Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Wit for your Wednesday (vol. 3)

**WIT FOR YOUR WEDNESDAY**
Brought to you by the color olive and the letter P.


Presenting... 
(with kudos to Jonathan Bratten for sharing it a while ago, 
and Jennifer Fulwiler over at Conversion Diary 
for reminding me)...



"The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; 
lying to others is relatively an exception."

That's right folks, good old Family Circus cartoons paired with random quotes from Nietzsche. 



Happy Lent! 

Friday, February 22, 2013

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 2): Shout Outs etc.

7 Quick Takes Friday: Shout-outs etc. Edition





1. 
Our seeds came today! 
We ordered approximately 2 bajillion seeds 
located in Winslow, Maine: 

Shout out to Rebecca Bratten Weiss for making me
 more conscious of where I buy my seeds :0)









2.
Now, I am already wicked pumped that this lovely seed company is in Maine, 
but should I have been surprised that the seeds were delivered in a Volk Packaging box? :o) 

Shout out to Derek Volk and his awesome cardboard crew!



3.
This is the lovely mirror that Steven bought on a local online auction for $2.50. That’s right $2.50!
[The picture doesn't do it justice, but you can see the pretty curtains we bought a while back, 
and none of the clutter on my table. :P] 
Shout -out to Deborah King, 
who I know will be very excited for this :0)





4.
Shout out to my BFFs. 
You know who you are! 4-evah!

But seriously, I am serious. :0) 
xoxoxo
...and I also think these little girls have super-cute swim suits. 








 5.
Shout out to my lovely sister Margaret (so that makes two for her in this blog--awww!),

 who loves me way much. Way much meaning she mailed me a 
whole entire *big* bag of these for a Valentine. 


xoxoxo








6. 
So, kind of returning to item #1, now that we have "approximately 2 bajillion" seeds, 
we've got to get them started...and we're thinking about doing some farmer's market stuff this year. 
Whether that means I'll get my act together and get one going here in town, 
or I grow stuff and then pawn it off on unsuspecting other people...remains to be seen.  
But those little packets are deceivingly small for how much potential they contain. 
(There is some philosophical life lesson in that, isn't there?)








7.
You really can't get enough of this guy can you?

He is making a strange face because he is still wary of the papparazzi and doesn't like his picture being taken.
This is his Davy Crockett hat. He wears it everywhere, 
and everyone asks him if he's Davy or Daniel Boone. 
Sometimes he tells them, sometimes he just shows them his gun, which is whatever household (or outdoor) item that is currently serving as his side-arm. This week it's his "stick gun", which you can see in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture. 




Of course, 7QT was started by Jen, over at Conversion Diary :0)

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Wit for your Wednesday (vol. 2): intermission

Wit for your Wednesday

And now for something completely different...

THE PIANO GUYS!

Fabulous fun with a peppy piano :0)



Update:

I *obviously* should have included this one, as it's funny AND geeky:


...also this one, same reasons, really: 




*shout out to my friend Ellie for pointing me in their direction : )*

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Wit for your Wednesday: Inaugural Edition with Special Guest Star

Introducing...

**WIT FOR YOUR WEDNESDAY**
Brought to you by the color pink and the letter B.
For the inaugural edition of this (potentially) weekly blog (but more likely weak-ly, aka whenever I get around to it or feel like it, as with the rest my posting...), I introduce our guest star, my beautiful sister Margaret, pictured here with one of her favorite nephews,


with (drum-roll please):


Reasons I would never be on The Bachelorette 

(besides the happily married thing)


·         I have an education.
·         My dad would be mad at me.
·         I am 27, and therefore probably too old.
·         I had enough of a living with a bunch of drama-filled girls when I was an RA in college.
·         I have self respect.
·         I decided early on in life not to prostitute myself.
·         I am higher than a size 6, and therefore also too fat.
·         My mom would be mad at me.
·         I don’t kiss on the first date.
·         Or maybe even the 2nd.
·         I don’t really like the objectifying of people.
·         I find the men suspicious.  (You fly a plane and have a stable job with perfect teeth and  you can’t find love even though you really just want to settle down?  Yea, ok...)
·         My dad told me I could do anything, and he didn't mean make a fool of myself on national TV, he meant be a lawyer.  Or whatever.
·         I have read more than 5 books written before 1700, and 1800, and 1900…

There are several more reasons I am sure, and my useless rant against almighty reality television will amount to almost nothing.  However, this list is also why I don't watch the show....

Friday, February 8, 2013

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 1)

7 Quick Takes Friday

("7 Quick Takes Friday" was started and is hosted
by blogger Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary)

So, if you stopped by for a visit today, here's what you'd get from me.  Thoughts on several things, all connecting in my brain...swirling around and--here ya go. 

-1-
BABIES - the world needs more of them.

Nope, not kidding. The whole over-population-crowding out the globe thing just isn’t the case. In fact, we’re shrinking, and have been since the early 1970s (ring a bell, anyone?), with only a slight blip of growth called the Baby Boom.  With contracting populations come economic problems, go figure. 

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death." 

-2-
Tolerance – see the other post--I got too long-winded for comment here...

-3-
Could you ever resist this smile?

I am reminded again this week how blessed I am to have a team-mate in this parenting adventure. Steve has been away to Texas for work—and “single-mom” is just...hard!

-4-
I almost forgot to say something controversial about guns. I’ll let Ted do it for me. There’s also "The Gun is Civilization" by Maj. L. Caudill, USMC (Ret), which you can find here.

-5-
Lent is coming! (--look busy!)
Look here for suggestions on the prayer, fasting, almsgiving J



-6-
And here my late-night blogging was interrupted by Leo’s late-night hollering and my discovery of his spiking a fever L. Having sick kiddos is not fun, and can often be scary for Mommas; I think this is largely in part because they can’t really tell you what is wrong.  And on this note, did you know that February 11th is World Day of the Sick? and that the sick and their care-givers can get a plenary indulgence? Yup. That’s right. Oh, you didn’t realize indulgencies were still a thing? Yes indeedy.

-7-
I’ll leave you with a pep talk for your day.
“You got air coming through your nose!”






"Real & Costly Love"


TOLERANCE:


     What I mean in general is the cry of “Foul!” from the world around us that says Christians are not living by our own standards, or are being intolerant, bigoted, unfair, unjust etc. etc. The fact of the matter is that we are intolerant, and should be.  Consider the words of the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen:
Christian love bears evil, but it does not tolerate it.  It does penance for the sins of others, but it is not broadminded about sin.  The cry for tolerance never induces it to quench its hatred of the evil philosophies that have entered into contest with the Truth.  It forgives the sinner, and it hates the sin; it is unmerciful to the error in his mind.  The sinner it will always take back into the bosom of the Mystical Body; but his lie will never be taken into the treasury of His Wisdom.  Real love involves real hatred: whoever has lost the power of moral indignation and the urge to drive the buyers and sellers from the temples has also lost a living, fervent love of Truth.  Charity, then, is not a mild philosophy of "live and let live"; it is not a species of sloppy sentiment.  Charity is the infusion of the Spirit of God, which makes us love the beautiful and hate the morally ugly. 

 Tolerance is an attitude of reasoned patience toward evil … a forbearance that restrains us from showing anger or inflicting punishment. Tolerance applies only to persons … never to truth. Tolerance applies to the erring, intolerance to the error … Architects are as intolerant about sand as foundations for skyscrapers as doctors are intolerant about germs in the laboratory.  Tolerance does not apply to truth or principles. About these things we must be intolerant, and for this kind of intolerance, so much needed to rouse us from sentimental gush, I make a plea. Intolerance of this kind is the foundation of all stability.

I feel largely inadequate to speak very eloquently here, especially as I know that others have spoken plainly what I myself think (--if only I had the time/words to say it like that!), but two things have come up in this vein this week:
a.       The Boy Scouts of America debating a decision on whether to allow openly homosexual members and leaders.
b.       A post I saw (which was not intended to be taken the way I took it) that said that “Love is Acceptance regardless of Flaws or anything else”

And herein lies the problem. We have a difference of definitions here. For the Christian, to love someone must mean to love their very person, their innate created and unique self-hood, their infinitely precious mind, heart and soul—but not their faults.  Plainly put, love does not, and must not tolerate sin.  
     Now, I realize that there is WAY MORE to the story than I am delving into here--you can thank my two beautiful, getting into everything all day long boyos for that--way more including broken hearts and burned bridges and torn up families. I do not mean to steamroll any of this. There is also a great deal of harm done to others in the name of Good and Love that needs to be repaired. The brokenness surrounding this issue tears at my heart.  But please--do not ask me to tolerate it. Ask me to love you, and I will, though that is indeed the harder task for us both.

"Our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner - no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment."  --C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory