Fall & Beginning of the School Year Daybook

Outside my window... it is a cool, sunny Sunday. I am thankful for... the lazy family time we're enjoying this weekend, thanks to Mary being sick and the rest of us fighting it off. I can't remember the last time we all hung out at home all day. I am hoping for... continued peace & joy about our homeschooling path this year. We are enjoying our new schedule after a long spring & summer of researching, discerning, planning, & some experimenting. A big part of this year is Classical Conversations for us. We are commuting to a community 50 min away in Oklahoma! It is completely worth it and makes for a great day for us. It is very fun while adding a lot of desired structure for us and can serve as a springboard for so much work at home together. On my mind... Jesse's career and next position post-Air Force. He has options and we are so grateful, especially because it looks like God is opening doors for a non-traditional schedule in the near future. Noticing that... 1) Jude is growing up, picking up on adult things about the world & becoming increasingly more responsible, 2) John Paul is in the nine year old broody phase & loving playing soccer again, 3) Mark is loving "kindergarten" this year & playing his first season of soccer, and 4) Mary is her usual perceptive & precocious self, doing her best to keep up with her brothers. A few plans for the month... October will begin with Mary's hernia repair surgery in Ft. Worth. Then, we have two fun trips: Jesse & the boys will finally go on a Father/Son Camp Out again and we will all finally go on our long-awaited Big Bend trip with Mimi. From the bookshelves... Mary is learning her letter names & sounds with Elizabeth Foss' Alphabet Path. Mark is learning to read with Little Stories for Little Folks from CHC. (I really love most of their early elementary stuff and am using a lot of it with the littles this year.) The older two & I have enjoyed re-visiting Redwall this month as part of our Brave Writer language arts curriculum. We're using old copies of BW's "The Arrow" covering some of their favorite books for a fun source of copy work & dictation material, as well as a springboard for our discussions of writing & literary devices. They are each using a different math curriculum this year, still Saxon for one and Oak Meadow for the other. (If I had to use one accredited curriculum to appease my state or my husband- which I don't in either case- I think I would use Oak Meadow. I love their project-based yet still challenging curriculum.) In the kitchen... is our last CSA box of this season, including fresh black-eyed peas that Jesse cooked with bacon as part of dinner last night. I am creating... a healthier me by working out regularly, although my back is really hurting again this weekend for the first time in a few months. I completed my first sprint triathlon a couple weekends ago! The cycling has been a God-send for my back and helps it to feel so much better & stronger. I am also part of a new team at our parish working to create & publish our parish newsletter. On the Church calendar & in our home Church... October will bring some favorite feast days including the feasts of St. Francis and St. Jude. We will host our Catholic Home School Group's meeting on Our Lady of the Rosary so I have some planning to do for that... We will mostly read about, possibly over tea time, these saints on their days and include them in our prayers, asking their intercession. Fridays we focus on catechism lessons this year, although we try to really pray together every day. The older boys are doing Faith & Life on-line and that has been a great choice for them to help keep it more interesting & fun. Mark is narrating his way through The Gospels for Children and Mary has her own little My First Catechism, both published by Ignatius.

From St. (Padre Pio) Pius of Pietrelcina on his feast day...

Calm yourself and be quite certain that [the] shadows are not a punishment proportioned to your wickedness. You are not wicked, nor are you blinded by your own malice....What is this painful searching for God... which occupies you heart so incessantly? It is the effect of the love which draws you and the love which impels you.

Quick Takes

This is another of those forms of blog writing that I am borrowing, without linking up to the original "Quick Takes" blog (like my "Daybook" posts).  Aka. I am not pretending to have created this form of post.

1.

We are on a Spring Break of longish sorts, by plan and by circumstance.  We are learning many things:  listen to your body when it is sick and just rest some more; welcome unexpected family guests; patience while preparing the earth for spring planting when the weather fluctuates as much as it does in north Texas.

2.

Today is the Feast of St. Joseph!  A burst of feast day food and fun in Lent for all of us.  It is an old European Catholic tradition (Italian?)  to bake special bread today.  For the hard-working breadwinner St. Joe in our family,  I am going to make the super-easy bread he loves that is so very appropriate for him: beer bread.  :)

3.

We have a couple new horses: Joker (a blondish POA) and Rocky (another LARGE QHOA, "traded" the one we had for him). 

Men and horse names... not my husband 's names, in these cases.

4. 

We are planning a LEGO birthday party for this weekend.  Need to do some research & send some texts.  And plan for Homeschool Group at our house even sooner.  We want to do something to celebrate the election of Pope Francis!  Habemus Papum!!

5.

Speaking of on-line research, I am obsessed with homeschool research right now.  This is how I think through where we are, where we're going.  We are at a new juncture- everyone home, lots of growth in good ways, honeymoon phase over though.  Ha.  I find myself slowly but surely relaxing, dare I write it- tending toward "tidal schooling," as Melissa Wiley dubbed it.  That seems a natural rhythm to me, one we have already somewhat followed with longer Christmas and Easter breaks than traditional school and more work in the hot summer months.  However, it has been an ebb & flow that I have chosen.  I'm starting, trying to listen to the kids more about schedule, curriculum choices.  I'm starting to stop trying to please the everyone in my head, including the Homeschool Nay-sayers by trying to have the best of both worlds and give over to the sometimes messy, organic life that is homeschooling several children.  And I mean several, Miss Mary wants to DO so much already.  Girls. 

6.

My thoughts are that there remains so many needs to balance and that remain in tension (creative tension on good days, stressful tension on bad ones): littles/bigs, busy days/quiet days, run-around days/home days, home life/school work, marriage/school work, directed lessons because I do know more of what they need to learn/kid-centered fun learning because, well, they respond to this better.

7. 

For us, Montessori learning has always been an answer to many of the learning tensions.  So, I am researching that again, to incorporate more for the bigs again, too.  I've added several links in the sidebar.  And for the littles, we are slowly using the NAMC Primary Curriculum & materials in-a-box I posted about.  Lots of great stuff there...  Something entirely new to us is an idea from a friend to have the boys lead a couple of our subjects by being the ones to decide what we need to read for discussions, what projects to do, etc.  As I write this, I feel like we already do that with the fun projects for history & science, I guess I'm thinking to do this even more and with even more subjects.  It would be fun to have one of them come to me to tell me to do my reading for tomorrow's discussion.

Praying with St. Pat

This is a link to a good discussion of the famous prayer, St. Patrick's Breastplate.  It includes the entire prayer, as well as highlights the last part which, as that writer says, makes for a shorter, strong Morning Offering.  Good prayer material for this week of the Feast of St. Patrick (March 17), especially for those who have participated in CRHP since we used that prayer in Formation/Discernment.

On this Day of Love...

von Balthasar on Marriage:

What could be stronger than marriage, or what shapes any particular life-form more profoundly than does marriage? ... Marriage is that indissoluble reality which confronts with an iron hand all existence's tendencies to disintegrate, and it compels the faltering person to grow, beyond himself, into real love by modeling his life on the form enjoined.  [This form is the self-giving love of the communion of Divine Persons that is the Triune God.  MG]

When they make their promises, the spouses are not relying on themselves-- the shifting songs of their own freedom-- but rather on the form that chooses them because they have chosen it ....  As persons, the spouses entrust themselves not only to the beloved "thou" and to the biological laws of fertility and family; they entrust themselves foremost to a form with which they can wholly identify themselves even in the deepest aspects of their personality because this form extends through all the levels of life-- from its biological roots up to the very heights of grace and of life in the Holy Spirit.  And now, suddenly, all fruitfulness, all freedom, is discovered within the form itself, and the life of the married person can henceforth be understood only in terms of this interior mystery....


~Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar

January's Sad Anniversary

Before the month is completely over- 
Every January 22 marks another anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision.  Here is a link to a great piece on a long-time friend's blog.  They, too, are CCL NFP teachers. 

NFP & adoption.  There are alternatives.  Question abortion.  (As the Feminists For Life say.)

Winter 2012-13 Daybook

Outside my window it is… beautiful today.  Bright though cool.

I am thankful for #755 on my official, original list. "Jesse's love for me- flowers!" it reads, but I have also been jotting them on the notepad on my phone and in a paper journal more recently.  In my paper journal, I haven't been numbering them consecutively, but grouping them instead.  This month I took time to list "2013 Gratitude" and #20 reads "all the bedrooms worked on."  Gotta love new year organizing, even a tiny bit of it!

I am hoping and praying for… my sister and some friends with health issues right now.  Also for one friend who is fostering three siblings.  And another who is nearing the end of her first! pregnancy- so exciting for her family.

On my mind… our new homeschool rhythm: M & M are no longer going to the pre-school at our parish a couple times a week.  It was great while it lasted but I have felt God calling me to center us all at home together during our days, especially with the increased running to activities we do at night now.  I'm giving this my all in hopes of discerning God's will for the long term for us more clearly.

Noticing that the kids… seem happy with our new rhythm here at home.  Mary especially.  And I am, too, though adjusting to less quiet.

A few plans for the month… Actually a re-cap now that the month is ending: Jesse & I will talked with our parish RCIA group about marriage as Sacrament.  One older boy had a judo tournament out-of-town this month.  We bought season tickets to our local theatre as a family Christmas gift and went to our first show of the year this month.  We will continue to settle into our new rhythm of play and school work. 

From the bookshelves… I finished March this month.  So good.  In a disturbing, haunting way.  I find myself thinking about the Transcendentalists still.  And abolitionists as a group, especially because I caught some of "The Abolitionists" documentary series on PBS.  I would have been fascinated with them had I lived then.  I am now.  But back to March, I really enjoyed thinking about the family of Little Women from the adults' perspective.  We have watched the movie (with Winona Ryder, well-done I think) since I read this.  All my men (little & big) enjoyed it and one asked to read Little Men, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

In the kitchen… I have been baking a lot of our breads recently, super-breads made with whole wheat flour, wheat germ, and flax meal.  But not since getting sick mid-month so I need to get back on that...

On the Church calendar… well, we celebrated the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord so we are officially finished with the Christmas season and in Ordinary Time.  I have not been good about sharing our holiday and holy day celebrations lately...  I think because we were not home.  We traveled for Thanksgiving and it was non-stop busy so I took almost no photos.  Then, we traveled for Christmas, after Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at home, and I literally took no photos because we left in such a hurry in our attempt to beat the "blizzard" (This is a relative term.) that I left my camera at home (And we didn't beat it- we drove in it all the way!).  But I did get some shots of our Feast of St. Nick table.  This is when we do stockings and Santa, December 6.

The banner-looking things in the background were very fun Advent calendars, with a date-stamped envelope for each day that was filled with a treat, all made with love by a close family friend.  Christmas came early.

Something new I did this year was celebrate the kids' Baptism Days all together on the Sunday that was the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.   I used to be good about celebrating them throughout the year but since M & M, I have slacked off.  This year I pulled out their Baptism candles and our Family Book of Life with the memories & photos of all our Sacraments on this Sunday.  We reminisced about their Baptisms, ate white sugar cookies, and talked about the symbols of Baptism: light & the candles, water, the white garment.  I used our Advent wreath to hold the candles.  I think this is a fun way to teach kids about Baptism and is even more simple than doing individual Baptism Days.  I think the Baptism of the Lord always falls on the third Sunday after Christmas (1st Sun: Feast of the Holy Family; 2nd: Epiphany).  Correct me in the Comments if I am wrong!

Speaking of Epiphany, I also played catch-up that Sunday because I had not made a birthday cake for Baby Jesus yet.  I like to do this (like lots of others do) for at least a couple years when we have a toddler(s) because they really love birthdays and seem to "get" that Christmas is Jesus' birthday when they sing "Happy Birthday" to Baby Jesus and eat his cake.  This year we did that on Epiphany with our Epiphany "King Cake," where the cake has a tiny baby hidden & baked into it.  No pic of that but it is an old (probably Eurpean?) Catholic tradition.

Pictures I’m sharing…both from a north Texas Christmas.  :)  (And when do I get to claim to be Texan- is 17 years long enough??? I've now lived here as long as I lived/grew up in Maryland.  At least the kids can all legitimately claim to be Texans!)

This was still a leap for me to buy these but I have loved them!  I also really like English riding boots.  But one does not learn English riding from a New Mexican cowboy- husband.

All Saints Day & Living the Church calendar in Oct., part 2

We will be celebrating the Feast of All Saints a day late, on the Feast of All Souls, with our Catholic homeschool group and a party.  We are excited because it has been a couple years since we dressed up & really celebrated All Saints in style.  All the kids intend to dress up as their patrons: St. Jude, Bl. Pope JPII, St. Mark, and the Blessed Mother Mary.  (We decided for Mary, that is that she would follow the theme. :) )  This will be after they dress up for Halloween as a convict, an Indian, a lion, & a pumpkin princess, respectively.  I'll try to post pics of both sets of costumes.

In the meantime, here's a sweet prayer our DRE used in the RCIC class for All Saints:

The saints were really amazing, God;
their love for you was great.
They prayed and preached and spread your word,
even when faced with hate.
Helping, sharing, spreading grace,
they'd give their last dime.
Now they're blessed with the joy of heaven
until the end of time.

But the saints were still just people, too;
they sometimes did things wrong.
They doubted, worried, and sinned at times,
and didn't always get along.
So maybe there's still hope for me,
to be a named saint, too.
Lord give me strength to try again,
so I can live with you.

Amen.

from Catholic Prayer Book for Children, edited by Julianne M. Will

Living the Church calendar: October, part 1

So, October started with a bang for us with the cold-from-hell-coupled-with-strep everyone being sick.  I do intend to regularly post helpful links to the year-long family liturgical calendar post (from our Prayer Book in progress) that I wrote earlier this school year...  New thoughts are in "October orange" along with my original post excerpted below.


October--
1. Feast of St. Therese

She is a special saint for me because she was introduced to me by two close friends in college who loved her and really lived/live her "Little Way."  Both claim her as special patronness because their middle names are Therese.  We all visited Lisieux together during our Rome semester and it was then that I learned there is so much more to this smart, strong, and holy woman than the sappy sweet ways we often refer to her.  The book below is  great for getting to know her in this way.  And while the website I linked to below does not mention the rose St. Therese sends to those who ask fo rher intercession, I have always found her to be generous in fulfilling that promise.
Start or finish the unique and beautiful Rose Novena of St. Therese, a favorite among Catholic women for generations, found in this prayer book. An atypical treatment of this young & innocent saint whose "Little Way" of spirituality is anything but sappy sweet & weak can be found in the book Shirt of Flame: A Year with St. Therese of Lisieux, by Heather King. 

2. Feast of the Guardian Angels
Another good day to bake an angel food cake to celebrate and give thanks for God's provision and protection for us in His angels.
I always buy boxed cake mixes- what can I say? They are good & cheap.

4. Feast of St. Francis Take your family pets to the "Blessing of the Animals" held at many parishes on this day, in honor of this saint of radical material & spiritual poverty who was so peaceful that it is said he could communicate with animals. Or bless your animals at home as a family with a simple spontaneous prayer.
We did bless our pets at home this year in three groups: inside pets: Jude's gerbil & mouse, outside pets (dog &cats), and farm animals: chickens & horses.  We used this blessing that I found on a holy card in an on-line Catholic shop (author not credited):

In your infinite wisdom, Lord God, when You created the Universe You blessed us with living creatures.  We especially thank You for giving us our pets who are our friends and who bring us so much joy in life.  Their presence very often helps us get through trying times.  Kindly bless my pet.  May my pet continue giving me joy and remind me of Your power.  May we realize that as our pets trust us to take care of them, so we should trust You to take care of us, and in taking care of them we share in Your love for all creatures.  Enlighten our minds to preserve all endangered species so that we may continue to appreciate all of Your creations.  Grant this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. Francis patron of those who study & care for the earth, ecologists, pray for us!

There's a reason...

... I already had a tag for Caryll Houselander.  The editors of Magnificat coupled this reflection of hers with a recent daily Gospel reading from Luke 12: 35-38.  (I'm noticing a theme of anxiety/depression in my last couple posts.  It is on my mind, not for myself right now although I have & can struggle with it, but because of a few loved ones who are suffering with it.)

Stop trying to think out a solution for the moment: there isn't one.  One day there may be; God will then show it to you.  In the meantime, accept it all as being the big thing for God and his Church that he asks of you- that, and the depression too.  You will find the relief of merely accepting, instead of struggling, wonderful; and I include in this, accepting anything in yourself, during the crisis, which seems to you a failure or a fault.  Don't exonerate yourself, but just say you are sorry, briefly, to God, and add that your name is dirt- that's what is to be expected from you- but you're sorry, you are forgiven, and it is over...

Book notes: Edith Stein, A Biography:

Our MOMS ENDOW study on JPII's "Letter to Women" has been discussing the influence of Edith Stein, philospher, convert, teacher, Carmelite, mystic, & martyr on the development of the Catholic "New Feminism."  She was my Confirmation saint and seems to be one of those saints who finds me when I need her to teach me something.  Our ENDOW study sent me back to this biography that has been on our shelves here at home but that I hadn't ever read.  Here's a collection of quotes from it so far that continue to make me think:

The one thing a person needs to keep doing is to try live out his chosen vocation with an ever-increasing honesty and purity, to make it an acceptable oblation for those with whom he is united.

If, up to now, a person has been more or less contented with himself, the time for that is over.  He will do what he can to change the unpleasant things he finds in himself, but he will discover quite a bit that can't be called beautiful and yet will be nearly impossible to change.  As a result he will slowly become small and humble, increasingly patient and tolerant toward specks in his brothers' eyes, now that he has so much trouble with the beam in his own.  Eventually, he'll be able to look at himself in the unblinking light of the divine presence and learn to entrust himself to the power of the divine mercy.

It is faith in our hidden stories that ought to console us when what we see externally in ourselves and in others tends to depress us.