Coffee clicks: spring break

Guys, can I just throw back to old school blogging format for a minute and say that I’ve missed interacting with people online this Lent? But not as much as I’ve loved the found time and longer attention span that seems to be increasing by the day. I’m sure I’ll reach a leveling off place at some point soon, but so far I still kind of feel superhuman. I do miss responding to people’s DMs on FB and IG, but not enough to even be tempted to cheat on my self-imposed penance.

The only thing I’m bummed to be missing out on is the great stuff happening out front with a new ministry I’m serving, along with a couple other talented, beautiful women.

The Vows Project launched our first social media campaign on IG during the first week of Lent, and while I haven’t seen much of the action firsthand, I’m so grateful to Cassie and Megan for all the work they’ve been putting into it. I’ve been behind the scenes working on stuff like planning  a retreat for married couples (this Fall!!! Stay tuned for the registration pre-sale info. More details soon!) that will be here in Denver, creating content for our forthcoming website, and generally scheming and brainstorming for lots of exciting stuff coming down the pike. Will you pray for us?

We’re especially invoking the patronage of St. Joseph, Sts. Zelie and Louis Martin, St. Monica, St. Joseph, and St. John Paul II. It has been a wild and occasionally bumpy ride because the devil freaking hates marriage, y’all, and you best believe stepping up and saying that you’re going to fight for it is like painting a target on your back with blood and jumping into shark infested waters.

Not be dramatic.

In other Catholic flavored news, I traveled to ground zero for church media efforts earlier this week and spent some time at EWTN headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama. I fangirled a little over seeing Mother Angelica’s office space (left largely unchanged since her passing and also still used as a meeting room – pretty cool) and was able to go to a beautiful (televised) Mass on the feast of St. Joseph. Despite having technically worked for EWTN for 5 years now (they own CNA) I’d never been to headquarters, so it was nice to put faces and places with names. My kids made me promise no more travel till next fall, so we’ll see whether or not I disappoint them.

We joined the local YMCA and I AM HERE FOR IT. Free wifi, great childcare, an effusively joyful staff that literally cheered the first time I walked in with all 5 kids (!??), freshly brewed mediocre coffee, and a painfully effective barre class. My life is already changing, and it has only been a week.

Okay, on to the clicks.

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First, please, please pray for Jim Tierney. I’ve been online acquaintances with Kendra since the OG days of mommy blogging, and we even had dinner in Rome once (their 6 children plus one in utero behaved like European dignitaries while my 2 rowdy toddlers rubbed pasta in their ears and melted all over the floor. It was fine.) Jim has been battling a recurrence of cancer this year, and on the feast of St. Joseph, they got some bad news. I have been so personally inspired and edified by their faith, and particularly by their openness to life. They make it look easy and I’m positive it is anything but. Please beg God for an outpouring of His Spirit and for a miraculous recovery. The world needs all the Tierneys it can get.

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Whoever said that it was simple to keep on top of laundry every day (oh wait, it was me at 4 kids) didn’t have a Luke, who is still a verb, and who is still the dirtiest 3-year-old on the block. He recently threatened to “stab someone” who’d called his sister fat, and he dropped an entire gallon of milk on the floor this week and started licking it up like a dog who is not, in fact, LACTOSE INTOLERANT. And that is only scratching the surface of his hijinks, which are being repressed from easy memory access by my traumatized subconcious right now. OH WAIT HERE’S ONE. As we pulled into the school parking lot yesterday for the science fair, he pulled open the van door and dropped trau to relieve himself, because the world is truly his portapotty. I cannot know for certain who witnessed this savagery, aside from our saintly and elderly school bus driver, Mr. Danny, though I did catch a glimpse of a cluster of well-dressed mothers in my peripheral vision.

Suffice it to say, he makes so much laundry. Oddly, he spends large portions of his day in varying states of undress, including total nudity.

It don’t add up.

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I just finished 2 great books this week: Jordan Peterson’s “12 Rules For Life” and Cal Newport’s “Digital Minimalism.” Put them both on your hold list asap, or cash in those Amazon gift cards if you can’t wait the 323 week wait. Newport’s book was less awe-inspiring but felt more important because of some of the practices and observations he mentions. 5 stars for both.

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Personally, I don’t buy the idea of a society that doesn’t want/need Jesus:

“I truly believe and based on all the discussion that has been done in the past, that it doesn’t have to be in city council where it is a secular institution. This is a place where we make decisions and it was originally put there to support decision making,” she said at the meeting. “I think we’re in a very different time now.”

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Finally, a fascinating read about…sunscreen. Trust me, you want to read it.

It is spring break, after all.