Latin Convention

Friends, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

Just got home from a very exciting Latin Convention. Our team of twelve homeschooled students from GMCHE (Greater Milwaukee Catholic Home Educators) were very competitive in a wide range of areas in the competition and came away with a 2nd place overall qualitative trophy. *

I love this picture of Ria giving a hug to one of her dear friends during Friday's events. Her friend's dad took the photo.

I am so proud of all their hard work and I can already see that this will motivate them to keep working hard - a motivation that is especially appreciated by these homeschooled students who are largely self-taught in Latin and related subject areas.

* Note: The convention awards two types of overall trophies to schools.

The first is a quantitative trophy which is simply the largest number of points. These are generally won by larger schools with lots of delegates. (Bigger schools send as many as 70 or more students to the convention). We were thrilled to learn that we actually placed 10th in quantitative.

The second is the qualitative trophy which is the number of total points divided by the number of students. It was in this that we took second place.

Everyone Needs a Little Validation - Especially in January!

Long, but fun.

Hat-tip Happy Catholic

Struggles on the Path of Faith

A lovely tidbit from Cardinal Ratzinger's God and the World:

Faith is always a path. As long as we live we are on the way, and on that account faith is always under pressure and under threat. And it is healthy that it can never turn into a convenient ideology. That it does not make me hardened and unable to follow the thoughts of my doubting brother and to sympathize with him. Faith can only mature by suffering anew, at every stage in life, the oppression and the power of unbelief, by admitting its reality and then finally going right through it, so that it again finds the path opening ahead for a while.

One More Wild Animal Park Picture (2004)

P0004100, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

Terri, Gus and Ria and some cousins petting a baby alligator (I think).

The Wild Animal Park - 2004 and 2008

I'm going through old pictures (especially some from 2004 because I needed some for an article I'm working on and discovered that a bunch of them had never been uploaded to Flickr) and had to share a few fun ones. I don't think I even got around to blogging our Wild Animal Park visit from last May. When we visited San Diego briefly on our California trip, we had no expectation of visiting one of our favorite places in the world - The San Diego Wild Animal Park. But while we were visiting with some lovely homeschool friends...



We overheard that the following day was free day at the Wild Animal Park.

Unbelievable.

Anyway, just for fun, here are a few favorite pictures of various kids at the Wild Animal Park from our California trips in 2004 and 2008.

2008...

Frank at the Petting Zoo...



Kate feeding the Lorikeets...




2004...

Kate laughing at the animals. (Animals still make her laugh!)



Terri and Bernie oblivious to how cute they are...

This is beautiful!

hat-tip to everyone!

A Positive Life Message for Inauguration Day

"Whoever saves one life saves the world entire." - Schindler's List

The beautiful theme for Mr. Obama's Presidential Inauguration is taken from Abraham Lincoln, "A New Birth of Freedom." Lincoln had some very compelling things to say about Freedom.

"Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us; to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

He also said: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."

The freedom to live is the most fundamental freedom, without which we could have no other freedoms. And thus a new birth of freedom in our country needs to be broad enough to include and protect the lives of the most vulnerable among us; most notably the disabled, the elderly, and the unborn.

Please join us in celebrating this year's beautiful inaugural theme in this more complete way. On Inauguration Day, January 20th, please use these images to encourage others to remember the important connections between life and freedom. Images can be used to replace profile pictures (on Facebook, (on Flickr, Twitter, etc.) or to highlight the theme on your blog via sidebar picture or background image. Please pass it along by linking back to this page.

"Sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been to me to help bring about a better state of things for mothers generally, so that their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them." - Susan B. Anthony

Read more and pick up images here.

Those Quick Takes Again

I could get used to this, if I can stick to it. :)

Read the other Quick Takes hosted by Jennifer.

1. It's cold. But I'll bet you knew that. Started at 20 below first thing this morning. John went in late (he drives an old, old beater of a car and didn't want to get stuck in the dangerous cold) after working at home for a few hours. It's all the way up to around zero now!

2. I finished re-read Friendly Gables to the kids this week. A funny thing happened that other Hilda Van Stockum fans would appreciate. We actually own two copies of Friendly Gables as Ria won an art contest with them many years ago (I think she was 7 or 8) and got to pick one free book. That was her choice. Fastforward 7 or 8 years. We've been working on our attic on and off for the last year or so. It started as just a big room with no flooring, but tons of loose insulation. Now it is completely floored and half-insulated and we've moved a bunch of stuff up there. John has sectioned off a small portion of the attic for the kids to hang out in. They have their own special entrance and of course they are reminded of "Homework" - the Mitchells' secret attic hideaway from Friendly Gables. Apparently Terri decided to store the extra copy of Friendly Gables up there many months ago just because it seemed appropriate (in spite of all the saw dust and fiberglass floating around). So, the other night, we were all searching high and low for the copy of Friendly Gables we were currently reading. We were all very amused when Terri got a "Eureka" expression on her face and proudly brought a copy of Friendly Gables back down from "Homework". (To make a long story LONG!)

3. I've been doing some pro-life research this week. One accusation against the pro-life movement I came across saddened me. Apparently some people think that when pro-lifers equate abortion with the Holocaust, that they're accusing the mothers of being like the Nazis. I think that's a serious misunderstanding. Every pro-lifer I've talked to about such things tends to consider the mother a co-victim of the abortion industry.

4. I think I'm with Twitter to stay. I'm see it as an extension of my blog, whereas Facebook is a good place to keep in touch with friends and family.

5. Changes in my family's daily routine (like re-shifting to an earlier bedtime) and schooling goals (like requiring a certain amount of reading a day) can be really tedious. But when we stick with it for a week or two we seem to be happier and more peaceful. It also seems to help to implement (or re-implement) one thing at a time.

6. I'm getting excited about studying St. Pauls' Letter to the Colossians with our teen discussion group next month. I ordered a couple of books to read up.

7. The state Latin convention is coming up soon! We're thrilled to have 12 students participating this year (up from FOUR two years ago!). It's a fun and motivating event. I'm busy gathering art supplies in my ever-present case. Ria's putting together a costume and looking for something to recite (and provide an English translation of) for the prepared oratory. Lots of other general busy-ness.

Connectedness

This is a somewhat belated post on a most pleasant, sociable evening I spent last week with some friends. We had some lovely, meaningful chit-chat. We picked up some wonderful advice, shared ideas and went away more peaceful and energized.

And it was all online.

What I attended was an online tele-conference through Homeschool Connections. Danielle Bean gave a very nice presentation on "Caring Connections: Maximizing the Benefits of Homeschool Family Relationships". Very cool talk, nice to have the accessibility of Danielle's notes right in front of us via Power Point as she was speaking and the connectedness of seeing her on video too as she spoke (although this particular feature apparently has some glitches for Mac users at the moment).

Walter, the brains behind Homeschool Connections, was a great host who kept the mood comfortable and friendly and helped tie in the interactive features of the forum as the evening proceeded. Yes, not only did we get to see and hear Danielle, but she was able to get immediate feedback from some polls that helped her focus in on certain sub-topics that were of particular interest to the participants. (There were around 15 participants in all.)

One of my favorite features was the chat forum. It was neat both because we had interaction between the participants and because Walter kept an eye on the chat forum and made sure significant questions were passed along to Danielle. I couldn't believe how fast the hour and a half flew by and my only disappointment was that they weren't yet set up for the participants to stick around and chat after the talk was over.

I highly recommend this conference format - particularly for those who aren't able to attend a local homeschool conference.

Architecture Week

Kate painting her Chrysler Building, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

Yesterday I declared it to be Architecture Week - more out of desperation than creativity - but it went over pretty well. Each of the kids picked a building (out of our rather numerous architecture books) to draw and report on to Daddy. This shot is of Kate painting her Chrysler Building. I love how it's taken on a bit of a Dr. Seuss aura.

You can see the other kids' drawings here.

Speaking of Friendly Competition

Three of my kids participated in academic competitions in the last week.

Gus and Terri took part in the Geography Bee. It's been really motivating for them to learn more geography and they had fun. Both made it into the final round by the skin of their teeth at which point Gus did very well and made it to the head-to-head championship round. After about seven tied answers (only one incorrect), his competitor pulled off a win. It was very exciting!

Ria competed in the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest and came in first place in the local competition! She'll move on to the regionals next month. If you've been following this blog for awhile, you know that poetry and memorized recitations have been some of Ria's favorite things for many years. (For which I should also credit Laura Berquist's suggestions, our long-running monthly co-op recitals and G.K. Chesterton!) They were required to have two piece of memorized poetry from an approved list and she chose Chesterton's The Donkey and Shakespeare's Sonnet XXIX. She needs to have a third poem for the regionals and has chosen Trees by Joyce Kilmer. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the competition, but am looking forward to hearing her recite at the regionals.

The Zoo in Winter

Last weekend we bought our first ever Milwaukee County Zoo Pass. We got the impression from previous random visits (hadn't been there in about four years) that the zoo was well-designed for winter as well as summer visits. We were not disappointed. Really the only downside aside from, yes it was rather chilly (about 20 degrees out), was that the signs in the outdoor viewing areas were caked with snow. We didn't know the details of what we were looking at.

But it was still pleasant to walk around and see animals like these...



...even if we didn't know *exactly* what they were called or where they were from. I could picture these as being from some place like Mongolia.

The swans were breathtaking and the ducks and geese seemed in limitless supply.



This guy cracked us up. Is this how all the herbivores became extinct?



The indoor viewing areas were fabulous. We visited the primate house (where, believe it or not, there was a bridal show going on!), the big cats house and the aviary. Incredible!!!

A penguin on timeout?



A thoughtful gorilla?



Checking out the cheetahs...



Everyone's favorite lion...

Jumping on the Bandwagon

Like a bunch of other people, I'm trying out Twitter right now.

You can blame her and her.

You can find me here. We'll see if this lasts.

7 Quick Takes Friday

I've been meaning to try this format for awhile as randomness is usually right up my alley. Here's where it originated - at Jennifer's Conversion Diary. You can find a bunch more Quick Takes at her site. But I'll bet you already knew that! :)

1. I've been thinking a bit about unfinished projects and have had the 100 Species Challenge on my mind. Though it looks like it's dropped off the face of the planet, I did a lot of the photography (at least the photography in our yard) at the end of last summer. The kids did some more, which are still floating around on the computer somewhere. I was seriously thinking that the dead of winter - January and February - when all those seed catalogs start coming in and we start dreaming about spring gardens - would be a great time to work on the identification process of the photos. Here's hoping! :)

2. Totally random things have been making me think about the good side of friendly competition of late. One is this interesting article my dad sent me weeks ago on the reading contest held annually between Karl Rove and George Bush. I loved the idea of setting up a competition as a means of motivation - even if you know you're going to lose! The idea of friendly competition has been reinforced by a fun neck-and-neck competition I've been having with Willa on a geography game on Facebook. I'm certain that I've pushed myself harder because of the competition and my kids have been very excited about the game and pushing themselves to get higher (even though only Gus is getting within range of my score). Competition definitely has its problems, but working with human nature in a friendly context isn't necessarily a bad thing! Now I just need to find someone I can have a reading competition with. I'm in a real slump right now and I know I'd probably lose (even though I'm not the leader of the free world, I'm a slower and more distracted reader than people expect), but I suspect it would be motivating for me. By the way, the National Geographic Bee (which Terri and Gus will be competing in at the local level) and other contests like it are built on this very concept. Preparing for this sort of competition motivates people to learn more. Period.

3. I finally accomplished the blog split I've been intending for some weeks over in our young people's Chesterton department. The Chesterteens have returned at long last and the Flying-Ins have a new home.

4. I'm hoping to read a lot of G.K. Chesterton and Pope Benedict XVI this year. Their writings make me happy.

5. I'm soliciting reviews of favorite Shakespeare related materials (including the plays and sonnets themselves) for Love2learn. Highlights of the bunch will be published in an upcoming Shakespeare-themed issue of mater et magistra magazine. Anyone want to give it a try?

6. I FINALLY watched Prince Caspian last night. I was the very last one in the family to do so. It was very entertaining and so very not like the book. I enjoyed it, but missed some of the more poetic and charming moments, like the hushed conversations in the Astronomy Tower.

7. It's birthday week/month in our family. Happy Birthday today to cousin Emily! Tomorrow is Bernie and Frank's joint birthday, along with their cousin Kateri. A week from tomorrow is Kate's birthday followed a few days later by her cousin Lexi's birthday. And they still have an aunt and another cousin celebrating birthdays later in the month. Party time!

Homeschooling with a Four Year Old during Winter

~ a post for a dear friend who asked :) ~

I feel a little reluctant answering this question right now just because there is the definite risk of making it sound like we've figured out how to run things really smoothly with a four year old in the midst of homeschooling. That wouldn't be an accurate summary. Each day is new and requires creativity and a lot of patience and I feel like I've got a long way to go.

Nevertheless, I do have some ideas that have been helpful for us over time and I can share those here. This is somewhat ironic, because an idea-refresher will probably be helpful to me right now!

1. Some four year olds need more time than others. My current four year old (who will be five on Saturday!) is definitely one of those. The more time I take with him, especially reading picture books or general "floor time" (link courtesy of Willa, from whom I first heard the term) the better. This is probably exactly what I need more time on at the moment, but I've been working on the picture book reading time lately and it's been helping some. Anyway, when he's had this sort of time with me, he tends to be more contented at other points of the day.

2. Think Montessori. Not so much as in all the Montessori materials, but some general concepts. First is not doing everything for them, but allowing them to do as much as they can (within reason) themselves. This "Love2learn Moment" of mine includes a wonderful quote by Maria Montessori on the concept. The second is giving them work to make them happy. Here are some examples from our own Frank when he was a newer four year old. Unfortunately he doesn't always distract himself from temper tantrums so easily.

3. Stay Home a Lot. This Autumn was difficult for Frank, I think largely because we were running around too much. Winter is looking a little calmer and I'm working on not getting so over-booked in the future.

4. Parades any time at all. Here's one old, old post about it. Our favorite "parade" CDs are the Lyrical Life Science and Lyrical Earth Science CDs. I should probably also pull out some of the Wee Sing CDs that have been rather neglected of late.

5. Limiting screen time. Nothing seems to wig out our four year old (in particular) than too much time spent in front of the computer. Movies aren't as bad, but the idea does apply to a certain extent. If we've been over-doing it in these areas for awhile, there are sometimes a few slightly ugly days of withdrawal (reduction, not cold turkey) and then things are happier.

6. Frank, in particular, loves puzzles (including some computer puzzles that I don't mind him doing - like the "drag a state" game here which he's quite good at). He loves any sort of memory game (which the other kids love too as long as it's not the Spiderman one - we have a lovely world landmarks memory game called Heritage that everyone can play together) and he loves workbooks if I can keep up with him in that regard (he cruises through anything right at his level and gets frustrated with anything above).

I think there are more things somewhere in the back of my head, but this was all I could pull out at the moment. :)

Geography addendum for Margaret (because links are much easier here than in the comments):

A good U.S. map puzzle has always been the fun beginning of geography for our littles. Frank has already mastered this one. I sit down with one or more of them and hand out states, naming them as I hand them out. They each try to put them back in the right place. That's usually the beginning point, but it has all sorts of crazy manifestations. This is definitely a picture of some of our floor time.

Online geography games have been favorites around here for years. I have a pretty good collection of links at this very old (2005!) post about preparing for the Geography Bee (it's probably my most googled post ever):

National Geography Bee Prep

We also have loads of geography board games - most picked up from rummage sales and many which innocently teach some completely out-dated facts. :)

Sometimes Good Things DO Come to Those Who Wait

Just last night (literally!) I started re-reading Cardinal Ratzinger's God and the World (it's an interview-style book on faith and spirituality that's especially helpful for those who are unclear about the idea of faith or even looking at it from the outside - this is from what I've seen so far, I've really only just started reading it - more than once!) and was wishing that I had picked up a stack of them when it was on sale last summer for $5. I thought they might make nice gifts or have to give to people I chat with who are interested in understanding more about how we can relate to God. Unfortunately, last summer I needed to be more frugal as our finances weren't in the best state and so I was pretty conservative in my purchases.

Funny thing, because I woke up this morning to discover that Ignatius Press is having another big sale and God and the World is again on sale for $5. This time around I'm getting a big stack of them. Check out the sale here.

P.S. What It Means to be a Christian by Pope Benedict XVI, which I blogged about back here, is also on sale for $5.

Resolutions

A few years ago (wow - is it three years???) I blogged about a New Year's Resolution here. I tend toward New Year's resolutions of the more intangible sort like this Age Quod Agis. One of the disadvantages, naturally, is that it's not a quantifiable thing that you can check off a list and stop working on when you're done. This is a resolution that I'm still working on and has had different manifestations over the past few years.

Last year, though I think I neglected to blog on it, my emphasis was to work on staying more engaged with my children and my family since I have a tendency to do too much zoning out. (Make no mistake - zoning out can be necessary at times!) I ended up working on this in part by getting my prayer life in a little better order. I started using the Magnificat Magazine, which includes morning and evening prayers. Though I wasn't perfectly consistent about praying with it, by any means, I like how it gave a natural order to my day and I think I made some progress on my resolution. I highly recommend this beautiful little magazine!

An interesting thing developed out of this at the end of last year. Because of the interest in the Liturgy of the Hours of a blind relative (and the lack of availability of much of it in Braille or on audio - and she doesn't get on the Internet) I decided to dive in and start doing the Liturgy of the Hours myself. I don't think I would have had the courage (gumption?) to give it a try if I hadn't eased my way in with Magnificat (which itself is a simplified version of the Liturgy of the Hours).

I absolutely love it. It's beautiful, ever new (which I think is a good personality fit for me - I'm the sort that gets bored quickly with things like exercise routines if they're always the same) and lends itself, more than Magnificat I think, for praying out loud. John and Ria and Gus really like it too and whenever said blind relative is over, we pray it together (Terri is starting to join us once in awhile too). Slowly, but slowly, we're working on Brailleing (not sure how to spell that!) the unchanging parts to help her use as much of it as she can at home and to participate with us when she's here.

We started saying it in the middle of Advent and so one of the most exciting parts (for us Catholic nerds) was to pray the "O Antiphons" in their intended context.

I'm trying to say at least one morning and one evening prayer each day, but sometimes we manage to say it as many as four parts a day (I think there are six or seven parts available in the four book set). I really love the "Office of Readings" with the second reading being from a saint or Father of the Church. Really neat and beautiful stuff! That's the first one of the day and sometimes we manage to do the "Morning Prayer" as well. "Evening Prayer" is a little hit and miss too depending on if we're running around or not, but the "Night Prayer" is short and beautiful and ... peaceful (and we can generally sneak it in just before bed).

One neat thing I'm finding is that it's giving (or starting to give - really, truly, I have a long way to go, and you'd believe it if you saw my house!) an order to my day, a peaceful, manageable order, that I was never able to achieve on my own (I'm sure this is somewhat personality-related too.) It's also neat that my kids are enjoying reading aloud parts of it - which is particularly exciting in the case of my more reluctant readers. I've noticed Gus grow in confidence in reading as he does bits and pieces from the Liturgy of the Hours.

I don't have a very specific resolution in mind this year, other than to keep working on the Age Quod Agis and the staying engaged, but there is a bit of the working-on-ordering-my-life that is becoming a theme so far and I hope to continue with. One area I'm especially working on right now (and have made some progress on in the last year, but need to keep doing more on) is prioritizing and thus reducing some of our out-of-the-house commitments. There are many other areas that need work too, believe me!

In Order to Change the World *We* Need to be Better Christians

I've been thinking about this a lot lately in the context of wanting to build a culture of life and thus change the world. I had a lovely chat the other night with a friend of mine (a recent Christendom grad) about politics and life issues and all and the conclusion of the discussion (as I understood it) was basically that if all well-meaning Catholics worked on being better Catholics and being more involved and such (with an emphasis on charity - although the general point could perhaps be better described as "engaging the culture"), we could really make a big difference. The Catholic Church's balance of faith and reason is in the perfect position to provide a bridge between the ideological (and theological) extremes present in our country. Here's a sermon (from today's Office of Readings) that seems to speak across the centuries to that point in a very hard-hitting and challenging way about the necessity of that involvement. This is from a homily on the Acts of the Apostles by Saint John Chrysostom (347-407):

There is nothing colder than a Christian who does not seek to save others.

You cannot plead poverty here; the widow putting in her two small coins will be your accuser. Peter said, Silver and gold I have not. Paul was so poor that he was often hungry and went without necessary food.

You cannot plead humble birth, for they were humbly born, of humble stock. You cannot offer the excuse of lack of education, for they were uneducated. You cannot plead ill-health, for Timothy also had poor health, with frequent illnesses.

Each one can help his neighbor, if only he is willing to do what is in his power. Look at the trees that do not bear fruit: have you not noticed how strong and fine they are, upstanding, smooth, and tall? If we had a garden, we would much prefer trees with fruit—pomegranates and olives—to trees that are for pleasure, not for utility, and any utility these have is small.

Such are those men who think only of their own concerns. In fact, they are even worse: the trees are at least useful for building or for protection, whereas the selfish are fit only for punishment. Such were those foolish virgins who were chaste, comely, and self-controlled, but did nothing for anyone. So they are consumed in the fire. Such are those men who refuse to give Christ food.

Notice that none of them is accused of personal sins. They are not accused of committing fornication or perjury or any such sin at all: only of not helping anybody else. The man who buried the talent was like this. His life was blameless, but he was of no service to others.

How can such a person be a Christian? Tell me, if yeast did not make the whole mass like itself, is it really yeast? Again, if perfume failed to pervade all around it with its fragrance, would we call it perfume?

Do not say, “It is impossible for me to influence others.” If you are a Christian, it is impossible for this not to happen. Things found in nature cannot be denied; so it is here, for it is a question of the nature of a Christian.

Do not insult God. If you say that the sun cannot shine, you have insulted Him. If you say that a Christian cannot help others, you have insulted God and called Him a liar. It is easier for the sun not to give warmth or shine than for the Christian not to shed his light. It is easier for light to be darkness than for this to happen.

Do not say then that it is impossible. The opposite is impossible. Do not insult God. If we have put our affairs in order, these things will certainly come to be and will follow as a natural consequence. The light of a Christian cannot escape notice. So bright a lamp cannot be hidden.

image from Wikipedia

The Reasonableness of the Universe

Ria surprised John and I with a beautiful book as a New Year's present. It's Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI. We actually got to open it just after midnight, in the very first moments of the new year. :)

Here's today's quote. It's awesome.

The more we know of the universe the more profoundly we are struck by a Reason whose ways we can only contemplate with astonishment. In pursuing them we can see anew that creating Intelligence to whom we owe our own reason. Albert Einstein once said that in the laws of nature "there is revealed such a superior Reason that everything significant which has arisen out of human thought and arrangement is, in comparison with it, the merest empty reflection." In what is most vast, in the world of heavenly bodies, we see revealed a powerful Reason that holds the universe together. And we are penetrating ever deeper into what is smallest, into the cell and into the primordial units of life; here, too, we discover a Reason that astounds us, such that we must say with Saint Bonaventure: "Whoever does not see here is blind. Whoever does not hear here is deaf. And whoever does not begin to adore here and to praise the creating Intelligence is dumb"... God himself shines through the reasonableness of his creation. Physics and biology, and the natural sciences in general, have given us a new and unheard-of creation account with vast new images, which let us recognize the face of the Creator and which make us realize once again that at the very beginning and foundation of all being there is a creating Intelligence. The universe is not the product of darkness and unreason. It comes from intelligence, freedom, and from the beauty that is identical with love. Seeing this gives us the courage to keep on living, and it empowers us, comforted thereby, to take upon ourselves the adventure of life.

Books I Read, 2008

This one might take awhile, but will be useful to me in various ways, even if it doesn't turn out to be interesting to anyone else. Some of these still need to be officially reviewed for Love2learn. It seems like it's been a slow year in the writing (especially reviewing) department. I also started and didn't finish quite a few books. I've read lots of picture books too, of course, just a little too difficult to keep track of. :)

Shakespeare:

King Lear
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Much Ado About Nothing

Other Literature:

Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot (3rd or 4th time I think)
Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
Beowulf (2nd time)
The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (2nd or 3rd time)

Fiction:

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall
Atticus by Ron Hansen
Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis (umpteenth time)
Arms of Love by Carmen Marcoux
Surrender by Carmen Marcoux
Healing Water by Joyce Meyer Hostetter
Blue by Joyce Meyer Hostetter
Fingal's Quest by Madeleine Polland (2nd time)
Catholic Reluctantly by Christian M. Frank
The Good Land by Loula Grace Erdman
The Wide Horizon by Loula Grace Erdman

Non-Fiction:

Crossing the Threshold of Hope by Pope John Paul II
Witness to Hope by George Weigel (abridged audio edition)
Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI
A Haystack Full of Needles by Alice Gunther
Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza
The Legacy of John Paul II: Images and Memories by Cardinal Ratzinger
A Picture Perfect Childhood by Cay Gibson
Alfred of Wessex by Frank Morris (2nd time)
Behind Enemy Lines: A Young Pilot's Story by H.R. DeMallie
Spe Salvi by Pope Benedict XVI (2nd time)
If All the Swords in England by Barbara Willard (2nd time)
What it Means to be a Christian by Pope Benedict XVI
How the Reformation Happened by Hilaire Belloc (2nd time)
Great Explorations: John Charles Fremont, Pathfinder to the West by Harold Faber

Blog Review, 2008

I saw this fun year-end meme on several other blogs and thought I'd add my own variation - a favorite quote shared on my blog from each month of the year. Here are a few of the places I've seen it: UK Bookworm Melanie Bettinelli Willa. The idea originated here.

Here are the rules: Post the first sentence of your first blog post of each month. You can also add a favorite picture from each month.

I added my own little twist by including a quote cited on my blog for each month.

January:

Kate and Frank got cute little Christmas clearance apron and chef hat sets.

We may distinguish two types of knowing: one is particular, specific, thing-centered, while the other is fundamental, deep, ultimate, person-centered. Examples of the first are the molecular structure of water, the sum of the angles of a triangle equaling 180 degrees, the location of Chile in South America and the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. Examples of the second are moral decisions, the ultimate purpose in life, the thirst of men for happiness and the quest for God.

The research-study model for the attainment of truth is effective for the first level of knowing. A proud, avaricious, lustful person can through sheer study reach an extensive knowledge of things. He can learn precious little about persons, nothing about God - nothing, that is, that transcends the mere data level of books and lectures.

Deep, ultimate, person-centered knowledge is achieved through love, genuine love. And love is achieved only through conversion from an opacity resulting from the original fall. (from Authenticity, by Fr. Thomas Dubay)

February:

Some thoughts swirling around in my head - nothing resembling a "train of thought" here, I think! ;)

It is not surprising that it should now be felt that a view, a decision, a conviction are imperatively needed. But it is plainly only in the consideration of Beowulf as a poem, with an inherent poetic significance, that any view or conviction can be reached or steadily held. For it is of their nature that the jabberwocks of historical and antiquarian research burble in the tulgy wood of conjecture, flitting from one tum-tum tree to another. Noble animals, whose burbling is on occasion good to hear; but though their eyes of flame may sometimes prove searchlights, their range is short. (Tolkien on Beowulf)

March:

I have no idea when the last time was that I went an entire week without posting on Studeo.

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)

April:

Sometimes I worry that I'm not doing enough with my little ones.

Because the Pope is a witness of Christ and a minister of the Good News, he is a man of joy and a man of hope, a man of the fundamental affirmation of the value of existence, the value of creation and of hope in the future life. Naturally, this is neither a naive joy, nor a vain hope. The joy of victory over evil does not obfuscate - it actually intensifies - the realistic awareness of the existence of evil in the world and in every man. The Gospel teaches us to call good and evil by name, but it also teaches: "Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good." (Pope John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope)

May:

Another photo by Ria.

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. (from Crossing the Threshold of Hope by Pope John Paul II)

June:

After many years of getting mostly odd comments at grocery stores about our noticeably large bunch of kids, I tend to savor the funny or overtly positive comments related to shopping trips with the gang in tow.

The only Christian work is good work done well. Let the Church see to it that the workers are Christian people and do their work well, as to God: then all the work will be Christian work, whether it is Church embroidery, or sewage-farming. As Jacques Maritain says: 'If you want to produce Christian work, be a Christian, and try to make a work of beauty into which you have put your heart; do not adopt a Christian pose.'

He is right. And let the Church remember that the beauty of the work will be judged by its own, and not by ecclesiastical standards. Let me give you an illustration of what I mean.

When my play The Zeal of Thy House was produced in London, a dear old pious lady was much struck by the beauty of the four great archangels who stood throughout the play in their heavy, gold robes, eleven feet high from wing-tip to sandal-tip. She asked with great innocence 'whether I selected the actors who played the angels for the excellence of their moral character?'

I replied that the angels were selected, to begin with, not by me but by the producer, who had the technical qualifications for selecting suitable actors - for that was part of his vocation. And that he selected, in the first place, young men who were six feet tall, so that they would match properly together. Secondly, angels had to be of good physique, so as to be able to stand stiff on the stage for two and a half hours, carrying the weight of their wings and costumes, without wobbling, or fidgeting, or fainting. Thirdly, they must be able speak verse well, in an agreeable voice and audibly. Fourthly, they must be reasonably good actors.

When all these technical conditions were fulfilled, we might come to the moral qualities, of which the first would be the ability to arrive on the stage punctually and in a sober condition, since the curtain must go up on time, and a drunken angel would indecorous. After that, and only after that, one might take character into consideration, but that - provided his behaviour was not so scandalous as to cause dissension among the company - the right kind of actor with no morals would give a far more reverent and seemly performance than a saintly actor with the wrong technical qualifications.

The worst religious films I ever saw were produced by a company which chose its staff exclusively for their piety. Bad photography, bad acting, and bad dialogue produced a result so grotesquely irreverent that the pictures could not have been shown in churches without bringing Christianity into contempt.

God is not served by technical incompetence; and incompetence and untruth always result when the secular vocation is treated as a thing alien to religion. (from Creed or Chaos by Dorothy Sayers)

July:

Ria managed to post about our California Mission visits in honor of today's feast.

"Always go forward and never turn back..." (a motto of Bl. Junipero Serra)

August:

We had way too much fun taking funny pictures today.

'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. (from Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI)

September:

A partial re-posting from April 2007 because we're praying for all those on the Gulf Coast as the horrible hurricane makes landfall...

There are two types of decision makers. Satisficers (yes, satisficers) make a decision once their criteria are met. When they find the hotel or the pasta sauce that has the qualities they want, they're satisfied. Maximizers want to make the best possible decision. Even if they see a bicycle or a backpack that meets their requirements, they can't make a decision until they've examined every option. Satisficers tend to be happier than maximizers. Maximizers expend more time and energy reaching decisions, and they're often anxious about their choices. Sometimes good enough is good enough. (Gretchen Rubin as quoted in RealSimple Magazine)

October:

It's homecoming week at a local high school, which includes spirit-oriented dress-up theme days throughout the week.

Moral strength has not grown in tandem with the development of science; on the contrary, it has diminished, because the technological mentality confines morality to the subjective sphere. Our need, however, is for a public morality, a morality capable of responding to the threats that impose such a burden on the existence of us all. The true and gravest danger of the present moment is precisely this imbalance between technological possibilities and moral energy. The security we all need as a presupposition of our freedom and dignity cannot ultimately be derived from technical systems of control. It can come only from the moral strength of man, and where this is lacking or insufficient, the power man has will be transformed more and more into a power of destruction. (from Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures by Pope Benedict XVI)

November:

I'm a little behind on these as I've had incredibly packed days lately.

"Go, make disciples of all nations" was the last command Jesus gave to us before returning to His Father. It's a big one. How can simple people like us convert the world? That brings us back to Mary, and to the apostles at Pentecost. They changed the world by letting God change them and work through them. We don't need to be afraid. We need to be confident in the promise made by Christ Himself: "I am with you always, to the close of the age."

Don't be afraid of the world. The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley once sneered that "I could believe in Christ if He did not drag along behind Him that leprous bride of His, the Church." Yet Shelley is long dead, and the Church is still here, still alive and young, still bringing life to the world. Don't be afraid of the world. The Holy Spirit is on your side. Charles Spurgeon once said, "The way you defend the Bible is the same way you defend a lion. You just let it loose." (from Living the Catholic Faith by Archbishop Chaput)

December:

I'll probably have to re-read this book before I can give what I would consider an adequate review.

...his first reaction was always gratitude. He accustomed himself, in everything that happened in his life, always first and foremost to praise and to give thanks, even before he knows what it is, in fact, that he has received, even before he accepts what he receives, looks at it, and gives it shape. (from Book of All Saints by Adrienne Von Speyr - chapter on St. Francis of Assisi)