Seven Quick Takes

1.

John just got back from a two-week stint in Taiwan yesterday morning. Boy are we glad to have him home. I really don't know how the military moms do it - I pray for them when I'm frustrated!

2.

I was thinking a little more about my post on love being the most powerful weapon against relativism. My best argument for that would be Mother Teresa. Enough said. :)

3.

Okay, I know you've already seen it everywhere else, but I had to say that I really like this video and all it has to say about (and even make fun of) bad days.



4.

I don't like to admit on the blog when John's away, but now that he's back I can share this little tidbit. The younger 5 kids and I had a great video chat with John early this week. Since we don't yet own a webcam, he had set up our old (as in falling-apart) video camera on this end. The kids were naturally clamoring for the camera space the entire time which he found highly amusing. He showed us around his room, including the amazing view from his 15th floor hotel room. His room overlooked a park (which he walked through to get to daily Mass quite a few times) and an incredible view of the Taipei skyline, including the famous Taipei 101 in the distance.

5.

Speaking of Taiwan, John took a few pictures of the lovely little chapel where he went to Mass.

Isn't it beautiful? There were only four other people there for daily Mass (and each of them had a job!). He said there were about 40 people there on Sunday.

6.

As mentioned in the previous post, the little Irish dance group that my daughter and her friend have been teaching for the last three years had a lovely little pre-Saint Patrick's Day recital at a local nursing home. There were about 15 dancers in all (with nice costumes) with a variety of dances plus a few Irish folk songs (I accompanied on guitar). Afterwards the kids went around and shook hands with pretty much everyone in the audience. Here's Kate with a few of her friends...

7.

I've been working on the Lenten decluttering thing quite a bit and it sure is nice to get the extra nudges through the 40 bags project I've seen around online. I'm probably up to 20 bags or so plus a couple pieces of large furniture. Quite a few of the bags - I think twelve - were books. Sometimes it's difficult to part with books since I don't know if they'll be used elsewhere, so I was delighted when our parish library accepted 4 bags of Catholic books. We have SO many books that it's almost easier to use them well after we get rid of some.