Quotes for a Friday

"We ought to be persuaded that what God refuses to our prayer, He grants to our salvation."

~~ St. Augustine (with thanks to MyCatholic.com for their daily quotes from saints)

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"Every heart has its secret sorrows which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad."

~~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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"Wow, now I know why moms are always so tired! And why it's so hard to get anything done!"

~~ Betsy, after babysitting the 2-4 year olds during a Moms' Group hosted here

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"Sometimes I just wish my hands were tissues."

~~ Ramona, after a sneeze and sniffle

All Hallow's Eve!

An update from the archives:

Sunday is All Saints Day. I love the feast of All Saints, because it fills me with hope.

On All Saints, we feel the power of inclusion in this great cloud of witnesses and we experience the hope and anticipation of one day joining them in God's presence.

And about All Hallow's Eve?

Well, for the record, we are a family that does Halloween.

It's become quite the Daddy-daughter thing over the years. Atticus and the girls plot out the best candy routes (amidst much giggling.) I emphasize the Catholic roots and connections (we read about "souling" or "soul caking") and we often refer to Halloween as  "All Hallow's Eve" to reinforce what it really is.

We talk about both All Saints Day and All Souls Day as they approach, we discuss why we don't want to do evil-looking costumes, and we plan our evening around Mass.

And then we have the chocolate-related fun.

After Mass, the kids don their costumes.  And yes, I'm wearing my usual costume -- I always go as a homeschooling mom (but no one ever guesses what I am, can you imagine?)  We often trick-or-treat at the local convent -- the sisters love to have visitors, and it's fun to see the elderly sisters, especially, take such joy in children.

Then, we execute The Plan: Candy Galore. Door to door, neighbors we know, family time. We used to go together, when the kids were younger.  The last couple of years, Atticus and I have taken turns taking the kids out. They say, "Thank you! God bless you!" to everyone and the reactions range from delight and surprise to odd looks.  Anne-with-an-e has outgrown trick-or-treating, of course, so she now helps me hand out candy while Atticus leads the Chocolate Brigade.

And, yes, we eat lots of candy. I let them eat it for breakfast the next day and I rarely give any of it away or complain that it causes cavities. We just enjoy it. That's what feast days are for, as noted in this fun article by Jeffrey Tucker.

One year, Ramona observed, "You can never have too much candy."

I replied, "Well, sometimes you can have too much at a time, but ...."

"But," Ramona said solemnly, "you can never own too much candy."

Not on All Saints Day anyway.

It is indeed a day to celebrate.

Fun with Linkage

Things I've stumbled on recently:

I love sites like Parent Hacks. Who could not find it lovable to stumble on a site that is excited about the variety of uses for denture tabs? Or, that shares this post heading: Fun toilet cleaning? Use baking soda and vinegar!

Yup. Any site that will will combine the words "fun" with "toilet cleaning" and make the whole thing exclamation-point-worthy is my kind of site. This is my realm.

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The Word Detective

I get tingly just at the name of this one. (Don't mock me. After "fun with toilet cleaning" I would think that playing around with language could be considered an admirable hobby.)

We found this site when I was looking for the answer to my kids' question: "If what we call 'cookies' are 'biscuits' in England, then what do they call biscuits?"

We eventually went straight to our source on all-things-England, The Bookworm. She explained that biscuits are basically scones. Then we asked what they call scones, since when we think of scones, we imagine (and consume) something much sweeter than a biscuit. She replied that perhaps we're just eating "scones gone wrong" and that across the pond they have sweet or savory biscuits, but nothing exactly like this.

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And now, unbelievably, I am out of blogging time for this morning. (That linkage always takes longer than you think it will.)

I will leave you with my favorite recent Google searches that somehow brought people to my blog:

"Existential Crisis Mother" (Yes. Sadly. That's me.)

"Objective of Chocolate" (Huh-what? You don't know that? Chocolate is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. I know that Ben Franklin actually said that about beer, but it applies to the objective of chocolate as well.)

"Every name ... is a lightning stroke to some heart"

"Every name ... is a lightning stroke to some heart, and breaks like thunder over some home, and falls a long black shadow upon some hearthstone." -- from a Gettysburg newspaper, a few days after the battle

See this link for the quote, in context, in George Will: Gettysburg as it deserves to be remembered.

(h/t: Atticus)

Did I coin a word?

Google it. Kidterrupted. I used it in this post. I think that word is mine for keeps.

Unless -- is it possible? -- Google is not, after all, the be-all and end-all of all recorded history. Hmmm ....

They just don't make 'em like they used to

Awhile back, I wrote about how much we love the Martha and Charlotte Books, and about how we grieved to see them undergo abridgment surgery. These books have become part of our shared family history.

It's currently on my mind, because I'm reading the Martha Books to Ramona. This is to be her "Little House" year, and she was adamant that we start at the very beginning. I was going to alternate Martha books with Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, but Ramona would have none of it. After the first Martha book, she insisted that we read the whole series with nothing else in between.

We finished Little House in the Highlands one evening last week, while Anne-with-an-e and Betsy were out with Atticus. When the girls got home, they were shocked and dismayed that I'd had the gall to finish it without them.

"But Duncan is awesome in that last chapter! I love that chapter!"

"I know," I said. "He really is a great brother, isn't he?"

"Uh, yeah! I can't believe you didn't wait for us to get home!"

I felt awful -- as if I'd let them sleep through Christmas morning, and later told them, "We didn't think you'd mind if we opened your presents."

Because, as much as my older girls have said they didn't need to sit down for every, single reading of Little House in the Highlands and The Far Side of the Loch (which we just finished tonight) because they know these stories inside and out, somehow they keep drifting into the room when I read. They laugh and reminisce and then begin speaking in lovely Scottish brogues.

I remember our enchantment when we first discovered the books, and it delights me to share them all over again with Ramona, whose eyes lit up when she realized that Martha, in the first book, is exactly six years old, a Ramona kind of age. To watch my youngest daughter laugh, and get the jokes, and then become serious at all the right moments, especially when Martha loses her beloved Lady Flora doll, to see Ramona nod in solemn understanding when the author so skillfully describes what grief feels like to a six-year-old ... well, I don't have to tell you how lovely that is, even though I just did.

If you're hoping to find unabridged copies of the books, there are still some out there, and Melissa Wiley points you toward them in this post.

And next up for us? Ramona can't wait to start Down to the Bonny Glen. Her brogue is getting better every day.

Poetry Friday ... like the things of man

Apparently I am often in a Hopkins mood in October. This poem always makes me feel sad and hopeful at the same time.

As a Christian, I know that my mortality is not ultimately something to mourn, though there will be mourning along the way. There is always mourning along the way.

But my mortality, while the cause of tears, is also the cause of my joy.


Spring and Fall
to a young child

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By & by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep & know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

The Poetry Friday roundup today is at Big A little a.

Soul Searching

Today, we had one of our discussions about our faith. We were talking about souls, and about the differences between angels and human beings. And, somehow, this is where we ended up:

Betsy: When I was little, I thought that our souls looked like x-rays. I thought they were like this body-shaped lining, just under our skin.

Ramona: When I was little, I always thought of our souls as heart-shaped. And kind of thin and clear. And they had blond hair.

Anne-with-an-e: Ummm ... I'm pretty sure my soul is brunette.

With apologies to tidy bachelors

Betsy: Eewww! Ralph [editor's note: our hamster] is so gross! He poops in the same place he eats.

Anne-with-an-e: Well, he's a guy.

Betsy: Well, not all guys do that.

Anne-with-an-e: But he's a bachelor.

How Schoolife is going here

Or, is it, "How Lifeschool is going"?

You know that we like to use real life to teach, and we like to teach things in the context of real life. That doesn't mean we never use curriculum (we do, and some of it follows), but rather that we use a mix of methods, and often we find a great deal of our education happening in the everyday.

Here are some of the things we've been learning about of late.

Science:

Deer. They are crepuscular. They enjoy playing tackle sports with teachers who are driving to work early in the morning. Isn't crepuscular a great word?

Anne-with-an-e is doing a science course from the Teaching Company, on biology and human behavior. We both find it fascinating, and it also offers great opportunities to discuss the relationship between the physical world and our faith, and between faith and reason.

We also think that Atticus, living in a house with four females, might be qualified to teach his own course on the relationship between biology and behavior. Ahem.

Betsy is loving Janice VanCleave's Chemistry for Every Kid and Ramona is loving the role of Betsy's lab partner. Today, we have pennies turning green.

Life skills:

Insurance 101: Related to, you know, that deer thing.

Organizational skills: Because when you are living with one vehicle, you necessarily become better at organizing time, trips to the store, errands, etc. Related to, you know, that deer thing.

Depending on the kindness of friends: Because, when one car is in the body shop, and then the other vehicle starts leaking something and has to go to the mechanic, you might have to call on a friend. (Related to, you know ....)

Novel writing:

Both Anne-with-an-e and Betsy are writing novels. They are not far into their literary works yet, but I'm eager to see what they come up with. Anne-with-an-e is writing something about a werewolf, and Betsy has created an ancient world peopled with characters who bear allegorical names and fight evil.

I use their writing to teach grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and so on. Also, I use it to discuss the difference between fun and boring in a fantasy series (just kidding, but do see Jennifer this morning for a very funny post about Twilight, which fell under the "I can't even finish this" category for Anne and me. Oh, how weary we grew of Edward's eyes!)

And now, the crepuscular time of day is past, and I am out of time.

Geography games

A friend recently mentioned this site to me, and then a member of the local homeschooling group passed on the link.

Place the State requires you to drag and drop the state into the right spot on a completely blank U.S. map. It's a challenge to be that exact!

Lots of other free games at Sheppard Software, too. (The site is loaded with ads -- not thrilled about the Zwinky ones -- so be aware.)

We're all Norm

from Cheers.

That's what cyberspace is.

Cyberspace, the blog-o-sphere, whatever you want to call it, is that ideal bar that doesn't exist. I mean, really. Did any of us buy that such a neighborhood bar could exist? Someplace you could mosey into any time of the day or night and find your closest, wittiest friends? Always someone there you liked, could talk to, or fall in love with?

In real life, friends are off having a life, spending time with their kids, working real jobs, visiting their in-laws, calling the insurance company, cleaning a toilet, or returning something at Target.

But, in the blog-o-sphere, no one has to actually be in the bar at the same time you are. That's the beauty of it. You can drop in on the bar at midnight, when you have a few quiet moments, and even if all your favorite people are morning people who went to bed two hours ago, there they are. Right where everybody knows your name.

Such convenience. And smoke-free, too.

Grammar with Ramona

Awhile back, I was tucking Ramona into bed. We could hear her sisters giggling in the next room, as they settled in for popcorn and a movie.

Ramona sighed. "I wish I were they," she said.

I did a double-take. "Did you say, 'I wish I were they'?" I asked.

She became self-conscious. "Is that right?" she asked me. "Is that good grammar to say 'I wish I were they'?"

"Yes, sweetie," I said, "It's right. It's excellent. No problem."

She smiled serenely and snuggled down into the covers. "Well, I do wish I were they. They get to watch a movie. And I have to go to sleep."

And fall asleep she did, all the while wishing she were they.

Faboulas, dah-ling

The other day, when I grabbed a picture from Image Chef for my deer post (anyone else still a wee bit nervous on those roads out there?), Ramona was looking over my shoulder.

She asked if she could play with it, too. And, hey, why should we grown-up bloggers get to have all the fun? Here's what she came up with.

I really need to get one of these for our bookshelf.

Poetry Friday: The Peace of Wild Things

Do you ever "tax your life with forethought of grief"?

Yeah. Me, too.

Wendell Berry knows the feeling and knows where to go when he's feeling it.

Read The Peace of Wild Things, the poem from which I paraphrased the above quotation, here at the Poetry Foundation.

For the entire Poetry Friday round-up, see Becky's Book Reviews. Then, think about finding some peace in wild things this weekend. That's my plan.

Treat yourself to some Rosary time

I love the Rosary.

It has given me many moments of comfort and peace. It calms my heart when I am anxious, and helps my soul to be still and to know that He is God.

Later today, I hope to have time to sit down, be still, and read the many, sure-to-be-lovely entries in this month's Mary Moments at Behold Your Mother.

May you be given the gift of a few quiet moments today, too.

Pro-Life News

Click here for more about the Worldwide Rosary for Unborn Babies, Saturday, October 18th, 2008, at 9 a.m. (when it's 9 a.m. at your house, that's when you pray.)

From the St. Michael the Archangel website:

Because participants will be praying the Rosary during the 9:00 a.m. hour according to the particular time zone they are in, it is hoped that the earth will be circled with multiple waves of Rosaries within a 24-hour time period.

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From the UnChoice Campaign:

Click here to read more about why abortion is so often the "un" choice. Abortion is far more about fear, panic and desperation than it is about making a rational choice.

Go here for ideas on help and healing after abortion.

"If this is how You treat Your friends,"

St. Teresa of Avila supposedly said to the Lord, "then it is no wonder You have so few of them."

You've gotta love that level of practicality and annoyance in a mystic.

Another favorite from St. Teresa, on this, her feast day:

Let nothing disturb you
Let nothing frighten you
Everything passes
God never changes
Patience obtains all
Whoever has God wants for nothing
God alone is enough.

~~ St. Teresa of Avila

Read more about one of my favorite saints here at the Catholic Encyclopedia, and here at Catholic Culture, and find recipes here at Catholic Cuisine.

Thankful for ...

... my husband's life.

A small car, an enormous deer, and 50 miles per hour don't mix well.

We're sorry for the deer, and sad about the crumpled front end of the car, but very, very, very grateful.

Updated to clarify, because some of you asked: No, Atticus wasn't injured. The car had to be towed, but Atticus didn't, and we're so grateful that "what could have been" is not what was.

Things nobody ever told me about my job description

You have applied for the position of "Mommy." There are a few things you should know:

"You will never get a day off."
(But I do love the people I work for. That really makes up for the long hours.)

"Years of sleep deprivation will show. Seriously. Under your eyes. Oil of Olay will not change this." (But some of my best loved memories have to do with small, warm people and 3:30 a.m.)

"You will be expected to do everything well. And cheerfully. And you might have to sew something."
(The people who count think I do everything well, even when I don't. And fortunately, when I fail at cheerfulness, even the six-and-under crowd understands that a simple "I'm sorry I got so grumpy" will go a long way. And, when you have such people around you, you can handle a little sewing. Those nifty, aforementioned people might even think you do that well.)

"You will have to cook."
(Though, if you enter the job market well-prepared, you will bring with you a husband who handles all such things on the weekends. This will be akin to that "day off" thing that you thought you'd never get.)

"You must be as wise as Solomon."
(Lucky you! Just like Solomon, God will provide the right answers when you need them the most. How else could you account for that wisdom that just fell out of your mouth and into your child's ears? Keep counting on Him for this aspect of your position. No one ever said you were all alone in this job.)

"The job will never end."
(But that's okay. I really wouldn't have it any other way.)

Remember FreeRice.com?

I mentioned it here.

Now it's even more fun and more addictive.

In addition to the original vocabulary activity, you can now quiz yourself on famous paintings, geography, chemistry, grammar, foreign languages, and math. Thanks to Betsy for alerting me.

One caveat: don't try it with Atticus looking over your shoulder. His brain is so much faster than my mouse hand is.

Mary Moments

Celebrating the Rosary!

See this post at Behold Your Mother for details on the Rosary blog carnival.

And hurry -- today is the last day for submissions for October.

Poetry Friday: Hope

Emily Dickinson today.

For my sweet sister.




Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

The Poetry Friday round up can be found today at Picture Book of the Day.

August Rush

"I believe in music the way some people believe in fairy tales," says young Evan at the beginning of August Rush.

And thus we know that we're in for a magical fairy tale of a story, with a twist of Oliver and a lot of fun music.

In this contemporary, Dickensian tale, we first meet Evan at the orphanage where he has lived for "eleven years and 16 days." He's been counting. Music is sewn into the fiber of Evan's being. It's a gift from his parents, Lyla (a cellist) and Louis (an Irish rocker.) "Once upon a time, they fell in love," Evan tells us. They did, and Evan (later redubbed "August Rush" by the Fagin-like Wizard with whom he goes to live) was the result of their one night together. Separated by circumstances and Lyla's deceitful father, neither of them initially knows that Evan is out there somewhere (I don't want to spoil the unfolding of the story for you with details, details) but they know, somehow, that they have to find each other. The power and magic of music is what will bring them back together. And Evan knows it.

Keri Russell is appropriately luminous as Lyla (and later, so convincingly desperate to find her son) and Jonathan Rhys Meyers is appropriately tortured and dreamy as Louis. Freddie Highmore is just so perfectly cute that I could scoop him up from that orphanage and adopt him myself. Robin Williams is more than creepy and dangerous as Wizard.

My one little quibble (here's the Catholic mom in me) is that I would have loved it if Lyla and Louis's beginnings had been more classically a fairy tale. I would have had them secretly married (secretly, of course, because Lyla's controlling father would never let his classical cellist marry a rocker. And, since we're suspending all kinds of disbelief anyway, we could also suspend our disbelief that in the age of Google two people could remain separated for 11 years and 16 days without being able to track each other down) and then we could avoid explaining a one-night stand to children, so do take that into account if you're considering this one for the family. Though this particular one-night stand was magically redeemed by True Love, there's the problem of romanticizing what, in reality was a chance meeting of two people who didn't know the first thing about each other. Fodder for good conversation with kids old enough to understand.

Anne-with-an-e, Betsy and I loved this movie. Anne has already bought the soundtrack and I'm pretty sure the dvd is on someone's wish list. Magic, romance, danger, impossible obstacles to overcome, the king searching for his queen, and the lost, little prince finding lasting happiness ... August Rush has it all.

Overheard

Ramona: Daddy, you're all whisker-y!

Atticus: I am? Are you whisker-y, too?

Ramona: Daddy! No! I'm a woman!

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Anne-with-an-e: Betsy, I just have to ask you this. Don't you think the word "snippet" sounds like a disease?

Betsy: No. I think it sounds like a candy bar.

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I have been away

And now I am back.

We drove far, far, far, south, south, south (well, not as far south as it sounds, perhaps, but far enough to make me feel very tired after driving far, far, far north again today. I also feel somewhat old, though my children insist I am not old. For this reason and many others, I love them dearly.)

We visited my sister and her husband, my parents, and three enormously cute dogs. We ate much in the way of chocolate and pizza (all of us), drank much in the way of Merlot (sister, brother-in-law, parents -- not the children -- what do you take me for?) and today, in order to stay awake for the drive home, I consumed enough coffee to kill an elephant. Thus the 11:59 p.m. blogging.

I shall try to catch up soon on all things blogworthy.

"Well, they shouldn't!"

So said Anne-with-an-e when I told her, "Morning people have rights, too."

It's the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels

No craft for us today. We're too busy. Move along, folks. Nothing to see here. Move along ....

If you want to do a fun craft or activity, however, here are some great ideas:

Ana Braga-Henebry's angel craft

Guardian Angel Coloring Page at Matilda's

Angels in Catholic Teachings and Traditions

Catholic Family Vignettes has great ideas and dessert, too!

Catholic Pages

An Angel Fair at Catholic Cuisine covers all the food bases

Happy Birthday, Minnesota Mom!

A very special mom is having a birthday today.

We all love her, and she loves to get birthday wishes, so you'd better head on over and sing Happy Birthday, or, ummm ... wish her a huge congratulations.

You'll see what I mean when you get there.

Sun Slower, Sun Faster

We all really enjoyed this book!

First published in 1955, Sun Slower, Sun Faster is a fun book about time travel, but it's also packed with the living history that we love.

Alicia, at Love2Learn, wrote a great, comprehensive review of it a few years ago, so I'll just send you there for further details on plot and characters. As Alicia noted, details of the Catholic faith and even of the Mass are beautifully explained and interwoven with the suspense and history, as the young protagonists learn what the Catholic Church is all about.

And so, Sun Slower, Sun Faster is not just an adventure of time travel and fascinating events of the past -- it's the adventure of conversion.

Flowers for the Little Flower

Today was the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower. Ramona decided that we should do something -- something crafty (which I had neglected to plan.) In the past, we've made sacrifice beads, and Ramona made good use of them. Today, Ramona and Betsy did the planning. We made roses for St. Therese using construction paper and/or fun foam. And tape. Lots and lots of tape. If you are craft shy, just remember that the ultimate goals are fun and laughter, not perfect creations. Tape covers a multitude of craft sins. So do fun and laughter.