Surprise and Decorating

Just wanted to pop in here and say that today my family is decorating for Christmas.  Which is kinda cool except, currently, there is a saw (yes, an actual saw) in my house as we are trying to set up our Christmas tree...fun times.  And I still need to finish Christmas shopping.

In other news, I've officially selected my College for fall 2012.

*Drum Roll*

Belmont Abbey!!!

:D

I'm so excited about this guys! I got into soccer there and I'm pretty psyched.  It's a division 2 Catholic School.

Thanks to all who have been so supportive of me following this dream, especially my parents.  My coaches for travel were also extremely supportive! I couldn't have done this without them.   As soon as I texted one, they started calling me, congratulating me, telling me "I told you," and than sending out an embarrassing email to my whole team.   Today at practice, they made this big announcement.  It was embarrassing to say the least, but I still love them to death and they love "the Hammer".  At before mentioned practice, my coach comes up to me and says, "Give me some," I'm like, "What?" and he's like "Don't you know what that means?" Than he opens his arms and I'm like, "Oh you wanna hug"...haha.  Like I said, they are totally supportive.

So I'm feeling very very happy and totally at peace with this choice.

Merry Christmas!

Robyn

Feel that?

If there is one thing I've learned in my short life it's this: Time is very very precious.  It's not something to be taken for granted.  The relationships you build and the lives you impact with your time portray your character more than words ever can.

"Time is so old and love so brief / Love is pure gold and time a thief" Speak Low ~  Norah Jones and Tony Bennet


Making the most of our time is a struggle each and every day.  It is a good and honorable struggle.  For me, time seems to drag along some days and now, especially during the Christmas season, it seems to fly by.  I just want to take this time to relish in the joy of the season and the fact that God has a plan for each and every one of us to use HIS time in HIS way.

It is a fact - God cares.  He is Love.


Here's to learning how to give our time to God. 


Feel that? It's called peace and it stems from God's Love.  

An Explanation

I don't think I've told ya'll why I like the picture in the header of my blog so much.  I've already said that I am an amateur photographer and this is one of my pictures.  But there is a more specific reason why I chose it for my blog.

First of all, I think it's different.  You see a unique view of the flower that is normally not shown.  In my opinion, the back of the flower is the least attractive part of it. So why did I choose that to be the header, the focus, of my blog? Am I nuts? Why didn't I pick something like these?

Well, The reason why I picked this specific picture is because, in this adventure called life, I feel like sometimes (a lot of times) we are missing the focal point of the bigger picture.   We are forgetting to lift our eyes up to the Lord like the flowers.  We forget to see Him in all the beauty that surrounds us.

In other words, I just think my picture is purty.

Anyway, that's the story behind the picture!
Have a Blessed Advent Season everybody!

XOXO, Robyn

Such a good read!

http://www.elizabethfoss.com/reallearning/2011/06/gentleness-in-the-real-world-1.html

As I was exploring Elizabeth Foss' blog, I happened to read this article.  It is very touching so I just had to share the link with all my girls out there!

XOXO,
Robyn

Bring it on!

Post-Thanksgivng Feast numero uno.

Are you ready for this?
I don't know if you're going to be able to handle it.
It might be too much.

NOTE: If you do not have 3 hours at your leisure to spend in the kitchen I suggest not taking on this challenge.

So yesterday was my sisters birthday.  It was very sweet.  She had her 6 gal pals over and they munched, played, created, and enjoyed a lovely day.  There was home made mac 'n cheese, hot apple cider, cupcake wars, art, glitter, frosting, and lots and lots of giggling.

How does one prepare for such an extravaganza?
Nicole, the mature 9 year old that she was, did most of the planning.  She picked the crafts, made decorations (streamers made out of paper), made the menu and goodie bags.

She also happened to pick out her birthday cake for the evening celebration.  That one included just our immediate family and 1 guest.  Guess what Ms. Smarty Pants picked?  A 3 layer lemon cake, Paula Deen style.

You can get the actual recipe here.

At first I had no objections to the suggestion...who doesn't love cake?  Little did I know...

 It started out simple enough, just creaming some butter (actually lots of butter), sugar, vanilla, and eggs.

 Than, I got to add this special flour OoOo.

 And I had a little helper, who lasted for about 2 min.  But it was so cute because he pulled up his little red chair and wanted to watch me before he went to bed.  I baked from 9-12.

 This is what it looked like when I added the special flour and milk in "stages".

 Oooo la la! Things are finally coming together and getting interesting.  And yes, I did lick that bowl...

 Lemon glaze....I put in something like sugar, 8 egg yolks, butter and lemons!

 This is the meringue topping - SO GOOD!  2 Egg whites, cream of tartar, salt, vanilla, water, and sugar.  

 And this is what cooking in a double boiler looks like....

 Umm let's just say that when I tried to do the electric mixer with the lemon glaze it made a huge mess.  Like everywhere.  So I got to work out my biceps and triceps for this part.  Fun times.....not.

 Completed lemon glaze!

 The meringue tasted like marshmallow fluff....I could probs eat that stuff by itself any day any time.

This is what the 3 layers lemon cake looked like when I put it together! The birthday girl let me know she appreciated my present to her...trust me, this cake was DIVINE!

 Oh, and I also had the pleasure of making cupcakes from a box.  After the 3 layer cake, this one was easy peasy lemon squeezy.

So do you think you can take on my challenge? Do you have any horrific baking stories about things that went terribly wrong that you wanna tell me? Do you have a picture of a cake that beats mine? Baking Wars are so on!

Don't be hating on us!

Just 'cause we're Traditional.
Just 'cause we can go back to a better translation of latin liturgy that captures the essence of our mass more poetically.  That we have the history and stability to do so.
Just 'cause the entire country changed to the new translation of the liturgy at the same time, which means that we're united.  
Just 'cause the Church has the power to correct her congregation into using a more accurate version of what Christ intended the mass to replicate.

Because there is a point to making a change in the liturgy, which is to lead us closer to the truth, the way, and the life.

I believe times like these, when Catholics might be confused with the new translation, we should take the opportunity to be thankful.  It's pretty cool to me that the Catholic Church can change up our liturgy like this.  We are so rich! What a treasure! Not many religions have that kind of unity.  In fact, I can't think of one.  That we can dig deeper as a whole, as the body of Christ.  It keeps us on our toes; from getting lax with the same old same old.  Now that we have to pay attention to the words, maybe the meaning behind them will resonate more deeply.  Everyone can use a refresher in their faith - no matter which denomination or congregation.  So I'm making sure that I familiarize myself with the new translation.  It's not easy; it's not supposed to be easy.  And yet, already, I've been blown away.   Christ doesn't change.   This new translation doesn't change anything about the structure of the mass.  All it has done is just reemphasize the beauty of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

What are your thoughts on the New Translation of the Liturgy?

I'm excited about the traditional latin-ness of the New Translation.  Finally, those years of latin are paying off!

 

 

You Gotta Check Her Out

This is the blog of a dear friend of my family that you can check out here. She's posting her memoir on her blog and it is SUCH a treat!  She'll be posting a chapter every day.  You can start at the beginning if you click the link below her latest chapter.

I love you Mrs. Lenaburg! May God continue to bless your family and your work!

XOXO, Robyn

Update on life

These past few weeks have been crazy! Lots of fun and exciting things are happening at the my house that I'm not at liberty to disclose of as of yet oOoO :D

OK I'll tell you what some of those very exciting things are:
I got accepted into 2 colleges: Mary Baldwin and Belmont Abbey.
*Cheers*
*Applause*
*Bows*
Thank you, thank you very much.  Now, 2 colleges is an OK number.  See, I applied to 8 (yes, I know, what was I thinking?) so I still have quite a bit of waiting to endure.  That's fine, I like to wait and think things through; consider my options.
Today my mom asked me what my top school was.  My answer was mom, I just woke up 5 min ago, I don't have an answer for you.  I'm pretty chill about this whole college decision thing as of now.  I know I would prefer small, catholic, close to home, division 2 soccer, but those things aren't set in stone.  I'm open to a larger university with a good Newman center and/or playing club soccer.    Notice how I didn't put my major in there...ya, that's one of those things that I'm still figuring out.  Some days I want to be an athletic trainer (Marymount, UD, Franciscan, JMU), another day it's sports management (Belmont Abbey), and another day a teacher (every school).  My major will most likely depend on what school I choose.  Honestly, I'm going to be happy with where ever it is I'm meant to go.  So why stress myself out with worrying?
Speaking of stress, did you know how damaging stress can be to your cells and over all health?  It messes with your hormones a lot.  And what triggers that stress isn't the situation that you are currently in, but the way your body reacts to that specific situation.  Sometimes stress seems like something we can't control, it's inevitable, it will always be there.  But! I have good good news.  We can't change what is happening all around us, but we can control our reactions.  We can take a few deep breaths, rationalize, realize we aren't helping ourselves out by hyperventilating, and go take a relaxing hour long bath or nap.  OK, we probably won't have time to go take a bath when we are studying for a midterm or whatever, but you get my point.  Besides, being optimistic in the face of adversity is never a bad thing!

TTFN
Ta Ta For Now I must go do my homework!

She receives the pass outside the eighteen yard line, turns, and takes a hesitant touch.  Glancing up, she sees that the defender's shape is poor.  The ball starts to go in front of her, but before it is out of reach she cuts it back by using the outside of her right foot.  The defender in front of her stumbles slightly, giving her just the right window of opportunity and amount of time to get her shot off.

*cue dramatic heartbeat music*

Head down, hips positioned, step taken, left toes aimed toward the goal, right cleat pointed down, she strikes.  The shot fires into the lower left corner.

*cue the crowd cheering*

GOALLL
GOALASO
GOALISIMO
GOal
goAL
GoaL
gOAl

We ended up winning.


Sorry for not posting recently,  I've been slightly sidetracked with this thing called life (school, family, friends, sports, work, college applications).
Yipee.

May I rant?
You sure you don't mind?

So for Health I am writing my research paper on why In Vitro Fertilization is bad.  I'm totally going to kill this paper because I'm having so much fun reading about it.  Learning about making babies is pretty awe-inspiring.  For those of you who aren't informed, In Vitro is when man's sperm fertilizes the woman's eggs in a petri dish.  In other words, fertilization occurs outside the womb.  As a Catholic, I believe that life begins at the moment of conception.  God infuses a soul to the human being at this exact moment.  Back to In Vitro, the embryos, babies, of the best quality are than transplanted back inside the woman's womb.  What happens to the other fertilized eggs (BABIES)? Oh no big deal, says science, they just get to freeze until we need them.  It sickens me, it really does.  So many precious lives never given the opportunity to live, treated like they are just another science experiment instead of unique individuals. Even once inside the woman's womb, the babies still aren't guaranteed life.  It is very common for a baby to be terminated if it is seen as weak.  Does anyone else not see the Communist mentality of "genetic manipulation, ends justifying the means, and biological evolution" (Government, 29) behind In Vitro?  See God designed reproduction the way He did for a reason.  With In Vitro, science plays God.
Not good.

End of rant.

Have a great day and thanks for listening to me!

Robyn

The dog

Have I?...
Did I?...
Should I?...

Mention the fact that my crazy family added a dog to the mixture.  Correction: we added a nutty puppy who loves to get into mischief more than all of my 6 brothers combined.

Hold up, did I just say 6 brothers? Yep, you got it straight.

Anyway, you might be wondering what the deal is with this puppy.  I told you, didn't I? She's crazy!
In the past week alone she has disturbed the neighborhood and gotten out our yard 3 times.  As in, we have a panic attack that she will be run over by a car and so everyone in the house rushes out to capture the dog.  She's mischievous and thinks it's all a game.
Great game, Bailes.
Oh, her name is Bailey Anne Christmas btw.
'Bailey' for George Bailey and Bailey's irish cream!  'Anne' because my mom's Confirmation Saint is St. Anne (you know you're Catholic when you name your dog after a Saint ha ha).  And finally, 'Christmas' because, surprise!, she showed up in our lives on Christmas morning.  As in, she was abandoned at our Church and we literally took her in *tear* out of the kindness of our hearts.  Our poor, helpless, innocent puppy who made us fall for her in .01 seconds.  She's mischievous alright! Little did we know the adventure that is Bailey we were embarking upon last Christmas!

It has taken 6-7 months to potty train her.
She's a mutt and probably has some interesting genes going on.
She gets into trouble approximately every second of every day.
I'm just kidding about that part.
She barks at inanimate objects.
I'm not kidding about that part.
She gets frustrated with squirrels and is unsocial around other dogs.
Get it? Unsocial homeschoolers = Unsocial dog. Ha. Ha. Ha.
She's lots of fun to go running with.
She's like Marley from "Marley and Me" when you try to take her on a walk.
And shh don't tell her I said this, but she's kinda cute.


You wanna see pictures?

This is how we were first introduced to Bailey on Christmas.  After Christmas morning mass we saw everyone huddled around this cardboard box and this is how she looked.  How could we not?

 Another funny story is that when we first got Bailey she was so little that we didn't know if she was going to make it.  We didn't know if she had problems and if that was why she was abandoned so we didn't want to touch her too much.  So that's kinda an excuse, but because we didn't really look we just assumed that she was a he.  We first named "him" dasher....Than our neighbors came over, had no fear of holding the 6 week old puppy, and promptly told us that he was a she.  And she's been Bailey ever since then.  This is her having her first meal of puppy chow that we got at CVS - the only pet store open on Christmas!

Bailey now with mud on her face and paws:

Do you see what we got ourselves into?

How's it going?

Today was a good day.
You know why?
I started it off by going to mass.

AND I got to celebrate my baby brother's b'day (who is adorable)!

Another cool thing that I got to do today was go on a field trip - homeschooler style.  My family and I went to the Mt. Vernon Gristmill and Distillery.  The distillery is George Washington's "liquid gold" aka whiskey producer.  Now I know how to make rye whiskey!  First, you take some rye, barley, boiling water, and something else.  Second, you mix your ingredients, add yeast to the top, let it ferment, and than you put in through this cool process of turning liquid to gas to distilled liquid.  That process is done by heating the liquid and turning it into gas that goes through a copper tube.  This tube gets cooled by running cold water, which turns the gas back into a liquid.  In order to make the best whiskey, this distilling process gets repeated multiple times.  Pretty nifty stuff.  The Gristmill is used for grinding corn, wheat, and tobacco.  It was cool to see in action - man, the engineering behind all those levers and pulleys makes my head spin.  That picture of corn is how it looks right before it's about to get smashed by the rock below it.  My mom even bought some fresh cornmeal for dinner tomorrow night...

Thanks for reading, now it is time for me to go to bed!

May we never forget...

September 11, 2001.

I remember we were playing outside, taking a break from schooling.  My older brother told us something bad had happened.  My mom had gotten a phone call from a relative asking if my dad was OK.  After watching the TV, I remember my heart was breaking.  My dad finally called us and I remember breathing a sigh of relief.  I was 7 and I didn't understand what was going on.
I still don't get it.
Now ten years later, I just recently asked my dad if September held any significance for terrorists.  He replied that one of the similarities he found with the date is that 9-1-1 = emergency.

I recommend watching United 93 - very poignant. Trust me, I was crying throughout it.  It's about the aircraft that was aimed for the Capitol, but the passengers fought the terrorists for control over the plane.  They saved lives by losing their own.  That's what Christ taught us, that true love means sacrificing oneself. Here is a trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOzXECzchTk

God always brings good from bad.  Look at all the heroic actions from just one day. All the sacrifices made, lives lost.

May we never forget...

xoxo,
me

Yumminess

So I’ll tell you about a recent hobby of mine: Homemade Ice Cream

See I got a 2 qt Cuisinart ice cream maker for my b’day.  It is so beautiful! The best part about it is that you don't need rock salt to make the ice cream.  There is this tub that has ice on the inside so that after freezing it for 8 hrs all you have to do is add the ice cream mixture, press on, and presto! In 25 minutes you have ice cream/sorbet/frozen yogurt.  So far I’ve made lemon/lime sorbet, frozen vanilla yogurt (we get our yogurt plain from a farm so I had to add lotsss of honey and sugar to it, but for frozen yogurt it tasted pretty good), strawberry ice cream, raspberry ice cream, peanut butter ice cream (YUM), coffee ice cream, cookies 'n cream, vanilla bean ice cream, and strawberry sorbet.

OK, I sorta made the strawberry sorbet 3 times.  But it is so good! I’m addicted :D.

One of the blessings of being in a big family is you can never have too much ice cream...

Alrighty Than...

Pretty much sums up how I feel about my most recent pre-season tournament.
You know, the one I was bouncing off the walls for...
*dramatic sigh*
Yep.

See it wasn't all that awful, but it was.  Sorta.
Gosh, that's a horrible way to approach this.
Let's just say that I don't feel like talking about it....

Wait.
Did you just say you wanna know what happened?

OK. Fine.
Alrighty than.

See the first game I played fine, the second I was horrible, and the third I wasn't so hot.

There, satisfied?
You want more? Seriously?

My team lost (to the #4 team in NC), lost even more badly (to the #4 ranked team in the NATION), and lost again (to a team that we killed last week :/ ).
So I just keep telling myself that whatever happens from this I cannot control.  I just have to trust that if it's not the result that I want, it was meant to be.  I played my heart out and my best is all I can give.

I don't even know if the Belmont Abbey assistant coach came to my game (I'm guessing that I'll get an email from him).  But, I do know that VT and JMU coaches were watching my games.  They weren't there for me though.  Nope, the girls on the other team who scored the upper 90 goals from outside the 18 yard line were the ones they were watching....

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Sincerely,
disappointed me

Something vedy vedy exciting just happened in my life.

I recieved an email.

…

Doesn’t that just make you wanna get up and scream?

It was an important email you see and it was only one sentence long.

The important part about it was that the assistant coach from one of my favorite colleges sent it.  Belmont Abbey.

It says that he will come see me play this weekend.

*Runs around the room with my arms up, screaming like a little girl, shouting to the world that a college coach is going to see me play and that I am finally getting to follow my life long dreams*

OK I’m done now.

Oh wait.  This doesn’t mean that I’m going to get on his team or that I will go to that school.  It is just an opportunity that I hope to make the most of. 

OK now I’m done.

First Post Booyah!

Greetings,

So I'm kinda excited to be entering into this fascinating realm of blogging!
And you know what's cool? I get to share my life story with you.
Why?
Because there is no one on the planet earth who is like (wait for it) ME!
I know, cheesy right?

First things first
~I'm a girl (as in a girly girl with the bows, frills, sparkles, dresses, jewelry, make up - ya, I think you get the picture)
~I'm a senior
~I'm a soccer addict (which is why I'm such a girly girl off the field because soccer is the complete opposite - physical, demanding, and NOT a sissy sport)  
~I'm 1 of 9 (which can get kinda crazy....)
~I'm Homeschooled (but get this, some people say that I'm *gasp* normal!)
~AND most importantly, I love my faith

So stick around!
XOXO,
me

P.S. Did I mention that I love pictures and that the flower header above is some of my photography?