Weekly Links - Holy Week edition

~ LINKS TO SOME INTERESTING READING, too late for the weekend, but perfect for a monday ~



-"Thoughts on the 'Benedict Option' - a Lament": Dr. Peters' point? Don't write a book about the Benedictines and get the monasticism wrong. 


-"10 Things You Should Know About the Trinity": This whole thing is good, but I especially appreciate point #8.


-"The Death of the Levite's Concubine":

Once having choked it down, you’re left wondering, as with the whole rest of Judges, who exactly the good guy is. 

-"Three Myths of Cohabitation": interview with a sociologist who just completed a very interesting study. A snippet:

Generally speaking, the least educated married families in Europe enjoy more stability than the most educated cohabiting families. That’s not what I would have guessed.

-"Stop Hating on Christian Popular Culture": now here's a challenge for our modern age!


-"Celebrating the Feast of the Anunnciation": I'm a few weeks late on this one, but I really appreciate this piece, and I think it's a good meditation for Holy Week:

This year I had several friends who faced the death of a loved one right at Christmas time.  They had no choice but to grieve and celebrate in the same breath. These sorts of emotional juxtapositions always be gut retchingly difficult. Yet living year by year through the liturgical seasons we are offered a foretaste of the multi-dimensional nature of our emotional life.  In following the seasons we are encouraged to explore the depths of our own souls in both joy and sorrow, to bring our hearts before God, and to align ourselves with the life of the church. When triumph is followed by disaster we have a sense of the path to take, we have walked it and we know where to fix our eyes. In the darkness of the tomb we wait for the light of resurrection.

-"Sushi Saturdays": My eldest daughter and I are the only people in the house who love sushi, and we're determined that this experiment is the perfect activity for Bright Week this year.


-"Researchers Have Transformed a Spinach Leaf into Working Heart Tissue": wow!


-"The Impossible Novel that Became IMPOSSIBLE SAINTS": I follow Clarissa Harwood on Twitter, and enjoyed reading this long version of her first novel sale, especially her honesty when she said:

In hindsight I can see that I was far too close to Novel #2 to see it clearly enough to revise it. I invested too much of myself in it, but that’s also why it was such a joy to write. It was everything a first draft should be: too long, repetitive, self-indulgent, and confusing. In other words, what was an utter delight to write was a complete nightmare to read.

I hope you have a good and blessed Holy Week!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekly Links!

~ LINKS TO SOME INTERESTING READING ~ Just a few this time, but they're all really good & meaty ~


-"How to Fix Christian Fiction: More Christianity": I love this so much. YES. Christian fiction is bad when it's generic Nice Literature. More dogma, more drama. Yes, PLEASE.




-"4 Reasons to Soak Yourself in the Psalms": I've been going through the Psalms every month for several years now, and I agree with all of this. I'd add: it sure helps your prayer life. It gives you words to say to God when you have no good words of your own.




-"What's the Point of Sex? It's Communication on a Biological Level" - This is about the intersection of fertility and the immune system, and it's fascinating.




I hope you have a lovely Sunday, full of worship and rest!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekly Links!

~ LINKS TO SOME INTERESTING READING, FOR WHAT'S LEFT OF YOUR WEEKEND ~


-I have loved Linda Holmes' thoughts on reality TV since the days she was covering Survivor for the now-defunct site Television Without Pity. Here she is, talking about the ethics of a recent episode of Top Chef for NPR.



-A review of "Nailed It" from Aimee Byrd over at The Housewife Theologian. A snippet:

This is a devotional for those who don't fit into the happy-little-Christian box. And it's also for those who think it's okay to have a little humor in their reading reflections. Kennedy doesn't pick all the easy verses either. She pulls devotion to God out of what may have seemed random acts in history. Our days are kind of like that, aren't they? Circumstances often seem arbitrary and we sometimes question if it really matters how we get through them. That is what I especially appreciated about the book---Anne weaves all the tapestry together and helps the reader see the significance of God's holiness, mercy, and love in Christ working in our own lives now.

-And while I'm on the topic of my favorite devotional, here's a lovely podcast: "Persuasion: How Sarcasm is Good for the Soul." 



-And speaking of good podcasts, I liked this one: "Mere Fidelity: Humble Roots, with Hannah Anderson."



-And here's another good thing by Hannah Anderson, this time an essay: "You Can't Do It All: Rex Tillerson and the Limits of Vocation."



-"Minimalism Gets It Wrong."



-Also, "The Minimalism Trap."



-And, on our current season of the church year, here's "How To Throw an Epiphany Party In Four Easy Steps." 



-"How 'Sherlock of the Library' Cracked the Case of Shakespeare's Identity"



-These short filmed scenes of King Lear are amazing.



-And, finally, sailing the solar system with solar sailing ships.



I hope you have a lovely Sunday, full of worship and rest!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekend Links: Lethal Friendship, Active Shooter Situations, and more

SOME GOOD READING FOR YOUR SUNDAY AFTERNOON, SET OUT IN MY USUAL CATEGORIES OF FAITH, FAMILY, AND FICTION ...

Faith 

- "Amorites and Exile":

This ... has always helped me grasp why God displaced the Amorites: they weren’t just collateral damage cluttering up the land he’d promised to his chosen people. No, they had their own independent account to keep with God. 

- "Reviewing 'You Are What You Love', by James K.A. Smith": Doesn't this sound like a good book?

Family

- "Tired, in the pool":

Over a bottle of wine at dinner I told the story to Mark.  "I had a lot of time in the pool to contemplate why the man's behavior, even though objectively it doesn't seem like much, was so threatening," I said.   

"It's because he communicated, in several ways, 'I am not going to abide by the normal limits of behavior,'" Mark suggested. 

"Yes, I think that's it," I mused.  "You're forced to wonder, 'What other rules of appropriate behavior are you going to ignore?'"

- "Run, Hide, Fight: OC Sheriff's Dept. officials detail what to do in an active shooter situation": I know this is a scary topic, but it's a lot better to be educated on the topic than not. (And to know that your kids know, too.)

Fiction

- "Captain America, Aaron Burr, and the Politics of Killing Your Friends": This is just a fantastic essay. Here's an excerpt:

While the political question ofCivil War as a comic series was whether the grave risks of registration outweighed the potential benefits, the political question of Civil War the movie is how to stop even profound disagreements from souring into enmity. Into hurled insults. Into trolling. Into being forced to unfollow people on Facebook. 

Too specific?

- "Neil deGrasse Tyson Is a Black Hole, Sucking the Fun Out of the Universe": Cautions for language on this one -- but on the other hand, that's kind of the point of this one: language (and everything else) gets really, really boring when you are only allowed to talk like a pedant.

- "Sleepwalker": a short sci-fi story with a clever twist.



Have a great weekend!
-Jessica Snell

Weekly Links: Ice, Oxy, Red Letters, and More!

Wow, I'm posting my weekend links while it's actually still the weekend! This is progress indeed.

Let's start with things that are either funny or pretty:

-This Icy Hair-Freezing Contest definitely falls under the "funny" category. I love it because it reminds me of my childhood in the Northwest Territories, and how my ponytail would freeze into a sharp spike while I walked back to school from the (indoor) swimming pool.

-"Mesmerizing Space Photos of 2015" - This one falls into the "pretty" category or, maybe more properly yet, into the jaw-droppingly gorgeous and awe-inspiring category.

-"Home Soil - 1:18" - aaaaaaand, back to funny. A particularly enjoyable recap from "Fashion It So" - that fake novel cover!

And, on to our more General Interest Links:

-"Standford Professor Who Pioneered Praising Effort Sees False Praise Everywhere": The "growth mindset" described here is a really helpful concept.

-"Oxy Epidemic Shows What Happens When Addictive Drugs Are Easily Available": so, yeah, maybe don't legalize everything?

And, the links specifically for my fellow writers:

-"We Regret to Inform You": Maybe this should have gone under the "funny" category, but, no. No, it's just too real.

-"Writing Your Manuscript a Third at a Time": I'll admit that I'm just linking to this one for my own sake - because it's something that I think I might want to try!

Finally, the specifically Christian links:

- "Burning and Yearning" - I appreciate the distinction the author draws in this article.

-"The Spirit of the Red Letters and 'Progressive Evangelicalism'" - There's some very useful clarity in this piece. (Pitting Jesus against Jesus is not a good idea.)

-"Before the Birds and the Bees" - And finally, this goes in the "sad but necessary" category. Fellow parents, take heed.



I hope you all have a great weekend!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekly Links - All Saints' Day Edition!

My weekly* round-up of interesting reading from around the web:

-As a Christian who appreciates science (and science fiction!), I enjoyed reading this interview with the Pope's astronomer.  A highlight of it:

Rather than learning something theologically new, what I take from my discoveries is a more general sense of the “personality” of the creator. It might be compared to discovering a trove of old manuscripts where you think one of them might be some unpublished play of Shakespeare. You’d be excited because it might be a wonderful new work, or even just a window into what he was thinking while he was writing. But you also need to be sure it really is Shakespeare that you’re reading, not some other writer.

- Our family loves the show "Mythbusters", and so I enjoyed this article: "The Craziest Myths the Mythbusters Have Tackled, According to the Mythbusters".


- Now onto religion and society: "This Is Your Wake-up Call" is a sober reflection on abortion and one of the hardest stories in the book of Judges.


- Simcha Fisher on "Rogue Laughter in a Flippant Society" - I especially liked this paragraph:

. . . think of the difference between an eleven-year-old boy laughing about sex, and a forty-year-old married man laughing about sex. The grown man has probably earned his laughter; the boy can't have done so, and is laughing partly because he wants to look more experienced than he really is. True laughter, and the best jokes, come when we have some experience with the subject matter -- when we've faced something big and have survived.

- Anne Kennedy on "Celebrating the Reformation". Good, timely stuff:

The church cannot go beyond the gospel. The Christian doesn’t graduate from a saving knowledge of Jesus into something better later on. So also, the Christian cannot ascend to something higher, cannot move on to some better, fancier doctrine. From the moment of Jesus’ first infant cry, to his sorrowful and painful death, to his rising again, to his crushing of his enemies under his feet those who love him can never cry out someone else’s name for help, they can never give glory to themselves or to another, they can never be sustained by some other grace, they can never lean on and be ruled over by some other authority than Jesus’ own Word, they can never be tethered by some other faith.

-Reformation Day yesterday, All Saints Day today - and yet it's still Ordinary Time!  So, here's Anna Gissing on "Living in Ordinary Time":

. . . many Protestant Christians have been re-learning the rituals and habits of living into these churchy seasons as a way to inhabit the gospel and to structure our lives in a way that helps us remember that God is the author of time.

-Speaking of Reformation Day, I enjoyed this dense bio on "Katherine Parr: Reformation Queen of England and Ireland".


-AND, speaking of All Saints' Day, here's a lovely sonnet by Malcolm Guite for All Hallow's Eve.


- Tim Challies is Canadian, but I think his wise words are a comfort in any political climate: "I Went Away for Just 6 Days":

The temptation is not only to put my hope in politicians but to put my despair in them as well. I will be tempted not only to find too much joy in the election of the person I voted for, but also to sink too far into despair in the election of the person I did not. Either way, whether I soar too high or sink too low, I am declaring that I have put my trust in a man more than in God. I have forgotten that, ultimately, it is God who rules over and through earthly rulers.

-Finally, my friends and family and I found this article on "The Things that Drain Each Personality Type Most" scarily accurate.



Happy All Saints' Day, folks!
-Jessica Snell



*Or, if we're honest, biweekly.

Weekly Links: writing, songwriting, science writing, and more!

My weekly round-up of interesting reading from around the web:

- "Hand in Hand, Heart Linked to Heart": These words of Charles Spurgeon's wife, Susannah, are just beautiful.


- Ingrid writes beautifully about living in a gift and not even realizing it.


- Nina Badzin's post, "What's Next for Me as a Writer?", is one I resonate with so much. The constant worrying at your project ideas, the constant reevaluation of how you're spending your writing time . . . this is what it's like inside my head. I think most creatives will identify with this post.


- Andrew Wilson's post "A Songwriting Rant" is refreshing because his criticism comes from a place of love. This isn't a hymns-only guy bashing anything written after 1750.  (But, I don't agree with him on the phrase "ineffably sublime" - keep the good stuff, even if it's got a high difficulty level!)


- Holly Ordway, author of the excellent book "Not God's Type", gives exhortations worth heeding in her article "Practical Advice for Christian Writers".


- "20 Things I Have Learned Since My Son Was Diagnosed with Autism" is much better than the typical article on this kind of subject.


- I haven't seen the movie version of The Martian (yet), but I very much enjoyed the book, and so I also enjoyed this post on the "Science of The Martian: the Good, the Bad, and the Fascinating".


- Finally, a bit of humor for your Sunday, beware of the "Early Warning Signs of Adult Onset Calvinism"!  



Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekly Links: Rejection, Pluto, Achilles, and more!

My weekly round-up of interesting links from around the Web!


"Ranks of the Rejected: Josh Vogt": I've been enjoying the Rejectomancy blog for awhile now, but I particularly liked this quotation from his interview with Josh Vogt:

[My first rejection letter] didn’t surprise me at all. It acted like a milestone in my fledgling writing career because it meant I was actually doing what I needed to do: write stories and submit them to publications.

"The Full Armor of Achilles to Withstand Odysseus (Eph. 6)":

Because as Paul wrote these ideas down in Greek, it’s very likely that the Greek classics were part of his specifically literary equipment. Lines of Homer were so pervasive in elementary education in the Greco-Roman world that children would practice their letters by writing Homeric sentences. And once you pick up on the way Homer describes warfare, you notice some particular expressions and conventions that help explain some of Ephesians 6’s peculiar phrasing.

"A Philosophy of Internet Safety":

The main line of defense against cyber bullying is not to avoid the internet, but to be in control of your identity on it.

"New, Gorgeous, Pictures of Pluto":  The title pretty much says it all!


And, finally, some exciting news from Ranee, a longtime friend of this blog: her knitting pattern "Saint Catherine of Alexandria" has just been released in "One-Skein Wonders for Babies: 101 Knitting Projects for Infants and Toddlers."

Congratulations, Ranee!  The pattern is so cute!  (You can see several pictures of it if you head over to Ranee's blog.)


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell



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Weekly Links - Self-Discipline, Caring for Others, Mothering, and more!

My weekly round-up of good reading from around the Web:

"Discipline and Adventure":  (congratulations to Anne, for her new blog on Patheos!)

. . . by forcing yourself to do something every day, you can become more interesting than you were the day before. In the discipline, the push, the toil of writing every single solitary day I have discovered first that there are enough words, even for me to have some, and second that I totally love them. Waking up and writing before anything else means that I am set up for the whole day with energy enough for everything else. It’s so amazing. It’s such a pleasure, to have had my mental space transformed by discipline.

"Losing Control of the Vehicle": This sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, but it's real:

Here’s a thought for your next road trip: In the Jeep Cherokee (and probably many other cars, too), when the online diagnostic service is activated, the brake pedal is automatically deactivated, so that the mechanic can test the brakes. If a hacker turns on the diagnostic function while you’re merrily speeding down the highway, the effect would be as if he slashed your brakes.

"How Not to Say the Wrong Thing": I've heard this theory before, but I was glad of the reminder, and I thought this was a really good exposition of the idea:

Draw a circle. This is the center ring. In it, put the name of the person at the center of the current trauma ... 

Here are the rules. The person in the center ring can say anything she wants to anyone, anywhere. She can kvetch and complain and whine and moan and curse the heavens and say, "Life is unfair" and "Why me?" That's the one payoff for being in the center ring. 

Everyone else can say those things too, but only to people in larger rings.

"The Everyday Question of Motherhood":

In motherhood, the Everyday Question is answered every time a child’s concern or need must come before my own. (And as every mother knows, this is most of the time.)

What have you been reading this week?  Share your links in the comments!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekly Links: Planned Parenthood, Obergefell, earthquakes, and more!

So very, very many links for you this week. (Possibly because I took a week or two off!)

Enjoy the good words of people so much smarter than me.



"After Obergefell": I always find it heartening when smart, godly people give good counsel on what to do (as opposed to the disheartening feeling I get after reading an article that's a mere wringing of the hands):

Churches must take responsibility for marriages and families. The argument that we need to protect marriage for children is true in principle, laughable in practice. In sections of America, marriages aren’t steady enough to protect anyone. The best argument for traditional marriage is a thriving traditional marriage.

"The Really Big One" - Terrifying. (And makes me happy to be a bit east and a bit south of the region they're talking about. But still, as some one close to the Pacific and very sincerely in earthquake country? Terrifying.)

"10 Foods that Regrow in Water Alone" - Here's a break from the doom-and-gloom: things still grow! And better and more easily than you might have guessed!

"The End of Sexual Ethics: Love and the Limits of Reason": charity and logic applied to sexual ethics and identity.  God bless you, Matt Anderson.


"Arms Wide Open":

I am the type who rehearses life. I plan. I practice. I think of every possible thing that could go wrong, and I set aside provisions for them. I am careful and fearful and shy. But my daughter? She is brave.

"Planned Parenthood and the Atrocity of Corpse Selling": This is really horrific.

"I, Racist":

You are “you,” I am “one of them.” 

"How We Do Family Devotions":

I read slowly and expressively with just enough drama to cut through their early-morning fog. I pause to tell my daughter to remove her hands from around her sister’s neck, and keep reading. When I have come to the end of our passage I briefly explain something from the passage (and by “briefly” I mean a minute or less). Sometimes I have to cheat by quickly consulting the study Bible notes so I’ll have something worth saying. Then I try to come up with a question or two I can ask the kids—a question of comprehension or of application. And I explain why calling your brother “a stupid idiot” is inappropriate during a reading of 1 Corinthians 13. And that’s our Bible reading.

"Non-Competing Theories of the Atonement":

As I told my veteran pastor of my plans to do graduate studies in the doctrine of the atonement, a wry smile creased his face as he asked: "So...which theory of the atonement do you believe in?" I responded, "All of them!"

Weekly Links: On Going to Mars, Sex, Lent, and more!

Some good reading (and watching) for your weekend:

"On the Dangers of Attempting Mars":

So fretting that people who choose to go on an expedition they know is dangerous are going to die...is silly, and also presumptuous.  Humans have been dying for tens of thousands of years.  The ones who stayed home died.  The ones who migrated died.  The ones who went out and did dangerous things, new things, died in droves. The ones who fought in wars and the civilians in whose lands war raged died . . .

Top 10 Things I’d Say About Sex If I Had No Filter: This has a lot of interesting food for thought, but I love this part: 

I think we’re so scared of people having premarital sex that we oversell the honeymoon. Let’s talk about sex as a decades long fun research project, not a “one night entry into bliss”. Seriously. 

Ha! "Decades long fun research project" - I love it!


"'Have a (nearly) Cheerless Lent!' He said thoughtfully":

Now I could be Mr. Philosophy and point out that “happy” can mean “human flourishing” as the Declaration uses it in “pursuit of happiness” but it would not help matters. Fasting from the world, the flesh, and the devil is necessary for human flourishing but it is not human flourishing. 

And finally, why Jackie Chan is truly the best at what he does (I particularly like the insight about showing the beginning of a hit twice; it reminds me of "tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em, tell it to 'em, and tell 'em that you told 'em):

Book Notes: Working Stiff, by Judy Melinek, M.D., and T.J. Mitchell

I blogged about this book first here, and now I've finished reading it.

It went really, really quickly. I was fascinated the entire time.

Now, this is a bad book to read while you're eating. I'll just state that up front. And if you were one of those kids who was grossed out in biology class, this probably isn't the book for you either.

But I loved biology class, I'm fascinated by weird medical details, I like stories about weird jobs, and I adored this book.

Melinek gives you a good idea of what her job entails, and she does it through stories. Which is perfect. She gives you general principles, but then shows how they worked out in her day-to-day life through various case studies.

And the chapters are split up into various causes of death. There's a chapter on homicide, on suicide, on death by medical misadventure (so to speak), etc.

But the most harrowing chapter by far comes near the end, where she describes her experience of the events of 9/11. Melinek was one of the ME's who worked on the remains recovered from the site of the Twin Towers. It's sobering, and hard to read.

But I really felt like she gave articulate witness to that hard and sad chapter in our natural history. It was hard to read, but it felt like it was really worth reading.

"Working Stiff" is the story of a doctor becoming a medical examiner. Parts of it were entertaining, parts of it were intriguing, parts of it were horrifying, but it all felt worth reading. I'm glad I picked it up.


Peace of Christ,
Jessica Snell


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

Weekend Links - Screen Time, the neuroscience of CrossFit, and more!

Some good reading from around the Web for your weekend:

"Parenting Advice on Screen Time":

There are NO well-designed, well-executed empirical studies on how much is too much screen time in terms of video games. So parents are out of luck gleaning any “hard” advice in that domain from the research literature. There’s plenty of media hype, but none is based on good data. TV is the only exception and indeed less is best . . .

"CrossFit, neuroscience, surviving the zombie apocalypse: Is your workout a fraud?":

The modern gym has been deliberately designed to not require any coordination, accuracy, agility, or balance. The attributes of fitness that bind the body and brain together have become the exclusive province of athletes, dancers, and the few lucky children who still climb trees, pop bicycle wheelies, and hang upside down from monkey bars. The stripping-away of coordination, accuracy agility and balance from physical culture – from our modern notion of fitness – has made us weaker, because power, the ability to apply maximum force, requires neural circuitry that’s impossible to develop on a pulley cable.

"This is what happens in your brain when you’re writing": I found this article really interesting - esp. the differences between the brains of experienced writers vs. inexperienced writers.

"Unhappy Hipsters": hat tip to Anne Kennedy. This link has had me laughing for over a day now!


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekend Link Round-up: Crabby moms, Mars, and more!

"Crabby mommy syndrome": Now this is an interesting take on a familiar feeling:

Try as we might to put them blame elsewhere, crabby mommy syndrome has its root in sin. Those things that make us cranky usually point straight at our disordered attachments. Those attachments are one of four things (many thanks to St. Thomas Aquinas for nailing it all down so astutely): power, pleasure, wealth or honor.

"Incredible photographs from the surface of Mars": these are so cool. I look at these, and can almost feel like I'm standing there, looking out over an alien horizon.

"New Christy & Todd Books": so excited to hear this! I loved these books as a teenager, and the adult me is looking forward to reading about these characters all grown up!

"Climbing to Great Heights Above Rio": an amazing photo essay of workman repairing damage to the giant Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil.


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

Links: Mars, screen-time, writing, and more!

I always like (or at least find interesting) all the links I post, but for my money, the best one of this batch is #3 by Shannon Hale. Writing and mothering - she's speaking my language!

"Our Guts May Hate Mars":

Martian colonists could probably live for years on food grown without soil. The question is, could they live on it for decades? Could their children grow up on it? Are there hidden hazards that would not become apparent until much later? To put these questions another way: Can we identify and reproduce the ecosystem services of Earth for a lifetime?

"How to Semi-Unplug":

I'm not going to "kill my TV," as the bumper sticker suggests, and I'm not going to quit screen time cold turkey. I don't even think that would even automatically solve the problem: I recently heard about a fellow who gave up the internet for a year, and he reports that his bad habits were very adaptable. When he stopped wasting time online, he just started wasting it other ways.

But I also know that something has to be done! We can fool ourselves that lots of screen time is no big deal, but we all know that it is.

"Writing and mother: how I (sort of) do both":

One of the most common questions I get: How do you find time to write and be a mother? I've written twice about this, when I had one kid and again when I had two. I reread what I wrote there and find everything is still relevant. But I want to add, because now I have four small children, ages 2 1/2 - 9, and life is very tricky. Even if I wasn't a writer and didn't work outside the home, having two school-aged kids and two toddlers makes for a tricky, tricky day. So how do I manage to do both?

"This summer, exult in monotony":

Perhaps summer is the perfect time to bring life back into a rhythm where we hear the cadence of His voice. Children do thrive in a home where rhythms are strong and consistent. They really love repetition. I think it is the grown-ups who mess it all up.

Links: Hugos, Headcoverings, and Robotic Exoskeletons!

The 2012 Hugo Awards: It's Okay To Be A Fan - I enjoyed this analysis of the Hugos.

Eternity Veils - I don't personally practice headcovering, but these are so clever! (And pretty.) Makes me want to go visit a European cathedral so I'd have an excuse to wear one. :)

Paralympic Athlete Is The First Woman To Live At Home With A Robotic Exoskeleton: This is just . . . this is why science is good. I hope this works and works so well that they can make lots of them and the economics of scale make the price reasonable for every paraplegic. SO COOL.

What Do You Think? Checking in with Our Readers: Over at Regency Reflections, we're looking for feedback - come over and give us some!

Anne Eunson's Artistry - pretty, pretty, pretty!

-Jessica Snell

Links! Butterfly effect, maternal guilt, a Christmas blog carnival, and more!

You remember the "butterfly effect" in chaos theory that was made famous by Jurassic Park? Here's a real-life case involving the Japanese tsunami and a turbine plant out in the boonies in Pennsylvania. I think I actually laughed out loud when I got to the "IT WILL BE TRUE for this test floor" bit.

I laughed even harder and longer when I read Simcha Fisher's "Maternal Guilt Cheat Sheet". A sampling:

THE OFFENCE:

You accidentally let slip a comment which implies that not every moment of childrearing is a profound and ecstatic dance of bliss, a sentiment which will undoubtably set the pro-life movement back forty years and do irreparable harm to your children’s souls, causing the boys to become pimps and the girls to become bitter, tank top-wearing Riot Grrrls who listen to Terry Gross and tattoo “I [heart] the culture of death” on their lower backs.

THE SOLUTION:

Remind yourself that, in order for your words to do any harm, your kids would actually have to be listening to you. Whew!

Anyone else notice that zombies are showing up a lot in popular culture these days? I'd actually been wondering why that was, and this is the first article I've seen that offers a plausible theory. (Warning: slightly gory picture at the top of article - easy to scroll past, but don't open it while little kids are reading over your shoulder.) I do wonder, though, if even though some of it is about the economy, as the writer suggests, if more of it doesn't have to do with our culture having no coherent idea of what the afterlife is like. (Suggestion to culture: convert to Christianity! En masse!)

Facing down the editing of the first book I intend to query, I've been trying to give myself a crash course in grammar. My education in English grammar could charitably be called eclectic and I really wanted a more complete - and functional - understanding of the topic. And look! Here's a free online class in grammar! I think I've found what I need, and I'm passing on the link just in case someone else out there is realizing that not only is she an English nerd, she's an ignorant English nerd. (No? Just me?)

Kerry is thinking of organizing a Nativity blog festival (for Advent and Christmas and Epiphany) and wants to know if anyone's interested. Go tell her you are so we can do it! I'm sleepy enough right now that I think my contribution will be, "Let's all be quiet with our eyes closed and spend the holy season praying quietly," but surely someone has a better idea and if the blog carnival goes forward I'll just be able to happily copy those of you with more energy. :)

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Links! children and prayer, forgiveness among the stars, and more!

The noted humorist, Anne Kennedy, gives an oh-so-true description of attempting to pray with young children. (And yes, the attempt is still more than worth it.)

Why I Am Catholic writes about Robert Downey Jr. asking Hollywood to forgive Mel Gibson.

Jen over at Conversion Diary wrote The Ultimate Burnout Survival Guide. It's really good.

This study on the effect of steroids on preemies (they're given to speed lung development) is a little sad, but I still say it's better to have the babies here and alive, even if the means were sort of hard on them. I hope that medical treatment overcomes this, but I'm still really glad my girls were able to breathe when they were born.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

links (yes, again): pretty bags, pretty dishcloths, pretty awesome object lessons . . . and more!

I'm linking to this just because I think it's pretty.
StandFirm has had some great stuff recently, including Part II of Matt and Anne Kennedy's Leaving Home series and this post on the crazy stuff going down in South Carolina.
Amy has created a FAQ for homeschooling children with Down Syndrome and other special needs. It looks like a great place to start if you're thinking of doing that yourself, and it looks like a great one to pass on if you have a friend who's thinking of homeschooling a special needs child.
My friend Katie has created a super-cute Valentine's-y knit washcloth, and she has the pattern for sale in her Etsy shop.
I like this post from Fumbling Towards Grace. It includes paragraphs like this:
Stewardship, he went on, requires a sharp mind. There are constant forces trying to divert our attention from God and from building his kingdom. Faulty ideas about the human person, about our purpose in life, and also things like t.v. advertisements, promising peace, fulfillment and a trim waistline for 19.99. Having a “sharp mind” as he called it, is a requirement, so that we might be good stewards of the gifts and talents that God has given us.
as well as a great object lesson that includes beer. (How could that be bad?)
Here is a link to an index of a bunch of youtube videos on various math and science concepts.
This one I offer with a caveat: I have no idea if it works or not. But I read about it in Good Housekeeping (I think): it's a website where you can buy other people's unwanted gift cards at a discount (or sell your own). So if there's a store you're planning on shopping at anyway, it might be worth it to buy a gift card here at a discount to cover the trip.
I also can't vouch for this site, but I am planning on researching it more the next time we have a vacation: it's a site where you can find vacations houses for rent by owner. When you've got a family of six, it can be cheaper to rent a condo than to stay at a hotel when you travel. Also, it can be a nice option if you're traveling with a group. So, anyways, fyi, this exists. :)
peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell