Oh, when the Saints say "trick or treat"

I have finally finished up the world's supposedly easiest Halloween costumes, but making Will look like he has been shot full of arrows has proved to be a difficult task. I started with dowel rods with paper feathers glued on, but couldn't figure out a way to attach them to his tunic. Plan B,C, and D were all discarded after failing miserably (I didn't want to put holes in the fabric so I could use it again for someone else). Finally I sewed straws onto the tunic, filled the ends with glue and stuffed the dowel rods down the holes. I am waiting until they dry to see if they look realistic.

Our traveling evangelization team this evening: St. Stephen with an aluminum foil rock sewed on his shoulder, St. Agnes holding her lamb, St. Sebastian with the cursed arrows, an angel (for the 3rd year), and a little bumblebee (left over from our pre-Catholic days).

Hope your little ones don't bounce off the walls half the night from a sugar rush just in time for Mass tomorrow on All Saints Day.

good news coming from the Vatican

Since the issuance of the Summorum Pontificum there have been many bishops who have tried to squash the Pope's mandate to free the Traditional Latin Mass. Some of their tactics include demanding priests to take Latin tests, insisting on hundreds of petitions from parishioners, and trying to squeeze modern practices such as altar girls and communion in the hand into the old Mass. Having the Pope say the TLM and a clarification of some of more vague language in the original document would go a long way to help spread the liturgy. So it comes as a great delight to hear the following rumors from the Vatican:

Rorate Caeli

(1) a document is being prepared by the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" explaining some points of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, including what criteria may be used to identify a stably existing group (no specific minimum number) and clarifications regarding the differences between the calendars of both forms of the Roman Rite - the document may be published, accoding to Ingrao, "in the next few days"

(2) the possibility of a traditional Mass celebrated by the Pope in December (according to Ingrao, not in Saint Peter's, but maybe in Saint Paul Outside the Walls)

(3) the probability that the excommunications of the Bishops involved in the consecrations of June 30, 1988, in Ecône, Switzerland may soon be lifted.

garage progress

This is the view from the second floor apartment on the farm. Underneath is a 3 bay garage presently housing the tractor and the truck. In July after we PCS to our next duty station, we will be moving in for the summer and early fall. There are certain issues that concern me like only having 1 bathroom for 6-7 people, but I have to contain my excitement about getting back to Maine. I certainly don't want to wish away 3/4 of a year away because there will be many fun times in between, but...

change in Mass

This morning, instead of the usual 4.5 hour excursion to attend the Traditional Latin Mass, we instead went to Mass in town. With a myriad of afternoon scouting activities we decided it would be the only way we could fit everything into the day. I prepared myself as best I could, but I couldn't help gritting my teeth throughout the service.

While I am certainly not a Dressing With Dignity aficionado by refusing to wear anything other than skirts or dresses, I do think it appropriate to wear one to Mass. However, I counted less than 20 women wearing something other than pants in a crowd of 350+. I didn't realize how radical it is these days to look feminine, even to church.

The songs were the same dreary old 1970's stuff and the whole congregation blessed the children and the RCIA candidates with a Heil Hitler looking salute. The homily involved much audience participation, with the priest asking many times for people to raise their hands and mentioning several times that we needed to watch more TV. There also seemed to be two additional portions of the Mass: the lengthy offertory add-on where an army of little children fought to take up the money baskets, and the liturgy of the announcements, which took more time than communion itself (since they used an army of EEMs). After Communion the church was half empty with folks that mistook partaking of Our Lord Jesus's body with the drive through at McDonald's. Before Mass it was chat, chat, chat, and afterwards was the giant sprint for the door with little time for reflection or prayer. All in all it was pretty awful, but likely typical for today's suburban American Catholic Mass.

Next week we will resume our cross-country journey to attend Mass with prayerful silence, the recitation of the rosary, a solid homily, and a beautiful church with not a felt banner in sight. Unfortunately the parish seems to have its own share of problems, one of which is a dislike of any noise, especially from little children. Our next duty station will have multiple options for attending a Latin Mass, I am sure we will find one that is like St. Benedict's in Virginia. Sure, I appreciated our old parish, but it took today to make me realize how much I miss a community of like-minded Catholics who take their faith seriously as well as have smiles on their faces.

spelling lesson needed

Michelle's post over at rosetta stone involving her daughter passing notes reminded me of Will's recent spate of signs on his bedroom door. Note "No Fiting" and "No Litering." There were also "No Smoking" signs on every door in the house last week, but since no one in our house smokes and I doubt Will has ever seens anyone smoke, I am still trying to figure out its origin.



(sorry for the non-rotated photo, I tried for 40 minutes to fix it, but as I have said, I am not talented with such things)

playing tourist

The children and I have been so focused on school the last month that we have done outside our little sphere of home other than grocery shopping and going to the library. Last week several of the children's aunties came for a visit and we got our of our usual boring routine to play tourist.

Here are the giant lily pads at the Sarah Duke Gardens. They reminded us of the maze in Puzzle Island. The koi silently gliding underneath were also a source of amazement. The children ran and hid among the banana tree grove, the bamboo forest, and walked precariously along the edge of a little bridge. Maggie has begged to go back on Monday for her birthday treat so this time we will take some bread for the many ducks.

new year, new organizational method

For the past 4 years we have been enrolled in Seton, but have not really utilized the lesson plans. After my student teaching days of frantically trying to write lesson plans from scratch on the weekends perhaps I felt that being sent instructions for each day was cheating. I religiously rewrote all the assignments in planning books and checked off each assignment. This job alone took hours of precious time, but I felt it was important that I had a book in hand if some "authority" ever came to the door. This year however, Will's 4th grade assignments were more than "do pages 45-46" so I had to come up with a better system. Of course I realized this after I had spent upteen dollars buying rubber stamps for the planners.

I think the system I have come up with (actually many other Seton moms have recommended this, but I felt like I had to reinvent the wheel) is to have a small 1.5" binder for each child. The big kid's binders contains an attendance record and the lesson plans for the current quarter. The pocket in the front is for finished work and tests that need to be completed that week and the one in the back is for me to organize the quarter's packet to send in to Seton. Each day's work is highlighted in the lesson plans and then scratched out with a marker as we complete it. All the rest of the material: lesson plans for the rest of the year, progress sheets, tests... are all in huge binders on the shelf. Maggie is also affected by this sudden disregard for planning books, I haven't checked off an assignment or kept attendance. She is happily doing as many pages as I will let her and not being officially old enough for Kindergarten I am willing to let it take as long as necessary to get through the books. We certainly don't seem to be as overwhelmed by the volume of paper and work that needs to be accomplished by June and I haven't lost anything yet!

This method seems to keep everything accessible and is much more workable than rewriting all the lessons in the planner. It also seems to be less likely to result in a lost folder than the every subject in a separate folder method. It only took me 5 years to get to this point of not having to do everything they way they taught me in grad school. Maybe by the time the kids are teens I will progress all the way to unschooling, but I doubt it.

Moral of the story: learn from other's experience and strive to make mom's work easier. Both will lead to less hassle and more time to teach and play after the schoolwork is finished.

I would lose my head if it wasn't attached

Recently I have been losing things at an amazing rate. First it was my little calender that I recorded my running miles each day. Then I left my to-do list at Kroger last week. Today I was going to drive over to the course of a local race and check it out, but unfortunately my keys were nowhere to be found. The last time I had seen them was the afternoon before when we went to get the mail.

I then realized with horror that I had let baby Timmy play with them and watched him drop them in the front yard. Yesterday. But they certainly weren't there today and the babysitter clock was ticking away. (at $10 an hour I don't want to waste a minute) I badgered the children about what might have happened to them. I even bothered Tim at work and asked him if he had seen the keys. Nope. So, I bagged my plan and ran a loop around the neighborhood. Again. The loop is not long enough, well, it would be if I ran two loops but it is way too tempting to stop at the 2.6 mile mark to run past our driveway. On the way back in for some water and a shower I saw them. In the wagon.

Where I put them yesterday.

Whoops.

Today, in the Tridentine Rite, is the feast day of St. Anthony Mary Claret, the founder of the Claretians. I know that the patron saint of lost items is St. Anthony, very likely a different saint entirely, but thanks to them both for helping me find my keys. Now if that running log would just turn up...


update 10/27: running log turns up in Will's Webelos book. Yeah!

Carnival of Homeschooling

This week is hosted by At Home With Kris.

last night at supper...

During the usual discussion of how school went I have recently started mentioning what writing assignments the children completed each day.

Me: "Will wrote middle sentences about a priest who worked with the lepers."
Maggie (interrupting): "I remember when we had leprechauns in preschool once. They knocked down all the chairs and tables."
Me: "There is a slight difference between lepers and leprechauns, dear."
Will: "That didn't REALLY happen, there are no such thing... are there?"
Maggie (very indignantly): "I'm thinking about it right now. So it IS true!"

Tim and I looked at each other and tears started coming out our eyes we were trying not to break out laughing.

A 4 year old's logic seems to be similar to talking heads on the TV, "I'm thinking about it, so it MUST be true."

comments again

Oh! I am sooooo sorry that I haven't been moderating very well. I assumed that the only comments I was getting were coming to my email box, so I published those. However, there were tons sitting in the moderate comments box in blogger. I'm not the most computer literate person around so please forgive me.

Isn't it true that we only learn from our mistakes?

storytime

I have wrestled over the past few months with trying to fulfill all the children's reading needs, but I was overwhelmed. Maggie and Charlie love to sit and listen to picturebooks, the more familiar the better, but Will and Mary are only interested in are chapter books, such as Little House, but for the most part they have determined that because they cover the pages so much faster when they read silently, listening to Mommy read is BO-RING.

The obvious solution would be to read to the little kids and let the older ones read Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys to their heart's desire, but it always seems to be Charlie's bedtime just as I finally make it to the sofa with a stack of books. Tim has come to the rescue by taking over putting Charlie to bed and giving him his own story time before he turns out the light and says, "Good night, sleep tight, see you in the morning." Apparently the preferred book this week has been The Little Puppy, in which the main attraction is a brown and white floppy eared Spaniel named Charlie owned by a freckled face boy, Tim. Charlie loves seeing his name in print so much that he has taken to sleeping with the book under his pillow.

Since I recall this book and the others in the series (Kitten, Bunny, Pig, Duck) when I was about 6 or so, Tim and the other children are likely now in their 40's and all the pets met their demise long ago. Still, they are appealing in that they show animals growing up and the mischief they get into, just the way our little ones grow and mature over time. Puppies become dogs and toddlers become adults, though it takes ever so much longer than 1 year. Still, I am beginning to see what older moms mean when they say, "They grow up so fast." Will and Mary don't want to hear about The Little Puppy anymore, they are closer to being adults than infants. Part of me wants to turn back the clock, while the other part longs for the day when the little ones won't be so physically demanding.

Enjoy these years of storytime, don't let them slip by without many nights cuddling on the sofa together reading a worn copy of a childhood favorite.

Is this what they mean by sex-ed?

Parents want to protect their babies and toddlers. They buy baby gates and pore over safety catalogues to find the best latches for their kitchen cabinets. They strap their children into car seats religiously and keep a monitor on hand to hear if Junior wakes up from his nap a little early. Rich mommies interview nannies while the rest of us interview preschool teachers and pediatricians as if we are on the college admittance committee.

But when our precious little ones turn 5 or 6 and the yellow bus pulls to a stop in front of our house, why do we let down our guard? Besides the bullies and foul mouthed teens on the bus, and the cruel cliques of the popular girls, there are sick teachers who prey on the children put in their care. While I am glad that my children are not likely to be molested simply because they are not sent to school, I worry and am saddened about the thousands of American children who will be assaulted or seduced by their teachers.

Do you know where your children are and who they are with? Are you sure?

An Associated Press investigation found more than 2,500 cases over five years in which educators were punished for actions from bizarre to sadistic.

...a seven-month investigation found 2,570 educators whose teaching credentials were revoked, denied, surrendered or sanctioned from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct.
"From my own experience - this could get me in trouble - I think every single school district in the nation has at least one perpetrator. At least one," says Mary Jo McGrath, a California lawyer who has spent 30 years investigating abuse and misconduct in schools. "It doesn't matter if it's urban or rural or suburban."
...the perpetrators that the AP found are everyday educators - teachers, school psychologists, principals and superintendents among them. They're often popular and recognized for excellence and, in nearly nine out of 10 cases, they're male.

do toddlers try your patience?

Children have a natural tendency to aggression and need to learn to control it in the pre-school years, says a leading Canadian child psychologist. Toddlers do not learn aggression from other children, TV, video games or adults, claimed Prof Richard Tremblay in an address to the Royal Society in London. Instead, most are naturally belligerent and reach their peak of aggression between 18 months and 42 months. If parents fail to intervene at this stage, it could mean the difference between a child growing up normally or turning into a violent adult. (Daily Mail)

As a parent of 15 and 40 month old boys I am in the midst of trying to curb all the aggressive behavior in our house. Between the screaming and fussing to try and get their way and screaming and fussing because they can't use/find the right words, it seems like a mad house most days. Luckily it is only temporary because otherwise I would go mad.

good morning?

What kind of day is it going to be when a little voice stirs you out of a sound sleep, "Mommy, I'm poopy. Change me please?"

It didn't get any better after the same child hopped down the stairs and proclaimed, "Yuck! The cat threw up down here!"

On the other hand, we now have 1 dreaded book report out of the way and the other almost finished.

Here's hoping your day has more ups than downs.

modest expectations

I asked Maggie what she would like for her birthday coming up.

She said, "purple cake with brown frosting."

"Well, what about a present? A toy or something?" I pressed.

She put her finger up to her temple and said, "Think, think, think," while tapping. (a la Winnie the Pooh) "Coloring books! That's what I would like. Coloring books."

Can do little one. Mommy is on the hunt for your birthday gift.

Carnival of Homeschooling

The 94th edition is up at the The Thinking Mother.

school handing out birth control to 11 year olds?

First it was teaching students about sex instead of leaving it to parents. Then it was teaching them about pregnancy and birth control without permission, then distributing condoms and counseling about abortion to teens. Now it is dispensing pharmaceuticals to 11 year olds without parental permission. Schools want complete control over our children-I don't plan on giving it to them, do you?

Students who have parental permission to be treated at King Middle School's health center would be able to get birth control prescriptions under a proposal that the Portland School Committee will consider Wednesday.
The proposal would build on the King Student Health Center's practice of providing condoms as part of its reproductive health program since it opened in 2000, said Lisa Belanger, a nurse practitioner who oversees the city's student health centers.
If the committee approves the King proposal, it would be the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to some students in grades 6 to 8, said Nancy Birkhimer, director of teen health programs for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Most middle schoolers are ages 11-13.

little mother

Overhead while the little kids were eating their waffles,

Charlie: "I have to go potty. I'll be right back, don't eat my food".
Maggie: "Timmy! That is NOT yours!"
(tinkle, flush, water running)
Maggie: "Baby Timmy wanted some waffle, I gave him some of yours and mine."
Charlie: "That's MY waffle, you hear me."
Maggie: "Would you like me to get you some more waffle, Charlie? (sound of plastic crinkling) You can't eat them frozen, they are almost as hard as rocks". (long stretch of quiet) "Timmy, don't stick your hand there."
"Mommy, I need help!"

Happy Birthday Tim!

To my dear husband on his birthday:

Thank you for your kindness, your devotion to our family and God, your strong work ethic, your daily Rosary, your gentle spirit, your generosity, your unselfishness, your willingness to pitch in, and most of all your love.

I am glad God helped us find each other and for me to recognize the best man in the world. Thank you for being my rock, my love, and my soul mate.

I love you and so do all your little children.