1.
An internet friend pointed me to Ova Ova, a fertility awareness site.
It’s sleek, modern, and explains the basics of NFP. In addition to the usual caution that FAM is secular-feminist amoral NFP with all the completely different set of issues that surround that world (and much that is good and true as well), let me also say quite vigorously . . .
2.
Please do not use condoms during your fertile time.
3.
Unless you’re trying to conceive, that is. Recall that 100% of condom failures occur during that one week of your cycle when you are actually fertile. Which means the condom effectiveness rates are massively overstated — 75% of the time, the condom isn’t doing anything at all, it’s just a decoration.
I completely understand that couples who don’t have moral objections to NFP might be tempted to use a condom during the non-fertile time of FAM, as “back-up”. Sure, whatever, this is not the place to lay into someone who’s willing to try NFP, or something like it, but is not 100% on board.
But listen: When you know you’re fertile, if you have a serious reason to avoid? Avoid. Maybe you could watch cable or something. Not that channel. A different one. Or how about hard physical labor? And separate bedrooms states. That works great.
4.
Okay, backing up a decade or three and completely changing topic, my daughter loves PrincessHairstyles.com. The YouTube channel is hair4myprincess. Given too much time on the internet, very little competition for the hall bathroom, and two younger sisters as willing victims, a girl can get pretty good at this stuff.
Weirdly, although this is the same child who is also the junior photographer, I can find no pictures of her handiwork on the PC. Sorry.
5.
I’ve got a couple of trips planned this summer, including the Catholic Writer’s Guild conference, where of course I’ll want to take lots of photos.
Small hitch: I own no camera.
Solution: I’m renting the 10 y.o.’s camera – 25 cents a day. It’s a good deal all around. I need a few lessons in how to use it first.
6.
Don’t forget to pray for Allie Hathaway. Thanks!
7.1
I am so tempted to just leave the review for le Papillon here from last week. It doesn’t seem to be generating sufficient enthusiasm, so I persist in my mission. Here’s the picture to remind you that you should watch this film next time you get the chance:
7.2
Back on Tuesday (aka: Man Day), I posted part two of my Teen Boys and Chastity Bleg. If you are visiting here from Conversion Diary, might I ask you to take a look? You might know a gentleman who has a few ideas to add.
7.3
The difference between Catholic blogs and Evangelical blogs is not the statues or the rosaries. It’s the liquor*. If you didn’t see it already, visit Darwin’s Give That Woman a Drink. You can count on the Darwins for good Catholic drinking posts. My grandmother always had an old fashioned at the family get-togethers. Now I know what’s in them.
*Kids: Drunkeness is a sin. So is disobeying legitimate civil authorities.
Hi Jen. 🙂 Love your post! I will try to remember to check out that movie, especially if it’s available on Netflix.
Hey Lindsey! It’s really a lovely movie. Beautiful and sweet, but not saccharine. French cinema at it’s best.
I love the disclaimer. Not sure my kid’s going to get that message; at under two years old, he’s already steals everyone’s beer bottles when they aren’t looking. Because beer is so good!
I just can’t shake my inner-evangelical . . . but presumably your boy is being moderate, right? So, um, he’s good, on the European plan. Or something.
#3 reminds me of that awful “98% of Catholic women use contraception” line. The part I hated most was that it completely ignored single, abstinent women like me who are neither trying to get pregnant nor trying not to get pregnant. Le sigh.
Lindsay, that’s a great point. I tend to think, “Of course a study on contraception would only include married women of childbearing age,” but obviously that’s not at all the case. Women of reproductive age staying chaste outside of marriage definitely belong in the study!
The other thing that drives me nuts about those studies is that the criteria is “Ever have used.” There’s a long list of things I’ve done in the past that I don’t do now, and an even longer list of things I know are wrong, try not to do, but sometimes do anyway. That doesn’t mean I think those things are right. It just means I’m human.
The last thing I need is public policy geared towards making it easier for me to do the things I’m trying to avoid. Imagine giant billboard campaigns encouraging people to give into their road rage, on account of how 98% of drivers have at some time cursed out another person on the road.
I’ve never thought about the “ever used” aspect—another good point!
It’s the only way they’d get 98%.
Although, bloating the figure by counting anyone who identifies with Catholic, regardless of whether they, say, actually attend Mass regularly, that helps push up the number too. So what the study really shows is that more than 98% of Catholic women who don’t practice their faith? They don’t practice their faith.
I’m afraid that just doesn’t make me gasp, ya know?