Back to the routine/ big catch-up blog
It's been a busy week for the Maryland Mosses, mostly socializing (and nobody got sick!) Davey's mommy mentioned our little visit together (tactfully omitting how Hambet was constantly trying to run away without us.)
Hambet and I also got to enjoy two other play dates this week that had been cancelled during the winter due to illness.
We invited one of my husband's old co-workers over for Sunday dinner last night. I wish we knew some suitable single woman to introduce to this guy, before he gets too set in his ways.
Arrgh, there was so much I wanted to blog about! Can I just lump it all together while I'm here?
1. William Bennet's taste for gambling. I first saw this story over at Amy Welborn's. She and Mark Shea both have discussions going, and I suppose this is going to be all over the opinion pages for the next couple of days. So I won't have anything new to add. This habit doesn't seem to doing much to build up the virtue of temperance and may be feeding the sin of vanity (look, I'm a high roller! The limo comes to get me! I'm so rich I can throw around big piles of money!) If Mr. Bennett doesn't think this is a problem, why does he gamble so furtively?
Mr Bennett, since you are a a well-informed opinion leader, I'm sure you are a daily reader of Two Sleepy Mommies! Next time you are packing your suitcase for Vegas, why don't you give me a call? I'm in your county. You could drive up Connecticut Avenue -- up past where the snipers were doing their thing -- and be at my house in about 20 minutes, have a cup of coffee and slice of banana bread up at my place. Since you're prepared to gamble $500,000 a pop, you could give me about a tenth of that and never miss it, and it would mean so much to me! I could split it with Pansy and still get new windows and doors for our house, maybe get that concrete work done, start a 529 for my little boy, buy a computer or two for a couple of charities around here, get the brake work done on my car, and replace the sofa. .... Or never mind me, why don't you give Cardinal McCarrick a call? Wasn't it just a couple of weeks ago our pastor was telling us that the Archbishop's Appeal is not doing well this year? Or don't you get the money sermons down at your parish? I know you're probably a major donor already, but instead of blowing your money at Bellagio's why not just give some more to the Cardinal, subsidize some more tuition for DC schoolkids?
2. I need to remember the disappointment I felt when I read the Bennett story. Someday, he's going to be reviewing his bank statements with the Lord; I need to keep in mind that He's going to be going over my Day-Timer with me, as well as my checkbook.
3. Last week I meant to blog on that article from last weekend's Parade magazine about hunger in America. Apparently there's been an increase over the last few years in the number of requests for assistance from food banks, especially from families that are getting pretty pinched -- the parents may be employed, but not making a living wage. For some reason, it's really been nagging at me. Is that what our Evangelical brethren mean by "having a burden on the heart"? (sorry, I don't remember exactly how the phrase goes.) I need to call my parish and get a reminder as to when the next canned food drive is.
4. Made an angel food cake from scratch this weekend; pretty successful, though half the cake stayed behind in the pan. Notes to self: next time, don't beat the egg whites as long; the cake was a little tough. Also, there are special angel cake pans for a reason.
5. I so want to see X-Men! Nightcrawler has always been my favorite X-Man and I'm so pleased he's in the movie.
6. Father Sibley has an link to a new product: Cyclebeads. I had a rather snarky comment there that didn't make my point clearly enough; that's what I get for trying to be snarky. So why don't I just come out and say it? Stupid Georgetown! If you weren't so stuck on yourself and afraid of seeming "too Catholic", maybe you'd know that this Cyclebeads gadget, which is based on calendar rhythm, has been out of date for years now. Maybe you'd be up on the work of the Couple to Couple League and the Pope Paul VI Institute (apparently you missed Dr Hilgers' publications?)
To avoid pregnancy, a woman and her partner can choose to .... use another method [of contraception during fertile days...]
Full disclosure -- I do have some personal animosity towards Georgetown Hospital, partly because I had a horrible experience when I was trying to orient to a nursing job there (my failure was partly due to my own inadequacy and partly due to the fact that my preceptor seemed determined that I fail.) Before I was married I also consulted two Georgetown physicians about some reproductive health issues; they assured me that having 40 to 50 day long cycles was nothing to get too worried about -- I should just call if it got to be 60 days, and they'd give me a shot. No, you don't need an endocrinologist. It was two more doctors and four more years before I was finally diagnosed as having polycystic ovarian syndrome.
It seems to me that a major Catholic research hospital should be the first place Catholic women could turn to for women's health care that is both up-to-date and consistent with Catholic teaching. I don't know a single woman around here who turns to Georgetown for that kind of care. Around here, if you want to learn NFP you go through the diocese, call the CCL, or go to the NFP center, and if you want to find a pro-life OB-GYN who's really up on NFP you have to ask your friends (and they all tell you they go here. And if you're me, you start crying, because your insurance is not on their list....)
7. Victor has posted a handy directory of some of his funniest mulitmedia posts. Do check out theJack Chick parodies, if you haven't seen them yet.
8. Erik also has an interesting thread going on music. I like learning about music theory; it's yet another topic I wish I had studied.
9. Garden report: first lettuce harvest this week! Good showing from all the plants except for the spinach. Perhaps I will put in the tomatoes this week, though I might wait till it's consistently warmer. I also have a flower bed out front that could use some plants.
