Seven Quick Takes Friday (DH edition)

This is the first time I've tried this, MM is going to be busy all day with county fair insanity, so I thought I'd cover for her this week.

1. The county fair in question is actually in the town I grew up in, about 40 minutes away from here. My mom is usually Foods Superintendent, so MM feels obliged to submit about 600 entries in solidarity with her...then volunteer to help coordinate things on the day when judging takes place, etc. That is today. I think I helped pack up about a dozen canned goods, at least half a dozen baked goods (including a cake decorated as a John Deere tractor), and several items from our garden.

2. Making today kind of iconic of how busy our summer has been, and will be at least until after we get back from the Midwest Catholic Family Conference, I will actually be working at a booth for our Knights of Columbus council here in our town tonight. This town's big summer festival always seems to be concurrent with my folks' county's fair, so MM has still never attended (much to the amazement of the women in her Bible study who were born and raised here).

3. Speaking of MM's Bible study, I was a little bit of a jerk last night when she got home. I just got grouchy and, eventually, a little worried as the hours went by. I can understand a good discussion, but it raged on nearly four and a half hours! I don't think I've had that long of a conversation ever, for any reason. At our Knights meeting on Tuesday, it only took us an hour and fifteen minutes to install new officers, figure out at least four different events coming up, and sing two goofy songs! But, I definitely should have been less grumpy about the time. Sorry!

4. I just finished listening to my Pray as You Go podcast. I try to do this every day, so I have started to notice that there are certain musical pieces that keep recurring. One that I definitely don't mind was this morning, and (as dorky as it is to admit this) it never fails to cheer me up. "Ladysmith Black Mambazo sing Ngaza Ngambona: "They are blessed who keep His commandments; they will have their eternal place; come in, all of you, so that you may be happy and be able to say, 'I've seen Him on the cross, the One who loves me...'"

5. I always ramble on too long with these kind of things, and I need to hurry up so I can get ready for work!

6. One of the only things lately that I've been tempted to come up for air long enough to blog about was the asinine cover story in this past week's Parade magazine. Let's just say the solutions they imagine for the "child-care crisis" don't include much in the way of encouraging mothers to become stay-at-home moms. In fact, the first couple of paragraphs try to show what a bad idea it is to rely on one income in this economy. Scare tactics: pfaw!

7. Another potential stand-alone blog post was more or less already done by Joe Carter at First Things, of all places. He links to the beautiful, breast-cancer themed routine on this week's "So You Think You Can Dance," and provides some interesting perspective. All I would add is this food for thought from "The Human Cost of Healthcare Reform," found here:

Overall Britons and Europeans in general die at a higher rate from all forms of cancer than US citizens and the difference is dramatic in cases where early detection and treatment are important. For example, women with breast cancer in Britain have a 46% death rate as opposed to 25% in the US.

Well, hope you liked 'em. Go to Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!