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Our Newborn Nephew I'm being patient. Guess I'll
have to wait until this weekend to meet Ezra Lewis, our newborn nephew. After
36 hours of labor and still not having slept at all Wednesday night, Mary
and Jordan haven’t been up for visitors. They just want to sleep in their own
bed. Hopefully, Ezra is tired from the move as well and will join them in a
much-needed snooze.
-2-
Cardinals & the Conclave It’s a beautiful thing that the cardinals know enough
about this process and its importance that they didn’t even mention setting a
date for the conclave, yet. If you would
like an accurate report of what’s going on, who’s saying what, and how the
process works, then be wise and check out a credible source
for Catholic news.
-3-
Help Save Aquinas and More Since February of 2010 one of the
awesome companies for whom I have been writing and posting my reviews of their
books, movies, and music is Aquinas and More. If you go to their Tiber River review site, you’ll see Top
Reviewers, and I’m one of them. There are many reasons I have written and
posted 52 reviews for this company over the past three years. Here are a few more reasons to help save their
company from closing: they’re the only Catholic company that 1.) has registries for seminarians and military chaplains 2.) Our Good Faith guarantee 3.) No products from China 4.) Get Imprimatur
information on books offered on their website.
-4-
Creative Writing for Kids Monday I subbed at school in a 1-3 grad Montessori
classroom, and since the teacher knows me and has asked me to come in for her
before, she gave me free reign to do some fun creative writing with the kids in
the afternoon. I had them pretend that someone
had asked them to write a mystery chapter book.
I had them each answer a series of questions and thereby create their
main character, main conflict, setting, and point-of-view, then start
writing. It was really fun to see the
kids so excited about what they came up with and eager to share with others
their ideas. Their teacher asked me if I’d
like to come back and do some more creative writing with them. Of course, I’d love to!
-5-
It’s so easy to forget how much fun it can be to stop in and laugh, giggle, love on some little ones without having the larger responsibility of mealtimes, playtime, naptime, learning basic manners, gross and fine motor skills, potty training/diaper changing management to oversee.
No wonder Kevin, Laura, and others have such a blast when they come over. Pure cuteness, love, laughter, and none of the responsibility. It can be a refreshing change and good way to see things from another angle.
I suggest parents not only have a date night, but that they also have some strictly fun, and (whenever possible) one-on-one playtime with each of their kids during the week. We don’t forget how to enjoy and fall in love all over again with our spouse or our kids!
-6-
What about…? I’ve gotten to ask a number of seemingly random
questions, do some interesting research, and have some amusing exchanges with
close friends via text and e-mail as I’m gathering bits and pieces for some of
the scenes I’m working on for a young adult novel. I had to laugh when I realized that the best
person to ask about pranks would have been my dad (and his brothers). I asked my mom, instead, since she knew a
bunch of the ones he and his roommates pulled while in college. If you’ve got any good ones that don’t
involve causing permanent damage to property or serious physical harm to others,
please let me know.
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Step Up Revolution Since
I was young, I’ve loved dancing and watching amazing dancers perform. After watching some of the clips of this
movie online, I knew that Step Up Revolution would be a really mind-blowing
blend of different types of modern dance. It is that indeed! It’s rated PG-13
for good reason. This isn’t something to
watch with young kids, but if you like dance, then you will absolutely love how
creative, innovative, and explosive this choreography is. Here’s the finale which is off-the-chain:
Check out Jen Fulwiler’s tradition of 7 Quick Takes Friday
at her tremendously popular blog Conversion
Diary.
