Leaf Collecting

Leaf Collecting, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

More Fall Color

DSC_3207.JPG, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

My husband took this shot at the zoo today. I love this stage in late fall where the leaves look like they're made of light.

Inconsistent Perception

Inconsistent Perception, originally uploaded by BertusMark.

My nephew took this photo. Isn't it gorgeous?

7 Quick Takes

1.

I signed up for Support a Catholic Speaker Month and got to interview Mike Aquilina via telephone earlier this week. He was very gracious and even shared a few tips with me for public speaking. I should have a formal post for the project up at Love2learn Blog early next week.

2.

It's cats' cradle week here. I'm not exactly sure why this came about (except that someone stumbled upon the Klutz book and it's been quiet week) but all the kids have been up to it like crazy.

3.


Click the picture and look at #3. I can vouch from personal experience for the veracity of Jen's comments.

4.

We just happened to be finishing up a read-aloud of Stories from Herodotus by Glanville Downey (very nice, though out-of-print, children's version of Herodotus' Histories) when Bethlehem Books' newest title (by Jeanne Bendick no less) about the life of Herodotus arrived. (You can read my review of Herodotus and the Road to History here.) Couldn't be better timing and it was neat how tidbits from his biography helped explain parts of his emphasis in story-telling. It turned out that one of the characters he talked about (a female commander on the Persian side) was a relative of his. Fun stuff.


5.

It's transcript, admissions essays and test-taking time around here for Ria. I managed to crank out the first draft of her narrative transcript (thank goodness for all those booklists I had been saving online each year!), while she's been working on essays and such. Last night I discovered I had forgotten an entire section of history and literature (which I grouped together for practical purposes). Yes, she did read a bunch of books, like Beowulf and the Song of Roland, from the Middle Ages. We are loving ISI's College Guide (which we were lucky enough to acquire from a local thrift store) and the fact that they generously give you three free college descriptions on their website (a few weren't included in our 2008-2009 guide). The details in this guide are both fabulous and motivating, especially as she gets a chance to compare her sample test scores with the averages (or mid-ranges) at various colleges to get a sense of where things stand.

Like many students, Ria has areas of great strength and lesser strength. Homeschooling high school is no cakewalk and I frequently come into contact (and at times frustration) with my own shortcomings. There are certainly things that would have gone more smoothly (or at least more consistently) in a school setting, but overall we've seen the rewards far exceed those difficulties. It will be very interesting to see how things turn out in this next challenge, but it's certainly a very exciting process.

6.

It was fun doing the "geek the library" post yesterday, partly because it reminded me of why our family loves being fairly seriously involved with our local public library. It's definitely a helpful thing in this world to be able to encounter someone and recognize the good that we are able to work for together in spite of potential differences. Our involvement in our local library has been an entirely positive experience in this regard. I am thrilled to again be entrusted with the library's Holiday Tree which gives us the opportunity to get a lot of very good books and movies into the library.

7.


This is the map I hung on our wall this week. This map and I go way back. I fell in love with it when it first arrived in an issue of National Geographic Magazine (my dad was a faithful subscriber for as long as I could remember) when I was about 14 years old. I covered it with contact paper and later inherited the rather messy affair when my dad sent us a bunch of his cool old maps. I used a hair dryer to make the contact paper lay somewhat flat and it took about 10 push pins (since the creases of the map have a lot of tears in them in spite of the contact paper), but I think it looks rather nice from a distance with its ancient-mapish appearance, don't you?

What Do You Geek?

I saw this over at Mental Multivitamin and couldn't resist it, especially since, really, one of the things we geek is libraries!

geek (VERB)

1. To love, to enjoy, to celebrate, to have an intense passion for.
2. To express interest in.
3. To possess a large amount of knowledge in.
4. To promote.

I geek...

My local library

Books - especially juvenile non-fiction

Homeschooling also this

Latin

History

Architecture

Sacred Music

There's really a lot of other things too - like G.K. Chesterton, the Catholic Faith in general... you get the idea.

Okay, I admit it, I'm a geek! :)

I was going to say that the local library was helpful with everything except Latin and Sacred Music, but I realized that's not quite true. They have a few (very few) Latin items and a few recordings of Sacred Music - particularly of the Christmas variety. It's not a lot, but it's something!

Frankly Bored

Frank this morning: "When are we going to a party? It's too quiet around here!"

Truth is we have a little bug going around, nothing very serious, but one we're concerned about passing along to others, and so we've been keeping somewhat quiet at home.

Good news is I've done more read-alouds in the last two days than I have in the last six months (I think). Personally *I* enjoy a little downtime. :)

P.S. One more funny little Frank thing before I forget. It turns out that what most people generally call *mazes*, he calls *amazes*. Sigh. I love that kid!

For Mom - By Request

How Do You Do It All? (#18)

As an experienced homeschool mom, the question I hear most from people is "How Do you do it all?" The answer, quite simply, is "I don't!" I have taken as my own motto this quote from St. Francis of Assisi: "Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible." There's a certain simplicity in this idea that keeps me from being completely overwhelmed with the demands of family life and home education.


It also connects with a helpful quote from Stephen Covey: "You [should] think effectiveness with people and efficiency with things... I see many parents...frustrated in their desire to accomplish a lot because all they seem to do is meet the needs of little children all day. Remember, frustration is a function of our expectations, and our expectations are often a reflection of the social mirror rather than our own values and priorities."

7 Quick Takes

We've had a busy start to our school year and so I haven't had much time for blogging and such, but here goes...

1. It's multiplication tables deadline day and tension is building. The two middle girls were promised chocolate shakes if they memorized multiplication tables (up to various points) by today. Kate voluntarily learned a few sets herself and has already earned a shake. It was nice that we found some Math Wheel Flash Cards (multiplication on the front and division on the back) at a rummage sale last week. (UPDATE: I didn't manage to get this posted until they all were tested - and they all passed with flying colors!)

2. Frank's had an interesting week. He's had a couple of asthma-like episodes at gym class last week and this week, so we took him into the doctor's and found (as suspected) that he has a seasonal allergy-based, exercise-induced asthma. He's on some allergy medicine now and should be back to normal in a few days. Yesterday I had some extra time to do a little school with him (on the fly and voluntarily on his part) because of his downtime. He just loves math right now. I put him in a first grade math workbook (which he brought with him to the doctor's office since we knew he'd have a big wait) and, although he needs someone to read all the words for him, he's a whiz with the math. He also loves going to the doctor. Because of a comment from his aunt when we were leaving, I explained that some people don't like going to the doctor. He answered quite smartly, "Maybe that's because they think it's the kind of doctor that opens up your stomach." LOL

3. Speaking of allergies, I just discovered that I'm a much happier camper when I avoid wheat. Corn tortilla quesadillas are my friend!

4. Latin study group is up and going again and we've met twice so far. I like the rhythm we're getting into. We spend about 1/2 an hour singing in Latin (silly songs, rounds, church songs and, at the moment, Christmas and Advent songs) and spend most of the rest of the time playing games. I'm giving them a study sheet or two each week (which we go over in class) to start building a repertoire of vocabulary, historical events, and some basic verb endings. The motivation comes largely from playing certamen (a Latin game show), which everyone seems to love. Now that we've discovered the Certamen Questions Database, we should be in good shape for awhile!

5. Last weekend, John and I went to a Catholic marriage conference. It's the first time we've ever been to a marriage thing together, as we lived 2000 miles apart while we were engaged - so we did our prep in parallel. It was a great conference and we especially enjoyed the talk by Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers.

6. My 9 and 11 year old daughters have got quite interested in haircutting and gave both of their brothers buzz cuts this week. This could be a good thing!

7. Barbara reminded me last night that tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I was in college (at TAC - in Southern California) worrying about my family at home (in Los Altos) - especially since there were some wild rumors going around about the severity of the earthquake (I heard at one point that the Bay Bridge had completely collapsed) and we couldn't get through via telephone. Much to the chagrin of my tutor, I skipped seminar that night (I was far too distracted to concentrate).

Our home was far enough and stable enough that the only significant activity was a wave of water that crashed out of the swimming pool and flooded the side yard. Also, a large statue of our Lady fell off of her rather high perch in the living room - and landed safely in a basket of clean laundry that was sitting on the couch.

The earthquake toppled the tower at the nearby seminary (where we used to have our parish picnics, retreats and lots of other things when I was a kid) which never recovered and was torn down in the early 1990s. It was fun to visit their alumni website (especially the photo gallery) this morning for a walk down memory lane.

On Abandonment to God's Will

Submission to God's will frees us from all other yokes. Because as God wills everything that happens to us, and as we will all that God wills, nothing can happen except what we will. Nobody can oblige me to do what I do not want to do because I desire to do all that God wishes. A lady, having been asked if during the danger she encountered on her journey she had not hoped that God would protect her, replied No, but that she had hoped that he would do what was most for his glory and that in this dependence upon the divine will she was always calm and happy.

...from a sermon by St. Claude de la Colombiere (quoted from a book on his Spiritual Direction published by Ignatius Press).