Thursday, August 30, 2007

San Francisco


Cable Car
Originally uploaded by Chez VH
So, I just returned home from San Francisco on Monday night to some friendly visitors in town (not to mention gardens and school plans that are in not-the-best-of-shape).

Because I was taking a solo trip (my first since I've been married as I've always had at least a little one along on previous trips) I packed light and didn't have a car. When I flew into SF last week, I took the BART up to Market Street and had a Panini at a sidewalk cafe in the beautiful sunny weather. Delightful! I hopped this cable car (haven't been on one in twenty years) out to visit Alice and it was a lovely ride. I took lots of pictures (though our camera does leave something to be desired).

Alice is every bit as lovely as you'd imagine, even on what she'd call a "bad" day. :) It wasn't long before I felt like I'd known her and her children forever and I can't wait for our two families to meet some day.

We visited Golden Gate Park and had Oolong tea and other goodies at the Japanese Tea Garden. Alice's older girls and I also visited St. Ignatius Church while the little ones took a rest in the car with mom. It was fun to meet with other children who were so interested and enthusiastic about beautiful art and architecture.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Since I Dived Right Back into a Really Busy Week...

for now I'll just give you a link to solve the strange pink head puzzle from the previous post.

Click here

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

I'm Back!


IMG_8562
Originally uploaded by Chez VH
Can you guess who I visited? One particular family will likely be obvious to some of my readers based on this photo - and yes it was delightful to finally meet them in person!

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

15 Years Ago Today....



John and I started our adventure of a lifetime.

To quote John's grandfather, "May God Bless everything to do with that day." :)



Happy Feast of the Queenship of Mary!

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Little Girl and the Otter

Alice has a cute and amazing little video of her children watching an otter at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium in California. Her three year old daughter was playing with a stuffed otter and making it swim and do flips and such in front of the glass - when the real otter started to follow its movement! You really should see it!

Monday, August 20, 2007

Since We Discussed This Harry Potter Question Here Earlier...

ya'll might be interested in Regina Doman's take on Dumbledore's death as explained in Book 7 of HP.

A Little Dancing and a Lot of Rain


Bernie's Solo
Originally uploaded by Chez VH
The dance school my girls have been attending for Irish dance for a number of years recently put together a few mini recitals to promote the school at local events. Because of our relatively uncluttered schedule (ahem, a different thing than being "busy") we were able to participate.

Thursday night was an exhibition at our local park bandstand. The three older girls comprised more than half of the Irish contingent and performed very beautifully. Ria's performance was so beautiful it made me cry. She's gained so much confidence and "presence" this past year. She credits her experience at the Chesterton conference. The weather was very nice at that point and we even made it back to the same park the next evening for a free outdoor showing of Charlotte's Web. That was a lot of fun too!

Saturday they were scheduled to dance at a local art show that our friend Nancy and her husband Michael Brown would be exhibiting at! What a fun coincidence.

I've never been to an art show before - not too surprising as we have neither the money nor the wall space to exhibit anything beyond our eclectic and well-loved collection of framed religious art (and other pieces) from rummage sales, National Geographic and AAA maps and framed photo collages.

John and I both love art, though (which is partly why our walls are so very crowded with interesting things to look at!) and it was a treat to have an excuse to go. You may have heard a little about the soggy Midwest weather of the past few weeks. Our lawn is completely spring-like (and more) - such a shock after a very brown July. The art show looked like an encampment. Lots of green grass crowded with big white tents and a lovely lake for a background. It was fun to see the famous Brown photography in person. His pieces are a lot of fun to look at and have a broad appeal. (Be sure to check out his website here).

Nancy was planning on watching the girls dance, but alas, the youth stage was unsheltered with a plywood floor that was completely water-logged. So the kids enjoyed some face painting and crafts in the kids' tent before we returned home in the rain.

Saturday night John and I celebrated our anniversary early with dessert (wonderful fruit pie a la mode) followed by dinner (we arrived at the restaurant a half hour before it opened and so decided to start with pie next door (yum!) followed by a movie. We finally saw the 5th Harry Potter movie which was quite enjoyable and engrossing.

Yesterday, we had planned on attending Irish Fest (it's been quite a few years since we made it - last year John was in Taiwan at the time), but the rain, rain and more rain just didn't sound like a pleasant prospect. So we had an impromptu Irish fest at the house with the grandparents and a few cousins. We had dancing, music, beer and a full corned beef and cabbage meal complete with delicious Irish soda bread from the local bakery (I think the local stores bring back some of these goodies in honor of Irish Fest every year).

Prospects are for more rain all week. Please pray for those who are having a great deal of trouble from all this rain. Parts of western Wisconsin (including the town where we visited friends on the way home from South Dakota earlier this summer) and suffering from severe flooding and mudslides.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Frankly Hilarious

and yes he's still cute too.

Right now Gus (with great confidence and enthusiasm) is out mowing the lawn with the big rider mower (he's finally tall enough to handle the safety feature which causes it to turn off if you're not sitting fully in the seat). Frank is calling after him, "Come on, Gus, you can do it" ...over and over again.

Frank has started calling sleeper pajamas "sleepies".

Wow!

This essay by Regina Doman is easily the most touching and beautiful commentary I've seen on Book 7 of Harry Potter.

By the way, I have started re-reading the series and am getting a lot more out of it this second time through. I'm about 3/4 of the way through the first book. I expect it will take me awhile to get through all 7 this time, but it's kind of nice to savor it.

Some of our descriptions really struck me this time around. The scene where Harry first visits Diagon Alley is a lot of fun - he wishes he had eight pairs of eyes to look at everything. I love it!

Poetry Friday - Ode on a Grecian Urn


...because we've been watching (as in "I've watched three episodes so far") the fascinating "Classical Archaeology of Greece and Rome" from the Teaching Company this week. As much as this is a famous and parodied poem and all that, I had never read it in its entirety until today.



Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats

(first published in 1820)



THOU still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearièd,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea-shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul, to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.

O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'

I found the poem at Bartleby

Commentary available here (courtesy of Brooklyn College)

Photo courtesy of Duke Magazine

Poetry Friday Roundup to be found at Kellyrfineman's Blog
And thanks to Karen for reminding me.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Another Unbelievably Cute Old Picture


frankjune2004b
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

This is Frank at about 6 months old. Kate is just a blur in the background.

Somehow this picture strikes me as going well with a lovely quote the Bookworm just posted by Maria Montessori.

Bernie and Our Lady


Bernie - June 2004
Originally uploaded by Chez VH
I've been doing a little old photo clean-up recently and came across this adorable picture of Bernie from about three years ago. Just had to share. :)

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Katrina

Since I ask so frequently for prayers for my friend Katrina (and because she really needs and appreciates them), I've decided to add one of those side-bar picture-things to provide a continuous prayer request for Katrina. Katrina amazes me. She's brave, filled with faith and at peace with God (and credits prayer for all of those!). I'm looking forward to visiting her later this month and giving her a special gift that seems to have come into my hands just for her.

She recently asked me, "Will you fast for me?" Wow, that's a tall order. But I'll try.

College Goodbyes

I have a series of blogposts that have been in my head for a little more than a number of days that I'm writing out as I have the patience and time to do so. Here's another one (I'm kind of glad I waited as now I have a follow-up)...

Our dear friend Margaret left for college a little more than a week ago. Ria made her a beautiful little (and very last minute) photo collage to a lovely, very reminiscent Irish tune called "Miss Rowan Davies". (Margaret's mom wasn't the only one with tears in her eyes while watching this tribute.) I'm definitely starting to feel the approach of similar prospects for Ria as Margaret is the first of her friends to leave for college.

One of the fun things about sending off our friend is that, in the midst of my home and school organization we were able to send her off with some freezer chests and desk-organization-type-stuff that we no longer needed. Turns out she's an office-supply-type person too. :)

She was so excited about the three week out-dooring orientation at the college and we're all jealous of the fantastic views of the Perseids she must be having!

Anyway, her mom and dad (great friends who I deeply admire) just returned home a few days ago bubbling with appreciation for the school she's attending and the wonderful people they met there. She surprised me by saying, "It actually felt good to leave her there," with only a slightly qualified, "You know what I mean." And yes, I do.

And speaking of hard college goodbyes, check out the beautiful tribute Elizabeth has for her oldest son's goodbye. I've long believed that these separations are particularly hard on homeschool moms because they haven't had as much practice with smaller separations through the years.

So, this is sort of turning into a tribute to homeschool grads and their moms. Take a look at these blogs and see if you agree that their love and their tears are doing great things (feel free to comment with additional URLs).

Margaret's Blog
Michael Foss's Blog

Monday, August 13, 2007

Portable School Planning

Many days it's hard to get a lot of work done at home on beautiful summer days and I have to admit that the computer is often a distraction in itself (though it helps to turn the sound off so I don't hear from various parts of the house when an e-mail pops in). Today, I decided to pack up some of my lesson planning and such and head to the park with the kids. What fun!

I have a binder with a magnetic flap that was perfect for the job. Inside I had Michele's beautiful planner, an extra monthly calendar for co-op and group planning, plenty of blank paper, my catechism book list from Age Quod Agis and a quickly printed list of books from LibraryThing. I also brought a few books along for reference in planning.

We enjoyed three hours at the park this afternoon and this portable binder was fantastic. The flap doubled as a bookmark for when I put the whole thing on the ground to give the kids a push on the tire swing.

I've never before taken advantage of the export from LibraryThing. You can create an Excel file of all your books in no time at all. I just printed up a simplified list with author and title (I'm not very Excel savvy so I just scrunched some of the fields closed and limited my print area). Naturally, I didn't think to alphabetize them before I printed them up, but it was still really handy to be able to cruise through all my books quickly and check mark the ones I wanted to consider for use this year. Next I can plug through and create lists for each of the kids.

I still have a ways to go, but it was a great start. I'm very nearly ready to send out lists of books to purchase to those in our discussion group.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Me Too!

Danielle's discussing chore charts. I find myself in a very similar boat, except that I've tried a lot less in the way of chore charts than she has (perhaps I just tend to give up faster!). About as organized as it goes is that there are generally some major jobs that are generally assigned to particular kids.

Why is that so many moms feel guilty for taking some things as they come instead of having it all charted out ahead of time - especially if that's the option that works best for them? It reminds me of a Chesterton quote - something to do with the military - but I can't quite remember how it goes. Maybe I'll remember later.

Check out the discussion here.

Ah, a new school year must be approaching...

because we keep needing more books and such. Here's some of what's arrived in the last few weeks:

MCP Math, grades K, 2, 4 and 6

The Aeneid (Robert Fitzgerald Translation)

The Girl's Like Spaghetti by Lynne Truss

HP Graphing Calculator

Ignatius Study Bibles for Corinthians; Thessalonians, Timothy and Titus; Romans; Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. After our teen discussion a few weeks back I was REALLY wishing that the Hebrews one was available (it's not coming out until October)

The Teaching Company: Classical Archaeology of Ancient Greece and Rome, Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition and High School World History

Caedmon's Song

Biology for Dummies (this is more for me than for Ria)

Our Island Story by H.E. Marshall

The Nature of Light and Colour in the Open Air (Dover Publications)

Icons and Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church

Should be an interesting year!

And the Winners Are of the Homeschool Bloggy Giveaway are...

Narnia DVD - Milehimama

Red Letter Alphabet Book - KC

CHC Kindergarten Lesson Plans - Chris

CHC 1st Grade Lesson Plans - April

CHC 2nd Grade Lesson Plans - Mary Ellen Barrett

CHC 3rd Grade Lesson Plans - Allhisblessings

Congratulations to all. Winners, please e-mail me at webmaster at love2learn dot net with your snail mail address and I'll send these right off.

Happy organizing all!

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Happy Birthday Gus!


12 years ago tonight, I gave birth to our first son. He gave us quite a bit of a scare as he was born with the cord around his neck - all limp and white and quiet. He pulled through beautifully, though and we are very blessed.


Today Gus enjoyed a new football, a set of Star Wars legos (I can't imagine why!), along with plenty of pizza, brownies and ice cream and a big game of Uno, which he won. An Amazon package which should be arriving soon carries another present that he requested - his very own "real" Bible.


He'll be heading to the Milwaukee Public Museum with some friends this weekend. We do seem to milk our season passes for all they're worth. :)

Prayer Request

Please pray for the Pouliot family again. I wrote about them last December when they quite suddenly lost their daughter to cancer after their mom was already ill with cancer. The mother just passed away this past weekend.

One of the delightful things about having a bunch of kids...

is getting to share your favorite books over and over again - and watching the expressions of delight on their faces.

Terri just read Twenty and Ten for the first time this morning. Bernie's all ready to pick it up next.

And now back to my regularly scheduled organization season with plenty of grumbling about all of the messes they make. ;)

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Another Somewhat Overdue Tribute

Tommy Makem passed away last week at the age of 74. I've seen tributes from several bloggers including Chestertonian (and, by the way, welcome to the blogosphere - it's about time!) and Causa Nostrae Laetitiae.

I couldn't let this pass without a post because his music is another one of those significant little milestones that have become a real part of our family.

You see, my husband and I started dating partly because of our common interest in Irish music - an interest I had only begun to pick up a few months earlier in the TAC development office (where I worked, as I may have mentioned before, among others with Margot one of Danielle's sisters) at the instigation of a co-worker named, believe it or not, Patrick Finegan. That was during my Freshman year at TAC, a time in which the development office was squished into a tiny four-room trailer. All of the students assigned to the office had to put in their work-study hours after office hours, which wasn't much fun scheduling-wise but definitely gave us a sense of camaraderie.

Anyway, a couple of months before we started dating John was planning a beach trip that my roommate was already heading to. If I remember right John had a boombox in hand with Irish music playing (to get people in the mood?) and I figured some singing would be a fun part of the evening. I've always loved the friendliness and openness of casual, fun group singing that Irish music is so conducive to. I don't really remember anything about the beach trip itself, just the planning part. :)

Over the years we've seen Tommy Makem in concert a number of times at the great Milwaukee Irish Fest and sung his* songs at beaches, round the campfire and to many little tots - especially ones getting anxious on long car trips when we need to make it *just a little further* ... please!

*Yes, I understand that many of the songs we've learned through him weren't written by him, but were simply introduced to us by him.

Joy - I just found that Tommy Makem's website has a huge database of lyrics. You don't know how much trouble we went to in college trying to learn the lyrics to his songs!!!

Here are a few of our favorites that might be heard in our house any odd time of the day or year:

The Ballad of Saint Anne's Reel
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Big Ship Sailing
The Castle of Dromore
Johnny McEldoo (as much as we tried, we never were able to figure out all the words to this song)
Mountain Dew
New South Wales
Rambles of Spring
Red is the Rose
The Wild Rover
Winds of Morning

There are two more I thought we first heard from a Makem and Clancy recording, but I couldn't find in the lyrics section - "All God's Creatures Got a Place in the Choir" and "Waltzing with Bears."


Tommy Makem, rest in peace.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Homeschool Bloggy Giveaway


I missed the "Dogs Day of Summer" giveaway, so I was delighted to see that I could take part in another summer giveaway. I found the giveaway through My Garden in Garmisch, but it's being organized by Ancora Imparo.

This is perfect timing for me because I'm in the middle of some major decluttering in preparation for school (and I've gotta get moving soon as I'm taking a trip to the West Coast before school stars).

Anyway, if you put your e-mail address in a comment of this post, you will be entered in a free drawing for the following prizes.

Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Widescreen DVD (gently used - I can see a few scratches, but Gus assures me that it is in excellent working order).

The Red Letter Alphabet Book by Ellen C. Gould (brand new!)

Catholic Heritage Curricula Lesson Plans (2002 edition) Kindergarten

Catholic Heritage Curricula Lesson Plans (2002 edition) 1st Grade

Catholic Heritage Curricula Lesson Plans (2003 edition) 2nd Grade

Catholic Heritage Curricula Lesson Plans (2003 edition) 3rd Grade

Regarding the lesson plans - these are not the latest edition, but to the best of my knowledge they are complete and unused - though they do have our last name written on the first page - we displayed them at a couple of conferences.

Regarding the drawing: This drawing is only for those with U.S. postal addresses (since I'm paying for the shipping!) Prizes will be awarded individually to the first six names pulled in our random drawing. I will accept comments until Thursday night at midnight. Drawing will take place some time on Friday.

UPDATE: For non-Catholics who are not interested in the Lesson Plans. Yes, go ahead and enter the drawing and note that in your comment. I will simply remove your names after I've drawn the first two prizes.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Googles in the Night

A few weeks ago I had a bad cold. On the second night of bad coughing fits that wouldn't calm down with various thing I tried, I googled in desperation (and sleep deprivation):

coughing fit can't sleep
I came across the suggestion to rub Vicks Vap-o-Rub on my feet and put socks over it so it wouldn't get rubbed off.

It worked. Beautifully! Thanks Google. :)

"I Felt Lucky to be There"

Some stories of the first responders to the Minneapolis Bridge collapse.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

SafeView Lens

I just heard about this product a few days ago at Et Tu Jen? and knew it was worth a try for our family. I ordered it immediately and it arrived yesterday. I'm very pleased with it so far.

This is a little window-cling lens, about 5 inches x 8 inches in size. You attach it to the inside of your back window with water (easy to remove if needed!). What is does is magnify a small segment of your backwindow so you have a better view when using your rear view mirror.

We have a large 15 passenger van with very poor visibility in back. While there's no substitute for knowing where your children are, this product (for only $20) gives significantly improved visibility for those things you can't know about all the time - like a neighbor kid riding by or whatever.

Here are a few numbers and tidbits from our own situation to give you a sense of how it works. We have about 75 feet of driveway behind our van when it's parked in its usual spot. Looking in my rear view mirror, I can see the road, but not the driveway (naturally I can see a bit of the driveway in the side mirrors, but it's not a complete picture). One time a shortish sports car pulled in behind me when I was about to back out. If I hadn't checked my side mirror, I wouldn't have seen them at all. That makes parking lots a little unnerving at times. This lens allows me to view almost the entire driveway (if someone is holding on to the back door, you won't be able to see them, but starting at just a few feet back is a huge improvement).

In the middle of the lens, things look farther away than they actually are. Keep in mind that things at this distance are best judged through the window itself.

Yesterday, I was in the van waiting at a train crossing. The car behind me looked like it was right on my tail, but in the lens I was able to tell that there was an entire crosswalk in between us.

For more info, check out http://www.safeview.com/

Heraldry?

Most of our family (all except for Ria who went to Aidan Mackey's group discussion - and it was a really tough decision for her!) attended Dr. Peter Floriani's Heraldry "Class" at the Chesterton Conference in June. You can read more about heraldry and the class on the Blog of the American Chesterton Society today.

We felt like we played an important, though small, role in this group session because not only did we contribute plenty of noise to this session with our littles ones (who were specifically welcomed to the session, by the way), but we were also the only ones who came to the conference equipped with vast quantities of crayons!

It turns out that it was a hands-on class with coloring sheets and we were able to share crayons around with the rest of the group.

It was a fascinating session!

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Trying out some Widgets

In the sidebar. Let me know what you think of them. I kind of liked the cleanness of the simple RSS feeds, but these widgets provide more info and allow others to pick up the content in their own blogs as well. If they seem too slow loading or messy (even in my own head after I try them for a few days), I may put them on a sub-page.

Thanks for your patience. :)

Okay - at the moment I'm playing with having the widgets on the "Projects" page (you can find that on the top menu bar).

Learning to Let Go - Just a Little


20070731a (16)
Originally uploaded by smollerus
Those high school years are really upon us and our "little" Ria has been off giving recitations, winning awards and spending a bit of time away from the family on occasion. Just a few weeks ago she was at a Schoenstatt girls camp (which she's already outgrowing - she'll probably go back next year as a counselor) and this week she's visiting with... quite literally... a truckful of cousins in Oklahoma.

We miss her of course and it's challenging to get by for a time without such an essential part of my regular help around the house. It's really good though, to see how the younger ones do when they get a chance to step up to the plate for a time.

A significant part of our job as parents is to gradually prepare our children for independence. I think this kind of thing can be a very good part of the process. I'm pleased that she takes to such adventures with much enthusiasm.

Not that I'm Biased or Anything...

Lego is sponsoring a movie-making contest using its Star Wars figures and the short film produced by three of my nephews made it to the semi-finals! They put together the middle film in the 13-17 year old category. Very creative!
Just so you know, you can vote once a day! :)