The Mom Weekly Volume 4—Tuesday, August 15
Happy Tuesday! Today is the feast of the Assumption, so don’t forget to go to Mass. In addition to being a Holy Day of Obligation, it’s a big Catholic feast for Italians. I have this memory—but only when I was very young—of being in Wildwood, NJ, on our family beach vacation. We attended Mass for the Assumption, and afterwards the congregation walked down to the beach for the blessing of the ocean.
It is a dreamlike memory for me, almost in black and white, but very vivid. So I thought to myself, maybe it’s not real and I just made it up? But it turns out that this is a longstanding tradition in Wildwood (and doubtless elsewhere), and is happening this year, too.
Why I read the entirety of Carol Ryrie Brink’s Baby Island the other night, and some of my favorite quotes from it.
I’m “buddy reading”with two of my sisters the novel Babel by R.F. Kuang, an “historical fantasy epic.” The main characters attend a fictional college at Oxford, and language study and translation figure prominently. You had me at “Oxford” ! At first I found it terrific, but now I’m on the fence about it–it’s taken a really dark turn in the latter half of the book.
This is how dark: The other night, I began reading a chapter at bedtime, and was so disturbed by what I read that I need to read anything else.
[I have since finished “Babel,” and my rating would be 1.5 stars, when I started the book thinking it would be 5 stars. That doesn’t happen very often!
However, the translation part of the novel is compelling. That reminded me of this NY Times multi-media look at how translation happens. It’s really worth exploring—give it a look! ]
So I looked at my Kindle app, and I ended up reading the entirety of Baby Island, Carol Ryrie Brink’s hilarious midcentury children’s novel about two girls who get stranded, with four babies, on a deserted island. It couldn’t be more wonderful, or less like Babel.
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
……
Most girls of twelve would have been frightened, but Mary Wallace was not an ordinary girl.……
“Because shipwrecked people always do,” said Mary decidedly. “Why, the public library at home is just full of books about shipwrecked people who landed on tropical islands. And did you ever see a book written by a person who was drowned at sea? I never did.”…..
“We mustn’t forget our grammar just because we’ve become sailors, Jean.”…….
“Perhaps a sight of the babies will soften his heart,” she said. “It’s wonderful what the sight of a sweet, clean baby will do to a hard and cruel heart!”….
“You hardly ever see anyone acting bad on a full stomach.”……
“Down, down, I went, just into the hedge of the river, an’ there a alligator caught me an’ bit off me toe as neat s your granny could do it with her shears.”….
Once Mr. Peterkin’s hard heart had started to soften, it was just like ice cream in the sun. … Naturally he still grumbled a good deal and pretended to be angry with them all, but after all one can’t throw of the habits of years in a moment.……
As the girls often remarked, Ann Elizabeth was probably the cutest baby ever seen. She was plump and dimpled, with shiny curls that stood up all the wrong way on the back of her head, and big blue eyes. But it very much looked as if her fatal beauty had made her lazy.…..
“ Pit it out. ‘Pit it out right away.”…..
Ann Elizabeth gave Mr. Peterkin a long look, and then her face dimpled into a lovely baby smile.“Pitty,” said Ann Elizabeth, touching his fierce black whiskers. “Pitty-pitty.”Mr. Peterkin was embarrassed, but he was also just a little flattered. Nobody had ever before called his beard pretty.……..
It makes me smile just to see the quotes again. And also: notice how Mary Wallace gets all the best lines? 🙂
So this week’s advice would be, have a source of comfort reading (topic of a future post)to use when needed.
Love,
Mom
Interesting/Worthy
A worthy read: For Luck in Love, Couples Are Breaking Plates (On Purpose)
From the New York Times: In Germany, smashing porcelain plates is a time-honored wedding custom that is said to bring good fortune and harmony to newlyweds.
“The act of breaking plates is believed to represent a couple’s first moment of unity and teamwork. … “It symbolizes working as a team in life and in their marriage.”
I love this tradition so much, and I wish I had known about it when Dad & I were married. Something to consider, especially since you kids are 1/4 German (from my half-German)!
A worthy listen: The Free Press Debate
If I lived anywhere near Los Angeles, I would immediately get tickets to attend this debate hosted by The Free Press.
The debate is to answer the question: “Has the sexual revolution failed?” and features four prominent women, two on each side.
When I told one of my children—who shall remain nameless but who is the oldest—that one of the pro-sexual revolution debaters is the musician Grimes , she said, confidently, “Mom, no, it is NOT Grimes” and I said, “I assure you, it is Grimes.” So daughter looked it up on her phone to prove I was wrong, but it turns out I was correct.
Let me move on so I do not gloat about being right, as Moms often are, and since last week I admitted that Moms can make mistakes. 😉
My main reason for wanting to see the debate mostly to hear Louise Perry speak live. Her book, The Case Against the Sexual Revolution is a must-read, in my opinion.
If you don’t want to invest the time in reading it, I highly recommend watching/listening to this conversation she had earlier this year with Ali Abdaal.
An action item:
Sign up for text message alerts from your financial institutions. For this week, just start with one account—perhaps a credit card, or your bank account.
Most banks and credit cards—really, financial institutions of all sorts—have alert features you can sign up for.
One of the best features is text message (or email) alerts whenever there is any activity in your account. This way, if there’s a charge you don’t recognize, you can contact the company right away. I find it very useful for keeping track of expenses, as well.
To do this, you can search for the “manage alerts” tab or section. Even easier, Google, “how to set up alerts.” I did this for Capital One and the top result was this, from Capital One. It couldn’t be easier!
What are you doing this weekend?
The Mom Weekly schedules to post on Tuesdays. One of the reasons for this is to encourage you (and me, too!) to think about weekend plans. All too often, I have let that go until Friday, and then it’s hard to get people together, or make plans for coffee, or figure out when you go to Mass (other than the default, which is what we typically do).
So, now that it’s Tuesday, what are you planning for the weekend? I’m going to suggest trying to cover four “F”s to get ideas flowing:
*faith—when are you going to Mass?
*friends—what friends will you see or connect with?
*food—any fun recipes you plan to try, or restaurants you plan to visit?
*fun—anything interesting you are going to play, watch, or do this weekend? Now’s the time to think it through, and put it on the calendar (even informally).