What I've Read: 2007

This is an attempt at a complete list of books I completed in 2007 (some of these are re-reads):

Deus Caritas Est by Pope Benedict XVI
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Glass Castle
The Kite Runners
The Virtue Driven Life by Fr. Benedict Groeschel
Mom to Mom, Day to Day by Danielle Bean
Waking Rose by Regina Doman
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
St. Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Spe Salvi by Pope Benedict XVI
Word to Caesar by Geoffrey Trease
Jack and Jill by Louisa May Alcott
Fabiola by Cardinal Wiseman
Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Ten Dates Every Catholic Should Know
Love in the Little Things by Mike Aquilina

List in progress. More as I think of them.

Happy New Year!!!

Reading 2007 and 2008

I'm really enjoying other bloggers lists of books they've read, favorite reading from the year or books they are planning on reading in the coming year. Seems like a good sort of reflection to do as we end one year and begin another.

Here are some of my most recent books that I actually finished...

The first two are engaging, interesting, thought-provoking, but definitely adult titles.
The Kite Runner
The Glass Castle

Spe Salvi by Pope Benedict XVI (though I need to re-read this one already - I had a hard time absorbing the first half with just one read)
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (very fun read-aloud)

Here are some that are still in progress, even after quite a long time at them (some because they're for discussions that we take a little piece at a time, others because I'm just somewhat disorganized in my reading habits):

We Look for a Kingdom by Carl Sommer

Salt of the Earth by Pope Benedict XVI

The Aeneid (along with a very nice study guide by Fran Rutherford) - I started this as a read-aloud at co-op once a week, but it really didn't work out as the schedule was already a bit fragmented and I had too many group classes I was trying to keep track of. I'll go back and read it myself - probably during this semi-quiet upcoming month of January.

Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI - As I've mentioned a number of times - I LOVE this book, but it's really working out to savor a bit at a time for our discussions instead of plugging straight through it quickly.

Authenticity: A Biblical Theology of Discernment by Fr. Thomas Dubay - Nope. I still haven't finished this one yet. Yes, every time I dip back into it I find something wonderful that makes life just a little bit clearer. I do suspect I'll finish this one some day and I certainly haven't given up on it.


Here are some newly started titles:

The Order of Things by Fr. James Schall - This is a book that really makes you think, and yet it seems somehow light. I think it's Fr. Schall's manner of writing and also the fact that he doesn't tend to overwhelm with complex vocabulary. Good stuff!

I also started The Christian Resistance to Anti-Semitism by Fr. de Lubac a few weeks ago. It was fascinating, but I put it down for now because it was slow working plodding through a title with so many unfamiliar names and events. I still hope to go back to it at some point, along with (a cursorily related title) They Call Me the Bacon Priest. I'm really good at reading halves of books sometimes! :)

Books I'd Like to Read in 2008 (besides the ones I'm still in the middle of):

The Apostles by Pope Benedict XVI
St. Thomas Aquinas: the Dumb Ox by G.K. Chesterton
I'm also hoping to re-read Orthodoxy in time for next summer's conference focusing on that book
By the Great Horn Spoon (because I keep hearing it recommended from many different directions)
The Blood-Red Crescent by Henry Garnett
Come Rack, Come Rope! by Robert Hugh Benson
Manalive by G.K. Chesterton
re-read Regina Doman's Fairy Tale Novels - in order to review/update reviews on the various titles


I may actually try to write up a list of books I've read this year. Usually looking back I find that I've read a lot more than I seem to remember reading.

Why I Love Celebrating Christmas for 12 Days

St. Josaphat's Basilica
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

1. It makes Christmas Day itself a lot more relaxed with less expectations than if we tried to cram everything into one day. We actually scatter some extra presents out throughout the 12 days and especially on Three Kings Day - part of the fun of this is that the kids never know when there will be something under the tree. Hint #1 - keep Christmas day presents fairly reasonable in size and quantity. Hint #2 - don't give them something every day or it messes with the expectations (ahem... and the pocketbook!). :)

2. It allows us to spend our Christmas Eve Vigil Mass in the "stable" of our church gymnasium in order to attempt to provide many who attend Mass only once a year with a more beautiful and meaningful liturgy (musically speaking) and yet still celebrate Christmas the following Sunday in one of the most beautiful churches I've ever been in (the inside of the dome of St. Josaphat's Basilica is pictured here - click here for more photos). Ria did manage to go to Christmas Eve Midnight Mass later that night with her grandparents (who very kindly brought her back in time for opening presents on Christmas morning) and Gus and I watched Midnight Mass from the National Shrine in D.C. via EWTN.

3. It gives me an excuse to play loads of games of Settlers of Catan (one of the very favorite Christmas presents this year) with the kids and encourage them to keep baking Christmas goodies, even though John had to work for a few days last week. (I hardly ever do any baking any more as my kids love it - warning: it does get messy!)

4. The same goes for listening to Christmas Music.

5. I get to take advantage of crazy after-Christmas sales to supply fun little presents for between Christmas and Three Kings' Day - such as the dollar section at Target at 75% off! :) Yesterday was a day that everyone got to open an item of clothing courtesy of Kohl's 80-90% clearance sections and $20 in Kohl's cash.

5. Many of things people try to cram in before Christmas are still open the week after Christmas too. On the third day of Christmas we went to a fun drive-through light show with John's parents and lots of Christmas music on the car CD player, followed by an indoor look at an amazing nativity set and a fun and enormous set of electric trains.

Also, after visiting the Basilica yesterday, we went to the Milwaukee Public Museum and particularly enjoyed the "European Village" (here's a sample photo, though I can't remember which house this is from - Ria thinks it's the Austrian one) in which each exhibit was still decorated for Christmas and Christmas music was playing throughout. What fun - and this was completely unexpected for us - I never knew that they decorated these houses for Christmas!

6. We still have more time in which to send out our long-neglected Christmas Cards!

Prayer Request

Please pray for a friend of ours (a Catholic homeschool dad of 8) who suffered a concussion and broken bones from a fall off a ladder while clearing some snow off his roof.

This has got to be the prettiest thing I've ever made with two extremely stale sourdough baguettes

What We Did With Our Leftover Bread from Christmas
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

I was up really early yesterday morning working on love2learn and decided to start some bread pudding in between the web work. Over the course of several hours, I kept "feeding" batter (basically it's french toast batter) to the super-stale bread bits until everything was soaked. It took 30 eggs! Definitely best served with maple syrup. Yum!

Snowflaking

Snowflaking
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

Just had to share this fun picture in which the snowflakes ended up being beautifully lit up by the flash. Frank came up with the title... At least that's what he's been calling snow ball fights and it seemed like a good title for the photo. :)

Christmas Morning!

Christmas Morning!
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

Can you tell that we all got matching green sweatshirts from Grandma and Grandpa on Christmas Eve? :)

New Love2learn Site is Up!

We went live late last night at love2learn.net with the new fully-featured automated site. We're working on a lot of adjustments and corrections still, but even with that qualification there are loads of improvements over the old site including many updated reviews, updated supplier information, a new prayer request section and an automated system for updating links in many categories (I'll be adding a lot more of these today - a good project for a very snowy day!).

We'll have our grand opening in a week or two and will continue to use this blog for new reviews for a time (continue to check both sites for review until we get all of the reviews on this blog transferred over), but in the mean time the site is fully functional.

Many, many thanks to Suchi Myjak (author of Behold and See 3 from Catholic Heritage Curricula) for spear-heading the entire automation process with her software expertise (and for a lot of patience in working through the entire process) and for taking on the tough role of technical administrator.

Oh yeah, and one more important thing I almost forgot. Love2learn.net now has an RSS feed, so you can either plug the entire site (love2learn.net) into your Google Reader or Bloglines or whatever to keep track of updates (though it will be a bit messy for the next week or so as we continue to make adjustments or corrections) OR choose an RSS feed for a particular subject that you'd like to keep track of. Joy!!!

A Blessed Christmas!

Wishing all of you a most blessed Christmas!

We've been too busy here with sinus infections and trips to Taiwan and Christmas preparations to do any blogging lately. We're also preparing to sing for the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass later today, and for an extended family gathering here tomorrow.

The Extent of My Travels...

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

And that's it. Never been out of the country.

hat-tip My Garden in Garmisch (which is in Germany!)

This Has to be the Most Beautiful News Story I've Heard this Season...

Man Lost in Snow Stayed Strong for Kids

Risk and Friendship

I've been thinking a bit lately about how making a step toward friendship with someone or even *being* friends with someone makes you vulnerable in many ways and can, at times be a frightening thing. Or at least something where fear can get in the way and prevent you from making that step. My mind, at least, tries to put these road blocks in my way - "Ugh. Maybe they'll think I'm stupid or presumptuous. Maybe I shouldn't say anything at all." Friendship does sometimes cause extremely painful misunderstandings. There's a significant risk there, especially to someone who is sensitive about such things as relationships.

Of course the rewards of friendship are much greater and entirely "worth it", but not everyone can make it past that first big hurdle and I know, for me, that first hurdle can be very difficult. There is also a significant sense of relief when my offer of friendship is accepted by the other.

Discussions on the Internet can be like that too. If I really share my opinion, which may not be fully formed, will I sound stupid? will some people misunderstand me or dislike me?

There's a certain degree to which the practice of humility is necessary in making such steps (at least in an act against pride which is uncomfortable with vulnerability). It also reminds me of the charity and openness and understanding I should have to others .

So I was interested to understand in a new way, in a portion of Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth, how God models for us a participation in such risks. God came down and made Himself vulnerable to us. Wow!

This is from the Holy Father's commentary on the Our Father, in the segment entitled "Hallowed Be Thy Name". I'll try to summarize here along with a few choice quotes:

First, he brings up the obvious connection of "Hallowed be thy Name" with "Thou shalt not speak the name of the Lord thy God in vain."

This leads to a detailed discussion of God revealing Himself to Moses in the burning bush.

In one sense God doesn't give himself a name "among other gods" as if he's one of many.

God's answer to Moses is thus at once a refusal and a pledge. He says of himself simply, "I am who I am" - he is without any qualification. This pledge is a name and a non-name at one and the same time.

He also points out that God didn't actually refuse Moses' request. He gave him something very significant which establishes a relationship with mankind.

God establishes a relationship between himself and us. He puts himself within reach of our invocation. He enters into relationship with us and enables us to be in relationship with him. Yet this means that in some sense he hands himself over to our human world. He has made himself accessible and, therefore, vulnerable as well. He assumes the risk of relationship, of communion, with us.

The process that was brought to completion in the Incarnation had begun with the giving of the divine name.... God has now truly made himself accessible in his incarnate Son. He has become a part of our world: he has, as it were, put himself into our hands.

This enables us to understand what the petition for the sanctification of the divine name means. The name of God can now be misused and so God himself can be sullied. The name of God can be co-opted for our purposes and so the image of God can also be distorted. The more he gives himself into our hands, the more we can obscure his light; the closer he is, the more our misuse can disfigure him. Martin Buber once said that when we consider all the ways in which God's name has been so shamefully misused, we almost despair of uttering it ourselves. But to keep it silent would be an outright refusal of the love with which God comes to us. Buber says that our only recourse is to try as reverently as possible to pick up and purify the polluted fragments of the divine name. But there is no way we can do that alone. All we can do is plead with him not to allow the light of his name to be destroyed in the world.

And so God is our true model for friendship and charity (and much more!). He comes to us in love despite fallen man's tendency to manhandling. I love the beautiful commentary on God's name too!

Book Meme

I got tagged by Esther a little while back and am finally getting around to it (nice sort of thing to work on as I'm sick in bed with a sinus infection). I've done this meme once before (quite awhile back I think!) so these are obviously not the only possible answers to the questions for me! :)

One book that changed your life: (even though I haven't finished it yet) - Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI. There are so many things I will never be able to think about the same way again - and that's a good thing! I'm hoping to post on one of these very soon. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. Although it has to do with other things as well, one aspect I'm particularly interested in is its connection to the idea of friendship.

One book that you’ve read more than once: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

One book you’d want on a desert island: Don Quixote (because maybe I'd actually have time to re-read this - I wrote my senior thesis at TAC on this book)

One book that made you laugh: The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

One book that made you cry: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

One book that you wish had been written: The Lady of Fatima by Tomie de Paola

One book that you wish had never been written: Hop on Pop

One book you’re currently reading: We Look for a Kingdom by Carl Sommer

One book you're planning on reading: The Apostles by Pope Benedict XVI and all of those audiences that follow in which he relates thoughts about other early figures of the Church.

I tag Mary from Letters to Daddy, if she'd like to do the meme too. Anyone else interested is also tagged. :)

Children have the best sense of timing...

Like when Frank just asked me to help him take his pants off so he could take a bath with Kate. He leaned his very soggy hand and sleeve against me while I helped him out and only then explained that he had to take a bath because he had accidentally stepped in the toilet.

LOL

Slight update: My husband thinks I should elaborate on how a 4 year old can accidentally step in a toilet. :) You see, he and Kate generally use the toilet in our downstairs bathroom to reach the sink. Unfortunately, he forgot to check if the lid was down!

What Christmas Tree Are You?

You Are a Traditional Christmas Tree

For a good Christmas, you don't have to re-invent the wheel. You already have traditions, foods, and special things you bring out every year.

What Christmas Tree Are You?

hat-tip Running River Latin School

Saint Lucy's Day Buns

Saint Lucy's Day Buns
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

My kids love to bake - as can be clearly seen in the mess left over from last night's late-night baking. The rolls were delicious this morning and the kids were so proud of their efforts (the recipe we use is from the Kirsten American Girl Cookbook - the same one we've been using for years and very kid-friendly). Bernie, Terri and Gus were the master chefs. The three of them carried an incredibly heavy tray complete with napkins and eight mugs of hot cocoa up the stairs to enjoy together in our room.

The Somewhat Soggy End to Our Weekend

Sunday we were beat from our work on the Roman Holiday Party and I was feeling under the weather, so I spent most of the day in bed - either sleeping or reading (I did make it to Mass in the middle of the day). I came downstairs around 4 or 5:00 to get a Motrin for my headache and because I thought I heard an odd sound via the heat vent in our bathroom. The rest of the family was happily settled around a freshly started game of Monopoly in the sunroom, so I decided to take a quick peek in the basement, fully expecting that my over-active-imagination was responsible for what I thought I heard.

Unfortunately what I saw was water shooting out in about six different directions from a large drainage pipe right over the substantially full tubs of clean laundry in the back of the basement. I went upstairs to find the main floor bathroom completely flooded and spilling out into the hallway and the "school closet" (the floor of which I had just - finally - picked up only a few days before). The Monopoly game was abandoned and the water turned off while John tried to find the source of the problem and the kids and I dragged all the wet laundry into large piles and salvaged the little that happened to be dry.

John pulled some trim off the bathroom door and we had people stationed in every imaginable place to communicate during some trial runs, but the source was not discovered and the water continued to leak in the basement after it had run for awhile.

An hour or so into this, John was just about ready to call a plumber. He thought there was a blockage he couldn't reach, but would give it one more try first. After chatting about it, we decided to try to find somewhere else to spend the night so we could get some slightly less expensive plumbing repair work done during a weekday - likely saving us a considerable amount of money (which is already SO tight in December, isn't it? The homeowner's insurance is a dreaded chunk at just the wrong time of year). A moment's thought brought to mind the friends we should call - they're not too far away, they wouldn't be at all stressed by a sudden invasion and they had a large, comfortably carpeted section of their basement that would take care of us nice (she later pointed out that they had several fold-out couches upstairs as well!). I decided to give them a quick heads-up call while John gave the plumbing snake another try.

I was expecting to talk to the mom of the family and make motherly sorts of plans about sleeping arrangements and such. Instead, I got the dad, who almost immediately declared - "I know what that is! There are roots growing over the entrance to the septic tank and blocking things up." Somewhat skeptically I sent my "phone runners" scurrying to find the cordless phone so I could bring it downstairs to John. A few minutes later, John and I were outside with a long gardening tool and a flashlight, cutting roots in the septic tank. It was a super-easy fix and everything has worked fine since.

I can't believe how fortunate it was that we called those particular friends who had the exact same problem a year or two ago. I'm SO grateful it didn't happen in the middle of the Roman Holiday Party AND I'm super-appreciative that it was merely warm soapy water from the shower that sprayed all over the basement!

The Solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Here's a useful repeat from last year. :)


Happy Feast Day!

Here are some links of interest for the day:

Domestic Church's page on Our Lady of Guadalupe

Website on Our Lady of Guadalupe (be sure to read the part about her eyes)

Catholic Encyclopedia Entry on the Shrine of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe from EWTN (very informative!)

"A Tea in Honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe"

Ideas for Celebration from O Night Divine

It's so nice to be able to say Saint Juan Diego now, isn't it? (Even though he's been canonized for several years, it still seems new to me). I love how we commemorate the spectacular events of 1531 over the course of several days - between his feast on December 9th and her Solemnity today. UPDATE: By the way, sorry for the multiple updates. I was doubting my information in calling this a Solemnity, but my sister found the above link on EWTN which seems to confirm it. If anyone has further information, I'd love to hear about it.

Today we're planning to go to Mass, attempt to sing a song we learned at a Spanish Mass a few weeks back (with a little procession), read one of our favorite books, bake a dessert out of Josefina's cookbook and eat Mexican food in honor of the day.

Here's one of our all-time favorite dishes (no guarantee of authenticity). I'm afraid I don't tend to measure anything out - this recipe is a little different every time - it also depends on what I can find fresh at the grocery store.

Taco Salad:

Ground Beef
Canned Black Beans
Taco Seasonings (I use a seasoning packet)
Chile Peppers (here's a helpful "heat" index - see note following list)
sweet or red onions
fresh garlic
sliced mushrooms (I like baby bellas)
sliced black olives
avocado
fresh diced tomatoes
Lettuce (we like red leaf)
sour cream
grated cheddar cheese
salsa (recipes can be found here)
tortilla chips and/or tortillas

Note about peppers: I'm pretty new to cooking with chile peppers. I think I was a little nervous about it - since I'm not big on HOT peppers (at least for a Californian) - but I shouldn't have been. I found the poblano peppers delicious in the meat mixture, but too mild (even for me) in the salsa.

Brown ground beef with garlic, onion, peppers and taco seasonings to taste. Drain fat, add beans and cook until thoroughly heated.

I sometimes make two batches of meat - regular and "grande" (particularly useful for a large family gathering where not everyone will appreciate the fancier version). Regular - shown above. Grande - set aside part of the meat mixture and add mushrooms and olives to cook along with the beans.

This is best served buffet style (be sure to keep the meat hot, however, as all the other items are cold). Some assembly required: Prepare a bed of lettuce. Top with meat and bean mix, cheese, tomatoes, avocado, sour cream and salsa. Sprinkle crushed tortilla chips on top. Also works quite well wrapped in a tortilla.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, patroness of the unborn, pray for us!

Roman Holiday Party

The Roman Holiday Party was a lot of fun. We sang Marian hymns for the feast day, ate all kinds of Roman food (ham with plum sauce, foccacia, libum, chickpeas, olives, dates, custard pie, pomegranates and much more), played Latin bingo (and old game we inherited from a Latin tutor who died of cancer earlier this year - we think of her often!), had a team treasure hunt, a costume contest and, of course, impromptu skits. Fabiola, Poseidon, Corvinus, Persephone, Philomena, Daria, Aeolus, Sebastian, Agnes, Lucy (complete with a pair of eyeballs to carry around), Julius Caesar, Romulus, Lawrence and many more were present.

Two teams performed the story of Perseus bringing back the head of Medusa. The cleverness and creativity with which the story was reenacted was extremely entertaining! (So glad I didn't have to judge).

Please click here to see a few more photos from the occasion.

One of my crazy brothers-in-law sent me this....

which is kind of funny - and the music isn't bad! My little ones, especially, got a big laugh out of it. Don't forget to "Choose a Destination". :)

Click here

For Margaret :)

It all started with the obelisk.

You see, after a lot of hemming and hawing, I decided to cancel our Friday night lit discussion because three homeschool events in our house three days in a row seemed a little intimidating, AND I was going to have a difficult time finishing the reading and preparing for the Latin Club party the next day AND I thought we should get to the Vigil Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception as the next day was going to be rather crazy.

Somewhere in the midst of cleaning, I found some slightly used foam board that, it seemed to me, would make a wonderful obelisk for the middle of our sunroom and most appropriate to the party. It was to be, more-or-less, a model of the obelisk in St. Peter's Square which we had learned about at the Papal Exhibit that came to our local museum a few years ago. Read more about the real obelisk here if you like.

Here's is my initial result before running off to do some shopping (and get some more foam board and a can of spray paint) and before coming home and suggesting to John that maybe he'd like to make it with the kids.

He reluctantly accepted the task after I assured him that I could handle the dinner and the cleaning preparations. I was enthusiastic about the idea of them building this together. He dug right in, as any good engineer would do, and made proportionate measurements based on a real photograph we found on flickr.

They had a great time piecing things together, though the younger set went to bed in tears because they wanted to watch Daddy spray-paint the new structure in the basement, but they had passed the deadline for bedtime (which was being rather strongly enforced since we discovered that our parish for some reason didn't have a vigil Mass but only offered an 8:30 Mass the next morning for the Feast Day). I was just getting up from settling Frank down to bed when I opened the door and smelled something. Ugh.

The paint smell was going to be bad - and get worse. I started by cracking a few windows open downstairs, but soon realized it wasn't going to do. So I threw some extra blankets on the kids
and cracked their windows open. Soon I had the kids in the upper bunks relocating to lower bunks (the smell was definitely stronger up there!) and threw the windows wide open. The three little girls were delighted with my suggestion to all snuggle up in Kate's bed ("Little House on the Prairie" style) and share all of their blankets (at this point a considerable pile) together. They were SO warm that they asked to keep the windows open longer than we actually needed to! Naturally they're posing in this shot...

Frank was snug in a double-fleece blanket plus a down comforter. He never even stirred from the cold.

After about an hour, the smell had fully-dissipated and were able to close the windows and turn the heat back on. It was nice that there was no wind as that would have made things too cold too fast!


The real bummer was that, after all that trouble, the one can of spray paint didn't come close to covering the entire obelisk. It was a curious thing to compare to a paint job we once did to the entire exterior of our old house (just before we sold it) which only took five gallons of paint to accomplish the job!


The result, nevertheless, was quite satisfying. It was a fun addition to the party and the kids decided to bring it along to next month's state JCL convention - after giving it a fresh coat of paint of course. :)

And, in this picture, you can hardly see the silver electrical tape with the red imprints on it. This is a picture from the Latin Bingo game at our party the next day.

FreeRice.com

After seeing this on numerous sites (I think I first saw it over at Karen's), we started playing this fun vocabulary game over the weekend. Finally a "time-waster" I can get behind and not just because of the donation of food to the poor, but because it's well-designed to improve vocabulary. They test you with a few beginning words to get you to a point where you're being constantly challenged. It seems to work well!

UPDATE: We're also finding this travel/geography game to be a lot of fun.

Magnificat Advent Companion

My sister wrote today's meditation in Magnificat's Advent Companion. I don't have a copy myself (I started looking for it a little too late), but I got to read it in my mother-in-law's book yesterday. It's lovely.

Guess I'll be more prepared next year. :)

Well...

I got six Love2learn Moments done today and put a new photo up to more accurately express the weather we're in the midst of here (major ice storm expected tonight).

I'm so delighted to get SIX of them done - I usually only manage 2 or 3 at a sitting. They're quite tricky to do as they need to be of just a certain length (48.5-50 seconds seems to be the acceptable range) and of course I'm trying for some solid and encouraging content. (The latest six can be seen at the link above). Getting an appropriate amount of oomph in the reading usually takes a couple of tries too.

No energy left to blog about the fun and crazy things that happened over the weekend. For now I'll just say that they involved a six foot obelisk, a Roman feast and a broken water pipe.

Oops - I take that back - it was more like a five foot obelisk. :)

And Speaking of Easy Ways to be Nice...

Suzanne at Blessed Among Men is hosting a "Christmas Cheer Challenge" to support a special family in need this Christmas. Check it out here.

Lots and lots to blog about from this weekend - but I can't do that until I get some more love2learn moments recorded today. Please say a quick prayer for me for guidance and inspiration in this important task.

Sometimes it's Really Easy to be Nice

Like when a sweet little old lady standing next to you beside the dairy case very nicely asks if you can please get her a milk from the top shelf and is SO grateful for your help. And there's Christmas music playing in the background. And it totally makes your day.

Gift Stash

IMG_0437
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

No, it's not what you think. :)

We had the church giving tree presents for a local pregnancy help center stashed in our garage (right in the midst of dead plants - which I wasn't trying to get in the picture - and barricaded by various assundry to keep the dog away) for several days before John and I finally got them checked off (the organizers of the giving tree need us to check the list twice) and packed up in his car (he works near the center) this morning - what an appropriate task to "accidentally" fall on St. Nick's Day! It was only slightly hampered by the 3 degree weather and the pen freezing on me.

I'm absolutely amazed that John was able to fit all of it in his little car.

Oh, and by the way, various people from Church donated (and wrapped) car seats, portable play pens, disposable diapers, snowsuits, etc. for those in need. Signing up the center and delivering the gifts is pretty much the only thing we do for the needy unborn each year (well, nearly every year - last year we missed the sign-up deadline) but it's become a lovely and meaningful part of our Advent.

By the way, for those who are curious, the entire top shelf of the shelving in the background is filled with camping equipment that we received last year for Christmas from John's parents which we haven't managed to use yet (except for the freezer chests, which we've had for years). All of our road trips this year (which comprised most of John's vacation days) brought us to the homes of friends or family and thus saved us the car-space of packing all that equipment. Whaddya do?

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Frank is very happy with his candy cane and his new hat, but maybe he got up just a little too early. :)

By the way, celebrating St. Nicholas Day is a local cultural phenomena in the Milwaukee area. Instead of opening stockings on Christmas (as I did when I was a child), pretty much everyone in the area puts their stockings out on the evening of December 5th. My husband grew up with this tradition and I really like it - and I love it that we have it in common with our neighbors and local extended family. The kids usually get something along the lines of a candy cane, a small bag of chocolate, some cold weather gear (like slippers or a hat) and maybe a small stuffed animal or doll (generally saved up from a garage sale). This year they also had some nice little Marian coloring cards from Illuminated Ink.

Advent Is Upon Us...

...as can be evidenced by our wreath (thank goodness we went to the Marian Shrine for Mass on Sunday where advent candles were available for purchase - all the other stores seem to limit their candle color schemes to "earth tones"), the portions of our Fontanini Nativity set that are scattered around the house (Mary and Joseph are having quite a discombobulated journey to Bethlehem), the potted rose bush that is now playing the part, quite nicely, of a Jesse Tree.

There are a bunch of presents for the pregnancy help center (from our parish's giving tree) awaiting sorting and delivery.

The library tree is up but needs a few additional ornaments.

St. Nicholas Day is tomorrow.

We have two discussions and a Latin Club Roman Holiday Party at our house later this week.

Blogging may be light. :)

And we're actually having a really good week so far - *LOVE* the snow - the crazy storm over the weekend that brought several inches of snow and then a bunch of freezing rain have created a winter wonderland that have had the kids outside almost more than inside during daylight hours. Hope the snowsuits hold up under all the sliding!

Is There Anything Sweeter...

than a nine year old sitting at the computer with her four year old brother perched on her lap reading this story aloud to him (for the umpteenth time?) with said brother completely enthralled by the story?

Ah, the modern era.

Ah yes, and a hat-tip to a certain ChesterTeen named Ria for discovering the story somewhere or other. :)

Homeschool Blog Awards

Well, it's that time of year again and I hope you all take a peek at the Homeschool Blog Awards. To me, these are about discovering new blogs and giving people a chance to look at the different faces of homeschooling. I've already had the pleasure of at least one new commenter who I suspect discovered Studeo through the nominations list!

When you see the amazing array of my fellow-nominees in the Homeschool Mom Blog category, I think you'll understand why I sincerely don't have the desire to ask you to vote for me (That first one, in particular, that's currently in the lead, truly deserves to be there! Wow!).

Especially Heather
Less of me ~ More of Him
A Path Made Straight
On Our Journey Westward
Here in the Bonny Glen
Large Family Mothering
The Thinking Mother
By Sun and Candlelight
Our Homeschool and Other Such Happenings
Training Hearts
Just Some Stuff
Cottage Blessings
Higher Up and Further In
Eclectic Education
SoCalVal – Just 4 Homeschool Families
Sand Between My Toes
Robin’s Egg Blue
Riverbend Prep
Preschoolers and Peace
HsKubes’ Haven at Home
Janne’s Jabberwocky
Along the Narrow Path

Part of what I was trying to say in the previous post...

was simply that engaging the world is an excellent place to get perspective which keeps us from getting too petty and caught up in taking ourselves and our lives too seriously.

Slightly Incoherent Ramblings on Homeschooling and "The World"

There's something that's been bouncing around in my head in regards to not sheltering my kids too much, though it's a little hard to explain. Bear with me, please. :) Civilized discussion and even disagreement is welcome. I suspect there are some worthwhile things to think about here (particularly in the quotations!), even if I can't quite connect the dots I'm trying to connect.

I think bits from the reading we happened to discuss last week from the Holy Father's Jesus of Nazareth might be a good place to start (although it's somewhat tangentially related). In his section on "Deliver Us from Evil" in a chapter reflecting on the Our Father, the Pope has this to say:

So long as the dragon cannot wrest God from you, your deepest being remains unharmed, even in the midst of all the evils that threaten you. Our translation is thus correct to say: "Deliver us from evil," with evil in the singular. Evils (plural) can be necessary for our purification, but evil (singular) destroys. This, then, is why we pray from the depths of our soul not to be robbed of our faith, which enables us to see God, which binds us with Christ. This is why we pray that, in our concern for goods, we may not lose the Good itself; that even faced with the loss of goods, we may not also lose the Good, which is God; that we ourselves may not be lost: Deliver us from evil!

Although there is a certain degree of looking inward that is necessary to families at times, it seems to me that homeschooling can lead to a unique danger of looking inward too much in a way that can stir up pettiness and concerns growing way out of proportion with their reality.

I think it's a little like protecting our babies and young children from illness. It is natural and good to take certain precautions to keep them healthy, and yet (somewhat paradoxically, I think) it turns out that a certain amount of exposure is good for them and makes them stronger while too much "sheltering" (so to speak) has negative consequences for their long-term health.

Here's a somewhat random quote I found on the Internet on the topic:

The age-old question of how far to go to protect a child from germs doesn't have one right answer. Repeated minor infections do build immunity to similar types of germs, but who wants young children to be constantly sick? Parents run the gamut on this one from not worrying at all to bringing Lysol to the supermarket and wiping down the shopping cart before their child is wheeled around.I think the practical solution is to recognize that many, many exposures are unavoidable. Toddlers are by nature into everything around them, dirt and germs included, and many viruses can be spread before the contagious person even comes down with any symptoms. So, I see those inevitable exposures as the immunity-building ones. Your best bet is to wash your child's hands frequently, and avoid obviously sick individuals whenever possible. Source

For our family, homeschooling makes it easier to "look outward" because we're doing it as a family and helping our children begin to understand how to live out their faith in charity to others and to begin to see that the Church has the answers to what troubles people in the world. How does one look outward? Sometimes it involves allowing the book-learning to be less-than-perfect in order to spend time on other important things - community involvement, Church activities, works of charity, etc. Many of these will provide opportunities to gain that wonderful thing called Perspective. Another aspect of this is books and movies that make us think and grow - especially those that require some sorting out and making distinctions... together. A side note on this: Most of the great literature deals to some extent with the consequences of sin and thus will, to some extent, have evil and offensive things in it.

There is little point in keeping children out of Hell if you don't afford them the means of getting into Heaven. So give them solid catechetics, strong preaching, good example, healthy exercise, supervision in a general and determinant way but not in each particular and by all means permitting them the freedom of the good, dangerous books as well as the dangerous games such as football, or mountain climbing. Given the state of man, some will break their necks and sin; but in good Catholic families with common sense, the falls should be few and the bodies and souls recoverable. (John Senior, The Restoration of Christian Culture)

This is a balance I'm aware of and seeking to achieve, but it's not always "there". The biggest pitfall for me is getting caught up in the little things that aren't really that important, but that can seem overwhelming at times. Funny how they seem so huge and overwhelming at the time and looking back (especially over time) they can often seem petty and silly... especially after a healthy dose of perspective.

And speaking of perspective, a little birdie told me that my friend Katrina is going to start blogging soon, hurray! Stay tuned.

Here are some quotes that seem to me related to the thoughts swirling around in my head:

The Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25: 14-30

Let me confess, however, that I have never read any of Father Brown except for a brief short story or two. I dislike mystery stories, however noble the art. To be sure, I have cited time without number Chesterton's remark that we should commit our murders all the time, but by writing about them, in mystery stories. This, after all, Plato's point: that knowledge of evil is not evil, but good. Chesterton was quite sure that one of the great arguments for being a Christian was that it enabled us to understand the real nature and depths of evil in ourselves and in the world. (Another Sort of Learning by Fr. James Schall).

And this brings me back to Chesterton - to the idea that before we are twenty we have learned the important things. We have learned them right or wrong, and we have learned them alone. "The tremendous examination of existence", as Chesterton called it, will not be based on whether we have been to college, but on whether we seriously, yet in good humor, confronted in our lives the highest things. St. Paul intimated, in a famous passage, that learning could easily deflect us into "foolishness", even if we be, perhaps especially if we be, professional philosophers (I Cor. 1:18-24) (Another Sort of Learning by Fr. James Schall)

With the petition "thy Kingdom come" (not "our kingdom"), the Lord wants to show us how to pray and order our action in just this way: The first and essential thing is a listening heart, so that God, not we, may reign. The Kingdom of God comes by way of a listening heart. That is its path. And that is what we must pray for again and again.

The encounter with Christ makes this petition even deeper and more concrete. We have seen that Jesus is the Kingdom of God in person. The Kingdom of God is present wherever he is present. By the same token, the request for a listening heart becomes a request for communion with Jesus Christ, the petition that we increasingly become "one" with him (Gal 3:28). What is requested in this petition is the true following of Christ, which becomes communion with him and makes us one body with him. Reinhold Schneider has expressed this powerfully: "The life of this Kingdom is Christ's continuing life in those who are his own. In the heart that is no longer nourished by the vital power of Christ, the Kingdom ends; in the heart that is touched and transformed by it, the Kingdom begins... The roots of the indestructible tree seek to penetrate into each heart. The Kingdom is one. It exists solely through the Lord who is its life, its strength, and its center" (Das Vaternunser, pp. 31f). To pray for the Kingdom of God is to say to Jesus: Let us be yours, Lord! Pervade us, live in us; gather scattered humanity in your body, so that in you everything may be subordinated to God and you can then hand over the universe to the Father, in order that "God may be all in all" (1 Cor 15:28) (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth

Related link:

"A Christian Approach to Purity" by Mark Shea

Prayer Request

Please pray for a good friend of mine and her son who is need of surgery for a growth that is of concern. Unfortunately they've run into some glitches with some of the specialists not being covered by their insurance which is slowing down a process which admits of some urgency.

With All the Bad Press about Illegal Immigrants...

*everyone* ought to see this story. Wow.

It's only fair.

A Little Schall (and Maritain and Aristotle)...

This is a great quote and somewhat related to my last post (which I posted, by the way, partly because the dichotomy in conversation is worth thinking about, I think)...

Jacques Maritain wrote one book (Education at the Crossroads) and several essays (collected in the Education of Man) on education. He considered education to be an art, perhaps in its own way the finest of arts because its object, when perfected, was the most beautiful of all the earthly realities. The closest analogy to teaching, Maritain thought, was medicine. Neither medicine nor education created its respective subject matter or what it was to be healthy or complete once it existed. Each sought to lead or guide a body or soul to what it ought to be when it functions normally. Once in its normal status, the healthy body or the healthy soul should be left alone to do its myriad things that healthy minds and bodies do. Given that the body was healthy, it - that is, the human incarnate person informing it - simply lived, did the things that healthy human beings do. When man, body and soul, was educated, he again simply lived, did the wondrous things free and healthy human beings can do or, more darkly, freely did the things they ought not to do. Knowledge per se, as Aristotle told us, does not automatically mean that we will be virtuous. (On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs by James Schall)

By the way, thanks to an anonymous commenter for recommending this book a while back.