Waiting for Patience

When I purchased my house a little over two years ago, I decided I wanted to redo my kitchen cabinets because I disliked the gold knobs and wanted something different. Then, my entire downstairs was redone because of the flood of 2014 ( remember when... ) lots of other things happened instead.  The Before So this Fall, I decided that it was the time. It took me a month to make the decision and at the end of October, I went and took a class with my local Annie Sloan Stockist in South Charlotte to learn the techniques. When they asked what project everyone was planning, I told the teacher I was going to paint my kitchen cabinets. She replied, "Normally we recommend starting with a smaller project." Well, I say "go big or go home." So I went BIG at HOME! So on November 8th I decided to clean everything and take all of the cabinets down and prepped my floors with paper. I did the cleaning with Krud Kutter and it took all kinds of things off the cabinets! T...

As I prepare for Thanksgiving, tonight a comment my cousin made to me last month kept coming to mine mind. I was together with tons of my family for my godmother's 50th Wedding Anniversary. Some of the siblings hadn't seen each other since their brother died. Others in the family it'd been more than a decade, maybe since my grandmother's passing in 1999. Although not everyone was present at the party, we did have a great time catching up. My cousin was taking photos as everyone came into the party and had us put our names on them. After about 10 of the shots were done, she realized that there was a setting on the camera to make them lighter. It was an old Polaroid, so no adjusting after the shot is taken. I was one of the people who had to take their picture twice. When I teased about having to take a second photo, she said "come on, you never take a bad photo - ever since we were little, you've always been photogenic." Hmm, I don't particularly lo...

Last night I was at dinner with a few friends when a guy who used to be interested in me came up in conversation. One of the people at the table wasn't around when this guy was around all of the time almost stalking me. Someone else at the table said "they weren't good for each other age-wise, physically, emotionally, etc..." But she was referring to the wrong guy - another character in this crazy cast. I complain a lot about being alone - and this time of the year the feeling of being alone is exacerbated even more. But it was interesting having this conversation yesterday. The crazy cast of characters that have been on the first date list is wide and varied. But none of them have made the cut. Why is that? Many have asked - in some pretty invasive ways to be honest. What's wrong with that one? Too old, too young, too jerk-ish, too full of them selves, too 'I want to be a priest,' too... Looking to the future, I hope that he's just "too gre...

This is so good. I felt like I was reading a copy of my own journal. Courage ... may we both have a lot of courage!! ( http://verilymag.com/2015/11/the-most-important-trait-im-looking-for-in-a-man )

I have a confession to make: When I first started as the Middle School Youth Minister at St. Mark, I didn't know what the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit were or how many fruits there were ... and I was the Confirmation Coordinator. I didn't learn those things until about 30 minutes before my first Confirmation Parent/Candidate Sessions a year and half into the job either. And I did not actually learn all twelve fruits until about 3 years ago. These are just two of the things I make my students memorize and learn now. Yesterday, my 8th class of Confirmation Candidates were just confirmed. My team has changed. My level of responsibility has changed. My parish has changed. My job has changed. And my understanding of the Sacrament of Confirmation has changed. This year's group was prepared by some adults, some teens, a nun, and me. Quite the group! I cannot believe that I've seen almost 600 students confirmed. Through it all each class has gotten better and bette...

When I bought my townhouse, I was most excited about being able to decorate it the way I wanted, paint the walls the colors I like, and have an opportunity to explore my creative side. On Wednesday, Mer and I went to IKEA to get me a full length mirror. We came up with so many great things, not including a mirror. I decided to buy a bedside night stand instead from the as-is bin that was more than 50% off. An excellent choice. I also purchased a bunch (15) of white frames to decorate my office. I've filled three and ordered 12 other prints to be picked up at Target  today to get hanging. I think that all but three will be great in my office and I'm going to use those ones to redo how my bedroom looks. I've also decided to (finally) paint my kitchen cabinets. I'm going to an Annie Sloan  Chalk Paint tutorial class tomorrow to get my technique down. They had some curtains that are a beautiful blue fabric that I'm going to try to make into two roman shades for ...

I am a terrible person to plan a party with when you don't know what you want to do. One of my least favorite things is indecisiveness. I'm sure my friends can tell some tales about planning events, gatherings, dinners, coffees, or advice sessions with me. Although there are some things that I'm not decisive about, my future career for instance, most things I have an opinion about and know what I like. That's usually the problem. Once when I was still working at the parish, Fr. C asked if I had a thought about something. I replied with, "Of course, I have an opinion about everything - that's the problem." And it's true. I know what I like, and I've usually made a decision about something before I even begin speaking about it. I can brainstorm, but I have to tell myself that's what I'm doing before I begin so I don't get married to a particular thought, idea, plan, or way of doing things. A few weekends ago I was with my family at...