7 Quick Takes on kids using the internet

Not a cesspool.

One of my children is a teenager, and the rest of them will be soon, and so we've started dealing with introducing our kids to the email, social media, and all the rest of the internet.

But...only one of my children is a teenager, I've raised a grand total of ZERO children to adulthood, so I can't point to any success stories here--not yet, anyway.

So this blog post is very much in the vein of Some Thoughts On the Subject, and emphatically NOT in the great writerly tradition of Do As I Have Successfully Done.

Here my thoughts:

1) Proper online behavior/use of the internet IS a skill we have to teach our children. 

I have to start here because, well...this is a parenting task I really don't want to do! But the internet is a technology my kids are going to have to use--actually, are already required to use for school. I'm old enough that my parents didn't have to teach me about this stuff when I was a kid--I didn't even get my first email address until I was in college. So I don't have a model to look at.

But I do have to teach my kids about this stuff. They're going to have to use it, and would I rather have them learn about it from me or from the world? Yeah.

2) Given that you have to teach them to use it, it's worth thinking through how you're going to teach them to use it well. 

This is likely going to look a bit different from family to family, given different personalities and resources. But, you've got to look at your kids and think, If you're going to use this, how can we help you learn to use this well?  if this is something you HAVE to do...  who do you need to be in order to do it virtuously? how can we help you become that person?

3) Rules are necessary. 

I mean...there might be a sewer near your house, but you don't let your kid swim in it, right? Likewise, there are cesspools out there on the internet (and cesspools within those cesspools , and cesspools that pretend to be swimming pools, and cesspools that pride themselves in being the STINKIEST CESSPOOL EVER HAVE YOU SEEN OUR CESSPOOL PICTURES JUST CLICK HERE).

So, no. I don't think you hand your kid a computer and say, "Good luck, champ." You don't abandon them in the middle of the internet any more than you'd abandon them in the middle of a freeway.

On the other hand, they're going to be adults soon, and then they WILL have to navigate online spaces on their own, so you want them to learn good habits now. (They will eventually be driving on those freeways. Which is good. That's what freeways are for.) The end-game of parenting is adulthood. You want to protect your kids while they're kids, but you don't want to protect them from growing up. You want to help them become good grown-ups.

And while our kids will be able to make all their own choices as adults, and it's not unlikely that they'll fall into bad habits and choices somewhere along the way, I think they've got much better chances of finally settling into good habits and good choices if they've already got a baseline of what good habits and good choices feel like. Of what it's like to live virtuously--of the joy and the light and the peace that good habits and good choices can bring.

So, I want to help them practice good habits now, while I can enforce them. Not because I think that guarantees that they'll be perfect adults. But because I think experiencing goodness is one of the best ways to learn to love goodness--and, when you've fallen away from goodness, you still have that memory, that experience, that will help keep you from denying that goodness is possible.

4) Teach it like you'd teach anything else: thoughtful introduction, plenty of practice, growing freedom, and keeping the end in mind. 

Again, this will look a bit different for each family, and maybe even for each kid. But help them learn how to use email, search engines, social media, etc., just like you'll help them learn how to balance a checkbook. Have their passwords, not because you want to impinge on their privacy, but because they're kids, and knowing Mom and Dad are gonna do random checks to make sure everything looks okay will prompt better choices. (And because, frankly, you're still legally responsible for them, so it's just prudent.) Realize you can't police everything, but don't abandon them.

And don't be an idiot--"screens stay in the public areas of the house" is probably the oldest parenting rule in this new online world, but it's still one of the smartest.

5) Talk to them about porn, privacy, and predators. 

There are plenty of people who've given good advice on these things, so I won't elaborate much here--just enough to say: teaching kids basic common sense about these things is a good idea. Being a parent who they can talk with openly about these things might be an even better one.

6) Don't be a hypocrite. 

Use the internet wisely and virtuously yourself.

7) Slowly give more freedom. 

This has to come as the capstone on building good habits.


Alright, so, that's about as far as I've gotten on this one. We're still definitely in the trial-and-error stage. You have to have a plan, if only so you have a place to start. The good thing about plans is that they can be adjusted as you go--most robust systems go through multiple iterations. That's fine.

But it's good to think about things like this--good to start somewhere.

Check out more and better Quick Takes over at This Ain't the Lyceum.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

*Note: If a technology is such that it can't be used virtuously, of course you don't teach your kids how to use it. And I'd probably argue some such technologies exist. But I'd also argue that the internet is more like the printing press--using books and computers (i.e., creating a certain sort of literate/connected society) is going to be formative in a certain way, but they're still both technologies capable of being used for both good and for evil.

7 Quick Takes: Anniversary Edition

So apparently today is the 7th anniversary of "7 Quick Takes", the link-up started by Jennifer Fulwiler, and carried on by Kelly Mantoan.

I haven't participated regularly for awhile, but I still think fondly of that link-up, because I met so many great bloggers there, some of whom I still follow and interact with today.

So, in honor of a great online experience (how often can you use that phrase?), I'm participating with the anniversary edition of 7 Quick Takes today.  Here we go!


1. Looking at fashion on Pinterest really makes me wish I lived somewhere cold enough to do more layering. This has nothing to do with anything, but Quick Takes posts should always include something a bit random, right?

So yeah: those capsule wardrobes are adorable, but there's no way you're talking me into putting on a shirt on TOP of my dress, not when it's insanely hot for, oh, 350 days out of 356.

2. My first Quick Takes post was this one, written from the depths - yay, from the deeps - of life as a mom with four kids under age five. (Which is better than four under four, which is where we started when we brought our twins home.)

The kids are now eleven, nine, seven, and seven. Life is just as busy, but not nearly as frantic.

3. I still write about most of the things I wrote about seven years ago: parenting, family, faith, books, writing, crafting.

4. I still write about celebrating the church year at home, but maybe a little bit less.

5. The reason for that is (glory! wonder!) I got a chance to actually assemble all my love for the church year into a BOOK:



I still have a lot to say about celebrating the church year, but so much of what I love about it and what I've learned about it is in this book. It feels like - not a completion, not an end - but a real fruit of my love of this part of the Christian devotional life.

When I talk about the church year now, it doesn't feel like I'm starting from scratch. And that's largely thanks to the work of the amazing authors who contributed to "Let Us Keep the Feast".

6. That book (which came, in part, from this blog), led me to more editing work, which led me to learning how very much I love editing as a profession. Learning that, and being given the opportunity to work in the book business, has been such a blessing and a gift.

7. Writing this really makes me wonder what life will be like seven years from now!


Head on over to Kelly's place to read more Quick Takes!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


This post contains an Amazon affiliate link; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

7 Quick Takes

1. I started Jennifer Fulwiler's (our host's) book, "Something Other Than God" one night, and finished it the next. It is so good. (Review forthcoming.)

2. Kalos Press is still looking for submissions on miscarriage and infertility. The deadline is June 1. I encourage you take a look at the call for submissions, and maybe pass it on, if you know someone who would be a good contributer!

3. My daughter has taken to reading my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook as if it were a novel. This has resulted, in the last few day, in made-from-scratch devil's food cake (with fudge frosting) and homemade blueberry muffins, appearing in my kitchen, as if by magic.

So yes, dear child, I will keep buying you cocoa and butter and sugar. You bake away, you brilliant girl, you.

4. (Seriously, it's fun to watch my eldest adopt a hobby so whole-heartedly. I delight in her delight.)

5. So, here's a question for you: what's your favorite part of U.S. History? I admit to being an Anglophile, and overdosing on British history, but it's time for me to learn a bit more about my own country's past. Where should I start? What stories and settings from the United States really capture your imagination? I'd love to know.

6.  Today I had the rare experience of my cat actually coming to me, and wanting to be scratched and petted and snuggled.

He's the sort of cranky beast that thanks you for your pains by biting you when he's had enough loving - purring all the while of course. He's a bit of a psychopath, but we keep him around because he's so terribly pretty. And he kills bugs. (I admire that in a cat.)

Anyone else have a cranky pet?

(I have to say: my dog makes up for our cat's crankiness. Our dog only wants us to LOVE HER, PLEASE LOVE HER, SHE ONLY WANTS US TO LOVE HER AND WALK HER AND FEED HER AND SCRITCH HER OH, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!!!

But that' s dog for you, right?)

7. Is it terrible that I really, really want to watch this?




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

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


This post contains Amazon affiliate links. (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

7 Quick Takes - Breakfast edition

1) So, what do you usually serve your kids for breakfast? This morning my girls made themselves cheese toast, and my son had a bagel. Sometimes we make sandwiches. I have one daughter who likes oatmeal. They all like muffins or pancakes, but we don't always have time for those.

See, the thing is, we used to do cold cereal, but recently I've been looking at the label and I just can't. Third ingredient sugar? O-kay. First ingredient sugar? I just can't.

So now breakfast feels very haphazard. I figure if there's something whole grain and something dairy, we've got a nice good carb/fat/protein mix. But . . . it's not always very organized.

2) I guess it doesn't matter whether or not breakfast is organized. But I still feel like I want more ideas!

3) Oh - and quesadillas. We often have quesadillas for breakfast. (Or tortillas spread with Nutella. With milk. Which isn't quite quesadillas, but we can pretend, right?)

4) Not me, though. I usually have muesli or yogurt and fruit or leftovers from dinner . . .

5) . . . and yes, chicken curry tastes surprisingly wonderful first thing in the morning.

6) But my kids don't think so. They'd rather have p.b.-and-cheddar sandwiches. Or whatever it is they've discovered recently.

7) Which brings me back to . . . what do your kids usually have for breakfast?


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

p.s.: More wonderful quick takes can be found here, at Conversion Diary.

p.p.s: Of course, the really vital part of my breakfast is coffee. Mmmm, coffee.

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


This post contains affiliate links. (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

7 Quick Takes: Recipe Edition . . . again

I would be such a boring cook without the internet! Here's some amazing stuff I've made recently:

1) -Chai Banana Bread - This doesn't have a strong chai flavor, but the spices do add a nice bit of warmth to the bread. I made it without the cream cheese icing, and it was perfect for breakfast.

2) -Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins - Now, on this one, you do want to make the topping. The crunchy, buttery cinnamon-sugar topping is brilliant. And the muffins are almost as good cold as they were warm, which I find impressive.

3) -Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup - spicy and delicious. Be sure to serve it with some of the extras - especially the tortilla chips.

4) -Baked Cheddar Chicken Chimichangas - Brushing these with a butter/olive oil mix before baking makes them flaky and wonderful. Not nearly as hard as they sound, and absolutely delicious piping hot. (Not bad cold, either!)

5) -Baked Chicken Nachos - this was much more casserole-y than I expected, but it turned out really well.

6) -Creamy Baked Chicken Curry - oh my goodness: creamy curry sauce is such a wonderful idea. This was great.

7) And . . . that's it. So, for #7, would you tell me what yummy thing you've made recently?

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

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

7 Quick Takes: WAHM edition

This was the first year all my kids were in school. I guess I’m starting to think through what exactly it is that I’ve learned in this first semester (sorry, I still think in semesters) of having all the kids in school. Of trying to structure this new era of my life. So here are my (more-than-7) Quick Takes on the matter: 

1) I’ve learned that keeping up with the housework matters. It allows for everything else.

2) I’ve learned that I can do the housework in the afternoons, after helping the kids with their homework. It’s a discipline, of course, and it’s hard then, because I’m tired, but it’s really the best time of the day to do it, because housework doesn’t take lots of brain-power.

3) I’ve learned that if I put my workout clothes on first thing, that I exercise. That’s worth doing.

4) So is listening to the Bible and knitting almost every day, though it kind of fits best in my lunch hour. Quick lunch, then devotions.

5) Prayer first thing in the morning, though, and last thing at night.

6) Doing the dishes after dinner every night never sounds fun, but it keeps me sane, because whenever they pile up I get anxious. And it never does take as long as I think.

7) The kids are getting old enough that paying them to do some of the chores is actually worth it. They can do it, they learn responsibility and that work is rewarded, and I get some help. This is worth doing, even though I do still have to help them finish up sometimes.

8) I’ve learned that if I really want to be a WAHM (and I do), I have to treat the time that the kids are in school as work time. I have to treat it like what it is: a real part-time job. Clock in when they go to school, clock out when they come home.

9) I’ve learned that I love having my cranky cat and my loud, goofy dog as – if not coworkers – the company mascots. Animals are not human company, but they are real company, and I’m happier working at home with the wordless, furry company they provide.

10) I’ve learned that not every day is going to look like the ideal above. It’s important to make space for other duties: church stuff, friend stuff, family stuff. It’s important to realize that part of the price I pay for this flexibility is the possibility of interruption. I can’t remember one week where everything went according to an “ideal” schedule – in fact, I can’t remember one day like that.

But having an ideal schedule – and ordering my days so that the most important things are done first – means that everything doesn’t have to fall apart when the inevitable interruptions happen. I know where I left off, and I know where I’m going to pick up again. The loom will still hold the threads, even if I’m not sitting in front of it at the moment.

11) I’ve learned even that peaceful attitude is something I can’t find every day. No matter. I have to trust I’ll come back to it. I’m not going to trash my goals because I happen to feel crappy one day.

12) I’ve learned there’s a lot of virtue in just doing something. If I feel I can’t face the most important thing on my list, I just do something on my list. Then at least one more thing is done. It never hurts to do that, and it often helps get me moving again.

13) I’ve learned sometimes the most virtuous thing to do is to stop. If I’m getting sick, if I really haven’t had enough sleep, sometimes the best thing to do is stop, go to bed early, and start again the next day. Sleep really does knit up the raveled sleeve of care. 

More Quick Takes can be found here, at Conversion Diary!

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes: Recipe Edition

It must be the cold weather: I've been trying out new recipes. It's hard to want to bake when it's 103, you know?

But now? Bring on the cakes and casseroles! Here are seven new-to-me recipes I've tried out lately:

1) Chubby Chicken and Cream Cheese Taquitos.  Oh wow. These were SO good. Frying food usually scares me away from a recipe, but this one only called for a shallow splash of oil, and it was SO worth it. Yummmmmm.

2) Gooey Cinnamon Cake. I'm totally starting with the most drool-inducing recipes, can you tell? Oh gosh, I don't think this one even got much of a chance to get cold. We devoured it. Complicated, but - if you have the time - worth it.

3) Apple Pie Bars. This one was easier. It's like apple pie without the work of rolling out a crust. Delicious!

4) Crockpot Barbecue Chicken. Now we're getting down to the work-a-day stuff. This is two ingredients and made in a slow-cooker. Score! I served it with cornbread and salad, and my family gobbled it up. (I used drumsticks instead of the boneless, skinless stuff.)

5) Whole Wheat Bacon Cheeseburger Stromboli. Another hit. I used Trader Joe's pizza crust, and some leftover roast beef (instead of the ground beef the recipe called for) and it turned out really well.

6) Basil Garlic Chicken. This makes lots of sauce, so serve it with rice!

7) Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins. Okay, I haven't actually made this yet, but it's on the slate for this weekend!

For more quick takes, head over to Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes - All Saints' Day edition!

1. It's All Saints' Day! I love my friend Susanne's honest, happy take on being a part of the family of God - this family full of saints.

2. Last night, we took the kids to a local safe trick-or-treating event - one that's just about the costumes and candy and none of the more worrisome parts of Halloween - and my husband and I decided to dress up, too. We went as Tonks and Lupin:

3. This lovely fall weather has me trying new recipes, and I found another good one this week: Italian Sausage and Potato Bake. It fits my four requirements for repeatable recipes: easy, healthy, frugal, and delicious.

4. I tweaked it a bit when I made it; I didn't have peppers, so I put in a bunch of fresh green beans. It still turned out splendidly. So I guess it fits a fifth requirement: it's versatile.

5. Another kitchen discovery: when I make the kids homemade pudding for an afternoon snack, I end up with a bunch of egg whites that I used to make veggie scrambles for me. Dual-purpose kitchen prep: score!

6. I'm starting my serious Christmas shopping, because I hate getting to the end of Advent and scrambling. Or at least my serious window-shopping . . . has anyone found any excellent deals or ideas or websites for their gift-giving this year? I'd love some tips!

7. And, of course, Let Us Keep the Feast: Advent & Christmas releases today! I'm so excited! This book is chock-full of great ideas for celebrating the church year with your family. The authors did such an amazing job - I really hope you all like it and find Michelle and Rachel's words as encouraging and useful as I did!

More quick takes can be found here, at Conversion Diary.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes

1. I'm always looking for new breakfast ideas - esp. ones I can prepare the day (or week) before, and I found two new recipes that were a hit with the kids:

-"Welcome Home" Chocolate Chip Muffins, and
-Pecan and Chocolate Breakfast Cookies.

Both of these can be made ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen. With a big cup of milk, they make a fairly decent breakfast (though with nuts and oats, the cookies are definitely the heartier choice).

2. Despite these successful recipes, one of my children, Anna, wasn't entirely happy. Why? Because she doesn't like the chocolate chips. Go figure.

3. The next kitchen experiment I want to try is this one. Though I doubt I can get away with calling it breakfast. At least something with "muffin" in the title sounds healthy. There's nothing about "Gooey Cinnamon Cake" that sounds the least bit sensible and nutritious.

4. Speaking of healthy - though this time for the heart and mind, not the body - we've been listening to these cds in the van for a few weeks now, and I'm really pleased with them. I think the ones we have are "Seeds of Faith" and "Seeds of Courage". But, anyway, they're just Bible verses set to music. Music that the kids love and that I can tolerate.

And just by listening to them on the way to and from school, all four children are memorizing a lot of Scripture. Totally worth it.

5. I liked this article about why historians should write historical fiction, especially this part:

That realisation led to another – that this is what good historical novelists do. Often without realising it, they will choose a historical period to bring out some aspect of human nature. In my case, I had chosen to set my fiction in the sixteenth century because I wanted to write about loyalty and betrayal. Loyalty to one’s spouse, to the state and to one’s faith have huge resonance in a sixteenth century context, much more so than in today’s easy going world. I used the historical setting of the 1560s to amplify what I wanted to say about people.

6. My dog thinks wikkisticks are yummy. My dog is weird. What's the weirdest thing you've seen your pets eat?

7. I'm planning to interview the authors of "Let Us Keep the Feast" here on the blog, and first up are Rachel Telander, author of the Advent section, and Michelle Bychek, author of the Christmas section. What do you think I should ask them? What do you want to know about the seasons, about their writing process, and just about them? Leave it in the comments!

More Quick Takes here!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes

1. A few weeks after reading Andrew Yee's "Spiritual Disciplines for Busy People", I'm finding what's stuck with me the most is his suggestion to take your internal dialogue, and address it to God.

In other words, instead of just thinking, "Aw, crap, I can't believe I just did that," you pray, "Aw, crap, Father, I can't believe I just did that."

. . . I know that's a pretty unedifying example (and it's mine, not Yee's!), but that's kind of the point. God hears all my thoughts anyway, and addressing them to Him . . . well, I don't want to say it changes my perspective, because that's not quite it. But it's me inviting Him in. And I'm finding He's accepts my invitation.

And that does change everything.

2. When I was a teenager, driving around in an old, beat-up Honda Civic and flipping channels, I imagined how cool it would be to have my own radio station, that only played music that I liked. I imagined that every time a song came on, I could say yea or nay, and it would be forever banned or forever on the playlist.

Mp3 players and iTunes? They're seriously my adolescent dream come true. I can still hardly believe it.

3. I still wish the radio thing had happened though. I like the idea of instantly & permanently zapping some songs off the airwaves.

4. My new favorite culinary discovery is smoked paprika. Have you guys tried this? It's awesome! It adds that smoky, camp-fire-y taste to just about anything. It's great on egg-y dishes like chiliquiles and in soups, like southwestern corn chowder. Yum, yum, yum.

5. Sister to that discovery is my newfound love for cumin. I mean, I've used it for forever, but I've never really appreciated it before. But now I'm finding it adds a real depth to dishes. Love it in stuff like carne asada and chilled salads.

6. I love, love, love this article by Carolyn Thomas on taking the Eucharist with children. Here's an excerpt:

Perhaps it’s the boy kneeling next to you, who takes a big gulp of wine, swallows, and then grabs his throat in pain. Maybe you lean over and whisper, “Are you okay?” and he whispers back, “That drink always hurts the inside of my neck!” And suddenly you remember the first time you ever took the Eucharist with real wine, on your knees, in a stone church on a cold, grey morning, and the wine stung your mouth, burned down your throat, warmed your body–and made you think of blood: hot and red and alive.

7. And I don't love this next link, but I found it pretty interesting: an interview with a female astronaut who really loves her job. From her description, I think her love is entirely justified:

Were you sometimes too busy living in space to really reflect on where you were?

I would say it’s not something I’m very good at even when I’m here on the ground, which is to make some kind of empty philosophical space where I just think and be and live. We work between 12- and 18-hour days up there, and even when you’re done you’re thinking about the next day. But when you look out the window and see the view, it’s so addictive and alluring and irresistible. Often at the end of the day I would go up to the cupola [panoramic window] and play my flute and look out.

Can you even imagine?


Anyway, more quick takes can be found over here, at Conversion Diary. Have a great weekend, folks!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes

1. A Facebook friend posted a video filled with things Southern women say*, and remarked that it hadn't occurred to her before that most of those sayings were Southern - that not everyone 'round the country uses them.

Which has me pondering what I say that's particularly Californian. (Other than "like" and "the 5".)

All I came up with is that we're pretty media-centered out here, and our speech is often filled with movie quotations, internet memes and online acronyms.

But I don't know. That might be universally American these days. What do you think? Do other areas of the country communicate through RiffTrax quotations and say things like "brb" as if they were actual words?

("Enjoy my back.")

2. On the other hand, all those might not be a sign that I'm Californian. They might just be a sign that I'm a bit of a geek.

3. The other sign that I'm a geek - visible in quick take #1 - is that I insist on using "quotation" instead of "quote" to indicate the noun. "Quote" is a verb, people!

4. Do non-Californians end their remonstrances with "people!"?

5. Clearly, I need to travel more.

6. If I traveled more, it wouldn't be to dry washes in Utah to capture footage of flash floods. That said, this is still pretty awesome.

7. Finally, here's my cat in a frying pan. I swear it was his idea. And I promise I didn't cook him.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jenn over at Conversion Diary!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


*Language warning on the video.

7 Quick Takes

1. Editing a book about celebrating the church year in the home is pretty congenial work, generally speaking. But editing the Christmas chapter in the middle of Lent is a bit jarring. Not to mention hunger-inducing: mulled wine, gingerbread, stollen . . . mmm.

2. I am also starting to edit in my dreams. I don't know why my brain thinks it needs to spend its rest time making sure its thoughts are thought in accordance with the Chicago Manual of Style, but I wish it would knock it off.

3. I have now reached the point of Lent when I realize that I am not a high-minded person who's delighted to fast. No: I am a wannabe who likes to think she's delighted to fast. I am actually grumbly and grumpy and disgruntled from the inside out.

And I'm shocked, just shocked, that it took me all of about a day to figure that out.

4. Also: Lent is really long. I always forget that beforehand, too.

5. I have a Paschal candlestand in my bedroom. I have a Paschal candlestand because I'm in charge of the Altar Guild so it was my job to order it and put it together.

It's in my bedroom because I don't want the cat to mistake it for a scratching post before I have a chance to bring it to church.

6. I had to fight my eight-year-old this week to get her to stop reading and do her homework.

Which felt so very, very backwards.

7. Also, what I had to fight her to stop reading? The Fellowship of the Ring. (And yes, that is just a straight-up brag. I told you I'm not as high-minded as I like to think I am!)

More Quick Takes can be found over at Conversion Diary!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes: Ash Wednesday, marriage, and Star Trek

1.
My very least favorite part of any church service all year comes on Ash Wednesday when the priest smears ashes on my children's foreheads and tells them that they're made of dust, and to dust they will return.

I know it's true, I just hate that it's true about them.

2.
On the other hand, there's very little sweeter than the realization, after that sadness, that the services keeps going, and the next thing that happens is that these very same children get to take communion and receive, again, the promise of redemption and eternal life and life anew.

We don't stop at the ashes.

3.
If you need something to listen to today as you commute or wash dishes or whatever, this week's edition of The City podcast is excellent. Seriously.

I made the mistake (?) of getting into an internet debate about marriage yesterday, and it left me feeling uneasy and sour, and listening to that podcast was so heartening. Smart, godly people talking about marriage and celibacy and romance and erotic desire and friendship . . . such interesting things, but discussed with such thoughtfulness and virtue! 'twas the cure for what ailed me.

4.
Even when I'm not sure I agreed with all of it. I agreed with most of it, and where I disagreed, my disagreement just made me want to discuss it more.

What I really want, I think, is to sit down a write a good essay.

5.
In other news, I miss college.

6.
Relatedly: I am a nerd.

7.
Oh! and if you're a nerd, too (of a particular sort, anyway), can I point you to this post? It's a debate about the ideal Star Trek crew. Utterly geeky, but so much fun if that's your particular area of geekdom. :)


Wow! From Ash Wednesday to Star Trek. It must be Friday. :D

More Quick Takes can be found here, at Jen's place.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes

1.
I really like this new music from Gray Havens, and right now it's free! I especially like the Narnia-inspired "Silver" and the sweet, upbeat "Let's Get Married". "Where They Go" is good, too.

2.
I've been trying the Couch-to-5K program. I'll probably write a longer blog about it sometime, but right now I have to say that it's the most sensible start-running program I've ever encountered. I'm beginning to hope I might be able to become a runner without injuring myself! (Injuring myself is what I normally do when I think, "hey, I should go for a run!" I start out too fast and my body says, "hey, idiot, knock it off!")

3.
Something else I want to write a blog post on sometime is the difference between reading scripture and hearing scripture. I've become fonder and fonder of listening to the Bible. It seems to seep into my heart in a different way when it comes through my ears (sorry, that's a terrible mix of the metaphorical and the literal).

But reading it engages my attention, too. Just differently. I've been trying to figure out what the difference is. Anyone have any thoughts?

4.
You've probably seen the beautiful animated short "Paperman", but what you might not have seen is this sharp analysis by Lars Walker. I had the same problem he did with "Paperman"'s narrative arc, and I like his solution to the difficulty.

5. Lent starts next week! I'm just saying.

6. Actually, my preparations for Lent this year feel really different, because this is the first year I'm preparing for Lent as an Altar Guild director. Yes, I'm figuring out what I'm going to take on personally for Lent, what sort of fast I'm doing . . . but I'm also collecting last year's palm crosses to burn for Ash Wednesday and making sure our priest's Lenten chausible is ironed and that we have people signed up to serve at the various Lenten services . . . it's a really different perspective on the season.

7. I really like being a part of our church's volunteer staff. Talk about work worth doing! All of our lives are part of the life of the church, but getting to participate in the actual church-service-related work makes it all feel so much more literal than it usually does.

I'm not expressing that well, I don't think. I guess that means I need to think about it more; muddled expression usually means muddled thought. But there is something so good and sweet about liturgical work, and I'm sure there's some connection between that work and my day-to-day life as a Christian. Some connection between washing the chalice after communion and washing the dishes after my family has supper.

I just need to ponder it a bit more, I think.


More Quick Takes over at Conversion Diary!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes

1. Is it bad that the two reasons I like our cat are: 1) because he's pretty, and 2) because he's nuts? The pretty part makes him aesthetically pleasing and the nuts part makes him funny.

I'm pretty sure I'd be upset if those were the two reasons someone liked me.

2. My son asked me this week if "things" is "spelled with an F."  As I tried not to laugh, I realized I'm going to be very sad when he loses that last bit of baby-lisp.

3. Last night, after the marathon of teeth-brushing, bathing, and bedtime prayers, as Adam and I were making the rounds amongst the kids' four beds, kissing and doing the last tucking-in rituals, we caught each other's eyes and I mouthed, "we're almost there!" and he nodded excitedly back, "I know!"

Seriously. Those two hours between when the kids go to bed and when we do? Gold. Pure gold.

4. I think I need to take the presidential elections more seriously, but it's really hard to do when you not only don't live in a swing state, you live in a state that doesn't even know what a swing is. I keep reading all these very serious articles, and I know the election matters, but it's so hard to take them seriously because all of them seem to be trying to convince me of something and you know what? Convincing me of something will make no difference whatsoever in the course of the election. I live in California. My senators could paint themselves pink and walk into the next session of Congress on their hands, and I still wouldn't be able to vote them out of office.

So, I have my opinions, but they don't feel very real.

5. It's almost Advent! And it's less than a month till Christ the King Sunday! Which is my very favorite Sunday in the whole church year. Yay!

6. I like Christ the King Sunday so much because it's our yearly reminder that everything turns out okay in the end. There's such security in knowing the end of the story. I don't know how we get there, I don't know what we're going to have to endure, but I believe the Lord's promise that He will return and judge the earth. And so, trusting in that promise, I have absolute safety in following Him. He is in control, and obeying him is the path to life, and life abundant, and life eternal.

7. In the much shorter term, it's almost the weekend. Which means the six of us in our family get more time together than apart, and that is a very great blessing indeed.


For more Quick Takes, head over to Jen's place at Conversion Diary.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes

1. I'm well into writing the new book now, and it's all my husband's fault. Well, my husband's and my brother's. Ever since I wrote that novella, for my husband's birthday, they've both insisted I need to give the romance a break and write more sci-fi. So, I am.  And I'm loving it.

2. (I am, of course, including romance in my sci-fi.)

3. I'm loving writing sci-fi, but it feels like I'm writing a comic book. Maybe it's just that it's so action-packed compared to your average romance novel, but I feel like this book has so much incident that it's going to completely lack any subtlety. Don't get me wrong: there are clear character arcs and lovely little ethical dilemmas and all that good stuff. But there's also all these brightly-colored scenes full of violence and action and plotting and war and mayhem.

4. I think my real problem is that I have trouble believing anything this much fun can also be good.

5. A Civil Campaign is fun and good.  Agent of Change is fun and good. Survival is fun and good.

6. I think I need to get over myself.

7. To end this Quick Takes post on a completely different subject, I finally figured out what it is that Brooke Fraser's song "Something in the Water" reminds me of. It reminds me of my favorite Christina Rossetti poem, "A Birthday".

They're both all about that glorious, top-of-the-world, falling-into-true-love-and-sure-of-it feeling. Absolute delight and absolute security. Crowned-the-queen-of-love sort of security. No wonder I love both song and poem so much.

Here's the song:



And here's the poem:

My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these,
Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a daïs of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.
-Christina Rossetti


I guess I did come back to romance in the end. :D

For more quick takes, visit Jen's awesome blog over at Conversion Diary.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes

1. Elizabeth Moon has a new book out now, Mira Grant has a new book coming out this summer, and Lois McMaster Bujold has a new book coming out in the late fall. It's a great year to be a spec-fic reader!

2. It was 78 degrees and gorgeous here today . . . but part of what was gorgeous is that the mountains were covered with snow and easily visible. The contrast was weird and glorious.

3. Writing a novel is a bit like having a wonderful and secret bit of gossip. I want to tell everyone what's happening, but hardly anybody would understand and the ones who did wouldn't want me to spoil the story.

4. Ares (the mythical god) fathered many, many children (supposedly, in the myths). Like, oh-my-I-just-have-to-keep-scrolling-down-this-Wikipedia-page many.

5. Writing novels leads you to research the oddest things.

6. There is a direct connection between numbers four and five on this list.

7. My friends are writing books! Not only do I have the fun of doing it myself, but I get to read the nascent stories of my fellow authors. I have one I'm working on now (i.e., reading and commenting/critiquing) and one on its way in the next week. Believe it or not, this is one of the fun things about being part of the writing community. You get to see the good stuff before anyone else. Sometimes you even get to help (a small, tiny, infinitesimal bit) in making it better. It's pretty cool, actually.

More Quick Takes can be found over at Betty Beguiles.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes

1. The traffic reporters in L.A. are nuts. An accident happens and they say things like, "Two cars got together in the left lane." Got together? Guys, it was not a DATE, it was a CAR CRASH.
 
2. My husband was playing "Happy Birthday" on the harmonica and I realized: I still don't hear the words in English when I hear that tune. Someone starts playing the "Happy Birthday" tune and my brain goes, "Bonne fête à toi, bonne fête à toi . . ." Never in English, never.

Such is the result of going to early elementary school in Canada.

3. My husband's work gave him a pedometer (cool!) that tracks both his walking, and his aerobic walking. You know, because you can walk without using your lungs.

4. By the way, I assume “for Pete’s sake” must have once been “for St. Peter’s sake”? I think that makes me like the saying better, if it’s not profane. St. Peter is so familiar to all Christians, after all, and in the end, such a comforting figure. Even in his epistles, where he’ll ream you up one side and down the other and you know you deserve it, in the end he is the rock and you know you can rest your chastened self against his assurance of Christ’s goodness and borrow his conviction for awhile, letting it soak into your bones and become your own. I love St. Peter. If I’m allowed to. You know what I mean.

5. When I printed out my calendar for November, I got to print out "Christ the King" on November 20, which put a big smile on my face. It's my favorite feast!

6. I've often written sentences that use "that" twice in a row - like "who would have guessed that that would happen?" - and felt that it must be wrong, but thanks to Daily Grammar, I now know why it's correct. The two "that"'s are doing different things. They're both pronouns (who knew? not me) and the first one is a "relative pronoun" joining the two clauses together and the second one is a "demonstrative pronoun", pointing you back to the antecedent.

Even knowing that, it still doesn't sound quite right, does it?

7. I'm rereading "The Elizabethan World Picture" by E. M. W. Tillyard, a favorite from college, and finding his picture of the "chain of being" - a cosmic ordering of creation moving from the inanimate through the beasts and men and up to the angels - compelling. In that ordering of things, each realm of being mirrors the others, which means that you can learn about man, say, by studying either the animals or the angels, and extrapolating. Try this on for size:

Morally the correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm, if taken seriously, must be impressive. If the heavens are fulfilling punctually their vast and complicated wheelings, man must feel it shameful to allow the workings of his own little world to degenerate.

Ouch.

Anyway, I'm not saying I'm ready to subscribe to the idea of the four humors and such - I have reason to be grateful to modern medical science after all - but it seems to me that there's a great deal of wisdom in how Shakespeare, Milton, and Donne saw the world, and it'd be a pity to ignore what they knew. Especially as what they knew made for such excellent poetry.

For more Quick Takes, go visit Jennifer at Conversion Diary.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes- Quotation Edition

1. I've been mulling over this line from Mumford and Sons for a long time: "If only I had an enemy bigger than my apathy/Then I could have won."
I think this is something you want to avoid having to say.
2. I'm also mulling over this from Gerard Manley Hopkins: "The effect of studying masterpieces is to make me admire and do otherwise."
3. More goodness, this time from Aristotle: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."
4. And this one, I think, could apply to television and the internet: "Leave the presence of a fool, Or you will not discern words of knowledge." - Proverbs 14:7
5. Have you ever heard the old chestnut, "God moves in mysterious ways"? I would like to point out (having just discovered the fact myself) that the poem that's from ("Light Shining Out of Darkness" by Cowper) ends with:
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain. *
So . . . the poem ends insisting on pretty much the opposite of what everyone who quotes the more famous first line means.
6. The above-quoted poem also includes this cheering stanza:
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take:
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
7. And I've been thinking, all week, about John Donne's "Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward." I thought of it because of the famous line, "Who sees God's face, that is self life, must die; What a death were it then to see God die?" and because of the heartbreakingly hopeful end, but when I went to read it again, it was the beginning that struck me:
Let man's Soul be a Sphere, and then, in this,
The intelligence that moves, devotion is;
What a thought, eh? that the intelligence that moves the sphere of our souls is devotion. (It was an old belief that the heavenly bodies were moved by intelligences proper to them.) "Devotion to what?" is the next logical question. But Donne goes on:
And as the other Spheres, by being grown
Subject to foreign motions, lose their own,
And being by others hurried every day,
Scarce in a year their natural form obey;
Pleasure or business, so, our Souls admit
For their first mover, and are whirl'd by it.
Doesn't that sound familiar? We admit pleasure or business in place of devotion to God, and like a moon caught in the gravity well of a planet, we're whirled away from our native trajectory and spin far, far, far from our proper courses.
The poem goes on, of course, to talk about which direction Donne is facing versus which way he ought to be facing, and why, and what that means, but I've found myself simply sitting and soaking in the idea that it is devotion that moves me in the direction I find myself going each day.
"Devotion" and "attend" were the two words I started the year with. What am I given over to and where am I looking? Anyone who's every mountain-biked knows that you go where you look (which is why you don't look where you don't want to go - don't look at the scary ditch or you'll find yourself heading over the handlebars into it).
This poem is all about that.
If you are what you repeatedly do . . . well, you ought to think about what you want those repeated actions to be. You ought to attend. And having attended, you'll quickly be called to devote yourself to God - he who has ears, let him hear. If you pay attention, you can't help but hear His call.
But alas, Lord, we are "fools and slight". So the poem ends the way that it does:
O think me worth thine anger, punish me,
Burn off my rusts and my deformity,
Restore thine Image so much, by thy grace,
That thou may'st know me, and I'll turn my face.

More Quick Takes to be found over at Conversion Diary.
Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

*emphasis mine.