Funny "School" Moment of the Day

Bernie just finished up her first grade Faith and Life Book yesterday, so today I started quizzing her on the glossary words in the back. Nothing very formal - just getting a sense of what she knows/remembers and what she needs a little more understanding on. Here's one of the latter...

Me: Do you know who Abraham is?

Bernie: [silence]

Me: Do you know anything he did?

Bernie: [silence, squirming]

Me: Can you think of a book where you can find out more about him?

Bernie: Um, a book about the presidents?

:)

Beware of Phishing Scams

I got another phishing scam e-mail today and thought I'd share it with you on the off-chance you aren't already familiar with this crime. This is one example, but there are numerous varieties. I disconnected the actual links for obvious safety reasons. Following the text is a list of some things to look for in identifying scams.

Subject: Amazon request: Please follow the Member Verification Procedure!

Place or Update Credit Card on File

Dear Amazon Customer ,

This is your final warning about the safety of your Amazon account. If you do not update your billing informations your access on Amazon features will be restricted and the user deleted. This might be due to either following reasons:

- A recent change in your personal information (i.e. change of address)
- Submiting invalid information during the initial sign up process.
- An inability to accurately verify your selected option of payment due an internal error within
our processors.

Please update your Amazon profile in order to restore your online access:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/subs/primeclub/account/homepage.html/ref=ya_hp_sub_1/104-4436503-7329515?ie=UTF8&method=GET

If your account information is not updated, your ability to use your Amazon account will become restricted.

Thank you,
Amazon Billing Department

Amazon treats your perxsonal information with the utmost care, and our Privacy Policy is designed to protect you and your information. Amazon will never ask their users for personal information, such as bank account numbers, credit card numbers, pin numbers, passwords, or Social Security numbers in an email. For more information on how to protect your Amazon password and your account, please visit User Account Protection.

This Amazon notice was sent to you based on your Amazon account preferences and in accordance with our click here. If you would like to receive this email in text format, click here.

Copyright © 2007 Amazon Inc. All Rights Reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon Inc. __________________________________________________________________

Some signs this particular e-mail had of being a scam:

1. The e-mail was sent to multiple addresses (which all showed up on the address line)

2. The links that appear to be legitimate on the surface, if you mouse over them (in the original e-mail - I didn't want to risk including them here), indicate that they lead to some other url entirely than what they claim.

3. Typographical errors, such as: "An inability to accurately verify your selected option of payment due an internal error within our processors."

4. Of course it's also ridiculous that an online store would require you to have an updated credit card on file just to browse their store.

5. I didn't even notice this the first time around, but there's a bizarre spelling error in the fine print - "perxsonal". There are several other spelling errors. This is one sloppy phisher-dude.

Here are some sites on recognizing and avoiding phishing scams and other means of stealing personal information:

Amazon's official Phishing Info Page

Microsoft: Recognizing Phishing Scams

Computer World, Security, Phishing

Spear-Phishing: Highly Targeted Scams

Snopes also has a whole section on Phishing Scams (with examples)

And on a related topic, be sure not to fall for the Nigerian Scam. (This one's been around for a long time too).

Bible Quiz

You know the Bible 100%!

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

I seriously take issue with the "true Biblical scholar" part, but it's nice to know that I remember *something* even if there were a number of educated guesses in there. (Not bad for a Catholic - heehee)

hat-tip The Curt Jester

Saint Francis of Assisi

It seems that Saint Francis has been the theme of our past couple of weeks. I just finished reading Chesterton's St. Francis of Assisi last night. What an incredible book. It was the sort of book (similar in a way to The Everlasting Man) that is so "filling" that you have to lay it down after awhile to "digest" it. Great stuff! This just might be my favorite Chesterton book to date - and I really didn't expect that.

I received a copy of Nancy Brown's study guide to Chesterton's St. Francis as well. I've only skimmed it so far, but enjoyed the preliminary details she's gathered in her introduction and I'm sure the study questions (and writing prompts) will be helpful for getting more out of the book. One more note in passing (I'll be working on a detailed review for love2learn sometime in the near future) is that I'm very impressed with the beauty and quality of the book at a very reasonable price.

Finally, completely un-planned by me, except for adding it to the list once upon a time (I usually forget to check what's sitting in my queue at Netflix), the movie that arrived this week was Roberto Rossellini's Flowers of St. Francis (1950 - black and white, in Italian with English subtitles). It was certainly a perfect time to watch it. It's not a complete story of Saint Francis - more like little vignettes.

For Margaret... Bad Sink Night, Good Sink Day

Somewhat belatedly...



















Thanks - I needed the inspiration. Even managed to wash the valance - boy was it dirty!!!

Of course if I had done the good pic at night and the bad pic during the day, the mess would have been a little more hidden. :)

There's a nice snowy view out there and a line of our neighbor's pine trees (very pretty with fresh snow on them!).

Prayer Request

Please pray! Two women - relatives of several TACers - were killed yesterday in a carjacking in Nairobi Kenya. News article here.

Wisconsin JCL Latin Convention

Wisconsin JCL Latin Convention
Originally uploaded by Chez VH.

The Latin convention was a lot of fun - inspiring, educational and a very living way of celebrating a "dead" language. There were 450 students representing 15 schools.

Since this was the first year to computerize all the results of written tests, artistic contests and other forms of fun and competition, there were only limited results available at the close of the convention.

What we do know is that the Greater Milwaukee Catholic Home Educators (with the smallest delegation of the entire convention - featuring just four students - and the only homeschool group in attendance):

- Won the spirit award in the small schools division (what is that myth about homeschoolers and socialization?).

- Took first in the "War Machines" contest with our Roman-style "navis oneraria" (a supply ship) model built of tinfoil. It held SEVENTEEN DOLLARS in pennies!

We eagerly await further results and look forward to bringing a larger delegation next year.

More photos here

Regina Doman has a blog!

House Art Journal

Because I Love Lists...

I couldn't resist Farm School's challenge of whittling our favorite children's picture books down to 25 "essentials". I have to admit they are somewhat "representative" since I purposely avoided repeating authors or series. Dang. I just realized I didn't include a Jim Arnosky - I'll have to go ahead and make it 26. Here goes anyway (in no particular order)...

Angus and the Ducks by Marjorie Flack
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky
The Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie de Paola
D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths
A Day on Skates by Hilda Van Stockum
The Children's Book of Heroes (edited by Wm. Bennett)
For the Children: Words of Love and Inspiration from Pope John Paul II
The Handmade Alphabet (in fact I REALLY need a new copy of this one!)
Frog and Toad Treasury by Arnold Lobel
Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton
Little Bear Treasury by Else Holmelund Minarik
The Moon Seems to Change by Franklyn Branley
My First Body Book (Dorling Kindersley)
The Princess and the Kiss by Jennie Bishop
The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle by Rumer Godden
The Song of the Swallows by Leo Politi
Saints and Angels by Claire Llewelyn
Pamela Walks the Dog by Christine Marlin
Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall
Golden Children's Bible
Amazing Buildings (Dorling Kindersley)
Merry Go Round: A Book About Nouns by Ruth Heller
The Fussy Angel by Mary Arnold
Crinkleroot's Guide to Animal Habitats by Jim Arnosky

Okay - we're off to the Latin convention soon. Prayers would be appreciated for safe travel (I'm driving). Have a great weekend all!

March for Life Coverage

Catholic Homeschool Bloggers who were at the D.C. event...

Cause of Our Joy

Maureen Wittmann

Just Another Day in Paradise

(Please let me know of other links that should be added)

Secret Papal Outings

I love this story about Pope John Paul II taking "secret" outings to the mountains to go skiing with his aides.

The cardinal, who was Pope John Paul's personal secretary for 38 years, wrote that the pope, an avid skier and hiker in his youth, often felt pent up inside the Vatican.

In the winter of 1981, the pope, his secretary and two of his Polish aides decided to make a "getaway" to the mountains from the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo.

They packed into a car owned by one of the priests, in order not to raise suspicions, and when they passed the Swiss Guard post one prelate opened wide a newspaper to hide the pontiff in the back seat.

Read the whole thing here

hat-tip Ignatius Insight

Milwaukee Homeschool Conference

We're really looking forward to the Celebrate the Faith Homeschool Conference in Milwaukee coming up at the end of April. All the details are now available at the GMCHE website. Great job on the website M.E. (not to be confused with "me" LOL)!

We're also thrilled that a certain mom and baby will be coming to stay with us for the conference. (The kids are particularly excited about meeting little Maria - we haven't had an infant around in too long. Kate keeps asking when they'll be coming - it's a long time to wait for a 5 year old!)

Prayer Requests

For our friends at Starry Sky Ranch who are likely to lose their land and a lot more through eminent domain.

For Glenn, a father of three young children, who is dying.

For Regina and David and family, who are seeking asylum in the U.S. from the Democratic Republic of Congo and have an immigration hearing today.

For safe travel for all those returning home from the D.C. Walk for Life and, as always, for an end to abortion and an increase in respect for the dignity of human life.

For our weekly study group on Catechism/Church History/Apologetics that begins tonight.

Pictures from our TAC Visit

Guadalupe Fountain/ St. Joseph Commons
Originally uploaded by Chez VH.

The campus is SO beautiful - the buildings and grounds have come a LONG way since I was a student. (The food's better now too!) You can see more photos from this set here.

We especially enjoyed our visit to the rare books room in St. Bernardine Library. They have many amazing saint relics, a rosary that belonged to Padre Pio and many other beautiful books and artifacts. TAC's beloved librarian gave the girls quite a grand tour (I used to work for her once upon a time).

I'll be adding more pictures to the above link pretty soon.

Frankly Speaking IV

I have a few stories to catch up on here as I haven't posted about Frank's delightful means of communication in awhile...

The first one requires a bit of explanation... I've mentioned before that we do a Litany of all of our patron saints as part of bedtime prayers. We usually sing these in English with a Latin response and we all take turns saying each other's patron saints (basically their first and middle name). It's a little tricky to explain since I don't reveal the children's actual names. Usually I start and pick a child at random, singing "Saints ___ and ____" and that person sings back "Orate pro nobis" and intones the next two patron saints. Whoever chooses me sings "Saints Alicia, Michael and Cecelia" (including my confirmation patron) and I answer "Orate pro nobis." etc.

Anyway, on to the story. Frank has gotten very interested in this part of night time prayers. Last night I started out with Frank and he answered very nicely, but, to our great amusement, proceeded to call the shots for the rest of the Litany. One of the girls' middle names is Katherine, but he offered up the rest of the Litany as if everyone's middle name was Katherine. There was plenty of suppressed giggling and smiles, but everyone pretty much lost it when Frank very nicely "prayed" to "Saints Daddy and Katherine."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Also, I love how some of Frank's phrases turn out when he misses some rather important consonants...the translations can be a bit challenging at times.

- While struggling to bring an entire gallon of milk over to me, "I wrong guy!" (strong)

- While admiring his favorite swim shirt (Yes, even in the middle of winter) - "It retzy!" (stretchy)

Saint Agnes (died around 304 AD)

I was just talking to my kids about Saint Agnes yesterday without remembering that today was her feast. When I was little, we didn't have a lot of children's books (not like today at least!) in our home and so the weekly visits to our school library at St. Simon and Jude Elementary School were a real treat for me! I looked forward to that hour and stayed up way too late reading that night. It was in that library, when I was in first grade, that I first fell in love with the saints, through the simple little pictures books published by the Daughters of Saint Paul. I still have the compendium that I purchased when I was about 10 - the older edition of 57 Stories of Saints for Boys and Girls.

Those saints that I first fell in love with were St. Agnes, St. Cecelia (who I took as my confirmation patron years later), St. Sebastian (whose feast was yesterday - the reason why we were discussing the books and the library) and St. Tarcisius.

Anyway, Mike Aquilina has an interesting and informative post about St. Agnes today. Take a peek!

San Francisco Walk for Life

It's exciting to see this event grow and develop. When I was a kid we used to do a 32 mile 2-day prolife walk from the South Bay (near where I lived) into San Francisco with dinner and a layover at a parish hall. This big walk gathers a lot more people, news and attention today. It's exciting to see banners from the Stanford and Berkeley Students for Life. When I was visiting TAC I noticed they were planning rides to get a large portion of the student body up to SF for the walk.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

hat-tip Amy Welborn.

A Catholic in Hollywood

Another interview with Catholic screenwriter Barb Nicolosi (I always find these fascinating and informative). Her thoughts on aesthetics are particularly worth thinking about:

My father is a military historian, and he raised us with the adage, “It is never good strategy to underestimate your adversary.” So, Hollywood needs to stop looking down on the people who want the transcendent side of human nature to be reflected in their stories. Hollywood needs to stop thinking they can throw cheap platitudes at the people who are, you know, brooding over Leviticus and Dorothy Sayers and Chesterton and C.S. Lewis and John Paul II in their free time. How did Aretha Franklin put it? R-E-S-P-E-C-T! But it’s very hard to respect people if you loathe and fear what they believe.

The word now is that FOX is going to greenlight ten movies for the Christian audience at a cost of about $40 million. Well, in a day in which the average studio movie costs close to $50 million, that means that FOX has decided that the Christians can be had on the cheap. Ask a woman how she feels about a guy who thinks he can win her on the cheap…

But I don’t really blame the industry. People tend to make the movies they want to see. I blame Christians for losing the love of the arts and for not being a serious presence creatively in Hollywood. The Church used to be the Patron of the Arts. Now, our Sunday Masses can mostly be reckoned aesthetic horror shows – terrible music badly performed, lame homilies with no point or oratorical style, environments which are a celebration of the sterile and talentless. It isn’t fair for Christians to critique Hollywood serverely until we get our own aesthetic act together.

I also like her thoughts on what the Catholic Church can bring to the entertainment industry...

I think the Church brings a refreshing voice to the entertainment industry which is floundering around trying to decide if it should have an ethics. The Church says, “Wherever there is power there must be ethics.” Ethics is helping people ask, “Just because I can do something, does that mean I should?”

Read the entire interview here

Essential Classic Movie Directors

These are a few of our favorites (generally appropriate for teens and adults)...

Frank Capra

It Happened One Night
It's a Wonderful Life
Meet John Doe
Mr. Deeds Comes to Town
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
You Can't Take it With You

Michael Curtiz

Adventures of Robin Hood
Angels with Dirty Faces
Casablanca
Yankee Doodle Dandy

John Ford

How Green Was My Valley
The Quiet Man

Alfred Hitchcock

I Confess
North by Northwest
Rear Window
The Wrong Man
To Catch a Thief
Vertigo

George Stevens

Alice Adams
The Diary of Anne Frank
Giant
The Greatest Story Ever Told
I Remember Mama
The More the Merrier
Penny Serenade

William Wyler

Ben Hur
Mrs. Miniver
Roman Holiday
Wuthering Heights

There are some others by these directors I should go back and watch again since I don't remember them too well (this pretty much explains the lack of Westerns in the list).

Comforting thoughts from St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

I posted this yesterday on The CIN Blog, but it seemed even more timely and comforting today after reading sad posts on several favorite blogs last night and this morning.

Let nothing disturb thee,
Nothing affright thee;
All things are passing;
God never changeth;
Patient endurance
Attaineth to all things;
Who God possesseth
In nothing is wanting;
Alone God sufficeth.

translated from the Spanish by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow...

Prayer Request for Sammy Nosacek's family

I shared with you the story about little Sammy Nosacek and his family a few months back. Sammy was just four years old when he died suddenly in his sleep last fall. Please pray for the family again as his little sister (I think she's under two years old) has been taken to the hospital in critical condition with pneumonia. The family has been through so much already. Your prayer would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: I've already heard that the little girl is no longer in critical condition. Thanks be to God!

Birthday Gear

Birthday Gear
Originally uploaded by Chez VH.

Frank celebrated his 3rd birthday last week. He adores his new birthday armor. The minute I set foot in the door upon returning from California, he gave me a hug and then ran off to show me his helmet again.

(By the way, we still have a lot of book-clutter from our living room project as you can see in the background of this picture. There are a few more plain shelves - on the other side of the room from the huge magazine racks - that need to be built.)

Clean-up Time

Christmas Tree Ornaments
Originally uploaded by Chez VH.

Well, we had the last of our three January birthdays yesterday, so the tree came down today. (The nativity set always stays up until Terri's birthday in mid-February). I liked this picture of some favorite ornaments that are almost-packed. The angel-photo in the corner is Ria from our first Christmas card after she was born. We had a bunch of cute photos from the angel-shoot, so I used pieces from old Christmas cards to turn two of them into an ornament. This was following after a tradition my grandma started of making photo-ornaments for each of the grand-kids. That yellow Christmas tree contains a photo of me! (Unfortunately I haven't managed to keep up the tradition, so far, with any of the other kids.

Chesterton's Saint Francis of Assisi

Now that I finished up The Everlasting Man it seems I couldn't wait long to start a new title by the same author. I picked up Saint Francis of Assisi and finding it a nice follow-up to TEM, especially since there's some related thoughts on history. (Also handy since I expect to be reviewing Nancy Brown's study guide for St. Francis in the near future). Here are a "few" highlights from what I read today.

He starts by discussing history in order to set forth his reasons for giving us a picture of the world into which St. Francis of Assisi was born. It's a nice little reminder of mankind's tendency to forget its need for perspective in understanding people of other times and places...

The modern innovation which has substituted journalism for history, or for that tradition that is the gossip of history, has had at least one definite effect. It has insured that everybody should only hear the end of every story.

Newspapers not only deal with news, but they deal with everything as if it were entirely new Tut-ankhamen, for instance, was entirely new. It is exactly in the same fashion that we read that Admiral Bangs has been shot, which is the first intimation we have that he has ever been born.

Most modern history, especially in England, suffers from the same imperfection as journalism. At best it only tells half of the history of Christendom; and that the second half without the first half. Men for whom reason begins with the Revival of Learning, men for whom religion begins with the Reformation, can never give a complete account of anything, for they have to start with institutions whose origin the cannot explain, or generally even imagine. Just as we hear of the admiral being shot but have never heard of his being born, so we all heard a great deal about the dissolution of the monasteries, but we heard next to nothing about the creation of the monasteries. Now this sort of history would be hopelessly insufficient, even for an intelligent man who hated the monasteries.

The Crusaders doubtless abused their victory, but there was a victory to abuse. And where there is victory there is valour in the field and popularity in the forum. There is some sort of enthusiasm that encourages excesses or covers faults. For instance, I for one have maintained from very early days the responsibility of the English for their atrocious treatment of the Irish. But it would be quite unfair to the English to describe even the devilry of '98 and leave out altogether mention of the war with Napoleon.

We learn about reforms without knowing what they had to reform, about rebels without a notion of what they rebelled against, of memorials that are not connected with any memory and restorations of things that had apparently never existed before.

...I am not going to discuss here the doctrinal truths of Christianity, but simply the broad historical fact of Christianity, as it might appear to a really enlightened and imaginative person even if he were not a Christian. What I mean at the moment is that the majority of doubts are made out of details. In the course of random reading a man comes across a pagan custom that strikes him as picturesque or a Christian action that strikes him as cruel; but he does not enlarge his mind sufficiently to see the main truth about pagan custom or the Christian reaction against it.

He then moves on to explain the significance of the "flowering of culture and the creative arts" in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and what went on during the Dark Ages to allow that to happen.

Now everybody knows, I imagine, that the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were an awakening of the world. They were a fresh flowering of culture an the creative arts after a long spell of much sterner and even more sterile experience which we call the Dark Ages. They may be called an emancipation; they were certainly an end; an end of what may at least seem a harsher and more inhuman time.

Anybody who supposes that the Dark Ages were plain darkness and nothing else, and that the dawn of the thirteenth century was plain daylight and nothing else, will not be able to make head or tail of the human story of St. Francis of Assisi.

The end of the Dark Ages was not merely the end of a sleep. It was certainly not merely the end of a superstitious enslavement. It was the end of something belonging to a quite definite but quite different order of ideas.

It was the end of a penance; or, if it be preferred, a purgation. It marked the moment when a certain spiritual expiation had been finally worked out and certain spiritual diseases had been finally expelled from the system. They had been expelled by an era of asceticism, which was the only thing that could have expelled them. Christianity had entered the world to cure the world; and she had cured it in the only way in which it could be cured.

The mistake was too deep to be ideally defined; the short-hand of it is to call it the mistake of nature-worship It might almost as truly be called the mistake of being natural; and it was a very natural mistake.

The wisest men in the world set out to be natural; and the most unnatural thing in the world was the very first thing they did. The immediate effect of saluting the sun and the sunny sanity of nature was a perversion spreading like a pestilence. The greatest and even the purest philosophers could not apparently avoid this low sort of lunacy.

It was the discovery of that deeper thing, humanly speaking, that constituted the conversion to Christianity. There is a bias in man... and Christianity was the discovery of how to correct the bias and therefore hit the mark. There are many who will smile at the saying but it is profoundly true to say that the glad good news brought by the Gospel was the news of original sin.

New Reciprocal Link

Classic Catholic is run by Dr. Robert Gotcher, a professor at Sacred Heart School of Theology and a contributor to the Heart Mind and Strength Weblog. Dr. Gotcher is also the moderator of our local Catholic homeschool Latin Club and he and I will be bringing a team of students from the club to the state Junior Classical League Convention in Madison later this month.

Reciprocal Links to Studeo

Catholic Crisis and Revival

(cross-posted from the CIN Blog)

I've just finished reading G.K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man. It's a fascinating and thoughtful historical outline considering the impact of Christ and the Church on the world. It's a challenging read, and I found it best to read it slowly in order to better absorb it - I read it over the course of a little more than a year.

One thing I liked about it is that, in a way consistent with C.S. Lewis' thoughts on the importance of reading old books, it allowed me to consider Church History outside the prejudices and emphases of our present day. In other words, reading the thoughts of a faithful Catholic writing in the 1920s about concerns regarding the faith and his perspective on previous problems in Church history provides some insights almost impossible from a writer from my own time period who might share any number of my own assumptions and perspectives about the state of the Church.

I found the chapter "Five Deaths of the Faith" particularly interesting in this regard. Chesterton argues that the Church has suffered a number of staggering "collapses" over the course of History - collapses that might reasonably be viewed as unrecoverable and even be considered as something that died. And yet, after each of these collapses came an incredible revival - a revival almost beyond belief given the seriousness of the collapse. He argues that this is a sign of authenticity of the Church because something fake would have stayed dead.

To have read the literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is to know that nearly everybody had come to take it for granted that religion was a thing that would continually broaden like a river, till it reached an infinite sea. Some of them expected it to go down in a cataract of catastrophe, most of them expected it to widen into an estuary of equality and moderation; but all of them thought its returning on itself a prodigy as incredible as witchcraft. In other words, most moderate people thought that faith like freedom would be slowly broadened down; and some advanced people thought that it would be very rapidly broadened down, not to say flattened out. All that world of Guizot and Macaulay and the commercial and scientific liberality was perhaps more certain than any men before or since about the direction in which the world is going. People were so certain about the direction that they only differed about the pace. Many anticipated with alarm, and a few with sympathy, a Jacobin revolt that should guillotine the Archbishop of Canterbury or a Chartist riot that should hang the parsons no the lampposts.But it seemed like a convulsion in nature that the Archbishop instead of losing his head should be looking for his mitre; and that instead of diminishing the respect due to parsons we should strengthen it to the respect due to priests. it revolutionised their very vision of revolution; and turned their very topsyturveydom topsyturvey.

In short, the whole world being divided about whether the stream was going slower or faster, became conscious of something vague but vast that was going against the stream. Both in fat and figure there is something deeply disturbing about this, and that for an essential reason. A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it. A dead dog can be lifted on the leaping water with all the swiftness of a leaping hound; but only a live dog can swim backwards. A paper boat can ride the rising deluge with all the airy arrogance of a fairy ship; but if the fairy ship sails upstream it is really rowed by the fairies. And among the things that merely went with the tide of apparent progress and enlargement, there was many a demagogue or sophist whose wild gestures were in truth as lifeless as the movement of a dead dog's limbs wavering in the eddying water; and many a philosophy uncommonly like a paper boat, of the sort that it is not difficult to knock into a cocked hat. But even the truly living and even life-giving things that went with that stream did not thereby prove that they were living or life-giving. It was this other force that was unquestionably and unaccountably alive; the mysterious and unmeasured energy that was thrusting back the river.

The Everlasting Man can be read in its entirety at this link.

Hello, I'm Back

The girls and I returned home yesterday morning (after a rather grueling red-eye flight). We had a lovely visit to Thomas Aquinas College and chilly Southern California. Highlights of the trip for me included finishing The Everlasting Man on the flight out. It only took about 14 months. :) For me it was a good book to savor slowly. Perhaps I'll catch up on blogging the book one of these days.

It was really nice to return to my Alma Mater for a few days. I had a nice visit with my nephew and his girlfriend, met several children and siblings of online friends and enjoyed hopping in and out of numerous classes with "my" high school students. The girls' favorite class was a Senior Lab class taught by Kristen's brother, who invited them to join in the class experiments with static electricity.

I was surprised at how comforting it was to return to the beautiful mountains for a short time. I understand better now why Our Lord, St. Francis of Assisi, Pope John Paul II and many others would go to the mountains for rest and reflection.

On the way back to the airport, on a very cold night, we managed to dip our toes in the Pacific Ocean (the sand was even colder than the water) and practically run through the Icon exhibit at the Getty (we brushed off the sand first, LOL). We had 25 minutes before the Museum closed. One of the docents teased us that we were doing what they call the "tennis tour" - bouncing our heads back and forth as we quickly moved through. We had just enough time to look at each icon for a moment or two and read the name of the Saint or event portrayed and how old it was. It was beautiful and memorable regardless - be sure to visit if you have the opportunity!

By "coincidence" the Friday night lecture we attended at TAC added an extra dimension to the Icon exhibit. The lecture was on "The Dormition of Mary" (I hope I explain these details correctly) - a name given by the Eastern Church to the event of Mary's Assumption into heaven. Fr. Brian Daley of Notre Dame explained Church teaching and tradition on this event, including beliefs about whether Our Lady "fell asleep" and then was assumed or physically died first. He showed us an Eastern icon of the Dormition of Mary (here's an example - not the specific one he used)and explained some of the symbolism. This made it easy to pick out several representations of the Dormition of Mary within the exhibit. Neat connections!

It was a real pleasure to share these experiences with young people (including Margaret - the other two aren't doing any blogging yet) who are so enthusiastic about Faith, culture and life.

John was a real trooper with tonsillitis running through the house during my absence (fortunately Frank was mostly better before I left and Kate didn't start getting sick until I was back - the older kids are a little easier to manage). None of the kids have been spared this round, which is rather surprising because the oldest two often don't get sick when the others do.

The Medieval Lyric

An early-music-and-linguist-type-person I recently made the acquaintance of told me about a program called The Medieval Lyric at Mount Holyoke College. It sounds terribly interesting, though I haven't had a chance to read through the website yet. I might have to spring for their CD set some day.

Books I Read - 2006

I think I probably missed a few, but this is the first time I've really attempted to keep a list of books I've read and it's fairly thorough.

The Catholic Homeschool Companion edited by Maureen Wittmann and Rachel Mackson (Sophia)
The Mitchells', Canadian Summer, Friendly Gables by Hilda Van Stockum (Bethlehem Books)
Homeschooling with Gentleness: A Catholic Discovers Unschooling by Suzie Andres
A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks
In Search of a Homeland: The Story of the Aeneid by Penelope Lively
Olympic Wandering: Time Travel Through Greece by David Lundberg
Auschwitz: The Story of a Nazi Death Camp by Clive Lawton
Night by Elie Wiesel
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (all 13 books)
Cottage at Bantry Bay, Francie on the Run, Pegeen by Hilda Van Stockum
St. Paul the Apostle by Mary Fabyan Windeatt (TAN)
The Good Master by Kate Seredy
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Meet the Austins by Madeleine L'Engle
The Outlaws of Ravenhurst by Sister M. Imelda Wallace
Little House in the Highlands by Melissa Wiley
What's Wrong with the World by G.K. Chesterton
God is Love by Pope Benedict XVI
Declaration on Christian Education (Vatican II document)
Letter to Families Pope John Paul II
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
The Strange Intruder by Arthur Catherall
The Far Side of the Loch by Melissa Wiley
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares (books I and II)
The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy
Homer Price, Centerburg Tales by Robert McCloskey
Heretics, Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Refuting the Attack on Mary by Fr. Mateo
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
Hell and Other Destinations: A Novelist's Reflections on This World and the Next by Piers Paul Read
The Iliad by Homer
Gospel, Catechesis, Catechism by Cardinal Ratzinger
Saints of the American Wilderness by Fr. John O'Brien
My Cup of Tea by Danielle Bean
The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On by Dawn Eden
10 Dates Every Catholic Should Know by Diane Moczar
Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
The Wind Blows Free by Loula Grace Erdman

Education as Cultivation

Though I believe children benefit from a certain amount of "required" studies, I don't think enough attention is paid to aspects of education that we can't *make* our children do. I like to think of these in terms of cultivation - encouraging, nurturing, supporting, and even at times protecting.

These are some things we try to cultivate (and sometimes simply preserve by not disrupting or losing patience with it) in our home...

initiative
enthusiasm
self-motivation
diligence
a spirit of cooperation
voluntary helpfulness
love of learning

Specific things we try to do...

...set up an environment in which love of learning is modeled

...provide them with good and beautiful materials so they have wonderful things to choose from when they are deciding what to do with their time

...encourage good things that the children come up with on their own, even if they aren't yet able to do them perfectly or they might cause a certain amount of trouble or they don't fit perfectly in with our school plans

...allow them to cook and clean with me when they are very small and want to partly *because* they want to

...provide children with opportunities for success - especially if they are struggling with something

...don't overload children with huge quantities of schoolwork at the expense of true learning

...beware of unreasonable expectations

...avoid condescending materials or attitudes

And don't forget supernatural grace!

I don't always succeed at these things, I get tired and cranky and sometimes just need a little quiet. But this is some of what I'm aiming at.

What do you do to encourage these good things in your children?

I can't believe...

that Studeo is just about to reach 60,000 hits on the stat counter.

I never would have thought that could happen. I first started the blog not even expecting to share it with anyone at all. I think it's been good for me on the whole and I'm very grateful for the friends I've made here and for family who keep in touch through blogs.

Deo Gratias

One Last Bit of Nonsense Before School Starts Tomorrow

I couldn't resist. Dawn still had "Q" left in her list, and you know how much I love word games. "Q" sounded like an interesting challenge. So here goes...

1. The Queenship of Mary - a lovely feast and teaching about Mary, but also our wedding anniversary.

2. The Quiet Man - a movie set in Ireland, with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara - and one of my favorites.

3. Quiet - Moms never get quite enough of it.

4. Quality, and sometimes also Quantity (such as time spent with my children).

5. Questions - from children, students, friends - always an occasion for learning.

6. Quotes - inspirational, "kiddie quotes" et al.

7. Queen Anne's Lace - we see quite a bit of this during the non-winter months on walks near our house.

8. Quilts - I admire those who make them, but have not any such skill myself. I pick them up at rummage sales and find them cozy and inviting.

9. Quo Vadis - I haven't seen the movie or read the book, but appreciate the story anyway. I found that part of the Pope John Paul II movie quite interesting.

10. Quaint places - like quiet country roads. It's something I really love about Wisconsin - having beautiful drives to get to many key places in our lives.

Thanks, Dawn, that was fun. :)

Geography Bee and Library Tree

Yesterday our homeschool group held the National Geographic Bee. The feast of the Epiphany seemed a rather appropriate day to consider places near and far away. There were seven contestants from 4th through 8th grade. They zipped through the first seven rounds and we narrowed the field to 5 contestants for the final round. It only took five or six questions before the field was narrowed down to two for the championship round. The two who went "head-to-head" were Gus and his new 8th grade friend who loves geography and will be joining The Map Guys geography blog (by the way, if you drop by soon, Gus has an "Independence Quiz" which he put together himself). Anyway, the other fellow came out on top after three questions, so Gus very graciously accepted 2nd place. I was delighted to see happy faces and good attitudes all around. The most delightful part, to me, was seeing the look of surprise on contestants' faces when they got an answer right that they didn't expect!

I took down the Library Tree on Friday. There were only five ornaments left at the end, so I think we sold about 50 books (I'll have to dig out my lists to get an exact number)! How exciting! The librarians all seem very pleased with the whole thing. By the way, I know I "technically" took it down a little early, but I had sickness, travel and too many weekend plans looming before me (and I thought it was pretty good to keep the tree up until the 5th at a public library!). We keep our own tree up for a very long time at home - through all three January birthdays at the very least and we keep our Nativity Set out even longer. So I felt just a little bit sheepish when one of the library patrons scolded me for not keeping it up until the Epiphany!

When I took down the (artificial) tree at the Library, I noticed that the base of the tree was cracked - though not yet completely broken - so I ran by Target on the way home from yesterday's Geography Bee to see if I could find a new one on after-Christmas clearance. 90% off is about as good as it gets! A nice 7 foot tree with a metal base was only $10! Hurray!

What We Use

By request from Matilda in the comments a few posts back, I've started a list of links in the sidebar for our family's curriculum choices. I've written reviews of quite a few of these materials at love2learn.net

Another thought on Catholic Education & Math

Oops. I'm back. One of the best things about the blog for me is that it allows me to nail down a thought while it is formed in my head instead of just trying to reconstruct it later when it comes up in a particular context. (I've also noticed that I sleep better when I allow myself to finish a thought by writing it down).

Anyway.

I was thinking about my post the other day about the nature of Catholic Education - especially the Math example. I was re-working the idea in my head partly because it's an idea that can be easily misunderstood, especially when we, as Catholic educators, are often reacting against anti-Catholic positions out there in the world. I'm not trying to argue against the use of Catholic books or the importance of Catholic education. Here's a what I was trying to say in more of a nutshell (or at least an attempt at a nutshell)...

If we as educators are arguing about whether a math book is Catholic or Protestant rather than determining whether it is a good Math book, I think that is a problem. This conflict implies that we are looking at this aspect of Catholic education in a superficial way, because we are looking only to the surface to judge the material - such as whether there is overtly religious Catholic material in the word problems. There is nothing wrong with such "cultural" Catholic content in educational materials so long as it doesn't cause us to lose sight of what matters most - helping our children learn to recognize and desire the truth.

Part of the point is that this "cultural" content is not essential to a subject like Math. The essential part is a having a resource or program that works well in accomplishing the goals. Those goals are illuminated by our Faith. Some of them will have a direct bearing on the Faith, such as the development of the mind which can be used to do "the Father's work." If the program also provides cultural Catholic content, that's great, but we shouldn't sacrifice the essence of a subject for the cultural parts which could be covered elsewhere if necessary. Honestly, I don't think it's a Catholic way of looking at education.

Hilda Van Stockum and Hope

Silly me, I left "Hilda Van Stockum" off of my "H" list.

We had a teen discussion last night on Hilda Van Stockum's The Winged Watchman, a family story set in Holland during the terrible days of the Nazi occupation during World War II. There were ten teens and four moms and we had quite a wonderful discussion.

Even though it can be considered a simple children's story, it has a great deal of depth and wisdom in it. We spent a lot of time discussing details of the story - conflicts in people's hearts and families because of the war, character development, perspective and lots more.

It was also a nice opportunity to discuss how we are affected by stories and what the author accomplishes through her characters. We thought it was a bit of a "soft" story in a way - no real sharp edges, you know. The Verhagen family is a family we can relate to even though circumstances force them to be "more than" themselves. It seems that the author also uses them as a sort of lens through which we can understand some more difficult things as well. For example, though the mother of the Verhagen family is admirable and heroic and suffers through fear and want, we can relate to her because she is not so very far from ourselves. And yet, through her, we better understand the heroism (and deprivation) in those we are less able to relate to. She helps us understand them better (in an "even more so" sort of way), but she also (Mrs. Verhagen still, in case this is getting too confusing) shows us a path of action that we could imitate if we found ourselves in difficult circumstances. Mrs. Verhagen must make difficult decisions, unselfishly, and she helps us to believe that these choices, in the end, will make us happier.

This brings me to a more general concept that came up in our discussion. The idea of "hope" in stories. It's funny, because this also came up on Flying Stars recently (check the comments) which also reminded me of something I wrote a few months ago for the Catholic radio project I'm working on (I'm still waiting on the radio station to implement it - a prayer for God's will here would be much appreciated):

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (#1917), "One is entitled to think that the future of humanity is in the hands of those who are capable of providing the generations to come with reasons for life and optimism."

It may surprise you that fairy tales are recommended to develop a child's sense of hope. The world has long recognized the value of fairy tales. Albert Einstein said that: "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."

G.K. Chesterton reveals something much deeper: "The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides him is a St. George to kill the dragon."

Further Information:

G.K. Chesterton recommends The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang in Heretics.

Here is a larger portion of the quote from Chesterton on fairy tales. It comes from "The Red Angel" in Tremendous Trifles (pg. 86):

I find that there really are human beings who think fairy tales bad for children. I do not speak of the man in the green tie, for him I can never count truly human. But a lady has written me an earnest letter saying that fairy tales ought not to be taught to children even if they are true. She says that it is cruel to tell children fairy tales, because it frightens them. You might just as well say that it is cruel to give girls sentimental novels because it makes them cry. All this kind of talk is based on that complete forgetting of what a child is like which has been the firm foundation of so many educational schemes. If you kept bogies and goblins away from children they would make them up for themselves. One small child in the dark can invent more hells than Swedenborg. One small child can imagine monsters too big and black to get into any picture, and give them names too unearthly and cacophonous to have occurred in the cries of any lunatic. The child, to begin with, commonly likes horrors, and he continues to indulge in them even when he does not like them. There is just as much difficulty in saying exactly where pure pain begins in his case, as there is in ours when we walk of our own free will into the torture-chamber of a great tragedy. The fear does not come from fairy tales; the fear comes from the universe of the soul.

The timidity of the child or the savage is entirely reasonable; they are alarmed at this world, because this world is a very alarming place. They dislike being alone because it is verily and indeed an awful idea to be alone. Barbarians fear the unknown for the same reason that Agnostics worship it - because it is a fact. Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give a child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies, that these strong enemies of man have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope to share more about our discussion later. Good night!

Happy Three Kings Day!

We enjoyed a procession this afternoon and gifts in honor of the three kings. We moved the breakable nativity set under the tree temporarily. Everyone (except Terri who has a rather nasty case of tonsillitis and decided to just stay near the tree) lined up and had something special to carry. Gus took up the lead with a "star" (a shiny silver costume cloth slung over a broomstick), followed by Frank holding the big doll-like Baby Jesus, Kate and Bernie carrying angels and finally, Ria, John and I each carrying one of the three kings. We processed around the house singing and made our way into the living room where we opened presents. The children exclaimed that this was bigger than Christmas. Which might have been true - such is sometimes the state of finances and after-Christmas sales - but it made things all the more wonderful because we managed to keep that spirit of celebration alive. One part of this that I especially liked is that the kids worked on making presents for each other and those who were so inclined went so far as to make or buy a small present for each of their siblings.

By the way, Katherine at A Living Education has a wonderful exposition on the Manifestations of Christ and how they are traditionally celebrated on January 6th. I think these also serve to shed some light on the recitation of the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary.

Beautiful Rendition of Ave Maria - UPDATED

There's something very touching about this video. I've always enjoyed Bobby McFerrin's talent, but there's something particularly moving about having the audience sing with him. Beautiful!

hat-tip A Living Education

UPDATE - I found a different video of this song (at a different concert) on You Tube that I think I like even better.

New Year's Resolution

Ria and I have resolved to participate in Poetry Friday on a regular basis this year. Between us, we plan to post poems each* Friday on Love2learn Blog, CIN Blog and ChesterTeens.

*Though I will already be missing a week next week as I'll be in California. I'm taking a group of students out for a visit to TAC.

Some thoughts on what Makes Education Catholic

I'm starting to dig some of my favorite old posts from some e-mail lists I've belonged to for years. This is from January 16, 1999 (from the Catholic Classical Education e-mail list)...

I think there's a lot of confusion and disagreement among Catholic
homeschoolers today about what materials are appropriate for a truly
Catholic education. Many people feel that a greater quantity of Catholic
books automatically makes a more Catholic and therefore better
education. I've even heard discussions in which homeschoolers judged
homeschool programs according to whether they used a Catholic or a
Protestant Mathematics text!

I think many of these conversations show a lack of understanding of what
it means to be Catholic. Math doesn't become a Catholic subject when you
use religious objects in the word problems. Math is an important subject
for Catholics to study first of all because we are interested in the
truth. (And the truth is not limited to religious and spiritual things -
we learn about God from studying his handiwork). Math is also
important for understanding order in God's creation and training the
mind to think logically and handle tough problems which will be useful
for learning about God in philosophy and theology. People who think that
Math programs should be "Catholic" (i.e. religious in content) may fall
into the error of trivializing the true purpose of studying the subject.
It is also very dangerous to send your children the message that
everything Catholic is good and everything that is not Catholic is bad.

To be sure many Catholic texts, such as the American Cardinal Readers
and Catholic National Readers include material that is not specifically
Catholic and contain excellent religious selections as well. Similarly,
a good Catholic History book will include the contributions of great
Catholics and the role of God in History (which are ignored in secular
texts), but they will also cover in an honest way the non-Catholics who
played an important role in History.

So what makes education truly Catholic? I think the first thing that is
necessary is that we're aiming in the right direction. Dr. Ronald
McArthur, the founder of Thomas Aquinas College, said that "all learning
is for the sake of knowing Christ." When I first heard that I was really
surprised, because I didn't see how Math and Science were ordered to
knowing God. Now I see that we have to try to keep our sights on the
final goal even when we're doing our day to day stuff that can seem
non-essential. I think having conversations with the children about the
purpose of education from a Catholic standpoint is probably a good idea
too.

As far as choosing materials for a Catholic education, we have to look
for ones that are authentically Catholic (even if they don't contain
religious content) rather than ones that are merely trying to look
Catholic. ...

I also agree that we can't shelter our children from everything that is
in this world. We must prepare and train them to be able to handle well
the problems that they will face. For example, you can't prevent your
children from ever having any conflicts with each other. You can,
however, by example, prayer, etc., teach them how to control their
anger, compromise when necessary, play fairly, etc. One of the
advantages to homeschooling is that you have the opportunity to know and
understand your children so much better and you have the time to "talk
them through" the little things that matter. You can also have control
the exposure they have to the outside world so that it can be handled in
manageable chunks. BTW - We did take our children to see "Prince of
Egypt" which we all enjoyed.

I hope the above makes sense, because I've gotta run and take care of
the kids.

God Bless,

Alicia Van Hecke

Christine had her baby!

Pictures and insights here

Reverse Meme - Your Favorite Things

I picked up this meme from Sherry at Semicolon. Readers can request a letter (in the comments box) and write a list of ten things they love that begin with that letter. I was assigned the letter "H". Please comment if you'd like to try a letter.

The Letter H (not in any particular order)

1. Happiness (heehee)

2. Hot Tubs

3. Holidays AND Holy Days

4. History

5. Homeschooling

6. Hobbits

7. Humor

8. Help

9. Home, Homer, Homers and Homer Price

10. Heaven!

Of course I always have to think of more things later...

Heretics by G.K. Chesterton
Hokusai
Hot Cocoa
Hummus
Herb Bread
Holy Father
Holy See
Honey
Hope!
Hitchcock
Hummingbirds
Honeysuckle

A Day On Skates is returning!

I'm thrilled to hear that Bethlehem Books is re-releasing Hilda Van Stockum's wonderful A Day on Skates later this year. We were too late to purchase one of their reprints before they went out of stock, so we found an older copy on eBay. The problem is that the pages are rather brittle - not particularly friendly for a very lovable picture book!

Here's one of my favorite little samplings from the book - I think it gives a nice sense of the flavor and style...

Every Dutch boy and girl loves to skate, and every Dutch man and woman, too. And no wonder. Holland with its canals and streams has many miles of ice when the cold at last arrives. Both Evert and Afke had learned to skate when they were very small. Indeed, Afke had been only three when she first tottered on pigmy skates, carefully held up by her father. By now she had become quite an expert, and Evert was even better. He had won several prizes in his school's skating tournaments. One of the prizes had been a beautiful book called Robinson Crusoe, which he had read so often that the cover had come off. Another time he won a silver pencil, which he gave to Afke, and the last time it had been a book entitled Good Henry, the story of a boy who was always good. This he had promptly traded for a penknife.

Read all the details on the Bethlehem Books website.

The Nativity and the Cross

He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
and with his stripes, we are healed.

(Isaiah 53: 3-5)

I was reminded of these words because of a Christmas mishap. The words are familiar to me from Handel's Messiah, but not the Christmas part - the part for Holy Week and Easter.

Here is how it happened...

John bought me a beautiful Nativity set for Christmas. We were at Sam's Club the week before Christmas and the set was half price, and reasonably within our budget. It's a gorgeous porcelain set with real fabric clothing and lots of interesting embellishments. It's also quite large - St. Joseph is nearly a foot tall! It includes a shepherd, sheep and a donkey (not pictured here). We decided that we could keep it safe on top of the piano or the "library table" in our sun room (really our family room). We knew that it would add a new and very meaningful element to our Christmas celebrations for years to come.

We brought it home and squirreled it away to set up on a Christmas Eve as a surprise for the kids.

Christmas Eve was a very busy, and rather tiring day We went to Saturday night Mass for our Sunday obligation, but the house (and time) were still filled with haircuts, finding clothes, photocopying music, finishing up homemade KK presents and many other things.

That night, John and I were so tired that we decided to sleep for a few hours, set the alarm, and get up in the middle of the night to set up the nativity set and such. So at 1 am we groggily rose and started putting things together. It turns out that clumsiness is heightened at that hour (go figure!) and I managed to bump into John while he was holding baby Jesus and the manger and he dropped both. Poor Baby Jesus - his head broke off and one leg was broken. The manger suffered some ill effects too. John and I just sat on the floor and stared forlornly at the broken pieces for some long moments.

As providence would have it, they were clean breaks. John was able to glue the head back on and the leg sits rather safely (though somewhat loosely) nestled in the swaddling clothes. The manger leg was glue-able also, though it is a little chipped along the crack.

And so everything worked out (although the spot we chose on top of the piano doesn't have any room left for the three kings - we'll have to figure out something for that before Saturday) . It's a beautiful set to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas and the kids have been incredibly good about not moving or bumping the pieces around (they do have our much smaller and unbreakable Fontanini set that they can move around as much as they like).

But now I will always be reminded of the Cross whenever I see our poor broken Baby Jesus.


While I'm on the subject of nativity scenes, please visit the Cottage Garden's "Creche in the Woods" for some wonderful photos of their outdoor nativity set.

Reflections of a Small Bookstore Owner

Logan Fox is closing his small bookstore in New Jersey after more than 25 years. His reflections on culture are worth thinking about...

Logan Fox can’t quite pinpoint the moment when movies and television shows replaced books as the cultural topics people liked to talk about over dinner, at cocktail parties, at work. He does know that at Micawber Books, his 26-year-old independent bookstore here that is to close for good in March, his own employees prefer to come in every morning and gossip about “Survivor” or “that fashion reality show” whose title he can’t quite place.

Read the whole thing at Becky's "Farm School" Blog

17 Year Old Saves Town Grocery Store

You have to see this video about a teenager who spent his college savings to buy (and run) his town's only grocery store which had shut down.

Hat-tip Suzanne Temple

Other movies we've enjoyed recently...

Christmas in Connecticut
Boys Town
A Christmas Carol (1930s edition)
(these came in a three-pack from Target)

Alice Adams
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Going My Way
Holiday Inn
RV
High Noon

I also saw part of Young Tom Edison on TV a few weeks back, but was very sad to discover that it is not available on DVD. I think my kids would really love it (even though I'm getting a little weary of Mickey Rooney's over-acting tendencies).

Night-time Prayers Book "Basket"

I'm taking a page from Elizabeth Foss' blog (see her sidebar) and keeping a special pile of books on the end table near the place where we have been gathering for bedtime prayers each night since the beginning of the O Antiphons (December 17th). All of my readers like to have something to read from and so I've started gathering a lot of book-titles-of-interest for them to choose selections from. All I need now is a real-life basket to stash them in. Oh, and I should mention that Gus needs a little bit of encouragement to read whereas the three girls (Kate doesn't read yet) are always eager to read even if they are sometimes too quiet for us to hear them.

We just finished with Saints for Young Readers for Every Day (Pauline Books and Media) Volume 2 and need to purchase Volume 1 for the first half of the year).

Here are the others currently in the line-up:

Garden of Virtues: Planting Seeds of Goodness by Christina Keffler and Rebecca Donnelli (Thomas More Publishing)

Our Heavenly Mother: Signs of Our Blessed Mother's Love When the Queen of Heaven Appeared on Earth by Rev. Lawrence Lovasik (Catholic Book Publishing Co.)

Stories from the New Testament with Masterwork Paintings Inspired by the Stories (Simon and Schuster)

Old Testament Rhymes by Robert Hugh Benson (Neumann Press)

Catholic Bible Stories for Children by Ann Ball (Our Sunday Visitor)

Mary the Mother of Jesus by Tomie de Paola (Holiday House)

My Path to Heaven: A Young Person's Guide to the Faith by Geoffrey Bliss (Sophia Institute Press)

My Friends the Saints by Rev. Lawrence Lovasik (Catholic Book Publishing Company)

An Introduction to the Liturgical Year by Inos Biffi (Eerdmans)

O Holy Night: Masterworks of Christmas Poetry (Sophia Institute Press)

Flowers of Heaven: One Thousand Years of Christian Verse compiled by Joseph Pearce (Ignatius Press)

Blogs and Humility

I think keeping blogs offers all kinds of never-before-considered occasions for humility. For example, when you notice that someone arrived at your blog because they mis-typed something into Google which you also mis-typed in the very same way. As a matter of fact, the only reason why your post ranked so high on the list was because of its "unique" spelling. :)

Case in point.

Always good for a laugh at least. :)

Here are a few of our other "highest-ranking" search engine terms:
Kiddie Quotes, National Geography Bee Prep (because the correct term is actually "the National Geographic Bee"), and an assortment of topics in which someone should have written "studio" instead.

The Beauty of the Slow Lane

We've seen a number of movies over the Christmas break, some of which were Christmas presents (and none of them in the theater). Here are a few quick thoughts about two of my favorites.

Cars (2006)

I'm not generally a big fan of animated films, but I LOVED this movie! It was very entertaining with a unique storyline and well-formed details and had a great background story and themes. I loved the connections with Route 66 and the importance of tradition and roots and, quite simply, slowing down.

By the way, I love how they brought in racing legends like Richard Petty and other interesting characters like the guys from Car Talk to do the voices.



Regarding Henry (1991)

This is a more mature movie, but with some parallel themes to Cars. A high-power attorney is shot in the head during a robbery and needs to re-learn how to walk, talk, etc. over the course of time. This might have been interesting in and of itself, but Henry goes back to his old life and discovers that he doesn't like the person he once was. Interesting and with some really fun and creative scenes.

Catholic Devotions Meme

Suzanne tagged me

1. Favorite devotion or prayer to Jesus?
The Divine Praises

2. Favorite Marian devotion or prayer?
The Memorare

3. Do you wear a scapular or medal?
Scapular

4. Do you have holy water in your home?
Yes. Also, we have a bottle of holy water from Fatima (in what looks like a wine bottle covered with a very intricate decorative layer of cork) from John's trip there when he was 16.

5. Do you "offer up" your sufferings?
I really appreciate that God can take our sufferings and bring good out of them. I try to say the Morning Offering every day, though I'm not very consistent about morning prayers. And so we've added it to our "traveling prayers" in the car, which works out pretty well.

6. Do you observe First Fridays and First Saturdays?
Not regularly right now, though I've done them consistently in the past.

7. Do you go to Eucharistic Adoration?
Not regularly. There is a church a few towns over that has perpetual adoration. We try to drop by for a visit whenever we're in the area.

8. Are you a Saturday evening Mass person or Sunday morning Mass person?
Sunday morning, usually one of the later Masses available.

9. Do you say prayers at mealtime?
Yes.

10. Favorite Saint(s)?
St. Agnes, St. Cecelia (my confirmation patron), St. Tarcisius, St. Sebastian, St. John the Evangelist, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Dominic de Guzman, St. John Vianney, Blessed Mother Teresa and others.

11. Can you recite the Apostles Creed by heart?
Yes, though I sometimes get it mixed up with the Nicene Creed (usually when I'm not paying enough attention).

12. Do you usually say short prayers (aspirations) during the course of the day?
Sometimes. It's usually more of an informal "chat".

13. Where is your favorite place to pray?
In front of the Blessed Sacrament.

14. Bonus Question: When you pass by an automobile accident or other serious mishap, do you say a quick prayer for the folks involved?
Yes.

Helen's bonus question: If you could visit any of Our Lady's apparition sites, which one would you choose?
Fatima - especially because of my ethnic background, though the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico is a close second. When John and I moved to San Diego (in 1995 - we were only there for two years), I very naively thought that we could easily drive down to visit Guadalupe - not realizing that it was over 700 miles away!

And on a related note, no, I still haven't found my St. John Vianney relic (original story here). I feel like I've been given a great treasure and not taken care of it very well. I have done an extraordinary amount of cleaning and organizing (particularly in the basement) in the last few months looking for it, but only realized the myriad of possible places it could be hiding in. :(