Happy Independence Day

Sometimes good things come in big doses... Like America. 

St. Gerard Novena: Day Two

Almighty and Eternal God,

we thank You for the gift of St. Gerard

and the example of his life. 

Because St. Gerard always had complete faith and trust in You,

You blessed him with great powers of help and healing.

Through him, You showed your loving concern

for all those who suffered or were in need.

You never failed to hear his prayer on their behalf.

Today, through Saint Gerard's powerful intercession,

You continue to show you love

for all those who place their trust in You.

And so, Father, full of faith and confidence,

and in thanksgiving for all the wonderful things

You have done for us,

we place ourselves before You today.

Through the intercession of St. Gerard,

hear our prayers and petitions,

and if it is your Holy Will,

Please grant them in the name of Jesus, Our Lord.

Amen

Day Two: Saint Gerard, most generous saint, who from  your earliest years did care so little for the goods of earth, grant that I may place all my confidence in Jesus Christ alone, my true Treasure, who alone can make me happy in time and eternity. Pray nine Hail Marys. 

Bad News and Big prayers

On our last night in Rome, we did class superlatives: Who was the biggest pope groupie, who was most likely to forget essential clothing on trip, etc. But at the end, Ryan, our head of student life, said that he wanted to add his own superlative to the list. Then with a big grin on his face, he said, "Most likely to be pregnant goes to my wife, Ellen!" The whole room erupted with cheers. Our entire class could not have been more thrilled, and, in a way, we felt that this was "Our Rome Baby" in the same way that we felt the faculty and staff were our second family. We all adored Ellen, and Ryan was okay too, so the prospect of a Rome baby was absolutely happiest thing ever.

Unfortunately, we learned today that our Rome baby has a serious heart defect that seriously limits her (Yes, it's a girl!) chances for survival. It's possible that she will not even make to to term. Of course, our whole class is very sad, but I know her parents are devastated because she is their first child. So, my dear readers, I'm asking for your prayers. My class is not called the "Crusher Class" for nothing, we will do our best to crush the gates of Heaven, but we also need your help. For the next nine days, I will be posting a novena to St. Gerard, the patron of expectant mothers and my patron. But please feel free to start your own novenas, in particular, her parents have asked for prayers to Blessed Pope John Paul II, who will be canonized in October, when the baby is due. Thank you in advance for all your prayers!

Almighty and Eternal God,

we thank You for the gift of St. Gerard

and the example of his life. 

Because St. Gerard always had complete faith and trust in You,

You blessed him with great powers of help and healing.

Through him, You showed your loving concern

for all those who suffered or were in need.

You never failed to hear his prayer on their behalf.

Today, through Saint Gerard's powerful intercession,

You continue to show you love

for all those who place their trust in You.

And so, Father, full of faith and confidence,

and in thanksgiving for all the wonderful things

You have done for us,

we place ourselves before You today.

Through the intercession of St. Gerard,

hear our prayers and petitions,

and if it is your Holy Will,

Please grant them in the name of Jesus, Our Lord.

Amen

First Day

St. Gerard, ever full of faith, obtain for me that, believing firmly all that the Church of God proposes to my belief, I may strive to secure through a holy life, the joys of eternal happiness. Pray nine Hail Marys. 

Santo Subito!

More information here, and the photo from here

Pillow Tutorial, As Promised

I'm really happy about how well this project turned out, especially since I haven't done any embroidery since I was about eleven. It was really simple and fun, and you can embroider any text you want. 

Materials:

Pillow form or Polyfill

 2 Pieces of Fabric (enough to cover your pillow form): I used some cream colored stuff from the quilting bin at Walmart. 

Black Embroidery Floss.

Needles

Pins

Thread (to match your fabric)

A computer and printer

1. Type your text in your desired font and size (I used 72 point American Typewriter font). I hit space between every letter, which made it a lot easier to embroider. 
2. Print out your text and cut off the excess paper. 
3. Pin the text to one piece of fabric; you should be able to make out the text through the fabric.
4. Using Satin Stitch, embroider your text onto the fabric. You should be actually stitching through the paper- don't worry, it will rip off easily when you're done.
5. Press both pieces of  fabric (just make sure you've gotten all the paper off!)
6. Pin them together (wrong side out) and stitch three sides together.
7. I pressed it again, but that's optional.
8. Turn right way out and stuff with polyfill or insert pillow form.
9. Sew up the open side
10. Voila! You now have a snazzy new pillow. 

This is my first crafty tutorial, so I hope you guys enjoy it!

Perhaps this has occurred to you, perhaps not, but Littleton is not exactly a riveting place to live. Some towns are known for their constant activity and non-stop pace. Littleton is not one of those places. Yet you have to learn to appreciate the sedate and serene pace of a town such as mine. Of course, this learning process can be rather lengthy, in my own case, more than four years.
Even though it may not be a great place to live, Littleton is definitely a good place to be from, if only for the entertainment value of it all. One Littleton story can have whole groups of my college friends lying on the floor helpless with mirth, but, as I've said before, coming home for the summer can be a total drag. Fortunately I have people who remind me of the hilarity of living in a small town. Yesterday, for example, I was feeling very very sorry for myself, so I texted my other small-town living friend, hoping for some sympathy. Our conversation went something like this:
Me: Friiieeeeeeennnnd, there is literally nothing to do in this town.
Friend: Go donate blood. That's always a good time.

Of course, I absolutely had to laugh. Thank goodness for friends who can, if not fix your problems, at least make you see why everything in your life is utterly hilarious. Honestly, you have to laugh, otherwise you'll never survive life in a small town.

Anyway, I hope you are all having a lovely Friday. I'm headed out to babysit in a little while, which means pool time: Like four hours in the sun, watching as my delicate while skin turns the color of bacon. Ah, it's so difficult to be ginger.

P.S. You remember the embroidered pillow I showed you yesterday? Well, I'm going to be posting a tutorial very soon, so stay tuned!

Summer

Summer has never been my favorite season. I'm much more of a fall girl, personally. I love the crisp back-to-school smell in the air, the leaves changing, the cool weather, which is obviously why I moved to Texas, because, as we all know, fall is a season they have there (sarcasm, sarcasm). In case you wanted to know, summer in the south is just gross- humidity, 100 degree weather, etc, etc. It doesn't really help that the economy in Littleton is sort of shot, and I'm having to patch random jobs together, so I can, you know, eat next semester. But this means that I have a lot of random free time, which means that I'm rather bored.

This summer, however, I am trying really to do something productive with my free time. Okay, I admit it, I still spend far to much time on Pinterest, but I have actually succeeded in getting somethings done. For example, I started on my Junior Poetry project. I may not have chosen a poet to obsess over (read all their works, make a presentation on them, and what not) for the next six months, but I have crossed some off the list: not Shakespeare, not Ben Jonson, Donne is right out. Hey, it may not be actual progress, but at least I'm making my job next semester a little easier.

I played my violin for the first time in about six months! Obviously I was not about to haul the most expensive thing I own overseas where it could easily be stolen, so I hadn't played in ages, until the other day. Recently I've had a love-hate relationship with music. I love having the ability to play violin, but I really hate not being good and not having the time to actually get good. It's always a little awkward to play really badly and then have to explain that you've been playing for 11 years. But today, I realized that I really should be proud of myself. I have stuck with violin for 11 years, which included 6 teachers, 3 majors moves (one of them transatlantic), and through some of the hardest semesters of my life. I may not be very good, but, dangit, I'm persistant.

I'm also trying to justify my hours wasted on Pinterest by actually doing crafts. I finished one, and i have a couple more in mind. I started this cute little pillow a couple of weeks ago and finally finished it yesterday.  Okay, it's not actually something I saw on Pinterest. I saw a pillow in a shop in England with the same saying, and I thought, "I need that, but it won't fit in my suitcase, " so I made my own when I got home.  The embroidery took me a long time, but I'm very pleased with the results. Perhaps I shall post a tutorial.
Another thing I'm doing is catching up on all the movies I haven't seen and that all my friends tell me I should have seen ages ago. So far, I've watched Ocean's 11 and Skyfall, neither of which I really would have thought to watch, if everyone wasn't constantly telling me that I should. So I watched them, and, yes, guys, I liked them a lot. Maybe I'll vary up my chick flick movie diet. Maybe. Speaking of chick flicks, last night I watched He's Just Not That Into You (recommendation from the Orthogals, not because I was feeling broken hearted, don't worry). It was hilarious and really really embarrassing ("Oh gosh,I have totally done that before!"). While it's not a movie for my younger readers, it is definitely a movie I'd recommend to anyone who is having some boy problems. It could also be titled "Dumb Things Girls Do When They Can't Take a Hint" and basically shows all the common mistakes girls make in the dating scene. Anyway, perhaps this shall be the subject for a later post.

I've even seen some recent movies, albeit kids' movies, but, hey, everyone my age went to see Monsters University, right? Right? Well, anyway, I went to see it last Sunday with my younger siblings, and we absolutely loved it. Little Mike was probably the most adorable thing ever, just sayin'. We also had the most hilarious awkward moment at the theater. We found our theater, and I saw a bunch of people crowding into one door: "What silly people," I thought, "There's a perfectly good door opposite it." So I pull open the other door and try to usher my sister through. She looks up at me and says, "Um, Pip, that's the janitor's closet."And, of course, lots of people would be watching, so with the utmost dignity, I close the door and usher my giggling midgets through the correct door. I was a little abashed, but I felt much better when the movie theater embarrassed itself by playing "The Internship" instead of the G rated movie we had all been expecting. They did eventually fix it, but not before several small children had learned some great new vocabulary words. Ah, well...

Finally, I (along with the rest of the staff) have started prepping for my next actual job! I am beyond excited to be staffing the summer program that I once attended at Ye Olde University. It's going to be the best thing ever, and I absolutely cannot wait!