Full Thursday

...which, as you may recall from weeks past, is unusual for my Thursdays.  This one had me busy all day, but everything was fun and different, so it was still refreshing. :)

One of the highlights was lunch and studying with Katie W; here's the view from her room, with the skyline for Bryanna and the baseball field for the boys (though she pointed out that, unfortunately, they can't see the scoreboard!):

Another was meeting with Daddy with one of the Computer Science professors about my plans; it's weird to already be planning the next four years, yet, at the rate that this one is going, they will be here before I know it!

I also got to pray at Planned Parenthood as part of 40 Days for Life (the girl who drove identified me as a homeschooler after less than an hour in my presence; I'm just going to take it as a compliment and be proud that, apparently, I exude that much homeschoolness!).

However, even homeschoolers stay up late finishing homework, so if you'll excuse me, I have to go finish my Theology assignment. ;)  Goodnight!

Another Piano Wednesday

Today was my usual Wednesday: Theo, piano practice, piano ensemble, piano lesson, and Music History (I kid you not!).  All I can say is that it's a good thing that I like to play piano. ;)

The unusual part, however, came this evening, when I attended a "Campus Ministry Story Slam," organized by my lovely roommate.  I wasn't sure how it would be, but it turned out to be great; I have not laughed this hard since I don't know when!  (Wait, I do know when; since last Monday.  But laugh attacks aside... :))  Basically, everyone got to tell a story, with a 5-minute cap, and somehow incorporating one of the trigger words -- "pumpkin," "breakdown," and "The Arches."  Fr. Tobin told about his first job at McDonald's (can you guess his trigger word?  Remember, there are Arches at UST, so it's a pun :D), Tim, one of the peer ministers, told about the time that he made a sparkler-bomb-thing, and Michaela told about how her family tried to get her to go on a date over the summer (she's discerning religious life).  All in all, it was a great night!

Oh, and here is the picture of the MMCs that is hanging in the Campus Ministry office:

(From left to right: Micaela, Michaela, James, me, Margaret -- in case you have trouble identifying him, James is the one with antlers. ;))

And can you name two other people in the other pictures?  Given the tendency of everyone in the Catholic community to know each other, maybe you know more, but, my family, you should recognize two for sure. :)

Only a few days until I'm back in Ham Lake; can't wait to see you all!

The official end of midterms

Yes, I had my very last midterm today -- in Music Media, which has been a wonderful little 2-credit class. :)  But how I get more credits for that than for piano, I just don't understand...

However, I was able to put my piano playing to use today, as our accompanist came late to choir, and Aaron had me play for one of our pieces!  My initial reaction was shock and disbelief and a whole bunch of excitement, but the choir was just singing unison, so it was actually really fun, though I couldn't get my left hand key signature to save my life (yes, it's the same as the right hand, but choir pieces just shouldn't be written in E flat).  I fear that I was confusing my fellow choristers, but what can you do... I will now work on my sight-reading with a renewed passion!

Delicious house dinner tonight (Whitney made BBQ pork!) with lovely conversation, followed by hot chocolate with Erin. :D  My paper is nearly ready; it's been a good day. :)

But it is time for it to be over (as you may be able to tell from my run-on sentences :)).  Goodnight, everyone; sleep well!

Post-Break Monday

...which I half expected to feel like any normal Monday, since I spent my break writing a paper; however, it was nice to be back in class and go to Morning Prayer with everyone.  Then Music History was cancelled, and since by that point I was missing my care-free class-less weekend, I got the best of both worlds. :)

Tonight, though, I was really feeling the need for some warm cookies; so, not having class, I made these:

I'm torn, because one could argue that, with a paper due this week, working on it would have been a better way to spend my evening.  But on the other hand, this way I got to eat these cookies...

And I think it has finally happened:

My inner food blogger has come out.

You know what I mean -- they post little sentences about how the thing they just cooked is the best thing ever between pictures of it.

Just like this.

But they are really good cookies. :)  White and semi-sweet chocolate chips and swirls of raspberry pie filling -- though the raspberry isn't very strong; it's supposed to be jam, and I think that that way the flavor would cut through more.

Anyways...  I got my e-mail inbox down to nothing, and I also walked down behind BEC to the river.  I didn't plan to, but I couldn't help it; it was so beautiful! ;)

Basically, I just really didn't want to do any more paper writing today.  But after today, the saw has been sharpened, the rest of my life is in place, and I feel ready to tackle it tomorrow (for an hour). :)  Goodnight!

Study Sunday

...and the first Sunday that I went to St. Mark's for Sunday Mass; it was beautiful, and I enjoyed seeing families in Mass again!  There was a Baptism, too, which is always exciting. :)

After Mass, I worked on my Philosophy paper, which is coming together fairly smoothly.  Here is a tree outside the library:

(It is applicable because the day was beautiful - thus the tree - and I spent the afternoon writing - thus the library. :))

I also walked to Whole Foods before dinner, which served both clear my mind and increase my store of fruits and veggies -- so win-win!  Carrying the bag back was good exercise for my arms, too, which haven't lifted anything heavier than a textbook since this summer (though given the size of some textbooks, that's not necessarily saying anything). ;)

Sunny Saturday

On the way to Mass this morning, Hannah (P.) remarked that I had picked a good fall to come to school, and I have to agree with her!  The weather and leaves are both stunning this year, and there are plenty of trees to appreciate around campus. :)

Today was a day of study punctuated by a couple fun breaks, the biggest being that Amanda and I went to Jamba Juice and Breadsmith for lunch!  We walked from my house, which turned out to be quite a hike, but it gave us time for a nice chat.

As you can see, I took no picture of that, so to make up for my deficiency in that area I took a picture of my pumpkin white hot chocolate this evening:

My housemates are all at a play tonight, and, for a variety of reasons, I am not. :-(  However, this drink alone nearly made up for that; I highly recommend it (there are many recipes online)!  Not only that, but I have my whole Theology paper and almost all of my Philosophy paper drafted, as well as my homework for Tuesday finished, so I think it was a wise trade-off.

And now my computer is about to die... so goodnight!

Friday of Fall Break

Today, the University generously gave us a whole day of fall break!  It's nice to have a long weekend -- turns out that a day-long break is still very much a break. :)

Yesterday, however, already felt like break because I got a visit from Hannah A., back for a short time from Michigan! :D  Catching up with her was wonderful as usual (but has no picture; I'm beginning to suspect that I'm not much of a photographer at heart).

Not that I'm opposed to taking pictures -- I do it when I remember, such as when these showed up at my door:

Think I've got enough HLA Mushroom flyers??  Unfortunately, the flyers and complications with the distribution plan both arrived on the same day, so please pray that they are able to make it out of my house and into the hands of students!

Wednesday of Week 8

10/23 edit: The link at the end of the post should now work for everyone. :)

Happy Feast of Pope St. John Paul II!  It's pretty exciting to have a saint who was alive during my lifetime. :D  St. JPII, pray for us!

Music History midterm today; it went quite smoothly.  It was basically a glorified MLC mystery round, but much easier, because we had to identify genre, date (within 50 years), a possible composer and 4 reasons for this identification, and I feel pretty confident about it.

Also, the sweet potato I had for dinner looked like a heart:

Finally, for your listening pleasure (hehe), here is what happens when someone takes Music Media and Music History at the same time; the sounds are made by a tea kettle and the dryer buzzer and the piece is "Edi be thou, Heaven Queene", a song from the 13th century in praise of BVM. :)

Tired Tuesday

To be honest, I wasn't tired all day, but I nearly fell asleep at Mass this morning and I think I might do so now.  It was a pretty typical Tuesday; Philosophy was interesting, I got to play on one of the Steinway grand pianos in the auditorium for studio class, Lit choir sang with Concert choir today (we worked on Christmas pieces; it's going to be great!), and Hannah made pancakes for house dinner. :)

I didn't take any pictures, but, in the spirit of my Music History midterm (tomorrow!), here is something that Dr. Schmalenberger (my Music History professor) posted on Blackboard:

Sorry to the non-music-nerds out there who really don't get it; Ionian is major and Aeolian is minor, if that helps you to appreciate those. :)

Goodnight everyone; please pray for my test tomorrow (and for Hannah - one of my housemates - who has a Metaphysics midterm -- I have no doubt she'll do well, but there's something imposing about the phrase "Metaphysics midterm")!

...and the paper is finished!

In fact, I turned it in today at about 5:30, so I was pretty proud of myself. :)



In honor of that paper (which probably shouldn't have been such a big deal, but first big paper at college = a big deal.... :)), here is an extremely applicable Peanuts clip.  I definitely went through all these stages, being Charlie Brown until this weekend, Schroeder when picking my topic ("It reminded me of... God!"), Linus during research and much of the actual writing (though there was a handful of books on reserve for this and we could only check out one at a time, so I never quite got his piles), and feeling like Lucy every time I checked my word count (I ended with 1597, not counting the title). :)  Enjoy!







Also in Music History, we had a fun MLC-like midterm-review session, looking at scores or listening to pieces and placing them in a particular time-frame with a likely composer -- totally nerding out; it was great!  So, not to speak some famous last words, but I think that the midterm should be okay.

7th Consecutive Sunday of Mass Music

So, I have somehow helped with music for Mass, whether it be coordinating, singing in choir, or playing at St. Paul's each Sunday since school started.  Kind of fun bragging rights, but I look forward to getting to go to Mass an hour later next week (though granted, for 11 o'clock Mass, coming an hour early isn't a big hardship). :)

The excitement of this morning: there was a bat in Church!  I'm not sure if they ever got it out, but there was a guy with a net and some other people from Public Safety, and I didn't see it after Mass started.  (Corey suggested that it could be a vampire in bat form, in which case we'd hear a little scream and see it vaporize at the Consecration, but as far as I am aware that didn't happen.)

Oh, and I'll be Amanda's understudy in Clara's Dream; here are my ringlets:

Just kidding. :)  But the new curling iron works great!

And, aside from working on my paper this afternoon (3 hours today, and it's pretty much done!), I went to an organ recital by Dr. David Jenkins.  It was held in the beautiful St. Mary's Chapel at SPS:

This picture does it no justice, but hopefully you can start to get an idea.  It is beautiful!  Lots of saint statues in little alcoves along the sides, and a mural of Jesus telling Peter to "Feed my lambs" on the domed ceiling in the back, plus the windows, crucifix, and organ that you can sort of see.

The music was good, too! :)

It's been a study-filled weekend; now, back to classes tomorrow.  Sleep well, everyone!

Happy Covenant Day!

Today is the 100th anniversary of the founding of Schoenstatt!  While I can't say that I'm the greatest Schoenstatter (I looked at the calendar and thought, "Oct. 18; I feel like there's something special happening today... Is it someone's birthday?" :P), I am grateful to be a part of Schoenstatt, especially for my room shrine and for all the wonderful members of the girl's youth. :) (And before you even think about a snarky comment, that means all the girls in the girl's youth, not just a few wonderful ones. ;))

Today was appropriately beautiful, and, though I spent most of it inside, I savored my walks to and from the library and ate dinner outside -- Mama, aren't you proud of me?  And I had lunch with Michaela (from next door, to help her finish up her corn tortillas), which was very fun.  The rest of the day has been spent on Music History: studying for and taking a quiz this morning, and writing a paper this afternoon.

Though that's not entirely true: I made raspberry crumble bars (basically apple crisp w/raspberry pie filling) in honor of Founding Day. :)  Our butter is in one-pound chunks, so here is my home-cut butter:

And here's my magnum opus of the day, kind of coming together:

Davey, "magnum opus" means... ?  (Careful readers of Charlotte's Web can help him out.)

For some reason, I thought that tomorrow was Daylight Savings time; thankfully, I checked, and it's not!  So enjoy having, if not an extra hour of sleep, no fewer hours than usual. :D

Paper-Writing Friday

Happy Friday, everyone!

As the title suggests, I spent much of this afternoon writing a paper (for Music History -- and we have a quiz due tomorrow and a midterm on Tues, so this will be quite the week).  I wish that it had come along a little better, but I did what I could.

Tonight, Dr. Boyle held another "Evening of Conversation"; this time, the reading was from the first few paragraphs of the Catechism (great stuff!).  This was followed by Mrs. Boyle's snickerdoodles and signature apple cider, conversation (hence the name), and card tricks by Abigail.  (I'll have to practice one she showed us and see if you guys can figure it out!)  All in all, a delightful evening. :)  After that, we played some volleyball, which I should either do more often or not at all; thankfully, there was another girl on my team at a similar skill level, and it turned out to be a good bonding experience!

My picture for today:

Note how the wax is burned all the way across. :)

And ... the perfectionist will now go to bed.  Goodnight!

Feast of St. Margaret Mary

(...who is the patron of Casa Burgundy -- the white house; so Lisa made cookies. :))

Like all Thursdays, today was quite refreshing.  Though I suspect that I could be using the time better, there is something amazing about sleeping in and not leaving the house right away (granted, I slept till 7 and have class at 9:55, so I'm not doing absolutely nothing). :)

I've been thoroughly enjoying Music History.  We have a quiz due over the weekend, and while I don't feel totally prepared yet (and haven't started the actual writing for our paper...due Monday...), there is something about immersing myself in the music that is just as wonderful in Music History as it was in MLC.  (However, I appreciate how much information they simply fed me!)

In that vein, I came across this while making flash cards for Music History (sorry, Instagramers, for the double post):

Doesn't that just make you want to do MLC?

Anyway, I'll try to stop geeking out for now.  (My poor housemates: I carry my phone around the house playing quiz repertoire and subject those who are brave/foolhardy enough to ask to a history of music from Gregorian chant to the Renaissance. :D)

Tonight, I also had a fun conversation with Hannah and Lisa about souls; I'm probably saying this incorrectly, but whether each human soul is the same, just numerically different, or whether there is something Lisa-y or Hannah-y about their particular souls that makes them who they are.  Ahh, so deep!

So the question of the night: should I spend the next four years knee-deep in music or reading philosophy and poetry?  (And should I be worried about the money-making potential of either option? ;P)

Feast of St. Teresa of Avila

Good evening, everyone:

Today was a pretty normal day; the morning was rather rough, but as time went on it got progressively better. :)  Mama stopped by to visit this afternoon, which was very fun!

Also, tonight we had a sink adventure -- it had got potato peelings in it yesterday and was very clogged.  The dishwasher was also leaking, and when it started to drain (I think?), the water started coming up the sink.  Whitney and Hannah bailed it out, plunged it, Draino-ed, and our sink is as good as new:

Doesn't it look lovely?  One of the many reasons why it is wonderful to have upperclassmen as housemates. :)

Tuesday.

Hi all; I'm quite tired, so I'll try to keep this short and get to bed. :)

Today, I went with my piano teacher and the other piano majors to the Schubert Club museum at the Landmark Center:

We got a little tour of the old instruments that they have there and then were able to try them out!  Here is a cute little piano-forte:

And a clavichord, apparently an instrument favored by C.P.E. Bach.  It is very quiet (the perfect instrument to practice on while someone is napping!) and small enough for travel -- apparently Mozart would use it to practice during travel:

Here's a double-manual harpsichord; note the reverse-colored keys -- that made it weird to play!  Well, that and the fact that one has to give a strong push to each key because it is plucking, not just hitting, a string:

So that was fun; Mama, if you're ever looking for a field trip, I highly recommend a visit to this museum (Katie, bring your piano books!).  And it could easily be paired with a Ballet Tuesday, because look who else was at the Landmark Center:

...the St. Paul Ballet company!  I was quite excited to see them and was almost tempted to go talk to them as we were leaving, since they were also finished, but then I didn't dare. :)

A Nutcracker "Where's Waldo": "Where's Drosselmeier?"

We also had a sisterhood dinner tonight, with delicious soup made by Jenna, Lisa, and Stephanie.  And now, it's bedtime; goodnight!

Back home after a weekend at home

I know, you're probably wondering how that even works -- and I'm not sure.  But I've decided that it's a good thing (and actually, not to get to deep, but I'm realizing that a lot of things are good; in the end, everything is good, and we need to not get so hung up over the things that we think aren't good.  That's hard, but I think it's true).

Whoah, I'm sounding like Ann Voskamp!  Which isn't all bad (it's good!). ;)

Anyways, here are some highlights from my time at my Ham Lake home:

Amanda and I had a fun trip to Charming Charlie's; here we are as Odile and Odette:

My room has become a school room, but it hasn't changed much, and I approve of their additions:

Two of my "dude" brothers:

Timmy wearing sunglasses morphed into a photo shoot, then a dance (the last photo is somewhere in between the last two).

Happy birthday to Daddy (last Saturday)! :D

Music for Masses this weekend went quite smoothly; thanks for the prayers!  It was great to be back behind the St. Paul's piano again. :)

It felt normal to be back at home, yet it feels normal to be here in my "tiny house", too... so I guess I'll just say goodnight. :)

Friday!

I have to admit that the idea of "Friday" gets more and more exciting every year (and not, of course, because I'm doing illicit activities or have the prospect of illicit activities in the near future).  This semester it's mainly because I don't have afternoon classes, so I get to hunker down from 1 o'clock on and get homework done. :) (No wonder I liked homeschooling!)

The farmer's market was back today; I got cherry tomatoes and "Homestead beans" -- they look like huge (> 6") pea pods with purple spots; I'll be sure to take a picture when I cook them!

My absentee ballot came in the mail:

(Makes me feel old.)

And, familia mea (ask Davey), I love the apples; they are just right!  I'll be sure to look for MacIntosh from now on (right?), and if you accidentally end up with some, you know who will take them. :)

Excited to see you all tomorrow and Sunday; please pray that music goes well...! :-\

Guess where I am right now...

Here's a hint:

That's right: I'm in Ham Lake!  (To be specific, I'm at my house, though the picture was taken at St. Paul's. :))  I had music practice tonight -- first time with the in-ear monitors!  I'm not sure quite yet how I feel about them.

There will probably be some deep thoughts on living away from home coming up in the future; stay tuned. :)

Wonderful Weather Wednesday

At least, the weather was wonderful here in St. Paul, and I bet that it was gorgeous in the northern suburbs as well.  I admit that I started the day cold and tired and almost skipped Mass, but then I didn't. :)  As the day progressed and became warmer, I tapped into my inner homeschooler and did some studying outside:

See the beautiful tree?  Of course, it was better in real life -- redder and not quite as sparse as it looks here.  (Also, this is my hair on day 6; it held up much better this week - though it's windy in this picture - thanks to Manda's liberal baby powder job!)

This evening, I went to Feed My Starving Children with Lit Choir; it's been a while (years?) since I've done that, and it was good to be back.  We packed 90 boxes, 10 from my station, in case you were wondering. :)

Finally, if you could all keep my in your prayers tomorrow night and this weekend; I'll be at St. Paul's to lead music!  Goodnight; see you then. :)

Another #TommieTuesday

(Choir director quote of the day: "See the hashtag in front of that note?  That's a sharp, and it means that you sing the note a half-step higher.")

Greetings, all!  Another Tuesday is finished, and I feel out of breath, as if I'm running a 5k or doing the dog paddle and trying to keep my head above water.  Especially the latter; today I was really feeling my schedule -- I have all these great classes, but not enough time to invest in them to do my best!  Arrgh! So frustrating.  Hopefully that's just a Tuesday (okay, Mon/Tues/Wed) feeling that will become better once I have more time to do homework (or maybe I just shouldn't take as many credits next semester)!

Anyways. :)  Today wasn't all that bad -- I got a free homecoming sweatshirt:

The picture and that last sentence are actually related: if you look really closely, you can see a row of people across the quad, and they are all waiting for a sweatshirt -- I took the picture from a similar line.  (I suppose that people who wait for an hour for a sweatshirt shouldn't complain about all the time they don't have...But it's a nice sweatshirt!)

The weather was gorgeous, Philosophy was deep (we're discussing Berkeley and whether objects exist outside our perception), and Sisterhood dinner refreshing.

But now it's quite late.  Goodnight!

Made-It-Through Monday

Okay, so today wasn't really that bad, especially once the sun came out and everything started warming up.  I met with Dr. Boyle to discuss my upcoming paper; his office is full of books (Daddy, he has a couple shelves of books by and about Thomas More, and one for books by Etienne Gilson; I thought of you!).  There were a number of extremely old books, one a Bible from - I want to say - the 1600s?  Sometime a very long time ago. :)  It is enormous and was made on a printing press; less than a quarter of each page is the text of the Bible, and the rest are glossings (commentaries in the margins and between the lines).  An amazing work!

But did I take a picture of it?  Nope.  Or of anything else?  Of course not.  Sorry!  I'll try to get one tomorrow.

Family Weekend

Highlights from this weekend:

• Spending (sunny!) Saturday morning getting things done in preparation for...
• Spending Saturday evening with my family!
• Eating calzones
• Going to Grand Central for the opening of the "St. Paul Ballet Project" (see Google for details :))
• Sleepover with Katie and Amanda!
  (This included lots of baking, as pictured below.)

Today, I sang for in the choir for Mass, after which we (the Meuers) walked around Fort Snelling State Park.  Finally, my night concluded with some more homework, an hour of adoration (gotta love neighbors who encourage this!), and Star Wars with Jenna.  A good weekend, but now it's time for some sleep!

The Friday of New Music

Yes, today I received both of the scores I ordered -- Debussy's Petite Suite and Henry Cowell's Three Irish Legends.

(Here they are, each on top of its respective packaging.)

Tonight, I attended the Archdiocesan "Rediscover" event; there were lots of great speakers, from Leah Darrow to Jeff Cavins, but it went until 10 (and there was still music, but that's when I left :)), so I am now both inspired and tired!

In keeping with the Amish nature of this photo blog, here is a picture of my ticket:

Tomorrow is Family Weekend, and, family, I'm excited to see you all soon!

Rainy Thursday

Sorry, no picture today.  At risk of TMI: I am trying to wash my hair less frequently, and I considered taking a picture to show you how, on day 5, it really isn't as bad as one might expect; however, by tonight it actually was in need of washing, so that picture will have to wait until my hair is better trained.  Thus, this post has no picture. :)

Anyways... Tonight I went to a meeting of Students for Human Life (the pro-life club) and made tie blankets for babies and mothers at crisis pregnancy centers; it was a fun way to get to know the other students a little better.  Also, we discussed Descartes in Philosophy today; his idea of dualism is fascinating, if not exactly my cup of tea.

Goodnight!

Feast of St. Therese

Hello, faithful followers, and happy feast of St. Therese!

This was a typical busy Wed. for me; I forgot to take any pictures for the blog, so here is one of the brainstorming posters that we made in Music History (we're working on a paper about Hildegard von Bingen):

(Better than nothing?)

Over the dinner hour, I went to the "Catholic Edge," an event featuring a few little "debates" by Catholic Studies students -- tonight's topic was social media.  Their speeches sparked some great conversation at my table, and I ended up coming back and deactivating my Facebook account, at least for a trial period. :)

While the day was good, it has also been long, and I'm looking forward to a more laid-back schedule tomorrow.  I hope you are all doing well and send my love; goodnight!