Our Hearts Are Restless

Today being the feast of St.  Andrew the Apostle, it is also the first day of the Christmas novena.  This is a beautiful and very powerful prayer, which takes a lot of perseverance!  It is to be said fifteen times a day (you can break it up into 5 times at each meal, or other creative ways of trying to remember how many you've said).  It's a good way to remind yourself each day that it's Advent, and to prepare for the coming of the Christ Child.  Have a blessed Advent!  Veni, Emmanuel! Hail and blessed be the hour and moment at which the son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, o my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother.  Amen.

I suppose that every blogger and his brother are posting on the exact same topic today, so I may as well jump on the bandwagon.  I must give thanks for so many things today. 1. My family.  Granny is off of dialysis!  The whole family was home for Thanksgiving this year - it hasn't been like that for four years.  We had an hour's rousing battle of Nerts (don't ask - an extremely fast-paced card game, which can get a little vicious), lots of good food, much laughter, and our annual tradition of watching Holiday Inn .  It's the closest you can get to a Thanksgiving movie besides  Miracle on 34th Street .  Despite my father forgetting to turn the oven on for the turkey, dinner was amazing.  I got to make the cranberry salad myself, not that that means I get a special claim on the leftovers of my favorite food!  At any rate, it is good to have the family safe and healthy.  I'm still praying hard for both of my sisters, but today was a pretty good day.  Deo gratias! [capt...

I had the wonderful opportunity of being able to host Kevin's sister Monica this weekend!  It was great to play big sister for a few days, an unusual experience for both of us.  The guys were so excited to see her!  I promised pictures to her mother, so here goes - they're mostly of the surprise party we threw for her birthday .  I know it was hard for the family to send her away for a birthday, but I'm so happy and thankful that she came.  We had a wonderful four days - I wish she could have stayed longer! [caption id="attachment_1223" align="aligncenter" width="652"] In the computer lab at the library before I dragged her away for the party.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1204" align="aligncenter" width="652"] Cecily, Gloria, Lindsay and...Minion. Yes, that's Minion. I'm going to miss her![/caption] [caption id="attachment_1206" align="aligncenter" width="652"] Monica, ...

I've been watching my stats and it seems that people actually read this blog, which is a happy and comforting thing.  However, if I don't write anything, I suppose there is little for my darling readers to actually...read. I had a Thought the other day.  Therefore I shall endeavour to share that Thought and why I thought it was a Good Thought. There are a lot of fuzzy caterpillars around campus this year.  I swear, I have never seen so many caterpillars in all my life before this semester!  As I almost stepped on another red and black moving pipecleaner, I remembered that caterpillars turn into butterflies and moths.  They're very pretty creatures, at least the larger ones, until they flit into an electric light and die in a foul stench.  That's beside the point.  Or is it? It can be very, very hard to look at a caterpillar and see it as a butterfly.   Especially here at college, I realize that we're all still caterpillars, of varying types and sizes and colours.  E...