Yesterday's Ramona Tweet

After math:

Me: "See, Ramona, fractions aren't so bad, are they?"

Ramona: "No, but they are annoying."

The EWTN Trip

Ok, so, the trip.

It started with an invitation some time back from the ever-lovely Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle to be a part of her five-part series, Catholic Mom's Cafe. Donna invited me to discuss the subject of miscarriage with her, and given that it's an important topic to me, I said yes.

I used to travel somewhat regularly. In my pre-conversion, pre-kid, businesswoman days, I had to attend trade shows and I knew how to pack a bag, hop on a plane, hail a taxi, and avoid the hilariously overpriced drinks in the hotel fridge. I have forgotten all of that (except avoiding the overpriced drinks.) When we went to Florida last year, it was the first time I had flown in years (we normally drive our rickety van everywhere), but at least that trip brought me up to speed on airport security and quart-size ziplock bags.

Moving on....

Ramona wasn't thrilled with (or used to) the idea of my going out of town, so my instinct was to schedule as little time away from the family as possible. I drove to Omaha late Monday afternoon and spent the first hour-to-ninety minutes slogging through a sleet-and-snowstorm for which I can only be grateful as I'm sure I shaved a goodly time off my stay in purgatory. Monday night was delightful -- time spent with friend, Jack, and Orange Leaf frozen yogurt. Flight on Tuesday morning, arrival in Birmingham about 3:15 p.m., transport provided by kindly EWTN driver to comfortable EWTN guest house.

Here I am (that's me behind the camera), missing all the other ladies and their group pictures:

As it turned out, all the other guests taped their segments on Tuesday; since mine was taped Wednesday morning and one of the women had to leave before I arrived, there was not a single moment when all six of us -- Donna, Lisa Hendey, Lisa Mladinich, Marge Fenelon, and Woodeene Koenig-Bricker -- were together. Thus, the magic of photo manipulation:

Lisa M., Donna, Woodeene, Marge, Lisa H., and me, hovering in the corner, always late to the party. 

Can I express how lovely these women are? Talking, laughing, praying, sharing meals, swapping stories personal and professional, supporting one another ... my short time at EWTN was more than a chance to have a discussion with Donna-Marie about the pain of and healing from miscarriage, as tremendous as that opportunity was (and my prayer is that the show can reach and help many women.) It was also a chance to share time with my cyber colleagues, to hear their voices in person, to express my admiration for them, and to  know that the Body of Christ is alive and moving among us.

Wednesday, after my taping, I had time for a little final chatting with Lisa Hendey and Marge, then Mass at the EWTN chapel, lunch, and back to the airport. I was home by 11 pm Wednesday night.

And now that I know Ramona can survive a couple of days without me -- more importantly, now that she knows that -- maybe next time I'll get to town a little sooner, have time to tour the EWTN studio, and not have to hover in group pictures. 

Book Review: Imitating Mary by Marge Fenelon

It's an honor to be a stop on Marge Fenelon's blog tour for her new book, Imitating Mary: Ten Marian Virtues for the Modern Mom-- even more special since I had the opportunity to meet Marge in Alabama last week when we were both guests on Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle's upcoming show on EWTN. 

Marge is like your five favorite people to have coffee with. She is sweet, funny, and down to earth, has meaty stories to share, and she'll be the one making sure everyone's cup is refilled. 

And that's what Imitating Mary is like, too. It's not a lofty treatise that scares us with images of Mary's perfection -- it's a lovely, encouraging guide book that makes us look forward to the trip. 

Marge opens with the premise that the prospect of modern motherhood can be intimidating:  

A few years ago, I was talking with a young woman who confided that she was afraid to have children because she had yet to experience good mothering. She assumed that if her mother had fallen short, she would, too. I did my best in the course of our chat to change her mind, but I realized quickly it would take more than a conversation. 

Since that conversation, I've realized this case of self-doubt isn't an isolated one. In fact, I've observed quite a few women being tossed to and fro by a culture that's trying to to convince them that motherhood is either a commodity or an affliction. It only follows that if our culture doesn't value motherhood, then it won't value the mother either. The result is a plethora of women giving up on mothering because they have no one to encourage them. 

The book addresses ten virtues that Mary manifested in her role as a mom and shows us how we might strive to grow in those virtues, too. Through Scripture, explication, personal stories, quotes, and thoughtful questions for reflection, Marge walks us down the path of Mary's virtues: her fiat, her patience, trust, obedience, endurance, courage, strength, hope, faith, and joy. 

As someone who has written about the Blessed Mother, I know that sometimes people wonder, "Do I really need another book about Mary?" But every writer brings her own style, vision, experience, and wisdom to bear on a topic, even topics that have been around for 2,000 years. Marge Fenelon's unique take on imitating Mary makes the answer to that question, "Yes. Yes, I do." 

~~~~~~~~~~

Find Marge's entire Imitating Mary blog tour here.

And, go here to enter a contest at Ave Maria Press and win a copy of the book for yourself or for your favorite mom.

Goodbye, EWTN ... Hello Birthday Greetings ....

I was at EWTN for less than 24 hours, so it was a whirlwind trip.

Lisa Mladinich, Donna-Marie, Woodeene Koenig-Bricker, Marge Fenelon, Lisa Hendey. These wonderful women were together on Monday and Tuesday morning. I arrived late Tuesday afternoon. 

Late to the party, as always, that would be me. I arrived after Lisa Mladinich left, and got NO group pictures. I'm awful about remembering that stuff! So much to tell you about, but no energy to do it tonight. This introvert is still recovering from driving through the April snowstorm (to head to the airport), travel (which wears me out), and the great company, which I loved, but leaves me wanting a little time to recharge. I arrived home last night at 11 pm, and found this birthday welcome home from Atticus: 

Chocolate cake, roses, Cabernet, dark chocolate and a quintessential Atticus birthday card. 

Lovely week, lively visit to EWTN, and a chocolate-drenched birthday. 

Happy woman. 

I'll be back after some sleep. 

Book Review: Catholic Mom's Cafe

 

Ponder. 

Offer.
Pray. 

Savor. 

Four quick steps to get the day going. 

Catholic Mom's Cafe: 5-Minute Retreats for Every Day of the Year
offers daily entries that are meaty enough to be meaningful and short enough to be manageable. 

Ponder a quote. 

Offer a thought. 

Pray a short prayer. 

Savor a Godsend. 

I opened the book at random, and found this great quote from Dorothy Day: 

"Because I am a woman involved in practical cares, I cannot give the first half of the day to these things, but must meditate when I can, early in the morning and on the fly during the day. Not in the privacy of a study - but here, there and everywhere - at the kitchen table, on the train, on the ferry, on my way to and from appointments and even while making supper or putting [my daughter] to bed."

Dorothy Day and Donna-Marie ... these two understand. 

Catholic Mom's Cafe will be here, there, and everywhere in my house. 

(This post is a stop on Donna-Marie's blog tour. Visit Donna at her Catholic Mom's Cafe blog to follow all the stops, or go to Our Sunday Visitor's catalog for more information on the book.)

40 Inspiring Workspaces

via my friend, Danae (Thanks!)

From minimalist to claustrophobic clutter, these spaces are fascinating, cool, inspiring, envy-inducing, and just plain fun to nose around in.

Check it out.

And one more share ...

Great post from Betty Duffy.

(It's a fallen world, folks. Just accept it.)

And now it's the men's turn ...

Made. Me. Laugh.

(Though actually, if I want to get all serious on you, the fact that it made me laugh makes the one for women all the sadder, as it really points out how hung up we can get on our looks. But I digress. Watch. Laugh.)

Poetry Friday

Here's Billy Collins on one of my favorite subjects, books:

Books
by Billy Collins

From the heart of this dark, evacuated campus
I can hear the library humming in the night,
a choir of authors murmuring inside their books
along the unlit, alphabetical shelves,
Giovanni Pontano next to Pope, Dumas next to his son,
each one stitched into his own private coat,
together forming a low, gigantic chord of language.

I picture a figure in the act of reading,
shoes on a desk, head tilted into the wind of a book,
a man in two worlds, holding the rope of his tie
as the suicide of lovers saturates a page,
or lighting a cigarette in the middle of a theorem.
He moves from paragraph to paragraph
...
(Read the rest here, at The Writer's Almanac.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Find the Poetry Friday round up today at Live Your Poem.

What We Don't See

Shared by my beautiful friend, Lissa:
(Made me cry, too, Lissa.)

Heading to EWTN Next Week

Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle is busy putting together a five-part series for EWTN. Catholic Mom's Cafe (which is also the name of Donna's newest book) will delve into topics like "Kids and the Culture" with Marge Fenelon, "Going It Alone" with Woodeene Koenig-Bricker, "The Skinny on Catholic Fashion" with Lisa Mladinich, and "Upholding Dignity Through Contradictions" with Lisa Hendey.

Yesterday, Donna-Marie announced her fifth guest and guess who it is?

Yes. C'est moi. (I think Betsy's French class is getting to me.)

My segment will cover "Dealing With Loss Through Miscarriage." I'll be flying to Alabama next week to tape the show with Donna. Can't wait to meet the other guests -- it's a privilege to be in such great company -- and our esteemed hostess. Wish me luck. It's been a long time since I was a theater major....

Head to Donna's Catholic Mom's Cafe for all the details.

And Became Man

I'm honored to be over at Melanie Bettinelli's The Wine-Dark Sea today, with a brief reflection that's part of her series, CREDO: Professing the Creed for the Year of Faith. 

My post is here, and Melanie's entire series is here.

April in Nebraska (aka, "This is the best snow day we've had all year!")

Today's plans, as spelled out at Kitchen Central

All due to this ... 

... which is actually more a layer of hail and ice than snow. 

Ramona might go ice skating in the yard today. 

Joyeux printemps! 

Reason #IStoppedCounting That I Love Atticus (Or, "Why Is There a Face On My Fruit?")

Yesterday, Atticus told me that he had not eaten his entire lunch at work. He'd taken a sandwich, a banana, and a clementine. But when he picked up the clementine, he couldn't bring himself to peel it.

"It had a face," he told me. "I couldn't eat it. I kept picturing Ramona cutting those little pieces out and taping them on, and I just couldn't do it."

So he brought it back home.

And now the happy clementine has resumed its rightful place, smiling at us from the kitchen counter.

The Solemnity of the Annunciation

The Annunciation, Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1859-1937

Help me, Lord, to say "yes" to You today and always. 

Bits and Pieces of Our Days (Or, There's a Guillotine On My Dining Room Table)

* Okay, not a real guillotine. It's a vivid black-and-white image, appropriately captioned, "Madame Guillotine."  Betsy's using it in her research project, which is coming together nicely, for her French class. This class at the community college has been the perfect introduction for Betsy (a high school junior) into classroom dynamics and workloads. I couldn't be happier with her schoolwork, or with her terrific teacher.

* Speaking of horrifying things (guillotines, that is, not college classes), Betsy and Anne-with-an-e went to see Jurassic Park in 3D yesterday.

Possibly one of my favorite movie lines ever: "Yeah, but, John, if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists."

* We had a wonderful Octave of Easter, tinged with just a bit of data worry. What's data worry, you ask? It's the anxiety that looms over us as we live in the age of, "But my whole life is on that laptop!"

My laptop is dying. I spent a good chunk of my week backing things up.

* Writing Group. It's been fun and gratifying, over this school year, to see our new Writing Group come together. We've moved from an all-girl dynamic to two teen girls and two boys, and it's working out beautifully. And it still never ceases to amaze me that all kinds of kids become better writers simply by writing. Every day, every week. Write, and your writing will improve.

* Books read lately, some of which most definitely deserve their own blog post:

Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card (a reread, but I think it's been almost 20 years)
Half-Magic, Edward Eager (magical)
My Sisters the Saints, Colleen Carroll Campbell (review here)
The Way We Fall, Megan Crewe (at the request of Anne)
Meet Marie-Grace and Meet Cecile (American Girl series -- at the request of Ramona) 
The Fault in Our Stars, John Green (for which I fell hard)

Tuesday in the Octave of Easter

Christ is risen! Alleluia! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

After finding all the Easter eggs Sunday morning, Ramona found the hidden Alleluia, too. (Ours wasn't as pretty as Dawn's plaque, but a colorful Alleluia on paper works, too.) And now, my kids don't have to be more mindful than I am (because, believe me, once you teach them to refrain from saying "Alleluia" during Lent, they will catch every slip you make) about the music I play. 

I'll be on Relevant Radio this morning, talking about the Octave of Easter and the liturgical year. And here are a few helpful links:

A past post in which I talk about discovering the liturgical year: Easter Every Week

Catholic Culture, which I've always found to be a great resource for liturgical year information
CC's Easter season overview
CC's page on the Annunciation (which was moved this year because it fell on Holy Week) 
CC's Divine Mercy Sunday page

And don't forget food at Catholic Cuisine. Loads of recipes to take you from the Octave of Easter through Pentecost. (Disclaimer: Nobody makes or does all of this stuff. But that's the beauty of a loaded blog ... you get to pick what works for you and your family.)