Friday, March 31, 2006

Chesterton on Education and a Little about Roadblocks

from What's Wrong with the World (1910)...


I mean the responsibility of affirming the truth of our human tradition and handing it on with a voice of authority, an unshaken voice. That is the one eternal education; to be sure enough that something is true that you dare tell it to a child.



and

Education is violent; because it is creative. It is creative because it is human. It is reckless as playing on a fiddle; as dogmatic as drawing a picture; as brutal as building a house. In short, it is what all human action is; it is an interference with life and growth.


This last quote especially, reminds me of the piece I came across a little while back about a different way of looking at the word "artificial". So we work with nature (or perhaps with the best of what comes naturally), despite or against fallen nature, but to a certain extent, mastering something and learning to do it with diligence is artificial "in the best sense."

It also reminds me of a conversation I had with my youngest brother a few weeks back. Helping children learn to overcome "roadblocks" is an important goal of education and parenting, we decided. Isn't there sometimes a point where nature says "enough" but determination (and perhaps artistry, creativity and just plain stubborness, not to mention necessity) proceeds a little farther? Life as a grown-up is filled with all sorts of challenging "road-blocks." It seems to me that some practice in overcoming some reasonably-sized road-blocks (with lots of loving encouragement and sometimes just a little shove from their parents) helps build confidence, self-esteem and an important skill for the child's future.

I remember this being important to me as a young child. It always took me a number of tries at a particular type of math problem before I really "got it". Until then, the lesson was a bit of a mystery and I felt sort of lost. Left to my own devices I would have given up - at least some of these times. I didn't know ahead of time that if I had a little patience and plugged through two or three more problems or whatever, things would get a little easier. That's the sort of thing parents and teachers are there for - to help you keep the pace even when you don't think you can keep on going and help you get through that toughest stretch just before the point of success.

Of course, one of a parent's most challenging roles is to have a sense of when you should help your child go a little farther, and when they really need to stop and pick things up again later (I even test the waters sometimes by offering a treat if they get to such-and-such a point rather than threaten a punishment if they don't). Here is a place where homeschooling can have a huge advantage - parents have a better idea of where the children are and what they are capable of. Homeschooling also allows you to set your own pace so that you can take the time to do*a little* really well rather than plug through *a lot* too quickly.

Saying No

Sometimes kids just force you to say no, no matter how nice and friendly a mom you wish to be; for example, my eight year old daughter "Terri", who for the sweetest of reasons (she loves the idea of sitting in front and chatting with her parents) insists that she wants to sit in the passenger seat - the one with the air bag. The answer is still a firm no. Sigh.

Humorously, "Kate", age 4, doesn't seem flustered by seating arrangements one bit. "I'm too cute to sit there, right Mommy?"

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

More God Is Love (Less Graphics Problems, hehe)

This is a really beautiful encyclical. It seems to be a good fit for the little bits of reading time I get in the car or while waiting during the kids' extracurricular activities. Here are a few more beautiful passages...

Fundamentally, "love" is a single reality, but with different dimensions; at different times, one or other dimension may emerge more clearly. Yet when the two dimensions are totally cut off from one another the result is a caricature or at least an impoverished form of love. And we have also seen, synthetically, that biblical faith does not set up a parallel universe, or one opposed to that primordial human phenomenon which is love, but rather accepts the whole man; it intervenes in his search for love in order to purify it and to reveal new dimensions of it. (pg. 12)



When Jesus speaks in his parables of the shepherd who goes after the lost sheep, of the woman who looks for the lost coin, of the father who goes to meet and embrace his prodigal son, these are no mere words: they constitute an explanation of his very being and activity. His death on the Cross is the culmination of that turning of God against himself in which he gives himself in order to raise man up and save him. This is love in its most radical form. (pg. 17)


The portion on love and the Eucharist (titled "Jesus Christ-the incarnate love of God") is absolutely amazing. I'd have to quote the whole section, though to remember and share what I want to from it. The Pope makes the most amazing connections here between the Old and New Testaments and how Jesus, in His very being and existence, gave us a much greater understanding of love. Here's a little bit more...

The transition which he makes from the Law and the Prophets to the twofold commandment of love of God and of neighbor, and his grounding the whole life of faith on this central precept, is not simply a matter of morality - something that could exist apart from and alongside faith in Christ and its sacramental re-actualization. Faith, worship, and ethos are interwoven as a single reality which takes shape in our encounter with God's agape. Here the usual contraposition between worship and ethics simply falls apart. "Worship" itself, Eucharistic communion, includes the reality both of being loved and of loving others in turn. (pg. 19)


And here's a nicely related post on the Patience of God, the Impatience of Man.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Be Honest

The Map Guy and I were having fun today, figuring out how to put pictures in the background of a blog. It seems to have worked. I'm taking a poll as to whether this enhances the site or makes it totally obnoxious and hard to read. Please comment!

Emerging Spring

This is what we have to look forward to - this picture was taken last May. For now we settle for some nicer weather and enjoying the life beginning to creep into and around the garden and yard.

Growing up in Northern California, I scoffed at people who said they liked the Midwest because it had four seasons. I never imagined how much I'd learn to love Spring in Wisconsin. You get to savor it so much - enjoy every tulip and every crocus as it slowly emerges.

Here are the beginnings of our garden project. Some of our school will definitely take place in the garden later this spring...

Loss of Culture

Bearing Blog has an insightful post about the sorrow of young people today for the loss of culture that has gone on around, and largely before our time. The conversation centers on her reading about a gorgeous church (interior pictured at right) that's up for sale in Rochester, New York.

I'm Catholic; I'm thirty-one. I'm angry that a whole generation before me threw all that splendor away, and wants me to say "Thank you" that I have guitar-strumming family masses instead. My generation of Catholics has only scattered scraps of Catholic culture, that we have to pull together into a crazy-quilt, something that we can hand down to our children. It's not clinging to the past when we ought to move forward; it's sorrowing that our inheritance was squandered. And it's not an alien experience here in America: what race's children hasn't sorrowed, at times, over what was lost when their parents were (by force or by choice) "assimilated"?"


I'm from her generation and I know what she means. For me, the frustrating thing isn't so much that everyone in the past is to blame, it's that some people (I've met people like this) made these changes (in liturgy, church design, etc.) because they thought "we" wanted it. What is it about modern young people (from the 80s, 90s or whatever) that makes them reject beauty? Why do people presume these things?

I'll never forget the 40-something liturgical director from our parish when I was sixteen (I was invited to participate in a hymnbook-choosing committee - as a representative of "young people" of the parish) insisting that we couldn't sing "traditional" hymns because it wasn't what the young people wanted. I'll be honest - I listened to rock and roll as much as the next person when I was a teen - but I liked the beautiful, traditional hymns better than the modern, boring, tuneless stuff they were cranking out (and continue to do so). One funny thing is that this liturgical director also insisted on taking all syncopation out of the modern church songs to make them "easier to sing". Hmm.

Have you ever noticed how even a "bad" church choir can sound pretty good singing a hymn like Beautiful Savior or Lift High the Cross?

Monday, March 27, 2006

God is Love

from Pope Benedict XVI (it's still hard not to call him Ratzinger)...

The history of the love-relationship between God and Israel consists, at the deepest level, in the fact that he gives her the Torah, thereby opening Israel's eyes to man's true nature and showing her the path leading to true humanism. It consists in the fact that man, through a life of fidelity to the one God, comes to experience himself as loved by God, and discovers joy in truth and in righteousness - a joy in God which becomes his essential happiness (pg. 14)


God's passionate love for his people - for humanity - is at the same time a forgiving love. It is so great that it turns God against himself, his love against his justice. Here Christians can see a dim prefigurement of the mystery of the Cross: so great is God's love for man that by becoming man he follows him even into death, and so reconciles justice and love. (pg. 15)


Wow.

More Chesterton on Dickens

The applicability to other things is amazing...

The belief that the rabble will only read rubbish can be read between the lines of all our contemporary writers, even of those writers whose rubbish the rabble reads. Mr. Fergus Hume has no more respect for the populace than Mr. George Moore. The only difference lies between those writers who will consent to talk down to the people, and those writers who will not consent to talk down to the people. But Dickens never talked down to the people. He talked up to the people. He approached the people like a deity and poured out his riches and his blood. This is what makes the immortal bond between him and the masses of men. He had not merely produced something they could understand, but he took it seriously, and toiled and agonized to produce it. They were not only enjoying one of the best writers, they were enjoying the best he could do.Charles Dickens: The Last of the Great Men by G.K. Chesterton

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Beautiful Things

I don't have anything wonderful to share about this great feast day today, except some things I found on other sites. Our day ended on a particularly beautiful note as we finished reading Hilda Van Stockum's Pegeen (the final book in the Cottage at Bantry Bay series). It's nearly impossible to do it justice in a summary, it's one of the most beautiful and touching and delightful children's books I've ever read, though. Something about an understanding heart and the beauty of children even when they're a handful of trouble. But that's just a thread of it, there's so much laugh-out-loud true-ness about it. Sigh.

Anyway, here's a little peek around the blogosphere on this Solemnity of the Annunciation. Gotta start with the family of course...

First, my daughter, "Ria" tells about a connection between the Annunciation and the Fall of Sauron. Next, my sister (and godmother) has a lovely poem for the day.

Dr. Thursday has an awesome (hmmm, let's see if Ria catches me on the use of the word awesome - I've got a good argument though!) post on his favorite GKC quote which is, not surprisingly, appropriate for the Feast as well.

Karen E. has a post with some great links and the idea of spiritually adopting and praying for an unborn child in danger of abortion for the nine months from now until Christmas.

One of my very favorite Christmas hymns Gabriel's Message is very beautiful and appropriate for the day. Here are the words at least. Funny thing is, even though it's a very old song, I was introduced to it during high school in a rendition done by Sting on the album called A Very Special Christmas.

Nine Month Impossible Novena Starts Today

There's a beautiful nine month novena that starts today - the feast of the Annunciation - and ends on Christmas - very appropriate, eh? Anyway, it's fairly simple and easy to memorize. You pick three "impossible" intentions to pray for and I've heard (and experienced) many amazing stories of prayers answered.


Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us; and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Pray for us, most holy mother of God.
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

All Virgin of the Incarnation, a thousand times we greet you, a thousand times we praise you for thy joy you had when God was incarnated in you. Because you are so powerful O Virgin and Mother of God, grant what we ask of you for the love of God.

[state your first intention]

Repeat all of the above for your second and third intentions

Remember, O most Gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my mother. To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Blessed and praised be the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, in Heaven, on earth and everywhere. Amen.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Maybe I'm not such an Old Dinosaur...

You see, I do our taxes by hand. Yep, not even a piece of software involved. It took me one hour and half trip to the library (believe me, it's a LOT quieter there!) and one of Ria's dance classes (John takes care of the little ones so I can go by myself and have SOME quiet study time each week) to complete them. This was straightforward enough to allow us to get our taxes in by early February (now that's a record, I must admit). It's also the only way to fully appreciate the workings of government (not!) - the endless, mindless loopholes they make you jump through to figure out the most ridiculous things - you know what I mean.

Anyway, now it turns out that accountants or tax preparers may someday be allowed to sell information based on your tax return to marketers. Read more here (hat tip - Mark Shea)

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Catholic Teaching on Immigration

I thought this was an excellent overview of the various intertwining truths regarding the complex issue of immigration. It's a multi-faceted issue and you can't let one of these truths outweigh all others.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Artificial

I came across an interesting reference while reading Shakespeare's Use of the Arts of Language by Sister Miriam Joseph, C.S.C. (Paul Dry Books, written in 1947, reprinted in 2005), about the word "artificial." He quotes George Puttenham's Art of English Poesie (1589). I thought it was interesting to see the word artificial used as a positive thing - something that we don't have by nature, but study and learn...

Then as there was no art in the world til by experience found out: so if Poesie be now an Art, and of al antiquitie hath bene among the Greeks and Latines, and yet were none, untill by studious persons fashioned and reduced into a method of rules and precepts, then no doubt may there be the like with us...

Man also in all his actions that be not altogether naturall, but are gotten by study and discipline or exercise, as to daunce by measures, to sing by note, to play on the lute, and such like, it is a praise to be said an artificiall dauncer, singer, and player on instruments, because they be not exactly knowne or done, but by rules and precepts or teaching of schoolemasters. (as quoted on pg. 5 of Shakespeare's Use of the Arts of Language)

My Other Blogs

Just wanted to mention that when things get a little quiet here in the Studeo, it usually means things are getting busier on our other blogs. We've been managing to put up at least a post a week on The Map Guy (our family's geography blog). But just recently, I've gotten a number of people (homeschool moms in fact) enthusiastic about the two homeschool group blogs I manage: Love2learn Blog and Unity of Truth Blog. Please drop by sometime and leave a comment, suggest a link, say hello or whatever. :)

Friday, March 17, 2006

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Well, here it is, St. Patty's Day and I can't even get to Love2learn Blog to share favorite books or anything like that, so I'll have to mix all my family stories, resources, music and links all together in one place. (I had a heck of a time with Studeo this morning as well, luckily I saved most of this as a draft before everything shut down for awhile.)

Sure, I've got quite a bit of ornery Irish blood running through my veins. My maiden name is Lawless, which is Irish as all get-out even if it may have been the English who gave us the name. I don't really know the story at all, at all, but it certainly lends itself to the imagination.

Anyway, my great-great-great-grandfather, John Lawless, was a blacksmith who caught the eye of a young Irish noblewoman named Eleanor O'Sullivan (one more reason to love the O'Sullivans from Hilda Van Stockum's Cottage at Bantry Bay Series). Her parents didn't approve, so they eloped to Paris (no kidding! in 1815) to get married and soon after emigrated to Prince Edward Island, Canada (one more reason to love Anne of Green Gables). They had ten children and that ornery (I mean it in the most affectionate way) Irishwoman Eleanor Lawless lived to be 104 years old and smoked a white clay pipe.

These lovely homeschool Moms have put together some fine resource lists already:

Here in the Bonny Glen
Farm School

and I particularly approve of the movies The Quiet Man and Darby O'Gill and the Little People (we'll certainly be watching one or the other or both of these tonight). I also, though not a big fan of musicals in general, enjoy the old My Wild Irish Rose quite a bit (we have an incomplete recording from TV, I don't think it's available for purchase). It's the music, I guess! :) We also like Riverdance 2: Live from New York City. The sung music is more traditional (quite a bit in Gaelic) than the original Riverdance, we really enjoyed the dance-offs between the Irish and the African-Americans AND you don't have to watch Michael Flatley!!!

As far as music goes, we love the Chieftains, Boys of the Lough and Makem & Clancy the best. (I think I've mentioned before that the Chieftain's Bells of Dublin is my favorite Christmas album).

If you have The Cottage at Bantry Bay series on your shelf and don't have time to dig in too far, you might enjoy reading the chapter from Francie on the Run titled "Teig Mulligan." We're on Pegeen this week, but that chapter from Francie had us laughing like crazy (not the best bedtime book some nights, hehe).

I also discovered this morning that there was an Irish writer named Emily Lawless (Molly take note!). You can read some of her things here (but I haven't had a chance to read them yet - except one of the poems which I liked very much, but as for the others, I have no idea if they're any good at all, at all):

Poetry of Emily Lawless
The Story of Ireland by Emily Lawless

You can read a lot more Irish poetry here.

I had some more things for this post, including some additional books, but blogger decided to eat them this morning. One good thing about the delay is that I can tell you a funny story. Melissa reminded me about coloring the milk green, something we haven't done here in years. Ria and Gus were in on the joke and we even colored the "special milk" (rice milk) in the little girls' carton. We watched them pour it and told them we colored something green and to look for it while they ate their cereal and we laughed and laughed as they looked all around the room for something different, missing the green milk right under their noses. Guess it needs a little more color next time.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

The strange things you say to your kids...

(this actually happened this morning)...

"Mommy needs some exercise, so let's do some science."

Moose Tangled in New Hampshire Swing-Set


This is pretty amazing already

But then I found out it was my sister-in-law's parents' house! My niece and nephews have played on that swingset!

They called authorities (moose are very big!) who cut him free with bolt-cutters and he walked away unharmed. (check out all the photos at the link!)

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Butterflies

We like butterflies around here quite a bit, but here is a delightful post about a young homeschooled butterfly lover. We ooh and ahh over them, we have books about them which get pulled out from time to time and we dream of planting flowers to attract them (we've only been in this house a couple of years and are starting to get serious about garden planning - suggestions for plants that attract hummingbirds and butterflies, and can survive Wisconsin winters, are most welcome!).

Our most touching interaction with a butterfly, though, was when Gus (a.k.a. the Map Guy), at age six (I think) found a large yellow butterfly with an injured wing, hanging out on the back patio. It didn't seem to have long to live (had a big chunk out of its wing). Gus was very touched and wanted to take care of it. We decided to try to feed it a little juice on a Qtip (which it seemed to appreciate) and build a little shelter from the wind that kept flipping the poor creature around helplessly. Gus kept vigil for a few hours with gentle reminders that it didn't have long to live (and that butterflies didn't have a very long life anyway). One cute thing was that it drew the attention of some of the neighbor girls from across the street who came by to check up on it periodically (Gus gave the butterfly a name, but I can't remember the name right now) and showed up the next day at our front door wanting to know if we wanted to adopt a snail, a guinea pig and a hermit crab that they weren't able to to take care of.

The Da Vinci Code

Here's a link to an organization providing tools and information to help Catholics respond to the Da Vinci Code. As Barb Nicolosi points out, let's all go see Over the Hedge on opening weekend (May 19th).

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

If There's a Job That Needs Doing...

I really appreciate this quote...

By then I had twenty or so years of intensive writing behind me, which taught me the truth of a saying of John Henry Newman: "Nothing would be done at all if a man waited until he could do it so well that no one would find fault with it."
[Jaki, A Mind's Matter 103]

Courtesy of Dr. Thursday

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Chesterton on Dickens

I've been very slowly working my way through Charles Dickens, The Last of the Great Men by G.K. Chesterton - reading it alongside other books for quite awhile now. It's so rich that I'm enjoying it more this way than plugging through it quickly like so many others. Chesterton has a masterful understanding of human nature. Here's a quote I particularly enjoyed. You could probably exchange the names of Guy Boothby or William Le Queux for many popular authors today...

[Dickens] was popular in a sense of which we moderns have not even a notion. In that sense there is no popularity now. There are no popular authors today. We call such authors as Mr. Guy Boothby or Mr. William Le Queux popular authors. But this is popularity altogether in a weaker sense; not only in quantity, but in quality. The old popularity was positive; the new is negative. There is a great deal of difference between the eager man who wants to read a book, and the tired man who wants a book to read. A man reading a Le Queux mystery wants to get to the end of it. A man reading the Dickens novel wished that it might never end. Men read a Dickens story six times because they knew it so well. If a man can read a Le Queux story six times it is only because he can forget it six times. In short, the Dickens novel was popular, not because it was an unreal world, but because it was a real world; a world in which the soul could live. The modern "shocker" at its very best is an interlude in life. But in the days when Dickens's work was coming out in serial, people talked as if real life were itself the interlude between one issue of "Pickwick" and another. (pgs. 73-74)

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Amazing 3D Sidewalk Chalk Drawings


One of Ria's friends just sent her an e-mail about this and we were all quite amazed. Taking impressionism to a new level, it would seem.

All God's Creatures Got a Place in the Choir...

but some of them shouldn't use microphones.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Negotiating Read-Alouds

I think reading stories aloud is one of the very most important things you can do for your children, ever. That said, it's not always an easy thing, and I don't just mean "getting around to it," but simply negotiating between the different children (particularly the littles) to cooperate, listen and not make so much of an unearthly racket that you have to shout yourself hoarse just to be heard.

Now, I have to admit that Ria has always loved a read-aloud. When she was quite small, she would sit through chapter books such as the Little House books like no other child I've ever seen. (This doesn't by any means indicate that she was an angelic child - she was the only one of my children that seemed to resent - at least for a while - the arrival of a younger sibling). But when the Map Guy came along, things got a little trickier. When he got to be about 2 years old or so, there was nothing that would get him more noisy and upset than when I tried to sit down and read a story aloud to Ria. He would babble and complain like anything and it seemed there wasn't a whole lot I could do. I was pretty stubborn too and wouldn't let him win the day, I'd at least finish reading the chapter I was on, even if I had to be quite loud and deliberate about it. At that time he wasn't very interested even in picture books for some reason - probably had gotten fed up with all the chapter books I read to Ria.

One day, though, I found just the right book for him at the right time. It was Angus and the Ducks by Marjorie Flack. We had found a lovely old hardcover copy at our library book sale and he loved it immediately. The language is simple, but charming. He loved the dog and the duck noises were very funny. It's interesting how certain books have become major milestones for us in our child-raising. This one we will always appreciate because it's the book that helped the Map Guy start to like books.

Anyway, negotiating read-alouds has been an often complex part of our lives. Usually we divide and conquer. The baby and/or the toddler hang(s) out with one parent while the other reads something interesting enough to engage the 3 or 4 year old on up. Our currrent four-year-old can get pretty tricky herself sometimes. It's been especially tricky this week since John was out of town. One night I read aloud to everyone in the master bedroom quite loudly while the Munchie Man ran in circles around the room singing at the top of his lungs. Tonight he went to bed early, so "negotiations" looked very simple, until Kate declared that she didn't want Francie on the Run, and that it was her turn to pick (which was funny because the "turns" the kids have set up don't usually include the night-time read-aloud). Well, I just happened to have a stash of picture books I wanted to read still sitting on the mantle from the library. I ran downstairs and grabbed three of them, brought them back up and handed them to Kate. The biggest smile appeared on her face as she carefully lay the three choices side by side on her lap. It was as if she had received the greatest gift ever - to pick the story! She looked at me with a face filled with awe and asked, "Do they all have words?"

Negotiations continue as usual, but these little moments are such a joy - to see your children appreciate the gift of a story and to blessedly find just the right book at just the right time to help your children start to become the people you hope they will someday be.

Fr. John Sweeny, Rest in Peace


The San Jose Mercury News has an obituary and other information about Fr. Sweeny Here and Here

My post from September

The obituary seemed sort of funny to me because, although he did make the Latin Mass available at his parish for many years, in my mind I think of him more simply as a priest who was very, very devoted to Our Lady. His Fatima pilgrimages on the 13th of each month from May through October drew busloads of people from all over. They parked in huge rows in the fields nearby. My favorite part was the candlelight procession, praying the rosary and singing the Fatima hymn. But I will always remember his voice, giving homilies and telling stories about Fatima.

Netflix Silliness

A funny thing happened to us last week with our Netflix account. I returned the movie G.K. Chesterton: Apostle of Common Sense - dropped it in the mail box as usual in its paper sleeve with the title on it, inside the Netflix envelope. The only problem was, the next day I noticed that this Chesterton DVD (which is quite good, by the way - at least what I had time to see after having it in the house for, I believe, six weeks - Ria loved it) was still in our fan-shaped DVD holder. Ugh. I had seen the Chesterton one, but accidentally pulled out one behind it - one of our own movies. I went to the website to see if I could notify Netflix of the mistake so that we could correct it, but their customer service information is very close-looped. There are a set group of 10 or so problems you can report, but it does not include "stupidly returned customer's DVD". I gnashed my teeth a little, not minding that I might be the proud owner of a Chesterton DVD, but worried that Ignatius had made special arrangements to have these movies at Netflix and that someone would get short-changed. It was Ria who came up with the solution - "Just order the Chesterton movie again, mom, and switch it yourself." Brilliantly simple, though I wasn't sure if it would work. Sure enough, the movie came back yesterday, we opened the Chesterton sleeve and there was Spanglish with it's "World's Greatest Sandwich" gleaming from the front of the disc.

Ria 1, Netflix o

Monday, March 06, 2006

Cultured Bambino, or not

"The Munchie Man", our roly-poly, ever active, babbling and enchanting two year old, knows his way around trouble. I think it's his persistance that pays off. One day he was sitting on my lap during our co-op Latin class and holding a bottle of children's vitamins that he obtained from the shelf. He just kept wiggling and wiggling the lid for quite a long time until that "child-proof" top came right off.

We try to keep an ever-watchful eye on him, but this is nearly impossible every moment of every day. So I run to check on him after a few minutes and usually find him in an upstairs bathroom smearing his hair with conditioner, or something to that effect.

So I was extremely amused to run upstairs on Saturday, expecting trouble-as-usual, and find him peacefully sitting in front of the radio in the girls' room, listening to opera on the classical station and very nicely pouring over a picture book. :)

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Just in time for tonight's Academy Awards...

"I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer." Jim Carrey

(hat tip, Reader's Digest)

Saturday, March 04, 2006

The Roe Effect

I think it might have been James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal and Best of the Web who coined the phrase "the Roe Effect" to describe the long-term political ramifications of pro-lifers having more children than pro-choicers.

Here is an interesting post about an article that runs along similar lines.

While I'm on the topic of life issues, this one got left behind in "draft" mode a few days back for some reason...

Some very good news here - not just for pro-lifers but for a system in which people sometimes disagree with the government or with established laws and want to do their part in sending a message and causing a change. (There are certainly some other areas of government that could use some work in this regard.)

Basically, some lower courts wanted to use laws aimed at limiting the effects of organized crime to prevent pro-lifers from peacefully protesting in front of abortion clinics on the grounds that it does harm to their business. Naturally this has some far-reaching consequences for other types of protesters as well.

I guess, once in a great while (or perhaps, um, AFTER a great while), the truth is actually obvious. The Supreme Court ruled on this one 8-0 and pro-lifers were joined by the AFL-CIO! Wow.

Interesting Meme Question

Okay. I'm really glad I was spared this meme, but I thought this one question was interesting and kind of fun...

8: You are given the chance to go back and change one event in world history, what would that be?

Here's my vote:

Give Catherine of Aragon a son.

Of course part of the fun of this one is finding a "simple" change with far-reaching consequences. Any other ideas?

Friday, March 03, 2006

Kate says...

Kate is a bright, funny and very sensitive four year old. She loves to play the "quiz games" the older kids love for drilling and testing some of their learning in a wide variety of subjects. It's sometimes hard to come up with questions for Kate that she can manage. Sometimes I ask her something really simple (or something I THINK is really simple), like "What color is the sky?" But just because we say it's blue doesn't mean it always looks blue, so that doesn't necessarily help. Just last week, I asked her where we live, thinking I could accept almost anything for an answer (in our house, whatever), when she very sweetly answered, "Asia." Poor Kate, everyone giggled and she was very unhappy.

The other day (not during a quiz) I asked her why we love God. She very wisely answered, "Because he makes us stay alive and he didn't make us out of anything." Wow.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Prayer Request

Please pray for this mom and her family. Missey died yesterday after an emergency C-section. More about it here.

Tradition, Liturgy and Confusion

I thought this story about Methodists who kneel for "communion" and a theologian who wonders why (from Godsbody) was really interesting!