Love God Right There

I was reading Fr Z’s excellent blog. He said something in this post on one of the prayers of the liturgy about application of Church teaching being specific. If I can see someone I am to love God right there in that person. If I am to do some task I am to love God right there in that task. We are called to love and desire God’s will in concrete situations, in the details of life, especially when those details are little to our liking. We must love God in this beggar, this annoying creep, thisJesuit, not in beggars, creeps, and … Continue reading

Fasting from Shopping

Fasting is usually about foods, but with health issues, I’m fasting in a different way. I have committed to avoid shopping until after Easter. Every try to avoid buying anything, ANYTHING? Of course, if a child outgrows their shoes, I will buy what they need. Of course I am still buying horse feed and people foods.  But I am struggling to avoid buying any books, clothing, or anything not essential for health for myself. I passed on several great coupons, passing them to others. I passed on a new top put out by my favorite source for clothing. I have … Continue reading

No Voice, No Voices

My puppets sit silent. This bug has ravaged my throat and I am lucky to be able to speak. Today, Saturday, on the Epiphany of the Lord, I will not make Mass, and certainly will not sing. I will strum on my autoharp and try a few new songs. I will hope to be well enough to get to dance class on Monday. I will pray the antibiotic works. This really SAD picture is of my pile of soft puppets, in a heap, waiting for me to recover enough to get back to them. I haven’t dared to pick them … Continue reading

2018 is almost here

I’m writing this early so it may or may not post after Jan 1, haven’t actually looked yet and don’t plan to before scheduling this post. I’m recognizing that blogs may be old tech but I need to start where I am. I enjoy watching video blogs and want to do some of my own, probably with puppet assist! Daily blog posts replace morning pages (Julia Cameron in ARTISTS’ WAY) for me in 2018. I did morning pages for years and didn’t get anywhere with it. Oh, it was good for the mental health and general creativity, but didn’t result … Continue reading

Family Bee Keeping Project Update

Our bees thrived all summer long. We had a couple times when the heat softened the comb enough to cause it to break under the weight of the honey, but this was solved by opening up a couple more entries to help them cool the interior. We fed during our summer dearth, when the heat is such that few flowers bloom here. The colony grew, expanded to fill half the top bar hive box. This was perfect, so I left them alone when the fall bloom began for two weeks. When I returned to checking–we had a huge problem! By … Continue reading

Travel Links

I return from the Vent Haven ConVENTion with great inspiration and a need to store the links that proved useful for my planned travels. CheapAir.com proved to be an easy service to use when scheduling my flights. They were helpful in every imaginable way and patiently answered questions that came up as I added a TSA pre-check number so I could stand in a different line for security and not have to unlace the hiking boots I wear for foot support.  I was able to choose my seat on each flight too. This proved to be an excellent service. Marriot  … Continue reading

PLANNER-a tool for keeping track

Planners are a tool that I have used for many years. I’ve gradually learned what elements in a planner work for me, and which do not work for me. Our lives are complex and a planner can help us keep track of the many aspects of our vocations. They are a good tool. I have used Daytimers, Dayplanners, FranklinCovey, Erin Condren, and other planners. I learned something useful from each and every planner I tried. For ME, smaller is not better but the larger format (8×10) is too big. I use the middle size which FranklinCovey calls the Classic, and … Continue reading

Apology for my lack of posting

I note that I am neglecting my blogs, there are several reasons, all due to being quite busy!  I attended a Society for Creative Anachronism event called Gulf Wars in March, which was a blast. I also decided a few months back to begin updating my skills in puppetry and add ventriloquism to what I knew. It seems there are now some excellent resources for ventriloquism online, so this has been a great boon to me. AND I have been working on ONE song playing it on each of my autoharps in an attempt to learn to play something.  I … Continue reading

By My Own Free Will Catholic

I am, by my own free will, Catholic. Catholic among people who often see being Catholic as proof that I am enslaved.  I am Catholic everywhere and in every interest. It means that in areas of interest where the norm is secular, neo-pagan, or a hodgepodge of whatever the individual cobbled together for a personal religion, I stand rather alone in my adherence to Catholicism, with the deposit of faith given us by God, maintained by God through the Church, and properly interpreted for application by that Church and no other. My husband asked me the other day why, when … Continue reading

2016–so far

I read back over my blog posts from this year and think, “Wow, so much ambition, and so little accomplished.” This is only partly true. I haven’t lived up to my plan to blog more. Thought about it a lot but didn’t DO it.  I did a lot though, just nothing I’d planned. We now have an American Heritage Girls Troop at our parish. This required a LOT of work by an amazing group of ladies who make up our ministry team. I’m honored to have spent this year working on this project with them. I have a lot of … Continue reading