A Picture is Worth...

DSC_6892, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

a thousand words. Especially since tendonitis is keeping my quantity of typing down a bit. I took this shot of Kate at Old World Wisconsin on Thursday.

Frank's Philosophy of Life

All foods are either "tasty" or "sweet". Sweet foods (which include such divergent selections as fried rice or macaroni and cheese) are not be consumed at night because they'll keep him awake. He did explain once that macaroni and cheese had too much sugar in it to be eaten before bedtime. Tasty foods, on the other hand, are quite safe before bedtime and, in fact, help him to go to sleep. These include things like salt and pepper potato chips and a wide variety of other foods that I can't recall at the moment.

Use Hyperbole wherever possible as in the following example:

"She's the naughtiest girl in the WORLD!"

Be optimistic:

"It's a really good thing I didn't drop my OTHER chopstick on the floor too!" (Overheard at a Chinese restaurant last night)

Liturgy of the Hours Bleg

Does anyone know where I could find the Liturgy of the Hours on audio (for a blind relative)?

Olympic Math

I love how my children are trying to figure out how old they'll be at future Olympics. "After two summer Olympics I'll be eighteen!" and things like that are being heard a lot around here... and probably in many homes. It makes me smile to think of these traditions being both handed on from parent to child and being shared by many all over the place at one time.

And yet, I'm also ready to get my evenings and reasonable bed-times back.

Kate chats about Narnia

"Why it goes with the last disc of Magician's Nephew was because Digory planted a tree near his home and Peter, Edmund and Susan and Lucy are living in his home and the tree grew into tons of different trees and the witch got into it and she made it winter and there was animals in it and it turned into the place that Aslan invented - Narnia. It started all black, then Aslan invented it. And the animals are talking animals."

Before and After (16 Years)

-Before:


Kind of a funny blurry picture taken when we weren't quite ready (thanks Nick!), but a special spot in the courtyard of Mission San Buenaventura in Ventura, California. This was taken in 1991, about 9 months before we were married.

After:


San Buenaventura Mission in May. :)

Happy Anniversary Dear. (One day late).

Prayer Request

Please pray for members of the Franciscan University of Steubenville cross-country team who were involved in a bus crash today. One person has died and six are injured.

Article

Update on Blogger Warning

One of my friends pointed out that only blog administrators can make changes to the layout of a blog (and thus access the currently problematic area). If you are the only blog administrator for your child's blog and simply allow them to be contributors, you can side-step the problem.

Also, it occurred to me that some Internet filters would likely blog the problematic photos. We don't use a filter here (except the heavily involved parental kind and sharing one computer in a busy area of the house kind).

The Bees Knees

The Bees Knees, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

I read Lissa's post about the 100 Species Challenge and thought it sounded interesting, but knew I didn't usually manage to get around to such things and left it alone... until I started chasing bees around in our back garden yesterday with a camera. It was fascinating to see their pollen sacs on their legs filled up (and brightly colored!) and I just had to get a few shots.

Then I realized how much fun it would be to try to capture some more plants on film - and I was hooked. :)

Blame it on the bee.

Ah yes, and by the way, it's a cone flower that the bee is so interested in.

100 Species Challenge - Throwing My Hat In

I'm going to try out this 100 Species Challenge that I read about in the Bonny Glen (click on image for other participants, courtesy of Lissa).

To start with, I'm posting my pictures in this Flickr set where we'll start to identify them and post them in bunches on this blog eventually.

And finally, here's the description of the challenge. Let me know if you're participating (you know, this isn't restricted to Catholic homeschool families in Wisconsin, or anything like that). :)

1. Participants should include a copy of these rules and a link to this entry in their initial blog post about the challenge. I will make a sidebar list of anyone who notifies me that they are participating in the Challenge.

2. Participants should keep a list of all plant species they can name, either by common or scientific name, that are living within walking distance of the participant’s home. The list should be numbered, and should appear in every blog entry about the challenge, or in a sidebar.

3. Participants are encouraged to give detailed information about the plants they can name in the first post in which that plant appears. My format will be as follows: the numbered list, with plants making their first appearance on the list in bold; each plant making its first appearance will then have a photograph taken by me, where possible, a list of information I already knew about the plant, and a list of information I learned subsequent to starting this challenge, and a list of information I’d like to know. (See below for an example.) This format is not obligatory, however, and participants can adapt this portion of the challenge to their needs and desires.

4. Participants are encouraged to make it possible for visitors to their blog to find easily all 100-Species-Challenge blog posts. This can be done either by tagging these posts, by ending every post on the challenge with a link to your previous post on the challenge, or by some method which surpasses my technological ability and creativity.

5. Participants may post pictures of plants they are unable to identify, or are unable to identify with precision. They should not include these plants in the numbered list until they are able to identify it with relative precision. Each participant shall determine the level of precision that is acceptable to her; however, being able to distinguish between plants that have different common names should be a bare minimum.

6. Different varieties of the same species shall not count as different entries (e.g., Celebrity Tomato and Roma Tomato should not be separate entries); however, different species which share a common name be separate if the participant is able to distinguish between them (e.g., camillia japonica and camillia sassanqua if the participant can distinguish the two–”camillia” if not).

7. Participants may take as long as they like to complete the challenge. You can make it as quick or as detailed a project as you like. I’m planning to blog a minimum of two plants per week, complete with pictures and descriptions as below, which could take me up to a year. But you can do it in whatever level of detail you like.

Warning for Parents of Young Bloggers

Blogger has expanded their layout section to offer many, many more side-bar options than they used to. However, if you click on "add a gadget" on the layout page and go beyond their initial list, the hundreds of pages of offerings include some pretty offensive stuff (even as far as the racy photos go) because they include user-submitted sidebar gadgets.

I imagine that this is something they will start screening (when they become aware of it?). Ugh - I can't figure out where to register a complaint with Blogger. These do seem to violate their own policies.

A Healthy Dose of Frank

Frank just walked in and showed me a baby carrot he was about to eat and explained, "I didn't ask for this one. You know why? Remember, I put some carrots in the fridge tomorrow and it's one of those."

Other recent stories:

From Ria: Apparently Frank gets frustrated when people interrupt him (who wouldn't?) and complains that they're "breaking the story."

Frank was talking with Ria and Gus about his bed. He said he'd sleep in his bed forever and ever. Ria asked him what he'd do when he went to college. He said, as if they ought to have known better, "You don't sleep in college!"

Frankly Speaking: Weather Edition

Yesterday, Ria and Gus and I were watching an apologetics DVD with some friends when Frank happened to walk through. Someone on the DVD was talking figuratively about the breath of God (I don't remember the exact context).

Frank looked up and casually remarked:

"When God breathes, it's a windy day."

By Special Request...

Here is the old blog header photo. Maybe if I can find some of the older ones, I'll add them to this post later.

Parking Spot

parking spot, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

Frank's "new" bicycle lacks a kickstand, so today he proudly showed me how he came up with a creative alternate solution.

By the way, today while I was cleaning the garage, he complained, "Mommmy! You didn't say thank you for not crashing in to you!"

New Blog Header

Yesterday, I decided it was time to come up with a new, sleeker (as in, doesn't-take-up-most-of-your-computer-screen) photo for the blog and quickly realized that I had nothing quite right available. So I dragged the kids away from their Olympic viewing yesterday afternoon and into the yard. No changes of clothes or brushing hair or anything - just see what happens. We had lots of fun (and I took LOTS of photos and tried all sorts of different shots) and I finally had an idea that I thought might work. I sent them all in the house to get a book they really liked. Here's what they found....


But most of the kids were eager to get back to the Olympics so I finally let them go. But Frank was so wrapped up in his book (one of the amazingly colorful Ruth Heller World of Language Series) that he wanted to stay for more. And Ria stayed with him. Which is how this more impromptu shot happened (I love having a shot with the other kids running back to the house in the background)...


and the one that made the top of the blog, of course. :)

Paperwork, blech!

Paperwork, especially the variety that involves tediously sending in receipts with just the right EOB and a specially printed form from the website on a regular basis, is the bane of my existence. A paperless society? Sounds awfully tempting.

With our months of extra busy-ness from May through July this year, I really dug myself into a hole. In fact, I was behind and disorganized before I even got to May partly because we've been storing our big filing cabinets on opposite ends of the basement. Big mistake. I had started small file boxes here and there and a smaller cabinet upstairs, but things were a mess. Two weeks ago I dove into doing some reorganizing, because I've realized over time that when my to-do list is really overwhelming, it usually pays not to start there (except for urgent stuff of course!) but to start by organizing and then the other things fall into place.

A few things helped with the organizing. First, we exchanged the new mattress we purchased in the spring (we were having problems with it already and they have a great exchange policy within 90 days) for a smaller one. Then, because I picked up a bunch of decorating and home-organizing books at the library book sale back in April (a little browing really pays off at times) I got the idea that it would be interesting to pull the bookshelf next to our bed out by one corner so that it left some open space behind it - separating a little corner of the room from the rest (perhaps we'll put a reading chair in there some day) and - wow - also making room for the two tall filing cabinets just behind the bookcase (these wouldn't have fit if we had kept the larger sized mattress).

So now, with extremely accessible filing cabinets (which though they're a bit beat-up having been purchased at the annual used furniture auction at John's workplace - it's a good thing they're hidden behind the bookcase!) I was able to get rid of most of those little filing boxes and reorganize lots of paperwork AND get rid of a bunch of out-dated stuff. What a huge relief!

Now I was finally ready to tackle the actual paperwork - especially that ugly medical stuff. Unfortunately, by that point, we actually managed to have both our medical insurance card (which includes a medical savings account) and our regular medical savings account card (this one is also usable for vision and dental and such) suspended. Argh!

This was still a pretty intimidating prospect to tackle but finally, as of last night both cards are back in use (or will be as soon as the fax is received) and the work itself was a lot easier than before. Now I have one file drawer near the computer with all the medical stuff (I have individual files for pre2007 stuff in each category, 2007 in each category and 2008 in each category). It's still a pretty hairy job, but at least a somewhat manageable hairy job at long last.

Gymnastics Excitement

Well, all of the kids used a late-night to stay up for last night's men's gymnastics team final. I'm quite certain that it was my Olympic sight thus far to see how hard they each worked, how they cheered each other on, how well the final U.S. gymnast (sorry, can't remember his name, but I remember that he's the son of Russian Olympic gymnast) did on the pommel horse despite enormous pressure and how happily and cheerfully they celebrated their bronze medal. They were awesome and they really did us proud, even without everyone's favorite Wisconsin-grown twin gymnasts.

Olympic Connections

We love watching the Olympics, but we do try to keep the viewing time reasonable so that we don't have cranky kids who haven't gotten enough sleep. We've set up a deal with the kids that they can stay up late (until 10 pm) for only a certain number of nights (which varies according to age - it's a good thing to have privileges for those who are older and have more responsibilities). We also have some little bonuses that they can earn on top of that (up to an extra half hour each night).

Tonight was the first night of our plan (though we did something similar four years ago). Eight-year-old Bernie decided to stay up because she loves watching the swimming. It's a good thing she earned that extra half-hour too, because she really wanted to see Michael Phelps swim, and it was going to be half hour past her allotted late night time.

She wasn't disappointed.

She just went to bed with a huge smile on her face after enjoying the U.S. surprise victory in the men's 4 x 100 freestyle relay. Wooooohoooo!!!!

I think I'm gonna really enjoy having this special time with one or two kids at a shot.

The Feast of the Transfiguration

I have to admit that I never really "got" the Feast of the Transfiguration until well into my adult years. In fact, it was really only after reading Pope Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth that I began to have a sense of the beauty of the Gospel event and the feast that we celebrate.

(As an aside, I remember that while teaching in a small Catholic school when I was first married, the 7th and 8th grade religion teacher - it was a very small school, so grades were combined - assigned the students to write a paper on the Transfiguration and I thought - *I* couldn't do that!)

Anyway, Pope Benedict's book is beautiful and I love understanding some of the symbolism and connectedness (both to the Old Testament and to other events in Jesus' life) of the Gospel. Here are a few things the Pope shares about the feast:

1. It's important to see it in connection with Peter's Confession - "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." This event takes place about a week before the Transfiguration and there is some speculation that it actually took place on the Jewish Feast of Atonement (Yom Kippur):

This would mean that Peter's confession fell on the great Day of Atonement and should be interpreted theologically against the backdrop of this feast, on which, for the one time in the year, the high priest solemnly pronounced the name YHWH in the Temple's Holy of Holies.

(How cool is that?)

There are two different theories regarding the time at which the Transfiguration took place - both of which placed it during the Feast of Tabernacles (either at the beginning - which would fit with Peter's Confession being on the Feast of Atonement - or at the end, which would place the Confession at the beginning of the Feast - the Feast of Tabernacles lasts an entire week).

The Pope argues that the Transfiguration was the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles - which itself was a Feast of hope and expectation:

'The manifestation of the glory of Jesus,' to quote Danielou, 'appears to Peter to be the sign that the times of the Messiah have arrived. And one of the qualities of these messianic times was to be the dwelling of the just in the tents signified by the huts of the Feast of Tabernacles'... By experiencing the Transfiguration during the Feast of Tabernacles, Peter, in his ecstasy, was able to recognize 'that the realities prefigured by the Feast were accomplished... the scene of the Transfiguration marks the fact that the messianic times have come'. It is only as they go down from the mountain that Peter has to learn once again that the messianic age is first and foremost the age of the Cross and that the Transfiguration - the experience of becoming light from and with the Lord - requires us to be burned by the light of the Passion and so transformed.

There of course are other significances to the story, such as this:

The Transfiguration is a prayer event; it displays visibly what happens when Jesus talks with his Father: the profound interpenetration of his being with God, which then becomes pure light. In his oneness with the Father, Jesus is himself "light from light." The reality that he is in the deepest core of his being, which Peter tried to express in his confession - that reality becomes perceptible to the senses at this moment" Jesus' being in the light of God, his own being-light as Son.

Ah, but this is only a light scratch of the surface of the Pope's writings on this topic. You'll have to read the book to see more - especially in the given context of Peter's Confession.

The Long-Overdue Meme

Since I've been tagged by both Ana and Jeff over the last few months (?) I thought maybe I shoud try this one, the problem is narrowing it down to just six. :) I guess they aren't *exactly* the same meme (one specifies "unspectacular quirks"), but I'll just let you decide whether they're spectacular or unspectacular.

1. I'm really pretty bad at small talk, but I love interesting conversations (one on one or in large groups). I'm a bit socially awkward in general, but lest you think this is due to my homeschooled upbringing, I'm quite certain that I became much more outgoing during my homeschooled high school years than I was in Catholic grade school. In grade school I generally befriended the least popular people in the class. They were easy to be friends with and I absolutely detested cliques (even though I didn't really know what they were at that time - it's just in my personality). With homeschooling - especially having so few homeschooled high schoolers at that time - you were basically friends with everyone.

2. People think I'm a fast reader, but I'm really not - especially since I often have trouble focusing. Also, the bigger the stack of books that I feel I have to read, the slower I seem to go. Along the same lines, when I have too much to blog about, I often find myself unable to blog.

3. It's very, very easy for me to get addicted to a new game on the computer. For a long time I had absolutely no games whatsoever on my computer. I think that helped. I haven't gone through a streak of mindlessly playing computer games for a long time and currently I do have some games on my computer.

4. I start a lot of books I don't finish (mostly non-fiction ones - I often feel like I've gotten the gist of the idea about half-way through and skim the rest). I never read just one book at a time.

5. Since we got our new camera a few months ago (a digital SLR) I've been seeing things in terms of photography a lot more than I used to. I've also been noticing light a lot more. I've always loved photos.

6. I absolutely detest imposing on people - to a fault. This makes me act rather stupidly at times. I'm often worried about imposing on people by calling them on the phone. I have a hard time inviting people to work on projects with me for the same reason. I've never liked hosting any of those parties where people are supposed to buy things (though I never really mind being invite). Ihate tagging people for memes, though I don't mind being tagged myself. So you're on your own - let me know if you decide to play along.

Sunday Musings

Especially since I'm in the midst of beginning to plan for the upcoming school year (as well as attempting to catch up on lots of paperwork and such left over from our overly busy late spring and summer), I've realized that I've got to take my Sundays a little more "seriously". It's SO tempting to continue working on organization projects (especially since our Saturday was filled with helping out at my sister-in-law's clothing distribution center and the aforementioned baby shower). Today I was good. Instead of working on things, I finished reading a novel (Atticus by Ron Hansen - thanks for the recommendation Ana, I really liked it!), took a nap (while John took the kids fishing) and went to a movie with John.

I have to say that Mass at Holy Hill was particularly nice today with a new priest I was unfamiliar with. Though the music of the liturgy was particularly weak, the priest was particularly reverent, an engaging homilist and had a lovely singing voice that added a lot to those certain parts of the Mass.

Atticus is a gripping mystery that is beautifully written and filled with interesting, real and well-developed characters. It's definitely a mature novel (though not as coarse as, say, The Grapes of Wrath) and even had a certain morbidity to it, but the setting and the main character kept things from dragging down too low.

WALL-E was very entertaining, though it had me wondering for the first fifteen or twenty minutes if it was just going to be an over-the-top agenda-driven story. Not so. It's creative and well put-together and ends up being a little bit of G-rated Brave New World (at least as much as I remember Brave New World from reading it over 20 years ago) in a nicely uncynical and non-excessive way. One suggestion - don't leave the theater just because the closing credits start rolling. About half the people in the theater with us left too soon and really missed out on some enchanting and rather essential scenes.

I really do feel more ready for a busy week with a long to-do list after keeping my Sunday better.

All in All, It's Been a Pretty Exciting Weekend Around Here

Frank learned how to ride a two-wheeler without training wheels. This was... ahem... forced on him just a bit as the training wheels on his new bicycle (purchased at a rummage sale two weeks ago) absolutely refused to stay pointed in the right direction.

The girls and I went to a baby shower for a cousin yesterday. I'm very pleased that I was able to drive our huge van through downtown Milwaukee without a glitch (this is a big step for me!), but definitely the most exciting and memorable aspect of the baby shower was that the mom-to-be, despite being four weeks before her due date, had her water break right during the party and was the first to leave (for the hospital). We're still awaiting news about the new baby.

Apparently 10 percent of labors begin with the water breaking. I had that happen with Ria and it was 24 hours later that she was born.

UPDATE: Baby Aniela (Polish version of Angela) was born before this post was even written - in fact, at 4:00 this morning. Even though she was nearly 5 weeks early, she weighed in at a healthy 6+ pounds, though her lungs are somewhat underdeveloped so I imagine she'll be spending some extra time in the hospital. Prayers are, of course, appreciated.

Jump 3

DSC_6168, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

Jump 2

DSC_6164, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

Jump!

DSC_6157, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

We had way too much fun taking funny pictures today. No photoshopping here!