Second Week of Advent: Re-developing a winter routine, and settling into serenity

Hello all, and I hope that your Second Week of Advent is going well! We're hanging in over here, and looking forward to some cozy hygge time coming up as we move into the coldest part of winter. This week, we lit the second candle on our Advent wreath:

...AND we were able to go to mass in-person, which was delightful! Our parish is doing some fundraising for repairs to the stained glass windows, so I purchased a CD of our magnificent music minister singing hymns that we enjoyed on the drive home. The kids have also been keeping up with our variety of Advent calendars, and everyone is quietly having a good time with those. 

That morning also heralded the feast of St. Nicholas, and as always my kids left their shoes by the hearth, and were rewarded were some chocolate gold coins and boos. 😎

We did not practice this tradition when I was growing up, but as a parent I have always been on the lookout for ways to draw Church traditions into our home life in ways that would capture my kids' imagination and help them to carry their own faith into adulthood. I have really enjoyed this one, and I know that they do, too.

Sunday was a busy day, as it was also pickup day for the poinsettia and wreath fundraiser at Anne's school. The red ones this year are particularly spectacular!

We seem to have settled into a happy Advent routine, and I'm pleased about that. In terms of other  winter things, we're trying to make things as joyful as we can. The kids are both back in school after being on remote learning for a week, and things are going great. They both are content and happy. 

I've also been crafting, and finished a Christmas doily for a gift this week!

Pattern is Eversong

I just love the color. And...

*drum roll*

I FINALLY finished Mike's cabled cardigan that I've been working on for like 10 years. 😂

Isn't he so cute?!

It's a success! He loves it, and I'm SO GLAD to have that out of my work-in-progress basket!

I'm also working on a few dance projects, including preparing for an online show next weekend, and that all has given me a much needed sense of purpose and nervous excitement! These are all good things, and right now, we need to focus on the good, for sure.

How has your Second Week of Advent been going? I would love to hear about it in the comments!

Morning routines and LOTS of teaching...

*waves*

Short post today, friends, as I am in my annual fall teaching frenzy, which lasts through next week. Doesn't afford a lot of time for other things during the day, unfortunately! BUT, I mentioned my my Catholic Mom piece for October last week, and it is in fact up and on the site! This month, I chose to write about my attempts to construct a morning routine for myself despite having lost all of my normal pathways due to the pandemic, which has been instrumental to turning my emotional malaise around. 

In other news, my teaching is...going. :-0 It's actually going pretty well, but I'm about to embark on class #18 of the week, if that's any indication of my level of punchy exhaustion. They're all on Zoom, which isn't exactly the funnest thing, but it's what it is. Next week I think I have...11 or 12? It's a bit less bad, but still fairly intense towards the end of the week. I'm planning some fun stuff for after these two weeks are fully over, which I'm excited to write about when I have brain cells back again. I do miss those dear brain cells! They involve dancing, the Nutcracker, and seasonal coffee blends. I bet you're intrigued. 😁

How are you doing, dear reader? Any new books to recommend or fun weekend plans?

New routines, prayer, and identity during the pandemic...

 As I was reflecting on what to write about this week, I realized that on this blog I have barely mentioned the word 'pandemic.' I have alluded to it, obviously, because how could one not? But it's as if speaking the word brings fresh pain into my already battered being. I haven't even created a topical label for it on the blog, because I honestly don't want to be able to go back and filter posts for this topic in the future! Sometimes, I wish that I could erase this entire year from my memory.

Every person on the planet has been affected by the pandemic in different ways, and I am no exception. I'm very grateful that no one I know has become sick, but that definitely does not mean that one has been left unscathed by this global tragedy. For me, the biggest toll has been my emotional and mental health from the isolation, and my concern for my kids, who both showed signs of depression before going back to school this fall. I'm happy to say that they're both doing a lot better, and I'm doing a bit better too, although no where near my usual happy self. But it's improving!

One thing that has been absolutely debilitating to me with my personality is losing my daily routine, in which I found so much comfort. And it's not coming back anytime soon, as I mentioned last week. It may be close to a year before I'm back on campus and in my office. But what I've been trying to do of late is to carve out a new routine for myself for the time being, and that's been a bit easier with my kids being back in school. This is actually my topic in my Catholic Mom piece for October, which will come out early next week, so keep your eyes peeled! :)

One of the ways that I've been trying to carve new rituals is with prayer. I used to always pray the rosary in the car on my commute into work (half on the way in, and finishing up on the ride home), and now I'm working in my kitchen. I could pray the rosary on my lunch break while I sit on the couch, but that just doesn't hold the same appeal to me. Now that I'm working from home, I'm driving my son into school at 8 every morning. With the weather getting cooler, I've taken to going out a few minutes early to warm the car in the driveway for a few minutes before he's going to be ready to come out. One morning, I took my rosary out of it's case and started praying one as I backed the car down out of the garage and waited for Henry. Then I continued as I drove home after dropping him off. It's not a long ride, but I still got though the opening prayers and a full decade by time I pulled back into our driveway. Getting started like this then motivates me to seek out other opportunities during the day to sneak in decades, like if I have to drive to dance later (we're back in person, horray!). I may or may not finish an entire rosary, but I still count this as a huge win, and it's doing wonders for my contentedness level. 

The other prayer routine I've developed lately is novenas using the Pray app, and as I'm sure you've noticed, I've been praying a lot more novenas than usual! But the push notifications from the app are lending a serene feel to my mornings when I see that little cross icon come up and I pray the daily prayers. It's giving some much needed structure to my prayer life, and solace to my days. Right now, I'm praying the St. Teresa of Avila novena, and St. John Paul II starts Tuesday with the page up and ready on the blog!

My intentions for the St. Teresa novena relate to peace and patience with work for the next two weeks, as I'm entering our busy teaching season, and it's all virtual this semester, which I find very challenging. So I'm just going to take it one day at a time! Teaching, in my experience, is a bit like performing, and I love performing. All of that, for the time being, is online only, and this has definitely contributed to my malaise these long seven months. There is no energy, no connection with your audience, when you're online. But it's temporary, and I'm just trying to get through it while doing the best I can with it. 

After my teachinig is done, I'm going to focus back on dance more, which I'm excited about. I feel like the changes that the pandemic has wrought has made me feel like some alternate version of Tiffany, and not my real self. I'm certain a lot of you feel that way, too. I miss my old life, my old self. The older I've gotten, I've actually enjoyed my life more, and have more confidence in myself. Since March though, that has all been missing, and I've been struggling big time. I'm trying to climb back into my old identity, but it hasn't been easy. Starting a new dance project will definitely help out with that, and I'll devote an entire post to that in a few weeks. :)

How is everyone's novenas going? Have you struggled with lack of routine since the pandemic started? I'd love to hear from you in the comments. *heart*

Summer routines, and adventures with odious insects...

Summer means a few things for me, though really, for everybody. Thing #1 is that routines change. The mornings with the kids bear no resemblance to what they do during the school year, and weekends often get packed with family parties and other celebrations. And this particular summer, for me personally, it means that a nefarious family of insects are eating me alive IN THE PRIVACY OF MY OWN HOME.

😡

See, this is one of the reasons I like living in a climate that is frozen over for part of the year. Horrible little creatures who bite and sting cannot survive in the tundra. :0

The past 5-6 mornings, I have woken up with red bumps on my arms that quickly escalate to puffy, itchy things of misery. Being the paranoid person that I am, I immediately Googled:

"bed bug images."

Good and gentle reader, unless it is a true apocalyptic emergency, NEVER DO THIS. You're welcome.

Their bite marks are innocuous enough to look like so many other insect bites (this is part of their powerful evil empire, to be sure) however, the other signs of bed bugs in one's house were lacking in ours (thank you Jesus), so I felt fairly confident that my bites were not from them. But I was puzzled, because I haven't been outdoors very much, I'm discovering the new bites in the mornings even when I wear long sleeved nightgowns, and I have not seen nary an infiltrating insect, winged or otherwise, in our house.

I was dropping the kids off at my in-laws' on my way to work yesterday morning, and I showed them to my mother-in-law, a former nurse. She gently told me that they were mosquito bites.

Well, that was anti-climactic. I was lodging a full fledged conspiracy theory of the insect kingdom.

I don't often get mosquito bites, so that's why I didn't immediately jump to that logical conclusion. I'm not much of an outdoors gal, truth be told. I have hyper sensitive skin that reacts if a dandelion looks at me sideways, and the sun and I have a decidedly love/hate relationship. And I live in western New York, where no living insect can dwell for 5ish months out of the year. In other words, I'm not often exposed to mosquitoes. But that is what has been biting me.

Given the fact that I scour my arms each morning upon waking up, and find 1-2 new bites, I know for a fact the following:

(1) he or she has taken up residence in my house;

(2) he or she is going hog wild overnight and biting me as I sleep;

(3) he or she is clandestinely hiding during the day, as I glimpse no flying objects nor hear any buzzing during waking hours; and

(4) he or she MUST BE ERADICATED WITH RUTHLESS EFFICIENCY.

I'm not normally speaking such virulent hatred towards other living beings, but this one (and it's family too, I have no shame) have got to go. My arms are a mess. The previous bites are healing only very slowly, and my poor arms have these unattractive red puffy bumps all over them. I'm itching and rubbing lavender oil on them like crazy.

Last night, I did have a victory. I diffused lemon and peppermint (I don't have any Citronella oil, though some is currently on order; fly little Citronella oil, fly!) which I read that mosquitoes hate (*snort* did they poll the mosquitoes?) and I did not have any new bites this morning. Just an escalating one from the morning before that is at peak itch form and growing redder.

😠

And you know what unfair thing is? My husband, sleeping contentedly *right beside me* in our double bed, has nary a bite on him. Apparently, MOSQUITOES DO NOT LIKE HIM. What is this nonsensical crazy talk? Mosquitoes have *preferences* as to which people they bite? Whenever I've mentioned this little problem I've been having to others, this has been bandied about *multiple times*:

"Oh yes. Mosquitoes love certain people and never bite others."

Well, how do I get to be one of these vaulted OTHER people? Is this like that second group on the island on "Lost?" I mean, what the heck?

I'll be on mosquito patrol for the short term foreseeable future. My diffuser will be misting off anti-mosquito propaganda each night, and Mike is spraying something my mother-in-law claims will work around the doors and windows. We'll see.

But I got off track, didn't I? :0 I was going to talk about summer routines, because ours is all loosey goosey, like I imagine yours are too. I'm taking way longer than I should to get me and the kids out of the house in the mornings because there isn't the rushy impetus that there is during the fall and spring semesters, and Mike is teaching summer classes with his hours kind of wonky as well. I suppose that's the way summer is supposed to be though, yes?

The kids LOVE being off from school, though to me, the lack of structure is problematic for them. Sure, they can amuse themselves, but they need to be encouraged to move off the couch and away from video games. And by "encouraged," I mean "directly told that their game time is up and that they are duty bound to play outside for the rest of the afternoon." I'm not the best at coming up with crafts and summer activity ideas (because those usually involve going outside) but I do what I can. So my summer routine means coming up with ideas for my kids' summer routine.

I wish all summer days were like this past Sunday, wherein a gentle rain fell outside as I knitted and drank tea in my leggings and comfy top. What is this that you say? That I am delusional? Indeed. 😂

What does your summer routine look like? I need ideas, people! :0

Tea Time with Tiffany #15 - Are you doing any differently in your spiritual routine this fall?

Routine has been a theme here this week, yes? Despite the fact that I recorded this week's video a few days ago, it fits in nicely with the theme.

*fortuitous!*

I just watched it so that I could gather the show notes together, and MAN, my hair is crazy in this one. :0 But my week has improved, and so I'm feeling perky today as I write this. It helps that (background discussion is in the video) this morning, despite the fact that I had to start the day with a DENTIST APPOINTMENT (is there a worse way to start one's day? I ASK YOU), when I arrived on campus at the worst *possible* time of the morning, much later than I usually arrive, as I was innocently patrolling the staff parking lot, Hark! Someone was pulling out!

GOD.STILL.LOVES.ME

But I digress. Today's topic is fall and renewed spiritual routines. You got any that you want to write in about? :)

The fall always brings a feeling of new beginning into my life, and I begin to think about Advent. In preparation for that, I generally get all excited and try out new things. What's on my mind in that regard this particular September? View on, gentle viewer!


Items mentioned in this episode (there are lots today!):

• My new Contigo travel coffee mug. #bliss
• Catholic Book Club reading list has been updated through January 2016! Read along with us! The next book we'll be discussing is Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale, by Ian Morgan Cron, on Sept. 30th.
• My new 2016 Mary and the Saints Wall Calendar is in stock and on it's way to me now. *heart*
• Sacred Reading: The 2016 Guide to Daily Prayer, published by Ave Maria Press. I'm going to be trying this out, starting in Advent, for lectio divina! I mentioned in the video that I wasn't sure if it covered just the daily Gospel or all of the daily Mass readings. I checked the sample pages, and it looks like it's meditations on the Gospel alone.
• Magnificat Advent Companion, a favorite of mine every single year. My pre-order is already in. #nerd
• My brand new wood Advent calendar! I grabbed it when it went on sale for about $50, so keep an eye on it, the price fluctuates quite a bit. I can't wait to share this with the kids! They just better not lose any pieces. *glares*
• Saint dolls from St. Luke's Brush. This year Henry will be receiving St. Nicholas, and Anne a rosary case with a painted rose adornment.
• Adoration. No substitute for it. I'm going to try bringing my kids. Have any of you tried this with your kids? How did it go?

Gentle reader, how I do appreciate being able to share time with you like this. It really buoys my spirits, especially during this busy season. What are you incorporating into your spiritual life this fall? And if you've taken children to Adoration with you, please do write in with your tips!

Morning routine, why do I hate you so much right now?

Hi all. If bad mornings are rated on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being "eh. Not terrible, I'll live," and 10 being "well that really SUCKED," then today's morning would get a solid 7, I'm thinking.

That does make two stressful mornings in a row, doesn't it? I know I'm not alone in this. Fall means adjusting to new routines for many people, and it simply takes time to get it all worked out. I know  that rushed morning routines are small potatoes in the global scale of things, it just helps to laugh at ourselves sometimes, right? Otherwise I'll go watch the news and cry again.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday are the culprits. Mike has an 8 am class, and so he drops Henry off at school around 7:30, as Henry's school begins at 7:45. This works out, but it's a close squeeze for him, time-wise. Meanwhile,  Anne and I are back at home, and I feel like I've got ants in my pants, because I like to be on my way to work by 8 am. I have frequent 9 am reference shifts and meetings, and so I like to be settled in my office around the 8:30 mark, booting up, brewing tea, checking email. Well, that's not possible right now, because I have to drop Anne at pre-K, and the doors don't open there until 8:15. And her school is in the opposite direction of the university that I work at.

#ugh

The past two mornings (Mike can usually take her Tuesdays, but I went along yesterday because it was her first day) have been misery. It's nice lounging with Anne for a half hour after Mike and Henry leave, but after that (let's examine this particular morning, shall we?), it's a cannon ball run:

"All right, Team Umizoomi is over! (God help me). Quick! Let's brush your teeth and get your shoes on! No, Anne, you can't take your (fill in the blank random toy) to school. Shoes! Where's your backpack?!"

We hustle to the car and get underway. Inevitable near occasions of sin involving other cars and garbage trucks ensue. We arrive. Anne drops her illicitly smuggled (fill in the blank random toy) and it scurries underneath my car as she disembarks. I have to climb down on my hands and knees to get it, gathering dirt and grass as I do so. Toy gets tucked back into the car. We hurry to the door, where we...wait until 8:15 for the doors to open.

*groans*

8:15 comes, I hustle her to the door for a goodbye kiss, and then I jet back to my car down the street. By 8:20 I am underway to campus. I arrive around 8:42, and guess what? Yep, staff parking lot FULL. AGAIN, I might add. I drive to a further-away student lot, park, and walk. I arrive on my floor of the library, a bit sweaty and disheveled, at 8:55. I quickly unpack my lunch, boot up my computer, and race down to the reference desk, pre-packed coffee mug in hand. The day I forget that mug, dear reader...well, you're really not going to want to read the post I write THAT day.

I get down to the reference desk, and find out that the entire ground floor of the library has no power. Delightful. People are scurrying all about, creating signs to put up announcing this unfortunate state of powerless affairs. One of my colleagues, the sweetest man ever, but a *talker*, kwim?! comes to the  reference desk to create a sign. And begins talking to me. About very random things. I have a class to plan for, plus I was rather hoping to work on this post during quiet moments. No quiet moments for Tiffany this morning, no sir. SO MUCH CHATTING. And there's no polite way to make the "I couldn't *possibly* care less, can't you see this legal pad I keep stealing looks at?!" face. So I had to chat about current films and other events until he wandered off. These are the moments whereby I am *dying* for a student to come up to the reference desk demanding that I try and help them procure an imaginary, free library copy of their textbooks.

After he left, I put up the "Librarian will be right back!" sign, grabbed my legal pad, and headed into the reference stacks to grab a few encyclopedias for my class. When I returned, two officious men wearing i.d. badges were circling the reference desk in an ominous manner:

"We're here doing an inspection relating to the power outage. We see a violation relating to your power strip. You will have to power down your machine."

In all my years, I tell you, this is a first. There goes my budding lesson plan. Of course, the reference desk machine picks THAT MOMENT to install a *#@!load of updates before it will power down. I think it was giving the inspection guys the virtual finger.

What feels like many minutes later, I boot back up the reference computer and open my fledgling lesson plan. I reject my initial flock of encyclopedias and go back for others. I finally piece something coherent together.

By the end of my shift, I was feeling scattered and edgy. I could also feel my hair curling and expanding due to the humidity in the air. It wasn't the greatest of mornings, I suppose. But here I am, finishing lunch, and I'm still in one piece, so how bad could it be?

How was *your* morning, dear reader? Here's raising my cute orange water bottle to coming up with ways to improve our morning routines! :)