NFP Awareness Week: Book Cover Reveal + Open Thread

I am aware of NFP.  Are you?  I’ve been aware that it’s NFP Awareness Week for some time, now, but I’m kinda tired of NFP.  I even wrote a book about it basically so I could stop thinking about it already.

I’m so darn lazy, I don’t even have the energy to put together a list of helpful links – but honestly, that’s why we have Google.   Seriously, you guys, I had a margarita last night at Theology on Tap, and then two, what do you call them, Angry Pirates.  That’s not what they’re called, but either way, the sugar and the booze is making me dumb.  I spent the whole morning assembling my daughter’s new flower pressing kit, and then I realized we could just go ahead and use a big dictionary.  And it turns out I’m supposed to make supper today, or whatever.

So I thought I’d just ask you guys:  any questions, for me or for other readers?  OH, do you want to see my book cover?!? The book is coming out in November, but I can show you the cover!  John Herreid designs covers for Ignatius Press, and because he’s my brother-in-law’s brother, he did my cover for free, possibly not realizing that I was going to be an indecisive, vague, controlling lunatic about it.  This is what we came up with.  It absolutely slays me.

So, if you were considering buying this excellent book for your parish, would the side boob dissuade you?  TOO BAD.  I love this cover so much.  Check out Adam’s hairy legs!  And the priest is like, “WHAT the–”

Oh, and a rejected book cover

I forgot about this one.

John reminds me that he also offered to  “draw an angry cartoon guy shouting ‘DIS WOOKS WIKE COWNTWACEPTIVE MENTAWITY!!’ to add in the margins alongside controversial passages.”  Maybe for the hardcover edition, eh?

Finish your Wednesday right . . .

With The Carlos Danger Name Generator.

I entered “Ron Mexico” and came out with “Dario Kill.”  Hard to argue with that.

The Stupids Are Prepared

Every once in a while, someone writes to me looking for advice about how to run a large household with thrift and efficiency.

Why don’t I?  Because of things like this:

What?  I had a dream.  It’s going to be a bad scene, folks — the great ketchup famine of ’14.  Be prepared!  Plus, it’s not often that I come out looking worse than Mrs. Pig,

At least she bought all that ketchup on purpose. I, on the other hand, just suck at making shopping lists.

 

“In retrospect, it was ‘really stupid …’”

Oh my sisters and brothers, here is the best story you will read all week.

Product review: Pet Vet Center

I don’t usually do product reviews, but I’m so pleased with the birthday present we just gave our six-year-old daughter! It’s the Pet Vet Center by Lakeshore Learning Materials.

I thought it was kind of pricy at $29.99, but ordered it anyway because I was in a rush.  Turns out it’s really high quality.  The puppy is extremely sturdy and much bigger than I expected, and the legs are jointed, so you can pose it.  The cards and other accessories are heavy and durable.  The biggest surprise was the stethoscope.  It actually works!  We’ve had a LOT of doctor sets in our day, and the stethoscope usually works about as well putting a glass on a wall.  But with this one, the sounds are very clear and very loud.  You can hear your heart beating and your gut swishing around.  Very cool.

It doesn’t come with a carrying case, but the box is very strong and looks like it will last.  Overall, a very nicely designed toy, very appealing and sturdy, and made with actual kids in mind.

I ordered it through Amazon.  As with all the Amazon products I link to, I get a small percentage of any sale made (including any product on Amazon.  So if you click on a link I post on a book review, browse around, and end up ordering Epsom salts and a package of underwear, I still get a percentage).

Soon you’ll have to opt IN to get porn online in the UK

Says David Cameron, the Prime Minister:

Children can’t go into the shops or the cinema and buy things meant for adults or have adult experiences – we rightly regulate to protect them.

But when it comes to the internet in the balance between freedom and responsibility, we have neglected our responsibility to our children.

My argument is that the internet is not a side-line to ‘real life’ or an escape from ‘real life’; it is real life.

It has an impact: on the children who view things that harm them on the vile images of abuse that pollute minds and cause crime on the very values that underpin our society.

He is introducing a number of measures to make it harder for people to look at child porn and depictions of rape.  And pornographic images will automatically be filtered out by default, unless you deliberately opt out of the filter.

But what about free speech?  I’ve been around and around that mulberry bush more times than I can count, so I’m no longer surprised when people imagine that a free society entitles them to shit all over the whole world — and that it’s parents’ job to shovel a little path through the shit for their kids, if they’re going to be super uptight about it.

This law doesn’t outlaw pooping.  It just acknowledges that shit is shit, and it should be treated accordingly.

It should be hard to find porn.  It should be embarrassing.  Using it should make you feel nervous and guilty, because it is bad for you, bad for your family, and bad for society.  And if you are enslaved to it, you should be grateful that the public and private sectors are working together to make it less accessible and normalized.

How I wish we could see laws like this in the United States.  It’s still a parents’ job to protect children, and it’s still up to the individual to fight back against the flood of porn.  But making it a little less normal, a little less accessible, is a wonderful thing.

For help in breaking an addiction to porn, or for dealing with it if your spouse is addicted, see these resources:

Integrity Restored

Matt Fradd’s The Porn Effect

Fight the New Drug

Porn No More

Marcel Lejeune’s list of strategies.

Feel free to add your own recommendations in the comment box.  Porn is powerful and corrosive, but the fight against it is by no means hopeless!

Young Catholic women: what do you want to know about sex and the spiritual life?

I’ve very graciously been invited to lead a Theology on Tap discussion this Tuesday in Keene, NH.  Here’s the event description:

Think “Fifty Shades of Grey” is shocking? We’ll see your fifty and raise you 5 years and 129 talks–that’s what it took for Blessed John Paul II to outline his “Theology of the Body”, in which he explained the relationship between sex and spirituality. We’re so often taught in church that sex is a black-and-white, “do it” or “don’t do it” issue, but Theology of the Body teaches that there are so many shades of grey–we have to ask “why?” and “to what end?”, not just “can I?”
Join us as we split the ladies …and gents for separate discussions about Theology of the Body, sex, spirituality, and the practical application of the connection between the two!
The ladies’ conversation, led by author and blogger Simcha Fisher, will cover the basic ideas of ToB and how it impacts our relationships with men and our own bodies. Meet at Margarita’s Mexican Restaurant on Main Street!
The gents’ conversation will be led by Deacon Arnold Gustafson and will meet at Ramunto’s Pizzeria, also on Main Street!
Both groups will meet in private rooms at the venues so as to assure privacy when talking about this delicate topic.  See you there!
Local women, I would absolutely love to see you there!  Whether you can make it or not, I need your help.
What questions do you have?  What topics would you like to see addressed?  There is SO much here, and it’s just one night, so I’d like to focus the discussion on things that people really want to hear about.

Shame on you for not reading me

. . . says Steve Gershom, in a nice acknowledgement for the interview we did a couple of weeks ago.  Steve expands a little on his favorite parts, and remarks rather poignantly,

As a celibate gay man, I seem to spend half my time telling secular people that I’m just the same as other men, and telling Christians that I’m extremely different from other men. The truth is in the mean, I guess, but sometimes to make the stick straight (heh) you have to bend it too far in the other direction.

If you’re not reading Steve Gershom, you’re missing a lot of candor and insight, plus a good amount of heh.

If you missed our interview about the ex-gay movement and what we are really talking about when we talk about trying to change our orientation, here is part 1 and here is part 2.

Summer read-aloud recommendations?

Our summer is turning out a little bit too much like this:

 

 

My go-to solution is a read-aloud book, to at least save some part of the day we had rued.  Despite having written dozens of posts about good books for kids, I’m having a hard time finding something suitable.  My goal is just to have something pleasant and enjoyable to do together, and not necessarily to tick off any Indispensible Classics from our Well Rounded Children list.  (I save the list for reciting to myself in the middle of the night, so as to make sure I have something to feel guilty about.)

Any suggestions?  Adventure/humor would be best, something boys and girls would like.  Kids I’m targeting are ages 9-15, and I’m aiming for the higher end of that group.  In the past, they’ve enjoyed of course the Narnia books, LOTR, some George MacDonaldFreddy the Pig books, The Phantom Tollbooth, Robert Nye’s retelling of Beowulf, and Jack Tales.

I just started Alice in Wonderland, but we may ditch it, just because we’re all a little more familiar with it than I realized.

Help me!

EDITED TO ADD:
Oh, and if you have something to recommend, it would be very helpful if you could mention (a) the age range of the kids who enjoyed it, and (b) a little bit about the book – plot, tone, etc.  Thanks!