Squish-Blogging

That's when you really haven't had time to keep up with individual posts on things of interest. For those of you who might not know, I do a lot of my blog linking, in the Google Reader in the sidebar of http://www.love2learn.net/. I also have a del.icio.us list in the sidebar here on Studeo for items of interest to me personally that aren't necessarily homeschool related.

So here are a few brief items I've been neglecting lately...

I have a beautiful new niece named Leah! Can't wait to meet her in a few months!!! Congrats S & M (&E)!!!

Last night, I went with some of the teens from our catechism discussion group to hear Archbishop Chaput speak last night on Catholics in the Public Square. It was excellent!!! I hope to write up some notes...when I have time. (Ha!)

You've probably already heard about the legal problems for homeschoolers in California. Having been a homeschooled student in California in the much earlier days of homeschooling (mid-1980s) and remembering how scary and strange it seemed to start homeschooling back then (especially going through the process of telling friends, family and former teachers that we were going to do this almost unheard of thing called homeschooling - and learning how to deal with the odd looks we got at the library during school hours and things like that), I'm in a bit of shock at the ruling and following it closely, but really have no particular insight to offer except to say that I'm, of course, keeping the issue and California's homeschoolers in my prayers. Crimson Wife at Bending the Twigs has been providing some excellent coverage.

Today we had a teen lit discussion on the Song of Roland. Very interesting, though it wasn't my favorite reading this school year. We have discovered that (duh!) translation makes a big difference. As I read the one I happened to pick up at a rummage sale once upon a time (complete with a knife hole that goes through most of the book), not surprisingly, I came up short. It looks like the Dorothy Sayers translation is a real winner (I'll have to give that a whirl some time), though one I found online was also quite good. I have discovered that there are some fine translations of older works available online for free. The online Beowulf translation (I believe it was from the Harvard Classics series) was excellent!

My father-in-law is featured in an article at the Catholic Business Journal website. He shares the story of being laid-off of work (a few decades ago now) and how that changed his life for the better. You can read the story here. (Yes, it was my husband who noticed the European airline special that he mentions, LOL.)

I also thought about writing a blog post on Brett Favre's retirement. I watched his farewell press conference yesterday and it was a really fine thing to see and hear. He's so real and honest and we've really enjoyed having him part of the Wisconsin community all these years. It's funny that when I first moved to Wisconsin from 49er-land when I was first married (late summer 1992), almost the first thing I heard on the local news was how this new guy was taking over for the injured first-string quarterback. Lots of speculation and concern about how things would turn out. It'll always be fun to remember that. :)