Pooped from Planning, Good Link for Tweens, Mom's Summer Reading

I read all of these when I was very young, and I remember them not at all as books but as things that happened to me.
-- John Steinbeck, Steinbeck's Ghost

I love to read. I love to turn to the back of a book and scan the end notes, peruse the bibliography and enjoy the look of the paper and printing. I fear reading a lost art and activity. It does not gratify instantly. To immerse oneself in a good narrative takes one away from oneself. Our oldest child has experienced this in her reading. The other two love to read as well. Yet, with all the seduction of many technologies surrounding them all, I see the potential for them entering the "dumbest generation". So much of what is wrong with our country currently relies on an illiterate, pagan populace so immersed in pop culture that they cannot think themselves out of the coming tyranny. (There is alot, at present, right with the country too...)

This year we are joining forces with other homeschooling parents and becoming involved in a hybrid school. The school, which meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays, is dedicated to one of the best educators ever to walk the planet, St. John Bosco. One big hope I bring to the upcoming year is that we will be more engaged by our curriculum. I am pooped from planning. Not that that will keep me from planning and keeping up with what the children are studying. This past year saw fits and starts, and a few short courses of good reading, good discussion and drawing and writing. I think it was more like sprinting. In the upcoming year, I'd like to see our academics as marathon training.

Our children are at pivotal years in their academic development -- 8, 11 and 13. Here is a wonderful link I found that reviews books for tween; the above quote is taken from the blog, Treasure Chest for Tweens.

Some of Mom's Summer reading:

To Kill A Mockingbird
Conchita
Theology of the Body for Teens
Aquinas's Shorter Summa
Minimus: Starting Out in Latin
Kentucky: A Pictorial History
Around Atlanta with Children
Chesterton's Heretics
Kon-Tiki

Faith and Mountains

We have lots going on, the most notable of which is that our house in Roswell is on the market and has a serious buyer! I have had such a time letting go and still get emotional about our move. (Not that we do not love the new neighborhood and the new house, but we lived in SRidge for over 15years, so all the memories and all the dear friends we have there just makes me well with tears.) So faith is believing in things hoped for and knowing that much of reality is unseen. Our beautiful, faith-filled daughter went to the Christian Music Fest at Stone Mountain Park. We capped off our day yesterday hoping to hike our little Sawnee Mountain here in Cumming as a family soon. Dad and son did so at a homeschool father-son hike a few weeks ago.

St. Augustine of Canterbury

I am going to read this link about St. Augustine of Canterbury tomorrow.

Back from Kentucky

We went to Kentucky for Memorial Day weekend and just got back. I am concocting a plan to get the kids reading more this summer. Soon I will post photos from the trip. We had an indoor picnic on Sunday and the kids spent lots of time with their grandparents and uncle. J and I had a date yesterday and ran into an old friend from our high school. The traffic was not so bad, and we discovered a new route in N. Georgia, a road filled with interesting little antique and gift shops, even a couple of country restaurants.

Tomorrow we are up at the crack of dawn to go to the orthodontist -- time flies when raising children!

Flower power...

My next-door neighbor and dear friend took this almost exactly a month ago as I was heading out to a TORCH MNO ("Mother's Night Out") with a garden theme. This has been one of the most active months we have ever had. We are not a high-octane family, yet, you'd think, with this past month's calendar that we were. Through it all, we have steadily been fixing up our old house and unpacking the new. The restful moments have often come while napping, reading, writing, praying, cooking, cleaning, watching the children scooter in the cul-de-sac and lots of planting in, what is coming together as a very colorful backyard garden. JB and I have planted: pansies, gardenias, Irish moss, purple heart, dianthus, red thyme, creeping Jenny, flashy tickweed, a yellow-flowered broom plant, lavender, Rosemary and many others.

I will be the gladdest thing...Under the sun!I will touch a hundred flowers...And not pick one.~Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Afternoon on a Hill"

The Mary Month of May

The Holy Father's Intentions for the Month of May 2009
General: That Christians may use literature, art and the media to greater advantage to favour a culture which defends and promotes the values of the human person.
Missionary: That just as she accompanied the Apostles in the early stages of the Church, may the Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of Evangelization and Queen of Apostles, continue to guide missionaries throughout the world with maternal affection.


Most who know me know that I converted to Catholicism when I was 33. Like many drawn to what the early Church called "The Way," I work out my salvation in fear (that is really awe) and trembling (my shaky "fallen flesh"). The move and adjusting has been harder than I thought, in some ways, and easier in ways that I did not expect. I just looked up the Holy Father's intentions for May and, in preparation for our homeschooling coop May Crowning, I am looking at the liturgy this month over here.



Lord Jesus, teach me how to evangelize. Help me to ask your Holy Mother more often to intercede for me, for my family and for the whole world.



I posted some photos here on "Uncontrolled Fits of Harmony," our hschool blog.

Vicissitudes defined and lived...

VICISSITUDE a change in fortune or in a situation, esp. for the worse, from the Latin vicissitudo.

I always thought this word meant simply the ups and downs of life, the peaks and valleys, the ins and outs, ups and downs. I was wrong. Good thing I looked it up. Well, maybe another dictionary has another meaning.

Life never changes just for the worse...you know, the whole "blessing in disguise" thing. It does seem that trouble comes in groups....down to farther down to in very deep. Often, when we are in the midst of tribulation, we say to ourselves, "Well, this is okay because without this pain, I won't really appreciate pleasure again."

That is the secular view. A practicing Catholic sees pain and suffering as with us always. We are not on the continual downslope ever. Joy and pain cooexit in time. As a wise woman I know likes to say, "It is all good." Eternity looms more present than we realize and offers the chance to breathe and laugh and live, even as we mourn our losses.

So, I was thinking of the gift of faith, why some have it and some reject it. Others, like me, accept it, but struggle to possess it as God would have us possess it. Like all moms, I am winding our academic year down, trying to discern plans for the upcoming academic year 2009-10. Educating children and young people is an adventure, an adventure on which I would not want to embark without the gift of faith. This Saturday, God willing, at our parish, in celebration of our young son's First Holy Communion, we will sing:

...Melt the clouds of Sin and Sadness; Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness, Fill us with the light of day!

Getting back in the groove...

Blogged over here today. We are watching World War II movies.

Photo essay -- Lent and Easter 2009

Easter blessings -- I am back!

Did anyone notice I was missing? Ha ha. Moving is hard work. It is getting easier. I was so busy cleaning, packing, hauling, unpacking, putting away, taking out, putting away again...well, whew...I can highly recommend moving from a house you've inhabited for nearly 15 years as a most appropriate Lenten activity. That's all I'm sayin' ...as that way I can try hard to offer it up to our sweet Savior, though He really needs nothing from poor ole me.

The blessings: found lots of stuff that I'd forgot I had, tried to detach from stuff, even though it seemed it was all about the stuff...have found, so far, that our greatest blessing is not the house, while it is grand and swell...It is our wonderful band of cul-de-sac friends. The neighbors here are fast becoming good friends. There are boys for our son to play with. The dogs love the yard. The girls love the kitchen and the room to have sleep overs. Dad is so very content with his new office and basement, that is more of garden apartment than a basement. I love the front porch first and the kitchen a close second.

We celebrated our cousin's bday on Sat and a lovely Easter luncheon with our dear family friends, Lisa and Tom and their kiddos. Alleluia! He is Risen! May we pray hard and work hard, so as to live for Eternity! One thing I thought about alot, as I undertook a blogging and facebooking hiatus over Lent, was this -- every thought, every action -- it all matters to God. We all know the saying "you play, you pay". I am really one to mess around, to talk and fritter away my time.

It is not my time. It belongs to Another. I wish I could truly live this reality to its fullest. I have no illusions about myself. I am weak flesh. I have a good heart, but I need more discipline. The discipline of Lent does involve some courage. I crept out of bed just at sunrise on Easter Sunday, drove to Mass to a parish I'd never entered. I realized how warm and accompanied I felt even though I was cold and alone. I love Jesus, the Christ. He died for me, weak sinner that I am. I continue to offend Him and He keeps loving me, through His faithful and through His Church. He offers Himself humbly in the Eucharist to transform our weak flesh. His Body and Blood in the Eucharist ought to rock us to the core. I love the Blessed Virgin, as she is Queen of Angels; while, at the same time, being a very intimate mother to all her children. She grieves at the sin in the world. She teaches us to be more sensitive to personal sin, to work hard to approach her Son as we ought. I wish I had the words to properly express the quiet and deep satisfaction I felt this past weekend with the end of Lent 2009.

A very fun and fat Fat Tuesday

We really lived high on the hog today with meaty meals and lots of play, talk, organizing and packing with Rach and her kiddos. Tivo and Tyler were a dynamic husky duo and Tanner got worn out fast. J, JB and A stuffed themselves and came to lunch all fattened up, laughing and bouncing off the walls and each other. We ate cheese eggs, sausage and whole wheat bagels with good apricot jam. We drank coffee early and tea later. Rach got us really organized and ready for the move. She packed and packed. Later, JB and Mom packed lots more and then everyone ate more -- spicy boneless chicken wings and pizza from Dominos with soda, as a special treat. This is our third year in a row to really live it up at home for Mardi Gras...usually we have King Cake and decorate with the festive gold, green and purple.

"...Be strong, fear not!"

From Isaiah and in the daily meditation on Catholic Culture's website. Our Little Man is 8 yrs young today. He is such a strong, faithful boy. I wish him this gift of the Holy Spirit -- the good and holy fear of the Lord -- because it is indeed the beginning of holy wisdom.

We are off for a busy day, a special day.