7 Quick Takes - Feast of St. John of the Cross

1.

We have a winner!  And it's Charlotte from Waltzing Matilda!  I used a very complex system, where I deleted any superfluous or duplicate comments, including my own, except the duplicate comment from Sara, because I attributed that comment to Tasha in my head, because she was unable to comment for some reason, and left a comment on my facebook page.  Then, I commented that the comments were closed.  So, I had to subtract that comment from the total, bringing it down from 32 to 31.  Then, I used random.org and you can see for yourself, that Charlotte won the gift certificate from eDiaperCakes. 

Congratulations Charlotte!  I will email you details in the near future.

2.

Have you seen this?

It's a meme created by my husband and his cohorts at Word on Fire.  It's both a picture of Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago and a spoof of the Dos Equis ads.

Yes, it's all true.  You can read what the Cardinal, himself, wrote about his various exploits here.

Plus, the cancer part?  His doctors were unable to find any cancer cells this week, which may or may not be the result of some intercession from Father Augustus Tolton, whose cause for canonization was begun by Cardinal George in Chicago.

3.

These Pilot FriXion Ball erasable gel pens are my greatest discovery of the year.  Edmund, who is a lefty, begged me to go Walgreens to get these miraculous pens that do not smear and really erase.  Like completely!  The ink is so much better than other erasable pens too.  Another selling feature that Edmund pointed out is that the eraser never wears down.  I don't know about that, but I do know that it never falls out unlike other (choking hazard) erasable pens.

I do believe he was more thrilled with these pens than with the Hobbit legos he got from St. Nick.

So, I apologize to all of the other 4th grade moms for helping to create this craze.  Yes, they are expensive, but in my opinion totally worth it.  I might start using them myself.

One more thing, Angela says she uses them as fabric pens and when she irons the ink, it disappears.  I might try that on my never-ending "turn my boot-cut jeans into skinny jeans" saga.

4.  

In addition to Shaun the Sheep, Baby J has discovered Shaun's young spin-off, Timmy Time, also available via Netflix streaming.

5.

Peter reminded me of a VHS tape he loved as a wee one, Brambly Hedge.  Brambly Hedge is not available on DVD, at least not on DVDs that work in American DVD players (I almost learned the hard way not to order DVDs from ebayUK.)  While Brambly Hedge is not available on Netflix streaming, you and your young-uns can watch it on YouTube, and it's still just as darling and delightful as it was back in the 90s.

Brambly Hedge shows are based on the beautiful books written and illustrated by Jill Barklem.  Once upon a time, I even made curtains for the playroom out of lovely Brambly Hedge fabric.  The playroom is now my bedroom, however, I may have saved the curtains for a future in which I have time to quilt.

But the books are available on Amazon, if you still need to finish Christmas shopping!

6.

I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping.  I still have to order a few more books.

My Favorite Things by Richard Rodgers who is the Rodgers from Rodgers and Hammerstein.  This is the song from my favorite movie of all time, The Sound of Music, illustrated for children.

The third installment in Jessica Day George's Twelve Dancing Princesses series, Princess of the the Silver Woods is a re-telling of both Little Red Riding Hood and Robin Hood.  Could they be related?   My girls and I enjoyed both Princess of Glass and Princess of the Midnight Ball.  Bonus, the cover art is wonderful.

Angela and the Baby Jesus by Frank McCourt is neither trite nor sappy like most Christmas books for children.  Angela is worried that the Baby Jesus is cold in the manger at church, so she takes him home to warm him up.  It's a tale of innocence and poverty and sibling love in Ireland.  Honestly, this is one of the best Christmas stories, right up there with The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry.

 

7.

If you're feeling extra generous this season, check out Simcha Fischer's list of charities here.  

And here is my mandatory link back to Jen, whose reality show I missed because I had to endure yet another Christmas concert at school.  Best part about this year's production, St. Joseph Nose Picker.  Close runner up is the split second we might have seen Edmund's ear as he sung his little heart out in the back row.  Back row without risers, I might add.  Third year in a row I couldn't see my own kid.  Bah humbug.