Happy Turkey Day and I found them

Thank YOU anonymous. I did indeed find them both this morning and have ordered them. And, bought them for less than I paid three years ago, including shipping.

I will try allbookstores.com in the future.


HAPPY TURKEY DAY to everyone! May your day be filled with JOY and LOVE and LAUGHTER.

I am headed over to mom and dad's in an hour or so. And then we'll eat around 2 pm. And then eat again 30 minutes later.

Then I'll return to my house-sitting perch.

Do ya'll have any Turkey Day traditions at your house?

Vine and Branches Vol 1 and Vol 2

I went to Amazon.com the other day to buy a few retreat resources. And, imagine my surprise when I found out one of my favorites is now out of print. ACK!

I bought it when I was the YM at SMM. That was only 3 years ago.

So, now, I ask you faithful readers:

Does anyone have Vine and Branches by Maryann Hakowski? Vol 1 or Vol 2 or both? I do not have a need for Vol 3.

I will gladly pay you for what you paid for them, or what I would've paid if they were still in print.

Please, pretty please with sugar on top!!

Stats update

alright different kind of stats watching:

Top 5 Internet companies and ISP:
(you can find out your ISP by going to whatismyisp.com

Verizon Internet Services - 177 hits - (71.255.82.163) Orange, NJ
Comcast Cable - 88 hits - (71.229.74.106) Benton Harbor, MI
Sbc Internet Services - 9 hits - (76.193.69.7) West Hartford, CT
The Art Institutes International - 4 hits - (161.38.221.240) outside DC [I know this person]
Charter Communications - 13 hits - (75.132.44.12) St Louis, Missouri

my stats show where the company is based out of and then if I click on the ISP's I can see where people are. I get my stats from StatCounter - its free



Verizon -





fabulous ring tone maker...you can make them from your own music.

Defend Life, Do Not Be Afraid

I was supposed to bake last night. But, when I went in the kitchen to start, I realized we didn't have eggs. :(

so, I had to wait til tonight to complete the project. But I did get to use my new mixer - 6 qt from Kitchen Aid. Cinnamon color. Gorgeous gift from my mom.

Treasure Bars.
Christmas Treasure Bars.

And, today, I also got to hang with Amy and Jeff. 2nd week in a row.

I am still on the look-out for a really cool apron. I'll probably just make a few. Glad I know how to sew.

NCCYM is in two weeks. Am so excited to hang out with 2000 YM's from all over. Should be a blast. And, it looks like we'll have another person share our room. I like sharing, means the parish pays less for the room.

ok, found this video from 2005. CHWC Nashville. Re-enacting bending the rebar for the new stairs we put in. But, of course, it didn't go as planned (the re-enactment that is). hope you get a laugh. I know I do.

aprons

I like some aprons for Christmas...people have been asking and now I am telling.

Now, its off to make Treasure Bars, Christmas style.

Seignadou Lip Balm

I have to plug this lip balm. It really is the best eveh. My lips have never been softer.

I would have to say I am a lip balm conoisseur (sp?). Or at least, I have tried just about everything (Chapstick, Carmex, Vaseline, SoftLips, Lip Smacker, Burt's Bees etc.)

And, I am not just saying this because I used to live there. :)

This Lip Balm is amazing!! It smells fantastic - yummy mint. It goes on smooth. It doesn't dry out my lips like others. And, the best part, I go through less than I did with Carmex. Perhaps it could be that you get a bit more! ;) And, its made from all-natural ingredients. Seriously!

I do have to also say that when they first started making it, it would melt in my pocket, or at least get really soft. But, they have obviously tweaked the recipe, and now it doesn't get ooey-gooey in my pocket. It stays solid.

This Seignadou Lip Balm is really inexpensive - $2 each. Burt's Bees is easily $3.

So, stock up. Give it away as stocking stuffers. Get addicted. And, support the Dominican Nuns' way of life.

INFJ

Hop on over to www.humanmetrics.com to take the Meyers-Briggs personality test.

I decided to take it as Candied Ginger took one recently.

I find being an INFJ very interesting. Who knew? It matches me very well, don't you think?

Taken from Keirsey.com:

Counselors have an exceptionally strong desire to contribute to the welfare of others, and find great personal fulfillment interacting with people, nurturing their personal development, guiding them to realize their human potential. Although they are happy working at jobs (such as writing) that require solitude and close attention, Counselors do quite well with individuals or groups of people, provided that the personal interactions are not superficial, and that they find some quiet, private time every now and then to recharge their batteries. Counselors are both kind and positive in their handling of others; they are great listeners and seem naturally interested in helping people with their personal problems. Not usually visible leaders, Counselors prefer to work intensely with those close to them, especially on a one-to-one basis, quietly exerting their influence behind the scenes.

Counselors are scarce, little more than one percent of the population, and can be hard to get to know, since they tend not to share their innermost thoughts or their powerful emotional reactions except with their loved ones. They are highly private people, with an unusually rich, complicated inner life. Friends or colleagues who have known them for years may find sides emerging which come as a surprise. Not that Counselors are flighty or scattered; they value their integrity a great deal, but they have mysterious, intricately woven personalities which sometimes puzzle even them.

Counselors tend to work effectively in organizations. They value staff harmony and make every effort to help an organization run smoothly and pleasantly. They understand and use human systems creatively, and are good at consulting and cooperating with others. As employees or employers, Counselors are concerned with people's feelings and are able to act as a barometer of the feelings within the organization.

Blessed with vivid imaginations, Counselors are often seen as the most poetical of all the types, and in fact they use a lot of poetic imagery in their everyday language. Their great talent for language-both written and spoken-is usually directed toward communicating with people in a personalized way. Counselors are highly intuitive and can recognize another's emotions or intentions - good or evil - even before that person is aware of them. Counselors themselves can seldom tell how they came to read others' feelings so keenly. This extreme sensitivity to others could very well be the basis of the Counselor's remarkable ability to experience a whole array of psychic phenomena.

Mohandas Gandhi, Sidney Poitier, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Goodall, Emily Bronte, Sir Alec Guiness, Carl Jung, Mary Baker Eddy, Queen Noor are examples of the Counselor Idealist (INFJ).

i have been busy...this week feel as if it has flown by.

we now only have 8 teens spots for MSC...i have found out Missionaries of the Poor also has a teen mission trip and it is cheaper...that'll be saved for next year.

and I believe I am getting a cold. I am about, I think, to have no voice. that'll be scary. does anyone have a bull horn I can use?

and my LN is on the 30th. I am almost finished. Its Dante's Inferno. Just as I=N-F=E-R=N-O as at SMM.

Ok, ya'll, now here are the stats for this week:

Top 5 Countries/States:
Switzerland
Indiana
Texas
Alberta, Canada
New York

and it looks like everyone is enjoying exit linking over to www.delusionsofgrandeur.org!

I just found a new Blog: The King of Coupons. Thanks Amy! Its in the Blogroll on the right.

Away we go a googling!

I think it rather odd that a bunch of people find my blog because they are googling "8 polish Christmas foods"...is that rather odd to you too?

Yes, I sang a line or two in the monastery...and then in July, I googled for the Veggie Tales song lyrics...

its just weird, that that is what comes up...currently it is # 5 on the list...THAT izzzzzzzzz weird!

I am so seriously goofy. I love life. Even through the curve balls. That's what makes it so interesting.

Oh, and its official, NET has been approved to come to the Atlanta archdiocese. I had an interest meeting last week (b/c I volunteered to be the DCP) and there are 6 parishes that want a team to come to their church. So, I am in the midst of putting an interest packet together for all the YM's in the archdiocese so we can get some dates together for the 2009-2010 school year. HURRAH!!!!!

I was loading music onto my Sansa Fuze yesterday and listening to new playlists when THIS song came on. It really explains a lot to what's happening in my life right now.

Update

Movies viewed this week:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Happening
Get Smart
Indiana Jones
The Secret Life of Bees
Jesse James
Blood Diamond

Top 5 Countries outside the US to visit the blog this week:
Switzerland
Canada
UK
Guam
Australia


Top 5 Cities to visit the blog this week:
Hinsdale, IL
Atlanta, GA
Ft Wayne, IN
San Diego, CA
Dallas, TX

And tomorrow I have service Saturday at the church with the teens. And also my last few hours cat and dog sitting for the week.

In August 2009, I hope to be on a Western Caribbean cruise for 7 days...let's hope I can keep saving for it!

Bread and Kings

this excerpt says it all about how I feel about this election...thanks Lisa for typing it up!

-----------------------

Bread and Kings

People talk most about their health when they are sick, and most about liberty when they are in danger of losing it. Despite all the pleas for liberty, it must be remembered that every flight from responsibility is a flight from liberty and every denial of personal guilt is also a denial of freedom. Cabbages cannot do wrong, though they have heads, calculators cannot commit sin, thought they can do many things which seem to emulate human thought. Perhaps it is the very burden of responsibility which flows from free choice that makes so many human beings ready to surrender their great gift of freedom. This also explains the search for someone to whom they can commit their choice, who will do their thinking for them and relieve them of the awful burden of the consequences of their free decisions. This search for someone to whom neurotic minds can commit themselves explains the comparatively facile surrender of so many to totalitarianism in our day and age.

Two Russian writers of the nineteenth century foretold that this state of affairs would come to pass in the twentieth century; one of them predicted that the leaders of whom free minds would surrender themselves would come from Russia. Soloviev said that the leader who would captivate souls in our generation would be the author of a book on “Peace and Security for the World.” Millions would submit to him as the supreme authority in the political and economic sphere for no other reason than because he promised bread. Dostoievski also foretold that Russia and the world would fall to the “temptation of bread and power.”

One cannot help but contrast this search for a dictator or an economic king with Our Blessed Lord when He fed the bread to the multitude in the desert. Having fed the hungry masses, they “sought to make Him king” (Jn 6:15). It is ever in the human heart, when it loses its love of the spiritual, to worship those who promise full stomachs or economic power. They wished to make Jesus king in opposition to all the kings of the earth; instead of surrendering themselves to Him and His sublime doctrine about sin and redemption, they willed to have Him submit to them. They did not want to be drawn up to Him, but to draw Him down to them. However sincerely and enthusiastic they were, they were, nevertheless, bent on pulling Divinity down to the level of the human.

Though He Who was rich became poor for our sake, yet He would not be an earthly king by force. A poor blind man could stop Him on the roadway to be cured of his blindness, but not all the masses with their universal acclaim and suffrage could make Him king. Then He laid His finger on their error: “You seek Me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were satisfied: (Jn 6:26). They sought Him not for the higher part of their being, but for their stomachs; not for His morality, but for the economics; not for His saving grace, but because of the dormancy of the spiritual in their souls.

When loaves are more valued than the Divine Power which multiplied them; when streams are more admired than the fountains that produced them, the world will accept any kind of a king who promises bread and plenty. Nor let it be forgotten that He Who promised the spiritual did not deny bread to the poor. Our hopes and liberties are sold cheap when they are bartered away to him who feeds the body and leaves the soul unsatisfied. This is the problem: The whole world is dying of hunger – the Eastern world is dying of hunger of the body; the Western world is dying of hunger of the soul. The first will be fed, but not by those who hate liberty when they give them flour; the Western world will be saved by feeding the East while recognizing their own hunger of the Spirit and by seeking again the true King of Hearts Who alone gives “The Bread of Life.”

Taken from “Way to Inner Peace” by Fulton Sheen (pgs. 72-74)


To gain more guidance from our Church, please read more from Fulton Sheen, who was an amazingly inspirational church leader and media giant. He has many books to choose from and any of them would be great for what we are going through in our country.

Esther

The presidential election is upon us. I am appalled to find out people I know and are friends with are voting for someone who is pro-abortion. HOWEVER... I am pro-life and I know the candidate that is going to protect the life of the unborn child is McCain and his VP Sarah Palin.

And, I know that the most powerful tool we have is prayer and fasting. So, I am asking all of you to do that - FAST for the babies. PRAY for the babies.

Esther (Old Testament) did just that before she went to talk to the king. Her husband. Who in those days if she was not summoned and went and stood before the king, she would be put to death. (For a good rendition, watch "One Night with the King"). She took courage and had hope in the King of Kings. She placed ALL her trust in Him. She praised and thanked Him for all He had blessed her and her people with, and begged for mercy for their sins. She prayed for deliverance from the enemy and strength and to be delivered from fear. And she FASTs and PRAYs for THREE days before pleading her case against the king.

I begin my fast as like Esther did: 3 days before. Beginning Sunday, Nov 2nd and ending at midnight on Nov 4. Will you join me? I plan on taking off from work on Tuesday and just praying ALL DAY for the pro-life cause. Will you join me?

We have worked very hard this election letting everyone around us know what's at stake. Don't give up now that we're in the final stretch. Don't believe what the MSM is telling us, that we've lost. Its not over. Pray for deliverance. Pray for strength. Pray for hope. Pray for courage.

Little ones, DO NOT BE AFRAID!!!

I ask you to read Esther 4:8-16, C:11 - D:5. She will give you courage.

Alone we can do very little. But, together we can move mountains!

To Jesus through Mary,
Deepa