is called Sorting and takes place in young adulthood. Those that fail their Sorting are recycled. Yes, you read that correctly. :) They are taken to a prison to work themselves into prime physical condition, then they are murdered and their body dismembered, the parts used to service those who were permitted to live into adulthood. The population is repeatedly told that this is an admirable sacrifice for the good of society as a whole.

There is a resistance force, as you might imagine, as well as an underground Church. Catholics, of course, value the dignity of all human life, and the punishment for being what the government terms a Believer is severe: Conscious Dismantlement. I'll leave that to your imagination, as I'm sure it's running wild as I type. :) Our heroine is Margo, and she fails her Sorting due to her poor abilities in mathematics. Her and her family are part of the underground Church, even hiding Believers and priests, a very dangerous activity. She's in love with Bane, who passes his Sorting. From his position on the outside of Margo's prison, he plots for her escape.

Our main activity occurs in the prison amongst Margo, Bane's friend Jonathan (a fellow Believer) and the other teenagers sentenced to this fate.We get to see how Margo and Jonathan live out their faith in secret, and this aspect of the book made me appreciate the Eucharist anew. Only when contemplating trying to live ones faith without ever having access to the Mass and the Eucharist do I recognize how very lucky I am. The interactions between Margo and the other teenagers, and their interactions with the guards and others who are helping to keep them imprisoned, also raises tons of interesting fodder about Christian charity, love, and sacrifice.

Margo concocts a plan to try and escape plus save the others, and...wow, you have to read this book. :) By the time I got towards the end, I resembled a rabid dog with my obsession to get back to my Kindle and continue reading. When I finished, I realized that this book is the first part in a four book series and I just about died. I emailed Corrina immediately:

"I *NEED* BOOK 2 WHEN IS IT COMING OUT I DEMAND AN ANSWER."

:0

It's coming out hopefully before the end of the year, and believe you me, the instant it has a page up on Amazon it will be pre-ordered. Immediately. I.must.have.it. This is a highly recommended read, everyone. Excellent, for both young adults and adults alike. I can't wait for Henry and Anne to read this when they are teenagers. We can all learn to appreciate and cherish our faith more by reading stories such as these. And in the increasingly secular world we live in, that is a very good thing.

You can procure your very own copy of I Am Margaret via Amazon for less than $4 on Kindle (such a steal!) or $10.79 in paperback (eligible for Prime! :)). Via Corinna's web site, you can read the first chapter for free,*definitely* check this out.

Has anyone else read this book? Dude. Leave a comment, I would love to know your thoughts!

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Life in the Terrible Twos...

Such a precious face, it is true...

Yes, I know that my daughter is *3*, but all of us parents know the truth, right? The Terrible Twos are actually not encapsulated during a child's second year of life. In my experience, this is the way that it goes:

*your child turns 2*

"Is some terrible switch flipped on their second birthday, because so far he seems fine? Maybe I just got really lucky."

*INSERT REALLY LOUD SNORT RIGHT HERE*

*child grows from 2 to 2.5 years of age*

"Wow! This is awesome! I mean, sure, he's a handful, but he's SO sweet! I must just have an extremely sweet child. No Terrible Twos over here!"

*Sometime before the 3rd birthday...WHAM!*

"Wait, what?! What on earth...?!"

Yep, there it is. Your sweet, adorable child suddenly turns two faced and regularly morphs into a snarling, feral creature who wants to eat garbage and drink their own bath water. They seem bent on making your waking moments (and there are many of them, since your creature suddenly also stops sleeping) as filled with misery as humanly possible. They scream in an eardrum piercing fashion and throw themselves on the floor. They break things for spite. They loudly refuse to cooperate with any request that comes from your lips. They embarrass you in public. You are reduced to occasionally curling into a fetal position and wondering why God hates you so much.

THAT is the Terrible Twos. And it usually happens when the child is, or nearly is, 3, and lasts until they are 4. Then other stuff happens, but let's not worry about that now. :0

Our precious Anne is following the protocol for her species right according to plan. A week or so ago she starting showing the Terrible Two symptoms, and now we are right in the throes of it. Here we have a Exhibit A, from yesterday evening:

*cute green Honda Civic pulls into our garage*

*Anne comes running outside*

"Mommy! So nice to meet you!" (translation: I'm very happy to see you! Cute, right?)

"Hi Sweetheart, I think we've met before." ;-) "How was your day?"

"Mommy, I missed you SO MUCH!" *enthusiastic kiss* *takes my hand*

Now see? This is where the lulling into a false sense of security comes into play. Subsequently, we have:

(1) Refusal to eat dinner, complete with crying heap on the floor. "Mommy, I DON'T LIKE THIS!! I am NEVER going to eat this!!!!!"

(2) Tantrum thrown about permission not being granted to use blue sidewalk chalk *in the house* following her bath. This involved 20 minutes of sobbing on the staircase landing and a clawing of her wet hair into something straight out of "The Exorcist."

(3) Final insult: A refusal to go to sleep complete with climbing out of crib. "Mommy, I am NOT sleepy. I am NEVER going to sleep!!!" Notice the theme?

*Mommy drinks wine*

Ugh.

The evenings have been a bit of a challenge lately over at the home of the Catholic Librarian. Suggestions for making it through this? Besides more wine? Anybody, anybody?

;-)

"Remember, ACT LIKE YOU'RE HAVING FUN!!" Dancing with rashes and high wind warnings...

...and so we begin another installment of Belly Dance Monday. I had a jam packed weekend of dancing, so are you all settled in and ready?

*gets tea*

Ok! This weekend I was privileged to perform with my Middle Eastern Dance troupe at an arts festival as part of a local World Dance Association. Besides us representing Egyptian dance, we had performers in Spanish, Colombian and Indian dance. As a group, we put on four 30-40 minute sets over the course of the 2 days and included an array of costumes and even some live music. Super fun. I LOVE being a part of the local dance community, it's one of the most enjoyable parts of my personal life.

But it's not without it's challenges, to be sure. :) Anytime you perform, a number of things can go wrong and, you know, publicly humiliate you. So I take my job of preparing for every possible dance scenario very seriously. :0

We'll start on Friday evening, our final rehearsal. We had to do some major restructuring of the choreographies since only 5 of us (out of a group of 9) could perform at the festival. As we readied, one of my troupemates looked in the direction of my neck, frowning:

"Are you ok?!"

Uh oh. Anytime I get sick, my extremely fair and sensitive skin deems it a duty to produce a bright red rash as my elevated body temperature dissipates. I hadn't really been "sick sick" during the week, but I did note that I may have had a touch of a minor bug. No biggie, right?

Not according to my body. By Friday evening, my neck was showing signs of rashiness. And the second day is always the worst. Which would make it the first day of the festival. Lovely.

But the only thing to do is to wait it out, so I tried not to worry, since I had zero control over the situation. Instead, I chose to worry about how my hands cramped up and turned into claws while attempting my part of the veil fan number. One wouldn't think that a wood fan with a piece of silk attached to it would make your hands ache and your arms feel as though they may seize up and fall off. One wouldn't *think*. But it was not to be, dear reader. Instead, I had to ACT LIKE I WAS HAVING FUN when I clearly was not. Heh.

By the time I got home from rehearsal, I was texting friends hourly with rash updates, as the situation was growing dire. Just before I went to bed, the rash looked ANGRY and THREE DIMENSIONAL. This was *not good*. I was hardly going to look lovely in my costume if it appeared that I was fighting some sort of fleshing eating bacteria.

Ugh.

I rushed to the mirror the instant I awoke Saturday morning. The rash was still there. Not exactly a big surprise, but damn. It didn't look *quite* as red and raised, but it still wasn't pretty, gentle reader. But what can a girl do? I put on my costume top. It covered a bit of the rash = good. Unfortunately, the strap also appeared to chafe my skin further, making it appear redder = bad.

Oh sigh.

Self portrait with rash.

I met up with my troupmates and arrived at the stage, them looking at my neck with concern. I was just hoping that the fact that we would be up on a stage plus my long hair would obscure the rash a bit.

Our first set involved our wings and tray balancing number, and wind is definitely a factor with such props, my friends.

Oy.

 On Saturday that wasn't really an issue, although on Sunday the wind was so bad it seemed we might take flight at any moment. On Saturday, I went to grab my wing and lift it up gracefully and found a handful of gossamer fabric, but no stick that will lead to aforementioned graceful lifting. So a fistful of clutched fabric would have to do, no?

The veil fans were next, and although still painful, they didn't go nearly as horribly awry as I feared. Although...there *was* that clump of dead leaves that I discovered *on stage* making my veils stick together, that was a bit of a discreet adventure, I hope nobody had a crunchy leaf bit fly into her mouth. I just kept careful count in my head so that I would know exactly when the torture would be over and I could lower my arms again.

Then I waited a bit while the other groups danced. And sweated. Did I mention that it was hot out? Well, it was. So there was a lot of sweating involved here. And if you were wondering whether heat makes my rash worse, ding ding ding! You would be correct. :)

Cute anecdote to insert and distract us from my rash: When the Colombian dancer was performing, she was swishing her absolutely gorgeous full skirt around with her hands as she moved. Suddenly, a little girl in the 3 year old age range moved right in front of the stage. She started dancing, mimicking the dancer on stage, grabbing her little dress and swishing it to and fro with abandon, underwear blazing to the world. :0 It was SO PRECIOUS, you could hardly stand it. I think everybody was watching only her for a time, lol. That would have been my daughter had she been there, by the way. Showing her underwear to everyone seems to be an enjoyable pastime to her.

Ok, so back to our chronicle. At the end of the set, we danced two more choreographies, including our new drum solo, which is pretty kicky. I think my belt moved 360 full degrees around my body on that one, but it went well.

We had some time on our hands between sets, so we amused ourselves by taking ridiculous photos:

I love these girls. So much. :)

Those veil fans had to be good for *something*

After the break, we had a Saidi cane piece, which also involved balancing, and thankfully went well. I found this weekend that I really don't love belly dance props (veils, fans, canes, swords, trays) unless I'm balancing it on my head, ha! I'm a huge fan of balancing.

A tray of flowers makes everything better.

Sometime during the second set, I saw a woman who works down in cataloging in the crowd as I was mid-undulation. This seemed a bit awkward to me at first, but then I figured: she works in cataloging, it's not like I see her all that often. :0 She seemed bemused.

Sunday, my rash was looking decidedly better:

I even *look* happier...

But the humidity was *worse*. So much sweating. SO MUCH. So gross. We repeated the whole shebang, this time with wind added. The Flamenco dancers had a live guitar player on Sunday, which was extremely cool. But despite the wind, the canes and trays stayed on our heads. There was just the wing issue, but hey, you can't win 'em all. :)

Also, for the first time ever, I had a stranger come up to me as our group was leaving the stage who asked if she could take a photo with me. And a little girl told me that I looked like Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Apparently, the sparkly costumes attract both elderly ladies and little girls. :) My 15 seconds of fame...right there, my friends. ;-)

I had a great time, and I love, love, LOVE my dance community. I can't think of a better way to spend some free time than dancing with women who are so fun and talented. I'm already looking forward to our next performance, which is in two weeks.

How was your weekend?!

The Church Triumphant: Spotlight on St. Anne

Happy Thursday, all! Today is our July installment in the Church Triumphant series. This month I am spotlighting St. Anne, whose feast is this Saturday, July 26th. Let us embark!

I'll start with a few facts about St. Anne's life, and move into some personal stories about my relationship with St. Anne, since she actually features quite prominently. :) We don't know a lot about her life, but St. Anne is the mother of Our Lady, grandmother to Jesus. Traditionally. St. Anne was thought to be much older than usual childbearing age when she conceived and delivered Mary. So, God used this as an opportunity to show His providence and how special Mary would be in his larger plan. Since St. Anne was older from the time Mary was a child, Mary wouldn't have had the benefit of her mother's guidance as long as other girls her own age. And Mary certainly would have needed her mother's support for the major events about to transpire in her life! Good thing she had St. Anne to intercede for her in heaven. :) Devotion to St. Anne was well established in the East in the early Church, and gained popularity in the West in the 16th century.

Ok, so how do *I* know St. Anne? Well, settle in, dear reader. :) It all goes back to, let's see...2002.

*feels old*

*that's because I AM old*

*ugh*

Around that time, I was going through a lot of upheaval in my life. I had made the decision to leave my legal career and go to library school full time, but I hadn't told everyone yet. My admission was lined up, but I hadn't given my notice at work yet. This decision obviously had far-reaching financial and emotional consequences attached to it. Additionally, earlier that year, a promising relationship that I had been in with a Catholic man ended. And at this point, I'm in my late 20's, that age when people are really wondering if you're going to meet someone and get married. Combine this with already being a shy person, and you know...it gets you down. :) As well, our beloved family dog died after a long and painful battle with epilepsy. Things were challenging, to be sure.

In December of 2002, I drove up to Montreal and Quebec City with some girl friends for a Catholic getaway. I think of this trip as a quarter-life crisis for Catholic nerds. We journeyed to shrines. We went to daily Mass even though none of us spoke French. We found Catholic gift stores and monastaries to stalk. We had a fabulous time.

One of the places that we visited was the shrine of St. Anne, north of Quebec City. It was Advent, and everything looked lovely, with the nativity scene just awaiting the Babe come Christmas Eve. I remember praying over by that nativity, and the church was very quiet. Apparently, journeying northward in the month of December isn't high on the vacation priority list of most people. :0 I prayed, asking for the intercession of St. Anne, for my vocational discernment. If God wished for me to marry, I needed to know WHO he wanted me to marry. And so I asked St. Anne to pray for me to find the man I should marry. For the first time in my young adult life, I felt peaceful about my vocation. Maybe I would meet someone, and maybe I wouldn't. But either way, it was ok. I had prayed about it. I could have confidence that I was doing God's will.

Less than a month later, I get a phone call from Mike, Future Husband of the Catholic Librarian. :) We had gone out on a date the previous November, and while it went really terrific, we hadn't ended going out a second time. My affection regarding our date remained though, and apparently it had for him as well. He wanted to know if I would have dinner with him again. I said yes, and the rest is history. :) I came to find out much later that at that time, Mike's mom was attending a parish named after St. Anne. While she was a parishoner there, she regularly prayed for Mike to meet someone and get happily married.

Fast forward to the summer of 2010. Mike and I have been married for 5 years, and we have 4 year old Henry with us now as well. We are hoping that another child will enter our family as well. That summer, Mike and I watch the Showtime series "The Tudors" in the evenings after Henry is sleeping. I am in no way recommending this show :0 (the violence alone is stomach churning, and the episode wherein St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher were executed reduced me to a puddle of tears), but it got me to thinking about the name Anne.

"I really love that name," I said to Mike.

"So do I!" he replied.

Soon thereafter, we were expecting a baby. :0 Anne struck us both as a favorite, and we never wavered throughout my pregnancy. Although we got the inspiration from Anne Boleyn, Anne is also my mom's middle name, and *she* is named after St. Anne. So there we go, perfect.

*angels sing*

Thus, St. Anne has had quite a large influence on my life and family. I am praying the novena to her currently, as I do each year. St. Anne, please pray for us!

Do you have a devotion to St. Anne? Leave me a comment!

*Image from Saints.Sqpn.com