by Mary | Jun 11, 2008 | Olivia, Original NSS, parenting
So here we are, six sweaty but dedicated moms (I’m second from left), doing what we need to do to help our daughters become confident, well-rounded young women by taking them on a Girl Scout “Camporee.” No one told us that this particular camping trip was going to require more than 24 hours in sauna-like conditions in a woods infested with ticks — we had to pull the nasty little critters off of three out of six girls. The tick-to-girl ratio was not good, but we survived, even if we didn’t always do it happily.
Looking back, it was actually a lot of fun. The moms did a lot of laughing and the girls did a lot of learning. Actually, I think we all did quite a bit of learning on this outing. We learned that no matter how bad it sounds from the warnings on the label, DEET is our friend. And that’s coming from someone who never uses bug spray. I was dripping with DEET by Sunday morning and proud of it.
by Mary | Jun 10, 2008 | Original NSS, writing
It is somewhat shocking to report the sudden and unexpected death of yet another influential Catholic writer, Father Paul Keenan, a wonderful New York priest who was both a successful Catholic radio personality and a prolific Catholic author. Father Paul was a fellow columnist for Catholic New York, and during the recent papal visit we joked about the fact that we are usually facing each other on those pages once a month.
Father Paul was most recently the host of the weekly inspirational radio program “As You Think” on The Catholic Channel on Sirius Satellite Radio, but he was perhaps best known for the 14 years he spent as co-host of “Religion on the Line” on WABC-AM Radio. I was lucky enough to be a guest of Father Paul’s on “Religion on the Line” back when my first book, Parenting a Grieving Child, came out. I had never done a radio show, no less a live, call-in show, but Fat (more…)
by Mary | Jun 10, 2008 | Original NSS, writing
I learned today that long-time Catholic journalist and author Ann Ball died of a heart attack on Sunday. I knew Ann only through phone conversations and her wonderful Web site, and all I can say is that she was a very cool Texas gal who managed to run a security company and churn out Catholic book upon Catholic book all at the same time. She has some really great stuff out there on the saints and Catholic gardening, cooking and crafts.
It’s funny, but I had planned to email Ann to tell her about my Mary Garden attempts (since this is a subject featured on her home page) and to show her my Our Lady of Guadalupe garden statue because I knew she would love it. Instead I will just have to put a flower in front of Mary on Ann’s behalf. (more…)
by Mary | Jun 9, 2008 | Nature, Original NSS, parenting
So we made it through our brief camping trip none the worse for wear. OK, maybe a little the worse for wear, but that was to be expected. Considering the fact that the temperature was in the 90s and we had to sleep six girls and six moms in a smelly, dirty “nature center,” complete with a dead mouse found upon our arrival, the trip went amazingly well, at least from my perspective.
I went into this trip with only two previous camping experiences behind me, both of them Girl Scout trips and both of them horrendous in my memory. They are the reason I have declared on more than one occasion that my idea of camping is staying at a Motel 6 or its equivalent. Visions of mud-covered sleeping bags during that rainy tent trip still dance in my head whenever I hear the word “camp.” But I knew when I signed on to be a Scout leader that camping would be in my future, so I decided to go into this with a let’s-wait-and-see attitude, and it served me well. (more…)
by Mary | Jun 6, 2008 | Original NSS
I’m sure by now you’ve heard about this video, but have you seen it? It is a stunningly sad example of the ever-diminishing sense of common decency and compassion in our society. A man is hit by a car, and no one stops to help him. Not the driver who hit him, or the cars that whiz past his mangled figure on the road, or the people standing on the sidewalk. Someone called 911, so I guess that’s something, but watching this video made me want to cry. Of course people can’t pick him up off the street and carry him to a hospital, but someone could have at least tried to stop traffic or maybe bent down to whisper a word of comfort to the 78-year-old man as he lay dying. (more…)
