7 Quick Takes: Odds and Ends and Outdoor Fun

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Last Friday in my Seven Quick Takes post, I showed you some pictures of what the inside of our church looks like while it is going through some renovations. There is work being done on the outside as well, and they're expanding a house to convert it into the rectory. Today a construction worker fell from a roof and was badly hurt. He is expected to survive, but may lose a lung. Please pray for him.

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I'm FINALLY almost ready to start reading this book:

It's Miracles: Healing for a Broken World, written by Father Stefan Starzynski, a priest who was assigned to our church for several years; and Chris Grzasko, a good friend of Father Stefan's who attends our parish. He's already been on EWTN radio to talk about the book, and he'll be on The Catholic Channel on Sirius/XM on May 11 (which just HAPPENS to be his birthday!) I believe he'll be talking to Gus Lloyd on his Seize the Day program; when I get more details I'll be sure to give them to you here. Meanwhile, you can order the book from just about any bookstore; here is the link to Amazon.

You can follow Father Stefan on Twitter here, and be sure to check out his website!

All proceeds from Miracles: Healing for a Broken World will be donated to the Paul Stefan Home for Unwed Mothers.

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It's Kids Say the Darndest Things Friday over at Lucy's Mystical Rose blog, so here's my little story for this week. The other day I heard Larry, who is thirteen, say this to Moe, who is nine: "When I was YOUR age..."

Thirteen-year-old boys know EVERYTHING.

Lucy's story is much better than mine. Check it out!

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Let's all remember to pray for the eleven workers who are still missing from the oil rig explosion. I think it's pretty much been determined that they did not survive. One of my Twitter "peeps," Jill, tweeted that her father is afraid that one of the victims was a friend of his, but didn't know for sure since they haven't released the names yet.

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Outdoor Fun: On Wednesday, it rained most of the day, but the sun came out in the afternoon.

Moe and I decided to take our dog for a walk by the lake.


When Moe sat down to throw some rocks into the water,


...of course the ducks and the goose assumed he was feeding them and came over to check it out.

When they saw this ferocious beast staring at them,

they quickly retreated.

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On Thursday we decided to take a detour on the way home from school and hunt for a geocache. While we were searching, we looked up to find it staring back at us!

Curly signed the logbook,

while Moe examined these little red critters. I can never remember their official name; we used to call them "p**s-ants."

(For more about geocaching, go to http://www.geocaching.com/.)

Back home, Moe took it upon himself to try and rid this puddle of all mosquito larvae.

I'm in! Are you?

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Today is the Feast of St. George. I don't know much about him, but he seems to be a saint we can all turn to this day and age. St. George was a soldier in the Roman army under the pagan Emporer Diocletian, and when he refused to renounce his Christian faith, he was martyred. Legend has it that he once killed a dragon who was about to devour a maiden offered as a sacrifice; the story illustrates George's willingness to stand against evil to defend Christ and His Church. Today there are many who would sell out their faith to the Culture of Death. How many purported Catholics try to twist Church teaching to justify abortion? Our culture now sacrifices its children to the dragon of "choice." Let's all try to be like St. George and stand up for the Truth. Perhaps together and with the Holy Spirit's guidance, we can slay the dragon of death and anti-Catholicism before it wounds the Church any more than it already has.