7 Quick Takes Friday--on Saturday

Ok ok, so I'm a day late for 7 quick takes, but I have been so busy and drained I can barely drag around these days to read other people's blogs, let alone come up with 7 coherent ideas of my own, lol.  SO, please excuse the delay.

1) As I was perusing our local Catholic store today--my favorite thing to do on a Saturday--I ran across this lovely----statue or something---of St Francis of Assisi and his animal chums.  It had a flat back with a hole for hanging, so it was obviously meant to be hung on a wall or something, and at the base it had a bowl of sorts made of grass. I could not decide it it was a holy water font or perhaps a rosary holder--BUT nay, 'twas not. In the packaging it said it was a BIRD FEEDER!   And here it is:

St Francis the bird feeder

Well, in MY house and my mind he's going to be a rosary dish/holder, and that's that.

2)  I talked with my lovely nieces last night--Kathleen, who is two years younger than myself, and Colleen, who is 9 months older than I.  My brother was 21 when I was born, already married and with a daughter. My sister, 17 at my birth, always said I threw her out of the house, taking over her room with my baby implements and forcing her out to the local YWCA to live, where she met and married a lovely Catholic gentleman and had three lovely children of her own.  My nieces and nephews were almost like siblings to me, as they were much closer in age, and we saw them very often as I was growing up in Southern California.  Kathleen and Colleen were closest in age to me, and have both led hard lives as have I, but have turned out to be beautiful, strong people (as have all my nieces and nephews). They made me laugh last night on the phone for the first time in a month, since we got the awful news about my husband.  I bless them for that.

Kerry, Colleen and Kathleen, circa 1970

3) A book I have been reading lately is called "Travel Guide to Heaven" by Anthony DeStefano. It makes Heaven sound like someplace you absolutely cannot WAIT to get to--no angels on clouds plucking harps, but a beautiful place of nature, houses of incredible awesomeness, and all the ones you loved who died in Christ--and above all, the beatific vision!  It's a must read, based totally on scripture and tradition, written in a lighthearted but not joking manner, and it is helping my husband feel much better,

4) Gray carpets should be illegal.   Really. My carpeting is so old and so dingy that it is no longer possible to tell what color it was originally.  Only I know it was once light gray---3 kids, 5 dogs, and three daycare babies ago.

5) I love reading about large families--especially large Catholic families! I love reading how they function, make things work, get by financially, live the liturgical year at home, all that good stuff. I only wish I had become one sooner, and had had a chance to welcome more little ones into the world.  But hey, my oldest son is getting married soon, in April, so maybe I will have some grandbabies to cuddle!

Aren't they cute?

6)  Please continue to pray for my husband's health and the full conversion of his soul to Jesus.  Going to M.D. Anderson in Houston for more tests this week.

7)Please keep praying for Jen Fulweiler over at Conversion Diary, taking care of a houseful of little ones while pregnant and with pulmonary emboli due to a blood condition.   Hail Mary full of grace, please wrap your mantle around Jen and intercede for her health.