Author: simchajfisher

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 MacDonald, Freddy 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!

 

Oh fer

Seen on Target’s Facebook page:  “Corn on the Cob Survival Kit”

Up next:  a special truss for guiding your tootsies in the general direction of your flip flops!  How about some lotion to rescue your fingertips from the ravages of pressing the OnStar button in your SUV if you get lost on the way to Starbucks?  Or maybe an itty bitty squeegee for clearing the fog off your upper lip when you courageously tackle an ice cream cone?  Take heart, Americans!  We will survive the summer.

It does happen.

family reunion of a couple of years ago, when there were only 33 cousins

I posted this on Facebook this morning, and it got 218 likes in 38 minutes.  So I figured it was something people need to hear!  From our trip to the beach yesterday:

Lady at the beach:  “Are these ALLLLL your children?”
Me:  “No, actually, I have two more at home.”
Her:  “Two more!  So how many in all?”
Me: “I have nine children.”
Her:  “OH, GOD HAS BLESSED YOU!  MOTHER MARY IS WITH YOU! YOU’RE DOING A BEAUTIFUL JOB!”
Did not see that coming!
Several FB friends mentioned that they make a special effort to say friendly, encouraging things to parents with lots of kids.  I guess because we live in small town New England, it’s pretty rare that I get nasty, sneering comments (although it’s fun to have snappy comebacks at the ready); but lots of big (and even “big”) families get nothing but scowls and horrified gasps when they set foot outside the door.  So if you have something nice or encouraging to say, say it!  Or at least give a big smile.  Some moms really need to know there’s someone on their side.
Also, the nice lady at the beach told me that she “only has two kids,” and I was quick to tell her that there is no such thing as “only” two kids!  People with smaller families often seem to feel like they need to apologize or explain their family size.  No need, no need.  My children are not a statement, and I remember all to well how difficult it was to have two children.  We’re all fighting our own battles, and the last thing Catholics need is to get into fertility contests with each other.

An indulgence for THAT?

Probably you’ve heard, you can get an indulgence if you follow the events of World Youth Day via Twitter.

Of course the secular media is reporting that you can get an indulgence “through” Twitter, as if it’s something you can download.  And wouldn’t that be an interesting topic for another day?  I can’t be the only one who reifies technological processes in my imagination, picturing digitized data as twinkling clouds that swirl through the air and down through the vent in the side of my laptop.  Zwoosh!  Downloaded.   I may be a technological moron who engages in magical thinking when it comes to computer stuff, but the typical secular person is just as childish when it comes to understanding and imagining spiritual things.  I suppose that, when they hear “grace” or “salvation,” they think of moonbeams or pixie dust.

Anyway, about those Twitter indulgences.  The usual crowd of indignant neckbeards are grousing at the loosey goosey way Francis is handing ‘em out for cheap  — forgetting, apparently, that there’s a long tradition of earning indulgences through doing things that by no means guarantee a spiritual experience.  The actual action you perform — going to Mass at a certain church, finishing a certain novena – isn’t necessarily a difficult thing.  In part, it’s kind of a hook, something to grab your attention and give you some structure, so that you get the spiritual benefit of the proscribed action, and you’re also motivated to do the other things necessary to gain an indulgence.  Here’s a good overview.

It occurs to me that Francis has actually done something brilliant here — something even the Frankophobes can’t argue with:   he’s making the media help him catechize the world.

 

I mean, imagine if he sent out a tweet saying, “Your word of the day is ‘indulgence,’” and then went on to define it.  No one would care.  Instead, he’s made it into a story, and now people are actually having to look it up and see what the deal is.  Haters gonna hate, but plenty more people will learn something they never would have otherwise.

Love that man.

Good for CVS!

Rolling Stone, in its wisdom, has chosen to feature alleged Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on its cover, presumably because the murder of innocents is always edgy, especially if there are big brown eyes and lavish curls involved.

CVS is refusing to sell the issue.  Here’s their statement on their Facebook page (via Gawker):

CVS/pharmacy has decided not to sell the current issue of Rolling Stone featuring a cover photo of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect. As a company with deep roots in New England and a strong presence in Boston, we believe this is the right decision out of respect for the victims of the attack and their loved ones.

Don’t waste your time with the comments, as usual.  There’s a bunch of disingenuous snark about how National Review must love and endorse Obama and Osama Bin Laden, since they put him on their cover, nyeh nyeh.  Ugh, as if there isn’t enough stupidity in the world, we have to have people pretending to be stupid.

Anyway, good for CVS.  May God for give Tsarnaev, and may the rest of us have the strength to refrain from sexifying evil.

My profile of Dr. Carpentier in OSV

I wrote this article about Dr. Paul Carpentier quite a while ago – glad they are running it for NFP awareness week!  A great doctor and a good man.

Doctor keeps medical practice in line with Catholic teaching

 

Dr. Paul Carpentier, founder of In His Image Family Medicine in Gardner, Mass., said he doesn’t have an especially unusual mission.

“It’s just one of stewardship,” he said. “I intend to do the best I can with the skills God has given me, for the community that presents itself for care.” But something sets him apart.

On his website is this notice: “Please be advised that this practice does not provide abortions, sterilizations, contraceptives, artificial reproductive technologies or assisted suicide, nor do we refer for these services.”

“I’m not inflicting some kind of hardship on patients,” Carpentier told Our Sunday Visitor. These services are available everywhere, and Massachusetts health care covers most of them. When Carpentier tells his patients that he can’t perform certain practices because they are against his conscience, he said most people don’t object.

“In 23 years, I’ve only had two patients storm out,” he said. They were mothers who had taken the day off work to bring their daughters in for contraceptives. “I actually talked to the daughters,” he said. “I told the moms, ‘Talk to your daughters. They don’t want to be on the pill.’”

Read the rest . . .

So, what else is going on in Florida?

Marissa Alexander of Jacksonville had said the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law should apply to her because she was defending herself against her allegedly abusive husband when she fired warning shots inside her home in August 2010. She told police it was to escape a brutal beating by her husband, against whom she had already taken out a protective order.

But instead, she got sentenced to 20 years for attempted murder.

And here’s my analysis:

 

Rock and roll! What a empty generation.

Just had a nice interview with Dina Marie Hale of KBVM, in advance of the Catholic Women Rejoice conference in Vancouver, Washington this September.  I had nearly a whole hour to blather on!  I’ll post a link to the interview later, should you want to listen.

Then I was grousing on Facebook about how much harder it is to speak radio than to speak to a crowd in person, because you don’t get any reaction from your audience, and have no idea of whether you’re connecting or not.  My sister comforted me:  “Could be worse.  ‘In the old days you could get in there, hit ‘em with an apple or a grapefruit. Nowadays, you do dat, you need a new picture tube, fifty bucks!’”

This is a quote from an LP we used to listen to growing up.  Eddie Lawrence — weird, goofy, hilarious stuff.  Here’s the skit my sister was quoting from.  I laughed so hard, the kids didn’t know what to think.

“I say if you can’t vote six, seven times, stay home!  Supposed to be a democracy, ain’t it?”

 

At the Register: The Stupids Get a Dog

And this is the expurgated version.

I couldn’t quite bring myself to crap up the Register even further with personal pictures, but I can bring myself to do it here!
Here is our first look at the puppy, who is eight weeks old, and his name is Shane (yes, as in “Shane!  Shane!  Come back!”):

 

Here he is in the back seat, wondering who the hell we are, where his mommy went, and why we didn’t think to borrow a cage or crate for a three-hour ride, especially if the car is going to make horrible jerking movements and a grinding noise and smoke is going to billow out from the hood:

 

and here is my husband and the puppy on the side of the road, thinking about transmissions, and life and stuff:

 

Here I am after our thunderstormery walk down the highway, just starting to realize the gravity of our situation:

 

And here is the inside of my brain when my husband told me how much transmissions cost:

and here we are having a slightly illegal public aperitif before I sent him back for some food that was not corn nuts:

 and here is how things stood the very next day:

 

Sunny and happy, more or less.  Nobody has slept in four days and our house smells like pee, but PUPPYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!

#Free the Word! An apology, and explanation, and an appeal by Brandon Vogt

Brandon Vogt covers everything you need to know about the copyright issues surrounding the distribution of Lumen Fidei and other magisterial works.

 

He explains what the problem is with the current system and what a better solution would look like; and he apologizes for his error and (unnecessarily, in my opinion) for his initial reaction to the response he got from the USCCB.

He answers tons of common questions about this issue, and he has opened his comment box as a petition to the Holy See, to urge them to tweak their copyright policies so that that the light of faith can be spread more easily.

Please check out Brandon’s post.  He is a shining example of the New Evangelization:  enthusiastic, generous, orthodox, thorough, and innovative, and he makes it easy to participate.  Share his post, sign the petition, retweet his tweets. Brandon has a very good idea, and we need to help him make it happen!