Frankly Speaking about Gratitude

For some reason, Frank's favorite tidbit of wisdom that he's been mentioning a lot this week is:

"It's bery nice dat God made us!"

Bad Blogger

Not only have I not been blogging lately, but there are a whole slew of books I've read recently that I haven't managed to review or even blog about yet. I think a significant part of the reason is that I have reviewer burnout. Not the same thing as blogging burnout, but somewhat related. It can be pretty frustrating at times.

Anyway here are the books I've read or re-read in the last few months that I haven't covered yet. I'm hoping this placeholder will get me around to reviewing some of them some time soon:

_
The Harry Potter Series - (I just finished a re-read a week or so before the big fuss about J.K. Rowlings' various remarks in her visit to the U.S. I think I should post about this at some point.)

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (another re-read)

Waking Rose by Regina Doman (Also a re-read, sort of, as I did a read-through for Regina a number of years ago. Ria also finished this and she loved it.)

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (just finished this one this morning)

I think there are a few others that I've posted about briefly on Studeo and finished reading, but not yet officially reviewed for love2learn. I hope to have a number of these pieces fall in place around the time that the new love2learn site goes up - which should be by the end of the year.

Well, I Haven't Been Doing Much Blogging Lately...

But I have been spending a lot of time with my relative bloggers. From left to right - yours truly (with Frank), Electroblogster, Ria, Mystical_Rose84 and Clairity.

We often head up north to Clairity's place for Thanksgiving, but it was a special treat to have my mom and Mystical_Rose there too (I hadn't seen my mom in a year and Mystical Rose in three years!).

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!



Here are a few other things we we've been thankful for...






For baby Jarell who was baptized on Saturday.


















That Kate got to spend some time with her godmother - who also happens to be Jarell's godmother!











For cousin bloggers who had a wonderful time together. :)












For amazing food and hospitality...






And for family, for friends-who-are-practically-family, for good timing that worked out in ways we never could have planned, for too many games of Monopoly and learning to play Settlers of Cataan and Ticket to Ride, for great conversation and lots of laughter, tickle gauntlets, wrestling and lots of great memories.

Thanksgiving Fluff

You Are The Stuffing

You're complicated and complex, yet all your pieces fit together. People miss you if you're gone - but they're not sure why.

What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

hat-tips to Kristen and Margaret. And stuffing is TOTALLY my favorite part of the meal. Library tree is up. Next step, prep for our next performance of Alice. Have a great day!

The Holy Father on Fear and Trust

Pope Benedict XVI's Angelus address yesterday was on fear and trust. Turns out to be quite nicely related to my post yesterday (I heard this on Relevant Radio this morning)...

"Let us welcome Christ's invitation," he said, "to face daily events trusting in his providential love. Let us not be afraid of the future, even when it appears bleak to us, for the God of Jesus Christ, who took up history to open it up to its transcendent fulfillment, is its alpha and omega, the beginning and the end."

"He guarantees that in every little but genuine act of love the meaning of the whole universe is contained, and those who do not hesitate to lose their lives for him, will find them again in fullness."

Read the entire article on Zenit

Gratitude, Appreciation, and Making Distinctions

An interesting discussion at Nancy's site brought to mind an idea that I mentioned in the comments to her post and I thought I'd bring up here too. She was discussing problems that end up dividing homeschool groups. My speculation was that we often get mixed up in our heads between what is ideal (or perceived to be ideal) and what is morally necessary.

There are many things which homeschool families (and other families for that matter) decide is good, or even "the best" for their family and implement with enthusiasm. There is certainly nothing wrong with this. Here are a few real-life examples (these may or may not occur in our own family!):

avoid television entirely
have the girls wear skirts to Mass
have the girls wear skirts all the time
eat organic foods
attend Daily Mass
pray the Rosary daily
avoid government run homeschool programs
eat vegetarian
etc.

The problem lies not in making such decisions for our own families, but starting to judge other families who have decided otherwise. There are certainly arguments for and against each idea and some people may choose naively, but this should never be cause for ostracizing them. In fact wouldn't that have the opposite effect of influencing them for the good anyway? These are the sorts of things that can be considered "ideal" by many for various reasons (or - in some cases - even goals to strive towards), but are definitely not "morally necessary". It sure is nice to have the authority of the Church to help us make such distinctions!

For some reason it is often tragedy that puts such things in perspective. Things like this:

A local homeschool family whose young son died in his sleep a few days ago

and this

Cyclone kills over 2,000 in Bangladesh

I sometimes wonder if some of the squabbling comes because we're spoiled. We're spoiled by amazingly good health and low death rates, we're spoiled by a myriad of choices in clothing and educational materials and food and more. But for some reason this tends to lead to fear rather than gratitude and appreciation.

Perhaps because we do have so many choices to make (certainly to the point, at times, of being overwhelmed by decision-making), we start taking ourselves too seriously and feel like it all depends on us.

This Thanksgiving week is a good time to foster gratitude and appreciation in ourselves which, really, is a good antitode to taking ourselves too seriously and neglecting the appreciation we owe to God and the help we owe to those less fortunate than ourselves. (I've also found reading pretty much anything by G.K. Chesterton as a perfect antidote to taking myself too seriously.)

And so, today I am grateful for these things:

-Being able to worship freely, openly and without fear.

-Being able to choose homeschooling for my children.

-For the children God has given me.

-Food, shelter and clothing in abundance.

-Good friends, good books, good movies and many happy times.

Current Library Tree Book List

Naturally I have not been able to read through every one of these books personally. I tend to rely on online reviews and, as I mentioned earlier, I found Maureen Wittmann's book quite helpful and chose a number of titles from there. I also did quite a bit of research at our local bookstore...


A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky
Michael Driscoll

A Day on Skates
Hilda Van Stockum

A Seed is Sleepy
Dianna Hutts Aston

Abraham Lincoln: Friend of the People
Clara Ingram Judson

Admiral Richard Byrd: Alone in the Antarctic
Paul Rink

Alexander the Great
John Gunther

Amelia Earhart: Flying Solo
John Burke

America is…
Louise Borden

American Rough Rider: Teddy Roosevelt
John Garraty

Arctic Explorer: the Story of Matthew Henson
Jeri Ferris

Battleships of World War I
Peter Hore

Behind Enemy Lines: A Young Pilot's Story
H.R. Demallie

Ben Franklin: Inventing America
Thomas Fleming

Bob Books, Set 1
Bobby Lynn Maslen

Building Big: Bridges (DVD)
David Macaulay

Building Big: Dams (DVD)
David Macaulay

Building Big: Domes (DVD)
David Macaulay

Building Big: Skyscrapers (DVD)
David Macaulay

Building Big: Tunnels (DVD)
David Macaulay

Camille and the Sunflowers: A Story About Vincent van Gogh
Laurence Anholt

Can You Count to a Googol?
Robert E. Wells

Daniel Boone: The Opening of the Wilderness
John Mason Brown

Downright Dencey
Caroline Dale Snedeker

George Washington Carver: The Peanut Wizard
Laura Driscoll

George Washington: Frontier Colonel
Sterling North

How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World
Faith McNulty

Jamestown: The Perilous Adventure
Olga Hall-Quest

John Paul Jones: The Pirate Patriot
Armstrong Sperry

Joyeux Noel (DVD)

Katie Meets the Impressionists
James Mayhew

Laura Ingalls Wilder Country
William Anderson

Lawrence of Arabia
Alistair Maclean

Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust
Imaculee Ilibagiza

Lives of the Artists: Masterpieces, Messes and What the Neighbors Thought
Kathleen Krull

Mary Ingalls On Her Own
Elizabeth Kimmel Willard

NOVA Secrets of Lost Empires: Inca (DVD)

NOVA Secrets of Lost Empires: Medieval Siege (DVD)

NOVA: Secrets of Lost Empires: Colosseum, Stonehenge (DVD)

NOVA: Secrets of Lost Empires: Pyramid, Obelisk (DVD)

One Grain of Rice
Demi

Orphaned on the Oregon Trail: The Stout-Hearted Seven
Neta Lohnes Frazier

Path to the Pacific: The Story of Sacagawea
Neta Lohnes Frazier

Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland
Tomie de Paola

Poetry Speaks to Children

Pope John Paul II (DVD)
Jon Voight, Cary Elwes

Shakespeare: His Work and His World
Michael Rosen

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
translated by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Deadly Hunt: The Sinking of the Bismarck
William Shirer

The Empress and the Silkworm
Lily Toy Hong

The Mislabeled Child
Brock Eide and Fernette Eide

The Story of Noodles
Ying Chang Compestine

The Story of Paper
Ying Chang Compestine

The Swamp Fox of the Revolution
Stewart H. Holbrook

The True Story of Peter Rabbit
Jane Johnson

Turn Left at Orion
Guy Consolmagno

War Game: Village Green to No-Man's-Land
Michael Foreman

When Washington Crossed the Delaware: A Wintertime Story for Patriots
Lynne Cheney

Who Carved the Mountain? The Story of Mount Rushmore
Jean L.S. Patrick

Library Tree Ornaments

IMG_0299
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

We printed out the ornaments for our Library's Holiday Tree today. Here they are on some of our bookshelves - approximately 60 books and movies of all sorts. In the book department there ended up being an emphasis on the "Sterling Point" books. For movies, we have a lot of "Building Big" and "NOVA: Secrets of Lost Empires". I'll try to share a complete list some time soon (no doubt you can make out some of the titles from the picture).

It's funny how this is feeling like a Like-Mother-Like Daughter project. Not only has Ria been helping me out on this project, but I've seen photos of a library project my mom helped out with before I was born. I believe it was a school library and a number of the titles looked familiar. Especially interesting to consider this year as there were some "North Star" books (the previous name of what is now called the "Sterling Point" series). :)

Homeschool Blog Awards

I've sent in my nominations. Have you?

Submissions are due today.

Alice

Alice
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

I like this group shot. There were people watching from the balcony too.