Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival

Hello, and welcome to Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. We are a group of Catholic bloggers who gather weekly to share our best posts with each other. To participate, go to your blog and create a post titled Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. In it, discuss and link to your posts for  the week--whether they deal with theology, Catholic living or cute Catholic kids. I'm mostly a book blogger so my posts are generally book reviews, some Catholic, some not. Make sure that post links back here. Once you publish it, come back here and leave a link below.

We also have a yahoogroup; signing up for it will get you one weekly reminder to post. Click here to sign up.  

This week I reflected on the death of Leonard Nimoy.

Leonard Nimoy Died Today

Those of you who know me or have read this blog for a while may wonder why the death of Leonard Nimoy warrants a post from me.  I'm not prone to celebrity worship and I'm not really a sci-fi fan (though I will admit to enjoying the old Star Trek series).  Honestly, Leonard Nimoy's death doesn't mean any more to me than the death of random stranges about whom I read in the obituaries.  However, seeing his face all over my facebook feed today brought forth once again something that the Church reminds us of every year during Lent--that we came from dust and to dust we shall return (at least our bodies).  I've reached that age.  The adults of my childhood are dead or very old, and more die all the time.  My parents are dead, my in-laws are dead and it isn't unusual to see on facebook that a high school classmate's parent died.  Last year my husband lost two contemporary friends.  It can be so tempting to think that we and our loved ones will live forever, or at least for a long time, but we aren't guaranteed tomorrow, much less next year.  Mr. Spock said "Live long and prosper" but "remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return".  Have a blessed season of Lent.

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival

Hello, and welcome to Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. We are a group of Catholic bloggers who gather weekly to share our best posts with each other. To participate, go to your blog and create a post titled Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. In it, discuss and link to your posts for  the week--whether they deal with theology, Catholic living or cute Catholic kids. I'm mostly a book blogger so my posts are generally book reviews, some Catholic, some not. Make sure that post links back here. Once you publish it, come back here and leave a link below.

We also have a yahoogroup; signing up for it will get you one weekly reminder to post. Click here to sign up.  

This week I continued my trip through my archives.  I also reviewed a Christian romance novel.  One of these days I'll get back in the writing groove!

From My Archives--January 2006--And a New Link-Up

I enjoyed my trip down memory lane last week so I thought I'd do it again and invite others to play.

By January 2006, life was a bit more normal in our post-Katrina world.  My firm moved back into our office and went back to fulltime hours.  Things at my kids' schools were somewhat more normal and you could find places open after five.  Still, it was the pos-Katrina year and my blog posts showed it.

I wrote about two different weanings that were happening about that time in my life.

I hate school projects now, and I hated them then.   Katrina was the topic for my daughter' s big project that year.

I wrote about a then-current subject on many Catholic blogs--whether NFP classes should be required of all engaged couples.  

That year when so many things changed was a year we were especially grateful for friends.

I love research and used to use this blog to share useful links I'd find.  One is a website that helps you reach a real person rather than a computer.  

Since I'm enjoying this trip down memory lane, I'm going to invite others to play too.  The rules:  Pick a month at least a  year ago and write a post sharing your best posts from that month (and maybe commenting on how things have changed).  Then, sign the link-up tool so more folks see it.  It is a great way to re-use old content or to bring new friends into the old days of your life.

By Your Side: My Review

By Your Side

About the Book:

ER nurse Macy Wynn learned essential, gritty lessons in the California foster care system: land on your feet and trust no one. Sehe’s finally located the fellow foster child she loves like a sister, but the girl’s in deep trouble. Macy’s determined to help, no matter what it takes. Her motto is to “make it happen” in any situation life throws at her—even when she butts heads with an idealistic cop.

Deputy Fletcher Holt believes in a higher plan, the fair outcome—and his ability to handle that by himself if necessary. Now he’s been yanked from Houston, his mother is battling cancer, and he’s attracted to a strong-willed nurse who could be the target of a brutal sniper.

When everything goes wrong, where do they put their trust?

My Comments:

I really enjoyed the contrasting personalities of the main characters in this book.  Macy counts on herself only; Fletcher knows that he is loved and that makes a difference in his life.  While this is a Christian romance, for the most part it means it is a clean romance.  It is full of hospital action and full of scenes between the two leads.  I've said before that Christian romance authors can't send their characters to bed to advance the relationship; they actually have to have them talk to each other and do things together.  Calvert does as good a job as any author at writing authentic romance with a Christian background.  Thanks to the publisher for making a review copy available via Edelweiss. Grade:  B+

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival

Hello, and welcome to Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. We are a group of Catholic bloggers who gather weekly to share our best posts with each other. To participate, go to your blog and create a post titled Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. In it, discuss and link to your posts for  the week--whether they deal with theology, Catholic living or cute Catholic kids. I'm mostly a book blogger so my posts are generally book reviews, some Catholic, some not. Make sure that post links back here. Once you publish it, come back here and leave a link below.

We also have a yahoogroup; signing up for it will get you one weekly reminder to post. Click here to sign up.  

Only one post this week.  I looked at what I posted about in 2005 and linked you to the best posts.  

From My Archives

I decided it would be fun to dig through my archives and see what I was writing about back in the day.  While I am now primarily a book blogger, I didn't start out that way--my title should give you a hit about that.  So, what was I writing about in 2005?

I wrote about Catholic schools and vouchers.  The voucher program became reality a few years ago and my daughter's school accepts them, in limited numbers.  They have helped us fill seats and I think being at our school has been a good thing for most of the voucher kids.  On the other hand, schools that accepted large numbers of voucher students, for the most part, have not posted test scores any better than the average public school (and many have done worse).  Also the scores of our local public schools have increased such that most students in our area are not eligible for new vouchers (children already in the program are allowed to continue until they age out of their current school).

Nursing in Public was a subject that was important to me in 2005; in 2015 it is an issue from my past.

If I decided to write about Today's Sin today, I'd write the same thing I wrote in 2005.

I complained about baby items.

I wrote about picking a school for my daughter.  She ended up graduating from the magnet middle/high school and I'm quite sure I made the best overall choice for her.  I wrote about picking a high school for my son.  We ended up at DeLaSalle and it was the worst $15,000 (two years) I ever spent.

I wrote Because of Vatican II or Because of the Times in response to something Elena wrote; I'm still reading her blog and she is still reading mine.  We've "known" each other online for over 15 years; we had little kids then; now I have a college student and one of her sons is engaged to be married.

As anyone along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts knows, 2005 was the year of Hurricane Katrina.  I wrote several posts about it:   Katrina Pictures, Mardi Gras (I argued that we should not cancel Mardi Gras in 2006, and my view prevailed), Life After Katrina, Embarrassed by Good Fortune and two posts about that Christmas: The Difference the Years Make and The Dark Side of Christmas. 

Back in those days I was using a dial-up connection so pictures were more of a nuisance than they were worth.  I got my first digital camera that Christmas and that's what I used to take those very noisy pictures in the Katrina Pictures post.  My baby is now ten; my other two are 22 and 19.  Still, things aren't that different, are they?

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival

Hello, and welcome to Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. We are a group of Catholic bloggers who gather weekly to share our best posts with each other. To participate, go to your blog and create a post titled Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. In it, discuss and link to your posts for  the week--whether they deal with theology, Catholic living or cute Catholic kids. I'm mostly a book blogger so my posts are generally book reviews, some Catholic, some not. Make sure that post links back here. Once you publish it, come back here and leave a link below.

We also have a yahoogroup; signing up for it will get you one weekly reminder to post. Click here to sign up.  

Did anyone else go to the parades today?  What?  No parades?  Guess you'll have to come to New Orleans.  Since I was out at a parade party I didn't get any blogging done today, and while I can't use that excuse for the rest of the week, I didn't blog then either.  Have you ever gone through stretches where you just didn't feel like blogging?