The Week in Review

This week I ..

finished watching the extended edition of The Two Towers(thank you Elisabeth!)...

began reading Sun Slower, Sun Faster, a piece of historical fiction about the church in England and the Holy Mass...

studied for the ACT test(fun)...


went to mass at St. Florian's, an old polish church...



and went to my little brother's 1st baseball game of the season(Go White Soxs!).

Update

Hi all! Quick update here. I have been wanting to post some pictures for you all to see but have had some challenges. I hope to get them downloaded soon though. The weather has been really nice and the trees just amazing! More brilliant then I ever remember them being. The yellow just glows. I feel like I'm in Lorien. We have these three small trees and this year the leaves were mostly yellow except for the tips which were flaming red. The trees looked like they were ablaze with fire! Awesomeness!
Lets see, what else has been keeping me from the computer besides the wonderful weather? Running. I raised my weekly mileage by 10 last week so I'm going to have to spend 2 versus 1 hour on it every day. Then, lets see, I have been trying really hard to make time to read The Two Towers as my brother is beating the pants off me. He read the whole Tolkien Trilogy in a week, then the Hobbit in a number of days and is now reading one I never even heard of called The Children of Hurien! I've got to catch up with that boy! I have been doing some writing independent of my blogging and have also been studying the Holy Father's new encyclical Caritas in Veritate. So yes that is everything that has been happening and this is the end of a very poorly written ,random post.~Ardhoniel

I'm Back!

Hey! I'm back and I'm freezing. Even my dad who wears shorts in 60 degree weather says that he doesn't know how long he is going to be able to hold off turning on the heat. Right now I'm down in the basement typing with a turtleneck sweater, a heavy hoodie, gloves, running pants and a scarf on. Yea, I'm cold. I'm on my third cup of tea and am getting sick of the watery stuff. Why am I complaining so much though. Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day. We went to a park after Mass. Everyone biked and I ran since I just couldn't resist(it was such a perfect day for jogging!). We came home and had some of dad's homemade chicken soup, the perfect thing to have on a chilly day. After all the exercise we where all famished! After Sunday excursions like that one everybody usually shares what their favorite part of the day was. The little girls liked the park we stopped at best. Patty said he liked being able to play with the older guys. At home they are always busy with other things like school and their forum. I really enjoyed running in a new place. It gets really monotonous jogging thru the same neighborhoods everyday. I was also excited about the swans we saw. I know I sound like a 3 year old but they were huge! I never realized how tall they get when full grown. We also saw a flock of Turkey Vultures which was pretty neat too. Last week was pretty hectic so I was very grateful to be able to enjoy such a pleasant day with my family. In some ways it makes me grateful for the busy insaneness that happens during the rest of the week because if things were always wonderful I wouldn't appreciate them like I do now. It's the craziness that makes the peace so nice, the storm that makes the calm. ~ Ardhoniel

Day 2

Today I will go into more detail about the 3 divisions of the order. The first sect, the O.F.M's are thought to be the closest to the original order. They like I said before wear brown and retain the name friars minor. The second sect ,O.F.M conv., were the first to separate in favor of a more laxed rule. They changed the color of their habits to black and their name to Conventuals. Later a radical group unhappy with both sects broke off to become the Capuchins. They adopted an even stricter rule and changed their color to gray. To this day each sect claims to wear the original color of Francis although most experts will say he most likely wore gray. Some have rejected popular opinion totally and gone with what is practical such as The Little Brothers of St. Francis who (go figure) wear dungaree. ~Sr M Colette

Another Day

Philosopher commented that she enjoyed my random post yesterday so this is for you Ms. Artist. Yesterday was eh let me think Tuesday that's right. I woke at quarter to 6. At 7:30 I walked to 7:45 Mass. I came home and had Froot Loops. After my breakfast was all digested I went running. When I got home I went downstairs to work on a crazy project I started on Monday. I decided to clean and organize the basement and upstairs this week(I'm such a dreamer). I will be fortunate to finish the basement by Saturday the way it is going! The more I straighten things up it seems the more clutter I discover! I told my mom that to truly complete the project I'm going to have to get rid of some stuff to which she readily agreed as long as I can get approval from the many pack-rats of our family(good luck).Around 11:00 Mags needed looking after so I took her downstairs with me on the pretext that she wasn't going to make a mess(ha-ha). We spent the next hour and half playing in the basement and reading until my poor little voice was hoarse. Luckily at that point Em had finished school and was able to play with her. I took a break before going back downstairs to finish the "great project"(notice that I said the great project). I did that the rest of the afternoon until 5:00 when I had had enough and decided to roller blade to a church that is nearby(about a mile and a half) for Eucharistic Adoration. Don't worry, I didn't go into church with my blades on, I brought shoes. I stayed for an hour, then rushed home just in time for dinner. I was really tired so I spent the rest of the evening just chatting with my dad and sister over dish washing.

Today was very similar except that it is much chillier outside which I am not very happy about but it is inevitable. Also I ran farther. I didn't heat up as fast so had more endurance. Since I jogged so far I didn't get to eat a proper chilly morning breakfast so I enjoyed it for lunch instead, tea with honey,an English muffin with peanut butter and half a nectarine. The nectarine was really just a healthy addition. It doesn't really go with the chilly theme now does it. Now I'm blogging. I'm actually not sure what I will do next. Later we have holy hour at our parish and then hot dogs for dinner. My apologies to anyone who is now snoring. I shall sign off now. -Ardhoniel-