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1. I am happy to report that despite a few set backs this spring, my oldest son starts a new job on Monday! His hourly rate is higher than what he was making before and there is a lot of opportunity for overtime pay. In addition to that, he will be getting some of the unemployment he appealed for AND he will be able to work as an EMT once a week at a local community EMS department so he can keep his skills up. So for that son, life will be good for a while!

2. Encouraged by his past in the U.S. History I CLEP test, Sam has earned 4 more college credits this week by taking these FEMA tests. He said they are very interesting and easy credits to get. Sam has also been enhancing his work at the pizza shop by taking pizzas out to the local car dealerships and work shops three days a week. He makes a percentage of the pizza and subs he sells and last week he made close to $200 extra! That’s pretty good work for him. So for that son, life is busy but good too.

3. and then there’s Gabe – the son that is not sure what he wants to do after high school and is in no hurry to find out. Then I heard him practicing his drums this week and he absolutely nailed the Samba which is something like this…

and the Bassa Nova.

I really think this kid needs to do this after high school.

4. Fascinating great article here entitled, “Why You Don’t Have to Use NFP. Since I am past childbearing it is interesting for me to watch younger Catholic women still arguing this stuff – only when I was having babies it was NFP vs. artificial birth control (although I think that debate will always exist!) Now the argument seems to be between women who are trying to be faithful to church teaching and trying to figure out whether or not to use NFP at all. It has always bothered me that it seemed to be expected of couples that they absolutely would use NFP, and I didn’t see how that was any different from non-Catholic couples being expected to use artificial birth control. At the same time I knew that because we are fighting a culture that looks very favorably on contraceptives, getting couples to use NFP instead was a victory of sorts. For the record, Mr. Pete and I did take NFP training before we got married and then we practiced it for probably a few years or so and then very sporadically thereafter mainly just to figure out what was going on with my body. Eventually we weren’t using it at all. That was very freeing.

5. A very sad story from the New York Times about our students being hobbled by debt. I keep finding articles like this and share them with Sam and Gabe – and at least Sam becomes more determined to double down and take his College Plus! education seriously.

6. I had everyone else’s laundry done today but my own! I literally had nothing to wear to the soccer field today! SO I pulled on this dress I bought last year as a last resort. I bought it because it has a denim top with a little pocket and a high waist with a flowing skirt, but when I got it home it made me look pregnant – ugh. But this year It didn’t! It still fit a little snug across the chest and arms, but I can tell that I have definitely made some progress this year in reshaping my body and I was happy about that! I ended up wearing it to Walmart where I quickly bought some shorts and a shirt on sale and was able to wear that in comfort around the soccer field today.

7. Long-time readers might remember that I have a special interest in breast and ovarian cancer since both of those have struck close to home over the past three years. So when I saw this video by Suzanne Somers on regrowing her breast from her own stem cells, I was absolutely amazed! I don’t think this would work for everyone, but it certainly could work for a lot of women and might be preferable to TRAM Flap reconstruction and even implants. Incidentally, Ms. Somers, who had her cancer diagnosed in 2001, did not have chemo but opted for surgery and radiation. She also continues to take her bio identical hormones. So far, so good I guess.