Points to Ponder . . .

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
-- Krishnamurti

"Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time."
-- Steven Wright

"It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."
-- H. L. Mencken

Quilting Fever Continues . . .

I seem to be somewhat more reasonable of late . . . I only have three almost-done quilts on the stack. They got put aside in favor of starting and completing a special quilt order for a friend. Okay, I will admit that in spite of having incomplete work at hand, I started another scrap quilt today. Hey, someone has to use up all the pretty scraps. It's a job and someone has to do it, right?!

I actually managed to make a theme quilt with a scrap quilt feel this week. I found some Disney print fabric with the Disney princesses on it. I cut them each out in six-inch squares and sort of randomly bordered them with fabric that complimented the colors used in the print. It was for an older girls (as in over 19 years old!) so I tried to keep the Disney cute without making it 'baby' cute. I think it worked but now I NEED to do something bright and vibrant. Something in reds . . . or polka dots. Uh, perhaps the Disney quilt was more on the cute side than I originally thought!

Our Bovine World . . .

I read once that people who smoke may do so for the oral aspect because their mothers took away the baby bottle too soon! They need to do something with their mouth. If that were true, what is with all the people who can't get through their day without a wad of gum snapping to and fro in their mouths, punctuating their every word with the pops and explosions of well-used gum? Are there actually that many insecure people loose in the world today?

Gum has been around for ages and you don't think too much about a child happily enjoying the bright, pink bubble gum, trying to blow bubbles without inviting the participation of their hair.

I'm beginning to wonder, however, about all the active jaws that work their way through busy malls, grocery stores, the movies, and even church, a juicy wad of gum snapping and bouncing from cheek to cheek. It's getting to be like overlooking a hyper herd of cows busily working their cud. I suppose the younger set consider themselves 'cool' as they chomp out their conversation midst a clump of gum. It's the older people, the retirement crowd, that make me wonder what they are getting out of all the jaw action. The woman in front of me in line at the store today was close to seventy yet in spite of her carefully styled hair and perfect make up, she wanted to ruin the effect with her gum munching. She provided horrid fascination in the slow line at the check out counter. She would heft the gooey wad from one side to the other, snap down on it to provide an immense POP, suck down a bit, and repeat. Her layer of make up would powder off a bit as the action would heavily crease a wrinkle in the side of her face. It was mesmerizing and I would have drifted off if it weren't for the regular POP sound.

It must be contagious as I often see well-muscled jaws in studio audiences working the chewing gum. I particularly remember several episode of Dancing with the Stars when Billy Ray Cyrus was competing. They kept panning over the audience to show his daughter's reaction. Every, single time the camera closed in on Miley's face, you could actually see the huge wad of gum she had going. She might be an attractive girl. I couldn't say from the distration of the gum.

Not sure how gum crawled out of the school-aged crowd but it has certainly turned society into a herded community. And, like a herd of animals, their used up gum is often left for the soles of unsuspecting shoes.

Turning our back on our Church . . .

I am still getting over the audacity of Father John Jenkins' invitation to President Obama to speak at a Notre Dame graduation. Father Jenkins introduction to the president was an embarrassment to any practicing Catholic. Given his gushing platitudes, it was quite obvious who Father Jenkins voted for in the presidential election and that was very sad to me.

The president kept talking about people being kinder and more considerate to each other's viewpoints in order to accomplish a common ground. I just don't see how you can find common ground between killing a baby or not killing a baby. It was particularly disgusting to see so many Catholics give this anti-life politician a standing ovation when his voting record in the senate showed that he didn't even have compassion for a baby that survived an abortion but voted to let the child die. Isn't the pro-choice agenda all about whether the child is viable outside the womb? If a child survives a lethal attack, isn't the child outside the womb and still breathing?

I'm ashamed to be a part of a California diocese because I didn't note a single bishop from our state coming out against the Notre Dame invitation. Their silence told us volumes. Whenever they plead for support for the DDF and Combined Spring Collection, I wish I could ask them to their face, "What will the money do for our salvation?" "Where were you when you could have stood up for what is right?"

You have to worry about the formation of our priests if they advocate silence on what was an important issue in the minds of many Catholics this past week. I think an elderly priest expressed it well when the police cuffed him and he cried out, "Why are you doing this to a Catholic priest?" Actually, it wasn't the police so much as the lukewarm clergy in power who wanted media coverage and didn't seem to care about insuring their salvation.

A way to lower calories in a tasty omelette. . .

My favorite big breakfast or busy evening meal is a cheese omelette. I am, however, trying to cut down and cheese always seems to be 50 percent of the omelette . . . for the taste, of course! Sigh . . . the cheese, however, is what brings in the calories. I discovered an easy way to throw together an omelette-type dish with less calories and still a lot of good taste.

1/2 a red onion (although they look purple!), finely diced
1 tomato, seeded and diced
1 small zucchini, scrubbed and thinly sliced
5-6 fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1/4 cup finely diced ham, cooked bacon, or sausage
1-2 stalks of tender celery, finely diced or sliced
1/2 cup finely shredded cabbage
6 eggs, slightly beaten
olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup shredded cheese, your choice

Heat the oil in a large oven-proof frying pan and add everything except the eggs. Saute the vegetables until just limp. Pour in the beaten eggs and make sure they spread throughout the pan. When the eggs are barely set, pop the whole pan into a preheated, 350 degree oven until the top starts to slightly brown. Remove and sprinkle the cheese over the top and put back into the oven until the cheese melts. Serve!

I like the fact that you still get the creamy taste of the cheese but the whole thing isn't swamped in cheese. For a quick Friday or Lenten meal, you can leave out the meat and serve it with a big salad.

The recipe lends itself to change as you can use any kind of vegetable you like in it. Mexican salsa works as does shredded chicken or turkey meat.

Makes sense . . .!

"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action."
-- Frank Tibolt

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Lying increases the creative faculties, expands the ego, and lessens the frictions of social contacts."
-- Clare Booth Luce

"A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something."
-- Wilson Mizner

More favorites . . .

"Anger is the feeling that makes your mouth work faster than your mind."
-- Evan Esar

"The trouble with America is that there are far too many wide-open spaces surrounded by teeth."
-- Charles Luckman

"That is the saving grace of humor, if you fail no one is laughing at you."
-- A. Whitney Brown

Still quilting . . .

Two tops for scrap quilts completed and just in need of enough fabric to back them. I'm seriously considering a 'set' pattern for the next quilt but, as you can see, I am not near my sewing maching right now. I think I'm procrastinating!

I'm trying to learn Italian and have found that doing hand sewing while I listen to the lessons seems to sink the new language into my brain more easily. Unfortunately, it gives me more reason to increase the quilt population of the world in order to have enough hand sewing to become fluent in Italian. Hey, anything to further my education.

My son, however, feels that since I am working so hard on Italian, he shouldn't have to because we only need one to translate in the event we head to Rome. I am teaching him that this is not the case . . . in my usual, sweet, motherly way: "DO IT NOW!" He has learned the word for 'excuse me' and has managed to incorporate the sarcasm! A step towards fluency? He has also committed 'cosi, cosi' to memory which translates to 'so, so' and uses that to answer most everything.

Speaking of learning languages, I am testing one the library is thinking of buying. It is an on-line program and is really great. It is called Mango Languages and covers just about any language you would need in today's world. It is audio so you get the pronunciation. The words for the language being learned and English, are color coded so you know which is the verb, etc. in the other language. Really helps you learn the word order as it isn't always the same in a foreign language. Not all libraries carry it but if you are interested in learning a language, you should check with your local branch and put in a request.

Speaking of which, I have to go learn Italian!

All seem to apply these days . . .

"In archaeology you uncover the unknown. In diplomacy you cover the known."
-- Thomas Pickering

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
-- Bill Cosby

"This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer."
-- Will Rogers

A Walk on the Mild Side . . .

This was written by a very good friend of mine. It certainly points out a real problem in our Church today.

*****
The vocation crisis is absent from a few of the 146 Latin Rite Dioceses in the United States. In the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, Bishop Bruskowitz has no problem keeping his churches staffed with priests and his seminaries full. In the dioceses of Atlanta, Georgia, Omaha, Nebraska, and Peoria, Illinois, the same lack of a problem. They have vocations. They also have a different vocation crisis - the ordained priests are crowding out lay people in many ministries. When Bishop John Myers left the Diocese of Peoria, it had an abundance of vocations. After being appointed Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, he has sown and now reaps another harvest of vocations. The Diocese of Newark had the largest graduating class of any seminary in the country.

What is the secret of the flourishing diocese? It would seem that the bishop is the key as reflected by the above mentioned. Take the bishop in our diocese, for an example. He is a good man. I believe he is orthodox and holy. He prays. The sermons I have heard were very good. I believe, however, he is, indeed, the problem with our lack of vocations.

What is the problem with this good and orthodox bishop? I believe it is a lack of the virtue of fortitude. Most bishops have too much of the virtue of prudence and not enough of fortitude. They want to please two masters on earth; the Holy Father and the world. They hear from Rome that there cannot be women's ordination and they obey. However, they feel that they must bend the knee to their other master, the world. So, they "explain" or avoid explaining the teaching. They play down the "controversy". Anything that might upset the media, badly catechized laymen, or the elite who donate large sums of money is to be avoided or watered down. This is not because the bishops are heretics but to avoid the dreaded abyss of bad publicity.

Young men on fire for the Lord can give up a biological family to be a spiritual father to a flock but they will seldom do this to be a branch manager with the slight possibility of promotion to VP or CEO.

The bishops and their bureaucracies want smart, efficient, branch managers, who will run their parishes without controversy and crank out sacraments efficiently. A candidate for the seminary who is fired with the Holy Spirit makes them uncomfortable. What might such a priest say during a sermon? What might he tell a parishioner or a newspaper reporter? The bishop would have to try and smooth over the crises; almost certainly not by forthright affirmation of the Faith, but by weasel words, appeals to compromise, and mildness.

Bishops with vocation crises want what can never be: young men who want to dedicate their lives to Jesus who are "reasonable" and not too enthusiastic about the faith. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. Revelation 3:16.