How to Teach Your Cat to Wake You Up at 6 a.m.

1. Get a dog.

2. Be sure to get the kind of dog that favors cat food.

3. Fail to grasp any connection between step 2 and every step thereafter.

4. Get annoyed at cat for chewing on a box in your room at 6 a.m. Get up.

5. Notice cat's bowl is empty. Feed cat.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for several days, substituting electrical cord, book, sandal, and dresser for box.

7. Tell sweet dog No when she begins to eat cat's food. Look at her hangdog expression with affection.

8. Think about how poor cat's bowl is empty all the time and that he must wake you up in order to get a satisfying meal. 

9. Realize that you have successfully trained a cat to be your alarm clock.

10. Wonder how cat will feel about a leash.

Ramona on the Sabbath

"Mommy, if I go wake up the girls, would that be considered unnecessary work?"

(I gave her the go-ahead.) 

Great Catholic Toolbar

Very cool -- check it out here at Catholic Gadget.

Poetry Friday: Waving Goodbye

A friend is moving again. My girls will get to spend a couple of days with S. before she moves across the country. She first moved away a few years ago, to another town. Now she's moving to a new state. This is what I wrote in 2006:


I'm referring to the fact that it is moving day here in our little town for some friends of ours. We'll be seeing them off later today, and my kids plan to wear black for the occasion. We met them our first year of homeschooling -- could that be six years ago? -- and the kids quickly became the best of friends. I still remember the delight of the two oldest kids (my Anne-with-an-e and their little girl, S.) as they discovered that they were kindred spirits.


"Redwall?!" shrieked S. "You like Redwall?? ... Oh, yeah ... these girls are friends of mine!"


(As C.S. Lewis said: "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one!'")


And they've been friends ever since. Last night, Anne said, "Mom, I wish I could go back in time. I wish I could relive the last six years with my friend." What greater tribute is there than that?


Last week, as I watched Anne give her girlfriend a going-away gift, and watched them hug one another in an oh-so-grown-up-girlfriend way, I tried to hide my tears from them. It was The Going Away Slumber Party and I didn't want to be the first one to introduce weeping into the evening. But, as I watched that exchange, I was struck by the fragile and mysterious beauty of friendship. What a gift it is from God.


One more quote from Lewis:


Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.


That's all I can really write right now. I have a long post churning inside, something about having 8 or 9 friends move away in the last few years, something about how just as I grow close to a new friend, she moves away, taking her children (and thus my children's dear friends) with her, leaving us spinning at the loss, something else about how God keeps detaching me from this world, and I keep going, going, but with protest and reluctance ... because friends, as Lewis said, give that elusive, ineffable value to our lives. They add riches we can't articulate.
~~~~~

Waving Goodbye
by Wesley McNair

Why, when we say goodbye
at the end of an evening, do we deny
we are saying it at all, as in We'll
be seeing you, or I'll call, or Stop in,
somebody's always at home? Meanwhile, our friends,
telling us the same things, go on disappearing
beyond the porch light into the space
which except for a moment here or there
is always between us, no matter what we do.
Waving goodbye, of course, is what happens
when the space gets too large
for words – a gesture so innocent
and lonely, it could make a person weep
for days.

(Read the rest of the poem here.)

~~~~~

The Poetry Friday round up is at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

Still Time to Win a Rosary Book

I'm giving away two more copies of my book in this month of Mary.

Click here to leave a comment and enter the drawing.

More News from the Inbox: Rosaries with Names

 A friend introduced me to Rosaries with Names and I'm happy to spread the word about this beautiful ministry, which is also a mom's small home business.


Chris Lafser is a homeschooling mother who has been making rosaries for many years. She's also a mom who knows the heartache of miscarriage and it was in praying for her lost children by name that the ideas for this ministry was born. You can take a look at their mission statement here, and see more samples of Chris's rosaries here and here. 

Bits and Pieces of Our Days

Summer has arrived. 

In Nebraska that means it is 91 degrees. Or 62 degrees. Or both, in the same day. Add high winds.

In my life that means I wonder why God gave me a husband who despises air conditioning and considers "95 degrees and humid" to be a little slice of heaven when I am the sort of woman who wilts in any temperature above 72.

We are beginning our annual adjustment to shared summer living space. Can you say, "I'll compromise if you will because I love you so much"? 

~~~~~

These two are almost getting along. Not quite best friends yet, but they know how to compromise because they love us so much:

~~~~~

We were going to have the grandparents visiting this week, but they won't be able to make it because my poor mom broke her foot!  Heal quickly, Mom, and let's reschedule.

~~~~~
Anne and I had to go out, so Atticus took Betsy and Ramona to the carnival. Here's Ramona in the Scooby Doo Castle:

I have to say that I sometimes wish my family could be suspended in time so that I would never, ever miss certain moments and we could all be together, always.

(But I can pray we'll end up in that place, eh?)

I feel Lost

Cuz I don't watch Lost.

Should I rent it?

Because then I could start reading my favorite blogs again.

The Solemnity of Pentecost

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit

whom the Father will send in my name,

will teach you everything

and remind you of all that I told you.

~~ Gospel of John, 14:26

(Painting: Giotto's Pentecost, c. 1305)

Final Two Drawings for The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary

Since next weekend is Memorial Day, I'm combining this weekend's giveaway with next weekend.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post.

I'll leave the comments open through May 31. On June 1st, two winners will be drawn from the Van Gogh coffee cup:

and I'll post the winners' names that day.

Thanks! 

Poetry Friday

I love the last lines of this poem, which make me think of Atticus and me, and our "unwise and persistent and lucky life together." 

For My Wife
by Wesley McNair

How were we to know, leaving your two kids
behind in New Hampshire for our honeymoon
at twenty-one, that it was a trick of cheap
hotels in New York City to draw customers
like us inside by displaying a fancy lobby?
Arriving in our fourth-floor room, we found
a bed, a scarred bureau, and a bathroom door
with a cut on one side the exact shape
of the toilet bowl that was in its way
when I closed it.

(go here for the rest of the poem, which ends with:)

and in this way began our unwise
and persistent and lucky life together.
~~~~~
Visit Laura Salas today for the round-up.

Ramona the Photographer

Outside with the new dog, Sydney. 

Filing, Planning, Ending, Beginning

 Officially, our school year is over.

I've been filing and reviewing, documenting, keeping and tossing, and taking old artwork off the walls as I await fresh replacements.  

I've also started to think about what lies ahead. I will have (roughly speaking, since we don't entirely "do" grades) a junior, a freshman and a third-grader.  Hmmm.

That makes it, as I said last year:

That time of year
thou may'st in me behold
when curriculum catalogs
or none or few
or many
do hang about the house.

If you are homeschooling a high schooler, I'd love to hear more about what you're doing.

Thinking About Conversion

I've been trying to write a more extended account of my conversion and I'm finding that the process leaves me ... speechless.

The psychology of changing belief systems fascinates me, as do all the aspects of a conversion: love of God, emotional attachment, intellectual assent, factors that involve or leave behind family. But when one tries to analyze one's own conversion, I can't help but think there may be a wall one can't leap in order to see the other side, or a facet of the gem that can't be detected from the inside out.

The "why" is critical in a conversion story, but the "why" is what's so often elusive. Why did I want to search for truth? Why did I feel drawn to God and why did I proceed with dramatic changes that brought enormous upheaval to my life? Why me, and not someone else? And, at various times in my life, why someone else and not me? 

The simple answer is grace. It's the answer to everything. But when deconstructing an experience, the simple answer doesn't further the discussion: "Oh, shut up. It's all grace."

Yeah, it is all about grace, but grace isn't a magic charm. God doesn't smack us with the Grace Wand to get us all in line.

Dissecting the ineffable can feel like an experiment in futility. It's not, but it can feel like it. It's worth doing, but there's always a bottom line: certain things have to be accepted before we can move on.

It's a bit like parenting -- there are times when the "Oh, shut up, it's all grace!" attitude seems the only choice.  As a mom, I've had my moments and I've used the "Because I'm the parent," line. But there are still things worth dissecting, digging into, and talking about.

And it's sort of like talking potty training with a younger mom (oh, I can't believe that I'm using this as an example ... bear with me ....)  The younger mom despairs, and sometimes you say, "Oh, relax! They all get trained sooner or later!" Sometimes, it helps her to hear that. But, other times, she needs more -- she needs to hear about your methods and ideas, your failures, the time you screamed at your child and then worried for weeks that you'd psychologically scarred her forever. She needs some practical tips. She needs a cup of coffee and time with her friend.

So, maybe writing a conversion story is like that -- no conversion story will be able to cover everything, and parts of it will sound like, "Shut up and believe."  But, other parts will offer tips and ideas and strategies that worked for someone else, and the combination of those things -- the parental "get on with it' and the compassionate, "this worked for me" stuff will intertwine to become part of someone else's love story with God.

It can all be reduced to love, which, as we all know, can't be reduced. Can I really articulate everything that I love about my husband? The astounding surprises that awaited me in loving a child? The delightful mysteries of finding a kindred spirit in friendship?


I don't know. I'm rambling.

Thanks for listening.

(Painting: The Magdelen Reading, Rogier van der Weyden, from the National Gallery)

May Feelings II

It's time for this again:



Find all of the Rosary videos on Belomasan's Channel on YouTube. Be sure to watch May Feelings III, and tell the selfless, faith-filled priests in your life, "Thank you."

Bits and Pieces of Our Dog Days

The new dog.

Where has she been all my life? 

And how exactly did this happen?

Anne, Betsy and Ramona were doing their usual routine one night over dinner -- giving their father puppy-dog eyes. Begging for a dog. Hearing him say flatly, "No."

Cue the next line: "Mo-o-o-o-m?! Will you please talk to him?"

I did my usual routine and said, "Yes, I'll talk to him. Just give him time." 

Then they got online, to "just look" at a few pets on Petfinder.com and soon we were all (all except Atticus, who was now in another room) oohing and aahhing over puppies and kittens. We read about a cute beagle at our local shelter, and then found the description of Sydney. She sounded charming. I went to find Atticus and told him he should probably just come take a look at the website. Just a quick look. "She really does sound like a sweet dog," I said, the tiniest hint of pleading in my voice.

He came into the room to look at her.

"No," he said and turned around to walk away.


The girls deflated. He left the room but the next thing we heard was his voice calling back to us, "Okay. If you want that dog, we can get her."


What?

Had he been replaced by a Pod Atticus? Did the Dog Fairy zap him with a spell? Maybe the girls had slipped him some kind of canine love potion over dinner. Or, did he just really want his kids to be happy? Whatever it was, it brought The Dog That Was Meant For Us into our lives.


But we still didn't know that for certain. Over the following week, we talked about what kind of dog we should look for, what the best match would be for our family, why we wanted a dog instead of a puppy. We prayed for the right dog to come our way, read Cesar Millan's website, and checked our local shelter. The beagle was gone, and I kept thinking, "Sydney? I think maybe Sydney is the one for us." She was living at a shelter an hour from here, and we decided to go visit her.  It was love at first sight.

She's affectionate, and housebroken. She's so sweet. She isn't bothered by Mr. Putter the cat. And she's housebroken. She's (relatively) obedient, though we need to break her of that habit of wanting to climb us. She pretty much knows we're the pack leaders (Cesar would be proud), and she's housebroken.

She's housebroken. Did I mention that?

I love this dog.

Be the first commenter to correctly answer this question and you'll win a Rosary book

Question:

How old was Ramona when I started this blog?

Hint: The answer is in the post "What a Princess Eats."

Updated to note:
Lindsay won!


I'll be giving two more books away this month, so be sure to check back!

Poetry Friday again: Emily Dickinson and Gardening

Ramona was delighted to learn that Emily loved dandelions.  See the story here.

Poetry Friday: An Atticus Pick

Atticus chose this week's poem:


Spring and All 
 by William Carlos Williams

 
By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue
mottled clouds driven from the
northeast-a cold wind. Beyond, the
waste of broad, muddy fields
brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen
...
But now the stark dignity of
entrance-Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken

(Read the whole poem here, at Poets.org.) 

If you're just waking up, and you're on your first cup of coffee, and you live in Nebraska and it's been a miserably wet, muddy, cold spring-and-all kind of week, you might read it and say, "Huh ... lovely," because there is life and the hint of warmth at the end of the poem, and you're still thinking about that cute thing Ramona said last night: "In Ramona Land, it's always seventy degrees."

But, then, of course the "contagious hospital" will nag at you as something quite unlovely and the word "waste" will linger as you pour your second cup of coffee and then you'll think, "That is so Atticusian of him to choose a Williams poem in which Williams is picking a fight with Eliot."

And it's so Momian of me that I don't want to think about fights this morning.

And so Wife-ian that I love Atticus and his poetry choices.

The round up today is at Jama Rattigan's always delightful Alphabet Soup.

Teeter-tottering through life

I used to look forward to the time "when life would settle down."


Do you ever do that? You find yourself anticipating the day when every little thing will fall into place. Days will be smooth and predictable. Problems will ebb, happiness will flow.

It's going to come when you: 

...move into a new house
...start school
...finish school
...start homeschooling
...quit homeschooling
...change jobs
...have children
...have kids who are no longer toddlers
...have kids who are no longer teens
...get the kitchen renovated
...finish that "to be read" stack by the bed
...get a dog
...get rid of the dog
...are not so tired all the time
...are less moody
...are better able to share your feelings
...lose weight
...gain weight
...live closer to family
...don't live as close to family
...are healthier
...don't have as many distractions

There's always the next thing coming that will make life easier. Calmer. More routine and "normal."

What I've found is that there's very little in life that is normal. The common cold, maybe. That's normal. But other than that, there's always something around the corner that will upset our balance and leave us longing for things to "get back to normal." It can be something as simple as a new stage in life, or as serious as an illness. A new friend; the reappearance of an old one. Crises large, small and existential.

But, the older I get the more I see that "normal" and "routine" are relative terms. Abnormal stuff is the stuff of normalcy as far as I can determine. I don't know anyone who thinks they're normal. And the best routine I've come up with is to just let God help me through whatever comes next. There will always be those times when  my end of the seesaw smacks me down to the ground. But it's okay.

I'm settled down enough to know there's really no such thing as settling down.

(Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.)

And the winner of this week's book is:

Mary Kate!

Ramona just drew your name from the coffee cup, Mary Kate! Please send me your address and I'll get a book out to you.

Thank you to all of you who entered, and be sure to check back next weekend for another giveaway!

Bits and Pieces of Our Days

Last week was full, but I'm resurfacing.

I had a writing dreadline that didn't kill me. A living, breathing, not-in-the-throes-of-a-panic-attack mother is always a good thing in a homeschool.

~~~~~

We finally did our dissection unit. We dug into the usual suspects: an earthworm, a crayfish, a perch and a frog. Anne relished every minute and I surprised us all when I manhandled the frog and examined its tongue for the benefit of a curious teenage guy in our humbly-dubbed coop (we consist of two families.) The other mom kindly left us the three extra specimens from the kit, and Anne is looking forward to cutting open a starfish, a grasshopper and a clam in her spare time.

Why are Anne's safety goggles safely on the table?

~~~~~

We visited the local animal shelter and found out the beagle we wanted to see had already been adopted. We kept praying for the right dog to come our way.

~~~~~

"Lord, what fools these mortals be!" We headed to Omaha to see some friends perform A Midsummer Night's Dream at their homeschool learning center. And though the course of true love never did run smooth, our day did. Loads of fun.

~~~~~

God answered our pet prayers and we are thoroughly enjoying our first-ever dog. So far, I am pronouncing her to be the sweetest dog in the world. The girls love her and still can't believe she's ours. 

And we think she's content with the situation, too:

~~~~~

Don't forget you have until noon (or a little later, since I'm busy loving this dog) today (central time) to click over to this post and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of my Rosary book.

We Love Our Dog!

 More details soon.

Another Free Book!

Today's giveaway is all about the power of prayer.

Last week, in order to win a book, you just had to leave a comment.

This week's giveaway of The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary will be another random drawing from the coffee cup:

 But first I'm asking for a little bit of inspiration-sharing.

For this weekend's giveaway, leave a comment on this post telling me: 

1. Your favorite prayer (and it doesn't have to be the Rosary in order to win a Rosary book) 

or, 

2. The name of the saint you regularly turn to for intercession.

And, you don't have to, but if you have a story to share about either of those things, feel free to share it with us.

If you are not Catholic, don't have a favorite formal prayer, or wonder why anyone would ask a saint for intercession,  just leave a comment saying so.

Comments will be open until Monday at noon (central time.)

Let nothing trouble 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

Poetry Friday: Dreadlines

Dreadlines
by Karen Edmisten

I have a writing deadline.
This piece is killing me.
I have no time to tarry
or talk of poetry.

I must put pen to paper,
tap endlessly on keys,
shape thoughts into coherence
conjure stone from just a breeze.

So visit Random Noodling
for samples of real rhyme.
Beg that my muse remind me 
that this happens every time.

~~~~~

The Poetry Friday round-up is at Random Noodling, where you'll find bloggers and poets who are calmer than I am today.

Stop and smell the philosophy

Me: "Anne! Stop writing slogans on the board -- we don't have time!"

Anne: "You're right -- I don't have time to be existential."

Catholic Moms Are Talking

Be sure to visit Mary De Turris Poust at the OSV Daily Take this week -- she's focusing on Catholic Mom Writers:

Lisa Hendey
Danielle Bean
Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle

Go soak up some wisdom!

Heart Twisting Things a Seven Year Old Can Say

Ramona, after seeing a stray dog run through our yard, expressed grave concern about him running across the highway. "Oh, Mommy," she cried, "I prayed for the Lord to protect him!"

*****

Me: 'Why was this stuff dumped on the floor?"

Ramona: "Oh. That was me. I did that when I was crying. I can't remember now if I was crying because Betsy wouldn't play with me, or just because I'm seven." (Insert appropriately abject sigh here.)

Bits and Pieces of Our Days

* Yesterday we finished reading The Mitchells: Five for Victory.  We did it as a read-aloud and it was perfect over breakfast -- went very well with both cereal and waffles. And coffee.  We love Hilda Van Stockum, but somehow the older girls and I had never gotten around to the Mitchell series.  What an oversight! We all adored this book. The characters are very real and funny, and the book is quite touching, too.

Here is Alicia's Love2Learn review, which nicely covers a topic that might be upsetting for young or very sensitive children (I did need to reassure Ramona, in a few instances,  that all would end well.)

~~~~~

* Why are ads for tattoos turning up in the sidebar of my Gmail?

~~~~~

* We'll be dissecting critters today. My house will smell like a biology lab. Maybe we should eat out tonight.

~~~~~

*Back to the Mitchells ... one of the funniest and most endearing subplots has to do with pets. I won't tell you what happens, as I don't want to spoil it, but everything about the family's animals is perfectly executed.

And on the subject of pets, we've had plenty of them -- we currently have a cat (I call him Mr. Putter here, though why I gave the cat a blog name is beyond me), and a hamster named Blanche. (We thought Blanche was a girl -- the kids named her after a Regina Doman character. Turns out Blanche is a boy, but we still call him her.) We've had other hamsters: Ralpie, Fluffy I and Fluffy II. And hermit crabs (can't remember if we named them -- I just never got extremely attached -- can you imagine? Though I did really appreciate the fact that they never woke me up in the middle of the night.) We also had betta fish that were named Evelyn and Dorothy despite the fact that they were males. Anne-with-an-e and Betsy were just 8 and 6 years old, and "Evelyn" and "Dorothy" were the dreamiest names they could imagine for anyone, including fish.

And now?

We're going to get a dog!  Cheer with me, people!

Book Winner

Betsy picked the winner this morning, and the winner is:

Emily (of Mamasaurusrex.com)!

Emily, please send me your address, and I'll mail the book out to you this week. 

Thanks to everyone who was interested in the book, and please stop by next weekend for another chance.

It's Mary's Month! It's May! I'm Giving Some Books Away!

Last year in May, my book on the Rosary was published.

In celebration of a year of great response and terrific readers, and in looking forward to my second book (which is in the works with Servant) I'd like to say "thank you" to everyone with a few giveaways.

Each Saturday in May, I'll give away a copy of The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary.

Atticus would like the method of today's giveaway to have something to do with sports trivia. He thinks you should have to answer the question, "Who was the last pitcher to no-hit the Yankees?"  I'm not going to make you answer that. The answer is Hoyt Wilhelm.  (Atticus, you don't win the book.)

Instead, I'll make it easy today:

Just leave a comment on this post. You can say anything. You might say, "Karen, I'd love to win it!" or, "Free! That's great! Now I don't have to buy it!"  Maybe you're thinking, "I really couldn't care less, but I need something to give my mother next Sunday so count me in."  Or, you might say, "Karen, this is dull. Tell us a Ramona story."  Or, perhaps you'd like to say, "I have no idea who you are -- I got here by Googling plot summary of Escape from Warsaw."

My daughters will throw all your names in coffee cup and pick a winner at random.  (Comments will be open today and all of Sunday, until midnight.) We'll pick and announce the winner on Monday.

Good luck!

Thanks, Faith & Family Moms!

The second part of Thursday's Faith and Family Live Podcast was about blogging moms, and Danielle Bean gave me the nicest shout-out near the end of the podcast. I was surprised and delighted. It continues to amaze me that people who don't have to like me and my writing -- my husband, my children, my best friend from high school -- actually do.

Disclaimer: This is not a Sally Field moment. Please don't imagine me gripping my Macbook and gushing, "You like me, you really like me." Nah, it's not that. It's just a genuinely pleasant thing to be surprised in that way. So, thanks, Danielle, and I seriously hope that if we ever get the chance to meet in person you don't have to take it all back.