I Have to Sit Down
3-year-old: WAH! WAH! WAH! I WANTED TO CLOSE THE DOOR! WAHHHH! Me: Well, maybe if you ask me politely, I will move over so you can close it. 3-year-old (snuffling, in her most polite voice): Mama, will you please move your fat bottom? Read more
3-year-old: WAH! WAH! WAH! I WANTED TO CLOSE THE DOOR! WAHHHH! Me: Well, maybe if you ask me politely, I will move over so you can close it. 3-year-old (snuffling, in her most polite voice): Mama, will you please move your fat bottom? Read more
I just got home from my third visit to the pharmacy to get our apparently rare and unheard-of prescription filled. In case you missed it, we spent Christmas vacation throwing up, thrashing around with fevers, and feeling like we had each swallowed a bundle of toothpick shards wrapped in Velcro and dipped in Tobasco sauce. Strep throat, all ten of us — and guess what the doctor gave us? It’s something brand new, called “pen-i-cil-lin.” Utterly taken aback by this... Read more
Here’s an unsettling story: seconds before a Filipino politician was shot, he took a picture of his family — and the gunman. The man with the gun, at left, is just about to kill him. He’s aiming for the face. Here’s a ghastly little postmodern one-upsmanship on that photo of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald: The present gets shaved and shaved more narrowly, without getting any closer to what is actually happening to us. We all know that... Read more
Since my dear husband finally fell victim to the dread plague, I watched a movie by myself last night, while holding a little blue t-shirt in my lap (to signify that I was about to start folding laundry any minute now). Well, I didn’t get any laundry done, but I did rediscover a wonderful movie that you will love, as long as you’re not my husband. Really, I don’t know what is wrong with him. The movie is Queen of... Read more
Silly me, I thought we would never get around to taking a group photo this year, but there we all are! I guess this is God’s way of telling us to slow down and have ourselves a streppy little New Year. Also, He hates us. Oh, just kidding! If He hated us, the pharmacy would have run out of penicillin before our order was complete. Oh, wait, it did. Meh, it could be worse. My husband isn’t working this weekend,... Read more
1. It’s all very well to say that we should preserve Advent as a penitential season of waiting and preparation, and you shouldn’t jump the gun and celebrate a feast that hasn’t yet arrived. But you know what that gets you? One mother having a nervous breakdown trying to get it all together on Christmas eve image source and eight kids who stare at you blankly when you suggest singing Christmas carols. Because they didn’t learn any Christmas carols, because... Read more
(image source) ~~~~~~~~~~~ Of the Father’s love begotten, Ere the worlds began to be, He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending He, Of the things that are, that have been, And that future years shall see, Evermore and evermore! ~~~~~~~~~~ Merry Christmas to all my dear readers! Thank you for being such good company, and may God bless you and your families today and in the new year. Read more
I just heard this remarkably positive story on NPR’s All Things Considered, about a vocation boom for young Dominican sisters in Tennessee. I almost never come into contact with sisters or nuns, and kind of forget they exist, to be honest, so I’m not automatically interested in stories about them. But I defy you to listen to this story without feeling refreshed. The story is a good read, and has accurate information that you rarely hear from secular sources —... Read more
Elizabeth Scalia posted a link (on Facebook, not on her blog — but she always has tons of good stuff, so check it out!) to this sculpture of the Annunciation, by John Collier: (photo source: The Deacon’s Bench) I know it’s just about impossible to make a judgment based on a photo, but what do you think? My first thought was that it made reference to the statue of Apollo and Daphne by Bernini: (photo source) The artist seems to... Read more
Since my son left his math book at the dentist’s office, pretty much all we’ve done in home school is a little spelling, a craft or two (you can pretend I didn’t say that if it makes you feel inadequate. You wouldn’t feel inadequate if you saw our crafts, though), and read The Odyssey retold for children by Geraldine McCaughrean. Sometimes I read, and sometimes the kids read aloud. Kids who read silently far above grade level often don’t know... Read more
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