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

curing the flu blues by making a Harry Potter t-shirt (Or: How nerdy is too nerdy?)

Since our homeschool is lax enough that we give puking first-graders a sick day instead of forcing them to do school, I've had a bit of extra time on my hands today. (Well, not really, but I'm pretending.)

In which I produced this:

In case you can't tell in the picture, yes, the letters DO sparkle. IIRC, I first saw this phrase on a t-shirt on Craftster (though I've seen it elsewhere since, so I don't know who came up with it first) and it made me laugh so hard that I became sure I should have such a t-shirt too.

This is my first time making something with iron-on letters, and I have to say that as a crafting experience, using them comes pretty close to instant gratification. Which is a good thing, because as you can see in the background of this picture, there's a laundry basket full of freshly-washed-linens-that-probably-won't-stay-fresh-for-long waiting for me to fold them and put them away so they can be used again tonight when the vomiting recommences:

Hey, I may not be optimistic, but I am pretty happy. This is one cool shirt. And it just makes me laugh every time I look down at it. Now all I need is a Harry Potter movie opening to go to . . . what? You say there's a while to wait? Hey! I'm finally early for something!

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Up to my elbows in vomit and poo

Welcome to a mothering blog! Where our post titles are much too close to literalism for anyone's comfort!

Sorry. We've been wading through it (that part's not literal) lately.

Happily, I've just been feeling nauseous and carrying on.

The children, on the other hand, being at the concrete stage, have been acting on their nausea.

Every time we think we're done, we're woken up (again) by the tell-tale cough that proceeds the barfing.

And it's always the middle of the night. Which I should be grateful for, because it means the kids aren't getting dehydrated and miserable, because they can eat (and keep it down) during the day.

But you know it's bad when you decide what to make for supper based on what you think you can stomach seeing again at three in the morning.

Ick. Ook. Ack.

On the plus side, I'm reminded once again that I married a hero. Any man that spends 3 am to 4:30 am lying on a makeshift bed on the floor with his puking toddler and helping her get it in the bowl each time and soothing her through her distress because she's too little to understand why she's so miserable and THEN gets up a few hours later and goes to work in order to support his family? That's a hero.

So. All the homeschooling, writing, exercise and housekeeping resolutions I'd been working on? They're on hiatus while we recuperate. Sometimes you've just got to stop and attend to the situation on the ground.

And on the bed. And the blankets. And the pillows.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell