7 Quick Takes

1.  I saw this on Fr. Z earlier today, and it looks like a good idea.  Remember, a bishop is responsible for the care of all the souls in his diocese; he is the shepherd.  Remember also, that although God gives him special graces appropriate to his office, the bishop is still a frail and fallible human being.  Remember furthermore that our fight is against principalities and powers, etc.  The fallen angels hate and work against bishops even more than the rest of us.  Whether you think he's doing a great job, or you think there are a couple things he could do better, your bishop needs your prayers.  This website organizes people to pray a rosary for their local bishop (or any other bishop).  Just sign up, and they will send you an email reminder of the day you promised to pray for your bishop.  Check out Rosary for the Bishop.  I think it's pretty cool.

 2.  I took this picture after Lucy had fallen asleep on the couch snuggling with her daddy.  She's holding a tiny icon.  It has a magnet on the back, and it is usually on the refrigerator, but on this particular day it captured her attention and she wanted to hold it and look at it.  She fell asleep holding that little icon, and she looked so sweet that I took a picture.  When she woke up she saw it in her hand and said "Ooh!" and carried it around a while longer.

3.  My old camera was on its last legs, so we used some money we were given as a Christmas present to buy a new camera.  I think the dark corners on the upper left and lower right of the picture above were caused by the lens cover not opening completely.  I'm delighted with the new camera.  This is one of the pictures I took trying out the new camera.  In this picture I was testing its ability to focus very, very close to the subject.  What better to photograph than my wedding and engagement rings?

4.  Lucy has recently become a very helpful little girl.  She puts dirty clothes into the hamper.  At bathtime, after getting undressed and putting her clothes into the hamper, she takes her shoes and toddles (in nothing but a diaper) to the other end of the house to go put her shoes under her bed.  She also brings toys to Linus when he gets bored and starts to fuss; I only had to explain to her once that she should hold the toy by his hand instead of trying to shove it into his mouth!

5.  Linus also likes to "help" with laundry.  He is very entertained if I fold laundry on top of him.  It doesn't result in the most neatly folded laundry ever (although, to be honest, I wasn't going to be winning any laundry-folding contests anyway), but it does result in folded laundry (which is better than wadded up in a laundry basket) and a happy baby.

6.  Lucy has been steadily acquiring new words.  When she finishes with a meal and I ask if she wants to drink any more milk she says, "Away!"  When she sees her brother bouncing in the jumperoo she says, "Juh, juh, juh," and bounces herself.  Chair comes out "choo" (it took me almost a week to figure out what that word meant!), and she refers to the rocking chair as "rock-oo" -- her first two-syllable word (that is, two different syllables).

7.  But when I walk into the room and Lucy says "MAMA!" several times with great enthusiasm, my heart melts.  Aren't babies wonderful?

Have a great weekend and go visit Conversion Diary for more quick takes!