Explanation of Chicken Man

My 11 year old did not know who Chicken Man was. I see this as a serious dereliction of my duties as a good mother. I have rectified the situation by playing this video for her, though I didn’t watch it for the most part, since Chicken Man is best experienced as a radio play. I simply left it open and playing in the background.

Everyone should know about Chicken Man. He’s awesome.

 

Surrounded by Beauty

I’ve been blogging about the Faith a lot, but I wanted to share some beautiful pictures of our drive/hike on the Blue Ridge Parkway here in Southwest Virginia this past weekend. I’m always amazed at the beauty in our world.

On a related note, as we drove by these huge, expensive (new) neighborhoods tucked behind small ranch homes that were likely built in the 1950′s, as well as a few mobile homes, I remembered an article Elizabeth Scalia wrote about beauty in our Catholic Churches, and how the poor deserve to be surrounded by beauty, as well. Well, God certainly does His part, doesn’t He?

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Love Thy Neighbor

A Composite of the Derecho Storm from June 29

As everyone knows by now, a nasty storm called a derecho moved across the eastern half of the country on June 29. The result was a few million people without power, as well as a handful of deaths – which, considering it moved across nine states is a blessing.

We were one of those families without power. And, for us, this also means that we were without electricity to run the pump on our well, which meant no running water, either.

And yet, we were blessed.

The trees used to reach towards our home.

Up the street from us, just a few houses away, a tree with a diameter of close to 2′ crashed down (away from the family’s home!) onto some power lines. When it fell across the lines, it also snapped the top of the telephone pole clean off.  (Oh, and crushed the family’s Jeep Grand Cherokee.) But their house got away without damage to it, as did another few neighbor’s homes that had near-misses with the large trees and branches that surround our neighborhood.  Our neighbors directly next door had a tree fall onto their carport without causes much damage, and they were even able to get out of the carport to buy dry ice for their freezer full of Angus steaks.

The tops of the tree were sheared off

We had a tree whose three large branches (which could have been mistaken for three slender trunks) all leaned over towards our home, practically touching the roof. The tree was sheared off about 20′ from the top, and the treetops blew away from our home and into the bramble at the base of the tree itself. In another spot of the neighbor’s wooded lot, there were three tulip poplars growing together, the two largest about 12″ in diameter and about 70′ tall. One blew down from the base of the tree – away from our yard and the pool that was within striking distance.

There were electrical wires sagging across our yard, but they were high enough for us to drive my minivan in and out of the driveway. Even where the wires actually came down in the neighbor’s yard, it was away from their driveway and house, and so they were also able to drive in and out if necessary.

A few people in our neighborhood acquired generators (including the elderly neighbors with the tree on the carport and the Angus steaks in their freezer!), and some people were able to run their entire home off the generator (saving the food in their fridge and freezers). Others managed to purchase ice, but when the hours turned to days, and the days turned into a week, many people lost the food they were unable to keep cold or cook and eat.

Base of the Poplar that fell

But our blessings piled up higher than we deserved in all this.

We have dear friends who had just come back from a family vacation and who did not lose power in the storms. (There’s a LOT to be said for burying utility lines, people!) They emailed (have I mentioned I’m grateful for having an iPhone yet?) and offered use of their fridges and freezers, which were still mostly empty from vacation. They also offered a place to live until the power came back, which was a God-send! Let me tell you, I grew up without central air conditioning, and I probably could have dealt with that and the lack of electricity, but the lack of running water was a definite drag! To flush the toilets when necessary, my poor husband had to run out to the pool and bring in a couple buckets of water to put into the tank. And WOE to the child who didn’t use a downstairs bathroom!

So we packed up a few things and went to live with our friends. Then we packed a few more things and stayed with them nearly a week.

My younger daughter points to the lowest branches of the poplar that stood next to the one that fell. Behind her is the pool and surrounding deck.

Of all the blessings, I think staying with our dear friends was one of the biggest. Without them, we would have lost all the food in our freezer and most of the food in the fridge, for I had just fully stocked our 29 cubic foot refrigerator to the brim. Without them, we would have been running back and forth to the pool to flush the toilet, and God only knows how we would have showered. We considered trying to get a hotel room or a week at a timeshare last minute, but our chances of getting anything just a few days before Independence Day seemed slim.

Instead, we were welcomed with open arms, at a moment’s notice, and on their anniversary (which they didn’t even mention until nearly the end of the week)!

What a blessing that was!

What I think I might love the most is the example my children had of love of neighbor. I fear I am too often selfish and don’t give good example of this virtue, but here was a perfect example of it, and we were the beneficiaries.

You can see how tall the poplar was – the sky you see here was not visible when it was still standing.

I don’t know if I can ever thank them enough for helping us when we were so desperate and for opening their home and their hearts to us.

God is good to us, and His goodness and mercy are abundant!

When What’s Comfortable Suddenly Isn’t

There has never really been a time when we didn’t plan on homeschooling our children. Even early in our marriage, we felt called to do it, though I

Graduation Starts at Home

doubt we would have phrased it that way.  But today, I see it as a part of my vocation as a wife and mother.

As our daughters get older, and especially as our older girl approaches high school this Fall, my comfort with homeschooling K-12 was suddenly … less. I couldn’t explain it, but I started feeling nervous about my older daughter’s entrance into her high school years, and my abilities to educate her.  I couldn’t explain it, and only shared my feelings about it a very little bit with my husband.  I still felt the call to homeschool her, but I had doubts that I was doing a good-enough job any more.

I knew I wasn’t willing to put her in public school.  I know that spending $6000 a year for Catholic school wasn’t going to work for us, either.  As much as our finances have improved, I can’t possibly afford that kind of tuition for a private school! Less-expensive Christian schools are out of the question. I don’t doubt their sincerity or their love for Christ, but I don’t want my children in an environment where their own faith would be questioned and challenged on a daily basis.  (Plus, I’ve noticed a lot of anti-science going on in the evangelical circles in these parts; faith and science are not enemies or opposites.)

So I have been plugging on, working towards finishing this year and trusting that my decision to continue to homeschool my girls through high school is the right one.  We looked at various curricula and finally made the decision to re-enroll with Seton Homeschool for high school.  While their lower grade curriculum didn’t work for us, their high school curricula does look like it will.  Our daughter chose her science class for ninth grade, and we’ve discussed working towards getting her ready for high school math (her weakest subject).

But this nagging doubt still bothered me: Am I doing the right thing? Can she do this? Can I do this?

Today, I finally emailed Seton and asked about how to go about giving her the high school placement test, and started marking off the books on the list that I didn’t need to purchase.  More perfunctory actions, more stepping out on faith.

Watch Out!

And, suddenly, I realized that I had a great peace about this whole thing.

What a gift!  I hadn’t even made it a conscious prayer, but I had been – in a very roundabout way – asking God if, indeed, this was the right thing for me to do. Am I doing right by my children by choosing to homeschool through high school?

And the answer was yes. What a relief! What a joy! 

So now I can look forward to the end of this school year with the knowledge that I’ll also be able to look forward to the next!

Tuna Noodle Casserole

This is a recipe I’ve used for years now. I would give you a direct link, but I no longer have access to Weight Watchers Online, which is the original source.  I had several people ask me what I did that makes my kids beg for tuna casserole at least once a month.  This is it!

I do tend to use a 1 pound box of shells or other pasta, and I often sub in honey mustard for the Dijon mustard the recipe calls for.  When the kids were younger, they didn’t like the thyme, so I skipped it for a long time. The other secret to getting them to eat it was to call it “Nemo Noodles” and “Sponge Bob Casserole,” depending on their ages at the time. Very often, creatively renaming your dinners will entice your kids to eat it. Once, when my older daughter was in a particular phase when she liked gross stuff, I told her to think of her spaghetti as “bloody worms.” I kid you not. And she loved the idea. (Kids are VERY strange.)

So, without further ado, here’s the tuna casserole recipe I use.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Ingredients

1. 12 oz – 1 pound pasta (egg noodles, shells, etc.)
2. 12 oz water-packed tuna, drained
3. 2 cups sliced mushrooms
4. 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
5. 16 oz fat-free sour cream
6. ½ cup fat free mayonnaise
7. 2 tsp Dijon or honey mustard
8. 1 tsp dried thyme
9. ½ tsp table salt (or more, to taste)
10. ¼ tsp black pepper (or more, to taste)
11. ½ cup shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack or Swiss cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º
2. Cook noodles according to directions without added fat or salt; drain and transfer to a large bowl. Fold in tuna, mushrooms, and peas.
3. Whisk sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, thyme, salt, and pepper together in a separate bowl; fold into noodle mixture. Transfer to a large cassrole dish and top with cheese.
4. Bake until top is golden and bubbly, about 30 minutes.

Wordless Wednesday: Remembering Vacation

Cinderella's Castle

 

The last day of our vacation last month, we spent the entire day at the Magic Kingdom. We were there for the opening, and we were there for the closing. Cinderella’s Castle was decked in these beautiful lights that night.

Advent

Contrary to what radio stations, stores, and TV would have you believe, it is not Christmas season.  Not yet!  It’s Advent.

What is Advent? It is a time of waiting, a time of preparation, a time of self-examination.  For Catholics, it’s the beginning of a new year – our Liturgy begins anew each First Sunday of Advent, as we await the celebration of the greatest Gift we’ll ever know: God Incarnate, born as a tiny Baby.  Poor, helpless, and unnoticed.

Just as it was 2000 years ago, it is today.  God comes to us, and we fail to notice.

Oh, sure, we sing Christmas carols, we put up the tree and decorations Thanksgiving afternoon, we buy Christmas presents, we zoom all around looking for good deals and then descend upon our relatives, laden with gifts and goodies, and we pull the tree down on December 26 and toss it on the curb.  But if this is all we do, we completely miss everything.

Advent is a quiet time, for reflection.  Just as our culture encourages us to re-examine our lives at the start of the calendar year – making improvements where necessary, resolving to be better in one way or another – the Church calls us to do the same now.  The readings tell us this.  Today’s reading from Isaiah begs God to call us back to Him, to help us repent and be better people, and that when He comes He will find us busy at His work, not our own. Jesus tells us in the Gospel today again: WATCH!  It’s so important, He tells us three times: watch!

Instead of rushing about this Advent, singing Christmas carols out-of-season (Christmas begins on December 25 and ends January 6), and worshipping at the altar of the False God of the Good Deal, why not take stock of your life in the next four weeks? Look for the spiritual weaknesses in your life and find ways to shore them up.  Instead of letting your children focus on Santa Claus coming, remind them that Jesus is coming.  In preparation for that, read the Jesse Tree readings daily.  (I’ll have them post here every morning.)  Buy an Advent wreath, or even just some purple and pink candles.  (I got mine from Wal Mart -big jarred candles that I can leave lit all day long.)  Light the candles for dinner, turn off the TV and radio, and just talk about … whatever!

Make Advent about Christ, the One we wait for, and not about rushing yourself towards Christmas.  Wait! Watch!

Resources:

• Catholic Online: Advent and Christmas 2011
• ETWN: Devotionals and Information About Advent
• CatholicMom.com: Plenty of excellent resources, including activity sheets for Mass every Sunday and Holy Day
• Catholic Culture: More activities for the whole family
• New Advent’s Catholic Encyclopedia: Very in-depth explanations for Advent, fully cross-referenced.
• Want to make your own Jesse Tree? Catholic Culture has instructions here.

My Annual Reminder

When Kids Crash

Because I saw this post, I wanted to share these pictures of my girls from what seems like only last year, but is apparently not. You know, them being 12 1/2 and nearly 10 and stuff.

And sometime, maybe someone can explain where the time went.

Crashed ...

... Out

Still Happy

File Under: My Kids Are Awesome

Bad Dudes

My girls are clever kids.  They’re smart.  They’ve got (according to their father and I) great senses of humor.

And they watch a lot more movies than I did when I was their ages.  After all, I didn’t have the advantage of a VCR or DVD player, and I was at the mercy of The Wonderful World of Disney and, later in life, HBO.

They love quoting movies, and whatever their new favorite movie is will influence what sorts of conversations we have.  Right now, that movie is Megamind.  So I frequently have conversations with them where they are acting out scenes of the movie, or giving me lines from certain characters.

This can be funny, to an extent.  But when I start feeling like they haven’t had an original thought in weeks, I want to put my foot down.  So I did.

“For pity’s sake! TALK TO ME AS YOU, NOT SOME MOVIE CHARACTER!!” I yelled.  ”I am tired of talking to you and getting a movie line in return!”

“But,” whined my 12 year old, “those are so funny!”

“Yeah!” chimes in the 9 year old. “It’s like all the really good stuff has already been said in a movie!”

I did not tell them how hysterical I find that idea.  False, but hysterical nonetheless.

(Note to my parents and sister: Do NOT tell them that!)

Sanctification Through Simplicity

Fr. Longnecker has a beautiful post up about what he calls “supernatural normalcy” and how it is incredibly frustrating to the Devil.  I absolutely love it!  He explains that what really ticks off Old Scratch is the idea that we can live our lives with a holiness, a humility, and a certain kind of hidden-ness that shows God’s graces in our lives.

Done with Love

It reminds me of St. Therese and her Little Way, not to mention the many, many saints who follow a similar path.  Even Opus Dei teaches that your life is a path to sanctification and that we can become holy through our everyday activities.  My holiness might not be in doing great things out in the world.  My holiness will come through living my vocation – wife, mother, homeschooler – to the best of my abilities.  I might not be able to march against injustices or be out giving speeches, but I am able to hug my children when they are sad, iron a shirt for my husband, wash the pots and pans after dinner, do laundry for my children, cook a meal … these are the things that make me a holier person when I do them with love.

And our family, just by existing, drives Satan mad.  That my husband is loving and faithful, that he is working to be a better Catholic (and, therefore, a better man), that he is a good example to our daughters of what kind of man they should marry … these things fight against the darkness that is enveloping our world.

Father Longnecker also gives us a perfect example: Mary:

This way of ‘supernatural normalcy’ is the way of the Blessed Virgin. She doesn’t jump out from the pages of the New Testament as some sort of Superwoman or Heroic Saint. That’s because she is ordinary. She if ‘full of grace’ and therefore she seems to be totally and utterly natural and real. She is all that she was created to be and therefore she does not seem to be extraordinary. She is as natural and beautiful as a morning in May. She is as natural and virginal as a virgin forest.

It therefore takes a discerning spirit and a finely tuned spiritual sense to find such souls. They are difficult to find not only because they are humble and hidden, but because they are ‘normal’. If you told them they were holy and that you wanted to sit at their feet they would laugh and tell you they are not holy and that you have made a mistake. They don’t seem extraordinary, and yet for those who have eyes to see they are very extraordinary indeed.

The Simple Life can Sanctify

This is what I need to remember when I feel badly that I can’t get to 40 Days for Life more often, or when I have to miss the March for Life, or when I cannot go to a weekend of uplifting talks given by leading theologians.  I need to remember that my little life, hidden here in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, is my path to holiness.  That my path is made more perfect when I live my vocation, that I am sanctified by the duties of my life that, frankly, can seem dreary at times.

But when I do them with love, and do them to give glory to God, who gave me my vocation, sanctification comes!  Graces are given!

And I fight back against the Devil.