Maybe I'll Open a Bait Shop (that's how many cans of worms are open around here): 7 Quick Takes XXIV

It has been an interesting week on the ol' blogstead . . . One of the main goals of my blogging has become trying to affirm the different but still good choices that different moms make. My audience is mostly other Catholic moms. We share the primary goal of getting ourselves and our children to Heaven (and the secondary goal of getting them to pick up after themselves). It feels great when I find something that really works for me and my family. It feels great to share that information with others in the hopes of helping them. But just because something works for me doesn't mean it's the only good choice. I think Nella from Is There McDonald's in Heaven? says it best:

Each of these things are ideal. But they are not right. There is so little in the world, especially in the developed world, that is genuinely right or wrong. But I took these things and elevated them way beyond where they belong. It shouldn't be so emotional to let these things go in light of my situation. Cognitively it all makes sense. It's embarrassingly obvious that the right thing is to abandon homebirth, breastfeeding, and homeschooling (in part).

Head on over to her blog to see why it absolutely IS the right thing. FOR HER. (And say a quick prayer for her and her family). And thank goodness there isn't only one right way to do this! So, what the heck am I actually talking about? Well, I seem to not have a particularly good sense of what's going to bother people. I keep getting caught off guard. Last week, I wrote a very well received post about giving up vacuuming, and in the comments of that post some ladies asked me to write about how I deal with babies and sleeping. So I did. Basically, it was a "here's what works for us" post. So I was surprised when some folks were awfully disappointed in what works for us. It was certainly an interesting discussion though, and almost everyone didn't swear at me and have to be deleted. Speaking of bloggy discussions, the Catholic All Year vs Carrots for Michaelmas Flannery O'Connor-a-thon is still going strong. New and improved, now with husbands. Well, her husband anyway. I don't think I'm going to be able to get mine to weigh in. I'm pretty sure he thinks I should like Flannery O'Connor. It's been a great conversation, and the comments on the Bearman's post over there are excellent (as is the post itself). And to Cristina from All Things Reintjes, who said:

I think the comparison of Breaking Bad and O’Connor in the original post by Kendra (and please forgive me if I’m mistaken!) had less to do with the purpose or worthwhile-ness of the violence in both and more to do with the idea that both are things that all the cool Catholics are watching/reading that leave some of us feeling icky and like we would rather not watch/read them–and that that is a completely acceptable position for any (aspiring) cool Catholic to take.

You are not mistaken. You totally nailed it. I think I finally have some closure on my months-long bewilderment over Percy Jackson. Charlotte from Waltzing Matilda posted a review. So, as I keep doing every time I see a new Catholic mom review of it that doesn't note the issues that I saw as morally problematic, I begged for someone to explain to me why I seem to be the only Catholic mom who has a concern about that book beyond the fact that it's just not particularly well-written. And for the first time, someone did explain it to me. And it helped. So thank you to Charlotte for pointing out that what I perceived as Percy's mom murdering her husband, would probably more rightly be interpreted as an eternal imprisonment (which I'm okay with, if he really is abusive and not just smelly) and to Cari from Clan Donaldson for her perspective on the mom (I probably AM being too hard her, but I just doanliker). Speaking of being grateful for other bloggers, I am. I had a conversation on Facebook this week with some other Catholic Mom bloggers that touched upon: Flannery O'Connor, Crying It Out, How to React to Negative Commenters, Twilight, Age-Appropriate Reading, the Bronte Sisters, Setting One's Clothing on Fire While Cooking Dinner (that one was me), the Taming of the Shrew, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey. It was really something. And since we live all over the place, it couldn't have happened anywhere but Facebook. I can't believe I waited so long to join up. Which was all bouncing around in my head when I read this, in a blog post called Do Writers Need an Internet Platform?:

I suspect that a lot of new writers put energy into their internet presence because it feels like a constructive thing to do and it is much easier than working on their book. Because writing books is hard. Writing books is so hard that it dredges up all of our anxieties and insecurities and it makes us feel small and scared and lonely.

And I think it's totally true. I really only joined Facebook and started this blog to create an internet presence while I waited for my "real" fiction writing career to take off. But it hasn't. She's right, writing books IS hard. Great, but really, really hard. Getting the right people to read them is even harder. I have a stack of picture book manuscripts and half a YA novel that are going nowhere fast. I like them. I really do. Other people like them. But I can't seem to get past the initial interest phase from agents and publishers on the picture books. And writing a novel requires a level of focus and dedication that I don't think I'm capable of in my current state of life. I probably would have the time if I stopped blogging. But you know what? I really like blogging. I like the interactions and the reactions. I like the comments and the commenters and people sending me questions via email and links to things they think I'd get a kick out of on Facebook. I like that I get to decide to hit "Publish" and boom it's done, rather than rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and sending it off into the abyss of the unsolicited submissions department of a literary agency. Hard things are worthwhile and good for me. But I'm feeling more and more like the easier thing might also be the better thing for me. At least for the time being. I recommend this round-up of 5 of the Fiercest One-Liners in History. Happy weekend everyone!