Walking on God's Path: Introduction

Please bear with me. Almost all of this is straight out of my head onto the computer screen. I made typos, some grammar makes no sense and sometimes whole bits don't make any sense. Eventually I will edit, but for now writing it is the biggest accomplishment.

An Introduction, Preface, or Whatever Else You Want to Call It.

Hello! My name is Katie. This is my attempt at a memoir. Over my few years on this earth, I have seen God working in my life in many ways, helping me grow in my love for Him, my faith, and my desire to be a part of His Church. This story is about that journey that He has lead and is still leading me down. This is God’s path and I am just walking down it, trusting in Him and trying, despite my human weakness, not to get lost: lost in my selfish desires, lost in this materialistic and secular world, lost by following prompts from the Devil that may sound good, but in the end are not. This is a manifesto of how much God loves each and every one of us, a manifesto of how He works in our lives, and the goodness and happiness that overflows from us if we just follow His will for us. Come with me on this journey. Some dates may only be approximate, the conversations are not exact quotes, but typical to what that person may have said, and names are changed, but it is truth. Stick with me; I am working from memory and journal entries here! Let us being walking on this path and see where the Lord takes us, and thanks for joining me!

            Recently I heard from a very good friend of mine that life is a roller coaster and we need the seatbelt of prayer in order to not fall off the roller coaster. So, on that note, I would like to begin this book with a prayer, that the words I am writing are the words God wishes me to speak.

Come Holy Spirit,

fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.

And You shall renew the face of the earth. 
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit,

did instruct the hearts of the faithful,

grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise

and ever enjoy His consolations,

Through Christ Our Lord,

Amen.

After a long time away...

Sorry I haven't updated all summer. I was working with Totus Tuus in the Diocese of Tulsa all summer and had very, very, very limited internet access. I just have to say...this summer was AMAZING! I grew so much in my prayer life and my relationship with God. This summer gave me a new outlook on my future and what I am planning to do with my life. I am wanting to write down my life, especially this what happened this summer. I want to compile my journal entries into a coherent memoir. I think I will do that in little installments on this blog, so if anyone is reading out there, you can stay tuned. :-)

My awesome team!

Netbook Case

My awesome brother is lending me his netbook for the summer so I don't have to carry around my heavy laptop when I am traveling and teaching. I got the idea to make my own cover for it from here

http://alsn.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/ten-cloth-quilted-laptop-case/

of course, I changed it where I didn't understand the instructions or didn't like what it was doing. Here is the finished project....pretty easy.

My cute little bag..

I made this bag. I got the idea from a site I found on stumble upon, but I basically ignored the tutorial it did it my own way. I put interfacing on one side of the outside fabric to stabilize it and I added a lining to it. I also sewed the ribbon to the front because I like it :-). It is  a really great bag that I will use for make-up, shampoo, or maybe cords on my summer job. Here are some pics, I hope you like it.

Journal Jar...

I got this idea from the lovely lady over at It's a Slow Learning Curve which can be found here
http://itsaslowlearningcurve.blogspot.com/2010/05/sewing-challenge.html
The tutorial I followed is here
http://itsaslowlearningcurve.blogspot.com/2010/05/sewing-challenge.html
I really like this idea. I love rereading old journals, but I am so bad at making a regular habit of it. So, I hope having some topics to journal about I can make it a good habit and record some excellent memories for myself. I also secretly hope that some day someone will come across my journals long after I'm gone, in some dusty old attic, and enjoy reading them and some relative will feel connected to me. Hmm....sounds like a movie. It's okay. I know that we all secretly wish our lives were a movie, or else we wouldn't watch so many of them.

Here are the pics. I think it turned out really cute! I cut out the top from a piece of scrapbooking paper, put the owl sticker on top, put sticker letters that says "journal jar", and mod podge-ed all of it down! I got prompts from all over the internet by typing "journal jar topics" into google. I wrote them on pink paper half because it gives it a festive look, half because I just moved home from college and have no idea where my white printer paper is. I hope you enjoy!

Hollowed out book...

I found this tutorial on stumbleupon

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2Pawuk/howto.rivers.pro/hollow-a-book/

It was pretty cool, so I decided to try it out. It was waaayyy harder than I thought it would be, so mine didn't turn out as nice as theirs was. Here is my hollowed out $2 book from Goodwill.

A Body Manifesto!

I have been thinking a lot about body image lately. It seems more and more the media is trying to tell us what beauty is, but it doesn't resemble what real women look like. I love Dove and their campaign for real beauty, and Creighton picking it up (and me being a model for them!) I also love songs like "More Beautiful You" by Johnny Diaz. These things are encouraging real women to love themselves for who they are. Even Glamour is getting on the bandwagon and starting to use models of all shapes and sizes in their pages. So, here it is, a list, no a Manifesto! of the things love about my body.


I love my hair! Everything to the color, to the way it looks, I have great hair.
I love my eye color. It is an amazing blue that is really, really blue. I get more compliments on my eyes than any  other part of my body.
I love the way my eye crinkle and get lines around them when I smile.
I love my claves. They are strong and muscular and look good in heels.
I love my butt, it may be small, but it is mighty!

There it is: the things I love about me. I think it is a good idea for every woman to make a list of what they love about themselves and look at it often. As Johnny Diaz said, There could never be a more beautiful you!