Bonnie's been at it again! I guess one of these will be October in next year's ALL calendar. She'll look so different then. Grampa will have to grow bigger punkins next year to make up for the difference!
Happy Autumn!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Grampa's Punkins and Our Little Punkin
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
We love bugs!
Today I took McGregor and Caeli to The Bug Box, a local live insect zoo, to see, among other things, "squirpions" and "triantulas." We brought home some crunchy, salt and vinegar crickets for Daddy to show us all how to eat this evening with a his newest homebrew, a delectible Belgian Triple. 
This winter's menu should prove to be very interesting! Bugs and Beer. Who could ask for more?
I Got Tagged!
Shannon tagged me for this. I tag Jill and Michelle. Go to your sixth folder and upload your sixth picture. My sixth folder was a video and nothing else, so I uploaded that instead of a picture. This is a tiny cannon JMB made with a piece of metal tube, beebees and a fire cracker. It actually did some damage to the cardboard he shot it at. He's so clever. Unschooling is such a blast!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Devlishly Adorable!
She loves making faces! Those mirror neurons are working just fine. Can't wait to see what she'll imitate next!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Another American Life League Photo Shoot
You can purchase these onesies soon from American Life League!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Our First Broken Bone
Today Rachel broke her wrist falling off a horse. I received her phone call just as I was hanging Marian's diapers on the line. It was a sunny day after a few of rain and I was eager to have the sun work it's magic on the lingering "mustard" stains. When I saw it was Rachel calling my first thought was that she wanted to ask me if I thought if would be o.k. for her to accept lunch from Ashley's family. She had forgotten, yet again, to pack her lunch and had resolved to wait until she got home to eat, but she was so excited to get to ride today that she didn't eat breakfast, either. It would be just like her to consult me before imposing on someone's hospitality. She's extrememly conscientious, but has more confidence in me than in herself. I know, now, that somehow this accident today is designed to help her find that confidence in herself. Actually, she's been feeling rather taken advantage of lately, by her siblings who don't seem to appreciate all of her many skills (especially her baking talent which provides all of us with the most delectable sweets almost every weekend!) I was struggling internally with how to help her and her siblings grow in their love of one another. I know that today's accident is also designed to provide an answer to that prayer, as well.
Anyway, her first words were, "Um, Mommy, I don't want you to worry, but I fell off Sassy, but I'm o.k." I could hear the quiver in her voice and knew that at least emotionally she wasn't o.k. I was reminded of so many times during my children's toddler years when they were having SO MUCH, fun, comletely unaware of themselves, and then suddenly the were hur--reality jarring them, reminding them of their mortality.
I told her that I thought I should come get her. She protested, saying that she was o.k. and they had made plans to go the the waterfall. I pushed a little harder, asking her if she was sure she was alright, and insisting that I really didn't mind coming to get her, that I really thought I should. She said, "Oh well, o.k., I'm really fine, but they think it's broke."
I said I'd be right over.
You know, there's so much that could have gone terribly wrong. She could have had a head, or spinal cord injury. I have no personal experience with riding horses, really, let alone getting thrown, which is probably why I was able to remain so calm. My midwife's daughter had a terrible fall several years ago, ended up in a coma, and seems to have suffered a personality change due to head trauma. I knew this when Rachel called me. I guess because she said right off the bat not to worry I didn't feel the need to panic.
We walked into the emergency room right behind an elderly gentlemen who, I overheard, had cut his thumb with a saw. He held his fist clenched tight, I presumed, to stave the flow of blood, of which I saw none.
The woman I sat next to was 4 months pregnant and had been on a wild goose chase throughout the hospital to "get more fluids," while her mare at home had just foaled, we learned from her cell phone conversation. She offered that information in an attempt to make Rachel feel better, so she said.
Rachel was cold in the waiting room and I went to ask for a blanket for her. I thought it might also be a good idea to find out just how long the wait might be, since I had Marian and Caroline with me and the other kids home with John Michael. There's just no telling how long a baby can last in an emergency room before completely coming unglued. I was informed that the wait could be as long as 3-4 hours.
I took the blanket and called the ER at the hospital just north of us. While they're not at liberty to say just how long their wait is, the kindly nurse intimated to me that, "it's not THAT long!" So we packed our bags, I made the long trek to the car alone, and, loading everyone back up and removing our names from the waiting list, we headed north. I felt like we were restaurant shopping, which reminded me that it was after 1 and we were all hungry. Thank God for the 692 billion McDonald's locations in this world.
I called John, who was at the base working out some stress at the gym and informed him that he was going to Potomac with Rachel and I'd meet him at the PX to make the drop. I was clearly needed at home, as McGregor had just started crying during my last check-in with John Michael and there's never any telling where that might lead.
On the way to meet John, Rachel, still in considerable pain and lamenting the fact that she wouldn't be able to perform in this year's piano recital, noted, in her quintessentially optimistic way, "At least I won't have to milk the goats for a while!" The other kids are so sad Rachel broke her wrist.
On the way home Caroline and I stopped into WalMart, where we had been planning to go before Rachel's call. There I ran into my dear friend, Gracie. I haven't seen her in 3 years or more and she had her newest little guy with her, whom I had never met before. It was a delightful suprise to run into her! Unlike so many people who will hear of Rachel's accident and say things like, "Well, that's what you get for riding a green-broke horse," and "So, does she still want a horse?" Gracie, who has horses herself, told me how her own daughter had taken a spill a few weeks ago, and another horse lover friend's daughter, who's been riding all her life, took a nasty fall recently and broke her collar bone. She said, "It's something you never want to have happen, and you do everything to prevent it. But sometimes it just does."
That's just the way life is. No matter how careful you are, sometimes things just don't go as planned. But we're not going to let that stop us from planning. But then again, sometimes it's the things we don't plan that make the best memories. Tonight we're having hotdogs and s'mores, not so much because Rachel broke her arm, although by the time I got home this afternoon the last thing I felt like doing was cooking, but just because today is the only one of it's kind--ever. So why not celebrate it? And tomorrow (which according to an old Italian proverb never comes) will be the only one of it's kids, too. What are you going to do to celebrate?
I'll let you know what happens after I find out...
Have a great moment!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Hold On To Your Kids (and your '62 Missals!)
In the first chapter of Hold On To Your Kids, Dr. Neufeld describes what sounds to me like the impending implosion of an entire culture. Peer orientation has reached pandemic levels and unless parents realize soon, and begin to take their children back from the world, our country is headed for disaster.
In the section, Normal But Not Natural Or Healthy, I had the certain realization that what he is describing is exactly the problem we're facing in the Church today--a problem of orientation, not just of the priest facing the people, although that's certainly part of it, but a problem of the orientation of mankind in general towards God. Man has turned in on himself, away from God for God's sake (literally), and we see it even in the liturgy, in liturgical music, in church architecture, etc. The sign of peace between all and sundry immediately following the consecration; the priest facing the people, engaging them, making eye-contact with them, instead of leading the people facing towards God, eyes uplifted to the tabernacle and the crucifix; lyrics such as those of "Gather Us In;" churches in the round, where the laity gaze at one another and the tabernacle is nowhere to be found, are all symptoms of a trend toward man-centeredness, a distinctly horizontal orientation, as opposed to the vertical orientation of God-centeredness. On page 10 he writes, "Essential to any culture are its customs, its music, its dress, its celebrations, its stories. The music children listen to bears very little resemblance to the music of their grandparents. The way they look is dictated by the way other children look rather than by the parents' cultural heritage. Their birthday parties [liturgies] and rites of passage [sacramental rites] are influenced by the practices of other children [religions] around them, not by the customs of their parents before them. If all that seems normal to us, it's only due to our own peer orientation. The existence of a youth culture [new Catholic culture], separate and distinct from that of adults [traditional Catholic culture], dates back only fifty years or so. Although half a century is a relatively short time in the history of humankind [the Church], in the life of an individual person it constitutes a whole era. Most readers of this book will already have been raised in a society [Church] where the transmission of culture is horizontal rather than vertical. In each new generation this process, potentially corrosive to civilized society, gains new power and velocity." (empasis mine). I know this may sound like sacrelige to some readers, but it really isn't hard to see given an honest look.
Dr. Neufeld decries the current trend as unprecedented. Similarly, the crisis in the Church is like none other she's ever weathered. Her traditions, as with those of the culture of our grandparents, are being rejected outright, and replaced with novelties and aberrations even our own parents probably could never have imagined--gay priests and gay marriage; the acceptance of contraception by over 80% of Catholic couples, and the rapidly rising teen suicide rate; the acceptance of wiccan practices as a legitimate form of religion on our military bases and the desecration of the Holy Eucharist through the common practice of Communion in the hand are but a few of the fruits of mankind's new horizontal orientation.
In chapter 9, Stuck In Immaturity, he discusses the need for human beings to cultivate attachments in which they can rest secure in order to mature emotionally and psychologically, much the way a plant needs to grow a strong, healthy root system before it can get down to the business of growing bigger and flowering. I believe that Catholics, like children, need to be able to rest secure in the truth, in customs and disciplines that demonstrate the truth, and in a hierarchy that can be trusted to lead us in the paths of righteousness, in order to mature spiritually. But that is another post entirely!
It wasn't my intention here to dive into a subject Catholics have been debating for the last 40 years--I have neither the time nor the desire to attempt that feat. (If you wish to arrive at a better understanding of why the orientation of the priest matters I recommend reading Turning Towards The Lord, published by Ignatius Press.) I only hoped to convey my sincere belief that whether it be sexual orientation, liturgical orientation or peer orientation, we're dealing with a crisis of orientation that has permeated practically every facet of our culture.
It may be bold of me to say, but I think it could be argued that Hold On To Your Kids is to families what Summorum Pontificum is to the Church--a long overdue wake-up call to adjust our orientation and to restore the order God bestowed on His creation--God over Man, Man over Woman¹, Parents over Children, all stumbling back toward Him in imitation of His beloved Son under the weight of the Cross. I can never forget the scene from the Passion in which our Blessed Mother tried desperately to reach her son through the throng of people in the streets. And when she did, just after He fell again, she asked to die with Him, to suffer what He suffered. At the same time the scene flashes back to when He fell as a child, skinning His knee, and she flew to Him to comfort Him. He said to her, "Mother, I make all things new."
In order to hold on to our kids we have to try something "new." We have to try to feel what they're feeling--to suffer with them, rather than tell them their suffering's not all that much to fret about². We have to learn to empathize with them. Then, by our example--as by our Blessed Mother's example, they will learn to empathize with others, and in so doing, share, if ever so slightly, in the sufferings of Our Lord on His road to Calvary.
___________________________________________________________________ ¹ Dr. Neufeld does not address the issue of God and Man or Man and Woman in his book. This is my own conclusion based on my understanding of the problem of orientation.
² At 5:10 minutes into the video Brian Regan explains it like only he can.
In the section, Normal But Not Natural Or Healthy, I had the certain realization that what he is describing is exactly the problem we're facing in the Church today--a problem of orientation, not just of the priest facing the people, although that's certainly part of it, but a problem of the orientation of mankind in general towards God. Man has turned in on himself, away from God for God's sake (literally), and we see it even in the liturgy, in liturgical music, in church architecture, etc. The sign of peace between all and sundry immediately following the consecration; the priest facing the people, engaging them, making eye-contact with them, instead of leading the people facing towards God, eyes uplifted to the tabernacle and the crucifix; lyrics such as those of "Gather Us In;" churches in the round, where the laity gaze at one another and the tabernacle is nowhere to be found, are all symptoms of a trend toward man-centeredness, a distinctly horizontal orientation, as opposed to the vertical orientation of God-centeredness. On page 10 he writes, "Essential to any culture are its customs, its music, its dress, its celebrations, its stories. The music children listen to bears very little resemblance to the music of their grandparents. The way they look is dictated by the way other children look rather than by the parents' cultural heritage. Their birthday parties [liturgies] and rites of passage [sacramental rites] are influenced by the practices of other children [religions] around them, not by the customs of their parents before them. If all that seems normal to us, it's only due to our own peer orientation. The existence of a youth culture [new Catholic culture], separate and distinct from that of adults [traditional Catholic culture], dates back only fifty years or so. Although half a century is a relatively short time in the history of humankind [the Church], in the life of an individual person it constitutes a whole era. Most readers of this book will already have been raised in a society [Church] where the transmission of culture is horizontal rather than vertical. In each new generation this process, potentially corrosive to civilized society, gains new power and velocity." (empasis mine). I know this may sound like sacrelige to some readers, but it really isn't hard to see given an honest look.
Dr. Neufeld decries the current trend as unprecedented. Similarly, the crisis in the Church is like none other she's ever weathered. Her traditions, as with those of the culture of our grandparents, are being rejected outright, and replaced with novelties and aberrations even our own parents probably could never have imagined--gay priests and gay marriage; the acceptance of contraception by over 80% of Catholic couples, and the rapidly rising teen suicide rate; the acceptance of wiccan practices as a legitimate form of religion on our military bases and the desecration of the Holy Eucharist through the common practice of Communion in the hand are but a few of the fruits of mankind's new horizontal orientation.
In chapter 9, Stuck In Immaturity, he discusses the need for human beings to cultivate attachments in which they can rest secure in order to mature emotionally and psychologically, much the way a plant needs to grow a strong, healthy root system before it can get down to the business of growing bigger and flowering. I believe that Catholics, like children, need to be able to rest secure in the truth, in customs and disciplines that demonstrate the truth, and in a hierarchy that can be trusted to lead us in the paths of righteousness, in order to mature spiritually. But that is another post entirely!
It wasn't my intention here to dive into a subject Catholics have been debating for the last 40 years--I have neither the time nor the desire to attempt that feat. (If you wish to arrive at a better understanding of why the orientation of the priest matters I recommend reading Turning Towards The Lord, published by Ignatius Press.) I only hoped to convey my sincere belief that whether it be sexual orientation, liturgical orientation or peer orientation, we're dealing with a crisis of orientation that has permeated practically every facet of our culture.
It may be bold of me to say, but I think it could be argued that Hold On To Your Kids is to families what Summorum Pontificum is to the Church--a long overdue wake-up call to adjust our orientation and to restore the order God bestowed on His creation--God over Man, Man over Woman¹, Parents over Children, all stumbling back toward Him in imitation of His beloved Son under the weight of the Cross. I can never forget the scene from the Passion in which our Blessed Mother tried desperately to reach her son through the throng of people in the streets. And when she did, just after He fell again, she asked to die with Him, to suffer what He suffered. At the same time the scene flashes back to when He fell as a child, skinning His knee, and she flew to Him to comfort Him. He said to her, "Mother, I make all things new."
In order to hold on to our kids we have to try something "new." We have to try to feel what they're feeling--to suffer with them, rather than tell them their suffering's not all that much to fret about². We have to learn to empathize with them. Then, by our example--as by our Blessed Mother's example, they will learn to empathize with others, and in so doing, share, if ever so slightly, in the sufferings of Our Lord on His road to Calvary.
___________________________________________________________________ ¹ Dr. Neufeld does not address the issue of God and Man or Man and Woman in his book. This is my own conclusion based on my understanding of the problem of orientation.
² At 5:10 minutes into the video Brian Regan explains it like only he can.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Miracle Dough
This is the recipe for a WONDERFUL salt dough that is so lovely to work with and much more affordable than the store bought sculpt and bake products. Justin is totally loving it!
I prefer to weigh the flour and salt so I've included the weights in ounces.
5 cups or 21.25 oz. cake flour (I used Softasilk.)
3 cups or 12.75 oz. all purpose flour
3 cups or 31.5 oz. fine salt (I ran table salt through the food processor to powder it.)
3 cups warm water
2 tablespoons cooking oil (Next time I'd like to try adding a drop or two of lavender oil--to reduce the likelihood of a clay fight in the kitchen!)
Mix the flours and salt together in the Kitchenaid, then mix in the water and oil together. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and pliable. Roll out a log of dough and hold it over the counter between your two fingers. If it stretches, it's too soft and you should add another tablespoon or two of all purpose flour. It if keeps its shape it's just right!
Be sure to use two grades of flour so you get a dough that's dense enough to keep its shape, but not so heavy that it's hard to work with and likely to crack when you bake it. Also, don't skip the oil!
Let the dough rest for 1-2 hours before working with it. Put it in sealable plastic bags in a cool place (the fridge is TOO cold). Keep the portion you're not modeling with wrapped so it doesn't dry out.
Large figures should be baked for 3-4 hours at 300*F and small figures for about 2 hours at 225*F.
(Pictures to come!)
Happy Modeling!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Choices, Choices
I tag Ruth, Cathy, Bonnie, Liv, Karen H., and John.
If you HAD to choose one or the other would you choose...
- Thai or Mexican
- bubble bath or back massage
- boots or sandals
- the 90% "pro-life" good chance or the 100% pro-life long shot
- a cruise ship or a mountain cabin
- Rome or Paris
- Ordinary or Extraordinary
- Rosary or Stations
- surf or hang glide
- Regal Cinemas or Netflix
- sweet or salty
- pen or pencil
- how-to book or fantasy novel
- crossword or sudoku
- lose a leg or lose your sight
- North or South
- a power outage at home or a dead car battery at Cosco
- classic rock or country
- wool or linen
- lots of good friends or a few great friends
- soup or salad
- Merlot or Chardonnay
- Picasso or Da Vinci
- charades or trivial pursuit
- Evangelical Protestantism or Orthodox Judaism
- stone age or dark age
- Steven Spielberg or Ken Burns
- Thermopylae or Alamo
- Big Foot or Loch Ness Monster
- babies or teenagers
Have fun!
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