7 Quick Takes Friday, vol. 14

~1~

Snow hit Kentucky again on Thursday.  I live about 5 miles from my workplace and it usually takes me about 20-30 minutes to get home.  Thursday evening?  About 70 minutes.  I don't think I ever got above 20 mph, and that was when things were going well.  But it really wasn't bad until I tried to pull up our driveway.  That's when I felt the car skid and thought I was going to hit the edge of the garage.  Managed to avoid that and then I thought I was going to hit my husband's car that was already in the garage.  Luckily, I avoided that too and was so thankful to be in the garage and at a standstill.  Next stop for this pregnant woman who had been in the car for so long?  I'm sure that's not a hard guess!

~2~

I recently started investigating Catholic podcasts.  I have subscribed to 5 of them although I'm not in a regular habit of listening to them yet.  But I'm enjoying them so far.  I got started because I had heard of the podcast of the daily readings that had been put together by the USCCB.  After I figured out how to do the podcast thing, I went looking for more.  The other four I have now are: Catholic Moments, Faith & Family Live Podcast, Word on Firre Sermon with Fr. Robert Barron, and an EWTN program called The Journey Home.  I think I've listened to at least one episode of each.  I'm really enjoying them and hopefully will get into a habit of listening. 

One note: I don't really like the USCCB's daily readings podcast. They all get downloaded at the beginning of the month and I don't see a way to view the whole title, so it's really hard to see the date and know which one you are getting.  Because of course they aren't in order of date, I guess that would make too much sense.  I can read them myself in my Magnificat, so I will probably unsubscribe to that one.

Do you have a favorite Catholic Podcast you think I should check out?

~3~



Preggle Body Pillow

I've started using my body pillow to help me sleep better at night.  We joke around about our extra buddy in our bed.  Last night, my husband got into bed while I was finishing up and I looked out and saw him under the covers on one side and my body pillow on the ohter with the larger, curved end propped up on my regular pillow.  It was positioned so that the curved part was "looking up," so to speak.  It looked like another person was in the bed.  I couldn't stop laughing at how silly it all looked: the body pillow and my husband tucked into the bed together.  Really, it was funny! 

Maybe you had to be there.

~4~



One of the things I wanted to do this year to help strengthen my spiritual life was to get back into saying a daily rosary.  I figured if I used to get up early to go to the gym why not do the same thing but say a rosary insead.  So far it has only happened once.  I think part of my problem is getting up every few hours during the night to use the bathroom.  I am then so tired in the morning it's really hard to get up.  I've been reminded recently about the idea of dieing to self.  I need to keep this in mind, maybe it will help get me out of bed that 20 minutes earlier than normal.  It shouldn't be that hard!!

What do you do to get in some private prayer time each day?

~5~

I started working on this post on Thursday evening.  While I was working on it my husband was watching TV and a commercial came up a couple times that caught my attention.  And not in a good way.  It was a commercial for a birth control pill called Beyaz.  I was just sickened by this commercial.  It was so materialistic!!  A group of women are "shopping" in some weird store where they can buy vacations or homes or who knows what else.  At one point a stork is shown with a little bundle in its beak and he tries to give it to one of the women.  She refuses and moves on to a vacation to Paris.  Another women looks at a wall of houses and chooses one to buy.  I couldn't believe the materialistic and selfish attitude this commercial was promoting.  What a horrible message!!  Basically: you can't have any of these fun and wonderful things if you have kids and you know you don't want kids, so take our drug.  Selfish!!  Makes me sick!

And is this drug, Beyaz, somehow related to the BC pill Yaz that had so many lawsuits filed against it??  I wouldn't be surprised.

~6~

Speaking of birth control, someone I know posted this article on Facebook this week.  It goes through all the arguments many of us who already understand the dangers of hormonal birth control know and several more.  And the best part was a large list of links to supporting documentation and plenty of footnotes to back up their arguments.  How anyone can put this stuff into their bodies day after day without knowing all the facts is beyond me.  Read the article and then share it with others.  It's just so sad that people don't know what they could be doing to their bodies long term.

~7~

Our late snow storm yesterday afternoon and evening has caused the university to call a 2-hour delay for today.  Yay!!  It's just after 9am and I'm still home.  Love it.  Have to leave soon though so I can get there by 10am.  It's just so nice to have a slow morning!  And on a Friday too.  Ah!  The husband made French toast this morning using the bread he had made from scratch last week and stored in the freezer.  I'm such a lucky girl!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!  For more Quick Takes check out Jen's post on her blog Conversion Diary.  Jen hosts Quick Takes every Friday; check out all the links to so many wonderful Quick Takes blog posts.