I love a fact-based brawl followed by the clanging of glasses. I don't take fools lightly and they don't usually take a liking to me anyhow.
Yes, I have three wonderful children, but they aren't so wild anymore. Just waiting for/dreading the teen years when my name will be accurate once again.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Girl Scout Cookies – especially Thin Mints and Samoas. Yum. In fact, I was the Cookie Mom for both of my girls’ Scout troops at one time or another.
I no longer buy cookies from my girls because I don’t care for the way Girl Scouts runs this program on a variety of levels. In our neighborhood the cookies are $4 a box. Of that $4, approximately $0.75 goes to the troop, the rest goes to the Girl Scout Organization (GSO), minus the cookie cost, which is pretty minimal. The GSO pimps out these kids for relatively little financial benefit to the troop. Continue reading →
From Wikipedia: An entitlement is a guarantee of access to benefits based on established rights or legislation. A “right” is itself an entitlement associated with a moral or social principal such that an “entitlement” is a provision made in accordance with legal framework of a society.
While clearly Toddlers in Tiaras is far more disturbing, I have to say that finding out that there is a Ms. Senior America pageant in CT doesn’t sit well with me either.
Not that an elderly women can’t be gorgeous. Hell, I aspire to be one of those fabulous looking old ladies too. However, much like beauty pageants for kids, these seniors are striving to be something they are not. Continue reading →
With all the stories of rude coworkers, bosses and even friends on Crasstalk, it sounds as though we are surrounded by impolite children.
Across my Facebook page this morning comes an article originally written by parents.com about manners that should be mastered by a nine year old. Aside from the obvious please and thank you, it talks about being respectful, helpful and kind.
You would think that being a mother I would get my shit together and mail my mom the obligatory Hallmark Mother’s Day card in time. I woke up this morning and smacked my head because our US Postal system will not get a card I pop into the mail today in Connecticut to the suburbs of Chicago by Saturday. Somehow an eCard doesn’t seem, well, seemly. So I am left with a quandary… what to get Mom to show her that I forgive her for tormenting me all those years which led to years of therapy love her? And, I have to get it to her quickly.
Here is a quick list of my go-to gifts for my dear ole mom: Continue reading →
When one thinks of Christians and their religious celebrations, one tends to think of Christmas as the ultimate Christian holiday. In fact, they’re wrong.
As a Catholic Christian, I really am an Easter person. Huh? What do I mean by that? Catholics celebrate Easter each and every week at Mass. Easter is all about the sacrifices and Resurrection of Jesus. Each week at Mass, Catholics receive Communion which celebrates and makes real for us Christ’s resurrection. Not all Christian religions celebrate Communion each week; for many it is reserved for only certain times per year.
Bustedhalo is a great Youtube channel that explains Christian religious practices or beliefs in highly visual, brief clips. Below is the one for Holy Week, the final week of Lent which is also the week before Easter.
Holy Week is an especially reflective week of Lent. Christians contemplate the sacrifices Jesus made for us, the betrayal he must have felt by Judas’ actions, as well as the promise of everlasting life for us. Easter Day ends the Lenten period. Easter is coming out of the darkness of Lent and into the celebration of Life and light.
I especially love the fact that on Easter we sing Hallelujah again after the forty days of Lent where we do not say it. My father used to joke that we didn’t say Hallelujah during Lent because on Easter, when you could finally eat/drink/do whatever you gave up, you would say “Hallelujah!” Actually, it is much cooler than that.
During Lent, we are focusing on the “Kingdom coming” (Jesus’ resurrection), but rather than the fact the Kingdom already came. As my priest wrote: “The readings in the Masses for Lent and in the Liturgy of the Hours focus heavily on the spiritual journey of Old Testament Israel toward the coming of Christ, and the salvation of mankind in His death and resurrection. We, too, are on a spiritual journey, toward the Second Coming and our future life in Heaven. In order to emphasize that journey, the Church, during Lent, removes the Alleluia from the Mass. We no longer sing with the choirs of angels; instead, we acknowledge our sins and practice repentance so that one day we may again have the privilege of worshiping God as the angels do.”
Hallelujah returns to the Mass on Holy Saturday, the Easter Vigil — a Mass in which I never attend because it is sooooo long — because Jesus has risen. I enjoy the Hallelujah on Easter Sunday.
