Small Stuff for Tuesday

I just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird and my, had I forgotten what an incredible book that is! Husband read it to One as his bedtime reading, and then I picked it up as soon as they were done. There are so many lessons to teach your children in there - and not just about race. "I love everyone", says Atticus. So should we all.

Tony Woodlief has a good piece on the human need for blood and mystery in faith, titled, of course, Blood and Mystery. What he said. Jen Fulweiler blogs about much the same thing in this post. What I like: "...the more I received the Eucharist, the more I understood in both my mind and my heart that this is indeed life-giving food for the soul. I've come to see the genius of God giving himself to us in such a primal way, and what an unfathomable gift it is that he strengthens us with his own physical being."

On another note: not only am I assaulted with a 10 year old's love of facial hair (he's starting comparing mustaches with classmates now - good Lord), I am attacked with a 7 year old's stories of the potty. Yesterday after school Two regaled me with a story - very important to him, I could tell - of how all the "spots" in the boys' bathroom were taken up by him and his friends. "And we all flushed at the same time! Isn't that cool?!" Help me.

My heart has been crushed by the departure of David Tennant from Doctor Who. The replacement, Matt Smith, looks and acts like Matthew Modine, Jr. To compensate, they've given him a better-looking traveling companion. I hope the demographics for the show were already 89% male, because that's where they're going.

Check out this great free podcast of children's books: Under the Grapevine. It includes several of the Narnia chronicles. Good stuff.

An obituary for you: Michael Stoop, a war hero, gambler, and the man who lent Lord Lucan the car in which he made his getaway. Whew.

In closing, a diet update: the diet actually disappeared 5 or 6 weeks ago, due to the ridiculous amount of work I was facing at the end of the fiscal year. I'm not sure if it will come back anytime soon; since stopping dieting I've lost another 1.5 lbs. I will be getting back to the gym soon; I liked the "getting in shape" part of the diet best. But unless I start to gain weight back, I'm not sure I'll start counting calories any time soon. If I can take an inch or so off a few places via exercise, I think I'll be happy walking into 40 where I am.