Fortnight for Freedom

The American Bishops are on a roll!

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Why I’m still mad about The Descendants

Miss it if you can.

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I’ll be on the Drew Mariani Show today

around 5:40 EDT for about 20 minutes, talking about the abstinence and sex ed posts I wrote.  While I am honored that they asked me on the show, I’m trying hard not to think about how incoherent I usually am by that time of day!  Is it still considered cutting edge to say “sort of” instead of “you know?”

The Drew Mariani Show

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Book winner!

Congratulations to . . .

deopatriaeamicis

the winner of Feast Days and Holidays: Living and Celebrating Our Catholic Traditions.  Thanks for playing, everyone!  I’ll have another nice book giveaway in a couple of weeks. 

Happy Friday!

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So what DO we tell our kids about sex?

Hello, everyone.  Guess how many times I wrote today’s post and then WordPress, Expression Engine, and the Microsoft Word lost it?  And guess how many medals I’ve earned for not just filling in this post with colorful exclamations having to do with . . . ducks?   And mothers?  The answer to the first question is THREE.  And the answer to the second one is NOT ENOUGH.

The good news is, they sell REALLY BIG GLASSES at the dollar store.  And now I’m off to refill it.  Son of a.

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Is THIS what abstinence-only education looks like?

One of the excellent comments on the Register for today’s post (which is not political; I just thought this was a good comment):

This is why Catholics need to be wary about taking sides in the United States’ “Culture War”. The US is predominantly a Protestant nation. This means that the battle lines aren’t between secularism and Christianity, but secularism and heretical Christianity. (Not that I don’t like Protestants, but their moral theology is seriously deficient. I certainly don’t stay Catholic for the music.) As a result, Catholics may find themselves unwittingly supporting positions and ideas contrary to Church teaching due to a poorly thought out political alliance.

My husband added, “Protestants don’t understand the body, because they don’t have The Body.”  Then he said, “They made a pretty good dinosaur, but it has too much frog DNA in it.”   Heh.

(I realize that these are pretty broad strokes.  Perhaps protestantism in other countries looks different from American protestantism; and perhaps a certain crummy but VERY LOUD segment of American protestantism gets a disproportionate voice in the American media?)

 

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Book giveaway!

You know what I like about my life, among other things?  People are always like, “Hey, can I send you a free book?” and I’m always like, “Why, yes, you can!”  I have two copies of this one, and I’m jealously guarding one, but I’m giving away the second one.  It’s called

Feast Days and Holidays: Living and Celebrating Our Catholic Traditions
by Joan Marie Arbogast.

Heck, I’ll just tell you what I wrote for the blurb:  “[F]ull of appealing, substantial and (best of all) doable activities to help kids sanctify celebrations throughout the year.  The language is simple but not condescending, and the prayers and activities are clearly designed with actual children in mind.  Saints, feasts, and holidays are included in this guide to loving and serving God and each other — and enjoying ourselves — while building Catholic traditions.”

This is a large, spiral bound (so it opens up flat), fully-illustrated book from Pauline Books and Media, retail $19.95.  Some of the activities are more interesting than others, but I can see it coming in handy for home schooling parents and others who just need some ideas.  As busy parents know, it’s essential to have a reliable go-to source, and this one has a short explanation of each special day, a short, appropriate prayer, and a recipe, craft, or activity to bring it home.  Good stuff!  I wish I had had it while we were home schooling.

To enter to win this book, just leave a comment on this post.  The contest will close at noon on Friday the 25th, when I will close the comments and then use a random number generator to choose someone’s entry.  One entry per person, please!

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But can you walk in it?

In which I realize that I’m 37 years old and haven’t learned to walk in heels yet, and probably never will, so I decide to pass it off as intelligence for your life.  I think I may be teshing it up TWO notches this time.

 

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LOL books

Book recommendations!  Get yer hot book recommendations here!  Once again, should you happen to want to buy any of these titles, you can use the links below and my wallet will fatten with pennies upon pennies per sale!  Fanks.

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody by Will Cuppy

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Ten reasons I’m doomed this summer

Last night, I went to bed a little after midnight.  The baby woke up, so she nursed for a little bit.  It seemed like she had been nursing for kind of a while, so I checked the clock.  It was 4:50.  And she was still hungry.

The bad part is, I wrote this incomprehensible and pointless post before that night.

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