7 Quick Takes {Take 2}

-1- This morning, Mike and I had the distinct displeasure of taking our children to have professional photographs taken, and trying to convince our daughter to cooperate in this endeavor.

"Anne sweetheart, why don't you come sit over here, next to Henry?"

"NO!"

I think that sums up the visit quite well.

This goes hand-in-hand with you trying to help her with anything, and getting the ever popular response of:

"ANNE do it!"

The independent, Terrible Two's are upon us.

-2- I had dinner last night with some Catholic girlfriends whom I met back when I moved back home after law school. We ruminated about how we had all discerned potential vocations to the religious life prior to getting married.

"In fact," remarked my friend Sarah, "I was pretty mad that I didn't have a call to the religious life. I mean, it would have made so much sense. What was God thinking?!"

I got a chuckle out of that, because which one of us hasn't asked God that question?

-3- I have a brand new veil to add to my arsenal of headcoverings for Mass, and this one is a true veil, rather than a headband or smaller kerchief style covering that ties under my hair like I usually wear. It's an eternity veil from the Liturgical Time Veil Shop, and I LOVE it. It has definitely taken some getting used to, since I do feel more conspicuous in it (nobody in my parish wears a headcovering besides me, save for a few older ladies wearing hats on occasion), but I figure it's good for me. The veil is absolutely beautiful, and I feel more recollected when I wear it.

I love how you can wear it as a scarf, and then pull it up when you want to be covered. The instant it arrived last weekend, I tore into the package and eagerly awaited Mass on Sunday. I slung it around my neck and packed Henry up. When we arrived, I left it alone until we slipped into a pew. Then I pulled it up over my head.

I see Henry looking around at the stained glass windows. Then he catches a glimpse of me out of the corner of his eye. He glances over, stares back forward, and then realizing that something has definitely happened that is totally new, he looks back over at me with abject curiosity. I say nothing.

"Mommy? Why do you have that...circle around your head?"

"It's a veil, Sweetie."

"Oh."

And then he asked no further questions, which I thought was pretty impressive. :)

-4- The other day I was listening to a podcast about the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I knew a little bit about this devotion, but not nearly the depth of information that I learned that day. One of the things that the podcaster mentioned was a special consecration prayer to the Sacred Heart that you say each day. I was happily listening along in my car, making a mental note to look up the book on Amazon that she mentioned and mark it for potential purchase (The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: How to Practice the Sacred Heart Devotion, by Rev. John Croiset), when I glanced down at the pocket thing on the driver's side door of my car. It has all kinds of small prayer books shoved in there in case I stop off for Eucharistic Adoration, and I haven't weeded through it in ages. I noticed that one of them had looseleaf pages from old Magnificat magazines of saint profiles that I found touching. At a red light, I leaned down and picked up the book to pull those sheets of paper out. A prayer card fell out. I grabbed it, and I saw that the prayer was entitled "Sacred Heart of Jesus, I Commit This Day to You." Coincidence? I think not.

-5- The podcast that I referred to above is called "This Catholic Life" and I can't recommend it highly enough. Although the creator has ceased making new episodes since she's entering a Discalced Carmelite convent in mid-July, you can still download all 37 or so episodes that she did make. Her name is Channing Dale, and although I have never met her, I mourned her loss on Twitter when she disconnected from social media last week because I became so fond of her via this podcast. In each episode, she talks about what has been going on in her Catholic life since the last installment (and she taught RCIA, did youth ministry, went on pilgrimmages, all sorts of interesting stuff), features a Catholic devotion or Marian apparition, sometimes talks about a saint, and finishes with a prayer for the week. It's *wonderful*. If you search on iTunes for "This Catholic Life" you'll find it.

-6- In dance news, we've been busily working on balancing our candle trays, although so far all we've done is "tray" and no "candles." It's rather the pink elephant in the room, but we're all too scared to mention it. We'll get there, I suppose.

-7- It's nearly July, and you know what this means, right? Yep, time to think about Christmas crafting.

I know that Christmas is a long way away, but you need 6 months to fully plan and implement everything, so even though I'm still on a yarn diet, I have a cart over at Knit Picks full of red and green acrylic to make a tree skirt for our house, and a gorgeous cashmere blend to make something special for my special hubby. :) I've also got some bright cotton earmarked for kitchen gift sets, and superwash wool for baby and toddler sweaters.

*beams*

Have a great weekend, everybody!


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