author
So, Lent is upon us, and that means it’s time for me to ramp up talking about MY BOOK.
You can get it everywhere ( here is the Amazon link, you can find more links to buy here) ! You can even get a signed book from me! Just contact me—signed books are $20 and that includes a prayer card and a bookmark, and shipping!
If you are in the Columbus area, I will be doing a book signing at the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference next weekend (Feb. 18) at the Ohio Expo Center—details and tickets here.
I can’t believe we’ve gone from this…
To this…
Her smash cake is a Hedwig cake!
What an incredible year it’s been!
Dad and I went out to Denver to celebrate Maddie’s first birthday (Mom has a broken leg, so she didn't make the trip—thank goodness for FaceTime!). She had a Harry Potter themed party—my sister went all out and did a fabulous job creating a magical day for Madeleine!
The party table with the house scarves I made for Maddie’s sorting!
Maddie was sorted into Slytherin—though some people were calling for a re-do, saying that she was a Ravenclaw because she sat on that scarf—and greatly enjoyed eating her chocolate Hedwig cake.
And she very much enjoyed her presents (Aunt Sarah got her the Harry Potter PJs!)
Tunnel also from Aunt Sarah, Uncle Bryan, and Hailey!
Yes, there was Baby Lit.
Happy birthday, Miss Madeleine! We’re so glad you were born!
I cut out this photo from a newspaper and kept it at my desk at work—there’s something about it that I just loved.
In reading about Benedict XVI’s death last week, I found this story about the Pope Emeritus’ “spiritual testament”—so I thought for the last day of blogmas, I’d share if with you. You can read it here.
And in honor of him, we’ll wrap up Blogmas ‘22 with a German carol, “Josef Lieber, Josef Mein”
Hailey was the best Christmas gift this year! She obviously could not wait to get out and spend Christmas with us, so instead of being a New Year’s baby, she’s a Christmas baby.
She is so sweet, and really, is there anything sweeter than a newborn at Christmas? I don’t think so, especially when I get to spend Christmas Eve with a snuggled up baby on my chest.
Because she was a little early and there’s so much respiratory crap going around this year, the pediatrician asked us to wear masks if we’re holding her, hence my face gear. :) But it’s me!
Music: This is one of my FAVORITES—”The Seven Rejoices of Mary”, sung by Loreena McKennit.
When I was brainstorming my 2023 goals, one of the things that kept coming up was I do all the things I want to do—but I’m not consistent in doing them.
So my word of the year was pretttyyyyy evident. It’s consistency!
Let’s take goal three, for example—Creating a deeper relationship with God through regular prayer and confession.
I already have a regular prayer life. I already go to confession semi-regularly. But I want to do these things consistently. I want to say morning and evening prayer and my rosary every day—and that doesn’t happen. I want to make sure I’m going to confession once a month, etc. (The goal is every two weeks, eventually. Not right now!)
Consistency in fitness, in decluttering, in saving money, and in prayer is what I’m going for this year. Once I achieve consistency—and it’s easy to achieve, it’s almost automatic—then I can think about expanding what I’m doing to continue to reach higher goals. For example, the ultimate goal with working out is to be hitting the treadmill 5 days a week for thirty minutes. THat’s the ultimate, final goal, the “I’m running a marathon” goal. By consistency, I can work up to that goal and achieve it.
Here’s to being consistent in 2023!
Music: “The Echo Carol” (How Great Our Joy), Sung by the Benedictine Nuns of Ephesus in Gower, MO.
If it’s a new year, then it’s time for resolutions and new goals.
My goals this year really aren’t new, so to speak—they’re continuations of what I’ve been working on for the past few years, but with an adjusted focus. Does that make sense?
For example, I’ve always wanted to have a comfortable, cozy, organized home—but I wasn’t sure what that really looked like, in terms of appearance, decor, etc. Over the last year I learned what I like and what I don’t, what works and what doesn’t, and now I can apply that to focusing on this year’s house goal, which is to have a home full of things I love, and organized in a way that works for me and how I live.
An example of this is this lamp I got last year from Target.
I’d needed a new lamp in this space for years, but I couldn’t find one I liked—until I found this one. And finding that lamp solidified the “look” I’m going for in my house, which is English Cottage (think The Holiday or Country Living UK) meets a beach house.
With all that digression out of the way, here are my goals for 2023!
Goal #1: Grow emergency fund
Goal #2: Continue peloton work to become stronger and more fit—continue to have good lab results.
Goal #3: Deepen my relationship with God with regular prayer and confession. (I do do regular prayer but it’s not consistent. More on this tomorrow!)
Goal #4: To create home by decluttering and keeping what I love.
I’m not giving a ton of detail here—I’ll do that in future posts. But these are the four main goals for 2023 and I feel good about them!
Do you make new year’s resolutions or set new goals? I’d love to hear about them!
Today’s music: Ave Maria isn’t specifically a Christmas song, but it appears on a lot of holiday albums, so here’s a good version!
Dear brothers and sisters, it is only by pondering in the heart, in other words, by piecing together and finding unity in all we experience, that, following Mary, we can penetrate the mystery of a God who was made man out of love and who calls us to follow him on the path of love; a love to be expressed daily by generous service to the brethren. May the new year which we are confidently beginning today be a time in which to advance in that knowledge of the heart, which is the wisdom of saints. Let us pray, as we heard in the First Reading, that the Lord may “make his face to shine” upon us, “and be gracious” to us (cf. Nm 6: 24-7) and bless us. We may be certain of it: if we never tire of seeking his Face, if we never give in to the temptation of discouragement and doubt, if also among the many difficulties we encounter we always remain anchored to him, we will experience the power of his love and his mercy. May the fragile Child who today the Virgin shows to the world make us peacemakers, witnesses of him, the Prince of Peace. Amen!
—Pope Benedict XVI (1927-2022)
In today’s carol we have some trivia! Did you know this hymn was written by a Dominican blessed? It was—Bl. Henry Suso!
There were three things knit for gifts this year and now I can talk about them since they don’t have to be surprises anymore!
One of them I think I’d already shared—Hailey’s baby blanket.
Wrapped up in it :)
This is an adaptation of the Sully blanket pattern I’ve used for all the baby blankets I make, but every time I keep adapting is! This time I added a border of garter stitch all the way around—I start with four rows of garter stitch and then end with four rows of garter stitch, in addition to the four garter stitches at the end of each row. I don’t like to block blankets so I think that this makes the blanket “lie” a little bit better.
I used Rowan’s cashsoft merino in three colors: snowflake, vintage pink, and rosy.
Project Number 2: A winter scarf!
This was actually planned as a Christmas gift—I made my dad a scarf in easy mistake rib, using a nice navy blue yarn—and he got it before Christmas due to the insanely cold temperatures we had here! I’m glad I’d thought to make it!
(I don’t have any pictures, sorry, bad blogger me!)
Project Number 3: A Cowl for my Sister-in-law
This was sort of a random project. I had some of Quince and Co’s limited edition yarn based on a Taylor Swift song—Lavender Haze. I bought a few skeins thinking it would make some good cowls.
Once Hailey was born, I felt like I needed to make another Christmas gift for Sarah (my SIL) since one of her gifts was Hailey’s baby blanket—but since Hailey was here, it was hers now! Knowing that she loves sparkle, I thought I’d pair Lavender Haze with a sparkly Knit Collage yarn to make a really quick cowl that will keep her warm on walks with Hailey this winter!
The colors here aren’t really representative—it’s much more pink in person, not orange!
The pattern is Knit Collage’s Yarnicorn Cowl knit with Quince and Co Puffin and Knit Collage’s Star Spun in Lunar Landing. You need one skein of each and it seriously takes about two hours to knit up! Knit Collage’s yarns create really fun, unique knits. I’m going to make another one of these for my sister, except using the Knit Collage Kona Sky color way with the Lavender Haze.
Did you knit/crochet/craft any Christmas gifts? Tell me about them!
It actually ended up being a first Christmas for both my nieces—Hailey, as I wrote in an earlier post, wasn’t supposed to celebrate hers until next year! But she decided she couldn’t wait and had to have it now.
She spent her first Christmas Eve snoozing on my chest, which I have to say is a great way to spend Christmas on my end.
But for Miss Maddie, who is almost a year old, her first Christmas was very exciting!
She loved her Advent calendar—the little figures with their velcro backs were very intriguing to her (and sometimes they got stuck on her clothes!). She loved playing with them and placing them on the nativity scene.
She also had a couple of trees—one in her room:
And one that she could play with:
It had a train and ornaments too!
Her Advent/Christmas corner!
Madeleine did go to see Santa! She wasn’t scared of him, I don’t think, more…intrigued.
And YES, Santa commented on her missing boot! :) Maddie is still fighting against shoes and socks.
And they went to see the lights at the zoo!
For her first Christmas she got….a tricycle! That’s foot powered! I have never seen one of these and I think it’s adorable.
My sister made some great meals, which of course Madeleine enjoyed.
She wants food, lots of food!
And her birthday is at the beginning of January, so it’s going to be party-palooza for Maddie over the next week or so. In my opinion she had a highly excellent first Christmas!
From my trip to Houston this summer
I’ve been reading the coverage of the Southwest Fiasco, and what’s really scared me more than anything else is the comments from many people about PUTTING MEDICATION IN CHECKED BAGGAGE.
PEOPLE.
Never, ever, ever put your medications and medical devices in your checked baggage! EVER!
I always put my meds in my carry-on, which is an LL Bean backpack. Always. They are in a large zip-up pouch. I also take extra medicine, just for purposes like this fiasco, where you’re stuck somewhere—the last thing I want to worry about is my medication and my health. So I also pack the entire bottle of medication, in the pharmacy bottle, so if I have to take it somewhere to get refilled, I can do that and it will have all the information a new pharmacy would need to fill it.
(Some people say, “well, just have your doctor call it in to the new pharmacy!” Over the holidays, it might be hard to get your doctor’s office on the phone!)
My insulin, insulin supplies, blood glucose kit, and my cochlear implant batteries and charger also go in my carry-on, always.
Does this take up space in my bag? Yes. Does it mean I can’t fly with just carry-ons? Also yes. I must check a bag.
But it’s much easier to check a bag than it is to lose medications, get them replaced, and, oh, worry about my body going into meltdown while I’m stuck somewhere!
I didn’t fly a lot pre-transplant, mostly because it was hard to do with my CF related machinery (aerosol machine, nebulizer, etc.) , but I have a travel size aerosol machine that I used when I did fly or travel, and it could fit in a backpack and wasn’t terribly heavy. I could also fit the supplies in my bag. So if I had to carry those around now, I could do it (They have much smaller ones now than they did in the year 1999!)
Folks. I beg you. Never, ever, EVER put your medications and medical supplies in your checked bags. Never in life. Do not do it. Pay to check the bag. NEVER EVER put your medicines in a place where you can’t get them.
There must always be a Christmas book post! :) There are a few more coming from Amazon that I bought with gift cards I received. So this is really like Christmas books part one.
Go-To Dinners, Ina Garten*: I love Ina’s cookbooks—I have all of them—and when she has a new one, it’s a guaranteed item on my Christmas list. I’ve already gone through and marked up the recipes I want to try, and there are a lot of them.
Welcome to Our Table: This cookbook is by the Penguins’ (my favorite hockey team) wives and girlfriends, and the sales support the Penguins’ Charitable Foundation. It is pretty cool to see recipes from Anna Malkin in here. If you’re a hockey fan, this is a great book—with lots of good recipes even if you’re not!
Queens of the Age of Chivalry,* Alison Weir: Why yes, I am a British History Nut. This book is the third in Weir’s series of books on the queens of England up to the Tudors, starting with William the Conqueror’s wife, Matilda of Flanders. There will be four books in the series (here are the other two: Queens of the Conquest and Queens of the Crusades). Weir has written full biographies of some of these ladies, so if you want even more detail, you can get it!
Antoinette’s Sister*, Diana Giovinazzo: I’m a sucker for anything about Marie Antoinette—she was really the first historical figure I “got into”, as it were, so this novel is pretty perfect for me. It’s told from her sister Charlotte’s viewpoint, which should make it even more interesting. I will report back.
The Lays of Beleriand*, JRR Tolkien: This is the third volume in the “History of Middle Earth” series. I’ve been working my way through this, very out of order—I’ve read the four that deal explicitly with Lord of the Rings, but then I went back and started at the beginning, with The Book of Lost Tales Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. If you’re really into Tolkien, these are good reads. If you’re not, then you’ll be bored stiff!
(asterisk—Amazon affilate link)
Our family Christmas celebrations have varied wildly over the years. When we were little (we meaning my brother and I—this was before my sister was born), we spent Christmas in Pittsburgh with my parents’ families. Christmas Eve we usually spent with my dad’s family, and Christmas Day with my mom’s family. (Back then my mom still had siblings living at home—she’s the third of eight kids. Dad is the youngest of three.)
The big special thing, though, was that Santa came early to our house. We did Christmas at home before we left for Pittsburgh. And yes, I really did love telling my classmates that. :)
Once my sister was born, the celebrations became different. One year my Grandma D came down ,but most years we were at home. Mom sang in the choir and played the flute for Midnight Mass, so we went to an earlier Mass, then came home, then mom left for midnight Mass. Once I was old enough to help dad (er, “Santa”) set out toys, that was my job, and Bryan had to keep Melanie from trying to get downstairs! After college, I sang in the church choir at Midnight Mass.
When I was in junior high, we started a family reunion on my mom’s side a few days after Christmas, which took place in various hotels. For the past 10 years or so it’s been here in town, but we haven’t rescheduled it since the pandemic—but there have also been weddings and graduations, so we’ve been able to see each other outside of the holidays, which is nice. There are so many of us that we don’t fit in anyone’s house anymore!
So Christmas at home now looks like this: we go to 4:00 Mass, have dinner after, and then exchange gifts with my brother and sister-in-law at their house. This year, the best gift was baby Hailey—their daughter! She was due to arrive in early January ut she decided she just had to spend Christmas with us, so I spent most of Christmas Eve this year with a newborn sleeping on my chest.
That’s a pretty good way to spend Christmas Eve.
Christmas Day is very relaxed—I spend the day with my parents. We open gifts and have food and generally hang out all day, usually with some football or A Christmas Story thrown in. This year was Madeleine’s first Christmas, so we FaceTimed with them a few times. It was so cute to see Maddie celebrate her first Christmas!
How does your family celebrate Christmas? Tell me about it!
My parents love Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, and “Winter Was Warm” is one of my mom’s favorite songs from it, so….here you go!
The two recipes I make every year for Christmas, without fail, are these two recipes from Ina Garten:
Hermit Bars (like gingerbread) : I don’t do the glaze on them, to cut down on unnecessary carbs. :) Feel free to try it at your house if you like! (For sixteen bars, they’re 20.6 carbs each—that’s without the glaze.)
Hermit bars with tea, December 23. It was -5 that day! (And that was up from -8!)
Blueberry (at our house!) crumble bars (47 g of carbs per bar (if you make 12)). I leave out the almonds because the granola I use has almonds in it, and I also leave out the confectioner’s sugar.
Blueberry crumble bars
I’m including the carb count for my fellow folks-who-need-to-know-that :)
For today’s music, it’s music AND video! Enjoy the dancing Candy Canes of New York City Ballet while you have some treats!
Merry Christmas! I hope you and your family have a wonderful day and celebration! I’m so grateful for all of you!
In less than a month, Madeleine will be a YEAR OLD! In the words of Mr. Mom, “I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it!”
She’s had a big month! She’s had her first Thanksgiving….
She clearly loved it all.
She wondered at her parents bringing a tree into the house…including a little one for her!
And she has her own Advent/Christmas corner—she loves playing with the Advent calendar characters in each day’s slot!
She and Duke the Dog weren’t too sure about this light up, dancing Santa that Daddy gave them…
She met Santa….
And saw Christmas lights…
So basically it’s been a huge month for Maddie.
She’s been crawling like crazy, pulling herself up, and growing by leaps and bounds. I cannot wait to see her next month for her first birthday party! And most likely, by then, she’ll have a cousin! (My brother and SIL are having their first baby basically anytime now. :)) In one year, my niece quotient has doubled, and I am pretty darn happy about that.
Mommy and Maddie at the doctor’s :) Maddie is, as usual, cheesing. :)
Monthly photo gallery:
One of the most confusing Catholic beliefs, I think, is that of today’s solemnity.
The Immaculate Conception doesn’t refer to Jesus—it refers to Mary. It means that Mary was conceived without original sin in the womb of her mother, St. Ann, as a singular grace. It doesn’t mean she’s a goddess. It means she was special prepared to be the mother of God. In Mother Mary Francis’ words, Mary was “pre-cleaned.”
(For more on the Church’s Marian doctrine, check out this Catholic 101 post I wrote.)
“She did not have that downward pull that we have, but she still had choices, and she could have wrong ones or right ones. She could have insisted after the finding in the temple that Jesus explain what he meant. She could have said, ‘I am your Mother, and I have got to get this straight. I don’t understand what you are talking about.’ But she preferred, she chose, to accept what was to her not understandable, and to return to her humble home and to go about her duties and to ponder these things in her heart…She chose the will of God and she chose is freely—again, we say, unencumbered by the downward pull of concupiscence that we know so well, but still a woman quite capable of doing right or wrong, or doing good or better or best.
“It is very important that we do not allow our Lady to be distanced from us by her Immaculate Conception, but to be brought closer to us. She is the one to teach us poor sinners because she is called the Refuge of Sinners. Our Lord did not give her to St. John and say, ‘Now I am giving her to you, and she is the Mother of all the flawlessly holy ones.’ But he gave her to be the Mother of all persons, of all men and he knew what was in them, what is in each one of us, our weaknesses as well as our strengths.”
—Mother Mary Francis, PCC, Come Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Art of Waiting
The readings for last Sunday hit me with their mention, over and over, of light—walking in the light, putting on the armor of light. Connected to that, we have the gospel, where Jesus talks about staying awake, because we don’t know when He will come.
In her book, Come, Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Art of Waiting,* Mother Mary Francis, PCC, talks about our works of light and works of darkness. What are our individual works of light? Where are our works of darkness? What do we hide? What don’t we want people to see? How attached are we to these “works of darkness”? Mother Mary Francis uses the image of our works of darkness tucked around us like a shawl—and I think that’s a vibrant image. We can see a woman wrapped in a shawl, tugging it around her even more tightly to keep out the cold—but in this case, it can be keeping out the light of grace.
Can we try this Advent to walk in the light of the Lord, to make crooked ways straight, and to put off our works of darkness, as St. Paul talks about?
What do we need to do to be ready for the Lord’s coming? Where does light need to shine? What can be straightened out—or started to be straightened out, during this season of waiting?
I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of yummy food and time with family and friends! I am thankful for all of you—you readers are really the ones who keep the lights on over here and allowed me to reach my goal of having my story published. I am so thankful that you keep reading! :) You are in my prayers!
That’s a nice segue into….
The Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale at Ave Maria Press!
Use the code BFCM22 at Ave Maria Press and get 30% off plus free shipping! My book will cost you seven bucks. That’s it! $7! (With this deal, that is.) So if you need more copies because you gave yours away to friends, if you think it would make a good gift (it would), or you just want to Lent prep early, this is the sale for you. Go get it!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a great weekend!
November sunset
I thought it was time for a little daybook!
Outside my window::
41 and sort of cloudy. We had snow on Saturday—didn’t stick around, but we had it.
Wearing::
black leggings and a very cozy navy sweatshirt my sister in law got me. :)
Reading::
—The notes to Paradiso* —I re-read the Divine Comedy last week, after not having read it for awhile. Anthony Esolen’s notes are fabulous and he does a beautiful job with the translation. (Here’s his Inferno* and Purgatory*)
—The third volume of the Summa Domestica. This would make a great Christmas present! (As would the three Dante books above.) It is sadly NOT AVAILABLE right now but it is been RE-PRINTED and I will let you know when it’s back! In the meantime you can check out Leila’s blog!
Cooking::
Beer bread! Also I am sort of in charge of Thanksgiving this year. I’ve made a plan, we’re getting a smoked turkey breast (YUM) and the only recipe I really have to worry about is the creamed corn recipe because I’ve never made it before, but it’s an Ina recipe so I’m sure it will be fine. I mean it’s cream and corn, it can’t be bad!
Living the Liturgy::
Christ the King Sunday is this week!
As I wrote last week, let’s remember Advent. That doesn’t mean we don’t do any Christmas prep during Advent. Heavens, no. My Christmas cards are all written out already! But it does mean, as I talk about in that post, that we use Advent as a season to prepare for the Incarnation—for Christmas! Christmas is its own incredibly delightful season, and let’s not rush to it! Let’s prepare! Let’s “wait on tip toe” as Mother Mary Francis writes!*
Let’s remember what Advent is about, and what Christmas is about.
So in the pre-Advent prep department, I am clearing off the space where my nativity will live.
Normally, this area is given over to books:
And photos of the “little girls”—Patty, Madeleine, and my new niece, Hailey, who is still cooking. :) (I have an ultrasound photo of her in a frame that my brother and SIL gave me here.)
I have removed the photos. Now I am going to start removing these books, and then I will give this are a good dusting and polishing before the nativity (I have a Fontanini set) comes to live here!
These are divided into pretty books and knitting books, and also books I need to read or shelve. It is, as you can see, a lot. :) (And yes, normally boxes do not live here, but this is my real life! Boxes are there right now from the porch! This is how it looks RIGHT THIS SECOND!)
So it will be cleared off and my nativity will eventually take up its place here. I’ve also replaced some of the fake plants I have around with new Christmas/winter-ish plants—firs and spruces with some red berries for winter and Advent/Christmas.
I am very excited to begin Advent.
(Do you have your candles?)
Knitting::
I wore my Rolling Pastures shawl to Mass on Saturday!
Isn’t it pretty? I think it will also be taken out to Mass for Gaudete Sunday in a few weeks because it’s ROSE. :)
I am working on Hailey’s blanket for Christmas and also another Christmas present, and then I’ll move onto scarves for Madeleine’s first birthday party in January!
Around the house::
See living the liturgy, but also just general tidying up and I need to take a load of books to the used bookstore to sell them. The book purge is constant. Books come in, books come out! The circle of life!
Fitness::
Just made my peloton schedule for the next two weeks. Walking, strength training, stretching…all the good stuff.
I cannot believe we are INTO THE DOUBLE DIGITS with Miss Maddie.
(Yes that deserves all caps.)
Cheesing at Target.
A big event in her life this past month was a visit from my parents—her Grammy and Poppy!
There was much reading of Five Little Pumpkins!*
And snuggles and kisses in general….
This is Good Morning God!*
We also celebrated our first Halloween! Maddie was a little Hermione, and they went to Trunk or Treat at their parish.
Here’s the update!
Maddie is/can:
-fit in 18 month clothes
-growing lots of hair
-has a “cheesy” smile (her new nickname is Cheese)—see top photo :)
-still 6 teeth
-climbs on blocks!
-pulls to stand
-got her first flu shot and doing well
LIKES:
-her blocks
-moving in general
-her crib; she’ll chill in there for an hour after waking before whining
-the Command Center!
She likes food and she cannot lie.
-eating (she LOVES chili and hummus)
-any toys that spin
-Doggie and Kitty (Kitty is more active so Maddie likes that)
-going outside for walks
-going out to eat
-going out in general
-facetimes
FaceTime with Auntie Em :)
-reading (especially “good morning God” and “five little pumpkins”)
HATES:
-changing table
-being left alone
-being tired
-sitting in the car/ stroller and not moving
Books are good!
Photo gallery:
newborn
One month
Two months
Three months
Four months
Five months
Six months
Seven months
Eight months
Nine months!