Seven Quick Takes or Will She EVER blog again?

(Actually, it's now hosted at This Ain't the Lyceum, and it's very funny). 

Is it cheating to be part of a link up when you're linking to another link up? I hope not.

1.) I am sorry.  This past week, I've written loads but posted nothing.  It's been a busy week.  I have three pieces at three separate places for you that ran in the past seven days.  However, this past week we've been busy celebrating my daughter's birthday, returning to school, running all the errands that should have been done last week but didn't get done, and trying to book a flight for one daughter to go visit a college, and for another to return home from school.   Like I said, it's been...busy.

2)Add to that, a ten year old working on a talent show with her two friends and thus four days out of seven rehearsing and a seven year old potty training and it's amazing to me if I get time to brush my teeth.

So I apologize for being negligent of my blog.   It will happen again.

Here are the three pieces.

3) First, Helen Avare of Women Speak for Themselves ran a piece created from a discussion we had over emails.   Special thanks to Kat, the editor for putting it together.  WSFT is a group of women from across the country speaking out against the current mantra that birth control medication is a must, and to think otherwise is to be anti-woman.   They're supporters of the Little Sisters of the Poor in their fight against the HSS Mandate. I am a member of WSFT, and attended a workshop held by them this past February.  I was constantly impressed with the joyful brilliant strong women I met there.

4) Second, I skipped linking on Thursday because the laundry threatened to take over the house.   It's now in fourteen tamed baskets so, if you'd like to join in and count your blessings from the past week, here's Small Success Thursday at Catholicmom.com.  I would really love to get the number of participants in listing success up to 100, because I know there are 100 people who read this blog (based on the counter and the followers), and I know, each of you have small successes which you aren't remembering from the past week.   Leave them in the com box, or if you have a blog, no matter how dusty, post them there and link up.   The goal of blogging is community, communication, and for me, connection.   So please, consider being a part of this weekly event.

5) Last, but not least, Aleteia has been gracious enough to host me in cyberspace yet again this week.   I'm working on another piece for them and hoping to keep my writing goal of getting a piece a week placed somewhere. Today's work is called The Point of Fasting Even When It's Not Lent.

On other notes...in case you wonder...well what's keeping you so busy?

6) Writing wise, in addition to articles, I'm working on a book, on the Doctors of the Church.  It's a load of research and takes a lot of time to write.  Say some prayers. I could use them. A publishing company expressed interest. I'm still putting together the packet for submission.

7) Also, I applied for the Catholic Relief Services Egan Journalism Fellowship for 2016.  I've linked to it so those interested in applying can do so.  The deadline is April 22 so get to work!   Why did I do this application?  Because the question that has been forming in my brain ever since Paul potty trained and I began to really think about having all my children in school, is now what?   Journalism may be part of the answer to Now What?  

Have a great weekend, and I'll try to be funny on Sunday for you.  

Prayers for Haiti

By now you know a 7.0 earthquake shattered Haiti. Reports are coming in in dribs and drabs but the situation is grave. Early pictures show a lot of tilted and shaken buildings and indicate many injured and mass chaos.

Every once in a while, we get a nudge, a request to pray. It is a reminder that we can never pray enough. It's a funny thing about prayer. For me, when I claim I don't have the time, the day is hard, the tone is hard, the process of getting through everything is hard. Conversely, when I nag myself to make the time, even if things are difficult, they aren't hard.

Prayer doesn't always alter the situation the way we wish, but it always alters the one offering the prayer. We cannot seek God's aid or love or attention in our direct petitions and not be affected by that calling out or His answer.

In the past, I've asked for any number of things, most of them by the world's standard, probably silly. God has always answered with lavish abundance. It humbles, or it should.

We often wait to pray until life brings us a situation that pulls us to our knees. But these sorts of massive tragedies remind me that I ought to be willing to pray more often and that every day with all the people I know, is a gift and rare and precious.

What we should hope, is the mere knowledge of others suffering, is enough to bring us to our knees, and to ask, and then to listen to how we are to be of service. At times like this, prayer is not the very least we can do, it is the beginning of what we must do.

Then, if you feel called to do something more physical and fiscal in response;

http://www.crs.org

They have a special fund already set up specifically for Haiti; and they are known to be good stewards to the sick, the poor and the suffering internationally.