Eating Slowly, Transitioning to Word Press

I've gone and done it, folks; I've set up my new-and-hopefully-improved blog over on Word Press.  For now I'm calling it "Eating Slowly"  --which is kind of a misleading title given the fact that my boys wolf down their food as if they were going to a fire, as my grandmother used to say.  (And just now I realized the title already sounds lame.  So be it; it is what it is).  For a little while I'll be publishing my posts on both blogs while I'm tweaking my new one, and hopefully establishing a little bit of readership over there.  So pay me a visit, tell your friends and neighbors, and follow me!  Meanwhile, may I present my first post on Eating Slowly, "Musings of a Catholic Mom, Volume Two."

I've had a blog for four years.  I started Musings of a Catholic Mom on Blogger New Year's Day 2009, with a fairly unimpressive post about New Year's Resolutions.  Since then I've published over 200 posts (the official number is 221, but I've deleted a few now and then so I've actually posted a few more), and my blogging style has evolved over the years--for better or worse, I couldn't say.  For a while now I've been contemplating switching over to Word Press, and when I realized I'd run out of space for photos in Google's free photo sharing site, I thought, heck--now's the time.  I've wanted to find a more "catchy" title, too; after much pondering, Eating Slowly is what I've (finally!) come up with.

(Yellowstone, 2009)

Why Eating Slowly, you ask?  I wanted to have an underlying theme for my blog, but the problem is, I like to blog about all kinds of things.  Food, my faith journey, the joys and struggles of raising two teenage and one almost-teenage boys, being Catholic, books, places we visit, and the everyday ins and outs of life.  Not long ago I was thinking about the book Eat, Pray, Love; remember that one?  Elizabeth Gilbert writes about leaving her husband to go on a worldwide journey to find herself.  The way I figure, I don't need to go on some epic quest to find myself; I'm doing that every day just by living my life.  And I realized that "Eat, Pray, Love" can be a theme for my own life.  Here's what I mean:

1.  Eat Slowly.   I love cooking, and good food always makes life just a little bit better.  I try to minimize the processed food and cook things from scratch whenever I can.  I even started a whole other blog called Cooking Nick's Books--dedicated to food, and my favorite writer, Nicholas Sparks. (Although, I'm thinking Dean Koontz might soon become my new favorite writer.  But I digress.)   I'm a big believer in Slow Food (meaning, minimizing fast and processed food and serving home-cooked, locally-grown, organic, and nutritious meals instead--although I don't always practice this), and I love having a meal with my family around the table; even though sometimes one or all of the boys have someplace to rush off to right after dinner.

(Corolla, NC, 2010)

2.  Pray (insert your favorite adjective here:  Hard, Fervently, Often, Always...)  Something that we all need to do a little bit more of.  I love my Catholic faith, and I want to learn more about it and grow closer to Jesus every day.

  3.  Love Deeply.  Starting with my family.  I want to treat others the way I would want to be treated.  I want to always be reminded that every person I come in contact with is made in the image of God.  I want to think of others before I think of myself.

(Shenandoah National Park, 2011)

I hope you'll join me on this journey.  If you already follow me on Musings of a Catholic Mom, you might not notice too much of a change in the way I write or the things I write about or the photos that I publish.  Most likely I'll put my posts in both places at first, and I'm still planning to keep Cooking Nick's Books going (even though I haven't been posting there much lately), at least until I've exhausted Nicholas Sparks' novels.  I'm getting pretty close.

(Denali, Alaska, 2012)

This blog won't be just about eating, of course; although I expect there will be quite a bit about food.  I'm excited about sharing what I'm learning in my faith journey, our adventures as a family, my wonder at the beautiful world around us, and my love of God and all things Catholic.  (Perhaps "Living Slowly" would be a more apt title...something to ponder for the future, I suppose.)  And I think I have a pretty good sense of humor, so I'll mostly keep things light.  I'll leave the heavy-duty stuff for the more "serious" bloggers.  So welcome and hello!  And Happy New Year!

Ramblings and Resolutions

The weather has been so warm this week that Moe decided to make a "mud man" since he won't be making any snowmen in the near future. It's expected to turn colder in the next couple of days; I know it's wishful thinking to hope for some snow. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. For me, Christmas break was just the right balance between celebration and relaxation, and now I'm ready to get back into our normal hectic routine.

I don't usually make New Years' Resolutions, because I'm not very good at keeping them. I was looking the other day at my very first post, and the resolutions I listed there. I actually kept some of them, at least for a while. I started writing out some new ones for this year, and my list kept getting longer and longer. I probably made too many:

Exercise 20 minutes a day, 3 times a week, minimum.

Expect more chores from kids. And maybe call that housecleaning lady.

Read 2 books a month: One spiritual and one fluff.

MAKE time for prayer EVERY DAY, even if it's only five minutes. Maybe ten.

Put Jesus first, others second, myself third.

A relatively nonspecific career-related resolution, basically telling myself to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life--and do it already.

Quit sleeping in on the weekends.

Go to at least one additional Mass every month, besides Sundays. Holy Days of Obligation don't count. Or maybe they do. Baby steps.

Limit my online time and stick with it. This includes Twitter, blogging, Facebook...Spend some of that time reading a BOOK. Spend my time online carefully. This may mean less blogging. Get over it.

Invite people to my house more often. This includes priests, friends I don't get to see as often as I'd like, people I don't want to lose touch with. And relatives.

Support my favorite charities actively and consistently. Make a plan and stick with it.

Don't rely on Facebook to keep in touch with people I love. Pick up the phone and call them. Make time to visit them.

Plant a garden. (This is the one I'm least likely to keep, but there it is.)

(Hah! I've gone and done it. This is Moe. He took advantage of the warm weather to feed the goose and the ducks.)

I woke up this morning with some nagging thoughts about how I spend my time, and whether or not I should spend less time blogging or just quit altogether. Just this past year, between my two blogs, I put up 92 posts. If I spend an average of two hours on each one (let's be realistic, shall we?), that's 184 hours I spent here, and 184 hours that I wasn't doing laundry, cleaning, reading, exercising, or just having a conversation with someone in my life.

Sometime late yesterday afternoon I decided to put together a post for Cooking Nick's Books. I figured Christmas vacation was almost over and we're having leftovers anyway, so I sat down and started writing and going through pictures. Right around 6:30, I asked, "Is anyone hungry?" We had eaten a late lunch, and I figured we'd have a light supper. My husband said, "Not really, but I will be." OK, I thought, I'll sit here for a few more minutes and then go heat up the chili from the other night. Suddenly I heard my husband say, "Are we going to eat?" I looked down at the little clock at the bottom of my computer screen and realized an hour had passed. Moe said, "Mom, you were sitting at your computer for like three hours." Now, I had spent some time printing out work for my Religious Education class and browsing Catholic education sites for ideas I could use (and I adamantly pointed out this fact) but I wondered, Is this really how I need to be spending my time? Granted, my husband was watching a football game I wasn't the least bit interested in, and Moe was working on some homework, and the other boys were playing their new video games they got for Christmas, but still.... And then after dinner I wanted to finish the post while the boys headed into the living room to watch an episode of Star Trek. Joe asked me if I wanted to join them, and I declined.

So this morning as I tossed and turned in bed trying in vain to go back to sleep, I was thinking, maybe I should seriously just quit this fruitless endeavor and spend those hours doing something more tangible. I asked God to help me figure out a way to either a) use my love of blogging to enhance my relationship with Him, bring others closer to Him--and to genuinely touch the lives of others (including friends, loved ones, and strangers); or b). give me a sign, a thumbs up ("Keep it up!") or a thumbs down ("It's time to move on.")

On my last post, I received five comments. Five! That may be a record. Usually I get none. Which is OK, because I'm not looking for recognition, but when people say nice things about what I've posted it gives me the encouragement I need to keep going. Just listen to Gardenia's comment:

"Sharon, that is indeed a beautiful olive wood carving. you have a thoughtful husband I can tell! I love Mary so much and will be checking out your posts on the Blessed Mother. Happy Blessed New Year! "

Every time I seriously consider quitting my blogging habit (I wonder if it's an addiction, kind of like people getting addicted to video games or gambling?) I get a message like this. People do read my posts and enjoy them. Does this mean God wants me to keep blogging? Maybe, but I also know that I do need to spend more time nurturing my relationships with friends and family ("face-to-face people") and doing more tangible and practical things, too. (As for my other blog, Cooking Nick's Books-- that's a whole other dilemma. I don't want to quit that one, but am I spending too much time with it? Dear Lord, send me a sign...)

Happy New Year! I'm looking forward to sharing many more musings, memories, and photos with you in 2012, and to reading many more of yours, too!

7 (Okay, 10) Quick Takes: My Favorite Posts of 2011

(I just wanted to show you the beautiful olive wood carving of Mary and Jesus from Bethlehem that Joe gave me for Christmas. I'm still deciding on a permanent spot in our home for her.)

On this fifth day of Christmas, the kids are still out of school, and today we've invited a few of their friends over to hang out, play video games, or whatever. I made some chocolate-chip cookies already, and in a little while I'm going to make a big pot of chili. Right now, I'm going to toot my own horn a bit (bear with me). As I've shared before, I love blogging, even though it takes up time during the day that I could be spending doing more "important" things (even sleeping--I can't tell you how many nights I've spent at the computer during the wee hours working on a post to make it just right). I try to put some thought and planning into each post, and sometimes the results are better than other times.

In 2011 I posted 54 times on Musings of a Catholic Mom (not including this one), which is the lowest number of posts in a year since I started in 2009. On Cooking Nick's Books, I posted 38 times, and if you add them together that's a total of 92 posts. (Not too shabby. Maybe I should put some ads up and start making a little cash.)

For your reading enjoyment, I've selected ten of my favorite posts from this past year. I had planned to choose only 7, but even narrowing it down to 10 wasn't easy. Here they are in chronological order (click on the title of each post to view them):

--1--

Every Day is a Gift

How the death of my cousin reminded me of how precious each day is, and how easy it is to take our time on Earth for granted.

--2--

It's a Beautiful Springtime in Our Neck of the Woods

Pictures of pretty flowers.

--3--

The Wedding: The Cake is Key

From Cooking Nick's Books. In which I share photos and memories from our wedding, and share a wonderful vanilla cake recipe.

--4--

I Thirst

Some meditations on the crucifixion, and things I ponder when I look at images in my church.

--5--

Get Thee To the Church: St. Mary of the Assumption, Upper Marlboro, Maryland

Our little "pilgrimage" to the church where I learned the Catholic faith, where I was confirmed, and where our oldest was baptized.

--6--

7 Quick Takes: Mary's Birthday Edition

Images of Our Lady.

--7--

Seven Sorrows of Mary for Life.

My own pro-life reflections on the Seven Sorrows.

--8--

Dear John: Spaghetti with Meatballs and Sausage, and Grandma B's Amazing Sauce.

From Cooking Nick's Books. In which I share my mother-in-law's wonderful and authentically Italian pasta sauce recipe. I've never had anything better.

--9--

How I Became a Racing Fan, and Why I'm So Sad

My thoughts following the death of racing driver Dan Wheldon. And some photos, too.

--10--

Post-Christmas Update: Adventures with Beef, Roasted Tomatoes, and My Oyster Stew

From Cooking Nick's Books. My adventures in the kitchen on Christmas Day. I think I'm getting better at taking pictures of food.

Thanks to everyone who has stayed with me through these three years since I started this blog. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and I'm looking forward to sharing many more memories with you in 2012!

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen's Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes: Burgers, Books, and Blogging

--1--

The other day Curly says to me, "Ya know that snake skin Moe brought home from Shenandoah? He wasn't supposed to do that 'cuz it's illegal to take things from a national park."

DOH!!

And just the day before when they wanted to collect sassafras on the hiking trail to make tea with back at the campsite, I wouldn't let them because we're not allowed to do that in a national park.

It's against the law to play with sparklers there, too. As I suspected.

--2--

After the 5 pm Saturday Mass at Our Lady of the Valley, we decided to check out the town of Luray and find something to eat. When we saw a sign that read, "The Best Burger in Virginia" outside the Artisan Grill on East Main Street, we just had to try it. Larry, Curly, and Joe all got burgers (Larry had the barbecue burger and Joe and Curly had the bacon cheddar; they all loved them), and Moe and I, because of our food restrictions, each ordered a bowl of the buffalo chili. Other than the beans being slightly undercooked, it was delicious. I also decided to try the Caprese salad--sliced tomatoes sprinkled with goat cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette. The tomatoes were obviously of the local, fresh variety--big, thick, slices with that unmistakable fresh tomato flavor. I wished there had been a little more cheese on them, but even though I was already full from the chili, I ate almost every bite.

We also checked out their daily dessert selections, and Larry and Joe decided to try the panna cotta. We had never heard of that--it's an Italian dessert made with cream, milk, sugar, and gelatin. It kind of reminded me of a cross between Jell-o and creme brulee. Larry got raspberry and Joe got amaretto. Of course I had to mooch a bite from each--both were amazing; although I liked the raspberry better. They also had small-dairy ice cream on the menu; Curly ordered chocolate and I ordered vanilla. This was definitely NOT factory-made ice cream, and the chocolate was even better than what we had made the previous weekend.

If you're ever in Luray, be sure to check out the Artisan Grill!

And there you have my first ever restaurant review.

--3--

This past weekend I started reading C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. I've read almost half of it now. It's definitely not what I expected--instead of reading like a novel, it's a series of letters written by a demon (Screwtape) to his nephew Wormwood, offering advice on how best to turn a good man to the Dark Side. Very eye-opening. Screwtape could easily be talking about me.

--4--

I finished Stieg Larsson's Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy, and I'm glad I did (a couple of times the graphic sex and violence almost made me quit reading. Almost.) I've decided that the main character, a troubled young woman named Lisbeth who has multiple piercings and tattoos and doesn't relate to people very well, is a female version of Jack Bauer. On second thought, she is a combination of Jack and his computer-savvy friend Chloe, without whom Jack would never have survived many of his run-ins with the bad guys. Not only does Lisbeth habitually hack into other people's computers, but she manages to survive a number of brutal attacks--including (SPOILER ALERT) being shot in the head point blank and then buried alive. My favorite part of this series? When Lisbeth (ANOTHER SPOILER) is about to be murdered by a monstrous villain who feels no pain, and she grabs a nail gun and shoots nails into the guy's feet, pinning them to the floor. Brilliant!

--5--

Moe is spending this week with Joe's parents. For about two days before he left, I kept finding myself on the verge of tears thinking about how much I would miss him. He's having a great time with his grandparents, of course, and even with only one of the boys gone the house seems quiet. He calls us every night and tells us about his day, and I know I won't sleep well unless I get a chance to say good night to him. I'm feeling a little guilty, though, because yesterday when I made my homemade hamburger buns (I've posted the recipe on Cooking Nick's Books here and here), I realized I could use a REAL EGG and REAL MILK since there wasn't anyone in the house allergic to them. We excitedly went to Chick Fil-A for lunch; a place we usually avoid because they fry their stuff in peanut oil. And the other day at Costco I grabbed a bag of tortilla chips--not our usual brand, but one we like better but never get because they're cooked in (you guessed it) peanut oil.

He's coming home Saturday, and I can't wait. Having everyone home is much better than getting to eat at Chick Fil-A.

--6--

I've been thinking a lot lately about this blog and how it has evolved over the past 2 1/2 years, whether for good or bad. My little byline reads, "I am a person who has a lot to say," but lately it seems I haven't had a whole lot to say. I don't know if that's a bad thing, necessarily. If you go back and look at some of my earlier posts, you'll see my thoughts and opinions about certain hot-button issues, or what I think about this or that public policy decision, interspersed with a few little anecdotes about my family and the joys and struggles of being a Catholic mom. Recently, maybe over the past year or so, I've been blogging about more light-hearted, even superficial stuff (even in this very post): How We Spent Our Family Vacation, Look At This Beautiful Church We Visited Last Sunday, Let Me Tell You About This Great Book I Just Read, Here's A Great Recipe You Just Have To Try.

The thing is, I like blogging about these things, and it's much easier and certainly less controversial than, say, writing about what I think about the gay marriage issue, or about Planned Parenthood and their diabolical agenda. Today when I went to daily Mass (for the first time this summer), I heard about how the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, and someone finds it and goes off and buys the field; or like a pearl of great price that a person sells all that he has in order to obtain it. In his homily, Father L reminded us that if we focus on the treasure and the pearl-- eternal life with God--we can have the courage to stand up for what is right and true.

I need to find the right balance. This blog may be due for a makeover.

--7--

Which brings me (at the risk of being a navel gazer) to the question, "What Kind Of Blogger Do I Want To Be?" One of my favorite bloggers is Matthew Warner of Fallible Blogma. He's a frequent columnist for National Catholic Register, and recently he published a couple of articles (this one and this one) about being an authentic Catholic and what that means. He says that we need more Catholics online who don't claim to be perfect or know everything about Catholicism, but who are genuinely trying their best to follow the teachings of the Church and don't pretend to be all holy and pious when they're not. I've seen lots of those holy-and-pious blogs online, and they make me either a). envious of them, and wish I was as holy as they are or b). roll my eyes at their almost certain hypocrisy.

I follow lots of blogs, and between them and the bloggers I have on my Twitter feed, I know what kind of blogger I'm not--I'm not one of those who posts a daily biography of the saint whose feast day it is, or my reflections of the daily Mass readings, or someone who has an opinion about every single thing I see on the news. Frankly I don't have time for that, and thank God for the people who do. (For some, it's their job. I'm kinda jealous of them, actually.) And I don't think--at least I hope not--that I'm someone who comes across as a holier-than-thou Catholic; I'm just about as un-holy as you can get.

Matthew Warner says that our blogs should be a reflection of who we are. Maybe the question I need to ask myself is, "Am I the Person Who I Want To Be?"

In a future post I'll share links to some of my favorite, most authentic Catholic (and maybe even some non-Catholic) blogs. They are the people who inspire me to keep doing this.

For more Quick Takes, be sure to visit the Authentically Catholic Conversion Diary!!

UPDATE: I posted 7 Quick Takes over at Cooking Nick's Books, too; check it out if you're so inclined! Much obliged! :-)

7 Quick Takes: Bats, Birds, Blogs and Dogs

--1--

Lately I've been posting more on my other blog, Cooking Nick's Books, than I have on this one. It isn't that I don't have much to share with you here, I have lots; sometimes I think since that one has a specific goal (to read through all of Nicholas Sparks' novels and cook the food in them) it's easier to come up with ideas.

The more I blog about food, the more I enjoy it, so you might see more of that here as well. Tonight I tried a recipe for pork chops that I found in a 1963 McCall's cookbook I acquired from my Aunt A. not too long ago, and I decided to take some pictures so I could share it with you. I might even post it on both blogs, even though it has nothing whatsoever to do with a Nicholas Sparks book.

--2--

Every time I start taking pictures of food I'm cooking (or anything else inside the house, for that matter) my dog starts barking. I'm not sure why she hates me taking photos; maybe the flash bothers her. She's very weird sometimes.

--3--

Last week, Larry graduated with honors from eighth grade. (When I was growing up, we didn't have "graduation" until we finished high school.) There was a Mass and graduation ceremony for all of the eighth graders from the parish school; Larry even received some awards: the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence, a Perfect Attendance award for the school year (I didn't even know he had perfect attendance), and an award for altar serving. We are so proud of him!

Know who else is proud of our son? Father R, our pastor. He told him so the next day. Wow!

--4--

Recently we've been hearing and seeing a strange bird flying around over the lake, several of them. They fly around making loud noises and grabbing fish out of the water. It's hard to get a good look at them because they're so fast. The other day, Moe announced that they were kingfishers. I grabbed my camera and attached the zoom lens, and we walked down to the edge of the water to see if we could see them. Finally they stopped long enough for me to snap some photos.

I wish these were clearer; I was able to confirm online that they are indeed belted kingfishers. I'd only seen them in books, except for the one I might have spotted once by a drainage pond in the middle of a nearby business district. (That's a favorite local spot for waterfowl. Check it out. In fact Moe and I stopped by there this morning, and I didn't see a kingfisher, but we did spot something that looked like a cross between a heron and a kingfisher. Maybe that's what I'd seen there.)

I hope they stick around for a while. They're way cool. Plus I want to get some better photos of them!

--5--

The weather has been wonderful this week. The kids at school were able to enjoy playing outdoor games during the last couple of days without sweltering (in fact, on Tuesday as I watched the fourth grade classes play a kickball game, I wished I had brought my sweater.

Next week it's supposed to be in the upper 90's and humid. Ugh!

--6--

When the sun goes down the bats come out. Curly likes to sit and watch them fly around over the lake. I enjoy sitting with him too, sharing a few quiet moments. It seems that during the day, my interactions with him have mostly been me nagging, and him pushing my buttons. It's nice just to sit.

It's hard to take photos at night. I took the first one with my phone, and the other two on the low-light setting. I couldn't keep my hands quite still enough, and Curly was moving around a little bit. I like the effect, though. (I wonder if that's a firefly in the upper right corner...)

--7--

Joe has a new job! He's worked at the same company for over twenty years. For the last thirteen years, ever since we moved into the house we live in now, he's had to commute as much as 90 minutes each way to work. His new job is five minutes away. Ten if there's traffic. Three miles. It was a hard decision to leave the people he's worked with for so many years, but spending ten minutes a day in the car versus three hours---that will be awesome. I can't wait; we can meet for lunch sometimes, and be finished with dinner by 7 pm (rather than getting started at 7:30 on a good day). He has one more week with his old job and then he starts his new one.

I was just thinking as I was showering this morning (I get lots of ideas when I'm in the shower, don't ask me why) that if he had been working for a different company back in the fall of 1991--and he hadn't been there all that long then, I don't think--he and I might never have met. My friend L. was working for the same company at the time, and she introduced us. Sometime I'll tell you the story of how we met. God has a way of putting people in the right place at the right time. And now it's time for him to start a new chapter in his life. And we don't even have to move!

See Jennifer's Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes! (I even posted some yesterday on Cooking Nick's Books.) Have a great weekend!

7 Quick Takes: Just Some Random Thoughts

--1--

Moe is sick and I am home. No work, no Mom's group meeting, no Mass. I hope he's feeling well enough later to take a quick trip to Wal-Mart, but if need be I'll wait until his brothers are home from school. Meanwhile, there are many, many other more productive things I could be doing right now (laundry being the most pressing, I think) but for now I think I'll sit here in front of my computer for just a little longer.

--2--

This morning as we were getting ready for the day, there was a knock at my door. It was my next-door neighbor, in her pajamas, looking distraught. She had locked herself out of her house when she let the dogs out. Her husband recently installed a new storm door, and even though the main door was unlocked, the outside door had latched behind her and she couldn't open it. I insisted that she come into the house and enjoy a cup of coffee while she called her husband at work to come and open up the house for her.

You know how you can live right next to someone and hardly ever see them? That's how it's been lately with this particular neighbor with all the busy-ness of life. When we first moved into our house, Larry was just under a year old, and her kids were in elementary school. As our family grew and her kids got older, we started having their elder daughter babysit from time to time. As her life became more and more busy as she progressed through high school, the younger daughter took over as our sitter. Now one daughter is about to graduate college and the other is halfway through. Their son is already done with college and has moved to North Carolina. It was nice to spend a few minutes catching up before the hustle and bustle of the day.

--3--

We were slightly late leaving for the boys' school this morning, but still within a reasonable time frame. Unfortunately the traffic was backed up and we immediately knew as soon as we got on the main highway that the boys would be late. Turns out there had been an accident a couple of miles down; we passed the scene as the police and the tow truck were arriving, and the cleanup crew was sweeping up the broken glass. (It didn't look serious; I think someone had rear-ended someone else, and may have gotten a third person caught up in it as well.) It made me wonder--if my neighbor hadn't locked herself out of the house, would I have ended up in the middle of that mess?

--4--

It's a beautiful springtime in our neck of the woods.

I think that will be the title of my next blog post, when I share with you some photos of flowers and blossoms ant things that I've been taking these last couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll share those with you sometime this weekend.

Here's a preview:

There's lots more where that came from. I've been having fun with my camera lately.

--5--

Recently I heard a horror story about a podcaster who had done a Google image search for just the right picture to go with the content of his podcast, only to receive an email three years later informing him that he was being sued for $600 because the owner of the image didn't give him permission to use it. That got me thinking--yikes, I do that all the time. The fact that I make absolutely no money from this blog doesn't necessarily mean that someone won't sue me for a picture I've found online and posted. So I'm working on deleting some of those images from my posts--and deleting a few posts entirely--and thinking about ways I can use my own photos instead of ones I find online. The other day I briefly looked at some sites that provide royatly-free images, but those come with fees; some with a flat monthly fee and some with a charge for each download.

And so, my fellow bloggers, how do you go about the task of posting pictures from the Internet? Do you use royalty-free sites? If so, which ones? I know some allow you to sell your own images for points that can go toward the download of theirs, and I might think about taking advantage of something like that. How do you go about asking for permission to use someone's image? Or do you do what I've been doing for the last two-plus years and posting whatever images you find, permission be damned?

--6--

I've been pretty much gluten-free for the last month and a half, and while it hasn't been a breeze, it's been a lot easier than I thought it would be. I've been slowly making my way through Elizabeth Hasslebeck's book, The G-Free Diet, and it's been very helpful. I've found some gluten-free foods that I like (and some that are positively vile), and I'm learning to adapt some of my recipes to make them gluten-free. Recently a friend gave me a recipe for a gluten-free pie crust that is fantastic, and I made a quiche with it last weekend. Fabulous.

Do I feel the makings of a new series here--"Adventures in Gluten Free Cooking?" Hmmm...

--7--

I finally managed to take a short trip to the abortion clinic in Richmond where the local 40 Days for Life vigils are taking place. (I've posted a few thoughts in the past about other vigils here and here. One of those posts may be disappearing soon--along with the random Google images that go with it.) We saw a few people going in and out of the clinic on this visit; I don't know if any of them were there for an abortion (it didn't seem that way, but who knows?) One friend who came with me said she could really feel the Holy Spirit at work during the hour we prayed there, and I would have to agree with her. There are only a couple of days left for this 40 Days for Life campaign; if you have a chance to go to an abortion clinic and pray today or tomorrow, it's a powerful experience. Click here to find out where there is a vigil location near you.

Moe is begging to get on the computer. I guess I'll let him take over. I've got baskets of clean laundry waiting for me to fold and put away.

Have a great weekend, and be sure to visit Jennifer's Conversion Diary blog for more Quick Takes!

So Many Blogs, So Little Time!

I love this new hobby called "Blogging." I've connected with many wonderful people (mostly mothers like me, plus a few radio hosts and apologists, and other folks much smarter than me), and learned a lot! I've even hooked up with a couple of bloggers from my own church, and I've enjoyed getting re-acquainted with them! I love using this medium to share my thoughts with others. I love to read books, but lately I've been reading blogs so much that some days go by without my reading a single page. That's OK, though; I'm still working on creating that balance. Right now I'm reading "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield. Fascinating.

I sat down at my computer 45 minutes ago intending to write a big chunk of a post that's been buzzing around in my head (actually, there are several of those); I spent the whole time reading and responding to YOUR posts instead. I love it!! Hopefully I'll have time to post back here later, because I'm eager to write about these topics ASAP:

1. The 2nd Anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings, and the wonderful talk by Greg Mortenson we attended the other night

2. This hoo-ha over the Georgetown thing and covering up the IHS symbol--I'm still not sure what to make of that

3. The Homeland Security's paranoia that pro-lifers like me are violent right-wing extremists. I still need to read that report before I comment further, though.

Meanwhile, I have a busy couple of days ahead of me, so forgive me if I don't write anything for another week. Hopefully I'll be posting much sooner than that.