~A Morning for Mothers~

Please join in celebrating Candlemas with

Simcha Fisher

 on Saturday, February 2, 2013

from 9:30 am to 11:30 am

in the Parish Center at St. Bernadette Church

266 Main Street, Northborough, MA

~

A Catholic wife and mother of 9, author and speaker, Simcha writes

for several publications, including the National Catholic Register.

You can also find her at www.simchafisher.wordpress.com.

Simcha will give a talk entitled,

“Beautiful Stranger: Making Contact with the Mother of God.”

~

A light brunch is included. 

The cost is $10, payable in cash at the door.

 

Space is limited, so if you plan to attend, please contact Sheila Towne at

 townes9@yahoo.com

 

Download the flyer here:  A Mother’s Morning

 

Look what I got in the mail today!

It’s a gorgeous, soft, handmade winter hat, just for me, with no Hello Kitty on it!  I don’t know if you can see it, but the mailer is sealed with Hello Kitty tape. This cracked me up and absolutely made my morning, and I’m going to be wearing this hat nonstop.  I love it.  Many, many thanks to reader and talented knitter Suzanne Andrews.

Boy, between this and my amazing boots (not to  mention those fabulous cookies), I think I might actually not die this winter after all, thanks to my generous readers.

Also of possible interest in this picture, just so you don’t think I’m making stuff up:  on the windowsill is a green candle in the shape of a sled, which, in a fit of doomed existential rebellion, I agreed to glue back together.  It’s “still drying.” The wooden thing behind me is a medicine chest I found on the side of the road which doesn’t seem to fit anywhere else in the house; and the white tube just visible over my right shoulder is my progesterone cream, which my children keep begging to use because it smells like horseradish.  Here’s hoping no one has the technology to blow up whatever is displayed on the computer screen.  I don’t actually remember going to any hideously embarrassing websites, but if I did, you can be sure I’d capture it on film and put it online.

is that you sit down at your computer with your morning coffee and read something like this.  From Leticia Ochoa Adams:

Today is my blue eyed boy’s 13th birthday. Daniel was 5 months old when I found out my birth control failed and I was pregnant with my third child. I was working at Hooter’s and my ex-husband was a drug addict who threw me around anytime I wouldn’t give him money when he asked for it and I knew he was going on a binge. That is why I was on birth control, to make sure I didn’t get pregnant. So when I found out, in the bathroom at Hooters, that I was I was scared. Probably more scared than when I found out I was pregnant with Anthony. One girl mentioned abortion and as soon as she said it all the other girls and my manager said “you don’t have to do that. We will help you.” That’s why I love my time there. And why I am proud to say I was a Hooters Girl. Because they supported me when I needed them. When I told everyone else I was pregnant I didn’t get any congrats, or YEY another baby, or anything. I got that look. Anyone who has had kids 14 months apart or closer knows the look. Jessica Simpson is getting that look and tone right now because she is pregnant again and her baby is “only 8 months old”.

But let me tell you what the world would be missing if I had had abortion and Gabe wasn’t alive right now, if my birth control had not failed the world would be missing a wonderful human being. He has always been my little man. He was my hope when things seemed so hard. He cried for me when I would leave him. He’s the only one of my kids who ever cried for me. He is the only one of the grand kids with blue eyes. He has a wicked sense of humor. He is so smart. He started talking at 6 months old and walking at 9 months. He was so tiny walking around and talking. Mark Gabriel Jacobs is the light of my life. The world would not be the same if he was not in it. The last 13 years of being his mother have given me awesome memories and I wouldn’t trade then for the world.

I sit here today thanking God that He knew better than me and gave me this child when it made no sense for a responsible person to get pregnant. I thank Him for all my kids. If I wasn’t a mother, I would be nothing.

I had to cut this detail out of today’s post, but my husband would like it known that the sports radio station he favors regularly hosts photo caption contests.

On the radio.

But he always ends up there because at least it’s not the news, which I understand.  When I can’t stomach the news anymore, I’ll listen to anything, even a cassette tape of someone named Long John Baldry reading a dubious “origins” story about Winnie the Pooh.  Most of the story is taken up explaining how he got the name “Winnie,” but my favorite part is toward the end, when he says, in his rich, plummy, British voice, “But where does POOH come from?  We-heh-hell,  that’s a story for another day!”

I’m sure it is, Long John Baldry.  I’m sure it is.

First, our beloved Jen Fulwiler is stable, but not out of the woods yet.  She was back in the hospital, but has since been sent back home (or at least that was the plan last I heard).  BUT, life is going to suck for the next several months.  She says she can only breathe when she’s sitting still like a statue, and while she and her unborn baby boy are not in immediate danger, SHE CAN’T MOVE.  So, going home: yay!!!!  Figuring out how to live, take care of five little kids, and just deal with the normal stress of being pregnant plus knowing that your lungs are full of dangerous, unpredictable clots:  . . . I don’t even know what to say.

Jen says, “I can’t remember a time I felt more peaceful or closer to God than I do now,” and she attributes this to your prayers. and she reminds us to pray for another pregnant mom of many, who is in the hospital on bedrest.

And Jen’s longtime friend Hallie Lord has set up a PayPal account to help Jen’s family out.  As you know, money can’t buy happiness, but not knowing how you’re going to pay for stuff while you’re horribly sick can certainly buy unhappiness.  So, if you have a prayer or few spare bucks, you know where to send ‘em!  Also, they are setting up a Care Calendar account to make sure Jen’s family gets meals — more details on that when I get them.

Second, Susan Windley-Daoust, who blogs  as The  Ironic Catholic, is selling some of her family’s “overstock” items — so far clothes, but soon books and toys.  Gymboree, Land’s End, great prices, excellent cause!  Take a look!

Third, here

is a fellow who has attached a camera to the end of his trombone, if you know what I mean.  (If you’re on Facebook, you can see the video here.; or you can go to his site and scroll down a bit to “GoPro Camera on Trombone.”)  1:46 long.  Start your Monday right.

Fourth, I’m collecting your favorite “March for Life” stories.  Funny, moving, unexpected, disastrous — I’ll take ‘em all.  Short (a paragraph) is best.  If you want to share, please email me at simchafisher @ gmail . com

Fifth, boy, do we need the graces of Epiphany right now.  I guess I’m asking for all kinds of prayers:  regarding health concerns in one family member’s family, health and travel concerns in another, worries about kids in another.  A sweet Facebook friend, Kelly Davignon, just gave birth to a tiny, sweet girl, Anna, at 29 weeks.  Kelly is in lots of pain, and baby Anna is in the NICU.  Here is the Meal Train for Kelly’s family in Grand Junction, CO. 

And it occurred to me that doctors and health workers could probably use some extra prayers right now.  My husband’s doctor said that his empty schedule became double-booked in a matter of minutes on the day that we went in (and my husband is doing much better, thanks!).  People are dropping like flies, and doctors must be exhausted.

Sixth, I still haven’t uploaded the Christmas pictures, but here is a picture of Benny on Dec. 8, the day she turned one:

Love dat baby.

Well, yesterday was a pretty great day for me.  This is how December’s stats shaped up:

Now, my blog generates no revenue whatsoever, no matter how many clicks I get; but even if it did, that’s not what I’m talking about.  It was the astonishing outpouring of support and encouragement that made it just completely wonderful.  So many people took the time to write a letter to my editor — and boy, I know how busy people are right now!  That in itself was fantastic.

But what struck me most of all was how articulate, sincere, witty, and above all happyyou all sound.  And then you sent me personal emails, messaged me, passed the word on Facebook and Twitter, and left encouraging comments everywhere encouraging comments could be left.  You guys.  I don’t even know what to say.  I’m just so glad to have people like you for my friends.

And it doesn’t hurt to have an endlessly generous, indefatigable, angry Irish combox berzerker like Mark Shea gallantly drawing off some of the crazybrain fire.  And then one of the funniest, most insightful, most crap-cutting cultural commentators I’ve seen in a long time, Tom McDonald references Spartacus and The Big Lebowski (well, there was a nice marmot, anyway) on my behalf.  I . . .  I now feel able to stand tall against the scathing disapprobation of, um, Spirit Daily.  And Pewsitter.  And Selfrigithous Marmot-Fanciers United for the Magnesium.

Also, Al and Chuck’s Gay Travel Blog is getting a huge bump in traffic this week.  They must be so damn confused right now.

Oh, happy, happy Advent to all of you.

Folks, so many of you have been so encouraging and so generous with your prayers already.  Thank you!  If you have a moment, and if you’ve enjoyed my writing here or at the Register, maybe you could drop a line to the  Editor-in-Chief, Jeanette de Melo.  She’s been getting lots of calls and emails about me lately, and I’d love to have some friends add their voices.

jdemelo@ewtn.com

I didn’t get to see Minor Revisions last night!  Jen Fulwiler gave us ten extremely persuasive reasons why, despite the grievous lack of any husbands wearing banana suits, we would want to watch her reality show miniseries.  Did you see it?  How was it?  It’s a three-part series, and the next episodes will air Dec. 20 and Jan. 10.  You can also watch it live online (IF all five internet-enabled devices don’t crap out on you simultaneously, like ours did; in which case you can have some taquitos and fall asleep on your husband while watching a JeanClaude Van Damme movie, and it will actually be the nicest evening you’ve had in weeks.   IF.)

Argh.  I feel like the kid who missed trick-or-treating because I was home with chicken pox.  How was it, how was it???

UPDATE:  Because the servers crashed from so many people trying to watch last night, the producers have put the entire first episode on YouTube, and you can watch it here.  (That is a link to Brandon Vogt, who posted the video.  My computer will not do anything I want it to do today.)

Remember Kate Essenberg, the immensely talented baker who sent my family a large and gorgeous selection of edible art?  It turns out that this sweet woman’s generosity and talent extend even further:  she’s just come out with a CD of Christmas music, and it is lovely.

 

 

You can check out some samples of the music on this album here.  Kate is the lucid and heartfelt soprano voice you will hear, accompanied by piano, harp, and violin.  There are fourteen songs in all, and my kids and I enjoyed the whole album.

Here’s the kicker:  She is donating 100% of the proceeds to the Savannah Care Center, a crisis pregnancy across the street from an abortion clinic in downtown Savannah. 

CDs are $15 each, plus $4 for shipping.  Kate would be happy to gift wrap a CD and mail it to someone on your list, too.  To order, just email Kate at

kavingate@hailmail.net

Lovely Christmas music to support a pro-life cause — couldn’t be better!

First, some bloggy business.  If you are an email subscriber to this blog, you may have stopped getting notifications (and I’m just hoping that you missed them so much that you came over here on your own to find out what happened!).  I think this is because my dear brother figured out how to import the subscriber list to my new blog, which obviously isn’t live yet; but I guess that means that those people are no longer subscribed to this, the old, current blog.  So, sorry about that, if you got dropped!  Please re-subscribe via the sidebar, and I hope to have the new blog up soon!

And now on to our book pick, which I kind of forgot about for a couple of days.

The other day, Melanie Bettinelli was bemoaning the terrible selection of books in the dentist’s waiting room — specifically, the “retellings” of Winnie the Pooh that turn these nutty, hilarious, clever stories into sentimental mush only a literary half-step above the Care Bears.   Our dentist,  happily, has one of those fun-house mirrors, plus a huge collection of germy Legos; so I don’t usually have to read more than one or two hideous books.  But every time we go, I resolve that I’m going to present our dentist with this book:

Doctor De Soto written and illustrated by William Steig

One of the very few books, to my knowledge, that presents a dentist as a clever and courageous hero.  He’s also a mouse who has to decide what to do when a fox comes to him in pain.  I love how his wife tries to talk him out of finishing the job, because they both know that the fox intends to eat them; but Dr. De Soto says firmly, “Once I start a job, I finish it.  My father was the same way.”  I don’t know, that line slays me every time.  Same with his little glasses and his stodgy dentist’s smock.  Our family has also adopted the defeated fox’s exit line, “Frank oo berry mush” for use in many occasions.

I really like William Steig, but this one especially dodges some of his less appealing traits:  the way he uses super fancy words for no good reason, and, I forget what the other thing is.  I guess he can be a little brutal in his plot twists sometimes, which could be  hard on sensitive kids.  But this story is short, tidy, and satisfying, and highly original, and only has a little bit of blood.  The illustrations are funny and full of neat little details (some puppies playing jump rope in the city street below the office; the special double stairs, one for large animals and a miniaturized version for the De Sotos.  Steig uses delicate touches, both in his illustrations and in his words, to create solid characters and specific worlds for them to live in.

I also like Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Shrek (we also say, “Pheasant, peasant?  What a pleasant present!”) (this is the original book on which the movie is VERY loosely based.  In the book, Shrek is not charming, not one little bit; and neither is his bride), The Amazing Bone, Caleb and Kate — oh, and of course Yellow and Pink,which appears to be selling at exorbitant prices, for some reason.  Could it be out of print?   What a shame.