Not Alone Series: Looking Ahead to 2015

How are we going to make 2015 different than last year? What goals are you planning/making to be more YOU this year? These can be goals can be personal growth, spiritual life, physical/health, or even your love life! Maybe you don't have concrete ones yet, but it helps to talk them out and get motivated!

My plan this year was to wait on the resolutions, let the high of the holiday season and starting a new year wear off before I fully commit to something that I would have a hard time sticking to.

My main thing is that I want to continue to grow in my Faith. To grow closer to God. To learn to trust Him more. Especially learning to trust Him more. I know this is a struggle for me and I want to continue working on that.

Make my bible my constant companion. I read my bible regularly but when life get busy it can sometimes be the first thing to get put aside. I don't just want to read it either I want to really get into what is there for me to learn, to take away and apply to my life.

More spiritual reading. I started weekly Adoration last year and I want to continue it this year. Remember to seek the intercession of my saint everyday, St Joachim pray for me.

What are your plans to be more you this year? Visit Morgan for the link up and Jen to see what everyone else is planning.

Not Alone Series: A Day In The Life

Let's get back in the swing by sharing what our typical day is like! Tell us however you like, minute by minute or a blurb about your day! Be sure to answer these questions: 

- What is your favourite part of your day?

- What is your least favourite part of your day?

- Are you making any changes to your daily routine now that the new year has begun?

Happy New Year to all!!!!! We are back Jen and Morgan are starting off with a nice fun topic, a day in our life. My days are like snowflakes no two alike so I documented one day, yesterday, with some side commentary.

4:08 I wake up 2 minutes before my alarm, it's cold and I still feel tired so I tell myself I have plenty of time so I just roll over. I am a morning person generally and would happily bound out of bed at that early hour except in the winter months. I live in the Caribbean people there are no winter months but the mornings here I so cold now I feel like I am in the frozen tundra and would prefer to stay in bed until the sun comes up.

4:10 My alarm goes off. I don't hear it.

4:40 I hear an annoying buzzing (my alarm automatically goes to snooze unless I turn it off) and open an eye to check the time. Crap. I actually think about if I really want to get out of bed for just a millisecond before I actually fly out of bed to start making my lunch. I say a morning prayer, "Now I wake and see the light...." It's my in a pinch, off the top of my head prayer, I've said it with enough kids that I'll never forget it. The pray with my saint for 2015 stuck to my door reminds me to ask St Joachim to pray for me today.

5:15 My sister gets up. I'm putting away last night's dishes and finishing up this morning's. I am super anal precise about leaving my kitchen clean, tidy and organised. I will leave laundry (clean) on the couch for a week (or more) but I like my dishes clean and put away in a timely manner.

5:45 or thereabouts I finally get in the shower. I need to leave by 6:15 if I want to make it to the 6:30 Mass plus I have to drop my sister off first. Today of all days she needs a lift but at least it's on the way.

6:30 I make it to Mass, it's Fr C, it's going to be a long one.

7:15 In my car still parked at the church starting my Rosary so I pray as I drive to work. Mass went long. I usually work from 8 - 4 but if I get to work early I can leave early, I want to leave early today.

7:40 Get to work. Traffic was not horrible.

8:00 - 3:00 I'm getting to leave early, yay!!! Before I get there though I get to meet the new employee for our department. Rush a payment. Finish off my first cycle of month end reports. Try to explain the rational of the codings that we use to the new employee, lose her part of the way so I start again. Read emails, answer a few, print a few to deal with later in the week. Complain to I.T that one of my programs is not working. I work in the accounts department where we are always on a deadline for something. Monthly reports, quarterly reports, reports with deadlines in the middle of the month, the beginning of the month and the ending of the month. Reports that you have nothing to do with but if someone doesn't do it on time it throws of your report because info is missing. I actually like the chaos most of the time

3:05 I have been leaving work for the last 5 minutes but got pulled into a conversation.

3:12 Finally driving away. Headed to Adoration. I started going once a week last year and I want to continue this year.

3:40 Get to the Adoration Chapel, there a lot of people here today and I actually get to be alone for a while. I love alone time with Jesus. I always feel like I have to be super quiet and proper (not that I am improper when I am alone) when other people are are around.

5:05 Leave the Adoration chapel, remember that I have some clothes to drop off to be altered.

5: 40 Get home. Heat up some leftovers for dinner

7:00 Evening prayer. Once upon a time I faithfully prayed morning and evening prayer daily. I have kind of stuck with the evening though most nights I just pray the Magnificat.

9:00 I veg in front the T.V for a while but there is nothing on that I want to watch so I read until bedtime.




What is your favourite part of your day? Morning. I am a morning person (on mornings that I don't feel like I am getting hypothermia)  and my sister is not so I usually have mornings to myself. It's peaceful and quiet. I usually curl up on the couch with a book, my journal and my bible, a cup of tea or hot chocolate and I am in heaven


What is your least favourite part of your day? My commute to and from work, especially from. Traffic free it's about 30 minutes, it is rarely traffic free.


Are you making any changes to your daily routine now that the new year has begun? Down time before bedtime. Many evenings I have ministry meetings or projects so when I have free evenings I always feel like I have to play catch up so I am busy until I go to sleep that is so tiring. So an hour or even just half an hour before bed I need to just sitting, reading, anything but "getting things done".


What does a day in your life look like? Favourite or least favourite part of your day? Any change you would like to make to your daily routine? Visit Jen for the link-up and to see everyone else's day.

My Saint 2015

On the first day of the year, late into the afternoon I finally sat down to see which Saint wanted to pick me this year. I have been using Jennifer Fulwiler's Saint Generator for a few years now and I have not been very good with always keeping up with my saint or asking their intercession.

This I year I told myself it would be different. I am going to remember to celebrate his/her Feast Day (I did remember to do that last year) and I would ask their intercession in every circumstance.

I sat and I prayed as instructed before I pressed that little button. I do not remember the prayer exactly but I did ask for a Saint that would really help me to grow closer to God and would be very helpful to me in my life this year. I took a deep breathe and pressed the button.

He is also the patron of married couples, cabinet makers and linen traders

The saint who is the patron of married couples picked the girl who is single but would love to be married. I had a few minutes of hmmm.

St Joachim...... I have a deep love for his daughter and his Grandson. I pray a yearly novena to his wife but I don't think I ever really paid much attention to him.

Joachim in Hebrew means "God prepares" or "God will establish".
He is the husband of St Anne
The father of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The grandfather of Jesus Christ
He is the patron saint of fathers, grandfathers, grandparents, married couples, cabinet makers and linen traders.
He shares a Feast Day with his wife, July 26

I can speculate a lot about why this saint picked me and believe me I have, although I think it's safe to say I will not be going into the linen trade soon, he could have picked me for any reason. God could be using him to prepare me for anything and I want to be open to that.

St Joachim pray for me.

Prayer to Saint Joachim

O great and glorious Patriarch, Saint Joachim, what joy is mine when I consider that thou wast chosen among all God's holy ones to assist in the fulfilment of the mysteries of God, and to enrich our earth with the great Mother of God, Mary most holy!

By this singular privilege, thou hast become most powerful with both the Mother and her Son, so as to be able to obtain for us the graces that are needful to us; with great confidence I have recourse to thy mighty protection and I commend to thee all my needs and those of my family, both spiritual and temporal; and especially do I entrust to thy keeping the particular favour that I desire and look for from thy fatherly intercession.

And since thou wast a perfect pattern of the interior life, obtain for me the grace of interior recollection and a spirit of detachment from the transitory goods of this life, together with a lively and enduring love for Jesus and Mary. Obtain for me in like manner a sincere devotion and obedience to Holy Church and the sovereign pontiff who rules over her: to the end that I may live and die in faith and hope and perfect charity, ever invoking the holy names of Jesus and Mary, and may I thus be saved. Amen.