You did WHAT with your urine? #ThreeShots☕️📚😇
Taking sustainability to a new level, a book rec, and St. Eugene de Mazenod
Hello there! I never know for sure how many times a week I’ll get Three Shots out to you, but this week, it’s two. 😃 So, let’s tiptoe in (because jumping into the first topic is…a little gross…).
1. Making urine more than ew
On the one hand, this could make farming more sustainable:
The most nutrient-rich part of wastewater is human urine, which makes up less than 1% of the total volume but contains 80% of the nitrogen and 50% of the phosphorus. We discovered how to recycle this urine into valuable—and sustainable—farmland fertilizer.
Every boy in my house is a fan.
Maybe I could be talked into it.
But not without saying ewwww quite a few times first.
*Thanks to reader Howard for sharing this, knowing my love of farming and the boys in my house. 😉
2. Reading rec 📚
Well here’s a fun spring read: Love, Treachery, and Other Terrors. In addition to the lovely use of the Oxford Comma in the title, the book is nothing short of smile-worthy.
Take, for instance, the author bio on the back cover:
This book is as delightful a journey as that author bio led me to expect. It’s an examination of morality, but there’s not an ounce of preaching in it. It’s a tale of medieval life that includes fairies—but not the tiny Tinkerbell type—and royalty and romance. There’s intrigue and betrayal and—my favorite—moments of laugh-out-loud delight.
I love it when an indie author presents me with a home run...and wow, do I want her to write more! I’d call this perfect for 11 and older, though your teen may appreciate some of the humor more than your younger kids.
Then again, I’d hand this to any adult who just likes a good story.
3. Saint of the Day: St. Eugene de Mazenod 😇
If you’ve ever looked for a saint who had a tough home/family life, St. Eugene de Mazenod is your man.
St. Eugene grew up with parents who were constantly fighting, with bonus interference from his mom’s mom and a neurotic aunt (on his mother’s side). At age 8, during the French Revolution, his family fled from France to Italy, and he spent the next 11 years there.
His parents eventually divorced—very uncommon in the early 1800s.
St. Eugene struggled with the call to religious life and the appeal of worldly living. After a mystical experience at the foot of a cross on Good Friday, he entered the seminary and was eventually ordained. He founded a congregation, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, in 1826, and became a bishop in 1837.
St. Eugene was responsible for founding 23 parishes, building/restoring 50 churches, caring for aged and persecuted priests, restoring ecclesiastical discipline, developing catechetics for young people, and welcoming 33 congregations of religious brothers and sisters into his diocese.
St. Eugene is the patron of dysfunctional families and those in them. (Guaranteed, you know someone who needs his prayers.)
St. Eugene quotable 📝 “Learn who you are in the eyes of God.”
Prayer for today 🙏 St. Eugene, patron saint of dysfunctional families, come to the aid of all families who suffer brokenness, misunderstanding, separation, or divorce. You know well these difficulties and trials because of the separation and divorce of your own parents. May all who suffer these family hardships seek your intercession to discern more clearly how the Light of Jesus Christ can help them in the midst of their darkness and despair. Amen.
Well, that’s it for today. Have a wonderful day!
Blessings and coffee,
Sarah