{PFHR}

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{pretty}

You probably think I'm crazy, but pretty this week is the ginormous wasps' nest that my neighbor cut off his tree.   It was hanging right over the path to our back yard, and he finally cut it down now that the wasps are gone.  Where do they go?  South for the winter?

Anyway, he was going to throw it in the woods, but I thinks it's simply stunning and I asked if we could have it.  It's got to be 18" from top to bottom---slightly less now that we've crushed the bottom by setting it on the ground.

Honestly, isn't that one of the most stunning things you've ever seen?  It's a gorgeous work of one of God's amazing creatures.
{happy}

I found a nice, sturdy caddy at Goodwill for our Advent books.  Or whatever books.  Right now, it's holding all of our Advent and Christmas books, but we can always use something to hold books in this house!  It perches upon the stone hearth now that it has received a couple of coats of Annie Sloan Chalk paint in Versailles (same green as the island in the background).
{funny}

Cousins who are close enough to get close to each other.   I love these boys!
{real}

Picture credit

That about sums up how I've been feeling lately.  Holiday stress, humiliations, hurts, and hormones all combined to make me feel like that ^ , and to want nothing more than to curl up in a ball in my room and avoid the world----my family, my friends, my blog, my responsibilities.  Everything.  Thankfully, God is always calling us to Him, and I know that what I really feel like doing isn't an acceptable option.  I have to keep trying to overcome my feelings to do His will, which is good, because it actually helps those feelings go away sooner.  The flip side of that is that You Know Who capitalizes on that self-pity and tries to draw you down into despair.
One thing that helps is trying not to think of Self.  This prayer kept coming to mind, and I think I'm being asked to pray it more often.   Pray it.  Period.  Because, quite honestly, it's one that I have actively avoided.  ;-)

Litany of Humility Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930), Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me. From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.From the desire of being loved... From the desire of being extolled ... From the desire of being honored ... From the desire of being praised ... From the desire of being preferred to others... From the desire of being consulted ... From the desire of being approved ... From the fear of being humiliated ... From the fear of being despised... From the fear of suffering rebukes ... From the fear of being calumniated ... From the fear of being forgotten ... From the fear of being ridiculed ... From the fear of being wronged ... From the fear of being suspected ... That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be esteemed more than I ... That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease ... That others may be chosen and I set aside ... That others may be praised and I unnoticed ... That others may be preferred to me in everything... That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should… (from EWTN.com)