Accident-prone?

Weird random things happen to my sister fairly often. She managed to break her pinky finger skating carefully around a rink, and had to have a two and a half hour long surgery on it. The surgery didn't work very well and her finger is still a little crooked. Two weeks ago she was running on the pavement in bare feet and somehow scraped off the entire nail and most of the nail bed on her little toe. No, she didn't cry. She has broken her braces four times. She has hurt her tail bone numerous times. She smeared lip chap all over her front teeth the day she got her braces. Today, Sarah and I were pretending to fight, with deodorant as our weapons. Don't even ask!! Anyway, I pretended to lash out near her face, and somehow she stuck out her front teeth, and a chunk of deodorant mushed into her front braces. She bravely fled to the bathroom and washed her mouth out about 100 times with toothpaste and water. Then she told me, “Wow, that is the worst thing I've ever tasted,” while giggling. When painful and/or gross things happen to her, she has such an amazing attitude. She usually laughs, sometimes hysterically.
 

This weekend: DYC conference in Victoria. Next Wednesday-Friday: Juan de Fuca trail with TLA. Day after that: concerto performance. In between activities: school and packing and piano.

Dreams and Aspirations

Oops. In my last entry I made a mistake. Sarah quickly informed me that her club is not called “His Divine Mercy” but “Society of His Divine Mercy”. What was I thinking?

Today is the big March for Life in Victoria. I still don't get why there even has to be a protest for the lives of innocent human babies.

My life these days: Memorizing biology and music history. Procrastinating on Socials. Fairly steadily kicking along with English. Praying with my fam and by myself. Playing the piano and trying to wrap my head around the idea of learning my new difficult pieces. Especially playing pieces where the timing is 3 against 4, 7 against 8, and 4 against 5. But I do enjoy the challenge. And they are such awesome pieces! Anyway back to the list. Sleeping. Dreaming about life and questioning myself about life when I'm supposed to be doing school. Debating. Asking my parents questions. Lying on my bed staring at the ceiling. Weekday sleepovers which involve school, school, talking, sleeping, school. And a nice sleepover last weekend without any school. Watching hockey, yeah. Playing soccer... never get tired of it. Looking at new cookbooks my mom picked up from the consignment store. Getting bangs- I actually like them (most of the time)! Etc etc etc. By the way, I love cooking/baking. It's so fun to try out new recipes. Not that I cook very much at all!

I will now go against the secular tidal wave and say it clear: I want to be a mother! I can not wait! I want to have kids. I want to read to my kids. Listen to them. Joke with them. Treasure them. Discipline them. Learn from them. I want to raise my kids in the Catholic faith. I want them to know and love Jesus with all their heart. Who says it's a drag to be a mother. Who says you are “trapped” and who says it's any less important than having a career. Maybe I will get a career and not get married, or have to work part time while I raise my kids. But maybe, just maybe, I'll get to be a full-time mother. "Wow. Weird sheltered homeschooler!" some people might say, which is ironic because as far as I know it's actually perfectly natural for me to want to be a mom. It will be hard at times, but certainly not my annoyance in life. I don't understand the feminists who started the idea of “It's such a pain to have to stay at home and do nothing with your life.” Do nothing? Excuse me? A mother has a full time job, and it is one of the most important jobs a person could have in this world I believe. My mom is a wonderful example.. she has sacrificed her "career" to raise my sister and me. I do not think she lives miserably. She tells me that she thanks God every day that she has had the opportunity to homeschool her daughters and share her daily life with them. She has given me so much, I could never thank her enough. We have had so many wonderful times together and since I have been homeschooled, I have grown much closer to her.. and also to my dad and sister.

Well well well. That's all for now, folks.

Sawi

It's about time I wrote about my very best girlfriend. What better friend than a sister? No, sisterly love is not all peaches and cream, but that just shows how deep the friendship is. And how much more we can grow in it. We have to constantly forgive each other. I do not live in a large family. But I have this one incredible sister of mine. The Sunny type. She's the type that makes the best of situations and puts up with your grumpiness with apparent ease most of the time. When she is having a mean streak, it never lasts too long. She loves to pray and go to mass. She declared the other day that she is going to write to a nun as a pen-pal, and that she's starting a club called “His Divine Mercy Club”. She's always full of awesome ideas like that, and very often follows through with them. She is good at doing things for others- she'd make a great nurse. She leaves me little notes saying how pretty she thinks I look that day, and she gives me gift cards for free back scratches or hairstyling. Wow. She doesn't compliment me so that she can get compliments back like a lot of girls do; she does it out of sheer thoughtfulness. And she also leaves me notes telling me that I'm a rotten bum, but that's good, too.

When she walks down the road, people smile at her. One day in Italy, a nun was sitting on a bus and motioned my sister to sit down beside her. The nun was grinning from ear to ear and put her arm around her, talking away in Italian. My sister just grinned back. My sister has this knack of bringing an extra bit of joy to older people very easily.

My sister is a goof. She is a natural at making people laugh. However amidst her goofiness, she has her deep side; she can be much deeper than me. We have our sister walks and talks, where we discuss all sorts of things.

I love how she putters around in her room dreamily when she is supposed to be going to bed but has lost track of time; how she secretly memorizes poems without telling anyone; how she slips little candies and things under my door; how she does nothing other than reading when she is in the middle of “the best book in the world” (which changes with almost every book she reads); how she has her little snacks and drinks always prepared as if the queen were coming to visit; how she bursts into song at any given moment; and how she very often thinks the best of others.

I love my sister, what can I say? No words could ever depict the living flower garden that she is.

I'm Back.

People say that my family and I went away at a very good time. The month of March in BC was rainy and cold with little signs of Spring. Well... I'm wondering if I should feel guilty or not. Apparently we took the sun with us. We arrived in Poland, where it was supposed to be snowing. It was definitely colder than here, but a drier, more enjoyable sort of cold.. and to top it off it was sunny for us during our stay. We had about 2 days total of light rain during the entire month. The rest? SUN. And no, I did not tan. Of course not. I did manage to get a couple more freckles though.
I am not even going to try and explain our trip on here. If you know me well you will ask me yourself, anyway.
Sometimes, in order to look at things in your life from a different view, you literally have to pick yourself up and move elsewhere for a bit, and then come back. After seeing so much beauty on our pilgrimage... and also after seeing things that broke my heart... I feel as though I have come back to my little life with a slightly different perspective. Some things were starting to get foggy in my brain. Perhaps because of too much school, or too much worrying, or too much mindless thoughts weaving in and out of my head... on our trip I had more time to read...to think... I know you can do those things at home, but it's different when you are out of your daily routine. By the way, I read The Pearl by John Steinbeck, Blooming Rose by Louisa May Alcott, and Anne of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery. All very different and all very thought-provoking and wonderful.
These simple words of Padre Pio (we went to his shrine, by the way) are a very good reminder for me during this season of Lent:

This heart of mine is Yours... my Jesus, so take this heart of mine, fill it with Your love and then order me to do whatever you wish.

Europe!

On Friday I leave on a Very big trip. By far the biggest trip that I will be doing before I leave home and venture off into the world on my own two (hopefully well grounded) feet (due to my terrific parents). Poland, Germany, France, and Italy. Oh. My. Goodness. What did my dad hear on the news the other day? Poland is currently in a deep freeze and there have been a couple of deaths. What country did we decide to first go to?! Poland of course. Deep freezes naturally attract us, apparently. Especially my mom. Actually the main reason I  am personally very excited to go to Poland is because that is where Pope John Paul II lived before he became pope. We are even going in the very church where he heard confessions and preached- the Krakow Cathedral. If anything is going to make me zealous about my faith, it will be that. Not to mention that we are going to the Vatican a week or two later, oh my!! And a German soccer game.... hmm... surely there has to be something holy about soccer, too! We're also staying in a castle for one night in France. And going to Auschwitz, which hopefully we can handle ok. I can't really fathom this trip. To me, it's incomprehensible. I do not think I'll actually believe we're going until we step into Poland.

Finding God in Silence

I am taking a catechism course with Father Deprey. He mentioned that silence is very important for the well being of the soul. When he was in seminary school, there was complete silence during both breakfast and supper. He said that people get caught up in their daily actions and forget simple things such as silent prayer. It is easy to get too wrapped up in one's activities, which could be things that aren't bad in themselves such as sports, computer, dancing, etc. I agree with him. Our priorities can start to wobble in the wrong direction. This leads to idolatry in the sense that we can get overly focused on our activities, which distracts us from remembering that God is the center of our lives. I believe that this inclination to let oneself get distracted from God's presence by means of busyness is very common in our society. I know this happens to me.

"We need to find God, and God cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature- trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence. See the stars, the moon, and the sun, how they move in silence. The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life." -Blessed Mother Teresa

Poems

"If the track is tough and the hill is rough,
THINKING you can just ain't enough!" -Shel Silverstein

Hmm. The little engine that could, from another story, had courage and said over and over “I think I can I think I can!” And he made it up the hill. But he also had to put his words into action. I am determined to do that with my schoolwork. But you know those days, when you are in a dreamy child-like mood, and feel like walking through a forest in bare feet, sticking your toes in the ocean and breathing in the fresh salty air, climbing up a tree, and doing some watercolour painting? Well maybe that's just me... but it's one of those days for me. Yes, sometimes I'm still the twelve-year-old adventurous tree-hugger that I used to be. With Spring on the horizon, sunny weather, and little snow drops here and there I just get this overwhelming sense of loving life and God's creation. It pulls me away from my schoolwork, but at the same time, it helps me to stay focused, as it reminds me to thank God continually for all life's blessings. Learning is amazing (and this includes schoolwork, even though it is at times burdensome) and I will surely continue learning for the rest of my life. I think I'll share a couple of poems by Silverstein that my sister and I just loved when we were younger.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

Invention

I've done it, I've done it!

Guess what I've done!

Invented a light that plugs into the sun.

The sun is bright enough,

The bulb is strong enough,

But, oh, there's only one thing wrong...

The cord ain't long enough.

The Acrobats

I'll swing

By my ankles,

She'll cling

To your knees

As you hang

By your nose

From a high-up

Trapeze.

But just one thing, please,

As we float through the breeze-

Don't sneeze.

And here are two poems (out of quite a few) that I wrote when I was about twelve, for something different:

Shades of purple

The Artist paints,

Spiritual colour

Gentle but defined.

Last detail,

And the small

masterpiece is done.

The creation breathes

Its first breath

Puts off a sent

So glorious

And stunning.

The Creator moves on

To more important

Things but

Looks back-

Oh divine, oh lovely,

Oh sweet

Purple lilac.

--

The crest of the moon,

The shape of a c,

Shining down on Tofino

On a foggy night.

So many nocturnal

Creatures busy at work;

Scuttling, jumping,

Busy digging holes in the sand.

So few diurnal animals awake,

All mostly sleeping quietly

In their nests, burrows, and

Dense thickets.

The waves crash

Against the shore

Like a small, enjoyable

Thunderstorm.

Silently, a cougar waiting to pounce,

The sun slowly makes its way up,

Until it reaches the horizon

Giving a warm glow of satisfaction.

All of Tofino is brightened

With a new light of blue, red, and gold,

The stars quickly disappear,

And a new day has come.

Books.

I am silly. For numerous reasons. But one reason is that I am trying to read 6 things at once. If I were logical, I'd read just one thing at a time. And it's taking me months to get through these 6 things. I am not a super fast reader and I do not read very much. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love reading. I just don't always get around to it. My favourite time to read is right before bed, but my biology teacher and music history teacher both seem to think that a great time to review work is right before bed. Sigh. I don't always take their advice.

1. Agatha Christie- The Seven Dials Mystery
2. Forty Dreams of St. John Bosco (lent to me by a friend who deserves to have it back by now...I had better get cracking.)
3. My dad's paper.
4. A book on St Teresa of Avila's life.
5. The Book of Acts
6. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, for school. Yes I am what you consider a romantic, but if I chose that for bedtime reading just for fun, I think that would be going a tad bit too far.

Why?

For the fun of it. For something to do that requires thought. Okay wow, I take the latter back. I do a fair bit of thinking. At least I'm pretty sure that I do. Maybe not free form, as in what-am-I-going-to-do-today-because-I-have-so-much-free-time-type thinking. But what a Catholic grade 11 homeschooling girl thinks about. You know. Well, you probably don't know, because the answer could probably be just about anything. So, I take that back too. I do have my moments, however, where I do no think at all; where literally no thought processes are going through my head, or just a very few precious ones. I am a slight scatter brain at times and often do not use the brain God gave me. It's just a sad/humerous truth that I work on; really, I do.

Two facts about me, to start off this blog.
I am a phlegmatic melancholic.
My loyal, adorable, everyday school buddy happens to be my dog, Newton.

And a quote. "God is good. God and chocolate are better." (St Teresa of Avila)