Fructus Ventris

2003-08-14T18:57:00.000-04:00

It is official, I will henceforth be blogging from here using Moveable Type.
Come on down!

2003-08-10T16:08:00.000-04:00

Let me see if I can get anything to post to this site.

2003-08-09T19:07:00.000-04:00

Maureen over at A Religion of Sanity has an excellent series of essays on morality. The most recent addition, posted Friday August 8,2003, is especially worth reading.

2003-08-08T23:14:00.000-04:00

Posting may be sparse the next few days, while I figure out how to move the blog. Or I may post a bunch of random stuff tomorrow from on-call. In the meanwhile, this prayer from St. Frances de Sales.
The everlasting God has, in his wisdom, foreseen from eternity the cross that He now presents to you as a gift from his inmost heart.
This cross He now sends you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes, understood with His loving arms, tested with His wise justice, warmed with His loving arms, and weighed with His own hands, to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you.
He has blessed it with His holy name, anointed it with His grace, perfumed it with His consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage, and then sent it to you from Heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all-merciful love of God.
Addendum:
I found this prayer in the book Amazing Grace for those who Suffer by Jeff Cavins and Matthew Pinto.

2003-08-07T23:35:00.000-04:00

prayer request from bill white (summa minutiae)

2003-08-07T22:31:00.000-04:00

Thank you very much, Kathy the Carmelite for the link to this quiz.
My son has a Glock that he loves. I used to be pretty good with a .22 rifle as a kid, but haven't shot a gun in decades. Maybe it is time?

Smith & Wessen .44 Magnum. You are old school. Fat
Sheriff Deputies fancy you. Reliable but not
too practical.

What handgun are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

2003-08-06T22:10:00.000-04:00

You are Frederick Ashton! As the greatest English
choreographer, your restrained classical style
is always appropriate. Unfortunately, the
Royal Ballet has ignored you for too long and
can no longer dance your style.

Which Dead Ballet Choreographer Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

2003-08-06T22:06:00.000-04:00

dinka's birth story is posted.

2003-08-06T21:35:00.000-04:00

Many bloggers have posted or commented on the ECUSA vote on the (Epsicopal) bishop of New Hampshire. Sparki (fonticules fides) has an interesting set of comments, but for issues involving same sex attraction (SSA) I defer to Sed Contra. David Morrison has some excellent commentary posted recently, and I can say is that I second his thoughts.
It is really interesting to me that the feminist movement spent decades proclaiming "Biology is not destiny", and yet the homosexual libertine movement has spent the same decades proclaiming basically that 1) homosexual attraction and acting out is hard-wired into the brains and bodies of some men and women and 2) in this case, biology is destiny.
Kind of reminds me of Pilate's famous line, "What is truth?".
We have an assurance that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. No matter how many votes would deny that truth, it still remains true.

2003-08-06T13:26:00.000-04:00

I will be moving the blog soon, I think. Stay tuned. I will be able to migrate everything except the comments. However, I first need to get some sleep. I was up most of last night with 2 ill pregnant moms. One, at 28 weeks, we were able to get under control and I sent her home on antibiotics around 0300. The other, her illness threw her into labor that we could not stop, and her baby will be born about 5 weeks early (if she has not been born already). I try not to call in to find out things like that - I know that the doctors in whose care I left her are loving and competent, and I will see her tomorrow morning.
I had to leave the hospital at 0800 this morning to come home and take my daughter to see the nurse practitioner about her badly swollen ankle. Probably a bad strain - she has an aircast and a set of exercises to start in a few days. They will call if the x-ray shows a stress fracture (a remote possibility).
Now to sleep for a couple of hours until it is time to go pick up the week's vegetables from the CSA - I hope there is sweet corn this week! Maybe I will make a batch of green corn tamales............

2003-08-04T19:18:00.000-04:00

PRELIMINARY DATA ON U.S. BIRTHS
The preliminary data presented in this report are based on records of births occurring in 2002 that were received and that underwent quality control by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health
Statistics as of March 7, 2003. These records represent nearly 98% of the births that occurred in the United States in 2002. The records were weighted to independent control counts of all births received in state vital statistics offices in 2002, and comparisons were made with final data from previous years.

The report presents the following trends in birth numbers and rates:

* The fertility rate for women ages 15-44 years dropped by 1% in 2002, a 9% decline since 1990.
* The birth rate for adolescents ages 15-19 dropped by 5% in 2002, a 28% decline since 1990.
* The birth rate for women ages 20-24 dropped by 3% in 2002 compared with 2001, whereas the birth rates for women ages 35-39 and 40-44 rose by 2%.
* The number of births to unmarried women ages 15-44 rose by 1% in 2002; however, births to unmarried adolescents ages 15-19 dropped by 4%.
* Prenatal care utilization continued to slowly but steadily improve; 83.8% of women began prenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy in 2002, compared with 83.4% in 2001.
* More than one-fourth of all births in 2002 were cesarean deliveries, the highest rate ever reported in the United States. The primary cesarean rate jumped 7% from the previous year to 18%, also the highest level ever reported for the country. The rate of vaginal births after previous cesarean delivery plummeted by 23% between 2001-2002 to 12.7%.
* Preterm and low-birthweight rates (7.8%) rose slightly in 2002. The low-birthweight rate is the highest reported in more than three decades.

See the report for a list of references and detailed tables, as well as technical notes.

National Center for Health Statistics. 2003. Births: Preliminary data for 2002. National Vital Statistics Report 51(11). Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

2003-08-04T15:17:00.000-04:00

An interesting article on post-fertilization effects of oral contraceptives. It is pretty technical, but the bottom line is pretty clear - breakthrough ovulation is fairly common with commonly used oral contraceptive medications.

2003-08-03T22:32:00.000-04:00

My Big Fat Roman Catholic Testimony is a blog I just discovered. Looks new, no email addy or comments up, but I will keep an eye on it.

2003-08-03T22:16:00.000-04:00

Baby Blues on 'new improved' infant formula.

2003-08-03T21:49:00.000-04:00

More on bread
In my last post, I intended to get practical but instead waxed philosophical. Let me recommend a book that has much good information on bread-making. The Ultimate Bread and Baking Book by Linda Collister and Anthony Blake is an excellent source of not just recipes but techniques for making all sorts of breads. It has good pictures, too. My one quibble is that is was written from a British POV, and although the measurements have been adapted to the American system, it still has that Brit feel to it. However, it is very close to the book on bread that I always wanted to write (except that mine would have had fewer recipes and a lot more history and philosophy).

2003-08-03T21:44:00.000-04:00

Bread
The liturgical readings lately have been fairly Eucharistic, what with the miracle of the feeding of the 5000, manna in the wilderness, and so on. I do not think it is too much of a stretch of the imagination to say that the ability to make bread of some kind was a major gift from God, and made it possible for humans to have some assurance of food from day to day. Grains and legumes keep well, and can be stored up against times of drought or failures of hunting, herding, and harvesting. I have found it interesting over the last 6 months to see how topics of conversation (memes, if you will) pop uo around St. Blog's seemingly in response to the readings. This was brought to my mind earlier today by the conversations going on about baking of pizza - which is after all, a flat bread with added goods to make it a meal.
Various grains are mentioned in the Bible. Barley was probably the commonest grain and was the source of the daily bread for most, as it grows easily and is very productive. Barley that was soaked and fermented became beer, and was probably the source of the leaven for the early forms of leavened bread. Yeast from the atmosphere fell into the container, and the sour and bubbly liquid was found to have interesting effects, much like that of wine. And the solids left behind after the liquid was strained out could be reliably counted on to have the same effect on another batch of soaked barley. Barley was commonly ground and bound into a dough with water and oil, then baked as a griddle type of cake (think tortilla). Somewhere along the line, some kitchen genius decided to use some of the beer barley in the barley cake mixture, and found that it made a cake that was more tender if more perishable.
There is one big problem with using barley alone as the base for a yeast bread. The barley doesn't really form a strong structure that traps the gases given off by the yeast, and so the cakes are still pretty flat and crunchy. Enter the grain spelt (and later wheat and rye). Spelt, wheat, and rye all contain pretty high concentrations of a protein named gluten. Gluten, when activated by moisture and mechanical activity (kneading) forms strong and elastic webs that act as a framework. If you want to see gluten, mix 1/2 cup (white) wheat flour with just enough water to form a dough. Punch and pound the dough until it is smooth. THen take the dough and plunge it into a basin of clean cool water, continuing to squeeze the dough in your hands. The water will get really gummy as the starch rinses out of your ball of dough, and you will be left holding a handful of stringy gray strands of gluten. Gluten has been used as the base for some vegetarian products like seitan and Loma Linda foods products. It is also possible to buy gluten flour - where the wheat has been refined and the starch and protein separated out.
Anyhow, yeast leavened bread has been around for millenia, and until the last few centuries, the art of getting from the disparate raw ingredients to the finished loaf was passed down as part of the cook and baker's tradition. The grains had to be ground and kept fresh, there needed to be a sufficiency of gluten in the mixture to support the weight of the other ingredients, and the yeast had to be enticed into working its miracles. Traditionally, a wild yeast would be found and fermented, and a bit of the uncooked dough (the fermentum) would be kept from one baking to another to facilitate things. The Feast of the Unleavened Bread therefore represented an amazing act of faith in God - since it required that all yeast and even anything that could be fermented, down to the last crumb, be removed from the household for an entire week. Even raw flour was not permitted - only flour that had already been baked to the point where it would not spontaneously ferment. So every year, the household had to trust that God would send them leaven again. This is why being called to be leaven is so important a command to us as Christians.
OK, so in order to get our daily yeast-leavened bread, we need the right flour/grains, we need the leaven, and we also need time to wait on the process, an oven of some kind, and the ability to work the dough with the hands to form the gluten. Yeast is a living organism - it needs to be fed and it needs to be kept at the right temperature, and in the end it sacrifices its life so that we might eat bread. And we need to work the dough and form the gluten, but then we also need to rest the dough so that it can be shaped, and then we need to let it rest some more so that the yeast can do its work.
Unless you have actually made bread, it is easy to lose sight of what a miracle and gift from God it truly is!

2003-08-03T18:47:00.000-04:00

I have tried a few things to shrink the blogroll (by making the font smaller, not dropping anyone) but I can't seem to get the hang of it - I almost succeeded but it ended up also shrinking stuff on the main page. I guess I really should break down and get HTML for Dummies or some such book (maybe the O'Reilly equivalent?). The problem is that they are all focused on things like business or personal static (reasonably) web pages, not on the dynamics of the blog. The few blogging books I have seen are all focused on content - I think I have that down reasonably well, thank you very much!
I may not be a true computer techie geek/nerd, but I am reasonably competent and it makes me crazy that I can't seem to get the logic of stuff like this.
On a more interesting note, there is a cross-blog conversation about food, body image, cooking, pizza, and holiness. Check out Kathy the Carmelite's blog, Two Sleepy Mommies, Chirp (Davey's Mommy) and who knows where all else it will go! If I have a few moments after dinner, I will post a little bit about the physics and chemistry of yeast dough - things that girls used to learn baking bread with mom but that have been all but lost to the last 2 generations.

2003-08-03T18:04:00.000-04:00

I have added Catholic School Blogger to the ever growing blogroll. It is hosted by J.P. Laurier, who I first met in the comments boxes at Kathy the Carmelite's Gospel Minefield

2003-08-02T23:43:00.000-04:00

Novena to John Henry Cardinal Newman
Start today and finish in time for the anniversary of when he went to his eternal reward.
Thanks to Quenta Narwenonian for the link and the reminder.

2003-08-02T23:39:00.000-04:00

Random quotes found on a notepad of mine.
Let me know if any of these make sense or trigger thoughts that should be followed.
Is God your anchor or your albatross?
The decade (1980s) arrived on the heels of a tremor.
fragile as a new england spring
the tinkling of aspen leaves in Colorado
following Jesus is not easy, but simple
If we obsess over the evil and the ugly, we become dizzy enough for the Devil to ensnare us.
Do you want to worship God in the way that HE wants to be worshipped - or in the way that makes you comfortable?
What is the gift that God has given me to share?
God is never late.
Don't go back to Egypt.

2003-08-02T23:33:00.000-04:00

Help guys:
I am trying to figure out how to change the font on my blogroll. Any suggestions?

2003-08-01T13:06:00.000-04:00

The more things change, the more they stay the same. From Summa Minutiae

2003-07-31T22:14:00.000-04:00

what the car looks like.

2003-07-31T21:40:00.000-04:00

Erik's Rants and Recipes has moved. Make a note.

2003-07-31T21:28:00.000-04:00

Thanks for the prayers!
I have to tell you all that they were effective beyond my greatest hopes - and there was a bit of God's sense of humour involved.
First off, my daughter in Memphis. When I last posted, she was close to despair. She could not see how she would be able to find transportation of any kind for the $$$ that the insurance company was willing to offer. Some one who overheard her mentioned that his boss had an older used car for sale, and maybe she would be interested? So she went out to see this car - and it turned out to be a near clone of her (wrecked) car - same year, same model, lower mileage and a very different color - for around half of what the insurance payment would be for her old car. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away - blessed be his name.
Meanwhile, my husband agreed that we should probably get another car for me, since I put around 20,000 miles a year on a car (driving 100 miles round trip to get to work). I spent some time Tuesday on line researching cars, and then Wednesday (yesterday? was it only yesterday?) I picked up a 1 week rental car when I got off work at 0830, and started working. Hit a used car lot, saw an OK car but it didn't feel right. Went by the credit union to verify credit and get a ball-park number and interest rate quote. Went by a dealer recommended by two of my staff. Asked if they had any (used) of what I was looking for - I had my heart set on a PT Cruiser - and was told that they had just taken delivery on two fleet lease returns - one with 7000 miles, one with 9000 miles. Both with the 7/70,000 warranty - and both blue. One was electric blue, the other a darker blue they called patriot blue. Both within my price range, too. So I brought my husband over to the lot and we agreed that we would go after that car, subject to financing.
Now you guys have to realize that I am not terribly fond of buying things on credit. We haven't had a car payment in more than 20 years (paid off the one and only car we previously bought on credit in 1980). But we really hadn't anticipated needing to replace this car for another year or so. I was filled with trepidation on the whole thing.
The dealer said that he thought we could get a better interest rate than that quoted by my husband's credit union - and he did. Through St. Mary's Bank (actually a credit union founded by the Quebecois who lived in Manchester NH and weren't allowed to bank with the WASP bankers of their day).
I just now realized that the Blessed Mother must have been behind some of this. Blue, whether sedate or electric, was not exactly my first choice of car colors. I tend to the maroon, burgundy palette, or failing that to deep greens. But a blue car finanaced through St. Mary's Bank has got to be some kind of message.
Tomorrow, we will call the parish and ask if Father would be willing to bless the car.

2003-07-29T17:08:00.000-04:00

Prayers greatly appreciated.
I heard last night from my daughter in Memphis - she still does not understand why the situtation there is not national news. Her car is being totalled out by the insurance company. Not good news at all, as she does not have the option for public transportation - not leaving for work at 0400 (AM). Meanwhile, back here, my car which I thought was fixed last week, on Sunday (again!) decided to not function. This time, we were 50 miles from home, but were able to get a ride back to town with some other parents. Went out the next morning with my husband's car, tried all his tricks, and still nothing. Had it towed back to the mechanic (again!) and the news is very grim. It might be repairable to drivability with a new engine. But at 260,000 miles, my mechanic is suggesting that I might really want to consider car euthanasia.

2003-07-27T23:09:00.000-04:00

EWTN's Life on the Rock showed the trailer for Mel Gibson's The Passion. You may be able to see it on their web site.

2003-07-27T22:31:00.000-04:00

I have added the Shrine of the Holy Whapping to my blogroll, and I suggest you all get over there and read it. Thoughtful, interesting, entertaining and thoroughly Catholic - what more could one ask for?

2003-07-27T22:03:00.000-04:00

Induced abortion and risk of later premature births.
An interesting research article. Needs adobe acrobat (free software) to read file.

2003-07-27T14:33:00.000-04:00

I don't understand why the national media is ignoring the aftermath of the wind storm in Memphis, so here is a link with information.

2003-07-25T17:48:00.000-04:00

I am getting really upset at the way Blogger keeps changing stuff with no advance notice. I mean, they have all our email addresses - they could easily spam us with the changes. I just get used to one way of doing stuff and it changes again! I do not like having the create new post and manage post on separate pages. Maybe I should really think harder about migrating - but as a surviving "Air Force Brat" - I hate to move. I really hate all the hassle of moving anything anywhere.

2003-07-25T17:44:00.000-04:00

I wish all on the list a Happy and Blessed 35th Anniversary of Humanae
Vitae - July 25th 1968 to July 25th, 2003.

2003-07-24T22:33:00.000-04:00

I got an email from my daughter in Memphis. She is driving a rental car right now while the insurance adjuster figures out what the plan will be. to quote her:
I'm okay... we got power back around 6 pm yesterday (mud island that is... rest of city is still sporadic on power).
car not okay... claim filed... waiting on adjuster... four blown out windows (windshield okay, sunroof okay, hatch window okay)... dings in paint... 2 inches standing water on floorboards... soaked seats...
Of course, since she works in news media, she hasn't really had a lot of time to take care of her own needs. Thanks for holding her in prayer. Also hold up David Ancell and another Memphis blogger as they begin the long task of helping their city to clean up and rebuild.

2003-07-23T23:26:00.000-04:00

Food
We are now in week six of our local community supported agriculture program. Today I picked up mesclun salad mix, tomatoes, red potatoes, summer squash, rainbow chard, baby yellow carrots, scallions, baby fennel and a head of green cabbage. Last week was salad, tomatoes, zuchini, steaming greens, fresh parsley, a few new potatoes, a large bag of leafy kale, scallion, parsley and fresh peas.
It has been lots of fun figuring out recipes that use this bounty. Salad is pretty obvious, but some of these veges I have not tried to cook before. Last week I broiled a steak and served a side dish of steamed peas, parsley potatoes, and salad greens. I kept the pea pods and boiled them for a flavorful stock. Another night I served polenta with greens and parmesan - not only did the people in the house enjoy it, Hazmat the carbo cat enjoyed some leftovers as well.
Last night I cooked a dish of pork braised in the pea and carrot broth, seasoned with curry type seasonings. It was very tasty, and I will have to try to recreate the recipe some time. And tonight, I made a dish I think I will call Kalecannon - similar to the Irish dish colcannon, but rather than cabbage I used kale. It turned a simple meal of hamburgers into a gourmet delight.
Of course, one thing that makes this easier is that my 14 y/o is away at Summer Youth Music School (orchestra camp) for 2 weeks.

2003-07-23T21:58:00.000-04:00

Nota Bene
Sean's son returns home!!!! Thanks be to God!

2003-07-23T17:28:00.000-04:00

Praise Report
My husband fixed the dryer today.
My car is fixed, and they didn't have to break and replace the senders.
I emailed enetation, and they told me how to activate the 'donated' features (for which I had paid, but hadn't been using) and now my comments seem to be working better.
My oldest daughter survived the nasty storm in Memphis.

2003-07-23T17:17:00.000-04:00

CNN.com - Delivery debate: Vaginal or C-section?
(CNN) -- More women are choosing to have Caesarean sections instead of vaginal births, according to a report released Monday, and their decisions, together with doctors' cooperation, has become a contentious subject among obstetricians, politicians and feminists
And to top it off, the picture with this article shows a mom bottle-feeding her baby.

2003-07-23T17:06:00.000-04:00

This is what my daughter in Memphis had to deal with at work yesterday. She works for the local AM newsradio station, and they were evacuated to another location. The Gibson guitar factory is across the street from the parking lot she uses.

2003-07-22T20:59:00.000-04:00

OCDS
With apologies to Kathy the Carmelite, but every time I see this set of letters, my medically trained brain insists that it means Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (s).
But there is actually a bit of compulsive geekiness going on over at her blog. Last count, there were 25 comments on an obscure mathematical concept - the mantissa. I kid you not. St. Blog, the (non-existant) patron saint of geeks and nerds.

2003-07-21T20:15:00.000-04:00

A Religion of Sanity is back to blogging after a 3 month hiatus. Maureen has some interesting insights on wicca, feminism, and the pro-life/pro-choice discussion.

2003-07-21T19:22:00.000-04:00

Comments
I am getting peeved. Enetation can't seem to count. I actually have one more comment actually in the boxes than the number listed outside - and that includes a few cases where I actually have one comment but enetation says "no comment". I am still too lazy to join the change to Movable Type but the temptation is growing. I like the embedded comments feature.
BTW, it did turn out to be the fuel pump on the car after all. The mechanic says that if they can get the tank off without damaging the senders, it will cost half as much as if the senders are damaged and also have to be replaced. He tells me that they will be as careful as possible.......I pray and hope that it will turn out OK. I will not have my car back for a couple of days, though. So tomorrow my dear husband will have to drive me to work (again) and pick me up at 0800 on Wednesday morning after my 24 hour shift. I love that man - have I mentioned that to you all?

2003-07-21T16:02:00.000-04:00

This is national Natural Family Planning Week (July 20 to July 28, 2003). Has your parish mentioned it at all? I went to mass Sunday in a different parish than usual, and I noticed that the priest included a petition in the Prayer of the Faithful for "an end to contraception, abortion, and euthanasia".

2003-07-20T19:49:00.000-04:00

I have had a lot of thoughts and ideas for blog posts - but not enough energy to actually write them down. Part of it is probably post-vacation letdown and part of it is summer blahs. I apologize for not having some meaty and thoughtful posts - they are there in my brain but can't quite make it to my fingers!
This morning during Mass I had a thought about the culture of death and the generational gap between boomers and GenX - but now I can't quite capture the vagrant thought. Of course, what happened when we got to my car after Mass was a contributing factor. The darn thing would not start. My husband tried every trick in his book, and after my daughter rescued us and brought us home, he looked in the book for alternative ideas. We drove his car back to mine (fortunately we had parked in the shade) and he tried a few more things, but finally we had to admit defeat. So the car has been towed to the mechanic and we will have to call tomorrow AM to tell them what is up. My husband thinks it is the fuel pump, which means the car needs to go up on the rack. Either that, or one of the two fuel injectors. At any rate, it is beyond our ability to fix at home. So that means that tomorrow he will have to get up early and drive me to work (1 hour each way).
The other thing that has me bummed out is that our dryer died. We got home at midnight last Monday night (7/14) and ran one load - the next morning, nothing. John (my husband) took it apart and has ordered in the part. Our parts guy told him that if this went wrong to some one who couldn't fix things, he would recommend junking the dryer, as replacement would be cheaper. The part is not exactly inexpensive either, but I don't want to get a new dryer until we run the gas line to the laundry room, as I would prefer a gas dryer to the electric. Meanwhile I am engaged in some intense discussions with one of our attending OBs about life issues. This doctor keeps trying to enlist me to persuade a patient to terminate her pregnancy - and I won't. I recognize that this mom is faced with a medically complicated pregnancy carrying a child with fatal anomalies - but I am going to support the mom 100% in her decision to carry the pregnancy.
Yeah, I am tired, and frustrated, and almost wishing that we hadn't taken such an intense vacation - if only for the $$$ reserves that we don't have right now.

2003-07-19T16:06:00.000-04:00

Prayer request
My grandmother Dorothy is a feisty and spry woman. She is in her early 80s, and has survived a lot of stuff in her life - in the mid-1950s she took 4 young children aged 12,10,8 and 6, and left Texas and an abusive alcoholic husband to move to California. She later re-married and had 2 more children. (Her first husband eventually made it into AA and turned his life around, BTW). Grandmamma survived breast cancer when she was 42. She watched her oldest son die of Hodgkins disease when he was 25. She was there when her youngest daughter died of metastatic breast cancer at age 45. She also lost her another son a year later to complications of diabetes. Besides surviving breast cancer, she also survived an operation for a meningioma (benign brain tumour) a couple of years ago.
Two weeks ago, she was taken to the hospital for increasing episodes of fainting and memory lapse, and it was determined that she was suffering from inadequate blood flow to the brain because her heart was not beating regularly. A temporary pacemaker did her a world of good, so the plan was made to put in a permanent one. This has become a fairly routine heart operation, but in her case it was anything but.
Due to anomalous circulation, the catheter that was to have been threaded up to the heart perforated and Grandmamma ended up with bleeding into her lungs. They were able to get that under control, eventually, and to put in the pace maker, but her recovery has been problematic. A recent attempt to place a PICC line (kind of like an IV that can stay in longer) was also not well managed, despite the docs having been given the heads up that Grandmamma's blood vessels never read the anatomy textbook. So she is still in ICU where she has been for nearly 2 weeks. The other thing is that she is very sensitive to drugs of all kinds, and despite the family's request to start with the low dose and titrate up, she had several times been given doses of sedative and pain medication that has knocked her out for 12 hours or more.
My mom and my aunt (both in their 60s) have been alternating 24 hours at the hospital to try to prevent any more screwups. They are both getting tired as well.
Please pray as God leads you - my aunt and grandmother are both mormon, my mom is a Christmas and Easter Anglican, and I would ask for prayers not just for their bodily well-being but also for their souls. Oh, and prayers for our mixed up health care chaos would not be out of order. I know that the nurses and docs are probably doing their best, but I also know that the pressures to continually do more with less have a real and negative impact on the quality of care, especially of the elderly.

2003-07-19T15:49:00.000-04:00

A few gripes
I went to Mass at a few unfamiliar places while on vacation. I found that I really get upset when the priest says," The Lord IS with you", rather than "The Lord BE with you". One is a statement of fact that I would hope to be true (but can't always prove) - the other is a blessing and invocation. What say you all?

2003-07-19T10:03:00.000-04:00

Opponents Tried to Put Pressure on Pope
The 3 Panels Paul VI Turned to When Writing "Humanae Vitae"

ROME, JULY 18, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Next Friday will mark the 35th anniversary of the promulgation of Pope Paul VI's encyclical "Humanae Vitae" (Of Human Life), in which he reaffirmed the Church's teaching on contraception.

Bernardo Colombo, professor emeritus of demography at the University of Padua -- brother of Bishop Carlo Colombo (1909-1991), a trusted theologian of Paul VI in the years of the Second Vatican Council -- has just published an article in Theology, the review of Milan's School of Theology, in which he tells of the writing of the encyclical.

Sectors opposed to the Church's teaching on contraception contend that Paul VI published "Humanae Vitae" in opposition to the majority vote of the members of the preparatory commission.

In April 1967, an article published in France in Le Monde, in Great Britain in The Tablet, and in the United States in the National Catholic Reporter stated that 70 members of this commission favored the pill while only four members opposed it.

Those numbers turned out to be false, Colombo found in his research. The articles, in fact, were published to exert pressure, he said.
more

2003-07-18T17:50:00.000-04:00

Women Ovulate Once per Cycle
New Canadian Study Supports Natural Family Planning
Another interpretation of the same data quoted in the news media (see several comments below and on several other blogs).
-----“Of course, for pregnancy to occur, not only does there need to be an actual ovulation – not just follicular development – but there also must be a host of other factors present, including cervical secretions and an appropriate luteal phase during which the egg- if fertilized—will implant itself in the uterine lining,” says Dr. Arevalo. ----

2003-07-17T17:00:00.000-04:00

Rachel at HMS blog has some excellent suggestions for pregnant women during heat waves. I second every one of her suggestions.

2003-07-17T16:23:00.000-04:00

A bit of a well deserved rant (from Fonticulus Fides).
Pardon me while I rant. And feel free to rant along with me.

I've long been a fan of Real Simple magazine and frequently purchased newsstand copies that covered my personal areas of interest. But no more.

Real Simple recently ran an article called "20 Rules to Break" which listed breastfeeding as a waste of time. They actually interviewed some ignorant male doctor who said there were no real benefits to breastfeeding. I don't know what rock this joker has been living under but here's a quick list off the top of my head:
more.

2003-07-17T06:38:00.000-04:00

Another long tour de force over at Apologia. He writes some of what I was thinking after hearing the sad but unsurprising ruling of the SCOTUS in the Texas case.

2003-07-16T23:45:00.000-04:00

My name day is coming up (July 22, the feast of St. Mary Magdalen). I took Magdalen as my confirmation name when I converted - for a lot of good reasons.
St Mary Magdalene
Mary of Magdala was healed of “seven devils” by Jesus. She ministered to him in Galilee and was present at his crucifixion. She was in the group of women who were the first to discover the empty tomb, and it was to her that the risen Jesus first appeared.
The Western tradition is that Mary Magdalene is also “the woman who was a sinner” and the sister of Martha and Lazarus of Bethany. There is no evidence either way, and the tradition is tenuous enough for even such authorities as St Ambrose to hold, with the East, that they are three different people. It seems, therefore, that although the Western tradition is to be respected and is a real inspiration, it may not necessarily be historical. This kind of ambiguity is inevitable in a religion such as Christianity, which is founded on definite historical events, but we need not worry about it too much: if it had been harmful to us to celebrate the tradition of heroic penitence, the Holy Spirit would not have allowed it.
Even without the extra tradition, Mary Magdalene is a unique and important character in the story of the Resurrection, chosen by Christ as one of the first witnesses of the event that changed the world.
from Unversalis

2003-07-16T23:22:00.000-04:00

I am an Asteroid.

I am a drifter. I go where life leads, which makes me usually a very calm and content sort of person. That or thoroughly apathetic. Usually I keep on doing whatever I'm doing, and it takes something special to make me change my mind. What Video Game Character Are You?

Link via Oblique House.

2003-07-16T23:14:00.000-04:00

Kathy the Carmelite starts a wonderful discussion on gender roles. Check out the comments box, too.

2003-07-16T22:59:00.000-04:00

Chicago Tribune | The pill's dark secret

2003-07-16T22:46:00.000-04:00

Where Charity and Love Prevail has just been added to the blogroll. She has resumed posting after a long hiatus. Welcome back, Susan!

2003-07-16T21:55:00.000-04:00

Has Natural Birth Control Been Proved Impossible? from the current issue of Christianity Today Magazine online.
This reiterates what several bloggers have been saying all along - that the news reports of the research just plain got it wrong.
An interesting article from a non-Catholic Christian perspective.

2003-07-15T17:24:00.000-04:00

Over at HMS blog is an interesting thread on rape and pregnancy prevention. The discussion centers around the use of high doses of female hormones to disrupt the menstrual cycle and prevent ovulation (and hence fertilization). This is one of the mechanisms of action of the so-called morning-after pill (aka emergnecy contraception or ECP). However, there are several mechanisms by which these medications act. One is that they disrupt the menstrual cycle. Dependant upon where in the cycle the hormones are given, they can prevent ovulation, delay ovulation, or have no effect on ovulation. They can disrupt the formation of the uterine lining so that implantation cannot occur (very early chemical abortion). They also cause thickening of the cervical mucous and can make sperm penetration difficult or impossible (however, that is not protective after rape, as the mucous is either present or not present at the time of insemination, and fertile mucous transports sperm pretty rapidly to a waiting egg, whereas infertile or no mucous is pretty much a death trap for the sperm).
I am not near my NFP texts right now and don't remember exactly what the transport and survival time is for healthy sperm in fertile mucous - Is there enough time that disruption of ovulation would be the actual mechanism of action for pregnancy prevention?
I don't think we really have enough knowledge on some of this to endorse any specific post-facto method of preventing pregnancy in rape victims (that is not abortifacient).
One thing that few people realize is that there are really very few days of fertility in every cycle, the recent University of Saskatchewan study notwithstanding. The problem for NFP is iidentifying those days with enough precision to make behavioural recommendations. The likelihood of conception related to a single incident is variable dependant upon the time within the menstrual cycle, which is data that can be teased out of the ECP studies - the reason these pills seem to be so effective is that most of the time the women weren't in their fertile days anyhow!

2003-07-15T01:36:00.000-04:00

Deal Hudson at Crisis also publishes an excellent weekly electronic Newsletter. Below is an excerpt from the most recent one.
*****************
There were a couple of other news items from last week that I wanted
to point out to you briefly. One involves the latest attempt to
discredit natural family planning (NFP).

A study at the University of Saskatchewan recently announced that a
new understanding of a woman's menstrual cycle will change the way we
look at fertility and finally lay to rest those arguments in favor of
NFP.

Originally, it was thought that egg sacs (or follicles) would grow
at one particular time in a woman's menstrual cycle. From those sacs,
one egg would be released and the rest would die, resulting in a
specific time every month when a woman would be fertile.

This new study, however, shows that the follicles actually grow in
waves, rather than all at once. According to the researchers, this
means that eggs could be released at different times throughout a
woman's cycle, making the old idea of one window of fertility per
cycle outdated.

Researchers say this proves that NFP isn't effective. Senior author
Dr. Roger Pierson joked, "We all know people trying to use natural
family planning, and we have a word for those people. We call them
parents."

But the studies' findings might not be so clear cut as that. Dr.
James B. Brown, commenting for the Billings Ovulation Method
Organization (WOOMB), says that scientists have known about this
"wave" pattern of follicle growth for years. Citing its importance in
helping women determine their periods of fertility, Dr. Brown
verified the findings from the University of Saskatchewan.

However, Brown explains that it does NOT mean that fertile
ovulations can occur more than once during the menstrual cycle. From
WOOMB's own research of millions of women using NFP methods, the vast
majority ovulate only once per cycle.

Even the University of Saskatchewan's own research should have told
them something similar. Out of the 50 women they examined, all but
two ovulated only once during their cycle. The two who ovulated more
than once actually had abnormal (infertile) cycles during which
conception couldn't occur.

So out of research showing that 96% of women ovulate only once per
month, and the 4% who ovulate more than once have infertile cycles,
the University of Saskatchewan concluded that multiple ovulations
spelled the end for predicting fertility and, consequently, NFP.

Seems to me they jumped the gun on this one. Dr. Pierson might want
to take his findings -- and his NFP jokes -- back to the drawing
board.
*************

2003-07-13T10:14:00.000-04:00

Last night myhusband and I went to a concert in Memphis TN - the Chieftans. It was a lot of fun to go with just him. After nearly 30 years of marriage, we can still have fun together.

2003-07-13T09:30:00.000-04:00

Walk-By Hacking from today's NY Times - free registration may be required. For those of you with, or contemplating, wireless internet connection. I bought a wireless card on this trip (at Fry's, a really interesting chain of stores on the West Coast) and it has been very useful - but I also have concerns about security. I remember in the early days of cellular that my husband had to change his cellular phone # every 2 or 3 weeks because of hackers.

2003-07-12T00:12:00.000-04:00

Kelly the pewlady posts another wonderful bit!

2003-07-11T17:44:00.000-04:00

Maine Catholic and Beyond a new blog found through Catholic Light (not lite). Welcome to the Parish! I am so glad to have a fellow blogger from the northeast USA!

2003-07-11T00:17:00.000-04:00

Billings Ovulation Method comments on the article below.

2003-07-10T23:15:00.000-04:00

Women may ovulate more than once.
I have a few questions on this - for one, I want to know how they defined their terms. My perception is also that it is an attempt to discredit NFP - and I wonder about that also.
BTW - I am still on the road - currently in Memphis TN visiting my oldest daughter.

2003-07-06T19:57:00.000-04:00

Hi folks, I am checking in again. I am at my mother's home borrowing her high speed connection. My dh and I spent all day yesterday at Disneyland - it was interesting as I saw stuff under the surface that I hadn't noticed when I was younger. It has been interesting the last few days. At family bible camp I learned that my best friend's youngest daughter is getting married in November. Wendy is 22, and she and her fiancee have decided on an early wedding. I was remembering discussions here in St. Blog's about the advantages (as well as disadvantages) of long and short engagements. Personally, I am generally in favor of engagements just long enough to prepare for marriage, but not so long as to be 'a near occasion of sin'. Anyhow, I need to be polite and get back to listening to my mom talk about geneology. BTW, my maternal grandmother is in the hospital with heart block - she is getting a permanent pacemaker tomorrow. Prayers appreciated.

2003-07-01T01:28:00.000-04:00

Now I can't get my email to download to my computer on the road. Yuck. The attbi to comcast transition of course happened while I was traveling. Oh well. I will be pretty busy once I get back.
One of the nice things about traveling is the opportunity to read on the road (no I am not the driver!). I just finished reading Belloc's The Great Heresies (I think I have the title right - but it is out in the car and I am not going to fetch it!). Quite interesting reading. Right now I am reading Donna Steinchen's book Ungodly Rage. I will read a few lines to my husband and then we will discuss them for a while. Reading this book, written in 1991 about events as far back as 1985, sends chills up my spine (and I haven't finished chapter one yet). In this, I can see the seeds for the Situation. She intends this, I think, as a polemic against the apostasy to radical feminism, but there is actually much more than that included. Will have to finish and reread it.
This is the last time for a few days that I will have computer access. Tomorrow we will join some fundamentalist/pentecostal/evangelical friends for a few days camping in the San Bernadino mountains. Prayer appreciated.

2003-06-29T20:59:00.000-04:00

Dial up connections drive me nuts.
How did I ever manage in the old days? Well, I didn't spend much time on the net, that is for sure! I am writing from a motel room in beautiful Eugene OR. Went to Sunday Mass in my old parish. After nearly 3 years away, they still recognize us. And when I went by my old job, I was asked if I would come back to work there. Traveling can be tough sometimes.
I am going to the laundromat now - after 7 days on the road it is time...... maybe more later - if I can pry my daughter off my laptop. Seems she also wants to chat with her friends.

2003-06-26T22:41:00.000-04:00

Well, well, well. I log in from the road and find a "brand new blogger". This should be interesting.
I am checking in from my son's DSL connection in Eugene OR. It is Thursday around 1950 as I type this. Tuesday my family and I had a wonderful evening and dinner with Erik (of rants and raves). Chicken Risotto, salad, and samplings of various home made liquers - and of course tons of conversation. Amalia is indeed just as cute and intelligent as advertised. Guys - Erik is managing to maintain his blog on a dial up line! is that love or what?
Anyhow - who knows when I will pop up again.

2003-06-24T12:09:00.000-04:00

Just getting ready to leave from my son's in Los Angeles. One of the great things about being a mom is watching kids become adults.
PS - the time/date stamps on this blog reflect the time zone of residence, not where I happen to be just now.

2003-06-23T08:21:00.000-04:00

One last thing to do while I am gone. Bop over to Envoy Encore and read The Place and Purpose of NFP. A topic that truly warrants extended discussion and prayer.

2003-06-23T07:32:00.000-04:00

Leaving on a Jet Plane
In a few hours, that is. I will try to pop us as available. In the meanwhile, for those of you in the NorthEast USA, here is a family centered Catholic way to spend an August Saturday. Thanks to Domenico Bettinelli, Jr. for the info.

2003-06-22T08:40:00.000-04:00

What follows is a birth story from a friend of mine. She is a devout Christian who lives in a state where CNMs are not allowed to attend home births, and where DEMs are legally precarious. She also has had some complications with prior pregnancies, but after much research and prayer decided to birth her most recent baby at home with the assistance of midwives. Although she does have access to pro-life Christian OBs, she has the same concerns that I and others have expressed - that "Christian, pro-life" does not necessarily translate into "respectful of the spiritual value of birth in the family". She and I also share a concern that "Christian, pro-life" is being used as a marketing tool rather than a simple description of what is truly central to the values of a given medical practice. Anyhow, here is her story, as she emailed it to me and a few others.
*********************************************************************************
Thur. June 12, 7:30 am lost mucous plug. With other three children, baby has arrived within 12 hours. Piddly contractions. Sent dh off to work, I went to health food store. Tried to run other errands but felt distracted. I got back home about 11:30.

My friend came to take my 3 daughters to her house for the day... just to be nice, I really wasn't having ctxs or any more mucous.

I picked up my house some, had some Braxton-Hicks contractions that were very mild and irregular. I don't know if I was experiencing leaking of water bag or incontinence but I felt kind of drippy. I listened to the baby with my fetoscope through a ctxn, it was fine before and after. Rung the midwife, who was not at home -- unbeknownst to me she was nearby, (lesson one, try her cell phone!)

About 3 I had a friend who homebirths, and who used to be a L&D nurse come over and check me. She said I was a "stretchy 3" & posterior cervix. If I was leaking, which was questionable, I should stay home & take temp occasionally -- no going out!

I was kind of disappointed as I figured my record --of baby 12 hours after mucous plug -- would be broken. At 4 PM called dh and asked him to come home early, just to comfort me in my lack of labor.

At 5 PM I was contracting semi regularly but lightly, rang the midwife and my doula friend. My husband came home, and the BellSouth man came over to replace my DSL modem. About 5:15, the ctxs started to get more intense, I listened to Ruben Studdard's new song (lesson 2 -- Ruben Studdard makes great labor music!) I decided I'd get a "midwife's epidural" (bath) to slow things down while the DSL man was here.

My dh saw me on all fours in the bathtub and called the doula and midwife. I argued with him, did not want people over "that early, so we could just sit and look at each other!" He called anyhow. It was 6 PM. The BellSouth man left. He did not make it through our list of friends I wanted around me, to call. We put on Gary Wright's Christian music CD.

At 6:20 my doula arrived and I do not see how people labor without them! (To my friends who don't know what a doula is -- this is an incredible, wise, motherly lady who uses Physical Therapy and other 'techniques' to help women birth with ease and comfort.)

The ctxs were still not "regular" but were pretty intense! I can't put it into words but wish every mother could have a doula. I splurged & bought some rich, buttery lime/coconut lotion from Bath & Body Works for the event, and it felt and smelled sooo nice! I worked hard at relaxing, sending O2 to the baby, and enjoyed being 'mothered' by our doula. She sent Scott to go boil water.

If I remember anything about this time, I remember that it seemed very holy. I continued to pray through each contraction, wanting to hear Psalm 91 and God's comfort from Isaiah. It struck me that through this sacrifice of bringing the baby into the world, I was brought to tears with the reminder that Jesus suffered and died for those he knew were his enemies, and for those he knew would hate Him! And I had the priviledge of laboring for a beloved child.

About 6:40 the midwife's assistant arrived. Her presence was so soothing and comforting. I remember her voice was so peaceful and calm. A few minutes later I felt like I needed to visit the bathroom. My doula made a comment about "that pacing". (Not the first time I've paced when complete.) I felt the forebag bulging and demanded my midwife's assistant check me. She said she felt forebag and looowww head, no cervix. All of us prayed together, for this baby, that the midwife would arrive safely and God would anoint her hands to do His work, for the birth and for minimal bleeding & quick birth of the placenta. It seems almost unreal now that I think about it, but the transcendence of this moment still sticks with me.

I've been at births with a local Christian OB group. The labor and delivery nurses have all been nice ladies. However, I have yet to see them as motherly servants, prayer guardians, and comforting angels of the birthing family the way this care team was. They were incredible! If Shiprah and Puah were anything like my care team, I see why God blessed them at the beginning of the book of Exodus. I also understand why in Titus 2, His plan is for women to learn the womanly arts from other women.
I can't get the comparison out of my head.

The mw assistant listened to baby. I waited what seemed an eternity for the mw (she lives over an hour away), and when I could bear it no longer, I gave small pushes. The first big one popped the membranes and PTL the fluids were clear! (Lesson 3, ask the midwife to come with the first twinge when it is your fourth baby!)

The mw pulled up, ran in the house, donned some gloves, and out came our baby! My husband and doula exclaimed, "It's a boy!" I could scarcely believe I had a son! He nuzzled and began nursing in a few minutes.

In a few moments my midwife noticed a gush and cord lengthen. Scott set up a plastic bag on the potty and I walked in there to birth the placenta. The cord measured 36"!!

(In case you wondered, in our local hospital the protocol is to take baby from mom to measure and so on, give pitocin and pull on the placenta until it delivers, and hope mom doesn't bleed excessively. Our local Christian OB's would hold up the screaming naked wet baby, episiotomy blood pouring, and the doc, not the father or mother, will lead everyone in the room in prayer. Many women in my community love this aspect of their care, however, it strikes me as so different from a spontaneous prayer joyfully offered by a mother, father, and their servant guests)

Another thing that strikes me when I think of this is how my midwife, even in my own home, cared about my comfort and modesty. She continued to check my vitals, and monitor bleeding, and push fluids. She checked our newborn son's lungs -- clear PTL!

When I think of it I am amazed at even without ctxs I still did 12 hours from mucous plug to baby! We praise God for this wonderful birth and sweet boy. In case you are wondering why anyone would be crazy enough to choose to birth the way we did, here is a link from a South Dakota paper that is worth your read on homebirth safety and statistics. Thank you for reading this far. No matter where or how you birth, get yourself a doula! :-)
*****************************

2003-06-21T21:56:00.000-04:00

CSA report
I must admit I was at somewhat of a loss about how to cook and eat some of our bounty of fresh organic vegetables. Lettuce is pretty obvious, but pea tendrils? Mizuna? I pulled out a few cookbooks but couldn't even find the above named vegetables!
So I fell back on general principles and instinct.
I cleaned and sliced the garlic scallions. I thoroughly washed the mizuna, some spinach, and the pea tendrils. The mizuna I sliced into about 1/2 inch sections, the pea tendrils (which actually included also leaves and blossoms) and spinach Ioosely chopped. Heated up about 1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil (Costco store brand, quite good actually) in my 10 inch skillet - sauteed the garlic scallions until they were starting to get soft, then tossed in the greenery, sauteed it for about 30 seconds, sprinkled about 1 tsp soy sauce over the top of the greens, put the lid on the pan and turned off the heat and let the greens cook to just wilted in the residual heat. Before serving, I sprinkled a tad red wine vinegar over the top and added some fresh ground pepper. I served it with a baked fish fillet and garlic buttered curly noodles. Hazcat loved the greens, too - he was meowling around the table begging. He turned up his nose at the fish, nibbled at the noodles, but scarfed the few greens I gave him in his dish.
That was Friday night dinner.
Tonight, I needed to cook the bok choy - I stir-fried it in a little garlic oil, and dressed it with a mixture of vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and sriracha rooster sauce (just a drop,enough to give it a kick). This was accompanied by salad and some lovely broiled lamb chops. Our daughter who doesn't eat lamb had some chicken and apple sausages instead.
We are trying to eat as much of our perishable stuff as possible before we leave on vacation.

2003-06-20T17:43:00.000-04:00

The morality of cesarean section is something that needs to be addressed, and Greg Popcack and the gang at HMS blog do just that. I only wish they had comments boxes!!!!!
A trully frightening book on the topic is Just Take It Out! : The Ethics and Economics of Cesarean Section and Hysterectomy by D. Campbell Walters and Edward Quillinan . A midwife colleague came back from a conference where Walters spoke, truly shaken up. She said that if this man has his way, the only way women will have normal birth is by accident, and that all women will have hysteretctomy at menopause (if not before).
Do any of you think that the trend towards voluntary bodily mutilation (sterilization) has had any impact on the trend towards medically non-indicated cesareans and hysterectomies? How about the other forms of 'cosmetic' bodily mutilation that are becoming common?

2003-06-20T17:18:00.000-04:00

Speaking of hair...... a rare pic of me with my hair down.

2003-06-20T17:14:00.000-04:00

Friday Five
1. Is your hair naturally curly, wavy, or straight? Long or short?
Long, thick, wavy.
2. How has your hair changed over your lifetime?
I started life as a strawberry blond with fluffy hair. It then became straighter and darker, and by high school I was auburn/ash blond depending on season. At 25 I started to go grey, which I have since fought off. Better living through chemistry, I always say! Now I am a dark reddish brown. I have tried short hair but it is too high maintenance for me. My long hair I wash, braid, and twist up into a quick twist or bun, and I am good to go.
3. How do your normally wear your hair?
Up, as described above.
4. If you could change your hair this minute, what would it look like?
I would naturally be the color it is, so I wouldn't have to touch up every 3 weeks.
My color is actually pretty close to my natural hair.
5. Ever had a hair disaster? What happened?
Not that I can remember. I will confess, my hair is my one big physical vanity. If I ever have to do chemo, I will chop off what I have for the wigmakers and shave my head ahead of time.

2003-06-19T23:03:00.000-04:00

I stole this link from Jeff Miller, the Curt Jester, because it involves my line of work.
I hope that the clinic does not also become a facility that pushes tubal ligations and depo shots on these impoverished women.
Star Telegram | 06/19/2003 | Midwives hoping to open free clinic.
Representatives of Catholic Charities, the city and county public health departments, Cook Children's Medical Center, the Fort Worth school district, the March of Dimes and other organizations are involved.

2003-06-19T17:17:00.000-04:00

Wednesday was the first pickup for our share in the CSA (community supported agriculture) co-op that we joined. This is the first year for this particular group. I now have bags of fresh organic mizuna, lettuce, spinach, garlic scallions (Erik - are these what is meant by 'green garlic'?), pea tendrils, bok choy, and a loaf of multigrain bread. I also need to figure out how to eat all this up before we leave on vacation! I don't think my house-sitter knows quite what to do with fresh produce.
The membership includes a cookbook, but they aren't ready yet. The newsletter with the veges has a couple of recipes that I will have to try.
Alas, the very short NH strawberry season will come and go while we are on the other coast. sic transit gloria mundi.

2003-06-19T13:55:00.000-04:00

I am an overly happy A.D.D kitten
(Picture deleted - way too big!!!)

Which cute or possibly strange kitten are you?

Link from And Then
Warning: If bad spelling and grammar atrocities make you ill, avoid this quiz.

2003-06-18T12:32:00.000-04:00

I had the occasion to meet Dr. White a few times. He was always, to me, the epitome of a Christian gentleman and Catholic physician.
From the Chicago Tribune (free registration required)
Dr. Gregory White, 82
Prominent breast-feeding advocate
When Gregory J. White was a young doctor in Franklin Park in the 1950s, he noticed a sense of frustration among his patients who wanted to breast-feed their children, but had no resources or support. He suggested to his wife and her friends that they form a group to offer that support during a time when breast-feeding was often discouraged.
Dr. White was also a founding member of the American College of Home Obstetrics and the Catholic Physicians Guild and served as president of both. He was also past president of the West Suburban Serra Club, an organization that encourages men to join the priesthood, and was active in the anti-abortion movement.
Dr. Gregory White died Monday, June 16, in his River Forest home from complications of leukemia.
(Click here for the full-text.)

2003-06-17T21:50:00.000-04:00

This or That
1. Newspapers or magazines?
both in large quantities
2. Books-on-tape or regular books?
words on paper
3. Paperback or hardcover?
paper for reading, hard for keeping
4. Fiction or non-fiction?
a bit of this, a bit of that
5. Sci-Fi/Fantasy or romance novels?
F&SF, no contest. Romance only rarely.
6. Borrow from library or buy books (either new or used)?
Buy and keep and share and re read.
7. Subscribe to magazines or buy on newsstand?
Read them from the waiting room at work, or borrow from friends. If exceptional, buy at newstands. Exceptions - Magnificat, Envoy, Crisis, etc (see list at top of my blogroll.)
8. Current best-sellers or classic literature?
Classics or obscure items. Most best-sellers are trash.
9. Read books once, or re-read favorites every so often?
If good, re-read until the ink wears off or I have it memorized.
10. Here in the U.S., we have two hot best-sellers...former First Lady Hillary Clinton's memoirs, and the new Harry Potter book (coming out June 21). If you had to read one, which one...Hillary or Harry? Why? Neither. Both trash.

2003-06-17T20:14:00.000-04:00

Just so you all know
I am going on vacation very soon. I will be leaving New Hampshire June 23 to fly to the other coast with my dear husband and our youngest daughter. We will spend the might with our oldest son and then start the drive north to Oregon, where our # 3 (son) and # 4 (daughter) currently live. We will be visiting our kids, my brothers in law and their families, some friends, and our old parish, including Sunday Mass. We will then drive south into California and hit Family bible camp for 2 days, and then visit more family (of which we have enormous quantities - both John and I are the oldest of six kids) and hopefully Disneyland. Will also have to figure out Sunday Mass in the greater Los Angeles/ Valley area. We will then fly into Louisville KY and drive to Lexington to visit my sister and her family, and then to Memphis to visit our oldest child (daughter) and find Sunday Mass in Memphis. Then home again via Nashville.
3 weeks. I will be dragging the laptop along, but I expect blogging to be very sparse between 6/23 and 7/15.
Oh, we are flying Southwest, so I guess we will have to pack our lunches, too!

2003-06-16T18:24:00.000-04:00

Whoops. In my Father's Day blog I forgot my fellow Catholic Book Shelf(er) Stephen Riddle. Mea maxima culpa, and I hope you had a great day!

2003-06-15T17:02:00.000-04:00

Psalms in Metre for Christian Worship will be added to the blogroll. Thanks to Bill at Summa Minutiae for the link. And Bill, Happy Father's Day to you too!

2003-06-15T14:31:00.000-04:00

Happy Father's Day
Especially to my husband (who rarely reads blogs), and also to William Luse, Jeff Culbreath, Davey's Daddy, The "Moss" fathers, Erik Keilholtz, Jeff Miller, Sparki's husband, JB the Kairos guy, and all the other fathers in the parish. And let us not forget the Fathers - our priests.
God, our father, our abba, be with these men, and protect them as they seek to do your will.

2003-06-14T11:20:00.000-04:00

Over at El Camino Real posted a link to a great article on Women's Fashions from a traditional Catholic perspective. Two Sleepy Mommies, take notice! This will further the discussion we have been having recently.

2003-06-14T11:07:00.000-04:00

You are Storm!

You are very strong and very protective of those
you love. You are in tune with nature and are
very concerned with justice and humanity.
Unfortunately, certain apprehensions and fears
are very hard for you to overcome, and can
often inhibit you when most need to be strong.

Which X-Men character are you most like?
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Link from Two Sleepy Mommies

2003-06-12T13:35:00.000-04:00

Mother’s Intention:How Belief Shapes Birth
By Kim Wildner, CCE, CHt, HBCE. This link takes you to a preview of the first chapters. I haven't read it yet, but it looks interesting. I have some reservations about hypnobirthing in the wrong hands, but I think it is safer than epidural birthing.

2003-06-12T13:31:00.000-04:00

Mahony Resisted Abuse Inquiry, Panelist Says
Keating added that "I think there are a number of bishops — and I put Cardinal Mahony in that category — who listen too much to his lawyer and not enough to his heart."
I don't know how long the LA Times keeps their links live, as they try to squeeze every peso out of the reading public.

2003-06-12T12:59:00.000-04:00

BILLBOARDS AND THE ENCROACHING BARBARISM set off an interesting conversation in the comments boxes about what, in truth, is our duty as Catholic Christian parents and citizens? How best can we fulfill our mission to "evangelize our environment" (as cursillo phrases this duty)? Should we retreat to '40 acres and a generator' with like minded others? Should we invade and take over an urban neighborhood? How can we preserve civilization (which, after all, translates as city living) as well as preserve our salvation, and that of our neighbors?

2003-06-11T20:04:00.000-04:00

This is another experiment with posting pix. This is my daughter's cat Hazmat the carbo cat. He has excellent taste in food. He loves raw tomatoes, bell peppers, sauteed mushrooms, steamed asparagus, and bread of all kinds. He is also partial to baked yams, skin and all. He turns up his nose at all canned cat food except Trader Joe's tuna for cats.

2003-06-10T22:36:00.000-04:00

I have added Bene Diction Blogs On! to the blogroll. Interesting comments from north of the 49th parallel.

2003-06-09T16:57:00.000-04:00

enetation seems to be intermittent. if the comments are down, try refreshing the page. this too shall pass.......

2003-06-09T16:50:00.000-04:00

This is a test.
It should be my house in winter (2/16/03, not 2002!)

Thanks to Peony Moss if it works.
Back to the drawing board for me if it doesn't!
Update: It worked!!!!!!

2003-06-09T09:06:00.000-04:00

A letter from a colleague, posted with her permission
I recently spent two weeks in Iraq on a humanitarian outreach to the Medical community in Basra. I wanted to share with you a little about the trip.
I went with Operation Blessing.
I am safely home from Iraq, and happy to see green grass and trees. Iraq really is the desert! very little green, and miles of taupe sand. We flew in to Kuwait City, and signed up at the Humanitarian center for badges and passes.Then the drive to the border..we passed the US and British army camps along the road. I felt so sorry for the soldiers...it was 127 degrees, with blowing dust and sand. After we passed the border, with many inspections of papers and passports, we traveled two hours into Iraq to Basra. I was surprised that the country , while poor and very run down, had very little visible "war" damage. An occasional bomb crater, or destroyed government building, but the most part was intact. Basra is a city of 1.5 million, very third world, with trash everywhere and crumbling buildings. We stayed at a hotel near the UN headquarters. The windows were covered with cement blocks, to deter looters.
The following morning we started work at two local hospitals. There were 14 doctors and nurses on the team, all of whom came with 3 days notice. It was really a God thing, that we all got there and had just the skills needed for the time.
I worked in the Labor and delivery department of the Maternity and Pediatric hospital. It is a bare, filthy and brutal place. The staff is very rough with the mothers, and seem to not have any concept of clean technique. It was not at all uncommon for them to get up one mother from the delivery table, which was a bare plastic cushion, and immediately put another mother down there, into the pool of blood,etc that the previous occupant left., to deliver her baby. I spent a lot of time asking them to clean between moms. At best they would wipe off the visible blood with tap water. By the end of my ten days, I had them cleaning at least three times a day with disinfectant.
With such a situation and limited time, I had to choose my battles.I chose to focus on teaching the midwives and doctors to deliver the mothers without an episiotomy. Their policy is to do a large sideways surgical cut for every first or secondtime mother. They do this without any numbing medicine, and sew them up afterward also without anesthesia. As you can imagine, the women scream through-out this procedure. There is a huge infection and complication rate with the women who are subjected to this. There is frequently pain and disability for months or years .
I was able to give them studies and information discouraging episiotomy, and teach them how to deliver without a cut. They were very surprised, and when I would help a woman deliver, suddenly there would be hordes of medical students and midwives around, watching, and questioning me. It was great!. And by the time I left, many of the midwives were routinely delivering without a cut.! Praise God! So this impacted the women I delivered, and now many women for years to come.
The medical standards at the hospitals are 30 years behind. The doctors told us they had no outside information available since Saddam came into power, and he confiscated all the western medical texts. I carried in 15 up to date medical textbooks, which were gratefully received, and I was told that the doctors would all read them. These were 3 inch reference books! And I bet they *will* all read them cover to cover!
Throughout our time there , there was only one negative incident. When we went to the local street market, the atmosphere was hostile, and we were struck by bags of dirty water. I was shocked, having been so well received by the hospitals and other Iraqis I had encountered. But no real injury, and soon safe back at the hotel.
One day a British medical unit asked our plastic surgeon to evaluate some kids how had been injured in a tribal conflict. Mark, the surgeon, bless him, said.of course I need to take the nurses with us!. So off we went in a British armored vehicle, out to a tribal home. It was fascinating to see the traditional lifestyle. I was taken to the women's room ,and examined the babies of the household.. We were able to make some arrangements to have the injured children treated at the hospitals by the Operation Blessing (our) team, and left to go back to the hotel. As a compensation, the British took us to the palace compound, where Saddam had built one of his sumptuous homes, and showed us the medic unit there . This was a huge treat, as it was strictly forbidden to *tour* the compound, just to see the buildings. The buildings were very elaborate, with carvings and inlaid wood.Quite a contrast to the rest of the city.
All the Iraqi's we talked to were very concerned with "security". It was not safe to be out after dark, because the remaining regime people, or just outlaws, were active with their rifles at night. Many people were injured and robbed every night.Looting was still ongoing. But I never felt unsafe in our hotel.
All told, we were there 11 days, and really impacted the health care, and were able to begin teaching the nurses and hospital personnel more modern ideas.
I really felt guided and protected by the Lord. I came home with a virus, and have not had a voice for two weeks, but it was so worth going, and I'm glad to be home.
Blessings, JK CNM
(and in reply to a question, asking what could be done to help).
Yes, the doctors are educated in English, as Arabic is not a precise language, and the terms do not translate. So the books I took were English medical references...Principles of Gynecology, prescriptive updates, etc.. I'm sure they could use any other donated books on any medical topic. I'm sure journals would be welcome, but the postal system is in total disarray, so I don't know how they could get there.
The NGO I went with is working on getting equipment to the hospitals in Basra. Probably the most direct way to actually help is to donate to them. You can donate from the site or get addresses to donate items. Thanks for your interest.

2003-06-08T23:16:00.000-04:00

Garden Report
I finally put my poor plants in the ground. I have two different kinds of tomato, a white eggplant and a japanese eggplant, several different peppers (pimiento, bell, jalapeno, banana), and a row of rainbow Swiss Chard. In a different spot, my dear husband planted pumpkin, acorn squash, zuchinni and yellow squash, and watermelon. We will see how many survive the erratic weather.
I went looking for a Taxi tomato, but no such luck. Maybe they don't grow well in New Hampshire.
The fruit trees that we planted last year bloomed a bit, but I have been told that we shouldn't expect fruit for a couple more years. Still, it was pretty while it lasts.
We have two crabapple trees in front that every year have a bumper crop - if only I could figure out what to make with them (other than pectin, that is).
I have a great picture of the house with the crabapple trees in candy cotton bloom. I wish I knew how to post the picture in the body of the blog. I still haven't seen an equivalent of "Blogging for Dummies" yet. I'm not technically illiterate, but I never learned HTML - no need before now, and not really the time either. Any suggestions gratefully accepted.

2003-06-08T22:29:00.000-04:00

The Promo Guy (Better known for Monday Mission) has a bit about Pentecost Sunday (which he misspells Pentacost, but give the guy credit). He did his homework on the net, but maybe some of you folks might want to bop over and add a few sources that he might have missed.

2003-06-07T17:07:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week, I posted about my husband's visceral reaction to a radio broadcast on Gnosticism. Over at Gaudete Semper is a more thoughtful post, by some one who actually heard the broadcast in question. This post, titled The Gospel of Thomas (you may have to scroll down), is a very insightful commentary, and includes a permalink to the audio archive of the show. Here is a sample:
Pagels sounds an interesting note toward the end of the interview. She suggested Thomas, with its appeals to individual discernment about the divine light emanating from inside us, may someday become part of the Christian tradition. I find that about as likely as the pope converting to Scientology. Nevertheless, Pagels is a provocative scholar, and I'm sure to give her book a look since argument is always good fun.
I will confess, I have yet to listen to the interview. If there were a transcript, I would probably read it, but I have much the same trouble just sitting down to listen that I do planning to watch TV or a movie. Radio is something that I do incidental to other stuff. If I wasn't stuck in a hospital call room 2 nights a week, I would probably have never learned to love EWTN.
PS: Here is the link to the audio archive.

2003-06-07T12:30:00.000-04:00

A good word for days of impasse and drizzling miserable rain.
The Oxford English Dictionary Word of the Day for today.
gridlock, v. trans. (lit. and fig.). To make a gridlock of or cause a gridlock in; to block the progress of (a person or thing), to bring to a standstill. Usu. in pass. Also intr.: to be involved in a gridlock in or with.

1982 Jrnl. Econ. Hist. 42 20 Big U.S. industries..have become uncompetitive in the markets and are gridlocked in their labor arrangements. 1985 Christian Sci. Monitor 22 Apr. 18 In the West, the contradictory role of the US dollar as a source of stability and expansion had gridlocked the international monetary system. 1987 New Left Rev. July-Aug. 68 Commercial life in the centre began to wither as precocious automobilization..gridlocked the Downtown traffic flow. 1990 Observer 30 Dec. 40/2 Los Angeles with its totalitarian skyline and gas-guzzling ethics is everywhere, gridlocking our expectations and commodifying our dreams. 1994 Voice 18 Oct. 6/1 What happens is that people who are left with the responsibility of children are gridlocked into the benefits system and generational poverty. 2000 GQ Nov. 296/2 Our moped gridlocks with cross-currents of sinewy cyclo drivers and pert schoolgirls on Golden Peacock bicycles.

2003-06-06T19:13:00.000-04:00

The Marketing of a Superbaby Formula
Why don't they just breastfeed? I can see this as important to babies who have to be fed second best (sick baby, sick mom, adoption, etc), but this formula is being marketed to moms who have the resources to breastfeed under the majority of adverse circumstances.