February 2006 Archives

is it just me . . .

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or is bob barker getting more persnickety and bossy in his golden years? i don't remember him being such a curmudgeon when i was a wee lass in my nonny's lap watching the price is right. i've watched several episodes lately -- hey! the twins nurse down for their morning nap when it's on, okay? -- and bob seems awfully impatient and irritable with his contestants. and, yes, this is the sort of inane fluff that really perplexes sleep-deprived-stay-at-home moms who are nursing twins twenty hours a day.

happy president's day, y'all

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''I am only an average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man.''
-- Theodore Roosevelt

''It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.''
-- Andrew Jackson

A tribute to a mom

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My friend, who just lost her mother, (the one that many of you were so gracious to pray for!), sent me the following, and has said that I might post is here:

Following are the lyrics to "Mom's Song" from the Stephen Schwartz musical Working. The song was written by Craig Carnelia and is sung in the show by the character Kate the Housewife. The lyrics were taken directly from the interview that Stephen Schwartz did with Mom in our kitchen in Arkansas. I have had the opportunity to see the show performed several times and must tell you that never, never has any actress come close to performing this with the passion and devotion my mother had when she spoke these words to Mr. Schwartz. Those of you who know her will be able to "hear" her in this song. I am proud to say that I, too, am "just a housewife" and I pray every day that I will be able to do it as selflessly as my mom has.

"Just a Housewife"
by Craig Carnelia

All I am is just a housewife
Nothing special, nothing great.
What I do is kinda boring
If you'd rather, it can wait.
All I am is someone's mother.
All I am is someone's wife.
All of which seems unimportant.
All it is is
Just my life.

Do the laundry, wash the dishes
Take the dog out, clean the house
Shop for groceries, look for specials
God, it sounds so Mickey Mouse.
Drop the kids off, pick the shirts up
Try to lose weight, try again
Keep the troops fed, pick their things up
Lose your patience, count to ten.

All I am is just a housewife
Just a housewife, nothing great.
What I do is "out of fashion"
What I feel is out of date.

All I am is someone's mother
Right away I'm not too bright.
What I do is unfulfilling
So the TV talk shows tell me every night.

I don't mean to complain at all
But they make you feel like you're two feet tall.
When you're just a housewife
All they see are the pots and pans
And the Pepsi cans of a person's life.
You're a "whiz" if you go to work
But you're just a jerk if you say you won't.
People say that they think it's fine
If the choice is mine
But you know they don't.
What I do, What I choose to do
May be dumb to you
But it's not to me.
Is it dumb that they need me there?
Is it dumb to care?
Cause I do, you see.
And I mean, did ya ever think,
Really stop and think,
What a job it was--
Doing all the things
That a housewife does?

I'm afraid it's unimpressive.
(All I am is someone's mother nothing special.)
What I do is
Unexciting
(Kinda dull)
Take the kids here
Take the kids there
("Mommy.......")
I don't mean to complain at all
All I am is
Busy, busy
Every day
All I am is
Like my mother
All I am is
Just a housewife.

coolmoe, kitschmoe, or what?

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heartchocs.jpg

if you don't know that the smock loves chocolate, you haven't been around much. and here's the deal, i cannot decide if i think these are beautiful or scandalous, but i want one. . .of each. and considering they run from $21 - $26 per from chocolatedeities.com, that's one pretty penny.

Friday Feast, ya'll!

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Appetizer
If you were a color, which color would you be, and why?

Soup
When was the last time you went to the doctor, and what was your reason for going?

Salad
What do you collect?

Main Course
What were you like in high school? Name one thing you miss and one thing you don't miss about those days. (If you're still there, imagine how you'll remember it in the future.)

Dessert
Pretend you're standing in front of your home, with your back towards your home. Describe the view - what can you see? Trees? Cars? A zoo? Wal-Mart?

I'll answer first in the comments box!

The things you learn reading the paper

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jellyfish.jpg

This picture was the "Picture of the Week" in the Life Magazine supplement to our local newspaper. Isn't that just the weirdest thing you've ever seen?

Did you know that a group of jellyfish is called a smack? Why?

Did you know that these giant jellyfish are up to 6 feet across and weigh up to 450 pounds? And that you can see them from a plane? That's a lot of jellyfish, baby!

And doesn't looking at stuff like this make you certain that God is wonderful and has a sense of humor?

Nothing more refreshing on a cold and dreary Friday morning!

A CNA article on the Pastoral Letter.....

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..... from the Archbishop of San Antonio on the occasion of his one year anniversary as archbishop can be found here.

A great snippet from it (and it reminded me of Steven Riddle, for some reason!) is here:

Archbishop Gomez began the letter proper by first challenging the faithful to delve more deeply into their faith in Jesus Christ.

“How strange it would be”, he said “if young man told his fiancée, ‘I know everything about you I want to know’ or a scholar said of her field of study, ‘I've learned as much as I wish’ or a music lover declared, ‘I've heard all the symphonies I care to hear.’ Is that how people in love talk?”

“It is the same with followers of Jesus Christ.” he stressed. Quoting Pope Benedict’s new encyclical God Is Love, he said that “the Holy Father…calls Jesus' dying for us on the cross ‘love in its most radical form.’ If we truly love Our Lord in return, we will want to know him better every passing day. Not wanting that would make our love seem doubtful at best.”


Heh

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No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.

-----------Samuel Johnson

a little shameless self-promo

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my wee ones are featured at twinsights.

From my Elisabeth Elliott devotional today....

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....and oh, so highly appropriate to the day after Valentine's Day. A day when, if we are wise, we move on from romance and into the hard living of a life of love. Elisabeth Elliott is writing of a visit to the place where her husband was hospital chaplain, and the people they meet there:

We eat breakfast with Mr. Smith, a very handsome man with white hair, ruddy skin and bright blue eyes. He is wearing a blue shirt and blue sweater. He tells us a story which brings into sharp focus the words of the wedding vows--"in sickness and in health, for better, for worse." His wife has been a patient at Milledgeville for three years.

"When she first got sick I carried her everywhere. I did. The doctor said, 'She'll get worse, every week and every month. So if you want to go on any trips or anywhere, go now.' We had some good times, me and her. But the doctor said, 'You cain't stand it. You won't be able to stand it.' Well, I said, 'Ah'm'on' hang on long's I can.'

"I took care of her for five years, but I lost fifty-two pounds just from worry. I was so tense they broke three needles tryin' to put a shot in my arm. Well, I carried her to twenty-five doctors but they couldn't do nothin'. It's brain deter'ation, they told me. I did everything for her. I dressed her and fed her and everything, but it like to whup me and if it hadn't of been for the good Lord I'da never made it. Doctor said, 'I'da sworn you'd never last six months.' But a lot of people were prayin' for me. Oh yes. But finally I had to give up and put her here.

"She cain't do nothin.' Cain't move or speak or hear. She's in the prebirth position, legs and arms locked, heels locked up tight behind. You cain't straighten her out. But I come every other day. I go in and kiss her 'bout a dozen times, jes' love her to death. I talk to her. She don't hear, but she knows my touch.

"Well." Mr. Smith finished his story. "I work for the florist here. Volunteer work, you know. I go around the wards, carrying flowers."

We went later to see Mrs. Smith. If ever there was a sight to confound a man's love for a woman, to strain to the breaking point the most potent human passion, we saw it in that stark white crib--a crumpled scrap of inert humanity. But there is a love that is strong as death, a love many waters cannot quench, floods cannot drown.

If you live in North Texas....

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....and you might have an interest in a Catholic radio station, please pay attention to this:

Dear friend of Radio Xavier:

Please take the time to visit our website.

On the top right of the web site you'll see a poll question asking 'Is there a need for Catholic radio in North Texas?' Please vote yes today!

Potential donors are requesting proof that there is a demand for Catholic radio in North Texas and a strong result in this poll would be great evidence that we in North Texas truly desire the beauty of the Catholic faith to be broadcast over the local airwaves.

Please forward this to everyone you know!!

Thanks for your vote and your support!

God bless,

Dave Palmer
Radio Xavier/Guadalupe Radio Network

An interesting question....

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.....from Christianity Today's Movies.com. This came up in response to the new Pink Panther movie, starring Steve Martin. Like me, their reaction was: Dumb move. Sellers owns the role, and it should be left completely alone. No one else ever WILL be the hilariously incompetent Inspector Clouseau (all you have to say in my family is "Does your dog bite?" or "Do you have a license for your monkey?" and you get a roar of laughter). So, their question, and mine is this:

Some roles are simply not meant to be played by anyone else. The originals were so perfect, so nearly sacred, that even the very idea of someone else playing the part is heretical. No one but Julie Andrews is allowed to be Mary Poppins or The Sound of Music's Maria. No one but Jimmy Stewart can be George Bailey. No one but Audrey Hepburn can be Sabrina or Eliza Doolittle. No one but Gable, Peck, and Gibson can be Rhett Butler, Atticus Finch, and William Wallace. No one but Sigourney Weaver can be Ripley. And no one but Harrison Ford can play Han Solo or Indiana Jones.

What do you think? What roles in film history are so well done, so iconic, that no one should ever even bother to try to play that character? Let us know, and tell us why you feel that way.

Christianity Today's Movie.com list:

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....of the Critics Choice 10 Best Films of 2005. A slightly different list than their list of the 10 Most Redeeming Films of 2005, which we mentioned in an entry below.

Here's their list of Critics' Choice Awards:

10. Serenity
9. A History of Violence
8. Broken Flowers
7. Pride and Prejudice
6. Munich
5. Cinderella Man
4. Millions
3. Batman Begins
2. Crash (Zteen gives this one two GIANT THUMBS UP)
1. Dear Frankie

It's Valentine's Day

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valentine.jpg
Get a little carried away!

happy birthday, mamaT, with love

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"I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds 'round my neck." ~Emma Goldman

From Tradition Day by Day:

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In the veiled words of the parable I see there a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. When one of them became separated from the flock and wandered away lost, that shepherd did not stay with the sheep who remained together grazing, but set out to look for the lost one. He crossed many chasms and ravines, he climbed high mountains, he endured great hardship in the wilderness, searching until he found his sheep. Then when he found it he did not beat it or roughly drive it back, but placed it on his own shoulders and gently carried it home, taking more joy in this one sheep that was lost than in all the others.

Now there is a hidden meaning in this parable which we must try to penetrate. The sheep is not really a sheep and the shepherd is certainly not a man who looks after senseless beasts. These are illustrations which contain sacred teaching. They warn us against making off-hand judgments that anyone is beyond hope of salvation and against abandoning those who are in peril. On the contrary, it is our duty to seek out those who have gone astray and restore them to the fold. To welcome them back among those leading good and holy lives should be a great joy for us.

Asterius of Amasea

Emphasis added by me. To highlight to myself one of my greatest failings.

Friday Feast, ya'll

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Appetizer
What was a class or course you took while in school that you realize now was a total waste of time?

Soup
Who is the tallest person you know?

Salad
What's your favorite midnight snack?

Main Course
Have you ever found money somewhere? If so, where did you find it, and how much was it?

Dessert
Where would you like to retire?

I'll answer in the comments box with ya'll!

pray for the chicken, please

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we're packin' up the smockclan and headed down to houston this weekend to see my (step)mother and my dad. mother has been diagnosed with sundowners syndrome (a form of alzheimer's) which means mother experiences (along with the "normal" dementia) increasing fear, anxiety, paranoia, and aggression as the day wears on.
being the daughter who lives "far away" -- as well as the youngest by 22 years -- i've been protected from everything for a very long time, but the time has come, i reckon, to grow up.
my oldest sister, nina, the one who has shouldered the brunt of care for the past five years or so and who has been trying to convince everyone that something was wrong, told me that she's glad we're going now, before it's too late for mother to recognize us.
as my other sister, sissy, puts it "mother has good days and bad."
as daddy tells, "baby girl, some days it's the chicken and some days it's the feathers."

A thought from my saint for this year....

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....courtesy of Tradition Day by Day:

As a spotless lamb he was led to the slaughter, offered in sacrifice for blemished sheep. We have received this grace; let us live in a manner that is worthy of it, and not abuse so precious a gift. The greatest of physicians has come to us and forgiven all our sins. If by our own will we fall sick again, not only shall we do ourselves harm, but we shall also be guilty of ingratitude toward the physician who has healed us.

R. I. P.

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Katherine Ringley, the mother of the sister of my heart, died yesterday afternoon. For those of you who prayed for her, thank you. You made a difference. She died well according to her daughter. She was brave and faced the end with hope.

Please, if you have time, pray for the repose of the soul of Katherine. Pray as well for her husband of 47 years, Fred, and their 5 children and many grandchildren, especially my dear friend Marty, her husband Geoff, and my dearest niece and nephew Jack and Zoe.

May the angels bring her into Paradise.

Books 4 and 5 of 2006 finished!

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#4: The Devil's Advocate by Morris West. This one is my book group's selection for February (we are reading most of the Loyola Classics series this year). And I'm finished early! The Devil's Advocate is the story of a priest, Fr. Blaise Meredith, who finds he is dying of cancer. He has always worked in Rome, as part of the office that investigates people proposed for sainthood. Facing the end of his life, he struggles with coming to terms with whether his life has had meaning--or has it just been a shuffling of papers, adding nothing to the world in a real sense.

The Cardinal that he works for asks him to take on one last case--to be the Devil's Advocate in the case of Giacomo Nerone. Was he the saint the villagers think him to be? Or not? What about the illegitimate son? What of his unknown past?

But more than a story of Giacomo Nerone, it is a story of a man, in the last months of life, finding the human contact (and the human messiness) that his life has lacked. The book is more than fair--in Fr. Meredith's thoughts we see how the institutional Church MUST move slowly in things. How necessary the time, the reflection, the decision-making is. But it also points out how that can make it difficult for the priest "on the ground" to sort out what is going on. And how different it is dealing with people, and the complex web of good and bad they exist in, from dealing with pages of depositions and evidence.

Morris' great achievement was to show this without demonizing the Vatican (as would be oh, so popular today) or demonizing the poor village priest who has fallen into scandal.

A worthwhile read. Four stars out of five.

#5: Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey. Interesting mystery told in an intriguing way. You know from the very beginning that Brat is an imposter. He is not the lost Patrick Ashby, the oldest son of a family, who is now old enough to come into his inheritance. But how will the family find out? And what really DID happen to Patrick Ashby eight years ago? And how can a man running a scam be so very likeable?

Another 4 out of 5--for its genre.

Next book up--and I'm almost 1/2 way through--Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini. Found in the clearance bin at Half Price Books.

An interesting list:

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Here's a link the the Christianity Today article about the 10 Most Redeeming Movies of 2005.

Here's the list in reverse order:

10. Cinderella Man
9. Batman Begins
8. Murderball
7. Crash
6. The Exocism of Emily Rose
5. Munich
4. Dear Frankie
3. Pride and Prejudice
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
1. Millions

What think you?

Truer than I'd like to think:

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But it is always possible to be thankful for what is given rather than to complain about what is not given. One or the other becomes a habit of life.

-------------Elisabeth Elliot

....so here's a quiz result!

You Are an Old Soul
You are an experienced soul who appreciates tradition.
Mellow and wise, you like to be with others but also to be alone.
Down to earth, you are sensible and impatient.
A creature of habit, it takes you a while to warm up to new people.

You hate injustice, and you're very protective of family and friends
A bit demanding, you expect proper behavior from others.
Extremely independent you don't mind living or being alone.
But when you find love, you tend to want marriage right away.

Souls you are most compatible with: Warrior Soul and Visionary Soul

OK, so my first reaction was that it was RUDE to call someone facing a rather momentous birthday (you know, one of those birthdays with a zero on the end of it!) OLD.

But this is just about right, I think.

Oh, and HT to the lovely proprietress of Sancta Sanctis (link to the right) for the link to the quiz.

From Tradition Day by Day.....

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....a project of the Augustinians:

Keep God's word in this way. Let it enter into your very being, let it take possession of your desires and your whole way of life. Feed on goodness and your soul will delight in its richness. Remember to eat your bread, or your heart will wither away. Fill your soul with richness and strength.

If you keep the word of God in this way, it will also keep you. The Son will come to you with the Father. The great Prophet who will build the new Jerusalem will come, the one who makes all things new. This coming will fulfill what is written: As we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, we shall also bear the likeness of the heavenly man. Just as Adam's sin spread through the whole human race and took hold of all, so Christ who created and redeemed all will glorify all, once he has taken possession of all.

-------------Bernard of Clairvaux

....I like to look at our blog statistics. Now, that is a practice that I usually deny myself, because the more I look at statistics, the less happy I am with blogging. When I just write about what I'm reading, living or thinking, I'm a happy blogger. The minute I start worrying about "maybe I should write better" or "oh, I've gotta get something on the blog, good or not" I become dissatisfied with the process.

But once a month I do look at our statistics--mostly to see what search strings brought folks to the mamas. Some months they are just what you'd expect: someone searching for Summa Mamas, or Smock or Mama T.

But some months? You just shake your head. January was one of those months.

Some people came looking for "Anti-Bush bumper stickers". Hmmm. The only bumper stickers we ever have are anti-abortion stickers. The Mamas, while not overtly political on the blog, are not anti-Bush.

Some people came looking for "How long do Catholics leave up their Christmas decorations". Well, we've talked about when we put them up, but hardly at all about when they come down. For the record, we take down the tree, etc. on Epiphany (or shortly thereafter), but our nativity scenes are still up, and will be until after Candlemas (the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord) which is this Thursday. That's sort of the "official end" of the Christmas season.

Some people came looking for an "interview with Joan Osborne". Who is Joan Osborne?????

Some people came looking for "advertising motherhood" and we hope that we certainly do that.

Some people came looking for "barefoot and pregnant pictures" and we have one of those! Check the archives for the beautiful picture of Smock.

Some people came looking for "boudreaux jokes, dirty". Well, honey, we know some, but since we are ladies we don't tell 'em and we certainly wouldn't post them on a website.

And those people who came looking for "slutdates"? Go away.

Beyond disgusting

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One of our readers, Mandamum, sent this link to a condom commercial.

Sick. Just sick.

Tell me our society doesn't hate children. I'll be a hard woman to convince these days.

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This page is an archive of entries from February 2006 listed from newest to oldest.

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