Camping Panic Takes

--- 1 ---

Meg and I are hitting the road today for another American Heritage Girls camping trip this weekend.  It's "family camping" but we're the only ones from the family who can go.  Fortunately, lots of other moms are in the same position this weekend.

I was seriously panicking yesterday evening when I realized I had absolutely no time in which to prepare for this trip.  Fortunately, my good friend Veronica called and was amenable to cancelling our plans for this morning, freeing up 6 whole hours in which to read blogs and blog  pack and prepare food.

--- 2 ---

"Happiness is a warm puppy.  Gus is sleeping in my lap, which is an extremely rare treat.  Usually, if we're holding him it's a wrestling match to keep him from chewing our clothes and hands!"

That's from last week.  We've had a few good days in a row, but he's in all out terror mode this morning for some reason.  I thought he might want to go out again, but when I took him out he was backing up and snarling!  He was fine once I got him off the porch, did a little business, and we came back in, but he's still very ornery today!

--- 3 ---

Can I do another Quick Take on Gus?  We took him back to the vet for shots where we found out that he weighs a whopping 4.4 lbs. now.  Woot!  1.4 lbs. in 3 weeks!  One of the kids said he's as big as a baby now.  Um, no.  Those are more like 10 lbs. at this age, if not more.

The vet said he might be part Cairn terrier instead of Westie because he doesn't see any white on him. He said it "shines through."   Funny though, his color has started changing along with the fall leaves.  He's lightening up.  His belly looks black and white now, quite zebra-ish.  And when I walk him in the sunshine, he has this white shimmer about him.

Kind of like a halo.  But not, since he's a devil dog.

--- 4 ---

I'm stunned.  Awed.  I'm in good company.  I think.  Jen, hostess of 7 Quick Takes, of Conversion Diary fame, will be "hanging out at the American Heritage Girls booth" at her church festival.  Does that mean she's in AHG, too??

Their Fall Festival sounds like a blast.  I wish our Church picnic was like that!

--- 5 ---

We had a "Sing-In" (silly name!) at church on Wednesday.  Instead of our regular choir rehearsal, we met in the church with all the parishioners who wanted to learn the new Mass parts we'll be singing.  There were about a dozen people there besides the choir.  Very disappointing.  I can't figure out what the problem is; and neither can the pastor & music director.  I have my suspicions though:  not enough has been said by the pastor from the pulpit about the new changes and the reasons for them, and most people really don't care for the contemporary music.  You will find most of the congregation actually singing only at the 10:30 a.m. Mass where the traditional music is sung.  Our new Mass is unremarkable.  It's simple,  and fairly easy to learn.  In fact, I have some of it stuck in my head----I'll find myself humming and wonder:  what is that I'm humming?  And I realize, oh, it's the Mass.
Eh.  I'm happy about the translation, though.

--- 6 ---

Thanks to Barbara's post the other day, I was inspired to upload the Rosary Army rosary to my ipod.  They have 2, a regular and a scriptural.  All the other audio rosaries I have tried have been way too agonizingly slow.  I never talk that slowly!  I was very pleased that Greg and Jennifer Willits manage to sound like normal people while praying!  In fact, I could complain that they go a hair too fast for me, but I won't.  They also have great voices.  They're easy to understand and they just plain sound good.

--- 7 ---

I have a new book to read for my camping trip this weekend.  I ordered the kindle edition of Wheat Belly by William Davis, M.D.  (He's a cardiologist, people!), so I'm psyched that I'll be able to read in the dark tent on my phone.  It's a fascinating, scary book.  I've believed for a while that wheat is killing this country (I know, I'm a whacko), even though I haven't, until recently, been able to kick the habit myself, and Davis lays it all out there.  I find it especially shocking/BraveNewWorld-ish that the wheat we ingest today is totally unrecognizable from what we ate only 200 years ago!  I don't know anyone who likes GMO's (genetically modified organisms) in their food, but wheat is exactly that, and it's in practically everything we eat!  I highly recommend that you pick it up if you have any health or weight issues.  In just the little bit that I've read, wheat can cause a myriad of problems.

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