Misunderstandings

Blech. I hate misunderstandings.

I was having a conversation with another homeschool mom the other day in which I was trying to explain that I didn't want to shelter my children *too* much because I believe that a certain amount of challenge and encounter with the world can have the effect of strengthening their faith where over-sheltering can sometimes have the opposite effect of what people expect (also, I'm trying to prepare them to be an influence in "the world" which certainly requires a degree of healthy acquaintance with "the world"). I'm pretty sure I didn't explain it very well.

I think she ended up thinking that I don't want my children to be "too holy" or "too religious".

Of course, I might have misunderstood.

Sigh.

The Maldonado Miracle

Cross-posted from Love2learn at the Movies

It's funny how some movies stick with me in surprising ways - they keep coming up in conversation, there's a part that my brain keeps turning over and over on the back burner or they seem to apply to various conversations and areas of our study.

The Maldonado Miracle has been doing that to me lately - particularly when topics relating to the Church's position on Faith and Reason come up (as happened in our teen catechism discussion last night).


I don't think I can go into all the rabbit trails that this movie brought up, I'll just give you a starting point so you can check it our for yourself.


Peter Fonda plays a parish priest in the process of getting a transfer out of a has-been former mining town in California. The people left in town mourn over each family that moves out. Their world changes dramatically when blood is found on the crucifix in the local church and people come from all over to witness the "miracle" for themselves.


One of the most interesting things (which doesn't seem like a stretch within the movie, but still surprises us in some ways) is that it is the good priest who is most reluctant to proclaim a miracle. He pushes for testing first and even locks the doors of the Church at one point. Some non-believing townspeople, however, see this as a benefit for the community and even go so far as to hide information from the priest.


I won't say more about the plot, except that it's wonderfully ironic and true in unexpected, but delightful ways.


We found this to be appropriate viewing for the entire family, though parents might want to preview it for more sensitive children (there is one violent, though not particularly scary scene and there are a fair number of dramatic chase scenes and such).

The behavior of the woman who first proclaims (and practically takes credit for) the miracle provides some good fodder for discussion - particularly in the context of the ending. Don't give up on the movie on her account!


This made for TV movie was directed by Salma Hayek and originally aired on Showtime.

He's with Baby Jesus

A very dear friend of mine lost her father-in-law a few days ago. Though he was not well for quite some time, things went downhill quickly enough to be a bit of a shock and his wife could particularly use your prayers.

My friend shared this delightful piece of wisdom from her almost-four-year-old (her daughter was born 5 days before our Frank).

A. (almost 4) was so sweet last night. She burst into tears when she saw all of us crying and heard that Grandpa had died. Then she stopped and very brightly and happily said, "But he's with Baby Jesus now! Isn't that nice?" Indeed.

The DarwinCatholic Top 100 Films Meme

Go to the AFI Top 100 list and pick (this wasn't easy!):

1) Your favorite five movies that are on the list.

Casablanca

It Happened One Night

North by Northwest

The Philadelphia Story

Ben Hur

2) Five movies on the list you didn't like at all. (I'm sure some of these reveal my lack of sophistication and good taste - also these are based on last time I saw them, it is possible I would see them differently today.)

Forrest Gump

E.T.

Dances with Wolves

Citizen Kane

Psycho

3) Five movies on the list you haven't seen but want to.

Lawrence of Arabia

The Bridge on the River Kwai

On the Waterfront

The Grapes of Wrath

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

4) Five movies on the list you haven't seen and have no interest in seeing.

(I couldn't come up with five)

Silence of the Lambs

Pulp Fiction

M.A.S.H.

5) Your favorite five movies that aren't on the list. (These were the first five "favorites" I could think of - I'm sure there are others.)

A Man for All Seasons

Groundhog Day

Spanglish

Gladiator

I Confess

As found on DarwinCatholic

The Lord's Prayer from Jesus of Nazareth

I was catching up on my Jesus of Nazareth readings last week when I came across some really beautiful thoughts in the Holy Father's chapter on the Lord's Prayer.

The Sermon on the Mount, as we have seen, draws a comprehensive portrait of the right way to live. It aims to show us how to be a human being. We could sum up its fundamental insights by saying that man can be understood only in light of God, and that his life is made righteous only when he lives it in relation to God. But God is not some distant stranger. He shows us his face in Jesus. In what Jesus does and wills, we come to know the mind and will of God himself.

If being human is essentially about relation to God, it is clear that speaking with, and listening to, God is an essential part of it. This is why the Sermon on the Mount also includes a teaching about prayer. The Lord tells us how we are to pray.

We are at our most attentive when we are driven by inmost need to ask God for something or are prompted by a joyful heart to thank him for good things that have happened to us. Most importantly, though, our relationship to God should not be confined to such momentary situations, but should be present as the bedrock of our soul. In order for that to happen, this relation has to be constantly revived and the affairs of our everyday lives have to be constantly related back to it. The more the depths of our souls are directed toward God, the better we will be able to pray. The more prayer is the foundation that upholds our entire existence, the more we will become men of peace. The more we can bear pain, the more we will be able to understand others and open ourselves to them. This orientation pervasively shaping our whole consciousness, this silent presence of God at the heart of our thinking, our meditating, and our being, is what we mean by "prayer without ceasing." This is ultimately what we mean by love of God, which is at the same time the condition and the driving force behind love of neighbor.

Frankly Speaking about Gratitude

For some reason, Frank's favorite tidbit of wisdom that he's been mentioning a lot this week is:

"It's bery nice dat God made us!"

Bad Blogger

Not only have I not been blogging lately, but there are a whole slew of books I've read recently that I haven't managed to review or even blog about yet. I think a significant part of the reason is that I have reviewer burnout. Not the same thing as blogging burnout, but somewhat related. It can be pretty frustrating at times.

Anyway here are the books I've read or re-read in the last few months that I haven't covered yet. I'm hoping this placeholder will get me around to reviewing some of them some time soon:

_
The Harry Potter Series - (I just finished a re-read a week or so before the big fuss about J.K. Rowlings' various remarks in her visit to the U.S. I think I should post about this at some point.)

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (another re-read)

Waking Rose by Regina Doman (Also a re-read, sort of, as I did a read-through for Regina a number of years ago. Ria also finished this and she loved it.)

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (just finished this one this morning)

I think there are a few others that I've posted about briefly on Studeo and finished reading, but not yet officially reviewed for love2learn. I hope to have a number of these pieces fall in place around the time that the new love2learn site goes up - which should be by the end of the year.

Well, I Haven't Been Doing Much Blogging Lately...

But I have been spending a lot of time with my relative bloggers. From left to right - yours truly (with Frank), Electroblogster, Ria, Mystical_Rose84 and Clairity.

We often head up north to Clairity's place for Thanksgiving, but it was a special treat to have my mom and Mystical_Rose there too (I hadn't seen my mom in a year and Mystical Rose in three years!).

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!



Here are a few other things we we've been thankful for...






For baby Jarell who was baptized on Saturday.


















That Kate got to spend some time with her godmother - who also happens to be Jarell's godmother!











For cousin bloggers who had a wonderful time together. :)












For amazing food and hospitality...






And for family, for friends-who-are-practically-family, for good timing that worked out in ways we never could have planned, for too many games of Monopoly and learning to play Settlers of Cataan and Ticket to Ride, for great conversation and lots of laughter, tickle gauntlets, wrestling and lots of great memories.

Thanksgiving Fluff

You Are The Stuffing

You're complicated and complex, yet all your pieces fit together. People miss you if you're gone - but they're not sure why.

What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

hat-tips to Kristen and Margaret. And stuffing is TOTALLY my favorite part of the meal. Library tree is up. Next step, prep for our next performance of Alice. Have a great day!

The Holy Father on Fear and Trust

Pope Benedict XVI's Angelus address yesterday was on fear and trust. Turns out to be quite nicely related to my post yesterday (I heard this on Relevant Radio this morning)...

"Let us welcome Christ's invitation," he said, "to face daily events trusting in his providential love. Let us not be afraid of the future, even when it appears bleak to us, for the God of Jesus Christ, who took up history to open it up to its transcendent fulfillment, is its alpha and omega, the beginning and the end."

"He guarantees that in every little but genuine act of love the meaning of the whole universe is contained, and those who do not hesitate to lose their lives for him, will find them again in fullness."

Read the entire article on Zenit

Gratitude, Appreciation, and Making Distinctions

An interesting discussion at Nancy's site brought to mind an idea that I mentioned in the comments to her post and I thought I'd bring up here too. She was discussing problems that end up dividing homeschool groups. My speculation was that we often get mixed up in our heads between what is ideal (or perceived to be ideal) and what is morally necessary.

There are many things which homeschool families (and other families for that matter) decide is good, or even "the best" for their family and implement with enthusiasm. There is certainly nothing wrong with this. Here are a few real-life examples (these may or may not occur in our own family!):

avoid television entirely
have the girls wear skirts to Mass
have the girls wear skirts all the time
eat organic foods
attend Daily Mass
pray the Rosary daily
avoid government run homeschool programs
eat vegetarian
etc.

The problem lies not in making such decisions for our own families, but starting to judge other families who have decided otherwise. There are certainly arguments for and against each idea and some people may choose naively, but this should never be cause for ostracizing them. In fact wouldn't that have the opposite effect of influencing them for the good anyway? These are the sorts of things that can be considered "ideal" by many for various reasons (or - in some cases - even goals to strive towards), but are definitely not "morally necessary". It sure is nice to have the authority of the Church to help us make such distinctions!

For some reason it is often tragedy that puts such things in perspective. Things like this:

A local homeschool family whose young son died in his sleep a few days ago

and this

Cyclone kills over 2,000 in Bangladesh

I sometimes wonder if some of the squabbling comes because we're spoiled. We're spoiled by amazingly good health and low death rates, we're spoiled by a myriad of choices in clothing and educational materials and food and more. But for some reason this tends to lead to fear rather than gratitude and appreciation.

Perhaps because we do have so many choices to make (certainly to the point, at times, of being overwhelmed by decision-making), we start taking ourselves too seriously and feel like it all depends on us.

This Thanksgiving week is a good time to foster gratitude and appreciation in ourselves which, really, is a good antitode to taking ourselves too seriously and neglecting the appreciation we owe to God and the help we owe to those less fortunate than ourselves. (I've also found reading pretty much anything by G.K. Chesterton as a perfect antidote to taking myself too seriously.)

And so, today I am grateful for these things:

-Being able to worship freely, openly and without fear.

-Being able to choose homeschooling for my children.

-For the children God has given me.

-Food, shelter and clothing in abundance.

-Good friends, good books, good movies and many happy times.

Current Library Tree Book List

Naturally I have not been able to read through every one of these books personally. I tend to rely on online reviews and, as I mentioned earlier, I found Maureen Wittmann's book quite helpful and chose a number of titles from there. I also did quite a bit of research at our local bookstore...


A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky
Michael Driscoll

A Day on Skates
Hilda Van Stockum

A Seed is Sleepy
Dianna Hutts Aston

Abraham Lincoln: Friend of the People
Clara Ingram Judson

Admiral Richard Byrd: Alone in the Antarctic
Paul Rink

Alexander the Great
John Gunther

Amelia Earhart: Flying Solo
John Burke

America is…
Louise Borden

American Rough Rider: Teddy Roosevelt
John Garraty

Arctic Explorer: the Story of Matthew Henson
Jeri Ferris

Battleships of World War I
Peter Hore

Behind Enemy Lines: A Young Pilot's Story
H.R. Demallie

Ben Franklin: Inventing America
Thomas Fleming

Bob Books, Set 1
Bobby Lynn Maslen

Building Big: Bridges (DVD)
David Macaulay

Building Big: Dams (DVD)
David Macaulay

Building Big: Domes (DVD)
David Macaulay

Building Big: Skyscrapers (DVD)
David Macaulay

Building Big: Tunnels (DVD)
David Macaulay

Camille and the Sunflowers: A Story About Vincent van Gogh
Laurence Anholt

Can You Count to a Googol?
Robert E. Wells

Daniel Boone: The Opening of the Wilderness
John Mason Brown

Downright Dencey
Caroline Dale Snedeker

George Washington Carver: The Peanut Wizard
Laura Driscoll

George Washington: Frontier Colonel
Sterling North

How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World
Faith McNulty

Jamestown: The Perilous Adventure
Olga Hall-Quest

John Paul Jones: The Pirate Patriot
Armstrong Sperry

Joyeux Noel (DVD)

Katie Meets the Impressionists
James Mayhew

Laura Ingalls Wilder Country
William Anderson

Lawrence of Arabia
Alistair Maclean

Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust
Imaculee Ilibagiza

Lives of the Artists: Masterpieces, Messes and What the Neighbors Thought
Kathleen Krull

Mary Ingalls On Her Own
Elizabeth Kimmel Willard

NOVA Secrets of Lost Empires: Inca (DVD)

NOVA Secrets of Lost Empires: Medieval Siege (DVD)

NOVA: Secrets of Lost Empires: Colosseum, Stonehenge (DVD)

NOVA: Secrets of Lost Empires: Pyramid, Obelisk (DVD)

One Grain of Rice
Demi

Orphaned on the Oregon Trail: The Stout-Hearted Seven
Neta Lohnes Frazier

Path to the Pacific: The Story of Sacagawea
Neta Lohnes Frazier

Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland
Tomie de Paola

Poetry Speaks to Children

Pope John Paul II (DVD)
Jon Voight, Cary Elwes

Shakespeare: His Work and His World
Michael Rosen

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
translated by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Deadly Hunt: The Sinking of the Bismarck
William Shirer

The Empress and the Silkworm
Lily Toy Hong

The Mislabeled Child
Brock Eide and Fernette Eide

The Story of Noodles
Ying Chang Compestine

The Story of Paper
Ying Chang Compestine

The Swamp Fox of the Revolution
Stewart H. Holbrook

The True Story of Peter Rabbit
Jane Johnson

Turn Left at Orion
Guy Consolmagno

War Game: Village Green to No-Man's-Land
Michael Foreman

When Washington Crossed the Delaware: A Wintertime Story for Patriots
Lynne Cheney

Who Carved the Mountain? The Story of Mount Rushmore
Jean L.S. Patrick

Library Tree Ornaments

IMG_0299
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

We printed out the ornaments for our Library's Holiday Tree today. Here they are on some of our bookshelves - approximately 60 books and movies of all sorts. In the book department there ended up being an emphasis on the "Sterling Point" books. For movies, we have a lot of "Building Big" and "NOVA: Secrets of Lost Empires". I'll try to share a complete list some time soon (no doubt you can make out some of the titles from the picture).

It's funny how this is feeling like a Like-Mother-Like Daughter project. Not only has Ria been helping me out on this project, but I've seen photos of a library project my mom helped out with before I was born. I believe it was a school library and a number of the titles looked familiar. Especially interesting to consider this year as there were some "North Star" books (the previous name of what is now called the "Sterling Point" series). :)

Homeschool Blog Awards

I've sent in my nominations. Have you?

Submissions are due today.

Alice

Alice
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

I like this group shot. There were people watching from the balcony too.

The executioner

The executioner
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

Terri played the executioner - a non-speaking role that had her standing behind the Red King and Queen during most of the play. She did a great job too! :)

The Duchess "sings"

The duchess "sings"
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

This was a challenging and very funny part of the play. Ria plays the Duchess who sings so badly that all of the others start covering their ears and making faces and such. Bravo! :)

Alice plays croquet

Alice plays croquet
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

(Ria is the White Queen standing behind Alice - she also played the Duchess).

Front Row

Front Row
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

The younger siblings enjoyed the show too!

Gus as the March Hare

Gus as the March Hare
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

The kids had their first performance of Alice last night (how appropriate that it was our friend Alice's birthday!) and it was terrific. They performed it at a local nursing home and everyone seemed to enjoy the show. More pictures to come.

The Civics Literacy Quiz

I found this fascinating Civics Quiz over at Bending the Twigs. Crimson Wife scored quite a bit higher than me, but I thought my 78% score was pretty good, especially considering that I know next to nothing about economics and have never taken a civics course in my life.

Ria's painting is finished!

Finished Painting!
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

It's based on a simplified sketch (from the scripts we purchased) of this illustration.

Can't wait to see the show. :)

I'm off to sew those rabbit ears onto a hooded sweatshirt.

The Map Guy Jr.

The Map Guy Jr.
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

Frank has recently become very fascinated with our United States map puzzle. For such an active guy who's usually getting in trouble for tackling his big (but not-so-big) sister, it's incredible to find him happily concentrating on putting this puzzle together. This has been working out nicely partly because of a lot of work I put in a few weeks ago turning our dumping space office into a den-and-guest-room. An old coffee table under a window in that room has become a very favorite place for such puzzles.

"Fine Arts and Humanities"

"Fine Arts and Humanities"
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

Just had to share this picture of Ria studying for her Greek test while painting a backdrop for an upcoming production of Alice in Wonderland. I've been trying my hand at a little hand-sewing (can't work a machine for my life) in the form of an executioner's hood and ears for the March Hare. Should be an interesting week!

Frankly Speaking: Moneysaving Edition

"Buying airplanes is like wasting soap."

I saw Bella!

Along with just a handful of other people at the earliest showing this afternoon.

I really liked it. It's not your typical plot-driven story, more of a slice-of-life with some explorations of ideas about relationships between people, cultures, etc.

Ria saw it last night and liked it too.

More later, I think. John just got back from Taiwan and so it's family time.

Issues of Charity

I've seen a number of troubling offenses against charity by Christians against Christians around the Internet lately (I'm thinking of at least three particular instances I've seen quite recently, completely unrelated to each other). Rather than pointing these out and adding to the chaos, I thought it would be a good time to consider what the Church teaches about charity, judgment and protecting the reputation of others:

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2477-2478):

2477 Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury. He becomes guilty:

-of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor;

-of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another's faults and failings to persons who did not know them,

-of calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them.

2478 To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbor's thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way:

Every good Christian ought to be more ready to give a favorable interpretation to another's statement than to condemn it. But if he cannot do so, let him ask how the other understands it. And if the latter understands it badly, let the former correct him with love. If that does not suffice, let the Christian try all suitable ways to bring the other to a correct interpretation so that he may be saved. (St. Ignatius Loyola - Spiritual Exercises)

Making a moral judgment about someone based on whether they like or don't like a particular book or movie or style of educating their children can be really dangerous territory. There are certainly reasonable cases where someone's tastes in movies and books might make you cautious about them influencing your children, but what I'm talking about is more along the lines of publicly accusing people of being bad Christians or Catholics based on such things.

Sweet!

Bella is now showing at our local, local theater! I think we're gonna see a movie this weekend!

Gus comments on The Father Brown Reader

Gus missed the first night of Fr. Brown reading (mentioned two posts ago) because he was sick, but was in on the fun last night. I wanted to give him a chance to comment:

"I really liked the story of the Blue Cross (the story Ria read last night)."

For the Love of Literature by Maureen Wittmann

I'm so excited about my friend Maureen's new book that is now available for pre-order from Ecce Homo Press. Maureen is a kindred spirit in the "living books" department and I already know that this book will be a favorite on my shelf and have even recommended it to friends who are interested in the way our family homeschools.

I have a pre-publication copy in my hands and it is fantastic. I had a chance to read through it this summer.

For the Love of Literature is a project Maureen has been working on for years and it's designed especially for Catholic homeschool parents. It's a well-organized guide to using real books - biographies, historical fiction, beautiful picture books, etc. to study any subject area of interest. The book lists are extensive and up-to-date (meaning that she only included books that are currently in print) which means, among other things, that this could be an extremely useful resource for using your library well. As a matter of fact, since we're slated to pick the books for our local library's "Holiday Tree" again this year (and the emphasis is, once again, on Popular Non-Fiction and Junior Non-Fiction), I will definitely be using Maureen's book to sift through for ideas.

In addition to the book lists are numerous possible ways to make a living-books curriculum work for your family.

The Fr. Brown Reader by Nancy C. Brown

From our resident Chestertonian (and Fr. Brown afficionado), Ria. To give you a little sense of her interest in Fr. Brown, I should note that she and her friend gilbertgirl seem to come up with a Fr. Brown story (that illustrates some of the truths we're talking about) for each of our catechism discussions.

Anyway, here are her comments on the book:

"Although I'm not generally a huge fan of adaptations, thus far I am enjoying the Father Brown reader. Mrs. Brown, rather then just writing a simple summary of the story, has wisely used Chesterton's own wonderful wording, and omitted only passages which are a little difficult to follow and might bog down some readers. There are however a few minor instances where her retelling changes some part of the story.

When I first announced my intention to read the stories to my 5, 7 and 9 year old sisters last night, the seven year old was rather reluctant to listen. She was more interested in listening to Narnia which my dad has been reading aloud, but Father Brown soon had her hooked. (Terri, the 9 year old, was perhaps even more reluctant - in fact at first she was reading Narnia to herself, but she too was quickly drawn into the story.)"

Terri says (with a big grin on her face): "Fr. Brown is really funny and interesting."

Bernie says: "I really like Fr. Brown!"

Kate says: "I really like it!"

I haven't read it myself yet, but it sounds like Nancy and her illustrator Ted Schluenderfritz and her publisher Margot Davidson all did a fantastic job!

The kids tell me that they will be working on a photo somehow relating to this book some time soon.

New "Book List" Feature

I'm trying to keep better track of new titles being published that might be of interest to Catholic Homeschoolers (and, as always, others who love to learn), particularly since our review process at Love2learn isn't particularly fast. Now, if you click on the "Book Lists" button in the top menu bar, you'll find a list of links with information regarding these new titles (right at the top of the list). This information will be mirrored in the sidebar of the Love2learn Blog. Enjoy!

Christians in China

John and I are really excited about the new Ignatius Press title: Christians in China: A.D. 600-2000 by Jean-Pierre Charbonnier, which just arrived in the mail today. My brother-in-law typeset the book (sounds like it was a lot of work!) and highly recommends it. We have a special interest in China because of all of John's business dealings with (and travels to) Taiwan.

I have a feeling that he'll get around to reading it before I do as I have a large stack of books I'm in the middle of.

How the Time Change Helped Us Sell Our House

I can never remember if the fall time change is the beginning or the end of daylight savings time and would prefer to skip it altogether, but one year it ended up playing an interesting part in our lives.

Four years ago we were attempting to sell our house. It was an old farmhouse (circa 1890) and it was definitely a handyman special when we had bought it. Over the six or so years we lived there, we gutted the entire upstairs, one room at a time, and put in new wiring, insulation, wallboard, fixtures, etc. We put in a brand new bathroom upstairs. We pulled out ugly carpeting and refinished gorgeous maple floors underneath. We gutted the living room in a similar fashion to the upstairs. We remodeled the downstairs bathroom (which was in horribly desperate need - picture plastic yellow tiles all coming loose around the bathtub and a lot more). We had put in a dishwasher and disposal where there was none and turned a pantry into a nice little laundry room. It was a LOT of work!

The problem was that there was a lot yet to be done. The roof would need replacing in the next few years. The (detached) garage was a horror and the plaster walls in the kitchen were a bit of a mess. Finding the right buyer in a short period of time wasn't going to be easy.

Selling it was a lot of work, but we managed pretty well with one of the new "do-it-yourself" packages. We basically acted as our own agent, but buyers would generally come with a realtor to check it out. We packed up everything we could in our venerable old chicken shed (one realtor left a note saying that "That's the most impressive collection of Rubbermaid tubs I've ever seen.") We worked our tails off making things absolutely beautiful for each showing (not an easy task when you're six months pregnant and have children ages 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2 to help). Schooling became simplified with those Comprehensive Curriculum workbooks from Sam's Club.

We had put the house on the market in August and had several months of perhaps 2 or 3 showings a week when we got to the weekend of the time change and had a showing scheduled for Sunday morning. Somehow it occured to us that there was a remote possibility of the potential buyers and realtor showing up an hour early. So we decided to have things ready then just in case. Sure enough, we peeked out the window and saw a couple in a car parked across the street that had the earmarks of the ones we were waiting for. We hemmed and hawed for a few minutes, but decided to invite them inside and it turned out to be a great opportunity. We were able to tell them all about the renovations that had been done and answer all the questions they had. When the realtor arrived at the right time, they already had a lot of information to go on.

And of course, they were the ones who finally bought the house! Because of some financial complications, it took another six weeks or so before we were able to move (and just in time as Frank was born three weeks after that!), but I've always been amused at how the time change played a role the whole ordeal.

All Saints Day Party

All Saints Day Party
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

Ria had to stay home with a few sick kids, but the rest of us enjoyed a nice mass and All Saints' Day party with the homeschool group. Here are just a few of the saints in the party. I like how the two little St. Gabriels are both looking away at the same time. :)

Happy Feast Day!