Bill Walsh, Thanks for the Memories!

What??? A sports post on Studeo? Inconceivable!

Who could have ever wished for a better time to be growing up in relation to a local pro football team? Let me tell you, the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980s was an exciting place to be! A lot of the details have faded but a number of names still stick with me. Joe Montana (of course), Dwight Clark and especially Jerry Rice. Man, he made those receptions look like magic.

I was 11 at the time of Superbowl XVI (January 1982) when Bill Walsh and the Niners achieved their first big victory. I was babysitting for children whose parents were off at a Superbowl party. I wasn't terribly interested, but thought I'd check into things when the kids were in a convenient location and I was hooked! Niners beat the Cincinnati Bengals 26-21.

I was 14 at the time of Superbowl XIX. The funny thing here is that the Superbowl was local to the Niners as it was held at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto. Our family was participating in a 32 mile (2-day) pro-life walk from Menlo Park to San Francisco. I distinctly remember seeing numerous limos driving along the freeway headed toward the Superbowl. After our walk, which ended about noon that second day, we headed to my sister's apartment in SF where we all enjoyed watching the Superbowl. This one was a total blowout. Niners beat the Miami Dolphins 38-16.

I was a Freshman at TAC when Bill Walsh brought his Niners to the Superbowl for the final time. Superbowl XXIII in January 1989. The president of TAC at the time, Dr. McArthur, was a big 49er fan and hosted a Superbowl party at his home on campus. That was a lot of fun and, though the details fade from memory, I seem to remember that that game had a particularly exciting and nail-biting second half. Funny that the president who followed Dr. McArthur is also a 49er fan! :) Niners beat the Cincinnati Bengals 20-16.

Bill Walsh 1931-2007 (49ers head coach 1979-1988), Rest in Peace

note: click on photo for source

In Case You're Still Interested in the Harry Potter Discussion...

I found these posts quite interesting...

DarwinCatholic's Review of the Series

Discussion on Marriage in HP over at Flying Stars

Lissa's "Harry Potter Links"

Comments from "A World Incalculable" - which has an interesting take on the problems we discussed here previously.

Blogger Reflection Award

I haven't managed to blog much lately - too tired and too busy. Really there's too much to blog about rather than too little!

I did get nominated for a Blogger Reflection Award by Margaret Mary Myers and wish to thank her for her kindness. :)

Here are some bloggers whose reflections on life I particularly enjoy reading...

Suzanne Temple

Kristen Lawrence

Alice Gunther

Mr. and Mrs. Darwin

Crimson Wife

Sorry - too tired and lazy at the moment to write up lovely descriptions of each one. We're in the throes of organization and school planning around here.

Literary Characters and Likability

This is a thought continuing from the Harry Potter discussion two posts back. Again, I'm limiting the details to the comments box in order to avoid spoilers for those who haven't yet read/finished the book.

Lost and Found

We've been in a bit of a tizzy this week for a lot of reasons. Not only did we have huge quantities of laundry (that's another post in its own right, though I'm still looking for the humor in it) and paperwork to deal with, but we had to deal with the end-results of an overly-large library trip we made about three weeks ago. We checked the list carefully and collected everything nicely into a large rubbermaid tub, but alas, one disc was missing from A Little Princess audio book. Ugh.

I returned everything but the item with the missing disc and we went into lock down mode. The kids involved couldn't have sweets and couldn't watch movies until the disc was found. I need some of swaying public opinion in the direction of actually searching for the disc.

So for the last two days the four middle kids have been wandering about the house mournfully bereft of movies and sweets until the missing disc was found. Constant refrains of - "I never even touched the disc except the first time when I put it right back in the case!" were heard from every direction. Slight exceptions for Kate because of her age (and ability to be quite non-helpful at times) were met with indignation. Sigh. What a tightrope moms have to walk constantly to keep the kids from wandering into the excesses of either complacency or despair while tackling a tough job that needs to be done.

Threats were made, and a huge cleaning and organizing job was undertaken by many to see if the lost disc would surface in the recesses of the kids' room. It looks really great now, but alas, no disc was found.

This evening Gus started checking the numerous bookshelves in the living room to see if it might turn up. I had spent the entire day organizing discs of all sorts and kept thinking that perhaps that one over there was the desired disc, but to no avail. But when I decided to give Gus a hand in checking out the Living Room shelves, almost immediately I discovered a disc resting across several books. Astonishment turned to rejoicing and I did a victory lap (yes, I think that was me running and yelling "Wooo-hooo!" with the disc held high) around the interior loop in our house followed by throngs of adoring kids. Suddenly the strict, mean mommy was the one who restored movie-watching-rights, the possibility of going swimming tomorrow and ice cream sandwiches after dinner!

Life is good.

Renowned Local Food Critic's Identity is Revealed Only in Death

I found this story touching and interesting.

Amazing that he managed to keep his secret in this day and age!

A Harry Potter Question

There were quite a lot of things that I liked about this final book of the HP series, but one thing bothered me (there were some other little things too, but one significant one). So as not to accidentally spoil anyone's reading pleasure, I'll ask the question/mention the issue only in the comments. For those who have finished reading the series, please join me - I'd be really interested in others' thoughts.

HE'S all set at least :)

IMG_8260
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

John's not home tonight so EVERYONE'S going to our teen discussion group tonight. Frank is all set. Just the important stuff.

Love for Parker week

hat-tip Cause of Our Joy

Thank you for the prayers

My dad's cousin passed away earlier today. May he rest in peace.

Which Byzantine Ruler Are You?

You’re St. Theodora!

Theodora was the wife of the ninth-century emperor Theophilus and mother of the future emperor Michael III. Theodora ruled the lands after her iconoclastic husband died. She labored to overturn his heretical policies, chiefly by summoning a council that upheld the veneration of images of Christ and the saints. For this, she is herself honored as a saint by the Orthodox Church. Her feast day is February 11.

Find out which Byzantine ruler you are at The Way of the Fathers!

Now I Can At Least Check Google Reader Again...

since I've finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I was afraid of stumbling across too much information as there were quite a few posts about HP on my list.

I would say that it was, on the whole, satisfying (certainly nothing like the last book of Series of Unfortunate Events ... ugh!). More than that will have to come later.

What did you all think?

Here are a few of the posts I'd like to catch up on (these aren't necessarily reviews of the last book - I wasn't taking any chances!):

Harry Potter and the Libation Bearers
A Father's Academy
It Came. I Read. I Loved It.
I Finished!
The Kind of Harry Potter Criticism I Can Respect
An Article by Thomas Hibbs (via Amy Welborn)
Yeah, we're still reading

And of course I'll be checking out what Nancy has to say once she posts her comments

Not a lot of blogging going on around here...

since it's been a busy weekend (involving an ordination, a few sick kids and a short visit to the lake) AND Ria and I are taking turns with Harry Potter. We're both about halfway through. John has graciously put off his reading until a little later.

Please continue praying for my Dad's cousin whose death is imminent.

Another Pilgrimage Bus Crash

26 Polish Pilgrims were killed in a bus crash in the French Alps. Please keep all of them in your prayers.

News story here

In Case I Haven't Mentioned Recently that I love Old Photographs...

This is a picture of my grandma and her little brother in San Francisco taken, I believe, sometime in the 1920s.

Oooh - Willa has a neat old family photo up on her blog too.

You Know It's Time to Get a Refund on the History DVD Series You Just Purchased When...

a) your 12 year old son finds a major (and very obvious) historical error in the first ten minutes of the first episode (the teacher mixed up the geographical locations of Upper and Lower Egypt)

b) you both find the teacher's style quite boring (even though he dressed up in costumes and used funny accents which was supposed to make it "fun" and "interesting") and then...

c) when skipping to a different segment to try to get a sense of other parts of the course you stumble across a segment on the Middle Ages that devotes a great deal of its half hour lecture on Life in the Middle Ages describing a hypothetical superstitious activity on the part of a monk.

UPDATE: My mistake. The above part was about the Dark Ages in a section entitled "The Early Christian Church"

d) Finally, while looking over the list to see if there's anything more to the Middle Ages, you happen to notice that an upcoming segment is entitled "The 1300s - the Age of Despair."

A Beautiful Church

Pieta
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

On Sunday we attended Mass at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Springfield, Illinois. What a GORGEOUS Church! The church was started in 1929, but construction was delayed for some time because of the stock market crash. It was finished some time in the late 30s.

Our somewhat wimpy camera and the low lighting in the church at the time really don't do it justice, but I thought you might enjoy seeing the photos all the same. View the rest of the set here.

This is a good idea!

This quiz-maker collected some of the most common misspellings he's found on blogs and turned it into a quiz...

I Scored a 100%!

I'm still very grateful for the spell-checker as I still end up with plenty of typos.

hat-tip Higher up and Further In who includes a plea to watch the spelling!

Anything But Irrelevant

The paradox of the way people think about the Catholic Church has always fascinated me. On the one hand people think of it as irrelevant, out-dated and near death's door. On the other hand people are provoked and angered by things that the Church teaches (most recently objections to the Pope's comments that the Catholic Church has the fullness of truth).

I just came across a dialogue regarding this topic in an interview with Cardinal Ratzinger from 1996 as quoted in the book Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Millennium. The part in italics is written by the interviewer:

According to the stereotypes of contemporary mainstream opinion, the Roman Catholic Church is not only considered to be a relic of a bygone time that is almost despicable to the world at the end of the second millennium after Christ. There actually seems to be no greater provocation than the mere existence of the official Church. That there is a God, that he has a Son, and that God sent this Son in order to redeem mankind is a fact that sounds for many people in this day and age like the message of a sheer lunatic. One can probably say that hardly any other institution provokes the world more than the Catholic Church...

In many respects, however, it says something for the Catholic Church that she still has the power to provoke, that she is a thorn in the side and a contradiction or, as Saint Paul says, a skandalon, a stumbling block. This shows that she means something, and that you can't simply pass over her and go about the day's business. Very early on I said that it is necessary to distinguish between the primary and the secondary scandal. The secondary scandal consists in our actual mistakes, defects, and over-institutionalizations, but the primary scandal consists precisely in the fact that we stand in opposition to the decline into the banal and the bourgeois and into false promises.

This also reminds me of Brideshead Revisited (both the book and movie) which my sister introduced to me in this very context.

Catholic Mother's Blogroll

I always liked the idea of this blogroll, but held off for a long time as I don't like too much busyness in my sidebar. Now that I figured out how to put my links on their own page, I've finally joined the ranks.

Details here.

Butterfly Feeding

Butterfly Feeding 1
Originally uploaded by *clairity*

This is one of my sister's amazing photos. Isn't it incredible?

You can see more of her photos here.

Prayer Request

Please say a prayer for my dad's cousin, Bob, who came down with pneumonia while visiting relatives and is very, very ill.

Another Must-Read from Alice

And not just because I'm excessively fond of San Francisco myself:

Gables, Steeples and Other Points

Cousins!

Cousins!
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

My kids have a lot of cousins. Unfortunately we often go a number of years between visits with some of them because they're spread throughout a number of states. Here's the breakdown:

California: 9
Oklahoma: 15
Minnesota: 3
Wisconsin: 10

So you can understand why, when my nephew called from Springfield, Illinois, on Friday to announce his engagement (he's one of the OK cousins) and mentioned that his whole family was there, we all hopped in a car early the next morning and drove 5 hours (each way) to spend 24 hours with them.

We did manage to surprise most of the cousins, the lovely bride-to-be (I first met her on my visit to TAC earlier this year) and her siblings.

And what a joy to celebrate M's engagement with my brother's family and M's future-in-laws. M, by the way, is marrying into another Catholic homeschool family and I enjoyed chatting with the bride-to-be's mom (and my sister-in-law too - who I hadn't seen in three years!). It was fun to discover that we both read Susan Schaeffer Macaulay's For the Children's Sake when our oldest was two and that she's a Heart and Mind subscriber.

A funny thing happened on the way home. I mentioned that it was funny that we had just driven this way the previous day. The kids didn't simply agree - they gasped! They couldn't believe it had really been that short - we do pack a lot into *some* of our days. :)

(By the way, I just realized that this is my 1000th post).

Please Pray...

for a Catholic homeschool mom of 5 who died of cancer this week and for her family.

Speaking of Thankfulness...

My youngest brother is expecting #2 and my nephew is engaged!!! :)

Things that made me happy this week...

(a.k.a. Thankfulness Thursday)

Not in any particular order...

Meeting a good friend's sweet new baby.

Getting this comment on one of our photos from de Smet over on flickr...

I have wanted to visit De Smet for ages. This set is wonderful and much-appreciated. :)

Getting asked by a priest if I can help him learn to pronounce the Latin in the 1962 Missal for use after the Motu Proprio goes into effect on September 14.

Playing around with blog templates. (And, of course, chatting with Margaret on the phone.) ...especially since in so doing I figured out at least one thing to implement on my own site that I've been wanting to do. (Neither template is finished yet, by the way. You have to let these things stew for just a bit.) :)

Having a delightful discussion on Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth with our teen group (the pizza and cookies didn't hurt either!).

Getting to chat with Ria and Gus about our discussion on the drive home.

Vicariously experiencing my in-laws' month in Spain through their shared journals and photos. Working on drawing a big map of Spain with Gus to locate all the places they've been visiting.

Watching Miss Potter. It has one of the most charming proposal scenes I've ever seen on film.

Reading lovely posts like this and this and this on friends' blogs.

Discovering that some other mom-bloggers are also friends and admirers of Fr. Warren.

Bernie's (and Terri's!) lunch yesterday

Having steak for dinner, compliments of Aunt A. Yum!

Conversions in the Early Church

I'm about a third of the way through Carl Sommer's We Look for a Kingdom: The Everyday Lives of the Early Christians (Ignatius Press) and it is fascinating! I was at first intimidated by its size and "scholarly" look, but it's really quite accessible and written for "every man".

The first segment provides an in-depth overview of the Roman empire at the time of the Early Church in order to understand the world the Early Christians were living in and the challenges and opportunities that arose from it. (This is a book written for adults, by the way. Some mature content arises in this context.)

I've just gotten into the segment on the witness of the Early Christians to those around them. Here are several parts I found particularly interesting and beautiful.

The first is a list of six factors that made Christianity attractive to people at that time:

1) charity offered without expectation of return or profit

2) fellowship offered to all social levels

3) Christian steadfastness in the face of persecution

4) the high moral standards of the Christians

5) Christians' assurance of victory over demons

6) the sacraments, which conveyed the promise of salvation

The second is a quote from St. Justin Martyr (writing about his own conversion):

For I myself, too, when I was delighting in the doctrines of Plato, and heard the Christians slandered, and saw them fearless of death, and of all other things which are counted fearful, perceived that it was impossible that they could be living in wickedness and pleasure. For what sensual or intemperate man, or who that counts it good to feast on human flesh, could welcome death that he might be deprived of his enjoyments...?

You can also see here a strong hint of misconceptions about Christianity that were present even in its earliest days.

And finally, a quote from the text itself:

The early Christians were completely earnest when they converted. They knew what form of death they were courting, and they certainly knew that at the very least they would be subjected to considerable ridicule from their old friends and associates. And yet they continued to present themselves for baptism. Their motives were powerful. When a person made the fateful step of approaching his Christian friend and saying "I want to be like you", he was saying, in effect, "I know my way of life is bankrupt and I cannot continue to live this way anymore. I need Christ, the Church, and the sacraments to become the person I want to be."

Fascinating! This looks to be one of those books that are well-suited for homeschool parents wishing to brush up on their history in order to teach their children. It might be read, at least in part, by more mature teens to great benefit as well.

Bernie's Lunch

bernieslunch
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

I was stunned to find this plate of gorgeous food sitting out on the counter (on a funny plastic animal plate, no less) while Bernie was in the other room for a moment. I guess this is what comes of having the kids' put together their own breakfasts and lunches! (I did put the sandwich in the broiler for her - but she added the zucchini and tomatoes afterwards - Terri fried the zucchini and the bacon was cooked by John last night!).

Yum!

A couple of movies

Miss Potter is delightful! Just finished it early this morning - a really wonderful celebration of imagination and creativity. Elizabeth Foss has a whole rabbit trail going about Beatrix Potter here.

John and I took Frank to see Rataouille on Sunday. We were planning on going by ourselves at first (since I'll be taking all of the kids to see it when John goes to Taiwan next month) but Frank really wanted to go and we thought it would be easier for the babysitter if he went along with us. I promised John I'd take him out if he got noisy (since I'd have another chance to see the movie later). I didn't have to. He was glued from start to finish (the popcorn and root beer we were sharing didn't hurt). It was a very entertaining movie - lots of laugh-out-loud stuff. Sometimes the rats - especially in the food context - were just a bit much.

Chesterton on Flexilibility and Freedom

What a marvelous quote...

A man's minor actions and arrangements ought to be free, flexible, creative; the things that should be unchangeable are his principles, his ideals. But with us the reverse is true; our views change constantly; but our lunch does not change. Now, I should like men to have strong and rooted conceptions, but as for their lunch, let them have it sometimes in the garden, sometimes in bed, sometimes on the roof, sometimes in the top of a tree. Let them argue from the same first principles, but let them do it in a bed, or a boat, or a balloon.

G.K. Chesterton, On Lying in Bed

Hat-tip Pipsqueak from the Common Room

Fr. Warren R.I.P.

Many thanks to Ladybug Mommy Maria for posting an obituary of Fr. Warren - a wonderful Jesuit from the San Francisco Bay Area who recently passed away at the age of 89. (See her post here).

I remember seeing Fr. Warren numerous times over the years at Our Lady of Peace Church in Santa Clara. He was a very personable man and a holy priest. I can still remember bits and pieces of some of his sermons, but the most striking memory for me as a child is that he told me that he liked my name and on a number of occasions reminded me that "Alicia" means "truth".

May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Top Menu Bar - How to

I've posted on the how-to of a Top Menu Bar on the Moms Who Blog Blog.

I really like the way it allows me to clean-up my sidebar (I hate over-cluttered sidebars) and offer more browsing options. Good timing as I edge up to my 1000th post (I'm at somewhere around 990). :)

"A Picture of Now" Meme

Mrs. Bear tagged me...

A picture of now, between past and future.

1. a. Describe your outfit. Black sleeveless t-shirt, denim shorts, bare feet

b. What associations does the main color evoke? Um, not much. Black tends to, ahem, flatter.

c. Is there a memory associated with that outfit (or part of
it)? I picked up the shirt to go with some Hawaiian capris (to match my husband's favorite Hawaiian shirt) for a 4th of July party we hosted a few years ago. It was fun!

2. a. Are you listening to music? I was until just a moment ago. Gus is doing the Mavis Beacon typing program (there's a prize available if he gets up to a certain speed) and he gets to pick his own music - he chose "The Story of Mozart" to have on in the background. He just stopped it (after I started this post) to put the dog in her kennel since she was barking rather loudly at squirrels.

b. Was this intentional? Not on my part. It's Gus's fault. :)

c. What does the music make you remember? Hearing the kids listen to this CD at bedtime in our old house.

3. a. Describe the objects within arm's reach. There's tons of stuff in reach on my messy desk. Piles of books (at least three), a pile of papers to be filed, and miscellaneous scattered papers and envelopes (esp. for the library summer reading program).

b. Choose one object and tell where you acquired it. The Bible I used at TAC (a softcover copy of the RSVCE - I bought this at the TAC bookstore almost 20 years ago) is on top of Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI - on account of their recent use at our teen catechism discussion last Tuesday. It's missing its back cover.

c. On the whole, are the objects new (memory blanks) or old (memory filled)? Mostly books that are fairly new to me, but not particularly new in and of themselves. Many of them came from my mother-in-law who was recently getting rid of some of her books. They're still on my desk because I always bring "new" books here first to add them to my LibraryThing.

4. a. What room are you in? I am in the "sun room".

b. To what extent is it yours? The desk area is almost completely *mine*. :) John gets privileges when he's here, but the kids use the other computer.

c. What kind of memories will you have in the future of this
room? Reading, dancing together, large family meals (we usually have the table without leaves in here and eat at the kitchen counter, but the table is huge when it has all its leaves), extended family parties, movies and lots more.

4. What were you doing before starting this post, and what would you like to do next? Checking out the reading list for Wyoming Catholic College. Next I should skype John at work and then eat some lunch.

Rockin' Awards Ceremony

Wow! Nutmeg nominated me for a Rockin' Girl Blogger Award! The timing is rather funny since a) I've been doing so much moaning about the loss of the Milwaukee area's only classical radio station (my wonderful husband surprised me by burning a nice classical CD and leaving it in the car for me this weekend, by the way) and b) over 4th of July weekend I spent a bit of time reminiscing with another homeschool mom about the 80s music we enjoyed once upon a time.

Anyway, since this award is likely to make its way around our corner of the blogosphere, I thought I'd take a slightly different angle and nominate some of my favorite younger bloggers - homeschool teens and grads (there is a bit of an age span here).

Naturally, I'll have to start with my daughter Ria - young Chestertonian, aspiring artist and lover of many good things. Ria made me promise not to nominate all of her friends so that she'd have some left to pass this along to herself. :)

Next up is Ria's cousin, Michaela, a part-time professional artist enjoying the farming life in the wilds of Oklahoma and the newest addition to Small Pax guild. I have, in the scrapbook I gave to John for our wedding (nearly 15 years ago!) a coloring book page she colored and gave to me during our engagement - labeled "The Prince marries the Princess." (Michaela was also the flower girl in our wedding.)

I've known Margaret for about five or six years now and always enjoy her thoughts and ramblings on her blog. I have a feeling that her blog will grow even quieter for a time as she's leaving for Wyoming Catholic College later this summer. In the meantime, we have a few more catechism discussions in which to enjoy her company and her wit.

Filia Dei is a homeschool and Steubenville grad now in the graduate architecture program at Notre Dame. She's been involved in the local historical society (inspiring numerous now-famous floats in her hometown's 4th of July parade) and all kinds of other cool stuff for many years. She's the sort that helps you get a vision of what homeschooling can do for your kids. :)

Mary-Therese is the only one in the bunch I haven't met in person (at least I don't think I have - we did meet much of her family in person in San Francisco about 8 years ago, but I *think* she wasn't there at the time). She loves great movies and excellent books, and reviews them quite thoughtfully.

Pardon Our Dust

I'm still figuring out how to use the new top-bar menu and what I want to put where. Expect further construction over the next week or so.

Suggestions welcome!

Once I figure this thing out more, I plan on sharing the coding over on the Moms who Blog Blog.

I'm also experimenting with RSS feeds from some of our most active websites in the sidebar. Let me know what you think.

Typing Speed Test

I haven't tested my typing speed since I was doing secretarial temp work during college (I think I tested at 110 wpm back then). I was pleasantly surprised to clock in at 100 wpm (with one mistake). That really does help keep up with the blogging and all!

You can test yourself here.

Hat-tip Far Beyond Pearls

Wow, I tried it again after Ria told me of the varying texts. I got 118wpm with no mistakes!

Happy 4th!

IMG_7664
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

We've already attended one parade (our town celebrated on Sunday - more photos here). By the way, we made a batch of homemade ice cream and brought it along to the parade in a freezer chest. We were stuck in the full sun for about three hours - so the ice cream was SO perfect!

I love these parades - especially honoring the vets and listening to all the music bands. I'm a sucker for small town bands.

This morning we're heading off to another parade with a group of friends after shooting off some fireworks with them last night.

God Bless America!

Fr. Fessio on the Motu Proprio for expanded use of the "Old Mass"

Watch the interview here

Freedom and the Domestic Church

Melanie makes some excellent points about that freedom question in her most recent post at the Wine Dark Sea. I especially liked this:

Piety does not necessarily equal faith. And going to church on Sunday, having lots of kids and homeschooling do not in and of themselves guarantee a living faith. (Though as RCM points out, free will does mean that even parents who do all the right things can still raise kids who turn away from the faith.)

Real parental love is modeled on the love that God has for us, which respects us an individuals, which always invites but never coerces. Which, however, doesn't mean a lack of discipline!

So what's the answer? Cultivate the domestic church. Live the sacraments: frequent confession, daily mass, praying together as a family every day, and above all really living the gospel. That's the only way to raise Catholic kids. That's the only way to really live.

Sadly, I think many people see homeschooling as some sort of magical cure-all and are shocked, shocked when it doesn't solve all their kids' problems. It reminds me of the movie, The Village, where a group of people who've been hurt and damaged try to go to the woods to found a new society. But what happens is they can't form a perfect society. Because sin resides in the heart of man, not in society. And no matter what we do to seal our families off from the world, we will still have to battle the problem of our fallen human nature.

I assume she didn't mean to imply that daily mass was essential to keep your kids Catholic, by the way.

St. Joseph Carry-Me-Along Board Books

I expect to do a full review of these later over on love2learn. I just picked up a handful of these books for our "littles" to look at in church. They have lovely pictures and the handles make them very appealing. More details here.

Family Pic 1997

Family Pic 1997
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

I've been working a bit on photos today and came across this one - from almost exactly ten years ago(I believe this was taken at a 4th of July party)! How weird is that.

That's a very *Ria* face from those days. She was a very challenging one in the discipline department when she was younger, but is turning out to be a delightful teenager (at least so far!).

Seen at a rest stop in Minnesota

Seen at a rest stop in Minnesota
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

I got tagged and therefore...

Thanks Margaret! :)

I started out with a Mt. Rushmore background, but it turns out they *charge* for that one. I usually wear contacts but I left them behind at the Daly's so had only glasses during our entire Rapid City adventure. This seems rather Wisconsinish to me anyway - but watch out for those mosquitoes!

Dang, I did something wrong and it doesn't move. Oh well. By the way, that is not a kid-friendly site. I would not let my kids make their own. UPDATE: I managed to fix it.