On Sunday, my daughters were drawing on our erstwhile chore board. When I was mopping yesterday, I happened to notice what they had drawn. So I took a picture, because it was disturbing. The pain scale is Sienna’s creation, clearly inspired by repeated viewings of Big Hero 6 (which is my new favorite movie, btw). I’m pretty impressed by how much she picked up on the idea that pain scales are rubbish, since #8 appears to be suffering 3rd degree... Read more
My family is sick. Between the hacking and the moaning — and that blond lady rocking back and forth in a corner — our house has doubled as a sanatorium for over a week. It’s terrible. If we were slightly sicker, I’d swear it was the flu, but I actually think it’s just a particularly nasty cold and we all have crap immune systems. Nevertheless, much like an undertow, the second I think we’ve turned a corner it pulls us... Read more
For Lent, go read Elizabeth Duffy’s Litany of Days. O holy dishes in the sink and laundry in piles on the couch O holy kneeling to run the vacuum under the bed O holy wondering if there’s something more I should do O holy sitting in the chair not reading as intended O holy word affirming my existence O holy stabs into that ether with my own tired voice O holy dissipation in longing for something to happen O holy... Read more
I’m having trouble writing about anything, lately. The martyred Coptic Christians, the Jews fleeing France, ISIS trying to bring the apocalypse with more violence, more bloodshed, more death….that’s the framework for the trepidation that I’m sensing. Sensing, not feeling, because it’s not originating from within me…it seems to be everywhere, with everyone, a pervasive intuition that the world has lost some kind of balance. Elizabeth Scalia put it well on Facebook: I saw a still-shot of the video, which I... Read more
I took a week off from blogging kind of unintentionally. Actually, what happened is that my friend Anna lent me her late grandmother’s copy of The Thornbirds, since she was horrified to find that I had never read it (I’d never even heard of it till last week). I picked it up idly on Sunday and that was that. My week was shot until I finished it on Thursday, at which point everyone in the house got sick but me.... Read more
I was going to write about vaccines today, but luckily I remembered that I don’t hate myself. Instead, I went with a less controversial topic — seven reasons why Bruce Jenner can still be a Catholic now that he’s transitioning to a woman, but Kim Kardashian’s butt cannot. 1. Bruce Jenner knows that even as a woman, Jesus doesn’t want him to wear yoga pants. But Kim Kardashian’s butt never asks itself what Jesus would do. 2. Screw Belloc —... Read more
On Sunday, the prosecutor general of the Holy See announced that two cases of child pornography were discovered in the Vatican last year, along with numerous instances of drug trafficking and money-laundering. Unveiling the Vatican’s justice report, Milano stopped short of naming those accused of possessing child pornography. Holy See spokesman Federico Lombardi however identified Josef Wesolowski, a disgraced former ambassador, as one of the people facing charges. (Read the rest here) This is no longer shocking or even surprising... Read more
So remember how the Ogre and I went to hang out with Jen and Joe for a few hours on Friday? It was totally awesome and I only stepped on her toe once, but this post isn’t about that. Here’s the picture I promised, though: This post is about how the Ogre and I have a new tactic for squeezing in date time: grocery shopping dates. Yeah, I know it sounds weird and lame, but it’s totally not. I mean,... Read more
7 It has been a kajillion years since I’ve done quick takes, so long that I had to get the new picture from Kelly since quick takes are now at This Ain’t The Lyceum. You read Kelly, don’t you? I mean, of course you do. But she’s hysterical and I love her. 6 One of the reasons I remembered to do quick takes today is because Jen is on my mind. She’s in Naples speaking at the Legatus conference, but... Read more
Liam and Lincoln both woke up this morning with stuffy-snotty misery colds, so I cancelled our morning Trader Joe’s excursion and battened down the hatches to prepare for a sick-but-not-sick-enough-to-lay-in-sad-but-silent-misery day. After one movie, a half-hour of Legos, 20 minutes of skateboarding across the tile on their stomachs, and 1.5 hours of bickering and hitting each other over the head with plastic swords, I declared story-time. Liam lost interest and wandered off after I refused to read the rhyming ABC... Read more
Barefoot and Pregnant
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