This Week {Feb 17-21}

After the long weekend in Spokane, it's so good to be home! It took us 8+ hours to drive home, with a stop to chain-up the tires, and a stop to take the chains off. Anyway, good to be back into a routine of sorts!

Such an adventure, driving over Snoqualmie Pass!

I got my blood drawn this morning and will likely have the numbers tomorrow (if I'm hopeful, today) and I am praying the platelets jumped! After this trip, we jumped over to Vercillo's again. I bought some crucifixes and centers for some rosaries that I am designing, and also met a young Tanzanian priest named Fr. Deo Gratias. This priest is very traditional, as he was wearing a cassock! He was a very nice man and is on a mission to build a hospital in his hometown in Tanzania, because the closest one is very far away.

Currently reading:

As I mentioned this weekend, I started The Devil's Cup by Stewart Lee Allen

I'm also still reading After Miscarriage and An Irish Country Village.

Rosaries currently working on:

Reversible St. Francis/St. Anthony with bright neon green Czech glass beads and cobalt Czech glass beads.

I finished up this one-decade rosary with matte emerald Czech glass beads and a reversible Mary/Divine Mercy center. It can be purchased here in my Etsy shop!

This is a custom order, a variation on one I did before. It's the Swarovski 'Beachy' mix but with round beads instead of bicones, it has platinum Swarovski pearls, and an Our Lady of Grace center.

Verses that are speaking to me this week:

With the Lenten season quickly approaching, this verse is a good reminder for all of us to get to Confession so we are able to receive the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist at Easter!

"Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help."

--Hebrews 4:14-16

Speaking of the Lenten season quickly approaching, I have decided I am going to post the Sorrowful Mysteries on Ash Wednesday (I know a billion people have already done so) and write out the Rosary prayers for everyone, since the rosary is so near and dear to my heart! Look for that soon! Also, I will be posting 6 meatless meal options, ones my family will be using on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays during Lent. I've tried to come up with other meaningful things to do during Lent, but this is what I have decided to do.

Quotes that touch me this week:

"She longed greatly to go back to those dear merry days when life was seen through a rosy most of hope and illusion, and possessed an indefinable something that had passed away forever. Where was it now -- the glory and the dream?"

--L.M. Montgomery Anne of the Island

"Mother! Call her with a loud voice. She I listening to you; she sees you in danger, perhaps, and she -- your holy mother Mary -- offers you, along with the grace of her son, the refuge of her arms, the tenderness of her embrace...and you will find yourself with added strength for the new battle." --St. Josemaría Escrivá The Way

Now I need to get back to assembling all the new rosary orders, so have a blessed day!

Anointing of the Sick and a Trip to the Catholic Bookstore

I got a call from the priest at our parish yesterday so we could reschedule my Anointing. I have had a rare blood disorder called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP) since middle of last year. Basically, my blood is mostly normal, except I have extremely low platelets. When I was first hospitalized, I had 9K platelets, with the normal range being 145-400K. I was discharged with 100K and have been hovering between 30-40K ever since. Biweekly blood draws to see where I'm at, and constant prednisone in my body. It's annoying, and can be very dangerous if they get too low (below 30K). Platelets help clot your blood, so you could bleed severely if cut or even bleed internally. I'm thankful that God protected me during the time I didn't know I had this autoimmune disease. I am thankful to him that I am alive!

Today's Mass was the regular 9:00 am Mass with the school children. The girls and I sat in the very back pew and got too many glances our way when one of the girls screeched or started crying. I'm pretty sure all the kids thought that mine were cute, but I still felt a judging eye toward me. It was good to have an adult that I knew nearby, and she reassured me that I was fine and had nothing to worry about. I had been to another Mass with the school children before, but lucked out and got to drop off the girls at the nursery downstairs, with the ladies who watch them during our Walking With Purpose Bible study. Well the girls weren't too bad, and I received the Eucharist and the girls were blessed by Fr. Seamus.

We met Father at the back of the church after Mass was over and I received Anointing of the Sick, the last possible Sacrament I can receive. (I wish I had grown up Catholic so I could have received all of the Sacraments as a Catholic, but I'm thankful that my parents had me baptized as a baby, and that Chris and I wed in a Christian ceremony.) He blessed me with the oil on my forehead and the palms of my hands, prayed over me, my sins were forgiven (now I don't have to go to Confession for a while...KIDDING!) and he blessed the girls again. I left feeling more awake and with a heart on fire for Jesus!

Hannah wanted to go to the Catholic bookstore, Vercillo's, after Mass, and I agreed it was a good idea. I wanted to get some more holy cards, the non-laminated ones, for my Bible, and some more medals to wear, because you can never have too many of either of these things! While browsing, I also found Pope Awesome and Other Stories by Cari Donaldson, with whom I interact on Twitter and Facebook. So in essence, I know the author. Heh! The girls were having a hay day in the children's book section, and Nora kept picking up a book on the Holy Family, so I got that for the girls, too. At checkout, Regina, the employee (whom I saw at Mass just before!) gave me free Holy Face medals for our family, and also Holy cards with the devotion on them. Such a wonderful thing, I hear, and so now I do research! St. Veronica was my Confirmation saint, so this was neat!

Back home, we are, and I can still smell the oil on my forehead! It reminds me of the Rite of Sending Mass and also Confirmation. Must get the toddlers some lunch, so off I go again!

This Week {Feb10-14}

Currently reading:

An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor

After Miscarriage by Karen Edmisten

Rosaries currently working on:

A lot of 15 rosary bracelets. The colors are ruby, alexandrite, milky pink, and amethyst. I've got a few other rosaries I finished up this week and shipped out, and have some other rosaries I'm planning on putting in the Etsy shop! (P.S. I'm having a sale through Friday for 10% off! Use coupon code STVALENTINE10 at checkout!)


This week's memory verse (I don't have the brain power to memorize!) for my online Bible study:

"The Lord God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him." -Genesis 2:18 (NAB)

Other verses that are speaking to me this week:

"My life is deprived of peace,
I have forgotten what happiness is;
My enduring hope, I said,
has perished before the Lord.
...
But this I will call to mind;
therefore I will hope:
The Lord's acts of mercy are not exhausted,
his compassion is not spent;
They are renewed each morning--
great is your faithfulness!
The Lord is my portion, I tell myself,
therefore I will hope in him."
-Lamentations 3:17-18,21-24

This verse was given to me by my best friend Jane, in a card I received from her after I miscarried my precious third baby. It is so true for what I am going through right now, and cannot thank her enough for her constant loving support and prayer. I will be posting a lot about what I'm feeling after the miscarriage, because I haven't really opened up to everyone about it, even family. I've given subtle hints and some people know, but I guess it's not something I just want to shout to the world. Eventually I will be able to talk about it with more people, but for now, online it is.

Quotes that touch me this week:

"I wish to have a place to honor my children I cannot hold. So sweet, so dear, so worthy of His love. They are now part of the Church Triumphant. And I sense that these vulnerable little beings, who could not sustain life here on earth, are just so radiant, wise, joyous, and holy beyond anything I could even hope to be here on earth." -from After Miscarriage (p 35) It was originally taken from a blog that has now gone private. Whoever the author is, she hit the head on the nail perfectly with this. This chapter is also what prompted me to start journaling online. So I thank you, Karen Edmisten!

"No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing." -from A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis  Such true words.

Coffee currently consuming this week:

SBC's #4 blend. It's a medium-dark organic fair-trade roast. I've also had a few Nespresso Kazaar coconut mochas here at home!


Okay, the three-year-old needs some spaghetti for lunch! I'm not sure how often I will be posting, but for now, have a blessed day!