It's that time again.......

......to take a look at what is going on for and against the Right to Life.

Take this article from Life Site News:

By Kathleen Gilbert

HINSDALE, Illinois, October 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Dominican nun has been seen frequenting an abortion facility in Illinois recently - but not, as one might expect, to pray for an end to abortion or to counsel women seeking abortions, but to volunteer as a clinic escort.

Local pro-life activists say that they recognized the escort at the ACU Health Center as Sr. Donna Quinn, a nun outspokenly in favor of legalized abortion, after seeing her photo in a Chicago Tribune article.

"I've called her sister several times, and she never responded," local pro-lifer John Bray told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN). "But it's her."

Amy Keane, a pro-life witness for 11 years, says Quinn has acted as escort for "six years, at least." Keane described one incident in which Quinn began shouting at the pro-lifers as they spoke to a woman about to enter the abortion facility.

"[Quinn] was so angry, and burst out very loudly so everyone could hear: 'Look at these men, telling these women what to do with their bodies!'" said Keane. "She was so angry, that it really took all of us aback." Keane says that the group was peaceful, and that the men present were not among those engaging the woman.

"For those of us who are Catholic, to have a member of a religious order so blatantly - it is so disheartening. It really is," said Keane. "She's participating actively in abortion. That is what is so disturbing for us."

Sr. Donna Quinn, OP, is renowned in the Chicago area as an advocate for legalized abortion and other liberal issues.

In 1974 she co-founded the organization Chicago Catholic Women, which lobbied the USCCB on a feminist platform before it dissolved in 2000. She is now a coordinator of the radically liberal National Coalition of American Nuns (NCAN), which stands in opposition against the Catholic Church's position on abortion, homosexuality, contraception, and the male priesthood.

While LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) was unable to reach Sr. Quinn for comment, NCAN's Sr. Beth Rindler confirmed to LSN that Quinn is still a member of their group, which favors unrestricted legalized abortion and disagrees with the teaching that abortion is intrinsically evil. "We respect women, and believe that they make moral decision, and so we respect their decisions," Rindler explained.

In a 2002 address to the Women's Studies in Religion Program at Harvard Divinity School, Sr. Quinn described how she came to view the teachings of her Church as "immoral": "I used to say: 'This is my Church, and I will work to change it, because I love it,'" she said. "Then later I said, 'This church is immoral, and if I am to identify with it I'd better work to change it.' More recently, I am saying, 'All organized religions are immoral in their gender discriminations.'"

Quinn called gender discrimination "the root cause of evil in the Church, and thus in the world," and said she remained in the Dominican community simply for "the sisterhood."

Sr. Patricia Mulcahey, OP, Quinn's Prioress at the Sinsinawa Dominican community, said in an email response to LSN that the nun sees her volunteer activity as "accompanying women who are verbally abused by protestors. Her stance is that if the protestors were not abusive, she would not be there."

Though Sr. Mulcahey claimed that her sisters "support the teachings of the Catholic Church," she declined to comment on Quinn's public protest of Catholic Church teaching.

Joe Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League says Quinn came in contact with his own office in 1982, when she and a group of other pro-aborts picketed his building on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

"She figures it's part of her religion to take these women in and protect them, and get them abortions," said Scheidler of Quinn's recent activity. "Something dreadful has happened to make a Catholic nun become an escort at an abortion clinic - that's the lowest form you can reach, where you escort a woman with a living child in her into a place to have the child killed, and to ruin that woman's soul."

"If I didn't even believe in the humanity of the child - which of course would be crazy - even if I didn't, I would fight abortion for the sake of the women," Scheidler added. "They miss that baby, and they can't get it back. They never can."

To respectfully express concern (See: LSN Guidelines for Effective Communication):

Cardinal Francis George
Office of the Archbishop
Archdiocese of Chicago
PO Box 1979
Chicago, IL. 60690-1979
Phone: 312-534-8230
E-Mail: archbishop@archchicago.org

Sr. Patricia Mulcahey, OP
Prioress - Sinsinawa Dominicans
E-mail: Spatmul@aol.com

What I do not understand about these Sinsinawa Dominicans is there extreme need to be "feminists" - that is the liberal, lefty version of a feminists.

I wonder if they are in cohorts with the fine ladies over at Holy Wisdom Monestary. These exceptional women "changed" the Our Father to the "Our Mother". Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Good thing the Bishop of the diocese in which the "monestary" is located formally separated them from the Church - 'cause that ain't Catholic teaching.

Just like aiding in the sin of abortion ain't Catholic teaching either.

Pay It Forward, Take II

Ok, so maybe some of you feel a little, um, intimidated by having to offer up 3 handmade gifts in the pay it forward. It's ok. I understand.

But please! Not a one of you want something handmade from yours truly?

I offer some ideas. Handmade is, to me, synonymous with "homemade". A handmade gift can be something as simple as a cake (baked and mixed by hand, not necessarily from scratch), some muffins, a card, a Christmas ornament, something sewn, cooked, knit, crocheted, cross-stitched, glued, stapled, drawn......anything.

So please, someone leave a comment. I want to gift it forward. If you don't have a blog, or don't want to post the PIF to your own blog, that's fine.

Or maybe you'd feel less intimidated just doing 1 gift forward. I think that's fine.

I'll still pick 3 of you, or just one if that's all I get. I accept anonymous comments.....so if you don't have a google account just leave me a comment with your email.

Seriously. Or maybe the idea of getting something knit from me scares people. :O

So maybe I'll gift forward something easy and handmade, like food.

Pay It Forward

I stumbled upon a "Pay It Forward" over at The Sweet Sheep Blog. I was lucky enough to be one of the participants.

While I have yet to get my handmade gift - I do present the Pay It Forward to you.

Leave a comment on this post. I will pick 3 people. I will make you something (hence "handmade") and send it to you. I am giving myself some time, of course. You will get something from me in the next 365 days. Knowing my preference towards knitting, you can bet your handmade gift will be knit.

The only catch is that YOU have to put a "Pay It Forward" for 3 handmade items on your blog.

And so begins the gifting.

And this is why I don't vaccinate.......

This is very funny, but very true also. This is what they put into your vaccines......



Thanks to Sardonic Catholic Dad.

Old Hurts

Today, of all days, the devil rears his ugly head and puts into my mind the memory of old pains.

On my way to Mass today, listening to the radio, I distinctly could hear my husband uttering ugly truths to me just as he had done almost 3 years ago. As clear as day, I could see him in my mind, sitting on the couch in a therapist's office after spending 3 days away from our home. He sat there, looking completely pitiful, and told me the worst thing I could have ever imagined to hear.

So, what does one do? I have already reconciled these truths. I have already done much recovery, dealt with my OWN issues, hurt, cried, been angry, loved, and forgiven. What do I do when this hurt builds up behind me and takes me by surprise.

I did the only thing I could do - I took it to the Tabernacle. I took it there, and I left it there. (I hope.)

I was not able to participate in Mass as I would have liked. I spent the majority of Mass, save the Eucharist, in the narthex. So after Mass, I let my eldest son watch my younger two, with the help of his God-siblings, and I gathered myself up to go inside and pray.

I prayed hard. I didn't say anything very deep or rehearsed. I didn't even know what to say. I just asked Him to take it away. I asked for Love. I asked for somebody, preferably Him, to love me as I have never been loved. I asked Him to surround me with His infinite Love and fill my heart until it could hold no more.

Take that, Satan!

Knitting All Around

There has been an awful amount of knitting going on here. I will admit, the knitting is mostly due to my need to cope with stress. It is productive as well as relaxing. I feel as though I accomplish something, be it just a mitten, a sock, or even just a few rows or rounds of a rather simple sweater.

First up: Some yarn I dyed a long time ago. I call it "Taste the Rainbow". I dyed it with Kook-Aid and I love the way it looks. My husband tried to convince me to make him a hat out of it. I laughed at him.


This is the progress on my first lace project. I started this in May 2009. I do not like knitting lace. It's too thin a fiber for me to hold on to and I have a hard time distinguishing the different stitches from one another. This is the Swallowtail Shawl by, Evelyn Clark. It is a cute pattern, but lace is just not my thing. I have found renewed interest in finishing this and have been picking it up pretty regularly this month.



This is my progress on the Husband Sweater - so named as it is for The Man. It is the Seamless Hybrid Sweater from Knitting Without Tears, by Elizabeth Zimmermann. She is/was a knitting genious, what with her simple patterns and pithy directions. Love her.

I am enjoying knitting this sweater. But I do feel as though I will be knitting it FOREVER. My husband specified the chest size to match a favorite shirt of his. It is 59 inches around. I cast on 294 stitches. This is knit in the round, which is great. It does get a little boring doing the same stitch over and over again. This is my favorite "car knitting" to and from the ride to church.



And finally: My first pair of socks!! I made these for the boy and they are oh, so soft. He loves them and I loved making them. I love knitting in the round. I love the feel of my DPN's (double-point needles). I love turning the heel. I love shaping the gusset. I just love it all.

Aren't these heels just beautiful?

Here are the Boy's socks on my feet. Maybe I should keep them?

Oh, and today is my birthday. Thought you should know. :) Glad I get to go to Mass on my birthday, even if my husband has to work. :P

Cuteness? Anyone?

It seems to me that in this drought of blogging I have not given you anything sweet to lay your eyes upon. For your pleasure I bring you this:

Cuteness upon cuteness. He knows he's got my heart. Just look in those eyes. Can you even imagine anything more sweet?

And for my next trick: I present "Cyclops Blue"!

This is what happens when you don't use icing tips on the frosting tubes AND you don't know that the gel stuff runs. Freehanding a Blue's Clues cake is harder than you may think. Admitting that you even made a Cyclops Blue is even humbler.

And this is my baby girl having her candles blown our for her. Isn't she cute? She's three years old now. Too cute. Too old.

And just for fun is my little Lovey, eating his share of Cyclops. Love the frosty blue lips.

An Update....before I forget I promised to update

The outcome in court was not what we hoped for. The judge decided, relying heavily on the GAL, that our daughter should return to school immediately in the same school she was attending before - ya know, where the rapist goes to school.

On the bright side, if you can call it that, he did not hear arguements or makes any decisions regarding placement or custody. We will still have a hearing for that some time in the undisclosed future.

For now, we are back to the status quo. I drive the girls back and forth 45 minutes each way x 2 per day (that's 3 hours folks) to get them to school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Sounds like fun to me.

Dispensed

Today is a beautiful day. Not just because it's another day He has given us - but truly a beautiful weather day.

My family and I had a nice drive into Mass and even made it ON TIME, despite the interstate road construction.

Our parish priest tends towards the heavy side on the incense, which I like. Today there was enough to set off the fire alarms. This has happened before. I chuckled to myself when it started.

Except, despite the best efforts of those responsible, they couldn't get them to stop. After 10 minutes of blaring alarms, through which the 1st and 2nd readings and the psalm was done, we were dispensed from our holy day of obligation.

As we drive the hour and a half back home I feel a little cheated.

I have nothing prolific to say. I just feel a little off.
(Updates on the court case to come soon...for those of you wondering.)

Yes, I Updated the Side Bar

I have updated blogs, links, etc. on the side bar.

I am sure you also have noticed the addition of a "donate" button over there. As I mentioned in the previous post, lawyers are expensive and we have been on the phone a lot. A LOT.

We do not have a land line and only use cell phones. We have had the same plan for 6 years. It has always been fine. Apparently, those "anytime" minutes get used up really fast when you are on the phone during the day with your lawyer, social workers, police officers, district attorneys, etc. My cell phone bill, which is normally reasonable, was $300 this month. We went over by 200+ minutes (in the daytime) and the charge per minute is outrageous. Not to mention that apparently, if you pay late and they disconnect you for 4 hours, you get charged $25 PER LINE to reconnect......but not until 2 billing periods later. We have more than one line. Ugh.

So, if the Holy Spirit moves you to, please make a donation. 100% of your donation will go to a good cause. No overhead here.

I Have A Blog??

Surely you jest.

This cannot be my blog. Surely not - for there is emphasis on the my. We all know I cannot do that.

Oh, but wait. I am on actual internet. Internet that does not require me to *star* and CAPITALIZE things I want to accentuate.

I thank my dear friend, laurazim, for the use of her PC.

Now......for the important stuff.

I am hopefully going to update my sidebar as soon as I am done with this post. There are many a wonderful, entertaining, informative blog I have added to my bookmarks on the crackberry that I would like to add here.

An update was requested, I believe by fellow blogger linked above in a comment on my last post.

~~Rural living is very special.

• My gas and electric bill are now separate
• In fact, I have to order the gas, AND it's propane
• The people who work at the propane place are rather dense
• I have a septic system requiring me to call and have our waste pumped away
• Weird
• Garbage must be driven in to "town" on Saturdays, they do not pick it up
• $2 per bag! But "recycle" is free
• We are now recycling for the first time ever
• When the wind blows and you live in the middle of nowhere.....will anyone hear you scream?
• It's nice when you have a cop on hand to escort you into the house in the middle of the night with his 9mm when there are rabid horses stalking you from the neighboring field
• Wind storms can knock the electricity out for hours at a time in the middle of the night
• Not so great when your husband needs electricity to run his CPAP machine so he can rest

Other than that all is well.

Ok, maybe not.

~~A devastating tragedy has afflicted our family over the last few months. One of my step-daughters has been the victim of a sexual assault. It has waged a spiritual battle in our family. Not only has it caused much stress for her, but my husband is beside himself with grief, guilt, and sadness.

Trying to deal with the consequences of the circumstances has caused even more hardship in our family. We are fighting tooth and nail to gain primary physical placement of our daughter. Her mother obviously opposes this. We have shared placement of both the girls equally for 7 years. However, with the assault having taken place in the township (less than 3000 people) where her mother lives, and under her mother's care, we have decided she would be physically and emotionally safer under or care and OUT of that school district.

The hardship of having to travel back and forth to the courthouse and lawyer's office with my babies in the car has begun to drive me to the brink of insanity. Not to mention the constant vigil answering the phone calls between the police, lawyer, social workers, counselor, school officials, and her mother. I can't even stand it.

Unfortunately for our daughter, her mother doesn't really see the "problem". Some comments we have gotten from her (and I am not exaggerating or joking here):

"We should just put her on birth control."

"I don't know why you feel so sorry for [her], she wanted this to happen."

"No one will talk about it. They'll be over it soon."

"If you tell the cops it will just cause everyone a lot more trauma."

"Kids will be kids."

Seriously. She's 13. The "offender", as the District Attorney is calling him, is 18. Yep. And her mother sees no problem. Didn't want us to go to the police. Obviously, getting a predator off the streets would be the last thing on our mind. Yeah, especially since my husband, her father, is a COP. That is the last thing we'd do. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Oh, and the fact that we weren't told about it as soon as she (the mother) found out - that doesn't bother us at all. No really, it's totally fine for you to wait 10 days to tell us. And then only tell us because our daughter was "supposed to tell" us, but didn't. Of course you should leave it up to a 13 year old victim of a crime to inform her father of the crime. You shouldn't bother picking up the phone, being the adult, and telling him yourself. Nope. You acted like a completely competent, normal, sane parent.

Oh wait. There's more. When he confessed, which he did do after we took our daughter to the police to tell her story, he also confessed to doing this to no less than 3 other girls. Three. Other. Girls. Age of consent in the state I reside in is 16. This miscreant, this fiend, wasn't in a relationship with any of these girls. Not that status would make the act of his addiction OK - but it would explain more. This creep was preying on young girls that were friends of his little sister. Genius. Or scary. Take your pick.

There are more details than I care to recall. And anyway, this is not the appropriate medium for those details. If you know me, ask me sometime about how eye opening it was to read the police report. I still have not shared it with my husband. He knows we have it, but feels it prudent not to lay his eyes upon it.

This is the real reason I haven't blogged much. Well, that and the stubbornness on my part to take the time to blog from my blackberry.

Anything else (other than my very long rant)?

~~Oh yes. I have been knitting - a sweater and a pair of socks. The former for my husband. The latter for the Boy. Did you know that when you are knitting a circumference of 59" a skein of yarn only makes 4" of height? So even though I've been knitting my butt off, the sweater remains a mere 7" in depth. It will be at least 20" to the armpits, then there are two sleeves, and the yoke/shoulders. I only have 7 skeins of yarn. I'm going to need more yarn. That translates to, "I get to visit the knitting store again soon!" Woot-woot for me!

The socks will probably be done first. :P

~~Flower is the cutest 3 year old ever. She says super cute things and does super cute things.

She is constantly putting all her "babies" to sleep all over the house. She covers them with whatever is handy: a washcloth, a baby wipe, a clean pair of underwear from the laundry basket. You know, whatever looks like a blanket. Her "babies" can also be whatever's handy: a remote, a hairbrush, her "duke", a shoe.

When she wants to be picked up she says, "I want to pick YOU uppie." I ask, "You want to pick ME uppie?" "Yesh," is her answer. Really.

~~Lovey can walk. And run. He has an opinion. He is sick of his sister beating him up. He has a love for steps and a fear for NOTHING. He has a set of curls across the nape of his neck that I could just eat up.

~~If you do not care to hear of fertility issues GO TO THE NEXT SECTION.

I am fertile again. How do I know this? I got my period. For. Ten. Days. 10. T-E-N. It was looooong.

It wasn't that unpleasant, just never ending.

I had to wash pads 4 times.

Yes, I use cloth menstrual pads. No, it's not gross. Yes, I wash them in my washing machine where all my other laundry is done. No, it doesn't bother me. I've used cloth diapers extensively. They feel better against my skin. They are pretty and soft. They make me feel happy and lovely at a time when most likely I would be feeling icky and run down. Organic bamboo velour - look it up.

~~I have been asked (and I may have said something about this already, so forgive me) to be the Confirmation Sponsor for a dear friend's daughter! It was the daughter's Guardian Angel (she tells me) that thought of me. I guess I never expected that I would ever be considered for such an honor as a Sponsor or a Godparent, etc., being that I am myself a new convert.

It's very cool. I am a little nervous as to my exact role and what things I should be doing for her. For now, I pray. I know I can do that. My sponsor was really awesome about answering questions about the Faith, bringing me little presents at important ceremonies throughout the year leading up to my confirmation, sending me cards here and there in the mail with inspirational messages, etc. I hope I can live up to the call.

~~Lawyers are EXPENSIVE. Really. I wish I could charge $200/hour on the phone and $300/hour in person. Although he is very good. But it would be awful expensive for my children to have a mother if I charged those kind of rates. Can you imagine - "Mom, can I ask you a question?" "I don't know, you got 10 bucks?"

~~Cops don't make a lot of money. It's been a year at this cop's salary and we have finally exhausted our savings. It's down to $5. We are praying for a miracle.

~~I am very much looking forward to Mass tomorrow. All Saint's Day beats out Halloween any day in my book.

Something I've been wondering lately....

How do those who don't knit deal with stress.

Without my yarn and needles, I might just kill someone.

Discuss.

Blackberry Blogging vs Normal Blogging

Normal: have access to a full keyboard and typing speed of 80 words per minute; thumbs responsible for space bar only

Blackberry: must type entire post with thumbs, requiring more brain power and agility than thumbs are comfortable with and thus reducing my wpm speed to 20

Normal: able to view internet in it's entirety - all links, photos, videos available in an "easy to read" format, making sense

Blackberry: links lost in cyberspace, photos upload in minutes rather than seconds (if at all) and all videos become the word "Flash" with techno babble typed after it

Normal: able to link to other bloggers and websites in an aesthetically pleasing way in my posts

Blackberry: must paste the entire link, if I can even figure out how to produce it on this ¤#*!, thus reducing my blogger savvy points to nil

Normal: can produce italics or even bold font to enhance my readers' understanding of my posts and easily distinguish between sarcasm and normal "speech"

Blackberry: browser is truncated and blogger functions with no buttons leaving me to *star* items of interest or CAPITALIZE ENTIRE PHRASES AS THOUGH I AM YELLING to make my point

Normal: can easily add photographs from the internet or my own collection to supplement the viewing experience of this blog

Blackberry: huh?

Normal: can type and edit numerous posts in one kid-free hour at night and set then up to post automatically throughout the week

Blackberry: must painstakingly type slowly and rack my brain to stay committed to each and every post for no less than 1/2 hour and still have no italics, bold face, links, or photos to show for it all the while listening to my kids try and tear each other apart (which is happening right now) causing me to truncate my post(s)

-H

Blog, Interrupted

"You are not currently connected to any network."

My computer triumphantly tells me this everytime I log on.

Why not just say:

"You're unconnected."
"You have been disconnected from the outside world."
"Don't even think about rejoining society any time soon."
"No one wants to connect with you."

Ok, that last one is a little bit of my own insecurities shining through.

Still.

I am unconnected. I sit and type with my thumbs and it's not the same. I have looked into satellite internet. Expensive. I miss my DSL. Dial up would make me cry and render everything unreachable and obsolete.

Not to mention that aside from missing my blogging, many other extreme, stressful situations require my attention at this time.

If anyone is still reading this, please pray for healing, spiritually and emotionally, for my daughters. And, as always, continued conversion of my husband's heart. (Yes, I realize that wasn't a complete sentence. Yes, I homeschool. Scary, I know.)

-H

Liturgical abuses.....

....make Baby Jesus cry.

And my friends, he cried a lot today.

Please pray for my local parish. Today was the first Mass I attended here. I am seriously thinking that the hour and a half drive to the Cathedral Parish in the Big City might not be such a hardship after all.