It’s that time of year again

August 28, 2013June 25, 2014 ~ Laura ~ Leave a comment

I used Grammarly to grammar check this post, because Lord knows I can’t even remember how to spell grammar. Have you ever thought about that? If we say “grammER” then why is it spelled “grammAR”? The english language just doesn’t make much sense sometimes. Or maybe it’s just us. Yes, I think it’s us. Some people must have just gotten together and laughed their heads off when they decided “Let’s make up this language with weird rules, and THEN break all them!”

Not funny. (But I kind of wish I had been part of that meeting…)

And that’s why we have spell check and teachers and editors and websites to help us communicate clearly.

I think it’s really made us quite a bit dumber, though. The beginning of the school year always makes me start thinking about this sort of thing. Does it for you? I mean, when we’re writing on the computer, we just use spell check. Often times we write in text-speak without using real words (I try not to, though, and it really annoys me when people do in emails). We don’t understand “big” words anymore, and think a person must be some english ~~freak~~ nerd if they do. And a dictionary? Oh my word, do you live in the dark ages?!?!

I, for one, am thankful that I was taught (in my awesome homeschooling time) how to find a word in the dictionary (though I still don’t get how I’m supposed to look up a word if I don’t know how to spell it). It helps to be able to alphabetize something and be able to sort things that way. And big words are pretty cool. Instead of using “pretty cool”, I could have used glorious, sensational, or marvelous (and yes, I used thesaurus.com to find those). My vocabulary books were fabulous too. I still sometimes come across a word I remember learning from them.

All that to say, don’t fall prey to an elementary understanding of our language. Don’t take your ques from me, though, because I make typos all the time and need to work on my writing style. Here’s to the start of the school year and lots more learning!

Thanks to Grammarly for sponsoring this post and reminding me how much better I could be at writing!

7 Quick Takes – Vol. 27

August 23, 2013 ~ Laura ~ 2 Comments

— 1 —

This was a great summer. I didn’t end up working as much as I expected (which is kind of good and bad), spent lots of time with family, had delicious food, and prepared a lot for the coming school year. Of course I have no idea what the school year will actually be like, but I feel as ready as I’ll ever be. I’m leaving tomorrow morning!

— 2 —

Packing is tough. I’m almost done, but the weight limit is killing me! I finished packing my check-on bag all nicely, and then bam. It’s a half pound over (after being 7 under yesterday, what happened?!?!). Which means I now have to get over 2 pounds of things out. Nooooo!

— 3 —

Guess what? I actually finished Jillian’s death sweat yesterday!

I think it’s probably the first exercise program I’ve completed. It was hard, to say the least, but it feels awesome to have done it. And now that I think about it, it’s not the hardest workout I’ve participated in. That medal would go to the step classes I went to at the YMCA a while ago and would nearly die during. Whew! Music makes it much better though! I’m planning to continue this during the week back at school. We’ll see how that goes. Maybe I will eventually be able to not do the girl version of some of the exercises! I do know that I’m just in a better mood, eat better, sleep better, and am a more motivated person in general when I exercise. So not exercising is really a disservice to myself and people I interact with. I’ll be interested to see how my routine ends up.

— 4 —

I’ve been thinking about ways to save money. I have a 12 meal plan (2/day on weekdays, 1/day on weekends), and will be providing breakfast for myself during the week. I’ll be making at least one dinner each weekend with my suitemates too. For breakfast I’m planning on doing oatmeal, which seems pretty affordable. Beans are pretty cheap (and I have a crock pot) so I’m planning to make my own refried beans. If you have any ideas, lemme know! I’m also still using baking soda and apple cider vinegar to wash my hair. I’ve packed a couple medicine bottles of each to bring back already. Feel free to comment with any money-saving ideas!

— 5 —

I need to get going on packing now (and hope that everything will fit).

— 6 —

A perfect articulation of my homeschooling motto. Thanks, @Susan {solesearchingmamma.com}! — I don’t want to spend more time writing, so enjoy a picture.

— 7 —

And what post wouldn’t end well with an adorable bebe?

Newborn :-)

Have a great weekend while I’m traveling across the country! For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes – Vol 26

August 16, 2013 ~ Laura ~ Leave a comment

— 1 —

Today is my last day of work for the summer! I’ve worked for several different pro-life organizations over the past two years, and am finishing up my second internship with a Catholic crisis pregnancy center. It’s been a big learning experience, and I’m excited to take what I’ve learned back to school. I plan to be moving on to bigger jobs in the future, and am just thankful for my time here. It didn’t end up being what I expected (what does?), but I know what I’ve learned in invaluable.

— 2 —

I’m leaving in 8 days. To pick up my car. What?!?!? It’s about to get real!!!! I can pack things pretty tight, but my bag would be way over 50 pounds if I fit everything I could. Annoying, huh? I’ll just have to ship some stuff. And I’ve recently gone through my wardrobe and gotten rid of quite a lot, so that should help. I can’t wait to get back and see my BC friends again, but man, is it going to be weird not to be a freshman. Now there are tons of people younger than me on campus! I am just so pumped, though, and am SO EXCITED about hitting the ground running with Ravens Respect Life.

— 3 —

If you know of any particularly good life-affirming songs or videos, could you please send them my way? I’ve started compiling a YouTube playlist, but don’t have too many yet. I was happily surprised by what I’ve found already though! Here is one of my favorites which basically pretty much made me tear up. The guy who sings it was conceived in rape, and was adopted after his mom chose life. He is an inspirational speaker, and testament to why we shouldn’t have exceptions for abortion.

— 4 —

Hallelujah! I just finished Rediscovering Catholicism! It was a fantabulous book. I really enjoyed how he stressed the importance of striving to become the-best-version-of-yourself. The only complaints I have are: why did he have to use dashes between each word for that phrase? and oh my gosh, not enough commas. Maybe I use too many…I don’t know. Obviously those are rather small things to get annoyed about, so the book really was great. And inspiring. I could probably read it 10 more times to really grasp it. So I just underlined a ton, and probably could have underlined and quoted almost every sentence. I highly recommend it!

— 5 —

I finally figured out why my phone had been so slow! It would seriously take about 5+ seconds to do anything after I clicked on it because…..I hadn’t turned it off in months. Go figure. This is something I’m really bad about with my computer too. It hibernates when I shut it, which is what I usually do between use during the day, and when I’m done at night. I know it’s bad for it, but the reason I do it is because I usually have unfinished tabs open I intend to do something with. I should probably work on changing that.

— 6 —

Guess what? I regained a little bit of sanity this week. Sometime about a week ago I had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad night sleep. I just couldn’t fall asleep because I kept remembering a hundred things I needed to do. And I knew I wouldn’t remember them in the morning. I happened to find myself around a dollar store a couple days later with some time to kill, so I picked up one of those fat mini notebooks and named it “Laura’s Book of Sanity”. I now keep it in a place I’ll remember (with a pen), and write things down in it as they come to mind. That way I don’t have to remember them all at once, and I can fall asleep knowing that I don’t have to remember so many things. Plus, isn’t it fun to check things off as you finish them?

— 7 —

Isn’t it fun to hear about Catholics who are tech-savvy and using it to further the faith? I recently found this website, Yo Foreal, that is made by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal who explain things about the faith in a fun and engaging way. Go check it out!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary! Have a beautiful weekend as summer comes to a near end!

Same Love? More like the same call.

August 13, 2013June 25, 2014 ~ Laura ~ 9 Comments

One really popular song going around right now is Same Love by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Have you heard it?

I had heard of it, but had neglected to really listen to it. And since the radio is broken in the car I drive, I didn’t hear it from there. After being reminded of it recently, I decided to look it up and see what it was all about.

Oh boy.

I’m not one to sit down and over-analyze song lyrics, but after listening to this, I was disappointed in the Catholic people I know who are jamming to it and gushing over its message.

Why?

This song is basically saying that the love of a gay couple is the same love as all the other love in the world (by comparing it to a mother’s love) and how we just need to let them love each other. But it’s also quite the anti-Catholic and anti-conservative-people song by mocking many of our sentiments. It uses the standard “Catholics hate gay people” mantra to get that point across.

“The right wing conservatives think it’s a decision, And you can be cured with some treatment and religion”

“When I was at church they taught me something else, If you preach hate at the service those words aren’t anointed, That holy water that you soak in has been poisoned”

“And a certificate on paper isn’t gonna solve it all, But it’s a d**n good place to start, No law is gonna change us, We have to change us”

“I might not be the same, but that’s not important, No freedom till we’re equal, d**n right I support it”

The problem?

A quote from Archbishop Fulton Sheen seemed rather appropriate here:

“There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church….As a matter of fact, if we Catholics believed all of the untruths and lies which were said against the Church, we probably would hate the Church a thousand times more than they do.”

You see, the Catholic Church doesn’t actually hate gay people. If it did, I would have a problem with it. Tons of people would. We’re told to love one another and so forth, so that just wouldn’t make sense to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation.

But guess what?

Loving someone doesn’t mean you’re okay with them doing whatever they want.

Why do parents stop their kids from reaching into the cookie jar for a 5th time? Because it’s not good for them.

What the church teaches is that we were made to love and be loved. Vocations such as marriage are ways to love each other on earth, and to become closer to God. Giving in to human appetites does not help that. The church calls single to people to lives of chastity. The church calls homosexual people to chastity. And guess what? The church even calls married couples to chastity.

Discrimination 101.

You see, by truly loving homosexual people, the Church calls them to live their lives in an ordered approach to their attractions. But it isn’t any different than the call of single people to be abstinent until marriage. And it isn’t different than the call of married couples to remain faithful to their spouse.

It’s not the same love, but it’s all the same call.

7 Quick Takes – Vol. 25

August 9, 2013 ~ Laura ~ 2 Comments

— 1 —

It’s been kind of quiet around here lately….probably because the summer is coming to a close and I’m coming to terms with the fact that real-life college is going to start soon. I’ve ordered my books and am working hard to get everything in order.

— 2 —

Recently I’ve seen a lot of bloggers write about how some “keep it real” while some highlight the joyful parts of life – both of which other people get mad about. Some people are depressed by the keepin’ it real folks, and others think the joyful people are faking it. Well, I don’t really write about my own life very much. But many of my past posts are focused on debunking dumb pro-choice people and things. I made a conscious decision recently to write more about positive things, and to really focus on that more. Personally, I get tired of writing about negativity. And I don’t think there’s much of a point to it, since we know the world is messed up already. So I’m going to stick more to building up the positive instead.

— 3 —

I am REALLY excited about being president of Ravens Respect Life. It’s the largest student-run organization on Benedictine’s Campus, and tons of people usually come to the first meeting of the year…which means I better get my stuff together and get ready. Our goal is to educate, empower, and inspire our fellow students to be the light of the pro-life movement. It goes along with BC’s theme of “Be the Light” this year, which is pretty cool. I know it’s going to be quite the experience, and will certainly require me (as it already has) to develop my leadership skills as I learn how to work with all kinds of people.

— 4 —

I am almost done with Rediscover Catholicism! After only like three months…It really is a fabulous book which I would recommend to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. I’ll have a review up of it in the next week or so.

— 5 —

I have finally gotten back to doing the Jillian workout. Day 24 is over now, and I’ll finish it before I leave (IN ONLY 16 DAYS!!!). It is NOT a good idea to take a three week break, folks.

— 6 —

I’ve been washing my hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar for weeks now, and will be sticking with it! It’s cheap and really does clean my hair. No, it doesn’t get all frothy and silky like with shampoo and conditioner, but it gets the job done. Thankfully my hair isn’t super hard to deal with. If you want to try it, just mix a tablespoon of baking soda with a cup of water, and the same (separately) for the apple cider vinegar. I put it in water bottle, but some sort of squirt bottle would be better. Try it!

— 7 —

Next week is my last week of work of the summer. I have to say that it has not turned out as wonderfully as it could have, but I know it’s valuable experience nonetheless. This next semester is going to be extremely tight money-wise, so I’m gearing up for craziness and trying to make and save money however I can. It dawned on me recently that I could hand wash all my clothes (since it costs $2 per load) but I figured that would be too much 🙂 Whatever is to come, I’m looking forward to the challenge.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!