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!

7 Quick Takes {Take 45} I'm an idiot edition...

-1- Happy Friday everyone! And happy feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. :) It's a beautiful warm day here in western New York. I'm going strawberry picking this afternoon with Mike and the kids. And yes, it will be fun. I have to be honest and admit though, that I will miss my usual afternoon spot of alone time prior to the weekend. #introvertwoes But I'll make it. :) Dance class tonight, lots of festival preparation and costume fretting, oh joy!

-2-"So...how do you work this thing?!"

And here we are at the idiot part. I'm a little, what you could call, BEHIND when it comes to technological devices. I'm a bit thrifty (translation: I choose to spend my money on yarn and books instead, not that it goes unspent :0) and I'm married to someone who flat out doesn't like new technology and social media. We're talking, he only got a cell phone a few years ago and a *flip phone* at that, and has been on Facebook for approximately 12 months. This is what we're dealing with here, people. And so he doesn't exactly encourage me to purchase all sorts of new gadgets. But I finally reached a point wherein I couldn't take it anymore - I have good friends who are long distance from me, and I want to be able to video chat with them. I purchased a web cam.

*angels sing*

Well, they sang for a little while. Until I realized that the inexpensive USB plugin web cam that I purchased was pretty, you know, crappy. Picture it, at long last, I connect my video call:

"HEY!!!! Can you hear me?! I don't think this microphone is working all that great."

"HI!!!! What? Did you say that you are wearing a habit?!"

"Ha! I think this microphone is bad, oh dear. Can you see me ok?"

"Well, your forehead is cut off, but the picture is decent."

"Ugh, let me adjust this thing again, but it's so dicey.Whenever I touch it, it tends to fall of the monitor entirely. Let's see..."

*momentarily sees nothing but the ceiling*

And so, we have great fun, but I was concerned that the camera wasn't really good enough for what I needed it for, yet I hesitated to spend more money on equipment I know nothing about. Until suddenly...

-3- Even the dense ones have bright moments every once in a while...

I had a Eureka! moment. I have a new smartphone. I don't pay for data, so I've done anything more with it than text and occasionally call someone. But it has wifi capabilities. I don't know why I never put 2 and 2 together that this means that I can connect to the Internet when I have a wifi signal. I mean, I was able to do a texty chat Google Hangout on there, so maybe there is a way to do video too?

*slaps palm to forehead*

Of course there is. There is a little video camera icon right in the Google Hangout screen. I call her. We have a super enhanced video chat experience. Much squealing is heard throughout the land. We're planning a cocktail hour version sometime next week. :0

It would probably be best not to record that one...

-4-"Oh wow, so now I can, like...do stuff on here! Like normal people do!"

So...I finally downloaded the Twitter and Facebook apps, and maybe now I can actually post stuff to Facebook? :0 I was always so jealous of people who could just snap a photo and post it to Facebook or Twitter. Me? I had to use our big, clunky camera and then find the USB cord, upload the photo, usually the file size was then too big for Twitter, so I had to do this *ridiculous* Powerpoint manuever wherein I changed the file type and size...Is it any wonder why I rarely post photos? My new smartphone has a great camera in it. Of course, I can only take the photos holding the phone with the back facing me, so it might be a bit awkward. Maybe I could just twist a bit...

*slaps palm to forehead*

Right. The smart people know that there is a way to flip the camera view around, that's how they all take selfies (I loathe that word, but in reparation for my technological idiocy I will use it here). I had been wondering about that little icon of the camera with arrows pointing around it as if indicating a 360 directional shift. Yep. Friends are now being photobombed with selfies that I text:

The miracle of modern technology: I can now text and share on social media my bad hair days.

-5- "I won't play if I have to be evil."

So when I'm not making a mockery of 21st century living I've been playing a board game with Mike and Henry in the evenings called Talisman. I'm not really a big board game gal, but since both of the fellas love it so much, I agreed to be a sport and play a game with them. It's a good vs. evil type of game, which I like, so that helps. And rather than randomly having to pick a character (some of which are good, and some of which are evil), they let me choose between the monk and the priest, since those are the religious characters and they know how I roll. There is no nun, or believe me I would have been all over that. I chose the monk and pretend that he's a nun. I take my first turn and have to draw a card:

"Oh! I'm being visited by an angel and given extra strength. I love this, look how cute she is!"

*serenity fills my corner of the room*

*Mike and Hank roll their eyes*

On subsequent turns, my roll takes me to the chapel...:

"The chapel?! I definitely want to go there."

"Yes, if you're good, like you are, you can pray in the chapel and add to your strength."

"Oh! Oh my. Yes, I want to go pray, I love that."

*aura of sanctity permeates my side of the board*

*more amused eye rolling from Mike and Hank*

...but I also start to draw less savory cards:

"What's this? A goblin?"

"Yes, you have to fight him."

"Oh. I liked the angel better. What if I go this way instead...Oh. There's a demon card over there. Would I have to fight him?"

"Yes."

"But I would win." *righteous sniff*

...and come to the realization that my character could potentially undergo some changes:

"Watch out for Hank, because he can carry more spells than the rest of us can, and it's possible that he could turn you evil."

"WHAT?! I don't want to play if I have to be evil."

"It's ok, you can still win if you're evil."

"Well, I don't WANT to win if I'm *evil*!"

I doubt they're going to ask me to play with them again. :0

-6- Currently being read in the evenings on my Kindle...

Whispers of the Bayou, by Mindy Starns Clark:

Mindy has written a few Amish titles that I have read and liked, so I downloaded this given how much I enjoyed her other work. It's published via Harvest House, a Christian publisher, so this falls into the general inspirational category of romantic suspense. It's set in Louisiana and involves a mysterious house that the heroine is set to inherit. I'm really enjoying it so far!

-7- Book Club!

 This past Wednesday was Catholic Book Club day, and I reviewed Something Other Than God, by Jennifer Fulwiler. If you have read the book, be sure to check out my post and write in your own comments! Next month, on July 23rd, we have Pope Awesome and Other Stories by Cari Donaldson in the wings. Join in!

Ok, I'm off. Not sure if I can blog on Monday since we have the electrician coming to the house and I don't know what the day will be like. But I'll definitely be with you on Tuesday. *insert heart here* *using asterisks since Blogger doesn't like it when I actually insert a heart there* Make sure to head to Conversion Diary for more 7 Quick Takes!

The Church Triumphant: Spotlight on St. Paul

Happy Thursday everybody! Time for the second installment in the Church Triumphant series (originally called "The Church Militant," named by yours truly, because apparently I've lost even more brain cells than originally realized :0) . Last month I highlighted a protective saint, St. Michael. Today I am spotlighting a saint whose feast we will celebrate this weekend, June 29th, St. Paul! He's the patron of my home parish, so I have a real soft spot for our St. Paul. :)

St. Paul's story is certainly a well known one amongst Christians, so I'll summarize the key details and try to hunt down a few tidbits that aren't necessarily common knowledge. We know that Paul was originally named Saul, and that he wasn't a Christian. In fact, he was very anti-Christian and had a dramatic conversion experience on his way to Damascus (heading down for some good old fashioned persecution :)) in which he saw the risen Christ. Known as the "Apostle of the Gentiles," Paul traveled around the Mediterranean bringing the Good News to those who did not yet know God. His letters of encouragement to new Christian communities make up a good portion of the New Testament, and we know that he spent a decent amount of time in prison, poor guy. His post-conversion life was not an easy one, to be sure. Around the year 64, tradition holds that he was beheaded in Rome.

In Magnificat magazine for the feast day, we get a lovely reflection on "The Graces of St. Paul," written by St. Catherine of Siena, and her words struck a chord with me:

"...Imitate that dear Paul, who was so in love, and be a vessel of affection that bears and proclaims the name of Jesus. It seems to me that Paul gazed into this eye and lost himself in it. And he was granted such a great soul that he was willing and even desired to be separated from God, an outcast, for the sake of his brothers and sisters. Paul was in love with whatever God was in love with. He saw that charity is never scandalized, is never confounded."

It seems clear to me that St. Paul fell in love with Our Lord, and that love took over his entire life, changing it dramatically from what he had known before. I very much relate to this because although not nearly as dramatic (or vision filled :)) my experience as a young adult coming back to my faith and making it my own bears some similarity. My life had been in a rut. I was unhappy and making poor choices. My faith life was nonexistent. There were little threads there that would lead to something later (like my then-atheist friend Irena wanting me to go to Mass with her; she's Catholic now, btw :0 *angels sing*) but I didn't realize it. Yet one day my heart felt...something. All of a sudden I wanted to read Catholic books. So I did, and I remember the night I started reading the first one I had picked up from a massive sweep of the religions section of Barnes & Noble - I started crying. The book was about Marian apparitions, and that topic is very dear to my heart given that as a teenager I attended a weekly prayer group centered around Our Lady of Medjugorje (not an approved apparition, I know, but the fruits were good in this instance). A wave of nostalgia came over me, and something quite literally burned in my heart. I wanted to go back to having a relationship with Our Lord, and His mother led the way. Then the next day I went to daily Mass like I detailed in the linked post at the beginning of this paragraph, and the rest is history. But the whole thing happened quite quickly and felt sudden. People noticed and wondered what happened that I was suddenly "so religious."

I wonder if St. Paul felt the same way as I did. You're just going about your business, leading your sinful little life :0 when WHAM! You fall head over heels in love with God and all you want to do is serve Him. It's all so wonderful and thrilling, but there are challenges too. Thankfully mine didn't involve imprisonment or beheading, but you know what I mean. Your life is forever changed, and you don't mind a bit, in fact are everlastingly grateful, even with all of this crappy stuff happens to you. It's so worth it.

St. Paul is a kindred spirit - I think he is interceding for all of us to fall more deeply in love with Our Lord as we journey about the road of life. Don't you think so?

Do you have a devotion to St. Paul? Oh squeal! I love this stuff. :) I love being Catholic. Thank you all for putting up with me and reading the chatty nonsense that I write. :) Have a wonderful day!

Catholic Book Club: Something Other Than God

Good day all! Today is June's edition of the Catholic Book Club, and I'm pleased to discuss a book that I had anticipated for quite some time before it was released, and had pre-ordered as soon as the page was up for Kindle: Something Other Than God: How I Passionately Sought Happiness and Accidentally Found It, by Jennifer Fulwiler. I have been a fan of Jennifer's blog and humorous writing style for years, and knowing that she had a memoir coming out kept me excitedly in the wings. You all know how I feel about spiritual memoirs - ADORE. There have been instances in which I have not enjoyed a memoir, and in those cases it was all about the writing style. If the author doesn't have an intimate feel to their writing, doesn't take you along with them as they detail their thoughts and feelings through the journey of life and faith, it just doesn't work for me. I need a slice of life, to feel like I was there observing everything as it unfolds.

And a happy slice of life is what you get here in Something Other Than God in abundance. Given that I've read Jennifer's blog for so long, I felt like I already knew her. As one might imagine though, there was SO much about her life that I did not know, and reading this book was like finding a fantastic buried treasure with all sorts of layers to it you didn't originally realize were there. The book starts with some information about Jennifer's childhood and the foundations of her atheism. I had never read a spiritual memoir before by someone who started out as a staunch atheist, and I was fascinated with what she had to say about why she was an atheist, and even in her most fervent days of that worldview, what specific discomforts she had with it.

From there we move on to her college days and first job, which is where she meets her future husband, and things get *really* interesting from there! I kept thinking, "Oh wow, I didn't know that, how interesting. I wonder what she'll do next!!" And *that* is what I loved most about this book. This is a work of non-fiction, yet it read almost like a novel in the way that Jennifer frames the content. The reader can see the threads there that will be significant later on in the story, we relate to and are rooting for our heroine, and there are all these bumps in the road that we navigate along with her. Suddenly...there are surprises! And I absolutely could not wait to pick the book back up to see what would happen next. There was this one scene, wherein Jennifer and her husband Joe were on their way to a restaurant for dinner, and she's trying to tell him some major news, hedging on whether to spill the whole story before or after they get settled at their table, and...I nearly dropped my Kindle when I got to the end of that chapter. :0 I just about died when I saw what happened. It is not easy to accomplish such a feat as a writer, and I am not at all surprised that Jennifer managed it given what I knew already about her writing talents, but for the reader it just feels GOOD to interact with a book in this way.

And so we travel with Jennifer throughout her early years of marriage and parenthood, and the stirrings she feels in her heart and soul to find out if there is a power greater than ourselves out in the universe somewhere. I love the part that her husband plays in all of this. Although a theist, he was not Catholic, and neither originally felt any inkling to consider the Catholic Church when Jennifer first started investigating God. And so his story becomes blended with hers, in a journey and love affair toward Jesus and His Church. As you can imagine - so lovely, so touching. As I finished the book, I was already rooting for a sequel, the story is just begging for it. Life since their conversion and the explosion in popularity of the Conversion Diary blog - THE READERS DEMAND THIS. :0

This is an *excellent* book. If you haven't read it, well, what are you waiting for? :) It's under $10 for Kindle right now, and you will NOT regret supporting this wonderful writer and reading her story.

Did you read Something Other Than God? Please comment with your thoughts!

In July, I'm going to be reading Pope Awesome and Other Stories, by Cari Donaldson, and I'm hoping to set up a web chat of some kind with Cari. This is going to stretch my non-adept technological muscles as you saw yesterday. :0 We'll see how this goes, which is my way of saying it may go nowhere. But I'll try! Pope Awesome is available for Kindle right now for *$4.99*. Scoop this up, my friends!! We can read along together.

"Stop it HENRY!!" A story of a weekend "getaway"...

You know, a "getaway" really implies a happy event, a voyage to a fun place where a good time was had by all, right?

;-)

Well, we're dealing with a stacked deck of negative energy here. Why, you ask? Well, we have, for your amusement, what I call The Big 3 working against us:

(1) Mike and I hate to travel. Nothing like starting off strong. :0 We have "Routine Withdrawal Syndrome," (hereinafter "RWS") and a very dire case of it indeed. There is something about not being in my usual happy space doing my usual happy stuff that gets me all agita. This is a term my Italian grandmother uses to describe a state in which one is anxious, antsy, and perhaps a bit wild eyed. That describes me being off routine to a tee. :0

RWS Case in Point:  Mike and I lay despondently side-by-side on an inflated air mattress, trying not to jostle the other by moving and/or breathing too hard.

"What are we doing tomorrow?"

*agonized sigh* "My parents are insisting on taking the kids to that animal preserve. We're going to have to go too."

"Oh. It's like an hour away, right?" *resists the urge to whine*

"YES. And by time it opens and we get there, we'll be coming up against Anne's usual nap time, and she's already WAY overtired."

"Fabulous."

*long suffering sigh*

"Have you seen my hair straightener? If I don't find it, I'll look like Bozo the clown tomorrow."

"Isn't it over there in that pile?"

"No. I had to move that pile to make way for all the clothes Anne is dirtying. Now I can't find it."

"Sorry."

Ugh.

(2) I have all kinds of weird phobias. This isn't exactly the most flattering thing to admit, but it's very, very true, and I address it here so that all of you weird phobia sufferers out there no longer have to suffer alone. ;-) There are things that we don't speak of like Fear of Not Having Bathroom Privacy. You know what I mean. The only bathroom being located right in a main, densely populated household space where PEOPLE WILL KNOW HOW LONG YOU'VE BEEN IN THERE. The very thought makes my heart stop. Then there is the Fear of Having Dirty Sheets. Anything other than dust that my legs have to slip amongst in sheets that aren't mine and my skin crawls. Little pebble things, dirt or otherwise foreign objects? Can't sleep. Or move, for that matter. There is also the Fear of Gross Showers. I'm sensing a dirt-related theme here. #OCD

Freakish Phobia Case in Point: Tiffany is poised to take a shower. As I go to place all of my shower stuff into the stall (all that girly business: shower gel, shampoo and conditioner, razor, yadda) I notice the floor rug/mat in front. I gasp a little bit.

"Oh. There's "stuff" embedded into the rug. What is...Oh God. Can I shake it out anywhere?! No, someone would see me and that would be rude. Can I...oh dear. I can't step on this with bare feet, especially *wet* bare feet, I wouldn't be able to sleep for days. I'm going to have to move it and just step on the bare floor. Which will get the floor wet, but it can't be helped. I'll wipe it up with my towel when I'm done. Uh oh. There's stuff *underneath* the mat too! I'm just going to have to carefully step around...*executes Twister-like movement*"

I nearly killed myself getting out when my feet were wet duplicating this scenario, fyi. Try at your own risk.

(3) We have young children who like to make each other miserable. If there is anything I fear more than having my own routine hacked into pieces it's having the routines of my small children disrupted. My sanity hinges upon a regular nap time and bedtime so that we can have adult fun time. And now we're in someone else's house, and so the children have to sleep in the same room. Where they can talk to and otherwise annoy each other and prevent each other from sleeping. Then they are even crankier and less willing to sleep than ever the next day.

Major.Mew.

Children On the Edge Case in Point: The room Mike and I were staying in was connected to Henry and Anne's room via a vent. 6:15 am Sunday morning we hear:

*high pitched whispering*

*Chorus of "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes" struck up loudly*

"ANNE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"Nothing HENRY!"

"ANNE! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP! YOU ARE SO LOUD!"

"Stop it HENRY!"

*high pitched back-and-forth interspersed with lots of acclamations of "Shut up!" and "SSSSTTTTTOOOPPPP!"*

Mike turns to me, air mattress squeaking loudly in his wake: "There is a ban on traveling with the kids for at least the next year."

And let's not even speak of the car ride, I think I'm scarred for life.

But we made it. Last night we collapsed onto our couch, cocktails in hand, and basked in our space and our Sunday night routine. Which is to say watching old episodes of Columbo and drinking. And yammered on about how happy we were to be home. One would have thought we'd been away at a hard labor camp for the past decade. Nope. Gone less than 48 hours.

We're insane.

The Catholic Nook: Chaplets

Hi y'all! Time for another Catholic Nook installment, and I have been feeling inspired lately by this small book pictured left, My Treasury of Chaplets, by Patricia Quintiliani. It's out of print, but available still via the Amazon Marketplace, and I bought a copy a few years ago. (reality check: Amazon is telling me that I bought this book in December 2010, that's more than "a few years ago." Folks, this is what happens when you approach 40. You start to lose brain cells and your ability to judge spans of time. You've been warned). ;-)

The reason I originally bought this book is as a reference guide for praying different chaplets. I'm a librarian, I love reference material. *halo* Chaplets are traditionally designed to invoke the intercession of a particular saint or as devotion to a certain title for Mary or Jesus. So, for instance, the chaplet of St. Therese. It has 24 beads, memorializing the 24 years of her life, and on each you pray a Glory Be. Or the chaplet to Our Lady Star of the Sea, with 12 beads representing the 12 stars on Mary's crown, on which you pray a Hail Mary with a special acclamation at the end of each prayer. There are tons of such devotions like this out there, each with (if you wish) customized prayer beads to assist you in praying that particular chaplet. St. Michael, St. Philomena, Padre Pio, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the 7 Sorrows of Mary, the Precious Blood of Jesus, all have a unique chaplet for that specific devotion. I find it all fascinating, so I purchased this book. The author helpfully divides the book into sections for chaplets of the saints, Marian chaplets, and those focused on Jesus.

So, this book sits on my bookshelf, and I pull it out when I need it to look up a particular chaplet and how to pray it. With the novena to the Sacred Heart going on right now, I had thought about learning more on this devotion, and wondered whether there was a special chaplet. There is. For each chaplet, there is a description of how to pray it, and a photo of the chaplet, which makes this book unique as far as what I've ever seen. If I don't have beads configured exactly in the way the chaplet is described, it helps to get a sense of how many times to pray which prayers and in what order by looking at a physical item. It also makes it easier to look for such a chaplet to purchase online if you'd like to. Or to make one yourself. *exciting music crescendos* :0

I looked over the Sacred Heart chaplet. 33 red beads, representing each year of Jesus' life, plus 6 larger beads. From the photo, I could see that the arrangement was 6 sets of 5 red beads apiece, with larger beads in between, and then a "drop" with larger beads on either side of a trio of the red beads. With a sacred heart centerpiece and a crucifix on the bottom, it's a slam dunk. :0 I could make this!

I didn't, although I tripped over myself on the way to grab the tablet and load up red and yellow beads into my Fusion Beads shopping cart, simply because I wouldn't be able to obtain the supplies and get it made in time for the novena, which at that point was only about a week away. You don't need the beads in order to pray the novena, I just thought it would be nice. But certainly for the future, I will make this at some point.

As I flipped through, I came across a chaplet to St. Dominic Savio. St. Dominic Savio is a patron of young boys, and his story is a favorite of Henry's. His chaplet consists of 3 white beads on the drop, and 14 blue beads, the colors representing St. Dominic's purity and his devotion to Our Lady. There are specific prayers for each bead. Eureka! I have cobalt blue beads and white pearls in my bead stash. Yes, I now have a bead stash in addition to a yarn stash, no judging. ;-) All I would need was a centerpiece and crucifix, since Henry owns a St. Dominic Savio medal that I could hook on. I found a chalice First Communion-type centerpiece and a coordinating crucifix, ordered those, and away we go. Chaplet will be created soon! I'd like to pray it with him sometimes before he goes to sleep. Fascinating stuff, no?

Do you all have a favorite chaplet that you pray either regularly or around a specific feast day? Leave me a comment!

Just a housekeeping fyi: I'm headed to Pittsburgh this weekend with Mike and the kids, so no post tomorrow. I'll be back with you with full details on Monday. Talk to you then!