Sunday, December 30, 2018

A note on projects

It's been a full year of liturgical living for me, and I hope that the next year will be even fuller! With lots of research, I have been diving into all sorts of liturgical year projects and organizing lately. I have so many ideas that I want to do! I have been buying lots of things and books, and have more ordered/coming as well as some Amazon gift cards left to spend. (I kind of need to set up a budget for this) I have also been moving things around on my desk and cube shelf. I am trying to come up with a good solution to organize my liturgical year things. (it's a bit of a mess right now) This is just a little glimpse.... I still have a long way to go, but here are some projects that I am currently working on...

I got a  letter board!
I don't think I am really a letter board *person* but I want to try using one to display what day it is in/on the liturgical year (feast day/season/month theme/day theme).  That's my vision for this brand new  letter board that I got. A dry erase board seemed too tacky (although I did see some small/compact ones at Target that I half thought about getting..), but the letter board seems tedious to fill... If I feel like the letter board is not working out, I definitely won't have any other use for it. In any case, I got the cheapest letter  board I could find on Amazon (I couldn't believe how expensive most of them were!) (Also I'll admit that the one I got isn't the most attractive looking/best matching for my desk and cube shelf) I bet you didn't think that I had this much to say about letter boards, did you?

Peg dolls!
I have three Shining Light Dolls that I love, and I have know the existence of peg dolls for some time but never had one of my own. (I'm kind of into whimsical decor) After Bishop Morlino died, a friend was making Bishop Morlino peg dolls, and you know I jumped immediately at the chance to get one. (Seriously, I think I was the first person to ask for one, and I was so proud when I received mine) (Side  note: I really like having "art" of Bishop Morlino...this sounds weird, but it helps me remember he is actually dead---I think I'm still in denial about that). Later on, I said to the same person how I'd potentially want more peg dolls of various saints and people, and so I have requested  some (which should be coming soon!!), which leads me to...

My own replication of a Father Oak! And felt vestments!
So I had an Idea.... I want to replicate Father Oak to remind me to pray for priests more often. I printed off the instructions and found some templates, and at Catholic Schoolhouse a mom made some felt vestments to use with a felt board so I wanted to by felt vestments. Ideas #1 was get a wooden figurine of some sort and buy felt to make my own vestments to switch around on a figurine for the different feast days based on what the priest would wear. Execution of idea #1: I had a random spur of inspiration and bought one of those bendable drawing figurines on Amazon, a bit lanky, but I thought it would work. And I bought some felt. I bought the wrong felt, it is 2X2 inch pieces and the figurine is just too big, so I am returning those. I couldn't believe it when I opened the package that the felt was so small! Idea #2...I order some peg dolls of priests in various colors. (If you are wondering about more of my Amazon shopping mishaps...I wanted paperclips to do some paper clipping. I thought I was just buying a box, but in reality it was 10 boxes of 100 paper clips each....(!) so I am returning the paper clips as well. That many paper clips should last until my grandkids if I keep them!
so where we stand on this project, are some priest peg dolls in different color vestments (to rotate out) and a seminarian peg doll are being made for me. The plan is to switch around the priests as a reminder to pray for priests and also as a reminder of the color of vestments for the day. And the seminarian is to remind me to pray for my seminarian friends. And the plan is to have these live (somewhere) on my cube shelf.

New books!
My Daily Bread (small wine colored book from the Confraternity of the Precious Blood)
Art Through Faith (Seton grade 8) (reading now)
Bible History by Johnson & Hannan (finished, but now have the workbook to go through)
Bible History by Ignatius Schuster
...and more coming soon!!

New Things!
Not directly a liturgical year thing, but does enhance things for me...I got beats!! No more borrowing my brothers!! My beats are super slick!
About 2 months ago I had a friend make me some of those knotted cord rosaries (in black, of course). I love them a lot! and I recently got some more. They are my favorite rosaries now!!

Also, I still need more paperclips...

Thursday, December 27, 2018

12.27.18 an update

Hey friends,
It's been a while since I last wrote.. mostly because the next two weeks after I last wrote got really crazy..so here is a big update...
Its been an especially busy/stressful month, 2-3 weeks in particular, so although I still did some writing, I haven't opened this website in weeks, and have barely had any time for any blog reading.
I have finished my first semester of classes at UW Superior. I am glad to have the semester over with & behind me! Just a few weeks before classes start again....
November 30th-December 2nd I had a steer show, the Badger Kickoff Classic. This was my third year doing the show, and my first time bringing a Gelbvieh steer (AOB class). I had a really stressful two weeks before the show, I was feeling very unprepared leading up to it and was hesitant if I should even go, but am really glad I powered through and did the show!
Last weekend we got more hay and in a few weeks we weigh the steers again + move them into another pen.

Listening to lately:
I've been through many song listening kicks in the last few weeks with many new additions to my Spotify and YouTube playlists.... King Tut by Steve martin, Pachabel's Canon in D, Hello Dolly, Jump Around, Safe & Sound by Taylor Swift, Istanbul....
We were at a wrestling meet and "Long way to the top" by AC/DC played, and I've been obsessed ever since.
I'm conviced that I have the greatest spotify playlist ever with the latest additions of Andrea Boccelli covers, Sonata 14 in C Sharp Minor, The River Kwai March, some Bing Crosby and some Frank Sinatra.
I am still very much enjoying the Punch Bowl Podcast and the SSPX podcast.

Reading:
I haven't been keeping pace on my reading, but have been keeping up with some "themes": bible history, catechesis of the good Shepard & the liturgical year.
Currently Reading: Art Through Faith, the pictures are beautiful!

Watching:
lots of Parks & Recreation (way too much of it) while babysitting; I have decided that Tom is my favorite character
My siblings and I went and saw The Grinch at the theater. We saw ads for the new Mary Poppins at the theater and I'm not much into Mary Poppins (like at all!) but I saw that Dick van Dyke is in the new one (everyone in my circles thinks he's dead!) so I would consider going to see the new Mary Poppins because he is in it...
For Christmas my uncle, my Grandpa and I all got 2 Sebastian Maniscalco DVDs!

Liturgical Year:
In December, I went to a mass said by Cardinal Burke at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I have no pictures, but it was a cool experience. I really wanted to ask him about his shoes...
It's always hard that the show weekend is always right before the end of the semester and the first weekend of Advent, so my advent doesn't always get off to an amazing start.  My Advent has not been as robust as I had planned; I have done some reading, did the O antiphons, did a Jesse Tree variation, some writing & I think that is about it. I haven't gone to daily mass in 20 days, but made it today (!!) for the Feast of Saint John. It was so good to be back on this rainy morning!
As many of you may know, back in November, Our beloved Bishop Morlino died quite unexpectedly. That was a big shock. I ended up going to his funeral mass, as well vespers/a visitation the night before. I have a lot more to say about him/his death, to be written later. I now have a painted peg doll of him on my desk, and a funeral holy card of him in my missal. It still feel very surreal...
My Instagram has suddenly become a little more lively with liturgical living updates. I might make an account just for the liturgical year.
For the feast of saint Stephen I found some fun versions of Good King Wenceslaus--Here and Here
We had a very routine Christmas with my mom's immediate family -- lots of cooking & visitors throughout the day, a trip to the cemetery, dinner, movies, looking at Christmas lights, opening gifts & the Midnight mass. This year, for the first time, some of my siblings played their instruments in the choir. I realized that the Nativity scene at the church is the biggest, most magnificent nativity set I have ever seen in a church.
I turn 21 in just a few days, so there are more liturgical celebrations ahead of us. Speaking of the year 1998, I had a moment the other day where I was reading my new Sebastian Maniscalco autobiography and I asked out loud if Frank Sinatra was still alive, and I was answered with "he died May 14 1998!" and I answered right away "so many greats died that year...Father Kunz, Frank Sinatra, and the last season of Seinfeld!" So many things happened the year I was born!!
I'm also diving head first into some liturgical year projects. I hope to share more at their completion.

Memory Work:
So there are these two songs--"who did swallow Jonah?" and "little David" that the teachers at Catholic Schoolhouse taught the kids, and sadly, I too memorized these songs...
I still have the Creed and the Beverly Hillbillies theme song in my "Memory Work" YouTube playlist. I think that I have the Beverly Hillbillies theme song memorized enough, but the creed is still slowly coming a long.
And, yes, memorizing AC/DC songs as well.

Today I have to run to the post office (returning some defective beats that I got) and have a dress rehearsal tonight. It's been a  rainy day here and my brother and I lit the burn barrel. We took around the yard and discovered that the big steer pen is in total disarray, so that has to be fixed before we put the steers in there (!).

Happy Christmastide, everyone! I hope to do some more writing in just a few days!