Seven Quick Takes

1.

Today is the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Which reminds me of how grateful I am for some great Jesuit priests who have been major influences on me and my family, especially: Fr. Fessio, Fr. Geary, Fr. Steckler and Fr. Healy.

2.

It's been an interesting week at our parish. Last Sunday our pastor invited anyone who was interested to join him for the Liturgy of the Hours each weekday morning. The turnout has been great and some of us (at least) made it several days this week. This morning we had a full contingent, including John. It's been lovely to pray morning prayer and then have some time to hang out with the kids at the playground before heading back into Church for Mass.

We now know that it's not worth trying to bring the littlest out so early when we've also been out late dancing the night before! (Thank goodness for a certain teenage brother who is willing to stay home with the littles and get some extra sleep too!)

3.

What is it with the power of anger that makes me lose my marbles on occasion? Earlier this week one of my middle daughters managed to spill bleach over a tub of clean laundry. Somehow the more hot-headed part of my brain seems to think that if I can somehow discover WHY she was messing around with the bleach, that will somehow fix the problem. Or perhaps it was just particularly frustrating that she had no special reason that she was using the bleach, but had just decided to show the bleach to her younger sister. Sigh.

4.

In trying to cut corners in our budget, we canceled our Netflix account a few months ago. The loss to our educational plans and habits, and the fact that the Netflix charges weren't really enough to make-or-break the budget, caused us to reinstate our account this week. I'm happy we did. Ria has a project she's working on which will be greatly assisted by the rental of numerous titles not readily available from the local libraries. And because I'm exercising in front of movies, I've been enjoying a few new/old titles myself.

I finally saw On the Waterfront (Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, 1954) and it was every bit as good as I've heard. Definitely too heavy for the younger set. It's gripping drama about corrupt unions controlling work at the docks in New Jersey.

Last night Ria, Terri and I got wrapped up in Mrs. Miniver (Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, 1942). It's a well-written and very engaging movie, but I forgot how heavy handed it got in places. And so while it presents a lovely and engaging picture of British life and challenges at that time, I couldn't help but notice the parts that are designed to tweak the emotions to get people to support the war. The church scene at the end, in particular, was a bit over the top.

As a family, we also enjoyed From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, despite the fact that it deviated from the book in numerous ways.

5.

It seems to be a summer of lots of hellos and goodbyes. Two families from our local group are moving away and one family who lived nearby many years ago (the mom is a TAC grad and the dad is a U.D. grad) are moving into the area - and will be our house guests soon (Please say a prayer that they're house purchase goes through smoothly.)! We're looking forward to that, but not to saying goodbye to my nephew Charlie who's heading off to Christendom in just a few more weeks.

6.

This week I read the first two volumes in a Catholic fantasy/adventure series by T.J. Smith. The titles are A World Away and The Harrowing Escape. My daughter laughed at me when I described them as both gripping and tedious. They're pretty well-written on the whole except that the author goes into excruciating detail at times about insignificant things and doesn't seem to use quite enough adjectives.

It may be the influence of Lissa's posts about ComicCon or following fellow TAC Alum Matt Lickon's intriguing Alphonse project, (and it's definitely, in part, because the author loves a good cliffhanger) but I think these would make a fantastic Catholic comics series.

In any case, I'm looking forward to reading subsequent volumes. By the way, they're a bit harrowing and violent in places. Probably best for older teens and adults.

7.

And, especially for Margaret, here's a photo of the gang I had following me through the grocery store on the way to a costume dance this week (I wish, I wish, I wish I had taken the camera into the store)...


That would be, from left-to-right, my son the mad scientist, my niece wearing my dress from college days, my nephew doing an Old West/modern tennis shoes mix, my daughter as a very cute old-fashioned teacher/librarian, a friend doing something Jane Austenish, her sister doing something Renaissanceish and my daughter as Luthien from Lord of the Rings. It's a good thing that the Civil War era costume theme wasn't strictly enforced. :)

In Costume

sepia2, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

This is a group shot from a costume dance the older three enjoyed last night. I think it's perfect with the sepia. :)

Funny moment of the day. I drove my kids plus two of their cousins and two friends to the dance. We had to stop by a grocery store to pick up a jug of water. Just for fun, they all followed me in and around the store. It was somewhat surreal and we got lots of interesting looks and comments.

7 Quick Takes Friday

1.

I really need to write more about Pope Benedict's book on St. Paul when I get a chance (I did share a few highlights here). We've been discussing this book with our teen catechism group throughout the summer and it's just amazing (especially after having read a number of St. Paul's letters during the year). The group has really been enjoying it and I really appreciate the clarity he brings to a number of issues - particularly on the very strong theme of charity that runs throughout the book. We have five chapters left out of twenty. You can also read the entire thing online here: General Audiences of Pope Benedict XVI (look for his audiences on St. Paul dating from July 2, 2008 - February 4, 2009).

2.

Garden Success!

I officially declare this year our first successful gardening year, although this is my favorite picture of our garden projects (taken about a week ago):



It reminds me of Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree.

We've had a lot of garden fails, including one year where we planted lots of seedlings and got nothing in the ground and one year where our entire crop of tomatoes was eaten by deer.

For those who might be interested, you can see more pictures of our garden here on our Flickr account.

I am very grateful to the book Square Foot Gardening (it's worth getting the new one - much easier than the old one we originally checked out from the library) even though our gardens don't technically qualify as Square Foot Gardens since we never built the little grids that the author INSISTS are essential. :) Particularly helpful were their suggestions to plant close to the house so that the gardens are very accessible for weeding, watering, etc.

We're still enjoying our salad tables as well, though they're waning just a bit at the moment.

3.

We've got a number of activities that we're helping organize this summer and are really pleased with the response so far. We've actually got a local park day going on a weekly basis, which has been a great place to connect, particularly with newer homeschool families. I started a weekly Latin "Study Group" that runs through August (we've met twice so far in this "session") and I think that's turning out pretty well. We do some Latin songs (both fun songs and sacred music) and prayers, have a few handouts with word lists, basic timelines and such and play lots of games. We have a Latin Bingo game, a Greek and Roman art & architecture memory game and a few sources for Certamen (a game show for all things Latin related) questions.

4.

Speaking of Latin, a friend of ours is involved with developing some very interesting (and free) web tools for studying Latin and Greek. They're live online now, though still in progress, and would appreciate feedback, particularly from teachers of Latin and Greek. You can find the project here:

http://alpheios.net/

Alpheios is designed to work with Firefox.

5.

We also have a weekly ballroom dance "gig" going for families in our homeschool group through the end of the summer. We've met twice for that so far and have had, I think 50-75 people for each session. Here's a shot from last week's Virginia Reel:


And this is the promenade (we went outside for awhile because the air conditioner wasn't working):


As you can see, the dances are pretty informal and include a wide variety of ages. There isn't a dress code per se, though some of the kids like to dress up and most of the girls like to dance in skirts.

6.

I am still doing the Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred and I think I'm on day 27? It's going pretty well so far. I've lost a few pounds, but noticed a big difference in energy and focus. Definitely planning on sticking to it beyond day 30 - it seems to be a good "fit".

7.

My long neglected Reading Your Way Through History blog is finally getting a little TLC of late. I expect to stay more involved with it - at least for awhile - since the next issue of mater et magistra magazine has a history theme. Should be a good opportunity to dive back into one of my very favorite projects for awhile.

Strawberries

DSC_8544, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

This was our strawberry harvest from a few days ago.

Heavy Reading

I'm almost done with my second child psychology/parenting type book of the summer. They're both informational books designed for the masses, so they're relatively quick reads, but heavy nonetheless. Also scary in places, though helpful in many ways. I found them both to be quite worthwhile reads on the whole and hope to write up thorough reviews on Love2learn in the near future.

Incidentally, neither mentions homeschooling a bit, though they may end up providing a morale boost to homeschool parents both because they provide pretty broad coverage of some of the things schools struggle with and because they highlight some things children need (like time spent experiencing the world outside and plenty of time out-of-the-desk for younger children) that are easy and natural to accomplish at home. Both come from completely secular viewpoints.

Here are the titles:

Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men by Leonard Sax

This book focuses on the problems - particularly in motivation - prevalent among teenage boys and young men today (especially as contrasted with 30 or 40 years ago). The author, a medical doctor AND psychologist, highlights five likely causes of the problem (changes within the school system, video games, ADHD medications, environmental factors and cultural problems (especially the lack of role models). To be fair, this list over-simplifies factors that he treats in a pretty balanced way. For example, he doesn't insist that video games should be entirely avoided, but advocates reasonable time limits parental screening of individual games to avoid dangerously violent and inappropriate ones.

I did find the book alarming in a number of places, partly because his tone is a bit sensational in places (although there are probably many people who could use such a wake-up call). Keeping the skeptometer in tune while reading the book is a good idea, but there's really a lot of helpful stuff to dig through here.

and

NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

This book focuses on a number of issues relating to parenting and education in which science shows us a different view from current cultural assumptions. As someone who's a convention breaker both by circumstances and personality, I found this book, for the most part, quite delightful. While the previous book is based on one doctor's experiences and interactions, but with a lot of scientific data for back-up, this book is a denser conglomeration of scientific studies on different topics which the authors have gotten heavily involved in. I loved how often they had actually sat down and observed studies conducted by experts in various micro-fields of child behavior while still sharing interesting stories about how their new-found knowledge had impacted their own families. Lots of cool stuff!

Like the previous book, however, there were certainly a few things here and there that bothered me or set off my skeptometer (not so much regarding the scientific data as the commentary surrounding it). Also, younger moms who tend towards the paranoid might want to discuss the details with friends and family enough to help them avoid over-analyzing their own methods. The book isn't about some sort of perfectionist parenting technique, but more about eliminating (or at least casting some doubt upon) ideas that tend to be counterproductive.

Another Dance I'd Like to Re-Learn

This is another one we used to dance at TAC, called "Road to the Isles".

I love the dichotomy of Asian language and Irish (or is it Scottish?) dance!

Quote of the Day: Science/Technology and Human Development

Cross-posted from Unity of Truth

Yes, we humans have a tendency to go to extremes. Here's a reminder from the Holy Father of where to find the balance (or at least not find the balance!) with regard to the uses of science and technology to benefit mankind...

Technology, viewed in itself, is ambivalent. If on the one hand, some today would be inclined to entrust the entire process of development to technology, on the other hand we are witnessing an upsurge of ideologies that deny in toto the veryvalue of development, viewing it as radically anti-human and merely a source of degradation. This leads to a rejection, not only of the distorted and unjust way in which progress is sometimes directed, but also of scientific discoveries themselves, which, if well used, could serve as an opportunity of growth for all. The idea of a world without development indicates a lack of trust in man and in God. It is therefore a serious mistake to undervalue human capacity to exercise control over the deviations of development or to overlook the fact that man is constitutionally oriented towards "being more". Idealizing technical progress, or contemplating the utopia of a return to humanity's original natural state, are two contrasting ways of detaching progress from its moral evaluation and hence from our responsibility. (Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate)

Frankly Speaking: Couch Potato Edition

I was talking with Frank this afternoon about how food and exercise give you energy and make you strong. So I asked him what would happen if you sat around and watched T.V. all the time and only ate ice cream and soda. He answered:

"You'd get a terrible cold."

The Weird World of Facebook

My husband and I have been trying to re-learn the Landler - that Austrian Folk Dance made famous in the Sound of Music - which we danced for the first dance at our wedding. We decided to turn to YouTube to see if we could get a little help. We found one sample online that we particularly liked and I thought I'd throw it on my Facebook account because it was an easy place to save it so we could watch it again later and maybe share it with the teens in our homeschool group who were interested in learning it. So I posted it with a brief word of explanation:

"No, we don't know these people. Just interested in trying to remember the dance."

The joke was on me.

One of my Facebook friends alerted me to the fact that it is from the wedding of a college classmate. My only excuse for not picking up on it is that, not only was I not at the wedding, but the three friends of mine involved in the dance (the groom and two of his groomsmen) were wearing hats, which makes them a lot harder to pick out in the video.

Here's the video:

Today I'm Remembering...

My niece, Claire, who would have been 25 years old today.

And Joshua Michael Schmiedicke who died three years ago today.

7 Quick Takes

1.

One of the problems with being on Twitter and Facebook is that my little tidbits that I want to save and share get slightly discombobulated. And so I was very surprised to discover this morning that I hadn't mentioned here that our whole family went to see UP and really, really enjoyed it (I think we even laughed louder than the other people in the theater - but it was surprisingly uncrowded when we went - and we're a pretty big, loud bunch sometimes!).

I used the movie plans as an incentive to get some things finished up for the school year and we had a really exceptional two weeks of concerted efforts beforehand - which is an entirely fair thing because it does cost a small fortune to bring eight people to a movie!

Yes, UP is as good as everyone's been saying - perhaps even better.

2.

And speaking of kiddos, they're all home now and still sleeping as a matter of fact. Everyone did great at the Schoenstatt Catholic summer camp and even Ria, who was counseling, had an even more enjoyable time than she expected and made many new friends too. (Of course it didn't hurt anyone's feelings that all the girls got to go to a local indoor waterpark that's owned by some fans-of-Schoenstatt.)

I was particularly proud of our 9 year old, Bernie, who can definitely be on the shy side, but made some great new friends rather than just hanging out with her 11 year old sister and 12 year old cousin. There were 60 or so campers all together and they put on a lovely set of skits and songs for the parents last night. The Magnificat they sang as a group at the end (pictured here) was incredible!

3.

John and I started a new exercise routine with a video I picked up on a sort of whim at Target the other day. It's a Jillian Michaels' workout and it's tough! I'm on day five and it's starting to get a little better - especially since I finally found our three pound weights which I swapped for the fivers!

4.

Here's a shot from our favorite patriotic parade:

Funny how all of the kiddos (and not just in our family - but other families nearby) recognize the Hudson Hornet because of the Cars movie.

This is a great parade because it has lots of great content (there must have been eight bands plus a bunch of church choirs and such) without all of the crowds. One of our favorite little traditions (which started, like many great things, by accident) is to make homemade ice cream during the parade and eat it once we start getting really hot. Yum!

5.

We've had three undeveloped rolls of film kicking around for an exceptionally large amount of time. Part of the reason for that is before digital we owned two film cameras. John had his SLR, which I thoroughly intimidated me, and after a little haranging, we got an easy-to-use point-and-shoot. The point-and-shoots film got developed pretty regularly (partly because the kids also were allowed to use it and we went through film a lot faster), but the SLR was a little neglected.

Well, this week I discovered that they were between 3 and 7 years old. Yep, I finally got them developed. Here's one of our favorites:

This is a shot of some of the kiddos at Ria and Gus's big Lord of the Rings themed birthday party, circa 2002. Their birthdays are in May and August, but this one year we agreed to combine them for an extra-special party. It was a lot of fun! (And those "magical elven cloaks", made from a roll of upholstery cloth I picked up at a rummage sale, still show up all over the place!)

6.

I have the next issue of mater et magistra magazine in my possession for proof-reading and it looks good! Don't forget to subscribe to this great little Catholic homeschool magazine if you haven't already. More info here. They now have their own Facebook page here!

7.

I'm pretty excited about a book I received for review yesterday that's due to be published in September. It's called NurtureShock and it's intended to have a big impact on breaking some of society's misguided conventions regarding parenting and education; which looks like an exceptionally good thing - at least from the first couple of chapters I've read so far.

Also, if you've read this article on "The inverse power of praise" (and if you haven't yet, you should), you'll get a little taste, because this article (which debunks conventional thinking about "self-esteem") is written by one of the authors of NurtureShock and the subject matter of the article is part of what's covered in this book.

Our Week in Half

Half our family, that is (and also about half a week)! Three of the girls were at camp this week (two campers and one counselor), so I've been trying to do some fun and unusual things with the rest of the kiddos.

Monday - We went up to Holy Hill for Mass for the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul and packed a lunch and some sketchbooks (along with a small set of Prismacolors). After Mass and Lunch we headed into their huge scenic tower, found a cozy corner out of the wind on the second-from-the-top level and drew pictures. We also did some sketching in the church and the shrine and ended our long peaceful afternoon with some really good pie at the Monastery Inn Cafe. Yum!








Tuesday - Frank became interested in playing this game - Deck of Chores - which I quickly adjusted by breaking the tasks into smaller pieces - and they loved it. I agreed to take them bowling if they did the entire game the following day. Still have to follow that one up as the bowling alley was closed yesterday.

We made a big trip to a local library they had never been to before and came away with 46 items checked out - yikes! It was a lovely, newer, very roomy library with a huge separate room for the children's section. And my favorite part - they had a special place for children's non-fiction; it was enormous and filled with lots of interesting goodies. Most of the local libraries are mixing the children's non-fiction in with the adult non-fiction. I suppose it's easier for finding things via the card catalog, but it absolutely stinks for fun kid-browsing.

We went home and watched a DVD I had never heard of before that we picked up on a whim: Tortoise vs. Hare: The Rematch of the Century. We loved it!

Later, Gus and John and I watched Kris Correira's webinar on Cohesion and Adhesion at Homeschool Connections (where you can watch the recording if you're interested), which introduced the basic concepts, showed us some fun (but simple) experiments and answered questions. Very cool! (Kate and Frank watched That Darn Cat during the webinar.)




Wednesday - Yesterday I picked up some food coloring, cotton string and medicine droppers so that Gus could do the science experiments from the webinar with his younger siblings. They were duly impressed and soon everyone was racing small colored droplets of water around on waxed paper and scaring pepper like crazy.

Last night we walked to a local tennis court and shot balls around for awhile (I really need to buy some new ones as we have exactly three really old tennis balls in our possession.)

And as a grand finale to our big plans, we camped out in the backyard last night. (And no, that's not our picture - it was cloudy and cool all night.)

We still owe them on the bowling.