Psalm 5

¹Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.

²Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.

³My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

On the third day of Christmas

Several bloggers have already shared one of my favorite Christmas videos (here is a link to the updated version of it), so I thought I would share from a group I recently found out about. Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday - School Spirit

Wacky-Tacky day.

A new place to visit online

Faith & Family has a new blog written by Danielle Bean, Rachel Balducci, Lisa Hendey, Arwen Mosher, and Rebecca Teti.

A little something about the blog in their words:

As we help each other along the way, we hope that our magazine and blog will affirm something that is already written on every mother’s heart: That motherhood is a privilege. That family life is a joy. And that though being a wife and mother is likely to be the single most challenging thing any of us ever do, it is also likely to be the single most important thing any of us ever do as well.

Make it a daily stop -- it will be worth your while. (And they are having a grand opening giveaway right now.)

Another must read

Here is just another reason I enjoy the Archbold brothers' blog: I'm A Wii Catholic

If you aren't regularly reading Creative Minority Report, you are missing out on some great stuff. Matthew and Patrick are insightful and humorous. Bookmark them -- you won't regret it.

Blue

by The 10 year old (brought home among his end of year papers)

Blue is the color of rain water
It's the color of a tranquil sea
Blue's the color of a bubbling spring of hope
It's a downpour of sadness
It's a frozen inlet of a boy's dreams
Blue's a crystal rapid of joy
Blue's a water lily in the early morning
It's a forest mist
It's a thousand little pieces of sea glass
It's a raging sea of anger
Blue's a harbor of defeat
It's an everlasting string of sky
Blue's a seaport of fear
It's a simple bay of reflection

Wordless Wednesday - Scouting

Last event as a Webelos before becoming a Boy Scout.

Pondering

Christi recently posted about some of her favorite authors -- which also happen to be some of my favorites. We both enjoy Madeleine L'Engle. I discovered her Time books when I was in school and enjoyed reading about Meg Murry in A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door. At some point after I finished school, I read A Swiftly Tilting Planet and Many Waters. Last week I finally got An Acceptable Time and started reading it last night. I stopped mid chapter (not an easy thing for me to do) when I read this exchange between Polly and her grandmother:

. . . "Grand, why did Mother have so many kids?"
"Would you want any of you not to have been born?"
"No, but--"
"But it doesn't answer your question. . . . If a woman is free to choose a career, she's also free to choose the care of a family as her primary vocation."

Wow. Powerful words for an idea which was not widely accepted in 1989 when the book was published -- and still is not widely accepted.

Being the research geek I am, I looked up vocation. Here is what Wikipedia says:

A vocation is an occupation for which a person is suited, trained or qualified. It is also the inclination to undertake a certain kind of work, especially a religious career; often in response to a perceived summons; a calling. This type of vocation is either professional or voluntary, that is carried out more for its altruistic benefit than for income, which might be regarded as a secondary aspect of the vocation, however beneficial.

And thinking about vocations, especially the second part of the definition, brings me to Christine, who is celebrating the 1000th post of Domestic Vocation. If you haven't visited her before, please do.

Deprivation

I bought this at a Bob Evans while we were on vacation. When I saw it I thought of Margaret. I had to share it today because of her post.

Manly, yes -- not sure I'd like it too

Mandles video

I can think of several husbands (mine included) who would rather burn Mandles than "Golden Spice Pear and Seaside Holiday." However, we are in one of the over 50 areas in which this offer is not valid :)

Hat tip: Rachel

Blogging problem?

Last week Carolina Cannonball had a post about knowing when you have a blogging problem. I commented that you also know you have a blogging problem when you tell people you will be spending your vacation halfway between Bonfire of the Vanities and Pro Ecclesia.

So guess where I am? Yep, halfway between Bonfire of the Vanities and Pro Ecclesia.

I should have some interesting pictures to post later of the drive up here. The kids had control of the camera while I was driving so I am looking forward to downloading everything that caught their interest -- especially based on some of the conversations going on at the same time as the camera clicks.

Saturday we made it to Columbus and yesterday we went to COSI with the cousins. I took pictures there and will share some of those soon -- if I can ever get them uploaded to the laptop! Today, to quote the TomTom, we have reached our destination. Tomorrow we might be here during the day but tomorrow night the kids will be glad to see their great-grandparents.

So what about you? How would you complete the sentence?

You might have a blogging problem if . . .

The Lord is risen

From the bulletin of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church:

On Easter, the holiest day of the entire year, and for the entire Octave of Easter, Latin Catholics greet each other with the words of Luke 24:34, “Surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia!” (The Lord is risen indeed!”). The person so greeted responds, “Et apparuit Simoni, alleluia!” (“And hath appeared unto Simon!”). Catholics may even answer their telephones with this greeting. An old Ukrainian legend relates that, after His Resurrection, Christ threw Satan into a deep pit, chaining him with twelve iron chains. When Satan has chewed through each of the twelve chains, the end of the world will come. All year long, the Evil One gnaws at the iron, getting to the last link in the last chain -- but too late, for it is Easter, and when the people cry “Christ is risen!” all of Satan’s efforts are reversed. When the faithful stop saying the Easter acclamation, the end of time has come...

Reminiscing

The message board at a site started by a couple of my high school alumni has been running a Name that Song thread. It originally started with someone trying to remember a song for which she could only recall a line or two. The thread has since become a competition.

This morning the hint was "Once you told me long ago, to the prom that you would go.." As soon as I read it I could hear Marty Robbins singing it. Think about it and then watch the video.




And then I watched another Marty Robbins video.




Marty Robbins was one of my parents' favorite singers. And A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation) was one of the songs my father liked to sing. Daddy's been gone 20 years now and he quit playing the guitar and singing at least ten years before he died, but he is alive and playing in my memory right now thanks to Luanne's Name that Song hint.

Some favorite photographs

I'm not sure why I'm still awake at 2:31 a.m., but I thought since I was awake, I would share two more images from the Library of Congress collection on Flickr.

Unidentified shelf of kitchen utensils and jars of spices



Unidentified stacks of home-canned food

How I have been spending my winter, part 1

Midsummer Day, Bronx Park

I have really enjoyed looking through the Library of Congress photosets on Flickr.

From The Commons description:

The key goals of this pilot project are to firstly give you a taste of the hidden treasures in the huge Library of Congress collection, and secondly to show how your input of a tag or two can make the collection even richer.

There are two sets of photographs: News in the 1910s and 1930s-40s in Color.

Over the course of two or three weeks, I managed to see all 1500 photos in the News in the 1910s photoset. If you are a baseball fan, you will find photos of Cy Young, Germany Schaefer, Russ Ford, James Mullen, John Titus, and many, many more. If boxing is your sport, there are pictures of Jack Johnson, Kid Sullivan, and Mrs. Edwards and Fraulein Kussin to name a few. Interested in politics? How about some pictures from the 1912 Democratic and Republican National Conventions? There are even pictures of the Titanic survivors reaching New York.

There are 1,615 pictures in the 1930s-40s in Color set. I have barely made my way into those, but I am looking forward to finding a lot of great treasures there, too.

By the way, the Library of Congress also has a blog.