Christmas Season Just about over

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Hi,

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas day, week or month whichever you were able to take to enjoy time with family and friends.  We had a wonderful Christmas with the beautiful Mass at Our Lady of the Assumption Church.  Father issued a letter and asked us all to read it.  In it he encouraged us to spend time with each other.  Invite people to dinner, spend time socially with each other to build community.  We are working on that.  We have been able to attend more events at church and it has been good firming up friendships and making new ones.

Another priest teaches an Adult Catechism class and it is also a great way to get to know people better.  We share a meal afterward and conversations.  One of my daughters and one of my sons is in the community choir with me.  This is another fun way to get to know people.  These two activities have some people in common, but they also have a different group and feel to them.  I am very glad that Father encouraged more participation in our church life outside of Mass.  My family is responding pretty well and surprise, surprise ~ they are having fun! 🙂

I want post a knitting/reading blog soon.  I am currently working on an article for an upcoming online start up magazine, Fiat, I hope that we can make it work.  When I get that done, I am hoping to post some pictures of what I am working on and what I am reading.

Enjoy this last little bit of Christmas and let’s all work to carry it with us through the coming year.  Being generous in spirit and action makes the world a little kinder.

 

TJTM,

Kate

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Advent Musings

 

 

To quickly update on my exercise journey.  I have done pretty much none since the last post.  In my defense, I ended one job, started another and got a nasty cold.  So that is my story and I am sticking to it. Before leaving the last job, I trained my replacement which meant that I needed to kind of keep track of two things at once.  She did very well and I am sure is fitting right in.

In my new job which started this past week, I spent two days doing IT stuff first getting set up on one device and then going through many of the same steps to get set up on a newer device.  I had a nice person training me.  This coming week contains some more physical moving of things but hopefully I will be able to look more efficient in the position.

I managed to get our Advent wreath out and candles in it if somewhat precariously.  I also got our Advent calendar up on the wall for people to count down the days.  It is not the greatest but it is our history.

Father reminded me in the confessional today that I need to have a plan for Advent.  I need to decide what prayers I will offer up and what sacrifices as well as trying to bear the crosses God sends me with more grace.  One thing I realized when I was typing this the first time, was how thankful I want to be this Advent.  I need to remember to offer my thanks for the many blessings God has bestowed upon me and my family this past year.  It is one of those things we often forget in our prayers and in our daily living to say thank You.

Please let me know what your advent plans are this week.  I will do my best to check in next week and let you know where we are in our Advent journey.   I need to go get the manger out of the storage and give the family the opportunity to stuff the manger with “straw” by keeping track of their sacrifices and thanksgivings.

May your Advent Season be filled with blessing.

TJTM

Kate

 

 

 

Brief Note

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Just checking to let you all know that I am hoping to schedule more regular posts.  My plan will be to work on the blog once a week.  I will see how well that works.

I finally started working out again.  Yesterday, I made it about 15 minutes into the workout and had to stop.  I had too much coffee before starting and my stomach was not happy with me. Today I did my workout before I had anything and I made it all the way through.  I struggle with making sure that I get my prayers in as well as the workout.  I next need to work on getting to bed at a more reasonable time.  My alarm goes off at 5 am regardless of when I get to bed, so getting to bed earlier would be best.  I am working on that one this week.  Have not succeeded yet….so I keep trying.

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Have a blessed week!  I hope to be able to check in again next week.

TJTM,

Kate

Knitting Up Fast

So I am working on my Christmas knitting.  I started this project about the middle of September and I am just about done.  It is very pretty in the colorway I chose.  I really like how the colors are working together.

I am continuing to read Fr. Laux’s Chief Truths of the Faith at lunch each day.  It is book one in the high school course on religion.  Since I am of the generation of Catholics who was never really taught my faith, I decided to start here.  It has prompted the purchase of two other ebooks.  Fr. Laux has questions at the end of each chapter and sometimes lists parts of books for further reading.  So I found them on amazon for pretty cheap as ebooks.  The format of one is not all that great but it does not affect my ability to read it.  I am glad to have it on hand to keep myself reminded of what it means to be Catholic.  The world is pretty crazy these days and I think we can all use the strength that comes from being grounded in the Faith.

 

Thanks for stopping by! God Bless!

 

TJTM

Kate

 

Hectic Life

So, I have been absent for quite some time and I am likely to be absent in the near future as well. August was a very hectic month with many changes and many ups and downs. It has felt like more downs than ups.

The future absence will be do to me working a full-time temp job for the next four to six weeks. I mentioned getting some help around the house but that did not go well. I am anticipating a very busy September.

If you can bear with me, I should be able to put up some nice posts in October. I should have a few projects done and a few more in the works.

Thanks for checking in.
TJTM

Kate

Etymology musings

Revelation ~ Latin re – back and velum – a veil

I am becoming a more diligent student of my faith and decided to read through Fr. Laux’s Course in Religion set. This is where I came upon the above etymology. It brought to mind my first college experience and I few other memories I may share later. It also made me think about the word especially as it relates to religion. 
     “From time to time, in His wisdom and goodness, God drew aside the veil that hides HIm from us.” pg 4. Chief Truths of the Faith: A Course in Religion.

      “Revelation – means both the manifestatoin by God of His will and truths to man, and the body of truths thus manifested.  It is called supernatural or divine revelation, as opposed to the natural revelation of HImself that God makes through the visible world.”

I can’t say that I always was interested in words in this way.  I took an etymology class my first semester of my first attempt at college. I took it because it fit into my schedule and I needed the credits to make me a full time student.  It met I believe 3 days a week.  The third day being Fridays at 3pm.  Most weeks I was ready to be done with class time by 3pm Friday. The professor reminded me of Mr. Peabody. He was definitely the classic picture of “geek”. 

At that point in my life I did not understand the value of what he was teaching. How words are made up, their origin, and history. I usually skipped the Friday class – yes very irresponsible of me. 

About 10 years later, I was back at college finishing what I had started. I was in an English class that for some reason was looking at the different dictionaries in the college library. I found one that listed the meaning of a word from its first use to the present or its last use meaning. I found it facinating! I wanated to spend the rest of my time that day reading through that dictionary. It combined my love of history with words. I could almsot see myself as an etymologist.

So when I came across this word and Fr. Laux’s explanation, I thought it would be good to offer it as food for thought.  It seems that revelation has so many different meanings now.  I believe this one to be the best to meditate on this week. I hope you find it worthy of meditation as well.
God Bless!

TJTM

Kate

Research for Next year and other news

We have been here almost a year. We are slowly discovering the difficulties we will have in growing food in this location.  Our main enemies at the moment are rabbits and deer which of course being in the city we can’t shoot.  Although, it may be possible to take them out with an air rifle.  Mac has done that research and as long as the projectile does not leave the property I believe we are ok.  We don’t, however, currently own an air rifle so we chase them off when we see them.  

Our fruit trees have been chomped on and our first planting fed the rabbit.  We planted a second time in pots.  These plants are doing ok.  We have realized the fertility of the property is pretty poor.  The base is clay not gravel so holding water is not as much of an issue.  We do need to increase our mulch supply unfortunately there is no county compost.  Any compost we get at the moment is from the store in small bags.  

In all this, it looks like raised beds are our best bet here.  So I started reading the Square foot garden book.  It does a good job of teaching how to plant a scaled down garden.  It is also supposed to contain a section on raised beds.  According to my daughter Mary, the second edition focuses much more on raised beds.  I have that edition tagged at the library.  It will probably be in my fall reading.

My older daughter, Shannon, is getting married this month! We are very excited and really looking forward to the wedding.  What you see in the picture with the book is my progress on her veil.  I have made significant progress but I need to finish it this weekend.  Then I have the veils for the bridesmaids.  Those should go a little more quickly as I get to use the machine for those.

I have had to put the knitting aside until these projects are done.  I should really hide that pair of socks I was working on because they keep calling me to come back.  I will in August.  

It is funny how I try to plan my months and then when they come it seems all plans fly out the window.

I have great plans for August – finishing the grade book from this past year,  getting things in place for the last year of homeschooling we will be doing, straightening/organizing the sewing room – sitting area downstairs – see?  So many things, but I am not sure one of them will be accomplished.  Guess, I will just do what you do when you eat an elephant – take it one bite at a time.

Thanks for stopping by!

God Bless.

TJTM

Kate