In the middle of prayers tonight, he asked Ria what a soul is.
Recently he asked how Jesus went up to heaven when he didn't have wings.
What's less than zero?
How can we breathe underwater?
I'm sure there are others, but I forget quickly. Just wanted to jot some of them down.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Blue and White
Now that I'm thinking about blue and white, I took some photos here of my odd collection. Anyone else out there collect blue and white?
Friday, May 30, 2008
We saw two very strange things on our California trip...
...that we didn't have the foresight (or blog-sight, LOL) to capture on camera (but I've included some very representative video discovered on youtube - NOTE: These are NOT our videos.)...
1. Two motorcycles driving wheelies through L.A. rush hour traffic - for several minutes at a time - and across several lanes at a time. Scary!
2. A two-story Target store in Ventura that was equipped with a shopping-cart escalator.
1. Two motorcycles driving wheelies through L.A. rush hour traffic - for several minutes at a time - and across several lanes at a time. Scary!
2. A two-story Target store in Ventura that was equipped with a shopping-cart escalator.
Playing in the Sand
There's so much to blog about that I'm getting bogged down trying to go in order, so I'll just throw things out when I think of them.
Much of our time in California (thankfully) was unscheduled and we enjoyed working with the beauty of the landscape and the interests of the family in making decisions along the way.
After visiting the beautiful Carmel Mission towards the end of our visit, we decided at the last moment to drive down Highway 1 to San Luis Obispo - knowing it would be slow, mountainous and windy, but beautiful. It was absolutely breathtaking. We didn't make a lot of stops (partly because there wasn't *that* much time and partly because most of the beaches along the way were inaccessible), but a few hours into the drive, I pointed out a beach with a busy parking lot that looked promising and so we pulled over. This beach wasn't exactly accessible, but it was well-worth the stop as it was set-up for seal, sea lion, and elephant seal viewing and the beaches were filled with these funny sunbathers. I have to admit that they at first looked dead, but a few rambunctious creatures entertained us to no end (you should have seen and heard the squeals of laughter from Kate!) with scooping sand on their backs, scooching their way around the beach and doing a little wrestling with each other.
What a fantastic find! (I wish I knew where it was - I haven't been able to identify the location anywhere online.)
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Learning on the Road
One important thing to remember about learning with your children on the road is that you don't have to study up on everything ahead of time. The experience itself can certainly spark interest in further study as well. Which is why we went ahead and ordered another California Missions book and a book called Roadside Geology of Northern and Central California even after our travels. With the help of memory and photographs, we will continue to explore and study some of our favorite things for a long time to come.
While we were on the road, they really enjoyed being quizzed on what they could remember from each of the Missions we visited - particularly some distinguishing characteristics from each. I particularly remember waiting for our dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in San Jose while we went through several rounds of this "game" which I'm sure will make it easier to remember some of the details today.
I Can Hardly Believe It....
My dear friend Katrina bought me new dishes for my birthday! I happened to mention once that I'd like to replace my beige stencil-patterned (and somewhat scratched and tattered) Corelle dishes with a blue and white pattern some day. She surprised me with a gift card when I saw her in California and I just got to order these today...
Which will go beautifully with my eclectic collection of blue and white serving dishes and odds'n'end kitchen things that come from here and there - mostly rummage sales plus a bowl that John brought back from Taiwan and a little tea mug set he got in Germany. Thank you my friend!!!
Once nice thing about this pattern is that if we need extra dishes some day and we can't find the pattern any more (and this is already a "retired" pattern), they'll go quite nicely with plain white Corelle dishes as well.
Monday, May 26, 2008
You've Probably Already Guessed...
That the little girl in the previous picture is Kristen's sweet little Gianna. We spent a lovely afternoon at Mission San Juan Capistrano with the Laurences. Although this is the first time I've met Kristen "in real life" (IRL, as they say, though it took me awhile to discover what IRL means - I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes!!!), it felt like visiting with an old friend. She's a fellow TAC alum, I was friends with her brother when we were at TAC and we have many other friends in common. Kristen and I chatted about homeschooling and family life (I love talking about such things!) and she served us all a delicious dinner afterwards.
The children enjoyed exploring the ruined church. I like this shot in which Madeleine appears to beg levitating... :)
The main church was destroyed in an earthquake on December 8, 1812. My first thought after considering the sadness and horror of the church collapse in itself (another earthquake later that month destroyed the churches at Mission Santa Barbara and Mission La Purissima), was how strange it was that it collapsed on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. But I just realized that this predates the formal declaration of this title.
It was an amazingly beautiful time of year to visit the mission. The gardens were in full bloom and the weather was very mild (at least to Wisconsinites!)
I love this shot of Ria and Madeleine, who formed an immediate friendship...
My two oldest are planning a post on San Juan Capistrano over on Architecture for Kids. In the meantime, you can view more pictures from San Juan Capistrano here.
San Juan Capistrano
The next leg of our trip took us down to the San Diego area where we stayed with my brother and his family (and my kids couldn't get enough of his three month old sweetheart, Leah) and met with a number of friends, including two from the local blogosphere.
After the hustle and bustle of graduation and family reunions, I had begun to wonder if we were crazy to plan so much into our trip and if it wouldn't have been better to go home earlier. This relaxing San Diego leg proved my worries wrong and recharged us for the rest of the trip.
So, do you recognize the little girl that Kate is tearing around the Mission grounds with? :)
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Mission Inspired Play
I guess it's no surprise that every since we returned home, the kids have been attempting to make adobe.
So I'm very happy that *I* recently discovered (hat-tip to MacBeth) this great article on the importance of letting kids get dirty. :)
So I'm very happy that *I* recently discovered (hat-tip to MacBeth) this great article on the importance of letting kids get dirty. :)
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Graduation!
The spark that started our California trip was the fact that my nephew was graduation from my alma mater (and the first grandchild to graduate from college) and my mom has been working for several years on getting as much of the family together as possible for a reunion - a rare and difficult thing to accomplish as my six siblings and I are spread out over four states - only two of which are adjacent to each other (Wisconsin and Minnesota). We did pretty well, with six of seven siblings in attendance and were very creative about getting together without any of our homes as a primary focal point.
We had a lovely visit that included an engagement party for Mike and his fiance, an informal get-together in a hotel lobby, graduation itself, and Mass and brunch at TAC on Mother's Day.
The hotel lobby party was funny. John and I had picked up a few bags of food at Trader Joe's and we all enjoyed some tasty treats that aren't always available in places like Oklahoma and Wisconsin.
The front-desk attendants were very accomodating (especially since my younger brother, who had ordered a very roomy suite wasn't there yet) but asked us a few times to try to keep a little quieter as it was hard for her to talk on the phone. We tried to accomodate, but it was difficult to keep the noise level down with eight adults and eight kids in the bunch.
Feeling a bit guilty as the kids got more wound up, I came up with an idea. I had my middle four (Ria was elsewhere at the time) do some Irish dancing for everyone. The noise level immediately went down by at least half - as people were too busy dancing or watching - and we came up with a quiet hand-waving instead of clapping. The cute thing was that the front-desk attendant who had asked us several times to be quiet, enjoyed the performance so much that she clapped loudly and exclaimed that we had made her entire day.
Ah, how much happiness doth come from the desperate creativity of busy moms. :)
Happy Lawless cousins (from five different families)...
After graduation we enjoyed a brief visit with Willa Ryan and family. It was particularly nice to get Ria together with Willa's daughter for a very nice visit. I believe we'll be seeing a new face on Chesterteens soon!
Really Random Thoughts on Traveling with Children...
1. Ziploc bags are absolutely invaluable. Sandwich size for handing out munchies in the car or protecting liquid medicines and such from other things that are packed. Multi-gallon size for wet bedding, dirty laundry etc.
2. Mini-pita pockets are wonderful for sandwiches on the road. Too bad I discovered this (quite accidentally) towards the end of our trip.
3. Next time we travel via airplane, I'll pack little packets of Kleenex along with a package of gum for each of the kids. On our way out (which did have some incredibly odd seating arrangements - two window seats in front of a row of six seats across) the kids were climbing over each other and other travelers to get Kleenex over and over again.
4. Although moving to a mini-van for our travels around California (I think we chalked up 900 or more miles on the car) was louder and a bit more hectic than the spacious van we're accustomed to, we adjusted to the more cramped conditions pretty well over time and it was well-worth the savings in rent fees and gas in comparison with the 12 passenger van we had originally planned on. Oh yes, and traveling south on Highway 1 was much more comfortable in the leaner, more maneuverable Sienna. The mini-van would have been a disaster if we hadn't packed light. This took a lot of pre-trip planning, but worked out quite well. Since we were staying with relatives for all but two nights spent in hotels, we did laundry every few days.
5. I think parents develop a certain resignation over time that kids will disrupt their lives and it's okay to miss a bit of things while taking care of little ones. This, naturally, had many manifestations on our trip - from taking Frank to the restroom multiple times during Cardinal Pell's homily at TAC to rushing through Santa Inez Mission because Kate REALLY wanted to go back to the car (she had just woken up from a nap and was grump and somewhat disoriented). What I didn't expect was how much easier these little losses would be when my older kids were enjoying and appreciating these little treasures - because this time I had a much more complete sense of "It is good that we are here."
6. I'm really delighted that we didn't completely plan every day of our trip ahead of time. We had a lot of family visiting packed into the first few days with my nephew's graduation and as much Lawless family get-together time as we could. After that, there were pegs to hit on certain days at certain times in certain cities, but a lot of leeway in-between. Our "sight-seeing" plans were pretty loose, though we had lots of possible ideas gleaned from the AAA guidebooks. Since we knew there was way too much for us to do (without making ourselves miserable) we let our ideas first be whittled down quite naturally - skip the super expensive stuff and deal with the limitations of what was closed when (and this happened quite a lot - we really wanted to see the Getty Villa, but it was closed on Wednesdays, and wouldn't you know it, both days we had open in the area were Wednesdays - also, nearly everything we looked into in San Francisco was closed on Mondays - our one day in town). As it turned out, after our first Mission stop at San Juan Capistrano, the kids (led quietly and yet stubbornly by Gus) wanted to see as many Missions as they could. So much of our travels took on a bit of a pilgrimage aspect and Gus has now started a collection of photos of Stations of the Cross (link coming soon).
2. Mini-pita pockets are wonderful for sandwiches on the road. Too bad I discovered this (quite accidentally) towards the end of our trip.
3. Next time we travel via airplane, I'll pack little packets of Kleenex along with a package of gum for each of the kids. On our way out (which did have some incredibly odd seating arrangements - two window seats in front of a row of six seats across) the kids were climbing over each other and other travelers to get Kleenex over and over again.
4. Although moving to a mini-van for our travels around California (I think we chalked up 900 or more miles on the car) was louder and a bit more hectic than the spacious van we're accustomed to, we adjusted to the more cramped conditions pretty well over time and it was well-worth the savings in rent fees and gas in comparison with the 12 passenger van we had originally planned on. Oh yes, and traveling south on Highway 1 was much more comfortable in the leaner, more maneuverable Sienna. The mini-van would have been a disaster if we hadn't packed light. This took a lot of pre-trip planning, but worked out quite well. Since we were staying with relatives for all but two nights spent in hotels, we did laundry every few days.
5. I think parents develop a certain resignation over time that kids will disrupt their lives and it's okay to miss a bit of things while taking care of little ones. This, naturally, had many manifestations on our trip - from taking Frank to the restroom multiple times during Cardinal Pell's homily at TAC to rushing through Santa Inez Mission because Kate REALLY wanted to go back to the car (she had just woken up from a nap and was grump and somewhat disoriented). What I didn't expect was how much easier these little losses would be when my older kids were enjoying and appreciating these little treasures - because this time I had a much more complete sense of "It is good that we are here."
6. I'm really delighted that we didn't completely plan every day of our trip ahead of time. We had a lot of family visiting packed into the first few days with my nephew's graduation and as much Lawless family get-together time as we could. After that, there were pegs to hit on certain days at certain times in certain cities, but a lot of leeway in-between. Our "sight-seeing" plans were pretty loose, though we had lots of possible ideas gleaned from the AAA guidebooks. Since we knew there was way too much for us to do (without making ourselves miserable) we let our ideas first be whittled down quite naturally - skip the super expensive stuff and deal with the limitations of what was closed when (and this happened quite a lot - we really wanted to see the Getty Villa, but it was closed on Wednesdays, and wouldn't you know it, both days we had open in the area were Wednesdays - also, nearly everything we looked into in San Francisco was closed on Mondays - our one day in town). As it turned out, after our first Mission stop at San Juan Capistrano, the kids (led quietly and yet stubbornly by Gus) wanted to see as many Missions as they could. So much of our travels took on a bit of a pilgrimage aspect and Gus has now started a collection of photos of Stations of the Cross (link coming soon).
Friday, May 23, 2008
Bunny Love
My youngest four couldn't get enough of the bunnies at their VH cousins' house in Southern California.
Helping, California Style
This is destined to be a classic photo of Frank on his California visit (especially with the palm trees in the background). He loved flying, he loved the driving and the views, he loved playing with his cousins and he INSISTED on doing the vacuuming and watering for Aunt Jessie.
Tired but Happy
We returned home last night from a two week family excursion to California. All of John's trips to Taiwan last year (there were at least five) provided free airfare for all of us. We rented a car (an eight passenger Sienna!) and spent time with family and friends in various parts of California from San Diego to San Francisco. Lots of photos and memories to share as we have time - especially from our mini-pilgrimage through ten California Missions.
Monday, May 19, 2008
A Little Papal Celebration
When we had a party (ahem, a few weeks ago now) to celebrate our final teen catechism discussion of the year and the completion of the book Jesus of Nazareth, a young lady in our group made this incredibly beautiful papal tiara cake in honor of the festivities of the day. I like how you can see some of the group in the mirror's reflection. 
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Madrigals Concert #2
The girls put on a bonus Madrigals Concert last weekend so that some grandparents who couldn't make it to the first one could enjoy the lovely singing. My father-in-law actually recorded this one, so I should be able to post some audio soon.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
The Necessity of a Selfless Existence
I'm almost finished with Pope John Paul II's Crossing the Threshold of Hope. It's really a lovely book and has given me a much fuller understanding of Vatican II and the papacies of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Here's one particularly lovely piece in answer to a question about human rights...
Therefore, these two aspects - the affirmation of the person as a person and the sincere gift of self - not only do not exclude each other, they mutually confirm and complete each other. Man affirms himself most completely by giving of himself. This is the fulfillment of the commandment of love. This is also the full truth about man, a truth that Christ taught us by His life, and that the tradition of Christian morality, no less than the tradition of saints and of the many heroes of love of neighbor, took up and lived out in the course of history.
If we deprive human freedom of this possibility, if man does not commit himself to becoming a gift for others, then this freedom can become dangerous. It will become freedom to do what I myself consider as good, what brings me a profit or pleasure, even a sublimated pleasure. If we cannot accept the prospect of giving ourselves as a gift, then the danger of a selfish freedom will always be present.... a complete expression of all this is already found in the Gospel. For this very reason, we can find in the Gospel a consistent declaration of all human rights, even those that for various reasons can make us feel uneasy.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Oops! Broken Glass
Ria accidentally broke a glass baking dish this morning and immediately turned it into a movable work of art with the beautiful morning sunlight. More photos here.
"An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered, and an adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered." G.K. Chesterton
Monday, May 05, 2008
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Saturday, May 03, 2008
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