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1.  Confirmation retreat
Next month, my youngest child will go on the parish confirmation retreat. I tried to talk her out of it. 

I’ve written about my thoughts on confirmation in this country and how I think it would be much better to restore the sacrament to the original order. Frankly, it’s silly in my opinion to require kids to jump through so many hoops to be confirmed, all the while assuring them that this is not a “graduation.”

What do you call it when you require classes and service hours and then at the completion of that, have a ceremony? That sounds like graduation to me. No wonder so many kids quit coming to church after they are confirmed. 

My daughter knows better. I told her she could wait to get confirmed at Easter Vigil with half the effort it takes to get confirmed in 8th grade. But she wants to be with her friends. That is the sole reason I’m letting her do it.

In the meantime, we’re reading this, and watching the Dynamic Catholic Videos. 

2.  When did we start naming winter storms?
I kept getting these notices on Twitter and my Weather Channel apps that Winter Storm Harper was going to hit this weekend. I started wondering, when did we start naming winter storms like we do hurricanes? 

Apparently big storms have been named for a couple of centuries now. Some of the most notorious include the Schoolhouse Blizzard of 1888 and the Great Snow of 1717.

Then there was a series of bad storms in the winter of 1880-1881 as documented in the Little House books.  I don’t think any of those have a name, but if you reference The Long Winter to anyone familiar with Laura Wilder’s books, they’ll know what you mean. 

Anyway, other than Izzy having to go to work tonight, we’re pretty ready for anything that comes our way this weekend. 

3.  

President Trump and Vice President Pence gave a surprise address to the people at the March for Life yesterday. Trump became the first president ever to do that last year, and I’m glad to see that he’s doing it again.

EWTN’s six hours of coverage is here. 
From Fox

Pro Life is Pro Science

4.  Meanwhile, the Woman’s March is floundering. 
They can’t even wear their pink hats that represent vaginas any more because apparently, not all women have vaginas – a nod to the trans movement. So essentially, the organizers of the Woman’s march have bowed to the sentiments of men with regard to their signature look … sigh. 

5.   
It’s the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Weekend. If you’re looking for a short unit study to do with your kids at home about Dr. King, Techie Homeschool Mom has a nice one here. 


6.   
I found out this week that not only do I have severe arthritis in my knee, but I should apparently be wearing a special brace on it as well because the joint is starting to bow!  Well, that was news to me, but the prosthetist showed me what was going on when I went to get measured for it. 

This is not a pretty little brace either. Nor does it look like an athletic knee sleeve. It looks a little like this, only bulkier.

So I think I may start wearing more skirts!


7.  I wrote  post  about my mom ten years ago this week. I wrote about how afraid I was of losing her. Little did I know at the time that she would be gone in six months.  I still miss her every day. 

So I tell Father that I have thin patience with my mother. Not that mom will ever know it. I let her talk and I respond here and there while I motion for the kids to sweep this, write that, do this problem or get a cup of juice for the baby. My mind goes over the things I have to do when I get off of the phone. And I usually always let mom sign off first, which she usually does because she has to go to the bathroom or lay down. I am the perfect sounding board.


But I’m not really present in our conversations. Mom starts in on her ailments and my mind starts to wander. I know that’s wrong. And I confess it. But after my confession at Christmas time I started to think about WHY I continue this behavior every day, for weeks and weeks, and then take it to confession. Why don’t I try harder to listen to my mother?


And the truth is because listening to her is scaring me. She is 81 years old and she has terminal cancer that will eventually take her life. And even though she is very self-sufficient and mobile and her cancer is very, very slow, and she has very good health except for that, I know that this is the tip of the iceberg. It probably is going to be downhill from here. And I’m scared for her. I don’t want to lose my mother.

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 a win/win! Read our disclosure policy




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