Working on ANOTHER paper...

So, I'm working on my Government research paper. I am writing a biography of Margaret Thatcher. Amazing woman.

It is not due until Monday BUT---Mike is coming home tonight, and I want my school to be as done as possible before he steps through the door. I've been freaking about writing this paper all week. But I found a really great bio article on her from the Biography Channel website: http://www.biography.com/print/profile/margaret-thatcher-9504796

Anyways, I am feeling much better now Pray that I can be productive.

----------------------------------

Later:

Have 4 page outline so far. Things are looking up.

Research paper---Gone---Forever!

I turned it in! I mean, I actually walked up to my professor and handed it to him, without imploding or disintegrating or losing myself to a total mental breakdown!!!!

I'm so proud of myself.

Then I stayed and helped a classmate edit her paper.

Also, I've been working on knitting wristlets for a secret santa gift. Unfortunately, they took forever to start, because I kept changing my mind on the color scheme (Thus ripping it out and starting over) and then I decided the needles I had were too big (Thereby ripping out again.). Anyways, I ripped out alot. This morning I finally finished one, only to realize that I was wrong and the pattern was right. I should've suck with the larger needles. SO I laid that one aside and began another, larger one. Also, I didn;t like part of the pattern, so I fiddled with it. When they are done, I will put up some pictures.

I paced Michaels for at least 1 and 1/2 hours today, searching for inspiration for other secret santa gifts. Yeah. That was a BRILLIANT use of my time.

Now I am starving, procrastinating, and avoiding my other schoolwork like the plague.

1. Process Essay
2. Government Exam
3. Government research paper on Margaret Thatcher.

Boy I'm hungry.

Favorite Comic of the Day

Done!!!

I...Hope....

See, I finished. FINALLY. But I'm just so uncertain about it. However, I cannot stomach looking at it for one more moment right now.

So, Next Friday is my last day of school!!! YAYYY!!

Next week I still need intense prayers. After I turn this paper and a to-do list assignment in tomorrow, I still have another essay for composition, a Test for Government, and a Research paper (That I have not yet begun) for Government.

Oh, Dear Jesus, help me to survive, to do my best, and let it go quickly!!!

Plugging along

Soooo.....
My paper is nearing its completion. All I have left is to finish the outline (I have about half or so done) and find citations for about 4 or five paraphrases. (I know they came from somewhere...just not where!) Well, and a final run through for minor editing, etc. God is Good!

I worked slowly this afternoon and evening, finishing the paper body, revising the citations, and doing general editing. Thanks for any and all who prayed!

I will have to finish the rest tomorrow, as I am feeling absolutely no motivation this evening. Instead I'm working on a pair of pastel blue and green wristlets for a secret santa gift at a Christmas party that I was so graciously invited to! I can't wait!

Peace and Good!
EBSD

A-L-M-O-S-T- .....DONE!!!

Please, if any internet people actually are out there reading this right now, please pray for me this weekend. I'm finishing my paper, and I'm thoroughly really to be done with it. It is beginning to shape up nicely, though.

On Being Studious and Diligent

So. I've been working (actually, mostly stressing) on this research paper. As of this moment, I have nearly 5 full pages! Yahoo! I started it this afternoon with only one nearly full page, so I'm very proud of myself for adding nearly 4 more since 12:30 this afternoon.

I'm sure all the credit goes to my closest and dearest friend, Abby Roy, now Sister Mary Magdalene, Sister Servant of the Sacred Heart (aka my favorite religious order on the planet. No kidding. If I was a nun, I'd join them.) I got to see her for a few moments today while I helped Sister Maria decorate their retreat house convent for Christmas, and she gave me the most glorious hug. (Amazing the way she hugs....she's absolutely tiny, but squeezes harder and sweeter than anyone I know...other than perhaps her mom.....or my Grandma...)

Anyways, When she was going back upstairs to say her afternoon prayers, I asked her to pray for my paper. And look! After over a month of giving myself an stomach ulcer over it, and the most horrid week, brimming with severe mentel anxious breakdowns, I was able to calmly sit and choke out nearly four pages. I'm so grateful.

This leads me to a realization. An awful realization, in fact. I was at the convent/retreat center for over 3 hours, and I did not stop by the chapel to greet our Lord! I am truly grieved by this. Not being fake. I love the chapel there. It is so lovely. I have spent many a late late night praying and journaling there while on one of the 7 (8?) retreats I have made there.

Well, in about 2 hours I'm heading to adoration at my local perpetual adoration chapel. My same Lord is there, and he will be just as happy to see me as if I had visited him at the convent. I'm still sad that I didn't while there. Sigh.


Speaking of Sister Mary Magdalene and of retreats, the songs for today are:

Restless by Audrey Assad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0B2ybZpDeM

Sparrow by Audrey Assad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMSkKGZ9r14

My Only Love by Matt Maher
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB8iQBapeGs

Hero by Abandon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyv1jUDLY3s


Quote of the day:

"One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other."
 ~Jane Austen



Last thoughts: A most lovely picture of Sr. Mary Magdalene's and my confirmation saints: Hers, Saint Therese, Mine, Saint Joan. They are co-patronesses of France.

Saint Therese playing Saint Joan, who she had a great devotion to, in a convent play

                                             
            And, the two of us now, myself and Dear Sr. Mary Magdalene.

Advent thoughts

My parish priest, well, I love him to death. Really, I do. But he began, once again, the first Sunday of Advent with a rather penitential and perhaps (just a smidge) depressing outlook on Advent. I do understand his point. Advent is indeed meant to be a time of penance, similar to Lent. But I decided to do something different this year. Rather than ignore the idea of Advent as a time for spiritual renewal, which is my usual response to this homily (he gives a very similar one every year during Advent) I decided this year that I would prepare for the coming of the Child Jesus joyfully, lovingly, and with purpose (purpose other than trying to buy gifts, decide on my wishlist, and clean and decorate my house before Christmas Eve.). Therefore, this Advent, I am simply going to try to scoop up as many opportunities for grace as possible. I will fail. I realize and accept this fact. But I want to increase my Eucharistic adoration to hopefully twice per week, but no less than once. Also, I want to aim for daily Mass twice, but no less than one, per week (Other than Sunday.) And, I want to be much more aware of being charitable to people, especially when it is difficult. I really want to focuz on my family in the realm for this Advent. I can and have been quite awful to them all, and I love them all so dearly. I want to make it more of a priorit to show them this, and to be patient with them.

Also, I'm missing my grandmother right now excruciatingly. I wish she was here. I want to be sitting on her couch in her home right now. We would be watching NCIS and White Collar together, as it is Tuesday night. (And she would be going on and on about "Marie, JUST look at Neil's blue EYES!") She would be baking cookies, and we would be knitting together, and some soup would be smelling heavenly on the stove, and a card table would be set up, taking up way too much space, with a puzzle on it, sitting in the puzzle boxes that Beeba handcrafted. Right now, all our favorite shows would be over, and we would have snuggled into bed. She had the warmest, coziest bed. I miss her so dearly. Both of them, Beeba too.

"Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual Light shine upon them. May their souls, and all the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace."

I love you both.

Something that cheered me greatly today

In need of prayers

I'm working on (what seems like but actually isn't) a massive research paper. And well, I need prayers. It is requiring a horrid amount of diligence and hard work, neither of which are my best virtues. So please pray that our Lord grants me enough grace to work hard on this and to actually do MY BEST and then be satisfied with whatever grade I recieve. Thanks.

P.S. Song most dear to my heart right now is "Hold On To What You Believe" by Mumford & Sons. It was the theme song of the retreat (You remember, the one I promised to write about, and didn't? That one. Great retreat. I'll have to tell you about it some day in depth. Just not tonight...rather...this morning...its after midnight...sigh.)

Anyways, it completely reflects my battles right now. How hard it is to cling to my beliefs, when everything about me is countercultural, and therefore attacked. It would be so much easier to just let go. Sometimes, being stubborn is such a gift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VI8-6aXsFA
(Just in case anyone wants to know what I'm talking about.)

Oh, also, I may have stated this before, but I have a title. I am The Evil Baroness of the State of Denial. (Ask Calvin.)

So, I lied.

Well, not quite. I did honestly mean to do a series of posts about my retreat. I still hope to do that one day. But, well, frankly this is the only place where I can make promises and not keep them. Not that that is a good thing; it isn't. But, I have so many commitments and responsibilities, that I don't feel very bound to fulfill goals I set for myself about a blog that, most likely, no one reads. This blog, I have decided, is purely for my writing amusement, whenever the fancy takes me. Thus, today I have decided it pleases me to provide links to my favorite blogs. Here they are:


She Learns As She Goes
http://www.shelearnsasshegoes.com/

How Sweet It Is
http://www.howsweeteats.com/

Regina Doman's Notebook
http://reginadoman.blogspot.com/

Elenatintil
http://elenatintil.blogspot.com/

Confessions of a Seamstress
http://seamstressconfessions.blogspot.com/

John Paul 2 High Blog
http://johnpaul2high.blogspot.com/

Just Give Me Cake
http://justgivemecake.blogspot.com/

The Shadow of the Bear
http://theshadowofthebear.blogspot.com/


These are all blogs I check frequently.


Also, if anyone is interested, these two websites have a couple free song downloads for iTunes every month. They are all Christian Contemporary/Praise. Right now they are all Christmas themed. Perfectly legal, in case you were worried.


Air1
http://www.air1.com/music/free-songs.aspx

Klove
http://www.klove.com/music/store.aspx


P.S. If anyone actually does read this, please leave a comment if you don't mind. It would be nice to hear from you. 


P.P.S. Book recommendations for the day: 

The Shadow of the Bear by Regina Doman

Catholic Philosopher Chick Makes Her Debut by Rebecca Bratten Weiss & Regina Doman


P.P.P.S. I Really love this quote from Ronald Reagan. It reflects all the battles I've been waging in my American Gov class all semester. I don't get why so many people DON'T GET this!  

This leads me to my movie recommendation for the day:  October Baby


Perhaps some day soon I will share my essay about playing Saint Mary Magdalene in the Living Stations this year.