7 Quick Takes: Joy and Grief and Sorrow and Silliness

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I hope you all had a blessed Christmas! Ours was great (more on that in take number 6) but it came with some sad news. On Christmas Eve my Dad called to tell me that my cousin Greg, the only son of my dear aunt, died suddenly during the night of a massive heart attack. Greg suffered for years with diabetes and all the health issues that come with it. Thankfully my aunt has her five daughters and their families with her, supporting her during this time of unspeakable sorrow. Greg's four sons and their families have been there to comfort their own mother, Greg's wife T. (sorry for the abbreviations, I feel weird about using real names; although my cousin's name really is Greg.)

Please keep Greg's family in your prayers, especially his suffering mother and his grieving wife. I decided earlier this week to begin a novena to Our Lady of Sorrows. I don't know if I've been "doing it right," but I know that Mary, through the sorrowful suffering and death of her only son, will comfort them.

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As I was Google searching the Our Lady of Sorrows novena, I came across several different ones, and I discovered a Rosary to Our Lady of Sorrows. As you pray this Rosary you contemplate the seven sorrows of the Blessed Virgin, and pray one Our Father and seven Hail Marys for each one. It's a beautiful prayer; check it out here. I haven't actually prayed it yet; I might just try to get my hands on a Chaplet with its seven groups of seven beads. (Not that I need the beads to pray, of course; if anything it would remind me to pray for those who are burdened by sorrow. I know plenty of people who are.)

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I posted my first 7 Quick Takes blog over at "Cooking Nick's Books: A Sparks Fan's Food Blog" earlier this week, with some random thoughts about food, books, blogging, and a little preview of A Walk to Remember and the food we're preparing for tonight's New Year's Eve get together. If you have time, click here and check it out!

I'm glad, by the way, when I started this blog, I didn't know how (or maybe Blogger didn't have this feature yet) to check the stats to see how many people have been viewing it. This blog doesn't get very much traffic as it is, but "Cooking Nick's Books" get next to none. Maybe ten views a week on average, and I figure at least half of those are quick peeks, and they don't even read it. I try to tell myself that when I started "Musings of a Catholic Mom," it probably had similar stats, and the readership has gradually grown over the last two years. I'm having fun with that blog, and I hope I'll persevere and keep it going despite the meager stats; and maybe, just maybe, more people will begin to read it. It's a very small niche, I know, choosing one author (Nicholas Sparks) and making it all about his stories and the food in them, so I guess I shouldn't expect too much.

I like to imagine that Nicholas might eventually run across it (every time I post there I put it on Twitter, and say something like "Check out this lasagna inspired by A Bend in the Road by @SparksNicholas!" That automatically connects it to his Twitter account, so maybe he's already seen it, who knows?) and the thought kind of scares me and thrills me at the same time. It makes me instinctively write each post as though he were reading it. Isn't that silly? I just hope that if he does eventually read it, he doesn't hate it or think I'm some loony nutjob stalker fan.

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This morning on Cooking Nick's Books, I posted this quick take of sorts:

Happy Birthday, Nick!

My mother and I will be thinking of you today when we're preparing all this stuff. (Click here and read to the bottom. It's quick.)

I recently celebrated my birthday, too; my sister-in-law baked me a cake and everything. So I hope your day is as fabulous as mine--full of love and laughter and cake!

Happy New Year to you and to all of the five or so people who read this here little blog of mine.

So, my loyal blog readers, do YOU think I'm a loony nutjob stalker fan?

--5--

On Tuesday we commemorated the Feast of the Holy Innocents. Sometimes I wonder why we don't pay much attention to this part of the Christmas story. We hear all about how the wise men went to Jerusalem and told Herod they were looking for the newborn King, and Herod gathered all the priests and scribes together and asked them where the Messiah would be born, and they told him it was Bethlehem. Herod goes and tells the Magi this, and says, "Come on back here and tell me where to find him so I can worship him too." You know the story--and angel visits the wise men and tells them that Herod wants to kill Jesus, and they should go home a different way. We often skip the last part, when Herod goes into a rage and has all the boys under two years of age in Bethlehem murdered.

I guess nobody likes to talk about what Herod did to the babies for the same reason nobody likes to talk about abortion. It makes people feel uncomfortable. I heard someone on the radio say that given the population of Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth, somewhere between 20 and 29 babies were murdered. Everyone agrees, I think, that Herod was a bloodthirsty psychopath. Since 1973, more than 50 million babies have been slaughtered in the United States, and it's perfectly legal. What is wrong with us??

Recently I finished reading Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice. In the book, seven-year-old Jesus is beginning to learn the circumstances surrounding his birth. As the book progresses, family members reveal bits and pieces of the story to him--the appearance of the angel to Mary, the visit from the Magi, the singing of the angels to announce his birth--but the one thing no one wants to tell him is why they had to flee to Egypt, and just what happened in Bethlehem after his birth. When he finally learns the truth, he is so horrified that he screams and weeps and becomes completely delirious with grief. Don't you think he is just as grief-stricken today every time a child is killed in the womb? Why aren't we?

--6--

The last time our family traveled anywhere for Christmas, I was pregnant with Curly. We went to New Jersey where Joe's parents were living at the time, and Larry, who hadn't yet turned two, began puking during the night and didn't stop until morning. The next night it was my turn, and I spent the entire day after Christmas lying miserably in bed. Since then, we've always stayed home for the holidays. When Joe's brother and sister-in-law invited us to spend Christmas with them in Atlanta this year, we figured the kids were old enough to handle it, and decided to go.

We had a wonderful Christmas (except for the sadness from the news of Greg's death), ate lots of great food, attended Mass at a beautiful church (stay tuned for a Get Thee to the Church post!), and the boys--except for Curly, I'll explain in a second-- especially enjoyed entertaining their two little cousins, who are three and one-and-a-half.

We went despite the fact that Moe ran a fever the day before, and I discovered the night before we left that my temperature was over 101. (No wonder I'd been feeling so lousy all day). The doctor in the urgent care center said that Moe didn't have strep and she didn't see any reason why we shouldn't travel, just to make sure we brought along plenty of Tylenol.

By Christmas morning Moe and I were both feeling better, and as we were getting ourselves ready to head over to Joe's brother's house, Curly ran to the bathroom and puked. He spent half the day lying on the couch trying to stay away from the kids. By three-o-clock he felt fine and ate Christmas dinner with everyone. (Maybe it was the chili dogs he ate at the Varsity.)

It snowed. It was cold. We had a wonderful time.

--7--

I published my first blog post here on January 1, 2009. Tomorrow will be my two year "blogaversary." I don't know if I'll plan any special celebrations here; I'm sure in the next couple of weeks I'll post some reflections on 2010 and some things to look forward to in 2011. I'm probably going to have to cut back on blogging for a while and concentrate on my preschool work; it's almost time for me to get progress reports together, and I need to organize some of their work and the photos I've taken into binders to give them at the end of the school year. (I didn't say quit blogging; I just said cut back. Still post regularly, but maybe not quite as often. No need to worry. You know I can't stay away from here.)

Merry Christmas everyone, and many blessings for the new year!

Saturday Morning Quick Takes

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It seems lately that all of my blog posts have been either "7 Quick Takes" or my "Get Thee To the Woods" series, when I celebrate the joy that God's creation brings and our love for the outdoors. Why? Probably because a. these two memes are my favorite ones to write (and I get to post lots of pictures, which I love), b. they're *sometimes* the fastest kind to put together and c. I'm so busy between Monday and Friday, the traditional days for these posts, that I don't seem to have time for any others. (It doesn't help that I've started another blog, either; I'm excited about it nonetheless. Check it out here.)

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Speaking of my other blog, Cooking Nick's Books: a Sparks Fan's Food Blog, I posted a quick "take" of sorts there yesterday; it's so quick, in fact, I can repost it below:

I was tempted... (that's the title of the post, don't ya know)

...to buy this last night when I stopped in at Border's.

Nick's new book, Safe Haven, just came out last week. I hope I have the willpower to wait until it comes out in paperback, or at least until the price for the hardcover comes down a little. I wonder what we'll be cooking for this one? We still have quite a number of books to get through first.

At our house, fried chicken a' la The Notebook is on the menu this weekend; stay tuned! (I think we'll be watching the Dear John movie, too. I'll let you know what I think. Chances are I'll like it.)

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We finally got Netflix streaming on our Wii, and since that's in our basement rec room, I'm planning to mainly use it for when I'm working out on my elliptical. (We also got our Fios box fixed in that room, too; now I have absolutely no excuse not to use the elliptical since there is ALWAYS something on the TV to keep me entertained.) Right now I'm watching the series, The Pillars of the Earth that aired on Starz recently and is based on the book by Ken Follett. I am enjoying it immensely, even though--as with all films based on books--they've changed and left out some details from the book. It wasn't until I started the third episode that I realized that it's produced by Ridley AND Tony Scott, who are famous for those films like Gladiator and Troy (or, what I like to call, "Manly Men Weilding Swords" movies). This one stars Matthew McFayden (I've nicknamed him "Dreamboat Darcy" because I first saw him in the most recent Pride and Prejudice film, and even though Colin Firth is the One True Darcy, Matthew sure gives Colin a run for his money in his version) as Philip, the prior of a Benedictine monastery; Donald Sutherland--I LOVE him--plays a nobleman and the father of the cheif romantic female character. I've finished the first three episodes, and still have five more to go. (I'd better hurry up and make these takes quick so I'll have time to work out on top of all the chores, errands, flag football games, etc...)

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Meet my new best friend:

I took this photo last January when we went to Sunday Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. (read my post about that trip here.) I'm not sure why I decided to take the picture of the St. Anthony statue; I've always been quite skeptical of Anthony's reputation for finding lost things. I'd heard many stories of people who had lost something important to them, prayed for St. Anthony's intercession, and then found what they had been looking for. Being an unorganized person by nature, I have lost things from time to time; occasionally I have prayed, "OK, St. Anthony, can you help me with this one?" only to never find what I'm looking for. (One possible exception was when my brothers then-fiancee' had bought her wedding dress on her trip home last Christmas, had it shipped to her apartment in Northern Virginia, and the shipping company lost track of the package. I asked St. Anthony for help--practically dared him, really--and the package finally showed up. I told myself that this probably would have happened with or without Anthony's intercession, but my prayer certainly didn't hurt.)

So last week (I guess it's been almost two weeks by now) I needed to write someone a check for something or other and my checkbook wasn't in my purse. I had use another one I happened to have and write the check with that, but I was quite concerned not knowing what had happened to the one I was supposed to be using. I racked my brain and looked around for a day or so before finally breaking the news to my husband; we checked and fortunately no one had used any of the checks. Yet. Meanwhile, I prayed, "St. Anthony, if you're ever going to help me, now would be a good time." As an afterthought, I added almost childishly, "Please? I'll be your best friend!" The last place I remembered having it was the allergist's office, where I had taken Moe for his annual test. I called and they hadn't found it. I called the SubWay where I had stopped for lunch that day, and they hadn't found it either. I went to the bank, ready to stop payment on the lost checks, and was standing in line when I remembered I had also gone to the grocery store that day as well. I went out to my car, called the store on my cell phone, and Praise God, they had it. It must have fallen out of my purse when I was trying to figure out the dang self-checkout machine.

Thank you, Jesus, and thank you, too, Anthony, for your help! I've got a couple of other things in mind I'd like you to help me with, if you would...

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This one is for all you blogging pros out there: My number of blog followers seems to be diminishing, although I do gain new Twitter followers almost daily, so I think this space might get more traffic than I realize. I've set it up with Networked Blogs so it will automatically post to my Facebook and Twitter pages; I get comments on my blogs from my dear friends on Facebook, so I know some of those (fabulous) people are reading them. I try not to be discouraged when I see other blogs with hundreds of followers, and mine with only 45, and I'm NOT jealous (really, I'm not!!) but truthfully I would love to have more. So my question to you bloggers who have a plethora of followers--what's your secret?

Oh, and one more thing...is it rude to unfollow blogs and un-friend people? I have blogs on my reader that I ALWAYS read, some I read from time to time, and some that I never read. The other day I dropped a few friends from my Facebook page, not because I don't like them or they made me mad or anything like that; it's just hard to keep up with everyone, and frankly, I didn't think I knew those people well enough to be all that interested in what they were up to. I hope this doesn't make me a bad person. Does it?

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Today I have so many things to do I'm going to have to leave this post without all 7 takes. There is more I want to talk about: like the Great Adventure Quick Journey through the Bilbe study our parish mom's group is starting; and how I'm thinking about my priorities in life, and how I'm hopefully managing my time--what I need to devote more time and energy to and what needs to be cut, and where blogging fits in. These deserve blog posts of their own, and right now I don't have time to write them. Maybe later this week? We'll see!

Bookworm, Blogworm--I'm still here!

I thought the summer would bring me more free time--time to read, clean my house (ha, ha, who was I kidding!), and blog. I have had more time for reading, and I have been devouring books one after the other. I've tried to keep up a pattern this summer of alternating fiction with nonfiction titles, and so far it's going very well. I've been more selective in the books that I'm choosing, and so far I haven't read one I haven't liked and/or learned a great deal from. I was away from my computer over the 4th of July weekend, (a fabulous trip to Watkins Glen, NY for the Indy Car race there, and a wonderful weekend with friends. I hope I get a chance to tell you more about it; it's beautiful up there and we had a great time.) I spent about a half hour this morning reading up on some of the blogs I'm following--not all of them, I'll admit, and I left no comments.

Here's a rundown on some of the books I've read recently:

1. Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits by Steven W. Mosher, the president of the Population Research Institute. It's an eye-opening account of how big organizations like the World Bank and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) are encouraging government leaders to control the birth rates of their respective nations. Everyone knows about China's one-child policy, and China arguably has the most oppressive population policies, but did you know that the UNFPA actually partners with China to encourage population control? Mosher tells some horrific antecdotes that he has collected over the years from Chinese women, and women from other nations as well, who have been intimidated into having abortions and sterilization procedures. Overpopulation fears began as early as 1798, believe it or not, when Rev. Thomas Malthus predicted that by 1890, the Earth would be dangerously overpopulated. In the 1960's there were fears of a population boom (or "bomb" as the term was often used; presumably an analogy to the atomic bomb), and some decided that we must do something about this "problem." To make a long story short, big and powerful people began imposing population control programs in many countries; in fact, some global relief organizations refused (and still refuse) to supply aid for their nations' poor unless contraceptive services were encouraged. In many developing countries, clinics are well stocked with contraceptives, but have no supplies and medicines to treat diseases such as malaria and other preventable infections. To control the spread of HIV, condoms are handed out, and abstinence is given a dismissive wave of the hand. The HIV epidemic is getting worse in many places, and there is evidence that it's actually being caused by population control programs: A woman goes into a clinic for a shot of Depo-Provera; except the needle has been used on an HIV-positive woman (unbeknownst to anyone because she's never been tested) and not properly sterilized. (Plenty of contraceptives, but inadequate equipment to sterilize tools properly. Go figure.) In many countries, there are, or soon will be, too few young people to help support the elderly populations, because people have been discouraged or prevented from having children. I would recommend this book to anyone, whether pro-life or pro-choice, who is concerned for the welfare of Earth's poor.

2. The Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. This is a must-read for every parent and teacher. Remember when you were growing up and you spent all your free time outside? Especially in summer, when you roamed the neighborhood and built forts and tree houses, played hide-and-seek, and searched for crayfish in the creek. You played pickup football in the vacant lot, or maybe in your neighbor's side yard. What do kids spend their free time doing these days? Playing video games and surfing the Internet. Kids go to school and learn about how the rainforests are quickly disappearing, and humpback whales are becoming extinct; but too many kids don't know what plants and animals live in their own neighborhoods. How will kids grow up with concern for the spotted owl in Oregon when they haven't really played outside much at home in Virginia or Florida? Spending time in nature is a great way to reduce stress--how many times did you climb a tree or go fishing or head down to the creek to skip rocks when you were upset and needed to cool off? I will tell you this: my youngest son, I am happy to say, is NOT a victim of nature-deficit disorder; every day he brings some new critter into the house that he's found under a rock or down by the lake near our home. He likes to watch the birds hop around the yard looking for food. My other two boys are not quite as attached to nature as the youngest, but I hope we are limiting their "screen time" enough and encouraging enough outdoor play that they will appreciate and take good care of the natural world around them. The most recent edition has great resources for parents and educators, including specific activities to do with kids to help them develop a love for nature.

3. The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. I read this one over the Fourth of July weekend. I admit it--I'm a huge fan of Nicholas Sparks, even though some friends and family members cringe every time they hear his name. I know Sparks' novels tend to be somewhat predictable and full of his own cliche's, and they typically follow a similar pattern: in coastal North Carolina, a boy and a girl meet and fall in love. Things seem to be going great until some tragic event or strange twist of fate threatens to tear them apart. Sometimes one of the lovers ends up dying, leaving the other to try to get on with life without them; other stories have happier endings. The Lucky One reads like a typical Sparks book: a soldier serving in Iraq finds a photo of a girl in the dirt, and when no one claims it, he keeps it. Soon he discovers that carrying the picture everywhere he goes seems to protect him from harm, like a lucky charm. Once he's finished with his tour of duty, he sets out on foot from his home in Colorado to track her down to Hampton, North Carolina. The two end up falling in love, much to the consternation of her ex-husband, who is the father of her son and the deputy sheriff. Yes, it's predictable, but there are enough surprises and little twists to keep you reading; and I will say that the ending is satisfying if not a little sad. If you like Nicholas Sparks' books, The Lucky One is as good as any of them.

I hope to write a few more blog posts before the end of July; I want to tell you about our recent trip to the Finger Lakes and the racing we watched there. (Every year I become a bigger fan of the sport, it seems.) I hope to blog some more about other books I'm reading or plan to read; and later on this summer I will DEFINITELY tell you about our trip to Yellowstone National Park, which is coming up soon! I'm sure I'll post some pictures, too.