Over at the National Catholic Register Today

Next week, I'll be doing a creative writing class, so I'll be busy writing things with and for class. I might try them out here, but in the meantime, here's my latest over at the National Catholic Register:
Shining Christ's Light on Internet Bickering.

Signs the Quarantine is Getting to You

10) You watch cooking shows with a chip on your shoulder. "Sure you can make something from that basket, you've got a fully stocked pantry at your fingertips and you're only cooking for four." 

9) Discussions about what movie will be shown have camps, crossing over because the other side has better snacks is frowned upon.

8) Bedtime, morning alarms, lunch time, these are all mere social constructs that everyone else should follow.

7) One outing in the car a day is enought to require a two hour nap.

6) People discuss the weather with a degree of animation normally associated with sports or politics, because it's an observable change in the experience of day to day living.

5) Recall of what I was doing, why I came into this room, what day/time it is, and what we did yesterday is shot.   Memory of what we were doing last summer at this time? Crystal clear.

4) The creep of worry about the state of things has crept into where things will be next year.

3) Going into the car to curse at reality is a theraputic necessity that no amount of ice cream can eliminate.  --based on reports from teens. 

2) Your daughter offers to cut your hair based on the youtube videos she's been watching and your response is an unquestioning, "Okay."  because it's been since February since the last time anything of that nature happened and even if it's bad, no one will know.

1) You know how if you wear glasses, sometimes when you're not wearing them, you can still see the frames in your line of vision?  The same thing is happening with masks. 

Small Success Thursday

Last week, my son turned 21, and I decided, as a gift to my family, I would begin working out again. (Not at a gym mind you), but walking and/or as I call it, wogging --where you jog down hill.  Wogging has resulted in me setting an actual weight goal, which I've already discovered, is going to be a lot of work. 

That being said, every day this week, I've gotten up at 6:30 and gone for a walk/wog.  I've gone from the five pounds past my you shall not pass point, to one pound past my you shall not pass point.  This you shall not pass point is five pounds over what the old you shall not pass point was, so that will be the next goal post.

I've been told my children who run regularly, that 90% of exercise is willing it, willing to do it.  I am lousy with will on this point.  So I started wogging from one mail box to the next, and then to the next...and became irritated, because I'm following the philosophy of Frozen 2, do the next right thing and then the next and then the next with respect to exercise.  The morality isn't wrong, it's just the movie isn't good.

However, it's now day eight, and I've lost four pounds in the first week of committing to this, so I'm reporting it as part of my small success Thursday.  I'm hoping to keep this up, and SST is a good place to state, these are my goals.

These are my goals:  Lose (over the course of a year, 32 pounds).  Get 52 articles published (one a week), finish writing my book, and read a book a week.  These are the ambitions for the year.  They fold into parenting, living, working, learning, and all the ordinary chores that clog up any week --like getting my sons their physicals, getting the car fixed, and registering people for classes and preparing one child for confirmation.  Every week is jammed with lots, and sometimes the lots overwhelms.

Still, I'm blessed beyond blessed during this time of Covid-19, that at the moment, all of us are healthy, and we have each other to play spades and hearts with (trounced them all two nights in a row), to throw water balloons with --there was a full scale war in the back yard today, and to feast with at dinner time.   Hope your week was full of small successes.  If you need me, I'll be out wogging tomorrow.