Read at your own risk.

Making the journey from evangelical/fundamentalist to Catholic was an amazing and intrinsically unique experience. Mostly I sit in my pew and wonder that I made it here at all. I wonder how I lived before this. Occasionally, it's nice to listen to the journey of others. This book is one of those books. David Currie is the real deal with all the important bona fides, just to hit the highlights, both of his parents taught at Moody Bible Institute. His journey isn't my journey, but for those who can't imagine how a well-trained evangelical can be led to the Catholic church, this might be a good start to understanding. Be warned though this isn't like Catholic and Christian. This is an evangelical speaking evangelical it has the potential to shake your beliefs.

Disney Princesses

Not exactly what I had in mind.

The Want Adds

Lilliputian cares
"So us"
To the Ground

C'est tres European, sort of.

Helping my kids succeed at their chores means making those chores as simple as possible. The more jobs that are no-brainers, the more we all live happily ever after. Making a twin bed can be a job for little bodies with short arms. Until now I've accepted any haphazard attempt at straightening, but I wished that the first chore on the list could be an easy winner. During our visit to Munich we stayed in a wonderful hotel and their bedding arrangements were so simple. You get pillows and each person has their own heavy duvet to arrange as they like. Making the bed was a simple matter of pulling the duvet's straight and fluffing the pillows. It was wonderful for sleeping and I imagine wonderful for the hotel staff.
I wanted to bring it home, but I got hung up on the duvet. The buttoned on cover would be terrific for tent building and other activities not related to sleep or good order. Never give children a giant bag that is, as far as they are concerned, a great place to stuff things. It wasn't until this Christmas that I finally figured out how to make it work for us--sleeping bags. Every kid has a fitted sheet, a pillow, and a sleeping bag. In the morning it's a simple matter of putting the pillow at the top and spreading out the sleeping bag. Everyone can do that and the bonus is that the sleeping bags are better suited to insulate the kids on cold Michigan nights.
We found the bags at Amazon for 25 dollars. The pillows were on special at Sam's and they worked out to 3 dollars a pillow and then I found a sheet set at Target for 12. That's 40 dollars a bed and well worth it.

Blinding

I'm still not sure why paintings and painters supply so much inspiration and ways of understanding the work I've set before myself. Without this crutch, I would struggle, perhaps to the point of giving up. Fellow writers, for the most part, cannot do more than overwhelm and confuse me. For Harriet I am somewhat on my own. Recently Harriet's pacing has been on my mind. I've known all along that I will be lucky to get a few good scenes and a solid understanding of my main characters out of this draft. On the one hand, there is just too much of the book, period, but a diet seems impossible. Faithful readers have said that my work is too minimalist and hard to follow. They are right, but I have struggled to think of a solution until I remembered Giorgione
I want my next draft to crackle like a lightening storm. I want to know my characters and plot so well that I can confidently convey the most important parts of the story in brief, strange leaps from one stroke of lightening to the next. Who knows if I can do it, but I'd rather be blinded by the light rather than feel along in the dark.

Accepto Patronum

One of the great things about being human is the ability to plan and carry it out. Christmas is the best opportunity for that kind of thing, the only drawback being my tendency to over-plan. Lists have lists until only Santa's naughty and nice list is longer. Our everyday projects crash into Christmas requiring contingency plans. I get overwhelmed, but I'm slow to ask for help. This year I got told.
"Accept help or quit" wasn't the exact message, but it felt that way.
At first I was upset and quitting looked like the better option. As time went by I began to see how good and necessary the help really was. Long term I am certain that my kids will get good at doing their chores, but Christmas won't wait for that to happen. Christmas requires order, so when the elves showed up with buckets and pails and made the impossible possible we rejoiced. When the last few sparkly bits needed to be finished while a bunch of other things required attention it was such a relief to call my sister and ask for help. She has a gift for sparkly bits.
The lesson seems to be that expecto patronum isn't rude, and that accepto patronum is imperative. It has been a very happy holiday.

Christmastide

The older the kids get the more pressure there is before Christmas. They have to be at so many different celebrations and activities and they have more sophisticated taste in presents. Gone are the days when Grandma's house was the big party and Little People sent them into ecstasy. It feels like every single moment is all ready taken up and there is no room for any spiritual spontaneity. If God has something to say, he'll have to wait for Christmas. Then Christmas comes and just like that it's all over. The presence of the tree enters the decaying orbit where it moves from beacon to clutter. There is nothing to do but take it down--unless your Catholic. I'm beginning to get the hang of the differences with the way I was raised to do things and the way I've adopted of doing things and at St. Mary's Christmas doesn't stop until Epiphany. I have all that time after Christmas to reflect on Christmas without any checklist or deadline, a fridge full of leftovers and a clean house. What a blessing!