— 1 —

We own a house in Ohio that we are currently renting out. On Tuesday night I got a call from the tenant saying that when he replaced the batteries for the carbon monoxide detector it kept going off repeatedly so he had to evacuate the house. We got someone in there on Wednesday and I am happy to report that the problem was with the detector itself. The guy tested everything and there are no problems. I have to pay $85 for them to go over there, plus the cost of the new detector but that’s better than possibly paying thousands!

— 2 —

Tomorrow (Saturday) my son is making his first Holy Confession in preparation for making his first Holy Communion at the end of April. It is such a blessing to see God work in our children, yes? Up until about two months ago my son told me that he wasn’t going to go to confession because he is too nervous. Now he is so excited and can’t wait to go that he has been counting down the days.

— 3 —

We had rain/wind on Wednesday night into Thursday which caused us to lose power. It seems like every time there is a little wind our area loses power. We lost power at 2am and got the power back around 11am, so I won’t complain. Thankfully it was just for a few hours rather than two weeks like it was out during Superstorm Sandy.

— 4 —

Just a reminder: Today is First Friday and Tomorrow is First Saturday if you practice those devotions. If you aren’t in the habit of doing those devotions, today would be a good day to start. 🙂

— 5 —

With all the writing I’ve been doing, by following my “5 minutes a day” program, I finally finished a short story and two flash fiction pieces. I’m not sure If I’ll share them publicly or not, but it feels good to actually finish a writing project. Up until I finished these, most of my 5 minute writings have been mostly snippets of ideas and scenes and character development. Maybe the next time someone asks me what I do I’ll be able to say. “I’m a writer!” 🙂

— 6 —

If you are wondering what flash fiction is and how it compares to writing a short story, here’s a little introduction. For me, someone who can be rather wordy, writing flash fiction is real difficult. But I am liking the challenge and by writing flash fiction I am forced to be more careful with word choice and plot development. I figure that if I can master, or at least get pretty good at writing flash fiction, then all of my other writings will be better too. That’s my hope anyway.

— 7 —

Here’s a fun song, “God is Good” to bring a smile to your face for this First Friday: (it’s a little over five minutes)

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!