Elena 
Join the other Quicktakers at This Ain’t the Lyceum
1. Rosie and I are using Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology by Jeannie Fulbright for science this year. We were finishing up the chapter on immunity and I was a little surprised by the section on vaccinations. They explained how immunity and vaccination worked, but the slant was definitely on the pro-vaccination side with a sentence about how parents who decline vaccination should consider all of the risks!
I am not anti-vaccine, but I am pro-informed consent! So I found it disheartening that the book didn’t also have a paragraph about the risks of vaccination. In the interest of giving Rosie a complete education on this topic, I had her listen to an old talk I had on my MP3 period by Dr. Patrick Johnston about the history and risks of vaccinations. That talk apparently is no longer available at my original source, but you can listen to Dr. Johnston discuss this topic here.
2. Sometimes, you can have a low-key approach to celebrating the holidays – and that’s the approach we took to St. Patrick’s Day yesterday. This year I decided to have St. Joseph and St. Patrick share the table centerpiece!
Rosie updated her Peg Saints for St. Joseph and St. Patrick
and then the granddaughters and great granddaughter of Virginia McGuirk enjoyed shamrock shakes to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day!
3. Noah has a milestone birthday coming up next week – on Good Friday. So since we won’t be doing a lot of celebrating on that day, we are having a big party on Saturday this week – the Saturday before Holy Week! He didn’t want a lot of friends (in fact he said he didn’t want his friends) but we are going to have all the family we can manage and I think that will be nice.
4. So what do you get a young man who has pretty much everything he needs and can’t seem to think of anything he wants? I decided to get something sentimental and am going with a religious medal of his favorite saint, (St. Polycarp) and having it engraved on the back. I ordered it online from The Catholic Shop and it came in a little over a week. We’ll see how he likes it.
5. Anti-Catholicisms is alive and well and over the past two weeks, has hit pretty close to home. I had to break off things with my brother-in-law on Facebook. I tried to leave comments that were uplifting but challenging and he continued to just be insulting. When his posts started insulting Christians and Catholics in particular I decided I’d had enough. How many times can you slam your hand in the car door before pulling it out? I opted to just quit playing.
The straw that broke the camel’s back:
Also last week, I learned that a young Christian lady (from some homeschooling circles that we are associated with) told a Catholic young man that he would have to give up his Catholic faith before they could date. He declined. But I wonder, how much respect could she have had for him if he so willing gave up his faith just for a date? It seems crazy to me.
6. If you’re only a 7-Quick takes Reader, you might be interested in three other recent posts of mine that are getting some traction.
Moving Back Alley Abortions into the Clinics
High School Literature vs. Smut
On Catholicmom.com – Getting the Most out of the Rest of Lent
7. Bravo to Ted Cruz who handled this topic on the campaign trail about Climate Change with graceful elocution and facts. I particularly enjoyed the part where he mentions that 40 years ago, they were teaching global cooling to the grade schoolers! I distinctly remember that – but it’s something people 35 and under might not even be aware of.