7 Takes: Late to the Game

1.

Nancy Ward at JoyAlive.net is running part 1 of my reversion story today.  You of course have already read it, because you’re a NewEvangelizers.com junkie.

But what you don’t know is . . . Dorian Speed e-mailed me to tell me my author photo looks “classy”.  Heehee.  Every time I see it, it reminds me of Joe Wetterling.  Scroll down to the bottom of his column to see his profile pic. See the resemblance?

So I guess it is classy.  I’d be pretty happy if people accidentally confused me and Joe Mr. Wetterling.  He’s so top notch I can’t decide if he belongs in the “first name” group because he’s such a nice guy and I e-mailed him once, or last-name group, because, you know, he’s Mr. Wetterling.

2.

If you’ve written a good Catholic book, I’d like you to submit it for the Catholic Writers Guild’s Seal of Approval.  I am asking you to do this because I’m one of the SOA readers, and I like getting free books in the mail.

But you could also do it because Catholic bookstores use it as their signal that the book is genuinely Catholic, and that they shouldn’t be afraid to put it on their shelves.

[If your book has an imprimatur, you’re set.  But you can still give me a free copy, I don’t mind.]

FYI the standard for the SOA is just plain-old-Catholic, which I love.  You don’t have to be dripping with piety, or campaigning for a return of the Three Hour Fast, or anything uber-Catholic (though you can be — any legitimate Catholic opinion is fair game).  I’m pretty sure that Not Specifically Catholic books are acceptable as well, but e-mail the committee person at soa[at] catholicwritersguild.com to double-check on the criteria.  I’m not the Queen of the SOA, I just read my pile and fill out my little survey.

3.

My refrigerator is 70% less disgusting than it was just this morning.  I do not say it is clean.  But less scary.  Yes.  70% less.

4.

You are wondering right now, “How can she clean her refrigerator and homeschool at the same time?”  Well I can’t.  The big kids did their course plans (so they tell me), but the littles had Home Ec today.  And while I know that Finding Out That Refrigerators Need To Be Cleaned is not on any state-mandated curricula, 99.5% of college and workplace janitorial staff surveyed agreed that it should be.

–> If one day you live or work with my offspring, and the refrigerator is 70% less disgusting than the average shared appliance, you can thank me.  If it’s not, put them in time-out.

5.

My 3rd-grader who has special handwriting-needs likes the LetterSchool app. She also likes it when I make her pink stuffed bunny do a little dance, or when I give household items nicknames — “cute” is her genre.  [Yes, the app is for much younger children.  But she likes it.  Which means I like it.]  For remedial handwriting I like the BFHandwriting products — their handwriting app is a little slow-going for an older kid, but it’s good, I just wish they made an iPod version.

6.

Pinatas are expensive.  Tinkerbell Birthday Parties in general are expensive, but pinatas? Sheesh.

But as my six-year-old observed in the car yesterday, “I don’t want one of those homemade pinatas, because you think you’re making a pinata, but it just turns out looking like a pile of paper.”

After pricing the store-bought version, and determining that today was not my day to suddenly grow a new craft skill, I stalled. Then I negotiated a compromise. Our Tinker sifted through her vast collection of previously-colored, large-format Tinkerbell coloring sheets, and picked two that were less-than-perfect.

We taped one poster to each side of a paper bag, and filled it with candy.  I have a feeling once all the Halloween candy drops on the ground, no one will really mind the minor imperfections in the artwork.

7.

Yes, her birthday was in July.

 

 

Thanks to our hostess, the very real Jen Fulwiler.  Pray for Allie Hathaway, then visit Jen’s site, Scorpions Are Us ConversionDiary.com Camp Patton to see more quick takes.