Simmering.

Thank you to Bearing for linking to this free pdf booklet by Fr. Longenecker on St. Benedict for Busy Parents.  I have been so desperate for something to read . . . desperate enough to crack the pages of White Fang, which does not interest me in the least, but it’s on my shelves for certain schoolchildren, and what else was I going to read?  Now I’ve got 25 pages of reprieve from that monster.

–> The library is right out, because I absolutely cannot keep track of one more thing right now, and the library means about twenty more things, all hidden under mattresses and stuck behind dressers by the time the third renewal comes around.  Sometimes, being a person who is simply not interested in television is maybe not all it’s cracked up to be.  Even if actually Eric Sammons is right.  (He is.)

****

In other news, if you had were one of the people (contacted privately) praying for the best dog in the world in her recent illness, she is home and looking  a little better.  Looks like a case of thyroid gone AWOL, guess that happens to middle-aged ladies of many species.  Venison and rice and a big bone boiling on the stove for her now, the rest of us I think are having frozen pizza.

Christian Art

Gryphon Rampant Grapic Arts.  Exceedingly cool.  Click and go see.

–> Link courtesy of John McNichol, source of much coolness, whom had I had the great pleasure of meeting during the momcation.  It will not surprise you to learn that the lovely Mrs. McNichol is herself a delightfully interesting catholic-mom person, as I had long suspected.

***

And as long as we’re doing a celebrity round-up, Bishop Elizondo, who confirmed the nieces, Wow!  What a guy.   I generally  do not go in for clergy-watching, but my goodness that man has a gift.   Very happy.  Spot-on.  Real pleasure to have been there.

And yes, that was *my* niece arguing with him when he quizzed the kids during the homily. Makes an aunt proud.  (I told her she did the right thing.  Cause she did.  Good girl that one.)

 

 

 

the child who is determined to hate Kolbe

Yesterday after I dropped the kids off for Grandma time, a little voice told me to visit the other crack dealer Educational Wonderland.  Sure enough, they had cool little wipe-off books of math facts games and drills for the little guys (yes, I gave my daughter math books for her birthday — she was thrilled), and these:

So today I was thumbing through the new history books, and a certain rising 4th grader comes along and picks one up. “Oh.  Those are the terrible KOLBE books.”  Disgust.  Horror.  How could your mother do this to you?!

“No, darling.  Those are the books I got for you to do instead of the Kolbe book.”

“Oooh!”  Picks up book again.  Actually looks at it.  “Hey, this looks fun!”

Yes dear.  After enough years of living with you, I begin to have a clue, thank you.

–>  I found this year that I really like having all four kids on the same subject.  Not necessarily the same books, just the same general topic.  So for the coming year, I signed up both big kids for Kolbe’s Ancient Rome study, which the boy has already started reading for fun, and the girl is determined to hate, on account of it being called Famous Men of Rome.

Emphasis on Men.  She is not interested in Men.  Plus it is Kolbe, and we all know that Kolbe is Evil.  Even though we have never ever tried it, and plus it looks eerily like what we already study.  But it is to be hated.

Anyhow the plan is for the boy to whiz through the set plan, which he will complain is too easy and plus he already read the book this summer and why does he have to do the dumb workbook, blah blah blah, and look, here’s an Osprey book, let’s read that instead, yes dear on your free time you may.  (And he will.)

The craft-loving 4th grader I’m going to let do the Pockets books first.  Q1 she gets to be the teacher and take the littles through Ancient Civilizations.  That’s only 7 pockets, so 7 weeks, and the last two weeks of the quarter she’ll do some timeline work and then write me a report, which will bring up the grade-level to more her age.  Q2, littles will work through some other ancient Rome / Greece items with me, and my Kolbe-hating darling will do the Ancient Rome Pockets book, which will fill the quarter.

Q3 & Q4 she will finally have to buckle down and be serious, and do Q1 &2 of Famous Men per the Kolbe course plans.  Which should be easier having had the intro in the fall.  If she wants she can read the rest of the book in her free time.  Yes, I will totally let a 4th grader master only half of the history of the Roman Empire.  She’ll see it again one day.  Plus she’ll have the motivation of trying to get a higher score on the test than her brother did.  Which will definitely motivate her.

Went ahead and wrote up next year’s plans for the littles, who are still on the library-book method (not Kolbe — I do too much subbing out at that age, we’d only go crazy).  For science, sticking to my ‘everyone studies the same thing’ approach, I went through the 4th grade science course plans from Kolbe, and assigned the littles to study each week whatever topic the 4th grader will be covering.  So that will be a double bonus, in that they can sit in on her science experiments, and she’ll have a bunch of easy library books sitting around that cover the same thing she is learning in her horrible no-good very bad science book.  (That I think she will like.)

–> If I weren’t worried about the good of various eternal souls, and plus having told the whole internet that lying is wrong, I’d just tell her it wasn’t the Kolbe book, and then she’d love it for sure.

[Mr. Boy will be happy to do science all on his own.  I didn’t try to rope him into the coordinating thing for that.]

So we’ll see how that goes.  I’m hopeful.

****

I’m off tomorrow for ten days of Momcation, visiting the nieces who have the good sense to go to school.  Assuming my abandoned children don’t hack into the blog to show the world their atrocious grade-level spelling, expect blog silence here.  If you are desperate for goofing off in my absence, you can check my side bar links and tell me which ones have gone bad — I found one already, and no I haven’t fixed it yet.

Otherwise, enjoy the quiet.  That’s what I’ll be doing.  And have a blessed Memorial Day.

the weather. wow. weather.

At my house today, NOAA forecasts this:

Hot.

Just “hot”.  That’s all they have to say.  High of 97 — even I don’t call it “warm”.  (90 is warm.  Up to 95 is quite warm.  97 is firmly in the “hot”.)  That isn’t water you see in the picture, it is a mirage.  We’ve been seeing them on the highway since the middle of May.

Come Saturday I fly out to Vancouver, WA for the neices’ confirmations, so I go check what NOAA predicts before I start packing.  I learn seven different ways to say “It’s going to rain”.  And, by the way, the high will be, mmn, not very high.   I think I can leave the shorts home.

–> Funny, I had planned to wear the exact same outfit to this confirmation that I wore to the one at my parish in February.  But I think I need to find something a tad warmer.

***

Meanwhile, am cleaning the house in an effort to fool the babysitter about our housekeeping standards.  I doubt it will work, but a girl can hope.  Don’t know how much internet-writing I’ll be doing during the momcation, so if you don’t hear from me, yes, I did drop off the edge of the earth.  Or I guess technically, I’ll be paddling around just shy of the edge.

Rant of the Day – Romance

Gwen rants so I don’t have to. Topic is romance novels, Christian and not.

***

But here’s my rant: Parenting, marriage, and yes, NFP literature that sets up ideal-husband jobs.  As if the measure of a man were whether he wrote down your temperature for you every morning. (No, really honey, just go yell at kindly remind the kids to make themselves breakfast, I’ll write down my own temp, thanks.  In this nice quiet room AWAY from the noisy people.)

A major moment for us in the first weeks of parenting, was the discovery that TWO sleep-deprived parents was a very, very bad idea.  Much better for ONE parent (the lactating one) to be up all night with young Mr. Screechy.  The other adult could thus be rational and productive during daylight hours, and provide actual useful help.  Do you really want pointers on how to change a diaper at 3 AM?  No.  Better not to have the spouse “helping out” at that time.

[In our marriage.  Maybe some couples prefer the share the duty.  For us, it was a recipe for colicky grow-ups.]

I don’t mind helpful ideas.  I am forever indebted to the Mother’s Rule of Life lady for teaching me to get the coffee-maker set up the night before.  Not that I am organized enough to do that, but at least now I know.  But all this “a good husband would . . .” or a “a good wife should . . .” just sets the stage for smoldering resentment.

***

Ahem.  And this has nothing to do with how I forgot my anniversary.  Again.  And the boy’s birthday as well.  It’s a busy month.  I made dinner for people, that’s pretty good, right?

Ordinary life . . .

. . . is time consuming.  FYI no drama here, all just ordinary goodness.  I’ll re-emerge soon.  Meanwhile: Grammar.  And Math.  And, er, swimming.  Yep.  Swimming. So you see why I’m busy.

***

But you needed someone to pray for, right?  Please pray for a couple having marital difficulties, and their two teenagers.  A miracle would not go amiss.  God is fully informed of the details.  Thanks!

Actually, make that two couples.  Two miracles.

Or three.  I’m remembering another one.

And you probably know some others.  Difficult century for marriage, that’s for sure.

recycled church buildings

This is why we remove the stain glass from closed parishes, as Father V. explained here.

[FYI: I actually like modern architecture.  Much of it, anyhow.  Although this happened to us this morning – Superhusband and I sitting in adjacent rooms, e-mailing each other.  Smart man.  It’s not that I’m not a morning person.  It’s that I want the morning all to myself, and nobody else making noise in it.]

Insomnia Hazards

Wednesday afternoon I think I accidentally used regular instead of decaf.  Someone maybe should consider “reading the label” as a useful habit, hmmn.  So about midnight I got out of bed, roamed around a little, and landed on what I was sure would be the perfect cure:

Diagramming Sentences. Don't Let It Keep You Up at Night.

 

It didn’t work.  I read the WHOLE THING.  And learned how to diagram, I might add.  Nicely done book, highly recommended.

Then I skimmed the New Missal Latin book, also pulled from our box of Kolbe-ware, and then I was able to go to sleep.  Sneaky coffee, causing me to be educated.

But here’s the worst part.  So the next afternoon, I was writing up my little entry for the campground blog, and you’ll never believe what happened me: I felt compelled to put both a subject and a verb into every sentence.

You can see it has worn off now.  But wow, for a while it was close.  Careful what you read.  It could mess with your grammar.

****

Funny grammar story: Once I refused to sign a petition, because it did not contain complete sentences.  I couldn’t figure out what it was we were demanding.  I inquired, but my fellow activist was strangely silent.  I think he decided he didn’t need a rabble-rouser on his team after all.

My Thursday Reading.

Links Round-Up today:

John McNichol has up part 1 and part 2 of the Argument from Design for explaining God’s existence.  The man breathes apologetics for teens.  It’s as if he does this for a living or something.

Mrs. Darwin has a cautionary tale about writing. If it seems like people wrote better books in the past, it’s because you haven’t been made to read them all. I buy vintage books from thrift stores — I know.  She tells the truth.  (That said: I have found some absolute treasures in catholic non-fiction that are now out of print.  Kills me.)

–> Mrs. D goes on to share Betty Duffy’s happy news, which is why Mrs. Duffy’s writing career is apparently again on hold for procreation.  (Congratulations!).  I’m so there.  (Not pregnant, just educating people.)  Ever used the expression, “Don’t you have anything better to do?” to criticize somebody?  When I think about my vocation, that’s what I ask myself.  Is there something better I could be doing?  Well, I could put the kids in the school, any little ones in day care, and pursue a number of other more profitable and prestigious careers.  They’d be fun.  They’d be worthwhile.  They would be good work.  But none of them would be better.  I’m doing the best one.  The riskiest one, too.  But worth it.

Dorian reviews a nice Catholic music curriulum.  My two oldest did Kindermusik one year, and it was great — huge help — and so I’m with Dorian.  These things are good. But here’s what, and follows my plea: I listened to the sample tracks.  They are quite musical.  But my fifth graders would fall apart laughing if I played one of those in class.  Yes they would.

Dear Music Publishers,

Please, please, oh please record a plain, boring, musically non-descript sing-along CD for use in catholic religious ed.  Miniscule ranges.  Transparent accompaniments.  NO CHORAL VOICES.  Sung by some lady (or guy) who sounds like a fifth grade teacher, not a Famous Musician.

Thank you.

Jennifer.

And if you haven’t bust out laughing like a 10 year old after listening the music samples (perhaps you are not a 10 year old?), read  this review of the IC’s Communion of Saints book by Allen’s Brain. It is funny.  The Communion of Saints series is even funnier.  Highly recommended.

 

I’m outta here. Happy Thursday.

 

Someone invent this, please: Leaf Net

Here’s the situation:

• I have trees in my yard.
• I like to use the fallen leaves for mulch.
• I do not like to hassle with elaborate procedures for shredding leaves.
• (No, I do not own a bag for my lawn mower.)
• But dried up leaves blow away — into the neighbors’ yards — if I just put them out unshredded and un-composted.

So what I want: Inexpensive biodegradable netting I can put over a layer of leaves to keep them in place, right there in the flower bed on the front lawn, until they compost all on their own.

And it needs to be a color that blends with the leaves so it doesn’t make my yard look really super ridiculous.  My yard looks ridiculous enough as is.

Go to it, inventors.

Thank you.