Category Archives: Memes and Link-Ups

7 Quick Takes: eScapegoat, What I’m Reading, and Problems With Halloween Costumes

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Orphans. Do you see these two sweet children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and they are compiling their dossier to send to her country.

Click on their names to see their Reece’s Rainbow pages.

— 2 —

eScapegoat. Do you need to atone for your sins? You’re in luck! In Biblical times, the high priest would attach the sins of Israel to a goat and set it free in the wilderness. These days, you can do it all online!

— 3 —

A note to my black cat. Edda, I love you very much. You are a wonderful house panther with a coat made of satin. Having said that, you are very difficult to see at 1 a.m. when I’m staggering to the bathroom and it means that I might accidentally step on your tail. I’m sorry if I do but you should have let me put that glow-in-the-dark collar on you so I could know where you are.

Snuggles,
Mommy

— 4 —

Hiccups. I’ve got pretty bad hiccups right now. Sometimes, I’ll get them pretty badly and I guess this is one of those times. Want to leave me your favorite hiccup cures in the comment section? Please and thank you. 🙂

— 5 —

Word, Kelly. Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum has a wonderful post on the problems with Halloween costume companies. Seriously? A zombie sock monkey costume? A bat fairy? Sexy “Oscar the Grouch”? I am so not looking forward to picking out Daniel’s Halloween costume.

— 6 —

Book Club. (No, I’m not part of one.) I’m currently reading Sundays in America by Suzanne Strempek Shea and I still want to smack her every time she brings up how gays and lesbians would not be welcome at the churches. Princess, you don’t know that! Of course, next on Mount TBR is Pastorix by Nadia Bolz-Weber who has a habit of not being safe for work… or admitting I know in the presence of parishioners. (If you don’t know who she is and why this might be controversial, the website for the book is here.) I don’t necessarily agree with her on many things but she has a habit of saying things that I think the Church at large needs to hear about grace.

— 7 —

Sigh. The Giants are playing the Dodgers and the Dodgers are ahead by a run. It’s going to be a rather irritating night if they win. (For those who are new, I grew up rooting for the Giants and my husband Jon is a fan of the Other Team.) Then again, the Giants could pull this out of the bag but I’m not holding my breath given their current season and place in the standings.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

Five Favorites: Miscellanea (XV)

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Five Favorites

One

Mater Eucharistiae CD. I first heard about this CD on Facebook (I think) and was blown away by it. The “Te Deum” is amazing and their arrangement of Palestrina’s “Sicut Cervus” is breathtaking. I sang in the UCSC Women’s Chorale in college and have a fondness for women doing chant so I downloaded it off of iTunes. If you order it from them here, they get a larger share of the profits which goes to help build their new priory outside Austin, TX.

Mater Eucharistiae CD

I also just found out that someone I know from a couple Facebook groups is a postulant with them. Small world.

Two

This song. Twelve years ago today, there was an impromptu prayer service called and the entire student body and faculty of my seminary (probably 150+ people) crowded into Schenk Chapel with some of us sitting and some of us standing. Our seminary president remembers it as one of the really formative times of his tenure and most of us students do as well, bringing it up on Facebook every year on this day. We alternated prayers with choruses of “Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying” and this Taizé chant:

Three

Sleep. I love sleep. I’m not getting much of it though and I’m trying not to nap today so that maybe I can get my sleep schedule back on track. I almost fell asleep today while getting my haircut — that takes some doing! If I’m not careful, I may fall asleep during my mani/pedi tomorrow.

Four

Grammar Nerd Jokes. I am a complete grammar nazi so I loved these jokes. With #11 though, I thought it was cruel to make a grammar nazi do math.

Five

The Giants winning. It’s been a bad season for them and I’m unfortunately married to a fan of their big rivals. I think baseball needs to come up in the pre-marital counseling next time…

Go love up Grace (who is guest-hosting this week) and the others.

{Virtual} Coffee Date (vol. 6)

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{Virtual Coffee Date}

Once you’re done here, go visit Karianna and the other coffee drinkers.

If we were having coffee, I’d introduce you to Miss Isabella Heaton… formerly known as my Reece’s Rainbow Guardian Angel child, Kaia.

Miss Isabella Heaton

Isn’t she adorable?

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you about torquing a muscle in my neck while holding Daniel’s head still so his audiologist could take molds for hearing aids. I’ve been getting intimate with some Flexeril and Aleve (which I’m not supposed to have) ever since. It was for a good cause though — the bear child will have hearing aids in 3 weeks. God willing, it will help with him developing speech.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about breaking my keyboard. My H key was sticking so I pried it up to see what was wrong… and broke part of it off. I need to go track my new one and see when it should be arriving…

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about the amazing visit I had with my family this weekend. Mom and I went to Whole Foods with Daniel, took him to the local nursery where I had him find me flowers and things that were certain colors, got lots of coffee at Peet’s, and had fun attempting to avoid the heat. My dad was also adorable with him. (He and Daniel just understand each other.)

Thanks for having coffee (or tea) with me. See you next week!

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: September 8, 2013

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY September 8, 2013

Outside my window… dark right now. Bloody hot even down in San Jose (got back up to my neck of the woods about 9:30 p.m.) and close to 100 up where I live. I’m watching the weather for Dallas right now because my evil twin is there for a training class and I’m laughing because he bragged about getting away to the Pacific Northwest to escape the heat… only to be sent to Dallas after a week of work!

I am thinking… about the situation in Syria.

I am thankful… for a wonderful weekend with my parents.

In the kitchen… lemon cupcakes from Friday and lots of dishes to wash.

I am wearing… my “Online Debate Team” t-shirt and running shorts.

I am creating… various posts.

I am going… to hopefully sleep better tonight.

I am wondering… when Edda will stop licking me. (Do I taste like shower gel? Is it a good taste?)

I am reading… Sundays in America by Suzanne Strempek Shea. There are points when I want to smack her but it’s been interesting to see her church visits through the lens of her experience and upbringing.

I am hoping… my new keyboard arrives soon. (I accidentally broke my H key off my laptop keyboard.)

I am looking forward to… my mani/pedi on Thursday. It will be a quiet morning and I have craziness for the next few days.

Around the house… unpacking and consolidating to do.

I am pondering… too many things.

A favorite quote for today… “There are three ways of taking the command to turn the other cheek. One is the Pacifist interpretation; it means what it says and imposes a duty of nonresistance on all men in all circumstances. Another is the minimising interpretation; it does not mean what it says but is merely an orientally
hyperbolical way of saying that you should put up with a lot and be placable. Both you and I agree in rejecting this view. The conflict is therefore between the Pacifist interpretation and a third one which I am now going to propound.
I think the text means exactly what it says, but with an understood reservation in favour of those obviously exceptional cases which every hearer would naturally assume to be exceptions without being told. . . . . That is,
insofar as the only relevant factors in the case are an injury to me by my neighbour and a desire on my part to retaliate, then I hold that Christianity commands the absolute mortification of that desire. No quarter whatever is
given to the voice within us which says, ‘He??s done it to me, so I??ll do the same to him.'” — C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

One of my favorite things… silence. I have it right now and it is glorious.

A few plans for the rest of the week: hearing aid appointments for Daniel tomorrow, Morning Prayer on Tuesday and possibly a Target run, haircut on Wednesday and ABA therapy for Daniel, mani/pedi on Thursday, quarterly meeting with Daniel’s autism people and the Regional Center in the morning on Friday as well as ABA therapy that afternoon.

Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook

7 Quick Takes: Edda Helps This Week

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7 Quick Takes

Edda is taking refuge from Daniel on my lap (where he has to use gentle hands to pet her) so she’s going to help me with my quick takes this week.

— 1 —

Orphans. Do you see these two sweet children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and they are compiling their dossier to send to her country.

Click on their names to see their Reece’s Rainbow pages.

— 2 —

“Mom of the Year” material here. Just a word of advice: if your child has been terrified of car washes in the past, it’s not incredibly good to take him through one because “he might have gotten over his fear”. It’s sensory hell and in addition to your kid flipping out to the point that they puke, you’ll also have a headache from the screaming.

Totally the “Mom of the Year” here.

— 3 —

Fasting for peace. I’m not sure what I’ll be fasting from because I’ll be with my parents but I’m taking part. There’s also a beautiful prayer here. (HT: Fr. James Martin, S.J)

Fasting for peace on September 7th.

— 4 —

Where bloggers blog. There’s a Tumblr that is showing pictures of where bloggers blog. I haven’t submitted one yet but I’m considering it.

— 5 —

Al Franken delivers. A couple weeks ago, I posted about some harmless political fun. He offered to let people vote on what Minnesota State Fair food he would eat in a virtual postcard to supporters. The verdict: deep-fried pickles with chocolate sauce. To spare you having to surf to one of his donation pages, I’m embedding the video below. (The actual eating of the pickles is at 1:18.)

And no, I don’t live in Minnesota — I just like Al Franken. 🙂

— 6 —

Wow. When Jon went to pick Daniel up today, his teacher asked why we hadn’t told her that he knew all his capital letters. Ummm… because we didn’t know? It sounds like someone has been paying attention during Circle Time! Go Daniel!

— 7 —

Hot hot hot! It’s supposed to be in the triple digits this weekend. Seriously, I’m wishing it was December in Montana with sub-zero temperatures. I hate heat. At least when it’s that cold, you can put a ton of layers on. When it’s this hot, you can only take so much off.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

Five Favorites: Miscellanea (XIV)

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Five Favorites

One

The guy who helped me at the Social Security office today. You know how I was complaining about having to deal with Social Security today? I got the one competent person in the office. He figured out immediately what had happened regarding Daniel’s SSI and fixed it. (It was a data entry error.) He also had the brilliant insight about the SSA not needing copies of my taxes because they could just get the numbers from the IRS. Wow… government agencies actually communicating. That’s so… obvious.

Two

Black cats. Why yes, Edda is helping me write this post. How did you guess? (Edda, for those new to my blog, is my house panther.) She would like to register her objection to the existence of the Daniel kitten and the fact that he torments her by chasing her and not petting her with gentle hands.

Three

Sub-zero temperatures. Wishful thinking on my part because it’s bloody hot here and I also miss living in a place where there are four distinct seasons. We don’t have decent fall colors here because it doesn’t get cold enough and I strangely miss snow. (Edda would like to register her objection to snow because it confuses her as a black cat.)

Four

Daniel’s ABA therapists. He loves them enough that last Friday, they were meeting at our house outside of session and I had to very pointedly distract him because he couldn’t understand why they weren’t there to play with him. (These are people who exist to make him do things he hates doing.) He also fell asleep snuggled between two of them while they were tabulating data today. (They feel similarly about him.)

Five

Sleep. Daniel was off for Monday and Tuesday (translation: no sleep-in day for Jen which she needs in order to fight off a stomach bug) and I was on the go all day today other than an attempted catnap (in my case, an attempted nap with a big orange tabby) before Daniel’s ABA session started this afternoon. I think I’ll page my tabby and curl up now.

Go love up Hallie and the others.

{Virtual} Coffee Date (vol. 5)

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{Virtual Coffee Date}

Once you’re done here, go visit Karianna and the other coffee drinkers.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that Thomas of Fuller Life finally revealed the gender of the twins. Note to self: get Thomas’ wife Alison a 12-pack of mani/pedi coupons and find someone nearby to take her for “girl time”. (Kidding, Thomas… when I do get mani/pedi’s, I’m usually reading something on my NOOK during the pedicure part and trying ignoring the outside world during the manicure part.)

If we were having coffee, I’d talk about how much I don’t want to go to the Social Security office tomorrow and how much I hate dealing with them. They screwed up Daniel’s SSI (AGAIN!!!!) and I have to go bring them copies of my 2011 and 2012 taxes… which they should already have. Seriously, I think they pulled numbers out of their butts for the latest determination. Oh well… I needed to clean my purse out anyway (they search it) and this will give me a chance to do some reading.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about the serious cuteness of the red panda cub this weekend at the Sacramento Zoo. The tiger cub was also pretty stinking cute, especially as it pounced its mama wanting to play.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you how addicted I am to the CW summer show, Breaking Pointe. I was able to cheat a little bit and look up who is still with the company on the Ballet West website but the whole process of whether Ian or Zach got the contract with the company and the saga with Allison and her fiancé as well as with Christiana and her husband Chris.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you how irritated I am that Qubo stopped showing He-Man at night. Seriously, that was my fall-back when the 9:00 shows on the other networks were disappointing. It was also a tie to my childhood.

Thank you for having coffee (tea) with me this week. Same time next week!