Happy Feast of the Annunciation!

Here are a few related tidbits...

My friend the Bookworm has started a new group blog on catechizing young children called First Heralds. I'm honored to be included as a contributing member, but at the moment can't think of a single thing to say. There's plenty to keep you busy in the meantime, though. :)

I tried starting the Impossible Novena on March 25th thinking a jump start wouldn't be a bad idea.

It didn't work.

I kept forgetting the intentions I had come up with, falling asleep without getting the prayers said, etc. I guess today was really meant to be the day because a new set of three intentions made themselves entirely clear.

In Defense of Fairy Tales

(cross-posted from Love2learn at the Movies)

We finally saw Disney's Enchanted after many lovely recommendations. I don't think I could possibly say it better than Barb Nicolosi's brief recommendation:

It is smart and at moments hilarious and consciously uncynical. And when Disney is on the dock at the last judgment, they will just show this film and say, "The defense rests."

G.K. Chesterton would love this story that not only defends fairy tales, but gives us a quirky look at our world from someone who finds it completely foreign.

I'm kind of a crazy person sometimes. I've been known to cheer (very loudly) at the television - during football games, spelling bees and *some* political speeches. It doesn't happen a lot in movies, but when there's a glorious moment of truth proclaimed on screen, I can't help myself. I found myself cheering and yelling at more than one point in this story. Good stuff!

The Strength of Beauty

While preparing for a parents' meeting on Sacred Music a few weeks ago, I came across this quote (though not for the first time!) and it really hit me over the head with a surprising concept.

Thomas says that through the praise of God man ascends to God. Praise itself is a movement, a path; it is more than understanding, knowing and doing - it is an "ascent", a way of reaching him who dwells amid the praises of the angels. Thomas mentioned another factor: this ascent draws man away from what is opposed to God. Anyone who has ever experienced the transforming power of great liturgy, great art, great music, will know this. Thomas adds that the sound of musical praise leads us and others to a sense of reverence. It awakens the inner man... (Cardinal Ratzinger, Feast of Faith)

I find this concept amazing and fascinating; that what is beautiful - particularly in terms of liturgy - actually draws us "away from what is opposed to God".

I love finding wisdom that helps illuminate how God wants us to counter-act the problems in our culture today - that goes beyond the usual laundry list of bad things to avoid.

But beyond that, this is a very hopeful concept (particularly for parents!) which acknowledges that the timeless truths of beauty and reverence are much more powerful than we would expect.

Frankly Speaking, Law Enforcement Edition

Today Kate and Terri got into a kerfuffle over our old mattress which is presently located on the living room floor. Terri, Bernie and Gus were relaxing on the mattress, reading a book out loud to each other and Terri, ever the one to try to enforce reasonable rules unreasonably, got Kate to "promise" to stop jumping on the mattress (without promising anything in return). Kate immediately broke her "promise" and the rest of the kids were up in arms over it.

Frank charged fiercely upstairs to exclaim his indignation to me:

"Mommmy! Kate promised she wouldn't jump on the bed and ... and ... she broke her mind!!!"

:)

Footprint in the Snow

Footprint in the Snow
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

Yes, we're still getting a bit more snow here. Perhaps we'll hit the record all-time snow fall this winter. Only 14 inches to go (ugh!).

If you observe carefully, you'll notice that Kate decided to try out bare feet in the snow for some reason (and was promptly sent inside, though Mommy quickly grabbed the camera to capture this moment anyway). You may also notice that the weather is really hard on deck stain. It looks like there's more deck without paint than with, even though we stained the entire thing only two years ago.

The Problem with Dragon Skin

Okay that's a funny title for a post about decluttering, but decluttering in my house over the last few years has felt like Eustace in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when he's a dragon and Aslan tells him to peel off the layers of skin in order to turn back into a human. He peels off layer after layer, but it doesn't make any difference.

In the last year or so, I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff. I've simplified the amount of clothing we store for various kids (now, instead of keeping each size, I'm only keeping off-season clothes and the clothes between all of the girls' sizes (which really isn't a lot - they're mostly in consecutive sizes). This involved getting rid of a LOT of clothes.

But it wasn't enough. The laundry area was still completely overflowing. Our plethora of great rummage sales pretty much filled the empty spaces back up. A busy Fall season caused me to dump the summer stuff in bags in the basement rather than sorting them out into the appropriate tubs.

And of course clothing wasn't the only problem.

So this Lent I've made decluttering and permanently-simplifying my special project. Here are some of the things I managed to accomplish:

- I made semi-Draconian cuts in the clothing and laundry department so that things could move more quickly through the laundry system. I threw away a bunch of old kitchen towels and wash rags. I made four or five LARGE trips to a local clothing and household items (etc.) distribution organization for the needy.

- I made some purchases to cause one higher-quality thing to replace several poorer-quality things. Especially where this forced me to keep tabs on it. Some of this actually started before Lent. I bought John a decent (not fancy) set of kitchen knives for Christmas. We'd been using a flimsy freebie set since we were married. This allowed me to dump not only the freebie set, but a huge set of nice steak knives we were given and about six or eight other odds'n'ends. I threw away loads of old (mostly dog-chewed) cheap colored pencils and felt pens and replaced them with one nice set of Prismacolor pencils that have to be used in only one location. I got rid of tons of my knit shirts that had shrunk-short (if you know what I mean) and bought just a few tall-size shirts from Eddie Bauer on clearance to replace them. You get the idea.

Anyway, my idea this Lent was something along the lines of (to use a food analogy) choosing a lifestyle change over a diet. I was trying to make changes that would lead to a somewhat simpler existence, which, of course, necessitates changes in the way I buy things as well.

In any case, I think the changes are making a real improvement, though I'm not yet done with the purging (yesterday I spent many hours on the paperwork aspect of decluttering as we had many boxes filled with paperwork in our bedroom and our new mattress is supposed to come today!). The nice thing is that, rather than being frustrated by the loss of things, the family has been quite receptive to the changes and have even voluntarily done a little purging themselves.

And yes, I DO feel more human. :)

The ironic thing is that AFTER all this purging, I'm about to get a bunch of attic space that was never-before-accessible. John has finished pulling out the loose insulation, cut a big hole for the attic ladder last night and is in the process of hauling huge boards up through the hole to line the attic floor with. Probably good that I did some purging first so that I don't simply hide the mess by throwing it all upstairs.

Impossible Novena Begins Soon...

Here's my post from last year. Technically the Feast of the Annunciation is transferred to next Monday, March 29th, but if you'd like to start the Novena nine months before Christmas, you could start it today...


There's a beautiful nine month novena that starts on the feast of the Annunciation, and ends on Christmas; commemorating the nine months that our saviour was in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It's fairly simple and easy to memorize. You pick three "impossible" intentions to pray for and I've heard (and experienced) many amazing stories of prayers answered.


Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us; and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Pray for us, most holy mother of God.
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

All Virgin of the Incarnation, a thousand times we greet you, a thousand times we praise you for thy joy you had when God was incarnated in you. Because you are so powerful O Virgin and Mother of God, grant what we ask of you for the love of God.

[state your first intention]

Repeat all of the above for your second and third intentions

Remember, O most Gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my mother. To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Blessed and praised be the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, in Heaven, on earth and everywhere. Amen.

How Many Countries Can You Name in Five Minutes

89

hat-tip Chez Ouiz

Ballad of the White Horse - Links

This is for our Literature discussion in April (additional suggestions welcome - especially since Ria lost our Ignatius Press copy with all the wonderful notes):

Here are a few extras for this reading:

The poem is available online here.

Dale Ahlquist has a lecture on the Ballad of the White Horse here.

Free Audio Recordings Here

It might be helpful to read about King Alfred the Great in an encyclopedia or something besides the poem to get an overall sense of the story. This looks helpful, but I haven't finished reading it.

The children's story "King Alfred and the Cakes" is about this same king. You can look it up in the Book of Virtues or elsewhere.

Finally, here's a little about the Uffington White Horse...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horse

Links to Special Topics I'm Interested In

(Under Construction - Click on section titles to view complete lists)

More Easter Music

I was looking for a Regina Caeli that we sang in college. I couldn't find it, but I did find this, which is absolutely amazing!

Oh no, not more snow!!!

Oh no, not more snow!!!
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

I know that I've already posted too many pictures of our snow bunnies, but this one really cracks me up!!!

Frozen Bunny, by Gus

Happy Easter!

Ria and Bernie's Easter Bunny

Decorated with plastic easter eggs and leftover egg coloring of course. :)

The 110 Year Winter

No, not a long winter, that's the snowfall record we broke with the Good Friday Snowfall. Milwaukee has had more than 95 inches of snow this winter, making it the second snowiest Milwaukee winter on record (breaking the record of 94.2 inches set in the winter of 1897-1898 - I couldn't find snowfall records more local than that, but close enough).

More locally, we were hit with about 15 inches of very heavy, very wet snow yesterday. The picture I posted yesterday was only the beginning of the snowfall. Here's what it looks like out there this morning (after quite a bit of shoveling John did just this morning).

I have to admit that I've never in my life dreamed of having a White Easter, but we're already doing some scheming to have a little fun with Eastery snow decorations. Stay tuned. :)

Little Ideas and Questions on Good Friday

Terri, Bernie and Gus (with a little help from Daddy) made these lovely crosses as a surprise for everyone for Good Friday.

I found out about it in a funny way. I knew the kids were working on something because I was forbidden from entering certain rooms for a time while they were working. Silly me, I assumed that the surprise was for Easter.

And so, yesterday we were talking about the bleak prospects of getting to Holy Hill today to make our way through the beautiful outdoor stations of the cross. We were pretty sure the weather would prevent our going out, especially since we need new tires on the van and probably shouldn't drive in heavy snow at the moment. So the kids and I started brainstorming about what we could do to remember Good Friday in our own home. One of them immediately reassured me, oh, don't worry, we have a surprise. Sure enough, late last night, these three carefully set up their display and covered the doorway with a sheet so no one could peek in.

Well, I set about to tell some related Frank stories. So here they are...

Frank is filled with questions about Good Friday, the crucifix, the Trinity and many other related questions. In the midst of these questions, he looked at the three big crosses on the table and asked "Are those for the three Gods?"

Later, all of the kids had decided to make homemade bread. They love baking, though I don't really love the mess. Ria was making hers with whole wheat flour, but Frank misunderstood. He asked for some of the "holy flour" for his loaf.

The Theme of Lent This Year...

seems to be "*YOU* are not the one in control." I've seen hints of it in many blogposts around the 'Net (particularly from Moms who really want to do a lot of wonderful spiritual things with their families during Lent). For me, it is perfectly illustrated by the twin winter storms that prevented us from going out to services and our usual devotions on Ash Wednesday and now today on Good Friday.

This seems perfectly related to the virtue of Patience, which is the theme of the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery in a little book of quotes I have by St. Francis de Sales (the book is called: Sermon in a Sentence: A Treasury of Quotations on the Spiritual Life, Volume 2, published by Ignatius Press).

Here are a few quotes from this section:

The soul that rises from sin to devotion has been compared to the dawning day, which at its approach does not drive out the darkness instantaneously but only little by little.

The greatest happiness of any one is "to possess his soul," and the more perfect our patience, the more fully we so possess our souls.

If we must have patience with others, so we must with ourselves. Those who aspire to the pure love of God have not so much need of patience with others as with themselves.

The acts of daily forbearance, the headache, or toothache, or heavy cold; the tiresome peculiarities of husband or wife, the broken glass... all of these sufferings, small as they are, if accepted lovingly, are most pleasing to God's Goodness.

Holy Thursday

My children's favorite meal of the year (and they openly admit this) is our Holy Thursday meal. We have a passover-like meal (a general approximation) which we tend to get a little better at each year.

For us it seems to help to not start with big expectations, but to let a tradition develop slowly from year to year until it becomes an integral part of our lives. The impact of this particular tradition only fully hit me last year when the kids excitedly exclaimed that it was their favorite meal of the year. I never expected it to become that! I also like how it's worked out that, even though there are some downsides of not having everyone go to the evening Mass on Holy Thursday, this is one that that they get to choose to go to - and the older ones, at least, tend to choose willingly to go to this particularly beautiful Mass, full of symbolism that is made just a little more vibrant by our symbolic dinner beforehand.

We haven't always done this, but I'd say we've had a pretty strong record for about eight years running. One year, before this time, Ria entered an Easter Coloring contest at our local grocery store. They called us on Holy Thursday morning to let us know that Ria had won first place in her age group. She won a couple of frozen pizzas and some bottles of soda. She was so proud of bringing her food home to share with everyone, so we ate frozen pizza and soda for Holy Thursday dinner that year.

Ah, tonight we ate much better, though. Once a year I splurge and pick up a big piece of lamb. It's not cheap, but it's extremely memorable. I cook it a little differently each year (I'm definitely a wing-it sort of cook.) This year I cooked it with olive oil, garlic, fresh rosemary and sage and, of course, salt and pepper. I made a gravy to go with it and it turned out very well, I think. (The unleavened bread was delicious dipped in the gravy!). I do need to remember to get one of those oil-separators to simplify the gravy-making process.

When we first started doing these meals, it was with the help of Mary Reed Newland's The Year and Our Children. We still have never made it farther than that in the book. It has a bookmark in a permanent spot for Holy Thursday and we take it out most years to help remember the details. We didn't manage to pull it out this year, but we pretty much remembered the menu and we talked about the purpose of the meal rather informally.

Once thing *I* like about fixing this meal is that it was meant to be fixed and eaten in a hurry. Even in the midst of a chaotic week, we wear our shoes to the meal and rush off to Mass or whatever else. Today was a little more chaotic than usual. Our big van has been in the shop all week and we finally got a call late this afternoon that it was ready. Since we're expecting a major snowstorm tomorrow and we'll definitely need the van over the weekend (!), we ran off to pick up the van after dinner and three of the kids and I arrived at Mass only fifteen minutes late.

Anyway, back to the menu, besides the aforementioned lamb:

unleavened bread (here's the recipe we found online). This took Ria about 15 minutes to prepare and 20 or 25 minutes to cook (alongside the lamb).

We also generally pick up some sort of kosher crackers - Matzos or some such. These are usually very good with...

Charoseth. We use the recipe we found in Mary Reed Newland's book. This is supposed to represent the mortar for the bricks used by the Israelites while they were in slavery in Egypt. This recipe calls for a mixture of raisins, chopped peanuts (I get dry-roasted, other kinds may also work) and applesauce. We just wing it on the proportions.

Bitter herbs - we put a long sprig of parsley and a little radish on each plate. It's colorful and interesting to taste. We also have a few bowls of salt water around (to dip these bitter herbs in) which are supposed to represent the tears of the Israelites in slavery.

Grape Juice - my kids love this part!!!

We generally also have a dessertish sort of thing too. One year I picked up some candied fruits in the kosher section of the grocery store. This year it was some dried dates and apricots, which went VERY well with the rest of the meal.

I did take some pictures and I'll try to post them later. This year, the table was especially pretty as Frank asked very sweetly yesterday if we could get a flower to put in the middle of the table for the special dinner. :)

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the kids love setting a special place for Elijah. The little girls, who made the place cards, carefully wrote out one for him too and Kate and Terri felt very privileged to sit on either side.

One more Quote from Spe Salvi

And then I have to get to bed!

I found this quote wonderfully profound, but also very challenging.

We can try to limit suffering, to fight against it, but we cannot eliminate it. It is when we attempt to avoid suffering by withdrawing from anything that might involve hurt, when we try to spare ourselves the effort and pain of pursuing truth, love, and goodness, that we drift into a life of emptiness, in which there may be almost no pain, but the dark sensation of meaninglessness and abandonment is all the greater. It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it, and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love.

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi (Saved in Hope)

I Hope...

I had a very long wait today while my three middles went to confession (I went over the weekend) and was very pleased to find that I happened to have Pope Benedict's Encyclical Spe Salvi in my purse (I had just picked up a print version recently from the bookstore).

I read the encyclical from a printout when it was first released, but I'm really absorbing and understanding it better the second time around. The context of having read more of Jesus of Nazareth has helped, I think. Wonderful stuff. Here's a little taste...

Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well. So now we can say: Christianity was not only "good news" - the communication of a hitherto unknown content. In our language we would say: the Christian message was not only "informative" but "performative." That means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known - it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.

Don't Let the Label Fool You

Don't Let the Label Fool You
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

We made this stuff ourselves! It is a bit on the watery side, however. It took about four gallons of sap to nearly fill this little maple syrup jug. It's QUITE delicious!!! (This little jug holds about 12 ounces total).

Tapping the Maple Tree

Tapping the Maple Tree
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

It's a funny sight, but we've gotten about TEN GALLONS of sap from this tree already! The kids check on it several times a day.

The yard looks deceptively warm. There are still large patches of snow on the ground and we've had weather in the mid-30s during the day.

Beautiful Photography

My friend Mary is an amazing photographer and just put up her professional website (still in progress - I think ONLY the galleries are working so far). The galleries are really worth a peek!!!

Here's the link...

http://www.marygundrumphotography.com/

Oh What Fun!

I just noticed that Bethlehem Books is reprinting one of our favorite little books (one we found used years ago after falling in love with some of the author's other stories - Philomena by Kate Seredy (author of The Good Master and The Singing Tree).

Ice Skates on the Swing

IMG_2062
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

Math Out-of-Doors

Math Out-of-Doors
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

Not all of us were bothering with coats.

Homeschool Interview

My husband's aunt is a literature/writing teacher in a public high school. She occasionally sends me students who are working on a persuasive paper and choose the topic of homeschooling to do an e-mail interview. I just finished one of these and thought I'd share my answers here. It's interesting to see how much the questions vary from one student to the next - this partifcular student is, evidentally, already very pro-homeschooling and is writing a paper specifically on the "pros" of homeschooling. I've had questions from students about the downsides that, because I was only answering their particular questions, probably didn't talk them into homeschooling.

1) Do you feel that homeschooling helps your children learn faster than they would at a public school?

I think it can help my children learn faster. Because they only need to slow down when they have trouble with something (and can sometimes test out of chapters in something like a Math book) it certainly can be more efficient. Generally, for my kids, this has amounted to more time for other things rather than pushing ahead in a particular subject. They have extra time for reading, outdoor exploration, hobbies, outside activities with peers, service work, etc.

On the other hand, it might be interesting to consider that homeschooling also allows them to learn more slowly, which can sometimes be a good thing! A child who needs time to reflect on and absorb things before moving on will probably have a lot of things in school that they learn only for the test (if that!).

2) Do you think that homeschooled children lack any social interactions? Are there a lot of different ways to be involved in extra-curricular activities for these children?

No. Often it feels like there are too many choices, if anything. I like to have my children involved in activities with both homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers and these activities are not at all difficult to find (and can include things like sports, music or dance lessons, volunteer work of all sorts, academic classes, drama clubs, discussion/study groups, etc.).

On a related note, it's interesting to consider that children in a traditional school setting tend to do most of their socializing with people of the same age, ethnicity, economic background, etc. - the same children they study with at school all day. Homeschool parents tend to do a lot of driving around (instead of having everything conveniently and centrally located), but the diversity of activities and people with whom they interact is often very rich and rewarding!

3) Do these children have more time off, rather than having a seven-hour day of school everyday? (More relaxed schedule)

That depends on the interests of the particular familiy and the needs of their children. My children thrive on a relaxed schedule and, on the whole, love learning. Often they choose to learn in their free time - things like reading, exploring nature in their own backyard, blogging about books and learning, writing stories or coming up with projects that interest them. I'm a big believer in supporting self-initiative, and so I really try to encourage those things. Though I do certainly require some schooling from them and they don't always want to do it, there's something truly amazing and motivating about learning because you want to and I try to encourage that whenever/wherever possible.

4) Do you feel that by being homeschooled, the children become more responsible? (Because they don’t have teachers constantly reminding them to do something).

That's kind of hard to say and it would depend a bit on personality and maturity (and which students in school you might compare them to!). I do think that handing to children a certain degree of responsibility for their own education (within reason of course) is a positive thing that can help them develop a sense of responsibility. Also, avoiding certain bad habits that can be a common side-effect in traditional school (like learning something just for the test without long-term retention) can be a positive thing.

You may be interested in reading this article about homeschooled students and how they have fared at Stanford University. It speaks of a unique intellectual vitality and self-motivation that can be found among homeschoolers:

Stanford Magazine: In a Class By Themselves

5) Can they pick some of their own curriculum, for example, Spanish, or French or Latin? Or do the children all have to learn what you (the teacher) teach them.

I do tend to give my children a lot of freedom in things like what language they would like to learn, what direction we might take in a particular year of history or literature or science studies and things like that. The amount of freedom offered varies a lot from family to family.

6) Is it hard to give your child(ren), in particular, a bad grade?

That's not something I have a particularly hard time with, perhaps because I taught for a time and was homeschooled myself (just for high school). I have a strong sense of wanting to keep things "real" and sometimes I think I might lean too much in the opposite direction - expecting too much for a particular grade level. I find it helpful to keep in touch with those in the school system so that I have some sense of how things fit in (especially in terms of future college admissions and things like that). For example, we participate with a homeschool Latin club in an annual state Latin convention with many public school and private school students and teachers (in fact, ours has been the only homeschool group in the years we've attended). Things like getting the occasional glimpse of how my students perform with their peers from other schools and chatting with teachers about how much they accompilsh in a particular year have been very helpful.

7) Is it difficult to teach such a large overview of curriculum at different levels for all of your children?

It can be (especially since we have six children and some of them are young enough to be quite distracting at times!), though we try to learn many things as a family, which helps a lot. For example, instead of doing a more superficial overview of science every year in grade school, we often pick a particular area of study that would correspond to what even our high school student is learning. We're studying Geology this year. My 12 year old enjoys watching the DVD course along with his older sister. We have two grade school texts we draw from to study as a family and lots of non-fiction books on the subject and our own rock collection. We've visited geology exhibits and museums as a family and each child will learn from it at their own level. The family chit-chat on the particular subject will tend to be motivating for everyone.

We also take advantage of tools that aid individual study like audio books, DVD recordings and the Internet.

8) And finally, how do you manage your time teaching, and your time with your family?

Mostly by being flexible and not over-scheduling (in more than one way). If we try to do everything school-like on a very particular schedule, things tend to fall part for us. We do better with a relatively small amount of required subjects in the morning, more relaxed time in the afternoon and, often, a return to more formal learning at nighttime. My children thrive on learning math with their dad in the evening and, just last night, I was teaching my six year old how to read after she probably should have been in bed. You see, she came downstairs for a glass of water and started playing with the magnetic poetry on the fridge. She's been a bit reluctant in the reading department and I just bought these the day before to help get her more interested again. The results were almost instantaneous! She wanted to sit down on my lap with a piece of paper and have me write out words for her to read. All of a sudden everything clicked because she was relaxed, it was a great time for her (she is a bit of a nightowl!) and I was flexible enough to help that work. It was really a lot of fun!

I'd also like to mention that these aren't things we always do perfectly all of the time. These are things that work well for our family on the whole (and it's been an interesting thing to learn more about ourselves in the process) and that we strive for. Like many things, we often fall short and work to get back on track again. We also adjust things from year to year and we make mistakes and have to make adjustments. Sometimes we have to jump backwards for awhile in a particular subject before we can get moving again smoothly. Even in these things, though, our children are learning valuable life lessons about how to learn and live in the real world.

Eureka!

Although our little Kate (age 6) seems to love all things relating to Math and numbers, she's run into a number of stumbling blocks in the letters and reading department. First thing I noticed was that she got confused when I tried to introduce more than one sound when working on our phonogram cards with her (even though she was eager to start learning to read... but her enthusiasm started to sink). Realizing that she was overwhelmed by the multiple sounds (and, to my consternation, often choosing the most obscure sound as the "primary" sound - for example, "s" was always "zzzzz" for some reason), I switched (sometime before Christmas) to just the simplest sound to start with and went back to the simple Red Letter Alphabet Book for the practice. And waited. We worked on it here and there, but I could see that pushing her was not the answer as she flew through her math and preferred to ignore the rest.

I have to admit to a certain amount of battling myself in my own head about how much I should do with her and whether there was anything to be concerned about. It's just so easy to worry. The busy-ness of our lives however, helped the more relaxed approach win, especially since she was eager to learn in other areas.

Yesterday, I was at Barnes and Noble and, inspired by a friend's letter and word magnets on her metal door to the garage, picked up a magnetic poetry set with extra big letters for beginning readers. I thought the fun of playing with it on the fridge (our garage door, sadly, is made of wood) might draw her into spending more time with her letters.

Little did I know how quickly it would work. She played with the words a bit today and I helped her read just a few this morning. She talked about some of them with her siblings (the kitchen, afterall, has its advantages as it has constant traffic going in and out). Late tonight (when she... technically... should have been in bed) she just started diving in for some reason. Soon she was sitting on my lap at the counter with pencil and paper, eagerly having me write out simple words that rhymed with each other (she also enjoyed drawing a line under each one after she read it). The first one from each set was a bit tough, but she finally got the idea of sounding it out (even though she frequently got some of the sounds mixed up - which simply led to peals of laughter from both of us) and read about 20 words with great delight. She was so eager that I showed her how to add an e to the end of word to make the vowel say its name. That to her was pure magic.

The funny picture that will be in my head for a long time is of Frank and Kate hanging all over me while John read to the older four upstairs. For awhile, Kate was perched on my lap working on reading, while Frank stood on the chair behind me with his hands wrapped around in front of my face, asking me how many fingers were this many and how many fingers were that many. Ah, homeschooling.

The sappy results

The resulting maple goo
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

That full gallon of maple sap made almost 1/4 cup of really delicious maple goo. Our earlier results looked a lot more like maple syrup (I think we cooked this in too big of a pot), this was like liquid candy.

You Tube Silliness

I have no idea why my You Tube posts from Sunday decided to finally make an appearance today, but ... I hope you enjoy them anyway. :)

Sweeeeet!!!!

IMG_2047
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

You know how there are lots of things that you dream of perhaps doing someday, but never really think you'll do? (Well, at least there are many things I dream of doing that I don't/can't do. But perhaps you do lots of sewing and baking and cool crafts with your kids and things like that.) Ha! One of those actually happened today. A few days ago, Terri (age 10) and I were talking about maple syrup. For some reason, I remembered that it was about the right time of year to tap the trees. After that Terri took over. She heard her grandparents used to tap their maple trees and gave them a phone call. Sure enough, they had some real taps around, and pretty soon we had three taps in our very large tree with milk jugs poised to collect the sap.

We collected a few little batches over the last few days and had our first finger-licking taste of maple syrup last night. So today we were amazed to find nearly a gallon of sap waiting for us when we returned from our afternoon activities. Here's the picture (complete with messy counter) to prove it. :)

It doesn't look like much in our enormous spaghetti pot, but this is now simmering on the stove and will theoretically make about a quart of maple syrup. UPDATE: Um, scratch that, it's a ratio of 40:1, not 4:1.

Now if only I can find my copy of Miracles on Maple Hill so I can read it aloud to the kids. :) If I can't make it that far, I can at least pull Little House in the Big Woods (from which my entire body of knowledge regarding maple syrupping comes from) out to read.

A quirky piece from an old Alice in Wonderland movie...

We've been supremely interested in Alice in Wonderland around here, ever since our family was involved in a play of Alice last fall. This morning we happened to stumble upon this portion of Alice in Wonderland (though it's part of the Story "Through the Looking Glass") featuring Gary Cooper as the White Knight!!!

Sunday Morning Music: Palestrina's Sicut Cervus

Roughly Translated: "As the hart longs for running water, so my soul longs for you, Lord."

And don't forget to set your clocks forward this morning!

Beating the Winter Blues

Now this is an idea I have to plan each year on the Monday after Daylight Savings Time begins. Probably another one in the coldest most-blah part of winter would be a good idea too.

Yesterday we took a break from school and had another family over. We had a picnicky potluck (somewhat limited by all of our Lenten observances, but VERY nice all the same), watched Ben Hur (the littles watched something else and played in the another room) and enjoyed lots of laughter and each other's company.

And if you happened to be in our area and saw two moms and a bunch of kids jumping up and down on the deck outside at one point (and laughing and high-fiving each other), there really is a very sensible and refined reason for it all. You see, we went outside to enjoy a little sun (the very, ahem, moderate temperature of 32 degrees, combined with sun and shelter on the south side of the house was awfully nice, even in stocking feet) and somehow discovered that when we stomped or jumped on the deck, the icicles under the deck broke off and crashed to the ground with a very satisfying glass-breaking sort of noise.

The silliest part, really, is that I didn't plan this in relation to Daylight Savings Time at all (Daylight Savings Time didn't enter my head at all until I saw Danielle Bean's reminder on Sunday Morning), but it was really a perfect day for such a get-together.

WPA on Concerns about the Homeschool Ruling in California

WPA (The Wisconsin Parent's Association - our statewide homeschool association - website here), had this to say about the homeschool ruling in California:

Summary: This email is in response to requests for information about a recent California appeals court ruling. All the major homeschooling organizations in California, including both religious and secular ones, are working together on this. They are asking California homeschoolers to remain calm, continue homeschooling as they have been, and wait for further information. WPA recommends that homeschoolers in Wisconsin support this request and not sign a petition being circulated by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) or take other action at this time. WPA will continue to track this issue and inform you if, at any point, action by Wisconsin homeschoolers would be helpful.

Details: A lot of attention has been given to a February 28, 2008, California appeals court decision concerning a family charged in juvenile court with child abuse and neglect. The family also happened to be homeschooling. The appeals court went far beyond the charge of abuse and neglect and issued an opinion that has been interpreted by some to render any education not conducted under the authority of a certified teacher to be illegal. The opinion has been criticized by a variety of people, including Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger.

All the major statewide homeschooling organizations, both religious and secular, are asking homeschoolers to go about their business as usual, not to panic, not to contact their legislators, not to write to the California Supreme Court, and to give the organizations time.

HSLDA has gotten involved and is circulating and strongly urging people to sign a petition addressed to the California Supreme Court. WPA suggests that homeschoolers NOT sign the petition for several reasons, including the following:

- The major California homeschooling organizations, including those that are religiously based, have not called for signing the petition. In fact, there is concern about possible backlash if lots of people contact the court. WPA has consistently argued that homeschooling issues in a given state should be addressed by homeschoolers in that state and has opposed intervention by "outside experts."

- Because HSLDA is not a party to the case, it does not have the authority to submit the petition and signatures to the California Supreme Court.

- HSLDA has a history of inserting itself into highly visible court cases. When the cases have been decided in favor of homeschoolers, HSLDA has tended to take undue credit. Many more of the cases have led either to a decision that limits or undermines homeschooling freedoms or one that leads to legislation that regulates homeschooling strongly and unnecessarily.

Larry Kaseman,Executive Director
Wisconsin Parents Association

(The e-mail also went on to discuss problems with virtual charter schools, which WPA strongly opposes.) I thought there were some very worthwhile points made here and thought that some of my readers would find it helpful. I particularly support the important concept of dealing with state legal issues at a state level because each state has unique legal quirks and challenges that the state organizations have become very well acquainted with.

Yum! Except that I like to think of Garlic as a vegetable, not a spice.

You Are Garlic

Of all the spice types, you are the most universally loved. You get along with pretty much everyone, and you leave a lasting impression. You adapt yourself well to situations. You can fit in or stand out, depending on what you're called on to do.

What Spice Are You?

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. :)

Frankly Speaking, As Usual

Frank was helping me de-ice the front walk over the weekend. I got this wonderful new ice smasher and there was 2-3 inches of ice, so I broke the ice up into chunks and Frank picked the ice up with his shovel and threw it onto the "lawn".

Not quite sure why this caused him to share this observation...

"Mommy, now I big enough to climb Rount Mushmore!"

Because We're Longing for Spring Here

Here's some more Makem and Clancy for those who enjoyed the last one, though not so much in the way of pictures for the little ones to enjoy. This is called "Rambles of Spring"...

God's Generosity

We've been studying the eighth chapter of Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth lately. It was interesting because last Thursday's reading involved both the story of the Samaritan Woman at the Well (which was the previous Sunday's Gospel) AND the story of Jesus healing the blind man at the Pool of Siloam (which was yesterday's Gospel).

One of my favorite parts from this read, though, was from an exposition on the story of the Wedding Feast of Cana. It involved the interweaving of the reality of God's generosity as evident in the superabundance of the miracle of changing water into wine and how that is the same generosity as the sacrifice on the cross...

There is another basic element of the narrative linked to this timing. Jesus says to Mary that his hour has not yet come. On an immediate level, this means that he does not simply act and decide by his own lights, but always in harmony with the Father's will and always in terms of the Father's plan. More particularly, the "hour" designates his "glorification," which brings together his Cross, his Resurrection and his presence throughout the world in word and sacrament. Jesus' hour, the hour of his "glory," begins at the moment of the Cross, and its historical setting is the moment when the Passover lambs are slaughtered - it is just then that Jesus, the true lamb, pours out his blood. His hour comes from God, but it is solidly situated in a precise historical context tied to a liturgical date - and just so it is the beginning of the new liturgy in "spirit and truth." When at this juncture Jesus speaks to Mary of his hour, he is connecting the present moment with the mystery of the Cross interpreted as his glorification. This hour is not yet come; that was the first thing that had to be said. And yet Jesus has the power to anticipate this "hour" in a mysterious sign. This stamps the miracle of Cana as an anticipation of the hour, tying the two together intrinsically.

How could we forget that this thrilling mystery of the anticipated hour continues to occur again and again? Just as at his mother's request Jesus gives a sign that anticipates his hour, and at the same time directs our gaze toward it, so too he does the same thing ever anew in the Eucharist. Here, in response to the Church's prayer, the Lord anticipates his return; he comes already now; he celebrates the marriage feast with us here and now. In so doing, he lifts us out of our own time toward the coming "hour."

We thus begin to understand the event of Cana. The sign of God is overflowing generosity. We see it in the multiplication of the loaves; we see it again and again - most of all, though, at the center of salvation history, in the fact that he lavishly spends himself for the lowly creature, man. This abundant giving is his "glory." The superabundance of Cana is therefore a sign that God's feast with humanity, his self-giving for men, has begun. The framework of this event, the wedding, thus becomes an image that points beyond itself to the messianic hour: The hour of God's marriage feast with his people has begun in the coming of Jesus. The promise of the last days enter into the Now.

Laetare!

Today seems particularly rejoice-worthy as the temp has jumped to 55 degrees -such a delight for us cold-burdened Wisconsinites (I heard that Milwaukee officially has hit its 10th highest seasonal snowfall total ever)!!! Not seeing much in the way of non-snow-covered ground yet, but going to Mass without coats is pure delight.

Happy day. :)

Love2learn Moments

I forgot to post a link to the newest Love2learn Moments when I posted a few of them last week. There are a total of five new posts up at Love2learn Moments site.

A Whole Week?

I have no idea when the last time was that I went an entire week without posting on Studeo. It's partly that I've been better (though still not perfect by any means - I don't think that will happen here) about keeping up with our Learning Notes over at Age Quod Agis.

I'm sure it has SOMETHING to do with the fact that I'm taking a page out of Margaret's book by completely turning off the computer during the a.m. on school days.

Thanks to our tax return, we spent most of our energy today picking up some supplies for some house projects (mostly installing an attic ladder and putting in some boards so that we can actually use the space for STORAGE - yippee!) and, after fifteen years of sleeping on a mattress on the floor, we're getting a "real" bed. Happiness!

Love2learn is plugging along nicely at the new site and I have some reviews (especially the apologetics DVD Common Ground and the book Reading the Saints: Lists of Catholic Books) which may be posted there as soon as later tonight. I'm also looking forward to some artistic improvements on the new site in the near future.