Seven Quick Takes: Holiness and Homeschool

~one~

I’ve entered my Novitiate year with the Lay Dominicans, which is now called “Received” because I’ve been accepted as someone to discern if this is, indeed, a vocation for me. There are times I’ve felt overwhelmed by the amount of work involved, and wonder how I’ll get it done, but I also know that I have plenty of time in my day which I currently fill with too-much-Twitter and goofing off. So if I apply myself and concentrate on What’s Important (or Who’s Important), I will easily be able to get my work done.

~two~

I’ve thought a lot about my vocation as a homeschooling mother, and I feel quite strongly that I am called to it as a method of sanctification. I struggle with sloth a lot, and if there was a way for me to live my life in bed with a supply of food and some fun time-wasting games to play, I probably would do that if left to my own devices. But God is not leaving me to my own devices, and I’ve become certain that my call to homeschool my children is a way to sanctify me and help me resist the temptation to waste time. When my high school daughter needs help with reviewing biology, I can’t be playing Bejeweled Blitz (now removed from my phone and Facebook). When my sixth grader needs to read history out loud, I need to help her with that instead of seeing what’s happening on Twitter.

And now  this journey with the Dominican Laity requires me to do certain things: daily Mass whenever possible, daily Rosary, daily study, meetings at least monthly. Instead of wasting time on unimportant things, I now need to become more aware of whether or not I’m doing what I ought to do. It occurred to me that between this and homeschooling, God is working to help me on a path to holiness; He, in His infinite mercy, is providing me with tools that will help me focus on my spiritual life rather than become more selfish as I get older and my children grow up and leave home. I realized today that, God willing, I will make First Promises next year and Final Promises three years after that. At that point, my younger daughter will be in tenth grade and my older daughter’s education will no longer be my responsibility. I will have found myself will fewer demands on my time which I’ve learned can be a dangerous proposition for me, spiritually speaking. So in addition to homeschooling helping me grow in holiness, I see the Lay Fraternity of Saint Dominic (LFSD) picking up where homeschooling is going to leave off in a few short years. My study with my children is going to give way to studying with the Dominicans.

~three~

Our family is going to take a trip to Boston near the end of April. I haven’t been there in more than 25 years, and I’ve never stayed there for an extended time. We’ve decided to walk the Freedom Trail, go see Old Ironsides, and (thanks to the generosity of my mother-in-law) take in a Red Sox game. I am resisting the urge to wear ALL of my Yankees gear to the game. Besides, everyone should go to Fenway if they can. Plus, and this is a great thing, we’ll get to see family we haven’t seen in ages! I’m looking forward to it, that is when I remember that I’m going somewhere. (I really need to get that Packing Pro app out and prepare a bit.)

~four~

We’re ahead, but let’s not let them get close to catching up.

Related to the Red Sox, I actually have a relative who had been the executor for the will of the Red Sox’s owners. So even though our family is filled with die-hard Yankees fans (and with a family history in The Bronx, can you blame us?), there was also a little bit of support for the Sox. Personally, I liked them better when they were under The Curse. Now that they’re constantly a threat to adding another ring, not so much.

~five~

Our family dealt with lots of sickness this winter. It seemed we’d never all be well, and things ranged from constant sniffles to low-grade fevers to flat-out scary temperatures that (for my 14 year old) topped 104º. Now that we all seem to be well (with the exception of allergies that are magnified by EVERYTHING blooming at once in our much-delayed Spring), I’m taking stock on where we are, school-wise, for the year. We’ve strived to keep up with some subjects that are tied to the co-op we’re involved with, but others will have to be finished in June or even (gulp) July. One thing I’ve finally figured out is that there are some optional parent activities with Seton Homeschool that I don’t need to do if I’m pressed for time. High school is definitely challenging, but I think I’m finally figuring it out. That I’ve done this before my older daughter is finished with her first year makes me happy. I hate when she bears the brunt of my ill-preparedness. However, we’ve figured out some strategies for her to maximize her retention, which can be a challenge for a tactile learner in a book-centered education.

One thing that will be really excellent is that at the end of it all, she’ll have an official transcript. This is going to be very helpful if and when she goes to college. And it’s also nice that someone else can take a look at her work and give tips on how to get up to snuff.

~six~

I started a series on Project Yummy Veggies this past week, and I hope to get back to it again this coming week. One key is that I need to renew my Flickr Pro account so I can link to the pictures in that set instead of uploading everything here. But I’m definitely going to blog more about it and keep up with how it’s going.

~seven~

Even though it’s Spring (not Fall), I can’t stop hearing this song in my head.

***Jennifer isn’t hosting Seven Takes this week, and I suppose this counts as an eighth, but her family could sure use some prayers. Her comments are closed right now, but please lift her and her family up in prayer right now. Head over to Grace’s blog for the rest of Seven Quick Takes this week.

Seven Quickies: No Kids All Week Edition

Please be sure to check out the Seven Quick Takes lineup at Jennifer’s site, because there are surely more interesting lists than this one.  :)

~one~

I have been, as my title suggests, without my kids all week.  Just my husband and me!  WHOOO!  So that means my week has been like this:

Saturday: Drive 3 hours to drop kids off with parents.  Have dinner, stop at Apple Store on way home.  Crash in bed.

Sunday: Go to Mass.  Stay until 3:30 to count money from collections because it’s my team’s turn.  Go home.  Scarf down lunch.  Discuss plans for week with husband.  Crash in bed.

Monday: Putz around with coffee.  Spend an hour praying at Planned Parenthood for the 40 Days for Life, go to homeschool co-op and drop off my sewing machine.  Shop at Sam’s and buy beer for husband’s work buddy who has signed up to help move sleeper sofas, etc. to Goodwill and other furniture downstairs in our split-level.  (Read: There is a narrow staircase with a sharp turn.)

Tuesday: Move furniture around, vacuum, swiffer. Repeat until downstairs is completely rearranged.  Forget to eat lunch, nealry forget to shower.  Go on a date with hubby to fancypants restaurant.  Come home and crash on the couch while trying to watch Blazing Saddles, which is by far the world’s best comedy ever made.

Wednesday: Bible study at 7 AM, write lesson plans, more cleaning, dinner in the crockpot, scarf down dinner, Mass, lecture at church on Missal.

Thursday: Clean, erase hard drive and reformat old laptop to donate.  Prep all furniture to move to Goodwill.  Clean, laundry, move furniture, clean, laundry, dinner, CRASH.

Friday: (OOH! Today!) Mass, clean, laundry, wash the kitchen floor, 4o Days for Life with hubby, don’t forget that the tires need to be balanced and rotated, so that means another trip to Sam’s.

Yes, the glamorous life of a mom without her kids for a week.

~two~

You’ll notice the 40 Days for Life is a part of my week.  This is the fourth time I’ve participated, and we’re signed up for more than ever before.  Today, my wonderful husband took the day off from work to sponsor a day with the Knights of Columbus.  All this because it’s the Day of the Unborn for Knights – today is the Feast of the Annunciation, formerly known as the Feast of the Incarnation: the day our Lord became Flesh.  Today, my husband is spending 12 hours in front of Planned Parenthood, with men coming in and out all day long, all praying for an end to abortion and the Culture of Death.

If you can, join us, whether it be in front of an abortion clinic or just by praying for those of us out there (as well as for the end of abortion).

~three~

I missed my kids so much this week, it was crazy.  But they’ve had such a good time, they’ve forgotten to call us most days.  Their father has barely spoken to them at all.

~four~

Did I mention I get my girls back tomorrow?  It’ll be worth the nearly 7 hours of car time for another hug from these two cuties.

Who could resist those cute faces!?

~five~

I’ve also blogged this week.  A bunch.  And I’ll be guest-posting at Snoring Scholar tomorrow.  Check back for a link to the piece.

~six~

Aren’t you glad these are shorter after #1?  I bet you were nervous, weren’t you?

~seven~

How about a nice video to end the week?

Seven Quick Takes: Almost a New Year Edition

Thanks as always to Jen, the hostess with the mostest. She hosts the Seven Quick Takes at her blog, Conversion Diary.

1. Our family life is never going to stop being busy. I used to think, “If I can just get through X, then life will calm down a bit.”

I now know that is crazy-talk. When life slows down, it’ll mean the girls have flown the nest, and then I’ll be sad. I’m going to try to embrace the craziness and not freak out that I have to leave my Hobbit Hole again this week.

2. Little Girl asked to play basketball with her older sister this winter. It’s a really small league of homeschoolers – at least the basketball season is – and before I mailed in the check that was double the amount it usually is for a sport’s season, I asked her, “Are you certain you want to play?” (She’s not really the sports/competition type.) “Oh, yes!” she assured me.

The other day, she said, “I feel bad because I decided I didn’t want to play basketball after all and now it’s too late.” Yup. Too late. She’ll play another season of sports that she really isn’t interested in playing but that she asked to play because the real thing she wanted was to do something with her sister and this is the best bet because Big Girl can’t suddenly join up with dance and be in Little Girl’s class and so we’re all going to ENJOY the basketball season and Little Girl will thank God Almighty in Heaven Above that the season is only six games long including any potential playoffs.

3. Thanks to the lovely Jen, we also have patron saints for the year. I informed Travel Man that we’d be doing this. First, it’s good to know your family. Second, we now have the amazing wall set up in the spare room for the Communion of Saints. We put our family and friends, plus any people we’re praying for (priests, religious, whatever) in the Church Militant level. We put our beloved dead in the Church Suffering level. Finally, when we know a saint well enough, we put them in the Church Triumphant level. This will give us four new family members to put in Church Triumphant. Little Girl got Therese (the movie) for Christmas, and St. Therese will go up soon. Big Girl did a report on St. Francis, as well as read all about St. Gianna Molla, last school semester, so we’re going to print pictures of them and put them up, too. It’s really going to be cool, and a nice way to get to know the many saints in the Church.

(For a short explanation of the Churches Militant, Suffering, and Triumphant, see this Wikipedia article.)

4. I got St. Charles Borromeo, who is patron against abdominal pain and intestinal difficulties. This is extremely humorous to me. Here’s why.

5. For Christmas, Travel Man decided that I needed new clothes, and more than the “I think I’ll get a new pair of jeans and watch for those pretty sweaters to go on clearance.” (I was breaking down about the jeans when Big Girl announced loudly that I had a rip in the backside of my older pair. I’ve been wearing longer sweaters since then.) He took me out on a shopping and lunch date yesterday and we bought several nice things for me. I’m wearing one outfit on Sunday to a Baptism we’re headed to. I’m VERY excited. And grateful. I’m the last one who gets clothes most of the time, and it was neat to be out shopping just for me, even if I was a little uncomfortable with it being all about me.

6. This week, I kept looking at my desk, thinking that it really needed to be cleaned off. So this morning, I dumped an entire extra-tall mug of peppermint-mocha coffee all over everything, including my camera and the new external hard drive and the iMac’s keyboard. (Okay, so it sloshed UNDER the external drive. But still…) The camera seems to be working fine, and it smells really yummy, and the keyboard is working fine, as well. Hard drive didn’t really get yucky, and the papers were mostly trash-bound, anyway. So now my desk is almost totally cleared off.

I recommend going with a less-stressful method, though.

7. How about a fun music video? This church does some neat things as openings for their services. They did a really awesome thing for Father’s Day, and this was for one of their Advent services (though I doubt they called it that).

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/y0qKIFJWGXQ?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b

Merry Christmas, and happy new year!

Seven Quick Takes: Birthday Edition

Many thanks to Jen, our hostess with the mostest, for organizing the Seven Quick Takes Fridays for us! Stop by her blog and see other Quick-Takers.

~one~

Today marks my older daughter’s twelfth birthday. It is so amazing to me that she is already twelve. How can it be? It doesn’t seem that long ago that we took these pictures:

And now I’ve got this girl:

Unbelievable. She’s a young woman now.

~two~

She’s also a really kind and sweet young woman. I love that about her. She hides it a lot, and has a tendency – like her mother – to be sarcastic. But under that rough exterior is a gentle soul who loves people and does her best to help them. She strives to be closer to God, but doesn’t wear her faith on her sleeve. It’s a private and deep faith, probably deeper than I realize.

~three~

My Big Girl is also a funny kid. One day, I was describing a child on her soccer team who hadn’t played before this season and was unsure of herself. Our conversation went like this:

Me: When she’s on the field, her body language is all nervous and stuff. She looks like she almost hopes the ball doesn’t come by her, and when it does, her body language is all like, “HERE COMES THE BALL!!!! WHAT DO I DO, WHAT DO I DO!!??!!??”

Big Girl: Um, maybe her body language needs to use its inside voice.

She slays me. And I’m not usually astute enough to write down what she says.

~four~

She, on the other hand, has great confidence on the soccer field. She’s been playing since she was almost three. (They let her on the team because they were starting a week or two before her birthday, and the first game would be after she was three.) That season, she spent a lot of time picking flowers and running after butterflies. She also spent a whole game pushing people because after she’d come to us on the sidelines in tears over being pushed, we told her that a little pushing was okay in soccer, as long as you weren’t trying to push anyone over. From that moment on – which was more than half the game – she spent her time running up to opposing players, one after another, and pushing them.

She has matured a bit in her soccer games.

This season, she has desperately wanted to play up in the front line, maybe even as a striker, but her skills in that position are not as good as some of the other children, and her defensive skills are very, very good. (She tends to go where a player is headed, knowing instinctively where to go to best cut him off. She’s been doing it for years, triangulating her position on the field defensively.) So her coach keeps her on defense. She is excellent, but unhappy. Well, not unhappy; just less happy than she’d be on the front. But she doesn’t complain to her coach about it. She plays the position because it’s where her team needs her. And I’m really proud of her for that attitude.

Each season, the team votes on the player who is Most Christ-Like. Each child picks two people, and the one person with the most votes wins. She’s never won, and we hope she has a chance this year, but in my book, she is Most Christ-Like on the team this season.

~five~

I bought her a birthday present back in March or April. I’ve been hiding it, and have been completely crazy with excitement over it. I’m going to video her opening her presents, and I’m thinking about putting it up here. I expect her to think we are the Best Parents Ever at the end of today.

~six~

Considering I’m making her do schoolwork today, and being a little mean to her about it because she is Dawdling Like a Pro, saying we’ll be named Best Parents Ever tonight is a tall order.

I am THAT confident about her present.

Last time she named us Best Parents Ever was for her tenth birthday, when we bought her an iPod Shuffle. She had been begging for an iPod, and we kept saying, “You’re not old enough yet.” We’d already decided on the Shuffle for her birthday and had it hiding in our room since late February. (I kid you not. I shop this way all the time. I’ve had my parents’ Christmas gift picked out and purchased – except for what was made this weed – since January. When I see the deal I want on something I’m going to get for someone as a gift, I jump on it.)

This was the result:

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

~seven~

Tomorrow, we’ll be leaving for vacation. (Yes, again.) My parents are taking my girls to Alexandria, VA, and we’re going to National Harbor, MD (just across the Potomoc). We’ll meet up for a day – maybe two – during the week. Then it’s off to another Fourth Degree event for the Knights of Columbus on our way home. The girls are going with us, and we all have fancy-schmancy dresses to wear to the black-tie dinner. I needed to get clothes appropriate for the dinner for all three of us, and after buying my amazing husband his own tuxedo, the budget was tight. Well, the tux, plus the fact that both girls grow like weeds and needed new Fall clothes AND shoes.

So anyway, we went to Goodwill. I used to scoff at people shopping there. I have to say, Goodwill stores don’t look like much. But that’s okay, because I got over myself and started to go for the kids’ clothes. And then I found stuff for US!

I bought three dresses (pictures will come, I promise!), and I spent under $10 on them all. Including tax. The little shrug I bought to wear with my dress cost more! The shoes for the girls cost more. The pantyhose I bought for the three of us cost more!

Plus, I also found a Liz Claiborne turtleneck sweater for $3.50, and I bought a new white turtleneck for myself – Land’s End – for $3. I hadn’t bought a white turtleneck for myself since 1984. (Seriously. I’m not kidding.) That old turtleneck is now going to be put to use on Halloween.

But that’s my next Quick Take.

Have a blessed week!

Seven Quickies: Back to Homeschool Edition

I’m actually writing my Seven Quick Takes ahead of time! Mark the calendar! Prepare for the apocalypse! Hide your women and children!

(Oh, thanks to Jen, our lovely hostess!)

So let’s get started!

~one~

We sort of started school this week. I want to start Monday (yeah, I know it’s Labor Day), but the library is closed … because it’s Labor Day! Sheesh! So since Big Girl has research to complete to be able to write her history papers for the week, we started looking things over this week. And so we’ve started easing into school, starting yesterday. We’ve been to the library, and we’ll go again tomorrow afternoon, plus we pulled out the Math-U-See books to start brushing up on where we left off.

~two~

Do you know that I resisted using Math-U-See because of the spelling? It’s annoying. Great program, but I hate the stupid spelling. Please use proper spelling and grammar!

~three~

Both Big Girl and Little Girl have a lot of research for history. Big Girl has a new topic every week, and Little Girl will be researching our home state of Virginia for the first quarter of school. Should be interesting. To add to the CHC history curriculum, I bought The Book of Time from Sonlight. I think they are the NEATEST books! Basically, it’s a blank timeline in a spiral binder. As you get closer to modern times, you get fewer years per page. Big Girl is going to be transferring in her dates from last year’s history, and Little Girl will be starting her book this year. Wish I’d seen them earlier! Poor Big Girl … she’s got a few hundred dates plastered all over the walls of our spare bedroom!!

~four~

I want those dates down, too! I want to create a wall of the Church. I found the idea in A Year with God. The wall with the pictures and holy cards will be divided between the Church Militant (those of us on earth), the Church Suffering (those souls in Purgatory), and the Church Triumphant (those souls in Heaven who enjoy the Beatific Vision). At the head of the Church Militant, right at the top, will be a picture of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. Pictures of bishops and cardinals will be below that, then pictures of priests we know (hey, Father K!), and then our friends and family. The Church Suffering will include our friends and family who have died, as well as more famous people (like Pope John Paul II and G. K. Chesterton). The Church Triumphant will have holy cards and pictures of those Saints and Blesseds the Church has declared to be in Heaven.

Note for non-Catholics: Catholics do not believe that Saints and Blesseds are in Heaven because the Church says they are; we believe the Church declares they are in Heaven when there is miraculous evidence – or, sometimes, when someone has been declared a martyr. In short, things are not true because the Church says it. The Church says it because it is true.

For more information on Purgatory and Sainthood, please see this list of articles on Mary and the Saints, as well as the information here and here on Purgatory. For more from Catholic Answers on Purgatory, you can see this search result. More can be found on all things Catholic at New Advent’s excellent online Catholic Encyclopedia. I like Catholic Answers for the concise explanations that are apologetic in nature and a little more accessible to those who are just looking for some good information. They get into some depth, but you can’t beat the Catholic Encyclopedia for really super-duper, in-depth, cross-referenced information on anything and anyone having to do with the Church and Church history.

~five~

Our schedule is totally insane! I’ve got (at least through October) two days each of dance and soccer, plus Mass during the week. Plus all the normal insanity. I have a feeling I’m going to be using my crock pot a LOT this coming year. And maybe forever more. I wrote out my menu plan for September, though, which takes a load of pressure off me. I found that when I keep a menu, my grocery budget stays within my limits. When I stray from it or forget to write one for too long, I get to 5:45 and start thinking, “I’m hungry. Kids are hungry. Husband is hungry. What will we eat!?” And I did one new thing. I started a separate calendar for the dinner menu and put it on my iMac’s calendar. Then I published it through MobileMe so it’ll show up on my iPod (and future iPhone), as well as on the other family members’ calendars. As long as they subscribe. I hope they do, so they stop asking me what’s for dinner. (It’s not like it was a secret. I keep the menu on the refrigerator, for cryin’ out loud!)

~six~

How about a little movie?

I don’t know about you, but I feel better!

~seven~

I have a special intention. Could you please keep it in mind when you pray? Don’t worry. God knows.

†††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††

Have a blessed weekend, and enjoy Monday’s day off. Unless you’re not off. Then, sorry. I’ve been there. Come to think of it, I’m *still* there!

Seven Quick Takes: What I Did on My Summer Vacation Edition

Jennifer is our lovely hostess for Seven Quick Takes Friday! Head over to her blog for lots of Quick Takers, including much more interesting writers like Simcha, who has a themed list that is pretty much Made of Awesome.

Here we go, with my list of seven neat things we saw/did on vacation!

1. No vacation of ours would be complete without me taking at least one picture of clouds and/or fog. I have dozens. This is the first picture in our vacation set on iPhoto, so you see I did not forget just how important the fog pictures are.

2. We were with my mother-in-law for this vacation, and spent Independence Day with her. We sat up on her little rooftop balcony and watched the fireworks over the trees.

(Big Girl is at an age when this is the face she makes in every. single. picture. I take of her. Just wait until she tries dating! These babies are coming out again. She’ll regret her constant photoboming!)

Inexplicably, the finale took place low to the ground, and so this is the best shot I have of the fireworks finale.

3. For Little Girl’s birthday, Travel Man’s grandmother arranged for us to have high tea at the Anne Hathaway Cottage at Shakespeare Gardens in Wessington Springs, SD. The garden was in full bloom, which only adds to the quaint charm and beauty of the cottage. I did not get lucky enough to snap any pictures of the three garden snakes that were there. I was nice enough not to snap pictures of my mother in law when she saw them, either. And Big Girl was smart enough not to try to pick them up – even though they are non-poisonous – in front of her grandmother.

4. We went to De Smet, by way of Huron. There we saw the World’s Largest Pheasant.

Travel Man quipped, “I want to build a pheasant in our yard 1 inch bigger, then set up a sign that says, ‘Huron is lying.’”

I love my family.

5. Did you know that De Smet is the last place that Laura Ingalls Wilder’s mother and father lived? It’s the tiny town’s Claim to Fame. EVERYTHING there is connected in some way to the Ingalls family. We went there to see the Ingalls Family Homestead and all of the other neat stuff connected with the family. It was interesting and worth the price of admission.

We saw a sod house.

It is not like a Hobbit hole.

We saw Ma’s House.

I was surprised that the volunteer (college boy) did not have the answer to a teenaged girl’s question as to why it’s called “Ma’s House.” She asked if they had separate houses. (Ah, the Divorce Culture’s effects!) Neither really “got” that it’s Ma’s house because Pa built it for her: everything in that house was made to make her life as easy as he could make it. He built it out of love. He built it with his own hands. It was for her, and it was hers.

These days, that doesn’t happen much. You go and buy a house that someone else built. Not quite the same effect.

By the way, have you ever thought how soft we are these days? Could you live like the Ingalls Family? I couldn’t.

6. Did you know that De Smet is named for a priest? And they have a big statue of him in town!

7. Travel Man had a business trip to Indianapolis the week after we were scheduled to be in South Dakota, so we decided to tag along and be tourists while he worked hard to supply us with all of our comforts at home. (He’s my hero!)

The girls and I had a walkabout in downtown Indy one day and went to the Children’s Museum on another day. (I posted a couple of other pictures here.) Here are some neat things just from Indianapolis.

St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church: oldest parish in Indy. Former proto-cathedral. Not wreckovated. Full of Awesome. (And the Real Presence is the main Awesomeness, but this church has Confessionals. The old kind with the curtains. I was in love.)

Outside the Indiana State Museum was this sculpture. RUN, GIRLS! RUN!!! RUN AWAY!!!

*ahem*

And, finally, one more picture from the Children’s Museum. Van Halen fans (and David Lee Roth fans, as well) might recognize this car:

From these videos:

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/w-NshzYK9y0&hl=en_US&fs=1?rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0×999999

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/cmbhfI8f_Ek&hl=en_US&fs=1?rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0×999999

Happy weekend, everyone!

Seven Quickies: Hobbity Edition

Thanks, as always, to Jen for hosting! She’s away at a retreat this week, but even THAT didn’t stop her! What a gal!

Here we go…

~one~

We have been anything BUT Hobbits this summer. I’ve been running all over, and I have only a week to be ready – no, six days – for our trip to South Dakota. We’ll be on the road for HOURS by this time next Friday. Here’s a run-down of what we’ve been doing in June:

1. We went on vacation to Massanutten from June 4-11, except we left early to…

2. Stay with our friends in Northern Virginia for the IHM Conference on June 11-12. We left on the 12th after Saturday’s Vigil Mass so we could…
3. Drive Little Girl to a vacation with her younger cousins in Tennessee, during which time we played hosts to our God-Daughter, who is only 18 months older than Big Girl. Alas! Travel Man put on his super suit again and I…
4. Was up early and had him at the airport by 6:20 on Tuesday morning. So, really, it was *me* hosting God-Daughter, as well as the pool party/sleepover on Wednesday (during which the gaggle of 11-13 year olds stayed up until 5 AM!). Then…
5. I picked up Travel Man at the airport on Friday afternoon, and we left straight from there to Tennessee again where we would switch children and come home on Saturday.

Whew! And we’re leaving July 2 for South Dakota and then stopping for Travel Man’s business trip in Indy on our way home from that. Two more weeks away.

What was I thinking when I planned all this??

I don’t think I want to go anywhere until our trip to DC in October. So let’s hope that we can avoid unnecessary travel so I can decompress from my travel-induced stress. I need to be in my Hobbit Hole for certain amounts of time, you know!

~two~

Oh, and to make my two weeks at home more enjoyable, I’ve been sick – with what I think was that intestinal thing from Christmas 2007 – all week. Yesterday, I was so excited when my stomach growled and I was hungry. It hadn’t growled for three days, despite the fact that I had barely eaten all week. Without going into icky details that I know you don’t want to hear, let’s just say that I seem to be on the mend. Just in time to pack for our next trip. Yay.

~three~

We’re going to South Dakota for a really neat thing, though. Travel Man’s grandparents – who both turn 92 this year – celebrated their *70th* wedding anniversary in January! Now, we naturally wish to celebrate with them, however, we also did not really want to brave the snow South Dakota tends to have. And, let me tell you, we got SOCKED here in Virginia, and they got it worse by them! So we arranged to go visit them in July, when it’s much less likely to snow. It also makes packing easier, since we’re pretty sure we don’t need anything much heavier than our windbreakers for the trip.

But, think about it … 70 years. It’s so amazing! I hope I live long enough to see 70 years with Travel Man.

~four~

My girls are both getting so grown-up. My family and friends are now saying, “Wow, look at Big Girl – she’s a young lady now!” and “She’s like a small grown-up!” Part of Big Girl’s sudden transformation was her decision to get her hair cut. She went for a heavily-layered shag, sort of like this:

Shocking, I know. I haven’t got a single decent picture of her new hairstyle. She’s been pretty much in the pool all month. I’ll try to remedy that.

Now, the other part is that her clothes, while very modest, are more revealing (being Summer clothes and all). And then there’s the moment when she put on her swimsuit this Summer and poor Travel Man had a bit of a shock over what THAT looked like. Yup, young lady.

But she’s still my baby. So there. Nyah.

~five~

Little Girl was quite compliant about taking only one dance class last year. Turns out that she was the ONLY girl in her level to have only one class. (One mother said, “Wow. I’ve never heard of someone in this level getting away with one class. How’d you manage that?” I looked right at her and answered, “I said no.” Why don’t other people think of that?)

Anyway, at her recital, she was so stunning, and did such a wonderful job, that after the recital was over, Travel Man pulled me aside and said, “She *needs* to be in more dance classes. Let’s try to make it happen.”

She is currently in a Tap Workshop for Summer to prepare for going back into a tap class this Fall in addition to her ballet. She is beside herself with happiness, and even is thinking about asking if she could do a number in the recital with one or two friends from the studio. She’s got her new tap shoes, and she’s already happily bopping through the house showing us the new things she picked up in her first workshop.

~six~

Big News for Travel Man! He is going to a workshop tomorrow to learn how to perform his duties as Grand Knight! As of July 1, he will be Grand Knight for his council, and I am so proud of him. The current Grand Knight is going with him to the training, not because he needs to be there, but because he’s a nice guy and remembers how lost he felt when he went the first time. I really like our Grand Knight. He’s a good guy and has a real servant’s heart. Travel Man says he learned a lot from him.

~seven~

Time for some video fun.

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/C7xWVwkNCZw&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1

Seven Quick Takes: Over-the-Hill Edition

Thank you, Jen, for hosting!

1. Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 40. No, I don’t think I’m over the hill, but my cousin (who just turned 25 earlier this month) asked if I was. Ha. Ha. Actually, I’m happy to be 40. I was excited about my birthday all month! This was a nice change from when I turned 30 and I was suddenly depressed/upset. Could NOT figure that out, and it hit me suddenly. Strange, eh?

2. Little Girl’s dance studio just released their May schedule. Recital is at the end of May, and she has ballet THREE times a week from now until the end of the month. One week, there are FOUR rehearsals, one of which is at the same time as a potential soccer game for Big Girl. Any busy mothers know how to bilocate? I think that would be an awesome skill to have. Or are we not allowed to do that for reasons such as this? What do you think the rules are for bilocation?

3. Travel Man (who doesn’t travel much lately) and I are having a date night for my birthday. Tomorrow, we are hiring a babysitter and going to dinner and a movie. We’re going to see Date Night! Hooray! I have to say that when we saw the trailer for this movie, we both about died laughing. We’ve been waiting for it to come out for months, and I was worried that it wouldn’t be in any theaters in our small town this far after release. But it’s there, and we’ll be heading over to see it tomorrow.

4. Another awesome birthday present for me is that Lowe’s just opened a store in our town. It’s only 4 miles from my house. This is a huge improvement over the 20-30 minute drive to get to Lowe’s or Home Depot in the neighboring town. Yes, I know that there’s a True Value and an 86 Lumber and a carpet/flooring shop and another half dozen small businesses between here and the next town. And I still want to buy my plants from the nursery we started going to last year. (They sit IN the parking lot where the Lowe’s has just been built. They were there first and are confident they’ll be able to hang on.) However, I don’t want to go to 18 different stores and pay higher prices for the same thing when I can go to Lowe’s and buy my toilet and sink and all the plumbing stuff we need as well as the towel racks, etc. for the half-bath. (See? I already have a project in mind. I’ve actually been waiting for Lowe’s to open to replace the toilet in our half-bath this Spring.) Anyway, to celebrate my excitement, here’s a wonderful video that encapsulates how happy I am.

5. I’ve been on Weight Watchers again (with Travel Man), and I’ve lost 13 pounds so far. (Sunday is my weigh-in day, so we’ll see if that number goes up!) Here’s one measure of success. I have a pair of denim capris – they’re stretchy, so they even have some forgiveness built in – that I could not get up past my thighs last Fall. Yesterday, I wore them all day, and they were comfy. It was SO exciting to be able to get back into them. I think the biggest thing helping me is that Travel Man is on the program, too, so I’m not tempted to snack just because he is. Peer pressure is a powerful thing, people.

6. Speaking of Weight Watchers, I made the mistake of trying to start a conversation on their community boards wherein I asked other homeschooling mothers how they do it “alone.” Now, grammatically, putting quotes around that word means it is not intended to be taken literally. However, people do not understand this rule any more, since quotation marks are not used mainly as a reinforcement such as underlining used to be used. (This is a pet peeve of mine, you know.) So, I got two kinds of comments to my opening post. A: Hostile-to-homeschooling comments who were insulted that I simply asked that it not turn into a pro- vs. anti-homeschooling thread (I’d seen another thread get hijacked that way), and 2: “Why do you think you are ‘alone’?” comments that focused on my using homeschooling as an excuse for not going to meetings. (Let me tell you, when hubby travels and/or we have soccer and ballet a combined total of 5-6 times a week, no meeting seems to fit my schedule.) It was actually quite depressing. I even started out saying that my tip for others is that hubby and I weigh in together and help motivate others. Only one comment was constructive: Someone said that perhaps I didn’t realize that people who go to “real world meetings” also got free access to the online tools, so maybe I didn’t know that people online were also going to meetings. (Oh, even my use of that phrase – real world meetings – was deemed offensive by one commenter. But she felt it was okay to call my older daughter a brat, as in “all kids are brats.”) Frankly, I couldn’t even figure out why they even bothered to click through when the title of the thread was “Homeschooling Moms – Doing it ‘Alone’”. Reading how quickly it devolved into a bashing thread with no helpful advice really put me in a foul mood. So I think I’ll just avoid the “Community Message Boards” at the WW site from now on. They don’t seem particularly helpful.

7. I know I’ve already put up 2 videos, but I’ll add one more. Actually, I’ll give you three. First, the Old Spice ad that premiered during the Super Bowl. We LOVE this commercial! My girls will sometimes randomly say, “I’m on a horse,” to demonstrate how awesome they are at whatever it is they’re doing at the moment.

Now, here’s the “making of” explanation. It’s nearly 20 minutes, but it’s pretty neat.

And, finally, here’s the short that is mentioned near the end of the above video:

One last thing. Under the last video, on YouTube’s site, Old Spice has this caption:

Don’t smell like sunsets and baby powder. Smell like jet fighters and punching.

I think each one has a different silly comment like that. I love this whole ad campaign!

Did I say “one more?” I guess I meant three.

Have a blessed weekend!

Seven Quick Takes: Fourth Friday of Lent

Sorry I didn’t do a Quick Takes Friday last week. Jen hosts, as usual. Here we go!

1. We’ve been really cranking in school lately. We’re back on track and have been doing really well as getting school finished for the most part. The girls have done multiple projects that they’re proud of, too. Little Girl did a diorama of the Tranfiguration that she gave to Fr. K. as a gift last week. I took a couple dozen pictures of it, but I’ll spare you most of them and give you just a couple of shots here.

2. Big Girl wrote a pamphlet about the Six Laws of the Church. Here are shots of the PDF version of her project. She wrote and illustrated it, and only got help from me on a few finer points and some page layout. (I asked her to clarify a couple of things in her writing.)

3. Travel Man is getting his Super Suit out of the mothballs next week. He’s out of town two weeks running. Pray for him if you could; he’s having a very busy and hectic month. We see a couple of three-day weekends coming up where all he does is sit at home with us and nap. I’m all for that.

4. I’m not sure if it’s really sunk in that we’re debt-free except for the house. It kind of hit me early last week when Travel Man told me about his bonus – bigger than expected! – and I burst into tears. It occurred to me that we had nothing to spend it on. Well, I mean, we have projects and stuff, and we used most of it to open a money market and jump-start our emergency fund (6 months of expenses socked away). But as for bills … we were more than caught up. We bought the girls mattresses for their bunk beds (which they really needed!), got their bathing suits, joined Weight Watchers (both of us), and rejoined the YMCA. But we didn’t need to pay anything else off. That’s the first time since we’ve been married that his bonus money wasn’t earmarked for debt.

I can’t wait to call Dave Ramsey. I just have to wait for a Friday when Travel Man can be home while Dave’s on the air.

5. Big Girl is getting … well, big. But she’s also not really a girl any more. And it’s really obvious when you look at her. She even got a really cute haircut yesterday – it’s got layers! – and she is getting to really be a young woman. I’m excited for her, but sad, too. Sad for me. I can’t believe that this little baby girl:

Is now this young woman:

6. Speaking of growing up, Father K. gave a homily on priests needing to teach about hard things – hard teachings, as it’s usually said. He said he gave a talk to the tenth graders at the local Catholic school, and then he mentioned the following things by name, calling them evil.

fornication, contraception, p0rnography, masturbation, general sexual immorality

THEN he said that it isn’t just hard for teens to hear things. That adults have to deal with things that our culture promotes as not only okay, but good. And he mentioned by name:

cohabitation, contraception (again, “even inside of marriage”), adultery, divorce and remarriage

Hands up, Catholics. How many of you have heard ANY of those things from the pulpit during a homily, let alone ALL of them AT ONCE, and being called intrinsically evil?

Have I mentioned lately that I love our new pastor? I love that he’s unafraid to teach the hard things.

Pray for our priests, that they all have such courage!

7. Recipe time! This time, I have two recipes for side dishes. I’ve posted both on Weight Watchers and Tasty Kitchen, and they’re both really good for Summer (or for fasting). Yes, I said Summer. First up is Mac Daddy Salad*, my father’s recipe for macaroni salad. Next is my own Homemade Pico, which I made in response to Travel Man always wanting to buy pico at the grocery store. I looked at it one day and said, “I think I can make that.” One year later, I did.

*Just in case you can’t get to that recipe (it might be members-only), here’s the Mac Daddy Salad link that’s on this blog.

[image source: icon]

Seven Quick Takes: Second Friday of Lent

Jen is our lovely hostess; please head over to her blog and check out all the Quick-Takers!

§one§

My Lenten reading is going pretty well. I am surprised at how deep the Mother Angelica book has turned out to be. Here I thought it would be lighthearted and fun to read. Well, it’s lighthearted for sure, but it’s no easy-reader. It definitely makes you think about Scripture in new ways.

I really do like how she encourages us to imagine ourselves in the story. I heard a Franciscan talk about this once, years ago, and have used it many times to really internalize the Gospel (and the rest of the Bible). It really came in handy when we read a few Sundays ago about Jesus reading in the synagogue in His hometown, then sitting down and basically saying, “That Scripture – the one about God? Yeah, it’s about Me, you know.”

Imagine the cacophony!!

§two§

Big Girl is nearly done with basketball this season. She has improved even over the last two months, and even though her team hasn’t won a game yet (they’ve got another chance tomorrow evening), I am really proud of her. She also learned to do a layup! THIS is a big deal to me. Layups are a good foundational play to know, especially if you’re small in stature. I used to be pretty decent at layups when I was her age.

If she scores in the game tomorrow (and she is putting a lot of effort into accomplishing that), I might have an aneurism. Or heart failure. Or both.

§three§

Travel Man said if they win, he’ll have an aneurism.

§four§

My girls repeat these things and don’t know what an aneurism is. I think I keep forgetting to have them look it up in the dictionary.

§five§

Tomorrow (I’m writing this on Thursday night), we are supposed to be getting our tax refund. I actually spoke to a lady at the IRS about my refund, and that was what she said. “Your refund should be direct deposited on Friday.”

Something really special will happen on Saturday if that money hits tomorrow.

We are going to go to the bank and pay off the last debt we have that isn’t on our home.

We will be debt free.

I cannot wait to call Dave Ramsey on Freedom Friday.

§six§

I discovered that iPhoto has a really nice photo printing feature. I was looking for a button (duh) and realized that I only needed to look under “File” to find “Print.” Kind of like every other program on my computer.

Yes, I used to sell these things. But I was never Apple Care. So there.

Anyway …

I printed off a gazillion pictures and put them up on our display area in our upstairs hallway. I need to get new artwork from the girls, but here’s our 5×7″ lineup:

§seven§

Here’s your Meat-Free Friday Dinner! (Or at least a link to it.) I will freely admit that I haven’t made this … yet. But I will. It looks so yummy! It’s going on the menu for March, for sure. But if you’re looking for your meat free dinner for tonight, get some shrimp and fettucini and go to town. Then let me know how you liked it, if you please.