100 Book Meme

Well, I'm at my MIL's house right now, and hubby and his dad are watching the Broncos game, MIL and the girls are playing outside, and the second TV automatically switched to "Murder She Wrote" which is recording, so I figure I can do this fun meme that Christine over at Good Company has up. I do have to say though, that I am not the world's biggest "literature" person...I would much rather read a how-to book:

Bold--I've read it.
Italics--I started it.
Gold --I want to.
Nuttin'--I don't care.
Red -- Have no interest and will never have an interest.
Green -- Seen the movie. (I'm not much of a movie person, so I'm not going to bother with this one...but I have seen all the Lord of the Rings movies, and all the Harry Potter and Narnia movies that have been released so far)

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (I've started this, but I really WANT to finish it someday)
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights -Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman
10. Great Expectations -Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (I'm sick, I LOVE Hardy)
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife -
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (read all the books in the *ahem* trilogy several times)
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (too much Russian lit class...I love Russian novels)
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
37. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
38. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
39. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (although I'm pretty sure I'll have to read it to Eva)
40. Animal Farm - George Orwell
41. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
42. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
43. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
44. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
45. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
46. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
47. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (I LOVED this book and have read it a dozen times)
48. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
49. Atonement - Ian McEwan
50. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
51. Dune - Frank Herbert
52. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
53. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
54. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
55. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
56. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
57. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
58. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
59. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
60. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
61. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
62. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
63. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
64. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
65. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
66. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
67. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
68. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
69. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
70. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
71. Dracula - Bram Stoker
72. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
73. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
74. Ulysses - James Joyce
75. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
76. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
77. Germinal - Emile Zola
78. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
79. Possession - AS Byatt
80. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
81. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
82. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
83. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
84. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
85. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
86. Charlotte's Web - EB White
87. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
88. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (too many "are you gonna marry Watson" jokes from my youth...the kids weren't really smart enough for a good insult!)
89. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
90. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
91. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
92. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
93. Watership Down - Richard Adams
94. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
95. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
96. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
97. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
98. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
99. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
100.The Outsiders -S. E. Hinton

Day 14 - NFP class

Well, hubby and I have our 3rd NFP class (ending our first series of classes today) to teach this afternoon. And, I have to admit, I fell off the wagon today.

It probably started with yesterday...

My MIL called to find out if we had Saturday night Mass in our town this weekend, and we didn't...it was in the next town over. So, she decided to drive down, pick up the girls and us, head over to the evening Mass and then eat at Pizza Hut afterwards (her treat, so no expense there). Well, I knew that the grocery store over there had a coupon for the store brand margarine for 29 cents, so we stopped at the store, and I purchased the margarine, another several lbs of bananas (2 lbs for 89 cents...I bought a little over 4 lbs) and a big container of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats (on sale plus coupon got them for $2).

I also knew that I wanted to stop by our store for peanut butter ($1.66 per jar for store brand and we are OUT), but it was too late by the time we got home. Since we slept in this morning (until 8!), and had a lazy morning I sent hubby to the grocery store with the rest of our grocery money (until Friday) to get some donuts, some diet coke and the peanut butter...Donuts and Diet Coke are clearly NOT in the spirit of the 30 days. I know my total pretty closely, now...$111.53, since I started with a $100 bill, and hubby stopped by the store and spent $11.53 on Friday.

After our class, we'll head up and get the girls, and spend the evening visiting with my in-laws. Then, it's back to work and school! Other than a trip to the library some time next week, counting collection at church, a blood drive, and a Knights of Columbus meeting, we've got a pretty empty week!

Day 13 - planning for school...

The girls are currently napping (YEAH!!!) and my MIL is coming sometime this afternoon to pick up the girls for an overnight so that hubby and I can practice for our 3 and final NFP class (our first series of classes) and then teach it tomorrow afternoon. We'll pick them up tomorrow evening.

So, I am sitting at the computer desk working on school stuff for next week, and tweaking Eva's schedule. Things I found out I didn't like this week:

-Doing Spanish on day 1 and day 4...will do day 1 and day 3 instead
-Doing PE...period...but will soldier on (I need to come up with something fun!)
-Doing Religion class 4 days a week...will skip Religion on days we go to morning Mass (so, if day 4 ends up being Friday, which it probably will, then we will not do religion as long as Father has Mass and we go)
-Along the same lines as Religion, in two weeks storytime at the library starts again, so on day 3 or 4 (whichever one falls on Thursday) we will skip reading, as long as storytime happens and we attend.

I also decided that I needed a better system then a towering pile of books on top of our bookshelves all week...so I got out 4 file folders, labeled them "Day 1", "Day 2", "Day 3", and "Day 4". In each day's folder, I am pre-tearing out the worksheets from phonics and math (and eventually handwriting, when we start that book) and adding in any extra worksheets (spanish, reading comprehension, art, etc) so that all the worksheets for the day are together. Then, I'll stack the 4 folders with the books needed (religion books, science, the Usborne handwriting book we are using right now, reading stuff) on the top of the bookshelves. Hopefully it will look neater and work better.

So far, so good on the spending thing, as I haven't left the house yet today (don't know that I will, either!) I still have two more days of school to plan, hubby just got home, and Charlotte is waking up!

Day 12 - Rain, rain, go away...

So, it was raining when we woke up this morning (at 6 am...thank you very much Charlotte!), it was raining when we went to Mass, it was raining even harder after Mass (so I made hubby stop at the grocery store instead of me and the girls!) It was raining while we did class, it was raining while we ate lunch, it was raining while we took naps (I even got one today...and the rain makes a lot more noise in our room now that we have a sidewalk directly behind it!) it was raining when we woke up, it was raining while the girls watched Cinderella, it was raining when hubby got home, and it finally stopped raining right around dinner time. (Trust me, for here, that is a LOT of rain!)

Things have been going pretty well since my shopping day on the 10th.

As I mentioned, I sent hubby to the grocery store today for hotdog buns, a gallon of milk, bananas and a side dish (he brought home macaroni salad...I was so fried that I just didn't have the energy to come up with anything) He spent $11.53, bringing my total to $92.16. I'm thinking that I was a little overly ambitious with my thought of spending $100 for the whole month...I'm going to get out another $100 on payday (week from today) to finish out the month. I guess $200 isn't that bad...when we were Dave Ramsey-ing it a couple of years ago to pay off all our debt (except for our mortgage) I budgeted between $225 and $300 a month. Of course, grocery costs have gone up since then.

I do plan to pick up a few more items this week (we have been out of peanut butter for most of the month, and it's on sale 6 for $10, we're also out of butter, and I'm betting we'll have another store run for milk and bananas.)

We also completed Eva's first week of school...I'm in trouble...she whipped through a week's worth of phonics in two days, and two week's worth of math in 4 days...

I guess it's a good problem to have!

Yes, I am a religious fanatic...

So, this just cracks me up.

Our Bible Study group has done Secret Sisters for several years...I've been involved the last two (and I opted out for this coming year...I'm just working towards distancing myself from the social and drama aspects of the group.) I didn't go to the secret sister reveal on Tuesday night, so one of the ladies dropped it by our house yesterday...so I got home to a black trash bag with a gift tag on it, with the top of this peeking out. Also inside was a little scrapbooking display.

Back to the cross...it's nice, and very heavy and HUGE!!! And we live in a 2 bedroom house with somewhere between 1300 and 1500 sq ft. I have no idea where I am going to put this yet...but it just makes me wonder what my secret sister was thinking when she picked this out for me..."gee, she's the biggest religious fanatic in the whole group, I'd bet she'd love a GIANT CROSS!"

So, here is the really large cross, with my big and little girls!

Day 10 - fell off the wagon...

Well, today ended up being a shopping extravaganza...

And to top it off, I think that I am annoying hubby enough with this challenge that I may have to quit before the month is out (we'll have to see, I guess!)

We spent the day with my MIL. First thing in the morning Eva had her 4 year checkup with 4 shots! She cried a little, but the prospect of getting to go shopping with Grandma perked her up a lot. As did the bug juice that I bribed her with when she didn't want to get her shots...

Hubby paid for drinks at the convenience store...but I have to admit, I succumbed to temptation and got a diet coke...

So, we went with her to the nearest real city (you know, the kind with a Wal Mart and a Walgreens...) and I did quite a bit of shopping (part of being so isolated, it's a big deal to go shopping...)

First was Walgreens. I bought $54 of OTC medicines with our FSA card (we have a lot of money still on it and we'd lose it at the end of the year...) and I was SUPPOSED to get a $10 Register Reward and a $4 Register Reward. It didn't work out right, and the assistant manager was a big JERK about the fact that I wanted the $14 in RR to spend on other items. Finally, after about 20-25 minutes of waiting around, he ended up getting me 3 $5 Register Rewards instead. I was so fried that we figured we'd go back to Walgreens on the way home.

So, on to Wal Mart where I spent just under $40, and Eva spent 3 of her $5 gift cards (my brother gave her 8 of them for her birthday) on a small toy and a new booster seat for the car. In that $40, I got some groceries, a bunch of diaper wipes and dog food.

Then on to Dollar Tree, where I bought two shave gels in a tube (hubby doesn't like cans of shaving cream because they rust in the shower...he's kind of strange) for $2.14

Finally, back to Walgreens, where we really should have done three transactions to use all three Register Rewards, but we were so fried that we did two, and have one left over, that hopefully we will use before it expires when hubby goes up to that town for a 4th degree Knights of Columbus meeting. I had about $23 on a gift card from last months rebates, and used that all up, plus an additional $9.45 (for diapers).

I now technically have $22 left for the month, but hubby is warning me not to get too legalistic on this whole thing.

I've got 11 minutes left until my pickles are ready...

So, I figured I do an update of today.

I did end up going to the grocery store:

1.61 lb white onions $1.27
1 gallon milk $3.79
2.86 lbs bananas $1.97

So, another $7.20 towards my grocery total for the month. I'm up to $31.18.

I've also noticed that we drink a lot more milk at this house when we don't have any pop around...we used up our last supply for Eva's birthday party, so we haven't had any in the house most of the month (I think the last few cans were finished on the 1st). It's probably way better for us all around...less junk food, less soda, more veggies (if only massive amounts of cucumber salad!) and more home cooked meals.

I ended up making the goulash that hubby asked me to learn how to make for his top ten dishes, but ended up using this recipe instead, since hubby looked up the recipe I found and didn't think it was close enough to his mom's version. He found the second one and said it was closer. The only changes I made were to leave out the stewed tomatoes (don't have any in the house!) and the green pepper (all our pepper plants died within a week of transplant this year).

Sadly, I still have 4 minutes to go...guess I'll go check some blogs!

There's "hope," and then there's "Hope"

Some references to "hope" should be taken very seriously. Others are pretty much just empty words. But sometimes you run into an instance in which you really have to wonder what people are thinking.

Now, I'm as optimistic about wind energy as the next guy (unless the next guy happens to be T. Boone Pickens). Living in a part of the country that is mostly occupied by sunshine, sand, and wind, I'm all for pumping money into our local economy rather than sending it to the Saudis. But to equate the hope that comes from a more renewable energy policy to that which comes from God sending His only Son to redeem mankind...well, that's just bizarre. And not in that funny of a way, the more I think about it. By the way, maybe the most forehead-slapping aspect of the whole thing is that the card comes from a catalog called "Holiday Classics." If that's classic...!

While speaking last month about St. Teresa Benedict of the Cross and St. Maximilian Kolbe (who both died at the hands of the Nazis), Pope Benedict XVI said, “He who prays never loses hope, even when he finds himself in difficult situations.” That's the kind of renewal that we should really be putting our hope in.

Day 8 - First Day of School!

Well, today has been a highly productive day for me...particularly since we started Kindergarten for Eva today.

My trial schedule worked pretty well today:

Eat, showered and dressed by 8
Religion - 15 minutes
Reading - 15 minutes
30 minute-ish break (today it was the length of Backyardigans)
Phonics - 30 minutes (15 mins of handwriting on alternate days)
Art - 30 minutes (Each day different: Art, P.E., Music, Science)
Break (today not a very long one, I just unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and got the laundry transferred) Hubby got home during this break
Math - 15 minutes (30 minutes on days with handwriting)
Spanish - 15 minutes (on first and fourth days)

So, we are doing school 4 days a week, which allows a day off to coincide with hubby's day off (this week, Wednesday) and to do other things (this Wednesday, Eva has her 4 year checkup and we'll be visiting grandma)

My meal schedule for the month has started, too. It seems to be going well, also. I figured I needed a fairly flexible meal plan to be able to use pantry and freezer items more effectively, but I needed a plan for each day, so I wouldn't give up and have us go out (as much fun as having lunch out on the first day of school would have been!)

Here's the general plan:

Mondays - soup for lunch, pasta for dinner
Tuesdays - sandwiches for lunch, crockpot meal for dinner
Wednesdays - leftovers for lunch, misc. dishes for dnner (pork chops, roast, chili)
Thursdays - pancakes or waffles for lunch, meatloaf for dinner
Friday - hot dogs for lunch, Pizza for dinner
Saturdays - conveience food for lunch (stuff from SHARE in the freezer), Fish for dinner
Sundays - Fend for yourself for the meals we are at home (it's looking like 2 this month)

No shopping so far today, but I do think that I'm going to end up making MORE pickles this evening...so I'm hoping we won't need a grocery run, but I haven't checked yet.

Moving to the country, gonna eat me a lot of peaches...

Otherwise known as Day 7 of my 30 days.

Last night, we left my MILs house with 10 packages of hamburger, 5 lbs of potatoes (she was sent home from her brother's house with about 100 lbs) and a slightly less than 25 lb box of peaches. (She bought them from a student selling them for a school club, but accidentally bought from two students. She did the same thing last year, and a bunch of the peaches rotted before she got to freezing them...not to mention that this year she got a 5 gallon bucket full of peaches off her peach tree!)

We also ended up almost hitting a calf in the middle of the road on our way home. Of course, it had the family brand, so we got to turn it around (we scared it, and it was heading away from its pasture) and drive it back with our big ol' Buick. I think it may have been the first time it drove cattle...amazingly enough.

So, after church today (and after clipping a kazillion coupons from this weeks paper!) I canned 7 more pints of peaches, and froze another 1 1/2 quarts.

We did have to stop at the grocery store for ice (we were hoping to stop by the liquor store, because their ice is cheaper...but apparently though both liquor stores in town are NOW OPEN SUNDAYS!!! They don't open at 9 am...) so, that was another $1.62 towards our $25.00 this week. Since I did need to peel the peaches, and since the most effective way is blanching, and since we don't have an icemaker (or normally make ice in ice cube trays) I figure the ice purchase is okay.

Our grocery total so far is: $23.98

Not bad, since tomorrow is the beginning of week 2!

My brother's keeper

Well, I just finished reading the transcripts from today's "Meet the Press," in which Joe Biden essentially repeats the ridiculousness that got Nancy Pelosi into trouble with the American bishops. He, like Pelosi, insists that the teaching of the Church on abortion has not been clear or consistent--which, by the way, the bishops continue to disprove--and updates Speaker Pelosi's citation of St. Augustine to the much more modern and biologically enlightened...St. Thomas Aquinas. Seriously. Senator Biden also essentially pulls out that tired old slogan, "I'm personally opposed, but won't impose my beliefs on everyone else." Tom Brokaw tries to get Biden to address the fact that, if Biden truly does believe abortion to be evil, then his votes are a participation in that evil regardless of whether they impose his beliefs on others or not. But Biden squirms and flails until there's no real choice for Brokaw but to move on.

Coincidentally, today's readings really couldn't be more relevant to the Pelosi/Biden situation. A quick recap: the first reading (from Ezekiel) is a warning that, even if a wicked person persists in being wicked after being confronted, whether a believer confronts him or her makes all the difference. The wicked "shall die for his guilt" either way, but if "you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way," you will be held responsible for his death. In the second reading, St. Paul exhorts the Romans to "love your neighbor as yourself." And finally, the Gospel is Jesus advising his disciples on how to respond if your brother sins against you: first, confront them personally, then bring a couple of other people to provide witnesses that you've tried, then tell "the church," and, if the brother who has sinned against you still will not listen, "treat them as you would a Gentile or a tax collector," i.e., exclude them from the community of believers.

Fr. J presented a very good homily about the nature of "loving your neighbor as yourself" and the importance of Cain's response when asked what had become of the brother he had just killed: "Am I my brother's keeper?" First, Father established with us that to love ourselves is essentially to do all we can do to make it to heaven, as the greatest act of love in history was God sending his only Son to redeem humanity. So, loving our neighbor is, at its heart, trying to help him get to heaven as well. In this light, confronting the wicked person as urged by Ezekial is a great act of love. So, going back to Pelosi/Biden, the bishops are truly being compassionate in their public corrections. Further, as Jesus teaches in today's Gospel reading, they will be acting wholly appropriately to "treat [Pelosi and Biden] as you would a Gentile or a tax collector" as a last result if the public disobedience to the Church continues.

But maybe the greatest lesson here is this: Speaker Pelosi and Senator Biden think they are serving women by allowing them to choose for themselves whether to abort their unborn children or not. Unfortunately, what they are really doing is allowing women to commit a grave evil when it is in their (Pelosi's and Biden's) power to prevent them from doing so. In essence, they aren't saying, "I respect your beliefs and don't want to impose mine on you;" rather, they are saying, "Am I my brother's keeper?" That response is as emblematic of their sin as it was of Cain's...and for that, God "will hold [them] responsible." (Ez. 33:8).

Day 6 - Over the river and through the woods...

Well, we are at grandma's house right now (my MIL, the beloved grandparent!) and things are still going okay with the 30 days.

Yesterday after hubby got home from work, he was really wanting to get out of the house and relax...he asked if it would count against my 30 days if he suggested that we go to Pizza Hut (40 miles away) for supper. I said that if he really needed to get out of the house, we could do it, but that I was more than willing to make homemade pizza. So, instead of about 80 miles round trip and the cost of pizza, I sent hubby to the grocery store and he spent just over $10. (I don't have the receipt with me)

Our grocery list was:
bananas (do you notice a trend? My girls LOVE bananas)
milk (not quite out, but getting close)
dozen eggs
bottle of pizza sauce (kind of a splurge, but the squeezable pizza sauce lasts nicely in our fridge until I can use it up...otherwise, I find moldy pizza sauce in the back of the fridge...)

So, I'm claiming a victory for averting a meal out with $10 at the grocery store, and another movie checked out from the library (which we haven't watched yet).

Today also has gone well...I really had a desire to stop by the pop machines and get 25 cent drinks...but Charlotte would want one, and always spills in her carseat. Honestly, that's probably the only reason I didn't break down...but I did admit that it wouldn't be in the spirit of the challenge to stop for drinks.

Day 5 - Payday!

I love payday...because I can spend time dealing with money, moving it around and paying bills (I may be the only person in the world who actually likes the process of paying bills...of course, I'd rather keep the money!)

So, I was just updating Quicken with hubby's new contribution to his retirement account, transfering money from one account to another so that I can write a check to pay for our foundation repair (which, thankfully only ended up costing $350) and making a contribution to Charlotte's college fund (we alternate months between the girls).

I'm feeling pretty good about this month so far. Obviously, I consider both the foundation repair bill and the college fund contribution to count as necessities.

I do have to admit that everytime I update retirement accounts or college savings accounts, I get a little sick to my stomach. You see, we've put in $950 (before today) for Charlotte's account and it has lost $125...ouch!

So, I have to make myself look at it from this perspective: Better to buy low and sell high! I know it sounds really simple, but I find myself having to work against my emotions. I just want to stop contributing to the funds and build up our emergency fund faster...but I don't really want to, I just don't like seeing the money go down.

Now, if I were a good Dave Ramsey-ite, we would have built up our emergency fund BEFORE we started contributing to retirement and college savings. We made our decision to slow down our savings to do these things, and now I feel like we need to stick with them. Of course, that decision would be reconsidered if anything major happened in our lives.

I am hoping that these 30 days of nothing help us to build up our emergency fund, and get us back on track towards saving, rather than wasting our money, as we so often do.

(Sidenote, we were having a discussion last night while I made dinner...I'll admit it, I was whining a little bit about having to cook and clean up after another meal, so I was trying to put that into perspective by remembering how blessed we are to have a home, a kitchen, food in our fridge and pantry, dishes, a dishwasher, etc. etc. etc...hubby was teasing me and said "you just wish there was someway to have someone cook for you and clean up afterwards" and I pointed out to him that there is such a place, and it is called a restaurant...)

da-da-da-DA!!!!

Ladies and gentleman (if you're still out there, sir), I am very happy to announce that--even though it rained all night long here--our crawlspace is dry as a bone, our foundation sound as a pound.

That's all I have to say, really...I'm just so relieved that the concrete guys were able to get here and get the job done so quickly after the initial little delay in coming out and giving us a quote. Otherwise I'd probably be down there, in the words of a certain cool governor, trying to "part the waters and heal the planet." ;-)

Cow slippers - Day 4

Almost done with day 4 of 30 days...

One of the things that I had noticed needed replacing was my slippers. I generally wear slippers around the house, as we have a lot of hard flooring. In the summer, we often get stickers in the house, and in the winter, the floor just gets cold. The slippers I've been using I bought before I was even pregnant with Charlotte, so they really didn't owe me anything. Unfortunately, the padding got all bunched up inside them, and when I was trying to fix it, it all ended up getting pulled out...so no more padding in the slippers.

Then I remembered that I had another pair of slippers that I don't like very much (they are fine if I am sick, but if I have to walk around a lot in them, they slide right off my feet) so I went into our closet to find them. I found them...AND a pair of cow slippers (you know the kind...with the head of the animal at the toes) that I put up because my other slippers (the now destroyed ones) were more comfortable and, lets face it, less embarassing to wear around the house. So, I have embraced my cow slippers today.

No spending today. We went to the library and signed Eva up for storytime, which starts at the end of this month, then headed over to the park to play on the slides and so Eva could ride her bike (our streets are a little rounded for her abilities!)

I'm already getting creative with food...

We've had some variety of cucumber salad for virtually every meal (at least 1, if not 2 a day) and there is no end in sight. Next year, I'm planning on a more diversified garden if only to be able to go back and forth between cucumber salad and sauteed zucchini...

Lunch today was roast beef slices with a little cheese and mustard on hamburger buns grilled and pressed down with a second skillet (kinda like a really white trash panini, I guess) with cucumber salad and orange slices. Dinner, I baked potatoes, and made twice baked potatoes with a can of rice and pinto beans (from SHARE...I've never seen anything like it before!) and a little cheese on top, and served it with canned peaches (we could've had another cucumber salad...I just couldn't take it!) We did manage to use up the leftover hamburger buns from Eva's birthday party today.

I'm doing okay with my lack of paperbackswap so far, although I think that I will have quite a stack to list by the time this month is over!

Day 2 (or 3...I'm just not sure how to count this yet!)

So, we are now on day 2 since I made the decision to do the 30 days of nothing yesterday...although, I don't think we spent any money on the 1st either, so I guess maybe I'll just call this day 3 to make life easier...

So, today we went to the grocery store. Our local ad came out, and hubby FINALLY remembered to bring it home (usually I have to ask him to pick it up for several days...it comes in the local paper, but the paper is so badly written, we don't subscribe anymore!) of course, right in time for my minimal buying thing...and there were several items that were good deals that I passed up. Here's what I bought:

1 gallon 2% milk $3.79
3.16 lbs bananas $1.05 (got a good price because they are overripe, but the girls are fine with them now...and if they ripen much more, I guess I'll get to make some banana bread...something that hardly ever happens since the birth of Charlotte the banana lover!)
3 boxes cereal $5.00 (5 for $10, used $1 off 3 coupon)
5 lbs potatoes $2.00 (originally charged me $4.45 instead of the sale price, but I noticed before we walked all the way home, so sent hubby back for a refund.)
Total: $12.20

I really have to babysit the checkers at our supermarket because without fail, several things don't scan correctly...and even with my vigilance, they probably overcharge me by $1-$3 per week. If only we had another option (the nearest other grocery stores are 40 miles away)

So far, so good...of course, I have noticed about a dozen things that need to be replaced around here, but I'm thinking of starting a Christmas wish list for them. My parents and hubby's parents frequently ask us what we would like for Christmas, and I almost always tell them there really isn't anything in particular...mostly because I go out and replace things without waiting for an occasion. Maybe this will help me to have a list for them!

Great column at First Things

Another Coloradoan, Suann Therese Maier, has a great column on the First Things "On the Square" blog today. It is entitled "A Vote for Sarah Palin." A great snip:

I will vote for Sarah Palin because she is intelligent, tenacious and talented. Nobody made her rise easy, and no one is making it easy now. And—is it only moms who notice this?—unlike Senator Biden, she does seem to act consistently on her beliefs about the sanctity of life, at considerable personal cost.

FYI: Suann Maier has a slightly higher profile than the bio on First Things would lead you to believe. In 2005, she and her husband Francis received "induction into the papal knightly Order of St. Gregory the Great as dames and knights," according to the January 26, 2005 issue of The Denver Catholic Register. Here is what that same article had to say about them:

The Maiers
Both 56 and married 34 years, Suann and Francis Maier are the parents of four children, one adopted and one with Down syndrome. Archbishop Chaput described them as “a model of Catholic family love for children with special needs.”
A teacher for 24 years, 20 in Catholic schools, Suann has been active in Catholic and public service volunteer causes for decades as a catechist, coach, board president of a school for children with special needs and a pro-life activist, the archbishop indicated. She has served as an emergency pregnancy counselor, raised the funds for and helped found pro-life clinics, recruited pro-life volunteers, and served in a variety of pro-life leadership positions, including president of the Right to Life League of Southern California, one of the largest pro-life education and service provider networks in the nation.
Currently archdiocesan chancellor and special assistant to the archbishop, Francis X. Maier has served the Denver Archdiocese for 11 years, beginning as communications secretary for Archbishop, now Cardinal, J. Francis Stafford. Former editor of the National Catholic Register, he has provided extensive policy counsel and support to the bishops and vicars general of the archdiocese since 1993, the archbishop indicated. He was the primary staff support in the development of the 1998 U.S. bishops’ pastoral letter, “Living the Gospel of Life.”
Suann Maier recalled that she was dismissing her fourth-graders from a parish school in Manhattan when a parent told her abortion on demand had been made legal. Pregnant with her first child at the time, she said she immediately understood that “abortion was going to be one of the gravest evils of our time, that God was asking us to walk the talk, and that this would be a defining work of our marriage.”
“To get an honor like this is beyond what we could ever have expected or hoped for,” she said. “It’s a beautiful recognition that our contribution is valuable.”

Representative Democracy

A few days ago, I saw a comment on a fairly prominent conservative blog lamenting that (paraphrase), "A major party ticket won't be able to have two white guys on it anymore" because of the Palin/Obama effect this year. While I'm not a big supporter of such things as race or gender-based preferences in hiring, I just can't get myself worked up too much about this. Sure, it will probably be the trendy thing to do for a few election cycles to have a woman or minority on the ticket, but so what? I believe these politicians are supposed to be in Washington to represent the people, and I don't think it's wrong to include consideration of race or gender in that idea of representation (even if it should be far from the most important consideration).

That being said, I don't think what has the elite level of the mainstream media, the Democratic Party leadership, and the "Beltway insiders" in such a tizzy is Sarah Palin's gender or even her conservative views on matters such as abortion. Rather, I think it's mostly something that Laura Ingraham touched on during Fox News Channel's rundown of yesterday's RNC highlights: a lot of people (probably including some of the old guard in the Republican Party) can't stand the fact that Gov. Palin went to the University of Idaho and not an Ivy League school, that her parents were public school employees and not governors or senators. A lot of people have questioned whether either Palin or Obama would be where they are now if they were white men...well, where would George W. Bush be if his father hadn't been President? Would Kathleen Sebelius be a blue governor of a red state if she weren't part of a political dynasty? Would Bob Casey, Jr. have any cred as a "pro-life Democrat" if his father hadn't been a political martyr for that cause?

I'm just saying that the part of the Sarah Palin selection that could change American politics the most is not so much that she is a woman, but that she is one of us: she ran off and married her high school sweetheart, she's had some trouble with her in-laws, and her kids haven't always made the best decisions. We can relate to that...and it scares the heck out of the Washington insiders!

30 days of nothing

Okay, so the title is obviously a little bit of a misnomer...as we have LOTS of stuff...

A while back, my friend Katie mentioned a blog called Owlhaven - she really is into the blog because the blogger has adopted several children from Ethiopia (as has Katie). I read through most of the archives, and I was most interested in an experiment that she did called 30 days of nothing. Basically, she challenged herself to spend minimal money (gave up things like buying books, tried to keep to a very minimal grocery budget and eat from her pantry, etc) and do activities with her kids to show them how good we have it in our lives as Americans (I think they washed clothes by hand one day, do regular vegetarian meals, eat oatmeal regularly for breakfast, etc.)

I brought it up to hubby a while back, and he didn't think it was a good idea. Largely in part (I'm guessing) to the fact that I tend to be very rigid and tend to beat myself up for little mistakes. Also, probably because he didn't want to have to hear about it all the time and listen to my determining if something would fit into the spirit of the challenge. (I can see his point, one thing that bugged me most about the service learning house at our college was that they could spend DAYS arguing over whether or not a pasta fork from the thrift store could be considered simple living.)

So, in a spirit of not torturing my husband about it, I have decided that I (not the whole family, just me) am going to attempt a 30 days of nothing challenge...of course, my definition of nothing isn't really nothing:

I am going to:
-Allow $25 a week for groceries (milk, eggs, bananas) but plan menus to clean out our deep freeze (we are trading my parents our little one for their larger one) and use up some of our pantry stockpiles. If we run out of something, I will buy it if I can work it into the $25 budget.
-Take the kids to the library at least once a week, and maybe even check out some movies for family fun night.
-Work on clearing out clutter from our house in my spare time.
-Put a vacation hold on my paperbackswap account (this is the thing that will hurt the most! I love swapping books!) which means, no more books coming in, and no more books going out (which costs us the postage) for the month of September.

I am NOT going to:
-Obsess about how much money hubby has spent on things (really, he doesn't spend very much at all...but I tend to be a bit of a maniac when it comes to saving money) or how much money we do have/are putting/will have in our emergency savings account.
-Talk about how it is going (I'll probably blog about it, then hubby can have fair warning and can avoid reading my posts if he doesn't want to hear about it)
-Nag hubby about cutting down on trips to see his parents. Transportation will continue as usual, and I won't fret about the number of miles/cost of gas.

So, here it goes, my own 30 days of nothing (starting 1 day late!) There are 30 some other people doing the challenge, so feel free to check some of them out!

"It's like Peyton Place around here!"

To be honest, I'm too young to really know what exactly my mom is referring to when she says this sometimes, but I get the impression that it was basically Melrose Place v1.0: attractive, yet disturbed and/or morally bankrupt people live in (too) close proximity, melodrama ensues.

While that description fits for some of the small towns I've been around, too, the town named Peyton has been in Colorado--and to some extent, national--news lately...and not because life there is like a soap-opera (as far as I know). It's a teeny-tiny town near Colorado Springs that is in some ways similar to the rural Colorado community I grew up in. So I thought it was a little bit intriguing to see it cropping up in two independent stories with national implications. First, Adam Brickley, a 21-year-old from Peyton who is now interning in DC, received a lot of credit for building the "buzz" around Sarah Palin with the blog I linked to here last week, "Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President."

Also, there is Kristi Burton, the 20-year-old law student from Peyton who wrote the "Colorado Personhood Amendment" (which would define personhood as legally starting at conception) and is serving as an at-large delegate to the GOP convention this week. I imagine these two "kids" are probably the talk of their hometown this month, and it warms the cockles of my heart a little bit to see rural Coloradoans out there on the national stage.

My struggle with friends...

Okay, I don't think of myself as that tough to get along with (maybe I am! Don't tell me though, cause I'm feeling a little depressed as it is...) but this whole Bible study drama thing is getting to be too much for me.

As an aside, isn't it wrong on so many different levels to have drama in a Bible Study???

Basically, the new thought is that no one wants to come to Bible study anymore because we don't do much fun stuff...we actually do a study. Several years ago it was basically a social gathering where we would discuss (for at least 3-5 minutes) what we had read that week. Mostly people chatted, gossiped, etc.

Then came the blow up--two people (who were the ones accountable to the parish) wanted to get us back to praying (simple things...making sure that we prayed before we ate, before we discussed, and at the end of the evening) and several people didn't take it very well. It even turned into an issue with people who had missed that night as they took sides. Several people hardly talk to each other even now (which is an amazing feat, as most of the group is related to each other, at least by marriage).

So, the theory is that if we take more time away from study for socializing, that people will start coming back. At least this time there is lip service to keeping a balance between the two.

And here lies my dilemma...I've always HATED the socializing part of Bible study. Not because I dislike socializing (okay, not COMPLETELY due to the fact that I'm not that much of a socializer...) but because EVERY SINGLE social event turns to a conversation about people I don't know, but everyone else (for the most part) does. about 10 out of 13 of us grew up in this town. Another one married a guy who grew up here, and finally one other woman and I are complete outsiders.

What I am struggling with right now is this--do I just go along with all the social stuff and give it another try in the hopes that I will be able to relate to the group in some way...or do I politely decline from the social opportunities because I am fairly certain that they will go the same way they always used to?

And if I politely decline, what do I say when someone notices and mentions it to me. Also, if I decline, do I try to find another outlet for friendships with other people in town, or do I just decide that family is plenty?

Hubby's inclination is that I should try for 6 months or so to get along and do the social stuff before making any decisions...I'm just not sure yet. Any thoughts?

And McCain's VP pick is...Sarah Palin!

It feels so weird for something in the world of politics to go just as I'd like it to (so far) that I'm not really sure what to say. I am so, so glad that Senator McCain chose a pro-life candidate, though!

I will say that I have been moved by Governor Palin's personal witness for life when it comes to her fifth child, Trig. Palin's son, born this April, was diagnosed with Down's Syndrome in utero, but Palin says she never considered "terminating" her pregnancy. Upon Trig's birth, the family issued a statement which reads, in part:

"Trig is beautiful and already adored by us. We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives. We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed."

For more on this part of the story, you might want to check out a good op-ed piece by Nat Hentoff (which I didn't stumble upon until today) here.

Now, for the peace of my family, a break from politics for a few days! ;-)

Hubby's favorite foods...

I just found an envelope that I scribbled some notes down on over a month ago while I was cleaning today (I've been doing a lot of cleaning in the last 24 hours...when I'm really ticked off, I clean...)

Shortly before our anniversary last month, I got to thinking that in our nine years of marriage there are several dishes that I know hubby loves, but that I have never learned how to make. (Partially because I find many of these dishes to be exceedingly gross...but still, you'd think I'd OCCASIONALLY make some of his favorites!) So, I sat down with him, and had him come up with a list of ten things that I don't make that he would like me to learn. So, for the enjoyment of all (and so I can throw away the AAA advertisement envelope that it is written on) here is the list of things I need to learn:

Frog-eye Salad
Funeral Potatoes
Tater Tot Casserole
Green Bean Casserole
Watergate Salad
Pretzel Salad
Pan Fried Round Steak with White Gravy and Mashed Potatoes
Goulash (that includes macaroni...pretty sure this dish really isn't goulash!)
Sweet Potato Casserole

and finally, he listed one that I do make occasionally, but that he really loves:

Sour Cream Enchiladas

Also, this goes to show you that AllRecipes has virtually everything!

VP blogs to check out

I'm becoming a nuisance to myself and all those around me with my current presidential race obsession, but here are a couple of blogs having to do with the so-called "veepstakes."

First, the Dems: I've really been enjoying reading "Catholics Against Joe Biden." I'll admit the name makes me a little antsy; I'm sure he has some lovely traits, and I feel for some of the personal tragedy he's experienced...but I just can't stand the thought of someone so blatantly spitting in the Church's collective face with regard to abortion.

On the other side of the aisle, the idea of Alaska governor Sarah Palin for Vice President seems like it could be a real wild-card in this election, especially given the relatively broad dissatisfaction among women with the way the Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton relationship has played out. I'm especially impressed that she is a member of Feminists for Life.

Anyway, take my opinion for what it's worth... but, again, the thought of a pro-choice Catholic Vice President is getting me all riled up.

PS: Finally got someone to look at the house's little foundation "issue" today and it looks like it's a lot less serious (and costly) than I was afraid it would be... what a relief!

Why I don't get along with other women...part 3,571

I'll admit it...I don't like women that much.

Obviously, it is nothing against women as a whole, or even against women as individuals (since I am one and all...) but there is just something that goes horribly wrong when women get together.

I'm involved in a women's bible study group. We are all around the same age and around the same stage in life (married with mostly preschool aged children), and almost all of us are Catholic (one is a non-Catholic married to a Catholic and raising her kids Catholic). Some days we get along just great...right now is not one of those times.

Basically, we have two warring factions (maybe a little overdramatic...) one group does not want us to have a leader, resists any sort of leadership, particularly if said leadership is the women in the group that are in charge of reporting our activities to the parish (hence, technically the leaders). This side also mostly wants to socialize, and keep us from offending anyone by getting too deep into the faith. The other side would like a hard core bible study, and are a little antisocial (okay, maybe that's just me...but not quite as enamored with the social aspects).

I ended up being the facilitator when we did Johnette Benkovic's "Full of Grace" study because I had done it before. I tried to pass the torch with our new study (Kimberly Hahn's "Chosen and Cherished") but no one would take it, so I'm facilitating again.

To make things worse, Father has set up the RCIA/Adult Education classes so that they are the same evenings as our bible study...now, the group as a whole seems to think that Father should work around the schedule of church activities rather than having church activities work around Father's schedule. Last meeting, there were 5 of us (out of 11-15...11 got books for this study) and we chose to move bible study night so it wouldn't conflict with RCIA/Adult Education. I have already started to get flak for that since I did have it put in the bulletin...but it is of course, from people who weren't there last time.

We also have this dumb secret sister thing...at first I thought it was fun...and actually it is kinda fun to come up with gifts for my secret sister. The first year, the woman who was my secret sister was a total dud (1 card all year, gift at Christmas, gift at end of year...whatever, it was fine, although I did think a birthday card would be traditional), and this year's secret sister is a little better (did several things early on in the year, but missed my birthday as well...of course, I do have a sucky time of year for a birthday anyway...) But when we have secret sister stuff (Christmas party, end of the year reveal) it takes a lot of time away from our bible study stuff...so we talked about doing either an "end on your own" thing or a coffee on a Saturday to reveal.

Here's were the current drama starts:

Next bible study is at our house, so I sent out an e-mail stating what I was cooking, what other people could bring, what chapters we are doing in the study, that we were moving days starting the following meeting, and that we had talked about the secret sister thing at the last meeting. I knew that one of the ladies had said she would take care of it, but I hadn't heard anything from her (and she has a tendency to tell me that she will call back about something and never call back...which is fine, but doesn't make me all that confident that things will get done) so I put a throw away comment at the end of the e-mail saying basically, anyone interested in organizing? Do we still want to do secret sisters? Knowing full well that there was next to no chance that anyone would take me up on organizing anything...

Well, I first got an e-mail (private to me) from one of the ladies saying that the one who had said she'd take care of it was dealing with it. I didn't bother responding, because I figured that she'd be doing it anyway...I thought that by offering it out, the people who don't want any leadership from the actual leaders of the group would be less put out by one of the leaders taking charge if they were offered the chance to be involved (do you see how convoluted this gets really quickly???) AND I figured that if anyone expressed interest, I could tell them that the lady who was going to take care of it was working on it and to call her to see if she needs help.

So, I get a call from the lady who said she'd do it telling me that if she says she'll do something, I should just let her do it, and basically keep my nose out of it. I tried to explain my reasoning...but at this point, I am just about ready to quit.

It's so much like all the drama in Altar and Rosary that caused me to try to start a K of C ladies auxillary in our old parish, which was thwarted by the new Grand Knight (the old one helped me get started) who wouldn't give us the names of the Knight's wives because his wife was an officer in Altar and Rosary and he didn't want to get in trouble with the A and R ladies...

I've never been able to get along with other women (particularly in women's groups), so I don't know why I bother trying...

Go Chaput, Go Chaput, Go!

I realize that lots of people watch stuff like "The Hills" to avoid thinking about politics and religion and the stuff like that, but right now I'm trying really hard to think about politics in order to stop obsessing about foundation repair (waiting all weekend for insurance and construction people to come back to work is making me CRAZY!).

Anyway, I just wanted to point out how proud of the leadership in our archdiocese I am. Archbishop Charles Chaput now seems to officially the go-to-guy for quotes on Catholic politicians, at least visavi the issue of pro-choice candidates receiving communion. Here's what he told the AP:

Chaput, one of the nation's most outspoken bishops on Catholic political responsibility, said Catholics who disagree with the church on "serious, sanctity of life issues" separate themselves from communion with the church and should not present themselves for the Eucharist.

Biden "has admirable qualities to his public service," Chaput said in his statement. "But his record of support for so-called abortion 'rights,' while mixed at times, is seriously wrong. I certainly presume his good will and integrity — and I presume that his integrity will lead him to refrain from presenting himself for Communion, if he supports a false 'right' to abortion."

Chaput added that he looks forward to speaking with Biden privately.

So, among the things to be thankful for today is: an archbishop with cojones. ;-)

Why married men live longer than single ones...

subtitled: "What my husband ate while I was away"

It's amazing that single men can survive...if they are anything like hubby. I was gone for 3 days...a total of 8 meals...here's what happened:

Wednesday:
Lunch--PB&J sandwich and peach (not so bad so far)
Dinner--PB&J sandwich

Thursday:
Breakfast--cereal (normal)
Lunch--bag of popcorn (free at Ace Hardware) and Mountain Dew
Dinner--Tomatoes with salt, dry cereal

Friday:
Breakfast--cereal (again, normal) plus starbucks double shot (not normal)
Lunch--forgot about lunch...ended up taking a late break after realizing he never had lunch, and went to 7-11 to eat two taquitos and another starbucks double shot
Dinner--microwaved a can of refried beans with creole seasoning and drank a can of peach nectar with applejack...

He is very glad that I am home and preparing meals for him again...of course, when he was single and not living in the dorms, he survived on bread and ketchup sandwiches, and leftover bagels and cream cheese that he would find in conference rooms...it's a good thing we married young!

Certifiably Insane...

What do you call two moms, eight children under 6, 175 lbs of tomatoes, 36 lbs of pears, 50 some quart canning jars, 20 some pint canning jars, two dozen half-pint canning jars, four batches of jelly and three canners???

Yeah...I'm tired...very tired...

However, the mission to Denver was a big success. I came home with 12 quarts of spaghetti sauce, 7 quarts salsa, 11 pints pearsauce (like applesauce, but with pears) and 12 half pints of jelly...

I also came home to a box of peaches with 20 some left, so I may have to do one more batch of canning...

Not to mention, I don't think either of us have looked in the garden recently (what with home improvement and destruction going on around here!)



Of course, I do want to show of my beautiful new backsplash (don't mind the mess...I mentioned that we just got home, right!?! And the corona box is full of canned food...not liquor!) and lovely new curtain. Sadly, I don't have a before picture, but the main reason we could afford this house was that it was unfinished (including almost no cabinet doors in the kitchen!), so hubby has stained and installed all the cabinet doors, sealed the tile counters, installed the backsplash and trim (also a almond color tile backsplash on our island behind the stovetop, which is almond colored, like the sink) and installed my new dishwasher. We have also put in a garbage disposal (the plumbers installed that one), so at this point, our only main challenge in the kitchen is to cover up the florescent lighting around the cabinets (you can see a little bit of the unfinished part in the picture...)

"Choice of Biden...

...Re-Opens Catholic Wound"

Biden's own bishop, Bishop Michael Saltarelli of Wilmington, Del., has said that the issues pertaining to the sanctity of human life are the "great civil rights issues of this generation."

Bishop Saltarelli denounced the notion that politicians can 'personally oppose' abortion, but refuse to pass laws protecting the unborn.

"No one today would accept this statement from any public servant: 'I am personally opposed to human slavery and racism but will not impose my personal conviction in the legislative arena.' Likewise, none of us should accept this statement from any public servant: "I am personally opposed to abortion but will not impose my personal conviction in the legislative arena," said Bishop Saltarelli.

John McCain: please, please, please choose a strongly pro-life running mate. I honestly think pro-life Catholics are going to be the difference in this election.

Things are about to get interesting in the "religion and politics" realm!

BTW: I'm obviously back from self-imposed exile. Got a lot of household stuff done, but in the process found where a bunch of water had run under our foundation. Next comes insurance adjustors, quotes from contractors, and me trying not to lose it. *sigh*

Oh, and MM and the girls got home safely last night, thanks be to God!

"No we can't!"

As luck would have it, on the same day I posted about Archbishop Chaput's new book he was posting some great thoughts about religion and politics on the First Things "On the Square" blog. Here's my favorite snippet:

Our leaders should inspire us; they should stir our hearts and call us to live the ideals that make America great. But sometimes the answer to the realities we face is not “yes, we can,” but “no, we can’t.” No, we can’t spend money like hedonists and outrun our debts forever. No, we can’t ignore the poor of the Third World and expect to be loved abroad. No, we can’t allow the killing of roughly one million unborn children a year and then posture ourselves as a moral society. No, we can’t make wicked things right by spinning them in a clever way.

So, in that spirit, I'm really going to try to say "No, I can't blog for a couple of days." MM and the girls are out of town on a suicide canning mission, so I (not to mention MM) feel it's important for me to get some home-improvement-type work done while they're gone. The only exception I foresee is a quick comment on the Democratic VP nominee if he or she really is announced before the convention starts. After all, four of the names floating around--Sen. Biden of DE, Sen. Reed of RI, Gov. Kaine of VA, and Gov. Sebelius of KS--are all pro-choice Catholics...and I may not be able to resist!

religion and politics

There's an old story about when GK Chesterton was first offered a newspaper column. Supposedly his publisher told him he was free to write about anything he wanted, as long as it wasn't religion or politics. Chesterton is said to have responded, "There is nothing else worth writing about!"

I'm really looking forward to reading Archbishop Chaput's new book, Render Unto Caesar, because its subtitle "Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life" has been somewhat of an obsession of mine for some time now.

As such, the last couple of days have been pretty interesting for me. First, of course, there was the forum involving Senators Obama and McCain at Saddleback Church. I won't go into it much here, but the First Things blog has an interesting comparison of four world-class medical doctors' (from such places as the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School) answers to Pastor Warren's question of when human life begins--they all say at conception--with Obama's response, "Well, I think that whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade."

Then, this morning, The Denver Post ran a pretty interesting column about faith-based initiatives by Jim Towey, who ran the White House office that deals with these from 2002-2006. It's worth a read, but I'm still kind of unsure about exactly how I feel about the government funding faith-based groups that provide community services. I don't think there's necessarily a separation of church and state issue involved, but I worry about the strings that might come attached to such aid. The old rule of thumb, "With government money comes government control" has a lot of truth to it, and I worry that some groups will lose what makes them effective--the fact that they're based on something beyond self-interest--while others will be forced to get out of areas still needing service because the state forces them to violate their beliefs (see, for example, Catholic Charities of Boston's response to state mandates requiring them to allow homosexuals to adopt children).

I talked a while back to our local state senator, whose kids are all homeschooled, about potentially providing vouchers for homeschooling parents. He strongly felt that tax credits would be a much better system because, frankly, he doesn't trust the government not to tie too many strings to money given more directly to parents. This, coming from a state senator, really gave me something to think about.

The freezer is full...

Well, it is now official...our freezer is full (it really doesn't take that long to fill it, as it is only the size of a dishwasher)

Today I canned 5 pints of bread and butter pickles (I'm ignoring the leftover cucmbers that didn't make it into that batch and hoping they go away...) and we froze 13 bags of corn.

Both girls "helped" us shuck the corn, with Eva being slightly more helpful (she probably did 5 or 6 herself) and Charlotte being slightly less helpful (she got one ear out of the husk and spent the rest of the time eating it and trying to take bites out of more...)

Then I spent a LONG time blanching all the corn, hubby cut it off the cobs, and I bagged it up. Since I ran out of ice midway through the blanching project, hubby had to run to the liquor store for more (they have the best ice prices in town...of course, they only sell 20 lb bags...), so I do have some leftover ice in the freezer that we'll use up for Eva's birthday party on the 31st.

We do need to make a little room in our refrigerator's freezer before Saturday, as it is SHARE day, and we ordered a grill package and a produce package. (Incidentally, I ordered these two items, then three days later got an e-mail coupon code if I would purchase those two particular items...I just have the worst luck with sales!)

The really good news is that I now can officially procrastinate canning all the fruit in my fridge, since I will be going up to Denver to do some canning on Wednesday. Yeah!!! And I should be able to come home with some canned tomato products, which are my favorite to can (and to eat!)

Swords

I've been thinking about swords a lot the past few days, for someone who is neither a homicidal maniac nor an employee of a renaissance festival.

First, I've been reading a series of sci-fi/fantasy books (yes, most are either one or the other, but these are both futuristic AND sword & sorcery) by Christopher Stasheff. I've really been enjoying them. It's funny, because they were recommended to me by my father-in-law (who is totally areligious) with the phrase, "You'll like him, he's Catholic." At first I was a little insulted by that, like my f-i-l thought I was more bigoted than I actually am or something, but I actually really do like the fact that Stasheff's Catholicism is very evident in his characters and settings.

Second, MM and I watched a really stupid movie called "King Arthur" on TV the other knight (hehe), which was produced by that Bruckheimer guy or whoever produced "Titanic." Oh, and Keira Knightley was Guinivere. Anyway, one of my many complaints about it was how they used their swords for every little domestic task, seemingly. Give me a break.

Finally, I finally got my grandpa's old Knights of Columbus sword from my great-uncle. I have to admit, I can't stop playing with it (I know, I know: paging Dr. Freud). There's just something so COOL about the sound of a sword being unsheathed. There are a lot of better reasons to become a fourth degree Knight, but the fact that you get a sword is definitely a (secretly) good one.

For me, anyway! :-)

"Look I Made a Frosting Cow!"

Yippee ki yo ki yay! Today is your special day! Yippee ki yay ki yoo! Today we celebrate you-hoo-hoo!

Happy birthday, majellamom! I love you.

PS: For anyone who doesn't know, that was from the VeggieTales version of the story of Joseph's ("technicolor") coat: The Ballad of Little Joe.

PPS: One example of the dorkiness I love MM for: when I sang that to her earlier she said, "I was just reading that story in the Bible; did you know that all those brothers were from four different mothers?" I realize I probably should've known that, but I'm just slowly getting over my cradle-Catholic hesitation to actually sit down and read the Bible.

My favorite talk from the Midwest Catholic Family Conference

Well, I have to admit that I had a hard time on our recent vacation. I was TRYING to remember the advice from Faith and Family Magazine about family trips being about having experiences as families, not as a vacation for mom. I didn't really mind the cooking and cleaning...but the lack of naps and the difficulties with discipline on the road got to me.

Hubby says it is mostly because I insist on sitting towards the front at Mass...but it was really difficult not to compare our kids behavior to other families around us. It seemed like everyone else's children were very well behaved, and that other moms weren't as frazzled as me.

So, my favorite talk from the conference was titled "Family Rules: The Power of We" by Jim Stenson. He has a great website here. Basically, he suggested that successful families should have a mission, a responsible chain of command, and a set of performance standards. For these standards (or rules, or whatever you want to call them, he suggests the following categories:
--We respect the rights and sensibilities of others.
--We all contribute to making our home a clean, orderly, civilized place to live.
--We give people information they need to carry out their responsibilities.
--We use electronic media only to promote family welfare, never to work against it.
--We love and honor our Creator above all things; we thank Him for His blessings and ask His help for our needs and those of others.

Go check out his website for more, as all the information he shared is there!

Also, We ended up buying a DVD/CD set called "You're a Better Parent Than You Think" by Dr. Ray Guarendi. The Catholic Answers table was having a buy 2 get one free sale, that hubby didn't think we should take advantage of (ironically enough, during one of the talks he went to, they announced that they had changed it to buy 1 get 1 free sale...so I could've gotten the OTHER book I wanted to, had I just waited...) I can't say that any of it is earth shattering advice or anything, but I really needed a pick me up for my parenting skills.

Things have been a little bit calmer around our house...I've been able to deal a little better with disciplining Eva--Dr. Ray's DVD really has reminded me that talking is not discipline, and Jim Stenson reminded me that having consistent expectations for the whole family to follow can make it easier to be clear in my expectations.

But it's a muuuu-sical!!!

Okay, Whimsy...living with Eva is VERY MUCH like living in a musical...

It's probably mostly my fault, as I've been encouraging such behavior all her life (BTW, since I know most sane people haven't watched as much VeggieTales as I have, the title is from "Lyle the Kindly Viking" where Larry the Cucumber...whatever his character's Viking name is...keeps singing lines that don't need to be.)

But, I am taking a break from the musical that is our lives for a canning update (although I really should be composing a canning anthem at this point...I mean, we even have a song for our last Vet...)

So far, I am pretty much out of pint jars, because I've realized that unless it is a tomato product (salsa, spaghetti sauce, canned tomatoes) I won't go through a quart jar at a time. I have PLENTY of jelly jars, so that's probably next on my list (besides raiding my MILs house for pint canning jars or heading to ACE for another case) Here's what I have done:

8 pints dill pickle spears
4 pints dill pickle chips
9 pints sweet pickle relish
4 pints dilly beans
5 pints green beans
6 pints peaches in light syrup

What I have failed at:
growing enough tomatoes to do anything with (beyond a few salads and BLTs)
keeping up with the amount of cucumbers and beans coming out of the garden
making sweet gherkins...I have learned that I should stick with fresh pack pickle recipes, as I don't think that I have the patience or stomach for brined pickles (I have a lot of paranoia about food borne illnesses thanks to my biology teacher of a mother!)

What I need to deal with in the next 24-72 hours:
25 lbs of peaches (minus about 24 peaches...so maybe 15-20 lbs left???)
36 lbs of pears (I should not be allowed to go to anniversary sales...I'll leave it at that)
A heaping colander of green beans (cleaned and snapped this afternoon by hubby)
A gallon bucket of even MORE cucumbers (maybe hamburger dills or bread and butter pickles...or we could go for a drive in the country and throw them at mailboxes...)

I'll be back tomorrow with a post (FINALLY) on my favorite talk from the conference...that is, if I can dig my way out from underneath this produce!

My new dishwasher...oh how I love thee...

Okay, you know you've been a housewife too long when you wax poetic about your new dishwasher...particularly if it is a inexpensive, not many frills variety.

I am currently researching whether or not to use my Cascade 2in1 Action Pacs with my new dishwasher, or if I should give them to my MIL and only use the Electrasol Tabs. I remember reading somewhere a while back that they could cause costly repairs (and I just didn't care with our old dishwasher...they dissolved very easily in the pathetic wash cycle the dishwasher could manage).

So, the dishwasher we ended up getting is an Amana 24 inch Tall Tub built-in in black. According to the saleslady, it was a top pick by consumer reports last year (and at least one reviewer got it because of something they read in consumer reports). Hubby stayed up until 1:45 last night (this morning??) getting it installed and making sure that it works. I've run it twice today, and my stuff seems to be coming out very clean! I am really pleased with it.

Hubby also found me some duct tape out in the garage (which is a pit where we can never find anything) so that I could repair the cheap WalMart laundry sorter that I broke down and bought over a year ago in desperation....the plastic joints were cracking, so a lot of duct tape later, and it's functioning well (if looking a little ugly!)

Our pug dog, Bubba had his checkup with the vet today. Hubby's been worried recently that he was looking skinnier and was worried that we haven't been feeding the dog enough...and our little report from the vet said he weighs in at 17.94 lbs and states "good job on Body Condition" because last year he was slightly overweight at his checkup. The good news is that hubby and I are doing a good job of keeping our dog and kids at healthy weights...now if we could just figure out how to do the same for us!

Bubba's problem area is his teeth...so I googled how to brush a dog's teeth this afternoon. Plus, we researched heartworm medications, because he hates the current stuff we have...how lame are our lives?

I just had to go let Charlotte out of her room...where she had escaped and gotten stuck with my newly repaired laundry sorter...my kids are weird, I know!

I'm planning on writing a little bit about my favorite talk from the conference before too long...maybe for our 200th post? Sometime next week, I'd bet...unless hubby gets the blog writing bug again!

Sharing is overrated

Going back a few weeks, we talked about some of our (often embarassing) quirks. Well, this is kinda another one: I love some of the kids shows on now and sometimes even watch them without the girls around. Case in point: "Yo Gabba Gabba." Now this is a show that the girls love (although Eva seems to be coming down a little from the peak of her excitment about it) and I really like, but MM has only grudgingly accepted in the house--not for any moral reason, I don't think; just because it annoys her so much sometimes.

I think part of it is that, even though MM loves music and has a far better educational background in it, I love to sing in funny voices with random lyrics pretty much all the time. Eva has inherited this from me, and Charlotte is coming along nicely as well. YGG caters to this annoying quality in the three of us and has the added benefit of really bizarre costumes, character names, and Biz Markie teaching kids how to beat-box. Yes, Biz Markie, along with miniature monster, a magic robot, and the occasional celebrity (like Elijah Wood) teaching a "Dancy-Dance." It's awesome.

However, there are occasionally some things about it that get on my nerves a little. For example, today the kids and I were watching an older episode that we had saved on the DVR. One of the characters was playing with a ball and didn't want to share. This one, Brobee, represents the most toddler-like of the monsters, so he frequently has to deal with toddler-like issues. Anyway, the trees in the forest started singing to him about how fun it is to share your things with your friends. He responded that he was having fun playing with it on his own, so why share? Because, the trees said, it's a lot MORE fun to share.

This seemed like a stretch to me, personally. Maybe it's because I'm sort of anti-social, but I frequently have a lot more fun doing things alone than I do with others. I'm not saying kids shouldn't be encouraged to share; in fact, I get on our kids all the time about needing to. But that's the thing: it's important to share because it's the right thing to do. I don't see why we should sugarcoat it and say it's going to be so much more fun than just keeping your stuff to yourself when, potentially, it will actually be a lot less fun to share. It makes me wonder if, deep down, whoever wrote that segment just doesn't believe in things being objectively right and wrong, that they want to encourage good behavior while appealing to no more than the person's self-interest as a motivation.

Or maybe I'm just reading too much into a show with the word "Gabba" in its title.

Today is the day!

So, hubby had to go into work this morning (his boss really doesn't like to stick to a schedule of any sort, and often will say "I'll give you a call if I need you back earlier" when hubby asks when to come back after lunch...) even though he was scheduled to have the whole day off. I'm not complaining, though, cause it's about $50 worth of time...

After he gets home, we are heading to my MILs house. She gets the kids for the day, then we are borrowing FILs pickup (we were supposed to borrow MILs big SUV...but she hit a phesant and it now needs a little work!) to drive up and buy a dishwasher. YEAH!!!

We'll also do a bit more shopping, then head home...maybe get the dishwasher installed (I kinda doubt it with the time frame) then go to the anticipatory Mass at our church. Then, hubby will go visit his parents and bring the kids home, and I'll go to my bible study (we are starting Kimberly Hahn's "Chosen and Cherished" tonight.)

Yesterday we finally decided on a plan for a backsplash in our kitchen. It's not going to be as nice as the cabinets and countertops, but we ordered some peel and stick tiles, will be looking into getting some trim today, and ordered some colorful curtains so that I can take down the horribly ugly lace thing that we've had since we moved in (I really don't like old lady window treatments...or wallpaper, but we didn't have the wallpaper problem in this house!)

Then tomorrow I have even more pickles to make, and I think I'm going to can some pears as well.

From the current issue of Time...

Under the heading "Verbatim" on page 17...

"'Even the patience of the brothers was being tested by our slow Internet' Father Daniel Van Santvoort, Cistercian monk, on his Welsh monastery's decision to get broadband access"


So, when religious orders start surpassing you technologically, does that really say something about you?

Ouch!

It's often said that the truth hurts. Well, when I told this little story at work yesterday, I knew I was about to get a little pinch:

Two days ago, after work, I took the girls to the best of the local parks to give them a little fresh air and to give MM a chance to breathe, if you know what I mean. Anyway, there was a birthday party going on, complete with inflatable castle (which the parents graciously invited my kids and the daughter of another couple who happened to be at the park at the same time to play on) and everything. I'm not absolutely sure, but I think most of these kids were about 6 or 7; in other words, at least a couple of years older than Eva. However, she got right in there when it came to playing in the sandbox and running around with the other kids. Not only that, but she apparently was trying to take charge. The last thing I heard before I intervened a little bit was her raising her voice to say, "You do it how I tell you! I know everything, and you're wrong!"

Ohhhh. I know where she gets that, and I don't just mean my Aunt Joyce (aka, "The Colonel"). And so do the people I work with... so I braced myself a little bit when I told my fellow clerks (who are both women) the story. Sure enough, they both got wicked glints in their eyes and said, laughingly, "Hmm, where have we heard something like that before?" "Well, how about a while back when you said, 'You do whatever you want, but I'm pretty sure I'm right!'"

By the way, yes, I did actually say that. And no, I didn't turn out to be right in that instance.

Ouch.

Like Al Smith, eh?

Joe Klein, who has been rhapsodizing ad nauseum about Barack Obama for months, has a column in this week's Time in which he engages in a little wishful thinking about how similar Barack Obama's situation is to Ronald Reagan's in 1980: a celebrity with not a lot of political experience going into the conventions with smaller lead than the party feels comfortable with, but (Klein envisions) both winning landslide victories after demolishing their opponents in head-to-head debates. We'll see...

But, anyway, the beginning of Klein's concluding paragraph struck me as a little odd:
"It may be that Obama is not Reagan. It may be that he is more like Al Smith, whose Roman Catholicism was too much for a Protestant nation to handle in 1928."

Now, this is pretty outrageous on a couple of fronts. First, comparing Obama to Al Smith is being pretty ignorant about history. Smith had double the years of elected office Obama has had, including having been governor of New York for eight years, and he was running against Herbert Hoover--a media darling who had never held any elected office. In that sense, maybe John McCain has more in common with Smith than Obama does.

Second, Al Smith was the victim of deep-down, visceral, widely-accepted anti-Catholicism. If you ever see some of the campaign materials used against JFK about 30 years after Smith, you can imagine what he must have gone through. For Klein to use this analogy, which by extension reads, "...whose African-Americanism is too much for a white nation to handle in 2008," is playing the race-card pre-emptively and without provocation, much as Obama has been doing himself since he won the Democratic nomination.

Anyone want some cucumbers???

Still a little bit sick around here, but at this point I'm just mostly sick of cucumbers!

When hubby first planted our garden this year, the beans did fabulously (they still are, actually) but he thought that the cucumber plants had all died...so he planted a second row of them...well, the first plants weren't dead afterall, and the second ones are thriving, too!

I loaned my waterbath canner to my MIL quite a while ago, and I took one of her canners home before we went to Wichita...well, I was nice and returned that canner with the bucket of cucumbers we gave her when we left...and she still has the canner (and another bucket of cucumbers...) so I've been doing my waterbath canning in my stockpot, which works fine, but I think the max I can do at a time is 5-6 pint jars (I definately couldn't do many quart jars in it!)

So, yesterday, I did 3 pints of dill pickle spears and 5 pints of sweet pickle relish. I also am midway through doing a pint or two of gerkhins (they require a couple of days of soaking.

Talking to my mom last night (she called to see if I wanted some videotapes that I made with some of my friends in middle school...I told her to burn them, please!) she mentioned that some homemade sweet pickle relish would make a good Christmas gift. The poor woman doesn't know what she's getting into, because I have enough monster cucumbers to make at least 6 more pints (if not 9!) So, in a while I need to run to the hardware store (for more pint canning jars and a new nightlight for the girls...they've been using a GentleVapors thing with a nightlight the last few nights!) and to the grocery store (for more green pepper, onion, celery seed and mustard seed). Then, there is a lot more canning in my future.

I also have a tentative plan for getting my dishwasher (birthday present), but I'm waiting to find out if hubby's schedule is what was written down, and then I need to check with my MIL so we can borrow her vehicle and possibly leave the children with her.

Sick...

Well, Eva brought home a cold from Wichita, and now Charlotte and I have it...

So, I'm not getting a whole lot done at the moment...even though the girls stayed overnight with grandma.

Hubby and I went to help run the beer garden at the county fair in a larger nearby county last night. The Knights there run it, and mostly they use their money as a fundraiser for the parish school. They also let other Knights councils come in an help some nights for a portion of the profits. Hubby got to work as a bouncer (no beer past this point) and I got to take money and serve. It was actually a lot of fun, if a late night (we didn't even stay until close, and got home right around midnight!)

We also had the opportunity to go to the nearest big box home improvement store while we were there, and found a dishwasher for $329 that I'm going to be getting as my birthday present (YEAH!!!) Hubby and I had a real disagreement whether or not a dishwasher was an appropriate birthday present. He really felt that a housewife was OWED a dishwasher and it didn't make an appropriate present. I asked him what an appropriate present would be...he said flowers, or jewlery or new clothes. I reminded him that the last time he got me what I wanted for my birthday it was new laundry baskets (I think that might've been for my 25th) and that I still LOVE them this many years later. I think he's finally given in...

So, my question for you guys today is: If you had a dishwasher in bad shape (ours doesn't consistantly fill with water, so we have to dump 2 1/2 gallons of hot water in the bottom before we run it) would you consider a dishwasher a good birthday present? Or would you feel as though the dishwasher should be replaced (given that we've already had one repair call on it this calendar year and they found a wad of extraneous wire duct taped into the front panel...) AND you should get some other (less practical) gift for your birthday?

Once I'm feeling a little better, I have one small bucket of little cucumbers, one large bucket of medium sized cucumbers and one large bucket of monster sized cucumbers to deal with...I am seeing a vast quantity of pickle relish in my future!

More thoughts on Wichita

Tim Staples was another of the more prominent speakers at the Midwest Catholic Family conference this year. He is one of an increasingly large and influential (within some circles, at least) group of Catholic converts like Scott Hahn, Marcus Grodi, and now Francis Beckwith (who, until last May, had been the president of the Evangelical Theological Society). In Tim's last talk of the conference, "Why Be Catholic," Tim linked the conversions these intellectuals to the success Pope Benedict XVI has had in reaching out to other traditions.

Specifically, Tim spoke about how the Pope's comments about Islam (and this Easter Vigil's baptism of a prominent convert from Islam) incited a great deal of outrage in the Muslim world, but now he is in talks with over a hundred Muslim religious leaders--which would not have come about otherwise. Less prominently, BXVI ruffled the feathers of many within the Eastern Orthodox churches early in his papacy by removing the title "Patriarch of the West" from the list of titles on the "papal resume," based on the logic that he is the head of the whole universal church (this title was instituted somewhere along the way in reference to the schism between Catholic and Orthodox churches). Despite the controversy, this attitude toward the Orthodox churches has been bearing fruit, too: this past Pentacost, an Assyrian (Orthodox) bishop and his entire diocese were brought into full communion with Rome.

Tim's point was this: BXVI is a great example to the rest of us that a lot can be gained by being firm in our convictions. We should be proud to be Catholics and to tell people what we believe without embarassment or compromise. In Tim's words, "It's time for us to stand up and start acting like Catholics!"

Damian Thompson writes here that this attitude on BXVI's part is the crucial difference between now and 1994, when the Anglican Church first allowed the ordination of women, in terms of numbers of potential converts from Anglicanism. Without much pressure from an ailing Pope John Paul II, overly-ecumenical Catholic bishops actually discouraged traditional Anglicans from leaving their church then; now, Thompson suggests, BXVI will make sure that doesn't happen, and the numbers will be much higher.

I think this has a lot to do with the success of the Pope's visits to America and Australia this year (much to the surprise of the media in both places, I think). People--especially those in the Gen X and "Millenial" demographics--are just starved for capital-T-Truth and really respond to someone who says what he believes and believes what he says.

In other news, I hear pro-choice Catholic governors Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and Tim Kaine of Virginia are near the top of the list of Obama's potential running mates... hmm

Thoughts on conference, Take 1

Phew! We're still so worn out from travelling and whatnot that neither of us has really worked up enough momentum to tackle much of what we learned about in Wichita, but I'll take on just a little bit right here. Hopefully there will be more to come.

So, the theme for the whole conference was what Mary said to the servants at the wedding feast of Cana: "Do whatever he tells you." John 2:5 Not coincidentally, this was also part of the Gospel reading during the first big Mass of the conference, on Saturday. Fr. Frank Pavone from Priests for Life was the homilist and, while he did incorporate the message of the reading into his homily, he probably would've said pretty close to the same thing no matter what the reading was: that, especially in an election year such as this, we need to remember that life is the first and most foundational of all rights and, while we should work to alleviate all kinds of other social ills, if we do so without protecting the sanctity of life from conception to natural death all our work will be "built on quicksand." Despite its predictability, Fr. Pavone's homily was very good and very powerful, and it ended with a definite message of hope: unlike the apostles on Good Friday, we know what the outcome is going to be so, during the darkest times, we can say, "It's Friday, but SUNDAY'S COMING!"

All the while Fr. Pavone was speaking, I couldn't take my eyes off the sweet little Down's child in the row ahead of us. He was probably about 18 months old, I'd guess, and just exuded a calm joy throughout the Mass (made even more evident by contrasting it with our girls' increasing impatience with Fr. Pavone's long homily). I got to thinking about the girl in Eva's section of the kids' program with the severely malformed legs, of the Boehmer Family Jugglers' (one of the featured speakers/performers at the conference) second-oldest son who had been born with only one and a half arms but had gone on to be, literally, a world-class juggler. How many of these people would have been "therapeutically" aborted without people like Fr. Pavone fighting for their lives? Thank God for him.

I also thought back to that homily later this weekend when we became what felt like some of the last people on earth to see WALL-E in a theater before it goes into the DVD and pay-per-view rotation. I loved the movie, but won't write too much on it here as it is no longer "fresh" news. But, going back to Fr. Pavone's homily, I will note that I was touched by one moment in the film when some of the humans finally start to rediscover what it means to be fully human; in this case, a man and a woman work together to save the lives of some helpless babies. See: even Hollywood gets it on some level!

Why Isn't Cold? Heat Is The Agony!!!

Okay, so we are back from Wichita...and the title should alert you to a dorky thing that hubby and I do when traveling.

Whenever we go on long car trips (and where we live, there really aren't any other kind!) We turn town names into acronyms.

There's a little town in Colorado that we thought had the lamest city motto ever. The town is Ault (I apologize if anyone from Ault is reading this...the town is cute...but come on...lame motto) Anyway, Ault is A Unique Little Town.

So, as an example of one Colorado town we've done this to, Simla - Some Idiot's Melting Ladles Again

We even managed Colorado Springs once...but I've forgotten that one. I'd tell you what we call our town, but 1) that'd tell you where we live, and 2) it is not blog appropriate (and is pretty creepy, too)

So, I give you the Kansas version of our acronym game:

Wichita - Why isn't cold? Heat is the agony! (It was 105 and humid our whole trip)

Salina - Sally applies lipstick in New Amsterdam

Goodland - Good ones only drink lagers and nice drafts

And, we realized a little Nebraska town has an even lamer town motto than Ault. Wauneta, NE has the motto "we're halfway between here and there"...maybe we would have found it funny rather than lame if we hadn't been in the car for so VERY VERY VERY long!

I'll be back to write about the conference sometime this week...gotta go break up a fight between the girls!

My Bloggy Giveaway Winner is...

Commentor #7 - momo3!

Thanks to everyone who entered! I loved the dorky/quirky confessions about you or your spouse!

Check out some other Bloggy Giveaway winners here. (It was closed before I could get in...bummer!)