A PRAYER OF ADORATION

From the depth of my nothingness, I prostrate myself before You, O Most Sacred, Divine and Adorable Heart of Jesus, to pay to You all the homage of love, praise, and adoration in my power. Amen.
~St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

TO BE UNITED WITH THE HEART OF JESUS

O Heart all lovable and all loving of my Savior, be the Heart of my heart, the soul of my soul, the spirit of my spirit, the life of my life and the sole principle of all my thoughts, words and actions, of all the faculties of my soul, and of all my senses, both interior and exterior. Amen.
~St. John Eudes

TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and Queen of the World, rule over us, together with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, Our King. Save us from the spreading flood of modern paganism; kindle in our hearts and homes the love of purity, the practice of a virtuous life, an ardent zeal for souls, and a desire to pray the Rosary more faithfully. Amen.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!!!

Look who's three years old today!!! Thank you God for our sweet blessings!!!

SCHOOL DAYS HAVE BEGUN

It was a rough morning for us last Thursday. Eric missed his bus (different stop spot), so Daniel didn't get all his much needed sleep in. We took big Bubba to his school then went home to wait an hour before taking Daniel to his school. Michael was fairly ok without his bubbas since he had Mom's full attention. All crafts will now be coming to a slow crawl for a while. I did finish a couple of hats for the Hawkeye donation for The Preemie Project, and I got a full term pumpkin set done to start on the Preemie Pumpkin Push. The holidays will be with us before we know it!

THE NICE MATTERS AWARD

Esther was kind enough to list me in her seven of Nice Bloggers.
"This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you've been awarded please pass on to seven others whom you feel are deserving of this award".
It IS so hard to choose just seven, but here are my picks for this nice award:
1. Esther
2. Sue
3. Micki

4. Mary G.

5 Barbara
6. Tracy
7. Seminarian Matthew

MORNING OFFERING

In 1844, Jesuit Father Francois Xavier Gaulrelet penned a prayer that is still used to this day. The prayer is the Morning Offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all our associates, and in particular for the intentions of our Holy Father this month.

CRYING TO THE LORD

"Crying to the Lord is not done with the physical voice, but with the heart. Many whose lips are silent cry out with the heart; many are noisy with their mouths but with their hearts averted are able to obtain nothing. If, then, you cry out to God, cry out inwardly where He hears you."
~ St. Augustine

A PRAYER AFTER PERSONAL MEDITATION

"Take, O Lord, into Your hands my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my will. All that I am and have, You have given me, and I surrender them to You, to be so disposed in accordance with Your holy will. Give me Your love and Your grace; with these I am rich enough and desire nothing more."
~St. Ignatius of Loyola

PREEMIE PATTERN LINKS

I find much of my knitting patterns for preemies on different sites. There are seven places that have very cute patterns. You may have seen them before or not. This post is a nice reference for the top seven places I get my patterns from. In no particular order:
Bevs country cottage
Carewear
Knitting Pattern Central
Preemies UK
The Preemie Project
Touching Little Lives
Vicki Howell
Also found this site recently
PS: Also found this site Angels4Preemies

MY FEELINGS EXACTLY!

Thanks to Esther for posting about this. It's sad but I feel the same way!

TWO MORE HAT/BOOTIE SETS

Added these two full term sized hat/booties sets to the next box going to The Preemie Project. The pink is the Feather & Fan Baby Cap pattern and as usual paired with Michelle's booties pattern. The one on the bottom is the regular pattern I use with small brightly colored buttons sewn on.
I started on Daniel's sweater (the pattern from Winter 2006/07 Knit Simple I've used before for Dulaan knitting) using Bernat Camouflage (100% acrylic, but sooo soft) and on a new blanket using this pattern and Caron Simply Soft in Orchid. Also got the cotton yarn and the pastel and brights sorted. Not doing too badly with trimming the stash down. Still a long way to go, but I reserved the right to buy any yarn to finish a specific project. I did use restraint as Daniel and I went to Simply Fibers today and I got the Fall 2007 Interweave Knits. Eric said he would like the Cobblestone Pullover. I'll wait til I get Daniel's sweater done before having Eric pick out his yarn. I also purchased "The little Sublime hand knit book". So many cute patterns! Also "Knit One, Kill Two" by Maggie Sefton. A quick knitting mystery book to end the summer as I take a breather from too much knitting. We had scattered rain today and really felt the humidity even though the temps didn't get as high.
Hope everyone is keeping cool and busy!
I'd like to close with a few words about the Hail Mary. God Bless!!!
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"By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the 'Mother of Mercy,' the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender 'the hour of our death' wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son's death on the cross. May she welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise."
~CCC, no. 2677
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"By each Hail Mary we give our Lady the same honor that God gave her when He sent the angel Gabriel to greet her for Him."
~from "The Secret of the Rosary", St. Louis de Montfort

SAY YOUR PRAYERS

"Mental prayer is nothing but a friendly conversation in which the soul speaks, heart to heart, with the One Who we know loves us."
~St. Theresa of Avila
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"[Prayer] is commonly held to be a conversation. In a conversation there are always an 'I' and a 'thou' or 'you.' In this case the 'Thou' is with a capital 'T.' If at the first the 'I' seems to be the most important element in prayer, prayer teaches that the situation is different. The 'Thou' is more important, because our prayer begins with God."
~Pope John Paul II
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"In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father Who is good beyond measure, with His Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit."
~Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), no. 2565

A FUN CONTEST...

Is over here. Be sure to let them know I sent you:~D

FO AT LAST!!!

I've been working on this white/blue blanket for some time now. I was going to make it a large, all white and weave some blue ribbon through the eyelets. Well, Caron Simply Soft decided to change their pretty white into their "NEW" white which is a terrible dingy grayish color that I won't touch. So, since I wouldn't have enough white white yarn I decided to make the other half blue. I used US size 8 needles and worked up to 240 stitches which made the measurements I got at 40"x46". It's extra-large and will be a nice gift for someone to wrap their precious child in.
I also finished a Micro Burial Bunting with a ruffled bonnet (pattern from Linda Aker- The Preemie Project Yahoo group's list grandma). This is for a baby less than one pound.

RECYCLING INSPIRATIONS

I've been surfing the web and have seen some really wonderful recycling sites that I wanted to share with everyone. There's a lot of good info out there and some great inspiration to get those creative juices flowing.
Recycling sweaters and scarves can garner some one of a kind bags, pillows, and pin cushions. I like the thought of recycling denim, it's everywhere and such a fashionable and sturdy fabric. There are those who are selling their reconstructed wares on etsy. Danny Seo has some cool ideas on being green and creative. You don't have to like everything out there, but it's so nice to see what others can come up with to be better stewards of what God has so richly blessed us with:~D

CROCK POT FESTIVAL

Check out the crock pot festival and gather some wonderful recipe ideas for your family. Thanks Barbara!! I look forward to many more:~D

A TUTORIAL ABOUT INDULGENCES

Esther had a post in May about indulgences, and I thought I would post it since it was so good. However, I wanted to add some links to some of the terms in case anyone wasn't familiar with them. Some of the links have A LOT of information, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I hope it inspires everyone to greater holiness! God Bless!!!
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"An indulgence is the remission of God of a temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven. The faithful... can acquire this remission through the Church..."
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Partial indulgences free one from part of the temporal punishment due to sin.
Plenary indulgences free one from the whole of the temporal punishment due to sin.
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"In order to gain a plenary indulgence, one must perform the prescribed work and also fulfill three conditions: sacramental Confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the intention of the Supreme Pontiff."
Also, all attachment to sin, even venial sin, must be absent. If any of these prescribed conditions have not been met, then the individual will gain a partial indulgence.
The following are the most common ways of earning a partial indulgence.
1. Acts of faith, hope, charity, and contrition, according to any good formula.
2. A Visit of adoration to the Blessed Sacrament.
3. "We give Thee thanks, Almighty God, for all Thy benefits, Who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen."
4. Reciting the Prayer to Our Guardian Angel.
5. Recitation of the Angelus or (the Regina Coeli during Easter Time).
6. Recitation of the Anima Christi.
7. For visiting a cemetery and praying for the departed. This is applicable only to the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
8. Spiritual Communion, according to any devout formula.
9. Devout recitation of the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed.
10. For teaching or studying Christian Doctrine.
11. For reciting the Prayer before a Crucifix.
12. Pious recitation of the Act of Reparation.
13. Pious recitation of the Act of Dedication of the Human Race to Christ the King. A Plenary indulgence is gained if recited publicly on the Feast of Christ the King.
14. For each of the following litanies: The Most Holy Name of Jesus, The Sacred Heart of Jesus, The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and the Litany of the Saints.
15. Recitation of the Magnificat.
16. Recitation of the Memorare.
17. For devoutly making use of an object of piety (sacramentals) properly blessed by any priest.
18. For spending some time in devout mental prayer.
19. "V: Let us pray for our Sovereign Pontiff.N
R: The Lord preserve him and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies."
20. For devoutly and attentively being present at a sermon.
21. "Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let your perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace." This is applicable to the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
22. Recitation of the Holy Rosary privately, outside of a Church or public oratory.
23. For reading Sacred Scripture as spiritual reading, with the veneration and devotion due to the word of God.
24. Recitation of the Salve Regina.
25. For devoutly making the Sign of the Cross, saying the words, "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."(Amen.)
26. Devout recitation of Tantum Ergo.
27. "Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love."
28. For renewing one's baptismal vows, using any customary formula. A Plenary indulgence is granted if done during the Paschal vigil or on the anniversary of one's baptism.
***
From Purgatory by Fr. F. X. Schouppe, and published by Tan Books.
Thank you Esther for being such a great source of inspiration!!!

THE BOYS ARE HAVING FUN!

Norm and the big boys have been having a great time out at the mini-golf. They went three times last week and at one of those times Daniel got a hole-in-one!! Go Daniel!!
Middle son was also watching me finish the burial outfit and asked when I was going to knit something for HIM. So today...in the heat...we went to Michael's and he chose some yarn (he's holding in the pic) I have a few things I'd like to finish, but I believe I'll have to work his sweater project in somewhere and some things just won't get done in time. That's how it is. I know I won't be knitting anything this year for the Red Scarf Project. I also know that I will HAVE TO get started on the embroidered tablecloth. I won't be making as many hat/bootie sets as last year, but I like to be a bit flexible with the projects.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful day and keeping cool and busy!

JUST BEE-CAUSE

Laura, the founder of The Preemie Project called on us to make some Hawkeye hat/bootie sets, so I did; ignoring the programmed knitting. I also finished a burial sleeper sack, bonnet and booties. I used the pattern modified by Natasha B. from the Yahoo group, the bonnet modified by another member Tracy B. and the small size of the regular booties pattern I use.

34,000 IS NOTHING TO SNEEZE AT

34,000! OK. 33,978 to be exact! In three years time that's the number of items sent in by generous knitters and crocheters for the Dulaan Project. The call was answered and the need met! Thanks to Norma I learned that the Dulaan Project will not go on. So my wool will find it's way to Warm Woolies. The next couple of months I'll be working at getting the five blankets done along with getting the embroidered table cloth started. It's been a wonderful experience working on the Dulaan Project and learning more about Mongolia. It's inspiring to see what good can be done when many people put their minds to it:~D