Twilight

Yes, I read it - after much pressure. Now I'm posting my thoughts here where I doubt those who recommended the book so highly will find them. To them I may present my opinions more tactfully:)

Overall, I think it's simply drivel, and not worth a long post here. There are thousands of good books to read that will provide more satisfying romance and suspense in a healthier atmosphere. However, there is one distinction I'd like to make.

Edward is widely esteemed, even adored by young women for possessing "unearthly self-control". He does, in one respect. He can control his desire for Bella's blood, but this should not be confused with his self-discipline where Bella herself is concerned. Their relationship is marked by a stereotypical impetuosity and ignorance that can only harm those involved. Ladies, before placing him on a par with Edward Ferrars, take a caveat from the character of his other namesake, Edward Rochester, noteworthy for his weaknesses.

Something someone fowarded to me

From Magnificat magazine. It struck me as very Chestertonian, and an excellent reminder of what Advent allows time for.

WHY THE FATHER REVEALS THINGS TO THE CHILDLIKE
It becomes very evident why our Lord tells us to become as little children (MT 18:3) and what is involved in it; we can see how it is related to the theme of 'vacate', taking a break from being God, to let Him be God. Little children do not have piles of important correspondence on their desks, nor rows of shiny telephones to handle all their important business transactions. Becoming as a little child means unlearning the false solemnity of adolescence, unlearning the false maturity and self-importance of ideology and Puritanism. It means forgetting to run the world, forgetting to run one another's lives. It means forgetting even to run our own lives. This sheds light also on Saint Paul's words that we must not be conformed to this world. If we would learn the true sense in which God is a God of order, we must first unlearn that kind of order which we try to impose on the world and on ourselves and on one another, simply to subject everything to ourselves, to protect us from the wideness and freedom of God's world. The mystics leave us in no doubt that any real growth in prayer, in communion with God, leads us into the desert, into the place of wild wide wastes, where we can get no bearings. We must come out from behind the security of our homemade identity, our self-appointed responsibilities, into the spaciousness of God's world, a spaciousness whose dimensions and orientation we shall only gradually learn to recognize as freedom, within which we shall only gradually discover our true responsibilities.
Fr. Simon Tugwell, O.P.

Oh. Really?

Hat-tip Love2Learn Mom

You Are Scrabble

You are incredibly clever and witty. You can talk your way out of (and into) situations easily. You are an excellent decision maker. You are good at weighing the options in front of you. You're the type of person who can make something out of nothing. You are very resourceful. You know a lot of things. Most importantly, you know when people are wrong - even when they won't admit it.

What Board Game Are You?

The Obvious! Halleluia!

I have just rediscovered a glorious truth - let it be known throughout all realms and passed on to all generations that five times twelve equals sixty!

Hurrah! I can post!

Rarely before have I felt even the urge to post, yet now, after so long of having no Blogger ID, I understand and appreciate the ability to afflict and enlighten (ha!) the world with my musings.

Perhaps now I will blog something about WYD SYD 08...

Another cake

Our Teen Catechism group just met for the last time this schoolyear. We've been reading and discussing Jesus of Nazareth, by Pope Benedict XVI, and after over a year of work, finished the book! I spent another afternoon in the kitchen in honor of this momentous occasion, and built this sweetly unhealthy but singularly appropriate confection.

The lappets and cross are white chocolate, the rest cake and buttercream. Not having a patented papal-tiara baking pan, I gave it a slightly unconventional shape, but you get the idea:)

'Nother one!

Found another quiz! Admittedly, I never post anything else lately, but I have found quality ones. Here's the newest




This test brought to you by Blakeney Manor.

Find out:Which Scarlet Pimpernel character are you?


Pray do not misunderstand - I don't dislike sentimentality in the least - nor does Sir Percy! Mushiness, however, ought indeed to be dispensed with... Why can't all romance be Austen-ified?

Narcissism

Little Brother B celebrated his 9th birthday this past month, and being 97% cowboy*, requested a "rattlesnake cake" and a "Red Ryder BB gun!" As the culinary crackpot of the family, I enthusiastically undertook the challenge. Two hours of complete abandon and concentration produced this masterpiece, of which I am undeniably vain.


* He is also 1% each Angel, Genius, and Fury

I've been tagged

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

"I know you too well to suppose you would allow such a thing to pass you."

"I burnt it, for fear that even a fragment should remain; for that letter must have effected your condemnation."

"And the destruction of your future prospects," replied Noirtier; "yes, I can easily comprehend that."

~ The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas

Five people? besides the Chesterteens? Uh...

I say!

Take the Quiz here!