{SQT} BFFs, No Coincidence, and CCW

I’m linking up with Kelly from This Ain't the Lyceum again this week for another 7 Quick Takes.

After I read yesterday's Gospel reading, I thought that someone needed to write a book about the words of The Lord's Prayer. Shortly after I read the Gospel, I checked my email, and this was in it:

Jennifer Fulwiler sent this free ebook to her email subscribers as a thank you! And, if that wasn't enough, in the afternoon, on my way to an appointment, I listened to her  show. She said she had a hard time with the book and faced some adversities when putting it together; she almost scrapped the whole thing. She also said she had no idea what the readings were for the day. (It was The Lord's Prayer, by the way.)

There are no coincidences.

You can get the free ebook by subscribing to her email list here. 

I sent Jennifer (yep, I think we're on a first name basis!) an email telling her about my thoughts after reading the Gospel, and look what I got: (click on the picture for a better view)

Oh, yeah! She's definitely on the friend list now!

The appointment I went to was my yearly doctor's appointment for my "lady parts". Besides the prep that has to go into it (you ladies know what I mean!), does anyone else have a good time going to their gynecologist? (I don't mean to imply that the prep is fun, just necessary!)  I only see her once a year, but we talk like we're best friends. We talk about our kids, books, movies, whatever pops into our heads. We laugh, we're serious; it's just 2 ladies who only see each other once/year acting like they're BFFs.

Every year, my BFF/gyno asks me if I want a pap smear & every year I tell her yes. It's no ride at DisneyWorld, but cancer is nothing to play around with. It has to start somewhere. I have a family member who was diagnosed with breast cancer on her 57th birthday. We only have 1 instance of cancer anywhere in the family, and that was a maternal aunt who had ovarian cancer.  So, yeah. I'll take the discomfort of a pap smear to be on the safe side. (Oh, and my family member went through chemo; no signs of the breast cancer post treatment. In fact, there weren't any halfway through, but the treatment was continued.)

One of the things I talked to my BFF/gyno about was a flyer about domestic violence. The National Council of Catholic Women (NCCW) sponsors a program called Women Healing the Wounds. I had the pleasure of listening to the developer, Kathy Bonner, during our Diocesan CCW Convention in April. She gave a powerful presentation about domestic violence. There is a flyer with tear off tabs that we're asking be placed in bathroom stalls. I (as well as my fellow CCW Officers) have been on a mission this summer to get them in faculty bathrooms in the local schools as well as in medical facilities. I told my BFF/gyno that I was going to say something to the office manager, but I wasn't sure if she would consider that being solicitation, so I just asked her. I haven't been turned down yet, and my offer to take the NCCW out of it has been met with "you don't need to do that". 

To get involved in helping get the word out, visit here, then scroll down to "Family", then click on "Women Healing the Wounds".

Is it just me, or does anyone else come up with great ideas for blog posts during Mass? And then, because, heeeelloooo, menopause, can't remember what those great ideas were once Mass is over? I've really come up with some great ones over the past 2 days, but for the life of me can't remember what they were.

I had a brilliant idea yesterday (again, during Mass, but this one I was able to hold on to!) for our parish CCW. At one time, our CCW was strong, but it's dwindled down in the past few years. We are in the rebuilding phase, so we're trying to get the ladies of the parish to get involved. We're "pounding the pavement" to build up the organization. If I talk with someone, I give them my email address and tell them to email me if they want to be included in our emails. One of the co-presidents just asks the ladies for their addresses so they can be placed on our list. My idea is to get business cards with the information (meetings, voluntary dues, FB page, etc.) so we can just hand them to ladies. No intimidation, no putting someone on the spot, just kind ladies handing out a little card with information on it! 

Do you have a CCW in your parish? If so, how active is it?