Happy Birthday to Me!

Pinterest is great for finding fun recipes to try----like Sangria.

Knit-along

This week's knit is another Scottish Bonnet.  I adjusted the number of stitches to make it fit better, but I'm afraid this one is going to be a disaster, too!  I wonder if I actually used a different sized needle than the one it called for in the pattern.  Is it possible that I checked my gauge and adjusted accordingly without writing down the changes I made?  Seems unlikely...unless you look at the size of this hat.  It looks scary.  I hope the magic of felting will make it come out right!!!

My book---yes, I'm actually reading this week!---is A Jane Austen Education.  It was recommended by A Modern Mrs. Darcy, so I snagged it from the library.  As much as I love Jane, I thought it would be an interesting read.  And it is.  I daresay I'm learning much more about her books than I expected, and I shall have to pull them out and reread them with new perspective!

~~~

Stop by Ginny's for more Yarn & Tales

A Stranger in My Own Home

That's how I felt today at Mass.  We've been there 16 years and weathered 11 different priests.  We have a new pastor who started in the spring and immediately made changes that were distressing, but we've been getting used to him and his style.  Now, however, our beloved Choir director has moved on to a better situation, and while we wish him well, he was evidently doing more to maintain the status quo than any of us expected!

There's no word on a new music director yet, but the Lifeteen guy is in charge of making sure the Masses have cantors during August, or until a new director starts.  I have not been contacted about cantoring at all.  Eh, I can deal with that; I'm just waiting to see what happens.

So today, instead of checking out another parish, (I hate the thought of "parish shopping") we went to our usual Mass where there were complete strangers singing and playing the piano.  They sang a song before Mass, and then they sang another song after the recessional hymn, giving the whole thing the air of a concert.  I found it not only disturbing, but also quite strange considering the pastor's words about being "quiet" in the presence of our God before Mass.  He even made us close our eyes before Mass!

Whoever the musicians were, they sang a completely different Mass setting from what we're used to.  Is that because they didn't know ours?  Is the pastor changing to this one for good? (Or until the Mass changes take effect at Advent?)  But they didn't even stick with that setting for the whole Mass.  The Gloria and the Alleluia were one Mass, and the Sanctus and Agnus Dei were from another.

I'm terrible about accepting change of any kind, especially when it isn't my idea!  I'll admit that.  I'm doing a lot of praying these days for my parish, the pastor, and for my family.  We're struggling with what to do.  Stick it out?  He won't be there more than 6 years.  (yikes.)  Move on?  The kids are already ready to go somewhere else.  They hate the changes, too.

What would you do?  If you don't have any suggestions, at least offer up a prayer for us! Thanks!

7 Quick Takes

Visit Jen for more Quick Takes!

~1~

There's light at the end of the tunnel----and it's a school bus!  We've finished dealing with the worst of the summer mayhem here, and are ready to wrap up Summer with a few family activities this weekend.  Then it's off to school for everyone next week---Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be Big Days.  I expect lots of tears from myself and others!

~2~

The painters wrapped up very quickly in just 2 days, but they left more than 2 days worth of dusting!  We've done a large part of it, but there's still more....we keep finding it...it migrates all over the house!

They also turned our kitchen table sideways when they moved the furniture.  I've left it because, while it seems very strange, it leaves more room to walk past the table into the family room.

~3~

There is still stuff all over the house that doesn't have a home and needs to find a new one---either here or somewhere else---but we're working our way through it.  Rehanging art on the walls in new locations since we made this Gallery Wall of my mother's paintings in the family room.  That left a few gaps to be filled elsewhere!

~4~

We donated flowers for the altar at Mass on Sunday in honor of our 25th anniversary.  There's always a notice in the bulletin saying who donated the flowers, and a very nice, older gentleman sent us a dozen roses for our anniversary!  Wasn't that sweet?  It brought tears to my eyes!

~5~
Woot!  Just got a new DVD player in the mail!  It was a cheapo $30 one to replace the one downstairs.  I haven't been able to do my Supreme 90 workout for 2 days because the other broke.  It's amazing how much better the picture is on this one.  It's also amazing how fast I got it from Amazon with that 2-day shipping.

~6~
7 Quick Takes aren't very quick when your photos don't show up in iphoto...and you wait all day for that magic moment so you can upload them to your blog.

~7~
We have a new "driver" in the family.  TMax (Tom) just got his learner's permit last week and I finally had a few minutes to spare to take him out.  Usually, I drive to an empty parking lot just outside our neighborhood and we spend several hours there over the course of a few Saturdays before venturing out on the road.  Since today is a workday and the lot is full, I just let him back out of the driveway and drive around 2 cul-de-sacs.  That was enough for him!  The driveway alone is very traumatic since it has a tricky curve in it and you either hit the mailbox (steel) or go off the curb.  At least he aimed for the curb!

~~~~~
All six of my children will be home for the weekend!  We haven't seen Brendan in 2 months!!   Fun times ahead.
What are your plans for the weekend?

Book Sale & Giveaway

I'm joining in Jessica's Book Sale!  Prices include shipping and I can accept Paypal or personal checks.  We are a pet-free and smoke-free home.  I ship Media Mail; if you want it faster you can pay $3 extra.

• Ann Voskamp, A Child's Geography, vol. 1, slightly rumpled corners
• Ann Voskamp, A Child's Geography, vol. 2, excellent condition
• $20 each or $35 for both.     SOLD

(Did I really take that picture sideways?)

• Theology of the Body for Teens workbook.  Never used---we had too many.  $8.  SOLD

• Catholic Heritage Curricula Lesson Plan Guide: Middle School Years, 5th-8th, used, but very good condition.  $40
• Handwriting Practice, Book 3 by Marie Picard.  Never used.  $8
• Starting a Spelling Notebook, Mari McAlister, $8

• Harcourt Science, grade 2, with Kolbe Academy Answer key.  Very Good condition. $30

• Holt Earth Science, 7th grade, with Kolbe Academy Answer key.  Excellent condition. $40

• Singapore Textbook 2A, slightly wrinkled, $6.

Giveaway Item!  I've read it and used it, but I find I don't need it so much anymore and it's time to bless someone else with it.

Just leave a comment and tell me you stopped by, whether you buy anything or not.  Make sure I can contact you if you win.  I'll draw the winner next Friday.

Yarn Along

I've had a little time to catch up  knit a very little bit this week.  Mostly during 3 hours at the pool with friends on Monday.   Or was it Friday?  I honestly have no idea without looking at my calendar.  Now that I've gotten past a really tricky party, I'm able to make a bit more progress in those few, fleeting moments of sitting still.

I'm not reading anything, unless it's one of several books that have been on my nightstand forever, and only a page at that.  Not even worth talking about.  

It's super, crazy busy here.  Still.  It's been a long time since I had my house painted inside---the professionals are here to do all the cathedral ceilings this week---  I'd forgotten about the huge, dusty mess.  So my walls will look great, but I'll be stuck with having the whole house torn up and needing to be dusted from top to bottom because of all the spackling dust.  And I have a Troop Board meeting...tomorrow (??!!!)...for AHG that I have to plan.  This is a big meeting because it's the last one before the year starts and we have a lot to do.  We won't even talk about the fact that school starts for everyone next week! 

We're on Stay-Cation this week, so while I'm at the World of Coca-Cola today with my kids, I'll look like the calm, cool, collected Mom, but inside I'll be having a little freak out.  Taking notes on my iphone when I think of something else I have to be doing.

~~~~

Stop by Ginny's to see what everyone else is knitting and crocheting this week.  Maybe they're trying to keep calm, too.  I need one of these signs:

photo source

25 Years Ago

1.  We were young and in love.
2.  We were totally confident in what we were doing.
3.  We were 21 and 23.
4.  We got married at the University Chapel at the University of Virginia.
5.  We had so much fun setting up our first home.
6.  We spent our wedding night in our first home, and I love that.  I think the memories are so much more special than if we were in a hotel.
7.  Those first years were fun.
8.  Those first years were challenging as we learned to grow and live together!
9.  We've created 7 children together, including 1 miscarriage, who give us great joy as we watch them grow up.
10.  They all look like me.
11.  They all look like him.
12.  They all look like each other.
13.  They've brought us closer together.
14.  He brought me into the Catholic Church.
15.  He's the head of our home.
16.  He keeps me calm.
17.  He keeps me reasonable.
18.  He loves me in spite of my crazy emotions.
19.  He loves me in spite of my unreasonableness.
20.  He loves me in spite of all my flaws.
21.  I love him for his intelligence.
22.  I love him for his sense of humor and his smile.
23.  I love him for the crinkles in his face.
24.  I love him for his faith.
25.  I'll love him forever.

And I thank God for giving me the man I wanted, and the man I needed.

Happy Anniversary, Dear!  

August, already! Daybook

You can find more Daybooks at the Simple Woman's Daybook.

~~~~~

Outside my window...

...Sunny and HOT.

I am thinking... 

...about this article I just read on Vitamin D.  It follows my line of thinking perfectly.  I think sunscreen is way overused.  God wouldn't have left us with this giant, cancer-causing ball of fire if we were going to spend most of our lives outdoors as we used to.  I only use sunscreen if I'm going to do something silly like spend all day wearing practically nothing at the beach.   And it's not because I'm afraid of the sun; I'm afraid of the pain of the burn.   Generally, I try to follow my body's cues:  if I'm overheated, get in the shade; I'm probably burning.

I am thankful for...

...the past 5 years of singing in the choir with our wonderful director and his wife.  It was so much fun.  I love to sing, but they made it even better.  Yesterday was our last opportunity to sing Mass with them.  We're reallly going to miss them!

From the lesson plans...

No actual "plans" so far, but I've gotten the curriculum chosen and that's a huge step.  And a huge weight off my shoulders.

From the kitchen...

...Nothing special this week.  Oh, wait, that's not necessarily true since tomorrow is our 25th anniversary, and I plan to make something special.  I just don't know what yet.  

I am wearing...

...Shorts and a v-neck over my swimsuit since we're going to Six Flags!

I am creating...

...one mess after another.  We're in and out so fast these days.  Nothing is getting cleaned up!

I am reading...

Pinterest.  In my spare minutes.  No books.

I am hoping...

...Lots of hoping for people who are sick.

I am hearing...

...SQPN's Catholic Weekend

Around the house...

...Painters coming tomorrow and I have to take all the art off the walls and get rid of the rest of my piles in the hallway!

I am going...

...to Six Flags

...to be really HOT all week,

...to have a great time,

...to be really tired when I get home!

One of my favorite things...

...the sound of children playing happily in the mornings.

I am praying for...

...Debbie, who has recently entered hospice, Gus, Eric, Elizabeth, the people in Joplin, our priests...

A few plans for the rest of the week...

...AHG & Staycation

~~~
Eye leave you with this:

Courtesy of Pippo who left a bunch of creepy eye-pictures on my camera!
(You never know who is watching you!)

7 Quick Takes - Messy Edition

~1~

This is what you see when you walk in my house these days:  very organized clutter.  Stuff on the stairs to be returned to friends.  Piles of paper on the floor to be filed for each child.  A box of books and manipulatives to be given away.  And an empty trashcan because it was  taken out along with the large pile of trash beside it.

 ~2~

If you look to the left, there's the lovely library:  It's still totally disorganized.  I don't know what it all is or where it goes, except....the 2 cardboard boxes contain the Amazon Seller inventories of myself and Katie.  They're going to find homes in the basement.  The gray filebox is AHG stuff which needs to be re-organized before the year starts.

 ~3~

And here's the mess in-between:  Mom's paintings that need to be hung downstairs.  There's a bunch more down there waiting to go on the walls.  It would be nice to have that done in time for the 4th anniversary of her death next week.  I wish she were here to help---we always managed to get junk like this sorted out much faster when we were together!  Love you, Mom!

Hiding behind the painting are a zillion newly emptied hanging files which need to be re-used or put away.  And then there are Teacher's Manuals to replace the ones already on the desk next to the computer.

~4~

Speaking of Mom...Her 50th college reunion would have been this year, and the class got together to buy this little statue for the university.  They call it "Hope".  It was dedicated to members of the faculty and the class, one of whom is my mother.  She was very much loved by her friends.  And her family.  I'm so proud of her.

~5~

There's still a lot of mess here, but I did get a lot done yesterday!  I swear, I did!  Most of it was intellectual in that I had a long conversation with a friend and made decisions about which books to use this year.  We're going to follow Mother of Divine Grace for the most part, this year, with the exception of science and math.  So, that allowed me to rearrange the mess somewhat, now that that I know what has to go where.

~6~

I'm still enjoying my Supreme 90 workout.  I haven't finished all 10 workouts yet since I had the week off for summer camp.  I have 2 more, but I've really "enjoyed" every one.  I also won't do them 6 days a week as they recommend.  My rules are:  at least 2 workouts in a row, and no more than one day off between workouts.  That works out to 5 days per week and is very liveable for me. 

~7~

Gotta run get some of this mess cleared out!  We're going to have fun with friends this afternoon and the painters will be here next week to paint inside.  This has to be all cleaned up and put away by Monday!

~~~~

Are you cleaning up messes before summer ends?

Have a blessed weekend!

What Happened at Summer Camp

So my Little Princess and I went to an American Heritage Girls summer camp for the first time.  I'm not sure why I chose to go; I didn't expect her to be particularly homesick or needy.  I guess I just wanted to see what it was like, and I failed to consider the vast amounts of heat and hard labor it would entail!  ;-)

You probably know by now, if you've been reading my blog for a while, that AHG is Christian in nature.  We have God in our oath and Leaders must all be Christians and sign a Statement of Faith.  I won't write it out here, but it was changed when our troop was chartered so that Catholics could sign it in good faith.  That's all well and good, though some might say (and have said)  that it's still too exclusive.  It leaves out those of the Jewish faith, for instance; the girls are welcome to join, but their parents can't ever be Leaders.  That doesn't thrill me, but right now I don't know of any other available alternatives to Girl Scouts.  (You can look at my sidebar for all the problems I have with Girl Scouts.)

At camp, we had mandatory Chapel every morning for an hour, and it sometimes ran longer than that.  It was fairly basic and boring most of the time, because any well-catechised child of 9 or so has probably heard all that stuff about the Trinity, Creation, and Jesus being The Word.  I could be totally off-base, but I can't imagine that very many of those girls come from non-Christian or non-church-going families!  Nevertheless, we Catholic moms who were there were listening intently for any heresy that might come up during the lessons.

The "highlight" of the week was the activity on Thursday night were we were lead from a sermon (Jesus is the Reason for the Season) in the amphitheater to to a place for foot-washing.  The Camp Leaders all washed the feet of the girls and any moms who wanted their feet washed.  I was a bit uncomfortable with this because of the significance foot-washing has in the Catholic Church.  Jesus washed the feet of His disciples on Holy Thursday when He instituted the priesthood so that they would know that being a priest meant being a servant.  I know that these ladies weren't thinking of anything like that, only that Jesus gave the example of being a "servant-leader."  Okay, so I could deal with that.

But then came the prayerful, candlelight hike (battery-powered tealights) to the  cross and the living nativity (a teen and a babydoll).  Then we had to listen to another sermon, which was the hottest, most humid, most miserable sermon I've ever sat (or stood) through!  The weather and the bugs would have been enough to make us all miserable, but I had to stay and wait for whatever was going to happen.  And then it came, the Altar Call, where she asked all the girls to come up who wanted to receive Jesus in their hearts.  I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was totally blindsided because I really thought I was at a scout summer camp, not a Bible camp!  I was not thrilled that the 3 youngest Catholic girls from our troop went up, including mine, but they didn't know any better.  We hadn't thought to warn them ahead of time.

You know, I grew up in the Church of Christ; I went to Bible Camps; I responded to altar calls at least twice in my life, and I know when someone is speaking from the heart because of her love for the Lord.  That's what this woman was doing, but I just didn't think it was the appropriate time or place.  I have nothing but admiration for these Christ-filled women who sacrifice themselves for the better part of a year to present these camps.  They do an amazing job and they are beautiful people!  There's something very special about being around so many Christian women and children for a week.  But....

We Catholics were upset, to put it mildly.  We talked to our children and tried to explain what the speaker was doing and why.  We explained that our "altar call" happens at every Mass when we go up to invite Jesus into our hearts in a very real way during Holy Communion.  We explained that when we've been separated from Him through sin for a while, we go to Confession instead of going to the front of the church and asking the congregation to pray for us though a prayer like that happens at the beginning of every Mass when we say the Confiteor:  "I ask you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God."

It might have all ended there as we thought that it would be only the Catholics with a problem, but two of my roommates, one of whom is a Baptist, felt it was highly inappropriate as well.  So we decided to set up a meeting with the camp directors and explain our feelings, as this was evidently the first time that something like this had happened at this camp.   Our concerns were more urgent because the woman who gave the sermons and did the call is the new program director for AHG National.  We were, and are, very concerned that this should not become an accepted or encouraged part of AHG programming!

If we're all Christian, and I'm sure most members of AHG are from Christian families, if not actually baptized yet, then we don't need to be "preaching to the choir."  We don't need to be trying to convert those who have come to camp for scouting activities.  We will evangelize and convert souls that need it by our actions and our love.  Though I gather that's a rather Catholic philosophy, not an evangelical protestant one!  Most of us are part of AHG because of it's Christian philosophy, but they, the national organization, need to understand that Catholics are Christians, and that there are vast differences in our beliefs and our way of worshipping.  We need to respect everyone's faith tradition, as Boy Scouts does.  We're on the same team.  We need to focus on what we have in common and capitalize on that in our mission of "building women of integrity through service to God, family, community, and country."