Climate Changes

Over at A Woman’s Place…Depends on Her Vocation she wrote about her reaction to the climate in Florida where they are living while her husband is in graduate school. I can relate to a climate being a bad match. Florida is hot and humid or hotter and even more humid depending on the season.  My grandmothers loved the place and spent happy years living down there.  I enjoyed visiting but have never wanted to live there because of the heat and humidity. My home state is Ohio.  A place of more moderate heat in the summer but its own dose … Continue reading

Vatican Approves ‘Blessing of a Child in the Womb’

Vatican Approves ‘Blessing of a Child in the Womb’ “I’m impressed with the beauty of this blessing for human life in the womb,” said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). “I can think of no better day to announce this news than on the feast of the Annunciation, when we remember Mary’s ‘yes’ to God and the incarnation of that child in her the womb that saved the world.” (USCCB:  Vatican Approves English and Spanish Texts for ‘Blessing of a Child in the Womb’) This is … Continue reading

Easter Baskets

I used to think that candy and decorated eggs were essential for Easter.  I’m not so sure about that anymore. From my childhood, I recall with great fondness the baskets of candy at Easter, but the BEST gifts were the books.  Some Easter Sundays we would come to the breakfast table and find, on our chairs, lovely hard-bound copies of classic children’s books.  One year there was a white bound copy of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm on my chair. It has an inscription in it from my parents to me with the date. I still have that book. I think … Continue reading

Movies and the Toddler

I learned the hard way that there are some movies that you as a parent will say are OK for a toddler and then live to regret. I find the movie Lilo and Stitch ADORABLE. I had a Stitch stuffed toy before this child was born, became a fan and absconded with my Stitch. However, I did not realize that a child could relate so strongly to the frustrations that Lilo was facing in trying to communicate with her sister that she would begin to act them out. My two year old has taken to responding to frustration JUST LIKE … Continue reading

We live in a Culture of Death

Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus’ health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors argue that what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled. source I began my morning over at A Woman’s Place… … Continue reading

Facing Myself

“You go on being worldly, frivolous and giddy because you are a coward. What is it, if not cowardice, to refuse to face yourself?”                               (St Josemaria Escriva, The Way #18) Oh the busyness of modern life.  We MUST answer that phone; we MUST return that text; we MUST see that sitcom or ballgame.  There is so much that is not essential to life that we think essential and Lent is the perfect time to go about learning to avoid those non-essentials. St. Escriva calls the result of non-essential things and activities, “worldly, frivolous and giddy” and states emphatically that the … Continue reading

Technologically Anxious

It is more than 20 years since my first online chat and I am still anxious about each new development but far more open to being given help out of my comfort zone and enjoy this new world of technology. I am not a technologically comfortable person.  I remember hating my first remote control because I could not understand what each button did.  I still don’t but am comfortable with not knowing. In 1991, I was dragged with great resistance on my part to the computer for my first online chat.  It was on Compuserve in the science fiction forum.  … Continue reading

Self Publishing or Submitting to a Publisher?

I’ve this wonderful little story of which I am very proud and it would make a nice children’s picture book. I know what kind of art work I want to see put with it and would prefer to work with the artist myself to plan the series of illustrations. Ideally, I would learn the ropes and create this book with the help of the artist I choose and a good graphic designer. I know just who I would choose as I LOVE how she designs even her notes for graduate classes! But the traditional path is submission to an established … Continue reading

Coffee is a Gift from our Creator

Ordinary Goodness: Coffee is a Gift from our Creator I am looking at my blog and thinking about changes that would improve it.  I do this because it is an exercise for a workshop at the Catholic Writer’s Guild online conference.  I do this while enjoying my morning coffee. I love coffee.  I buy mine from the Mystic Monk coffee link which is in the right hand column of this blog page.  Mystic Monk Coffee, for those who do not know, is actually roasted by real monks who support their life of simplicity and prayer through selling their coffee and … Continue reading

Catholic Writer’s Guild Online Conference

I am busy enjoying the interesting workshops on the CWG’s online writer’s conference all this week. This means there may be fewer posts, but it also means there will be more sprucing up being done on my blog and I will be making a to-do list of changes I’d like to make as I learn how to make them. Meanwhile, keep praying your way through Lent!