"Mommy, I am NOT GOING TO SLEEP"

Good heavens.

Lately, it seems like it takes an act of Congress to convince Anne that it's bedtime.

"Would you read me Franklin and the Thunderstorm Mommy?"

"We just read it, Honey."

"Would you read another book?"

"We just read 3, Sweetheart, Mommy's voice is tired."

"Can I have some water, Mommy?"

"You have a little in your sippy cup right there, Honey."

"Can I have a book in my crib, Mommy?"

"Yes, sure."

"Can I have Tennis Baby, Mommy?" I have no notion of how this poor baby doll got named "Tennis Baby" but there you have it.

"Yes Honey, here she is. And Muffin is there too, you're all set. Let me cover you."

"No."

"Why not Honey? You'll be all cozy."

"Because I am NOT going to sleep, Mommy."

Is this a summer thing? Because it stays light so much longer? I don't know, but I've been beside myself all week. It'll be 9 pm and I'll still hear here awake. Last night, she busted out "Ba Ba Black Sheep" *after 10 pm*. I think she had dozed and re-woke, but still. It has not been like this for the rest of the year. And as a result of not getting enough sleep, she's sassy and miserable during the day.

Sassy.

Bossy.

Demanding.

Willful.

This benefits nobody, my friends. She's 3 years and 2 months. Maybe we should adjust her nap? Will it just magically get better in the fall? I need some advice here, people. :0

Catholic Book Club: The Gate

Morning everyone, and welcome to a new installment in the Catholic Book club! The book I'll be discussing today, The Gate by Nancy Carabio Belanger, is the first in a slew of Young Adult novels that I have been asked to review, and I am thrilled to include this genre on the blog!

Young Adult fiction is certainly popular right now, amongst young adults and adults alike, and there is definite representation for YA books with religious themes. Overtly *Catholic* characters though, dealing with specific moral issues and learning lessons via the lives of the saints? Not so common, as you might imagine. And so when I received Nancy's book, and learned that it was the winner for Best Catholic Novel in the 2014 Catholic Press Association Book Awards, let's just say I was extremely intrigued. :-)

I was expecting a shorter book for some reason, and this book is substantial in size at over 300 pages, but let me tell you, the space is filled flawlessly. I mean..I was blown away. This book is EXCELLENT. When the Catholic Librarian is effusive, she really means it. :0

Our story centers around a 13 year old character, Josh, who is struggling emotionally and behaviorally since the death of his father several years prior. Both he and his mom have abandoned the Catholic faith that had been so meaningful to them during his dad's life, and Josh, now in public school rather than their former parish school, is acting out regularly, getting poor grades and not nurturing his preexisting friendships. His mom is burying her grief in her work, leaving Josh at home to fend for himself a lot, and he is beginning to get into more trouble, playing video games and reading books with darker elements to them, and sometimes stealing small items.

As part of a school project that he is immediately disdainful of, Josh is assigned to become a pen pal to a patient at a local nursing home. His pen pal is a older man named Pietro, nicknamed "Pie," recovering from hip replacement surgery, and Josh wants nothing to do with actually getting to know him. He wants to fulfill the assignment so that he won't fail his class, which he is on the brink of doing. His first letter goes unanswered, which rubs him the wrong way from the outset. When the class goes to visit their pen pals, Josh is prepared to gather the facts he needs to write his paper and be done with it.

Instead, he finds that the feisty Pie, who talks a lot about his love of the Yankees and his Catholic faith, captures something in his imagination that he can't quite put his finger on. He and Pie never end up exchanging letters, but instead Josh finds himself at the nursing home quite a bit, visiting Pie. Pie also lost his father as a child, and the two have that in common, forging a bit of a bond over that painful wound. There are also things about Pie that Josh wonders about, little mysterious pieces of his story that keep him interested enough to keep visiting.

One day, Pie makes a deal with Josh: every day, he'll leave one of his prized, collectible-quality baseball cards plus a slip of paper with a scripture verse on it, beneath a loose landscaping stone near the nursing home's beautiful garden gate. If Josh is so inclined, he can look up the verse in his Bible, dwell on it and ask Pie any questions he has about it and how it relates to his life's journey. But regardless of whether he looks up the scripture or not, he can keep the baseball card and do whatever he likes with it. Given that Josh is trying to save for a new video game, one that he knows his mother would never buy for him due to the violence and dark spirituality it espouses, he is eager to acquire the baseball cards and sell them. He agrees, intending to pay no mind to the scripture verses.

And...things don't turn out the way Josh plans. :) Not with Pie, not with the scripture verses, not with the video game he is so obsessed with, not with his friends, and not with his dormant faith. To find out what happens, you need to read the book. And please, READ THIS BOOK. I *loved* it. Every night, I couldn't wait to get home to read what happened next. I plan to actually RE-READ this book at a future point, and that is the ultimate stamp of endorsement from your Catholic Librarian. I also plan to lend this book to Henry in a few years so that he can read it when he is closer to Josh's age. It is inspiring, it is lovely, it is thought-provoking, it has an ending that made me cry. Multiple times. This is an absolutely worthwhile book for middle school aged children and adults alike.

Nancy has two other books available via Harvey House Publishing, Olivia and the Little Way and Olivia's Gift. If you order via the publisher, you can have them inscribed by the author and shipped for free. I am planning to order *both*. For me. And I suppose Henry and Anne will enjoy them too. :0 I am seriously impressed over here.

Do check these books out, dear reader. Catholic authors providing such quality writing need our support, and our children need this type of faithful inspiration.

Has anyone else read any of Nancy's books? Please leave me a comment!

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

Happy feast of St. Kateri!

Today is a big feast day, y'all. :0 St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the "Lily of the Mohawks," patron of the environment, first Native American consecrated virgin, and whose cause for canonization was championed by St. John Paul II as a source of inspiration for all Catholics of indigenous heritage. You can read her story many places on the web, including the link I provided above, but what I take most from it is the difficult life that she led, losing her parents at a young age and being physically scarred from her battle with smallpox. Also, how strong her young faith was when she encountered resistance from her people with regard to her conversion. I am so enamored with saints who were devoted to the Eucharist, and St. Kateri is well known for falling into this category. I love that she started a community for like-minded women before her death, and her influence spread far beyond the small areas of modern New York State and Quebec, Canada in which she lived.

From Magnificat for July 2014

St. Kateri has much personal meaning to me, as I noted in the post I wrote about my family's faith story. My paternal grandfather was Mohawk, and that angle of my family's genealogy has always been of great interest to me and my sisters. When my dad came into the Church back in the early 90's, I remember the Mass in which he was confirmed very well. My dad is a very reserved person, quiet and unassuming, and he didn't want to take part in a large Easter Vigil Mass. At the time, we were members of a small parish on the nearby Tuscarora reservation, and there was no Easter Vigil Mass scheduled there anyway, we would have to go to the large nearby Marian shrine whose religious order, the Barnabites, donated the time of one of their priests to say Mass on the reservation. So this would mean a *very* large Easter Vigil. Instead, the priest offered to say a private Mass during Easter season for us, during which my dad would be received into the Church. And that's what we did.

I remember being at the shrine and thinking how different it felt from when I was usually there, because the church was devoid of all people aside from us, and usually it is bustling with visitors. When we got to the Rite of the Sacraments of Initiation, the priest paused to say a few words about how he had come to know my dad, and how he had enjoyed the instruction classes they had journeyed through together. Then he said that he loved the saint my dad had chosen as his confirmation patron, and in my mind I thought: "Oh yes, he chose St. Andrew," because that was my great-grandfather's name, and I knew that my dad had been planning to use it in honor of him.

But then Father said: "He chose [at that time] Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha..."

And I remember being surprised that he had changed his mind, but then thinking "Oh, of course. That makes perfect sense."

And it does. If you read my link to our faith story, you'll see why. ;-)

St. Kateri is so special to me. I have a saint peg doll bearing her likeness on my desk at work, on a key chain for my house key, and on multiple rosary centerpieces. I use the images to call to mind her life and faith while recollecting in prayer or going about my daily tasks, so that I can better try to emulate her strong faith and courage.

St. Kateri, pray for us!

7 Quick Takes {Take 46} Mid-summer edition...

-1- Mid-summer revelry...

Happy Friday everyone, and glad to be back with you today! I'm calling this my mid-summer edition of 7 Quick Takes, because somehow it's already nearing the middle of July. This "time flies when you get old!" business is really kind of stinky, let me tell you. ;) This is generally the hottest part of the summer for us, now through mid-August, so usually it's my least favorite time of the year. This year, however, I've been enjoying the summer more and plus the weather has been beautiful and sublime. Now that I've said this, we will likely get a heat wave that will melt my car or something, but I'm throwing caution to the wind! So, what does this part of July look like in my summer?

-2- Dancing in the Streets

It's festival season!  I have class and rehearsal tonight, and we have a big multi-day festival coming up in about 2 weeks, yikes! We have added cane to one of our choreographies, so I need to remember the new arm movements, that might be a problem. We also have a new drum piece, which I love, but it's very dependent upon having trios of dancers. We have Girl 1, Girl 2 and Girl 3 roles within 2-3 groupings (depending upon how many dancers can perform on a given night). Sooo, this can be dicey, because I'm Girl 2 and may have to be Girl 1 or 3 if someone is missing and we need to switch the configuration around. I'm generally very good at remembering dance choreographies (it's the one thing I *can* remember anymore) but I still worry about my poor brain and it's ability to hold things in. We'll see how this goes and hope for the best. :0

-3- Christmas knitting!

Yep, the Christmas in July fever continues over here. I have my list. It has expanded a bit, but I'm not panicking. I still have nearly 6 months to get everything done. I have yarn assigned, and what I still need is about to be ordered. Henry loves super bright socks, and this is an item on The Official List,  so I bought this crazy sock yarn yesterday at my local yarn shop to make him new socks:

"I will make your eyeballs hurt if you stare at me too long..."

The color sequences are very short, meaning that the colors don't stripe, and have the potential to pool oddly. I'm hoping for a more staccato look, especially since the colorway is called "Confetti," but regardless, if they're bright and searing, Henry will love them.

-4- Baby knitting!

There are usually fall or winter babies upcoming when summer rolls around, and this year I am pleased to be knitting for Baby Gift Universe!

This will be for Sheila's new baby, due at the end of August. It will be a Baby Surprise Jacket, which is just a classic and fantastical knitting pattern. You knit what looks like a baby blob, but when you fold it just so and seam it...WHAM! It's a baby jacket. :) It's quite an experience, you should definitely check out the photos on the site I linked to. As you can see from my photograph above, I'm using a yarn with long color repeats, so they will stripe, unlike Henry's socks. This jacket will be a combination of soft blue with milk, mocha and dark chocolate brown, perfect for either a little girl or little boy. :) I can't wait to get more of this knit and post update photos.

-5- Summer Reading!

I am SO EXCITED about the book reviews that I have coming up on the blog. We have the official Catholic Book Club on July 23rd, with Cari Donaldson's Pope Awesome and Other Stories, and if the planets align, I'm hoping to have a Q & A with Cari about key moments in the book to post as well! The book is currently only $4.99 for Kindle, and there is still plenty of time to download and ready along!

-6- Young Adult fiction bonanza!

In an extremely pleasing development, I have been asked to review several Young Adult titles written by Catholic authors, and I am terribly excited to share my thoughts with all of you. Young Adult fiction is an increasingly popular genre for young adults and adults alike, but from Catholic authors? Slim pickings! So it's *wonderful* to see this genre growing within Catholic publishers. I am just delighted about this, and will tag these reviews with the Catholic Book Club so that they can be easily found with all of my other reviews. I am hoping to post the first of three upcoming reviews next week, which will be of Nancy Belanger's The Gate:

-7- But did I mention that summertime sleeping bites?
 
There had to be one downer, right? :) Every summer the kids go to bed later, which is normal for a school-aged child Henry's age. He has to be up early during the school year, so an 8 pm bedtime. But in the summer it's much more free form, and the older he gets, the later he is permitted to stay up. Although we're still pretty strict on this, he's always up in bed before 9. But our daughter?

*long suffering sigh*

She still needs plenty of sleep, but with how light it still is at 7 pm (her usual bedtime) here in the summertime, it just seems cruel to send her up to bed then. So I let her stay up a bit later, but Holy Moses does she take advantage. Last night I put her down at 7:30, and when I went upstairs following a shower, I could hear her calling to me from inside her bedroom. I go to check, and she informs me that she isn't sleepy.

Are there any more terrifying words to a parent who is looking to unwind in the evenings?

I read her another story and got her a sip of water. Put her back to bed. Within 10 minutes, I hear crying.

Rinse and repeat about *3 more times*.

Close to 9 pm, I'm getting Henry upstairs for our nightly saint story ritual, and ANNE IS STILL AWAKE. For the first time in the history of this tradition, Anne was included in the saint story ritual. Henry wasn't crazy about this development at first, but sweetly invited Anne to lay in his bed while I read the stories and offered her one of his stuffed animals to sleep with so that she wouldn't be scared back in her room.

It's moments like these that make me forget how miserably they fight in the car and how many times  I have to separate them during the day. :0

On to another summer weekend! What do you all have planned?

Head over to Conversion Diary for more 7 Quick Takes, and see you all on Monday!

"Mommy, what's wrong with your pants?!" A tale of why the Catholic Librarian doesn't love pools...

I used to love the pool, I really did. When I was a kid, I loved swimming, and going underwater especially. I swam as frequently as I was able.

As an adult? Not so much. As someone who camouflages gray hair with dye, I worry about what the chemicals will do to that whole situation. I do enjoy sitting in a jacuzzi. And if I pin my hair up, I *can* enjoy lounging in a pool for a short spell on a very hot day. But it's not really something I aspire to.

As a parent? Pools are exhausting. There's the dressing and the undressing, the application of sunscreen to wiggly bodies, keeping a very careful eye on everyone while in or near the water, inevitably dragging a kicking and screaming body *out* of the pool once swim time is over, the drying off, the difficult re-dressing of damp, unhappy bodies. The kids love pools, I think they are genetically predisposed for this to be the case. And so of course I let them swim when the opportunity presents itself, but I don't exactly seek pools out.

And so yesterday, when my mom (who owns a home with an in-ground pool) invited us over to visit with some out-of-town relatives and enjoy pizza by the pool, I got tired even having that conversation. It was a week night, so I'd be coming after work, and my parents live about 25 minutes away from me. So packing pool and pizza time into that short evening slot wasn't exactly appealing, although I certainly wanted to visit with my cousins whom I don't get to see that often. But the kids were all excited, so I sucked it up.

We arrive. Before we can even get our shoes off there are demands to get into the water. I get Anne changed into her swimsuit (so adorable you can hardly stand it, by the way) while Henry changes and I contemplate my options. I *really* don't feel like going in the pool. I haven't bought a new swim suit in something like 20 years. I make do with the ancient tankinis of my early 20's. They still fit, but you know...things aren't exactly the SAME as when I was in my early 20's. ;) Every time I put one on I wonder why in tarnation I haven't just gone to Target and bought a new one, but these are age old questions, are they not? At this point in our journey, it was 5:30 pm, and I was pretty tired. Putting on a tankini with elastic that isn't as stretchy as it used to be in the backside region and going into a pool with splash happy children wasn't really on my list of Fun Things To Do.

So I improvised. And let's just say that sometimes improvisation works out really well, and sometimes it doesn't. :) I got Anne all ready and headed out to the pool with her. I settled her in the pool stair area with some water toys and sat on the ground right beside her. She could play and I was right there but I didn't have to get wet. Great, right?

My cousin arrived, and her kids got into the pool too. They are 6 and 4, so close in age to my kids. This is how gender appears to be summed up in pool situations:

Boys: Every millimeter of our bodies is saturated with water. But I still think that...WE CAN GET *WETTER*! And to do that, why stay IN the pool, when we can get OUT and jump BACK IN!!

I'm surprised there was any water left in the pool by the time we departed.

Girls: Don't mind getting wet, but please don't splash my face. If you do, I will squirt you relentlessly with a water gun the instant you're not looking and/or hide something that you really want.

Anne was super thrilled to have another little girl to play with, and naturally she soon didn't want to stay solely on the stairs. I stayed right by her as she crept along the edge of the pool, but of course, if she went underwater, what would happen? I would go in after her, that's what, because the boys certainly weren't going to be of much help, lost in their water-filled delirium of happiness.  I tried to coax everyone out of the pool so that I could relax and eat, since I was starving:

"Kids, do you want pizza?" *beams*

"NO!"

Well, that was predictable. Pretty soon, Anne left my side to venture out into the shallow end, and I immediately called her back.

"Anne! Come back honey, you don't know how to swim."

"No."

"Anne! Henry, could you..."

But the inevitable happened. Anne started to head back to me, but changed her mind and decided to be bold. In an instant, she was underwater, and I was in the pool. In my clothes.

Can I just tell you, dear reader, in case you were wondering, going into a pool in *corduroy pants* is not a pleasant experience, not at all. I walked down 2 or 3 steps and was able to grab her, soaking my pant legs to about mid-calf. As I soothed Anne back at poolside, my pants feeling like they were now weighed down with concrete, I thought to myself how much I hate pools. :0

Granted, this was sort of my own fault. I should have just put my bathing suit on and went in. Apparently I have a very hard head.

I got Anne inside and changed back into her regular clothes, sniffling. I brought her back outside to get set up with a slice of pizza and finally settled in to eat myself, moving uncomfortably the whole way. As I sat down, I noticed that the wetness on my pants appeared to be spreading upward, like some sort of evil flesh-eating fungus that is featured in a horror movie. My pants were now soaked all the way up to mid-thigh.

*long suffering sigh*

I looked up to realize that the entire backyard was staring at my pants in concern.

"Do you want a pair of my pants to wear?"

My mother, who is a good 6 inches shorter than I am, looks dubious, but wants to be helpful. She comes back with a pair of casual cotton pants. So this is how I found myself in my parents' basement on a Wednesday night in my underwear tossing my pants into the dryer.

Glamour. All glamour.

I came upstairs donned in polka dotted pajama pants, but at least I was dry. Henry was still in the pool and had to dry off and eat. As he did that, Anne tried to sneak into the jacuzzi with her cousin and got HER clothes wet, necessitating another trip to the basement and the clothes dryer. Soon, Anne was in her underwear, but she can get away with just wearing those in public.

By the time all of the clothes were dry, I was dying to go home. I did have fun visiting with my cousin, but my exhaustion meter was letting me know that it was getting impatient. Meanwhile, Mike had texted me to see how things were going, and I filled him in. His horror assured me that he would be taking care of bedtime duties and that I could relax upon my return home. Score. :)

As is always the case with small children, the extraction process from the backyard was painful and took 20 minutes longer than it should have. By the time we got home, I had a headache and Anne could hardly walk straight, she was so tired.

Pools. I do not love you. I'm glad to have survived this one and to have an evening of knitting and wine to look forward to tonight instead of swimming.

Glory.

Christmas in July - 2014 edition...

I do this every year:

June - Christmas? Who's thinking about *that*?

July 1st - Hark. Do we have all of the Advent supplies that we need?! These things sell out long before the season starts. I better get on this!!

And let's not even go there with the Christmas gift knitting list. I already started that, July instigates that as well. And we know how that THAT usually ends up. (ill fated Navy Blue Cardigan - I'm looking at you, MISTER).

But yet - every year I'm game again. CHRISTMAS.IN.JULY.SALES.BABY!

Despite the fact that we have so many family nativity sets the nativity people seem to be migrating from set to set and we can't keep track of them all, every year I want to add more nativity fodder to our collection. I do keep good track of Henry's set, because he loves it and I invested in a very nice Fontanini set for him to keep in his bedroom that I add to every year. I want to keep it in good condition and he can take it with him when he's grown and share it with his own children. He has a stable with all of the important people, plus assorted sheep with their own corral, and a few pieces of the Bethlehem Village. Each year, I buy a few more pieces for him and it's become a lovely tradition. Fontanini has a Christmas in July sale every year, and so I take advantage to pick out some pieces, order them, and then tuck them away until his birthday in November. This year I may get him the well, an associated villager, and maybe the barnyard animal set he requested. So, I'm already on top of this order and plotting it out.

Then I had another idea, and it's always dangerous when this happens. :) Anne doesn't have her own set. She doesn't have as much space in her room to display things the way Henry does, and plus Henry has an established love for religious tchotchkes. His set is a very nice 5" version. I was thinking though that I could get her a starter set and see how she likes it. Fontanini has a 3.5" set, and they have expanded the village pieces available in that size. It's more affordable and will be easier for her to handle and display in her bedroom. I espied the "My First Nativity Set" that Fontanini offers in this size, and I was all over it. It is currently residing happily in my cart. :0 It includes a small stable, the Holy Family, and a sheep. No 3 Kings, but we can add them next year. When you place an order online with Fontanini, you almost certainly qualify for free shipping and a discount to your total depending on how much you spend.

So, I'm excited. :) That will make a nice Advent gift for her. I know that she'll like it.

And so, the part you've all been waiting for...CHRISTMAS KNITTING LIST!! We can revisit this in the fall and see how well (or not, snort) I'm doing with this. Since there are no adult-sized sweaters on the list this year, I'm hoping it'll go smoothly, but you know what they say about the best laid plans... We have:

Mike - Socks. He picked out some brown tweed yarn (men, I tell you, no boldness when it comes to color) and we're good to go. No sweaters this year. AMEN.

Henry - Colorful socks (good boy). Chocolate brown scarf that I have the yarn for in my stash. Score.

Anne - Finding Nemo socks (leftover yarn from when I made Henry the same socks). Colorful cardigan made from stash yarn, I make her one every year. Special request for watermelon mittens. I also have the yarn for those.

Mother-in-law - Dishcloths. 2 or 3?

Assorted Christmas Eve gifts for relatives we see on that day - 6 dishcloths


It feels much more manageable this year. Hope springs eternal. If you are a family member and want something added to this list, please let me know. ;-)

Other than that, I've been thinking about a new Advent calendar, but have made no decision on that yet. Any recommendations? Is anybody else thinking about getting Advent items prepared already? Bueller?

I would be thrilled if you would leave me a comment. :)

Fresh new look :)

Good day to you all! This is a big moment because, dun de DUN:

I have updated the blog template. Let the Hallelujah chorus begin.

*angels applaud*

I am a bit, you know, *averse* to change. I started this blog  back in the summer of 2008. The first template that I had was mostly white, and had this little photo up in the header:

Isn't she cute?

I had that for a LONG time. I want to say 4ish years? Yes, after nearly half a decade, I decided I had a hankering for something new. The sands of time pass sssllloowwwllllyyy over here at Life of a Catholic Librarian. So I played around in the free Blogger templates and came up with the blue book background that you've known and loved for the past 2 years or so. I have always liked that template, so I didn't mess with it.

But for whatever reason, today I was feeling inspired again. I've been getting an increased number of requests from Catholic authors for me to review their books (and it's funny because I almost discontinued the Catholic Book Club earlier this year because I didn't think there was enough interest, but how wrong I was! *divine providence sweeps through the land...*) and the only way people had to get in touch with me is to leave a comment. I hunted down an author this morning who did just that, all the while thinking "I really need to create an email account for the blog so that people can send me messages that way if they like, and I can get back to them easily..." So I did. It's now listed at the end of the "About Me" section if you'd like to take a look and say hi. :) In all this time, I had never done that, although I have thought about it for a long time.

And that got me to thinking. Maybe other changes were in order, a cleaner, more modern look. So I poked through Blogger templates once more, and now you see the customized new look I came up with. :) I love the green accent color base, very soothing. I didn't want it to feel generic, I still wanted it to be immediately obvious that we talk about books here a lot, and about working life as a librarian, so I hunted until I found the perfect image for the header. I played with the font and with the sizing of different elements. I procrastinated from the worky work I actually have to get done. :0 I had fun.

And so that's that. New look, and new email address if you need to ask me something without broadcasting it to the entire blogosphere. Yay?

It's back to my usual antics tomorrow. Christmas in July, baby!! Come back tomorrow for all the fodder.

#Adventfever ;-)

Of summer crafts, freezing fireworks, and super sassiness - 4th of July weekend 2014

Morning everyone! It's the Monday following 4th of July weekend and I'm back at work, sigh. It's raining pretty heavily here, which feels appropriate. But I had a lovely weekend interspersed with the usual bumps in the road of toting small children along for the ride. I'm sipping tea, do you have yours? Let's chronicle!

I took the day off from work on Thursday July 3rd, and we really spent it just puttering around the house. The weather was just beautiful - sunny, but not humid and hot, so I took advantage of it and snuck walks in each day while Anne napped in the afternoons. I did also work on crafting, like I had hoped. Not exactly related specifically to the holiday at hand, but that's never stopped me before. :)

I'm working on a rosary for my nephew Will for his birthday, similar to this one that I made for Andrew, which is this one:

St. Kateri center, with "burnt sugar" pearls for the Aves, and Turquoise Paters

Will's will have a Guardian Angel centerpiece, and teal crystal Paters, but will otherwise be identical. I got the first decade of that assembled this weekend, glory. I also made myself a pair of pink earrings to match my troupe dance costume for all the festivals we have coming up:

I struggled a bit with turning the loops. I had to go back and redo them a few times since the second earring originally turned out WAY longer than the first one. Not exactly a good look. And I'm familiar with this phenomena based upon knitting sweater sleeves that are different lengths from each other. Let's continue to repress those memories, shall we?

I also made these fun additions to my jewelry drawer:

What am I?

The first one I made turned out like yucky poo, so I had to start again. When I finished, I brought it over to Mike and asked him what he thought it looked like, with zero foundational information.

"Um. A bird's next with eggs in it?"

#victoryismine

Easter egg earrings for the 4th of July. I'm nuts.

So that was my beading work this weekend. I also was knitting, and trying to finish this summer dress scarf I'm making for myself:

I'm thinking about stitching the ends together when it's done and having it be a cowl. Thoughts?

I've also been commissioned by a troupemate to crochet her a modesty panel for one of her costume tops, so I got that done too. I just need to sew a crystal onto it and stitch it into her costume. Niche business getting started up right here. ;) I'd like to get that and the turquoise scarf done in the next few days.

Ok, so back to July 3rd. I did happen to be wearing the patriotic rosary bracelet that I made for myself:

Love.

Anyway, we decided to go to the fireworks that our town was hosting on the night of the 3rd. We haven't been to fireworks in years and years, and every year I regret not going. We thought the ones on the 3rd would be a bit less crowded (because the number of people that we have to encounter seems to always be the most important factor in the decisions we make about where we go #introvertfamily). I decided to leave Anne sleeping, my mother-in-law came over to listen for her, and Mike, Henry and I departed.

It *was* crowded, but nothing too terrible. We even got a seat on our own bench. And it was kind of nice to feel a part of the crowd, like we were sharing in a community experience, which of course we were. The only problem was that it was FREEZING. Fireworks don't generally start around here until 10 pm (I'm certain it's similar in other areas) because of how late the sun sets at this latitude in the summer. So the time combined with the fact that the weather in Western New York is just generally unpredictable, plus the fact that we have little fireworks experience, meant that we really weren't dressed warmly enough to be comfortable. We shivered for about 20 minutes before the display started, and I started to lost my fireworks enthusiasm. However, we stuck it out, and I'm glad we did. Once the show started, the distraction made me forget how much my teeth were chattering. And then I regretted leaving Anne behind. She was sound asleep, but next year I'll have her stay up. She would have loved it.

On the 4th itself we didn't do much except take the kids out to lunch at our new Firehouse Subs:

Somebody had a really good time...

We had fun, and both children were really well behaved. Little wolves in lambs' clothing. The rest of the weekend they fought like cats and dogs and made me contemplate listing them on ebay. Anne, in particular, is SO, SO SASSY these days. And she SHOUTS. At her brother. All.the.time.

"Anne! Stop..."

*eardrum piercing scream* "NO!"

"Anne!"

"Stop it, HENRY!"

It's miserable. And if you ask her to stop screaming, she says that she is in fact NOT screaming. She is just "yelling at Henry."

Kill me.

So, we were fielding that for a large portion of the weekend. She's very much in the age 3 end of the Terrible 2's and we're just weathering it as best we can.

How was your weekend? Leave me a comment! :)

Gearing up for the 4th of July...

...and feeling very patriotic about the whole thing. *beams* Traditionally, summer isn't my favorite time of year, because I just don't enjoy the heat. However, this year I have resolved to see summer for the good qualities that it has, which are many, and appreciate it more. Fusion Beads was having a big 4th of July promotion, with lovely red, white & blue jewelery, and I bought beads to make a patriotic rosary bracelet. My goal was to finish it prior to the 4th, and I did! Unfortunately, I left it at home and forgot to take a photo, lame! But it turned out very pretty. :) Planning to wear it this weekend.

We're also planning to attend a fireworks display for the first time in pretty much our entire married life. :0 When Henry was little, we never wanted to keep him up that late to bring him, since it gets so late before it is fully dark at this time of year. Now, we have that same concern with Anne, but my in-laws now live close enough to us that babysitting isn't an issue. So we're going to bring Henry and enjoy our town fireworks display.

We're also planning a cook out with my parents, and swimming will be involved, which of course the kids love. Me? I'm not much of a pool person these days, but the kids love it. The weather is supposed to cool down a bit, which will actually make it easier (in my opinion ;)) to be outside. Wine by the pool for everybody!

I'm hoping to get in lots of reading and crafting when Anne is sleeping. I have a few more gift rosaries in the wings to make, as well as a St. Dominic Savio chaplet for Henry and some earrings for myself. I'm currently knitting a summer scarf and a baby cardigan, I will post in-progress photos of those next week. :) I'm currently reading on my Kindle:

Book 1 in the Big Sky Centennial series, which focuses on the 4th of July weekend kickoff to the town centennial celebrations. I love it when I read seasonal books that synch up perfectly to the current season, it's the book nerd in me. There will be a book in this series published each month through a Christmas story in December, so excited! For whatever reason, I love books centered around farms and ranches. I don't know that I would actually like to live on a farm or a ranch, but reading about them thrills me. I also love cowboy heroes, despite the fact that I've never actually *seen* a cowboy in real life, and this whole "Western" thing is a bit of a mystery to me. Hey, reading is escapism, right? :)


So, it should be a fun one. Do you have any 4th of July plans? Leave me a comment!

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend! I won't be blogging again until Monday the 7th, since I'll be very busy wrangling my children at home. :) But I will update you all on the weekend revelries then!

Ordinary Time is anything but ordinary in the journey of Catholic parenting...

Hello all, and happy Tuesday to you! I was in fact tied up with the electrician yesterday (as I suspected I would be), and after that crew left I was home in the hot house, sweating, so I wasn't exactly in the mood to sit at our computer and blog. In our non-centrally air conditioned house, if I'm alone I just walk around in as few layers as possible and hope that I don't accidentally scandalize anybody coming to deliver a package.

But at any rate, we had a lovely weekend, and in particular a lovely Sunday, the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time. This is that long stretch of Ordinary Time that spans the entire summer and fall, all the way to Advent in late November or very early December. Each year, I try to find the specialness in Ordinary Time, since it doesn't have any crescendo-like solemnities in it, and there are plenty of special things, to be sure. One of them are awesome saint feast days, and we'll be revisiting that throughout the season. :)

This weekend I was feeling very happy and content to be headed back to Mass at my regular parish. For a few weeks leading up, I hadn't attended Mass there. One weekend, we went to Mass as a family to a vigil at a different parish, a historic building that Mike loves, and another we were in Pittsburgh where I attended Mass at a fairly new and much more modern parish building. Finally, I was back at good old St. Paul's.

The kids were with me and had their usual faces going on: Anne - happy and excited, Henry - stoic and long suffering. ;) We took our usual place near the front at the right side of the church. The green banners are back up above the altar denoting that we are in Ordinary Time. I noticed that there was a red altar cloth, which marked the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, martyrs. I just love details like that. *swoons*

The kids were very well behaved, although Henry seemed to be worrying that he was looking decidedly uncool if he actually used his missal. I suspect it had something to do with the fact that cute Cora was one of the altar servers this week. :0

When it was time for communion, Anne requested to walk up with Henry, as she has for several weeks now. She *adores* her big brother, and looks up to him, so I said that that was fine, and I just walk behind them. This is a nice development in that it frees up my hands to receive the Precious Blood. I personally never receive communion in either form with one hand, I'm too afraid of dropping or spilling (I'm clumsy). So when carrying a child I receive the Host on the tongue, and skip the Precious Blood. With Anne walking on her own, this is no longer an issue.

So the kids go up. Hank receives communion and Anne gets a blessing. They look completely adorable through the entire proceedings. I go up to receive, feeling happy and serene. As I turn from the priest and look toward the line for the chalice, I see a sight that I suppose I should have been more prepared for, knowing my daughter: Henry and Anne are casually headed back to our pew, right at the front of the church. For reasons that will never be understood by anybody over the age of 10, Anne has decided that she needs some more air flow and movement in the vicinity of her legs. She has hiked her dress up, oh, to the area just south of her armpits.

:0

All I can see are Hello Kitty underpants, and she is too far ahead of me to grab quickly. I hustle past the Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion holding the chalice and race to snag her. I quickly yank down her dress and she looks all offended, like *I've* done something to embarrass *her*.

*unladylike snort*

We made it back to the pew with minimal scandal in place. Anne did not seem deterred in the least, and waved to every person coming back from the communion line from her station at the end of our pew. It was our more amusing forays at Mass, to be certain. :)

Coming up this month, we have lots of fun Catholic stuff to look forward to. July bears the feasts of St. Henry, St. Anne, and St. Kateri Tekakwitha, all dear to my heart. I will post on all of them. We also have the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on July 16th. So exciting! I just love those Carmelites, that may warrant a post as well. The weather is heating up here, but we'll be doing lots of saint talking and book reviewing. What are your favorite summer feast days? Leave me a comment!