Besides a lot of interesting tidbits in the comments of the original post, I wanted to mention that my sister posted about my post and recommends that I [finally] read Fr. Giussani's The Risk of Education (which I in fact have on my shelf). You can read her post here.
I've been interested to see how much enthusiasm people have expressed about this topic - especially as I was a little reluctant to post what I did. The reason is that I haven't figured it out well enough to state a principle. What I understand about this concept is based in particular experiences (particularly with a disabled adult relative who spends a lot of time with us) and an intuitive sense of the concept that I've picked up from my parents and how they raised us. I hope to explore the concept more in the future. Pointers are most welcome!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Lewis and Clark Exhibit - Overlooking the Missouri
I found a few missing photos from the trip that I added to flickr today. This is from a rest area along the I-90 in South Dakota overlooking the Missouri from the east side. It was a beautiful rest area with an extensive (and free) Lewis and Clark exhibit. My little ones especially enjoyed playing around in the tents.
More photos here
More photos here
Pope Benedict XVI on Freedom and Faith
I found the following quote on The CIN Blog when we got back from our trip earlier this week and I've been pondering it ever since. It's from a talk given by Pope Benedict XVI to Rome's Diocesan Convention earlier this month (the entire thing is immensely worthy of reading by the way, and I may post on some other aspects of it later on)...
The part that particularly struck me was the part about young people feeling the freedom is respected and taken seriously. This isn't an aspect of Catholic education I've heard a lot about before. I won't try to cover this in any sort of complete way here, but I'd like to start collecting some various thoughts on it in order to better understand it. I think this concept is one that my parents (Happy Anniversary by the way!) had a great sense of - at least intuitively. Over time I've come to understand more fully what this means - particularly in the context of helping/preparing our children to choose the good for themselves (certainly one of the ultimate goals of Catholic education).
I suspect that this respect for freedom (Dr. Thursday might be able to help me out here) is related to the principle of subsidiarity. Within our own family this has come to mean things like:
-Fostering initiative is a priority - if the children are doing something very good on their own volition, I will seldom interrupt it, even for school work since that intiative itself is something that needs to be fostered and certainly can't be forced!
-We don't dictate every last detail of our children's lives, but instead allow them to make choices for themselves wherever possible/reasonable. Sometimes this involves "closing my eyes" to some very creative dressing on the part of my little ones! (I do have my limits, though, LOL!) This also tends to force me to pass along principles to them beginning at an early age which provides them with a certain degree of understanding of what really matters to me.
-We purposely set up some good things for which participation is optional, although we sometimes "sweeten" the deal. For example, during Lent we talk about the importance of sacrifice, but let the children choose whether or not they will make that sacrifice on Sundays as well as the other days. Given the gift of choosing such things for themselves, I am delighted at how often their answer is on the generous side. No, certainly not always! As far as "sweetening the deal" goes, I will sometimes set up a task or project and simply ask for volunteers. After the project they may be surprised with a reward (like a treat) and the older kids, at least, have a sense of that sort of thing already.
For these things to work, I think an atmosphere of appreciation and generosity is essential. Now we're talking about human beings here! It's not like we manage this at every moment of every day, but it's an awful lot about what your priorities are and what you're striving for.
Read the entire text here.As I said at the Ecclesial Convention in Verona: "A true education must awaken the courage to make definitive decisions, which today are considered a mortifying bind to our freedom. In reality, they are indispensable for growth and in order to achieve something great in life, in particular, to cause love to mature in all its beauty: therefore, to give consistency and meaning to freedom itself" (Address, 19 October 2006; L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 25 October 2006, p. 9).
When they feel that their freedom is respected and taken seriously, adolescents and young people, despite their changeability and frailty, are not in fact unwilling to let themselves be challenged by demanding proposals: indeed, they often feel attracted and fascinated by them.
They also wish to show their generosity in adhering to the great, perennial values that constitute life's foundations. The authentic educator likewise takes seriously the intellectual curiosity which already exists in children and, as the years pass, is more consciously cultivated. Constantly exposed to, and often confused by, the multiplicity of information, and by the contrasting ideas and interpretations presented to them, young people today nevertheless still have a great inner need for truth. They are consequently open to Jesus Christ who, as Tertullian reminds us, "called himself truth, not custom" ("De virginibus velandis," I, 1).
It is up to us to seek to respond to the question of truth, fearlessly juxtaposing the proposal of faith with the reason of our time. In this way we will help young people to broaden the horizons of their intelligence, to open themselves to the mystery of God, in whom is found life's meaning and direction, and to overcome the conditioning of a rationality which trusts only what can be the object of experiment and calculation. Thus, it is very important to develop what last year we called "the pastoral care of intelligence".The task of education passes through freedom but also requires authority. Therefore, especially when it is a matter of educating in faith, the figure of the witness and the role of witnessing is central. A witness of Christ does not merely transmit information but is personally involved with the truth Christ proposes and, through the coherency of his own life, becomes a dependable reference point.
The part that particularly struck me was the part about young people feeling the freedom is respected and taken seriously. This isn't an aspect of Catholic education I've heard a lot about before. I won't try to cover this in any sort of complete way here, but I'd like to start collecting some various thoughts on it in order to better understand it. I think this concept is one that my parents (Happy Anniversary by the way!) had a great sense of - at least intuitively. Over time I've come to understand more fully what this means - particularly in the context of helping/preparing our children to choose the good for themselves (certainly one of the ultimate goals of Catholic education).
I suspect that this respect for freedom (Dr. Thursday might be able to help me out here) is related to the principle of subsidiarity. Within our own family this has come to mean things like:
-Fostering initiative is a priority - if the children are doing something very good on their own volition, I will seldom interrupt it, even for school work since that intiative itself is something that needs to be fostered and certainly can't be forced!
-We don't dictate every last detail of our children's lives, but instead allow them to make choices for themselves wherever possible/reasonable. Sometimes this involves "closing my eyes" to some very creative dressing on the part of my little ones! (I do have my limits, though, LOL!) This also tends to force me to pass along principles to them beginning at an early age which provides them with a certain degree of understanding of what really matters to me.
-We purposely set up some good things for which participation is optional, although we sometimes "sweeten" the deal. For example, during Lent we talk about the importance of sacrifice, but let the children choose whether or not they will make that sacrifice on Sundays as well as the other days. Given the gift of choosing such things for themselves, I am delighted at how often their answer is on the generous side. No, certainly not always! As far as "sweetening the deal" goes, I will sometimes set up a task or project and simply ask for volunteers. After the project they may be surprised with a reward (like a treat) and the older kids, at least, have a sense of that sort of thing already.
For these things to work, I think an atmosphere of appreciation and generosity is essential. Now we're talking about human beings here! It's not like we manage this at every moment of every day, but it's an awful lot about what your priorities are and what you're striving for.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Last Night of the Trip
Before I get into more details of our love2learn get together - which may take quite awhile - I'm going to skip ahead to the last day of our vacation. We broke up the last leg of our trip with an overnight stay in western Wisconsin with a family of TAC friends who were hosting Nutmeg and family at the same time! (She has some pictures of their visit here).
Now, I have to say that the advantage of spending the night at friends' houses is that there is plenty of time to chat with said friends after all the kiddos had gone to bed even if this does add up to a certain amount of sleep deprivation. Such was the case at this house, though I thought Nutmeg and I were very restrained in only staying up til 12:30 (at one of our other stops I managed a chat until 2:30 in the morning). It was delightful to catch up with her in real time and I enjoyed comparing notes on children, homeschooling and various challenges that make up those two.
The next morning consisted of several amazing large-scale meals with loads of munchkins, some bow-shooting on the part of John and most of our kids (they had a blast!) and a mini-15-year-TAC reunion (consisting of a great deal of reminiscing and laughing out on the enormous front porch) with my classmate Elizabeth. It was great to re-connect with her (I also taught with her for a year after we graduated) and we've already made some tentative get-together plans for the future. The kids were excited to hear this as they instantly bonded with new friends galore.
What a terrific way to end our incredible journey of faith, friends and family - especially with only a handful of hours to drive on the last day. We are indeed blessed!
One other thing that struck me on this trip (besides the blessed part!) is the richness of people and places to see that aren't so very far from home. I've sometimes had a touch of envy regarding friends who took major European tours for their honeymoon (John and I camped at Monterrey for just a few days) and I certainly dream of leisurely tours of foreign lands. But at the moment I can hardly imagine a more pleasurable or enriching vacation than what we just experienced - scenery, history, culture, science, friends, family-time, pilgrimage and more all wrapped up into a great feast for body, mind and soul.
Now, I have to say that the advantage of spending the night at friends' houses is that there is plenty of time to chat with said friends after all the kiddos had gone to bed even if this does add up to a certain amount of sleep deprivation. Such was the case at this house, though I thought Nutmeg and I were very restrained in only staying up til 12:30 (at one of our other stops I managed a chat until 2:30 in the morning). It was delightful to catch up with her in real time and I enjoyed comparing notes on children, homeschooling and various challenges that make up those two.
The next morning consisted of several amazing large-scale meals with loads of munchkins, some bow-shooting on the part of John and most of our kids (they had a blast!) and a mini-15-year-TAC reunion (consisting of a great deal of reminiscing and laughing out on the enormous front porch) with my classmate Elizabeth. It was great to re-connect with her (I also taught with her for a year after we graduated) and we've already made some tentative get-together plans for the future. The kids were excited to hear this as they instantly bonded with new friends galore.
What a terrific way to end our incredible journey of faith, friends and family - especially with only a handful of hours to drive on the last day. We are indeed blessed!
One other thing that struck me on this trip (besides the blessed part!) is the richness of people and places to see that aren't so very far from home. I've sometimes had a touch of envy regarding friends who took major European tours for their honeymoon (John and I camped at Monterrey for just a few days) and I certainly dream of leisurely tours of foreign lands. But at the moment I can hardly imagine a more pleasurable or enriching vacation than what we just experienced - scenery, history, culture, science, friends, family-time, pilgrimage and more all wrapped up into a great feast for body, mind and soul.
Happy Birthday Mom
She already said it perfectly.
:)
As I remember from last year, today we're also celebrating the wedding anniversary of G.K. and Frances Chesterton!
:)
As I remember from last year, today we're also celebrating the wedding anniversary of G.K. and Frances Chesterton!
Field Trip to EROS
While in the Sioux Falls area, we took a tour of the U.S. Geological Survey's "Earth Resources Observation and Science" Center.
Here is an explanation of what EROS is.
This was a fascinating place and we particularly enjoyed the enormous globe (pictured here), the satellite model (Frank says: "It looks like a camera." - smart guy) and the interesting maps. Frank was a bit distracting during the tour so I missed a few parts here and there.
The tour guide sent us home with a generous selection of teacher's resources and photo cards for the kids.
More photos here.
Official website here
Here is an explanation of what EROS is.
This was a fascinating place and we particularly enjoyed the enormous globe (pictured here), the satellite model (Frank says: "It looks like a camera." - smart guy) and the interesting maps. Frank was a bit distracting during the tour so I missed a few parts here and there.
The tour guide sent us home with a generous selection of teacher's resources and photo cards for the kids.
More photos here.
Official website here
We did get a photo!
These are the airplanes flying over the Air and Space Museum at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. Wow!
The Badlands
The Badlands were incredible - a real treat to us mountain-deprived Wisconsinites. Everyone was entranced and Frank expressed his enthusiasm with great volume a number of times during the trip. We took loads of photos - particularly on the return trip. View the photo set here.
We have a lot yet to learn about this fascinating place. Here are a few sites that look interesting:
National Park Service site on the Badlands
NPS Page on Badlands Geology
USGS Site
Aerial Photographs of the area
We have a lot yet to learn about this fascinating place. Here are a few sites that look interesting:
National Park Service site on the Badlands
NPS Page on Badlands Geology
USGS Site
Aerial Photographs of the area
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Air and Space Museum
South Dakota Air and Space Museum, Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota
Terri says: "I liked the gift shop because it was really big. The planes were huge - it was really fun seeing them even though we couldn't go inside. I wish we could.
I liked the exhibits inside. It was fun going inside that airplane thing."
Bernie says: "It's cool and awesome. And I liked the gift shop."
Kate says: "The airplanes are really big and also I liked the rocket and the helicopters. That's it. Wait. I also liked the thing that Terri said."
More photos here
The part Mommy liked best was a flyover of four airplanes that included a B-2 Spirit - it looked like something out of Star Wars flying overhead.
South Dakota Museum of Geology
This was one of those terrific little free museums that makes you want to buy a fair share of educational materials in their very nice gift shop to support their work (prices at the gift shop were quite reasonable). What more could a homeschool family ask for?
I had no idea what to expect from this once (located on the campus of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology - in Rapid City) except that I had heard from several sources that it was quite good.
Several dinosaur skeletons; lots of fossils, rocks, minerals, etc. nicely displayed; a dark room for checking out phosphorescent materials - lots of great stuff to make the field interesting even down the youngest member of our clan.
It's an easy stop for an hour or so while you're in town to see Mt. Rushmore.
More photos here
I'm very grateful that we had such a science-and-nature-filled vacation since that is one of the weaker educational areas for our family.
The kids have something to say about this place too:
Terri: "I really liked how some of the rocks glowed in the dark. There were a few dinosaurs that looked really huge."
Bernie: "I really liked the rocks. I bought a rock that's called 'fool's gold'. It's shiny and pretty."
Kate: "I liked the little dinosaurs (they were really cute - especially the newborn baby one). I liked the rocks that glow in the dark." [editorial note: Kate and Frank spent a good deal of the time at the museum, lying on their bellies, ooing and awing over the toy dinosaurs in the gift shop - one of the many joys of a small museum!]
Heard Somewhere en route to South Dakota...
...a major discussion between Terri, Bernie and Kate about whether you could misunderstand yourself. :)
Dinosaur Park
This was a charming little park perched on a hill overlooking Rapid City. The creatures were constructed by an enthusiast in the early 20th century and donated to the city who incorporated them into a park in 1936.
We stopped at this little spot (marked on many of the tourist maps) because a) it was free and b) it sounded like something Frank would enjoy. It exceeded our expectations - particularly since the dinosaurs were climbable and made for some rather unique photos.
More photos here
We stopped at this little spot (marked on many of the tourist maps) because a) it was free and b) it sounded like something Frank would enjoy. It exceeded our expectations - particularly since the dinosaurs were climbable and made for some rather unique photos.
More photos here
Mount Rushmore
I thought this was a cute and funny photo of Frank posing with the greats. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit here.
Lots more photos here.
There are lots of interesting photos of rocks that I can't identify yet (though I might if I put some more effort into it!). Feel free to help with the effort. :)
Fatima Family Shrine, Alexandria, SD
This was a beautiful little shrine in very rural South Dakota, a few miles east of Mitchell (famous for its Corn Palace) along the I-90. We only noticed this shrine from a roadside sign just before the exit and it was a nice time to take a break and walk around. We were delighted by the variety of outdoor statues and monuments and the beautiful parish church (which dates from 1905) is gorgeous! We were surprised and delighted to find that it was listed in Roadside Geology of South Dakota because of its use of rose quartzite on the exterior.
This shrine was founded by Fr. Robert Fox when he was pastor of this little parish (unfortunately I can't remember the name of the parish).
Not only was this a great place to walk around, but they were very nice about letting us make a bathroom stop and pointed out the adjacent Carmlite Monastery and bookstore where we picked up a few items of interest.
We took loads of photos of the outdoor statues, stained glass windows, etc. Click here to see the photo set.
This shrine was founded by Fr. Robert Fox when he was pastor of this little parish (unfortunately I can't remember the name of the parish).
Not only was this a great place to walk around, but they were very nice about letting us make a bathroom stop and pointed out the adjacent Carmlite Monastery and bookstore where we picked up a few items of interest.
We took loads of photos of the outdoor statues, stained glass windows, etc. Click here to see the photo set.
Love2learn Photos
Though I'm working slowly through my back-posts one at a time, I thought I'd point out that Ana has a bunch of pictures from our get-together posted on her site here and here.
God is good!
By the way, my three youngest were all in tears during the kid photo shoot pictured in the second link above. Bernie had just fallen and scraped her knee, Kate didn't want to cooperate and was turning sideways and by this particular photo the Munchie Man had already bailed. Sigh.
God is good!
By the way, my three youngest were all in tears during the kid photo shoot pictured in the second link above. Bernie had just fallen and scraped her knee, Kate didn't want to cooperate and was turning sideways and by this particular photo the Munchie Man had already bailed. Sigh.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
New Reciprocal Link
I love discovering new homeschool blogs through my site stats.
This one looks intriguing:
A Father's Academy: The Chronicles of a Homeschooling Dad
Thanks for the link Atticus!
This one looks intriguing:
A Father's Academy: The Chronicles of a Homeschooling Dad
Thanks for the link Atticus!
De Smet!
I've always wanted to see the little town on the prairie described in so many of Laura's famous books. We took a day trip there on our first full day in South Dakota (and took a handful of Braga-Henebrys along for the ride).
I'd like to start by saying that I wish I had planned for this a little better ahead of time. We had a great time and it was really neat be "on location", but I know there were other spots I missed as I look over the town literature and such and we didn't allow enough time to visit the Ingalls homestead...
Laura Ingalls Wilder Tour... This was a little pricey for a crowd, but seemed like the heart of what we were visiting de Smet for! :) The tour included the Ingalls home (pictured here), the Surveyor's House and a replica of the Brewster school. You can't take pictures inside, but the buildings were quite interesting, the guides passed lots of historic pictures around for us to look at and it was neat to be able to touch things that had actually belonged to the family (like the big cupboard set that Pa had built for Ma). The stories our guide told were quite interesting (and in many cases added to what we knew from the original books) and she was able to answer the additional questions thrown at her from those on the tour.
More photos here
We also saw the old main street, a big statue of Fr. De Smet (a great missionary worth reading about!), the Loftus Store and the De Smet Depot Museum.
A fun and memorable time was had by all. I was also happy to find postcards of some of the Ingalls photos and sites at the above-mentioned Loftus Store.
Also, as reported by Melissa Wiley, both the Loftus Store and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Society Gift Shop have copies of the unabridged Little House Prequels (get them while you can - reprintings will only be available in an abridged format). Read the details here.
I'd like to start by saying that I wish I had planned for this a little better ahead of time. We had a great time and it was really neat be "on location", but I know there were other spots I missed as I look over the town literature and such and we didn't allow enough time to visit the Ingalls homestead...
Laura Ingalls Wilder Tour... This was a little pricey for a crowd, but seemed like the heart of what we were visiting de Smet for! :) The tour included the Ingalls home (pictured here), the Surveyor's House and a replica of the Brewster school. You can't take pictures inside, but the buildings were quite interesting, the guides passed lots of historic pictures around for us to look at and it was neat to be able to touch things that had actually belonged to the family (like the big cupboard set that Pa had built for Ma). The stories our guide told were quite interesting (and in many cases added to what we knew from the original books) and she was able to answer the additional questions thrown at her from those on the tour.
More photos here
We also saw the old main street, a big statue of Fr. De Smet (a great missionary worth reading about!), the Loftus Store and the De Smet Depot Museum.
A fun and memorable time was had by all. I was also happy to find postcards of some of the Ingalls photos and sites at the above-mentioned Loftus Store.
Also, as reported by Melissa Wiley, both the Loftus Store and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Society Gift Shop have copies of the unabridged Little House Prequels (get them while you can - reprintings will only be available in an abridged format). Read the details here.
Father's Day across Minnesota
We had a lovely brunch with our hosts the Maks and the Dalys on Sunday morning followed by a visit to the very interesting Science Museum of Minnesota (so nice that they have a reciprocal policy with the Milwaukee Public Museum!). We all arrived in Sioux Falls in time for a wonderful dinner with Ana and family. They had recently returned from Rapid City and the Badlands and were able to provide us with a wonderful introduction to the geology of South Dakota. (It also helped that the Dalys lent us their copy of Roadside Geology of South Dakota). Following this up with a tour of the USGS EROS site upon our return from the west side of the state (more about that in a separate post) really made for an educational experience in that direction.
We stayed a couple of lovely nights with the Dalys who provided lots of trampoline time for the littles during the day and some fabulous star-gazing from the same location for the teens and moms at night!
I am so grateful for the amazing team of people who have stepped up to the plate to help out on our love2learn project. To me it is truly a sign that we are cooperating with God in this endeavor. This is what particularly struck me at this point of our trip.
We stayed a couple of lovely nights with the Dalys who provided lots of trampoline time for the littles during the day and some fabulous star-gazing from the same location for the teens and moms at night!
I am so grateful for the amazing team of people who have stepped up to the plate to help out on our love2learn project. To me it is truly a sign that we are cooperating with God in this endeavor. This is what particularly struck me at this point of our trip.
Margaritas with Margaret
We tore Ria away from the Chestercon Banquet (a little pricey for a party of eight, naturally!) to have dinner with Margaret and her family. Our cameras were out of batteries at the time, so you'll have to pay a little visit to Margaret's site for photographic evidence of our visit. Say, Margaret, any chance you'd be willing to share the recipe for that fabulous salsa? :)
Oh, and in case you were wondering who the Van Heckler's are...
Our family arrived for the first talk of the day on Friday of ChesterCon while they were preparing technical details for the first speaker. We piled into various parts of the first and second row (play dough in hand to keep Frank busy and reasonably quiet) and were immediately noticed by the speaker - Dr. Thursday. He laughed and declared - "Ah! The Van Hecklers are here." :)
Oh, and in case you were wondering who the Van Heckler's are...
Our family arrived for the first talk of the day on Friday of ChesterCon while they were preparing technical details for the first speaker. We piled into various parts of the first and second row (play dough in hand to keep Frank busy and reasonably quiet) and were immediately noticed by the speaker - Dr. Thursday. He laughed and declared - "Ah! The Van Hecklers are here." :)
Chesterton Conference
As I mentioned briefly in previous posts, the Chesterton Conference was wonderful. We stayed with friends off-campus, but Ria was able to stay on campus with our friends the Dalys and thus participate more fully in this joy-and-laughter-filled conference. One of the highlights, surely, was meeting Dr. Thursday, though I can't fail to mention (again) Ria's recitation. I was very moved by the recitation of course (by the way, she decided to go for a bit of a medieval look as seen in the photo), but must admit that I was worried about the length. The amazing standing ovation quelled my fears. Such an enthusiastic bunch and SO supportive of young people interested in Chesterton. I am extremely grateful!
More photos here
More photos here
Caddie Woodlawn's House
This was our first major stop on our "Dash through the Plains" (and the third time we've been to this site). Caddie's house is on our way to St. Paul and since we weren't in a hurry, we had a leisurely visit. The only disappointment this time was that they had boarded up the door to the attic, making it completely inaccessible. :(
More photos of her house here.
More photos of her house here.
Classical Music Options
My sister just sent me some online classical music options to console our loss (I have to admit it was rather depressing to go into the kids room early this morning - they had put on the classical station to go to sleep to - and hear Aretha Franklin instead. I have nothing against Aretha Franklin and in fact have very eclectic musical tastes - but the loss of this station is just plain sad.)
Anyway here are some great online offerings courtesy of my sister (thanks!)...
KDFC listen online
http://www.kdfc.com/pages/295032.php
Symphony broadcasts
http://kdfc.com/pages/295020.php
SF Opera
http://kdfc.com/pages/297676.php
Daily programming
http://kdfc.com/pages/294873.php
Make a request
http://kdfc.com/pages/254127.php?
Listener selected top 100 pieces:
http://www.kdfc.com/pages/294900.php
By the way, I'm working on sorting out all of our pictures on flickr and will post on them here pretty soon. You can take a peek here for now. There's a lot of deleting to be done too along the way. We had two cameras with us and the kids took tons of shots, but I don't want to overload our flickr site for now. :)
Anyway here are some great online offerings courtesy of my sister (thanks!)...
KDFC listen online
http://www.kdfc.com/pages/295032.php
Symphony broadcasts
http://kdfc.com/pages/295020.php
SF Opera
http://kdfc.com/pages/297676.php
Daily programming
http://kdfc.com/pages/294873.php
Make a request
http://kdfc.com/pages/254127.php?
Listener selected top 100 pieces:
http://www.kdfc.com/pages/294900.php
By the way, I'm working on sorting out all of our pictures on flickr and will post on them here pretty soon. You can take a peek here for now. There's a lot of deleting to be done too along the way. We had two cameras with us and the kids took tons of shots, but I don't want to overload our flickr site for now. :)
Monday, June 25, 2007
You Never Know What You'll Hear Around Here
Kate just instructed Frank to "Go sit on the couch and count to google."
I know we haven't been able to tune in for the last ten days or so...
...but this is ridiculous!
"No More Classical Music Radio"
more here
Our one local classical station is switching to "smooth jazz" tonight at midnight. I am majorly bummed.
By the way, we just arrived home and are all well. Hope to do lots of trip blogging (including lots of photos over the next few days - though I feel like we've just packed about six months worth of life into ten days!).
"No More Classical Music Radio"
more here
Our one local classical station is switching to "smooth jazz" tonight at midnight. I am majorly bummed.
By the way, we just arrived home and are all well. Hope to do lots of trip blogging (including lots of photos over the next few days - though I feel like we've just packed about six months worth of life into ten days!).
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Dashing Through the Plains
Blogging briefly here from South Dakota where a portion of the love2learn reviewers are getting together for fellowship and conversation. Mary Daly and Ana Braga-Henebry are hosting three additional families and it's been an amazing visit. Hope to catch up a bit on our whirlwind of a week as well.The Chesterton Conference was really wonderful: engaging talks, good friends, fun conversation (with lots of laughter) and LOTS more. I particularly enjoyed the talks by Geir Hasnes (on Sigrid Undset - I think he pushed me over the edge to finally go and read Kristin Lavransdatter) and Dawn Eden. Can't say I'm biased or anything (wink,wink), but that recitation of the first book of the Ballad of the White Horse moved me to tears.
Minnesota Mom graciously hosted us for dinner (great Margaritas by the way!) and it was a real treat to meet her beautiful family. That little Camille! :) John pointed her out and said "That little one - she wants the world!" My immediate thought was - how like St. Therese.
We caravaned with the Dalys to South Dakota where we spent a lovely day in de Smet before heading across the state to visit Mount Rushmore and other sites in Rapid City.
Here is a brief list of some lovely places we visited throughout the state. Overall we took loads of pictures - hope to upload some eventually:
de Smet:
The Surveyor's House and the Ingall's home (a little pricey - but nice to experience the real thing - too bad they don't let you take pictures inside!)
The Train Depot Museum - this museum has forever confirmed in my head the notion that free little museums put together by enthusiasts are often my favorite. Loaded with goodies of all sorts and SO friendly!
Along the I-90
Alexandria:
There's a little Fatima family shrine at a little parish along the 90 a little East of Mitchell (a large billboard makes it easy to spot). It includes many beautiful outdoor statues and memorials, a cute little outdoor chapel, a beautiful church and a tiny cloistered Carmelite Monastery (with an adorable little bookstore). This made a nice little break in our driving. This was Fr. Fox's parish for many years (my husband went on one of his Fatima pilgrimages for teens many years ago).
The Missouri River:
There's a gorgeous spot overlooking the Missouri River on the East Side with a huge rest area and a permanent Lewis and Clark exhibit. The view is absolutely breathtaking!
The Badlands:
We liked the Badlands so much that we drove through the loop both directions of our trip. It takes about 60 minutes (compared to 20 minutes on that section of freeway) but what an hour! Of course it didn't hurt that we had a bit of prepping by our friend Mary who is currently working on a Geology textbook. We are so very blessed! We were all awed and amazed at the strange beauty of this land, but it was particularly fun to see Frank's great enthusiasm (captured on film - hope to share later).
Mt. Rushmore:
They've totally redone the entire viewing area at Mt. Rushmore. The new set-up accomodates so many people and allows for closer viewing (and fun photos!). Ria brought her sketch book and a pencil and got many interesting comments and glances. We stayed for about four hours and enjoyed it very much. One of the neatest parts was driving up because the mountain roads slowly reveal the entire monument beginning with only Lincoln's face from the side. There was a great deal of cheering from our car! :)
TO BE CONTINUED...
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Briefly Checking In ...
Friday, June 15, 2007
We Did It - We Made it to Chestercon!
We arrived on campus yesterday afternoon and almost immediately met the inimitable Dr. Thursday! :) More unexpectedly, we ran into the Dalys and two priest friends who were in my class at TAC. With all the kids in tow, I didn't get to hear much last night, but it certainly is a jolly bunch and I look forward to getting to a few talks later today (with a few less kids in tow, thanks to some wonderful friends that we're staying with). Dashing off to hear Dr. Thursday's talk this morning called "A Week of Thursdays".
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Local Coverage of Andy and other pilgrims
One of our local stations, TMJ4, has sent a reporter to Sarajevo to cover the story of Andy and the others involved in the bus crash. I've been very impressed to see the sense of community that is supporting this family - both through the local Catholic community (we've had detailed updates on Relevant Radio regarding Andy's condition and requests for help) and the community in general. Having a reporter there seems really good for all involved. Right now they have a number of video interviews available on their website.
Everyone seems to be encouraged by the news about Andy - the latest I heard was that he gave a thumbs up to his wife and family after his last surgery.
Thanks for all the prayers - and keep them coming!
Everyone seems to be encouraged by the news about Andy - the latest I heard was that he gave a thumbs up to his wife and family after his last surgery.
Thanks for all the prayers - and keep them coming!
Travels
We're going to be doing a bit of driving around in the near future. See some sights, visit friends, spend a lot of time in the car with kids. :)
I expect to see a number of internet friends I've never met in person before, like Dr. Thursday, Minnesota Mom, Suchi as well as old friends I get to see once in a blue moon, like Ana, Mary and Nutmeg. I'm sure there are others too and I'm not even sure exactly who we'll run into at the Chesterton Conference.
Prayers would be appreciated for a safe trip.
In the meantime, would you please keep Andy, Katrina, Donna-Marie's daughter and all those affected by the moonsoon in Bangladesh in your prayers.
I may or may not get some blogging in on the road.
Happy Feast of St. Anthony!
I expect to see a number of internet friends I've never met in person before, like Dr. Thursday, Minnesota Mom, Suchi as well as old friends I get to see once in a blue moon, like Ana, Mary and Nutmeg. I'm sure there are others too and I'm not even sure exactly who we'll run into at the Chesterton Conference.
Prayers would be appreciated for a safe trip.
In the meantime, would you please keep Andy, Katrina, Donna-Marie's daughter and all those affected by the moonsoon in Bangladesh in your prayers.
I may or may not get some blogging in on the road.
Happy Feast of St. Anthony!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
More Prayers for Man Critically Injured in Bus Crash
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a unique plea for help for the man who remains critically injured from yesterday's horrific bus crash near Medjugorje. The family is looking for information on a top neurosurgeon in Europe who could treat this father of three. They believe he could be airlifted as far as Rome or London for treatment.
Andy lives in our town. I don't know him personally, but he's well-known to a number of my friends.
Details here.
Continuing prayers would be appreciated!
Andy lives in our town. I don't know him personally, but he's well-known to a number of my friends.
Details here.
Continuing prayers would be appreciated!
Pope Benedict XVI on the Beatitudes
(from chapter 4 of Jesus of Nazareth)
The Beatitudes, spoken with the community of Jesus' disciples in view, are paradoxes - the standards of the world are turned upside down as soon as things are seen in the right perspective, which is to say, in terms of God's values, so different from those of the world.How very Chestertonian of him. :)
Monday, June 11, 2007
Prayer Request
Earlier today, a pilgrimage bus on its way to visit Medjugorje was hit by a semi and crashed into a ravine (in a heavy rainstorm). The bus rolled over a number of times and landed in a river. No deaths (which sounds practically miraculous given the circumstances!), but a lot of people injured and hospitalized. Many of the people are from our local parish. (I just heard from a friend whose sister was on the bus.)
UPDATE: I just found a news article on the accident
UPDATE #2: There are also a number of families (including some children) from a small parent-run school near us who were on this pilgrimage.
Please pray for all involved! We know of at least one man who is critically injured. He was traveling with his wife and three children. It sounds like a very tough situation and his injuries are still considered life-threatening.
UPDATE: I just found a news article on the accident
UPDATE #2: There are also a number of families (including some children) from a small parent-run school near us who were on this pilgrimage.
Please pray for all involved! We know of at least one man who is critically injured. He was traveling with his wife and three children. It sounds like a very tough situation and his injuries are still considered life-threatening.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Cardinal Ratzinger on Faith and Hope
from Salt of the Earth again...
To have Christian hope means to know about evil and yet to go to meet the future with confidence. The core of faith rests upon accepting being loved by God, and therefore to believe is to say Yes, not only to him, but to creation, to creatures, above all, to men, to try to see the image of God in each person and thereby to become a lover. That's not easy, but the basic Yes, the conviction that God has created men, that he stands behind them, that they aren't simply negative, gives love a reference point that enables it to ground hope on the basis of faith.
Corpus Christi Sunday at Holy Hill
We had a very nice Mass and procession up at Holy Hill today. Bernie was one of the first communicants who participated in the procession.
The Winged Watchman - a movie? (up from the comments box)
John Tepper Marlin left the following comment regarding my post on the Winged Watchman (though the comment was left on this post):
Thanks for your thoughtful comments about The Winged Watchman. You may be interested in knowing that it has been optioned for a movie. It doesn't mean the movie will definitely happen, but it means a producer is seriously considering doing a movie based on the book, enough to pay something for the rights...John Tepper Marlin (son of Hilda van Stockum)I am interested! That could make a fantastic movie!
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Things I Haven't Had Much Time to Blog About Because I've Been Too Busy Cleaning My Basement...
It is looking a lot better, thank you, and my sister-in-law was delighted to receive a huge load of slightly-used Rubbermaid tubs for her free-childrens-clothing-store-for-the-needy project. Still hoping the long lost relic of St. John Vianney will turn up.
June lit discussion:
A week and a half ago we discussed To Kill a Mockingbird for our teen discussion night. It was a good discussion, I think. Most of the girls enjoyed Uncle Tom's Cabin more, but still got a lot out of this book. I think I might like them about equally.
Harper Lee is so brilliant. The first time I read the book, I was struck by it's delightful child-perspective and unabashed defense of truth. This time I was impressed more by the smartness of the book (especially in the various, rather subtle characterizations), how vivid the story and characters are and how well the story works from a child's point of view.
Here are a couple of very random snippets that I liked (and which do very little justice to the story):
Our family is expecting to attend the Chesterton conference in Minnesota next week. We'd love to say hello if you're there. I'll be the one with all the kids in tow - one of whom, I believe, will finally be reciting her memorized portion of The Ballad of the White Horse (a year late, due to chicken pox). Prayers for safe travel for all involved would be most appreciated.
June lit discussion:
A week and a half ago we discussed To Kill a Mockingbird for our teen discussion night. It was a good discussion, I think. Most of the girls enjoyed Uncle Tom's Cabin more, but still got a lot out of this book. I think I might like them about equally.
Harper Lee is so brilliant. The first time I read the book, I was struck by it's delightful child-perspective and unabashed defense of truth. This time I was impressed more by the smartness of the book (especially in the various, rather subtle characterizations), how vivid the story and characters are and how well the story works from a child's point of view.
Here are a couple of very random snippets that I liked (and which do very little justice to the story):
I never understood her preoccupation with heredity. Somewhere, I had received the impression that Fine Folks were people who did the best they could with the sense they had, but Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion, obliquely expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land the finer it was.
One of the many instances in which Atticus was asked why he took the case...
"-don't see why you touched it in the first place," Mr. Link Deas was saying. "You've got everything to lose from this, Atticus. I mean everything."
"Do you really think so?"
This was Atticus' s dangerous question. "Do you really think you want to move there, Scout?" Bam, bam bam, and the checkerboard was swept clean of my men. "Do you really think that, son? Then read this." Jem would struggle the rest of an evening through the speeches of Henry W. Grady.
"Link, that boy might go to the chair, but he's not going till the truth's told." Atticus' voice was even. "And you know what the truth is."
In Maycomb, if one went for a walk with no definite purpose in mind, it was correct to believe one's mind incapable of definite purpose.
Some invisible signal had made the lunchers on the square rise and scatter bits of newspaper, cellophane, and wrapping paper.
"Heck," Atticus' back was turned. "If this thing's hushed up it'll be a simple denial to Jem of the way I've tried to raise him. Sometimes I think I'm a total failure as a parent, but I'm all they've got. Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I've tried to live so I can look squarely back at him...if I connived at something like this, frankly I couldn't meet his eye, and the day I can't do that I'll know I've lost him. I don't want to lose him and Scout, because they're all I've got."Chestercon 2007:
Our family is expecting to attend the Chesterton conference in Minnesota next week. We'd love to say hello if you're there. I'll be the one with all the kids in tow - one of whom, I believe, will finally be reciting her memorized portion of The Ballad of the White Horse (a year late, due to chicken pox). Prayers for safe travel for all involved would be most appreciated.
A Little About Bike Riding
I took all the kiddos out for a bike ride a little while back; our first group ride of the nice-weather season. It was rather comical. Each child seemed a little hunched over, knees pushing a little too high for their bicycle. Frank on his tricycle, Kate on her super-small two-wheeler with training wheels and all the way up the line. We went home and tried out the fairly simple immediate solution for their growth spurts. They all bumped up a bicycle (Ria is using mine for now). Great fit! Only one problem; Bernie's old bike doesn't have training wheels. Hmmm. Things dragged on in an indeterminate state for a time because I forgot to ask John to look for training wheels for the bike in question.
Last night we all went on a ride (the older kids all on larger bicycles), but with Frank and Kate still at odds between the very small tricycle and the little bike with training wheels (they ran most of the way). On the way home an odd piece of information I picked up on a blog quite awhile back [link here] suddenly came back to me. I asked John about it and we decided to give it a try.
We went home and he took the PEDALS off her bike and lowered the seat (during which time I forgot all about it and went inside to work on the computer). John called me out maybe 15 or 20 minutes later to come see something. Kate was already riding around on the bike with the pedals back on! It had only taken her a few minutes of gliding around without pedals to get her sense of balance and ask for the pedals to go back on! (Now, I should probably mention that the "real" way looks "real" interesting right now - but it's quite an exciting step!). Thanks Scott!
Sure wish I had heard of that solution when I was a kid! I'm quite uncoordinated in general (never could manage to turn a somersault) and didn't ride a bike until I was 7 or 8 years old!
Last night we all went on a ride (the older kids all on larger bicycles), but with Frank and Kate still at odds between the very small tricycle and the little bike with training wheels (they ran most of the way). On the way home an odd piece of information I picked up on a blog quite awhile back [link here] suddenly came back to me. I asked John about it and we decided to give it a try.
We went home and he took the PEDALS off her bike and lowered the seat (during which time I forgot all about it and went inside to work on the computer). John called me out maybe 15 or 20 minutes later to come see something. Kate was already riding around on the bike with the pedals back on! It had only taken her a few minutes of gliding around without pedals to get her sense of balance and ask for the pedals to go back on! (Now, I should probably mention that the "real" way looks "real" interesting right now - but it's quite an exciting step!). Thanks Scott!
Sure wish I had heard of that solution when I was a kid! I'm quite uncoordinated in general (never could manage to turn a somersault) and didn't ride a bike until I was 7 or 8 years old!
A few movies we've enjoyed recently
The Seven Samurai
Bringing Up Baby
Secondhand Lions
Sorry, no time for reviews right now. The first and the third might be a little rough around the edges for younger children.
Bringing Up Baby
Secondhand Lions
Sorry, no time for reviews right now. The first and the third might be a little rough around the edges for younger children.
Summer Plans for Reading and Other Stuff
reading...
-keep plugging away at the list in my sidebar
-read the new Harry Potter book when it comes out
-start working my way through The Idea of a University by Cardinal Newman (possible online discussion in the works)
school planning...
-put together the lit/history/religion reading lists for our teen discussion group.
-figure out what we're doing next year for Latin with Gus and Terri's groups in co-op.
-I also have a ton of stuff to review for love2learn - including quite a large stack of books I've finished but haven't reviewed yet (or only reviewed for Heart and Mind so far).
-keep plugging away at the list in my sidebar
-read the new Harry Potter book when it comes out
-start working my way through The Idea of a University by Cardinal Newman (possible online discussion in the works)
school planning...
-put together the lit/history/religion reading lists for our teen discussion group.
-figure out what we're doing next year for Latin with Gus and Terri's groups in co-op.
-I also have a ton of stuff to review for love2learn - including quite a large stack of books I've finished but haven't reviewed yet (or only reviewed for Heart and Mind so far).
Friday, June 08, 2007
Jesus of Nazareth, Chapter 4, Part I
I've been looking forward to this chapter on "The Sermon on the Mount" since I first opened the book and took a peek at the Table of Contents. The Holy Father doesn't disappoint. This is a very long chapter, with several major sub-segments:
Introductory Remarks
The Beatitudes (nearly 30 pages!)
The Torah of the Messiah
I'll break my posts on this chapter into at least those three parts, but might split it up further as well.
Introductory Remarks
Have you ever wondered what Jesus told his disciples on the journey to Emmaus? The Pope points to Matthew's Gospel:
Introductory Remarks
The Beatitudes (nearly 30 pages!)
The Torah of the Messiah
I'll break my posts on this chapter into at least those three parts, but might split it up further as well.
Introductory Remarks
Have you ever wondered what Jesus told his disciples on the journey to Emmaus? The Pope points to Matthew's Gospel:
Matthew claims the Old Testament for Jesus, even when it comes to apparent minutiae. What Luke states as a fundamental principle, without going into detail, in his account of the journey to Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:25) - namely, that all the Scriptures refer to Jesus - Matthew, for his part, tries to demonstrate with respect to all the details of Jesus' path.The Pope details the setting of the Sermon on the Mount and what it symbolizes...
Matthew uses the word disciple here not in order to restrict the intended audience of the Sermon on the Mount, but to enlarge it. Everyone who hears and accepts the word can become a "disciple."
Jesus sits on the cathedra of Moses. But he does so not after the manner of teachers who are trained for the job in a school; he sits there as the greater Moses, who broadens the Covenant to include all nations.Some contrasts between this scene and Moses' interaction with God on Mount Sinai...
God's power is now revealed in his mildness, his greatness in his simplicity and closeness. And yet his power and greatness are no less profound. What formerly found expression in storm, fire, and earthquake now takes on the form of the Cross, of the suffering God, who calls us to step into this mysterious fire, the fire of crucified love: "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you" (Mt 5:11).
The scandal of the Cross is harder for many to bear than the thunder of Sinai had been for the Israelites. In fact, the Israelites were quite right when they said they would die if God should speak with them (Ex 20:19). Without a "dying," without the demise of what is simply our own, there is no communion with God and no redemption.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
The DanielleBean.com Charity Raffle
Danielle Bean is hosting an amazing raffle/fundraiser for the St. Gianna Maternity Home in Warsaw, North Dakota. This is a real blog-spread effort with fabulous prizes (including lots of educational materials) donated by numerous Catholic authors and organizations.
Every $5 donation offers a chance to win a prize.
Check out all the details here
Every $5 donation offers a chance to win a prize.
Check out all the details here
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Jesus of Nazareth, Chapter 3
This chapter is titled "The Gospel of the Kingdom of God". The Holy Father examines what Jesus means by the "Kingdom of God" (and examines several major theories) which ends up cutting to the very heart of His purpose in coming to earth as a man. Here are a few highlights...
In the end he seems to most closely identify with the first interpretation, but explains that it doesn't go far enough. A few more highlights...
In the vocabulary of contemporary linguistic theory, we would say that the evangelium, the Gospel, is not just informative speech, but performative speech - not just the imparting of information, but action, efficacious power that enters into the world to save and transform.He identifies three different interpretations of what Jesus meant by the Kingdom of God: that Jesus is the Kingdom in person, that "man's interiority" is the essential location of the Kingdom of God and that the Kingdom of God is at least closely related to the Church.
In the end he seems to most closely identify with the first interpretation, but explains that it doesn't go far enough. A few more highlights...
When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God, he is quite simply proclaiming God, and proclaiming him to be the living God, who is able to act concretely in the world and in history and is even now so acting. He is telling us: "God exists" and "God is really God," which means that he holds in his hands the threads of the world. In this sense, Jesus' message is very simple and thoroughly God-centered. The new and totally specific thing about his message is that he is telling us: God is acting now - this is the hour when God is showing himself in history as its Lord, as the living God, in a way that goes beyond anything seen before. "Kingdom of God" is therefore an inadequate translation. It would be better to speak of God's being-Lord, of his lordship.
The pious Jew prays every day the Shema Israel: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might". The recitation of this prayer was understood as the act of taking on one's shoulders the yoke of God's sovereign lordship. This prayer is not just a matter of words: the one who prayers it accepts God's lordship, which consequently, through the act of praying, enters into the world. The one who is praying helps to bear it on his shoulders, and through his prayer, God's lordship shapes his way of life, his day-to-day existence, making it a locus of God's presence in the world.
The new proximity of the Kingdom of which Jesus speaks - the distinguishing feature of his message - is to be found in Jesus himself. Through Jesus' presence and action, God has here and now entered actively into history in a wholly new way. The reason why now is the fullness of time (Mk 1:15), why now is in a unique sense the time of conversion and penance, as well as the time of joy, is that in Jesus it is God who draws near to us. In Jesus, God is now the one who acts and who rules as Lord - rules in a divine way, without worldly power, rules through the love that reaches "to the end" (Jn 13:1), to the Cross.
The Apostles by Pope Benedict XVI
I'm really excited about this upcoming book by the Holy Father. Amy Welborn has the details here. It's a collection of his Wednesday audience addresses in which he covered major figures of the New Testament.
Sometimes it's gratifying to know...
that my kids enjoy some of the projects I work on.
My kids have been all over the Architecture for Kids blog (and the dining room table shows it - especially that stained glass window project). :)
My kids have been all over the Architecture for Kids blog (and the dining room table shows it - especially that stained glass window project). :)
"Be a Friend"
I really liked Minnesota Mom's post yesterday...
Be a friend.Sometimes that’s all we need to get past the mental din and insecurity that assails us. Stephen Covey devotes three full habits to this principle: in opening our heart to another we are “thinking win-win” and “seeking first to understand” and perhaps best of all, we are working together (“synergize”) to get the job done! And our job’s a big one.Read the whole thing here.
Monday, June 04, 2007
More on Hilda Van Stockum and Maria Montessori (up from the comments box)
John Tepper Marlin (Hilda Van Stockum's Son) shares more about his mother's connections to Maria Montessori in the comments to this post.
Hi John and Alicia and family - Thanks for posting about "A Day on Skates" - I agree it is a great new edition, especially with the bio at the end. But I am biased - the author is my Mom. I am posting to say that my grandmother also was a Montessori follower and both she (Olga Boissevain van Stockum) and my Mom met Maria Montessori during their studies. My sister Sheila is the founder of a dozen Montessori schools in the UK and several of her children are Montessori teachers. Their children make the fifth generation of Montessori followers. John Tepper MarlinThanks for your comment, John! Always delighted to learn more about your amazing mother. :)
Eight Things Meme (Again)
Ana tagged me for the Eight Things Meme.
Rules: "For this meme, each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog."
Even though I have done this one before, I thought of a theme for this one and I do tend to enjoy memes of this sort. You may have also noticed that I tend to enjoy getting tagged (though not too often!), but I've sort of given up on tagging other people as I suffer from meme paralysis. I do have a personality quirk that tends to make me paranoid about imposing on other people in any way.
Anyway, I thought I'd do something similar to Ana's "eight things" and focus on my childhood and the family I grew up in.
1. I'm the 5th of seven children. We're pretty scattered about the country now (my spiritual director recently joked about "the Lawless diaspora"). My parents and two older brothers (and their families, including 15 of my nieces and nephews) live in the neighborhood of the Clear Creek Monastery in Oklahoma. Say hi for me if you happen by for a visit! (While you're there you can pick up some farm fresh chicken from the Vita Bella Ranch). I have three siblings left in California (where we all grew up) and a sister in Minnesota.
2. I grew up in California's "Silicon Valley" (is it any surprise that my dad, most of my brothers, my husband and my father-in-law are all engineers?). When I was in high school we belonged to the homeschool group and attended Fatima pilgrimages here. For quite awhile I attended classes once a week here (and graduated from High School with their day school students - it was two hour drive - each way - by the way!). Also during that time, my sister lived in the flat above here. One of the big plusses of homeschooling for me was hanging out with my older siblings for weeks at a time - and what a rich environment that was!
3. My mom was very active in the pro-life movement when I was quite young. She ran a crisis pregancy center sometime in the 70s (when I was a tot) and we went on many pro-life prayer walks when I was a child. According to her, we met many important family mentors on these walks - like Fr. Fessio and Fran Crotty.
4. My ancestors came to the U.S. from the Portuguese Azores, Ireland (via Canada), Luxembourg and Germany. I'm sure there are others mixed in along the way, but those are the main ones I'm aware of. Most arrived in the U.S. right around the turn of the 20th Century.
5. Being involved in Catholic Information Network (started by my sister and brother-in-law and two others back in 1987) my senior year of high school was quite an experience. My mom and I ran one of the nodes of the CIN BBS that year. I remember being quite excited when Karl Keating logged onto our computer!
6. Growing up, I don't remember meeting anyone else who had read The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings or The Phantom Tollbooth. It was really fun going off to college and meeting so many people who had!
7. When I was a child, my dad worked in the cassette tape industry - both audio tapes (he worked for a company that helped put together the Library of Congress' audio tapes for the blind program) and computer programs back when they were on cassette tapes.
8. The parish and school I belonged to growing up were rather unique for our area. The founding pastor (the parish only dates to the 50s) was there until he retired around 1990. The diocese sent many very interesting and faithful priests there over the years. We were one of only a few parishes that used a communion rail in those days (70s and 80s). And we had a particularly good music director (he sang opera on the side). I sang in two choirs and did tons of cantoring when I was in high school. There were IHM nuns from Philadelphia teaching in the school from its founding in the late 50s until about 5 years ago.
As always, consider yourself tagged if you're interested.
Rules: "For this meme, each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog."
Even though I have done this one before, I thought of a theme for this one and I do tend to enjoy memes of this sort. You may have also noticed that I tend to enjoy getting tagged (though not too often!), but I've sort of given up on tagging other people as I suffer from meme paralysis. I do have a personality quirk that tends to make me paranoid about imposing on other people in any way.
Anyway, I thought I'd do something similar to Ana's "eight things" and focus on my childhood and the family I grew up in.
1. I'm the 5th of seven children. We're pretty scattered about the country now (my spiritual director recently joked about "the Lawless diaspora"). My parents and two older brothers (and their families, including 15 of my nieces and nephews) live in the neighborhood of the Clear Creek Monastery in Oklahoma. Say hi for me if you happen by for a visit! (While you're there you can pick up some farm fresh chicken from the Vita Bella Ranch). I have three siblings left in California (where we all grew up) and a sister in Minnesota.
2. I grew up in California's "Silicon Valley" (is it any surprise that my dad, most of my brothers, my husband and my father-in-law are all engineers?). When I was in high school we belonged to the homeschool group and attended Fatima pilgrimages here. For quite awhile I attended classes once a week here (and graduated from High School with their day school students - it was two hour drive - each way - by the way!). Also during that time, my sister lived in the flat above here. One of the big plusses of homeschooling for me was hanging out with my older siblings for weeks at a time - and what a rich environment that was!
3. My mom was very active in the pro-life movement when I was quite young. She ran a crisis pregancy center sometime in the 70s (when I was a tot) and we went on many pro-life prayer walks when I was a child. According to her, we met many important family mentors on these walks - like Fr. Fessio and Fran Crotty.
4. My ancestors came to the U.S. from the Portuguese Azores, Ireland (via Canada), Luxembourg and Germany. I'm sure there are others mixed in along the way, but those are the main ones I'm aware of. Most arrived in the U.S. right around the turn of the 20th Century.
5. Being involved in Catholic Information Network (started by my sister and brother-in-law and two others back in 1987) my senior year of high school was quite an experience. My mom and I ran one of the nodes of the CIN BBS that year. I remember being quite excited when Karl Keating logged onto our computer!
6. Growing up, I don't remember meeting anyone else who had read The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings or The Phantom Tollbooth. It was really fun going off to college and meeting so many people who had!
7. When I was a child, my dad worked in the cassette tape industry - both audio tapes (he worked for a company that helped put together the Library of Congress' audio tapes for the blind program) and computer programs back when they were on cassette tapes.
8. The parish and school I belonged to growing up were rather unique for our area. The founding pastor (the parish only dates to the 50s) was there until he retired around 1990. The diocese sent many very interesting and faithful priests there over the years. We were one of only a few parishes that used a communion rail in those days (70s and 80s). And we had a particularly good music director (he sang opera on the side). I sang in two choirs and did tons of cantoring when I was in high school. There were IHM nuns from Philadelphia teaching in the school from its founding in the late 50s until about 5 years ago.
As always, consider yourself tagged if you're interested.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Authentic Kernel of Faith...
I was really struck by this quote from Cardinal Ratzinger in his 1996 book-length interview entitled Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Millennium...
Although the constellations in which I have found myself - and naturally also the periods of life and their different influences - have led to changes and development in the accents of my thought, my basic impulse, precisely during the Council, was always to free up the authentic kernel of the faith from encrustations and to give this kernel strength and dynamism. This impulse is the constant of my life ... what's important to me is that I have never deviated from this constant, which from my childhood has molded my life, and that I have remained true to it as the basic direction of my life.
Big Surprise Here...
You scored as Roman Catholic, You are Roman Catholic. Church tradition and ecclesial authority are hugely important, and the most important part of worship for you is mass. As the Mother of God, Mary is important in your theology, and as the communion of saints includes the living and the dead, you can also ask the saints to intercede for you.
What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com |
What a shot!
Ria took this picture of Frank today. Too much fun not to share. :)
Happy Feast of the Holy Trinity! (whenever I think about the phrase - I think of music... "O Most Holy Trinity, undivided unity, Holy God, Mighty God, God Immortal be Adored").
Happy Feast of the Holy Trinity! (whenever I think about the phrase - I think of music... "O Most Holy Trinity, undivided unity, Holy God, Mighty God, God Immortal be Adored").
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Some of What I've Been Working on Today...
Architecture for Kids
A companion website to the Architecture Unit Study I wrote for the Spring 2007 issue of Heart and Mind Magazine. So maybe I got a little carried away. :)
A companion website to the Architecture Unit Study I wrote for the Spring 2007 issue of Heart and Mind Magazine. So maybe I got a little carried away. :)
Friday, June 01, 2007
Summer Reading Challenges
Terri and Bernie are each striving to earn a large ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery after they finish their lists (Gus and Ria's ones are forthcoming - but theirs will be a lot more complex and they're not quite done with school yet). The girls had a lot of say in which books they were interested in. I also told them I'd make them a second list (and give them a shot at a second prize) when they finish this list.
Terri
A Little Princess
Little House in the Big Woods
The Mitchells: Five for Victory
Canadian Summer
Friendly Gables
The Phantom Tollbooth
Twenty and Ten
Snow Treasure
Farmer Boy
First Farm in the Valley
Mother Cabrini: Missionary to the World
The Railway Children
Bernie:
The Penderwicks
This is Our Parish (Bernie and Terri are both like I was when I was little and are rather fond of readers)
A Little Princess
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
St. Therese and the Roses
Betsy-Tacy
Betsy, Tacy and Tib
A Day on Skates
Terri
A Little Princess
Little House in the Big Woods
The Mitchells: Five for Victory
Canadian Summer
Friendly Gables
The Phantom Tollbooth
Twenty and Ten
Snow Treasure
Farmer Boy
First Farm in the Valley
Mother Cabrini: Missionary to the World
The Railway Children
Bernie:
The Penderwicks
This is Our Parish (Bernie and Terri are both like I was when I was little and are rather fond of readers)
A Little Princess
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
St. Therese and the Roses
Betsy-Tacy
Betsy, Tacy and Tib
A Day on Skates
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