Oh Nuts

  As Jesus hung on the cross, he forgave the soldiers who had crucified him and prayed for his mother and friends. Jesus wanted all of us to be able to live forever with God, so he gave all he had for us. Photo by Alicia Quan on Unsplash Leader:  We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you. All:  Because by your holy cross You have redeemed the world. As Jesus hung on the cross, he forgave the soldiers who had crucified him, and prayed for his mother and friends. Jesus wanted all of us to be able to live forever with God, so he gave all he had for us. Jesus, let me take a few moments now to consider your love for me. Help me thank you for your willingness to go to your death for me. Help me express my love for you! My Jesus, three hours didst Thou hang in agony, and then die for me; let me die before I sin, and if I live, live for Thy love and faithful service. Our Father.... Hail Mary.... Glory be to the Father... Leader:  Jesus Christ Crucified. All:  Have merc...

  “Christian life is a retreat. We are ‘not of this world,' just as Jesus Christ is ‘not of this world’ (John 17:14). What is the world? It is, as St. John said, the ‘lust of the flesh,' that is, sensuality and corruption in our desires and deeds; ‘the lust of the eyes’, curiosity, avarice, illusion, fascination, error, and folly in the affectation of learning, and, finally, pride and ambition (1 John 2:16). To these evils of which the world is full, and which make up its substance, a retreat must be set in opposition. We need to make ourselves into a desert by a holy detachment. The Christian life is a battle … We must never cease to fight. In this battle, St. Paul teaches us to make eternal abstinence, that is, to cut ourselves off from the pleasures of the senses and guard our hearts against them … it was to repair and to expiate the failings of our retreat, of our battle against temptations, of our abstinence, that Jesus was driven into the desert. His fast of forty days pr...

  For all of my knitting buddies A NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS ‘Twas the night before Christmas and all around me was unfinished knitting not under the tree. The stockings weren’t hung by the chimney with care ‘cause the heels and toes had not a stitch there. The children were nestled all snug in their beds, but I had not finished the caps for their heads. Dad was asleep; he was no help at all, and the sweater for him was six inches too small. When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I put down my needles to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, tripped over my yarn, and fell with a crash. The tangle of yarn that lay deep as the snow reminded me how much I still had to go. Out on my lawn, I heard such a noise, I thought it would wake both Dad and the boys. And although I was tired, my brain a bit thick, I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick! What I heard then left me somewhat perplexed-ed, for not a name I heard was what I expected. “Move Ashfor...

Typically I am not someone who readily shares stories that I have written with other people. This is mostly because I don't like the way that it turns out so I don't want to let other people read it because of that.  But today I have decided to share a short paragraph that I wrote last night while I was taking part in a video chat with other writers. The prompt for this was a picture of a loaf of bread (different than the one pictured here) and in the background was a banana or two. And since the story idea that I have for this year's NaNoWriMo is based on the Greek gods and mythology I decided to use one of the characters that I am slowly creating for this idea. So this is what would happen if the Greek god Zeus was a high school football player in the kitchen and trying to make banana bread for the first time. Photo by  Taylor Kiser  on  Unsplash "Standing in the kitchen Zeus looked at the piece of paper in his hand. Having never baked anything before in ...

As it was said in the shared posts on Facebook posts, it's that time of year again to chose a new Patron Saint and Word for 2019. This year when I did the generators for my new patron saint and word, I received St. Aloysius Gonzaga as my patron saint and Unplug as my word. Photo by  Chris Karidis  on  Unsplash While I didn't know a whole lot about St. Aloysius Gonzaga when I first received him as my saint, I did learn that he is the patron of AIDS caregivers, AIDS patients, against sore eyes, Jesuit students, teenagers, and young adults and his feast day is June 21. As for my word Unplug, it is something that I needed to get since I am on my phone a lot to play games and scroll through social media because I am bored and don't ever feel like doing something else. For New Year's Eve my family and I spent the evening with a bunch of friends and as people left before/after midnight our friends had all of the guests pick a small slip of paper out of a box. On...

A couple weeks ago I was texting a friend of mine, who we will call Elsa, and after a while Elsa suggested that the two of us do a role playing game. Once we had each created a character and a basic story line, as well as a third character who hasn't been introduced yet who I am in charge of writing we started. After we had started working on it I liked how my side of the story was going so I decided to turn it into more of a story so I started flushing what I had already written and started adding things in. Since I just started writing it the story doesn't have a name yet. They aren't the greatest but here are the first few paragraphs that I have written so far. At 5’2” Carrie Richards barely touched the edge of the sleeping bag that sat on top of the shelving unit in the basement that held all of her camping gear. Grasping what she could Carrie pulled the fat roll towards her. Once it was off the shelf Carrie placed the sleeping bag next to the stairs. Facing the...

Are you looking for a new dish towel or two for the kitchen? Or a new pencil bag? Or even a clean/dirty magnet to put on your dishwasher? Well I know the perfect place to get all three at once. And you can buy them all without even having to even leave your house. All three items, plus potholders, can be purchased on the Whimsical Kitchen  website. This website is run/owned by my friend Elizabeth as a way to share " Unique, Geeky, Vintage-inspired and Artistic dishtowels," and other items, with people who enjoy cooking and creating in the kitchen. Because of the variety offered they work great as gifts, especially if you know someone who is in the kitchen often.    Besides bringing personality to your kitchen and being inexpensive,  there are several ways for you to follow Whimsical  Kitchen online f or updates on new designs and sales. Mailing list:  http://blogspot.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a408c37c13528df3073e8b91d&id=87620576d0   I...

Ever since I started this blog I have posted at some point, either in October or November, that I am doing this thing called National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo for short. This is that post, though it is a little late. If you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, it is done during the month of November and you have to reach 50,000 words by the end of the month. I had been working on my story and had reach 21,762 words when this thing called life caught up with me and sort of pulled me away from my writing. To put it more accurately, I had to go into work earlier one day and then work late, and then I had to do homework for the online class that I am taking at the moment. And on top of that I came down with an annoying cold. When it first showed up on Wednesday morning, other then having the obvious runny nose, I felt fine. But by the time I got home from work it felt like I had been run over by a truck. Thursday morning, I ran off to class with a headach, a wattery eye, sinus...

For today's challenge it was easy for me to come up with at least one memory from my childhood. It is one that I will remember for a long time. This memory is from when I was about 4 or 5 years old. In the house that we were living in at the time, two of the bedrooms, with one of them being the room that Amanda and I shared, faced into the living area. From what I remember, it was a couple weeks before Christmas and my grandparents were over and I was upstairs in my bedroom, because it was time for bed, and my parents and grandparents were downstairs decorating the tree. And I just remember sitting on the end of my bed watching them through the railing. I am not sure why that is one of the earliest memories that I have from my childhood, but it is one of my favorites because I always love seeing all of the decorations that people put out.

At this very moment someone is sad. At this very moment someone is happy. At this very moment someone is dying. At this very moment someone is born. Every moment of every day someone is doing something. No matter what part of the world you are in, someone is always doing something. Good or bad it is still something. But is it the right something that we are supposed to be doing at that moment? Knowing what God wants me to do with my life is something that I have a hard time accepting, because I don't know what it is that I am supposed to be doing. Recently I came across this quote that I have had saved on my computer for a while and it fits with accepting that God knows what he is doing with my life. "You are where God wants you to be at this very moment. Every experience is part of His divine plan." Because someone else had put the text on a picture, I put it as the background picture for my computer so that I have it as a constant reminder that God knows what...

Why is it that everyone is always getting hung up and stuck on the word perfect? What is so important about that particular word that we can't seem to let it go? When you look the word "perfect" in the dictionary, I used the American Heritage Dictionary, you get a list of different ways that the word "perfect" is used. Here is the list for what "perfect" means in the dictionary. per·fect    (pûr   f ĭ kt) adj. 1.  Lacking nothing essential to the whole; complete of its nature or kind. 2.  Being without defect or blemish:   a perfect specimen. Just by reading the first two definitions, there are 12 definitions total, it is easy to see how the word is being used in society. And just because society is telling us that we need to be perfect in order to be happy doesn't mean that we have to go along. It is okay to be happy without being perfect at the same time. Besides no one is perfect and like it says in the title, perfect is over rated. ...

"If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." Though I don't know who originally said it, the above quote is something that I have heard my whole life. Sometimes I feel like it is very true. The idea for this post came around a week ago, during a talk that I was listening to on the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt. In the handout that was passed out after the talk, there was several sentences that stuck out to me about what our vocations are in life. It was also part of the inspiration for the post that I wrote on St. Catherine of Siena . We all have a different vocation in life, sometimes we know what it is and sometimes we don't. The only person who knows what each person's vocation in life is God. Sometimes it is hard to understand what it is we are supposed to do in life, but we have to be patient and trust in God. In the reflection for the talk that I went too, the first sentence that jumped out at me was " St. Joseph did not clai...

Back in July, when my family and I were on vacation, we stopped at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help up in Wisconsin. At the attached gift shop I had purchased several medals, with one of them being of St. Catherine of Siena , who is my patron saint. Then back in October, before we moved, I finally attached the medals that I had gotten to my scapular. After a while, the medals started to come off, except for the one of St. Catherine. When I realized that the other day, I started wondering if God was trying to tell me something about the future and my vocation. Even though I might no what God has in store for me for the future,  I do know that he has a plan and that I just have to wait and listen for it.

While the picture really doesn't have anything to do with the semester ending next week I liked it and wanted to use a picture in this post. In case I haven't mentioned this before, a large majority of the photos that I include in my posts are from the website Unsplash . Since it is the end of the semester and finals are happening for a lot of people, mine are next week, I was going to write a post about it being the end of the semester. But I am not entirely sure if I would be able to do that without boring people to death with it. So I am not going to do that. Instead I am going to just write about a bunch of random topics like I usually end up doing when I don't have anything specific in mind that I want to write about. Of course the end of the school semester also means Christmas is almost here. And that means that I have to start getting Christmas presents. The parental figures are easy to get presents for since my siblings and I always get them something togethe...

  " 2  Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and make a  joyful noise  to him with psalms.  3  For the Lord is a great God, and a great  King  above all gods.  4  For in his hand are all the ends of the  earth : and the heights of the mountains are his."  -- Psalm 95:2-4

It was a foggy night And things were hidden from sight. Frosting up windows with dew. Hard to see But easy to hear. Thickly rolled the fog. ------------------------------------- That is the only part of a poem that I started writing a week ago. I started writing it after I came home late from work one day and had to drive through some really thick fog. There was supposed to be more to the poem, but I ran out of ideas and then forgot about it. Since we moved into town and out of the country, I liked the fact the I wasn't driving through thick fog in complete darkness to get home. Even though the street lights helped some, it was still really foggy out. Although I did have the help of streetlights all the way home I still don't like driving at night in fog, or rain/wind. The very first time I had to drive through thick fog at night was a few days after I first got my license and I was the designated driver for when Amanda, Yavi and I went to choir practice on Mo...

This is an original poem that I wrote and wanted to share on here. It's not the greatest thing ever written, but I hope you enjoy reading it. Searching high, Searching low, Turning left and right. What is it That I seek? Does it have a name? Surrounded by everything, But always alone. Somethings in the air, And ready to be found. Ready to find What can't be seen. Searching in circles I go round and round. Sight, smell, sound, taste, touch. With all five I search, For what I can't see. Does it have a name? Will I know what it is When I find it? No one knows and No one seems to care. Blindly I search, Until I can search no more. When I stop I hope to find What it is that I have Been searching for.

I was just reminded the other day that life stinks and that there really isn't a whole lot that we can do about it. Would it be nice if things went the way that we wanted them too? Sure it would be nice to have that happen. But life doesn't work like that and would we be truly happy? If life worked the way that we wanted it too, hardly anything would get done. Not to mention we would stop being happy with it all. Since having life go the way we want it to in order to be happy, what will make us happy? The answer to that question is fairly simple. In order to find true happiness in our lives we need to turn to God. When we turn to God and ask him for help we find ourselves on the road to finding true happiness. Will it be easy? No it won't be easy, but we just need to trust in God in order for it to start becoming a little bit easier each time. Of course if you don't ask God for help you won't be getting anywhere and life will still be stinking terribly. Onc...

This is another short, short story that I spontaneously decided to write and share on here. I hope you enjoy reading it. Walking to the end of the rickety old dock Kailee sat down on the edge and let her feet hang in the water. Ever since she could remember Kailee had spent three weeks out of the summer up at the cabin with her family and she always hated when they had to leave. Sighing Kailee wished that they didn't have to leave the next day and that their family vacation wasn't over already. As she sat there watching the sunset on the horizon Kailee felt the dock rock gently as someone walked down to the end. Not turning around Kailee knew who it was by the sound of the of their footsteps. As her dad sat down next to her on the end of the dock Kailee smiled and pulled her feet out of the water. Giving Kailee a hug her dad asked if she was ready to go. Even though she didn't feel like leaving, she nodded her head yes. Getting up, now that the sun had disappeared, K...

This is a short story that I was inspired to write by the picture. Even though I don't really know much about jellyfish I hope you enjoy reading my short story. A long, long time ago, in the depths of the ocean there lived a lonely jelly fish named Fred. He was always looking for friends to hang with in the blue waters of the ocean. But no one wanted to be his friend and that made Fred very sad.  As he continued to swim along and find new friends Fred wondered what it was like out of the water. But every time he tried to reach the top of the water, the waves pushed Fred back under. Not giving up Fred continued to try, until one day when he grew too tired of the waves constantly pushing him back under the water again.  One day as he was swimming along Fred finally made some friends in a large group of jellyfish. Happy to have some friends at last Fred stayed with them as they continued to swim around. After traveling the ocean with his friends and having the time o...