7 Quick Takes

Of course I should have never gone over to Jen at Conversion Diary to check if it was "7 Quick Takes," because I couldn't just go and get the link--I had to read whatever great stuff she has been writing lately and then go read (quickly, but of course the entire thing) this article about Lenny Kravitz's religious faith, and now it's much later, and I wanted to just spend a few minutes writing this!

7 Quick Takes, just 7 quick ideas or thoughts that aren't perhaps complete blog posts, is meant to be on Friday but I was in the van most of the day yesterday. So here goes, and for me it's mostly about reading:

1. I finished The Guersney Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Fantastic read, and an epistolary (in letters) novel to boot! So much modern fiction for grown-ups is just disappointing or worse, it's nice to have something fun to recommend and talk about. I learned about it from Melissa Wiley's blog but I'm not going there for a link because I'm sure I will never get back to writing. I am grateful that I was able to finish the last few "chapters" because while I was cleaning up from girls book group, Sir helpfully took Max to his last t-ball game. When I finished clean-up, I literally ran upstairs and dove into bed to finish the book (the girls were already absorbed in their own library picks).

2. A caution: do not read "The End of Overeating" by David Kessler (former FDA chair) with any food in the house. He discusses how "hyperpalatable" food makes it easier for Americans to overindulge and harder to overcome bad eating habits. It's pretty depressing, frankly.

As I read about his struggle with a chocolate chip cookie, and then about how they make the foods at Chili's and Cheesecake Factory so delectable, I had to literally get up and go find some dark chocolate. And I did, and I ate it, and I was just glad I didn't have any chocolate chip cookies in the house! It just make me hungry to read about hyerpalatable foods. So I definitely know where he is coming from, that some people are more prone to overindulge in certain foods. Sir does not have this gene, or whatever, so he doesn't understand so much of the pull of these things. I like that the book is written from the perspective of someone who loves food and has struggled with his weight.

In his prescriptive part of the book, "food rehab," he talks about how having strategies and substituting other patterns can be helpful. I think the importance of having a plan while eating at home or out, is so important here, rather than just mindlessly eating whatever. Also he spends quite a bit of time on the benefits of exercise in keeping healthy. It's a good read.

3. Speaking of having a plan, I have a goal for the summer to get organized with "planning ahead," and once again I am not going to link to Dawn at By Sun and Candlelight, because I'll not get back, but she has been explaining her file crate system for organizing the year and I'm trying to implement a part of this. Wish me luck.

4. At girls book group this week, we discussed Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, a very short novel based on the life of Sadako, a Japanese girl who died from radiation poisoning several years after the bombing of Hiroshima. A friend told her she could have a wish if she made a thousand paper cranes, and she worked to make as many as she could. She didn't get to 1,000, so her friends finished them for her.



Here is Homegirl teaching some of the girls how to make a paper crane. We have a nice collection that we will bring to Seattle later this summer to put at a statue of Sadako in the Peace Park there.

It was a short book, but very sad, and our discussion about the bombing and World War II was fairly intense. It's set me off on a quest for other books about WWII and the causes, and ways to discuss it for kids of different ages. One of the girls is currently reading the Diary of Anne Frank. I just got sad thinking about when I first read that book. There's so much out there.

5. Speaking of girls book group, our family brought back two bottles of "Raspberry Cordial" (I just adore bright red drinks! said Anne of Green Gables) all the way from Prince Edward Island and shared one with the girls who were at the book group the other day. I promised the girls (and their moms) that it was strictly non-alcoholic, plus every girl got only a sip because it was a crowd (and a small bottle) . It tasted good, too! Like raspberry cream soda. Here is a photo of some of the girls with the bottle; it's kind of dark so hard to see Anne on the label of the bottle.


6. Homegirl attended and loved a "Creativity Camp" this week with Sarah and Kate Klise, two sisters who are author/illustrator of a fun series of epistolary (again, my favorite, just love the word) novels for kids. "Regarding the Fountain" is one, and Homegirl got "Letters from Camp" this week for the sisters to sign.

7. Speaking of books, a dear friend recently gave me a copy of her favorite book ever, "I Believe in Love: A Personal Retreat Based on the Teachings of St. Therese of Lisieux" " by Fr. Jean d'Elbee. Finally, in a wakeful period during the last few nights, I was able to start reading it, and it is beautiful. A quote:

.."I ask you urgently, from now on, that you never last your past sins be an obstacle between you and Jesus. It is a ruse of the Devil to keep putting our sins before our eyes in order to make them like a screen between the Savior and us. Think of your past sins...especially in order to bless Jesus for having pardoned you, for having purified you, for having cast all your sins to the bottom of the sea...

Do not go looking for them at the bottom of the sea! He has wiped them out; He has forgotten them. His Blood has been shed; the flames of His mercy have done their work; they have burned up all of them, consumed them all while renewing you."

Crutches

In both pilgrimage sites we visited in Canada, St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal, and the Shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre , outside Quebec City, crutches figured prominently.

I'm sure I snapped more than a couple dozen photos of the crutches left behind by those healed through the intercession of St. Joseph and St. Anne. Now I only have a few because I've been fairly ruthless editing the photos we took in Canada. And I experienced such involuntary and powerful emotions when seeing them. So I've put up a couple of the photos I took that remain.

At first, or at some point after seeing them I thought, could there really be this many people who are cured and no longer need their crutches? How many people really need crutches these days? I guess it was different many decades ago when these shrines were being constructed. But still, all these people healed?

And yet, you see the hundreds of well-used crutches and canes all over the place, and clearly people left them behind. Even with my skepticism, at least for me, I continued to have a very strong emotional reaction, my eyes tearing up, when I would catch sight of the crutches as we spent our time at the shrines. I think part of my intellectual reaction was from my mom, who was pretty practical about these kind of things, almost to a fault. But still the tears flowed.

An old friend from DC wrote on my Facebook (after I mentioned we were going to St. Joseph Oratory) that she had visited there years ago and, seeing the crutches, was inspired to pray for her own healing. And I didn't see her note until after we had been there, but I had the same thought. I couldn't even articulate at the time what I meant by that. It was just a wordless prayer for healing and grace.

Now, with some time away from the experience, and getting a chance to reflect on it, I recognized that what resonated with me was the common human struggle with brokenness. For some it is an obvious problem--a physical disability. Some are more open about their struggles with brokenness--I'm grateful for the blogs I can visit where people share their struggles and their faith journeys.

But even if we are more private about it, or it is not obvious, human life involves struggles and brokenness, even amid joy. What is important is to be loving and forgiving to each other as we recognize that. On our own we don't have that kind of love and forgiveness. That is why I'm so grateful for the grace and supernatural love given freely by Jesus, however imperfect I am at accepting that grace and love.

I was in confession last week with an African priest visiting our parish, and I have to "confess" I was a little concerned, because the last time I went to an African priest for confession (a number of years back), my penance was-- an entire Rosary. I can laugh now, but in my shock, I had to ask him if that's what he really meant. Now I know a Rosary isn't terrible (Mary, Mother of God, please still love me for even writing that!). But for soft old American me, going to confession to very kind American priests, I'm used to one Hail Mary or at the most, two Hail Marys, and some good advice.

But this time during confession (with a penance far less than a Rosary, I might add), the priest at one point said, "dear daughter of the King," and of course my eyes teared up. I am a daughter of the King--we are all children of the King-- and His grace and healing is available to us. Let us be given the hearts to know that.

Math Problem of the Day: Cubits

In our relaxed reading of G is for Googol, today we read about Cubits. Cubit is the length from a person's elbow to the tip of his/her middle finger. Today we have standard measurements, but before then, a foot, or a pace, or a digit (finger width) or other measures caused various problems.

Here are the cubits of all the people currently at home:

Mom's Cubit: 16 inches
Ideagirl: 14 inches
Homegirl: 12.5 inches
Max: 11.5 inches

I wonder if this relates in some way to one's height--is there perhaps a formula to use to get a person's height by cubit X something?

Other C math words:

catenary curve
chaos
chart
circle
circumference
coordinate
cube
cube root
curve
cylinder

Math Problem of the Day: Binary Numbers

We have G is for Googol from the library right now, but I think I am going to purchase it. It is really a neat exploration of numbers that will work

After reading the first part of "What's Math Got to Do with It?", (also from the library), I see the value in really giving playing around with math another try. The author, Jo Boaler, still does not convince me that it's not important to know your basic facts--addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions and decimals--really well--but I do see where we could have a little more fun around math.

So I decided on a problem of the day. What's Math Got to Do with It has quite a few ones, with sample solutions, in the back of the book, and I thought I'd start there. In the meantime I was reading to Max a page a day in G is for Googol and hoping other people would listen in, and when I read about Binary numbers Homegirl jumped up and we did some work on it on the dry erase board in the kitchen. So cool! The question was, "Would you rather have a penny a day, doubled each day, and the next amount doubled, for a month, or $1,000,000. Max of course wanted the million bucks. But Homegirl (Ideagirl is in bed with a fever) understood and remembered from One Grain of Ricethat we read years ago, that it was better to choose the penny.

So she decided to count out the doubled rice until as long as she could easily. Here is her set-up, labeled by day and amount of grains of rice. Notice her handsome rice-counter assistant. She is good at inspiring action.


Update: The kids completed 8 days, and plan to do more tomorrow.

What I Do and Don't Have in Common with Michele Obama (or Why I Exercise instead of Garden)

I had to start this post with two photos showing how overgrown two sections of our garden look this year. One is because we are "waiting" for the tuckpointer to call us back and finish fixing the brickwork around the back of the house. The other is because we have done very little in the way of gardening or maintaining it. And this time of year it really starts to bother me when things get overgrown, and neither of us have time or we're traveling. But I've had something of an epiphany about me as a gardener, or not.

This morning, for instance, I was up much, much earlier than the rest of the family, and I went on a 12-mile bike ride, part of the training for a sprint-distance triathlon I am doing with my sisters (and a few others) in Seattle in August. It took just over an hour, and I felt completely great afterwards (and during, too). Yesterday I did a 4-mile run, fast for me, and felt so sweaty and good afterwards. I just love how much better I feel after a period of (fairly intense) exercise. And that's not a bad thing to seek more of in my life--it's good for my body and my emotions. Life just looks better to me after a good workout.

I could have been out in the garden that hour, but truly it would have looked pretty much like when I started. I probably would have sweated, and sometimes I really do feel like I've had a good workout after being in the garden--sometimes I'm sore the next day. But mostly I don't feel that way, and I don't feel a sense of accomplishment afterwards. It's just such a constant drain, and not my favorite thing--not just weeding (that can actually be satisfying)--but really anything about gardening. In gardening, I do not like the process, only the finished product of produce or a beautiful, well-manicured landscape.

This is why I like mowing the lawn instead of gardening--when you are finished, the lawn looks good, and it stays that way for a while--sometimes up to a week. (This is a full disclosure post, though--I haven't been mowing for more than a month as our mower no longer works and we pay a neighbor to do a great job at it). You could spend lots or a little time in a garden, and depending on the time of year, it makes lots of difference or no difference at all, and if you don't keep up on it all the time, it's awful.

I'm sure there are a lot of metaphors for this. I'm sure there are books for gardeners about how it's like the spiritual life or relationships--if you don't keep up with them every day and root out the weeds every single day, you'll run into problems, blah, blah, blah. But fortunately our good Catholic faith has lots of spiritual charisms and I finally realize that one does not speak to me, or inspires in me more guilt than growth. I think I'm going to look for the runner's or triathlete's spiritual classic about setting goals and realizing them, in sports and in life, or the one about keeping up with reading of all sorts, spiritual and otherwise, to strengthen our mind and inform our soul, or how cooking and trying new recipes with the family is nourishing to body and soul and builds the domestic church....

I'm beginning to let go of feeling I have to be that gardening-loving person, or be the person responsible for our outside, though, and focus instead on what I'm good at and what I love. I can patronize the farmer's market to eat locally, or I can encourage Sir to spend time outside in the garden as he likes, and to make pesto and tomato sauce with his handiwork . (God love him, he did put in a couple of tomato plants and basil plants before we left for our trip, and he has been planting flowers here and there with Homegirl). And I can't wait for all the tomatoes and zucchini from friends gardens when they have too much, because I love zucchini and cooking with it. And I vow to love and admire my friends gardens that are so beautiful and lovely, but I've always done that.

I do feel a twinge because I would like my children to be gardeners, because I love a good garden and I do see the value in it. I'm so grateful to Sir for spending time with kids in the garden, and getting them involved. Maybe we'll just have to try next year.

I most certainly didn't vote for her husband, but I do admire Michele Obama for putting in an organic garden in the front lawn of the White House, and working that first day to plant whatever neat things they have there. I remember thinking when it was on the news back in the spring, "Oh, I should have a big garden with lots of different things like that. I'm a locavore, too!" But then I realized that she has a nice big staff to go do all that work.

I'm not trying to say that she doesn't work hard. I'm just saying she just certainly not puttering around in the garden for several hours each day. And, I finally admit to myself and to the world, neither am I.

Cinema Divina

My old laptop is about to run out of power (it's near the end of its life, so has shorter and shorter battery chargings--not sure why).

Just had to link to the fantastic blog of Sr. Helena Burns. I heard her speak yesterday at our diocesan "summer institute." I had heard her interviewed on the Catholic Moments podcast months ago, visited her blog, but hadn't been back until after I heard her talk yesterday.

She was a great speaker and very inspiring. Ideagirl and I attended a talk she gave, "Lectio Divina, Cinema Divina?." about applying the principles of lectio divina to watching movies. More later about that, it was amazing and I am bubbling with ideas.

More Canada

I think this is Day 8, in Halifax. We ate crepes and other yummy food at Cora's, a Quebecois chain of breakfast/lunch restaurants. Excellent healthy food, I wish we had one in our town!
This was a yogurt drink we could find in Canada (not just French Canada) by Yoplait called "Yop." I just loved the name because it was the small word that got everyone to hear in "Horton Hears a Who." This is Day 9.

Sir just couldn't get enough of these signs--he wants to use them when he gives talks on prudence. So finally, on Day 10 I think, we had to stop (prudently, of course) to take a photo of this call for being careful, because to paraphrase the sign, the next moose you see might not be on the sign. Fortunately or unfortunately, we had no live moose sightings.

During a long day drive (Day 10? Day 11? who knows?) We stopped right at sunset along the St. Lawrence seaway northeast of Quebec on the trip back. It was beautiful and cold!

We stopped at a fromagerie--actually looking for a place to eat on one of our long drive days, but they only sold cheese. This is in Quebec so the label is French only.

Our last meal in Canada was not McDonald's, unlike our first. It was at Swiss Chalet, I think a French Canadian chain. They specialize, as so many restaurants do, in the Quebecoise rotisserie chicken. We had that at quite a few local places as well. It was super delicious, but I'm not interested in chicken (or frites, the extra crispy and wonderful fried potatoes) again for awhile.

4,000 miles in 12 days, and that much fun!

Our Canada trip was fantastic, but we are all still getting our "sea legs" back after so many days and miles in the van. It was so worth what my dining room/bedrooms looks like right now (the van actually looks good after the kids and I cleaned it yesterday) and what my body feels like (tired, mostly!) to have had our adventures.

I thought I would try to share approximately one photo from each day of our trip. It was hard to narrow it down! But I am well under way working on our Shutterfly book for our trip.\




Day 1--visiting cousins in Michigan for Mass and dinner. Wish it could have been longer!

Day 2--Mom and Dad to kids. You can't have your first meal in a foreign country be McDonald's! Kids to Mom and Dad, Oh yes we can, and look, it's in French (croquettes au poulet) so it has to be a cultural experience!!! This is in Toronto.

Day 3--Montreal is getting tres French--most but not all people speak English. St. Joseph's Oratory was a neat pilgrimage site. The Josephs enjoyed all the altars to their name saint. This one celebrates Joseph as patron of a happy death.


Also Day 3--the crutches of those healed by the intercession of St. Joseph were strangely moving when you saw the large numbers of them on the walls. It's hard to describe the emotions--a sense of brokeness of humanity, and healing in Christ.


While Sir took photos of the modern interior of the shrine, the kids and I literally ran (I think we had some energy to burn off) the oversized and very well done stations of the cross outside the oratory. I'm sure St. Joseph and the Holy Family did not mind. Fortunately we had the place to ourselves. I think school was still in session there.


Day 4--Shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre outside Quebec City. Fewer people speak English, so we're really getting a foreign experience. Dad had all kids hug Mom outside her patron's shrine.


I'm so glad I got a chance this shot of Homegirl after she lit a candle at one of the numerous altars to St. Anne at her shrine. She is touching the relics.

Interesting results...