My friend Rachel’s brother is a priest, and he lives at St. Michael’s Abbey in Orange County, California. The Abbey is releasing a new chant CD, called Anthology, due out on February 10th.
Here is a YouTube audio sample.
And you can buy it here or here or here.
They also have a Christmas CD.
I look back at childhood photos and wonder what my mom was thinking in her selection of my clothing. I don’t care that all the other children were wearing bell bottoms and polyester and brown and orange, she should have been able to rise above the chaff, right?
And this one, who is increasingly difficult to capture in a decent photo (“Mary, stop moving!”)…well, let’s just say that I’m glad this underwear is clean. And I’m doubly glad it isn’t mine. 
…do eventually boil.
Jennie had her baby yesterday – Thursday. Not Wednesday or Saturday, as she predicted. Must be a boy.
Waiting for details…
…but in the meantime, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
A few weeks ago, I signed up for six weeks of fresh vegetables delivered right to my home from a local farm via this site. They have a “winter” program, stuff grown in their greenhouse. We received our first delivery yesterday, which was mainly salad greens – and that’s fine. We eat salad. There was a small bunch of carrots, which everybody has been sneaking as though they were candy, so I don’t think they’ll last a full 24 hours, unless I hide them.
They also sent a bunch of fresh tarragon. Any suggestions on what to do with it? Tarragon has not been a key ingredient in my usual repertoire of dishes, but I’m always willing to try something new.
These 6 weeks are a test-run to see if we use the majority of the produce. The spring-summer program costs over $1000 for 18-20 weeks (not exactly sure). I can’t afford to waste that kind of money if we don’t eat the stuff. Based on this week, though, I like what I see. I’d prefer to grow my own, but between the shady garden plot and the deer who frequent our yard, I’m concerned I’d spend a lot of time working, and have little to show for it.
Which reminds me: I claimed that the only thing that would inspire me to shoot a gun at an animal was a rabid one preparing to attack my toddler. That’s untrue. Years ago, when I had my own garden in a nice sunny spot, I attempted lettuce for the first time. It was easy to grow, and my little row of leaves was coming up nicely, and I was salivating over the thought of a minutes-fresh green salad in a few weeks. One morning, I went back to do some weeding and pruning when I looked over at my row of lettuce. It was gone, nibbled down to the ground by a groundhog we saw frequently in the area, and one that Bill had once gone after with a shovel. At that moment, I could have throttled the thing with my bare hands. So, I’m willing to bet that even Bambi himself partaking of the fruits of my labor would find his hind quarters peppered with buck shot.
Bill has posted two Superbowl videos. Do NOT watch the first one with children in the room (uh, Bill: warnings might have been helpful. If Jenny throws out a few choices phrases later, I blame you).
But the second video is impressive, mainly because of the ages of the performers, listed at the end (between 11 and 13 years old). They almost make me want the Steelers to win. Almost.
My steeply sloped driveway is a thick sheet of ice. Bill got out Tuesday morning before the snow came and has been parking up on the street for the last two days. There is a tree strategical placed in the middle of the bottom of the drive, so if you lose control, that would likely be the thing to halt your slide.
Right now, it is below freezing, but the sun is on its way up and the temps are expected to climb a few degrees above the melting point. Hopefully the sunny day and the just-warm-enough temperatures will make clearing that drive of ice an easy task. The kids will be sorely disappointed to lose their sledding hill, but we have Tuesday’s rescheduled piano lessons this afternoon and Scouts tonight.
I’ll be a bit sad to see the sledding hill go, too. Not only were the kids entertained for hours yesterday afternoon, they all went straight to bed.
Last weekend, I finally got around to C. S. Lewis’ Abolition of Man. Two quotes I want to remember:
“When all that says ‘It is good’ has been debunked, what says ‘I want’ remains. {snip} My point is that those who stand outside all judgements of value cannot have any ground for preferring one of their own impulses to another except the emotional strength of that impulse. We may legitimately hope that among the impulses which arise in minds thus emptied of all ‘rational’ or ‘spiritual’ motives, some will be benevolent. I am very doubtful myself whether the benevolent impulses, stripped of that preference and encouragement which the Tao teaches us to give them and left to their namely natural strength and frequency as psychological events, will have much influence. I am very doubtful whether history shows us one example of a man who, having stepped outside traditional morality and attained power, has used that power benevolently. For without the judgement ‘Benevolence is good’ – that is, without reentering the Tao – they can have no ground for promoting or stabilizing their benevolent impulses rather than any other.”
And the concluding three sentences:
“If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see.”
I was cracking the whip assisting my daughters in the tidying of their room. Everything has a place. Nothing was in it.
“Is this pretty?” I asked.
They admitted it was not.
On top of the dresser, among other things, was a lone sock.
“Katie, put this in the hamper.” I ordered requested nicely.
“But it doesn’t have a match,” she moaned explained. And keeping it on the dresser solves that problem? {Sarcastic comments are kept to myself.}
“I KNOW it doesn’t have a match. It’s mate is on the dryer, where it has been for a month, waiting for this one to cycle through the laundry.”
“Oh.”
Oh, indeed.
Reit This Way 