Seven Quick Takes--St. Therese, Patty, and Speaking For Myself

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Happy Feast of St. Therese!

I just love that meme. :)

Here’s my post on why St. Therese is sort of my accidental patron.

And we used to (I hate saying “used to”) have a retreat center in town under her patronage, where I went on retreat at least once a year. We’re getting a new bishop and I hope he makes the effort to re-open it! But I took lots of pictures over the years:

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Patty was 15 months old yesterday!

Likes: her remote controls (that’s the one my dad gave her when they visited in July), waving bye bye with both hands VERY enthusiastically, blowing kisses, going outside, swings, running around the house while talking on the phone, going down the slide, baths.

Dislikes: Her car seat (sometimes), clothes (sometimes, as we see above), Sharing (sometimes), sharing her remote (always), when her mom wants to talk to me and will not give her the phone to talk to me…

I can’t believe how much she’s grown and how fast! She also says “donut” now, but doesn’t repeat words on command, which is funny. She just looks at you like, “what are you doing?”

She’s just a doll who definitely has a mind of her own. (Hmm…..sounds like her godmother!)

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In knitting, I have started my Ursina sweater!

One of the reasons I wanted to knit this particular sweater as because it’s very adjustable—adjustments are written into the pattern. I can adjust sleeve length, which is good because I have short arms, I can adjust the bicep, and I can adjust the bust size by adding bust darts (which are what keep you from tugging down the sweater as it rides up). It’s knit top-down, and if you remember my cardigan, that was knit in pieces and seamed. So fortunately I have a knitting buddy who will be knitting her own sweater with me so we can help each other out!

I’m also being very deliberate on this sweater—moving slowly, and also carefully. Part of this is because I don’t want to frog it (knitting talk for ripping it out—get it? ripping?), and also because it’s nice to not have to speed through something. Normally I’m a pretty fast knitter.

What you see in the photo above are the first 10 rows. Eventually the directions will tell me to knit in the round, which makes me nervous, because I have a bad habit of twisting my stitches!

If you’re on ravelry, you can see my project notes and updates here.

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So, “talking for myself.”

One of the big reasons I wanted to write my book—and what made it different—is that I am speaking for myself. It’s not my parents talking about me. This is really, really common in disability/illness literature. Either the child has died, and the parents are writing about that, or the child is still alive, but they’re writing about their experiences of raising said child so far.

My book is me talking about what it’s like for ME.

It drives me crazy when I see articles about disability written by the parents. Especially when the parents are talking about how the child must feel to hear X or Y.

Magazines! If you want to know, ask us! I can tell you all about how it feels to be told I’m disposable. TV shows! Any media outlet! You can ask us and we’ll tell you!

But instead they don’t.

Please, media outlets, ask us. We can speak for ourselves. CFers aren’t dying when they’re five. There are lots of CF adults. Ask us how we feel!

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In this realm….you know that I am always talking about disability access. I do it because it’s something that needs addressed and I feel like if I keep pointing it out, I can make changes and/or bring the problems to people’s attention!

Today’s accessibility rant: captioned videos.

Folks. If you are going to make videos, please caption them. If you cannot caption them because your software won’t let you or something, please create a downloaded document so that people like me can print it out and follow along.

This is especially necessary if the videos are a big part of your class. If people have to watch a video and then talk about the video, or watch and then fill in a worksheet, not having captions is completely not acceptable.

(Yes, I’m running into this right now with a church bible study.)

It really, really is not OK for this to keep going. Please caption things. Don’t say you don’t have the ability to do it, because there are solutions.

It makes me sad that I have to say this, especially about church-related things.

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It’s flashback time!

I saw on my SM yesterday that Kilauea was erupting I immediately thought of this

If you are too young to have seen this, WATCH IT. It’s awesome!

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We’re taking a trip to Amish Country this fall and I CANNOT WAIT! I’ve always wanted to visit so this trip makes me really happy. I’ll share more about this later, but right now I can just say—chocolate.

Seven Quick Takes Labor Day Edition

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Hi! Happy Long Weekend, US readers! :)

If you’re a subscriber, this post just landed in your inbox. If you’re not (and why not may I ask?), then: Ave Maria Press is having a Labor Day Sale! 10% off everything with the code LABORDAY21 at checkout!

So be sure to get your copy of Living Memento Mori (for yourself or friends!).

In the post I also talk about Ave’s new note taking bible. It’s great! And it’s also included in the sale! So you can check out my notes on that.

The sale runs through 9/6 (Monday). Hop to it!

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OK so in the last quick takes I said I was feeling better. Hahah I LIED. By the 26th I felt so crappy that I didn’t have the energy to make coffee. So I called clinic (called=emailed) and got a script for Cipro which is making me feel better.

However, Cipro is a strong (as in, it’s used for plague and anthrax) antibiotic and can mess with tendons. I don’t really like that, but I like that cipro works. I’m on antibiotics all the time as a matter of course so there’s not a whole lot to pick from when I do get sick that’s in pill form. It’s basically Cipro. So I’m used to it, but I don’t really like it. I mean I like feeling better but it’s still a nasty bit of work.

I have less than a week to go on it so that makes me happy, because then I can stop freaking out about my tendons!

And yes, I am getting back to normal energy, which is great.

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Since I want to not mess up my tendons, I’ve been doing a lot of sitting, which means reading and knitting mostly. Fortunately my Aunt Mary (who is also a bookworm of the first degree) sent me a box of books so I can have something to do while I sit! She sent me We Are the Brennans, Klara and the Sun, and A Swim In A Pond In The Rain.

So far I’ve read Brennans and really liked it. I’m reading Klara now, and I’m looking forward to Swim because I like Russian literature. (Mostly. I still need to read War & Peace which is in my library, mocking me for not reading it yet.)

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In Knitting, I have a lot going on but there was a Great Knitting Mystery Adventure this week.

I got a lot of yarn….

And then wound the pretty champagne colored yarn (Quince and Co Crane) for a project.

I was confused on said project. I posted it on Facebook to numerous excellent knitters. WE WERE ALL SO CONFUSED.

Finally, we figured out what to do. It was insane, my friends. Many minds were flabbergasted about this pattern.

But WE DID IT.

BEHOLD.

Anyway now it’s chugging along and is going to be a gorgeous shawl but man, figuring out this pattern was ROUGH!

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The rest of the yarn will be used for two shawls (I LOVE SHAWLS, OK? I really do. They’re so fun.) and a cowl. And yes, I am going to start my sweater soon!

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What are your weekend plans? Mine involve two dinners, lecturing at Mass, and…that’s it. :) But one of the dinners is for Tiffany’s 40th birthday!

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You know Tiff as the mom of Billy, most likely. Well, she’s pregnant again (with a little girl this time) and today is her 40th birthday!

Here she is with Billy…

And this is one of my favorite pictures of us. :)

Seven Quick Takes--Summer! (And a book sale!)

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Well kind of summer? It’s rainy and 67 right now and it’ll be in the fifties tomorrow. So, summer! :) But I remember Memorial Day weekends when I was a kid where it was in the 50s but DAGNABBIT WE WERE GOING IN THE POOL. :-P So this isn’t too unusual!

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From the blog this week:

COVID, antibodies, and transplant life. I wrote this post as a response to an op-ed in the New York Times, written by a kidney transplant recipient. Essentially: context was vastly missing.

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Last Friday it was gloriously sunny and warm, and I had a B&N outing and lunch with one of my best friends from college, Liz.

Oh yes. Books were bought.

Liz and I met my freshman year—she was a junior. Liz basically changed the course of my life.

I had entered college as a Middle Childhood Education major. The problem was, after my classes started, I realized that I didn’t really want to be a teacher, because our classes weren’t about teaching. They were about writing culturally-sensitive word problems. And I was like, wait a second here, this isn’t what I thought I’d be learning about.

So I was sort of stuck. Enter Liz. Liz was one of the chairs of our college’s College Republican chapter, and my freshman year of college was also the year of the 2000 election. So there were lots of campaign activities, like door-to-doors and phone banks, and fun things, like campaign parties. But if we wanted to go to the parties, we had to do the grunt work, according to Liz. So, because of Liz, I did grunt work and went to the first debate watch party, which included the governor and other statewide office holders. I loved it.

That night I decided to change my major. And the rest is history. So thanks, Liz! :)

We hadn’t seen each other in almost a year and a half, so I was ecstatic to see her and talk books and all sorts of other things. We had a great time and I’m so glad that we can do things like that again!

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So let’s talk about the books: Hamnet is amazing. If you like Shakespeare I highly suggest you read it. Knowing at least a little bit about Shakespeare’s life helps when you read this. It’s beautifully written and a book to savor. I haven’t started The Shadow of the Wind yet, but Liz recommended it so highly that I had to get it. :) I adored Project Hail Mary—I had read The Martian and I love Weir’s combination of space, science, and humor. Even if you don’t regularly read sci-fi, I think you’ll love this novel. And finally, Hidden Valley Road is the story of a family that had 12 children, six f whom were diagnosed with schizophrenia, and how this ties into research on the illness and how this family lead to important breakthroughs in treatment. It’s a lot like the book Under the Banner of Heaven.

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Ave Maria Press is having a Memorial Day Sale!

You can pick up Living Memento Mori for 25% off and FREE SHIPPING! Use the code REMEMBER21 at checkout! If you haven’t gotten a copy yet, DO IT. :) And it also makes a great gift!

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Here’s your weekly Patty—she’ll be eleven months old on Sunday!

Gosh I cannot wait to see her and snuggle the bejesus out of her. :)

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Any plans for this weekend? Share in the comments!

Seven Quick Takes: A Little Rambly

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Hello, All!

It’s been a big week over here—my book is a finalist for the Association of Catholic Publishers’ Excellence in Publishing Award (General Interest Category!)

I am obviously very pleased and very proud about this. :) The winners are revealed in June so I will let you know what happens!

Of course if you have not bought your copy, um, do so! This is the Amazon link, but if you want to buy from a non-Amazon source, go here.

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The other post from this week:

The Massive Birthday Yarn Along!

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This week’s Patty:

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OK so a little ramble on something that’s been bothering me.

I really, really do not like that we assume the worst of people in online discussions. If someone dislikes something, s/he is immediately a bigot or worse. We assume the absolute worst of people, and this has to stop.

One of the best pieces of homily wisdom I’ve ever heard is that we should assume the best of people until (and unless) we know otherwise. If a waitress is giving bad service, for example, she might be having a really crappy day. If someone is short-tempered, they might be feeling sick. Etc.We really should give people the benefit of the doubt and this especially applies to assuming that people are engaging in sinful activity (ie, being a bigot, etc.).

We cannot have discussion and the exchange of ideas if people are afraid to say what they think because they’ll be called bigots or haters or what not. Now, granted, some people actually are these things. But can we wait until we see the in the discussion instead of assuming it of people? Can we assume the best of each other and not the worst?

And yes, to reiterate the point: some folks are jerks and once we know they’re jerks, we can proceed accordingly. :) But until we know that….can we hold off assuming the worst of everyone?

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I’m going to be a lector at my parish! I have my training after the 5:00 PM Mass tomorrow and I am excited. I’ve always wanted to be a lector and now I am! Yay!

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Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Culloden, which ended the Jacobite Uprising of 1745 and, essentially, ended the clans and Highland way of life. If you’re an Outlander fan you know a ton about Culloden already, but if you’re not, always a good idea to know more history!

(Also, Outlander fans, did you see that Book 9 is available to pre-order?!??!)

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What are you doing this weekend? Is the weather lovely where you re? Spring is sprung here and I love seeing all the tulips, daffodils, crocuses, and trees coming into bud and bloom!

Seven Quick Takes: BACK TO MASS!

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Hello all!

Yesterday I wrote a little post on the Annunciation so check that out. :)

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I AM GOING BACK TO MASSSSSS!

Yes! Tomorrow! Palm Sunday! Holy Week! Easter!!!!!!!!

I am super super super excited in case you cannot tell.

Oh, and CONFESSSSSSSSSSSSIONNNNNNNN.

Gonna be great, cannot wait.

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Your weekly Patty:

LOOK at those teeth!!!!

I cannot WAIT to get to Texas, people. I just miss them all so much and I want to snuggle Patty until she giggles like mad. (Wouldn’t YOU, I mean LOOK AT HER.)

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Last Stations of the Cross tonight at 7:00 on my Facebook page! Come join!

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OK so I want to talk about something sort of quickly. This might merit a larger blog post but we’ll see. :) (Or this might go on long, either way.)

I was listening to a YouTube video the other day and the speaker—who is a sort of generic Christian (but has a statute of St. Therese in her office, so, I dunno!)—was talking about how if we have faith, we shouldn’t ever be worried about anything because God will take care of us. We shouldn’t have any fear.

OK so…I have thoughts.

First off, and this is really apropos as we get into Holy Week, Jesus was afraid. In the garden of Gethsemane he asked God to let this cup pass from Him. Those aren’t the words of someone who’s like yeah this is totally cool. On the cross, he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

Jesus knew fear and he knew pain and he knew sadness. The shortest verse in the New Testament is “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35—some versions have “And Jesus wept.”)

Jesus wasn’t just wholly divine. He was also entirely human. He knew all the things we knew. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus knew everything we know, except sin:

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)

Jesus KNEW all these things. Let’s not act like because He was God he didn’t cry, or feel tired, or need potty-trained by Mary and Joseph. :)

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The other part of this is that, yes, God wants us to trust in Him and not be afraid—Jesus tells us not to be afraid as well: “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1), and later in the chapter:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. (John 14: 27)

This isn’t something that just magically happens. We have to work at trust. I wrote a lot about this in my book. It’s one of the reasons I love the Divine Mercy chapelet, because I think it helps me grow in Trust. I know that God has me. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not afraid sometimes. And I think that’s perfectly Biblical, because Jesus was afraid! He was sad! He knows what it’s like to be human.

Flannery O’Connor once said:

“What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.”

Faith is scary, and, like Flannery said, it costs. The entire life of a Christian is growing in our faith, hope, and trust. It’s not an immediate thing. We have to work on it and it might take a lifetime. But the thing is, you’re working on it. You’re growing (I hope!) in the spiritual life. You’re learning. It’s like looking at Patty and saying, “well, you’re a human! So let’s do some quadratic equations right now!”

She’s a baby. When she’s older, sure, we can ask her that. I don’t want her to be reading BabyLit Pride and Prejudice for ever. I want her to read the real thing! But I don’t expect her to do that right now.

Every person is in their own place and progresses at their own pace.

(And, um, look at the apostles? What did they do right after Jesus said all this to them? Ran away and denied him!)

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OK so that’s that. :) No quick takes next week because Good Friday!

Seven Quick Takes--Fourth Friday of Lent

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Hi everyone! Sorry no quick takes last week. I was on the last day of the Evil Antibiotic and my body was just blah. So there was no blogging, or really much of anything. But I feel much better now and my sleep schedule and energy and coming back! Yay!

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Most recent posts:

The Cardigan is DONE!

Podcast Interview and Best Of List for Living Memento Mori!

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This Lent has been sort of meh. I didn’t really make a good plan this year, if I’m being honest. I did my usual things of no book buying and no chocolate but I wanted to stay off social media more than I have. So….Lent’s not over and I can still do something about that! I’m going to try to be better with set limits. How’s your Lent going?

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I am doing Stations of the Cross every Friday on my Facebook page during Lent, however!

(yes, I just wrote about social media and here’s Facebook. It’s the best way to communicate with video, I’ve found. IG live is sort of fiddly for me and I need to figure out videos without social media…it’s on my to-do list.)

I post a prayer request thread every Wednesday on my page as well! So these intentions are prayed for during the stations and in my own prayer a well. We use the prayers from Living Memento Mori for the stations, so you can follow along in your own copy if you want.

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Here’s your weekly dose of Patty:

She also got her blanket!

And you can also clearly see her two teeth! She’s working on an upper tooth now, her mom says, so she’s sort of crank-tactic. This week she tried to eat a spider and was very put out when her mom didn’t let her.

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If you would like a signed copy of the book, they are $20 and they include a bookmark, a prayer card, and free shipping! Drop me an email.

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I’m still waiting for the second dose of my COVID vaccine to be scheduled. It hasn’t quite been a month yet, but it will be next weekend, so…..I’d like to know if I’m going to be getting it then! I am totally chomping at the bit to be fully vaccinated!

Seven Quick Takes--Post Turkey

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Happy Post-Thanksgiving! I hope you had a lovely Turkey Day!

Patty certainly had a good day.

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We had Buca di Beppo. They had the normal menu (well, a smaller menu, as is usual these days) an then Thanksgiving meal which was very good. I really liked the stuffing, which had Italian sausage in it—WINNER. It was a little different than regular stuffing (or dressing, as some of you say), but I really liked it!

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OK time for business!

OK first: my ebook, Catholic 101, is on sale for FOUR DOLLARS. If you are a blog subscriber, you get even MORE off with your special coupon code! So if you aren’t a subscriber, sign up now and get the code!

This book is based on my experiences as a first grade CCD—as I was teaching the kids things, I noticed that parents and other adults didn’t know the stuff I was teaching the kids! So I decided to write an ebook about it.

The ebook is gift-able—you can email it to people!—printable, and also readable on any screen.

The sale runs through next Friday (Dec. 4), at midnight. You don't need a code or anything. Just go buy it. :)

Second, Ave Maria Press’s Black Friday deal is on. Using the code BLACK20 to get 30% off and FREE SHIPPING PLUS an Advent booklet (while supplies last) for free! You can get Living Memento Mori here.

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I got my first Christmas gift today from Tiff (aka Billy’s mom)—three books that I will probably spend the rest of the day devouring. That and also digging out in Orchard House—it’s a disaster. One of the biggest issues with not going out to shop is that I get so many BOXES AND BAGS delivered on a weekly basis. So they pile up fully quickly! So today I’ll be making several trips to the bulk trash and trash compactor.

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Normally I put my tree up tomorrow during the OSU/ Michigan game. But….that game is now next week, so my schedule is all off. :) So I might not get the tree up until next week but it’s all good, right? I would like to get the nativity set out this weekend.

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In what has become a Thanksgiving tradition, I watched Miracle on 34th Street (the original) last night while I worked on my Find Your Fade Shawl. It’s actually quite a lovely tradition, if I do say so myself.

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And speaking of knitting, this weekend I will start picking up the stitches for the cardigan collar! Wish me luck. :)

Seven Quick Takes--Gallbladder Surgery Scheduled, Cheers Throwback, and More!

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Hi, y’all!

So the big news is that I am having gallbladder surgery on September 3. This isn’t actual big news, per se. I mean, yeah, my gallbladder needs to come out, but this is more of “removing a thing that is annoying” vs. “removing something that will make me feel a lot better”, because it really doesn’t bother me that much. And seriously, when you’ve had pancreatitis as much as I’ve had it (at least 10 times), abdominal pain isn’t new. I’ve been dealing with it for 20 years now, and we can’t take out my pancreas. But it is nice to have an annoying thing taken care of, that’s for sure.

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Couple quick notes re: the blog!

I have a newsletter that goes out once a month to subscribers. Subscribers also get special discounts and other goodies. If you’re not a subscriber, fix that here.

Also if you would like a signed copy of Living Memento Mori—Christmas is coming, people!—email me. They’re $20 and that includes shipping, a bookmark, and a prayer card, both of which were specialyl designed by Ave Maria Press for the book!

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Was sad to see that the Cheers bar in Fanueil Hall Marketplace in Boston is closing—Dad and I went there after my Jeopardy! tryout in 2015.

Some snapshots:

It was a dang good burger! Dad basically ate Boston Clam Chowder whenever he could that weekend. :)

(Quick bit of Cheers and Emily medical history trivia: I was in the ER for a broken wrist the night of the Cheers finale. My softball team was in the playoffs and we’d been practicing. I played third base, and the left fielder and I got into a tussle about the ball. We both went for it, and my wrist hit the ground. I had CF at the time but we didn’t know it, so that’s probably why the wrist broke. But yes, I did play a sport, and we were undefeated in the regular season that year!)

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Speaking of exercise….I found this article to have some good tips. She’s definitely right about making it part of your routine. Starting last month I really focused on creating a good daily routine that works for me. Obviously, it’s still in progress, but this is what I do so far:

• I prep the coffee and my insulin pens the night before—KEY. Even if I do nothing else before I go to bed in terms of cleaning or prep, I do this, because it makes the next morning go much more smoothly.

• In the morning, I switch on the coffee and dose myself with insulin. I have to wait 10 minutes before breakfast (so the insulin can take effect) and while that’s happening…

• I say lauds from the Liturgy of the Hours and read the daily Mass readings.

• After that, 10 minutes is usually up, so I eat breakfast. While I eat breakfast I check my email and social media and do any blog or “business” stuff I want to do that day, like setting up the newsletter or updating a mailing list.

• After that I do my duolingo—I’m learning Italian and Scottish Gaelic!

• And after that, I exercise.

That’s my morning so far! After exercising it’s usually time for lectio, spiritual reading, or a bit of knitting before lunch. Sometimes this is where I do some cleaning/tidying too—I’ll start the dishes if they need it, or the laundry if it needs it.

(I’ll actually write more about this in an upcoming blog post, so keep your eyes peeled. :) )

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This piece, on Fanny Price and Mansfield Park, is basically a shorter version of my undergraduate thesis. Fanny is awesome and more people need to appreciate her! Read Mansfield Park!

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Patty’s blanket is moving along—I’m about done with the first set of four stripes, so YAY! I’ll. have some updated photos for you soon, I hope. :) I keep forgetting to take pictures!

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Have you gone back to Mass/church yet? How is it? I’m thinking about going back because honestly I MISS IT!

Seven Quick Takes--Doctor Week

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OK so, this isn’t really going to be a quick takes, I don’t think, it’s really going to be more of a “this is what happened in Emily’s world!” this week. :)

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MONDAY

I contacted my endocrinologist b/c I think, per usual, that we changed too many things about my insulin at one time and it was MAKING ME CRAZY.

Really. It was “Emily hates the world for no apparent reason and also WANTS TO CRY FOR NO APPARENT REASON.”

Not fun.

So yeah, we made a few small tweaky things—as in, we’re just slowing down the insulin train. Hopefully that will help. (And will also help my weight….sigh….because yeah, I HATE gaining weight b/c of insulin adjustments. HATE IT.

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Time to visit my ENT!

While in the waiting room, I snapped this picture!

First, yes, those are lovely old school Resort face masks, because TEDDY BEARS!!!!

Second, that’s how you wear a mask! It must cover your nose! It must adjust to your face!

Please don’t be stupid. If you’re gonna wear a mask, wear it properly.

Anyway, the ENT was fine. Thank goodness, because I’d had a sinus infection during all this and apparently it left nothing but a little bit of “debris” (his word) that we got rid of. Yay!

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Wednesday: Dermatologist! Apparently she wants me to use some sort of cream on my arms. So I’m waiting for that to be delivered, but the good news is that we didn’t see any sort of new skin cancers, so yay there!

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Today was book club. I’ve also been really sore all week because of the new workout I’m doing. It’s ROUGH. I mean it’s hard cardio, so the legs are adjusting, but cranky.

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And finally, (so 6, not 7, takes) tomorrow I have all my yearly transplant tests at the New Resort and I’m a little nervous about that. One, because I don’t know if people will take off their masks to talk to me. Two, I’ll have to explain all sorts of things to these people. Like, my PFTs are generally a little weird. They’ve always been that way. Etc. Third, I’ve actually had respiratory techs yell at me because I haven’t been able to do the tests “properly”. Um…..I’m doing the best I can here!!!!!! So yeah, I’m afraid of new techs.

The tests will take all day (full PFTs, 6 minute walk test—UGH, dreading this—a CT scan, and then an EKG and an Echo.). Afterwards I head to my parents’ so we can celebrate my dad’s birthday!

So that’s it from around here! How are you doing?