Category: vocation postcards

Busy not blogging. And blogging.

What I’ve been up to so far this Advent:

1. Acquired a cold just strong enough to plant me in front of the PC and get some writing done for a change.  I’d complain, except it’s really not that bad. For me.  My family wishes I’d start making dinner again.  I think.

2. Posted my book review of the Didache series of textbooks up at AmazingCatechists.com.  These are awesome books, and the new parish editions bring serious theology to high school and adult faith formation.  Long-needed.  Don’t cry to me you don’t have priests, but refuse to teach theology.  How exactly is a boy supposed to fall in love with a something he’s never met?

3. Guessed at my login information for the Happy Catholic Bookshelf enough times that I finally broke in.  And put up my review of Walking Dickens London. Verdict: I still don’t like Dickens all that much, but the guide book is awesome.  Of course I had to put a reference to Rerum Novarum in the review.  Only logical.

4. I cleaned out my inbox.  If I still owe you an e-mail about something, you’d better tell me.  Because I’m under the mistaken impression I’m all caught up.

5. Planted the potatoes that were sprouting in the cardboard box in the living room.  Ditto for some garlic in the bottom of the fridge.

6.  I’ve written about 5,000 words on the homeschooling manuscript. Also pre-wrote my January CatholicMom.com homeschooling column, because once you get school on the brain, and a cup of coffee, these things just pop out.

7.  I got all vice-presidential over at the Catholic Writers Guild.  Being VP is almost exactly like being the blog manager, except that instead of plaguing the officers all month long with bad ideas and unhelpful suggestions, you also get to do it during the monthly officer’s conference call.  I think someone nominated me because the existing officers were already practiced at telling me, “No!  Quiet! Sit!  No Biscuit!” so it makes their job easier.  So mostly as VP I amuse people with my ridiculous ideas, and about 1 time in 10, I think one up that someone makes me go do.  And then I regret it, and don’t think up any more ideas for at least 10 minutes.

Also, I goofed off on the internet more than I had planned.   It happens.  I was sick.

3.5 Time Outs: Tigering

Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who is himself Mr. Thankful today, good guy that he is.

Click and be amazed.

1.

Yesterday the kids and I turned out at the parish gym to help get the St. Vincent de Paul boxes of Thanksgiving food put together.  It was our first time.  It’s a two-step operation, well-run, which is what happens when you have a ministry put into the hands of a large group of retired professionals.  We arrived during opening prayers; long tables were already set up with different food-category stations on each table, clearly labeled.  Green beans, corn, other vegetables, canned fruit, snacks, pasta, breakfast, cranberry sauce . . . etc.

In one corner was the haul of imperishables donated by the parish the previous day. Our first job was to grab bags of unsorted food and walk the tables, getting all our food to the proper piles.  Three big kids worked independently, with the occasional, “Mom, what is this?” question about mysterious food items.  My only rule was Please Do Not Pick a Bag With Glass Jars In It.

6-year-old and I worked as a team.  She was quite insistent about putting all the food from her bag up on the tables herself.  If I impulsively reached in to help her quickly get all her creamed soup cans shelved, she’d complain, and I’d have to let her put up one of my food items as compensation for her missed opportunity.

The second job was to get the freshly-organized foods into the baskets.  Our leader walked the aisles and estimated how many of each item we had, and thus how many could be put into each box.  Then each person or team was given a food product to distribute.  We were the Stuffing People.  Two boxes of stuffing in each of the hundred boxes.   Half-dozen Hispanic families had their boxes pulled aside, and our venerable Spanish Lady (a real live 80-something lady originally from Spain, with a brilliantly German last name) saw that all the salsa and tortillas went into those boxes.  Hint: If you are more of a salsa person than a weird-packets-of-instant-gravy person, if you ever need food relief, give the SVDP ladies a Spanish-sounding pseudonym.

2.

Tigering is the new verb around our house.

Tigering is what The Tiny Tiger does. All the time.

3.

What with the Groaning Ladies Show having come to season’s end, Sunday and last night we watched The Dust Bowl.  Good way to get your head on straight for Thanksgiving.

3.5

Fifi the resident cat does not care for the Tiny Tiger.  But she seems to be getting along with the young interloper better now that the Tiger has been taken on as the Chief Pot-Licker’s protege.  Last night during The Dust Bowl, all pots having been duly cleaned, they spent a full two hours rough-housing in the living room.

So the dog knows that the bunnies and chickens and the cat belong to us, and that the kitten is an orphaned puppy in need of a good upbringing.  She also knows that squirrels and voles are for hunting, but that SuperHusband will step in and take over when it comes to possums.  There was confusion the other week though, about what to do with the big fuzzy

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Well, that’s all for this week.   Tuesday’s Link Day, which is when instead of e-mailing fun things I ought to post but forget to, you just tell the world all by yourself.  Entirely optional.  I’m pretty swamped with real life but I’ll try to post updates here as I work through my to-do list elsewhere on the internet. Have a great week.

3.5 Time Outs: Entertained.

Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who has his own entertainment post up today.

Click and be amazed.

1.

At CatholicMom.com, I have a post up for November about how to get along at holiday parties, even if people bring up the topic of homeschooling. Apparently I hit a chord, because I’ve gotten some good feedback.  Mostly from non-homeschoolers.  Also, it was a great excuse to use this photo:

It would be convenient if I had married a guy who liked to take pictures of homeschoolers, and CCD classes, and stuff like that.  (Um, except, we’re not allowed to publish photos of CCD kids, so I guess it would just be some adult teaching and a bunch of blurred-out backs of heads.)  Instead every month I amuse Lisa Hendey with my proposed alternate illustration for the homeschooling column.  So far she hasn’t rejected any.  Patient lady.

2.

Sunday night I helped out in a colleague’s CCD class by dressing up like this venerable creole candidate for sainthood:

I own absolutely nothing that could be described at mid-19th century clothing, but the 6th graders were very polite, and overlooked the fact that my costume was really more like Faux-Edwardian-Pulled-From-late-20th-Century-Closet.  Also, I learned a surprising number of the kids had some knowledge of the French language.  I’d estimate 2/5ths of the class.

Heartening: 95% of the class had no difficulty with coming to Ven. Henriette’s same conclusion, that having a wife in the countryside and a mistress in the city was not the Catholic way.  Good for them.  The other 5% just weren’t paying attention, but once they heard what I had said, they too, agreed.   I guess it’s easier in 6th grade, when who wants a girlfriend anyway?

3.

Eldest daughter and I have recently gotten hooked on The Groaning Lady Show.  So-called by the guys in our household.  Who always come and watch it.

 

3.5

St. Monica, of course.  In other homeschooling news:

a) We’ve completed Q1 with varying amounts of success, and are jumping into Q2 today with varying amounts of enthusiasm.

b) I tried to vote mid-morning, but estimated the line was about an hour long, not so fun for young children, particularly the one with a nasty scrape on her hand from tripping on the walk down the block, plus an un-fun headcold.  We retreated, charged the iPods, and will give it another shot after lunch with entertainment in hand.  Most years there isn’t much of a line, but apparently people are a touch worked up about this election.  Go figure.

***

Well, that’s all for this week.   Tuesday’s Link Day, which is when instead of e-mailing fun things I ought to post but forget to, you just tell the world all by yourself.  Entirely optional.  I’m pretty swamped with real life but I’ll try to post updates here as I work through my to-do list elsewhere on the internet. Have a great week.

 

Henriette Delille: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Henriettedelille.gif [Public Domain]

3.5 Time Outs: Charisms

Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who’s got the best hurricane photo going.

Click and be amazed.

1.

SuperHusband & I went to the state Catholic Charismatic Conference this weekend.  Friday evening began with such a promising start that we dragged the kids along Saturday so we could both attend all day.  Yes, I bribed them.  They seem to be okay with that.

I don’t actually have a charismatic bent, but it’s comfortable enough once you’ve traveled in Evangelical circles for a while.  Here’s what we liked:

  • All the songs were about God, and directed to Him.
  • The guest speaker taught the Catholic faith.
  • The people were friendly.

Yep.  I will totally turn out for that.

2.

The retreat leader was Fr. Peter Sanders from New Pentecost Catholic Ministries.  The topic was “The Character of Christ”, the focus being on using the cardinal virtues to conform your life to Christ.  Knowing nothing else about the guy than what I saw and heard Friday and Saturday, I’d recommend him if you are looking for a guest speaker.  100% Catholic, no patience for New Age nonsense, and no patience for the showboating that can swirl around certain Charismatic circles (not something I’ve ever seen from a local, FYI).

Recall that SuperHusband reverted to the Church less than two years ago, though he’d been attending Catholic churches for all his vacation/travel church attendance for years prior.   This was the first time he’d ever heard of the cardinal virtues.  Next day at dinner he was telling some friends about the talks.  “What a great framework! Apparently it’s this well-established thing.  Very useful.  I wonder why I’ve never heard a sermon about it?  You’d think it would be the kind of thing priests would teach in their homilies.”

I’ve been Catholic much longer, and I think I’ve heard a priest mention the virtues in passing one time.  Note to priests and deacons: “The Cardinal Virtues” isn’t being overdone these days.  You could preach about that.  Thanks.

3.

Because homework is not his charism, our boy is currently living the iPod-free lifestyle.  Which  means he needs some kind of other music to listen to when he does dishes.  So he’s taken to composing fake VBS theme songs.  Yesterday’s was, “I’m a Little Bitty Platypus in a Great Big World”.  Took me hours to get the tune out of my head.

3.5

I went crazy and volunteered my own house for the annual homeschool All Saints Party (long story), because certain of my children have been planning their costumes for months. Eldest daughter did a saint-change on account of how even though it’s very cool to carry around eyeballs on a platter, St. Lucy is just too easy to guess.  She’s going with a more obscure saint.  And the youngest is of course going to be

***

Well, that’s all for this week.  Tuesday’s Link Day, which is when instead of e-mailing fun things I ought to post but forget to, you just tell the world all by yourself.  Entirely optional.  I’m pretty swamped with real life but I’ll try to post at least once more this week as I work through my review-backlog. Have a great week.

3.5 Time Outs: Family Life

Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who is nothing if not a family kinda guy.

Click and be amazed.

1.

This weekend I met a couple of the ladies from the Society of Joyful Hope.  I’d never heard of such a thing!  A real-life support group for families that use NFP!  A true support group, btw, not just your NFP instructor checking in to remind you what Acheiving-Related Behavior tends to achieve.  The group prays together, and then kids do activities and the parents talk about parenting.  Very cool.

1.A You can see their website here, and though the events page is a running behind on updates, they are an active organization.  I’m in that blissful state where I am not the least bothered by people who are running a tiny bit behind on website maintenance.  Ahem.

1.B The nice thing about openness-to-life is that eventually you don’t need to go visit the NFP instructor to be reminded what Achieving-Related Behavior acheives.  Your children are there to remind you.  All the time.

1.C  I was showing around Sarah’s new pregnancy book, and the Joyful Hope lady exclaimed when she saw Hallie Lord’s endorsement on the cover.  Solving the mystery of what it was that had caused Betty Beguiles to pick up and move south.  Wow.  I had no idea.

1.D More cool: Fr. Kirby at Charleston Vocations gave us a bunch of t-shirts to give away for prizes at our Family Life reception.

1.E Triple Cool: Eldest daughter has been reading assorted fiction and lives of saints from Pauline Media, causing her to ask all kinds of questions about the Daughters of St. Paul.  Mostly: What do they wear?  So it was neato to walk into the Doughnut Room and, surprise!, there was Sister Francis, whom I’d never met before, but it turns out is very good at chatting with girls interested in all things Nuns Who Publish Books.  Less cool: I had no money with me for book-buying.  Because of course the girls found something they liked.

2.

Coolness aside, here’s the real topic: How Good is Your Parish at Doing Family-Friendly Ministries?

I had a conversation with a young mom, not at my parish, who had moved up from Florida (St. Agnes’s in Naples, I think?), and she really missed the number of family events and activities at her former parish.  I got to thinking about it, and realized that one of the things sabotaging some of my own parish’s ministries is a lack of Stuff for the Whole Family to Do.

It’s not like families with young children are really going to turn out for ministries five nights a week, don’t mistake me.  There’s only so much a person with humans for children can do, time-and-energy-wise.  But in order for a family with young children to do anything. at. all., there has to be provision for the whole family.  The crying people.  The climbing-the-curtains people.  The elementary-aged people.  The teen people.  The female people.  The male people.  All of them.  And if we’re feeling broad-minded, how about the elderly-relative-living-with-you people?  Or the not-so-polished-in-the-social-skills-for-reasons-beyond-their-control people?

–> Because otherwise, church stuff breaks apart the family.  Oh it’s all lovely to get together with just the girls, or just the fathers-n-sons, or whatever it is.  We do that here and there.  Sunday afternoon our girls met for Little Flowers while our boys went mountain biking.  It was good.  But there are only seven nights in a week, and people keep insisting we eat dinner together at least a few of those.

[Without wishing to pull out the Evangelicals Are Smarter Than Us card, I will point out that on Wednesday nights around my town, most of the other churches are hosting an evening of this-n-that, in which you can bring your whole family, and all y’all get your faith-formation or ministering-to-people fix in one fell swoop.  It’s only one night a week.  But it’s one night a week.  Some of the churches do the same thing Sunday nights too.  Or Fridays.  Or whatever.]

So anyhow, that’s my question: If your parish is successful at getting families involved in the life of the church, what is it that works so well?

3.

Happiness is agreeing with your editor.

3.5

fairy wings and magic wands.  Works great.

***

Well, that’s all for this week.  Tuesday’s Link Day, which is when instead of e-mailing fun things I ought to post but forget to, you just tell the world all by yourself.  Entirely optional.

3.5 Takes: Halloween Wedding

Thanks once again to our host, Larry D., who is no doubt terrified by this post.

When my friend real-life friend Sandra told me she was planning a Halloween-themed wedding, let me assure you: I was skeptical.  But it turned out absolutely lovely!  Which you would expect, if you know Sandra and her beloved Larry L..  Here’s the tour, in 3.5 parts.

1.  The Dress.

The event was held at the Robert Mills House (civil ceremony), so you’ll recall Sandra was thinking of a regency-era theme.  She raided the silk remnants at the upholstery shop, and put together this:

Awesome period touch: detachable sleeves.

2. Ceremonial Innovation Done Right.

Recall also that I am a curmudgeon’s curmudgeon, and if you tell me that as part of your ceremony you’re going to do some groovy sand-art activity with your children, I’m going to be very, very skeptical.  But Larry L. came up with an idea for including the boys in the ceremony, and it went over beautifully.  I was impressed.  Not many people can pull that off.  Well done.

 

3. Reception = Costume Time.

I think the key to making a Halloween wedding work is to not have a Halloween wedding.  Normal wedding, costume-optional reception.  Tons of fun.

The decorators-in-law used a deft touch in decorating the reception hall.  There were spider webs and all that stuff, but it didn’t pop out like I’m Back In Elementary School For Orange Cupcakes And Candy Corns.  The wedding cake was probably the most Halloween-y moment.  Which is about right.  Wedding cakes are supposed allowed to be fun.  Is a giant hairy spider really that much goofier than a chintzy plastic bride-n-groom?

I wish I had a picture of the buffet table, but I’ll just tell you that the secret to a tasteful theme-wedding is to put out a fantabulous spread of good food.  Then all the stuffy friends and relatives who might otherwise complain about the decor are too busy noticing the hummus and the curry and the peanut sauce, and the rest is just background.  But if you want to put on a Sponge Bob costume, you can.

Or, if you’re a young groomsman, add sunglasses, earbuds, and a suitable weapon, presto-chango, Secret Agent Boy:

(Shown here posing the following day, before we rushed the tux back to the rental place.)

3.5  SuperHusband went medieval for the reception, which is the most comfortable thing you wish you could be wearing anyway.  Girls and I stuck to our ordinary wedding attire, but added

 

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Well, that should give you something to talk about for this week.  No, I haven’t finished started my sidebar renovation, so I’m still taking link suggestions.

Hey and while we’re on the topic of good things worth doing right: This week my editor at Liguori is doing her edits on my Classroom Management for Catechists manuscript.  So you could say a little prayer that she gets it all cleaned up so that it’s as helpful to readers as possible.  Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

3.5 Time Outs: The Distracted Life

Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who has exceeded himself once again.  Go look!

Click and be amazed.

1.

On Tuesday mornings we’ve been watching Fr. Barron’s Catholicism DVD’s at the nearby parish (not ours) that has the most convenient times.  Excellent.  BUT, episode three is a little a lot abstract for the kids.  I’m hoping it goes back to more concrete story-telling type episodes in the weeks ahead.  

2.

I could tell my 3rd-grader was not fully paying attention, because her feet were in the air.  You know how you raise your hand to ask a question in class?  Or you raise two hands in air to communicate secret messages from referee to fans, or from evangelical praise-and-worshiper to God?  It was just like that, only with feet.

3.

I’d told the group leader we’d be slipping out right after the DVD, and not staying for the group discussion, so that we could get home and get started on school work.  Kids and I discussed the Problem of Evil (subject of episode 3) on the way, and curiously, the boy proposed “God testing us” as one of the possible explanations for evil things in the world.

I challenged that notion, but I’ll tell you I do think it’s one of the explanations for good things in the world.  Because as we pulled in, our shy-but-friendly bachelor neighbor, who never comes over, was poking around our entry way, looking for us.  Because he’d found this:

New Kitten

3.5

The contention, then, that the civil government should at its option intrude into and exercise intimate control over the family and the household is a great and pernicious error.

True, if a family finds itself in exceeding distress, utterly deprived of the counsel of friends, and without any prospect of extricating itself, it is right that extreme necessity be met by public aid, since each family is a part of the commonwealth.

In like manner, if within the precincts of the household there occur grave disturbance of mutual rights, public authority should intervene to force each party to yield to the other its proper due; for this is not to deprive citizens of their rights, but justly and properly to safeguard and strengthen them.

But the rulers of the commonwealth must go no further; here, nature bids them stop.

(Paragraph breaks added for legibility in blog format. See the source here.)

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I see that I’ve hit my deadline for sidebar updating, so I guess I’ll officially slide that onto my to-do list.  But I’m open to suggestions as long as the work in is progress.  And of course, Tuesday’s Link Day, which is when instead of e-mailing fun things I ought to post but forget to, you just tell the world all by yourself.  Entirely optional.

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.

3.5 Time Outs: The Sitcom Life

As I’m writing this on Monday and getting it scheduled for Tuesday, it’s occurred to me that Sept. 11th is a serious day.  Also my niece’s birthday. Please feel free to commemorate more solemn matters, and come back here to my trivial  comedy of a life some other day.

Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who has never made me laugh during Mass, but often at other times.

Click and be amazed.

1.

You know those movies where the lead characters acquire the run-down house/school/shop/bus/crematorium, and with the help of a fast-forward film sequence and a peppy soundtrack, they all pitch in and get the place cleaned up in about 2.5 minutes?  Complete with a spunky sign to announce their new venture?

I walked through my yard Sunday afternoon, and confirmed I am living in the “before” scene.

So now I just need some colorfully-dressed teenagers and a singing nun to descend on the place and fix it up.  Preferably before the Tinkerbell-themed birthday party this weekend.

2.

I’m not winning the holiness award.  Because if your group stands up at the start of Mass and warms-up by chanting “Yellow Leather Red Leather”? Yes.  I’m going to bust out laughing.  In church.

3.

But I’ll try do it quietly.  At least until I get to the parking lot.  Then I’m going to laugh very loudly.  And probably use the Lord’s name in vain, but then quickly convert it into a prayer of some nature, to do a kind of retroactive-save on that decidedly un-holy verbal reflex.

My son is 98%  holier than me, or at least 1 chromosome better suited for the priesthood (we knew that), because he kept a straight face the whole mass, and afterwards.  I was amazed.

3.5

. . . the Spanish Mass. [Where they do not do tongue-twister warm-ups — we’ve changed scenes completely.]  We have a new Spanish priest now, and he does not use the words “Jesus-Christo” and “Salvacion” as often as the previous one.  Which means I can no longer understand 5% of the homily, like I used to do under the old regime.  I do still like the mariachi mass, though.   So perky.

 

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Still accepting suggestions for additions to the sidebar, so tell me who to add.  But do just one link per comment, because otherwise the robotic spam-dragon will consume the whole lot of them.  Thanks!

7 Takes: Small Things with Great Drama

 

1.

Wanted, Neighbors: There are now two houses for sale across the street from me (one in foreclosure — bargain time!), one for rent on the other side, and another one that would be for sale except I think the owner decided there was no point in trying.  I know we’re a little goofy, and our lawn furniture is never straight, and the dog gets out sometimes . . . but I think it’s not us.  If anyone wants to colonize a neighborhood, it’s your big chance.  Low crime, convenient location, lawn-boy-in-residence, reasonable taxes — inferno living‘s never been this good.

2.

I left my rain jacket at the hotel last week.  Some other things that were with it, too, that I’d rather not be lost forever.  I’m usually very thorough about inspecting the room before I leave, but I was in a rush because we had to be out by noon, mid-conference, because the hotel was overbooked.  I called the hotel Sunday when I realized what had happened, but so far there’s no follow-up.  I’m hoping that’s because a saintly housekeeping lady (who I completely forgot to tip, which I hate, but like I said . . . rushed) saw to it that the whole package was put in the mail pronto, and it’ll all just show up at my door.

I’m glad I blogged about it, because yes, I had completely forgotten to involve St. Anthony up until this point.  Writing helps me remember things.

 

3.

I’ve come to divide the world into two kinds of places: Those with free, high-functioning WiFi, and those without.  I’m happy to be in either, as long as no one expects me to act like I’m in the one, when really I’m in the other.

4.

I’m the same age as my grandmother now.  She’s been “39 and holding” for as long as I can remember.

5.

My children don’t seem to believe me when I tell them that all I really want for my birthday is a clean house and no fighting.  My mom used to ask for the same thing.  Never got it.

6.

I did get a broken pencil sharpener, though, a gently-used colored pencil, and a piece of pink cellophane folded up to look like a “gem”.  And a piggy-bank.  I see my frugality-indoctrination program is starting to work.  Go kids!

7.

Also, my 5th grader made me a lovely card including money-words like “best mom in the world”.  She shares my penchant for exuberant overstatements.  Either that or the rest of you look out, because she can rattle off my faults the way school-kids can spit out a Pledge of Allegiance — practice yields speed.  So if I’m the best, I’m afraid that doesn’t say much about all you other moms.

Then again, I’m not sure she’s really surveyed the mom-population to verify her conclusions.  We’ll not tell her about sample-size just yet.  I’m enjoying my temporarily-elevated status.

 

Thanks to our hostess, Jen Fulwiler, keeping distracted bloggers 20% more organized since . . . a long time.  Pray for Allie Hathaway, then visit Jen’s site, Scorpions Are Us ConversionDiary.com to see more quick takes.