"Pray, Breakfast, Sing, Lunch, Color... on Saturday!"

Thus Michaela aptly summarized our day, which began with Mass and morning prayer, then a delicious breakfast (not overwhelmingly attended, but a good enough number :)) and talk by Dr. Klein.  Micaela and I stayed at Michaela's for lunch, as well as to study, make cookies, and practice for an upcoming audition for a soprano solo in choir.  Next we had the soprano social, which made the breakfast attendance seem enormous, for only one other girl showed up!  She didn't stay the whole time, and so it turned into a Lit Music major social.  We had a fun time coloring pictures, and I'll post the results soon; they're quite exciting. ;)

Needless to say, I came back to Kastell Cologne in a sort of social daze.  We did some house cleaning for the next hour or so, though, which perked me up (it was one of the few situations in which cleaning the house will do that), and had dinner together for the first Saturday since school started.  Since then, we've been studying and listening to Danielle Rose -- okay, one of us was singing (you'll never guess who...). :)  So a good, exhausting day; I'm ready to get some sleep!

Meat and cheese platter for the breakfast -- I panicked at first when I realized that I had to set this out in a nice-looking way without Amanda's help!  But then I gathered my wits and came up with this:

It was a triumphal moment of independence as well as one of appreciation for you and your particular gifts, artistic sister. :)

Also, we're fighting a losing battle with the wind over our lawn furniture:

Perhaps it is time to stack them for the winter?

(I'm sorry; I keep intending to just give you the highlights of my day, but then I go off and write a play-by-play of each hour... :P  I promise I'll try harder to be concise in the future!)

Baking and Cor Jesu

Just got back from Cor Jesu, a night (as you may recall from a couple months ago) of praise and adoration at SPS; it was very nice.  I got to sing the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with three other girls (2nd soprano; I pretty much just sang F# and an occasional G).  I hadn't seen the music before today and was so thankful for my simple part -- Mama, I kept thinking, "E-pi-pha-ny!" :)  (But lest that give you the wrong impression, this went very smoothly. ;))

Tomorrow is the second of the montly Women's House Breakfasts, so Hannah and I went shopping for ingredients and, with Whitney's help, whipped up two batches of bread and a batch of muffins.  We really have no idea how many people will come, but we figure that, worst case scenario, if no one else shows up, we'll have leftover bread. :)

(Not that I don't want people to come; I do!  But that would be you get lemons, you make lemonade.)

Finally, I'll leave you with today's picture.  I considered taking one of the cassock and surplice hanging with all the coats on the seminary coat rack, but you get a pun instead.  

The front:

...and the back:

Get it?  It took me a little while, but once I did, I laughed way too hard. XD

Another Thursday

As usual, I find myself breathing a sort of internal sigh of relief (however that works) for having made it all the way to Thursday.  I love the other days, but there's something about going-going-going that makes the change to Thursdays nice.

However, that mindset also means that I don't get everything done that it seems like I should... but oh well; what can you do?

Anyways, there's my little productivity rant. :)  Tonight, for your viewing pleasure, I have Hannah's very philosophical and official-looking stack of books:

She's working on papers for both Edith Stein and Metaphysics, thus the stack. :)  (How about that Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics?  Apparently it's more for reference, but still, I think it's rather impressive!)  Also, now we can all appreciate why we squint into the sun for pictures instead of standing with it conveniently behind us, as in this picture. ;)

I hope you all are doing well; you are in my thoughts and prayers. :)

Goodnight!

Brain-work Wednesday

I initially wanted to call this "Knowledge Wednesday," since we learned about Gnosticism in Theo (and it was also Bagel Wednesday which I, ironically, didn't know about until too late).  However, the day contained enough piano practice to merit the name "Brain-work," and I went to Philosophy club this evening, which stimulated thought instead of simply providing knowledge.

But I did learn some cool things from Hannah tonight: first, St. Thomas Aquinas' theory of the individuation of persons (it's really cool; ask me sometime, and I'll try my best to explain it :)); second, some stars emit radio waves which we can pick up on a radio and hear!  To make up for today's lack of photos today, here is a link to the best one (sounds like tap dancing!).

And now I'm trying to catch up on sleep... so goodnight!

First Tuesday as a 19-yr-old

It felt pretty much the same as Tuesdays as an 18-yr-old, but, you know, it's the principle of the thing. :)  While not a very eventful day, it was nice -- rather tiring, though, as I'm feeling the late night and early morning.  So no picture and no long post; I'm off to bed!

...and I'm 19!

Greetings, faithful followers;

Yes, today was my 19th birthday; thank you all for the prayers and fond wishes!  I spent it eating good food, from Shredded Wheat and grapefruit to Caribou to pizza and cookies to barbecue pork and, finally, key lime pie from my awesome housemates. :D  They had presents and everything; I was completely surprised!  Combine this with a "party in a box" from my family, and voila:

(Isn't that rose on the wrapping cute?)

Other than that, I had my usual Monday schedule (though everything was made more exciting by the fact that I'm wearing a new outfit). We also had a great housemate discernment talk just now: a wonderful end to the day.

I hope you all had a good day as well and have a restful night; goodnight!

(P.S.  From my cozy study session yesterday:

The cup is clearly cute, but in case you're wondering about the Dots: it was a box with so many good flavors that it merited inclusion on the blog. :))

All Saint's/All Soul's Weekend

The first event of the weekend was the Borromeo Weekend procession -- a huge Eucharistic procession with more seminarians than I realized were here, traveling from the St. Thomas Aquinas chapel to the SPS chapel.  I tried to get a picture, and, while it didn't capture the idea of the event in the least, the lights made a kind of cool effect:

One of the best parts had to be the group of seminarians brass players that would run between songs from what had become the end to the front of the procession to keep up with it and keep us together in tune and tempo.  It was a great strategy (and the sight of them running with trombones in hand, cassocks flying, is one I'll not soon forget)!

After that, I attended a Clue party at Burgundy.  I don't have pictures (yet ;)), but here are a few of the signs:

(Each room in the house was a room from the game, and two girls were butlers and brought the board and dice from player to player.)

(Bonus points to anyone who can name the dance step diagramed above!)

(Oh, and Michaela and I won. :D)

And after that, we watched Arsenic and Old Lace -- creepy and hilarious at the same time. :)

I spent Saturday morning studying (after a beautiful All Saints' Mass), and went to Ham Lake-home for the afternoon!  We celebrated my birthday (slightly in advance), and it was great to see everyone (though, of course, I don't have any pictures....).

And this morning I came back in time to sing for Mass -- thank you, Daddy, for driving me back!  We sang parts of a Requiem Mass: very cool.  Finally, after studying this afternoon, I attended Vespers tonight; it was a special service for All Souls', with the Schola Cantorum singing (they do lots of old -- as in Josquin and chant -- music).  So much beauty in one weekend!

So there's my weekend in a nutshell detail. :)  (I'm trying to write more concisely, but, as you can see, that's not going to well...)  Goodnight, everyone (this is the last time you'll hear that from me as an 18-yr-old ;)).