Coucoumellisms

Nosotros, las mujeres, somos hechas para amar, para dar, para acoger, para hacerle placer al otro.  Es lo que hacemos cuando amamos a alguien.  Este deseo a darlo todo, hacerle placer al otro, acoger al otro es nuestra fuerza, pero también nuestra debilidad. Es por estos mismos sentimientos que somos facilmente manipuladas. Me acuerdo muy bien como era cuando tenía 21 años.  Quieres estar con un hombre porque te gusta mucho.  Quieres pasar un rato con él. Pero no quieres sexo, no todavía.  Quieres hacerle placer, pero no quieres sexo.  Quieres un poco de afección, pero no quieres sexo.  No quieres rechazarlo, pero no quieres sexo. No quieres enojarte con él por insistir, porque tampoco no quieres ser rechazado por él, y no quieres herir sus sentimientos, porque lo quieres, pero no quieres sexo.  Terminas en aceptar más que lo que te deja cómoda, porque lo quieres, pero no quieres sexo. Antes, la sociedad tenía reglas para proteger a sus hijas ...

We women are made to love, to give, to be welcoming, to want to please.  It's what we do best when we love someone.  But this desire to give all, to please, to welcome in, also makes us easily manipulated by our emotions. I remember very well how it was when I was 21.  You want to be with a man because you really like him.  You want to spend time with him.  But you don't want sex, not yet.  You want to please him, but you don't want sex.  You want affection, but you don't want sex.  You don't want to reject him, but you don't want sex.  You also don't want to get mad at him for insisting, because you don't want to be rejected either, and you don't want to hurt his feelings, because you like him, but you don't want sex.  So you accept a little more than you're really comfortable with, because you like him, but you don't want sex. Society used to have rules in order to protect its young, open-hearted, giving, loving daughters.  Be...

Or "The Best Time I Ever had in a Pub". It was a Tuesday evening in late April or early May.  I normally work evenings past midnight, but that particular week, I got off at 8:00.  My friend Marcia had just recently found a good job, and wanted to celebrate.  So we went to a pub in the Old Saint-Jean; Glen Morgan's Irish Pub. Glen Morgan's - St-Jean-sur-Richelieu No one goes out to a bar on a Tuesday. The Pub was empty, almost, except for a group of military men in one corner.  Since there was no one else, they had commandeered the music, and were playing all kinds of old classic rock songs and laughing and singing along and generally having a grand time. After sitting by ourselves for a little under an hour, and observing them from our corner, Marcia and I decided we wanted to join in on the fun too.  So we went and sat at two available stools at the bar next to them, which immediately prompted welcoming cheers from them.  They bought us drinks ...

The following is a list of questions to be asked (without prompting) to each of my children, with the answers of each of my children, written EXACTLY as they said it. Some of these are quite astute, and others are just... funny... This was done December 24, 2016.  Jean-Alexandre was 22, Dominic was 18, Maryssa was 16, Raven was 15, Gabriel was 14 and Nicolas was 11. 1. What is something I say a lot? Jean-Alexandre: "I don't know, shuliyan." Dominic: "I don't know... LET GO OF ME!!" Maryssa: "What?!" Raven: "Vamonos" Gabriel: "Let go of me" Nicolas: "Go to bed" 2. What makes me happy? Jean-Alexandre: "I don't know, books" Dominic: "Uh... (thinking...) coffee..." Maryssa: "Books" Raven: "Soccer, a clean house, books" Gabriel: "Nothing" Nicolas: "Hugs!!" (hugs me) 3. What makes me sad? Jean-Alexandre: "I don't know, bad s...

Something someone said the other day kind of struck me.  My friend's husband left her, and among other nasty things he's said about her, he said this: she was lousy in bed. I'm sorry, but that's not even possible.  That's a figment of modern society's imagination and too much porn.  It's the idea that sex is a sport, and that people are expected to perform somehow, to keep things interesting and if they don't, then they're lousy in bed. As if switching it up, or switching partners was what made sex interesting.  As if just being with someone you find genuinely interesting wasn't enough to make sex interesting.  As if you could find sex boring with the one person you think is the most awesome, most interesting person you know. There is no such thing as being lousy in bed. If you think, (and it IS all in your head) that a person is lousy in bed, it is because YOU are not genuinely interested in them.  The problem, my friend, is with YOU....

Looking for a path to self-betterment?  Try getting married and having kids. I can't imagine a better way to make it to sainthood. Of course, this implies that you are the kind of person who will compromise, be patient and work hard at staying married and raising healthy kids. Because your marriage and your kids will require constant patience, and compromise.  You will consistently be reminded of all your shortcomings, and you will be required to admit to them and work at overcoming them.  Your faults will consistently be brought up, if not directly, then at least indirectly, by the consequences of things done, left undone or done badly.  Every fail will be revisited.  Every shortcoming will haunt you. You will be forced to learn patience in the dead of night after one more sleepless night in a row of sleepless nights.  You will learn to bite your tongue instead of lashing out.  You will learn humility, you will learn that you are not perfect....

I came across this on Facebook just now, and... I kind of felt the need to put a little input into it, just from the perspective of a 41 year old woman. First off, these aren't signs that you are falling in love.  These are signs that you are attracted to him.  Love comes after, and it has nothing to do with these things.  Love is a choice.  You found a guy you were attracted to.  Good.  He turned out to be an awesome guy.  Even better.  You think (mostly) alike on all the important issues, you complement each other, you argue, but you make compromises, and you try to understand where the other is coming from.  You don't need to compromise on the big stuff, because you agree on that.  You can talk to each other about pretty much anything.  You share the important things.  You care about the well-being of each other.  You respect each other.  The more you get to know him, the better you like him.  The more ...

What do you get when a white family moves north to live among the Cree? Dad grew up a pioneer in what was still a sparsely-settled province of Alberta. Mom grew up on a farm in New Brunswick that had been in the family for generations. Dad was a Catholic French-Canadian, whose family had been in Québec for centuries. Mom was an English speaking Anglican of Scottish and Loyalist descent who lived in an area where people were suspicious of French-speaking people. Dad liked the outdoors, hunting, snaring, trapping and camping. Mom was afraid of horses, so she rode the bony backs of cows home instead. Dad on the right, on a hunting trip What do you get when you put the two of them together? Besides a Dad who knows the name of just about every fruit-bearing tree and potato plant available in North America; a mother able to tell the difference between McIntosh, Empire, Spartan and Cortland apples (as well as a few different breeds of cow); Midnight mass at Christmas complete ...

Over at the National Catholic Register, Jennifer Fulwiler makes 5 secular arguments for not living together before marriage: 1. It makes it too easy to drift into marriage. 2. It makes the proposal anti-climactic. 3. It renders most wedding traditions meaningless. 4. It sends the message the marriage is not important to you. 5. It limits your options. The most important of these, by far, is the first: It makes it too easy to drift into marriage Practical problems like financial pressures or roommate issues can make moving in with your boyfriend or girlfriend seem to be the easiest solution, whether or not you're certain that this is the person you want to be with for the rest of your life. Then, as the months turn into years and you're still under the same roof, you naturally start thinking about marriage -- if nothing else because it seems to be the next logical step. If you've been living together long enough and things are going fine, eventually there's a...

I was given these questions to answer, some of which I answered rather briefly, as I'm not sure what anyone expected to learn from me, I am neither an expert nor very professional in the way I keep up my home, but I thought I'd post my answers here anyway.  I did try to be, if nothing else, honest. Check out From Chore to Job , where housework is taken seriously. Do you see the domestic care of the home as a profession, and if so, how does one make it "professional"? I see domestic care of the home not so much as a profession as a vocation.  Even then, it all depends on what we really mean by domestic care of the home.  If by that, we mean caring for our family and making it a good place to be, then it is a vocation.  If by that we mean keeping it neat and tidy and perfect-looking, then it is a chore. I am not professional in any sense of the word when it comes to my home.  I am disorganized and somewhat inconsistent.  The only re...

I came across this video on YouTube yesterday;  Stuff Catholic Girls say! If I were to make a "Stuff 40 Year-Old Catholic Girls Say" video, it would likely be quite different.  I'm actually rather tempted to try it out.  In the meanwhile, here are a few things 40 year-old Catholic girls might say: "I really want to hug the monks who invented Leffe." "Have you ordered your Mystic Monk coffee yet?" "My kids are all Heathens!" "I've given up looking for a husband.  I think I may just throw in the towel and become a nun." "My kids are heathen slobs who think the whole house is one huge trash can.  Why can they NEVER use a garbage can?" "I wish I had time to pray." "NO you are NOT bringing the light and sound Jedi Master light saber to mass!" "Tommy, stop trying to choke your little brother with the rosary!" "Please pray for me, I think I'm going crazy." ...

I'm beginning to think there is more to this idea that men should be the "head of the household". There is the obvious - men are physically stronger; but that's not it.  It goes deeper than that, and it isn't that women are in a lower class, and need to be told what to do either.  It isn't that at all.  Being the head does not make you the boss. If men are the head of the household, it goes without saying that women are the heart. Peter Kreeft compares men, in a talk that he gives, to reason and women to faith.  In general, this is true.  We are complementary.  He goes on to say that Christianity is a marriage.  Not just between Christ and his bride the Church, but between man (Adam) and Eve (woman), between Reason (which started with the Greek philosophers) and Faith (which started with Judaism and is completed in Christianity). When a "divorce" happens between faith and reason, the Church weakens. I know quite a few men, who seem to be ...

The traditional stockings picture The table - and my christmas log, which I actually managed to make look presentable!! The ones that made it all happen, (my sister and I) with the ones that made us want to scream... (we were a bit tired after making 15 pies, one cake, turkey, stuffing and trimming, roast beef... etc, etc...)  Note to self, DO NOT let Marc prepare the contents for chicken pot pie the evening before Christmas Eve ever again...  (Also, I really am going to have to try to bake as much as possible AHEAD of time...  We were almost too exhausted to enjoy anything!! The Christmas log, which was made for reveillon (Christmas Eve dinner) but which, on Christmas evening, has yet to be touched.  Noone's been hungry enough to eat it yet. Nicky fell asleep half-way through Dealing out gifts... :) family Brunch this... well, not morning... more like afternoon... with Rose Anne's baked Camembert

Jean-Alexandre was telling me what to get for groceries just now, so I told him to write down a list.  He did.  Here it is: - Hamburger meat - Hamburger Helper - Popsicles - 7Up - Cookies (Decadent/Chocolate Chip) - Milk - Granny Smith apples - 30" Sony Plasma TV - Nutella chocolate spread - Cream cheese (original flavour) -7.1 Dolby surround sound system - Soup (in prepared microwaveable container) - Mini Wheats cereal (original flavour) - Juice - Dove Men +Care shampoo - Dove Men +Care body wash - Xbox 360 console - Macaroni and cheese - Starbucks Doubleshot vanilla flavoured energy drinks - some healthy stuff... - Nicolas-repellent for cats - Oven mittens - iPod earphones by Apple - Pop (such as Root Beer, Coca Cola, etc...) Hmmmm... I don't think he'll be getting quite everything on his list...  Gotta love the "Nicolas-repellent for cats" though, bet Fluffy would appreciate that...

Monday evenings, I normally bring Alex's coach and his son home from practice, because they are on the way, and they don,t have a ride back.  They pick him up, so I don't have to drive him there.  Yesterday, I went to pick them up after the practice, (Alex stayed at the stadium because we had a match afterwards), and while I was waiting for the practice to end, I went into the office to chat with the general director of the club and a few other people.  Gabriel and Nicolas were racing each other in the stadium. As I was chatting, Nicolas suddenly came running in, yelling "Mom! Mom!" and right after that, I could hear the wail of Gabriel following.  Gabriel often wails for no reason, but this particular wail sounded much more serious than usual.  I turned around to see Gabriel walking in, his face covered in blood, dripping from his nose.  I thought he must have been hit by a ball or something.  Someone pointed out paper towels above the sink in the...