Love God Right There

I was reading Fr Z’s excellent blog. He said something in this post on one of the prayers of the liturgy about application of Church teaching being specific. If I can see someone I am to love God right there in that person. If I am to do some task I am to love God right there in that task. We are called to love and desire God’s will in concrete situations, in the details of life, especially when those details are little to our liking. We must love God in this beggar, this annoying creep, thisJesuit, not in beggars, creeps, and … Continue reading

Marriage and Men

I wrote a bit ago on my take on the role of the wife in marriage, reframing the “wives submit” to “I am my husband’s second, I have his back” and I wanted to speak on the husband but without attempting to advise husbands from my own thoughts so much as point them toward men I think who would be good for them. Enter ROMAN CATHOLIC MAN.  Here is a web site that speaks to men about being men in our culture and framed by scripture and the Catholic faith. I am impressed by it. So husbands I advise you … Continue reading

Useful Books I Keep At Hand

I see many people online asking about the best way to begin to learn the Catholic faith. I looked over my shoulder to the stack of books I keep at hand nearly all the time, even when I must dig through piles of books, these three stay on top: The frog helps to prevent other books from being placed on top to annoy me when I reach for my Bible.  That is THE DIDACHE BIBLE put out by Ignatius Press in partnership with the Midwest Theological Forum. The translation is the RSV-CE, considered by many Catholic scholars to be one … Continue reading

New Year thinking–on writing

Each year I put a new set of good things I would like to work on, to improve, expand, change, or grow into for the next year. I divide my 18 boxes in my planner into two groups, those that are about me, and those that are about others. Then I decide on 18 areas that I would like to grow in 2018. One of those is about my writing, but also about my use of social media. I write, it is rather constant. But this past year I’ve done some of my deeper comments on life in discussions on … Continue reading

I want God to tell me, “What is my purpose in life?”

The plaintive cry of a devout soul praying and seeking guidance as to her purpose in life. That was me quite some years ago. I loved Jesus then, I love Jesus now. The difference has been that I have moved from, “God, tell me, what is my purpose?” and waiting to be told, to “Thank you Jesus for making me. I offer you my day and ask you to help me please you with it.” What changed? Mostly perspective.  It finally sunk in that God had been speaking all along but because I was looking for a supernatural locution or … Continue reading

Puppetry and Ventriloquism

Ventriloquism is to Puppetry as Square is to Rectangle.  A Ventriloquist IS a puppeteer, but not all puppeteers are ventriloquists. I am irked when ventriloquism and puppetry are separated out as if they were two different things. They are not. The misunderstanding comes from the time when the popular ventriloquists of the day used the hard figure or ventriloquist dummy exclusively, but ventriloquism is not limited to the use of these traditional style instruments. Shari Lewis’ Lambchop is a ventriloquist figure but is not a hard figure. These days ventriloquists talk of hard figures and soft figures to differentiate between … Continue reading

Home School Days, wherein I rant

What to do when your first grader is NOT an early reader? What to do when readiness is slow to arrive? What do you do when well-meaning friends and family fuss because it looks like this child is going to be behind? You take a deep breath and evaluate. Learning style of teacher and pupil.  It is a constant question–what curriculum do I use? I used Seton for a very long time. It was not the first curriculum I tried back in the day more than twenty years ago when I first embarked on home schooling. I tried Kolbe (classical) … Continue reading

HABITICA-a marvelous tool for productivity

Habitica is a marvelous online tool for organizing your day. The way Habitica works is to turn your work day into a role playing game. In this way, those things you need to do anyway are given instant rewards in a fun and stress free game setting. You have this little icon, and some options for hair and skin color and clothing. The tasks that gain you gold and experience points are all linked to whatever tasks you input on the Task Page where you list your Habits (like practicing a musical instrument), Dailies (like home schooling, or showering), and … Continue reading

Tidying my Office–Before

Post 2 on my struggles in housekeeping.  Today, I continue with step one in THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP by Marie Kondo. My office is currently in our RV, which is also under renovation.  The good side of using the RV as my office is it gives me ample time to figure out what I want changed in here, and what things belong in here and which do not. Right now my desk looks like this: It is a bit cluttered. I like having the family photos on my desk. I feel good having them there. The only family … Continue reading

CONVERGENCE

THE LIFE-CHANGING ART OF TIDYING UP is all about beauty. The ordinary beauty we make for ourselves in our homes. Yet in a culture that devalues beauty, attempts to define it down to function, and links the value of everything to the money it can produce, our lives are filled with clutter and ugliness. Returning to my original discussion of the loss of beauty in our culture see how wrong the culture has this entire concept? “What is beauty?” is a question that this culture is as ill-equipt to answer as Pilate was to answer his own, “What is Truth?” … Continue reading