-1-

It.

Is.

Finished.

(Well, the Ugly First Draft is, anyway. Including sidebars.)

-2-

Now that I’m done with my Ugly First Draft of this manuscript (it’s a Catholic guide to pregnancy–more details when we have more to talk about and it’s not so, well, ugly), I need to clean my house.

(My husband is probably reading that and having a moment of jumping-up-and-down. Though, bless him, he has never said a word.)

-3-

A couple of weekends ago, our parish hosted Frank Runyeon, who I had never heard of but who, it turns out, is a quite famous and critically-acclaimed Hollywood actor.

Runyeon performed “The Sermon on the Mount,” followed by “Hollywood vs. Faith: The Other Three Beatitudes.”

Here’s an excerpt:

We really enjoyed ourselves and I highly recommend these performances. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was great and thought-provoking, in a fun sort of way.

-4-

Hey, according to my calendar, it’s almost October, which means Advent is just around the corner.

That makes it the perfect time to order Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent and Christmas Reflections for Families, don’t you agree? In fact, go a step farther. They’re priced at $1.99 and parishes get quantity discounts if they order through Liguori (I don’t know the details of that, so be sure to call Liguori). Talk to your DRE or your pastor and get some copies for all the families in your parish.

I mean, how can you resist that cover?

(I have Wendy Barnes to thank for that. And I have thanked her. Consider this more thanks. She is amazing!)

-5-

While I’m plugging stuff, let me plug something else we discovered in the last week:

Gooney Bird Greene is, near as I can tell, the coolest thing I’ve read since Pippi Longstocking (which I need to acquire for our read aloud pile). And there are a whole host of other Gooney Bird books…we only read the first one! Yay!

We’re still plugging along with Junie B. Jones. We actually dug through all the shelves of moved-but-not-organized books and found all the ones appropriate for reading aloud (such as, joy of joys, The Black Stallion and a pile of others from my own youth and recent YA reading).

My six-year-old regularly asks me to read aloud to her. We almost always read during breakfast, after school, and in the evening before bed (depending on the day). And you know what? It’s waaaaay better than anything on TV.

-6-

Speaking of things I love for my kids, have you seen Horseland? (And look! It’s on YouTube!)

We discovered it because we put our DirecTV on hold for a few months and have been trying out Netflix.

My girls (ages three and six) have watched all the episodes in season one at least ten times each. My husband and I discovered, by accident, that it’s produced for CBS.

We’ve found it to be pretty good all around, and not just because we’re a tad bit obsessed with horses.

-7-

This makes me smile:

That’s my three-year-old, in safety goggles, a black tutu, and a cheetah-print skirt. She was swimming, in case you were wondering about that face. I just managed to catch her with my phone before she was off to something else.

You’ll find more Quick Takes over at Conversion Diary!