Teeth Everywhere!!

We are losing and getting new teeth pretty fast around here these days!!
KLD has lost so many teeth at once, pretty soon she will have to start eating MPD's baby food. And now MPD's up to 4 teeth, with one more trying to peek through...

The Face of Evil

Today we all attended our first-ever real-live rally.

The directors of a surgical clinic that is affiliated with a couple of the major hospitals in the city near our home is considering whether to offer second-trimester abortions. They'll be voting on it this week, so our 40-days-for-Life group organized a rally today.

"Everyone's going," I told Bill. "All the cool people will be there." Never mind that he actually thought I was serious about wanting to go just to see my friends at first!! But anyway, a BIG thanks to my wonderful husband for taking us all downtown, so we all went--apparently the hospital's decision really can be swayed by public opinion on this one, and a big turnout was critical. God even blessed the event with really good weather too!

It was very nice and upbeat; there was a big turnout--about 3000 people, they say, although I'm a terrible judge of numbers and I was just trying to keep my whole gang together. Almost all the signs and banners I saw were positive--they specifically asked that no one bring grisly photos because they were encouraging families to attend--and there were bunches of pink and blue balloons.

We didn't see any counter-demonstrators at the rally (I find it hard to imagine anyone actually protesting FOR abortion, but there were a few), but afterwards, we drove by the actual clinic and there they were. It was a small group of rather pathetic looking weirdos (okay, okay--sorry about that) I mean, students, I guess, with a few signs about how abortion is a civil right (huh?) and stuff.

The most amazing thing, though, I heard about after the fact from a priest friend who attended: The pro-abortion people were chanting, not something related to abortion, but the following thing:

"Pray, you'll need it;
Your cross will be defeated."

Can there be any clearer evidence that the Evil One is behind the lie of abortion?

Snowy Day

Thursday we did a little sledding at recess, after JPD's preschool field trip to the park for a snow day.
It was pretty great--MPD's first sledding, too!

Small Successes Thursday

I like this thing they're doing over at Faith & Family (which is a GREAT magazine, by the way!). I'm pretty good at finding SMALL successes to cheer about--it's those big ones that frustrate me!

So here are some small successes from my week:

1) The tooth fairy came to our house.
2) I took the kids sledding, out to lunch with Grandma, to buy some clothes, and to the pediatrician today. All the kids. And all these errands in a row. With no meltdowns by anyone (even me). Come to think of it, that maybe should count as a big success!
3) We made it to daily Mass on time yesterday.
4) Laundry. Folded and put away. Repeat.
5) Totalled and submitted both girls' GS cookie orders--hooray!

I'll add more if I think of them. Join this game--it's fun! :)

On Being A Saint

I'm loving this excerpt from a talk by Peter Kreeft:

Can you imagine what 12 more Mother Teresas or 12 more John Wesleys would do for this poor old world? Can you imagine what would happen if just 12 people in this room did it? Gave Christ 100 percent of their hearts with 100 percent of their hearts 100 percent of the time and held back nothing, absolutely nothing?

No, you can’t imagine it—any more than anyone could have imagined how 12 nice Jewish boys could conquer the Roman Empire.

You can’t imagine it, but you can do it. You can become a saint. Absolutely no one and nothing can stop you. It’s your free choice.

Here is one of the most wonderful and terrifying sentences I have ever read, from William Law’s Serious Call, “If you will look into your own heart in utter honesty, you must admit that there is one and only one reason why you are not even now a saint. You do not wholly want to be.”

That insight is terrifying because it is an indictment, but it is wonderful and hopeful because it is also an offer, an open door. Each of us can become a saint. We really can. We really can. I say it three times, because I think we do not really believe that deep down. For if we did, how could we endure being anything less?

What holds us back? Fear of paying the price. What is the price? The answer is simple. T. S. Eliot gave it when he defined Christianity as “a condition of complete simplicity (costing not less than everything).” The price is everything—100 percent. Martyrdom, if required, and probably a worse martyrdom than the quick noose or stake, the martyrdom of dying daily, dying every minute for the rest of your life. Dying to all your desires and plans—including your plans about how to become a saint.

Or rather, not dying to your desires but dying to the you in your desires. I think this sounds much more mystical than it is. It is simply giving God a blank check. It is simply "islam," complete submission. Fiat. Mary’s thing. Look at what it did 2000 years ago when she did it; it brought God down from heaven and thus saved the world.

It was meant to continue. If we do that Mary thing, that "islam," and only if we do that, then all our apostolates will work—our preaching and teaching and writing and catechizing and mission-ing and fathering and mothering and studying and nursing and business-ing and pastoring and priesting—everything.

Last year, an American Catholic bishop asked one of the priests of his diocese for recommendations for ways to increase vocations to the priesthood. The priest replied in his report, “The best way to attract men in this diocese to the priesthood, Your Excellency, would be your canonization.”

Why not yours?

But how? We always want to know how. Give me a method, a technology, a means to this end. What does that question mean, “How can I become a saint?” Or “Give me a means to the end of sanctity.” It means, “Give me something that is easier than sanctity, which will cause sanctity. So that if I do this something or attain this something, then this something will be the middle term, the link between me and sanctity.”

No. There is none. No prayers, no meditations, no 12-steps programs, no yogas, no psychological techniques, no techniques at all. There can be no button to push for sanctity, any more than for love. For sanctity is simply love: loving God with all your soul and mind and strength.

How do you love? You just do it. A cause cannot produce an effect greater than itself. And nothing in the world is greater than sanctity, nothing greater than love. Therefore, no cause, no human cause, can produce sanctity. There can never be any technology for sanctity.

Of course, God is its cause. Grace is its cause. The Holy Spirit is its cause. “Oh well, why doesn’t God cause it then? If sanctity isn’t a do-it-yourself thing but an only-God-can-do-it thing, then why doesn’t God make me a saint? If only grace can do it, why doesn’t He give me that grace?”

Because you don’t want it. If you wanted it, He’d give it. He promised that: “All who seek find.” It’s back to “just say yes.” It’s infinitely simpler than we think, and that’s why it’s hard. The hard word in the formula “just say yes” is the word “just.”

We are comfortable with Christ and theology or Christ and psychology or Christ and America or Christ and the Republican Party or Christ and the Democratic Party or Christ and phonics or Christ and dieting. But just plain Christ, all Christ, Christ drunk straight, not mixed, we find far too dangerous for our tastes.

Aslan is not a tame lion. Just say yes to Him? You never know what he’d do with you!

Happy 9th Birthday MRD!

Who can believe my Millenium Baby is already 9??!!

Here are some pictures from her SPECTACULAR tropical birthday party! She has been planning this party since July--no kidding. She did almost everything herself, including the menu (make-your-own Hawaiian pizza, tropical trail mix, frozen fruit flowers, and lava punch in pop-rock rimmed glasses!), the cupcakes (take a look!), and the games (beach towel relay, make a hula skirt, necklace-making, hula-hoop relay, and more...). What a big bash it was--and lest you think our home resembles a hunting lodge, we actually had the party at the park. It was perfect!

The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

The best way that we can celebrate the Year of Saint Paul is to go to the Risen Lord and ask him about what deep and intimate conversion of life he is calling us to.

We know from Paul's life that at the heart of conversion is a surrender to the love of the Risen Lord. Any interior movement leading from pride to humility, anger to mildness, greed to detachment, lust to a chaste spirit, envy to joy in the talents of others, sloth to zeal, gluttony (including Internet, television, cell phone, and Blackberry gluttony!) to temperance is a surrender to the power of Christ's love within. This love allows us to let go of the fear of surrendering completely to Christ so that we can see others with the eyes of Christ.

~ Bishop Michael Saltarelli (Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware)

My Day Out with the Boys

This past weekend we took a dozen Cub Scouts to the new Discovery World museum near our town. What an awesome museum!
I had such a great day with JPD. He was so curious and had such a great time exploring everything! He especially loved the life-size model sailboat, petting the sturgeon in the touch-tank, and driving the remote-control submarine. MPD loved the aquariums, for sure...he stood up against the glass, trying to catch the fish with his hands! WWD loved petting a stingray, and crashing his plane in the flight simulator. My favorite part of the museum, besides spending the day with precious JPD, was the room-size model of the Great Lakes ecosystem. So cool!










On the way home, we stopped to visit the kids' cousin (aunt and uncle too of course!)for dinner. Thanks again, Anne! :)

Our Dream Team

We love our gymnasts!

Wise Words

The common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights--for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture--is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.

~ Pope John Paul II

Pinewood Derby Champ!

...here he is! :)
WWD won 1st this year!

Thy Will Be Done!

A fitting passage, I thought, for this week:

Of what use is anxiety about the future? Does it bring you anything but trouble upon trouble? Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. It is foolish and useless to be either grieved or happy about future things which perhaps may never happen. But it is human to be deluded by such imaginations, and the sign of a weak soul to be led on by suggestions of the enemy. For he does not care whether he overcomes you by love of the present or fear of the future.

Let not your heart be troubled, therefore, nor let it be afraid. Believe in Me and trust in My mercy. When you think you are far from Me, then often I am very near you. When you judge that almost all is lost, then very often you are in the way of gaining great merit.

All is not lost when things go contrary to your wishes. You ought not judge according to present feelings, nor give in to any trouble whenever it comes, or take it as though all hope of escape were lost. And do not consider yourself forsaken if I send some temporary hardship, or withdraw the consolation you desire. For this is the way to the kingdom of heaven, and without doubt it is better for you and the rest of My servants to be tried in adversities than to have all things as you wish. I know your secret thoughts, and I know that it is profitable for your salvation to be left sometimes in despondency lest perhaps you be puffed up by success and fancy yourself to be what you are not.
~ Imitation of Christ

So...I'm trying to keep my panic and despair to a minimum, here.

Thanks, "Mom"!

for being a voice of reason in a country of chaos with this great post.
Again, may God BLESS America!

God Bless America

Happy Inauguration Day.
Let us all pray for our new president and for our country, which has always been richly blessed. God, Thy Will Be Done!

The Water Cycle

This week we did a really good little science unit about the water cycle.
In our first lab, we fooled around with ice, water, and steam--we thought we knew it all, until it came time to figure out how to get the water vapor back into liquid form. We had ice cubes in a Pyrex pitcher, holding it over the steaming tea kettle, and water droplets formed on the outside of the pitcher. "How do they get there?" asked the wise science teacher (that would be me). (Hey, somebody get the baby's hand out of the steam!)

"I don't know," said MRD. "Do they get through the glass somehow from the melting ice?" I wish you could have seen the look on her face when she realized it was the water vapor in the air, condensing as it cooled. It was one of those moments that make homeschooling all worthwhile, for sure. Later we noticed the frozen condensed water vapor on the outside of our windows, and also determined, of course, just why it is that the mirror gets foggy from a hot shower. Pretty exciting, no?

For our second lab, we created this little structure involving a bowl of blue-tinted salt water with a small empty cup inside, plastic wrap on top, and a pebble on the wrap over the cup. Overnight, the water condensed on the plastic wrap, and dripped--just a tiny bit--into the cup. But the water in the cup was neither blue nor salty. Hmmmm....Have you ever thought about the fact that all the water on the earth is, and has always been, the same water, since the days of the dinosaurs, just getting recycled over and over? Kinda gross, of course, but also kinda scary, since it really makes you think about how important it is to take care of our water and air.

JPD liked this science lab a lot, especially eating the ice cubes. And he ventured out into the sub-zero outdoors in search of more ice to melt. Seriously, though, he's quite a little scientist, and especially loves the Magic School Bus books and movies. In the water cycle book, we saw the kids shrink and ride along through the water cycle in little raindrops, and he hasn't stopped talking about that. I know he's trying to figure out how to get into one of those raindrops himself!

And the winner is...

not WWD. But we are bustin' with pride that he came in 2nd in the Homeschool Geography Bee! The Bee, which is organized by National Geographic, is for 4th through 8th grades, so this is his first year to compete. He was not too sure about it, and we didn't know what to expect. I think he had fun.

Here are some of the questions he answered correctly:

1) Which state does not have a coastline on Delaware Bay--Virginia, Delaware, or New Jersey? (answer: Virginia)

2) Myrtle Beach, which has been a resort town since the early 1900s, is located in which state? (answer: South Carolina)

3) In September 2008, Hurricane Ike made landfall as a strong Category 2 storm and devastated the city of Galveston, located on the coast of which state? (For all you Texans--this was actually a question in the finals, and everyone in our group did NOT get it right!!)

4) Mexico City is located on the site of Tenochtitlan, the island capital of what empire that was conquered by Spanish explorers in the 16th century? (answer: Aztec Empire)

And here are some of the questions he missed!

1) The Big Sioux River forms the border between South Dakota and which state locatd to the east? (correct answer: Iowa; WWD's answer: Minnesota)

2) Wapusk National Park, located on the southwest shore of Hudson Bay and home to one of the largest polar bear denning areas in the world, is in which Canadian province? (correct answer: Manitoba; WWD's answer: Newfoundland, I think)

3) Brisbane and Perth are ports on which continent? (answer: Australia; WWD's answer: Europe)

4) Architectural remnants of colonial rule and a grid street pattern are signs that Santiago was founded by the Spanish. Today, Santiago is the largest city in which country? (answer: Chile; WWD's answer: Brazil)

So you get the idea--fun trivial pursuit-type stuff. They have some more fun sample questions on this website. And just wait till next year, when MRD will be giving him some tough competition! :) Maybe we'll have to have a family bee of our own to see who moves on to the city bee...

We are the Body of Christ

I vividly remember walking on campus in Austin, back in 1984, shortly after "becoming a Christian" and "accepting Jesus in my heart as my Lord and Savior."  Listening to Christian praise music on my cassette walkman (kids, these were the predecessors of today's MP3 players) as I walked to class, I was euphoric.

How I loved Jesus!  It was like a whole new world.  "Jesus," I prayed, "let my steps be your steps, my words your words, and my thoughts your thoughts..." or something along those lines.  I'd never been a non-Christian, really; we went to church pretty regularly throughout my childhood, and I've always had a strong sense that I am abundantly blessed by my Creator and have a responsibility to steward those blessings wisely.  But this "born again" stuff was a whole new level.  Jesus!  In my heart!  I could live out His will in my very own life!

Now I see, of course, that this idea of "accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior" is just a fraction of the real deal.  Like looking at a picture of an African safari, versus really going on one, or something.  Because now, as a Catholic, I know that I can really, truly, literally accept Jesus as often as I wish, through the incredible daily miracle of the Mass.  It really is a miracle, just as sure as when He walked on water.  But a much more significant one, because it's the means by which God is implementing His plan to redeem humankind after the Fall.  Throughout the world, at all times, Masses are being said, and God is coming to us, body, blood, soul, and divinity, through Jesus, and thus we actually become His hands, feet, mouth, heart, and mind here on earth.

"For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him."     ~~ John 6:55-56

"...she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger" (a food trough!)  ~~ Luke 2:7

"Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed."  ~~ Luke 22:7 (the custom necessitated eating the lamb)

"While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."  ~~Matthew 26:26

It really just makes so much more sense that this is literally true.  Why would Jesus have said so, over and over, if it wasn't?  Why would He have spent so much of His last night on earth just serving food?  Sure, it's a weird idea, and a bit hard to get used to--in a world with tons of little one-off pagan religions, why do you think the early Christians were viewed as such a strange sect by their first-century counterparts?  Indeed, why did a bunch of Jesus' own followers hit the road following the Passover the year before the Last Supper, when he told them they should eat His flesh and drink His blood?  Of course they were freaked out--it's hardly what they expected from their Messiah.  But how could we possibly have predicted God's plan?  Surprising...inconceivable...impossible to understand...miraculous, even, don't you think?

Are my children too sheltered?

From The Homeschool Corner:

Clearly there is an appropriate kind of sheltering. When those who are opposed to homeschooling accuse me of sheltering my children, my reply is always, 'What are you going to accuse me of next, feeding and clothing them?'
~ R.C. Sproul Jr.

Back to School

What a great back-to-school week this has been!  After our much-needed three-week Christmas break and Texas vacation, we have had, I think, our best homeschool week ever.  And I know why.  I brought my trusty laptop to Texas (of course) and on the way home, I worked up a new school schedule for us.  So far, it's great.
Schedule, schmedule--big deal, right?  Well, we've always had schedules, and I've tried a few different formats of checklists and stuff to help the kids, and me, keep track of our progress.  This time, using my master-homeschooler friend Jill's schedule as a template, I think I've hit upon just the right level of detail.

Here's an excerpt from Monday (each weekday is a bit different):

	WWD	MRD	KLD
7:30	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast
	Morning Circle	Morning Circle	Morning Circle
8:00	Math	Piano	Reading
			Language Arts
8:30	Piano	Math	Math
9:00	Spelling	Language Arts	Piano
	Logic
9:30	Recess	Recess	Recess
10:00	Language Arts	Spelling	Spelling
		Logic
10:30	Chore break	Chore break	Chore break

Pretty good, eh?  I've always resisted laying out our time in such detail; I guess I've been afraid it would be too stressful, or too structured, and I've told myself that I liked being freeform and flexible.  Well, freeform and flexible is great, but this is better.  Now everyone knows exactly what they're supposed to be doing at all times.  There is less arguing about what to do next, less time lost looking for books and pencils, way more school getting done, and if we want to blow off the schedule for some reason (which hasn't happened this week so much), we can easily jump right back in.  Each child has his own schedule, which they all love, and I have a master schedule.

I can already see a few things I want to tweak, though.  To tell you the truth, so far we've always been running late because Mom needs more time to get ready in the morning.  This schedule depends on me being up at 6 a.m., which hasn't happened this week.  I can't decide if I should just adjust the schedule back half an hour, or keep striving for the discipline to get my lazy bum out of bed on time!  (If you're voting for the latter, I must say that for my whole life, even when I was a bigshot business lady like my kids think I was, it was always easy for me to get up at 6:30, and nearly impossible to get up right at 6.  Biorhythms, maybe??)  Also, I like to spend a bit of time chatting with Bill in the morning before the kids are awake, and this start time doesn't allow for that so much.  I think I might give it another week like this, and see how it goes.

Also, 30 minutes is not really enough time for breakfast and morning circle--today I was reading and discussing our saint of the day and this week's Gospel reading while frying eggs and toasting toast.  The kids take forever to eat, though, and I want to set a limit on eating time--otherwise they just keep on eating and eating as long as I'll keep cooking stuff!!

I also want to put more time in for one-on-one work with KLD.  It seems to me that if you get the early stuff down well, the later subjects go much more smoothly.  KLD and I need to continue to work hard this spring on reading, especially.

On the plus side, I think our piano teacher will be blown away this week, because they've all been practicing a lot more than usual!  We truly have gotten more school done than ever, including a whole history lesson as well as a whole science lesson with two labs and a little writeup, in addition to math and language every day, full spelling lessons and tests for all, work on the typing tutor software for the older two, literature read-alouds every day at lunch, starting our vocabulary word roots curriculum that I've been wanting to get to forever, MRD starting a new American history book we've been planning, and lots of review and cramming for our homeschool Geography Bee.  Pretty good, huh?  I even managed to squeeze in exercise for myself, which is truly amazing, AND even make real dinner for us every night (one night we went out for pizza to celebrate the results of the Geography Bee). :)

The two little boys just bounce around fitting into the schedule.  I've left enough time, mostly, for nursing, feeding, and getting MPD up and down from his naps, and JPD gets involved in our history, science, and read-alouds, all of which happens mostly in the afternoons.  He's been pretty good at playing in the mornings when he doesn't have preschool, although I have let him play on the computer and watch movies a little bit more than I'd like.  As he gets older he'll have more & more little scheduled things to do too.

So, that's our homeschool's new year, starting off so great!  I feel like I'm finally "getting" what Holly Pierlot's talking about with regard to schedules in her Mother's Rule of Life, and finding what works for me related to the book Managers of their Homes.  Of all the schedules I've tried, having this one for school, which fits in with our bigger and littler schedules for the rest of the stuff we do, is just right.

Let me out of jail!!

Hopefully this is the only hard time these two guys will ever do!!

Lego Explosion

This week we have had record-breaking freezing temperatures here in our little corner of the midwest. I mean, sheesh--it's Wisconsin, not Antarctica! But you'd never know it, waking up to hear the radio weather guy announcing a temp of 16 degrees below zero, and windchills below 30 below. (Although, of course, I don't think a lot of meteorologists are hanging around doing radio shows in Antarctica.)

Schools have all been cancelled for the past two days. Not our homeschool, though--and in their free time, our students have been architecting a number of Lego masterpieces down in the basement. Check them out:




When the house construction was complete, they proceeded to play with their Lego people for hours. I didn't overhear too much, but my favorite part was hearing Mass being said for the little Lego guys!

10 months and counting...

MPD was 10 months old this past Thursday.
Slow down, MPD! This is going much too fast!





As you can see, I had trouble choosing the single best picture to commemorate this event.