Sort of good news! Six months after submitting a book proposal, getting an itsy bit of hopeful feedback in October, and then pretty much nothing until I emailed a desperate, "please, say something to me" email, I actually had a nice long conference call with the acquisitions editor and a product development editor. Result: I think they like my Divine Office book, but I have to rework the outline a bit and write another sample chapter. Then there's more discussion. I'm not sure how many times this cycle will repeat itself, but it seems like progress is being made.
The bad news is that stomach flu is coursing through our household. I'm not yet among the fallen, except in the sense of being about to fall over after being awake most of the night alternately urging the victim to GET IN THE BATHROOM QUICK! and cleaning floors/carpets multiple times. I am grateful that I've been stuffing outgrown tee shirts, underwear, and holey socks in the bathroom cabinet for several months. Disposable cleaning rags! So see, there is something to be cheerful about today. That, and the victim managaged to leave his bedding unspotted, a minor miracle. So far, very little laundry to do.
The first two days of our Monday thru Friday meatless lent went well. We enjoyed a dish from Celeste Behe's "40 for 12" lenten recipe blog on Wednesday night, and my favorite beans and rice dish last night. Tonight it will be fish of some sort. Not that I want to think about food right now, given #2.
Finished the FAFSA! To the uninitiated, this is the horrible federal student aid form. It requires lots of information from the student's and the parents' tax returns, so this meant my poor husband had to do the taxes, with me as the ever-required-on-hand resource for various tidbits of information about my itty-bitty freelance writing earnings.
But to balance out the bad virus and the bad taxes, the good news is that eldest son (US Navy) has been granted a hefty chunk of leave, which have him here from mid March until well after Easter!!!! We're all hugely thrilled. And whenever William gets leave to come home, he is the magnet that draws the other two up-and-gone children here, so we are hoping for an all out glorious Easter family reunion. A foretaste of heaven.
Speaking of heaven, I was watching the final episode of Fr. Barron's fabulous Catholicism dvd series the other day,where he talked about heaven. He dwelt at length on the scriptural image of heaven as the "New Jerusalem and heavenly City". It gave me pause, since I adore my rural home, and have as little to do with cities as possible. Crowds and traffic stress me so much that it's hard for me to visualize City as a positive thing.During the years that we lived within an hour or two of New York City or Los Angeles, I almost had to force myself to take occasional advantage of the cultural and entertainment treasures of those places, knowing I'd be glad once I'd gone, but anticipating the traffic and crowds with dread. Give me "Desire of the Everlasting Hills" over "New Jerusalem" every time. But Fr. Barron's commentary reminded me that we all have an ideal in our minds of community or communion that we fail to live out, because even happy city dwellers do their best to isolate themselves from their neighbors whenever possible. So I'm trying to remind myself how good it feels when all of my (large) family is at home,(see #5) and extrapolate from there that this is how I will feel in heaven, surrounded by Everyone, recognizing them all as brothers, sisters, children, cousins, etc.
I wish you all a good weekend, a blessed first week of lent, and avoidance of the stomach plague. For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
