1. My CatholicMom.com article for March is up. It’s on homeschooling when you struggle with self-discipline. It’s one of those topics where I wish I could be showing off my tremendous compassion for those poor people who just can’t seem to get it together.
I drew the line at posting a snapshot of my kitchen for the photo. Instead, you get a picture of men hitting each other with sticks. Same concept, seemlier illustration.
2. Have I mentioned how much it irritates me to have to follow the entirety of the Catholic faith, and not just bits and pieces? I assume others hate it just as much as I do, because so far no one has commented on my post this month at New Evangelizers. In which I take up the topic of whether Cardinal Mahoney ought to attend the conclave, and how that question fits in to a wider question of mercy and evangelization*. And good administration. You knew that was going to be fit in somehow.
3. I set the kitchen timer to tell me when to pull SuperHusband’s dress shirt out of the dryer. (Yes. Dryer. I know.) It worked. I just went and pulled it out and hung it up right away. I can be very diligent about laundry, IF I’m supposed to be doing the taxes.
4. Taxes, episode 2. That’s today. Backside of the 1040, and yeah, it’s the Schedule A I don’t feel like dealing with. Tired of being responsible. I get tired of that very quickly. But I’ll do it, of course. There’s nothing like, “We will seize your house if you don’t mail in this worksheet” to really motivate a lady. UPDATE: DONE. WOOHOO!
5. About that NE post. Whenever I think “conclave”, the plot for a murder mystery pops into my head. It’s a good thing other people volunteered to answer questions at Dorian Speed’s ElectingthePope.net.
6. Please pray for the repose of the soul of Mr. W, our elderly farming neighbor who passed away peacefully in his sleep. Funeral was packed, SuperHusband tells me, not a surprise. Then pray for this family, who would be very grateful for any number of miracles.
7. You can discourage the Friday meat demon by quick throwing all your meaty leftovers into the freezer Thursday night. (Or give to dog if close to spoiling, but not quite inedible yet.) Pull them out and return to fridge Saturday, when the coast is clear.
And something I’m happy think about:
Señora M., my catechist friend from down the road, reports a big milestone: She led her first English-language religious ed class the other night. We first met in the Our Lady of Guadalupe room at the big Advent event in December, and since then she’s been helping out as a classroom assistant at her parish. She phoned me this morning, and I made it through the greetings in Spanish, and then I had to plead, “No entiendo.” She gave me the big news in English. But she isn’t giving up on me that easy, she’s determined to get my Spanish into working order. I’m honored.
*Some people equate “mercy” with “giving them a pass.” Those who have been privy to my ire know that the moment you start bungling on sexual abuse prevention and prosecution, is the moment I become a lady you do not like. Do not confuse mercy with tolerance. It’s not about overlooking the trivial flubs. It’s not about saying, “Really it wasn’t so bad.” Mercy only has meaning there where we want to give it least.
Re:
1) Nope, photo doesn’t work unless you mean to imply self-discipline is like going on crusade 😉
1.a) On the topic of kitchens… we bought another appliance that looked fun. It is a pretzel maker… let me know if you want to borrow that or the cake pop machine. That being said it would not be another thing for you as they are easy enough for the big kids to operate. 🙂
1.b) You should know I resisted asking or sending you any of English homework to help with reviewing and proofreading. Because I know you’d probably be willing to do it but I know that you have plenty more important things to do for writing…. and I get the whole things you think are fun need to stay fun and not feel like a chore.
2) I didn’t know who Cardinal Mahoney was so I googled it…. yup not going to comment, sorry. There is so much to say but I don’t feel I am really entitled to seing as I am not a practicing Catholic. But hey I do know who Cardinal Nolan is!
2.a) Despite not being a practicing Catholic right now, it is certain that I chose the right patron saint when I was little. I always felt St. Francis was the one for me…. we adopted another dog 🙂 And I was almost set on going to school to become a Vet but I had a hard time accepting the practice of euthanization.
3) That reminds me, I need to put away my clean laundry. But I have to pack for tomorrow too…. ugh.
4) I thought you liked doing taxes? Maybe I’m confusing with a different friend….
5) Well, then next family game night you should play Clue. Oh but wait…. http://www.daysofwonder.com/mysteryoftheabbey/en/
I’ve also been **so** tempted to buy this at Firefly Games for you: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/65515/nuns-on-the-run
7) We are so happy we’ve changed our meat buying routine and now we get most of our proteins from Ole Timey.
On a seriously unrelated note, Josh will love this, but when my boys come for the summer I plan on building a kid-sized Creeper and setting him up in the backyard then wait to see how long it takes them to notice. Not self destructing though…
1) Yes. That. Exactly.
2) Well, I haven’t got much nice to say either.
2a) Congratulations! And I agree re: Euthanasia. Hard to swallow. (Bystanders: For ANIMALS.)
3) yep.
4) Oh, I do enjoy it once I get into it, in a weird sorta way. It’s the making myself get started that sometimes fails on me.
5) I think I like the premise of the monks better than the nuns. Just saying. :-).
7) Very cool.
Creeper: Even cooler.
Adding: I remembered correctly: Mystery of the Abbey has received a catechist-stamp-of-approval. Intriguing. http://www.jonathanfsullivan.com/2012/11/board-game-review-mystery-of-the-abbey/
(And sure enough, I’m the person who hit the +1 button when I first read the post a while back.)
Doh! That should have read Dolan not Nolan… either going to blame that on reading a Batman (Christopher Nolan) right before typing the original comment or on the excessive amounts of proofreading and error-checking for this English class. I’m not used to this kind of mental torture!
re: re: 4 – Kind of like my scribal and icon art… I really haven’t done much in the past 6 months. I need to be but I haven’t got the inspiration. But when I do it will be fun and I won’t put down the paintbrush.
I knew who you meant :-).
on 4 – that’s exactly it. Once I get rolling, it’s as good of work as anything. It’s the feeling like you have to do, and it’s going to require some effort, and there are other more entertaining things . . . the procrastination vortex.