Good thing maybe I only had one girl

...who I lost in the womb. If one can name a lost unbaptized child, I did, as Johanna Christine, not one of my chosen names.

But, if she would have had sisters, as one of my friends said, it is rather good no girls came along with my choices of names. However, I love these names and the saints connected.

First, Aleth, after Blessed Aleth of Montbard, St. Bernard's mum. All the girls would have had a Marian name second.

Second, Olga, after the great "Equal to the Apostles" St Olga of Kiev, (another family name)...

Third, Rosemary, just because it is such a beautiful English name....

Fourth, Audrey, which is a variation of guess who?--- St. Etheldreda...

Fifth, and I never imagined beyond five girls, Gwendolyn, unashamedly literary, but there is a St. Gwenn of Wessex, and we lived in old Wessex near her hermitage for a while, well not too far, as Marshwood Vale is in Dorset and we were in Sherborne. Her bones may be in Whitchurch Canonicorum, the only shrine not to be destroyed in the revolt under Henry VIII. 

Good thing...

...I only had one boy. I would have named number two Anselm, number three Bernard, and number four Bramwell. Such a strange name...my son had the entire series of Old Bear books, which included Bramwell. Number five would have been Vaclav, (a family name), number six, Charles, (a family name), number seven, Johannes, (John being a family name), number eight Nicholas, (yet another family name), number nine being Placid, companion to Benedict, number ten coming in with Maxim, short for Maximus the Confessor and last, but not least, Paulinus, after Augustine of Canterbury's companion. If there had been twelve, Jacques would have followed, (not James, for a reason I cannot explain), as long as he was never Jimmy.

Of course, there is no saint Bramwell, but I would have stuck Augustine of Canterbury in there. as his second name. Bramwell Augustine of Canterbury.

I just wanted a cricket "eleven" team at home behind the house, plus one or two to watch with me...sigh. Girls' names coming up next...

I use to drink tea, but....

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/dec/19/tea-coffee-drinkers-sales?CMP=twt_gu

Wow, The Modern Mom - A Complete Cop-Out of Authority

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/11/sexy-selfies-upset-parents-texan-mother?CMP=twt_gu

Since when has adolescence been all about sex? I am astounded by this mom's article, but now I understand all the kids out there without moral frameworks. With moms like these, who needs predator training? That a grown woman would be so naive and slanted towards sexual permissiveness not to see that a child who is doing things as described in the article is already perverted is breath-taking.

Catholic parents, home school. I really do not see that you have a choice with parents of kids out there who see nothing wrong with sexually provocative selfies on cell phones.

We need a counter-culture NOW.

Adolescence is about many, many things other than just sex. It is a time of discovering gift, vocations, growing in responsibility, becoming confident through responsibility.

A snippet.

And adolescence is a lot about sex, too; one of the ways that sexual attraction is played out these days is on the internet. Teenagers of both sexes have always experimented with their sex appeal, and one of the big differences between our day and theirs is that this experimentation has other outlets in 2013. I'm not saying it's good, and I'm not saying it's bad – what I am saying is that it's something we did too when we were young, just in a different way.


Selfie advice
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1682352/an-app-for-cats-to-take-selfies

For Cute Wednesday: Cute American Habits

http://goo.gl/NHIgS

OK--repeat of two out three of the most adorable cats in the world...

Happy Mother's Day, Two

Nostalgia Two

And, I know the young ones will not believe this, but those of us in the post-war generation had tin toys.

 Yes, tin. Some were tin and plastic.

Tin tea sets, tin doll houses, tin trucks..tin watering cans...my doll house and my watering can looked just like these. One of my brothers had a pop truck, or soda truck, as some called it.

I had baby toys made out of tin-rattles and other things which would be frowned upon today. Tin soldiers were still being made. Are they now?

My earliest memory of a special toy was my tin tea set, red with dogs, cats, girls, boys and red tulips on the pieces. My brother had a tin turtle and the head moved.

Even better, I had a tin motel, complete with rooms and plastic furniture, and a center with the foyer and desk. Trendy. If anyone can find a photo of the tin motel, let me know. Mine had two more rooms than this one seen on the box, but was similar. The funiture was white and green and like this set EXACTLY.  Wow!

Toddlers had tin tops which made noises, like a hum.

I had a little tin cooking stove like this one with small pots and pans. It was in much better shape than the one for sale above.



We survived. We have brains. No nanny states then.

Simpler days. Do any readers remember these toys?

Umm, we also had toy gun and holster sets. Cap guns were especially cool. My two were red handled in red holsters and a belt for me to wear with my red cowgirl outfit, which looked almost identical to this one above. I lived in it in the summer. I particularly liked the hat and vest. And, yes, I had cowgirl boots as well, in red, of course.

My  brother's was brown but similar to this one below, fancier than the one above.

If you were "shot", you had to count to ten before you could get up off the grass again.

Happier days.....but, by the time my youngest two brothers came along, these things were far in the past. They grew up in the 1960s, and the space age was in full-swing. Cowboys and cowgirls became distinctly passée.

Nostalgia

Looking for a mug photo for a post for today, I was reminded of two special mugs in our house in the 1950s.

My brother had the frog at the bottom of the well mug, and I had the kitty at the bottom of the cup mug.

They resembled these and were made to encourage children to drink up all their milk.

(My cat was white with orange stripes and sitting upright.)

There was a little ditty on the outside of the mugs, which went something like this




"If you drink up all your milk, you will find what's at the bottom of the well."

Now, what is interesting is that my brother, who is one year younger than myself, and I never had trouble drinking our milk. And, of course, after the first try, we always knew what animal was at the bottom of the well.

Simpler times.....

Any readers have a mug like this or similar?

Out of pure nostalgia, I got my son a porridge bowl when he was tiny with a picture at the bottom-much in the same theme of eating all your brekkie.....It is similar to this one, only with a more complicated picture of children playing is autumn leaves. Of course, it is NOT plastic, says the Montessori Mum.

Is it snowing where you are?

Around the Net, on tlc............

Every day, this cat waits for this dog to go by at the same time...and joins him for a walk.

Wish we all had friends like this, don't you?

Cute Wednesday Two--Cute Dog

Well, I have three cat videos to one dog photo. I need some dog photos. A cute Illinois dog....very nice.

The Sartre of Cats--I love this.........what can one do about ennui?

This very intelligent cat also reminds me of Camus and L'Etranger. If I were teaching again, I would use these. I hope Henri finds meaning.....

Three Happy First Communicants-Cute Wednesday One

The face of joy and love. Praise God for raising up new generations of Catholics. Bless these three lovely children. Pray for them. Pray for vocations. I love the white mantillas and the adorable dresses. They have a great mum and a great dad. The parish priest just blessed their new rosaries.

Too cute and true not to miss

Official "Cute" Day

Maybe, because there is so much bad news, I decided today, Wednesday, is official "cute" day on this blog this week.
















I call this a "virtual vacation". 

Feel free to add to cuteness day. Babies, of course, are the cutest, in any species....

Any happy animal stories? Here is a sad one....

What would Fr. Z. say to this...?

Well, the little squirrel died of stress. I can understand that. But, a good effort none the less.. Sad animal story...do you have a happy animal story to share?

Olive oil used to rescue squirrel
August 06, 2012 15:36 GMT

(2012-08-06T15:31:20)

BERLIN (AP) -- A squirrel with olive oil? For police in northern Germany, that was a winning combination to free an animal trapped in a manhole cover.

Police spokeswoman Kathrin Feyerabend said Monday a woman on the outskirts of Hannover discovered the red squirrel Sunday after hearing its cries.

Its head was poking up above ground through a hole in a manhole cover, its body dangling beneath.

After unsuccessfully trying to push the head back through gently, police officers removed the cover and rubbed olive oil around the squirrel's neck.

Holding back its small tufted ears, they were able to successfully release it.

But Feyerabend says the happy ending was short lived -- the squirrel died several hours later, likely from stress.

The Downside of Cute

One more downside of some anime is the preoccupation with little girls in short skirts, or the "doll look". Now, I really do not like quoting the Daily Mail, but this article points out a problem I have guessed myself from the Japanese popularity of "cute" or "kawaii" in Japanese. This cult of trying to look very young and very cute, like a child, and even speaking like one, in imitation of anime heroes, both male and female. I have written on Japanese narcissism in January here on this blog and now, I think the dress and make-up reveal how far this cultural illness has gone. At first, it did seem like being cute was, well, just cute. But, now it has the horrible characteristics of androgyny as well as an inclination for child-sexual attraction. Having said all this, in European countries I have visited in the past year, the Japanese young women have not only been the most modest, but very stylish in retro clothes of high quality. They also act more feminine than their European peers.

Here is a link to the Mail article. I must confess, however, that I did have a Hello Kitty toaster, but all who know me, really, really, know I am not cute.