7 Quick Takes - Lent, Lent, Lent! (and rain. And books. You know, the usual.)

1. It's almost Lent! Tonight I'm going to be preparing the ashes for Ash Wednesday.

Yes, that's right: part of my duties as head of the Altar Guild involve playing with fire. :D

2. I've discovered that Purple Moon wine, at Trader Joe's, is not at all bad, and only a couple dollars more than Two Buck Chuck. Just fyi.

3. I've been on a quest for awhile now to find books that enthrall my 7-year-old boy . . . without being as gross as Captain Underpants. (I'm sorry; I just can't.)  Here are what I've found so far: the Dragonbreath books, by Ursula Vernon, and the Squish books by Jennifer L. Holm. My son can read at a higher level than that, but this is the level where he really has fun, where he really flies.

And so I want to know: do you have any book recommendations for him? I really just want to up the volume of his reading for the next few months, so that he gets really hooked, and gets enough practice under his belt that reading anything sounds practicable and fun to him.

Then I'll shove all the great lit at him. :)

So, any recommendations?

4. My daughter's piano practice has had a happy side-effect: it's inspired my husband to take up piano-playing again.

I love listening to the both play. There's just something about live music. And it doesn't have to be professional in order to be an absolute pleasure . . . listening to Adam and to Bess play all these simple hymns and melodies and scales . . . I just love it.

5. There is water falling from the sky here! It's just amazing. It's been so long . . . our thirsty ground out here in CA needs it so much.

6. Did I mention that it's almost Lent? No, I'm not sure exactly how our family is going to keep it this year. But do you know what makes this Lent different? I can go read Cate MacDonald's excellent advice on how to keep Lent! :D  I'm so glad I didn't have to write that chapter, and I'm so glad Cate did. Seriously, I'm so excited that this book actually exists now - it's the book I always wanted to have as I tried to figure out the church year.

7. I've been listening to "Non Nobis, Domine" a lot recently. It's just so incredibly beautiful. Here's the scene from Henry V where I first learned of it:


More 7 Quick Takes can be found here, at Conversion Diary.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


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